13. 3 Nov - 14 Nov 2011 - Goodbye to China, and the Fast-Lane Home through Thailand and Malaysia.

China was definitely the highlight for us this time. We would love to go back and visit some of the bigger cities further east than where we travelled, to get a more complete picture of China today. But we loved the more western provinces we visited, and found it to be an incredibly exciting place to travel.

Our very last city was Jinghong. On our first night, we managed to get thoroughly lost and walked through the outskirts of the city to the neighbouring village without even realising. Maggie and Richard were with us, and we had arranged to meet Ping for a drink, but both GPS's had kept us hoping that the agreed meeting place was just around the corner, judging by the address we all had from the Lonely Planet. We were on the right street but later worked out they had printed the wrong number. Luckily a delightful girl with a baby was sitting at a market stall when we decided that help must be sought. We had Ping on the phone, but she couldn't work out where we were, so we handed it over to the girl. Ping wanted us to stay where we were and not try to retrace our steps as it was getting dark. Not that she feared for our safety, but just that we might get even more lost. So an hour and a half later, she finally found us. We were much further away from our rendezvous than she had ever imagined, and eventually our young friend at the stall had sent her husband out on his motor bike to get Ping and bring her back to us. Needless to say, we had dinner instead of a drink when we got back to the centre of the city.

China is a very safe place to travel. Crime is almost non-existent, as it seems it is just not tolerated. Back in Kunming I had left my wallet in a taxi, mistaking my notebook in my pocket for my wallet when I checked it getting out of the taxi. I immediately informed the hotel, where we were camped in the car park, and with great difficulty - because I couldn't remember the details of the taxi - they located the taxi and within two hours he had driven back to the hotel and I had my wallet and its contents back untouched.

The second night in Jinghong, Ping managed to get us tickets to the open-air theatre in Manting Park, extremely popular with the locals. It was a mixture of spectacular local dancing, interspersed with 'game show host' segments, where people were chosen from the audience to come up on stage, to be at the mercy of the host for the utter enjoyment of the Chinese audience. We couldn't understand a word, but it was such a great atmosphere, and we laughed anyway, because it was obviously hilarious, and laughter en masse is actually very contagious. The finale was another spectacular dance segment, with folk dances in traditional costume performed by large troupes from every country along the Mekong River - Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and also the Dai Communities, the Dai being a minority ethnic group in Jinghong. A fantastic show because it seemed to promote tolerance and celebrate the different ethnic groups, and at the end they gave to willing audience members red lanterns to float down the Mekong River to all the other countries.

We left China one day early on 2 November, farewelling our travelling companions of the last 3 months at the Laos border. What a time we had all had, but it felt so good to be travelling at our own pace again. We were really keen to get home at this point, feeling rather travel weary with the travel wow-factor somewhat diminished. We knew we couldn't do justice to South-East Asia this time, but we could always go back another time.

So we travelled across the very top of Laos and into Thailand in one day, crossing the Mekong River, which was a scary barge crossing, our vehicle perched up high on the loading ramp overlooking the river, and we were unable to get out as the vehicle tyres were inches from the edge. It felt like we were crossing suspended in mid-air.

In Thailand we drove on the main highway south, camping at the back of service stations, especially the ones that had the Amazon Coffee franchise. These were great little coffee shops, always surrounded by tropical plants and an outside deck with chairs and tables, and where they sold great coffee, Coffee had become an absolutely rare luxury, so we became quite hooked.

On the way south, we kept inquiring about the Bangkok floods, which we had heard about in China, but it was hard to get accurate information. In Kamphaeng Phet, about half way down to the peninsular of Thailand, we were advised that we could get to the Ring Road 9 around Bangkok, without any flood trouble. Wrong! As we got closer to Bangkok, the amount of floodwater increased until it was an inland sea on either side of the main highway. We then started seeing make-shift tents and settlements, even cattle, and hundreds of parked cars, all taking up the slow lanes of the highway. People were totally displaced and had nowhere else to go. The highway was like a long stranded island, eventually leading nowhere, because when we got to the Ring Road, it was covered by water, and we had to back-track 150kms north to take a route further west. But our troubles were minimal compared to those poor people. We even actually felt bad that we were adding to the traffic and mayhem that was north of Bangkok.

We eventually reached the coastline of the Gulf of Thailand, and stayed two nights at Cha-am. We spent time cleaning up the vehicle ready for shipping, and also had our share of fabulous Thai food, and loving the fact that this coastal village had few tourists, and seemed so Thai.

Unfortunately, Malaysia is a blur, just a super highway from the Thai border south to Kuala Lumpur, once again finding the service stations for camping, but these were massive complexes which catered for huge busloads of passengers with numerous restaurants and vast facilities, and also catered for the many trucks on the road.

By 13 November we had travelled through Thailand and Malaysia, and were staying at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport ready to contact the shipping company next day, whom we had been emailing on the way down. A ridiculous pace really, but we loved it. We were nearly home and we were having just a taste of South East Asia.

The next day we had delivered the vehicle for shipping, and at 3pm booked a flight home for that evening, departing at 10pm. We were too late to book it on-line, but were able to phone and then pay before we flew out, as our credit card had defaulted, not knowing we were in Malaysia. We hardly did ourselves.

Hey! But it is really, really good to be home!

We have had time to relax and reflect on the last 7 ½ months, 202 days (138 nights camping), and 25,507 kms. We travelled through England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tibet, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia.

Wow! What an experience it has been. More challenging than we had expected with fewer travellers and roads that were less-travelled, but the whole experience was enhanced by that very fact. It was a true adventure.

We forged friendships which we highly treasure, and we will strive to keep strong. And we met Ping.

We saw the resilience of many people whose lives are far less fortunate than our own in what, at times, seems the chaos of human existence. We experienced kindness and friendship from complete strangers, and tried to return the same respect to all the people who crossed our paths in everyday travel.

We feel so very lucky to have the opportunity to experience so much, and all in our own vehicle, which is still on the high seas but getting closer to home. We love the freedom and independence of self-drive overland travel - it has its downsides, but for us these are far outweighed by all the advantages. We certainly arrived home a little travel weary, and have been laying low for the last couple of weeks, but we are just starting to think again that just maybe, there are other journeys in us yet! Time will tell.