Eight Months On the Road – Update from Pamela and I

Looking down on Hat Head from Smoky Point Lighthouse

The 5^th of April marks the eighth straight month of our trip and we wanted to send out a quick update on our progress. It seems like these last two months in Australia have gone in the blink of an eye. Pamela and I are having a great time checking out the coast of New South Wales. So far we’ve spent two weeks in Batemans Bay, a week in Sydney, two weeks in Forster and a week in Coffs Harbour. The New South Wales coast has so much to offer that we could easily spend another two months exploring as we just love it. Up next it’s the Queensland coast, where we will spend at least the next five weeks traveling between the Gold Coast, Bundaberg and the Sunshine Coast. We’re really looking forward to meeting up with family and friends in the Gold Coast area.

In the whole we’ve been on the road 245 days and over these past 245 days we’ve traveled nearly 110,000 kilometers (58,000 miles) which is more than twice the circumference of the Earth. If that seems like a lot to you then you’re right, it was actually too much all at once. The first six months on the road had us seeing and doing so much that it was quite hard to keep up with where we were and what we were doing. These last two months have been quite the opposite; reading, sleeping, cooking and beaching are on the agenda most days with the most critical thing being shell collecting. Life has been really-really nice and relaxing which is quite the contrast of the first portion of our trip. Pamela is as tan as I’ve ever seen her and thankfully my tan line is the only thing receding on me. Don’t worry parents, we go through sun block like water these days so no sunburns.

Work…Unfortunately it’s getting closer to that time when we need to start looking for jobs and a more permanent place to live. Believe it or not I think it will be good to get back to work, at least for a while. I’m not sure how hard it will be to find a job but we’re not too worried. We’re estimating sitting down and really looking for work during the month of May but don’t hold us to that just yet. As for housing we’re constantly on the lookout for beachfront or near beachfront apartment deals somewhere in the Gold Coast area but we’re still not 100% sure. We know we definitely want to live close to the beach so it will be just a matter of where we can find work or quite a few prospects for work.

Health-wise we’re both doing pretty well. We’re both much tanner than when we left eight months ago and I’ve definitely gained some weight. Unfortunately I cracked a rib about four weeks ago so have been off any rigorous exercise since then and I’ve definitely felt the lack, especially with all the ice cream. Thankfully the rib is nearly healed and I’m already back swimming a bit, hopefully I can surf again in a few weeks. Pamela’s still in great shape, I’m not sure where she puts all the ice cream though. Oh to be 26 again…

Thanks so much to everyone who continues to read our posts and look at our pics. We hope you’re enjoying the stories and pics. For those of you outside of Australia I hope the photos inspire you to come visit.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave 

Three Months Down – Lessons Learned and Highlights from the Previous Month

The 5^th of November marked three consecutive months of our round the world honeymoon. Just a month ago we were in Nepal, since we’ve traveled to India, Maldives, Greece, France and Turkey.  Over the last month we’ve stayed in 15 different hotels,  spent one night in the airport and one night on a train. The 15 different hotels range from the best of the best to the worst of the worst. We went from an outdoor rain shower to an indoor bucket shower and back again. This month has definitely been the busiest for us, we’ve seen so much in such a short amount of time that it’s hard even finding time to write about the stuff.

Lessons Learned from Month #3
Make sure you have enough sunblock when traveling to the Maldives. If 
not, expect to pay a very high price for sunblock at whichever resort 
you stay at. We ran out and had to spend quite a bit on a less than 
good bottle.

Be very careful when handing over money while traveling. Within 20 
minutes of arriving into India the Tourist Police of all people took 
us for 900 rupees (20 usd) using the old switcheroo technique.

Where double-seemed pants when walking through the jungle. Leeches can 
and will get through the seems of your single seemed pants to get to 
your tasty blood.

If you wear contact lenses then make sure you have a good pair of 
backup glasses. I (DW) have needed to wear my glasses off and on and 
my backup glasses (which I never wore for any length of time) gave me 
a lot of problems. Holiday pics don't look so good with a band-aid 
over your nose.

Be sure to pack your own towell if staying in budget accommadation. 
Even if a towell is provided it often isn't clean and could have the 
texture of sandpaper. Our large pack towell dries fast and doesn't 
have the texture of gravel.

