Top of the Hops - After almost six months of country-, island-, mountain-, beach- and bar-hopping, here's our trip in figures and our conveyor belt of 'Best Ofs.' It also includes the list of beers we've drunk at the end (for Wardy and Mav's interest) which are also related to hops. Clever huh?

• 176 days away from Blighty
• 8 countries visited
• 13,500 km travelled overland
• 95 beds slept in
• 1.85 days: average time spent in one place
• 24 buses used
• 17 mini-vans sat in
• 39 boats sailed
• 18 motorbikes hired, 11 of which self-driven
• 8 animals (horses and elephants) ridden
• 33 whole days spent walking
• 13 trains taken, 9 of which overnight
• 12 bicycles pedalled
• More rickshaws and tuk-tuks haggled over than Nicola's nan has had Eccles Cakes
• 14 taxis flagged down
• 3 4x4s ridden in
• 5 golf buggies driven
• 12 planes flown in (a surprising number for an overland trip)
• 31 beaches visited
• 63 different beers drunk (see below for full list)
• 4 dodgy bellies (which may or may not be related to beer list)
• 34 pounds lost (which often related to the dodgy bellies)
• 84 books read
• 3 Kindles used
• 6 watches bought and broken
• 5 pairs of flip flops worn through (only one of which was stolen and half-eaten by a monkey)
• 20GB of photos taken
• Equivalent of a day and a half spent uploading and backing up said photos
• 13 Lonely Planet Guides used (How to plan a career break, Travel Photography, Volunteering, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands, City Guide - Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, South West China, Tibet, Nepal, India)
• 2 Lonely Planets cut up into pieces (the Tibet one to hide it from mean Chinese border police who wanted to confiscate it, and the India one as we couldn't fit it in our teeny bag for our 10-day road trip of Goa)

OVERALL WINNERS

Best sunset: Ankermi beach, Maumere, Flores, Indonesia

Best sunrise: Sitting on the balcony of our beach shack on Mui Ne beach, Vietnam

Best starry sky: Aboard our 3 day Perama boat trip from Lombok to Flores

Best beach: Well that all depends: best beach for watersports and general coolness - Nha Trang, Vietnam; best for isolated beauty and snorkelling - Red Beach, nr Komodo Island, Sumbawa, Indonesia; best for chill-out time and beach shack - Benaulim, Goa, India

Best single day: James - kayaking down the Grade 3+ rapids of the Seti without even a provisional kayak driving licence; Nicola - spa, swimming & running at Gokarna Forest Resort, safe in the knowledge she'd conquered Everest Base Camp for a second time

Best hostel: Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel, Chengdu, China (our room cost a fiver and had a DVD player for goodness sake!)

Best single meal: Such a tough one but we think it goes to the fantastic curry, booze and setting served up in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India - see India below

Best 'weird local dish': Beef with Red Ants in Phnom Penh - highly recommended, especially if you are a fan of crunchy and spicy ants with a red colour!

Best beer: We challenge anyone to distinguish between an Everest, a Bintang, a Kingfisher, a Tsingtao and any of the other circa 40 indistinguisable 600ml bottles of lager that we've drunk. However the best beer moment was our first night of the trip, knowing we had six months of adventure ahead

Best dance: To the Cambodian salsa band in the Foreign Correspondents Club, Phnom Penh, fueled by that well known Cambodian classic, Sangria. (We are in negotiations about the band appearing at a certain Spanish wedding)

Best travelling motto: "It's harder in Raula's family" (see China below) OR "Just Make Yourself" (on a fake Nike t-shirt where they'd mistranslated the usual brand slogan)

Best place: Tagong Grasslands, SW China

Best country: Nepal

Favourite photo: Us at Everest Base Camp on the Tibetan side

Best blog comments (the top 3):

3. All of James Hathaway's comments on the Great Beard Vote blog
2. On reading our Tibet blog featuring seven chapters of factual drivel, it's Big Titty Cow Girl with: "Please can I be on your quiz team when you get back?"
1. On a picture of us at Everest Base Camp with James sporting a particularly sprawling beard, it's Dave Smith with: "No matter where you go, there's always someone trying to sell you a Big Issue."

