I hardly call this "proof" - the cyclists belong to Parsi community, an affluent and financially stable community in India for a long time now. Thus, they would be an exception, not the rule.

Fun fact: the GP mentions they met Iranians, and these people are Parsis - Zoroastrian Persian immigrants to India.

True. Even though Parsees escaped Iran to flee Islamic persecution one day, they have become Indians. Identifying them as "Iranians" is dumb.

But well, 98 years since they started their bike tour, an Indian's passport would be Indian and not British, and that would shut many borders (unless they can show enough financial stability to satisfy immigration authorities that they're not going to stay illegally), it would be hard to think they'd be hired for odd jobs in the western world or have the Pope welcome them, so my cheap conclusion would be, privileged Non-Westerners would also be able to do a world tour, but middle class ones?

But what an adventure, it's almost like the movie Forrest Gump, with them witnessing history and even meeting characters like Mussolini.

> It’s not completely clear what inspired these young Parsis … but Babani believes it was their way of participating in India’s freedom struggle. “Instead of waving flags and joining demonstrations, they chose to pedal on a perilous path,” he says, “to paint for the world a true picture of India that would depict the glorious civilization, culture, and architecture of our native land.”

What a beautiful idea.

With some exceptions most of the would be travelers from the less fortunate countries would simply be denied visas.

Round-the-world trips may be hard to manage, but people from developing countries can often still visit neighbouring developing countries visa-free. For example, Indians have visa-free access to much of South and Southeast Asia, while Moroccans can go to West Africa either visa-free or for a visa that is always granted. So, when people from these countries get into these forms of travel, they often do take advantage of this to explore the neighbours.

>"Round-the-world trips may be hard to manage"

And yes we talking about that specific type of trips.