Yes, I DID THAT ONE! And it was thrilling indeed. I haven't been to the Himalayas yet, I would have reached it if I didn't have an accident which caused me to break off my sabbatical that should have taken 9 months, but instead lasted for 'only' 2. (If interested in the story, my first posts tell this in detail.)
A photo documentary about local transport is a great idea actually :-)
As for photographing people, which I've done a lot as I used to be an enthusiastic street photographer: in the Netherlands at least streets are public spaces and you can take pictures of people and publish those without permission. I believe in Europe only Hungary has an official law that says you have to ask for permission before taking a picture of a person on the streets.
Privacy only comes up in rare cases: if a person is in a specific profession and has been photographed in a 'damaging' situation they might win in court to let a photographer remove the picture from media, but they will have to do a very convincing argument as to why that picture would damage their professional/private life.
I personally keep rules for myself: I never ask (this ruins that moment I wanted to take the picture off), if the person notices me I smile and wave and if they seem interested I approach them to show them my picture and give them my business card so they can contact me to get a copy of the picture. If the person doesn't notice I often let it go.
Lastly, if I feel I would personally be embarrassed if someone published a picture of me in the same context I don't publish it either.
Let me also share what I found ..... share it to
https://www.yours.org/content/turn--1-bitcoincash--bch--into--100--bch-in-this-contest-61d3198b754e
A wonderful giveaway contest which guaranteed prizes for every participant.
Please give me upvotes for this share.
Thank You.