INDONESIA

Traditional Dish: Plecing Ayam (chilli chicken) in a shed on the side of a mountain

Meal: Naughty Nuri's Warung in Ubud (huge BBQ ribs)

Beer: 1st Bintang after summiting Rinjani Volcano at Luna Hotel in Sengiggi, Lombok at sunset

Value Room: The best view in town for £3 at the Bintang Guesthouse in Moni, Flores

Highlight: Summiting Rinjani and surviving the 12 hour trek back down

Journey: Clinging to the back of a pick-up after climbing the very active Egon Volcano in Flores with a tree trunk and an old woman for company

Cultural experience: Having breakfast of sweet rice, rocket-hot chillies and rocket-fuel rice wine with local housebuilders in Luba, Flores underneath Inerie Volcano

VIETNAM

Traditional Dish: Bo Kho (think a bit like beef goulash but oh so much better)

Meal: Lac Canh, Nha Trang (self-BBQ beef and squid; only us, the locals & 100 mini bbqs)

Beer: 1st Bia Hoi (very local brew at about 10p a pop) experience, Ninh Bien

Value Room: Quang Trang 2, Chau Doc

Highlight: Nicola ripping up the ocean on water-skis, Nha Trang

Journey: Our 4th motorbike hire - 1st manual and 1st 'vintage' - ridden deep into the jungle of Cuc Phuong. It coped miserably with anything remotely hill like

Cultural experience: After cycling around An Binh Island, finding an old lady and her family with a stash of warm beers & talking to them via pictures drawn on the ground as the sun set

CHINA

Traditional Dish: Yak Meat. Be it steak-d, burger-d, momo-d or vacuum-packed, it's goooooood

Meal: Our first. 1am - 14 hours after we crossed the Viatnamese-Chinese border, we supped on Yunnan parou ersi (spicy soup) with an icy cold Yintang beer in a dodgy-looking lock-up BBQ garage, Kunming

Beer: Tsingtao, sponsors of the NBA don't ya know

Value Room: Either Haba Snow Mountain Inn, Yunnan (and yes James, it would have been even better value if we'd shared with the 2 Dutch girls) or our turret in the Tibetan castle in Zhonglu village near Danba

Highlight: Horse-riding for six hours across wild grasslands to sleep in a nomad tent with 19 baby yaks and 2 baby humans

Journey: Travelling from Qiaotao to Shangri-La via Tiger Leaping Gorge on foot

Cultural experience: Spending the night with Raula, her mum, son and daughter and her 19 baby yaks in their nomad tent at 4000m in the wild grasslands of Tagong (at least we had the yak dung to keep us warm)

TIBET

Traditional Dish: Thukpa (noodle soup)

Meal: Yak curry and butter naan at New Mandala, Lhasa, Tibet. Officially the best naan James has ever had

Beer: Definitely not the Lhasa beer after our first dehydrating training run at 3,400m which made Nicola go quite loopy, forgetting James' name & where she lived, to the point where we looked up where the nearest Acute Mountain Sickness hospital was... Thankfully it only lasted 30 minutes

Value Room: Our tent (with yet more burning yak dung included) at Everest Base Camp

Highlight: Walking to Base Camp at sunrise in the clouds, only for them to gently part to reveal Mount Everest in all her glory

Journey: Travelling on the highest railway in the world - all 41 hours of it

Cultural experience: Watching the monks of Sera Monastery hotly debating the Dalai Lama's teachings

NEPAL

Traditional Dish: Daal Bhat. It's all we ate on our Everest trek & we never, ever want to see it again, but it gave us everything we needed to make it to "the bottom of the mountain"

Meal: A fiery chicken curry with all the trimmings in the Third Eye, Thamel, Kathmandu. In 4 weeks in India, it was rarely beaten (see India)

Beer: The first Everest after our Great Kathmandu Run, in the Tom & Jerry Pub watching the England rugby team just about beat the Romanians

