International Hello! tour gets the big International Goodbye: My trip in numbers (and other vague expressions of quantity...)

Total time spent without a real job: 355 days of irresponsibility!

Itinerary: Ghana (September-November 2005), France (November-December 2005), New Jersey-Virginia-Illinois (January 2006), Paris & Amsterdam (February 2006), Guatemala (February - May 2006), Honduras (May 2006), China-Myanmar-Cambodia-Malaysia-Singapore (June-August 2006)

Countries Visited for more than 24 hours: 10
Ghana, France, the Netherlands, Guatemala, Honduras, China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore

Total who where lucky/unfortunate enough to have my feet touch their soil: 14
above, plus Nigeria, Germany, Canada, Thailand

Languages spoken: English, French, Spanish, German, Mandarin (all rather shoddily...)

Random phrases learned (and largely forgotten) in: Twi (Ghana), Larabangese (Ghana), Myanmar/Burmese (Myanmar), Khmer (Cambodia)


MOOLA

Currencies used: 11
Cedis (Ghana), Euros (France, Netherlands), Quetzales (Guatemala), Lempiras (Honduras), Renminbi (China), Kyats (Myanmar), Riels (Cambodia), Bahts (Thailand), Ringgits (Malaysia), Singapore dollars (Singapore), US dollars (everywhere!)

Daily budget: US$10-15

Most expensive country: France

Least expensive country: Myanmar

Cheapest pleasures: Street food (US$0.10 - 0.25)

Biggest splurges*: Open Water Scuba Certification In Honduras (US$280), French language school (let's not talk about that...)

* I'm assuming that I can't count air tickets here...or this whole trip for that matter! :)


BY AIR, LAND, AND SEA (and many a dirt path/road)

Total distance flown: 54,954 miles (88,421 kilometers)

Total distance traveled (air, land, sea): er...more than 54,954 miles?

Airports visited: 14

Longest voluntary layover: 9 hours at Frankfurt International (Germany)

Longest involuntary layover: 6 hours on an (allegedly!) nearly derailed train (Malaysia)

Favorite airports: Siem Reap International (Cambodia) and Hong Kong International (China)

"Hmm, I expected more" airport: Changi International (Singapore)

Airport most like a mall: Bangkok International (Thailand)
The old Bangkok airport (not the new one, which is apparently very airport-like)

Airport with most Speed-like transportation: Kotoka International (Ghana)

Modes of transportation used: 11
planes, trains (steam locomotives, MagLev, subways), automobiles (taxis, bus, minibus, sleeper bus, pick-up truck), boats (large and small motors, sail, row), tuk-tuk (motorcycle taxi), motorcycle, bicycle (well, attempted...otherwise, I just rode on the back of my friend's bike!), trishaw (bicycle taxi), horse carriage, ox cart, good ol' fashioned walking!

Longest continuous trip by vehicle: 28 hours by train from Shanghai to Guilin (China) (about 800 miles or 1,287 km)

Longest continuous trip trip by foot: 3 days from Kalaw to Inle Lake (Myanmar) (about 37.3 miles or 60 km)

Most luxurious trip: 14-hour business class flight from Hong Kong to Chicago (about 7,791 mi or 12,538 km) Yeah, upgrade!


MY SOLE PURPOSE FOR LIVING: FOOD & DRINK

Times McDonalds eaten: 1 (China)

Times KFC eaten: 1 (China)

Poshest meal (by local standards): Fancy, gentrified version of traditional Myanmar meal at a posh restaurant in Mandalay (US$8)

Best food countries: Singapore, China

Unforgettable meals (not necessarily fancy but maybe I was just really hungry and/or they were just extra good!): Across-the-bridge noodles (Guoqiao mixian) in Kunming (China), homemade food during my Shan country trek (Myanmar), Chicken biriyani and Star Cola in Yangon (Myanmar), Chili crab at Jumbo's (Singapore)

Most international foods: fried chicken, fried rice, "Chinese" food

Weirdest food/snack eaten: fried sparrow on a stick (Shanghai, China)

Weirdest food/snack I wish I had eaten: fried crickets (Cambodia)

Best international fast food: kebabs and fries (France; tip: the closer the kebab stand to a shady place, like, say, a XXX porno theater, the better the kebab!), crêpes (France), Pollo Campero fried chicken (Guatemala)

Best drink discovery: Fresh lime juice (Myanmar)

Best food discovery: Everything! (Everywhere!)

Tummy problems from local food: amazingly, ZERO!!!


KEEPING CLEAN AND CLEAR

Longest time between showers: 4 days

I ♥ bucket showers: Rural Ghana

Cleanest developing world toilets: Myanmar

Nastiest developing world toilets: China

Number of countries where I got sick: 2 (weird virus things in Ghana and Guatemala)

Best friend when sick: ciprofloxacin

Sickest (as in being ill, not "sick" as in "cool") moment : Coming down with mysterious virus in rural Ghana and having doctor in Accra worry over a period of days whether I would live or not. Fun!


