The Gear
Both our backpacks weighed about 10kg at the check-in on Helsinki airport. On the way the amount grew a little as we were able to use lighter clothing and also would occasionally lug around rather many books before being able to exchange them again at the next youth hostel with such a service. In addition we had small day packs of about 3kg each that contained electronics, the camera’s underwater casing etc. fragile stuff. What we packed in the big backpacks for the 7 month trip around the world:
- t-shirts, socks and underwear to last about 6 days
- thin & light windbreaker jacket + pants
- long underwear
- minimal toiletries
- tiny towels + swimming gear
- 1 fleece shirt each
- shorts
- flip-flops
- medication: anti-malaria, painkillers, antibiotics for intestinal problems, decongestants, bandaging equipment, cleansing alcohol
- a few books
The electronics consisted of the diving computers, our camera Canon Ixus 110 IS & the underwater housing, and last but not least, our trusty HP 5103 mini laptop which great for nethack and editing pictures but also functioned as a music/movie player and saved the day on various occasions. One of them was us landing in Sydney with no cash to speak of just to notice that both our credit cards are maxed out and we can't get any money from the ATMs. The airport had a free WLAN and 10 minutes later Riikka had done some banking and her MasterCard was good to go again! Also, because of the laptop, we got into buying our Lonely Planet books online as PDFs instead of physical versions.
The Route
We purchased Round the World tickets from Oneworld alliance through Finnish Kilroy travel agent to serve as the backbone of the trip. The countries visited (in case of multientries, each country mentioned only once) in order were:
USA - Panama - Costa Rica - Nicaragua - Honduras - Guatemala - Belize - Chile - Bolivia - Peru - French Polynesia - New Zealand - Fiji - Tonga - Australia - Philippines - South Africa - Mozambique.
All in all the route was in excess of some 80000 km. A rough breakdown of the means of travel used can be found below; only bus trips of over an hour are included, tour/tourists buses are excluded totally. We totally lost count on the taxi trips of which there were dozens.
Flights: 27
Buses: 57
Trains: 2
Boats: 20
The Budget
Ah, the budget. We had calculated a budget of around 30e/each/day averaging over the whole trip. This 30e would get us accommodation, food and drinks and local bus tickets and such for one day. While in the expensive places (USA, French Polynesia, Australia) there was no way to stretch that sum to last, in the really el cheapo places (most of latin America, Phillippines) we could easily manage with 10e/each/day, and so it pretty much evened out. On top of that expense there were the costs of flights, long distance overland transfers and all activities. Originally we estimated a total budget of around 13000e each, not including the RTW flights (another 3800e each).
Naturally this budget was exceeded; we had planned to do around 20-25 dives each, and ended up doing 50-60 dives each. And diving is costly - a single tank dive on the trip averaged at around 50 USD. The price range for it was huge; in Honduras we got by with 26 USD/tank including a place to stay while in French Polynesia / Africa we’d have to dish out 80 USD per tank. We also ended up purchasing more additional flights than planned and ended up exceeding the budget by over 2000e. But absolutely no regrets, these things had to be done in order to make the trip the perfect one that it was.
The total budget per person (including totally everything) was: 19000 e
The biggest expenses were:
- Flights
- Diving
- Accommodation
- Other activities
- Drawing cash from ATMs at 2.5%+2e per transaction; over 1000e in total!
- Overland & boat travel
- Drinks & Food
- Visas & exit taxes & other similar highway robberies at borders
The Money
Most of the time we would be carrying around 200 USD in cash for emergencies (entry/exit fees, visas, bribes, ATMs not working or present) as well as a few hundred euro for the first half of the trip. It's amazing how many places in the world still do not accept euros! For credit cards we had Visa and Mastercard, which I consider to be the top pick for travel in case you're limited to 2 cards. When in "hot" places we'd stash the valuables in our money belts, but 90% of the time I'd just use my wallet. Never got robbed / pickpocketed!
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Matti:
Best liked countries: Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia
Best surprises: Mozambique, Africa as a whole
Best single moment: Swimming with the whaleshark near Utila Island
Worst single moment: Getting sick with Dengue
Biggest adrenaline rush: First 10 km of the old road on Death Road
Best views: Death Road, Bora Bora from air
Best beach: Uoleva Island, Tonga
Best dive: Tiputa Pass, Rangiroa, French Polynesia
Best diveshop: Alton’s Dive Center, Utila Island, Honduras
Best airlines: Qantas
Worst airlines: Air Mozambique (LAM)!!, American Airlines
Best trip/activity: Raggamuffin Sailing Trip in Belize
Riikka:
Best liked countries: Honduras, Fiji, Philippines
Best surprises: Fiji, Bula!
Best single moment: Watching a pride of lions chasing after Kudu antelope
Worst single moment: Trying to close my SIM card after my phone got stolen
Biggest adrenaline rush: Cage diving with the great white sharks
Best views: Death Road, Bolivia and the endless coral fields in Sabang, Philippines
Best beach: Tofo, Mozambique or Matilda’s in Nicaragua or Uoleva, Tonga
Best dive: Ali Baba, Fakarava, French Polynesia
Best diveshop: Alton’s Dive Center, Utila Island, Honduras
Best airlines: LAN Chile, Air Tahiti Nui
Worst airlines: LAM
Best trip/activity: Safari in Mohlabetsi (Greater Kruger area), South Africa
Books Read
Man from Saigon by Marti Leimbach
The Ford County by John Grisham
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
Cradle by Arthur C. Clarke
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
Tyrannosaurus Canyon by Douglas Preston
The Society by Michael Palmer
The Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
End in Tears by Ruth Rendell
Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
The Treasure by Iris Johansen
Blackwood Farm by Ann Rice
The Arctict Drift by Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler
The Book of Fate by Brad Metzler
The Bleachers by John Grisham (Riikka)
The Innocent Man by John Grisham (Riikka)
Daniel X: Watch the Skies by James Patterson & Ned Root (what a piece of crap!)
Twister by Chris Ryan (what a piece of crap!)
The Final Flight by Stephen Coonts
Screaming Room by John O'Connel
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris
Prey by Michael Crichton
Black & Blue by Ian Rankin
Sea of Fire by Jeff Rovin (only Matti)
The Good German by Joseph Kanon
The Sacred Cut by David Hewson (only Matti)
Nothing But the Truth by John Lescroart (only Matti)
Without Remorse by Tom Clancy (only Riikka)
Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by J.R.R Tolkien
Journey by Danielle Steele (only Riikka)
Open by Andre Agassi autobiography
In Closing..
Simply put the trip was the best thing we’ve ever done, nothing short of amazing. And it might remain so for a looong time.. hopefully to be topped before this thing called life ends for us. Since the initial shock of returning back to the grind is starting to pass, I already have rudimentary plans for the next voyage - which won’t take place in very near future though, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead, does it? Anyway, next up on the menu is the summer and the festival season that it brings, and in the fall it could be a whole new ballgame.. you never know what the next season shall bring.
Thanks to everyone who showed interest in the trip and these ramblings! We hope to see more of you take the plunge and leave the safety of home for a while and go see our planet. It’s quite bloody great.
Best regards,
Matti & Riikka
