Final blog – celebrating 1 year, 3 months and 10 days of travel

What a way to finish our trip!  The trans-Siberian rail adventure was fantastic.  Admittedly, some of the train journeys were rather hard work, but the sight-seeing made it all worthwhile.  To experience Mongolia and Siberia was wonderful.  We met some great people along the way too.

We have now completed our journey.  We have explored 18 new countries, taken 39 flights and sat on numerous trains, buses, boats and tuk-tuks.  To say that we have had an amazing time would not sum up our experience.  In all honesty we cannot put it into words. Our advice to everyone, if they have the chance, would be to chuck in their job for a year and travel !  It is, without doubt, the best thing we have ever done.

 We know that people are going to ask us about our favourite place.  We simply cannot choose one, not even from each continent.  So we have written a few anecdotes for you to enjoy below:

 The place where we:
… had the most fun: Sydney, Australia
… were the coldest: penguin watching in Magdalena Island, Chile and horse riding in Outer Mongolia
… were the hottest: Kakadu National Park, Australia and Bukit Lawang, Sumatra
… got the most sunburnt: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
… learnt the most: Arequipa, Peru
… saw the best wildlife: Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia and the Sumatran jungle, Indonesia
… enjoyed scenic driving the most: New Zealand
… had the biggest adventure: Sumatra, Indonesia
… experienced the craziest city: Medan, Sumatra and Hanoi, Vietnam
… found the friendliest people: Mainland Thailand and Mongolia
… want to return to the most: Patagonia, Argentina and Chile
… have been most confused by the currency: Mongolia, Vietnam and Laos
… were the most ill: Penang, Malaysia and Puno, Peru (both Dave!!)
… were the most surprised by: Laos, Mongolia and China
… were the most pleased to be out of breath: Machu Picchu, Peru
… experienced the best flight: Australia to New Zealand (Air New Zealand)
… experienced the worst flight: Chile to Australia (LAN)
… had the best journey: boat ride into Cambodia from Vietnam
… had the worst journey: 4 day train ride from Lake Baikal to Moscow, Russia
… had the most unpleasant incident: It shall forever be known as the ‘rat incident’, Sumatra
…. had the best food: Argentina (Dave) and Thailand (Carly)
… oh and the best thing we brought with us was our amazing waterproof trousers!

All in all, our favourite thing has been observing ways of life in other countries. It has been so interesting to experience other cultures and doing so has also reminded us of how lucky we are to live in England.

Thank you so much for taking the time to follow our journey. We are really pleased to have got 14,969  hits on this blog-site. Your comments and emails have always kept us going and put a smile on our faces.

 We can’t wait to get back to the best country in the world and see you all.

 Merry Christmas, love, Carly and Dave xxx

 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  (Mark Twain)

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