A Final Summary

This is just a collection of thoughts that I have now, a few months after finishing this trip.

Stats:

• Duration: 341 days
• Distance: Roughly 95 000 kilometres
• Photos taken: Just shy of 10,000 (Beautiful thing with digital is that they're all numbered!)
• Total cost: About US$ 28,000 or $14,000 each. (Using average exchange rates per www.bbc.co.uk)
• Cost per day: $41 each per day (Budget available here excel document)
• Most expensive country: Ecuador $68ea. pd. Due to flights to The Galapagos, park entry fee ($100ea.) and boat trip ($750 ea.)
• Cheapest country: Bolivia $24ea. pd.
• Place we rated most highly: Bariloche, Argentina
• Place we liked least: Hard to say but one of either Uyuni, Bolivia; Agra, India or Puno, Peru.
• Countries we went over budget in:
  • Ecuador ($1,448 over budget for both of us) We didn't budget for the Galapagos but did them anyway!
  • Singapore ($12) Didn't budget for an iPod or camera shopping. Would have been way under if not for those. (Thanks Toots and Katie)
  • Sri Lanka ($184) Getting to India was much more than I expected. You have to fly - there is no ferry.
  • Thailand ($203) We were only in Bangkok for a weekend and stayed in a smarter than usual place. We also bought flights to Borneo and paid a ridiculous amount of airport tax. Due to the short time we were there, we were not able to have a few "cheap days" to bring our daily rate down. 
• Cheapest countries:
  • Bolivia $24 per person per day.
  • Uruguay $25 pp pd.
  • India $27 pp pd.
• Most expensive countries
  • Ecuador $68 pp pd because of the Galapagos.
• Favourites are here

Was it worth it?

Definitely. People spend more than we did in a year and have a lot less to show for it.

Timing, route and planning.

South America was well planned. We caught the end of the rainy season in Ecuador and apart from a few very cold weeks on the Bolivian Altiplano (either that or wet) we moved south as spring and summer started showing their heads.

We rushed to Tierra del Fuego in order to get to Peninsula Valdez and Buenos Aires in time to meet friends and I would recommend being that far south later than September/October when it is still quite cold but, nevertheless, it was manageable and we still enjoyed it.

Australia and New Zealand in November/December was a good move. We had pleasant weather in NZ and, although wet in Sydney and unusually cold in Adelaide, reasonable weather in Australia. Being in Australia then also allowed us to have Christmas with family.

South East Asia was rushed. We tried to do too much in four months. Borneo needs more time than the ten days we had there. Also, having had luxury in NZ, Australia and Singapore, it was difficult to get back into backpacker mode.

That said, we thoroughly enjoyed it and will go back there. Singapore rates very highly as an option for a base from where to work and travel. We shall see...

The Philippines were an easy stopover. Some R&R on the finest beaches the planet has to offer came at just the right time.

Finishing in India was a bad move. It takes a lot of effort and we were tired. I think under different circumstances we might have enjoyed it but after only a few days in, we couldn't wait to get home. That is not what travelling should be about.  Also, doing it on a budget makes it worse. Next time - not in the near future! - we'll stay in much smarter hotels and have our own car...

Carbon Footprint

Hmmm... 95,000 kms. Not something we're very proud of. We justify the carbon emissions by knowing that we don't drive big 4x4s to work everyday with only a single occupant and that the understanding of other cultures gained over the year contributes in some small way to world peace. Ok - I'm clutching at straws...

Religion

I began the year apathetic, but finish it knowing that I never want to have anything to do with any religion. In South America, churches are always the most extravagant buildings in any village. Those same villagers often live in abject poverty.

In Asia, countries are ruled by people who decide what citizens and visitors can and can't do because they believe in the laws of a book that more than half the world has never read.

I started thinking that religion in poor countries is like a lottery: it always seems that the people who shouldn't be wasting their money on sweepstake tickets are those who in fact keep the whole illusion going.  You can't help thinking that they should be pumping what little they have into something that will actually generate a return that they might be able to live off. I had that feeling every time I saw a local walk past a church and dip their head and mark the sign of the cross on their forehead. It's as if accepting a tough break in life was ok as long as you kept buying that lottery ticket for a better afterlife. I reckon we only have one shot at this one, surely you want to spend your time making the most of something that is rather than holding out for something that might be?

I know, I know, it's not about possessions... I've had that sermon. Unfortunately we live in a world where food and clothing and shoes are a necessity and I beg to differ. Life can be hard enough without filling it up with rituals that take up valuable time and don't actually ease poverty at all. It's not my place to knock people for believing, but I find it amazing that bad things are blamed on man and good things are attributed to an intangible.

