Big Wrap Up

Here we are, 18 countries later and about a month after arriving back in Canada, and still without a general wrap up for the trip. Reason being, it wasnt easy to figure out what to put in, leave out, and agree on for any list we thought might be interesting. We finally have one put together, although I am sure as soon as it gets posted, there will be things we think we should add to it. For now, this will have to do.

Best Cities: Berlin, Budapest, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Beijing, Istanbul

Worst Cities: Warsaw, Alexandria, Cairo, Xi'an, Bangkok

Best Food: Vietnam, Germany (Whod have thought that!), China (for Jarret)

Coolest Experience: Dead Sea, Crawling through the Cu Chi tunnels, A day with the Elephant Mahouts, PANDAS, Euroleague ball in Istanbul

Most moving: Dachau, S21 Prison (Cambodia), Agent Orange exhibit (Vietnam)

Friendliest people: Hoi An (Vietnam), Laos, Cambodia, Jordan

We would go back to: Honestly, almost every place we went to we would revisit, but if we had to choose a short list, this would be it: Hungary, Germany, China, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Vietnam

Biggest regret: Going to Alexandria instead of Luxor, Not having enough time in Malaysia, Not getting to see more rural areas like Guilin/Yuangshou in China, not having more time period!

Biggest Disapointments: Weather in China, Group tours, Memento Park, Terracotta warriors

Why dont we have: Better transit, Quiz nights, more happy hours for booze, Asian soups that arent laced with salt, a bigger variety of street food, toll roads

Worth the effort: The warsaw rising museum (you must do the video that shows how much of the city was destroyed, brutle), COPE rehab centre in Vientiane, Big Brother Mouse in Laos

Lived up to the hype: Petra, Pandas, Hong Kong

Most random thing: hitching a ride to Amman in jordan with a guy who sets us up with a friend for a drive to the Dead Sea, only to discover that we had already talked to him about taking us to the Dead Sea before we left for Petra!

Best airports: Koh Samui, Singapore

Worst airport: T5 in London

For now that will have to do, cant really think of anything else to list, and if I try to hard I will get depressed and end up at the airport on another plane. We will write a post soon on what it is like coming back home and readjusting. In the meantime, if you ever have the chance to do a trip like this, dont put it off or think you cant do it, make it happen. It ended up being better than we thought it could have been and has us thinking of doing another one in a few years. Go away, live, experience, learn and enjoy.