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Combined Monthly Recaps – Year 1

I can’t believe its been a month already! We have done a lot of stuff and seen a lot of things already each month we will recap our stats and favorites.

Miles Traveled

  • Flown: 1949 mi  /  3118  km
  • Bused: 1087 mi  /  1739.9 km
  • Boat: 115.6 mi  /  185 km
  • Walked: 175.5 mi  /  280 km
  • Total: 3,327.1 mi  /  5323.4 km

Number of beds: 12

Beers Drank (Adam): 100

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 16

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA: 2

  • Lost – JawBone Pedometer/Sleep Tracker – Cost: $139 USD (ouch!)
  • Lost – Medium size bottle of Hand sanitizer – Cost: $0.99 USD

Best Of’s:

Best Beach:  Silk Cayes – Belize

Best Bar: Barefoot Beach Bar – Placencia, Belize

Best Beer: Moza Gold – Guatemala

Best Ice Cream: Tutti Frutti – Placencia, Belize

Cutest Kitty: The cats of Rubi’s Inn – Utila, Honduras

Best Dish: Guava Glazed Ribs – Hopkins Bay Resort – Hopkins Village, Belize

Best Sunset: Antigua, Guatemala – Volcan de Agua

I can’t believe it’s been 2 months already! We have done a lot of stuff and seen a lot of things already, each month we will recap our stats and favorites. Make sure to check out month 1 recap in case you missed it!

Miles Traveled

month map aug 13

  • Flown: 337 mi  /  542  km
  • Bused: 697 mi  /  1115.9 km
  • Boat: 15 mi  /  24 km
  • Walked: 162.8  mi  / 262  km
  • Total:  1,211.8 mi  / 1,943.9   km

Money Spent: $1,864.67 This is the amount spent on credit cards for the month, and ATM withdrawals through the end of the month.  We are averaging the conversion rate to a whole number example 8Q-$1 25C-$1 and not including ATM fees as we get those back thanks to our awesome bank!

Number of beds: 15 (including 2 floors on our trek)

Beers Drank (Adam): 77

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 15

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA:

Lost: 6 very expensive IB Profen pills (purchased in Guatemala), and Adam broke his only pair of size 15 sandals!!

Ditched: We sent all of this back home with our first visitor, cause we had WAY TOO MUCH STUFF! Full post to follow on what our new bags look like.

Best Of:

Best Beach:  Hermosa Beach, Nicaragua (The beach where Survivor Nicaragua was filmed)

Best Bar: Ocelot – Antigua, Guatemala

Best Beer: Gato Malo: Volcano Brewing Co. – Costa Rica

Best Ice Cream: Ice cream bar we had on 2-day of our 50km trek!

Cutest Kitty: This cat follow Hannah everywhere! At night she wanted to sleep with us too, she would sit outside the window and cry to come in.

Best Dish: Singapore chicken salad in Granada, Nicaragua

Best Sunset: San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua – On a Boat!

The month started in Tamarindo, Costa Rica and took us all the way to Salento, Colombia. Follow our route north to south on the map below, blue is by bus and, green by plane. We took a few boat day trips, but no major ship time this month.

3 month map

Miles Traveled

  • Flown: 768.8 mi  /  1230  km
  • Bused: 1108.2mi  /  1773.1 km
  • Boat: 70 mi  /  112 km
  • Walked: 172.91 mi / 276.65 km
  • Total:  2,119.91 mi  / 3,391.86 km

Money Spent: $5,095.59 This is the amount spent on credit cards for the month, and ATM withdrawals through the end of the month.  We are averaging the conversion rate to a whole number example 8Q-$1 25C-$1 and not including ATM fees as we get those back thanks to our awesome bank! This month was VERY high, due to us purchasing our flights from Asia to Africa ($1308), hotels in Cape Town for 2 weeks ($981), 3 flights within Asia ($295), flight from Cusco to Lima ($275) deposit on our campervan in New Zealand ($240).

Number of beds: 11 

Beers Drank (Adam): 94

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 23

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA: 1 cable lock

Ditched: Nothing, still working on that big list of stuff we ditched earlier in August & September!

Best Of:

Best Beach:  San Blas Islands, Panama

Best Bar: Tasty Waves Cantina, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Best Beer: La Rana Dorada Brewing Co.Porter – Panama City, Panama

Best Ice Cream: Cute old man with soy ice cream machine in Salento, Colombia.  This man was a salesman at heart.  Everyday, we would see him with a crowd of people around his ice cream station, and he was handing out his sample cups!

