I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know my posts are not what they used to be, and _I'm Sorry_
Anyway. Back to Australia.
The day we arrived we landed in Brisbane, had a hilarious moment and then caught the bus to the hostel we'd be staying at.
When we arrived the place was buzzing. Literally. Every bed was taken, the pool was draped with semi-clad hungover 20 somethings, the restaurant/bar was already belting out the beats. It was then I realised, maybe being in Australia isn't such a bad thing after all.
After walking into the city, forcing our tired bodies to endure a day, we headed back to the hostel to join the other bodies by the pool, only to find the place completely dead.
Where was that cute guy I'd had my eye on?! Where were all the beautifully tanned girls who looked like they'd set up camp? Where was the buzz from before?
Poo on me. It was Creamfields that weekend. Gutted, massively gutted that I missed that. But not to be deterred from life we donned our bed clothes and slept(!)
When we woke we went to a bar and drank some red wine. Never have I ever derived so much pleasure from a couple of glasses of house red as I did that day. It had been 3 months people! 3 months of whiskey that tasted like paint thinner, 3 months of beer, 3 months without fermented grapes! It was divine!
Anyway, as it often does when you're joyful and content, one glass of wine led to another, which led to another, which then led to the after party Creamfields just so happened to be holding at the bar attached to our hostel!
Lots of dancing, lots of laughing, too much wine bibbing,lots of new friend meeting and one very strange encounter. (Jen & Cat read:"Put That AWAY!")
:) x
Friday, 17 June 2011
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Friday, 6 May 2011
Travelling.
While mooching around the at airport in Singapore, we found a Dunkin' Donuts where I insisted that Catherine sample the delight of nations.
As we stood there with the last of our pennies, taking a painstakingly long time deciding which doughnut to sample an Australian woman approached us and gave us enough money to buy half a dozen doughnuts, just because she was kind.
This turned out to be the first encounter of many with Australians, the kindest people in the world.
Upon arrival into Australia I was nervous. You see, before this trip I'd had a strange addiction to watching the television program "Nothing to Declare".
In this program the audience is treated to such delights as people getting pulled over at customs for having pressed flowers in their luggage, and getting rectally searched for drugs. (It's not quite as bad as that, but almost.)
Picture the scene.
I get my passport stamped and am walking past the customs desk as I hear the dreaded words, "Do you ladies have anything to declare?"
My innocent palms start to become clammy with fear as irrational thoughts of being strip searched in the middle of the airport flit through my mind and I freeze.
Only to hear Catherine reply, "No, nothing to declare, oh apart from Jessy!"
Oh. The. Fear.
After a emotionless look from the customs man [who was a heavily accented indian]at the previous comment he asked us to put our bags on the x-ray machine.
Catherine went first and the conversation commenced.
Man: "Excuse me, do you have a *mumblemumble* friend in your bag?"
Cat: "A what..?"
Man: "A vaitber friend"
Cat: "Oh, erm, you mean a vibrating friend..?! Yes, do you want to se..."
Man: "(whilst trying to stifle his laugher)No, no, How do you call it in English...a waiters friend, a ..."
Cat: "(turning several shades of red)oh. you mean a bottle opener? Yes.
...
...
...
Do you need to see my vibrator as well?"
At this my hysterical laughter had reached new levels and the man shook his head, laughed and told us to enjoy our stay in Australia.
Oh life never gets boring with Catherine!
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Kuala Lumpur.
Think of a shanty town, now think of NYC about 20 years ago growing out of the ground within that shanty town.
You've got it. The skyscrapers are being constructed at such a rapid rate that soon it seems you won't be able to see blue sky.
The weather was crazy. During the majority of the day it was clear, hot and almost offensively humid.
The buildings were an eclectic mix of colonial, new city, and dilapidated old crumbling things. It is a beautiful city, but time has been pressing and our stay has had to be short.
We went to the movies twice in as many days, we ate the most wonderful curry meals for £1.20, and I got to enjoy myself haggling at my final south east Asian Market for the time being.
Who knew I wanted a Prada handbag..or 3 pairs of Dior sunglasses?! Don't fret, not more than £20 for the whole lot mwahahaha! The best thing is hearing what others are rejoicing over and then getting a better deal, oh my smugness knows no bounds when I get a good deal, half the joy is the banter exchanged!
Think of a shanty town, now think of NYC about 20 years ago growing out of the ground within that shanty town.
You've got it. The skyscrapers are being constructed at such a rapid rate that soon it seems you won't be able to see blue sky.
The weather was crazy. During the majority of the day it was clear, hot and almost offensively humid.
The buildings were an eclectic mix of colonial, new city, and dilapidated old crumbling things. It is a beautiful city, but time has been pressing and our stay has had to be short.
We went to the movies twice in as many days, we ate the most wonderful curry meals for £1.20, and I got to enjoy myself haggling at my final south east Asian Market for the time being.
