Starting with the sad bit, our trip around the world was cut short and at least for now has ended in Sydney, if and when we will continue remains to be seen. After struggling a bit in the beginning with the decision to fly home, thinking about the experiences we have made, the things we have seen and the overall learning, our mood improved significantly over the last few days and the initial sadness was replaced by a genuine happiness for being able to go on such a trip.

We thought about writing a short recap of the countries we have visited, but decided against it as our thoughts at the time are already well documented. What we would like to do instead is to focus on a question that was raised by a family member, has the travelling changed us?

The easy answer to this is, of course it has, we have visited new countries, experienced new things, struggled, overcame challenges, got to know many new people and developed a more in-depth understanding of the countries and people we visited. However, on a more fundamental level we think the trip has further reinforced beliefs we had developed already before. What we consider our most fundamental and relevant belief, that people are essentially the same was confirmed over and over again. In every country we felt the vast majority of people were good hearted and willing to go out of their way to help. The way this was approached depended of course on the country and the prevailing culture, but the right intentions were always there. In every country we also found the opposite, a few bad apples who try to take advantage of you and sometimes spoil the reputation of the majority, but those were luckily far and few between. Another observation was that despite the differences, everyone tries to create her or his happy place and live a decent and pleasant life. While requirements of such a life differ depending on the development level of the country and the affluence and education of the individual, the goal of reaching some kind of happiness remains the same. These observations were the same across the countries and cultures in “normal” times. The “abnormal” times the Covid 19 pandemic has created, also brought some of the less pleasant human behaviours to the fore. As the virus followed us along our travels, the responses in some countries appeared to be more driven by political consideration and a we against them approach instead of focusing on how to improve the overall well-being. A few well publicised examples were leaving foreigners stuck on cruise ships, announcements that local supplies will only be used for nationals of that country, etc. and a general lack of reason and pragmatism among the political elite. However, overall the positive has far outweighed the negative.

To answer the question of “Has travelling changed us”, we think fundamentally our beliefs are very similar to the ones we held prior. However, they have become better informed, to a certain degree empirically proven, more nuanced and overall, we have definitely developed a better understanding and more patients for certain cultural traits, including some of our own.

Thank you for accompanying us on our journey and we are looking forward to more travelling and learning, most likely not in such an extended form, but nevertheless on a more frequent basis.

Travel days
133

Mode of transport
Sleeper bus, Public bus, Private bus,
Minivan, Rental car,
Sleeper train, Day Train, Local train, Bamboo train, Metro,
Tuktuk, Uber, Ola, Grab, Taxi,
Motor rickshaw, Cycle rickshaw, Tractor trailer,
Long boat, River ferry, Motor boat, Ferry,
Cable car,
Airplane,
Bicycle,
a lot of escalators and travelators
… and by foot (a lot)

Types of accommodation
Hotels: 82 nights
Hostel: 13 night
Motels: 5 nights
Apartments: 7 nights
Bungalow: 6 nights
Hilltop Bungalow: 4 nights
Beach hut: 7 nights
Homestay: 1 night
Tent: 2 nights
Sleeper train: 4 nights
Airplane: 2 nights

Temperature
Lowest temperature at night:
11 degrees

Highest temperature by day:
37 degrees

Rainy day(s)
10 days

Our fun, bright and vivid travel colour palette

Been around the world ...