Now that the trip is coming to an end, we reflected over a gin and tonic about the good and the bad of the last 8 months. For what it’s worth …
- Favorite “normal” places we visited – Seychelles (Mark); Split (Susan)
- Favorite adventure – Rwanda trekking with gorillas
- Least favorite “adventure” – hike across Le Curieuse Island in the Seychelles
- Least favorite town – Bundi, India
- Least favorite “things” during the trip – Food poisoning (Susan); Bad tour guide in Bundi and Kota
Best place for a drink
- Beer in Serengeti
- India Pacific train
- Catamaran to MONA in Hobart
- Beer while watching the total lunar eclipse from the rooftop in Bundi
- Wine on the twilight sailing yacht in Fremantle
Best place we stayed (Other than with friends)
- Meridien in the Seychelles with an oceanfront room
- Sheraton in Koh Samui – best A/C of all!
- Meridien in Koh Samui with a plunge pool
Worst Hotel – Bundi Vilas Halewi
Best Hotel Lounge – Bangkok Westin
Best flight – Munich to Bangkok in First Class on Thai Air
Worst travel day – Port Macquarie to Hobart – 4 hours of flying time turned into a 14 hour trip
Best restaurant
- Steak at the Jail House Inn, Launceston
- Mexican food at Terminal 21, Bangkok after 5 months of no Mexican food
Best restaurant view – Indique in Jodphur
Worst food – Colonel’s Retreat, Delhi – Susan’s food poisoning location!
Worst roads – India, hands down!
Rudest person on the trip – UK couple on the train in India
Weirdest person we ran into on the trip – the Indian guy who stared at us for 4 hours on the Indian train
“Glad it wasn’t me” event – Aileen not getting her luggage for 5 days on the safari
Great coincidence – Aileen didn’t have her phone charger and she used her phone to take pictures. Mark had his camera since he used his phone for pictures. He loaned Aileen the camera but didn’t have the charger for it. Annie from Tennessee had a charger that fit the camera! All was well in the photography world.
Unexpected experiences
- Twilight sailing in Fremantle on a yacht and dinner at the Fresh Water Yacht Club
- Seeing 2 kills in Serengeti by 3 lionesses. They killed 2 wildebeests
- Landing in Mwanza, Tanzania, to clear immigration leaving Tanzania
- Food Walks in Delhi and Jaipur
Little too close for comfort – the airline we flew in Tanzania crashed a plane into Ngorongoro Crater National Park just a few days after we used them
Illnesses – 4 colds (2 each) and 1 case of food poisoning and 1 sprained wrist
New friends and acquaintances
- Avijet – Indian in Ranthambore NP from CA – works for EAS
- Ana – met in Split – anesthesiologist from Singapore/Malaysia/Cambridge
- Nora and Juhis – Finland met in Seychelles
- Rob and Justin; Sonya and Graham – Australians met in Split
- Peter from Melbourne via Rob and Justin
- Gayle and Mark – Sydney
- Margarida – Sydney Sheraton clerk from Portugal
- Ben and Belinda – from Geneva – met in Golden Monkey trek
- Uta – from Germany met in Tanzania
- Ryan from Malta – met in Edinburgh
- Clifford – from Madagascar – doing laundry in Bangkok
- Suchin Shah – from South Carolina – sells RV’s
- Per and Lise – from Norway
- Debbie and Tim – from London
Love this summary and can so relate to much of this..my turn soon!
I have enjoyed traveling vicariously through your blog. Welcome back to the U.S. with memories to last a lifetime.