It feels like ages ago that we sat in a beer hall in Zagreb with our Couchsurfing host, Tanja, talking about how much we love Croatia and could live there. We never wanted to leave. Africa and India seemed like years away, and now both are already behind us. It’s sad for us to think that in mere months our grand adventure will be spoken about in the past tense. Can’t we continue on for a little longer? We’re looking for a way.
In the meantime, we’re still excited to celebrate our nine-month travelversary since it means we’ve had so many great experiences since getting married just one year ago on 3/3/12! Yes, you read that right. We are celebrating not one but two anniversaries. This calls for a celebratory beer and an upgrade to a room with AC! Ah, the little things that make long-term travelers happy. 🙂
While we celebrate, enjoy our latest stats:
Time we’ve been gone: 274 days (June 6, 2012 – March 6, 2013)
Countries we’ve visited: 21 (Iceland, Finland, Russia, Turkey, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, India, Singapore, Malaysia)
Longest spent in one country: India, 72 days (Runner up: South Africa, 29 days)
Continents crossed: From North America to Europe, Africa and Asia
Icelandic puffin
Number of photos taken: 18,030
RTW video shot: 66 hours
Video with the most YouTube views: Up Close and Personal With Icelandic Puffins
Total amount spent on visas: $988.86
Most expensive visa: Russia
Least amount spent in a day: $4.59 (It’s true! We were Couchsurfing with Petra in South Africa. Based on our notes, it looks like the day before was when we cooked dinner, so we probably had leftovers that day. The $4.59 was our entrance fee to the Ditsong Museum of Natural History.)
Least amount spent on accommodations: $5 each in Alleppey, India
Highest amount spent on accommodations: $46.25 each in Reykjavik, Iceland
Most expensive splurge activity: Cage diving with great white sharks
Least credit card-friendly countries where cash is king: Morocco and India
Bouts of severe food poisoning: 2 each (in India)
Number if doctor visits: 2 each: 1) to the hospital for a malaria test (Bikaner, India) and 2) to the dentist for a teeth cleaning (Goa, India)
Postcards!
Equipment malfunction: The zoom on our camera lens broke. Replacement purchased in Mumbai, India.
“Tamed” wild animals we played with: cheetahs (in Namibia) and elephants (in India)
Longest Mike has grown his beard out: for 2.5 months
Approximate number of postcards mailed: 70
Approximate times we were told a postcard reached its destination: less than 15 (slackers!)
Best pre-departure creation: Two Travelaholics business cards. We’ve handed out a lot to people we’d like to keep in touch with.
Compare this to our three-month stats and six-months stats.
Wow. You keep great records.
If you saw the money tracker spreadsheet I keep you’d think someone was paying me to keep it. I’m pretty much an awesome bookkeeper thanks to you 🙂
I can’t believe it has already been more than 9 months since we got in touch at first and start talking and sharing thoughts about our future/imminent trips. Keep going guys! 🙂
Yesterday were 6 months of traveling for us 🙂
I know! Best time of our lives, right? 🙂 Congrats on your 6-month travelversary! Keep up the great posts. We’ll be living vicariously through you once we’re back home haha