Yesterday our blog has hit 30000 views so now would be a good time to crunch the numbers and see what trends we have seen on our trip so far.

But before we do that we want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who spends time checking out our blog!!

 

Travel

 

So far we have been travelling for nearly 9 months or to be precise 266 days and 10 hours and 33 minutes at the time of writing. Highlights of the first 7 months can be found here.

In this time we have travelled 36,615.5 miles or 137.6 miles per day!! (At 10000 Hits stage we were travelling 192 mpd so it looks as if we have slowed down a wee bit!

To give you some comparisons, that’s 1.5 times the circumference of Earth at the Equator.

For all the runners it’s almost 1408 Marathons!

We have passed through 10 countries, (India, Nepal, Thailand ,Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Singapore,Indonesia, and finally Australia) and stayed in or visited 134 different places ranging from huge cities such as Hong Kong, Delhi ,Singapore and Bangkok to tiny villages such as Kunchittany (Kerala), Ulleri (Nepal) and Nong Khiaw (Laos).

Our single biggest mode of transport (with 147  journeys) has been the ubiquitous Bus. I can proudly say we have used a bus in every country so far 🙂

Not all buses are born equal however. We have had the joy (and misery) of sampling metal and leather monsters in Kerala, horrific minibus driving in Laos, the fanciest bus ever from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and the worst journey  (overnight) from Hampi to Bangalore in India.

 

In second place is the majestic train with 67 Individual Journeys. Every make from big stream trains to futuristc Maglev Bullet Trains in China have been ridden.  In face after landing in Delhi our first major journey was by train (to Jaipur). Here we sampled how millions of Indians get around each day and John helped a small girl with her homework.

 

 

Not far behind (on 59 Journeys) is the TukTuk (remork-Moto in Cambodia, Auto-Rickshaw in India). Whether it is slowly meandering through traffic and dodging cows in India or running at 70 km/h to get us out of Thailand before the coup in Chiang Mai it has always been true to us.

Our only transport regret is not having done this train (in Cambodia)

Boats have also featured prominently too with 48 trips.

To add some variance we have also been on an Elephant (Twice!)

 

What have we seen?

 

30 UNESCO World Heritage Sights

169 Temples so far, covering religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism , Taoism, Confucianism etc.

The majority of these were seen in Nepal, nearly 45 alone in Kathmandu! Thailand had a lot as well.

We have spent hours in temples such as Ranakpur Temple and it’s wondrous marble columns to the absolutely stunning ruins of Hampi and spent almost a week at the majestic offerings at Angkor Wat.

And then we have spent minutes at smaller temples to Ganesh and Shiva that are dotted about Nepal and Northern India.

The Taj Mahal is not a temple but we went there as well.

We have also snuck in some churches such as the one in Fort Cochin where Vasco Da Gama was originally buried and 1 Synagogue in Mattancherry ( this was the setting for Salman Rushdie’s book The Moor’s Last Sigh).

And probably the funkiest church ever in Dali (China).

 

We have been to a few mosques as well, the best in the Muslim Quarter in Xian.

Added to that we have visited Palaces / Forts and have gazed at over Big Buddhas.

We have also had some chill time at 48 beaches, with the promise of more to come in Australia! Palolem Beach was our favourite for obvious reasons.

 

Where have we slept?

 

The trip started off with mid range guest houses before we found ourselves in a hut made of cow dung and straw in Jodhpur. Then it was back to guesthouses again before we diversified our accommodation with wooden beach huts, a boat, overnight sleeper bus and finally some home stays.

Nepal added Tea Houses in the Himalayas whilst Sapa added village stays in the mountain villages.

In China/Malaysia there were a few overnight train journeys and AirBnB is getting used for the big cities where possible.

And we won’t forget the ‘Shed’ we stayed in, in Luang Prabang anytime soon. In fact a visit to Fremantle Prison Museum reminded us of this only recently!

For the next few months we have gotten an Apartment so no more holding our breaths to see if the room is any good!

 

What have we eaten?

 

India was mainly rice and curries and chapatis and naan bread with a sprinkling of western food in between.

Further south in Kerala we added fish, lake prawns and banana fritters.

In India, Thali is King!!

Nepal was interesting. Some more Indian type foods and lots of Tibetan MoMos (Steamed Dumplings)

Thailand, as always, had some of the best food. Tasty Pad Thai and lush Green Curries.

Cambodia is quite different with lots of Chinese influenced dishes and Beef LokLak (Casserole) being the tastiest.

Vietnam was a culinary tour de force. Lots of peanut sauce and pancakes as well as the supreme goodness that is Pho Bo (Beef Noodle Soup).

Chinese food was interesting and proved a struggle if you didn’t want everything deep fried.

Luckily for KL and Singapore we had good advice 🙂 (Thanks Ed and Colin)

 

Scotland vs Ireland

 

Scotland has pulled away. Karen picks up the random Scots in places such as our Hostel in Beijing and in the Immigration Queue for Singapore.  She got a major boost in Western Australia and after John picked up some more Irish amongst his pals in Sydney the deficit was clawed back.

Scotland 105
Ireland 84

Most of the Irish references and quips have been generic. “U2”, “Titanic from Belfast” and the “Troubles”, “Potatoes”.

However there is one bar in Vang Vieng (Laos) that is run by half of Cork!

Scotland, however, has had more in-depth exposure. We have debated Scottish Independence with an Indian in Delhi, chatted to another who studied Engineering in Glasgow University and our tour guide in Patan studied at Ayr College for 2 years!

Also half of Asia’s ATMs have provided employment to a host of Scottish Voice Actors ( mostly East Coast Scots).

Not to mention Hong Kong’s rich intertwined history with Scotland and it’s citizens.

 

Who is following us?

If you believe the respective mothers, the populations of Ayr and Midleton. But it looks like we are reaching a far wider audience now

Looking at the Stats on the blog we have followers concentrated in:

• United Kingdom : 18,496 Hits here alone!
• Ireland: 2,983 hits
• United States: 1,576 hits
• Australia: 869 Hits -> A very fast riser these days in the charts!
• Belgium: 774 Hits -> Karen’s Aunt Rez is driving most of this traffic
• Singapore: 773 Hits
• India: 604 Hits
• Republic of Korea: 544 Hits -> Thanks Danny and Erica!

We are a handful of states away from completing Western Europe and the same goes for the entire Americas! Asia is almost covered as well, but Africa is far behind in coverage.

 

If you are following the blog let us know where from as the above map is intriguing for us! Also if you know anyone in these countries please get them to check out the blog as they are the main missing pieces in the puzzle

• Czech Republic
• Mongolia
• Iran
• Bolivia
• Algeria

For all these stats and much more head to our Fun Stats page.

 

Things to come

 

We are now in Sydney and looking to have a pit-stop for a few months to recharge the batteries. We are hoping to do some short breaks in central and eastern Australia before spending a small bit of time in Fiji and New Zealand in the future.

Oh and catch up with our blog as we are still a few weeks behind.

Thanks again to everyone reading!