Round the World
Braz and I quit our jobs to spend a year circling the globe — the best decision of my life.
Inspired by Michael Palin’s Around the World in 80 Days, Braz and I handed in our notice and set off with barely a plan. This was travel before the internet: mail found us through Poste Restante, money moved as travellers’ cheques, and a phone call home meant queuing for a landline if we were lucky enough to find one. Somehow, with little to no planning, it all just worked — and after the first six months we simply kept following our noses for six more.
Play the map — our path around the world, 13 June 1990 – 5 June 1991.
How you actually got by on the road in 1990.
Poste Restante
No email, no mobiles — friends and family wrote to post offices along our rough route, and we’d turn up weeks later hoping a letter was waiting.
Travellers’ cheques
Money was carried as paper: books of travellers’ cheques, cashed a little at a time at banks and exchange counters as we went.
Landline, if you were lucky
Booking onward transport or a bed for the night often meant finding a working landline and hoping the call connected at all.
Tap a flag to open that country’s page.
Israel
Palestine
Egypt
Greece
Turkey
Pakistan
India
Nepal
Thailand
Singapore
Malaysia
Indonesia
Australia
Philippines
USA
Mexico
Canada