Day 341- HOME!

BACK HOME TO ENGLAND! (08/12/09)

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Click on the 'view my profile' link and then the map in the new window to view an interactive map of our whole trip from start to finish.

So the Big Trip is finally over after 341 days ( we did say 365ish days!) and it has been amazing. As we explained in the previous post it finally got a bit much right at the end but that certainly did not detract from the overall experience. Our favourite bit? Hard to say with so many fantastic adventures although we both agree that the Galapagos Islands were particularly special. Worst experience? Liz would say being stranded in the Atacama Desert for 8 hours at -5°C; Adam would say people trying to rip him off in general.

Anyway it is certainly a trip we will both remember for the rest of our lives and we feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to undertake such an incredible journey.

Thanks to everyone who followed and commented on the blog, we nearly gave up on it a couple of times but everyone's enthusiasm kept us going.

Thanks again and until the next big trip (Africa?!)

GOODBYE!

Days 336-340 - Bangkok, Thailand

BANGKOK (03/12/09 - 07/12/09)

On arrival into Bangkok from Singapore we had already decided to cut our trip short by a couple of weeks. A combination of factors had led to this decision including: extreme difficulties in booking accommodation for our last few weeks; frustration with people trying to rip us off hundreds of times a day; the limited amount and variety of veggie food; wanting to see our families for Christmas... the list goes on. These were by no means new problems and we had probably dealt with far worse during the course of our trip. What it really came down to was that we were both exhausted and it was time to go home. Travelling, as anyone who has done it for an extended length of time will know, is not like an ordinary holiday. Constantly organising transport, food and a bed for the night and never having a consistent base is very draining. Please don't think we are complaining, we both know how lucky we have been to be able to do what we have done and we have had a truly amazing adventure, we were just tired and both happy to return home a little early.

Anyway we decided to spend our last few days getting Christmas presents, mostly from the quite staggeringly huge Chatuchak Market. There are in the region of 15,000 stalls in the market selling virtually everything you can imagine. We spent two full days there and could not have seen it all. These Buddhist Monks were accepting charitable donations from the stall holders, presumably in exchange for their blessings to bring in large numbers of stupid tourists to pay their vastly exaggerated prices without arguing.

As expected in Bangkok there were large numbers of Tuk-tuks around. We decided to use metered taxis instead since most tuk-tuk drivers offer you an extremely low fare but will only take you via their friends shop or tour office, losing you at least a couple of hours out of your day.

Boxes of miniature fried Quail's eggs!

We decided sight-seeing in Bangkok could wait for another trip, although we did stop to have a look at this spectacular gold temple just around the corner from our hotel.

As we have already explained we were extremely exhausted by this point. Certainly not unhappy we spent our time, when not shopping, relaxing and finding as many cold drinks and shady spots as possible to cool ourselves from the blistering sun.

Day 335- Singapore

RAFFLES HOTEL AND SINGAPORE MARINA (02/12/09)

One of the most famous hotels in the World and certainly the most famous in Singapore- Raffles. Not looking quite as swish as the hotel guests we were somewhat surprised that we were allowed in to have a look around before realising that the majority of the hotel is intended for visiting tourists with shops, restaurants and cafes.

As a special treat and to remind ourselves that we are English (don't you know!) we took afternoon tea and scones in the Raffles Tea Rooms. Behind the camera Adam is wearing a tux, honest!

After our delicious scones we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around by the Marina, including a visit to the bizarrely popular Mer-Lion giant fountain.