Just time for a mid-term round up before we embark on New Zealand.<,p>
We've now been away from home for 6 months so it's worth a quick reminisce. Cliched as it might be, it does seem rather a long time since we left home. More specifically, rather a long time since Steve forgot to set the alarm and we had to make a rather hasty dash down the M4 to catch that first flight to St Petersburg.
Since then, we've visited Russia, Mongolia, China, Tibet, Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Singapore and Australia. Not a bad tally really. Imagine the number of souvenir tee-shirts! Of all the places we've been and all the stuff we've seen so far, Steve's favourite was Tibet simply for it's blue skies and awesome scenery. Oh, and the friendliness of the people was a plus too. Megan won't be drawn as places don't compare - they all have different pluses and minuses. Fair enough! You'll have to ask her when you see her.
We left China just as the major floods took hold, we arrived at Hong Kong airport to find our tickets had been cancelled, we walked because the bus route was too scary in Tibet, Megan ate a dodgy steak (illness #1), Steve had malaria on the elephant trek {illness #2, so he claims) and we were nearly capsized on a dive boat in Thailand. The biggest surprise was not getting sick at all on Chinese food.
On balance, we seem to have spent enough time in each place. Megan pointed out that she hadn't been anywhere where she hadn't been ready to leave by the end. To explain, this is more that we've got a good idea what the place is like - done it justice if you like. This is probably not true of Tibet or Laos but then they were not planned and were just "bonuses". Elsewhere though, we think we've allowed enough time to see much of what is on offer and to gain a reasonable understanding of the psyche of the "locals".
It feels strange to be half way through the trip. At this point we have no real wish to return home; other than to see people, of course :-) It's all been great fun and we're looking forward to the next 6 months.
We've been keeping in regular contact with many of you who've chosen to e-mail us. Apologies for the lack of photos on the trip reports. We do have plenty of pics but it's difficult to get them uploaded.
Anyway, thanks for staying with us and please keep reading; we hope it's at least mildly interesting. We'll try and continue in the same vain as we travel around New Zealand and then South America. We're aiming to be down at the pointy end of S.America for New Year so stick with us and see if we make it.