Cutest Kitty: I (Hannah) literally almost stole this cat right off of someone’s porch…….it was sooo cute and purring.  I think she wanted to be an American cat and was looking for an older sister AKA Tinkerbell!

Best Dish: Lucy’s in Salento, Colombia- For $3 you get a HUGE meal!  Your meal starts off with some tasty chicken soup, even though you have to BYO crackers…and for some reason, there is a whole banana served with your soup.  We always brought our banana back to the hostel. After you finish your soup, your plate comes which is complete with rice, your choice of meat (chicken breast, chorizo, or fish), salad, and choice of veggies or potatoes.  And like always a glass of fresh juice!  We ate at Lucy’s 3 times during our time in Salento.

Best Sunset: Salento, Colombia- Tim, the owner of our amazing hostel The Plantation House, has his house built just in the right spot for an amazing sunset! He invites all hostel guests to come up to his house to catch the view.

The ending of month 4 means our time in Latin America is up! Our time in Central America and South America are now over.  We survived 4 months in Spanish-speaking countries, and eat an unknown amount of rice & beans and pollo!  We are ready to change continents once again.

The month started in Salento, Colombia and ended in Lima, Peru. Follow our route north to south on the map below, blue is by bus and, green by plane. This month had some major ship time, we cruised through the Galapagos Islands for 6 nights/7 days.  Living on a boat was a new adventure from us.

4 month map

Miles Traveled

  • Flown: 7,564 mi  /  12,102.4  km
  • Bused: 318.75 mi  /  510 km
  • Boat: 352 mi  /   566.49 km
  • Train: 40 mi /  64.37 km
  • Walked: 155.65 mi / 250.59 km
  • Total:  8,430.40 mi  / 13,493.85 km

Money Spent: $5,786.70This is the amount spent on credit cards for the month, and ATM withdrawals through the end of the month.  We are averaging the conversion rate to a whole number example 8Q-$1 25C-$1 and not including ATM fees as we get those back thanks to our awesome bank! This month was VERY high, our Galapagos trip for flights/park entrance/tips was $1,325, purchased the new Go Pro $400, wide angle lens for our DSLR $627, new unlocked smartphone for Asia $100, new shoes NOTE never bring white Nike’s on 2 year trip $71, $439 on supplies bought back at home (jeans, hard drive, electric razor, hair, some food, etc) and purchased some other new supplies.

Number of beds: 9 

Beers Drank (Adam): 108

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 19

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA: Adam’s only long sleeve shirt

Ditched: Nothing, still working on that big list of stuff we ditched earlier in August & September!

Best Of:

Best Beach: The red sands of Rabita Island, Galapagos, Ecuador

Best Bar: Los Amigos, Salento Colombia

Best Dish: Burger at Los Perros in Cusco, Peru.  The burger was almost the size of Hannah’s head! Good thing we split it, it was worth the $9!!

Best Sunset: Cruising the Galapagos Islands we were treated with nightly sunsets!

Cutest Kitty: This month we have an exception…Tito wins the cutest cat, even though he is obviously a dog.  We spent 5 nights with Tito at Hostal Wara Wara in Cusco.  Tito was a great treat to have at the hostel, he liked to sit by my feet as I worked on the blog.  Never heard him bark, except once when a guest accidentally stepped on his paw!  I miss him already!

Best Beer: Bogota Brewing Company, a local microbrewery had several of Adam’s favorite style’s of beer, their porter was his favorite.

Best Ice Cream: Chocolate Brownie Fudge gelato at the grocery store in Lima, Peru…Sorry, the picture is missing I inhaled it every time I forgot to get the photos!

The ending of month 5 means our time in Fiji is up, and were almost finished with New Zealand!

The month started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA and ended in New Zealand. Follow our route on the map below.

month 5 map final

Miles Traveled

  • Flown: 9,524.3 Miles (15,238.9 Km)
  • Bused / Campervaned: 2021.75 Miles (3234.8 Km)
  • Boat: 73.4 Miles (117.4 Km)
  • Train: 0 Miles
  • Walked:94.4
  • Total: 11,713.85 Miles (18,712.16km)

Money Spent: $6,958.66 This is the amount spent on credit cards for the month, and ATM withdrawals through the end of the month. We are averaging the conversion rate to a whole number example 8Q-$1 25C-$1 and not including ATM fees as we get those back thanks to our awesome bank! This number makes me sick! This was the most expensive month we have had to date! This month was VERY high, Fiji and New Zealand were much more expensive than our last few countries we traveled to.  We also bought a few other expensive items: $3,565 in Fiji roughly, $365 flights from Philippines to Vietnam in February, $80 cut/color for Hannah back at home, $161 fees for our flight home, $753 camper van rental fees, $80 Amazon prime membership, $105 new hard drive, $1,610 in New Zealand food/gas, $53 monthly adobe software fee, $72 lens filter/shorts/laptop sleeve, $24 expensive face wash, and few other odds and ends.  But as you can see it all adds up REALLY quick!

