Delhi to London

In the last 229 days I have travelled 12 173 miles overland from London to Singapore and then another 6036 miles overland through the Philippines, Australia and India.  
That included 21 long distance train journeys, 27 boat trips, at least 44 bus trips over three hours and innumerable inner city commutes on 9 different metro systems.  I swayed dangerously in 4 cable cars, rode 2 elephants, 1 camel and went 400m in a horizontal lift.    This provided ample time for the reading of 58 books, the taking of 21,352 photographs (after a first round of edits) and the writing of 80 blog posts.   In total I visited 18 countries (UK, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Russia, Mongolia, China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, India) for which I required an arduous 9 visas and used up 14 pages of my passport.

On the way I met up with 15 great friends and family members, made tons of new mates and encountered 11 very cool creatures I'd never seen before (thresher sharks, seahorses, whale sharks, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, tarsiers, fireflies, cuttlefish, koalas, wallabies, platypus).  I drank at least 53 different types of beer (for which I have the labels) and learnt to cook 12 new dishes.  I painted 2 pictures (one of of which I tore up) and built 2 fires (one in a ger, one on a beach - both legal I hasten to add). 


It wasn't all fun and games.  I lost 8 things I rather not have (a black fleece, a travel towel, two pairs of sunglasses, a pair of very good hiking boots, a pair of flip flops, an iPhone, a boarding pass and my favourite silver bracelet) and I got bitten by 8 different types of critters:  mosquitos, yellow striped fly, fleas, bed bugs, water fleas, a small fish, sand flies and an ant. I survived thanks to 4 bottles of insect repellent, 5 pairs of earplugs, 3 umbrellas 

2 boxes of paracetamol, 5 rehydration sachets and 4 toothbrushes.

I would love to say I bought a handbag and a pair of shoes in every country I went to but, honestly, it was only in half of them. 


What a trip! 

On the way to the airport - backpack on for the last time