Who knew I wanted a Prada handbag..or 3 pairs of Dior sunglasses?! Don't fret, not more than £20 for the whole lot mwahahaha! The best thing is hearing what others are rejoicing over and then getting a better deal, oh my smugness knows no bounds when I get a good deal, half the joy is the banter exchanged!
What to write for the Philippines..?
There is almost simultaneously too little and too much to write about this part of the trip. - in retrospect, after having spent at least 4 hours on this, I think there was quite a bit to write.
Most of my days were spent lying on the white beach, generally in front of an old abandoned hotel, doing probably far too much sun bathing.
Time was punctuated by the need for food, refill my water bottle or the absolute necessity to cool off in the sea.
Most of the nights were spent eating far too much food, drinking too many drinks, dancing or wandering up and down the beach front watching the night life.
It was a lazy fortnight of complete overindulgence, and now it's over I feel the need to start doing something good for my body. I've gone from barely being able to finish a plate of Pad Thai to eating at all you can eat restaurants 3 consecutive nights...bah! No more I say! (oh oh- It's all lies!)
Umm. So rather than doing a day to day recollection of events as I've had a tendency to do lately I'm just going to write a couple of little stories from Boracay.
We arrived on the island of Boracay after some initial confusion about where we actually were. After "deplaning" (a word we found hilarious and have mocked almost every day since first hearing it, only to find out upon writing this that it is a real word...cripes, I'm supposed to be an English teacher!) we, upon my insistence, walked around Caticlan for about 30 minutes looking for a hostel which is actually in Boracay, a 30 minute boat ride from where we were. It's like walking around Cornwall looking got a hotel on the Scilly Isles. Jeez! I find it seriously ridiculous that the one part of the trip Cat hasn't arranged, or held my hand for, I completely effed up. Gah.
On our second day I awoke at some godforsaken hour and rather than making hay while the sun shone, I lay in bed trying in vain to get back to sleep, eventually giving up, heaving myself out of bed and walking the 50 or so steps to the beach to sleep there instead. While I was gone, against our wishes, we got roommates. Such a shame to have to share a room when all you want is a bit of a rest from people.
It turns out this massive shame turned into one of the best things that could've happened because the girls we ended up sharing with are amazingly beautiful, lovely, fun loving and 100% cute with themselves!
So, Cat and I hung out with Karin and Josie for most of out time in Boracay, and I made tentative plans to travel to Donsol with them to see and swim with the Whale Sharks. (Which didn't happen because travelling around Easter in the Philippines is quite possibly the most expensive time of year to travel..again with frequenting places during important festivals- will I ever learn?!)
One day I decided I'd live as cheap as I possibly could while still eating breakfast dinner and tea. Things were that exciting! I made it on 297 Pesos. Including my bed for the night. There are 71 Pesos to a pound. Yes non co-incidentally that was the night I unknowingly ate liver soup for tea.
The 3 kilometers of beach in Boracay is divided up into 3 stations. Station 1 catered to the rich and all their wealth, Station 2 had most of the clubs and bars and quite a few high scale hotels, and finally our beloved Station 3 with our bunk beds and a layer of foam for $4/night.
One night we went to one of the more happening clubs at Station 2 to dance out little hearts out with the girls and Ryan, a Filipino born and raised in Alaska.
While boogying down on the dance floor I looked around and realised with a great gladness in my heart, we were the only white people in the club! It may seem like a strange thing to get happy about, but this trip was all about that for me. Hanging out with local people doing what they do, eating what they eat, drinking what they drink and now, partying where they party.
The night turned into a long one with lots of dancing and far too much perspiring! After having several million pictures taken with random people I turned and saw Josie, and Karin in particular being danced on by an extremely butch girl.
It was great comedy value to watch as these extremely dainty, feminine, clueless girls were completely preyed upon by this stocky 19 year old who managed to glare at any other person, male or female who tried to divert their attention away from dancing with her and her mate Greg, who was as camp as Christmas.
Finally, as Jenny seemed to get a bit too possessive of Karin by following her to the toilets and playing with her hair, I decided it would be the best time to tell her she now had a girlfriend, regardless of how straight or taken she was. The shock and disbelief on her face was something else! Unfortunately*- sweeping generalisation coming up, sorry- the lesbians in the Philippines really do take the role of then men here. And it works. The men are not known for being the most faithful, nicest or even bring able to keep their hands to themselves. The girls go out after their partner has been verbally or physically abusing them and meet a lovely person who is very gentle, possessive in a good way, and just so happens to be a girl. They find that attractive and hook up. It happens a lot here, the lesbians offer something here that the men don't. By the by, before people get up in arms about this, I was informed of this by several Filipinos during my trip, gay, lesbian and straight so please don't cry at me for reporting what I hear.
Anyway, I cut in on the dancing while the girls escaped to the welcoming arms of a couple of lads we'd just met. I talked to Jenny and Greg for the rest of the night as they insisted on walking us to our hostel.