BEST/WORST - MOST/LEAST - FAVORITES & MISCELLANY!

Most beautiful nature: Guatemala, Yunnan Province (China)

Extra points for fascinating indigenous culture: Guatemala

Best rice paddies: Myanmar

Best shopping: Singapore

Friendliest people: Myanmar

Best words learned: "gooder", "ecotourism", various Spanish curses and football chants (same thing, really!)

Weird habits picked up: Touching left hand to right elbow when giving/receiving stuff (Myanmar), throwing used toilet paper in a trashbasket instead of the toilet (Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia)

Most common question asked all year: "Are you from China (Japan / Korea)?"

Best question asked all year: "What is the meaning of life?" (student in Mandalay English class)

Worst question asked all year: "Are you married?" / "Do you have a boyfriend?" (random men and women everywhere)

Most marriage proposals: Ghana (3)

Most attempted pick-ups by monks: Myanmar (2)

Most people waiting to scam you: China (∞)

Most kids waiting to scam you: Cambodia (∞+1)

Nicest law enforcement dudes encountered: Police Officers in Kunming (China), Chinese border patrol between Jiegao and Mu-Se (China and Myanmar)

Favorite subset of the local population: Trishaw drivers of Mandalay

Most awesome manmade wonders: Tikal (Guatemala), Angkor (Cambodia), Eiffel Tower (France), Shwedagon Pagoda (Myanmar)

Most awesome natural sites: Karst mountains in Yangshuo (China), Lake Atitlan (Guatemala), Semuc Champey (Guatemala), Coral reefs of Redang (Malaysia)

Most outdoor fun: Climbing Tajumulco (Guatemala), canoeing in a mangrove forest in Cuero y Salado (Honduras), hiking in Shan Country (Myanmar), creeping across the 40m tall rainforest canopy bridge in Kakum National Park (Ghana), anything scuba related! :)

Favorite travel activities: Scuba diving, sunset chasing, finding the local Chinatown (or Chinese restaurant), trying the local cuisine, chatting with locals, climbing stuff (cathedrals, temples, volcanoes)

Least favorite travel activities: Venturing into a random rural roadside toilet, battling mosquitoes, encountering poverty and inequality (boo!)

Useful skills learned: Packing lightly, living out of a backpack, having no shame in asking for directions, rationing water, responding "yes" quickly and convincingly to all questions sounding like "Are you married?" and "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Useful skills that Americans have unlearned (as observed by YuhChic): Fixing stuff instead of throwing away and buying a new one; preserving natural resources; appreciating the simplicity of life

Bane of the developing world: Plastic bags and bottles littered everywhere (I'm convinced!)

Best Museum/Zoo/Cultural-type thingies: Cape Coast Castle (Ghana), Musée D'Orsay (France), Musée de Petit Palais Quentin Blake exhibit! (France), VanGogh Museum (the Netherlands), Rijksmuseum (the Netherlands), Underwater World (Singapore)

Unexpectedly awesome sites: Old British colonial buildings in Pyin U Lwin and Yangon (Myanmar)

Most anti-climatic site: Musée de Louvre (Paris)

Favorite big cities: Paris (France), Mandalay (Myanmar), Singapore

Favorite smallish cities/biggish towns: Quetzaltenango (Guatemala), Antigua (Guatemala), Pyin U Lwin (Myanmar), Yangshuo (China)

Favorite one-horse towns: Tornabé (Honduras), San Pedro La Laguna (Guatemala), Hsipaw (Myanmar)

Least favorite ("Get me the hell outta here!") cities: Guatemala "You're going to get raped!" City (Guatemala), San Pedro (Honduras)

Great feats in urban planning: Shanghai (China)

"Could you please hire an urban planner?": Accra (Ghana)

Favorite country: Myanmar and Guatemala (tie)

Least favorite country: A cruel and absolutely unanswerable question!

High points of the year: Oh, gee...so many! Er, the whole year?

Low points: camera and memory card stolen (China), I-Pod broken in the middle of rural province (China), spending the day in the pediatric ward of a rural hospital in Africa (Ghana - saaaadness), realizing that you've fallen in love with the world and have to leave it for steeenkin' grad school! (boo...)

Number of friends made: Lots...

Number of smiles received: Many...

Number of smiles given: Even more!

Number of pictures taken: ∞

Number of memories collected: ∞+1

Number of regrets: 0

Best thing I did all year: this entire trip!

Best thing I've done with my life so far: this entire trip! :)


Thanks for allowing me to share this whole experience with you!


"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

~T.S. Eliot ~