They think it's all over...It is now

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Trip Start Jun 04, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 06, 2010

  London, England, United Kingdom
Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Hello everyone,

The time has come to write my farewell piece and try not to get too emotional about both the end of our travels and coincidentally my precious blog that I've labored over for so long. In an attempt to steer clear of too much sentiment I’ve decided to finish with more of a scientific conclusion and rope in some statistics to illustrate some of what we have achieved.  For those who think we’ve lived a glamorous life for the past 16 months you might decide to think again! 

A normal conclusion to such an amazing trip would be to list the highlights but for me that seems like a terrible idea, apart from the fact it would take far too long, it would only make me miserable about it all coming to an end.  I also feel a great responsibility to any readers who might be tempted to follow in our footsteps to ensure they are aware what they are letting themselves in for, and so I give you firstly a list of things we are not going to miss about traveling:

Never knowing what to expect from the next toilet you will need to use – and as such having to always have pockets filled with toilet paper everywhere you go.

Having to pray to every god you can remember the name of that your bus/taxi/boat driver isn’t on a suicide mission in spite of what his driving style suggests.

Haggling over the price of EVERYTHING and never quite knowing if you have been had or have insulted someone – I’m going to kiss price tags when I get home!

Starting everyday with a full body application of suntan lotion and insect repellent while knowing full well in a few hours you’ll have sweated it all off and will have to start again.

Sleeping in a wind tunnel

Certified Travellers

.  (That is, having a fan blowing in your face all night long because it’s too hot to have it off and we’re too stingy for air con).

Always running out of drinking water at an inappropriate time – drinking water on tap should never be taken for granted.

Getting scraped knees, bumps and bruises like a toddler learning to walk.  Add this to the constant presence of insect bites and you can be sure to look like a leper for most of your travels.  (I wouldn’t make such a fuss about it if it wasn’t for the fact that it is always my left hand side that takes the beatings so it now looks about 10 years older than the right side of my body).

Dodging great gobby blobs of phlegm that the locals have either already spat out or are in the process of doing as you walk past.

Never being able to escape the endless crowing of a nocturnal cockerel wherever we are (to the point I’m sure it is hiding in my backpack and has made its life mission to torment my sleep forever).

Foreign currencies and I’ll throw in cash points for good measure

Our flight on the departure board

!  Everything from converting amounts and not knowing which one we’re supposed to be using all the way to finding fistfuls of notes for countries we’re not going back to lurking at the bottom of bags.

Men with long fingernails.

Border crossings, from the corrupt to the mundane there is never a fun border to cross – unless you count having to play 'name that tune’ on the guards ipod to get into Bolivia!

(If you think that list is long just imagine how long the one of things I am going to miss would be.)



Now it’s time to get stuck into some statistics…

We have been away from England in total for 459 days, but 240 of those days were spent living in Queenstown so we had some time to be settled.  However for the 219 days we were ‘on the road’ we have spent 74 without a night in a bed!  This is mostly made up of the 50 nights we were camping but also includes nights spent on various forms of transport, airport floors and the occasional boat or tree-house.  So approximately a third of our travels have been spent bed-less, which I don’t remember signing up for.

Since we left we have been on 14.5 flights (the half comes from the time I got into a plane but jumped out before it landed) and visited 14 countries.  There have been numerous boat and train rides in the mix but our most consistent form of transport has been buses.  Including our truck travel across South America, coaches and mini-buses we have been on a grand total of 58 bus journeys that adds up to an even grander total of 489 hours in transit.  That’s over 20 days of our lives spent sitting on a bus and of course that figure doesn’t include the many, many hours spent on other modes of transport as well!  Other modes of transport that have gotten us from A to B have been rental cars, longtail boats, speedboats, slowboats, ferries, skis, taxis, bicycles, ziplines, kayaks, swimming, tuk tuks, bemos and of course our own two feet to name just a few.  I suppose if you want to see the world you have to allocate some time for actually getting yourself around it.

As far as the blog goes I have written 79 entries which include 2,773 photographs.  Well done to anyone who has read them all, I’m both impressed and flattered that so many on you have stuck with us for the journey.  To date the blog has had over 5,500 visitors and it’s not going anywhere soon so feel free to catch up where you left off whenever you get the time.

Of course I couldn’t build a list of statistics without including the photographs we have taken.  With our barrage of five cameras between the two of us we have officially taken 160GB which is over 23,000 photographs which has more than filled the capacity of the laptop and left us with a full time job of sorting through them all when we get back (and that doesn’t include all the ones we have deleted en route).

Neither of us would hesitate for a moment to tell you how lucky we have been throughout all our travels but we would like to spare a thought for those items that came with us initially but are now lost to us and in essence will be traveling forever:



Steve’s Fleece – RIP - Left on the washing line at Jenny’s flat in Sydney

Amy’s Fleece – RIP - Leant to Steve to use as a pillow after the loss of his own fleece and then left on a bus in Vietnam

Mobile Phone – RIP - Forgotten in the bungalow at Koh Phi Phi leaving us without an alarm clock

Two cheap alarm clocks – RIP - One committed suicide a day after purchase and the other is still in Hanoi where it was purchased

Watch – RIP - On an island in Ha Long Bay (it’s like we were never supposed to know the time!)

Steve’s elbow – RIP - Smeared along the luge track at the top of the gondola in Queenstown

Waterproof Camera – RIP - Did not survive the surf lesson in 1770 but was resurrected by Panasonic under warranty and still lives to this day

Havania flip flops – RIP - Stolen by a drunk guy in Vang Vieng.  At least I got to wave goodbye as I saw them go on the security footage

My Waist Line – RIP - Lost to South American steaks and Fergburger but  slowly finding it’s way back to me through South East Asia – until the buffet incident(s)



And that as they say is ‘it’.  All our ups and downs laid bare and I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed writing them.  In conclusion, different countries have had different ways of describing us as we have traveled through them and we have been called Gringos, Backpackers, Farangs, Westerners, Poms, Tourists, Seasoners, Flashpackers, Travellers and Falangs but I think the term that describes us best is ‘Lucky Buggers’ and I’m in agreement with that.

As always, Lots of Love,

Amy and Statistical Steve

P.s if you are wondering how we had the time to compile such statistics may I refer you back to the 489 hours we spent on buses!

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Acess All Areas	A trip and a half	Treats for the flight	First Glimpse of England
Let the Western food commence	So Excited	Welcoming Committee

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