As we do….we like to keep stats on our trips on things that may or may not be important. So here goes the many lists …

Things we lost or left behind:

• Todd’s noise cancelling headset
• Todd’s sunglasses
• Jill’s reading glasses
• Ticket for the glass bridge
• Two drink coozies
• 2 backpacks
• Mastercard (was then found)
• Pocket knife (was then found)

Ways we travelled:

• # of days on the trip: 101
• # of flights: 10
• # of ferry/boats: 12
• # of private bus or van: 11
• # of trains: 6
• # of hotels: 24 (average 4 nites per bed)
• # of scooters rented: 15
• Total km travelled on all ways listed above: 34,787 km

Things we will miss:

• Flowers everywhere – outside, inside, in food
• Train travel
• Peoples of all the countries – kindness, honesty, happiness
• Salted coffee
• Meeting other travelers
• Constant warm weather, especially in the evening
• Lush green jungle
• Cheap beer and cocktail bars
• Fresh fruit – especially mango’s, dragon fruit, watermelon
• A good thick quality plastic bag that we got for free when shopping
• All services like laundry, bed making, hair washing

Things we won’t miss:

• The smell of moth balls, sewer, burning incense, burning garbage and in general … all the pollution
• Garbage in streets, fields, ditches, water ways, etc
• Throwing toilet paper in the garbage instead of the toilet
• Dealing with cash and always planning ahead with cash and finding a functioning ATM
• Honking to drive
• Excess population
• Eating out 3 times a day, always in search of the next meal. (We ate out for over 230 meals in a row!)
• Navigating the chair to table ratio. (Finding chairs that aren’t made for kids and then do our legs fit under the table in this chair?)
• Ordering food at a restaurant only for them to tell you they don’t have it or ran out. (For a period of time in Vietnam, this was a daily occurrence)
• Crossing the street Frogger style – and then trying not to trip on the sidewalks
• Always asking for ice for water
• Smoking allowed everywhere, including restaurants
• Public transportation challenges
• Bunh bao bike riding guy with the speaker advertising such goods all day (Click here and turn up the volume)
• Hovering salespeople at stores
• Soap that smells like an old grandma
• Not being able to read any building or street signs

The list of the favourite things:

• Hotel: Emerald Garden Phu Quoc Island
• Location: Cham Island
• Food:
  • Todd’s Appie: Hanoi Spring Rolls
  • Todd’s Main: Vietnamese pancake
  • Jill’s Main: Meat sticks or anything you can wrap in rice paper
  • Jill’s dessert: Mango sticky rice
• Activity:
  • Todd: scootering through rural Vietnam
  • Jill: Paradise Cave trip

Things that surprised us:

• Cambodia and Laos were way more metropolitan than we thought
• Vietnamese, Cambodian and Lao people were so incredibly nice, kind, happy and always willing to help. They were also very safe countries, we never ever felt like we were in danger. It was rare to get “scammed” by locals because it’s not their nature – we assume due to Buddhist beliefs.
• Lack of homeless people
• Lack of wind in any country (not sure if this is normal or seasonal)
• Amount of widespread air pollution through all countries. It was rare to see blue sky.
• Lack of bugs (like cockroaches), creepy things and even rats. (We saw rats a couple times, but that was it.)
• Lack of birds (they shoot and eat them all)
• Amount of construction (infrastructure and housing)
• For the first time in both of our lives….we were ready to come home before it was time to come home

Overall, this trip was pretty amazing, and it surprised us on a daily basis. We also learned A LOT on this trip, about:

• Ourselves
• Limitations and expectations
• Daily lessons in patience
• Humankind and their resilience
• War and death
• Nature and the earths beauty
• Cultures we knew nothing about

Which brings me to the final questions:

• Would we spend extended retirement time in Southeast Asia? We both unanimously decided NO, this is not where we want to be.
• Would we go back? As a landing point to visit other places…yes, but not to stay.

Thanks for following along with us. Here is an overview video of where we went: SE Asia-trip.html