Epiblog

title courtesy of my dad!

18.03.2009 - 18.03.2010
View Around We Go on LauHot10's travel map.

We've been back home for almost a month now and in some ways it feels as though we never left as everything is so familiar and pretty much the same, which is kind of nice. The best thing though is that we did go and have some absolutely amazing memories which will hopefully never fade and if they do there is always the 4000 odd photos to look at!

So I thought I'd just do a little round up to finish off this mammoth diary of the last year of our lives but I'll try to keep it brief, I do realise I have written reams and reams, perhaps a little too much at times! To limit myself I am going to do it in question and answer format.

Favourite Places: (we couldn't pick just one)
The Philippines tops the list because the beaches were wonderful and the people exceptionally friendly. Burma was amazing and truly unlike anywhere else because it is so untouched by the outside world. Taipei is vibrant, modern but with a massive cultural twist which is so unlike the Western world. Northern Vietnam for scenery, our motorbike trip there was absolutely breathtaking and finally in South America, Bolivia because parts of it are like visiting another planet and traditional Andean culture is still very apparent.

Worst Places:
Well there aren't many places that spring to mind but I think a few people have noticed that we found India (parts of it) a little difficult. Some of this was to do with it being the very beginning of the trip but also because India is a hard country, full of an immense amount of poverty. There is a definite rich/poor divide and you become part of the day to day struggle with people trying to make as much money as possible, sometimes at your expense. Still we are both very glad we went and it was a wonderful experience.

Number of Countries visited:
We visited 20 countries in twelve months, on four continents.

Number of buses/trains/boats: (not including taxis and short trips)
214 - I wonder how many hours this all adds up to.

Number of flights:
17

Money spent:
Roughly £7000 but this doesn't include the round the world tickets.

Illnesses:
Apart from Adam's one morning in hospital and my knee troubles we did pretty well. Just the odd tummy upset and a few mild colds.

Scariest moment:
In Burma's new capital Naypyitaw, in the dark, when my motorbike broke down and Adam disappeared in to the distance. I seriously thought I was never going to see him again.

Stolen Items:
0!!

Lost Items:
Hmmm a few pieces of clothing went walkies or weren't returned after washing. I lost numerous hair bobbles, a necklace and we both misplaced a zillion sunglasses. Thankfully we can say that we did not lose anything that could not be replaced.

Highlights:
Walking around the streets of Mandalay at 5am surrounded by hundreds of monks queuing up to collect offerings.
Collecting shells and sunbathing on White Beach off Catarman in the Philippines, our own private, desert island.
Seeing Giant Panda's at Taipei zoo for only £3!
Building fires in beautiful forests and by deserted beaches in Western Australia.
Finishing the Torres Del Paine W Trek (even though we missed out the end bit - shhhhh)
Floating through the ice fields of Patagonia.
The other worldly landscape of South-West Bolivia.

Although it is a massive cliche, this has been the experience of a lifetime and I can't quite believe it happened or that it is over. I definitely have the travel bug now and I know Adam still does but I think we'll be keeping it to smaller trips from now on. Not that we can afford to do anything for a while anyway!

I want to thank all of you for reading the blog and hope I've entertained you a little bit over the last twelve months with our adventures. I know I'm pleased I've done it as it's going to be a great record when I need to remember what I got up to when I was younger!

In almost every country we took a photo of our feet as a little visual souvenir, so I've put them on below to act as a little timeline and a nice end to our photo record.

Right back to the job hunt!!

No More Soon,

Laura & Adam

P1020003