- Number of Flights - 32 flights. When calculating this, I include every leg of a trip - so if I have 3 stops (like my flight from San Francisco to Baton Rouge in June), then I count three flights.
- Number of Nights Spent in a Hotel - 24 nights. This is much more than normal as I'm usually too cheap to stay in hotels, but I took a couple of tours and sometimes we were in hotels, so that helped jump the number up a bit. Plus, I had a couple of weddings to attend where I stayed in hotels too!
- Number of Nights Spent in a Hostel - 13 nights. Surprisingly low since I was backpacking SE Asia, but again I took tours, and I also got really specific on types of accommodation as you will see!
- Number of Nights Spent on flights/bus/train/ferry - 6
- Number of Nights Spent in a Homestay - 3. I did homestays in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos!
- Number of Nights Spent in a Guesthouse - 3. Guesthouses are sometimes meant to be a "step up" from a hostel. They also are more likely to be owned by a family and it's in more of a "house" hence the term "guesthouse".
- Number of Nights Spent in a lodge - 5. I stayed in one in Phong Nha, Vietnam, Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, and in Lake Okoboji.
- Number of Nights Spent at a Dive Resort - 6. Sounds fancy, "resort". This wasn't at all, but it was a different type of accommodation I felt. I stayed here while getting PADI Diver certified in Koh Tao, Thailand.
- Number of Nights spent in Friend's or Family's homes - around 60 nights. That's what happens when you travel for one month domestically, staying with friends along the way! This wasn't counting the days spent in Mason City - my hometown at my parent's.
- Number of Nights spent in an Airbnb - 9 nights.
- Number of Nights Spent in a Tipi - 1 night. Up at 10,000 feet in Colorado at my cousin's place off grid. Pretty cool!
- Number of Nights Spent on a Cruise - 1. I took a cruise with Vega Cruise through Halong Bay, Vietnam!
- Bus trips - 12 days. This doesn't count using public transportation or buses that were taken while on a tour.
- Ferry trips - 2. Only way to get to Koh Tao!
- Slow Boat trips - 2. Takes 2 days in these long boats from the border of Thailand and Laos to Luang Prabang.
- Train trips - 6. Surprisingly, most of these were taken in the US. Imagine that!
- Day Tours - 12. Separate from my full on tours that I did, I did quite a few of these as I traveled through SE Asia.
- Big Tours - 2. I took a tour with Intrepid through Cambodia, and a tour with Stray Asia through Laos.
- Number of Days of Driving ALL DAY -8. Once I got a car again (woo-hoo) and I knew where I was moving to next, I drove for 3 days out to Boston, stayed there for a week, drove 2 days down to Nashville, and then 1 and 1/3 days back to Iowa. Then when I moved to Nashville, I drove another 1 1/2 days. So I guess technically the number is 7 3/4.
- Miserable bout of sickness - 1. I will never look at Phnom Penh with much fondness.
- Number of New Countries Visited - 5 new countries, and 6 countries total. Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Malaysia. I feel weird counting Guadeloupe as already having visited, but it is technically part of France!
- Number of States Visited - This one is difficult because I drove through A LOT of states and barely count that visiting them. But technically, visited 24 states, 16 of them for real! I'm not going to list them all, because it's literally half the country.
- Favorite Accommodation - The St. Regis in Bangkok. WOW. I'll probably never stay in a hotel this nice again. The breakfast was insane! Very thankful I had the opportunity to stay there, thanks Christina's uncle!
- Favorite Hostel - this one was tough because SE Asia is full of pretty cool hostels! So of course, I have 4 of them to say: Tribee Cotu in Hoi An, Vietnam; Old Quarter Hostel in Hanoi, Vietnam; P168 Hostel in Koh Samui, Thailand; and Mingle Hostel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All of these were new and beautiful, and felt very safe! Most of these had free breakfast, which is always a favorite of mine - shout out to Tribee Cotu for the best hostel breakfast! P168 was cool because I stayed in a pod instead of a bunk bed! The social atmosphere and access to tours/day-trips/events was abundant at all of these, but I only had time to take advantage of this in Tribee Cotu, where I went on a food tour! Mingle Hostel also had a rooftop bar with crazy cocktail drinks -pretty neat! Overall, if people are ever nervous about hostels, please know that they can be pretty dang awesome! Private rooms are often offered at hostels these days, so you don't have to be living in a room with other people if that's not your jam!
- Best food/meal - Brunch at Snooze in Denver. They have multiple locations across the West Coast and are genius because they allow you to easily combine sweet with savory for breakfast - which is always my goal when out for breakfast. I've had a lot of great food this year, so it was hard to choose just one. Which is why I have two more honorable mentions: khao soi at Khao Soi Mae Sai in Chiang Mai, Thailand; and my whole meal at Central BBQ in Memphis - pulled pork sandwich, mac n' cheese and peanut butter pie (oh my!).
- Best dessert - Besides the aforementioned peanut butter pie, my favorites were the Pan from Garcia Market in Kerman, CA (outside Fresno) - it's a Mexican dessert that is so simple, but so delicious; and also any of the cupcakes I have ever had from Scratch Cupcakery and I even had a cupshake too! I don't care what anyone says, I've had a few cupcakes in my day, and there is no place better than Scratch.
- Favorite Transportation - Slow boat along the Mekong in Laos - SO peaceful and beautiful. And of course I have to mention my first time in Business Class/First Class and it was on Cathay Pacific on a 15 hour flight (I know how to pick it don't I?) from Boston to Hong Kong! It went SO fast, and I was comfortable the whole time. Didn't sleep as much as I hoped I would, but oh well! I did watch 9 episodes of Project Runway though :)
- Favorite Breweries I visited - Tree House Brewery - it's gigantic and in the woods and of course, Julius is pretty much my all-time favorite beer! Magnolia Brewing in the Haight neighborhood of San Francisco - they had some unique beers and definitely a few were gruit-style herby beers, which I'm very into lately! Lastly, Libertine Pub in Morro Bay, California, a pub that had live music and brews their own beer, almost exclusively sours - highly recommend!
- Favorite Beers - My top rated beer (4.75/5 -that I could easily check with Untappd) was Bourbon Barrel-Aged Mexican Brunch from Kane Brewing Company and I had this last year at Extreme Beer Fest. My three runners up were all tied at a 4.5/5: Alien Church from Tired Hands, Double Dry Hopped Psuedo Sue from Toppling Goliath, and Side Chain from Bearded Iris.