Number of beds: 3 beds, 1 airport floor, 1 airplane, and 14 nights in a campervan  

Beers Drank (Adam): 45, his consumption was way down due to the cost of beer but you will see Hannah made up for it with her Ice cream consumption

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 25, I would like to thank McDonald’s for having 50 cent cones, and Fiji for 60 cent scoops!

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA: nothing


Best Of Month 5:

Best Beach: Suntan Beach, Yasawa Islands Fiji only above water for an hour or two at low tide!

Best Bar: 1867 Queenstown, New Zealand $3.50 pints of beers at Happy Hour

Best Beer: Macs Black Beer, New Zealand

Best Ice Cream: Maria at Coralview Resort, the friendliest lady always serving me ice cream with a smile

Cutest Cat: Tinkerbell, got to see my baby when we were home for 3 days!

Best Dish: Cheese platter on our wine tour in Queenstown, New Zealand

Best Sunset: Yasawa Island, Fiji

The ending of month 6 means our time in Oceania is up, and we’ve moved onto Asia!

The month started in New Zealand and ended in Cambodia. Follow our route on the map below.

6 Month Recap map

Miles Traveled

  •  Flown: 9,489 Miles (15,182.4 Km)
  • Bused: 97.9 Miles (156.6 Km)
  • Boat: 63 Miles (100.8 Km)
  • Walked: 142.8 Miles (228.48 Km)
  • Total Miles: 9,792.7 Miles (15,668.2 Km)

Money Spent: $6,384.01

Before your jaw hits the floor let me explain a little! Another expensive month in the books, but it was one we expected to be.  We always new Australia wouldn’t be nice on our wallets, and with family visiting, we didn’t quite stick to our Asia budget.  But we wouldn’t have done it any different!

We had to renew our travel insurance which was $772, money spent while in Australia was over $2150, $160 on our last night in New Zealand and top off peaches with some gas, $1500 on Christmas gifts to ourselves (new lens, new unlocked Samsung Note 2, swimsuits HANNAH, sandals, etc), $1300 in atm withdrawals while in Thailand, $200 Cambodia atm to ensure we had a great New Years Eve and $280 in Malaysia where we only had a 20 hour layover but now have extra cash when we return. We hope the next few months here in Asia are well under $2,000 a month, fingers crossed.

Number of Beds slept in: 1 campervan, 1 airplane, and 11 beds

Beers Drank Adam): 99, would have expected this number WAY lower do to the cost of beer in Australia.  Adam made up for the missing beers in Thailand, taking advantage of the much cheaper price! Plus he had a beer drinking buddy, my dad!

Ice Cream Cone Consumption Hannah): 29, ice cream cones were one of the ONLY things we could afford in Australia.  Therefore, we took well advantage of the 30 cent treats!

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA: nothing lost or MIA BUT we did get some nice Christmas gifts and I (Hannah) did some swapping out of clothes and bikinis!


Best of Month 6:

Best Beach: Whitehaven Beach, Australia

Best Ice Cream: McDonald’s $.30 Cones in Australia

Best Beer: House Cask Beer at Free House Bar – Nelson, South Island, NZ

Best Meal: Green Curry in Thailand

The ending of month 7 keeps us exploring Asia!  We have already made our way through Thailand, Cambodia, and still in Malaysia.

The month started in Cambodia and ended in Malaysia  We started the month exploring Angkor Wat, got bored in Kep Cambodia, caught crabs from a Cambodian woman, overheard an interesting boom-boom conversation in Phnom Penh Cambodia, got robbed in Kuala Lumpur, got bored in Langkawi Malaysia, and ended up in paradise aka Koh Lipe Thailand.  Follow our route on the map below.

