First of all, it was just so cool and so a Lost opening to see Daniel back then...definitely one of the omg moments for me. I thought they were going for the whole Miles is Candles kid until that moment. As for the question of did he travel before or not...who knows? I think he did, he is very well versed in the whole phenomenon. He is not a very labor intensive guy (ie drilling, digging, etc) so he was there for another purpose.