They're great, really funny people and they taught me the few words I now know in Tagalog. After reprimanding Jenny for being a bit too possessive over a girl she'd just met, and who was clearly not interested I re-invited them to go banana boating with us the following day and we left on a good note, despite popular belief Jenny is a nutter.
*unfortunate because being a lesbian does not mean that you have to conform to the extreme of male behaviour, as seems to be the belief here, you can be a pretty girl lesbian!
On the 18th April there was a full moon. Which in Sputh East Asia equates to one thing...
¡¡¡PARTY TIME!!!
As Cat headed to bed due to a head cold, Karin, Josie and I headed to the other side of the island to the Jungle Bar.
We arrived at about 10 and stayed til 6am. Highlights, or rather, memorable moments of the night include; epic dubstep, dancing until I thought I was going to collapse, skinny dipping at 3am, Josie trying to liberate a pig from it's pen, all of the workers dressed as cowboys or indians, crazy tribal dancing, being kiss raped by a drunken Norwegian (ewww yuck yuck yuck) bumping into Greg, Josie calling Greg Gwen all night long, having my face painted in florescent paint in the style of an Indian, being given a feather to stick in my hair, literally tripping over a copulating couple of the beach, spending the equivalent of £2 the whole night, being redressed by Greg, Karin eating chicken feet, watching the sun rise, going for a second skinny dip at 5.30am with a drunken Josie, trying to be quiet while going to bed.
It was a great night, and what made it even better was I was completely sober for the majority of the night...better memories!
I didn't waste my time on Boracay completely. After the banana boating adventure, I decided that I couldn't lie idle on the beach for 13 days, I had to achieve things!
First I made friends with one of the men who sell the water adventures, then I went helmet diving. The friendship was an essential part of this as it no longer meant I'd be charged so much money..sneaky! Now, helmet diving. I was put on a boat with a group of 15 Koreans wearing matching teeshirts and we were boated to the middle of the sea and put onto a floating platform where we were given rubber shoes and a briefing in Korean by a guy who looked so bored with the whole process he didn't notice that I was looking, in a slightly frantic manner to my left and right, praying someone would notice I didn't understand a bloody thing. No such luck. We were chosen in groups of 5 and as I watched the others all filtering before me I hung back to see what they did. I saw that they went underwater, but other than that I was on my own. Bugger. After about 45 minutes of sitting around and waiting with mounting anticipation for the last breath of air the bored guy approached me.
"you know what to do?"
"umm, no, sorry I'm not Korean.."
"ok! Why you not say you no understand?! It's time for you to go down! Just go on ladder, this mean ok [hand signal] this mean no ok, when you can't breath ok?[hand signal] You come up then, ok?"
With all of this extra knowledge imparted to me I felt well equipped to get my ass 14ft underwater. I walked down the ladder and one of the men placed a 24lb helmet on my head which keeps you grounded while under the water. I then sat on the knee of another man donned in scuba apparatus as he slowly lowered me to the sea bed.
It was not a big deal, oxygen was pumped into the back of the helmet by a tube which was attached to an oxygen tank on the platform we waited on.
The guys gave us old bread and as we crumbled it in our hands tonnes of curious fish, all colours, types and sizes came to eat the feast we were offering them.
I had the strange feeling that I was just an extra in Finding Nemo 2 as Dorrie, Nemo, his Dad and a whole host of others swam past me, or nibbled at either my offering of bread or grossly the dead skin on my fingers and the insect bites on my legs much to the amusement of Korea.
After about 30 minutes of clumsy underwater walking, fish feeding and having my photograph taken, I got bored, exceptionally cold, and a bit lonely as i was the only person left down there so made up sign language to ask to go up again. This worked and I was taken back to the surface.
When I got back to the platform my Korean group had left on the boat and I was left to hang out for a bit.
One of the guys that worked there tuned out to be really sweet and really good at english so I hung out and chatted with him for about an hour.
He told me about how the next few days, Maundy Thursday until Easter Sunday, the beach would be heaving with Filipinos in the early morning, late afternoon and evening on their Easter holiday. During the heat of the day 9.30am-5pm the beach would be almost empty and given to the white people who for some strange reason want to be brown!!!
Imagine the foolish notion!
White skin is viewed as beautiful here- the tv and pop stars doing their best Michael Jackson impressions by using whitening powders and creams...white=better. Such a foreign notion to us as we lie in the sun until our skin bubbles, literally in some cases, ahem Cat ahem..!
Oh back to my water adventures...how I digress!
After my first encounter with underwater fun I had to have more, with more freedom! A couple of days later Josie and I went for a scuba dive and I loved it. I loved it so much I decided to follow up and do a course in Scuba.
I am now a PADI certified Open water diver! I flipping love scuba diving, and I'm actually quite good at it too!
