very good follow-up. Once these bio-metric (is that not one word? spellchecker doesn't think so) systems get installed globally, such as the ones i just encountered in Australia, i think travel will become even more restricted.

I guess age is taking its hold on me and as time goes by I become more of a "back in my day" type person :) The good news is that the people that are gap yearing it now, don't know how much easier it was and are probably more capable of simply taking it in stride.