Trip statistics

Our trip came to an end on June 6, 2007 and now we're back in California, back to the reality of taking what we're given, cause we're working for a living. The trip was amazing and memorable and here are some of the highlights, lowlights, and statistics from our 120 days without an address.

Countries visited = 20
Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, India, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Vatican City, Spain, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, England.

Budget
$65.26 per day for the entire trip
$112.00 per day for the entire trip including pre-purchased flight package (LA-Hanoi; Siem Reap-Bangkok; Bangkok-New Dehli; Mumbai-Istanbul; London-LA)
$44.56 per day in Asia
$80.93 per day in Europe

Actual Travel Duration (not including missed connections or waiting) - car, bus, plane, train, boat, ferry = 329.75 hours

Gelato's eaten during 10 days in Italy = 25 (some had more than 1 scoop and more than 1 flavor!)

Flavors included: Cioccolato, tiramisu, caramello, pistachio, straciatella, frutta di bosco, fragola, banana, pompelmo, limone, panna cotta, cocco, cacao amsterdam, zuppa inglese, cioccolato rica, vaniglia, melone, ananas, mandarina, mirtelli, menta, cookies, kiwi and asparagus...yes...asparagus!

Beer list by country (name, alcohol %, color (Light, Pale, Amber, Brown, Dark) and rating 1-5 stars):

Vietnam

Hanoa Bia - 3.8%, Light, ***

Halida Bia - 3.8%, Light, ***

Huda Bia - 4.7%, Light, ***

Larue Biere - 3.6%, Light, ***

Saigon Lager Beer - 4.3%, Pale, ***

Bach Dang Draft - ?%, Pale, ****

Cambodia

Angkor Beer - 5%, Pale, ****

Jade Beer (from Singapore) - 5.2%, Pale, ***

Lao Beer (from Laos) - 5%, Pale, ***

Thailand

Beer Chang - 6.4%, Pale, *** (cheaper and better than Singha)

Singha - 5%, Pale, ***

India

Castle - 5%, Pale, *** (says its South African beer brewed in India)

Kingfisher - ?%, Pale, ** (too warm)

Romania

Ursus - 5%, Pale, ***** (King of Beers...in Romania. Best beer of the trip, smooth and full flavored, damn good beer!)

Serbia

Niksicko - 5%, Pale, ***

Croatia

Karlovacko - 5.4%, Pale, ***

Italy

Forst - ?%, Pale, *** (had a red Beck's in Italy that was good, but not Italian!)

Spain

Mahou - ?%, Pale, ***

Slovenia

Union 1854 - ?%, Pale, ****

Zlatorog - 4.9%, Pale, ****

Austria

Puntigamer - 5.1%, Pale, ****

Reininghaus - ?%, Pale, ****

Gosser Zwickel - ?%, Pale, ****

Speigl - ?%, Pale, ***

Germany

Flotzinger's Cool Pils - 4.8%, Pale, ****

Schneider Weissen - 5.4%, Amber-Hefeweizen, ***

Hofbrau Original - ?%, Pale, ****

Hasseroder - 4.9%, Pale, ***

Veltins Pilsener - 4.8%, Pale, ***

Binding Romer Pils - 4.9%, Pale, ***

Alt - ?%, Amber, ***

That beer at Ben's house? - ?%, Pale, ***

Kolsch - ?%, Pale, ** (bitter aftertaste and a bit flat)

The Netherlands

Heineken - 5%, Pale, ****

Pacifico at Mexican Restaurant - 4.5%, Pale, *** (not a great batch)

Groningen - ?%, Dark, ***

Belgium

Brugse Zot - 6%, Pale, ****

De Koninck - 5%, Amber, ****

Premium Kriek St. Louis - 3.2%, Red, * (Bad cherry beer out of a small can)

Jupiler - 5.2%, Pale, ****

Leffe - ?%, Dark, ***

Maes Pils - 4.9%, Pale, ****

Duvel - ?%, Pale, ****

Ramee - ?%, Pale, ***

Kronenburg - ?%, Pale, *** (French beer)

Carlsberg - ?%, Pale, *** (Danish beer)

Orval - 6.2%, Dark, ***

Laundry days

2/12 - Camellia Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam

2/21 - Nha Trang, Vietnam

2/27 - Saigon, Vietnam (Only cost 16,000 VND!)

3/7 - Bangkok, Thailand (Lots of laundry to do after our Cambodian adventures!)

3/15 - Bangkok, Thailand (Day before flying to India)

4/13 - Belgrade, Serbia (After a month of washing clothes in the sink in India, we finally had proper laundry facilities and we washed everything!)

5/2 - Ibiza, Spain (Maids at the timeshare did our laundry for us!)

5/12 - Arnfels, Austria (Nice washer & dryer at Helga & Sepperl's place)

5/20 - Dusseldorf, Germany (Nice washer & dryer at Ben's place)

5/31 - Brussels, Belgium (Last laundry stop at Marc's place)

Food Favorites
Vietnam

Com ga - Chicken rice with cilantro & lime - add chilli sauce or nuoc mam
Dong Ba Market sweets
Cheese omelet baguettes
Spring rolls
Fruit - pineapple, dragon fruit, chum chum
Veggie Pho
Pineapple and mango shakes
Yellow noodles
Bia hoi or ly (draught beer) with watermelon

Cambodia

Fish amok - coconut and lemongrass
Lab (with chicken or veggies) - mint leaves, lemon juices, chillies & roasted rice

Thailand

Mango and sticky rice with coconut sauce
Thai iced tea with boba
Various curries...no peanuts!
Roti
Prawn fried rice

India

Chicken biriyani
Veg thali
Dal
Roti and naan bread
Veggie kofta
Besan ke Gatte
Super veg burger at Om
Aloo mehti
Panchmal dal
Raita
Veg or chicken kathi balls
Puri: Bhatura (puffed fried bread)
Tikka masala
Paneer tikka kathi rolls

Turkey

Pizza at that pizzeria our 1st night in Istanbul
Doner
Veggie wrap

Romania

Papanasi (papanash) - donut with jam & cream
Tiramisu at Pizza Roma!

