The Best & Worst

Since our return to the United States, everyone asks the same question:  "Which country was your favorite?"  Nobody wants to hear about the 40+ hour travel days, the purchasing of fake bus tickets or the friendly locals who welcomed you with open arms when you thought their house was a "locals" bar (oops!).  So with that said...here's our best/worst list for our trip.

Most interesting meal

• If you love small cuddly animals, skip to the next topic..........seriously........ We ate a guinea pig in Peru.  It tasted like a two day old rabbit and left us feeling less than 100% the following day.

Most Friendly Country

• Nigeria. It's like the Midwest on steroids in terms of friendly strangers approaching you and welcoming you to their country. 

Worst Airline

• Spirit Air, where they raise the price of your ticket after you purchase it and don't allow you to check in until you pay the difference.  We had better experiences flying with Malaysia Airlines than we did with Spirit Air.  

Finally boarding our Spirit Air flight after paying for the increased ticket cost.  There were 36 wheelchairs lined up to board the flight to Florida!

Most Difficult Language Barrier

• Japan.  Surprisingly, the Japanese were also some of the most helpful people when we became lost (which happened almost every day!)

Between hand signaling conversations with almost a dozen locals and a helpful English-speaking young man calling our host, we finally found our apartment in Kyoto.

Most surprising country

• Bolivia.  It's like traveling on Mars - the sights are unbelievable.

Favorite country visited

• Japan (Yemi) and South Africa (Jan). Thailand is one of our all time favorite countries but we had visited there prior so we took it out of contention here. 

Least favorite country

• Peru. Many aspects of it are similar to Bolivia, which we much preferred.  Tourism has taken over in Cusco and Lima was absolutely BORING.  It didn't help that we barely got out alive due to dual sand-boarding accidents.

Where we would have liked to extend our stay

• Japan. It's so expensive so we had to rush through this amazing country in one week to stay on our tight budget.

Most stressful travel day

• A toss up between Jan almost not being allowed to board our flight to Nigeria due to visa issues and getting stranded in Buenos Aires.

Biggest splurge 

• $350 for staying one night at a traditional ryokan in Japan. 

Most fun event

• Anmol's wedding in India. 

Favorite cultural experience

• Staying with a local family in rural Cambodia.  We barely noticed the lack of electricity and running water as we sat around the dinner table having both seriously intense and absolutely hilarious conversations.

Most rewarding experience

• Volunteering with All Hands Org in the Philippines.

Best meal

• This is the most difficult category!  The savory sushi in Japan that melted in our mouths quite literally ruined US sushi for us.  The eggplant dish our home stay host cooked for us in rural Cambodia over a fire stove was something we talked about for months despite the fact that we don't even like eggplant.  And of course, there's nothing in this world like Thailand's famous pad Thai.

Most Peaceful Country / Where we could live long term

• Thailand. It's laid back, cheap and easy to get around. Daily $5 massages help with the relaxation as well. 

Best sunset

• Since our blog is "Chasing Sunsets," we have to include this category, right?  It's an easy one.  The Gili Islands in Indonesia had sunsets each night that lit the sky on fire.  It was hard to put the camera down and simply enjoy the views.