When asked what people get out of travelling and seeing new places, he says, “If you travel around the world for a year, that would be the equivalent of getting a university degree.”

He wouldn’t trade his laptop and camera for anything else in the world but manages to survive with just four sets of shirts and trousers. What occupied maximum space among the household stuff that he kept in storage back home was his National Geographic collection including a copy of Volume 1, Number 1.

The first big journey of his life was in 1999, when he sold his Internet consultancy firm. He had to visit the various offices of the company that took over his firm in different cities around the world and he enjoyed the experience immensely.

In those days, he was unsure of what to do with his life and went back to university to get a degree in geology. Finally, he decided that he wanted to be a traveller, a decision that his parents were not thrilled about.

Gary says he has spent tens of thousands of dollars funding his epic journey and also that he has enough money to continue his adventurous project.

“But I would like to make this a self-sustaining proposition. I plan to generate funds by selling photographs, taking up speaking assignments and by writing books.”

The first book has already begun to take shape in his mind. “It will have essays on my various experiences. One of them could be on tiny island nations and another could be on monarchies.”

Gary says he can never forget his visit to The Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

“Do you know that the United States exploded nuclear weapons there after World War II? The only reason why these islands wanted to be independent was that they did not want to share the compensation money they got from America with other islands nearby.”

When Gary was dining at a restaurant in the islands, a few local people surrounded him and demanded to know the purpose of his visit. “Because nobody ever goes there.”

Gary believes that second-hand information about a country is never accurate.

“I found out that each island that is part of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific has a different dance form. In fact, different regions of the same island had different kinds of dances. Unless you zoom in on a place, you don’t notice these differences.”