Best & Worst

Once in a while something just plain stands out among the rest.

Best Air Transportation

Gulf Air    (Oman)
Our flight had been cancelled for a flight we booked like 6 months earlier (and we never confirmed - just showed up for the flight). They got us on a flight the next day and put us up in a swanky hotel. Great customer service.

Best Museum

Kuching Museum    (Malaysia)

Nimbin Museum    (Australia)

Best Snorkeling

Dahab    (Egypt)
Cold, but the Red Sea is amazing!

Lovina    (Indonesia)
This was the first place I snorkeled so it holds a special place in my heart.

Perhentian Besar    (Malaysia)
A unique collection of sea life right off shore. Including sea turtles!

Roatan    (Honduras)
Perfect water, some sites require a swim but it's always great

Cheapest Hotel Room

$1.65 Yogyakarta    (Indonesia)
And it wasn't even that gross!

Favorite Animal Sighting

Hippos the on road    (Zimbabwe)
Walking down a dark road, hearing rustling in the bushes. Car headlights reveal a HUGE hippo and baby. Car stopped for us to jump in.

Playing elephants    (Zimbabwe)
No better sight and happy frolicking elephants. So much different than in a zoo.

Favorite Big City

Bangkok    (Thailand)

Denpasar    (Indonesia)

Mexico City    (Mexico)

Favorite Boat Ride

Nile Cruise    (Egypt)
Small feluca sail boat with just a few of us on it for a few days. We slept and ate on the boat and stopped at sights along the way.

Favorite Cave

Finca Ixobal swim    (Guatemala)
Conquering fears of swimming through a very narrow underwater cave.

Glow worms    (New Zealand)
Inner tubing through a dark cave with glowing worms / stars on the ceiling.

Mulu stalagtite/mite w/ lights    (Malaysia)
Grande and beautiful.

Favorite Cultural Event:

Hill tribe festival    (Thailand)
Burmese tribes in Thailand gathered for their yearly celebration.

Semana Santa, Antigua    (Guatemala)
Absolutely something to behold. They stay up all night creating intricate alfombras, just to march over them and destroy them the next day.

Favorite Ground Transportation

Top of bus    (Nepal)
The bus was so full, we rode on top in the luggage rack with a full load of locals and a goat.

Favorite Lingo/Phrase

Fair Dinkum    (Australia)
"for real" or "seriously"

Favorite National Park

Monteverde    (Costa Rica)
Nice lush cloud forest. There's a cabin in the middle of it you can spend the night in.

Mulu    (Malaysia)

Royal Bardia    (Nepal)

Taman Negara    (Malaysia)

Tarangire    (Tanzania)

Favorite Natural Phenomenon

Corkscrew bats    (Malaysia)
The bats leaving the cave at night in a corkscrew pattern.

Phosphorescence, Gili Meno    (Indonesia)
Or anywhere else in the world, but this is the first place I saw it.

Sparkling tree    (Nepal)
So many lightning bugs in one big tree, it was magical. Especially having been dropped off in the middle of nowhere at 3am.

Favorite New Animal

Mouse Deer    (Indonesia)

Pangolin    (Malaysia)

Stained Glass Butterfly    (Guatemala)

Favorite Swim

Finca Paraiso, Rio Dulce    (Guatemala)
A hot waterfall into a cool pool of friendly fish.

Hardest Sleeping Surface

Lake Cariba ferry    (Zimbabwe)
Slept on hard plastic benches for 3 nights.

Pinnacles hike    (Malaysia)
One large wooden deck for all to sleep on w/ only our thin sheet.

Taman Negara hide    (Malaysia)
The matresses for the bunk beds were missing. Just wood slats.

Most Memorable Hike

Pinnacles    (Malaysia)

Taman Negara hide    (Malaysia)

Most Memorable Shower

Rio Dulce, damn good shower    (Guatemala)
Even other travelers commnented on how nice their showers were.

Scariest Ground Transportation

Bus to Java w/ dead guy    (Indonesia)
OMG, fast driving, passing blind, dead moto driver on side of road.

Cliff buses    (Nepal)
Riding on top of bus on thin cliff roads.

Drunk Cairo taxi driver    (Egypt)
Need I say more?

Mini bus    (Vietnam)
Fast, blind passing of motos, trucks, driving most of the time in oncoming lane, etc.

Smallest Hotel Room

Tikal    (Guatemala)
6' x 4' w/ no bed it looked more like an outhouse!

Smoggiest City

Cairo    (Egypt)
Noticeably bad visibility. Gross.

Jogyakarta    (Indonesia)
After being outside for only a short time, your under your fingernails would be black.

Worst Air Transportation

Egypt Air    (Egypt)
Rickety flight, no communication, many hours delayed, etc.

Interjet    (Mexico)
Regularly cancelled flight at 1am, trapped in TJ terminal

Worst Boat Ride

Cayos Cochinos maintenance    (Honduras)
Hitched a ride to shore on a boat that broke. The in-storm fix was to hammer the hell out of it.

Koh Kradan storm    (Thailand)
Soaked to the bone in a small boat and a driver that had no idea how to drive in a storm.

N to S New Zealand puke ferry    (New Zealand)
Big seas, barforama.

Oily to Lombok    (Indonesia)
Sat on the roof only to have the big smoke stacks rain small droplets of oil on us.

Omotepe ferry    (Nicaragua)
Thought it was going to burst at the seams.