Serbia

Burek - cheese pastry
Chris' veggie casserole...I'm getting the recipe!

Croatia

Grancereale croccante - amazing cookies!
Risotto with seafood in Dubrovnik

Italy

Gelato (see above!)
Arancini - rice and tomato fried balls with cheese
Pizza - naturally
Blood oranges and juice

Spain

Sangria
Paella

Slovenia

Pizza burek
Cherries
Vegetable soup in Bled
Chicken burrito...in Slovenia!??!

Austria

Bean salad with pumpkin seed oil
Schnapps
Raspberry, blackberry and elderberry juice
Topfenstrudel - raspberry
Various Austrian cheeses, but not Edam
Helga's veggie goulash...I'm getting the recipe!
Helga's risotto with asparagus...I'm getting this recipe too!

Germany

Pretzel's
Doner
Asparagus
Falafel
Durum
CJ wanted kirschenstrudel - cherry strudle - but we couldn't find it

The Netherlands

Poffertjes with fruit and whipped cream

Belgium

Frites with mayo or tartar sauce
Gaufres (waffles) de Bruxelles - better than de Liege
Noord-Holland Gouda cheese

Good Decisions/Good Luck
No battery flashlight
Anti-itch cream
Going to Bodhgaya, India
Upgraded on Ko Phi Phi
Upgraded to 1st class train from New Dehli to Varanasi - although that's where RJ got sick
Getting India visa in CA
Electric bikes at Angkor Wat
Seeing the family in Bien Hoa, Vietnam
Cutting CJ's hair - but not necessarily this particular hair cut!
Compass
Staying with Ivan in Dubrovnik
Going to Assisi
IBIZA!
Slovenia
Fireworks in Ljubljana for EU Day

Bad Decision/Bad Luck
No sleeping pills for CJ
Traveling in Vietnam during Tet - Hoi An-Nha Trang bus ride from hell!
No toilet paper in India
Rusgalla (sweet soaked bread that tastes rubbery and squeeks when chewed) - only dessert CJ doesn't like
Bag clasp breaking on flight from Udaipur to Mumbai
BBQ corn in Istanbul
Balkan Flexipass
SDCCU credit card & ATM
Eurrail passes - not worth it if you're over 26
Just missing Brasov festival
Chocolate Museum in Koln instead of Neanderthal Museum in Dusseldorf

It was a fantastic trip! The bad decisions/bad luck episodes were very minor. We were happy to come home, but I highly recommend a trip like this for anyone out there. It doesn't cost as much as you'd think, and the memories are worth every penny.

Happy traveling!
RJ & CJ

Has it been 4 months?!?

London is our last stop! We flew from Charleroi to Stansted on my airline ....Ryanair.... verrrrrrrrrry niiiiiiiiiiiiiice! It was a short flight and then we made our way to South Kensington where we stayed with my old friend Makoto and his family who were also in Brussels for the reunion. We wandered the streets of Kensington with our huge packs and looking very grubby after 4 months of travel...the flashy cars glared at us as we walked by...and we walked by some nice ones. Every other car was a Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, even Aston Martin...London is a wealthy city and we were in a high class neighborhood.

We spent 3 days in London and saw most of it on foot. Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, the London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, Kensington Palace...Big Ben, Parliament. We took a tour of the House of Lords. We were hoping to see Tony Blair in action at the House of Commons, but he wasn't in that day and there was over an hour wait. We did it all in those three days...Makoto's wife Junko and I even brushed our teeth while sitting on the floor with baby Nao!

All the museums in London are free so we popped in to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square and also checked out the Tate Modern along the Thames. We walked down Oxford St. and Regent St. to see the latest high fashion We checked out Kate Moss' new line at TopShop. We rode the tube here and there and on our last night in London...the last night of our 4 month trip...we paid to see Harry Potter naked. It was actually a fabulous play in London's West End stores...CJ was much more interested than I was. called Equus starring Daniel Radcliffe and it was the last week of the show. A fabulous play and a great way to end the journey. But is it really over!?? Do we really have to get jobs now and engrain ourselves in society again?? Or can we go home for a couple weeks, regroup, and head to South America for a couple more months on the road??? Either way...packing for the last time was bittersweet. We thoroughly enjoyed our 4 months on the road, but we are eager to get back to CA and stay in one place for a bit.

Class of '92!!

Unbelievable that its been 15 years since I graduated from high school, but there's no better way to celebrate that then to get together with old friends and talk about the good ole days like they just happened...it seems like they just did!

We had a couple days before the reunion events so we explored the city, my old stomping grounds. The Grand Place still looks the same and the Mannequin Pis is still pissing!

We took in the sights around the Grand Place and had some drinks at the King of Spain where, as is typical for Belgium, it started dumping rain for a good 30 minutes. When the rain
stopped we continued on.

Rogier drove down the next day, which was Friday, and we went to check out the International School of Brussels where we met some 22 years ago! The school day was just ending when we got there so we managed to see some old teachers that still work at the school which was fun. Later that night the entire reunion group...which was only about 15 people, got together for dinner. It was a pretty small reunion, but was fun nevertheless. After dinner the group meandered to a nearby club and the drinks continued to flow.

The next day we had a mellow afternoon BBQ where there may have been more kids than actual reunion participants! I guess we've reached that age!

All in all it was great seeing everybody as usual and hopefully we'll see each other before another 5 years passes.