best of, worst of 2012!

posted Jan 6th

Happy New Year! We thought we’d run a few posts on some of the best moments of 2012, as well as some of the ‘bloopers’ & travel disasters.

Here to start with is the winner in the ‘best school‘ category: Maloku school on Moala island. We did a lot of book distributions in schools in 2012 but the combination of good lighting & friendly children resulted in the some lovely smiles:

In 2012 we stayed in no less than 60 different houses, apartments, hotels & other forms of accommodation! It’s hard to say which was ‘the best’ but very easy to say which was the worst: Rome airport!! Unfortunately we don’t have a photo but here’s the story for your amusement:

Earlier in the year, we were due to fly from Rome to Budapest with budget airline Whiz Air. We arrived at Rome airport on time but were slightly confused to see 2 departure times: ‘proposed departure time’ and ‘actual departure time’.  One was 40 minutes or so earlier than the other, so we confirmed at the check in counter which was the right one. We were told that it was the later one & so, as we had food to finish, we took our time to eat lunch & proceed for boarding. Immigrations was much longer than expected & when we finally arrived at our departure gate, we found it was the earlier time & not the later one!!! Our plane was already starting to move & would not allow us on…..what a disaster!!

We had no choice but to buy new tickets for the next day, (at a not-at-all-budget price!) & spend the night on the carpet in a little enclave in front of an airline office, with flight announcements sounding throughout the night. We were warm enough & got at least a little sleep, but it’s not an experience we’d like to repeat!

We didn't count how many planes we took in 2012 but it was a lot!