Winter Avoided

Day 111. Back in Stoke on Trent.

Not sure whether I avoided winter as last night , 1st night at home, it snowed and its flippin freezing.

Arrived home yesterday after 26 hours on a variety of transport systems, taxis, planes, buses, cars and feet. Bit tired but very happy.

Well what a winter. Certainly feel as though I have avoided it. The weather in my winter has been so much better than the weather I left behind.

And my thoughts. A fantastic experience. So many different things to see and experience its very difficult to pick favourites or highlights and nearly impossible to think of negatives. But I'll try

Just some bullet points:

1. In total I've had 13 flights.
2. I've driven or been driven 16,000km.
3. I've only been ill for 1 week.
4. I've visited 5 countries.
5. I have no idea how many temples, wats, museums, buildings I've visited.
6. My favourite part of the trip was the whole outback Australia. 2 weeks which I don't think I could have experienced anywhere else in the world.
7. The Barrier Reef is awesome. So beautiful, so big and took my breath away - which isn't ideal when you are snorkelling.
8. Favourite man made building . I've got to split this into 2. Modern . Sydney Opera House is impressive. A gorgeous building, very iconic, fantastic location, and a wonderful experience. Old. Angkor and Angkor Wat are amazing. So huge, so impressive and built so long ago when we lived in mud huts.
9. Favourite country. I loved them all but I think Cambodia. Just because for a country which has had such a traumatic past the people are so friendly and seemingly happy.
10. Thailand. I've come away with a negative impression and thats sad. I think its because a) Bangkok is horrible b) I was ill there and c) in Bangkok there are SO MANY middle aged caucasian men walking around with young Thai women it gives me the creeps.

Would I go back. Absolutely. I want to visit the outback and Kakadu in the dry season. I'd love to cycle through laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. And I'd love to give Thailand a chance becuase I'm sure its beautiful. Hopefully I will have the time to do it.

So thats the end of the blog. It was great for me. Hopefully some bits of it were ok for you too.