Q-C native seeing the world: Brian Triplett travels with no plan, little money
Brian Triplett could be writing for a newspaper or magazine somewhere.
Instead, the Davenport native — a 2006 University of Iowa journalism graduate — is writing e-mails and Internet blog posts from around the world as he wanders from country to country on a whim and a shoestring budget.
He landed recently in Tanzania, Africa, where he wrote about trying to figure out a cheap way to see some wild lions or climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
Triplett left Davenport on Dec. 30 without any idea where his travels would take him. Nearly seven months later, he has visited 17 countries outside the United States, and met perfect strangers who will forever remain his friends, he said in e-mail from Africa.
“I used to question why everyone didn’t take off like me to explore the world, but that’s not everyone’s dream,” he said. “Not everyone has to travel the world to figure things out about themselves. Hopefully, we’re all chasing our dreams. Mine just happens to be a bit on the unconventional side.”
Nowadays, he’s living without electricity or running water, digging holes to use as a toilet and feeling lucky when he finds someplace with Internet access.
According to his blog, he’s also keeping busy with this: “Learning the beauty of simplicity. Getting stared at. Crossing my fingers my mosquito bites won’t lead to malaria. Contemplating when to come home.”
With a journalism and mass communications degree in hand, Triplett plans to write a book about his travels when he returns, hoping to inspire other young people to set out on their own adventures.
Triplett initially expected to continue his trip for a year, but after nearly seven months and a lot of homesickness, he’s about ready to return to the Quad-Cities.
The pull of wanderlust
What spurred Triplett to leave in the first place? He blames it on incurable wanderlust that grew worse as he neared college graduation day.
Instead of narrowing his focus as school ended, he said his “ideas were multiplying, and I was thrilled at the thought that I could do anything I wanted to with my life.”
Triplett interned at the Los Angeles Times the summer before his senior year of college, writing for the entertainment section at the major daily newspaper. People kept telling him they thought the job must be great, but, for him, it really wasn’t.
Instead, it got him thinking about other — less conventional — ways to make himself happy.
He bought a book called “Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure” by Colleen Kinder, describing it as a guide to outside-the-box things one can do after finishing college.
“I referred to it as my bible,” he said. “The idea of traveling and exploring faraway places really started to dominate my thoughts as I neared graduation. I bought a map of the world and hung it above my bed. I would stare at it before falling asleep at night. I became so curious about what else is out there I knew I just had to go see for myself. “
He read in the book about jobs with Club Med and landed a position bartending at one of the company’s resorts in the Turks and Caicos Islands for two months during the summer after graduation. He had fun, but “it didn’t take care of the wanderlust,” he said.
Triplett returned to Iowa City to work as a bartender and save money, and then had “a great brainstorming session over lunch with my mentor, Dave Gould — a professor in leisure studies at Iowa —about combining my passions for writing and traveling,” he said.
He moved home at Thanksgiving to spend time with his family, and, on Dec. 30, loaded the car with “anything I thought I might need for a journey with no agenda, said my goodbyes and took off,” he said.
He ended up in New York, and that’s where he spent New Year’s Eve.
The next logical step, he said, would have been to head to Europe. But he met a young man from Germany who wanted to see the West Coast, so they split the cost of gas and headed out in Triplett’s car.
It broke down nine miles outside Las Vegas and Triplett sold it for $100. When he made it to Los Angeles, he decided it was time to leave the country.
Since then, he’s traveled to 17 other nations, he said.
Triplett doesn’t follow the tourist trail.
“Having no plans lends itself to some pretty outstanding adventures,” he said. “I’ll admit, logistics intimidated me before I left, but you learn as you go that everything is going to work out.”
“It’s a combination of instinct and opportunity that leads me to my next destination,” he said. “I go wherever I think I can have the greatest adventure.”
Triplett jokes that he’s “pretty sure half the country of Sweden is off traveling,” saying that many Europeans and others around the world set aside whole years to travel.
