After a flying visit to Uluru, we drove more than 3000km down the East Coast of Australia in our Hippie Camper, only breaking one awning and one windscreen as we went! We had an amazing time and want to go back to explore more of the country.
Enjoying some shade from our Hippie Camper in CairnsWe drove more than 5000kms in our Spaceship around New Zealand in our time there, and could easily have visited many more places had time permitted.
Saying goodbye to Button, our beloved SpaceshipWe travelled more than 8,065km on buses around South America – it turns out that it is quite a big place!
Settling in for the 20 hour bus journey from Puerto Iguazu to Buenos AiresA year ago today we set of into the unknown – a seven month trip around the world. We had moved out of our house, taken sabbaticals from work and only had what we could fit into a backpack each.
As it turned out, the trip was nothing less than life changing – we saw and experienced things greater than our wildest imaginations. We have come back with a greater appreciation of everyday things that we had previously taken for granted, are more ethically and environmentally conscious and have a greater desire to give back to communities both locally and abroad.
Artwork on a school in BoliviaWe have calculated how far we flew during our seven month trip…
En route to Lima
As we have travelled around the world on our Big Adventure we have tried to keep track of random bits of information. Now that our Big Adventure is over we thought we’d share some of these facts.
Having fun on our big adventureWe landed at Bangkok’s Don Muang airport at 1515 on Monday 2nd December after a short flight from Chiang Mai. We had booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express Siam, right in the middle of the CBD, but our first challenge was to work out how to get there! We would normally have taken a taxi from the airport, but with Bangkok being so big we decided against that idea as it would take a long time and cost a small fortune. Instead we opted for public transport! We had done some research before leaving Chiang Mai about public transport options, but these all looked quite complicated.
Looking out over Bangkok from a Skytrain stationWe arrived in the ancient city of Ayutthaya on Wednesday 3rd December following a two hour train journey from Bangkok. It was the first train I can remember being on where the train stopped for vehicles at a level crossing! Once out of the station it didn’t take long for a tuktuk driver to pounce on us, offering to take us to our hour l hostel for 100BHT. We were prepared for this, having asked the hostel how much a tuktuk from the station should cost and were informed it should be around 50-60BHT, and turned down the 100BHT offer. We eventually managed to get a price of 80BHT, which we accepted. The drive to the hostel only took five minutes, by which time we were right in the heart of the old city.
Wat Chaiwattanaram in the late afternoon sunWe spent 11 nights in Chiang Mai in total, across two visits. This is the longest time we have spent in any one city on our travels, making it a pretty special place! We loved the relaxed atmosphere in the city, the cafe culture, the ability to walk most places and the variety of things to do – there was something for everyone! So how did we fill all these days I hear you ask? Well, here are some of our highlights from Chiang Mai…
Sunday night marketOn Tuesday 26th November we took a VIP bus for the three hour journey north from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai, looking to do a tour to the Golden Triangle (the three-point border between Thailand, Myanmar and Laos).
Chiang Rai clock tower