Craig and Sal Go Global
The end.
June 30, 2013
So suddenly it’s been four weeks since we arrived home. As soon as we landed, our new back-home life started getting busy. Sally returned to her work four days after we landed and Craig started looking for a job and a place for us to live. Happily everything has come together really well – Craig starts a new job tomorrow and we move into a new home three weeks from now.
“What was your favourite place?” has been, without a doubt, the most popular question we’ve been asked since arriving home. Well, since you asked, here are the top 5 places (in chronological order) from our year travelling around the world (and some honourable mentions, that weren’t single places but really deserve to be included). It was hard narrowing it down to a top 5, but when we told people we had a top 14, they weren’t very interested in hearing the whole list!
Of all the big cities we visited, New York City came out on top. We met a huge variety of interesting people, explored fascinating neighbourhoods, and had an endless supply of exciting things to see and do.
Jaw-dropping scenery, incredibly friendly locals and a deep sense of grandeur and remoteness. And what better way to explore the rugged landscape than in our own little Evil Clowns campervan?
Moneglia was quiet, authentic, beautiful, relaxing, and right next door to two stunning walks – the Cinque Terre and the Portofino Peninsula. Slowing down from our rapid pace through Europe, we had our own little apartment in this village by the beach.
Jerusalem is a mind boggling cultural experience. There’s an unbelievable density of amazing sights, world-class people watching and history hanging heavy in the air.
We embarked on a nine day trek, climbing to over 4,000m altitude. There we stood surrounded by 8,000m peaks in the world’s largest mountain range.
And now, the honourable mentions:
India was undoubtedly the most intense country we visited. It’s not always pleasant, and sometimes downright depressing and miserable, but if you can stay open to the experience of being in India, it is bound to move you.
Volunteering to help teach Karen refugees from Burma is the experience that will stay with us the most out of the whole trip. We were part of something deeply authentic, we learnt so much and we had so many unique, challenging and incredible experiences.
We stayed with more than two dozen CouchSurfing hosts around the world. CouchSurfing is an unbeatable way to meet local people, learn about different cultures and have some great experiences off the tourist trail.
The places we called home
We only stayed in paid accommodation for 60% of our trip. We spent 46 nights Couchsurfing, 23 nights on transport (boat, plane, bus, train), 25 nights staying with friends and family, and 52 nights at the college where we volunteered.
For the other 219 nights, we stayed in hotels, homestays, hostels and other places, including:
- At the bottom of a canyon in Peru
- In a cozy campervan in the Scottish highlands
- On a boat sailing up the Croatian coast
- In a 152-bed dorm in a circus tent full of Oktoberfest revellers
- In a tent in the desert near the Dead Sea
- In below-freezing teahouses in the Himalayas
- Under the stars in the desert in India, next to our camels
- In a luxury beachside apartment in Thailand
- On the floor of a malaria centre full of Karen rebels in Burma
- In remote camps in the rainforest of Borneo
And in a bunch of other amazing, crappy, friendly, cockroach-infested, weird, dreary and wonderful places. Our most expensive stay was in an 8-bed dorm in Brooklyn, New York ($194/night) and our least expensive paid stay was in a private room in Pokhara, Nepal (NZ$7/night).
The end.
So that’s the end of this adventure. Thanks for reading.
Comments from WordPress
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Garry Robertson 2013-06-30T11:04:34Z
Wow!
Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson