World trip (2005-2006)

Holidays and short breaks
Argentina (2001)
Chile (2002)
India (2003)
World trip (2005-2006)
Libya (2008)

Preparations
South America
North America
Asia
Africa
Europe
Returning home

World trip

(click map to drill down to continent)

This was our actual route round the world, starting with a flight from London to Buenos Aires, and then working our way round the globe until we got back to London in May 2006, after which we toured round central and eastern Europe for another three months, returning to the UK at the end of September 2006.

(click bar to drill down to country)

South America

We started in London, once known as "home", on 23rd May 2005 and flew to Buenos Aires. From here we made our way across to Quito, travelling through Uruguay, Paraguay, Perú and Ecuador. We skipped Bolivia, which was on our original plan, as there was unrest at the time (June-July 2005). It didn't seem to pose any danger but we had heard about long delays from other travellers and preferred to spend our time otherwise.

North America

From Quito we flew to Montréal via Miami, to start a four-month crossing of Canada. The original plan was for only three months getting across Canada but with the "spare" time from Bolivia and just taking our time, as well as Canada's immense size, we took four months to get to Vancouver. Within Canada it took us over two months to make our way round the eastern provinces, and we took a small detour to fly down to Florida to meet up with Caz, Andy, Joe & Ben. It then took us until early December to make it across, while the Canadian winter started to gather momentum.

Southeast Asia

From Vancouver we flew across to southern China. We started in Hong Kong, then headed to Macau, and then travelled across the southern provinces of Guangdong (Canton), Guangxi and Yunnan. China was both easy and hard to travel through, with a well-developed transport network but an impenetrable language and signs! We crossed into northern Laos and after about a week or two in this quiet laid-back country we flew from Vientiane, the Laos capital, to Hanoi in northern Vietnam. We threaded (well, with a few connecting flights...) our way down towards Ho Chi Minh City, and crossed into Cambodia along the Mekong. From Cambodia we flew to Malaysia, eschewing an overland trip through Thailand, and then spent a month touring around Pensinular Malaysia, Singapore and Malaysian Borneo, with a stop at Brunei.

Southern Africa

From Melaka, our final stop in Malaysia, we travelled to Windhoek, two days of flights and waiting in departure lounges. In Namibia we hired a camping van and toured around this massive empty country for just over three weeks, with some fantastic wildlife "thingumajig spotting", a flavour of indigenous tribal cultures, desolate barren and beautiful landscapes, and lots of Germans. From Namibia we flew to Jo'burg, in what we know as "Country Sixteen", i.e. South Africa. We hired a car, a "normal" one for a change, and made our way roughly from the north-east towards our final point at Cape Town, a Grand Finale to our trip.

Taking a break

We flew back to London on the 22nd May and were glad to see our families and friends after a long absence. Over the next couple of weeks we started the process of getting back to "normal" but not so fast... there was still a little time & money left, and our wanderlust was still as strong as ever, so decided to tour through...

Eastern Europe

The final chapter of our world trip was a meandering route round parts of central and eastern Europe. We split the route in two "halves". The first part was a loop round northern Poland and then "up and down" through the three Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and then back into Poland. From Warsaw we flew back to Brussels to be with Mama for a few days and then back into Poland from where we continued with our meandering route. We had harboured grand ambitions to get as far as Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and even considered a brief detour to take in Istanbul. But we saw sense and

Calendar

Click on a date to go to the corresponding diary entry. Hover over a date to find out which country and day it relates to.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
May	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	1	2	3	4	5	Jun
Jun	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Jun
Jun	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	1	2	3	Jul
Jul	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Jul	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31
Aug	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Aug
	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	Aug
	29	30	31	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Sep
Sep	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	Sep
Sep	26	27	28	29	30	31	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Oct
Oct	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22		Oct