USA

Over the last 9 months and 5 days, life saw us circumnavigate the globe as 2, and come back as 3. In this blog entry I am going to cover the best and worst of our trip around the world as well as what people voted for as their favorites. Nadine and I also sat down our last night in Zurich, Switzerland and went over what we thought was the best and worst of everything. Enjoy.

Best A) swimming, B) snorkeling, C) to look at, and D) overall beaches

A) Pulau Perhentian Kecil's Long Beach, Malaysia. Soft sand in a peaceful cove.

B) Koh Phi Phi, Thailand. Hard to believe this beat the Cook Islands and the Great Barrier Reef, but with clear water and massive amounts of colorful fish, this got our top snorkeling award.

C) & D) Without a doubt, the beaches of Aitutaki and the lagoon get our top nod for best looking and best overall beaches. Congrats Aitutaki. Maybe we can print up a certificate an mail it to them so they know they got this award.

Most historically interesting

We saw some pretty great stuff, but Rome is chock-a-block full of history that would take years to take in.

Most mordern city

Hong Kong and plenty of their lights to prove it. Of note, we don't base modern on the number of lights in the skyline.

Best Food

Thai, Indian, Australian barbies, and Tex-Mex come in a distant second to Italian food. Any dish is a winner.

Best A) beer B) cider C) wine

A) Suprisingly the best beer wasn't found in Australia or Laos, but in Macau with their Macau Blond Beer.

B) South Africa has a smooth cider in Savanna Dry.

C) With good wine all over the world, our #1 was some of the Barossa Valley Shiraz.

Best experience with A) people B) adrenaline C) nature

A) Our time with the Bennetts in Melbourne, teaching English to the nuns in Saigon, and staying with the Brothers in Rome all tie, and that doesn't take into account all of the travellers we hung out with along the way.

B) Skydiving in Taupo, New Zealand was tops as we fell from 12,000 feet on a clear day.

C) Even though Nadine wasn't present for this one, being chased by mating orangutangs in Indonesia in the middle of nowhere was great.

Best A) natural wonder B) man-made wonder

A) Halong Bay was just a bit more amazing than the Great Barrier Reef and Punakaiki with hundreds of islands jutting out of the sea.

B) Angkor Wat compares equally with Machu Picchu, but distinguishes itself by being located over a much greater expanse of land.

Best place to conceive a child

Easy one here, Koh Tao, Thailand. Great beaches and buckets help. But given the number of kids we saw along the way, I think any place is a good place to conceive a child.

Friendliest people

We have the opinion that people are great all over the world, and we met some great people, but the Cook Islanders friendliness, constant smiles, and the fact that a random guy have us a ride to the airport at 6 in the morning as we walked in the dark, has us giving the nod to the Cook Islanders.

Cheapest and most expensive countries

South East Asia as a whole is very cheap, but Indonesia and Thailand stick out the most, while Switzerland and Italy are the most expensive. We almost paid the same amount for a train from Rome to Zurich as we did for our flight from Zurich to Texas. Yikes!

Best and Worst Hostels

The best hostel was in Shenzhen, China with a very clean double with a very good strong hot shower and comfortable beds.

We liked Malaysia, but the worst hostel was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where we did let the bed bugs bite, several hundred times.

The top place to return to

So many places were fighting for this honor, but New Zealand is incredible with mountains, glaciers, sheep, great people, wildlife, sheep, and lots of adrenaline activities. Oh, there are lots of sheep too.

One visit was enough for us

Our visits to *Vietnam and Macau were suffice one time. *The only reason we would go back to Vietnam would be spend time with the nuns in Saigon with whom we taught English. I can go to Las Vegas if I want to gamble under bright lights.

Where you will meet the most backpackers

Thailand! Thailand is spilling over with backpackers. In some spots you have to look hard to find Thai people.

Most isolated location

Mt Moorosi, Lesotho was devoid of visitors, other than Nadine and myself, and maybe a few eagles flying around.

