Eleven months later and we're back!!

So after 327 days of travelling, we finally made it back to the UK. Quite suprisingly we didn't encounter any major issues along the way, nothing got stolen and few things got lost, although Heathrow did almost lose Ems bag at the airport! We visited 16 different countries and made 20 border crossings.It was an incredible 11 months and something neither of us will be forgetting anytime soon.

We've decided to use this final blog to give you a kind of summary of our trip, divided into a few sectoions - Enjoy!

Transport:

During the course of our trip we took:

- 24 flights which totalled 91 hours

- 4 trains totalling 42.5 hours

- 11 boats totalling 22.5 hours

- 32 buses totalling 197 hours with the longest being 20 hours. 

We also drove 1800km down the Great Ocean Road, 4500km down the

East Coast and 7000km around New Zealand.

Safe to say we've done our fair bit of travelling on various modes of transport! In fact out of our 327 days of travelling, 14.5 of those were spent being transported from one place to another! 

7 wonders of the world: 

We also visited a number of wonders of the world, from different categories:

Machu Picchu - new wonder of the world.

Christ the Redeemer - new wonder of the world. 

Great Barrier Reef - natural wonder of the world.

Iguazu Falls - new wonder of the natural world.

Halong Bay - new wonder of the natural world. 

Bests and worsts:

Best Country: New Zealand

Second Best Country: Vietnam

Worst Country: Uruguay

Favourite City: Singapore

Most Liveable City: Melboure

Worst City: Montevideo

Best Food: South East Asian

Favourite Wonder of the World: Machu Picchu closely followed by Iguazu and Great Barrier Reef 

Favourite Overnight Tour: Ayers Rock

Favourite Day Tour: Lichfield National Park

Favourite Overnight Trek: Machu Picchi

Favourite One Day Trek: Tongariro

Best Tour Guide: Mika

Favourite Beach: Railay

Worst Beach: Bali

Best Land Border Crossing: Malaysia to Singapore

Worst Land Border Crossing: Cambodia to Thailand 

James' Favourite Land Animal Encounter: Koala Cuddling

Ems Favourite Land Animal Encounter: Elephant Bathing

Favourite Sea Animal Encounter: Turtle Baby Release

Funniest Moment of the Trip: Sexual assault by an orangutang

Scariest Moment of the Trip: Being Cornered by a rather angry and horny orangutang 

Best Land Journey: VIP Super-Cama bus from Buenos Aires to Salta

Worst Land Journey: Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng 

Best sporting event: Australian Open

Best Dive Spot: Phi Phi 

Favourite week:

Em - Elephant Nature park

James - Great Ocean Road

Best accommodation: Arena hotel, Copacabana

Best hostel: Golden Time, Hanoi 

Things learnt whilst travelling:

Getting a tattoo in Vietnam is not the best of ideas

Drinking whilst on antibiotics can end badly

Hangovers in the heat are hell

Nothing runs on time in Asia

Crossing a road in Vietnam means risking your life numerous times

Eating a dry weetbix in a minute is almost impossible

Australia is extortionately expensive

Don't expect things to go as planned

Expect your personal space to be violated

Driving a campervan is not as easy as it looks

Walking to 4600m is not as easy as it looks

When in doubt ride a pony (preferably called apache)

You will contemplate the various ways to kill your travelling companion on numerous occasions 

People in South America like to dress their dogs in coats

If we were going to become religious, Buddhism would be our religion of choice

Argentina love their protests 

When you book a VIP bus in South East Asia, don't be surprised if a minibus without air con rocks up instead

When you book a VIP bus in South America, you get a fully reclining seat, only 3 seats per row, wine and a hot meal

Beware of drop bears and hoop snakes in Aus, you never know when one might pounce!!

No one other than Aussies and kiwis care where the pavlova cane from

The only place in the world where you can watch a sheep cam is NZ ( and maybe Wales!)

