Round-the-world in numbers: the story so far

Most of the counting we have been doing on this trip has been related to money - how much is this hostel room?  What is the exchange rate? Lee you've already spent this much on beer already, Courtney if we forgo using moisturizer we'll save this much money, etc, etc.

After just 2 days in New Zealand we realized that we were going to have a tough time keeping track of our daily expenditures, and therefore our budget, so we invested in a cheap calculator to help.  With the assistance of that same trusty little number crunching device, we decided to look at some other numbers related to this trip and the result is the following summary.  Our trip by the numbers...

5 number of continents visited
11 number of countries explored
144 number of days traveled
43 total number of places that we've stayed in
2 number of motorbikes rented

before the "incident"

50 percentage of rented motorbikes that were crashed
20 number of books read
18 number of flights taken
4 number of different cameras used (so far)
2,195 number of photos taken
10 different modes of transport used

One of the higher quality buses we rode on

35,317 number of miles traveled
24,901 distance in miles around the world at the equator
1 bag of insects eaten

Yum

15,000 height in feet from which we jumped out of a plane
15 number of beaches laid on
3 number of public rallies/riots/protests we have witnessed (civil unrest seems to be a theme on this trip)
9 number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites visited

Sydney Opera House - UNESCO World Heritage Site

190 cost in US dollars of one speeding ticket in Australia
26 number of bus journeys taken
23 percentage of bus journeys where we feared for our lives

This was a contender for worst bus trip

65 percentage of bus drivers in New Zealand named "Peter"
10 number of capital cities visited
8,500 approximate weight in pounds of the elephant we rode in northern Thailand

53 current age of former England captain and all-round footballing legend Bryan Robson, who we saw hanging out near our hotel in Bangkok
171* number of canadians met while traveling (*estimate.  actual number unknown but it felt like at least that many
27 number of new facebook friends
8 average cost in US dollars of a beer in Australia
0.45 average cost in US dollars of beer in Vietnam
15 number of dorm rooms stayed in
36 percentage of dorms that had smelly and/or noisy roomies
7.5 size of the flip flops Lee inherited after his were stolen from outside an internet cafe in Laos (they are a bit snug)

With only 3 days to go until the start of the World Cup, we'll likely have plenty more statistics to think about over the next 4 weeks.

Things Seen on the Back of a Motorbike in Southeast Asia

4 Upside down dead pigs
1 television
1 family of five
50 dead ducks
1 full size refrigerator
1 six foot ladder
100 plus coconuts
1 Courtney
4 five foot tall porcelain vases
1 glass display case full of pastries and danish
1 large spool of chain link fencing
2 ironing boards
1 sleeping child
1 Lee
100 plus sheets of rice paper
1 Monk smoking a cigarette
10 large truck tires
60 plus pots and pans

Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor

Any visit to Cambodia would be incomplete without a visit to the ancient Temples of Angkor in Siem Reap.  We'd been looking forward to this since we started planning our trip last year and we could barely contain our excitement as we made our way to the bus station in Phnom Penh to catch an overnight bus for the 5 hour journey north.

Excitement quickly turned to horror when we saw the bus we'd be traveling on.  Our night bus was actually more of a nightmare bus!  To say that the bus was suffering from a bit of wear and tear would be a gross understatement.  If you've read any of our other posts you'll know that we've been on one or two rough bus rides (it's become a bit of a theme actually) but this one topped the lot.  Not only was the bus in truly shocking condition, the driver was a completely insane.  When we joined some other passengers in insisting that another bus be provided his response was "no problem, no problem."  As you can probably guess, that didn't mean "Of course, we'll have a nice new bus along in just a moment.  Your comfort and safety is our number one priority.  No, it meant you either get on this bus or you won't be going anywhere any time soon.

Ad for bus to Siem Reap

Actual bus to Siem Reap.  Spot the difference.

Getting on the bus was probably not the wisest choice we've ever made but we made it there in one piece in the end, albeit with our nerves a little shot.  And as Lizzie would say, the story is "good for the blog!"