Best meal and dining experience

We have a tie on this one between our fish and chips at Pig & Whistle in Rotarua, New Zealand where I commended the chef that "it's gotta be a great meal when you completely forget that you have a large cold beer" and our Italian dinner at Il Sandro in Viareggio, Italy.

Best airline

Emirates Airlines had plenty of leg space to go along with stars on the ceiling of the plane.

Best and Worst Bus

The best bus was in Thailand as we went from Khon Kaen to Bangkok as our seats had a back massage, all for $5 a person.

The worst bus was a bone rattling, leg numbing, butts in your face, stuck in the fetal position trip from the isolation of Mt. Moorosi, Lesotho to the real danger and craziness of Dubran, South Africa.

Most enjoyable way to get around

Scooter, scooter, scooter! Outside of Saigon of course.

Toughest place with language

We expected to China to be the toughest and it was, but at the same time it wasn't that difficult.

Most interesting language

In Lesotho and parts of South Africa where they speak Xhosa as one of their languages. Xhosa includes clicks in speech and a click is written as "!"

Most surprising country

Seeing the disparity between rich and poor along with the transition from apartheid to "equality" was interesting in South Africa.

Scariest experience

Arriving downtown Dubran, South Africa at night with the craziness of people running around and roaming the streets in large groups. That weekend there was 11 murders in Durban. Good thing we only stayed there a week.

Funniest experience

Our very first Thai massage on the island of Koh Lanta without a doubt was the one experience that left us in stitches having just had our crotches pushed on with the full weight of the masseuse and folded up like oragami. We came away feeling like we had been beaten up, but in a stretching, relaxing manner.

Longest amount of time backpackers had been packing

In Malaysia we met two English backpackers who had been traveling for 5 years. That pound really does go far.

Best and worst tours

The best tour was running around Addo Elephant Park and Schotia Lion Reserve spotting 4 of the Big 5 along with Nadine's friend Melissa and her boyfriend Jesse in the back of our truck.

The worst tour was to the Cu Chi Tunnels with our guide talking about American women all having fat asses. At first it was funny. Tenth time it was old. Twenty-first time was annoying.

Nicest train

Our ride out of Hanoi to Sapa was the nicest train decked out with wood panelling and soft sleepers.

Best and worst toilets

We encountered a really nice toilet in the land of Swatch and Lindt chocolate in Zurich. The toilet did double as the sink, didn't use the same water fortunately, but everything was hands free.

The absolute worst toilet I have ever seen were in southern China. I could go into more detail, but I will just say that aim was not important in any matters.

Worst day of travel

This is another tie between any travel within Indonesia and our 5 buses from Mt. Moorosi to Durban. Days like these make you wish you were on the massive paved highways of Texas.

Best reading spot

Hogsback, South Africa on the edge of a cliff with virgin forest and waterfalls in front of you as you can hear birds and monkeys in the distance.

Individual places we only were able to spend a brief moment, but would like more

The entire country of Burma with its' forbidden land, the Garden Route of South Africa with its' incredible topography, and Lucca, Italy with its' nooks all demand more time to explore.

Highlights of each continent

Australia - Aitutaki
Asia - Thai beaches and pregnancy
Africa - Big 5
Europe - Cinque Terre, Italia

Best targets for jokes

New Mexico and New Mexicans!

A few entries back, I put out the question to get people's favorites and here they are.

Favorite Comment

This quote is from Jill and what is funny about it is that she answered a question I didn't know the answer to, and the correct answer was New Mexico of all places.

Oddly enough, I found info on the WWW that states New Mexico has some pretty old prints - 210 million years old, and that David Loope, professor and chair in the Department of Geosciences, University of Nebraska, had studied depressions of dinosaurs in Nebraska and was the first scientist to recognize them as the fossilized footprints of large animals... but I don't think that I found the oldest prints. I just don't have the adequate internet searching skills to win these things... Miss you two to bits! Can't wait to have an evening with you in person sometime so we can listen to you tell stories. Take care and God bless - jill

Here is another funny quote. This is Jeremy's response searching for my question asking for a funny joke about New Mexico, where Jeremy is from.

