Category — UK

Well, it’s home sweet, wet, cold, home!

Since we left you in Kolkata we flew to Mumbai (Bombay) – we saw the slums that hold 55% of Mumbai’s population as we flew in. It was very sobering as they went on for miles.  There are also many huge, impressive British buildings that we enjoyed strolling around, and we watched hundreds of people playing cricket on the Oval Maiden.

It took us 14 hours on the train from Mumbai, but we had a fabulous, relaxing time in  Goa. We visited 3 gorgeous beaches: Anjuna, Arambol and Mandrem. Anjuna had a huge market by the beach on wednesdays so we were able to bag some last minute gifts. Arambol was full of dippy hippies swinging balls on ropes around on the beach or performing some strange form of Tai Che/ ‘I want to be a tree’ on the rocky headland, but the beach was beautiful and the oceanside restaurants served delicious seafood and curries of course.

Mandrem was incredibly peaceful, the beach was even more beautiful than Arambol and huge with virtually no-one on it.

After the painful train experience on the way to Goa we were very happy we had booked a flight back to Mumbai to connect to our flight home – and so here we are!

It has been the most exciting experience of our lives. Our favourite country remains New Zealand because the countryside is so stunning and varied, the people were very friendly, the food and wine were awesome, and it was just so organised with many things to do and sights to see. Laos was a close second for both of us, as again the countryside was stunning, it had the quirks and beauty of south east asia but without the pushy loudness of the people of many other asian countries we have visited; the people are so friendly and chilled.Nepal must also be up there because of the jaw dropping scenery, the best of the trip.

Our favourite day was when we both lost our senses and jumped out of planes or headfirst into gorges, followed by celebrations of our bravery with new friends in Queenstown. Other very special days were wine tasting around Marlborough in NZ, tubing in Laos, walking on the volcanic White Island in NZ, exploring the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, surviving the hard slog of the Thorong La Pass in Nepal, and seeing the imposing and amazingly beautiful Taj Mahal. There are so many more I want to list but it would take too long and you will get bored reading!

There were thankfully very few lowlights, but these would probably be getting ripped off in Vietnam, staying in the tacky area of Phuket surrounded by sex workers, and dealing with hocking and spitting and other gross habits in India and Nepal.

We are now both gradually getting back into normal life, though it’s gonna take a while. We hope that you have enjoyed reading. It has been so great for us to write this as a record of our adventures so thanks to everyone for the comments. I look forward to reading it back when I’m old(er) to remind myself that we have done something exciting and amazing in our lives.

Until the next trip!…