Mission Complete

After a flight path that took us from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo to London and finally to Chicago, we made it back to the USA just over a week ago. After 374 days gone on the road, it was a bit surreal to land at O’Hare in the same place we had started our journey. We have spent the past week catching up with family and friends and getting things in order while we try to plan out our next moves in life. Our options are endless on where to head to next, which is a good thing but also makes the decision all the more difficult.

We are gathering our final thoughts on the trip which we hope to post in a few days. For now, we wanted to share some numbers and facts that we hope all of you will find interesting!

Trip length: 374 days
Flights Flown: 31
Trains Taken: 22
Buses Ridden: 122
Boats Boarded: 31
Ho(s)tels: 187 (some cleaner than others)
Countries Visited: 35 (5 continents!)
Days of Rain: 42

Some of the ‘longest’ items of the trip:
-Longest Train Ride: Beijing, China to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: 31 hours
-Longest Bus Ride: Rio de Janerio, Brazil to Foz de Igazu,Brazil: 24 hours
-Longest Flight: Tokyo, Japan to Sao Paulo, Brazil: 25 hours
-Longest Boat Ride: Monkey Bay, Malawi to Nkhata Bay, Malawi: 58 hours

We were also fortunate enough to visit with and stay with some great friends along the way (THANK YOU Paul, Bala & Kumaran & Subhash, Norm & Elodie & Max, Pedro & the Chaib Family). Thanks to our friends and some long days/nights on transportation we actually had 51 nights of free lodging:
-Transit (Plane, Train, Bus) - 33 nights
-Friends - 9 nights
-Marriott Hotel Rewards - 5 nights
-Free Campsites - 4 nights


Unfortunately we also had the experience of spending 24 nights in dormitory style lodging, mostly due to price (Tokyo) or availability (Patagonia). We were lucky to spend 42 amazing nights camping in a tent under the stars in Africa and Patagonia.


Thankfully, we managed to stay safe on the trip, no successful robberies (although a couple attempts) and no trips to the hospital. We did manage to lose a few things along the way though:
-Chad’s watch: Somewhere in London Heathrow
-Colleen’s water bottle: Over Augrabies Falls, South Africa
-Headlamp: On the shores of Lake Malawi
-Mongolian Beer Mugs: US Customs in a postal package from Brazil
And we had to replace these multiple times:
-4 watches (Colleen only one)
-7 pairs of flip flops
-4 pairs of sunglasses (Chad only one)


A couple of our favorites from the past year:

Top 5 Beaches
1. Kendwa Beach - Zanzibar, Tanzania
2. Longs Beach, Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
3.Vilankulos, Mozambique
4. Punta del Este, Uruguay
5. Mabul Island, Malaysia

Top 5 Islands
1. Ilha de Mocambique, Mozambique
2. Zanzibar, Tanzania
3. Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
4. Islands of Halong Bay, Vietnam
5. Borneo, Malaysia


Top 5 Large Towns
1. Cape Town, South Africa
2. London, England
3. Kampala, Uganda
4. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
5. Quito, Ecuador

Top 5 ‘Smaller’ Towns
1. McCleod Ganj, India
2. Luang Prabang, Laos
3. Samaipata, Bolivia
4. Pokhara, Nepal
5. Rhodes, South Africa

Top 5 Man Made Sites
1. Petra, Jordan
2. Taj Mahal, India
3. Machu Picchu, Peru
4. Angkor Wat, Cambodia
5. The Great Wall, China



Top 5 Natural Wonders
1. Sossusvlei, Namibia
2. The Gobi, Mongolia
3. Iguazu Falls, Brazil
4. Halong Bay, Vietnam
5. Table Mountain, South Africa


Top 8 Experiences - We could not narrow it down to just 5!
1. Ger to Ger Camping, Mongolia
2. The W Trail, Torres del Paine, Chile
3. Seeing the Dalai Lama (twice!), India
4. Orangutans in the Wild, Malaysia
5. Car Rental and camping in Africa
6. Annapurna Trekking, Nepal
7. Kerala Houseboat, India
8. The Chaib Coffee Farm, Brazil


Top 5 Sunsets
1. Chitwan National Park, Nepal
2. Addo Elephant Reserve, South Africa
3. Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar
4. Punta del Este, Uruguay
5. The Gobi, Mongolia


Top 5 Countries to Re-Visit in the Future
1. Uganda
2. Northern Namibia & Botswana
3. The UK
4. Nepal - More Trekking!
5. South Africa


Favorite Country
Colleen: Mozambique
Chad: Nepal
Both: Mongolia


Friendliest People by Continent
Africa: Mozambique, honorable mention to Lesotho
Asia: Nepal, Laos, Mongolia
South America: Bolivia


Best Countries to Have a Drink: Mozambique, Vietnam, Mongolia, Argentina


Top 5 Countries Next On Our List
1. Ethiopia
2. Anywhere in the Middle East
3. Bhutan
4. The Stans - Central Asia
5. The USA - yes we live there but we haven’t seen much of it!


One thing we learned - Our fellow travelers are a little different - We have realized we are no exception!