New York to Witherslack

How we felt - sad to see the end of the trip.

Have to admit that when we set off I couldn't see so far into the future to really get my head round the coming back bit - it seemed too far away.

But here we are getting on the plane at JFK heading back to the UK. Sadly there was no trauma, nothing out of the ordinary, everything worked and was on time.

Return to Oxenholme

Closing thoughts about our world trip, what earth shattering observations can I think of?

Well......

Melbourne has the best coffee in the world - they invented the flat white after all.
The best steaks and sushi are defintely in America.
The most exciting and interesting country to visit was, for us, Vietnam (and the cheapest by a long way!)
Of the cities we visited, if we had to live in one of them it would be Sydney, they've got the best combination of town, countryside and coast anywhere.
India - I don't think we saw the best of India, what we did see was tough, sometimes ugly, sometimes stunningly beutiful, but always interesting, well worth the effort (South of India next time?)
Singapore -  a shoppers paradise or hell depending on your point of view but fascinating and dedicated to taking money off you in the nicest of possible ways.
New Zealand is possibly the pleasantest, most "English" country we visited.
The Uk has the best beer (but some of the colonies(!) are catching up) and the BBC news program is  undoubtably the best in the world.

As far as the people; we really only ever met nice people; friendly, helpful, only too willing to show off their country, tell us good places to go and things to do.  We often went into bars, ordered whatever the local beer was and then chatted to the locals to find out where to go next.  This is not to say we didn't meet some really weird or dodgy people but none was a real probem.

It was great not to have fixed plans, our only deadlines were flight times, everything in between was flexible.  Can't recommend this approach enough.

We had planned to backpack around the world but the shoulder injury changed that as I struggle to carry a rucksack, consequently we became 4 star back packers (flashpackers?) with our heavy duty wheeled packs.  To be honest we had a better time and whilst it cost a bit more, the difference between OK and good accommodation was not usually that much. And we've obviously got soft in our old age!

As far as cost, it was more than I hoped but less than I feared, so can't complain. If anybody wants to go - try roundtheworldflights.com - they were cheap and really helpful. Best advice though is don't plan too much - it only increases stress.

The future holds an opeation for me and then the summer here sorting out our house and a list of jobs, together with us earning some money for the next trip!

We have got an invite to sail in a police competition in Hong Kong at the back end of the year so that's a trip worth looking forward to! Maybe we can squeeze in a few days in SE Asia  - as we're passing....

So far this blog has been viewed 1,959 times -this has amazed me but I hope you all enjoyed it.

Best Regards

Dave and Carole