The course consisted of 4 open water dives, learning some skills and taking a test at the end. The skills were pretty easy and it shocked me when my instructor told me that most people had difficulty with things that I found particularly easy. I know that sounds rather boastful, but it was nice to find something that I'm a natural at. :)
The coolest thing I saw was a massive fish and some sort of weird eel thing. The colours on these fish are stunning and I wish that I'd done more diving, and coincidentally was a millionaire!
It's definitely something that I would like to take up as a hobby if I can afford it, and if it's an option wherever I get a job next!
Although I don't believe in past lives I would definitely have been a Mermaid in mine, if there was such a thing!
Speaking of believing, I went to church twice while in the Philippines. It was really nice.
The first time I went to a Methodist service where before church started i was asked to stand and introduce myself, nice idea, buy it felt like an AA meeting at first!
Although they were not the most talented bunch of singers, they sang lots of songs that I knew which made me really glad, and i enjoyed singing along. The sermon was about letting your light shine, it was interesting to me, but it was obviously solely aimed at believers, and the animosity they had towards islam made me more than a little bit peeved.
The next week was Easter, and I would have gone back there, but their Easter service was held at 6am at a completely different venue so instead Cat and I headed up to the Catholic church and slept with our eyes open for most of the 2 hour long service which was held wholly in Tagalog! Oops! The choir were excellent though. I do love singing, I really do!.
We met a group of about 5 lads on a lads break, and one they'd picked up along the way from Manila and the surrounding area. Good, sweet guys and very talkative! We hung out with them a bit during the day andeveni g, but after Josie and Karin left we soon reverted to out hermit like ways and went to bed early...like a couple of old grandmas we are!
After 13 days of beach life we were ready to sleep in beds not filled with sand and get back to travelling. I feel I must add, next time I am going to go to Palawan, Donsol, Manila, among a lot of other places! Next time I won't go to a predominantly Catholic country during the most important celebration in their calendar!
I wanted to drop this in randomly, but I had forgotten until now. I ate chicken intestines. :/ yeah..they taste like they sound!
There is almost simultaneously too little and too much to write about this part of the trip. - in retrospect, after having spent at least 4 hours on this, I think there was quite a bit to write.
Most of my days were spent lying on the white beach, generally in front of an old abandoned hotel, doing probably far too much sun bathing.
Time was punctuated by the need for food, refill my water bottle or the absolute necessity to cool off in the sea.
Most of the nights were spent eating far too much food, drinking too many drinks, dancing or wandering up and down the beach front watching the night life.
It was a lazy fortnight of complete overindulgence, and now it's over I feel the need to start doing something good for my body. I've gone from barely being able to finish a plate of Pad Thai to eating at all you can eat restaurants 3 consecutive nights...bah! No more I say! (oh oh- It's all lies!)
Umm. So rather than doing a day to day recollection of events as I've had a tendency to do lately I'm just going to write a couple of little stories from Boracay.
We arrived on the island of Boracay after some initial confusion about where we actually were. After "deplaning" (a word we found hilarious and have mocked almost every day since first hearing it, only to find out upon writing this that it is a real word...cripes, I'm supposed to be an English teacher!) we, upon my insistence, walked around Caticlan for about 30 minutes looking for a hostel which is actually in Boracay, a 30 minute boat ride from where we were. It's like walking around Cornwall looking got a hotel on the Scilly Isles. Jeez! I find it seriously ridiculous that the one part of the trip Cat hasn't arranged, or held my hand for, I completely effed up. Gah.
On our second day I awoke at some godforsaken hour and rather than making hay while the sun shone, I lay in bed trying in vain to get back to sleep, eventually giving up, heaving myself out of bed and walking the 50 or so steps to the beach to sleep there instead. While I was gone, against our wishes, we got roommates. Such a shame to have to share a room when all you want is a bit of a rest from people.
It turns out this massive shame turned into one of the best things that could've happened because the girls we ended up sharing with are amazingly beautiful, lovely, fun loving and 100% cute with themselves!
So, Cat and I hung out with Karin and Josie for most of out time in Boracay, and I made tentative plans to travel to Donsol with them to see and swim with the Whale Sharks. (Which didn't happen because travelling around Easter in the Philippines is quite possibly the most expensive time of year to travel..again with frequenting places during important festivals- will I ever learn?!)
One day I decided I'd live as cheap as I possibly could while still eating breakfast dinner and tea. Things were that exciting! I made it on 297 Pesos. Including my bed for the night. There are 71 Pesos to a pound. Yes non co-incidentally that was the night I unknowingly ate liver soup for tea.
The 3 kilometers of beach in Boracay is divided up into 3 stations. Station 1 catered to the rich and all their wealth, Station 2 had most of the clubs and bars and quite a few high scale hotels, and finally our beloved Station 3 with our bunk beds and a layer of foam for $4/night.
One night we went to one of the more happening clubs at Station 2 to dance out little hearts out with the girls and Ryan, a Filipino born and raised in Alaska.
