What is the best way to travel around the world?

What is the fastest way to travel around the world using public transportation without flying?

• In Jules Verne's fictional world, traveling around the world took a total of 80 days. In 2013, it wouldn't take much time to do the same thanks to air travel. But if we stay away from air travel, and assuming that we take public transportation, how much time will it take? Please post your itinerary.

• Answer:

  In 1989 the BBC aired a program called (surprise) "Around the world in 80 days".   Michael Palin did the journey and (from memory) the route was across Europe to Greece by train then ship to Egypt.   He crossed Egypt by train and then got a ferry to Saudi Arabia.   In Saudi Arabia he was the only member of the team (he was being followed by a film crew that he named "Passpartout") with a visa to travel by land so while they flew across to Dubai, he drove.   In Dubai he hitched a lift on a dhow to Bombay and then took the train across India to Calcutta where my memory begins to fail.   I think he took a boat to Singapore and another to Hong Kong and he was lucky in 2 ways; the boat from Calcutta would not take passengers but they signed him on as auxiliary crew along with one other team member and when they got to Singapore he had to be picked up by a launch to get to the next ship.   Anyway, they then went across China to pick up the ferry to Japan, train across Japan to pick up another ship to the west coast of the USA.   They crossed the USA by train and caught another ship across the Atlantic. Of course, they were doing their best to follow the route laid down in the book and they had help simply because it was being organised by the BBC but even they they had a range of problems which mean that I think a solo traveller might struggle to follow the route in 80 days. These days the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are the big problem.   If you have money and cross the Atlantic in summer you can take a Cunard Liner.   You can get from Europe to Vladivostok by train and onto Japan by ferry.   There are trains across the USA.   So the problem would be finding a way across the Pacific.   There are cruises that will sell individual legs and there are a few cargo ships that will take passengers.   The problem is finding them and fitting them into the RTW schedule.   There is another problem with the cargo ship and that is that they sometimes don't stop where they say they will which can mean a sudden sprint to catch the boat at another port.   Fine if the other port is in Japan but if the boat decides to stop in Korea instead of Japan you might not have time to take a ferry.