Back home

After 9 months, 11 countries, and thousands of miles on trains, planes, buses, boats, elephants, pick up trucks, horses, paragliders, and on foot, we are finally back home. And to be completely honest it's a lovely feeling!

We had the most amazing time on our travels, and enjoyed, if not every minute of it, at least the great majority of the time we were away. The highs of incredible natural beauty, the friendliness of strangers, and the excitement of the unknown by far outweighed the lows of the odd stomach bug or travel weariness.

In retrospect, I think we did most things right with our travels. Not because of any particular knowledge or expertise but mainly just by luck and intuition. The timing of our trip coincided nicely with the greater scheme of moving to England. The time spent travelling was long enough to completely take our minds off all that we wanted not to think about, but not too long for us to get bored of travelling itself.

We were also incredibly lucky not to have anything stolen from us. We did lose a few things here and there, just because we forgot to pick them up when we moved on, but nothing essential was left behind... I think.

We have tried to list our top 5 countries, towns, natural wonders, restaurants, toilets, modes of transportation, etc. but when you see so many places, especially when they are so different from each other, it gets tricky. I will, however, attempt the impossible, the mother of all listings, the top 5 of the entire trip. Here Goes:

1. Nature in New Zealand and Australia

Franz Josef glacier, NZ


Banks Peninsula, NZ


Mount Cook, NZ


Uluru, Aus


Whitsundays, Aus


Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Rd., Aus


2. Food in China

Stick-meat in Beijing


Street kitchen in Shangri La


Dried tofu and noodle soup in Beijing


3. The emptiness of Siberia and Mongolia

Horseriding in Mongolia


Trans-Siberian railway, Russia


Olkhon Island, Russia


Again, Olkhon Island, Russia


4. All the wonderful people we met

Jakki, Piotr, Jegor, and others in St. Petersburg


Andy & Rob in Terelj, Mongolia


Hilde & Janne in Yangshuo, China

Neil & Julie in Tiger Leaping Gorge, China


Ingo & Andy in Vang Vieng, Laos


Christmas in Vientiane with Andy, Laura, & Zoe


With Emma and Phil in Cape Tribulation, Australia


5. Unpredictability of South East Asia

Another interesting form of transport in Laos


Andy loading a moped on the bus to Vientiane


Foot massage by fish in Kuala Lumpur


Sleeper bus designed for dwarves in Vietnam



I might change my mind about this list tomorrow, and if you asked Julie she might have a completely different top 5 altogether. I guess that is the beaty of travelling.

But now it's time to stop living in the memories of our travels and start to look in the future; meet all the friends we have missed, eat some Marmite on toast, and start planning our next trip!