Time to come home - Fun Facts!

IMGP6774
Originally uploaded by theslaad.

We can't believe it's time to come home! It doesn't seems like very long ago that we were saying goodbye to our parents at the airport, but I suppose it does feel like a long time ago since things like overnight trains in China and learning to dive in Vietnam.

So, here are some interesting facts about our travels....

We've visited twelve countries and ten capital cities. We don't really have a favourite country, but Mexico City was by far the best capital city.
We've been speaking quite a lot of Spanish over the last three months but have also learnt some words in Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Maori. Usually how to say 'Cheers!'.
We've been to 23 airports and have taken 18 flights (but it's okay because we bought energy efficient lightbulbs for Jamaicans). We've been on 5 trains, 2 campervans and god knows how many buses and taxis!

We've had good and bad weather. The hottest place was King's Canyon in Australia, at about 47 degrees, and the coldest place was the desert in Bolivia before sunrise, at about minus 5 degrees. This was also the highest place we went to at over 5000m. The lowest place was next to an octupus in Koh Phi Phi, at 19m below sea level!

The longest time that we spent travelling was the 27 hour train journey from Shanghai to Guilin, after which we had to take a bus for a couple of hours to get to Yangshou.

The worst thing that we did on the whole trip was early on, in China. We cycled to Moon Hill and then climbed it. It was ridiculously hard work in the blistering heat and not at all worth it, as the nice moon shape of the hill was perfectly visible from the bottom, and the view from the top was rubbish.

We don't really have one best thing, but some contenders would be (in order of doing them): The Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat complex, Mui Ne beach, staying with Stuart & Wiccha in Chaing Dao, Sydney, driving around in our van in Australia, glow worms, sperm whales, staying in the Mezkalito hostel in Oaxaca, Chichen Itza, Nazca lines, Machu Picchu and the Uyuni salt flats.

We've eaten well, but more often not so well. The best food we've had was at the Friends restaurant in Phonm Penh, Wiccha's cooking in Chiang Dao and the Hangi in New Zealand. Of course, our campervan-cooked food in Australia and New Zealand was pretty yummy.
We've eaten at some truly diabolical places (as proven by the nice food poisoning). The worst place is hard to pin down, but generally nowhere in Vietnam or Peru was very good.

We've been very lucky and have met some really nice people along the way. Most of group in China were fun to be with, Vicky our dive instructor was cool, it was nice to see Stuart and meet Wiccha and Joseph in Chiang Dao, we had fun with a group of people in Oaxaca, we met a couple from Wymondham whilst we were in Nazca, we loved staying at the Frankenstein Hostal in Cusco with Ludwig, Maritta and little Fiona and the people on our Uyuni trip were very nice too.

So this adventure is over, but we plan to have many more. We're really loking forward to coming home and seeing everyone, being able to eat good food, flush paper down the toilet and catch up on pop culture (all the TV we've missed!).

We've missed you all and look forward to seeing you very soon!

Buenos Aires

IMGP6737
Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Buenos Aires seems like quite a nice city. There are lots of cafes and restaurants around, and lots of shops. It seemed pretty wealthy too until we were sat outside a cafe in the evening and a constant stream of children came over asking for money.
On our first day here we looked around the central part of the city including the main plaza where the palace is situated. It is from the balcony of that palace that lots of people have given various rousing speeches, including Eva Peron. We also looked up and down the shopping streets and went to the cinema to watch Spidey 3.
That evening we went to an old tango cafe to have dinner and see a Tango show. It was quite fun. The band consisted of three old men - one with a keyboard, one with an accordian and the other with a double bass. There were two singers and two dancers. We thought it might be a bit more steamy, but it was quite good anyway.

Yesterday was a typical autumn day, with grey skies and plenty of drizzle, so we didn't really do very much. Today we ventured out from the centre to one of the barrios - Recoleta. We went to a cool cemetery with row upon row of above ground tombs. It was a goth's paradise. Lots of eerie statues and cool twenties font on the tombs. It's all mostly the tombs of generals and doctors from the late 19th century and early 20th century, when Agentina was rich. Lots of people go to the cemetery because that is where the Peron mauseleum is, but that one wasn't very interesting compared to a lot of the others.

All around the cemetery there were craft stalls. Proper caft stals too, which was nice, rather than the craft stalls you get in Peru and Bolivia, which all sell exactly the same stuff. We bought a couple of final souvenirs and then headed across to the National Art Musuem. There was a good display of work by one artist who painted form the 60s until now, but the rest of the art was a bit dreary.

This evening we'll pack our rucksacks for the final time (hooray!), and then we'll catch a flight home tomorrow to arrive back in the UK on Monday morning.

Santiago

IMGP6735
Originally uploaded by theslaad.

So we did go to see the Giant Mary, but we didn't like her as much as The Jesus in Cusco. He was much cooler, with wild scary eyes, and had less people worshipping him. It was Labor day on Tuesday so Santiago was like a ghost town. There was hardly anyone around and most of the shops were closed. Unfortunately the art museum that we wanted to go to was closed too, so after we walked back from the Mary hill we went to the cinema (twice).

Chile was an okay place to visit. We liked the telescopes a lot, and it was quite nice to be in a more developed place, but in the North, there's not a huge amount to see. It's quite a scuzzy place in parts too, lots of graffitti and stray dogs everywhere.

We flew to Buenos Aires yesterday and will mostly be eating steak and drinking red wine for the rest of the trip.

Chile and Buenos Aires were kind of bonus places that we came to because thats the way the flight home goes, so we're not really doing that much that's exciting at the end of our trip. So appologies for the lack of blog and photos.

Going to see some Tango this evening!

One more blog, and then we'll be home!