While boogying down on the dance floor I looked around and realised with a great gladness in my heart, we were the only white people in the club! It may seem like a strange thing to get happy about, but this trip was all about that for me. Hanging out with local people doing what they do, eating what they eat, drinking what they drink and now, partying where they party.
The night turned into a long one with lots of dancing and far too much perspiring! After having several million pictures taken with random people I turned and saw Josie, and Karin in particular being danced on by an extremely butch girl.
It was great comedy value to watch as these extremely dainty, feminine, clueless girls were completely preyed upon by this stocky 19 year old who managed to glare at any other person, male or female who tried to divert their attention away from dancing with her and her mate Greg, who was as camp as Christmas.
Finally, as Jenny seemed to get a bit too possessive of Karin by following her to the toilets and playing with her hair, I decided it would be the best time to tell her she now had a girlfriend, regardless of how straight or taken she was. The shock and disbelief on her face was something else! Unfortunately*- sweeping generalisation coming up, sorry- the lesbians in the Philippines really do take the role of then men here. And it works. The men are not known for being the most faithful, nicest or even bring able to keep their hands to themselves. The girls go out after their partner has been verbally or physically abusing them and meet a lovely person who is very gentle, possessive in a good way, and just so happens to be a girl. They find that attractive and hook up. It happens a lot here, the lesbians offer something here that the men don't. By the by, before people get up in arms about this, I was informed of this by several Filipinos during my trip, gay, lesbian and straight so please don't cry at me for reporting what I hear.
Anyway, I cut in on the dancing while the girls escaped to the welcoming arms of a couple of lads we'd just met. I talked to Jenny and Greg for the rest of the night as they insisted on walking us to our hostel.
They're great, really funny people and they taught me the few words I now know in Tagalog. After reprimanding Jenny for being a bit too possessive over a girl she'd just met, and who was clearly not interested I re-invited them to go banana boating with us the following day and we left on a good note, despite popular belief Jenny is a nutter.
*unfortunate because being a lesbian does not mean that you have to conform to the extreme of male behaviour, as seems to be the belief here, you can be a pretty girl lesbian!
On the 18th April there was a full moon. Which in Sputh East Asia equates to one thing...
¡¡¡PARTY TIME!!!
As Cat headed to bed due to a head cold, Karin, Josie and I headed to the other side of the island to the Jungle Bar.
We arrived at about 10 and stayed til 6am. Highlights, or rather, memorable moments of the night include; epic dubstep, dancing until I thought I was going to collapse, skinny dipping at 3am, Josie trying to liberate a pig from it's pen, all of the workers dressed as cowboys or indians, crazy tribal dancing, being kiss raped by a drunken Norwegian (ewww yuck yuck yuck) bumping into Greg, Josie calling Greg Gwen all night long, having my face painted in florescent paint in the style of an Indian, being given a feather to stick in my hair, literally tripping over a copulating couple of the beach, spending the equivalent of £2 the whole night, being redressed by Greg, Karin eating chicken feet, watching the sun rise, going for a second skinny dip at 5.30am with a drunken Josie, trying to be quiet while going to bed.
It was a great night, and what made it even better was I was completely sober for the majority of the night...better memories!
I didn't waste my time on Boracay completely. After the banana boating adventure, I decided that I couldn't lie idle on the beach for 13 days, I had to achieve things!
First I made friends with one of the men who sell the water adventures, then I went helmet diving. The friendship was an essential part of this as it no longer meant I'd be charged so much money..sneaky! Now, helmet diving. I was put on a boat with a group of 15 Koreans wearing matching teeshirts and we were boated to the middle of the sea and put onto a floating platform where we were given rubber shoes and a briefing in Korean by a guy who looked so bored with the whole process he didn't notice that I was looking, in a slightly frantic manner to my left and right, praying someone would notice I didn't understand a bloody thing. No such luck. We were chosen in groups of 5 and as I watched the others all filtering before me I hung back to see what they did. I saw that they went underwater, but other than that I was on my own. Bugger. After about 45 minutes of sitting around and waiting with mounting anticipation for the last breath of air the bored guy approached me.
"you know what to do?"
"umm, no, sorry I'm not Korean.."
"ok! Why you not say you no understand?! It's time for you to go down! Just go on ladder, this mean ok [hand signal] this mean no ok, when you can't breath ok?[hand signal] You come up then, ok?"
With all of this extra knowledge imparted to me I felt well equipped to get my ass 14ft underwater. I walked down the ladder and one of the men placed a 24lb helmet on my head which keeps you grounded while under the water. I then sat on the knee of another man donned in scuba apparatus as he slowly lowered me to the sea bed.
It was not a big deal, oxygen was pumped into the back of the helmet by a tube which was attached to an oxygen tank on the platform we waited on.
The guys gave us old bread and as we crumbled it in our hands tonnes of curious fish, all colours, types and sizes came to eat the feast we were offering them.
