Ben's Big Trip - The Stats

Continents visited: 4 - Europe, Africa, North America, Asia.

Countries visited: 28 - Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic,
England, Tunisia, Libya, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Belgium,
Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Slovakia, Poland, Scotland, USA, Canada, China, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore.

Border Crossings: 58

People met up with along the way (excluding fellow travellers): Daska
(Zurich and London), Allan and Nicole and Juergen (Munich), Sam
(Zurich and London), Dad and Adam and Mike
(Tunisia, Libya, Rome, London and Zurich), Mum and Rebecca and Jess
(London and Zurich), Beast and Marnie (Antwerp, Amsterdam and
Germany), Susan and James (Dublin and Malaysia), Mark (London),
Francesca (Milan), Hans and Nicolas (Antwerp), Renske (Amsterdam),
Kris (London), Ian and Rob and Lube (London), Tracy (New York), Anne
and Atul (New York), Ashley (New York), Allan and Luanne (Maryland),
Ian and Rachel (Illinois), Les and Jill and Steph (Flagstaff), Sean
(Sacramento), Ray (Stanford), Chad (San Francisco), Mark (Seattle),
Emilie (Montreal), Kathryn (Vancouver), Cathy (Whistler), Mum and Dad
(China), Robyn and Phil (Cambodia), Pierre and Rebekka (Thailand) ...
sorry if I missed anyone!

Favourite country: Czech Republic

Best beer: Pilsener Urquell (Czech)

Best looking women: Bosnia

Best place to stay in Europe: Backpack Guesthouse, Budapest

Best place to stay in Asia: Hoa's Place, China Beach, Vietnam

Best drinking sessions: Late August 2005, in Budapest, with irish lads
Barry and Ronan, Rob, Sean, Dee, Val, Angela, Lauren, Orla, Stevie and
Katy, Nick and Julie, Tina and the british girls "I've got my mind set on you, set on
you!"

Shortest stay in a country: Slovakia (oops, should have bought a train ticket!)

Rainiest outdoor concert: U2 in Zurich

Best food: New Point Kebab, Zurich

Most disgusting food: Dog meat, China

Best boss: Scott, Whistler, top bloke!

Worst boss: No question - Beatrice!

Most spaced out boss: Serge from telemarketing, his motivational
speech simply being "come on guys, let's make some sales"

Funniest stories I heard:
- Pierre's arrest in Antwerp
- Dani W in the sauna with Beatrice
- Daska's emails

Most bumped into travellers: Rob and Kara - Bus to Mui Ne, Bus from
Mui Ne, Cu Chi tunnel tour, Phnom Penh guesthouse, random bar in
Bangkok.

Freakiest bumping into: Randy in Prague, 4 months after met in Belgium

Another freaky thing: Mayan showing up in my photo taken 1 week before we met.

Number of times I washed my shorts in 3 months: Zero

Flight Legs: 24

Bank accounts used: Commonwealth, UBS, ING Direct, TD Canada Trust

Most inconvenient yet fun transport:
- Missing last train for the night from Paris to Brussels so drank some beers under
the Eifell tower with 2 american blokes till the lights went off at 1am, then wandering the
streets of Paris the rest of the night, passing out in front of Notre Dame
- Train with Beast and Marnie in Germany stopped in the middle of
nowhere during lightning storm
- Forgetting to buy a ticket from Budapest to Prague and being kicked
off the train in the middle of Slovakia
- Single carriage Czech trains
- Every Amtrak train in the USA (nothing fun about it though)
- Shared pick-up taxi from Siem Reap to Thai border including
chickens, thunderstorms, and plenty of delays.