7 month recap map

Miles Traveled

Flown: 929 miles/1,483.2km

Bused: 591.25 miles/946km

Boat: 104 miles/166.5km

Walked: 184.95 miles/295.92km,

Total Miles: 1809.20 miles/2,894.72km

Money Spent: $2,694.45

Remember last month how I said I didn’t want to spend over $2,000 this month.  WELL, that would have happened, BUT we reserved our rental car for our 4-week road trip in Europe for September.  We also decided to go a few more islands in the Philippines, and we purchased flights as opposed to signing ourselves up for the 8-12 hour boats (too many horror stories from other travelers).

Number of Beds slept in: 10 beds!!! This month no airplanes/airports/vehicles!

Beers Drank (Adam): 91, this number was influenced by the 50 cent beers in Cambodia and my father being with us for 4 days the month of January.  Alcohol prices in Malaysia are much higher, we have taken a pass on the beer for awhile.

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 25, once again we would like to thank Ronald McDonald for his 25-30 cent cones in Cambodia & Malaysia!

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA: Drain plug…yes a drain plug.  This is a crucial piece to us and our clothes not stinking, and now we somehow have to find one in a foreign country.  This should be VERY interesting!  Our first laundry fail happened in Malaysia, one of my favorite shirts was DESTROYED with bleach.  Post to come!

Best of Month 7

Best Beach: Sunrise Beach Koh Lipe, Thailand

Best Ice Cream: Some crazy street stall ice cream in Penang, Malaysia! It had shaved ice, red beans, green jelly like spaghetti, kinda tasted like Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal when you ate it all together.

Best Beer: Lion Imperial Stout –  found in Langkawi, Malaysia (brewed in Sri Lanka) Deliciously strong at 8.8% ABV, sweet stout with a hint of roastyness.

Best Dish: Sunrise Restaurant on Sunrise Beach in Koh Lipe, Thailand. They make probably the BEST curries I have ever had, and not a bad view! Hannah loved their red Penang curry, which is like the baby between the green and red curries. Penang curry has the red tomato base, but with the lime leaf and basil of the green, its the best of both worlds. We ate here daily, curries for breakfast, Papaya salads for lunch, we even had curry over fried eggs. Amazing food for $3, with this view…….

Cutest Cat: This cute kitten welcomed us & said goodbye to us in Koh Lipe, Thailand.  Immigration happened to be at a bar where this cutie lived.  We got to play for an hour while I waited for my passport to get stamped.

Best Bar: Forgot the name, but it had the cutest little bartender!  It was on walking street in Koh Lipe, Thailand. This is her seat in the bar! The real bartenders/owners are a Spanish and Thai couple who cook up a tasty backpacker meal for 100 Baht. Drinks are reasonable, and the owners are talkative and friendly. Look for the yellow bar with the dog behind it, and have a drink!

We did a good amount of moving this month hitting 8 cities, and 2 of them twice (Kuala Lumpur and Phnom Penh).  Also somehow we ended up back in Thailand, but oooo was it worth it!  Our next stop, the Philippines!

Month 8 Recap of our RTW

 Month 8 has our bums in beach most of the time as keeps us exploring Asia!  We have already made our way through Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and now onto the Philippines.

The month started back in Kuala Lumpur where we have a little bit of rough history, it’s where we got robbed in Kuala Lumpur.  We moved onto the Philippines, we started off in Manila where Adam ate the infamous balot egg! We spent 23 days bouncing around 3 different islands. On the last day of February, we started our journey to Vietnam! Follow our route on the map below.

Recap Maps final

Miles Traveled

Flown: 3735.17miles/5,976.27km

Bused: 409.95miles/655.92km

Boat: 1.25 miles/2km real short ride to Boracay

Walked: 150.76 miles/241.22km, Jawbone recorded 74.76miles
in the first 9 days of February.  The other 19 days we estimated 4 miles a day.

Total Miles: 4297.13miles/6875.41km

Money Spent: $3,262.88

I keep saying we are going to have a month under $2,000 but once again that didn’t happen.  This month was higher due to a few larger purchases: $926 flights from Africa to Europe at the end of June, Adam got advanced open water dive certified $345, bought our flights from Morocco to Turkey (we won’t be allowed back into EU until 2015) since we can’t go via boat to Spain $369, flights from Germany to Italy in July $158, $150 on camera items needed for Africa (tripod/accessories), and about $40 for a new Otterbox & battery for the replaced phone.

Number of Beds slept in: 10 beds, which was more than necessary.  Our Manila-Coron got canceled so we had to spend an extra night in Manila (airline put us up), and in Coron we slept on 3 different beds.  We can blame a nasty bucket flush toilet for 1 change, and the noisy security guards for another, and finally ended at amazing QUIET hotel with a proper flushing toilet.