Highlights from Month #3 and Why
Pamela -  Definitely the week in the Maldives. I loved it so much, it was a dream honeymoon.
Dave  - Maldives. Pamela and I got to spend some good relaxing time together. So much of our trip has been go-go-go that we haven’t had much time to stop-stop-stop

Lowlights from Month #3 and Why
Pamela – Indian Railways. I didn’t have a good time on the trains in India. From gag-inducing smells and sights at the stations, to trash lining the floors of the cars, it just wasn’t a pleasant experience. If doing it again I’d definitely spring for 1^st class tickets…but next time I’ll try my hardest to fly.
Dave – Catching a cold and eye infection and not in that order. I didn’t like being sick while traveling through India and I’m definitely sick of wearing my glasses. I should have listened to Pamela earlier and gone to the Doctors sooner vs later. Just don’t tell her I said that.

Where are We Now
We’re currently traveling through Turkey by bus and having a great time doing it. We love Turkey….the food, the people, the sights, everything has been great.  Yesterday we visited St. John’s Basilica in Selcuk and today we visited the travertines of Pamukkale.

New Website Info
I can’t believe we’ve had almost 9000 hits on our website in just over three months. That’s more than I thought we’d get on our whole trip. Thanks again to everyone for checking out the site. Recently we added a little gadget that posts our last Twitter updates from our account @FrqtFlyr and we also have a little gadget that lists where we are and how far we’ve travelled.

That’s it for Month #3 update. Month four will be here before you know it….especially since I’m a little late with this one J

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

Two Months Down – Lessons and Highlights From Our Last 30 Days

Wow. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun. We both can’t believe how fast our second month on the road came and went. Just to sum things up; it’s the 5^th of October and we’re currently in Kathmandu, Nepal. Tomorrow afternoon we are leaving for the Maldives via India and Sri Lanka. So far we’ve travelled nearly 17,000 kilometers (10,500 miles) over the last 60 days and in that time have saved (not taken) nearly 4000 pictures. Surprisingly we’ve had thousands of hits on our website since we started our trip and we’re sure thankful for everyone checking out the site and reading our stories via email.

Travel Lessons Learned this Month:
1. We found ATM fees way too high in Thailand and Nepal. Next time we’ll bring US dollars to both of these countries and use the currency exchange booths which actually gave a way better rate than an ATM in Nepal. Not to mention the 400 rupee charge from them and the several dollar charge from our bank. Not to mention working ATMs in Nepal were a bit hard to come by in certain areas.

2. When being given a room here in Nepal make sure you ask to see the room first before agreeing to the room and or price. We found a vast difference in room quality from room to room at certain hotels, even for rooms of the same type.

3. To help prevent bed bugs then we would recommend investing in some pre-treated/medicated sleeping sheets if coming to this part of the world.
4. We should have brought our own mosquito net with us. We stayed at a beautiful, albeit mosquito infested resort in Koh Chang, Thailand. The room was fantastic except it didn't include a mosquito net. It also didn't help that our cleaning person left the door wide-open while they were cleaning the room.

Highlights of the Past Month and Why:
Dave – I really enjoyed our mountain trekking. Waking up in the village of Ghandruk during our trek to see the mighty Annapurna Himalayan Range (pict including Annapurna South, Hiunchili and Machhapuchare (Fishtail). Viewing these majestic mountain peaks really puts into perspective how small we really are, awe-inspiring and breathtaking are just a couple phrases I could use to describe the feeling.

Pamela -  Also waking up in Ghandruk and seeing the mountains in full view. It was a beautiful site when the clouds cleared. You really only got to see the peaks in the morning and it was definitely worth the early AM wake-up call.

Lowlights of the Past Month and Why:
Dave – I really didn’t like Pamela having to deal with her bedbugs. This was probably the hardest thing for me this month.

Pamela – Bedbugs in Pokhara. No fun, especially for someone who’s very allergic to them. Thankfully we had a well prepared Doctor on our tour who helped out with some meds!

We definitely miss all our family and friends back home in Australia and America. Thank you to everyone supporting us back there!

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave