2014 By the Numbers

My travels in 2014, by the numbers:

6+1 
countries I visited in 2014: United States, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, plus the Philippines

4
Number of states visited in the US: California, Missouri, Illinois, Washington

51

number of places/cities visited during the year (some more than once): San Francisco, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Sta. Monica, Venice Beach, Mexico City, Teotihuacan, Cancun, Chichen Itza, Valladolid, Oakland, St. Louis, Belleville, Nuvali, Calamba, Bacolod, Murcia, Himamaylan, Kabangkalan, Laiya, Clark, Zamboanga, Kabasalan, Tagbilaran, Panglao, Carmen, Kota Kinabalu, Runau, San Juan, St. Louis, Chesterfield, Springfield, Champaign, Kankakee, Chicago, Seattle, Tukwila, Taipei, Beitou, Shilin, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, Matsumoto, Hakuba, Nagoya, Nagano, Chiba, Narita, Zamboanga

18
Number of airports I've flown in (or out) this 2014: MNL, SFO, LAX, OAK, MEX, CUN, SIN, NRT, MSP, STL, DTW, BCD, ZAM, CRK (Omni Airfield), TAG, BKI, SEA, TPE. It's my first time to use eleven of these airports.

Sleeping in LAX

35 
number of flights flown, including the flight over Mt. Pinatubo aboard a Cessna 152. This is the most number of flights I have taken in a year.

83,982 
total kilometers flown for all the 34 flights (I'm not sure how much we covered in the Cessna 152). This is equivalent to flying around the world at least twice (and then some).

7

number of airlines flown: Delta, AeroMexico, Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Philippine Airlines, AirAsia Zest, and CebuPacific. Singapore Airlines is rated 4 stars for Economy class by Skytrax, JAL, 3.5 stars, Delta, AeroMexico and PAL, got 3 stars. CebuPacific and AirAsia are rated 3 stars too, in the LCC category. This could be eight if we consider Omni Aviation, the one that owns the Cessna 152, an airline.

954

The top speed, in kph, of the Japan Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, which I flew in from Manila to Tokyo.

The wing of JAL Boeing 787-8

15
Types of aircraft that I've flown this year: McDonnell Douglas MD-88 and MD90; all of the current Boeing planes - 737, 747-400, 757-200, 767-200, 777-200, and 787-8; Airbus A319, A320, A321, and A330-300; Embraer E175, Canadair RJ700, and the Cessna 152.

10,269
The longest distance, in kilometers, that I flew in a single flight, from Detroit-DTW to Tokyo-Narita. It is aboard a Delta Airlines Boeing 777-200, and the flight took 13 hours, 30 minutes.

19
The number of hours I spent inside the Los Angeles International Airport, after my flight to SFO got canceled due to a storm soon after arriving early in the evening from Cancun. I slept inside the terminal and got a 1 pm flight the next day to OAK, which is the closest airport to San Francisco aside from SFO. Delta gave me 9,500 SkyMiles points for the inconvenience.

4
Notable skyscrapers and structures climbed this year:

• Tokyo SkyTree, 634 meters, the tallest tower in the world
• Taipei 101, 509 meters, the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010
• Space Needle, 184 meters, in Seattle, once the tallest structure west of the Mississippi
• Pyramid of the Sun, 65.5 meters, the largest ancient building in Teotihuacan, Mexico, Measuring 230 meters by 220 meters at the base, it is the third largest pyramid in the world. Also the first pyramid that I've climbed to the top. 

Entrance to the Nijō Castle

4

The number of UNESCO World Heritage sites I visited this year: the Historic Center of Mexico City, Teotihuacan, and Chichen Itza in Mexico, and the Nijō Castle in Kyoto.

300 

Top speed, in kph, of the Hikari N700 Shinkansen train, which I took from Tokyo to Kyoto, and from Kyoto to Nagoya.

90 

The time, in seconds, for each of the simulated "dive" in the iFly indoor skydiving facility in Singapore, simulating a drop from 12,000 feet to 3,000 feet, just like in real-life skydiving

Indoor skydiving in Singapore

-2
The lowest temperature, in Celsius, I experienced in Hakuba, Japan, where I had my snowboarding lessons.


-12 
The temperature in Minneapolis during my layover, on STL-SEA flight. It was just days before the polar vortex hit the area

3

The number of times I threw up while on board the plane from STL to MSP, due to alcohol-induced hangover. I promised not to drink the night before a flight anymore because of this incident. This was the first time I threw up while flying. I also threw up while exiting the gate but managed not to spew it all over the place as I was afraid they might think I have ebola or something.

1776
The number of karst hills in the Chocolate Hills of Bohol

Chocolate Hills, Bohol

354
Rank of the city of Kankakee, Illinois out of 354 metropolitan areas in the United States rated by the Places Rated Almanac. I passed by Kankakee on my way to Chicago from St. Louis.

18 
The height, in meters, of the Gundam robot statue in Gundam Front theme park in Diver City Tokyo.

16

The number of museums visited this year: Museo del Templo Mayor, Museo Nacional de Antropologia

and Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo in Mexico City, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Cartoon Art Museum and Musee Mecanique  in San Francisco, California Science Center and the National History Museum of Los Angeles County in LA, Lopez Museum in Manila, Muzium Sabah in Kota Kinabalu, Asian Civillizations Museum in Singapore, St. Louis Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Chihuli Garden and Glass in Seattle, Museum of Flight in Tukwila, Washington, and the Cup Noodle Museum in Yokohama

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

1,300

The span, in meters, of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The longest suspension bridge until 1964, it is also considered as the "most beautiful," and the "most photographed" bridge in the world.

9
The maximum number of hours you're allowed to stay inside the capsule hotel in Narita.

1,200

The cost, in yen, of a mug of butterbeer, the popular wizard beverage featured in J.K. Rowling's novels, in The Three Broomsticks, a restaurant inside the make-believe village of Hogsmeade in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, in Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. I paired it it a helping of shepherd's pie for lunch. 

The year 2014 has been a good year for traveling, and here's looking to more places to explore in 2015!