Value Room: Our loft room in Chitwan National Park, complete with mosquito net with giant holes that were just small enough to keep out the giant rats that prowled across our floor at night

Highlight: Raising over £1,500 for the Nepali Children's Trust via the Great Kathmandu Marathon. James getting rid of his beard for the event comes a close second. The nail in the foot and earthquake were somewhat further down the list

Journey: Walking for 8 days from Lukla to Everest Base Camp. What an achievement

Cultural experience: Working with 25 amazing & brave kids at the Disabled Newlife Centre, Kathmandu

INDIA

Traditional Dish: Masala Papad. The English favourite of poppadoms with pickle is non-existent here, so a Kingfisher and plate of Masala Papad is the only way to kick things off

Meal: Tandoori Chicken and Rajasthani Lamb Curry at Ambrai in Udaipur, overlooking the island where James Bond saved the world in Octop**** This could also be due to it being the first meat we'd had for two weeks

A very close 2nd, at literally less than a 10th of the price, was a gorgeously spicy vegetable korma from a spectacularly dirty street shack outside Gorakphur railway station. Thankfully it stayed put in our stomachs for the subsequent 9 hour train journey

Beer: At the Hard Rock Restaurant in the holy - and dry - city of Pushkar, with the clandestine beer arriving in a white china teapot with matching cup and saucer

Value Room: Our beach shack on Arambol Beach, Goa, less than a foot from the sea at high-tide and home of the long-term travellers and yoga-loving hippies

Highlight: Packing the cossie, vest and sarong, firing up the scooter and beach hopping from one shack to the next down Goa's beautiful coast

Journey: Touring Rajasthan straddling a maroon Royal Enfield Bullet (the 350cc 2010 Electra model - the one with left foot shift 5-speed gearbox but without the front disc brakes or electric start)

Cultural experience: Being the only two white faces in a stand of 5,000 cricket-crazy locals for the 4th ODI in Mumbai. What a great way to get to know the locals (and be in hundreds of their pictures)

* Singapore, Bintan Lagoon (back in Indonesia) and Cambodia are not included as we spent less than a week in them. Our favourite restaurant in Singapore was The Steakhouse in Clarke Quay for Nicola and the Fish Head Curry House in Little India for James. At Bintan Lagoon, the rooms were extremely good value because Mr and Mrs C picked up the bill, and Signatures beach-side restaurant dished up the best steak of the whole 6 months, although we remain unsure what impact the numerous bottles of heavy red had on this assessment.

