Leg 18 of 18 · Days 297–300 · Thailand
300 Days:A Holiday From The Holiday
After 54 days of camping through Africa, putting up a tent every other night and eating dinner out of a plastic bowl, we had one final treat planned for the end of our honeymoon. Four days on Koh Samui in Thailand. No early starts, no driving days, no tents. A holiday from the holiday!
We flew out of Nairobi on day 297 and the first glimpse of the Gulf of Thailand from the plane window, with its little green islands and turquoise bays, was enough to make us forget the overnight flight. Our home for the last few days was the Sensimar resort on Koh Samui, an adults only hotel with an infinity pool that looked straight out over the sea. After two months of campsite showers, this was luxury.
The Champagne and Roses Bit
For most of this trip our honeymoon has looked more like an expedition. Overland trucks, sleeper trains, rental cars and more tents than I care to count. Brooke has been very patient, so these last few days were all about the champagne and roses part of the honeymoon that most people get to enjoy for the whole two weeks. We spent our days moving between the pool, the beach and the sun loungers, with the occasional cocktail thrown in. Very hard work.
New Year's Eve
Day 299 was New Year's Eve and the hotel put on a party on the beach. There was a fire dancer spinning flaming poles and a huge wheel of sparks, and plenty of bubbly. At midnight the fireworks went off over the palm trees and we welcomed in 2018 with a sparkler in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other. Happy New Year from Thailand!
Day 300
And then, just like that, it was New Year's Day 2018. Day 300. The final day of our epic honeymoon and, without a doubt, the best year of our lives. Brooke spent her last morning floating in the infinity pool and I spent mine trying to work out how we had squeezed so much into one year.
Here's our 300 days in numbers. We got married on a beach in Mexico, travelled through more than 40 countries on five continents, drove eight rental cars on road trips through Mexico, the USA, the UK, Central Europe (twice), Norway, Iceland and South Africa, spent four days on a train through Siberia, and camped for 54 days from Cape Town to Nairobi. We walked through deserts, rain and snow, and Brooke was never happier than when it started snowing in Siberia.
If you want to relive the whole journey, here are all of the legs in the order we travelled them:
The Perfect Imperfect Caribbean Beach Wedding · Mayan Sun · Volcano Trail · Cuban Adventures · Road Tripping, Toronto to DC · Home of the Big Mac, KFC and Everything In-between · Music and Food in the Good Ol' South · Straight Up The Middle · How The West Was Traveled · A Blast Around Old Blighty · Central Europe Top 10 · Fjords, Waterfalls and Dancing Lights · All Aboard the Trans-Mongolian · Kruger National Park Safari · Capes & Dunes · Okavango Delta & Chobe Adventure · Beaches, Balloons & Gorillas
A huge thank you to all the new friends we've made along the way, and to everyone who followed our travels from afar and put up with our daily Instagram posts. Exploring the world will always be our passion, but after cramming so much into 300 days we're looking forward to a 2018 full of family, friends, hard work and lots of fun.
“Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport!” It's an awesome world we live in... go see it!