Beers Drank (Adam): 72 Beer was priced right, could be found for 75 cents at happy hours! But Adam always had a slight cold, and with diving he didn’t indulge in the cheap beers too much.

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 21, I found my friend Ronald on the beach in Boracay so I did visit him daily…

Items lost, ditched, or other wise MIA: I had a SMALL mishap on the bus from Penang to Kuala Lumpur.  Yes, another bad thing in KL. When boarding the bus there was no room above my head for my day-pack, so I put a few seats back.  5 hours later we were being rushed off the bus as we had arrived, and you I bet can guess it… I forgot the bag, and I realized it as it was turning the corner.  I got a hold of the bus company and driver, but after speaking with our hotel they said it was 1.5 train ride away and then a taxi to get to the bus office where my bag was.  They also informed me if anything valuable in the bag it might not be there.  So we decided to let it ago.  Recap of what was lost: RayBan sunglasses ($100), water dry bag ($30), 3 books we hadn’t finished reading, umbrella, my new favorite pants from Cambodia, lip gloss, emergency pack with band-aids/antibiotic/etc. We are over it.

The worse thing is my Jawbone got fired on Boracay. Not sure what happen, all of a sudden it kept vibrating on my wrist and then nothing. So for this month we will have to estimate our walking distance as it broke February 11th.

Best of Month 8

Best Beach: Malcapuya Beach Coron, Philippines

Best Ice Cream: Nothing picture worthly I wish we had a picture of my face when I bit into my Ice Cream cone that had chunks of what I believe to be Kraft singles (highly processed cheese). When asking the ice cream lady her flavors we both thought we heard cheese, we repeated cheese?!? And then she says “no no vanilla” well she sure fooled us. 

Best Beer: San Miguel Pale Pilsen, which oddly enough is the cheapest beer

Best Dish: Pork tocino, eggs & garlic rice for breakfast at Corto del Mar in Coron, Philippines

Cutest Cat: Not many cat sighting’s this month, but I still remember seeing this little girl and her white kitty in the slum known as Smokey Mountain right outside of Manila, Philippines. The white cat was a huge contrast against her dirty face dirty with charcoal.  

 Best Bar: Pat’s Bar on White Beach in Boracay had 2 beers for 70Pesos (1.75USD) from 4-8pm and 3 rum & cokes for 120Pesos

Month 9 started in Vietnam and barely ending in Chiang Mai Thailand. We arrived into Chiang Mai with 6 hours left in the month, but we will be staying here for 23 days in an apartment!  Overall 25 days were spent in Vietnam, 5.5 days Laos in which 2 were spent on a boat making our way to Thailand.

The month started back in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where we spent the week exploring & trying not to get run over by motorbikes. We didn’t know what to expect in Vietnam, and we learned a lot (I bet you didn’t know these 10 things about Vietnam). We spent a total of 25 days in Vietnam, we headed north stopping in Hue, Hoi An, Sapa, and Hanoi. The highlight being Hoi An, we miss it already, and would spend most of our time here on a future visit. Posts to come on all cities.

We made the decision to fly to Laos, as opposed to 30+ hour bus. We had heard nothing but horror stories about the roads & busing in Laos. We opted for the $171 flight from Hanoi to Luang Prabang, this was 3x the price of the bus, BUT only a 1-hour flight.  We 4 spent nights in Luang Prabang before starting our 3-day journey to Chiang Mai. The trip would take 3 full days, 2 days which are spent on a 100ft wooden boat for 9 hours a day, and then 8-hour tuk-tuk/mini-van/shuttle/taxi adventure to Chiang Mai from the boarder. It was a never ending trip, I can say I have been on the Mekong River, but next time I will fly.  Month 10 has us staying here in Chiang Mai where we will be based for the next 3 weeks.

Vietnam Map Recap

Miles Traveled

Flown: 1009 miles/1,614.4km

Bused: 396.88miles/635km

Boat: 378.75miles/606km

Train: 451.75 miles/722.8km

Walked: 182.43 miles/291.88km

Total Miles: 2418.94 miles/3870.08 km

Money Spent: $8,135.80

Yep, it happened again..another painful month. Biggest expenses being: 0ur local payment for our upcoming African Safari was due, which was $4550+, purchased flights to my cousin’s wedding in Latvia $600, Laos flights $340, Vietnam flights $200, and decided to go to TBEX in Athens Greece $200 flights.

