Standing at the exit of the Chaoshan train station, bearing amazing tan lines and a backpack of dirty clothes, stowaway sand particles, tickets/receipts spanning half the globe, and treats from the journey, we were completely baffled how so much happened in what seemed to be a blip of time.
Fifty three days.
We walked through four countries and two territories (or countries depending on who you are talking to at the time.)
Two new countries, two revisited.
Point to point, we traveled 17,473.54 km or 10,857.55 miles.
At 851,169 steps, we walked the equivalent of 626.9km (389.54 miles); which is 156 hours and eight seconds of walking.
We saw the inside of eight airports, one which will be closing within the next month.
We were in 11 planes, two trains, two mini vans, two ferries, one car, and a handful of taxis.
One mini van wreck.
Forty-eight seconds was the average take off time of our airplanes.
We stayed in 11 hotels, three Airbnbs, and one apartment.
Four travel companions joined us for the adventure.
Two bottles of sunscreen were used.
Zach read 3,067 pages.
I read 18 books.
We walked through two Grand Mosques.
We cheered at one football match in person, and a couple by sitting at a roadside food stand.
Two museums were visited.
Six elephants were touched.
Three camels were seen.
One Thai cooking class.
We return with one new football jersey, two Starbucks mugs, six spices, one package of tea, four (free) magnets, and two packages of coffee.
One ruler of a country was seen in person.
There were zero attempts to kill us. (To which we rejoice!)
The pad thai, Thai tea, falafal sandwiches, shawarma sandwiches, and hummus consumed is uncountable.
The journey is still being processed, the stories are being written, yet it is safe to say that this winter holiday was fifty three days of incredible adventures.
