Around the World in 80 Girls: The Epic 3 Year Trip of a Backpacking Casanova (67 page)

My round-the-world trip in numbers

In
2
years and
8
months I visited
42
countries, some for a (very) short time and some for a long time. I went through Customs
67
times, including 2 very tricky ones in Kazakhstan and Russia. I took
9
boats,
33
(overnight) trains,
37
airplanes and
94
(overnight) buses. Besides that, I took
hundreds
of
minivans, local buses, taxis, tuk tuks, motorbike taxis and rickshaws. I have slept in
countless
guesthouses, hostels, houses and even on the street once or twice.
 

I
have slept in
188
different beds and that’s without counting the many changes of beds in hostels and sleeping on overnight busses. Quite an accomplishment for a guy who hated sleeping in beds other than his own back home.
 

Google
Maps calculates that I travelled 120,021 kilometers, but that’s in straight lines, so the real distance must be at least 150,000 km. That’s nearly 4 times the circumference of the earth.
 

I’m
fluent in Dutch and English and can manage in German. Besides that I have communicated in
24
other languages, most of the times with hands, feet and a notebook. I learned to speak some Russian and Spanish along the way and also learned quite a lot of Filipino, Indonesian and Portuguese words. I had sex with girls of
25
different nationalities and kissed dozens of others. I paid with
36
different currencies and filled
39
pages of my passport with stamps.
 

It
was the best time of my life and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Special thanks to:

My family for standing by me during my crazy trip and the writing of this book.

Jonathan,
for showing me how cool the life of a backpacker can be.

Julia
and Jenna, for giving me their true love and dedication.

D
-Lux, for having a good time with in three different countries, letting me stay in his house for five weeks for free and helping me out with designs for business cards and website headers.

Darren,
for six great weeks of travelling and fun in Indonesia, one of the best parts of my trip.

That
beautiful girl working at Vladivostok Airport for keeping me out of Russian prison.

Gustavo
and Nico from Chile, for being good friends.

Ranilo
Cabo, for designing an awesome cover at 99designs

J. M. for the editing wizardry.

My willpower, for putting up with the idiotic amount of hours I spend on creating this book.

And
, of course, you the reader for reading this long book all the way to the end. A review on Amazon would be highly appreciated. It would greatly help me out in funding my next adventures.

Neil
Skywalker
[email protected]
www.aroundtheworldin80girls.com