5. Read and sum up the article in 10-15 sentences. Diy holidays: around the world in three years

Times Online
October 24, 2005

Alexandra Lennane offers the best and worst experiences and advice for those doing it themselves

Alexandra, already very pregnant and a long way from home , catches a catches a bus across the Honduras-El Salvador border

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.

Indian trains should be reserved a few days in advance as they are almost always full.

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.

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, 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. 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 favourite cities: Berlin (Germany), Kunming (China), Cartagena (Colombia), St Petersburg (Russia), Lhasa (Tibet), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Moscow (Russia), Mexico city.

Answer the following questions:

1. Why would Phileas Fogg have been appalled?

2. Why did she say “it is not a journey I would repeat”?

3. Were other travellers of any help?

4. Why were some Internet sites invaluable when setting off into the unknown? Do you agree that guidebooks create an unnecessary dependency?

5. Why did planning become something of a dirty word for them?

6. What were the highlights of the tour?

7. What difficulties did they face during the journey?

8. What were the results?

9. Which traits of character helped them during the journey?

10. Which itinerary would you work out if you had three years to travel?