How about "The New Mexico Board of Education actually doesn't care about citizens who drop out of Kindergarten because, in order to feel smart, most of them quickly move to Texas!" Or: "Why do so many New Mexicans have car accidents on Texas Interstates? Folks pass out after holding their breath a long time because of the smell." How 'bout them New Mexico jokes? Can I expect to receive a postcard? Or even better: "How does a New Mexico camera company make sure that their cameras are foolproof? -- They make sure that a tall, lanky Texan can use it! (refer to video in this blog entry)

He wasn't that bitter was he?

Most popular blog entry

With a total of 3,900 visits, Uncle Ho, Those Rice Paddies Are Way Too Green! was the most popular.

Favorite location

Hat Rai Leh was voted the most popular location.

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

Favorite story

Favorite story was my riding a scooter along the beach in Koh Lanta into a volleyball net.

Favorite Video

This video shows me crossing the busy, scooter filled streets of Saigon.

Favorite Photos, narrowed down to three

Punakaiki, New Zealand

Street vendor outside of Phnom Pehn, Cambodia

Balloon guy taking it all in Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon), Vietnam

Whew, congrats if you have made it to the end of this entry.

Question - whoever can identify the location of this photo will win a personalized postcard from ODESSA, TEXAS!

Have a great Easter
JW

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk besides me and be my friend.
- Albert Camus

After much preparation, planning, and packing, we have finally left San Antonio for Los Angeles to begin our much anticipated around the world trip. We didn't have enough time to get excited since we were trying to figure out how to properly fit all of our stuff from the apartment into a closet that is 5 feet by 9 feet. With lots of help from Nate, Randy, and Tim, we were finally able to carefully balance our bed, dresser, and armoire in such a position that it fits in our little closet-sized storage, as long as a couple of spiders don't jump on it simultaneously.

In prep for our trip, we were lucky enough to have several opportunities to see friends and family. One of the first get-togethers was having friends come across and down to San Antonio for our "International Beer Party." Everyone brought their own beers from several continents, and they all were quite tasty. We had friends from TU (University of Tulsa) and friends from TU (Trinity University) who came over. The day after the party, we went up to New Braunfels to float the Comal river for a day and tried not to scrap our butts on the bottom. Great weekend!

Now that we are here in L.A., where the smog begins 30 minutes before you land at LAX, we have been able to take an entire day to do nothing, relax, and just "be" for awhile. Today, we walked to the beach and rode a bike from Santa Monica's beach down to Venice beach. As I walked around Venice Beach with our TU friend Chrissy and her roommate Vola, I asked everyone at the beach where the gym was as I grunted and flexed with my chest puffed up. What has been most surprising to me about L.A. is that the weather here is quite cool and the people aren't as odd as I thought they would be. They're actually quite normal in their fancy clothes.

Tomorrow evening we fly from LAX to Rarotonga, Cook Islands, our first stop in our trip around the world. I hope to update our blog at least every two weeks along with photos. If you need to email me, drop me a note at jwhit003@gmail.com.

Peace, JW

Life is an adventure: risk it.
Life is a challeng: face it.
Life is a hymn: sing it.
- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Roughly 2 and a half weeks ago, during warmups of a student vs. faculty basketball game, I jumped to shoot and a ball rolled under my left foot from behind me from the other side of the court. I hit the floor, looked at my rapidly swelling ankle and immediately asked myself, "Why hadn't I bought my traveller's insurance yet?" Nadine looked perplexed and asked, "what is it this time?" I was worried that I wouldn't be healthy for the beginning of our trip in Mid-June, and we wouldn't be able to leave on our scheduled date.

