20 Questions

During the course of our travels so far we have been asked a number of questions about our experiences by friends and family, local people who stop to speak to us as well as many Brits, Americans and Aussies that we have met while on the road. So here is our top 10 of the questions that we are most frequently asked, and of course their corresponding answers!

What has been the highlight of your trip so far?
Dan: That's a really tough question as I could change my answer on an almost hourly basis! All of the wonderful things we have seen appeal to me for different reasons, and so it can be difficult to judge them directly against each other. Right now I think I would say that experiencing life in Iran was pretty awesome and I loved it there, but the one off experiences of washing elephants and the Formula 1 push it close!

Vicky: I think I'm going to have to have a top country and a top activity as it is too difficult to chose. My favourite country has been Iran, for me it was a once in a lifetime experience finding a country that was so different from my expectations. Everybody was just so welcoming. For my favourite activity I think I could name about 5 that would tie for top position, but if you had to push me for one it would be my freediving in Koh Tao as it is something that I will do again and again. Obviously we're not finished yet, so something else could come along and knock it off top spot!

What has been the worst experience that you have had?
Dan: Without a second thought it is being ill in India. It was so difficult to recover from such a serious bout of illness without all of the home comforts and "safe foods" that we are used to back home. Even the most spectacular sight in the world will feel like nothing to you when you feel like we did there. 

Vicky: The combination of the heat with being ill in India. We haven't written off India completely, but this experience will take some forgetting!

Wow 7 months! That's a long time to be travelling, how have you found being on the road for such a long time? 
7 months is a long time, especially when you don't stay in the same place for more than 3 days at a time. It can actually be pretty tiring and it takes more out of you than you would think! On the flip side there is no way you could do it any quicker if you want to take in as many places and experiences as we have. 

So you are all travelling together for the whole journey. What is it like travelling as a large group and does everybody get on?
At it's largest our group was made up of 22 people. Most of the time people are able to get along well, but there are naturally some personality clashes within the group. It's impossible to have that number of people living in each other pockets without there being some disagreements. Most of the time it's not a problem, and fortunately I think we both get on with everybody in the group quite well. 

Did you all know each other before you left the UK?
Obviously with the exception of those that were already couples, none of us knew each other before we started. We had a facebook page set up by the company where we could all chat and compare notes, but it's not the same as actually knowing somebody. I think that has added to the excitement of the whole experience though.

Are you British or Australian?
Naturally this was mostly asked by locals in various countries, I would hope that friends and family would all know! I can confirm that we are both 100% British :)

Would you like a cup of tea? (I could also list would you like to buy this? here as this question would quite often follow the former!)
Generally yes. I love tea and even Vicky is now beginning to appreciate it. (Generally no. I'm not interested in what you are trying to sell me.) Iran was a great exception because generally people offered you a drink just because they wanted to talk to you.

Are there a lot of nasty bugs or animals?
We have been quite lucky so far and haven't really come across anything too bad. We have seen one poisonous snake and one or two larger than normal spiders, but nothing that has caused us any harm. Generally we have got used to seeing cockroaches and rats by now, and sharing your hotel room with lizards and geckos is also commonplace (they eat mosquitoes though so we don't mind them!)

So you finish the trip in Sydney on the 20th October, but you are not flying home until Christmas eve. What are you going to do with all that time?
We are going to spend the first 2 weeks travelling around the South East corner of Australia taking in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane if at all possible. The next 2 weeks we will be going to help out on a "work exchange" project with a family who have veg plots and make garden furniture out of recycled timber, which will help us keep the cost of our travelling down as they will provide us with food and accommodation. Following that we will be making our way across to New Zealand, and although we haven't set an itinerary for the country yet we will be looking to spend around 2 weeks on the north island and 3 weeks on the south island. Once that is all done...Bob's your uncle it's the 23rd of December and we are on our way home!

Would you travel overland for this amount of time again?
No. We are both really glad that we have done this, and we have seen some brilliant things and met some great people along the way and we wouldn't have changed our experience for anything. If we were to overland again it would probably be for only 6-8 weeks in one go. Another alternative is that we would travel for this length of time again, but visit fewer places and therefore spend much longer in the places that we did go. If we did it this way we would probably plan our own route rather than go with an organised tour, so that we could ensure we went to the countries we wanted, and during the most appropriate season for each country (no more 50C heat in India thank you!). One thing that we have certainly taken out of the experience is that we have found a number of great places that we will come back to for individual holidays in the future, as in so many places we haven't had time to do everything that we have wanted. 

Since I started writing this post, I had the brainwave that we should include the 10 questions that we have asked most since we left. So here they are!

Is that your best price?

Is that really your best price? I don't think it is!

Have you got wifi? (If yes, usually followed by what is the password?)

Is there any toilet roll? (Upon a member of the group coming out of a previously unvisited toilet!)

Where can we buy stamps? (frantically pointing at the top right hand corner of our postcards!)

How do you say thank you again? I know you told us half an hour ago, but we have since had a beer.

Are you sure this is vegetarian? That looks an awful lot like bacon.

Have you got any ketchup?

How much longer are we on this (insert current form of transport here)?

This is the last petrol station before we cross the border and I still have 50 (insert appropriate currency here) what do you think I can buy with that? (The ultimate result from this question is a Magnum ice cream. Never fails to disappoint!)