...but I did sleep in 100 beds during my trip last year. You would think with that kind of sleeping around, I would have come home with a bit more money in the ol' bank account. But alas, the only riches which accompanied me upon arriving back home, were the experiences I shared with so many people in the 37 countries (plus Antarctica) and the nearly 150 towns/cities (160+ counting airport layovers) I visited during my 11 month 7 continent journey.
You may have noticed a few numbers in that first paragraph. After undertaking a trip of such longevity in 2012, I thought it would be fun to summarize my experiences in some quantifiable terms as a way for both me, and you the reader, to fully grasp the magnitude and scope of what I willingly endured last year. So here goes:
Those 100 beds I slept in last year, only include actual beds in stationary establishments. There were also 26 other places where I slept overnight which include: multiple buses, trains, and planes, 4 different tents, a grass mat in the desert, the deck of a passenger ship, the deck of a sailboat, 2 airports, a KFC at a Malaysian bus station, and on the ice in Antarctica.
You may have noticed a few numbers in that first paragraph. After undertaking a trip of such longevity in 2012, I thought it would be fun to summarize my experiences in some quantifiable terms as a way for both me, and you the reader, to fully grasp the magnitude and scope of what I willingly endured last year. So here goes:
Those 100 beds I slept in last year, only include actual beds in stationary establishments. There were also 26 other places where I slept overnight which include: multiple buses, trains, and planes, 4 different tents, a grass mat in the desert, the deck of a passenger ship, the deck of a sailboat, 2 airports, a KFC at a Malaysian bus station, and on the ice in Antarctica.
Places I’ve slept on all of my foreign travels: (15) hostel, home, train, bus, boat, ice, desert, airport, park bench, tent, cabins, hotel, beach, bank lobby, plane
Bodies of Water in which I swam: (14) Atlantic, Pacific, Indian,
Southern oceans, Lake Malawi, Dead Sea, Red Sea, South China Sea, Coral Sea,
Mediterranean Sea, Okavango River, Nile River, Waimangu Hot Springs, Lake
Balaton
Pairs of pants worn: 4 plus a bathing suit
Shirts Worn: 6 t-shirts, 2 technical mountain wear shirts, 2
smart wool t-shirts, 3 safari shirts, 1 compression shirt
I also wore lightweight and mid weight long underwear, 2 pairs of
gloves, 3 jackets, rain pants, balaclava, 1 pair of shoes, 1 pair of sandals, 5 pairs of underwear, 2 pairs of sunglasses, 6 pairs of socks
Times I officially paid to have laundry done: approx. 8
Number of ATM cards used: 3
Number of Times an ATM card was used successfully: 15-20, despite my best efforts on dozens of other occasions
Countries where my card worked: New Zealand, Singapore, Greece,
Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Hungary, Bolivia
Countries where it didn’t work: Australia, South Africa, Namibia,
Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Portugal, Argentina, Ecuador
Countries I’ll never know if it worked or not due to not
having a card or pure frustration and not using it: Malaysia, Thailand,
Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Antarctica
Number of Airlines flown: (12) British, Virgin, Qatar, LAN, Aerolineas,
Ethiopian, Copa, Royal Jordanian, Croatia, TAP, JetStar, AeroGal
Helicopter Flights on this trip: 3 Helicopter flights prior to this trip: 0
Modes of Transportation: (26) jetliner, prop plane, helicopter,
car, truck, van, bus, train, ship, passenger ferry, felucca/sailboat, motor
boat, fast catamaran, metro/subway, overland truck, bicycle, scooter, tuk-tuk,
motorcycle, foot, quad bike, snowboard, whitewater raft, camel, horse, mokoro
Number of flights: 37
Miles Flown: 60,692
(97,674km)
Miles Covered in Africa: 10,000
Miles Covered in all of the other bus and train travel: Who the Hell Knows?
Number of countries I have now visited: 57. For those who also count layovers in airports as countries
visited, even though I don’t, that total rises to 61 countries plus Hong Kong.
And finally...perhaps the most mind blowing number to me is that even though I have now visited 57 countries, I have still only visited about 22-29% of the countries in the world, depending on whose definition you use to define what constitutes a country. Cheers.
