Summary of our 1-year honeymoon around the world!

We’ve done it! We cannot believe that this year has come and gone so quickly! We feel like we just blinked and before we knew it, it was over. We have loved every second of this trip. Looking back on it now, even the tougher times (of which there weren’t many) we now look back on nostalgically! Here are some statistics to give an overview of everything we have done:

 

We were away for 45 weeks. We visited 21 countries excluding South Africa. We took 14 flights, 118 long-distance busses/shuttles, 20 boats/ferries and we used 16 different metro systems.

 

Our top foods that we tried in no particular order were:

• Chupe in Chile
• Steak in Argentina
• Satays in Malaysia
• Pad Thai and Green Curry in Thailand
• Rice Pancakes in Vietnam
• Dim Sum in Hong Kong

 

Our top five countries we visited in no particular order were:

• Guatemala
• Ecuador
• Chile
• Argentina
• Vietnam

 

So now that it’s over and we are completely broke, would we do it again? YES! This has been the most amazing experience! No price can be put on the things we have seen, the people we have met and the way our marriage has grown over these amazing 10.5 months.

 

We are now starting the next chapter in our lives. I start my new job on 4 January 2016 and Chris starts his dream job a week later. We are also moving to Cape Town which is an awesome new adventure. We cannot wait to catch up with our friends and family and to see our little cat Akira.

 

We hope you have enjoyed reading our travel stories and that the information we have tried to give has been helpful. If you are thinking about doing something similar, DO IT!

 

Here we go,

Chris and Ro

 

 

 

 

SURPRISE! WE ARE BACK!

We are back in South Africa! Surprise! We have been keeping the secret of our return for about four months now, as we wanted to surprise Chris’ parents. Don’t worry though, our trip is not over, we just changed our plans a little! We decided to cut our Central and South America trip short in May when we were in Nicaragua. We were travelling really slowly and some days we would sit in bed the whole day watching movies. One day we got cabin fever and there was nothing to do so we asked ourselves what we were doing. We didn’t come halfway across the world to watch movies in bed! So we looked at our itinerary and figured out how long we realistically needed to do the rest of our trip if we moved a little quicker. We wanted to do everything we set out to do but at a quicker pace.

We set out to do it all by the beginning of September and then we would have four extra months to do another trip! Where better to go than our favourite part of the world – Asia?! Another big reason for our decision was that we love our food, and the rice, chicken and beans of Central America was getting a bit old. We needed some spice in our life!

So we changed our return flight home for 3 September and booked another flight to Singapore for 14 September! We are now home for ten days, enjoying seeing our friends and family! It is great to be home for a little! It is also great to know that our trip is not over – another chapter is just beginning!

Our plan for Asia is to fly to Singapore to meet my uncle and his girlfriend. We are then flying to Bali where my uncle has a condo where we will all stay for two weeks. My brother and Chris’ brother and sister are joining us in Bali for the first week, which we are so excited about! After Bali we fly back to Singapore and then move up the continent through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. We then fly to Hong Kong for four nights before we return home mid-December. Our best friends, Chantelle ad Christo are meeting us in Thailand for two weeks, which will also be great! We are so excited for it all!

For now though we are just enjoying the smell of home, the love from our friends, family and cat; and the home cooked food!