The final frontier

So my final post summing up my six months of the most amazing travelling experience (for me anyway)!

After 27 flights, 17 boat trips, 7 trams, 6 push bikes, 5 train journeys, 4 cable cars, two motorbike taxis, two hire cars and far too many buses to mention my travels have finally come to a close. After reading 8books (not all of which were about the countries I was travelling in though the majority were), consuming 7 tubes of toothpaste, 6 bottles of suntan lotion, 5 insect repellants, and 1 packet of malaria tablets how can I answer the questions I posed to myself in my last post?

Firstly I don't feel that I have changed dramatically from when I set off on 7 April, nervous and excited. I think I'm old enough to pretty much know my own mind and personality unlike some of the younger travellers I've encountered fresh out of school or university. I'm sure it has altered me in many ways, made me more confident and outgoing, hopefully made me a better person in others but ultimately I didn't go travelling to 'find myself' in a cheesy 'Eat, Pray, Love' sense. For me it was about taking a break from work, perhaps figuring out what I want to do next and having an incredible experience that I would never forget. Box ticked, mission accomplished in that sense. Well, apart from maybe the 'what to do next bit'. Earn some money is the main priority now!

As for the highlight of my trip, that is harder to nail down. The country that stands out is undoubtedly China as the most fascinating, culturally challenging and memorable. I didn't love everything about it and the people are probably the most unfriendly that I encountered but I find the past and future of China incredibly interesting. I would love to return and see more, perhaps even live and work somewhere like Shanghai and immerse myself in the culture even more. In terms of activities, despite all the thrilling things I've done (Sydney harbour bridge climb, black water rafting, jet boating, snow shoeing, flying in a small plane over Fraser Island, sea kayaking, tubing, lugeing, scuba diving) the one that stands out the most is definitely walking the Great Wall. Fulfilling a childhood dream of seeing such an impressive structure and spending six days doing so was really a highlight for me. I thought the Galapagos would be right up there and although it was a fantastic experience, I met some great people and felt privileged to be part of the conservation work there I think I was at the beginning a little disappointed at how normal life on the islands seemed. The wildlife is unique but maybe if I'd gone at the beginning of the trip or spent more time exploring it would have eclipsed all else and sneaked into the number one spot.

In terms of meeting great people and making great friends though the Galapagos would be up there with the cyclling trip across Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I know many of my fellow cyclists have met up in London since the holiday so I hope to catch up with them soon. And the fact that I caught up with the ladies in Hong Kong and stayed with Ruth and Andrew in Christchurch was testament to what great friendships I made. New Zealand would probably come third on the list as I've kept in touch with a fair few of my bus buddies. I may have future trips to Sweden, Italy, Germany and other foreign destinations to look forward to, who knows! I'm lucky enough to have made a few (hopefully) lifelong friends on the China trip too. There's already a date in the diary to catch up.

What did I learn about myself? Well I guess I'm not as big a homebody who hates change as I thought I was. I really didn't struggle as much as I thought I would to be away from home and family and friends. It's not that I didn't miss you all but I was perfectly happy living in the moment, experiencing new people and places on a daily basis. Perhaps I need to inject a lot more of that into my life at home to keep on an even keel from now on.

But careerwise where I had doubts about the direction that I was going in, being away from work made me realise that I did enjoy what I did before, working in communications, that I'm good at it and would be quite happy to return to a similar role though perhaps for an different type of organisation. Something I'm more interested in and that perhaps fulfils my continuing passion for travel or wilflife/conservation. But  I guess the current climate for finding jobs means I may have to take what I can get for the time being.

If I had my time again and could do thing differently I would, not that I regret the way things worked out but the places that I felt most in tune or at home were in the developing countries, with like-minded travellers. Australia and New Zealand were great for many reasons and it was great to catch up with friends and family. But I felt much more out of place visiting friends with lives similar to back home, working and socialising with friends when mine was wholeheartedly different. And also the type of traveller I encountered in hostels did make me feel I should have done that sort of thing about ten years ago! They were lovely but I didn't always feel like I had that much in common and didn't always want to go to some sh*tty Irish bar for a cheap pint like a university student.

My biggest regret though is that I didn't have enough money left to do South America justice. It was the continent that I was most looking forward to and saw the least of really. But it's always good have something to go back for, a travelling goal to work towards. It did scare me somewhat when I arrived (perhaps after the whole near-miss mugging experience in Buenos Aires) the thought of travelling around on my own with so little Spanish and the safety issues you hear so much about from fellow travellers. It was hard to know how bad it really was in Quito but at times you did feel a bit of a caged animal, fearing going out on your own or taking any possessions with you. But I felt much more at one with the kind of travellers there, a more mature kind of person even if they weren't actually any older than travellers elsewhere. You've got to have a certain amount of savvy about you to travel there I think. I definitely have a lot more places in mind that I want to explore.

Finally, what wisdom do I have to impart on travelling? Well, don't go to Australia at the moment unless you have a small fortune to spend! Asian people (apart from the Chinese) are by far the friendliest I encountered. You really do need to understand even the most basic Spanish to feel comfortable travelling around South America. You really don't need guide books in Australia and New Zealand as the volume of information you can pick up in information centres is pretty fantastic and all free. And cycling is just an amazing way to experience a country.

My best buys for travelling were a Platypus foldaway water bottle, my Osprey rucksack with detachable daypack, a USB charger and plug adaptor in one, three Eagle Creek compression bags, and a waterproof bag for my best friend - my SLR camera which allowed me to take some pretty fantastic photos with very little skill of my own. My iPhone was incredibly useful in places with free wifi but I do wish that I'd bought and taken a netbook with me to back up photos, music and tv programmes. It was also often cheaper to get online with your own laptop than using a hostel computer in the long term. But mostly I'm glad that I learnt to live with a  lot less and have come back slightly ashamed of the volume of material possessions I have stashed away in my parents' loft at the moment. Which was part of the reason for going. Curb those shopaholic tendencies of mine!

A huge thanks goes to all of you who have read my blogs with interest and posted comments or got in touch as a result. I've probably ruined all chances of having a conversation if and when we do catch up with all my ramblings but there should still be plenty of nuggets, observations and experiences that I haven't included. I checked my stats the other day and was pretty chuffed that I'm nearly up to 2,000 page visits in the whole six months that I've been away. Experience tells me that they aren't all from my friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances but even half that amount would have sufficed.

Enough of my ramblings anyway. You'll have to text, email, facebook, tweet or call me from now on to find out what's going on in my life. Or ask my parents! And if you'd like to give me a job writing, editing, travelling more of the world etc that would be pretty damn fantastic... End of an era it feels... over and out. Speak or see you soon I hope.