BEERS WE TASTED

• Carlsberg (Danish) Cathay Pacific (flight LHR-HK)
• VB (Australian) Cathay Pacific (flight LHR-HK)
• Bintang (Indonesian) (Rumours Bar, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia) and then everywhere else
• Bali Hai (Bali) (Rumours Bar, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia)
• Anker (Lina's, Sengiggi, Lombok, Indonesia)
• Storm (Nomad's pale ale, Ubud, Bali)
• Heineken (XL Shisha Lounge, Ubud, Bali)
• Tiger (Singapore Hooters & then everywhere else)
• Grand Ridge Brewery Natural Blonde (Prince of Wales, Little India, Singapore)
• Chang (Boat Quay, Finance District, Singapore)
• Anchor Pilsner (1st foodstall on the left, Smith St Hawker Centre, Chinatown, (Singapore)
• Angkor (Foreign Correspondents' Club, Riverside, Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
• Beerlao (Metro Bar, Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
• Kingdom (Metro Bar, Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
• Bia Saigon (Street cafe, Chau Doc, Cambodia-Vietnam border, Mekong Delta)
• Saigon Export (red label) (floating restaurant, Chau Doc, Vietnam)
• Biere LaRue (green) (Victoria Hotel, Chau Doc, Vietnam, over a game of pool and backgammon a year before our wedding)
• BGI (Street Cafe, Backpacker Alley, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
• Coors Light (Crazy Buffalo, District 1. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) - James would like to add that this was Nicola's choice
• Zorok (Bier Garden, Dong Khoi, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
• Bia Saigon Special - green label (Huong Lai, Dong Khoi, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
• Halida - (Huong Lai, Dong Khoi, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
• Huda - (Huong Lai, Dong Khoi, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
• Bia Ha Noi - (Huong Lai, Dong Khoi, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
• Pilsener Urquell (Hoa Vien Brewhaus, Mui Ne, Vietnam
• Louisiane Pilsener (Louisiane Brewhouse, Nha Trang, Vietnam)
• Louisiane Witbier (Louisiane Brewhouse, Nha Trang, Vietnam)
• San Miguel Pale Pilsner (Lac Canh BBQ street cafe, arse-end of nowhere, Nha Trang, Vietnam)
• Biere LaRue Export (Red Apple Club, Nha Trang, Vietnam)
• Bia Hoi Ninh Bien (tiny plastic stools on corner of street, Ninh Bien, Vietnam)
• Bia Hoi Cuc Phuong (1020am after two day jungle trek with out guide)
• Thang Long (Noble House underneath Slo Pony Adventures, Cat Ba Island, Vietnam)
• Hanoi Beer (different to Bia Hanoi!) (Pinocchio Bar, Sa Pa, Vietnam)
• Bia Lao Cai (Michell's, Sa Pa, Vietnam)
• Dei Viet (Topas Ecolodge, remote southern area of Sa Pa, Vietnam)
• Yintang (a lock-up with a BBQ outside when we finally arrived in Kunming, China at 1am)
• Dali (cafe where we spent many, many hours planning our Tibet trip once it re-opened, Kunming, China)
• Tsingtao (bar at Cloudlands hostel, Kunming, China)
• Harbin (street cafe that had run out of Tsingtao and we desperately needed something to take the spice out of the spicy chicken, Kunming, China)
• Dali V8, Jiuqi stream-side restaurant, Lijiang, China
• Qingdao, Rendezvous restaurant, Lijiang, China
• Naxi Snowy - green beer! - Rendezvous restaurant, Lijiang, China
• Snow Beer, Khampa Cafe, Tagong, China
• Fresh! Beer, unknown restaurant, DanBa, China
• Yanjing Beer, unknown restaurant, DanBa, China
• Budweiser, 42-hour train from Chengdu to Tibet
• Fake Budweiser, 42-hour train from Chengdu to Tibet (misspelt labels, different bottle embossing & completely different taste!)
• Huang, 42-hour train from Chengdu to Tibet
• Tibet Barley Beer (Green), 42-hour train from Chengdu to Tibet
• Lhasa Beer, Gingki roof terrace after getting off our 42-hour train, Lhasa, Tibet
• Everest Beer, Kathmandu Guesthouse, Nepal
• Gorkha Beer, Roadhouse Cafe, Kathmandu, Nepal
• Nepal Ice, K-Too bar, Kathmandu, Nepal
• Tuborg Pure Gold, Pub Maya, Kathmandu, Nepal
• Kathmandu Beer, Moondance, Pokhara, Nepal (ironically we couldn't find it in Kathmandu)
• Coblenzer Pilsner, Busy Bee Bar, Pokhara, Nepal
• Coblenzer Marzen, Busy Bee Bar, Pokhara, Nepal
• Kingfisher, rooftop bar of Dolphin Restaurant, Varanasi, India
• Unknown local beer served in a white china teapot with matching cup and saucer in the holy - and dry - city of Pushkar, India
• Kingfisher Ultra, beach bar with Paul & Lucy, Park Hyatt, Arrosim Beach, Goa, India
• Kings Black Label, beach shack, Colva Beach, Goa, India
• Kingfisher Blue, Room 407, Welcome Hotel, Mumbai (purchased from street bottle shop and accompanied by Domino's pizza and Premier League Highlights)
• Tuborg Green, Blue Corner beach shack, Benaulim Beach, Goa, India. Perfectly accompanied by calamari, prawn curry, apple shisha and some pool