Travellers' Bible

In 1972, a British couple in their 20s drove an old, dirt-cheap car from their hometown in England to Afghanistan. They wanted to follow the "hippie trail" all the way across Asia, before completing their journey in Australia. Their purpose was to get the travel bug out of their system.

But when Tony, 24, and Maureen Wheeler, 21, arrived at their destination with only 27 cents left to their name, they were welcomed with an astonished surprise.

"There was an unexpected interest in that crazy trip we made," says Maureen, now 56, a co-founder of Lonely Planet Publications. "It sparked a great deal of interest in the minds of those who dreamed of hitting the road but had no money."

The same questions came their way from so many different people that the young couple realised there was a desperate need for a new sort of travel guide. A book for the emerging breed of laid-back, independent - not to mention nearly broke - travellers.

"With Tony's knowledge of publishing, we literally did everything ourselves," says Maureen, proudly, "From the typing to the stapling to the hand-trimming. And we did it from our kitchen table!"

Before publishing their first book, however, they had to decide on a name for their publishing company.

"Wheeler Publications' would have been boring," states Tony, 59. "One day, I was singing 'Space Captain' [sung by Joe Cocker in the film, Mad Dogs & Englishmen]. 'Once while travelling across the sky,' I sang, 'This lonely planet caught my eye.'"

It was actually 'lovely planet', but to Tony, 'lonely planet' sounded much nicer. So the name stuck and became their publishing company's name. Their first book, "Across Asia on the Cheap", made its way into bookstores in Australia by 1973.

Although guidebooks were prevalent during that time, those that were on the shelves didn't really cater to the low-budget travellers that had begun to emerge. Their guide became very popular among backpackers, as it specifically related to people travelling on a very limited budget. With the money they earned from their first book, the couple decided to travel some more.

"The plan was to make guide books to get money … to travel … to be able to make more books … so we could travel some more," says Tony. "And the rest is history."

Today, 34 years after their first trip abroad, Tony and Maureen Wheeler are the owners of one of the largest, most successful and best-loved independent travel publishing companies ever. Lonely Planet Publications has three offices around the world - in Australia, the United States and London. They employ more than 500 staff, and the Wheelers have just sold their 18 millionth book.

"Lonely Planet" guidebooks are published in French, Italian, Spanish, Korean and Japanese, and are currently being translated into Mandarin.

The Wheelers now reside in Melbourne, Australia, with their two children (who have travelled around the world with them) and who sparked the idea for Maureen's book, "Travel with Children".

"We've even been to the places that President George W Bush dubbed "The Badlands' [Libya, North Korea, Burma, Iraq, etc]," says Tony. "They're not actually 'bad' - they're interesting. North Korea is the most unusual place I've been to, though I can't really explain it."

Adds Maureen: "Antarctica is definitely the best. There are a hundred thousand penguins everywhere, and everything else is just either blue or white."

Thailand, however, gave the Wheelers their biggest culture shock. "It was the first country we'd been to outside Europe where everything actually worked," exclaims Tony.

Unfortunately, it was also the country where they encountered the biggest problem of their "Southeast Asian Year".

"We visited Wat Suan Dok in Chiang Mai," says Tony. "After only 15 minutes inside the temple, we came out to find that our motorcycle had been stolen."

In the end, however, the bike was retrieved and their journey ended happily.

"You have to take the good with the bad when you travel," advises Tony. "Travel has definitely changed us, but in a very good way. We're blessed."

"It is possible to arrive at a destination with only 27 cents, and to start a business out of something you enjoy doing," says Maureen.

"And we're living proof."

By Angel Rodriguez

Special to The Nation