The result of this little ordeal was a severly sprained ankle, bruised ego, fractured ankle, and a walking cast to "boot" for 3 weeks. Fortunately, we will not have to postpone our date of departure. Nadine will begin her trip with a partner with two different sized legs, but who will definitely be leaving with her in June to the Cook Islands.

4 weeks from departure, we do not yet have everything in order. I am pretty sure we will be running around like chickens with our heads cut off a week before we leave. Which insurance do we finally want to go with? Who is taking the car? Storage, oh yeah, we need that too! All the joys of planning a trip of this magnitude. If our planning was all on Nadine's shoulders, everything would already be carefully planned out and secured. If our planning was all on my shoulders, we would dream for a year of the places that we are going to go, and the day before we leave, take care of the necessities. Good thing both of us are planning, Nadine the realistic and practical one, while I remain dreaming of our stay on the beach.

Nevertheless, it is an exciting time for us. We are going to have a solid 10 months to "be" and to travel without time constraints, other than catching the next flight. That's what is great about traveling, freedom to explore, seeing new places, people, customs, and languages on a daily basis, challenging one's self with directions, dialects, hand signals. As always, we require us to practice our ability to be patient, laugh at ourselves, and be flexible. It will be an interesting 10 months.

So we are about to leave a great situation where we have great jobs surrounded with great family, friends, students, and comfort. It will be tough to leave these people for the unknown, yet in order to have this great adventure and challenge ourselves, we have to remove ourselves from our comfort and hit the road.

After much deliberation, thought, comparing various companies, making changes to dates, and anticipation, those around the world plane tickets have been purchased and we have to go now. Shucks, someone has to do it. Since you are reading this, we would gladly accept any donations to the John and Nadine travel the world fund. Any denominations would be accepted. Honestly, this is the largest single purchase I have ever made personally. I mean as long as you don't take into account the student loans that I incurred as a young 20 something and I didn't truly understand what the loans meant. Sure, I would be able to pay that off in a couple of months.

Our route and dates have been set.
June - Los Angeles to Rarotonga, Cook Islands;
July - Rarotonga, Cook Islands - Auckland, New Zealand;
August - Christchurch, New Zealand - Cairns, Australia;
September - Adelaide, Australia - Singapore;
February - Hong Kong, China - Joburg, South Africa;
March - Joburg, South Africa - Rome, Italia.
March/April - Europe - San Antonio, Texas

Anyone wanting to meet up with us anywhere on the trip is more than welcome. The more the merrier.

As we sit here 4 months from our departure to the great blue wander, Nadine and I have been planning this 9 month trip for a good 16 months. Whew, we could have completed the trip twice given the time we been planning it. I know I have done it a couple of times in my dreams during all of research we've done between Borders and Barnes & Noble.

We definitely sit here excited, anxious, nervous, should I got that immunization, really? what are the chances dogs are going to bite me, do we really want to go there, but we could fit a week in there, mosquitoes won't be that bad, but among all of the feelings that we experience, we are definitely anticipating the beginning of our journey.

We've had several dream itineraries - San Antonio - Guatemala (language school) - L.A. - Tahiti - Fiji - Cook Islands - 2 months in New Zealand - 2 months in Australia - Bali all the way to Hong Kong - India - Africa from tip to the north - all of Europe - back to the States. The itinerary has changed dramastically (drastically + dramactically) for several reasons. Nadine doesn't want to be a grandma by the time we actually complete the trip, or funds have dictated that I will be selling a kidney in Thailand to continue traveling.

Our current travel itinerary consists of a departure in June of 2006 which includes: Cook Islands, New Zealand, Australia, overland from Singapore to Hong Kong (South East Asia), South Africa for a month, up to Portugal and wherever the wind blows and money allows us to be blown in Europe, before we make the return trip home to begin another adventure involving little bambinos.

First entry is down, hope all enjoy our travels as much as we do!

Peace!

jpw