bangkoscow

stats

Throughout my trip (which comes to an end in 30 hours) I've kept a record of train and bus times. Since these alone do not constitute a post, I thought I would think up a number of facts from my trip as a whole. The following is what I came up with:

1. Major Train/Bus Time
- 19 days, 3 hours spent on trains and buses (19% of trip)
- 4 days, 16 hours spent on buses (4.5% of trip)
- 14 days, 11 hours spent on trains (14.5% of trip)

2. Longest Train Stretches
- 54 nonstop hours from Ulaanbaatar to Novosibirsk
- 84 hours from Almaty to Moscow with a two hour break in Novosibirsk

3. Capital Cities
- 17 capital cities: Washington, Bangkok, Vientiane, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Pnom Penh, Hanoi, Beijing, Ulaanbaatar, Moscow, Riga, Istanbul, Bucharest, Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, Dublin

4. Countries
- 20 countries (19 never before visited)
- 10 Asian countries (Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan)
- 10 European countries (Russia, Latvia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland)
- 8 former Soviet states

5. Trip Length
- 99 days or 14 weeks 1 day or 3 months 6 days

6. Least-used Item
- Thermarest

7. Least Tourists / Most Tourists
- Almaty, Kazakhstan / Prague, Czech Republic

8. Best Museums
- The State Hermitage (St. Petersburg, Russia)
- The Electrotechnic Museum (Budapest, Hungary)

9. Best / Worst Hostel
- Riga Hostel (Riga, Latvia) / Don't remember name . . . (Hua Shan, China)

10. Worst Companion Conflict
- Involving Alban losing to Lance in a Scrabble game by about 400 points. yeah . . .

11. Worst Mishap
- Having to pay the taxi driver in UB ten times as much as he deserved while he started driving away with our stuff locked in his trunk

12. Closest Transportation Call
- Almost missing the plane to Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok. We had about 30 seconds to spare. Moral of the story: Do not rely on night owls to wake you up on time.

13. Best Foods
- Thailand: Pad Thai
- Laos: French-style baguette with veggies
- Malaysia: Roti and Dahl
- Singapore: Roti and Dahl
- Indonesia: BBQ chicken on the beach
- Cambodia: Food from "The Dead Fish" restaurant
- Vietnam: Pho (beef noodle soup)
- China: Garlicky beef noodle soup from Xi'an
- Mongolia: Peter's curry noodles
- Russia: Buffet breakfast at the $200 hotel (don't tell Phil)
- Kazakhstan: Gina's gluten steaks
- Latvia: Pastries
- Turkey: Kebabs, turkish delight, baklava
- Romania: Pizza Roma
- Hungary: Our delicious pasta; fresh raspberries, peaches, plums, grapes
- Czech Republic: Our delicious tacos
- Germany: Flammkuchen (literally, "Flame Cake")
- Ireland: Alita's sweet potato / potato soup

14. Average Scrabble Scores
- Lance: 333
- Alban: 308

15. Books Read
- Name of the Rose
- James Thurber Carnival
- Harry Potter 1
- Harry Potter 2
- Harry Potter 3
- Pride and Prejudice
- Harry Potter 4
- Blue Like Jazz
- Irresistable Revolution

16. Number of Words and Pictures on the Bangkoscow blog
- 7,900 words (including this post)
- 79 pictures
- ratio of words to pictures: 100 to 1 (interesting, huh?)

17. Most Avid Blog Commenters
- Jennifer Payne (77%)
- Ted Howe (60%)
- Aaron Marson (51%)

8 Comments:

At September 10, 2008 at 10:25 AM , Blogger Jonathan Gerrans said...

i must have a strange personality: this post was more interesting to me than most of the others...

 
At September 10, 2008 at 11:17 AM , Blogger phil said...

Did you ever use the Thermarest?

¡Qué boludo! Fueron a comer en un hotel lujoso. ¿Por las dudas, se alojaron por allá tambien?

The number of hours on a train or bus is downright impressive. It'll be hard to forget how big the world is, no?

I'll give you a call Fridayish. Peas.

 
At September 10, 2008 at 12:01 PM , Blogger Thrushsong said...

Wonderful, Alban

You've always been a statistics collector. I remember you counting steps on our hike back to the farmhouse when you were about four. I'm so happy you've had a great trip and great Scrabble challengers for companions.

 
At September 10, 2008 at 12:40 PM , Blogger Jennifer Payne said...

What interesting statistics! I must say that I'm glad I wasn't there to witness the "Worst Companion Conflict" (or maybe for an innocent bystander it would have been quite humorous), but for the most part it sounds like an amazing experience: the trip of a lifetime.

 
At September 10, 2008 at 10:00 PM , Blogger AA-ron BLOG said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At September 10, 2008 at 10:01 PM , Blogger AA-ron BLOG said...

I can't lose my 3rd place for most avid blog commenters. So I'm back in California. I can tell you've already experienced some Ireland. I'm exhausted haven't really slept since I saw you off at the bus.

 
At September 11, 2008 at 1:52 PM , Blogger Ansley said...

Wow. Didn't know you were a Harry Potter fan. You learn something new every day. Also, maybe I can have an honorable mention for comments. I've been pretty faithful!! SEE YOU TOMORROW!!!

 
At October 13, 2008 at 4:58 PM , Blogger Trina Yeo said...

hey! you put archives back up. sweet! you are amazing :) (and a little bit nerdy, or a lot, ratio to words and pictures? seriously? ha.)

 

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