I had the strange feeling that I was just an extra in Finding Nemo 2 as Dorrie, Nemo, his Dad and a whole host of others swam past me, or nibbled at either my offering of bread or grossly the dead skin on my fingers and the insect bites on my legs much to the amusement of Korea.
After about 30 minutes of clumsy underwater walking, fish feeding and having my photograph taken, I got bored, exceptionally cold, and a bit lonely as i was the only person left down there so made up sign language to ask to go up again. This worked and I was taken back to the surface.
When I got back to the platform my Korean group had left on the boat and I was left to hang out for a bit.
One of the guys that worked there tuned out to be really sweet and really good at english so I hung out and chatted with him for about an hour.
He told me about how the next few days, Maundy Thursday until Easter Sunday, the beach would be heaving with Filipinos in the early morning, late afternoon and evening on their Easter holiday. During the heat of the day 9.30am-5pm the beach would be almost empty and given to the white people who for some strange reason want to be brown!!!
Imagine the foolish notion!
White skin is viewed as beautiful here- the tv and pop stars doing their best Michael Jackson impressions by using whitening powders and creams...white=better. Such a foreign notion to us as we lie in the sun until our skin bubbles, literally in some cases, ahem Cat ahem..!
Oh back to my water adventures...how I digress!
After my first encounter with underwater fun I had to have more, with more freedom! A couple of days later Josie and I went for a scuba dive and I loved it. I loved it so much I decided to follow up and do a course in Scuba.
I am now a PADI certified Open water diver! I flipping love scuba diving, and I'm actually quite good at it too!
The course consisted of 4 open water dives, learning some skills and taking a test at the end. The skills were pretty easy and it shocked me when my instructor told me that most people had difficulty with things that I found particularly easy. I know that sounds rather boastful, but it was nice to find something that I'm a natural at. :)
The coolest thing I saw was a massive fish and some sort of weird eel thing. The colours on these fish are stunning and I wish that I'd done more diving, and coincidentally was a millionaire!
It's definitely something that I would like to take up as a hobby if I can afford it, and if it's an option wherever I get a job next!
Although I don't believe in past lives I would definitely have been a Mermaid in mine, if there was such a thing!
Speaking of believing, I went to church twice while in the Philippines. It was really nice.
The first time I went to a Methodist service where before church started i was asked to stand and introduce myself, nice idea, buy it felt like an AA meeting at first!
Although they were not the most talented bunch of singers, they sang lots of songs that I knew which made me really glad, and i enjoyed singing along. The sermon was about letting your light shine, it was interesting to me, but it was obviously solely aimed at believers, and the animosity they had towards islam made me more than a little bit peeved.
The next week was Easter, and I would have gone back there, but their Easter service was held at 6am at a completely different venue so instead Cat and I headed up to the Catholic church and slept with our eyes open for most of the 2 hour long service which was held wholly in Tagalog! Oops! The choir were excellent though. I do love singing, I really do!.
We met a group of about 5 lads on a lads break, and one they'd picked up along the way from Manila and the surrounding area. Good, sweet guys and very talkative! We hung out with them a bit during the day andeveni g, but after Josie and Karin left we soon reverted to out hermit like ways and went to bed early...like a couple of old grandmas we are!
After 13 days of beach life we were ready to sleep in beds not filled with sand and get back to travelling. I feel I must add, next time I am going to go to Palawan, Donsol, Manila, among a lot of other places! Next time I won't go to a predominantly Catholic country during the most important celebration in their calendar!
I wanted to drop this in randomly, but I had forgotten until now. I ate chicken intestines. :/ yeah..they taste like they sound!
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Leaving South East Asia
My heart is so sad because today we begin our trip which will end with us out of South East Asia.
I'm torn about going to Australia. I know that it's another leg of a crazy adventure. But it's just bringing me closer to ending this adventure. I only have 1 month left.
It's a "glass is half empty" kind of day today.
[disclaimer: surviving on not much sleep and running out of money quicker than I thought i would has put me in a bit of a pensive mood.
No, this is not my update about the Philippines, or Kuala Lumpar, I've got 5 hours on a bus today for that!]
I'm torn about going to Australia. I know that it's another leg of a crazy adventure. But it's just bringing me closer to ending this adventure. I only have 1 month left.
It's a "glass is half empty" kind of day today.
[disclaimer: surviving on not much sleep and running out of money quicker than I thought i would has put me in a bit of a pensive mood.
No, this is not my update about the Philippines, or Kuala Lumpar, I've got 5 hours on a bus today for that!]
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Friday, 15 April 2011
Well I've found it- the place I love the most!
Yes, yes, I do realise I've probably said that about every place I've been to, but his time I really mean it!
We are staying on Borakay in a hostel no more than 50 steps away from white sand and crystal clear water beaches. I have spent a day reading, swimming and laying down my head to sleep in the sand. What's not to love?!
