We spent 23 months traveling to 24 different countries and territories. Since Asia has our hearts, that was the focus of our trip, with a few Pacific countries thrown in at the beginning and some time hopping around the Middle East and Europe to visit friends we had met on the road at the end. Here is a closer look at each country we visited. Check back often for new posts.
1.) New Zealand
We flew into Auckland and stayed with family before renting a campervan for six weeks to drive around the North and South I
2.) Australia
Starting in Cairns, we flew to Alice Springs in the Red Center where we did a road trip with friends to Uluru National Park. From there, we drove northwest to Broome and started our nearly 9,000 miles (nearly 14,000 km) road trip down the west coast to Perth, across the southern border to Adelaide, Melbourne, and ultimately Sydney. We even spent some time in Tasmania.
3.) Singapore
Unfortunately we only spent a long layover here. But that left us enough time to take in an overview of the sights and eat some delicious Chicken Rice.
4.) Thailand
We spent six weeks in the northern portion of the country with time in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and in the Mae Hong Son Province.
5.) Vietnam
Here we were joined by my parents for two weeks before we continued traveling in one of our very favorite countries. We visited Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa, Hue, Danang, Hoi An, and Ho Chi Minh City.
6.) Cambodia
A tough place to travel for a lot of reasons, but some of the best friends we met, and the most incredible places we visited, were in Cambodia. Starting in Phnom Penh, we also visited Kampot, Kampong Chhnang, Battambang, and Siem Reap.
7.) Laos
Next up, Laos where we continued on our Southeast Asian tour by visiting Vientiane, Vang Vieng, and Luang Prabang. Can you tell we love Southeast Asia?
8.) Taiwan
We spent three weeks in Taipei and didn’t want to leave. Dumplings, tea, and night markets, need I say more?
9.) Japan
We spent six weeks eating our way through visiting Tokyo, Osaka, Himeji, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kanazawa, and the Japanese Alps.
10.) Mongolia
We booked a 25-day tour in order to truly experience what nomadic life in Mongolia is like. When we arrived back in Ulaan Baatar at the end of our tour we got to participate in Nadaam, Mongolia’s national festival.
11.) Indonesia
After traveling so much in Mongolia we booked a house outside Ubud, Bali for 30 days to relax.
12.) Malaysia
Messing up our visa in Indonesia allowed us to check off a couple other places on our bucket list for an extended visa run. We flew to Borneo where we did a “Big Five” tour, spent some time in Kuching, Sarawak, and flew to Kuala Lumpur to see a friend.
Returning to Indonesia and Australia
We were planning on spending two months in Indonesia, so after fixing our visa, we returned, starting in Jogjakarta, on the island of Java. Then we flew to Labuan Bajo, on the island of Flores, where we spent time island hopping, and scuba diving before flying to Australia again to meet Ben’s parents for several weeks.
13.) Hong Kong
We spent just over a week in Hong Kong exploring and eating delicious food.
14.) China
We took the train from Hong Kong and crossed into China at Guangzhou. From there we traveled to Guilin, took a boat down the Li’i River to Yangshuo, went on to Kunming, Chengdu, Xi’an, and then Beijing. China is a spectacular place.
15.) India
After spending some time back in the U.S. for the holidays, our first stop back on the road was India. We started with a week in New Delhi, took the train to Amritsar in the Punjab state, then hired a car to drive us around Rajasthan for 16 days with stops in: Mandawa, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Chittaurgarh, Pushkar, Jaipur, and Agra. Our final stop in India was Varanasi.
16.) Sri Lanka
This little island was such a gem. We started in Colombo, took the train to Anuradhapura, then visited Sigiriya, took the train to Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Haputale, and Ella, hired a driver to bring us to Tangalle, and then took the train Galle and back to Colombo.
17.) Kuwait
This country doesn’t have to be added to your list, but we have friends living there and wanted to visit them.
18.) United Arab Emirates
We spent a long layover in Dubai to see some of the sights.
19.) Jordan
“Most of the nations of the Middle East can be divided into those with long histories and no oil, and those that have lots of oil and very little history,” Richard Engel wrote in his book And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East. Jordan has the history, and our week in this country was far from enough time to see everything we hoped. Instead, we limited our visit to the Dead Sea, Petra, the Red Sea, and Wadi Rum.
20.) England
Flying from Jordan to Europe cheaply doesn’t leave too many options. So, we thought as long as we had to fly to Heathrow we may as well visit some friends.
21.) Ireland
We spent less than a week in Ireland hanging out with friends we met in China. We spent most of our time in Dublin, but we also visited their families in County Sligo.
22.) Spain
We had just over three weeks here and covered a lot of ground. Starting in Barcelona, we first went north to San Sebastian and Bilbao, before heading to Madrid, and then further south to Sevilla and Granada.
23.) Portugal
Ben’s little brother Peter joined us in Portugal. We started in Lisbon, traveled to Evora, and then to Porto.
24.) Sweden
Our final days were spent with friends we had met in Cambodia at their home in Stockholm. A bittersweet end to an unforgettable trip.