What I found particularly annoying was Westerners preaching ludicrous theories on the origin of man to vulnerable, uneducated people. Why aren't they doing this at home? Have they already been exposed as charlatans or can they just not find an audience ignorant enough to listen? Throughout Peru and Bolivia, hostels, internet cafes and restaurants are stocked with pamphlets explaining - in all seriousness - that the earth was created six thousand years ago when God created Adam and Eve. Science is, apparently, propaganda spread by the Devil's servants to turn us away from the Truth. That's not funny. That's a lie and those people should be sued for spreading such rubbish. Unfortunately you can argue about politics, greenhouse gases, tastes in music, economic policy and social welfare, but you cannot argue with religion. It really gets my goat.

The USA

Nearly all Americans we met were surprisingly informed and not at all like the stereotypical Yank that Europeans laugh at every summer. (Galapagos aside, which was packed with obnoxious retirees - American and European!)

I think this has something to do with backpackers being very aware of the world outside their borders. Most were eager to disprove the wariness other travellers have for them and were almost always successful.

Foreign policy is different...The T.L.C (Tratado de Libre Comercio) which I think translates as Free Trade Agreement is seen by poor Latin Americans as benefiting only the rich and North America. Not one day passed in the Andean countries where I didn't see graffiti espousing hatred for this agreement.

In two of the poorest countries we visited (Bolivia and Cambodia), the American embassies were bigger than most other buildings in the capitals. In Phnom Penh, the American embassy takes up a whole block in the centre of town. I don't now the facts, but honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually a larger building than the king's palace. Civilians are also barred from walking on the pavement outside it, which is a cheek. So that's who owns the road?

That, to me, is tactless. Why does Cambodia need a bigger embassy than say Athens or Wellington? It's almost like the wealthiest nation on earth is rubbing the noses of the poorest in it.

Or is this gargantuan building used for something else? Like, say, "questioning terrorists"?

The UK

Many Brits moan about their country, the weather, politics and overcrowding. I say this with absolute conviction: There is no other country from where global travel is so affordable. Your currency is strong and connections are abundant.

Americans have two weeks holiday a year, Brits have about 25 days or more. Continental Europeans are luckier and I doubt whether Benelux citizens even have to go to work...

If you're fed up with London, go on holiday. You know you can!

That said, Heathrow kept us waiting the longest.

Scenery

The most incredible sight for both of us was the Salar de Uyuni (South west Bolivia near the top end of the Atacama desert and not to be confused with the town Uyuni from where the Salar takes it name. Uyuni the town is one of the most awful places on earth!). It's very difficult to do the Salar justice in words. Twelve thousand square kilometres of flat, white salt is hard to explain. But I mean it when I say it's like nothing I'd ever seen before or have ever seen since.

The Galapagos bring attention to two important points: One, how beautiful the planet is and two, how destructive and stupid man is. You'd think keeping a tiny group of islands in the Pacific in a clean state for future generations to enjoy would be easy. Not so when humans can make money out them. There are, still, domestic animals living with families who continue to flock to the islands attracted by the tourism industry there. These pets eat turtle eggs and destroy an already fragile environment but the government pays lip service to the problem. How difficult can it be to sterilise all pets on the islands and ban new arrivals? In twenty years, the problem would be solved. If the Swiss owned the place....

One politician had built himself a mansion on the beach on Isabela. That is just corrupt, isn't it?

Other notable sights were the Taj Mahal, a diamond in the turd that is Agra; Angkor Wat, an immense complex of temples that looks like the set of an Indiana Jones movie; Perito Merino glacier, 14km long, 5km wide and 60 metres high, it would take a lot of whiskey to drink through all that ice. I'm not going to list all the impressive things we saw, but these were the most unique sights.

Poverty

One can harden to poverty. In Ecuador, when I saw a live cow, it's hind legs smeared all over the road from a truck collision, being dragged into a gutter by it's neck, I felt nauseous and that haunted me for a while after. But by the time we were in India and I saw a child with some kind of tumour the size of a large grapefruit growing behind his eye and distorting the shape of his skull, I took it in my stride. It's true: the more you're exposed to things, the less they shock you.

Per the website www.poverty.org.uk a couple with two dependent children and £301 per week left after income and council tax and rent/mortgage payments is considered to be "low income". They don't define it as poverty, but the website's name implies that these people are not in the VIP seats. After seeing parts of Latin America, South-East Asia and India, I realise how rich the West actually is. If a family can live in a house and have £301 pounds a week after water and roof are paid for and that is considered poor, can you begin to imagine how poor people are in Bolivia where we spent £189 a week for both of us and did exactly as we pleased? It's a crazy world....

Finally

What do I think now? I think the world is amazing, beautiful, diverse and fascinating. It's also so vulnerable to neglect. The slowly retreating glaciers in the Patagonian ice fields are an obvious sign of the impact we're having, but still nothing gets done...

The mass of tourists trampling all over the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu are going to have a long term damaging affect on those places and I try not even to think about the Galapagos.

I think people will surprise you in their kindness and shock you in their cruelty. Strangers gave us the keys to their houses and cars, but two days at the Killing Fields in Cambodia will make you think that the planet would have been better off without our species.

Until our next big trip which could happen anytime soon - my feet are itchy and life's too short to be wasted behind a desk - hasta luego.

It's been a pleasure,

Leesie