We don't like art galleries

Visiting scenery is much better than visiting cities 

Australians treat kiwis like English treat the welsh (sheep ;) ) 

People don't let you off the trains in São Paolo 

Never let em cut you hair 

Em leaves her contact lenses everywhere

James's inner child makes regular appearances 

Rio cannot cope with a large scale world event 

There's a lot if ass in a favela funk party 

Now we are back in the UK we have decided to set up a number of businesses based on what we have seen around the world; 

- Cold Rock Ice Creamery (pay by weight) 

- South East Asian Smoothies

- Rodizio

- Fast Food Pasta 

However, before setting any of these up, we need to earn a little money. So now we face reality as Em returns to KPMG Birmingham and James starts his new career at KPMG London.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog over the last 11 months but unfortunately it's now time to say goodbye!!

Lots of travelling love 

X x x

One last border crossing, one last bracelet and one last t-shirt

Our journey into Brazil was an interesting one. We boarded a public bus in Puerto Iguazu and headed for the border. Upon arrival at the Argentinian immigration we were hustled off the bus to get our exit stamp out, before being hustled back onto the bus to drive over the bridge to the Brazilian immigration. Here we were told to get off the bus and were left to our own devices! There were very few security guards around and those that were there were doing very little. In fact we could have just walked straight into Brazil without anyone looking at our passports. However, we realised this would cause issues when we attempted to exit Brazil and fly home so decided to get out entry stamps! We then boarded another bus which dropped is in Foz do Iguacu city.

The following day we visited the Brazilian side of Iguacu falls. Unfortunately this side does not open early and we therefore arrived at 9:30am along with swarms of other people. This side is completely different to the Argentinian side. Here you get an overall view of the falls from a distance. Additionally, the Devils Throat (which was closed on the other side) was open. Here you are able to get up really close to the bottom of the falls to take some impressive pictures, and also get soaked. At the very end you ascend to a platform that gives a panoramic view of the falls.  Both sides were really impressive but our personal favourite was the lower trail on the Argentinian side.

That evening we took an overnight bus to Florianopolis. This journey was very comfortable, in our cama seats and was meant to take 14 hours, giving us a whole day to soak up the sun in Florianopolis. Unfortunately, for reasons we don´t really understand, there was a 6 hour day and we spent the gorgeously sunny day, in the bus! We did briefly make to the beach in the late afternoon though.

Our day in Florianopolis was spent at two beaches: Barra da Lagoa and Mole beach, before taking our last night bus of the trip to São Paulo. Having booked an early bus, with the expectation that it would inevitably be late, it arrived early! This gave us all day to explore the city.

After walking down Batman Avenue, we took the metro and walked down Paulista Avenue, the new financial district, before heading to Parque do Ibirapuera. We wandered round the parque and visited the African Art Museum (mainly because it was free!).

 The following day we decided to join a free walking tour of downtown Sao Paulo. Despite being 4 hours, it did not drag on and we saw most of what Sao Paulo has to offer, including the three tallest buildings in Brazil. Along the tour we bumped into several large groups of people visiting Brazil for World Youth Day, which gave us an impression of just how busy Rio was going to be! During our lunch break we decided to try the national fruit - acai. This is eaten as a sorbet topped with granola and banana. Following on from the tour we visited the Municipal market where we tried some more local fruits and pastels which are a kind of thin, crispy empanada stuffed with meat.

Our next stop was Paraty. This is a cute, little and old beachside town. Our time here was spent lazing on the beaches and trying the national drink: caipirinhas.

From Paraty we headed to Ilha Grande, notorious for its gorgeous beaches. When we arrived to catch the boat transfer, it began raining, which it continued to do for the next 2 days! We still managed to wander round the town, pick up some souvenirs, walk through the state park and indulge in our first meal at a per kilo restaurant.  It was a nice relaxing few days, even if we weren`t able to top up our tans.