“I told a girl I met from Sweden, who is now a good friend of mine, that a lot of people back home think it’s crazy what I’m doing,” he said. “She said if she didn’t take off traveling, people back home would think she’s crazy.”
Highlights on the road
Some of Triplett’s favorite memories of the trip so far include learning to drive a motorcycle through the jungles of northern Thailand with wild elephants along the side of the road.
Others include dancing at church one Sunday in the tiny village of Pugu, Tanzania (“I was the only white guy,” he says), skydiving in New Zealand and hiking to the peak of Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, Utah.
“It’s the people that make the journey so special. It’s the little things that make the memories so special,” he said. “There’s nothing bigger than the little things.”
His story begs the question: How is he paying for all this?
He pays for shelter, food, drinks and entertainment just like he would if he wasn’t traveling, but he cuts corners a lot — such as occasionally sleeping on buses to save the cost of a night’s stay.
Triplett has no income, but he saved up from the bartending before he left, and he also charges a lot to his credit card.
One thing you can learn by traveling is “how amazing the traveling community is,” he said.
“You learn to trust complete strangers,” he added.
For instance, a girl he met in Bali told him to contact her if he made it to Bangkok. He did, and she picked him up at the airport, gave him the keys to her apartment and left him to stay there alone — even though she barely knew him.
The next day, her father — a doctor who spoke little English — spent the entire day driving him around the capital of Thailand to see the sights.
Triplett said he has learned travelers try to help each other out, and he hopes to return the favor someday.
“Hopefully, you’ll see people from all around the world hanging out in Davenport after I return home,” he said. “I try to describe the beauty of Iowa to my friends around the world, but I tell them they’ll just have to come see for themselves.”
Critical support
Triplett said he can never thank his family and friends enough for their love and support, especially when they might have scratched their heads, wondering why he ever would want to take off the way he did.
His parents, Pat and Mimi Triplett, are very proud of their youngest son and read his blog all the time, Mimi said.
Both of his grandmothers — Donna Triplett of Bettendorf and Mary AuBuchon of Park Forest, Ill. — have world maps that they mark regularly, tracking where their grandson is traveling.
“He really is a neat kid,” Donna said, calling herself his “proud grandma,” and adding, “I could tell this was just something inside of him that he had to do. I was so happy when he decided to do it.”
She reads her grandson’s blog postings almost every day after his parents print them off for her. She also e-mails him back and forth with regularity. In his most recent message, he told her about plans to go on an African safari, she said.
Donna said she doesn’t travel at all, joking that going to Des Moines is a big trip for her. But she is very supportive of her grandson’s desire to do so.
“He is just following his dreams,” she said. “He is learning and growing so much.”
Triplett has collected three tattoos to commemorate his travels.
The first one, which he got on his back two years ago, is an Iowa Hawkeye, which symbolizes home.
The second, which he got in San Diego on this trip, is the word “imagine” on his hip, “so I always remember to dream big and never lose my imagination,” he said.
The third one, done in London, is a compass on his left calf “to show I’ll always be a curious explorer of the world,” he said.
“I think it’s awesome,” said Emily Ritchie, 25, who works in public relations in New York. She attended the University of Iowa with Triplett and they have “tons of mutual friends,” but she’s never met him.
“I honestly could spend hours reading his blog,” she said. “It’s really cool.”
Home stretch
Nowadays, Triplett thinks a whole lot about Happy Joe’s pizza and Whitey’s Ice Cream, and they are high on his agenda when he returns home, he said.
When that will be, though, is still up in the air. Triplett said it’s becoming difficult to justify being away much longer from what’s most important to him: family and friends.
But he will never regret taking this trip.
“As far as I know, we only live once,” he said. “We only have one chance to chase the dreams that won’t leave our minds. So what if they’re a bit different?
“Conventionalism is overrated, especially when it comes with deciding how to spend your days on this earth,” he said. “It’s pretty simple: As long as you’re not hurting others, do what makes you happy.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Keep up with Davenport native Brian Triplett’s adventures as he travels across the world by reading his online blog at briantriplett.blogspot.com.
Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.