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
