- 1 circumnavigation of the globe
- 322 days
- 20 countries
- 29 flights
- 8 equator crossings
- 17 modes of transportation: plane, taxi, rental car, motorcycle, rickshaw, tuk tuk, scooter, pickup truck, ferry boat, camel, felucca, elephant, bus, canoe, train, motor yacht, bicycle
- 73 books read (Brandy 60 and Kevin 43, but one of his was “War & Peace” which should count for 10)
- 173 different sleeping locations including hotels, hostels, bus stations, airports, trains, tents, buses, and deserts
- met people from 40 different countries

In the past 11 months we have:
Gazed upon original works by Van Gogh, traveled the canals of Venice, stood at the foot of the great pyramids of Egypt, explored the forgotten city of Petra, been so close to wild lions we could almost touch them, seen the magnificence of the Taj Mahal, climbed the mighty Himalayas, bicycled through the temples of Burma’s Bagan, hiked 2,000 year old rice terraces in the Philippines, trekked the Andes to the lost city of Machu Picchu, swam with the sharks and sea lions in the waters of the Galapagos Islands, met amazing, beautiful, kind, and interesting people from all over the world, and so much more.

There are many people who helped us make this possible. We would like to thank:
- Chris and the gang at Boots n All Travel for hosting our website (www.bootsnall.com)
- Deb and Drew for being great hosts and allowing two weary travelers into their home in Arusha, Tanzania
- The Morsy and El Kasaby families for their amazing hospitality in Cairo and Alexandria
- Paola her family in Quito for their warm welcome
- The fantastic guides we have met and befriended along the way: Said in Tanzania, Narayan in Nepal, Robin in Burma, and Alfonso in the Galapagos
- All the great fellow travelers we met along the way who shared their stories, gave us their recommendations, taught us card games, and provided great company and friendship
- Everyone who ever posted a comment on our website or sent us an email… we always enjoyed messages from home
- Our family and friends for their support, specifically:
- Jim, Heather, Rio and Kalvin for looking after our hyper, dumb, but loveable chocolate lab, Treuman, and for parking the infamous but rather unattractive Melonball in front of their house
- Kevin’s mom Heather for looking after some of our banking that could not be done on-line
- Brandy’s dad Rick and his wife Marilyn for storing all of our belongings in their basement, taking care of our cat Inca, couriering replacement credit cards, and dealing with all our mail
- Paul and Corina for storing our Pathfinder at their house
- Jim and Heather again for being the only people to meet us on the road – it was definitely a highlight of our trip

Now, some of your most frequently asked questions answered, starting with the most common…

Q: What was your favourite country?
A: It is impossible for us to pick one country. Each country offered something unique and amazing. A country that we would like to return to is Nepal to do some longer treks. Things we especially enjoyed include our safari in Tanzania, trekking in all countries, and the Galapagos

Q: Did you ever feel you were in danger?
A: No. We were experienced travelers even before we went on this journey. We are careful to always be aware of our surroundings and don’t let ourselves get into situations that make us feel unsafe.

Q: Did anything really bad happen to you?
A: The worst thing that happened was having a day pack stolen from a train in India. We did not lose anything too valuable but it was discouraging and frustrating and took a lot of work to replace the items we lost.

Q: Who looked after your dog?
A: While we were gone Treuman lived on Vancouver Island with Kevin’s brother Jim, his wife Heather and their two kids Rio and Kalvin.

Q: What is it like spending 24/7 together?
A: We travel well together and do not argue very often so we did not have any trouble with this. It is definitely a journey we are glad we experienced together.

Q: Did you ever get really sick?
A: Neither of us ever required professional medical attention. We occasionally took antibiotics for mild stomach ailments but never suffered from anything too serious. Brandy got a deep cut on her foot in the streets of Burma but that was just before we returned to Canada in December so it had a chance to heal at home.

Q: Are you going to write a book?
A: No. We think we’ve bored you all quite enough with this website and you haven’t even seen our 10,000 photo slideshow yet!

Q: Have you satisfied your travel bug?
A: No. We found the more we traveled, the more places we learned about that we want to visit. These include Syria, Iran, Patagonia, and Iceland.

Q: How did your flights work?
A: We bought around-the-world tickets. There are three major airline alliances that offer this type of ticketing and all three have different rules. We went with the Sky Team alliance because it has alliance members that fly to east Africa. Sky Team’s major carriers are KLM and Continental but they are affiliated with smaller airlines all over the world. Our ticket cost $4,800 CAD (about $4,100 USD) and allowed us up to 40,000 miles of flying. We booked all our destinations when we bought the ticket but left the dates open for flexibility. We purchased a couple of extra flights along the way to destinations not covered by our alliance, including Burma and the Galapagos.

Q: How will you adjust to your return to the “Real World”?
A: We are both looking forward to returning to Vancouver, finding a new house, and starting new jobs. We have been away from our families for six years (including our five years in Ontario) so we are happy to be closer to them. Although this trip has changed us both in a million different ways, none of the changes are monumental. We will not be moving to India to volunteer with orphans, Kevin has not switched to an organic, vegan diet, and Brandy will not be giving up her shoe collection. However we may need to open a hostel to accommodate all the people we met around the world that we have invited to visit us here in beautiful Vancouver.

Thanks again for the support. Please feel free to email us personally with any questions to brandyandkevin@telus.net. And if you haven’t signed our guestbook yet, please do so NOW!

Thanks,

Brandy and Kevin

Vancouver Airport May 6, 2005
Vancouver Airport March 24, 2006