THE END

We cannot believe it’s over.

As a way to look back and summarize our trip, we’ve completed surveys separately to give you an idea of what we each thought was our highs and lows. Laura’s answers are in green and Katie’s are in blue.

Favorite local food: Thai green curry; Panang curry
Biggest rip-off: Vietnamese motorbike ride; motorbike ride in Nha Trang
Worst touts: India-Jaisalmer bus; the bus station in Jaisalmer
Worst memory: getting sick in Jaipur; being sick
Most random memory: Concrete/squirrel on a leash/our first ride in Fee; the waiter in Nungwi that spoke like he inhaled helium
Favorite souvenir purchase: kikoy-so functional!; Aboriginal mask and Hmong bedding
Favorite country overall: Tanzania; Tanzania
Favorite big city: to live in...Sydney/Bangkok for its backpacker culture; Sydney
Favorite town: Luang Prabang; Luang Prabang
Place you’d like to go back most: Koh Phi Phi for Maya Bay, Cosmic Pesto, and Papaya Massaman curry; Africa
Place you won’t go back: Agra and Darwin; India
Biggest lesson learned: you only need 4 pairs of underwear...I am more fortunate than I ever could have imagined. You can suprisingly lived off of very little; balancing social and personal responsibility
Favorite beverage: Kiwi shake/passion under a palm tree/peach frozen bellini; Passion Under a Palm Tree and fruit shakes
Favorite attraction: Angkor; Angkor
Best view: Hill's Inlet, Whitsundays; Uhuru Peak and Hill's Inlet
Best accomplishment: Kilimanjaro; this whole trip, but more specifically, Mt. Kilimanjaro
3 favorite animals seen: leopard shark/koala/lion; lion/sharks/elephant
Favorite dive spot: Koh Phi Phi--Bida Nai for the fish and Whitsundays--The Maze for coral; Koh Phi Phi for the abundant and diverse marine life
Favorite restaurant: Papaya/Cargo Club; Friends in Phnom Penh
Best deal: my carved ebony Masai man; the number of different hotels/guesthouses we paid only $2
Favorite outfit: a t-shirt and alibaba pants; soft Laos t-shirt and thai pants
Best shopping: Luang Prabang night market/Saigon Russian market; Luang Prabang and Chiang Mai night markets
Sketchiest accommodation: Vientienne; Vientienne
Favorite bar: CHOLO'S!; Cholo's
Favorite beach: Whitehaven or Maya Bay; Whitehaven
Place where you learned the most: India; India
Favorite person: Ndumi (local) and Tayte; Tayte and the local Alpine Ascents staff
Favorite boat trip: Zanzibar; Mama Linh's in Nha Trang
Best night out: The Woolshed and XXXX; Full Moon Party
Worst smell: fish in Hoi An market and Katie after not showering for 3 days; stale urine in India
Scariest moment: going the wrong way on a one way street in Agra and crossing the street in Hanoi for the first time; any transportation in India (expect trains)
Most shocking moment: 100-year old turtle sex; realizing our food was poisoned
Most annoying aspect of travel: timezones and goodbyes; annoying, irresponsible tourists
Biggest challenge: budgeting; staying on budget
3 Things you look forward to most about home: my bed/microbrews/my wardrobe; family/friends/home cookin'
3 American things you missed: Bojangles/free refills; TV/free refills/driving
3 things you’ll miss most about traveling: meeting people from all over the world and always hearing different accents/waking up to something new every day/trying new restaurants every meal; new people/new things/being the minority

So it’s goodbye to the spontaneous, nomadic lifestyle where the days ran together and there was something new everyday. It’s back to schedules, work, and to-do lists. Nonetheless, we’re excited about what lies ahead and what we’ve just accomplished. Wish Brady well as she starts her job in Atlanta with Ernst and Young. For Katie, on the other hand, the search begins for a career in sports marketing so save some well-wishing for her as well. We loved the experience too much for it to be our last. Thanks for reading and who knows, there might be more to come.

A little perspective...

The entire population of the United States is equal to the number of impoverished people living in India on less than $1 per day.

Our total travel (to all destinations) in kilometers is equidistant to more than 2 trips around the world (or the Earth’s circumference at the equator).

Even though we have no current means of income, our expenses over the last six months (including all transportation, accommodation, and food) will be comparatively equal to the price of rent, bills, groceries and other miscellaneous costs if we were living and working in the United States.

The cost of a year’s tuition for an in-state student at UNC could educate 55 kids in Laos for 9 months (so we won’t go into the monetary value of a private school education).

And in conclusion...

At age 22 and in the last 173 days, we have traveled over 88,000 of kilometers, slept on 79 different beds, flown 29 times crossing 17 time zones on 13 different airlines, spent 9 different currencies, heard 15 different native languages, observed 8 different religions, and taken over 7,820 pictures. Additionally, we visited 10 UNESCO World Heritage sites, were proposed to four times, dove 11 times on 3 different continents, got 0 tattoos or piercings, and averaged less than $40 per day. It can be overwhelming to think about where were at the beginning of May and what we’ve accomplished since then. To say this was the experience of a lifetime can be both a cliché and an understatement. We’ve climbed the world’s tallest free-standing mountain, survived the Indian mafia, witnessed the effects of Southeast Asia’s brutal history, and seen probably over one million different faces. From day to day we had to find food, accommodation, and transportation on a strict budget while making sure we made the most out of our time in each place. The experience has inevitably changed us, but as they say everywhere in SE Asia, “we’re same same, but different.”


Stay tuned for Brady and Katie do the rest of the world...