The end was nigh.....and the end came sooner than planned!!

Wow, what a trip! The end of our Asian and African journey came to an abrupt end in North Western China and we're now back in the UK! In fact, we arrived back in the UK on Monday 28th April, 2 weeks before our planned (and paid flight) back to England on May 12th! Why did this happen....details to follow!

Before that however, I wanted to share some stats with you to round off our 6 month trip from October 30th 2007 to April 28th 2008 and how impressive (I think) but completely insignificant from a global point of view they are:-

6 month trip from UK to Asian and African countries
- visited 12 countries in 2 continents
- went to 110 cities or towns in those countries broken down as (roughly):
Country Number of cities/towns visited
- Thailand 30
- India 30
- Africa 25
(South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Nambia)
- Laos 6
- Malaysia 6
- Cambodia 5
- China 4
- Vietnam 3
- Sri Lanka 1
- took 14 flights
- did 4 months independent travel and 2 months on 3 'organised' tours
- went to 17 South Western Thai islands
- saw 12 caves in Laos
- did 8 extreme sports activities
- was at 10,000 feet twice (excluding flights of course)
- of course used planes, trains, buses, tuk-tuks, mopeds, boats, ferries, trucks, cars, ropes, bridges, rafts, walked and swam to get around!

And the dredded top/bottom ranking countries. Not necassarily good to name and shame but this is only a personal opinion (of Terry's).

Top 3 countries: Thailand, Namibia and India
Justification: Each of these places were extraordinary for natural beauty, had excellent food choices for veggies and the people we encountered were astoundingly friendly and receptive to foreigners. Or we managed to see such amazing things its indescribeable!

Bottom 2: China and Vietnam
Justification: We did not enjoy our experiences in either of these countries for a variety of reasons ranging from the food simply not being suitable for veggies (that we encountered) to the people really not enjoying our company, that is not to say the countries were beautiful in their own way because they were. More to come on China though as this was our last country visited.

After sharing the stats we'd like to point out that overall our trip was amazing. We absolutely fell in love with our top 3 named above. We loved the animals, extreme sports and the astonishing rocky mountains of Spitzkope in Namibia. We couldn't physically chill out anymore than we did in Thailand on the deserted South Western islands that were part of a national park where we pitched a tent on the beach and ate pineapple rice alongside the wild monkeys, hence why we stayed in Thailand for 2 1/2 months! And we simply couldn't ever replace or surpass the hospitality of Indian people. The fact that there were 500 million veggies here also helped somewhat!!! haha. But in India we experienced true local life, saw the Himilayas at 10,000 feet and watched the sunrise at the Taj Mahal!

So....the reason why we came home early....the bottom two of our 'bottom two' above sugget that we didn't have the best time in China...that would be correct, lol. We had a calamity of errors from the moment we touched down in Beijing when we discovered via email that our airline had gone bust = pay £500 for new flight home. Most of the problems however originated from the tour operator failing to co-ordinate with the local tour providers (from Beijing to Chengdu) resulting in us experiencing 21 separate issues! Not awesome at all.

China is a very overwhelming country to visit as a young, backpacking Westerner. For starters, English is not spoken (which we expected)...but its not spoken by anymore than 1% of people..at best. And so, communication was a massive problem. Secondly, it is most definitely not veggie friendly as the locals find it hilarious when you ask for a dish without meat/testicle/heart/foot etc etc, lol. Thirdly and most significantly for us, the country is not geared up to the backpacker market. We did notice an improvement in this in Chengdu...the last place we visited...but its still a majorly overpriced country to visit as someone on a budget. If you're over 40 and you have the kind of money to spend that you would in Europe...go visit China. If you're on a budget you'll find it extremely difficult!

I do know people who have had an amazing time in China but they were not veggies for starters, lol. And they didn't do a tour...piece of advice to all those backpackers considering China...allow a big budget and start practising the language in preparation.

China had alot of beauty to offer for me (Terry) with the great Wall and the sights in Beijing. But the experience we had here was just that...a government approved experience. We didn't get to see the real life of the people here at all. But I guess thats our fault for choosing the tour option. Overall I'd say if you are considering China you should definitely see it...but good luck!!

So we endured 48hours of no sleep and 3 flights and touched down on English soil in the form of Heathrow Terminal 4! WOW...what a relief! Apologies to all the regulars out there (all 2 of you) that we haven't updated the blog...this is due to government sensorship in China and the blocking of blogspot.com...but thats all a thing of the past! We can update as much as we want now!!! Of course it wont be interesting anymore as we're not travelling....or are we...

The next step is to seek employment in the UK up until July 28th and then we fly to amazing sounding Canada for 3months! Yay! We finally get to see it. From all the talks with our Canadian friends (Jim and Janie) we met in Laos and in fact, since forever, we will get to smell the fresh Canadian air.

All in all I've had an amazing time on the trip. It flew by. Too quickly in fact! We saw some truly astonishing things and saw ways of life that would be best described as surviving only. We saw heights in the form of mountains, we experienced near death in the form of dive accidents. Experienced extreme sports, travelled very dodgily over dirt tracks and marvelled at ancient man-made endeavours. We were welcomed, we were hated (it seemed), we were conned and we were shown fantastic hospitality for free. I think its safe to say we now know much more about Asia and Africa than a million books and documentaries could've taught us because we've seen it first hand.

Life is hard in the countries we visited, much harder than it is in the UK. Our 6 month trip has mostly taught us to appreciate our way of living in the West and be thankful for the fact that we probably wont ever have to be the guy who walks around Mumbai wading through rubbish bins to collect plastic bottles, or the amputee singing and playing his instrument on the streets to survive on a few rupees a day. We wont have to do that and we will respect that man for doing what he needs to do to survive.

That aside, what travelling mainly does for you, in my opinion, is give you a taste for more!! The travel bug is now alive and kicking inside me! I would love to visit South America and New Zealand and go back to Africa to see the Eastern and Northern parts....I'd go in a heartbeat. Of course my wallet wouldn't allow me to!!


A lush piccy of Jen in Xi'an


Our local guide in Xi'an posing behind the first China Olympics mascot with Jen behind the second one

The terracota warriors and a huge tower that actually looks quite small in this piccy!

So for now its goodbye. We leave you with a few piccies of China and a phrase from a wise, chilled out French guy we met on his little island in Thailand if you're going to go....."go slowly"...loved that dude!!!!

See you in Canada!!!!