| Number of flights: 8 Hours spent in the air on those flights: 21 Number of buses: 30 Hours spent on those buses: 205.5 Number of trains: 11 Hours spent on those trains: 242.25 Number of countries visited: 7 (Germany, Italy, Russia, Mongolia, China, Laos, and Vietnam) Number of beds we've slept in: 70 Number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites we've vistited: 17 Things we miss from home: NikiAnne: Having my own refridgerator stocked with familiar foods; cooking; live music; dancing; blending in; living where the environment is respected. Andy: Mexican food; chicken parmagiana; basketball; movies; talking sports; Adams Morgan (D.C.); Not having to worry that what you are eating could be dog, rat, pigeon, or snake. Things we don't miss: NikiAnne: Walmart, consumer mania around Thanksgiving and Christmas, fantasy basketball, nylons and winter coats Andy: Chirstmas music, Yankee fans, D.C. traffic, and hockey Things that we've learned about ourselves while on this trip: NikiAnne: I have no decision-making skills when it comes to restaurant menus Andy: I have absolutely no sense of direction Cheapest place we have spent a night: $0.60, Ban Na Village, Laos Most Expensive place we have spent a night: $56, Irkutsk, Russia Favorite Cities: NikiAnne: Marburg, Germany; St. Petersburg and Novogorod, Russia: Beijing and Lijiang, China; Luang Probang and Muang Ngoi, Laos; Hanoi, Vietnam Andy: Berlin, Germany; St. Petersburg, Russia; Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia; Lijiang and Yangshuo, China; Luang Probang and Muang Ngoi, Laos: Hanoi, Vietnam Highest elevation we have reached: 5,220 meters (17,056 feet) Mount Everest Base Camp, Tibet, China Lowest elevation we have reached: 0 meters, on the beach in Nha Trang, Vietnam Andy's weight on Day 1: 167.5 pounds Andy's weight after 6 months: 150 pounds NikiAnne's weight on Day 1 and after 6 months: Let's just say I've lost 7 pounds Consecutive days we made it without paying for accomodation: 39 days, at the start of our trip Things we've learned about the U.S. and Americans while traveling: The CIA started SARS (according to the Chinese) No one can tell us apart from Canadians The US waged a secret war on Laos and Cambodia in the 1970s There are more Americans traveling throughout Southeast Asia than anywhere else we've been Our Chinese food in the States is better than China's Everybody knows and sings the song Hotel California when I tell them where I'm from Americans must have invented the Mongolian BBQ because no such thing exists in Mongolia Thing in backpack we love the most: NikiAnne: Silk sleep sack, super absorbant hand towel, eye mask, and air pillow Andy: Eye mask, head lamp, and moleskin journal Thing in backpack we hate the most: NikiAnne: Frumpy hiking pants Andy: Mosquito net, which we have yet to use Top 10 experiences (in no particular order): NikiAnne: 1. Revisiting the Malachite Room of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia 2. Reuniting with my old dance friends Kate and Dima after 10 years, St. Petersburg, Russia 3. Day trip to Novgorod with Peter and Olga Lukarevsky, Novgorod, Russia 4. Seeing REAL dinosaur bones and the desert they were found in, Ulaan Baatar & Gobi Desert, Mongolia 5. Working with Mongolian teens at an 8-day camp, Northern Mongolia 6. Picnicing on the river with the sunsetting on the Castle with Lemmer and Mira, Marburg, Germany 7. Walking the Great Wall, Beijing, China 8. Hanging out on Ben's rooftop as the sun rose over East Berlin, Germany 9. "Ap-naming" (bathing) and doing laundry in the river with the locals, Muang Ngoi, Laos 10. Seeing Mount Everest on a clear day, Rongphu Monestary, China Andy: 1. Spear fishing in Muang Ngoi, Laos 2. Seeing the Berlin Wall 3. Spending 4 consecutive days on the Trans-Siberian Railway 4. Floating down a river on inner-tubes in Yangshou, China 5. Visiting small minority villages outside of Luang Nam Tha and Muang Sing, Laos 6. Seeing Mount Everest, and spending a night at Base Camp, Tibet, China 7. Spending 8 days bumping around the Gobi Desert, Mongolia 8. Having dinner with my host family in Beijing 9. Spending my first night in a ger (yurt) in beautiful Terelj National Park, Mongolia 10. Listening to Red Sox playoff games live via internet radio while in China Casualties: Lost 4 water bottles; ripped a pair of boxers; lost a shirt; tore and then threw out another shirt; two trains missed; and lots of bad haircuts Strangest alcohols we have drunk: Fermented mare's milk- Mongolia Lao whiskey (Lao lao) out of a gasoline can Craziest foods we have seen or seen on menus: Horse fillet- Mongolia Fried scorpians, frog's legs and silk worms- Wangfujing Night Market, Beijing, China Chicken feet- Everywhere in China, Laos, and Vietnam Yak- both yak meat and yak butter tea, Tibet, China Dog- China and Vietnam Trip faux pas: 1. Offering to cook mexican food for our friends in St. Petersburg- we couldn't find one ingredient needed.. 2. Ordering spagetti bolognese with yak meat in Lhasa, Tibet. 3. Throwing out our Laos visa receipt, which we needed in order to prove that we were entitled to a 30-day visa because we had paid extra, as opposed to a 15-day visa, which we ended up being stuck with. 4. NikiAnne throwing up in Catherine's Palace at Pushkin, St. Petersburg. 5. NikiAnne not trying on her backpack (which is like 3 times too big for her) until 4 hours before we left. 6. Assuming there was an ATM in a small Siberian fishing village of 2,500 people. (Listvayanka, Russia) 7. Andy hitting a rock and temporarily breaking a rented motorcycle while visiting remote villages in Laos. 7. NikiAnne seeing if Andy's digital camera could survive underwater for one minute. (It could not.) 8. Overstaying our Russian and Chinese visas. We were only caught by the Russians, costing us booko-bucks. Quotes said in all seriousness: "I hope I don't have to eat horse today." Gobi Desert, Mongolia "Oh, look! Here is some good dung." Collecting camel dung for our dung fire, Gobi Desert, Mongolia Books we've read: (we put *** next to the books we highly recommend reading) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon *** In Search of Gengis Khan by Tim Severin Wild Swans by Jung Chang (20th century China) *** A Bend in the Yellow River by Justin Hill (China) Off the Rails in Phenom Phen by Amit Gilboa Brother Number One- An Autobiography of Pol Pot by David Chandler (Cambodia) Mirage by Soheir Khashoggi (Arab woman in Middle East) *** Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham (Vietnam) *** The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh (Vietnam) Women of Mongolia by Martha Avery Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson (Autobiography of Virgin Records and Virgin Airlines founder) *** A Heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers The Ends of the Earth by Robert Kaplan *** Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rawling *** Birds of Prey by Wilbur Smith Places in Asia to visit next time: Nepal, India, Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang (NW China), Eastern Siberia, and more of Laos and Mongolia |
| On December 1st, we officially hit the mid way point, at 6 months. Yeah, we can't believe it either. It has been the most amazing half a year of our lives. The sights, the sounds, and most often the smells have been so far beyond anything that we imagined while planning for this trip. So, while it is impossible to convey completely what we have been experiencing these past 6 months, we thought we would try to give you an insight into life on the road, living out of our backpacks, and on a budget for 6 months. |
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| The Half Way Point |
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