After the initial scare of thinking we couldn't get money out at the ATM I finally was able to and after trying in vain to find our hostel on the wrong island (yes, the one thing I tried to plan I effed up) we finally arrived.
This place is amazing; and it just so happens we've coincided this trip with Easter so most of the people on holiday are Filipinos. The Philippines are a 90% Christian nation, the only place in SEA to have that. Their language is also remarkably similar sounding to Spanish and it's been good fun to actually understand some of what people are talking about!
The kids are beautiful and great fun to play with. Mostly everyone speaks a remarkable amount of English, even the radio shows are about 50% English- which is hilarious.
Yesterday I spent on the beach and lived off 97 Pisos. Had the best mango of my life which was so juicy I had to dive into the sea to clean up, then I considered the ant for a while as I watched them working hard. I love this place!
Yes, yes, I do realise I've probably said that about every place I've been to, but his time I really mean it!
We are staying on Borakay in a hostel no more than 50 steps away from white sand and crystal clear water beaches. I have spent a day reading, swimming and laying down my head to sleep in the sand. What's not to love?!
After the initial scare of thinking we couldn't get money out at the ATM I finally was able to and after trying in vain to find our hostel on the wrong island (yes, the one thing I tried to plan I effed up) we finally arrived.
This place is amazing; and it just so happens we've coincided this trip with Easter so most of the people on holiday are Filipinos. The Philippines are a 90% Christian nation, the only place in SEA to have that. Their language is also remarkably similar sounding to Spanish and it's been good fun to actually understand some of what people are talking about!
The kids are beautiful and great fun to play with. Mostly everyone speaks a remarkable amount of English, even the radio shows are about 50% English- which is hilarious.
Yesterday I spent on the beach and lived off 97 Pisos. Had the best mango of my life which was so juicy I had to dive into the sea to clean up, then I considered the ant for a while as I watched them working hard. I love this place!
Thursday, 14 April 2011
On the bus we met two lads from England, Ant and Matt. Ant had been travelling for 18 months and had been to (I think) 26 countries. We hit it off almost immediately because i judged his music and he passed the test! Matt had been away for 6 months and was the only person I've met travelling who was more than 100% ready to go home.
After a freezing cold sleepless night on the sleeper bus we arrived in Bangkok at 4.30am and walked to a hostel that Matt knew from last time he was in Bangkok.
I have walked along the streets of many big cities at that time before, returning from nights out, not being able to find sleep, coming home from holidays, going to the airport etc. But never have I seen streets so lively as they were in Bangkok. Clubs were still open, restaurants were packed, people were still completely wired and ready to go. The thing that struck me more here than anywhere else is South East Asia is that the mix of Thai to westerners was completely equal. it struck me as... I don't know. Partly sad because it would seem they've lost a way of life that their parents or grandparents would have lived, and partly happy because they're moving with the tines and as their city is becoming so very cosmopolitan so are these beautiful people.
I don't think we spent enough time in Bangkok, but the time we did spend there I loved.
It, for me, was a city of firsts. First shisha (strawberry, and never a good idea when you still have a chest infection), first massage (sadly average at best), and first city in SEA where I've splashed out!
The heat was almost unbearable, and we spent quite a bit of time in the shower or the ever air conditioned 711 (newsagent chain) in order to bring our temperature down.
The first day was spent in Art Centre of Bangkok. (we got a local bus and were very proud of ourselves!) If you ever visit Bangkok please go here! It was 7 floors filled with art work from all across the world.
I was really impressed by the young artist of the year show, it's so interesting to not only look at the work, but also read what they each had to say about their influences.
That's something I have found missing, and not just a little bit irritating, at galleries in England and New York, titles of work and a description. We're supposed to look at a piece of art work that looks like something a 4 year old ADHD child has produced while watching Ben 10 and draw our own conclusions on how "uber fantastic and original" this artist is. Meh. Call me old fashioned, but I like my art to look like art.
Anyway-when did I become a grumpy old woman?!- I also really liked the exhibition that focused on how the river that runs from China all the way to Bangkok and beyond is changing due to dams and other man made things being built. The economy of all of the different people groups that live along the river have had to change to incorporate the loss of their livelihood. Very interesting and devastating stuff.
That night ended with a drunken group of friends and me, being on antibiotics, very sober but having a very enjoyable night nonetheless.
Another day we went to a park which was nearby and hung out there for a bit watching the most incredible break dancers aged 12-20 or there abouts, playing with the hula hoops, standing to attention when the national anthem was played, laughing at the aerobics group which contained the campest and most enthusiastic man I've ever seen do aerobics not dissimilar to this. (spiderman will make you gay) absolutely fabulous! Met up with the boys again and went to watch some football at a bar, which was actually just a VW camper van with a 40" tv out of the back with tables and chairs set up in a line near by. Nice bar though, and the sweetest bar guy. Soon though the heavens opened and the sort of rain that would fall over a couple of days in England fell in a few hours, we all got soaked to the skin, but enjoyed it!
