Now that we’re home, here’s a look back at our trip…
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Most un-amusing experiences:
- Dealing with touts the world over, but especially in Vietnam and
Turkey (which were nonetheless two of our favorite destinations) - Losing our luggage for three days between Kenya and Tanzania
- Having a thief climb onto our terrace in Valencia, Spain
Unimpeachable Global Truths:
- Regardless of the country or culture, the most shameless line-cutters are the elderly.
- Where there are (English-speaking) expats, there will be Irish
pubs, probably named Molly Malone’s, Flannigan’s, or O’Flaherty’s. - Despite the fact that the beach you’re on is thousands of miles
away from Jamaica, there will be bars playing reggae and tourists
getting their hair braided.
Getting from Point A to Point B
Number of flights taken: 37 (or 40 if you count the infamous Tanzanian flights as 4 instead of 1)
Number of flights missed/cancelled: 0
Most consecutive flights (excluding Tanzania experience): 4 to get from Taipei, Taiwan to Santorini, Greece
Favorite airline: British Airways—we liked the individual on-demand entertainment systems and professional staff; Adrian also wants to give a special shout-out to their chicken curry entree
Worst airline (not counting puddle jumpers): Tie between Iberia (delays + no included food or drink on our 3.5-hour flight) and our very own American Airlines (no included food + surly flight attendants)
Airports we flew through the most times: London Heathrow, Hong Kong,
and Bangkok, each of which we transited through 3+ times (yet we still
don’t know why Bangkok’s “Suvaranabhumi” is pronounced “Soo-wanna-poom”)
Worst airport: London Heathrow (hellish security lines and terrible layout for transiting)
Favorite mode of transport: Train
Eating
Favorite activity, no matter where we are: Eating
Best food: Thailand—nowhere else do they have such mastery over the balance of salty, sweet, spicy, and sour
Food we were most ready to leave behind: Greece or the fast food of Turkey (if we never hear the word börek again…)
Weirdest things eaten: Cakes of pig’s blood (Vietnam), live green
ants (Daintree Rainforest, Australia), “stinky tofu” (Taiwan), coffee
made from beans digested by a weasel (Vietnam). In general, traveling
is easier if you can eat what is put in front of you without first
playing a game of 20 Questions.
Schlepping
Total weight of our luggage: 18 lbs (Jomay’s backpack) + 23 lbs (Adrian’s camera pack) + 22 lbs (Adrian’s suitcase) = 63 lbs
Items we carried around the world but didn’t use once: sewing kit,
waterproof neck pouch (so you can swim with your passport, money,
etc.), some of the first aid supplies and drugs (probably a good thing
we didn’t use these)
Number of items lost/stolen: 0 (though they sure tried their darndest in Spain)
Staying Healthy
Immunizations acquired for trip: Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Hepatitis B,
and Japanese encephalitis. (We had previously been immunized for
Hepatitis A and standard stuff like polio, tetanus, etc.) We also
brought along anti-malarial drugs (Malarone).
Number of times we got sick enough to stay in bed: 2 for Jomay
(stomach ills in Thailand and bad cold in Taiwan/Greece) and 3 for Adrian (stomach ills in Thailand, bad cold in Greece, strep throat in Canada)
Number of countries where we could not drink the tap water: 8 (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Greek islands, Turkey, Tanzania)
Staying Entertained
Number of Scrabble games played on the Treo: 406 (some against the computer and some against each other)
Number of books read (not including travel guides): 12 (Adrian) and 8.5 (Jomay)
Total number of photographs taken by Adrian: 18,858, which works out to an average of 104 photos per day. Aren’t you glad we didn’t post them all?