Number of Beds slept in: 11 beds, two beds were on a train to Sapa, four nights being 1-night stays, which are always more than frustrating.

Beers Drank (Adam): 128, Gonna have to blame Hoi An for being so awesome and having 15 cent, yes 15 cent, or 3000 dong for fresh draft beers. 

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 25, Had plenty of KFC/Burger King cheap cones and a few Magnum bars this month.

Items lost, ditched, or other wise MIA: Just some more stupidity… Losing items again this month. We got out of a cab too fast at Ho Chi Minh City airport and forgot plastic bag with a few small souvenirs approx $15 worth, and just yesterday a plastic bag with water & coke for the 8-hour minibus ride.

Best of Month 9

Best Beach: No beaches this month, yes it’s true.

Best Ice Cream: Chocolate Chip gelato in Hoi An, Vietnam at The Fresh Market (across the river)

Best Beer: Beer Lao Dark

Best Dish: It’s hard to pick one, when you get this whole table of food for $5.50  at Cafe 43 Hoi An, Vietnam. Pictured is fried wontons, white rose  (shrimp), and  cao lau. 

Cutest Cat: I found the cutest pack of kitten’s on our lunch stop on our way to Chiang Mai from Laos. I skipped lunch and played with these cuties for 30 minutes, talk about a happy cat lady!

 Best Bar: Cafe 43 Hoi An, Vietnam had tasty 15 cent drafts, free Wi-Fi, amazing food, and good service WINNING!

Month 10 started in Chiang Mai Thailand, where we are living for 23 days in an apartment!  After 23 days in Chiang Mai, we headed back to Bangkok our favorite Asian city (big city) for 5 nights to buy all the supplies for our African Safari, a lovely 20 hour layover had us in Dubai for a night, and the month ended in Nairobi Kenya which happens to be the starting point for our 43 day safari.

Our time in Chiang Mai flew by so fast. We are so behind on the blog, you don’t even know how many blog posts we have yet to tell write and share with you. Sorry in advance, we are playing catch up here. It is hard work traveling full time and trying to run a website. We probably worked 10 hour days each during our time in Chiang Mai. We didn’t do 1 tourist thing, except maybe 2 days of Songkran. No like, not even one temple in was visited.

I celebrated my 30th birthday during Songkran, which was AMAZING! Only would have been better with some friends and family from home… Make sure to check out the birthday video Adam made me. No birthday is complete without a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, thankfully there was one less than a mile from our apartment. I also made time to get a few beauty treatments, I was well overdue for my blonde highlights so I got my hair did, saw the dentist for my 6-month checkup, ended up in the hospital to see a doctor, pedicures, and my few times a week Thai massages…

The best priced flights to Africa were out of Bangkok, which was perfect as it is one of our favorite cities. Here we had a long shopping list, as there were many things we needed for our African safari (sleeping bag, sleeping pad, warm clothes, batteries, goes on and on). We had 5 nights to shop,and get our fill on our favorite Thai foods before saying goodbye to Asia for at least 9 months.

Our journey to Africa took 3 flights, and 2 days. We had a 20 hour layover in Dubai, which was good as it was enough time to justify getting a hotel for the night. We got a good nights rest before our final flight. Landed in Nairobi Kenya at 730pm, and checked into our hotel little after 9pm. Month 11 will be all about exploring Africa, stay tuned.

Miles Traveled

Flown:  6795 miles/10,872 km

Taxi:   67.37 miles/107.8 km

Walked: 193.45 miles/ 309.52 km

Total Miles: 7055.82 miles/11,289.31 km

Month 10 Map

Money Spent: $6,454.23 BUT $2,150 of that was money taken out in Thailand in which we bought USD for our African Safari (need USD there), $600 paid for our rental car in Europe with Adam’s parents, $150 hotels in Europe, $100 got my hair colored, $65 doctor visit, $55 dentist visit, $112 gym membership in Chiang Mai for the month, $412 apartment for month, $112 electricity bill, $1629 was for supplies for Africa (New Camera lens $750, tons of spare batteries, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, warmer clothes, new duffel bags, you name it…). Next 2 months the spending should be minimal, fingers crossed.

Number of Beds slept in: 5

Beers Drank (Adam):  38, the lowest every BUT remember our time in Chiang Mai was all about catching up on the blog. Only drank for my 30th birthday, the first day of Songkran, met up with a high school friend of Adams, and a few here in there to beat the heat. 

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 28, keeping up with my dairy consumption via ice cream!

