The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World

298 Pages·2016·20.78 MB·English

by  Rough Guides

First-Time
Around the World
INSIDE THIS BOOK
INTRODUCTION General facts and information, along with inspired ideas to enrich
your journey.
BIG ADVENTURE Expert advice to help you create your perfect itinerary, with tips
on tranport, budgeting, safety and what to expect from life on the road.
WHERE TO GO Regional profiles, giving you a taste of what each has in store, with
run-downs of the top attractions and details of overland travel routes.
DIRECTORY The latest websites and apps, for everything from finding cheap flights
to photography.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Doug Lansky has been living abroad for more than twenty years,
during which time he’s travelled in over 120 countries. He is the author
of ten books, including three for Rough Guides. As well as writing a
travel column syndicated in over forty newspapers, he has hosted a
Travel Channel show, served as a correspondent for Public Radio’s The
Savvy Traveler, worked as travel editor for Scandinavian Airlines’ infl ight
magazine and contributed to publications such as National Geographic
Traveler, Reader’s Digest, Esquire, Men’s Journal, The Guardian, San
Francisco Examiner, and Huffi ngton Post. On the speaking circuit, Doug
has given acclaimed lectures at nearly a hundred universities, and
spoken at both public travel events and tourism conferences, including to a sold-out audience at
National Geographic Headquarters and for the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Make the Most of Your Time on Earth at roughguides.com
This fifth edition published February 2016
THE ROUGH GUIDE TO
First-Time
Around the World
Written and researched by
Doug Lansky
with additional contributions by
Henrik Harr roughguides.com

INTRODUCTION 3
Contents
INTRODUCTION 4
Ideas to enrich your journey 8
BIG ADVENTURE 17
1 FAQ 18 11 Guidebooks and other reading 126
2 Initial planning 22 12 When you arrive 130
3 How to get around the world 45 13 Culture shock 147
4 How to choose: travelling alone 14 Staying in touch 152
or with friends 62
15 Security 158
5 Costs and savings 67
16 Health 168
6 Working, volunteering and studying 82
17 Special considerations 183
7 Documents and insurance 97
18 Documenting your trip 189
8 Preparing your home for departure 106
19 Returning home 195
9 Packing 109
10 Carrying valuables 121
WHERE TO GO 199
Africa 201 Europe and Russia 242
Asia 214 Middle East 253
Australia, New Zealand and North America 260
the South Pacific 226
South America 267
Central America and the Caribbean 235
DIRECTORY 275
SMALL PRINT & INDEX 285
OPPOSITE STILT FISHERMEN, WELIGAMA, SRI LANKA PREVIOUS PAGE LLAMA BY MACHU PICCHU, PERU
4 INTRODUCTION
Introduction to