Our final stop of Brazil, and our trip, was Rio. The first morning we decided to participate in a favela tour. The favelas are the slums of Rio and are known for their high crime and violence rates. This tour however, set favelas in a new light and we did not feel unsafe at all. We visited two favelas, one of which is the largest in Rio, Rocinha. We also visited a school, although is was a Saturday so there were no kids about.

That afternoon we rented bikes and cycled 7.4km round the lagoon which is just behind Ipanema. This was a great, flat cycle ride that gave great views across a lot of Rio.

We finished the day with a walk along Ipanema beach before heading back to the hostel.

We took a trip to Santa Teresa and Lapa the following day and had out first bus ride experience. Lets just say that Brazilian bus drivers really need some driving lessons and especially need to be taught how to use the brakes correctly without causing all passengers to fall over in a domino effect. Santa Teresa is a cute little area set ont he top of a hill. It used to be accessed by tram but this has ceased operaiton since 2011 when there was a bad crash. We decided to take a bus to the top and walk back down. On the way back down we passed a lot of art work and stopped at the Parque Das Ruinas which gave us a great view of Rio.

Very close to the bottom are the Lapa steps, a set of steps that have been decorated with mosaics. They are pretty incredible and very colourful!

Down in Lapa we visited the cone shapred cathedral which was extremely busy due to World Youth Day, and is an odd structure for a cathedral. We also passed by the Lapa arches before heading back to Ipanema for dinner.

That night we treated ourselves at a Rodizio. This is basically like a buffet restaurant but the meat is bought out on skewers and sliced onto your plate. There is an endless supply of food and so many different varieties of meat constantly passing by your table that by the end we were well and truely stuffed!!

After the Rodizio we went to a favela party which was a pretty interesting and insightful experience. We were picked up at 11pm and drove about 30 minbutes down the road where we all got out of the minivan and walked into what was effectiveluy a large warehouse. We had VIP tickets so walked upstairs to the balcony where we had a bar and great view of the stage and dancefloor. Initially it started with a DJ, followed by a live act and ended with a different DJ. Here we learnt that ass shaking is a key part in Brazilian dancing and there was actually an ass shaking competition, that we both decided to avoid!!

Not getting back til 5:30am, the following morning was spent in bed before wandering along the beach, around the shops in Ipanema and to Urca to watrch the sunset over Christ. 

The next moring saw us get up early to beat the crowds up Sugarloaf mountain. This involves taking two cables cars in order to reach the highest of the mountains. Unfortunately it was not the clearest of days, but we still got some pretty incredible views.

From Sugarloaf we headed to downtown where we took at look at some of the old architectural buildings. The cathedral, monestary,  national theatre and national library were the keys sights, before venturing into the local market to buy our final souvenirs.

For our final night of our trip, we decided to spalsh out on a luxurious 4* hotel. Arriving at 2pm to our 13th floor room with a sea view, we spent the next few hours lying on the sunbeds by the rooftop pool and drinking Caipirinhas!

Our three course meal down in the restaurant was amazing - by far one of the best meals we have eaten in the trip, but also one of the most expensive!!

The next morning was an early one again as we watched sunrise from our room before indulging in our buffet breakfast! That morning we had tickets to go up to Christ the Redeemer on the tram. It was a clear day so the views from Christ, at 700m, were incredible!

As this was our final day we spent the majority of it on the beach and at the rooftop pool bar where we had our last atempts to top up the tans! In the evening, before our flight, we climbed up Urca hill to watch the sunset.

Only a few hours later we were on our rammed plane and heading back to the UK!!

Now to explain our post title. At the beginning of the trip we decided to collect both a t-shirt and a bracelet from each country. By the time we reached Australia our bags were filling with clothes and our wrists covered in bracelets. As we searched for jobs we decided the bracelets needed to be removed, and along with the numerous t-shirts, we sent them home with our parents. We vowed to continue collecting both bracelets and t-shirts and Brazil saw us accumulate our final ones.

There will be one final blog post to come now that we are back in the UK so keep an eye out.

See you all very soon!!! :-)

Much love

X x x