Items lost, ditched, or other wise MIA: Some where on our journey from Asia to Africa my cat necklace has been lost. I can only assume with all the bags we were carrying, and purse on my neck.

Best of Month 10

Best Beach: Does Songkran festival in Chiang Mai count?? I think so, because I was SOAKED!

Best Ice Cream: Dairy Queen ice cream cake

Best Beer: Only beer consumed was Chang…

Best Dish: You should have seen my face when I saw the restaurant 25 Degrees (up scale burger joint) pop up on my FourSquare app…This is one of my favorite burger places in all of the USA, they only have 4 locations and my luck BANGKOK is the newest one. So Adam and I settled in to a burger (had to share at $12 a piece), and luckily we went during happy hour for buy 1 get 1 on curly fries & onion rings. It was a pricey snack at $15 for both of us, but well worth it.

Cutest Cat: No cats this month, only a few street dogs near our apartment…which I wanted to rescue!

Best Bar & Sunset: Red Sky on the 55th floor in Bangkok

Month 11

Month 11 started in Nairobi Kenya, where we were preparing to leave for our 43 day Africa Safari!  We spent 5-days in Nairobi, but I’d say that was 4 to many… Then we were off on an adventure of a lifetime.

Our first stop on our safari was the Maasai Mara, where we were lucky to spot the big 5 within 2 days. I never expected to see so much in the first few days, next we were off to the Serengeti where I got my lion fill! After a few weeks of camping & game drives, I was ready for a few nights on the beaches in Zanzibar in a REAL bed.

We went from a nice beach resort to Malawi, which is now one of our favorite countries, but it’s a country that needs a lot of help… Our eyes were opened on a tour of the village, which brought us to a school without desks. We visited a local hospital in which we visited the HIV testing room complete (actually incomplete) without a ceiling and hand-drawn information posters. Malawi is a place that made us go WOW, and a place we plan on spending more time in.

Drove:  3250 miles/ 5200 km

Ferry: 90 miles/144 km from Dar es Salam, Tanzania to Zanzibar

Walked: 62 miles/99.2 km Not much, my jawbone count was way off do to the all the bumps on the road. I am guessing we averaged 2 miles a day of walking.

Total Miles: 3402 miles/5543.2 km

Recap Maps Month 11

Money Spent: $907.63

Our African Safari was already all paid for last month, and we previously took $2,000 USD to bring to Africa for spending along the way. This months money was taken out in cash from ATMs to get local currency in each country. Our meals were included 90% of the days, only leaving us snacks & booze to purchase.

Number of Beds slept in: 6 actual beds (3 were indoors and 3 were in permanent tents), 16 number of times w took down the tent and laid our sleeping pads down in a different campsite.

Beers Drank (Adam):  76

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 9, I was going through withdrawals!

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA: Not that we are aware of, we were living out of our backpacks scattered around 3 lockers on the safari truck it was hard to find ANYTHING.

Best of Month 11

Best Beach: Zanzibar

Best Ice Cream: Ice cream shake topped with smarties (I had to supply my own smarties)

Best Beer: Castle Milk Stout

Best Dish: Lasagna made by our tour leader Kelly was amazing and it was served with tasty garlic bread made by our driver Richard. Sorry, it was so tasty I ate before a picture could have been taken..

Cutest Cat: The lions at Lion Encounter in Victoria Falls I will always remember, don’t think I will ever get this close to lions again in my life.Zambia - Lion Walk - Saf Par-19

Best Bar: Booze cruise in Victoria Falls

Best Sunset: River cruise on the Chobe River in Botswana 

Botswana Chobe River Cruise Sunset-35

Month 12

Month 12 started in Botswana where we only had 15 days left of our 43 day Africa Safari! The last 15 days of our safari had us over driving through Botswana & Namibia before ending in Cape Town, South Africa on June 15. We had our 1 year travel anniversary in Frankfurt Germany on June 29th. It has been one hell of a year pushing me way outside of my comfort zone and bringing us to 28 countries over past year. Our month ended in a quaint little village called Steingaden, Germany.

We spent 9 nights in luxurious neighborhood of Camps Bay in Capetown, South Africa. We splurged a little on a hotel but got a steal for only $65 a night at Primi-Royal hotel. We had a huge king size bed, claw foot bathtub, huge shower, ocean view great for the sunsets, and our own private outdoor hot tub. We needed these 9 nights of luxury after camping for 40+ nights.

