It’s hard to believe that we’ve been travelling for 12 months, it certainly doesn’t feel anything like it and we’re not homesick for Australia apart from missing friends and family. Looking back through the blog (glad we have it to remember things), it’s amazing just how much we have done this year; it’s tiring just thinking about it!
Travelling for such a long time to so many places has given us a different perspective on the world and how we fit in it; the process has changed us, hopefully for the better.
We’ve been able to travel really flexibly this year, normally not booking more than a couple of days in advance so that we could travel where the mood took us. The only times we booked further in advance was when we needed to be somewhere at a specific time, like the Wedding & Carnival, the Singapore Grand Prix, when a Visa was expiring and the flight home.
Highlights
Enzo & Clarissa’s Wedding & Carnival in Brazil, fun with Friends
Iguazu Falls, most amazing natural wonder we’ve seen
Elephant park in Chiang Mai, what a privilege
Seeing friends and family that we were able to meet on tour
Meeting all manner of people from all walks of life
Completing the ride across France
Turkey, especially Istanbul, biggest surprise of the trip
Bariloche, just beautiful
Atacama Chile, totally unique
Gyrocopter ride in Costa Rica, cool way to get around
Playing with Tigers in Chiang Mai
Lowlights
Losing Camera in Brazil with all of our Iguazu falls photos
Leaving the Kindle and my awesome headphones behind on one of the flights
Bed Bugs in Castelnaudry France, our only encounter with them thankfully
Seeing a truck full of dogs going to the market for you know what in Vietnam
Dealing with Lufthansa and the quality of Lufthansa Business and Lounges
Coffee everywhere in South America, just terrible
Scariest Moments
Being chased by a pack of wild dogs in Buenos Aires, we were where we shouldn’t be as a result of Sharen insisting that we walk to the Airport fence to watch the planes.
Being chased by a dog while walking in Fethiye Turkey, the only reason that it didn’t get us was that it was on a long chain.
Being chased by dogs again in Costa Rica when we decided to take a short-cut through someones home.
Opening my eyes on a bus ride in Vietnam to see another bus on a collision course, last minute swerving by both drivers narrowly avoided a crash.
Places we could live
Barcelona, great food, great wine, great lifestyle and close to everything Europe has to offer
Istanbul, really young and cool, could live very well here
Beaune France, fantastic wineries, great food and wine, beautiful villas, close to Paris
Some Stats
15 Countries represented by these Buddy Bears that we first saw in Vienna a few years ago. They ship them around the world to bring a message of Peace. This time they were in Kuala Lumpur.
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- Vietnam
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- Turkey
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- Thailand
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- Switzerland
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- Spain
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- Singapore
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- Panama
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- Overview
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- Malaysia
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- Germany
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- France
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- Costa Rica
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- Chile
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- Brazil
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- Australia
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- Argentina
43 Flights on 17 different airlines! Sorry to any environmentalists out there.
Qantas, TAM, Aerolineas Argentinas, Copa Airlines, Nature Air, LAN Chile, GOL, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Blue, AeroPerlas, EasyJet, AirAsia, FireFly, Thai Air Asia, Vietnam Airlines
345 nights’ accommodation in over 100 hotels, apartments and B&B’s
Cheapest hotel, just $23/night in Vietnam
Most expensive hotel $700/night in Buenos Aires
Best hotel $500/night in Singapore
100 Blog posts with over 10,000 views
Most comments related to Greg’s hair!
6,023 Photographs, the novelty has worn off a bit
100 + Trip Advisor reviews
2500km Cycling
Air Transports: Aeroplane, Helicopter, Gyrocopter, Baloon, Zipline
Land Transports: Horse, Car, Bus, TukTuk, Cyclo, Three-wheel moto taxi, Rikshaw, Scooter/Motorbike, Bicycle
Water Transports: Dinghy, Kayak, Rowboat, Speedboat, Long Boat, Ferry, Junk, Gullet
Most Useful Items: Smartphones followed by Notebook. Really the only way we could travel the way we have.
Most Useful Websites: Booking.com, Kayak.com, Tripadvisor, Facebook, Google Maps
We look forward to catching up with everyone to share our stories and catch-up on all that we have missed throughout the year.
Signing-off
Shaz & Greg
anexperimentalyear
We look forward to seeing you again.
Erm your carbon footprint is well $#@@^%$ unreal LOL
Your blogs etc have been more than welcome and extremely well put together ( but you know that )
You are coming back to the BEST country, THE MOST EXPENSIVE, and more the pity with the same mob in Government as when you left.
Thanks, we’ll see you very soon!
Hey guys, I can’t believe it’s over already! Thanks for the blog, you have been really great tour guides, and I’ve added quite a few places to my must visit list.
Hopefully you are still catching up with the comments. I’ve been on holidays myself (not as exciting as yours of couse).
Welcome back to Melbourne, hope to see you soon.
Julz