The final countdown...

Wow
Hi Sophie and Dale Well, what can I say, from your blogs it looks like you have had the most amazing time away. Am definately going to miss reading the latest instalments, and will definately be looking back on your blogs for advice on all the places I will be visiting! Its pretty cold and miserable here in England, as youve probably noticed :-) Am sure you will take a while to aclimatise, thanks for keeping my occupied at work all this time! Vicki

I've enjoyed your blog and pics for some time now over the winter months here in Blighty. It gave me fond memmories of my trip a couple of years back. like you said coming home is like another stop on the ittinery, its just that you'll have to stop over a little longer untill the next destination this time. Welcome home and Cheers! mytb.org/paul-and-emma

So long, farewell....
Ah guys, nice last blog. I can't believe your journey has come to an end. We have loved every blog and every photo and even look back now and again for advice. For all the time Dee and I have been away, you guys have just been over in another country.......now we are out here all on our own!! Loving the UK Lonely Planet idea......we have spoken about the fact we never explore our home country loads , good plan. Good luck finding jobs, cars etc. Lots of Love Holly and Dee - who miss you loads!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wow! What a trip!
I enjoyed reading your blogs and am sorry to see them end for awhile. I went to school in Dalat and the Cameron Highlands, so appreciated your impressions. I tend to take shorter trips to various regions (e.g. you can read my travelblogs of my trip last summer where I took three weeks for China (where I took my Mom to west China where she lived in 1949), Thailand (including Railay Beach), and Vietnam (including back to my old school at Dalat). My next priorities are South America and Australia and New Zealand. However, I have dreamed of taking round the world trip following much the same itinerary as yours...South America, New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, but then to Africa (I hated India), before returning to the U.S. My question is: Could you have done your trip in half the time (or less) by taking direct routes (e.g., stopping in Indonesia on the way to Singapore and not backtracking so much), and eliminating duplication (e.g., just going to where the best beaches are, or going to see the orangutans in Borneo instead of also Sumatra). And by doing so and having the funds saved, would you have preferred to have spent a bit more money for transportation or lodging in certain places (e.g., renting a jeep in Bali to get around, or flying from Bangkok to Krabi on Air Asia for peanuts rather than taking all night busses), or spent time in India as you originally planned. If you were to do the trip again, or recomend a route for someone like me, what would you do differently? And what would you budget? Hopefully you can cover this in your end of trip blog.

''It doesn't have much culture left as it's has all been swallowed up in the quest to live in a 'please everyone' environment'' Better than the bad old days, of pleasing only the small percentage who were the aristrocacy. If you could get your wish, and preserve English culture at any period in history you want, which would you choose. If you choose 2000 years ago, then Hail Ceasar, crusifixations on the left, and probably on the right too. ;)