Month 12 Map

  • Fly: 5855.87 miles  /  9369.39km finally back in the air after 2 months of land travel!
  • Drove:   2903.12 miles  / 4645 km Africa safari 2362.50 miles/3780km, 540.62 miles/865km Germany driving
  • Walked: 118.27 miles  /  189.23km We were on our safari the first half and my jawbone count was way off do to the all the bumps on the road. I am guessing we averaged 2 miles a day of walking.
  • Total Miles: 8877.26 miles/14203.62km

Money Spent: $4,093.12 We were spent half of June still on our African Safari which was already all paid for last month, and we previously took $2,000 USD to bring to Africa for spending along the way. This months money was taken out in cash from ATMs to get local currency in each country. Our meals were included 90% of the days, only leaving us snacks & booze to purchase. The other half of the month we had to cover our hotel & meals.  We did have to renew our travel insurance which was $966. We spent $813 on hotels, $80 on wine tasting & bottles for our fantastic room in Cape Town. You can’t go to Germany without getting a beer stein or two, that was $72. We had a slight accident with souvenirs in Namibia $586 and went on a 2.5 hour ATV in the sand dunes $105. Also got some clothing for the upcoming wedding in Latvia $80. Our guides with Acacia- Africa were so amazing we had to tip them they earned every penny (and probably more) of the $200 tip. Shark diving in Cape Town $135, still to tell you that story. A few pampering sessions (massage & pedi) $75.  Other random gifts $65, and tours/sightseeing fees $152.

Number of Beds slept in   6 actual beds, 1 overnight on an airplane, and 10 times we put up the tents and laid down our sleeping bags…

Beers Drank (Adam):  52

Ice Cream Cone Consumption (Hannah): 18

Items lost, ditched, or otherwise MIA: Before going to Africa we had to purchase more shirts and warmer items, but along the way we donated/traded for Malawi carvings. We bought a ton of souvenirs in Namibia we have 50lbs that we will be sending back to the USA.

Best of Month 12

Best Beach: Camps Bay, Cape Town South Africa

Best Ice Cream: Frozen mint & chocolate yogurt topped with Smarties, yes, please!

Best Beer: Germany Kolsch beer straight from Cologne, Germany!

Best Dish:  Amazing steak at Hussar’s Grill in Cape Town, we ate here 3 times during our stay. Oh and they had BYO wine with no corking fee!

Month 12 recap

Best Bar: Mitchel’s Brewery on the waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. We meet up with our safari mates to catch round 1 of the world cup. We cheered on Germany from the get go, as Simona (on the left) is from Germany. We also happen to be in Germany for the final!

Cape Town

Best Sunset:  Camps Bay Cape Town, South Africa taken right from our balcony of our hotel room. We had amazing sunsets 9 nights in a row at Primi-Royal hotel.

Sunset Cape Town

Cutest Cat: Hands down the Cheetah farm in Namibia

Namibia Cheetah farm RTW african safari-8

Bennett - The Further Adventures of Bennett

Saturday 7th of September 2013

Great recap information! Think I might start doing it in NZ... we'll see! Second the comment about about matching ice-cream/beer consumption rate!

Hannah

Sunday 15th of September 2013

Can't wait to read your recaps! Not sure there will ever be a month where my ice cream is more than Adams beer consumption!

Rika | Cubicle Throwdown

Saturday 7th of September 2013

I would like to see Hannah start matching the ice cream to beer consumption :)

Hannah

Sunday 15th of September 2013

Not sure I want to see myself matching Adam's ice cream consumption!!!

Eric

Saturday 7th of September 2013

A littler over $1800 for a month of travel including 77 beers? Nice! I will be very interested to know what you sent back to WI, I'm not surprised that tackle box for your pills went back though- that thing is enormous!

Hannah

Sunday 15th of September 2013

Yep, thanks to Guatemala for having 50 cent beers!!! We will be sharing everything we sent back on an upcoming post! We fought and fought on what to bring for a medical kit.....

Stefania

Saturday 7th of September 2013

Yes, recaps are an excellent idea. I'm surprised you counted the number of beers and ice-creams!

Hannah

Sunday 15th of September 2013

We had to count beers to showcase Adam's love of beer, and ice cream consumption for my love of the frozen tasty treat!!!

todd blatchford

Friday 6th of September 2013

great recap , havent seen anyone do that before on blogs . Really love watching your trip guys ,cheers , Blinky from down under

Hannah

Friday 6th of September 2013

Thanks! We wanted to do a recap to share with everyone and for us to remember our favorites of each month! Glad to have you following along with us!