Day 1: Amsterdam - London - Buenos Aires

After two interrupted starts (see South America I and II) I finally set off on my trip around the world. Well, around the world, I wasn't planning anything, but I had a ticket to Australia the wrong way around, which gave me stop-overs in South America, Easter Island, Tahiti and New Zealand, which I intended to utilize to the fullest.

After arriving in Australia, I wouldn't know. I'd simply see what'd happen and when I'd come back, if ever. Altogether it took me almost a year to arrive in Australia, while the original plan was to travel to Australia via South America in 5 weeks. That shows how good I am in planning.

Some statistics of this trip:

* With the backtracking I did between Chile and Australia/New Zealand (don't ask) I travelled some 135,000 kilometres - that is thrice the world over.

* I crossed the international date line 5 times in an 8 month period.

* I spent 694 hours in a car, walked for 663 hours and sat in buses for 557 hours. I spent 267.5 hours on various types of boats and my flight hours totalled to 236 hours (excluding 81.5 hrs waiting at airports). I sat on trains for 80 hours, 26 hours in taxis, 18 hours on a bike, 16 hours in the subway, 15 hours in a kayak, 13 hours in a tram, 5 hours on a motorcycle, 4 hours on skis, 3.5 hours in a raft and 2 hours on horseback.

* During this trip I also worked for a few days here and there. Some of the jobs I had: computer analyst, HR rep, actor, model, collector, journalist, mover and sea container stacker.

* For this trip I wrote 925 pages worth of diary, of which I hope to translate 'the greatest hits' into English for inclusion in this blog someday. I'll also post some of my 6000+ photos.