Our last six months – our personal review

In review of our last six months travelling the world, we have to say, we had an amazing time!

As a short recap we want to share an overview over our flights with you first:

• October 3^rd, 2017: Cologne (Germany) to Bangkok (Thailand)
• October 31^st, 2017: Chiang Mai (Thailand) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
• November 3^rd, 2017: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Denpasar (Bali, Indonesia)
• November 15^th, 2017: Denpasar (Bali, Indonesia) to Singapore (Singapore)
• November 17^th, 2017: Singapore(Singapore) to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
• November 20^th, 2017: Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) to Phu Quoc (Vietnam)
• November 28^th, 2017: Phu Quoc (Vietnam) to Hanoi (Vietnam)
• December 9^th, 2017: Haiphong (Vietnam) to Sydney (Australia)
• December 11^th, 2017: Sydney (Australia) to Christchurch (New Zealand)
• January 22^nd, 2018: Queenstown (New Zealand) to Gold Coast (Australia)
• January 29^th, 2018: Gold Coast (Australia) to Cairns (Australia)
• February 8^th, 2018: Cairns (Australia) to Gold Coast (Australia)
• February 11^th, 2018: Gold Coast(Australia) to Wellington (New Zealand)
• March 7^th, 2018:  (New Zealand) to Honolulu (Hawai’i, USA)
• March 15^th, 2018: Honolulu (Hawai’i, USA) to Lihue (Hawai’i, USA)
• March 22^nd, 2018: Lihue (Hawai’i, USA) to Las Vegas (USA)
• March 27^th, 2018: Las Vegas (USA) to Frankfurt (Germany)

Overall, we flew about 55,775 km.

Of course, it wasn’t just planes we used to travel from one place to another:
In Thailand we rented a car to drive the Mae Hong Son-Loop.
In New Zealand we rented a car to drive from Christchurch to Queenstown and from Wellington to Auckland.
While staying with both families in New Zealand we were able to borrow our hosts car to drive around.
In Australia we also rented a car at Gold Coast and Cairns to explore the surroundings.
In Vietnam we took a (really comfy) bus to travel to Sapa and back and scooters in Phu Quoc .
And to get to Chiang Mai we took the night train.

We have been asked what we liked best and what we didn’t like a couple of times, but it is very hard to answer that question. Every destination and every experience, either positive or negative, had a big impact on us and helped us to find more to ourselves and to refocus. Also, every country has its good and bad sides.
But, if we have to decide, we would go for Thailand and New Zealand as our favorites.

While thinking of what we liked best, we figured out, that not the activities or the landscape matters, but it is the people that matter the most to us and that make a place special to us:
The Thai people are the friendliest people we’ve  met and we always felt welcome. Not to mention Thailand’s amazing food, the pretty temples and the nice landscape.
New Zealand offers the most spectacular landscape. And the most inspiring people with thousands of business ideas in their minds!

While travelling and being far away from home, we had the chance to refocus a lot and we learned a lot about ourselves, as a single person as well as a couple.
About what we like and what we don’t like.
About what we need and what we don’t need.
About what we want to keep in our lives and what we want to change when we are back home.
About whether we want to have kids and a house or not.
About how we want to spent our free time.
About how we want to travel in the future…
For some of our questions we haven’t found the right answer so far, but we keep on thinking about.

We really want to thank the people we met in those months.
People who made our experience so unique and worthy.
People with whom we shared our ideas of life  and who gave us insight into theirs.
People who made us ask the right questions.

We are really thankful for the chance to see some of the most beautiful places on earth, to swim in the clearest waters, to relax on the whitest beaches, to watch the most stunning sunsets and sunrises and to climb challenging mountains.

Of course, we haven’t had just good times, there were also times, when we missed home, organization, the easy life, our family and friends.
There were times, when we felt sick and vulnerable.
Times, when we got kind of tired of travelling and felt like we have seen everything the world has to offer…Those were the times when we were tired of packing our backs again and again. Tired of finding our way.
Tired of finding the best and most affordable accommodations and rental cars.
Tired of figuring out what and where to eat while taking care of our health.
Tired of seeing waterfalls, jungles, rocks and beaches again and again.
Of course, there are thousands of pretty places around. After a while, we weren’t able to notice their uniqueness and beauty anymore.

This is in one way very disturbing, but we think, this is also very good, in another way:
We learned not to fear missing out something, that it is us who are in control of our lives and not anybody else.
We learned, that we should just do whatever we like and really want to do and not what we think what might impress others.
We learned, that we don’t like travelling fast. We like it to stay at one place for some time and to get below the surface of what you can see as a tourist.
We also learned, that we don’t have to go to places far away. Europe has a lot to offer in our comparison!

Of course, that doesn’t mean, we won’t do any long-distance travels in the future.
Of course, we would like go back to Thailand to relax, enjoy the food, stroll along the colorful night markets and to meet the kind Thai people again.
Of course, we would like go back to New Zealand, which definitely won our hearts in the ten weeks we spent there.
But we think, that we will spent our next holidays definitely in Europe.

The last six months were one of the best experiences we had in our lives and we will never forget this amazing time.

But now, with one of ours (or at least mine) biggest dreams fulfilled, we will focus on some new projects at home with lots of new energy and motivations.