Phileas Fogg would have been appalled: round the world in 1,095 days.
Definitely one of the slower records for seeing 33 countries. In fact, we
even worked out our average speed for the 58,000 miles we covered: a
snail-like 2.2 miles per hour, or Caribbean walking speed.
Our trip was really a series of long journeys (across Siberia, the Himalayas,
the Pacific and the Americas) punctuated by long stops, with the whole
effect coloured by incredible landscapes, fascinating people, shocking
toilets and frustrating bureaucracy; we learnt a little about the benefits
of bribery, and a lot about patience.
Without a doubt, the worst section was painful also because it was the slowest
- a tiny, overcrowded old yacht drifting aimlessly at a mere 1.3 mph for a
whole week in murderous heat from Panama to Colombia. (Tip 1: never, never
do this journey in the first three months of pregnancy). And although we saw
tropical islands, dolphins, drug runners and the Kuna Indian tribe, it is
not a journey I would repeat. Unfortunately however, it is currently the
only way to get from north America to south America without flying. Although
this may well change, at the moment the north seems to prefer a convoluted
route between itself and the notorious Colombia.
In contrast, another week-long trip stood out as the best, with the world's
most awe-inspiring landscape as a backdrop to a lonely journey. We hired a
4x4 and driver (a legal necessity) to get from Zhongdian in south west
China, to Lhasa in Tibet. The Himalayan route had only been open to
foreigners for about a year, and the expense of the permit and driver
continues to put off many backpackers, as do the constantly changing
requirements for foreigners travelling overland into Tibet.
We probably couldn't have done these unique, off-the-beaten-track trips
without our most essential source of information - other travellers. One of
our most useful contacts turned out to be an internet forum, doling out
up-to-the minute information. Our questions were generally answered by
someone who had recently done the same thing, or was in the country at the
time. How do you travel between Colombia and Panama? Can you get a Laos visa
at the Chinese border? How do you rent a flat in Buenos Aires? Do you know a
good hotel in Irkutsk, Siberia? Ask, or reply, at http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com
. It was invaluable when setting off into the unknown without a guidebook.
And we rarely used guidebooks. Heavy and expensive, they also create an
unnecessary dependency. While driving through the stunning mountains of
northern Laos we were appalled that a backpacker on the same bus never once
looked out of the window, avidly reading instead the chapter "northern
Laos" in his guidebook. And in countries such as China and Russia, the
pace of development - or change - is too fast for books to keep up. So we
let the internet, museums, locals and other travellers be our guides. For
basic information, www.lonelyplanet.com
gives you just enough to be getting on with.
We also tended to find that guidebooks lead to plans, and planning became
something of a dirty word for us. Not only is it often more expensive to
book in advance (you won't find the cheapest option till you arrive), but
you also don't know how long you'll want to stay: it will depend on the
weather, the people, the price and the food - or perhaps your stomach.
In retrospect though, one journey I would like to have booked in advance was
our trans-Siberian train from Moscow to Beijing. We found, once in Moscow,
that although the ticket was much cheaper than it would have been through a
UK travel agent, it was impossible to organise stops along the way, and
under obtuse laws there was an impenetrable Catch 22 about getting a
Mongolian visa, which I suspect would not have been a problem if we'd booked
somewhere else, or spoken better Russian. (Tip 2: it's worth learning at
least the Cyrillic alphabet before going to Russia.)
We should instead have done a little planning at http://www.seat61.com:
the man in seat 61 is an infallible source of information on trains, and a
testament to one person's devotion to rail.
The other useful rail website, for the incredible experience that is Indian
Railways, is at www.indianrail.gov.in.
Indian trains should be reserved a few days in advance as they are almost
always full. You can, apparently, book over the internet although we never
quite trusted it and preferred to go to the station, where the staid and
polite Ladies Queues are a fast-track to the ticket desk.
For us, not only was travelling around India a joy, but after spending more
than a year in the news blackout that is rural China, we thrived on the
stack of information available. China's internet firewall had prevented
access to www.bbc.co.uk, and China People's Daily, (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/),
the English language newspaper, is not to be trusted as a sole news source.
At times we became surprisingly detached from both UK and world news but
then we found the BBC daily email service, which sends out a selection of
stories. Go to http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/emai
l to order your daily dose. It kept us up to speed with UK news too,
although I must admit that I am still struggling with who's who in the Tory
party.
For serious news, the foreign office website was key. For countries such as
Nepal and Colombia www.fco.gov.uk/travel is important reading. Not only does
it tell you the dangers, but it is important to know that if the FO advises
against travel to a country or region, your travel insurance (ours was with
internet insurer www.worldnomads.com.au)
will not be valid there.
With our self-imposed no-flying rule, and our no-planning by-law, it was often
difficult to know how to get to the next place - or even, what the next
place should be. After spending two years in Asia we were ready to leave,
but the month-long journey across the Pacific turned out to be the hardest
to arrange. Not only was it tricky to find a ship which would take us, (see www.rickmers-linie.de),
but the ensuing bureaucracy, caused by new American security laws, nearly
ended our trip. Not even bribery worked. We had previously discovered that
if you put enough dollars in the right hands, anything is possible. (To find
out what your dollars are worth, go to http://www.xe.com/ucc/.)
But not this time. Only three months of faxing and phoning, great expense
and stubborn determination to the point of pig-headedness allowed us to
continue. But it was worth every painful moment.
And what do we have to show for our three years on the road? Great friends,
thousands of photos and just two more tips: never step on manhole covers in
developing countries, and always carry a full hip flask. You never know when
the frustrations of long-term travel will drive you to it.
Best sights: Angkor Watt, (Siem Reap, Cambodia); Great Wall
(China); Taj Mahal, (Agra, India); Mamyev Kurgen, (Volgograd, Russia);
Pushkin and Hermitage museums, (Russia); Athens; Madurai Temple, (India),
WWII museums (Riga, Latvia and Vilnius, Lithuania)
Worst sights: World's second largest banyan tree, (Chennai,
India); Saigon war museum, (Vietnam); History of the city's water supply
museum, (Kunming, China); National Museum, (Vientiane, Laos); Madurai flower
market, (India).
Our favorite cities: Berlin (Germany), Kunming (China),
Cartagena (Colombia), St Petersburg (Russia), Lhasa (Tibet), Buenos Aires
(Argentina), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Moscow (Russia), Mexico city.