First-Time
Around the World
The world is flat. Or so the thinking went, until someone actually went off to
circumnavigate it. You may not make such a colossal discovery during your
own global journey, but what awaits you “out there” is something only you
can find: your very own adventure. Beyond your part of the planet lie
mountain ranges with echo-bending canyons, tangled jungles, deserts that
stretch into sanguine sunsets and yellow savanna veiling lions, wildebeest
and springbok. There are retina-burning white beaches tapering off into
gin-clear waters that serve as a playground for dolphins, turtles and manta
rays. Not to mention over six thousand languages, countless botanical
wonders, architectural masterpieces and geological anomalies. All that is
already out there. The decision to find it is yours. Who knows, you may just
find a best friend, even the love of your life, along the way.
My own plan was to walk out the front door, head to Florida and try to hitchhike on yachts
to South America – all on a budget stretched tighter than an ageing Hollywood forehead.
Without getting into details, my yacht-hitching scheme only got me as far as the Virgin
Islands. And the only reason I made it that far was because I flew there. (Turned out I was
trying to hitch south during hurricane season, when all the boats were headed north or into
safe harbours.) This start, however rocky, did launch me on a two-and-a-half-year trip that
forever changed my life. And not just because it ended with a car accident in Bangkok,
which left me in the unfortunate position of having a broken ankle and amoebic dysentery
– a tragic combination of constantly having to go to the loo, and never being able to get
there quickly enough. I ended up travelling for another seven years as a travel columnist,
meeting my Swedish wife, and then living in five countries over the next fifteen years.
ABOVE WINDMILLS, CASTILLA LA MANCHA, SPAIN OPPOSITE HULI MEN, MOUNT HAGEN, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
INTRODUCTION 5
MEETING LOCALS
It’s hard to pick up a travel magazine, brochure or guidebook without seeing an exotic cast of
faces. The unspoken message seems to be that this is who you’ll meet in these countries. The
people you’re far more likely to encounter, however, are other travellers. And the local people
you’ll mostly come in contact with are vendors, taxi drivers, guides and hotel clerks – people
serving you. To make more genuine contacts takes some effort, but is perhaps the single most
important aspect of enriching travel. Volunteering or working in a place is one of the most
traditional methods. You can also use the web. Get in touch with local organizations (eg if you’re
a fencer, get in touch with the local fencing clubs and attend practice when you are in different
cities) or find out about Couchsurfing opportunities. But even if you’re just looking to take a
picture of someone, a thoughtful approach might lead to a more meaningful connection.
Before I get ahead of myself, though, I just want to assure you this book is not going to
try to persuade you to travel, nor make grandiose assertions that stomping around the
planet with a coated-nylon pack will somehow fulfil whatever may be missing from your
life. Travel is an urge best cultivated from within. In fact, one of the biggest favours you
can do for yourself is to travel if and when you’re ready, not when someone else thinks
you should. The more eager you are to open yourself up to life on the road, the more
willing you are to embrace the unknown rather than sign up for a pre-packaged,
air-conditioned experience, the more likely you are to reap real rewards.
Believe it or not, nearly anyone can get around the world in one piece (or in my case,
two), and I’d be lying if I told you that you needed this book to come back alive.
However, the downside to blindly winging it is that you’ll make mistakes, some
potentially dangerous, many costly and some just plain embarrassing. By the time you
get through the first section of this book, you should be savvy enough to chart an
itinerary for your trip and avoid nearly all the snares that await you. With a glimpse
6 INTRODUCTION
of life on the road, a feel for the essentials, and by
WORLD FACT FILE
addressing a number of travel’s most testing issues
•
World population over ahead of time, you’ll be well on your way.
7 billion
The regional profiles in the second part of the
•
Circumference of the earth book tell you what it costs to get around, how
40,000km
long it’ll take to cross the various landmasses and
•
Height of Mount Everest
if there are any rail, bus or air passes you may wish
8850m/29,035ft
• to buy ahead of time to make things cheaper and
Depth of the Mariana
more convenient. You’ll notice we took some
Trench, Western Pacific
Ocean 10,924m/35,840ft liberties in dividing up the world into eight
• Highest temperature Death regions: North America, for instance, normally
Valley, USA 134ºF/56.7ºC includes Mexico, but because of popular overland
•
Lowest temperature Vostok, routes, a shared language and its latitude, Mexico
Antarctica -128.6ºF/-89.2ºC has been placed in the Central America and the
•
Tourism The World Tourism Caribbean section. The regional maps are meant
Organization’s most recent
to provide ballpark estimates (see box, p.55) of the
figures show there were 1,133
million international tourist times of overland travel on common routes. They
arrivals, which generated $1.5 are by no means instructing you to take such
trillion and accounted for six
routes (it’s always better to find your own way),
percent of the world’s GDP.
More than six percent of all jobs nor are they completely accurate, since delays do
worldwide are supported by the occur, particularly in less-developed regions.
travel and tourism industry.
Of course, you’ll want more specific information
•
Worldwide, according to
eventually, either from websites or publications
UNHCR, an average of 42,500
people became refugees, listed in the Directory section at the end of this
internally displaced or book or from your guidebook once you arrive. But
asylum-seekers every day
at this point, much more information than what
during 2014, bringing the total
to 59.5 million worldwide. you’ll find provided here will bog down your
planning process instead of helping it along. And
remember that there’s such a thing as too much
planning. One of the greatest thrills of travel is trying to make your way between two points
by the least travelled, most arduous route, chancing rides and roads and climates as you go.
TIME AND SPACE
One thing that travellers often forget to mentally prepare for is the different conception of
time and space on the road. With buses that don’t leave until they’re full, boats that wait at the
harbour for the captain to return from his family holiday, and mechanical problems that require
spare parts sent by cargo ship from Australia, the hardcore traveller’s mantra “no watches, no
calendars, no worries” begins to seem like a healthy response to seeing your carefully planned
itinerary fly out the window. Your personal space, on the other hand, is likely to shrink, whether
you’re speaking with someone who insists on standing almost nose-to-nose during the
conversation or you’re packed into a six-person minivan with seventeen other passengers.
Plan for twice as much transport time as you think you need, try to grab a seat near a
window so you can control the fresh-air supply – and make sure you’ve got something to read.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT LONDON EYE AND HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, LONDON, ENGLAND; DESERT FESTIVAL, JAISALMER, INDIA;
TORRES DEL PAINE NATIONAL PARK, CHILE

8 25 IDEAS TO ENRICH YOUR JOURNEY
25
ideas to enrich your
journey
There are many lists telling you what to see before you die, but that’s not a
very immersive way to travel. Thinking in terms of “doing” rather than
“seeing” will enhance that most vital, often elusive, dimension to your travels.