The End of the Road.

So final blog post I feel I should sum up 14 months of travelling with some stats!

In all we visited 19 countries (20 if you count the 30 seconds we were in Paraguay for, I don’t though!) over four continents.

We stayed in South East Asia for 9 months, spent 5 weeks in Oceania, 3 months in South America and 2 weeks in the Caribbean.

We managed to hit some record breakers/notable sites/personal highlights:

The largest religious structure in the world (Angkor Wat, Cambodia)

Spent a week in a Buddhist Monastery ( Wat Tam Wua Forest Monastery, Mae Hong Son, Thailand)

Cooking with cow bile and making knives (Luang Prabang, Laos)

Having the most crazy time (Vang Veng, Laos)

Longest wooden bridge in the world (U-Bien bridge, Mandalay, Myanmar)

Gorged on Temples (Bagan, Myanmar)

Gav learned to dive and got his advanced certification (Koh Tao, Thailand)

Spent over three weeks looking after a around 30 animals and street dogs at an animal Sanctuary (Koh Samui, Thailand)

Eat ourselves silly (Penang, Malaysia and everywhere in Colombia! and all of Vietnam in fairness)

Chased by an orangutan in the Jungle (Bukit Lewang, Sumatra Indonesia)

I learned to dive (Koh Tao, Thailand), and then did my advanced (Kota Kinabalu, Malyasia)

Formerly the largest cave passage in the world (now second) (Deer cave, Mulu, Malaysia)

Dived one of the top 10 dive sites in the world (twice!) according to: Dive in, The Telegraph (Barracuda Point, Sipadan, Malaysia)

Gav chased a mantis shrimp and we got to watch manta rays playing (Komodo National Park, Indonesia)

Saw the home of the homo floresiensis (Flores, Indonesia)

Most southern tip of New Zealand (Slope Point, South Island)

Crazy caving, being eaten alive and chasing waterfalls (South Island, New Zealand)

Had my first steak in 19 years (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Stood in the Devil’s Throat (Iguazu Falls, Argentina/Brazil)

Drank a lot of wine (Mendoza, Argentina)

The driest place on earth  (Atacama desert, Chile) and the highest Geyser field in the World (El Tatio, Chile)

The three highest capitals in the world (Quito Ecuador(2850 m), Sucre, Bolivia (2750 m), Bogotá, Colombia (2625m))

Threw some shapes at the Salt Flats (South & Central, Bolivia)

Entered the bowels of a silver mine (Potosí, Bolivia)

The highest administrative (de facto) capital in the world (La Paz, Bolivia, 3640 m)

The highest navigable lake in the world (Lake Titicaca, Peru)

Hiked into the 2nd deepest canyon in the world (Colca Canyon, Peru)

Entered the fringes of the Amazon (Manu National Park, Peru)

Sandboarding in an amazing Oasis with dunes that never shift (Huacachina, Peru)

Watched pelicans being pelicans (Galápagos Islands)

Plus a whole raft of UNESCO sites:

Manú National Park Popayán, Creative City of Gastronomy

	Country	Seen/Total	Site (Hyperlink to Post)	Significance	Year of award
1	Vietnam	6/8	Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long – Hanoi (this I’m not sure of but we were around the Citadel)	Cultural	2010
			Complex of Hué Monuments	Cultural	1993
			Ha Long Bay	Natural	1994
			Hoi An Ancient Town	Cultural	1999
			My Son Sanctuary	Cultural	1999
			Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park	Natural	2003
2	Cambodia	1/2	Angkor	Cultural	1992
3	Thailand	1/5	Historic City of Ayutthaya	Cultural	1991
4	Myanmar	0/1
5	Laos	2/2	Town of Luang Prabang	Cultural	1995
			Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak Cultural Landscape	Cultural	2001
6	Malaysia	3/4	Gunung Mulu National Park	Natural	2000
			Kinabalu Park	Natural	2000
			Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca	Cultural	2008
7	Indonesia	2/8	Komodo National Park	Natural	1991
			Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra	Natural	2004
8	Singapore	1/1	Singapore Botanical Gardens	Cultural	2015
9	Brunei	0
10	Australia	1/19	Sydney Opera House	Cultural	2007
11	New Zealand	1/3	Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand	Natural	1990
12	Argentina	2/10	Iguazu National Park	Natural	1984
			Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba	Cultural	2000
13	Brazil	1/20	Iguaçu National Park	Natural	1986
14	Chile	2/6	Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaíso	Cultural	2003
			Qhapaq Ñan, Andean Road System (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia)	Cultural	2014
15	Bolivia	4/7	City of Potosí	Cultural	1987
			Historic City of Sucre	Cultural	1991
			Qhapaq Ñan, Andean Road System (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia)	Cultural	2014
16	Peru	7/12	City of Cuzco	Cultural	1983
			Historic Centre of Lima	Cultural	1988
			Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu	Mixed	1983
			Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa	Cultural	2000
			Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa	Cultural	1994
			Manú National Park	Natural	1987
			Qhapaq Ñan, Andean Road System (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia)	Cultural	2014
17	Equador	2/5	City of Quito	Cultural	1978
			Galápagos Islands	Natural	1978
18	Columbia	1/9	Popayán, City of Gastronomy	Cultural	2009
19	Cuba	4/9	Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios	Cultural	1988
			Old Havana and its Fortification System	Cultural	1982
			Viñales Valley	Cultural	1999
			Urban Historic Centre of Cienfuegos	Cultural	2005

This blog has been 84 posts long (including this one), had almost 1,450 visitors from over 50 countries and has taken me 20 months to write- working full time and blogging is very difficult!

So there it is! I’m done! Thanks to everyone who has helped us on our journey round hosting us in various places or showing us round, it meant a lot!

And last but not least, for those who have been reading from the beginning or checked in from time to time- thanks to you for reading, hope you have enjoyed it!

x