Where you're bored and not sleepy in a hotel in Chennai the mind can think up some wacky things or you can just sit on the bed and twiddle your thumbs. The secret third option is to waffle on about the bits of our trip that I did and didn't like and give people something to read while we're on the plane home. Of course at that time of the morning people should really be asleep!

Before we left there were several specific places that I was looking forward to seeing but in terms of countries, New Zealand was at the top of my list. Perhaps it was the familiarity, it felt so much like home but with a few mountains thrown in for good measure. The people were friendly and welcoming and for the most part we blended in and weren't the objects of attention. When people did realise that we were foreign though nothing changed, no one tried to rip us off and no one treated us differently, it almost felt like we could belong there. The countryside was stunning and the places we stayed in were pretty much all excellent. Maybe the thing i liked most about New Zealand was being able to see myself living there. Sadly, being so far from home is the one thing that would make it difficult. Having said that though, it's probably a good thing otherwise lots of other people would move there and that would spoil it.

As for specific places, I saw my first picture of Machu Picchu about a year or so before we booked the trip and knew I wanted to go there. I think it was in a Sunday paper supplement. That was one of the places I wanted to see most. I also wanted to see the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall but Machu Picchu was definitely at the top of my list. In the end though it was pipped to the post by Easter Island.

It was difficult not to think of Easter Island as a separate country since it's thousands of miles away from anywhere but it is part of Chile and totally amazing. I'd heard of it before and knew roughly what the heads looked like but being there with them was weird. It was a bit like the feeling you get when you see something impossibly big and for a moment your brain tells you that it doesn't exist and that you're just imagining things. The shuttle assembly building in Florida, the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas, the Petronas Towers in KL, the Taj Mahal and the Perito Merino glacier in Argentina are all examples too. Incidentally, the world's tallest building is now Taipei 101 in Taiwan. We actually landed there on our way to Tokyo but I didn't see it, I must have been looking out of the wrong side of the plane.

Japan had to be the country that was least like I had imagined it. I had a picture in my head of noise and of a place that would totally overwhelm my senses. I couldn't have been more wrong. Claire and I could almost have had a conversation across a busy road it was that quiet and although it is a totally different culture, I liked it a lot and I'd like to spend more time there and see more of the country. We didn't watch much television even though we had one in the room we were staying in. Apart from being there to see the country and not their television, there was a huge language barrier. The Japanese make only certain concessions to foreign languages and television doesn't tend to be one of them. The bits we saw though looked odd and just a bit incomprehensible. I did watch a bit of the Grand Prix coverage while we were there though and that was quite funny. The pundits before and after the race swapped from English to Japanese and back again at random times all the way through their race analysis.

Although I don't want to be too negative about anywhere that we've been, we have been disappointed on a couple of occasions. For instance, we expected India to be hard work and dirty but the reality was harder and dirtier. Australia disappointed me slightly too. After New Zealand I expected more of the same but perhaps a lot bigger and in places drier. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Australia and I will go back there but I'll only do it with a bigger budget. The hostels we stayed in treated us like second class citizens but did it at the same time as trying to empty our pockets and that was annoying. I just don't understand why it had to be like that. New Zealand passed the budget test, why couldn't Australia? China wasn't disappointing but it did surprise me. I hadn't expected the constant spitting that we saw and heard but that to me was its only downside, the rest was great.

Finally I'll round off with my top 10 beers of the trip. If anyone knows where I can get hold of Angkor Beer in England, I'd be very interested to know. I think though that my next beer, whatever it is, will be the nicest one this year though as it will be drunk at home.

• Angkor Beer (Cambodia)
• Singha (Thailand)
• Tiger Beer (Singapore / Malaysia)
• Asahi (Japan)
• Tsing Tao (China / Hong Kong)
• Kingfisher Premium (India)
• Belikin Beer (Belize)
• Kirin (Japan)
• Saigon Export (Vietnam)
• Speights (New Zealand)