Anyway, Siem Reap.  What can you say about this place?  It's pretty hard to put into words how amazing the Temples of Angkor are, the pictures barely even do it justice.  We rented tuk tuks for the day ($35 for 2) to take us out to the temples and drive us from site to site.  We arrived at Angkor Wat, the main temple, at a little after 5am to watch the sun come up over the temple and lake.  We spent the whole day exploring various sites, we visited 5 in total, and watched the sun go down from one of the temples in the evening.  Unfortunately, Courtney was quite sick for the first half of the day with an upset stomach so she didn't have the best morning but she was determined not to let it ruin our day so she soldiered on and made it through a full 12-hours of walking around the temples.

While in Siem Reap we stayed at Mitri Guesthouse (http://mitriguesthouse.com/).  A nice, family-run guesthouse with basic rooms that included AC, TV, hot shower and free internet all for $12-a-night!  Great value.

On either side of our marathon day at the temples we decided just to relax in town.  On our first day we grabbed breakfast at the Singing Tree Restaurant, an awesome little place on the food alley in town (next to Pub Street) and after some exploring we treated ourselves to a massage...by some fish!  For $2 you can have little fish nibble the dead skin from your feet for 15 minutes.  After you get over the initial ticklishness of it it's actually quite a nice sensation.  Some local kids came by selling books and ended up watching as the fish went to work.  Their poor little feet looked like they could use a break so we ended up treating them to massages of their own and they loved it!

On our last day in town it was so hot so we decided to find a hotel with a pool that we could cool off in.  We each paid $4 to use a lovely rooftop pool at the Riverside Hotel.  We watched the sun go down in the distance before heading out for a few drinks to say goodbye to Kate, Lizzie and Claire (for the second time!)   A great way to end our whistle-stop tour of Cambodia.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Welcome to Cambodia - land of temples, daytime pajama-wearing, and naked babies!

From Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon if you're old school) we hopped a bus across the border to Cambodia's captial, Phnom Penh.  We arrived bang in the middle of the Buddhist New Year celebrations so a lot of things were closed and overall it was pretty quiet.

First impressions of Cambodia, or at least Phnom Penh, were that it is much more developed than we thought it would be.  There are not as many taller buildings as we saw in Bangkok and Saigon for example, but the city seemed to be spread over quite a large area and there's a pretty strong western influence, particularly in the restaurants and bars.

Another thing that struck us was the incredible number of really young children selling a variety of things from books to bracelets.  It was quite sad really.  There is obviously quite a significant amount of poverty throughout southeast Asia and we've seen children working in each country we've visited, but there seemed to be so many more of them here in Phnom Penh and they were so aggressive.  It becomes clear pretty quickly that the kids receive some training in the art of selling to tourists, each one running through the exact same sales pitch trying to encourage you to part with some cash.  These kids are so smart too.  If the initial sales pitch doesn't go well they ask where you're from.  Once they know they start to rattle off facts about your country - current president/PM, total population, capital city, last year's GDP - they know more about where you live than you probably do!

We would see the same kids over and over again and would try to make them smile and have some fun with them.  Our favorite little guy was called "Pop".  He had a great personality, gregarious and very smart.  He would hang out with us for a bit each day when he would come by selling books.  On our last day in Phnom Penh he gave all the girls hugs, you could literally see Courtney's heart melting.

Lee and Pop

Although the children selling things was pretty sad, we saw some genuinely happy sights.  There seemed to be a lot of young babies all over the place in PP and parents weren't too concerned about putting any clothes on them either!  Not surprised really, it was so hot when we were there.  Everywhere we'd go we'd see little babies without a stitch on, running around with big smiles on their faces, having the time of their lives!  "Oh my God!  That baby is sooooo cute!!" was heard on more than a couple of occasions.

The mystery we never quite got to the bottom of in PP was why a not insignificant number of people were out and about at any given time of the day, fully decked out in flannel pajamas!  Those things are hot even when it's minus 3 outside and you're on top of the covers with the AC on so wearing them while sweeping the sidewalk in 40 degree heat must be murder!

 A particularly fetching set of PJs on the back of a motorbike