Number games

No, I'm not talking about Sudoku, although I can highly recommend Sudoku as a way of passing the time on long flights, but about the many statistics of our trip:

No. of flights: 23
(CT-Jhb-Sao Paolo....Rio-Brasilia-Manaus...Belem-Recife-Natal-Salvador-Brasilia...Cusco-Puerto Maldonado-Cusco...Bariloche-Buenos Aires...Sao Paolo-Houston-San Francisco-Vancouver-Seattle-Honolulu-Kona-Honolulu-Tokyo-Kuala Lumpur...Pangkor-Kuala Lumpur-Jhb-CT)

No. of hours on aeroplanes: +/- 80
(That's 960 Easy, 320 Medium, 160 Hard or 0 Challenger Sudoku puzzles)


No. of airlines: 13
(Kulula, SAA, Varig, LAM, TAN, Aerolineas Argentinas, Continental, Alaskan, Horizon, North-West, Aloha, Malaysian, Berjaya)
Best airline: Malaysian
Worst airline: Continental

No. of countries: 9
(Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, USA, Canada, Japan, Malaysia)
Favourite country: Bolivia, Malaysia
Least favourite: Hmmmm....they were all good but Peru ripped us off the most!

Total distance travelled (as the crow flies): 72 815 km
(only 1/5 of the distance to the moon!)

Distance by plane: 55 218
Distance by boat: 1 436
Distance by bus: 10 051
Distance by train: 782
Distance by bicycle: 110
Distance by car: 5 143

Most southerly point: Puerto Varas, Chile: 41.32° S

Most northerly point: Whistler, Canada: 50.10° N

Coldest place: Altiplano, Bolivia with wind chill to below -10°C

Hottest place: Manaus, Amazon basin, Brazil with temperatures approaching 40°C and extremely high humidity

Longest non-stop trip: 22 hours
(Bus trip from Chile-Peru border to La Serena Chile)

No. of photographs: 3412 (mas o menos)

Number of different beds: 64
Best bed: Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (with a stunning view of the lake)
Worst bed: Samaipata, Bolivia (the floor was more comfortable)

Mass of luggage at the beginning of trip: 40 kg
Mass of luggage at end of trip: 60 kg

Number of our friends/family who fell pregnant or had a baby while we were away: 8!

Worst experiences: Finding out our luggage had caught a bus that we had missed!
All that rain!

Best experiences: Finding our luggage!
The Bolivian altiplano - what a place!
Birdwatching in the Amazon and the Pantanal
Machu Picchu!
Eating chocolate in Bariloche
Driving the backroads of Texas
Snowboarding!
Watching lava flows (and Toby poking lava with his shoe!)
Flying from San Francisco to Vancouver on a clear day

The numbers are a bit mind boggling, but don't be daunted - you too can take on an epic trip like this! Trust us, it's worth it. And gauranteed, we'll be adding up the km's again one day - it's addictive!

West meets east

Geography can be a funny thing - when you go far enough west, suddenly you're in the east. And, as both Phineas Fogg and ourselves discovered to our detriment, time travel is possible. As the international date line is crossed you travel 1 day ahead in time, essentially losing a day. So our planned 3 day stay in Japan was first shortened by a day due to an airline blaps, and then one of the remaining days vanished into thin air, leaving us with 1 day in Tokyo! True to form, the heavens were hurling down the rain when we landed at Narita late in the evening, and we were soaked by the time we reached our hostel. Fortunately for once the rain gods were on our side and we woke to bright sunshine the next day, and began exploring the immense city of Tokyo.

One of the first things that comes to mind when thinking of Japan is the country's technosavvy, so we were pleasantly surprised by the many temples we saw. We spent the day walking from temple to high-tech showroom to the lovely Emperors Palace gardens to malls displaying the height of fashion. The day ended in the only way it could, with sushi and saki!

Next stop Malaysia. When we were harassed at the airport by many taxi drivers we had visions of India all over again. But nothing could be further from the truth - except for those taxi drivers, the Malaysians were the friendliest, most helpful and most sincere people we have met on all our travels. Except for an unfortunate incident with bedbugs, we had a fantastic time there and will definitely be going back. We started in Kuala Lumpur, admiring the shining Petronas Towers, and viewing the city from the worlds 3rd tallest communications tower. Then we bussed to the coast, to the remote Firefly Resort. Thousands of fireflies congregate in trees on the banks of the river and start flashing in unison, resulting in the most impressive natural Christmas trees I've ever seen. From there we headed to the island of Pangkor, one of the less well known beach resort type islands, and therefore much quieter. There we chilled on the beach, snorkelling and kayaking for the last few days of our holiday. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end!