Stats:
Days: 299 (10 months)
Flights: 43 (11 One World, and 32 separate flights)
Countries: 18
Flight mileage: 43,600 (The equatorial circumference of the Earth is 24,901 !!)
Accommodation: 90+
Dives: 32 (72 in total)
Night Buses: 7 (3 Peru, 1 Chile, 1 Vietnam, 1 Laos, 1 Myanmar)
Night trains: 2 (Vietnam)
No. of malaria pills: 264 each
No. of times in KL: 8

Well, after 10 months, or 299 days, we fly home on 24th July. Its been a wonderful, epic trip that is going to take us a while to come down from, and get back to reality ! Its crazy looking back to the beginning of the trip last Sept and all the places we have been since then - Madrid, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Easter Island, French Polynesia, Australia, Kuala Lumpur, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia and finally Malaysia. Its hard to believe its all been part of the same trip and we have not been home in all that time - it feels like a lifetime ago that we were in S.America !

The last month or so has felt more like a holiday than backpacking with longer times in each place, almost like killing time. We were originally due to fly home on 6th May, but decided we would extend another few months to include the Malaysian Grand Prix, go diving in Sipadan for my birthday, have longer in Indonesia, and add in Langkawi and Koh Lipe. This has obviously been amazing, but had we known we'd be away for longer at the beginning, we could have spread the trip out a little more evenly and not be so pushed for time in places like S.America and Vietnam.

Throughout the course of the trip we have both been remarkable well, with just a few days of illness in Myanmar and Indonesia but nothing serious. A sprained ankle for me at the Laos/Cambodia border, and a possibly fractured rib for Brandon in Peru have been the worst we've had. A few bumps, scraps, lost toenail, bruises and blisters along the way, but thats nothing new for me ! We've survived the Death Road in Bolivia, sand boarding in Peru, hang gliding in Rio, sledging down a volcano in Chile, a train derailment in Myanmar, a 3 day boat cruise around the Komodo islands, some horrible overnight buses, hiring motorbikes in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving a car in French Polynesia, trying to avoid getting run over in the crazy traffic in places like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, some tiny propeller planes in Venezuela, Komodo and over the Nazca lines, sleeping in hammocks in the jungle in Venezuela as well as diving with sharks and mantas.
We have also been extremely lucky and haven't lost anything, had anything stolen, or had any issues with saftey - thank god !

As fantastic, and life-changing as travelling is, you still have day-to-day stresses, but just different sorts from back home such as Where to stay, how to get to the next destination, trying not to get ripped off, and keeping yourself and your possessions safe.

We so often get asked which has been our favourite place in the whole of our trip, but we have done so many different things, and seen so many places, its really tough to put them in order. But probably our stand out top 5 have been Chile, Iguassu, Angel Falls, Myanmar and diving with mantas in Komodo.

Brandon's passport was already half full before we came away, with stamps from our last big trip, and all the holidays in-between. He quickly realised it might have been a mistake that he didn't get a new passport, as the stamps and visas soon mounted up and every page was used ! That was one of the reasons we couldn't extend our trip even further as he had no passport space ! I did have a new passport before we came, and still used 23 pages !

I will not miss having to live out of a backpack, and constantly packing and re-packing and making sure your things are safe from theft. I also won't miss carrying around a 19kg backpack, with a 7.5kg day pack, both of which seem bigger than me !

We've both got browner and blonder, but know this is very temporary and we will quickly be back to the pasty English white colour before too long !

I feel I have sated my adventure and travelling appetite for now, but still get that itchy feeling when I see or read about new exciting places we haven't been yet ! But they can wait for another time.

Hope you have enjoyed reading the blog, and look forward to catching up again with everyone very soon.