The final score: Countries: 11 Time gone: 119 days Pictures: 2500 Sicknesses: 3 (one cold each and Yuri's moonshine "bug") Lost: an adapter for our ipod and palm pilot: $40 a pair of Sarah's shoes: $80 a pair of Yuri's shoes: $80 four pairs of Sarah's underwear: $40 a water bottle: $8 a jacket: $40 shamy: $10 Gained: friends from around the world: priceless experiences from around the world: priceless knowledge from many people that know much more than us: priceless the trip of a lifetime: PRICELESS! Thank you for taking the time to read our stories and share this experience [View Full Entry]

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And by them I mean my underwater world friends! From Chiang Mai we took a flight to Phuket. A representative from our dive company picked us up and delivered us to the dive shop to get our equipment. From there they drove us to the boat which was back north PAST the airport. It would have been much more pleasant if they could have just brought our dive equipment to us! During the drive we had a brief glimpse of Patong Beach and I think we were all happy that we would not be spending much time there. It looked like [View Full Entry]

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My dad flew from New Mexico to meet us for our Thailand portion of the trip. Unfortunately, our airplane was deemed unsafe to fly in (mind you this was after spending the night in the Bombay airport) so we were REALLY late meeting him. I was surprised that we made it that same day at all. They ended up just taking us off of our broken airplane and walking us across the tarmac to another airplane. It baffled me that they had another airplane just sitting around that they could use! Walking through the Bangkok airport, after being in India for [View Full Entry]

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There are no straight flights from Cochin to Goa so we had to go back up through Bombay. We had a short layover though. Goa is known for its beaches and having been "invaded" by Western hippies in the 60's and 70's. Let me tell you, some of them have never left and some of them are going back! We even had a few gray, long hair to the butt, friends on our flight. Good for them! (: We weren't in Goa for long so we didn't have many plans. Our only real goal was to see these amazing beaches. So [View Full Entry]

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After our terrible stay in Kolkata, we made our way down to Cochin via the Bombay airport. After yet another hair-raising taxi ride we made our way to a smaller town called Alleppey nestled in the backwaters of Kerala. Our taxi driver didn't know where our hotel was so he pulled over to the side of the road and called them to get directions using his own cell phone! We were consistently baffled and pleased by how out of the way people were willing to go to help us. We found our hotel in the trusty Lonely Planet book and the [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone. As most of you know, we are now home in sunny California. However, I would like to have you complete the journey with us so you will continue to get blog updates until you are home too!! Thanks for reading! We left a very cold Leh early in the morning. The procedures for leaving that area were very similar to arriving. We had to check our bags and then identify them again on the other side. Just as with the flight here, we were not allowed to have a carry-on but we were allowed to carry a book on! [View Full Entry]

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I would first like to start out by giving Yuri credit for the title (: After Delhi we headed very far North to a very different part of India! My dad had traveled here in the 90’s and suggested that we go as well! Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:50 am. We were SHOCKED at how many people were at the airport at 4:30!! I’m not sure why, but most of our flights in India left very early in the morning. We have red eyes, they have “too early” flights! We went through all of the normal check in [View Full Entry]

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Namaste is Hello and Good-bye in Hindi! We spent our last night in Europe in Paris. You are probably thinking “Oh, how romantic” right? Not so much. Yuri was really sick and we had to do laundry in a Parisian laundromat. That’s a travel experience all by itself. You NEVER know what you are going to see! Anyhow, the point is that I spent most of my time in Paris wondering if I was mentally and physically ready to conquer India. I know several people that have been there and the general description is “You just have to experience it. There [View Full Entry]

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I have always wanted to go to Switzerland so that’s where we headed after Italy. It was another very long day of traveling but we made it to Interlaken by 7 pm! We got lucky with the terrible hotel search and someone helped us find it! It was this great little Swiss chalet looking place. I was so excited to be there! Ha, and we thought London was expensive! We had to rub our eyes to make sure we were seeing the menu correctly that evening at dinner. Really over ten dollars for a cup of soup and over 20 for [View Full Entry]

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We couldn’t get enough of Italy so we decided to explore even more after mom left. From Rome we headed down to Naples and then onto a smaller town called Sorrento. On our way we met a great couple from New Jersey and another woman that lived in Santa Fe, NM for 30 years. She knew my elementary school! Small world! Sorrento was this fantastic, little (very touristy) Italian town. It was basically our home base for exploring Pompeii and what we hoped would be the best pizza in the world. After all, Naples is the home of pizza so we [View Full Entry]

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