The air of anticipation in Bangkok at the moment is absolutely amazing! Every family is in holiday mode for Song Kram. Song Kram is a festival of water which includes everyone, whether you like it to or not. Water guns in all shapes and sizes are for sale everywhere, there have been processions going through the street advertising the holiday for those who don't know about it, Koah San Road has been transformed into a festival street with streamers and bunting down the length of the street. It's going to be a great time and a welcome celebration with this level of heat. Unfortunately we're leaving at midnight the day before it starts--bah!
Oh well not to fret, we're headed to the philippines so things aren't that bad!
After a freezing cold sleepless night on the sleeper bus we arrived in Bangkok at 4.30am and walked to a hostel that Matt knew from last time he was in Bangkok.
I have walked along the streets of many big cities at that time before, returning from nights out, not being able to find sleep, coming home from holidays, going to the airport etc. But never have I seen streets so lively as they were in Bangkok. Clubs were still open, restaurants were packed, people were still completely wired and ready to go. The thing that struck me more here than anywhere else is South East Asia is that the mix of Thai to westerners was completely equal. it struck me as... I don't know. Partly sad because it would seem they've lost a way of life that their parents or grandparents would have lived, and partly happy because they're moving with the tines and as their city is becoming so very cosmopolitan so are these beautiful people.
I don't think we spent enough time in Bangkok, but the time we did spend there I loved.
It, for me, was a city of firsts. First shisha (strawberry, and never a good idea when you still have a chest infection), first massage (sadly average at best), and first city in SEA where I've splashed out!
The heat was almost unbearable, and we spent quite a bit of time in the shower or the ever air conditioned 711 (newsagent chain) in order to bring our temperature down.
The first day was spent in Art Centre of Bangkok. (we got a local bus and were very proud of ourselves!) If you ever visit Bangkok please go here! It was 7 floors filled with art work from all across the world.
I was really impressed by the young artist of the year show, it's so interesting to not only look at the work, but also read what they each had to say about their influences.
That's something I have found missing, and not just a little bit irritating, at galleries in England and New York, titles of work and a description. We're supposed to look at a piece of art work that looks like something a 4 year old ADHD child has produced while watching Ben 10 and draw our own conclusions on how "uber fantastic and original" this artist is. Meh. Call me old fashioned, but I like my art to look like art.
Anyway-when did I become a grumpy old woman?!- I also really liked the exhibition that focused on how the river that runs from China all the way to Bangkok and beyond is changing due to dams and other man made things being built. The economy of all of the different people groups that live along the river have had to change to incorporate the loss of their livelihood. Very interesting and devastating stuff.
That night ended with a drunken group of friends and me, being on antibiotics, very sober but having a very enjoyable night nonetheless.
Another day we went to a park which was nearby and hung out there for a bit watching the most incredible break dancers aged 12-20 or there abouts, playing with the hula hoops, standing to attention when the national anthem was played, laughing at the aerobics group which contained the campest and most enthusiastic man I've ever seen do aerobics not dissimilar to this. (spiderman will make you gay) absolutely fabulous! Met up with the boys again and went to watch some football at a bar, which was actually just a VW camper van with a 40" tv out of the back with tables and chairs set up in a line near by. Nice bar though, and the sweetest bar guy. Soon though the heavens opened and the sort of rain that would fall over a couple of days in England fell in a few hours, we all got soaked to the skin, but enjoyed it!
The air of anticipation in Bangkok at the moment is absolutely amazing! Every family is in holiday mode for Song Kram. Song Kram is a festival of water which includes everyone, whether you like it to or not. Water guns in all shapes and sizes are for sale everywhere, there have been processions going through the street advertising the holiday for those who don't know about it, Koah San Road has been transformed into a festival street with streamers and bunting down the length of the street. It's going to be a great time and a welcome celebration with this level of heat. Unfortunately we're leaving at midnight the day before it starts--bah!
Oh well not to fret, we're headed to the philippines so things aren't that bad!
Oh Pai, my heart resides in thee!
Pai itself is a haven for hippies, Rastas and ex-pats who need rest. Everyone is so accommodating and free love presides!
There were massage schools, bamboo tattoo parlours, organic restaurants, yoga schools small bars, family ran businesses and cute little bakeries in abundance. That's just the front street! This place had everything for an easy life!
Upon our arrival we made friends with a girl called Niki, she seemed rather funny and we decided to share a room with her. Good choice! Niki turned out to be one hilarious woman who we quickly warmed to, it felt as though we'd known her for ages!
That nigt we hung out at the place we were staying, Edible Jazz, listening to a humorous French man play a wide genre of music and drinking the most delicious fruit shakes.
We retired to our room after a bit and were serenaded to sleep by the music blasting from the Buddhist Temple next door. And by serenaded to sleep I mean we lay awake until the music finally finished at about 3am... Out partied by monks!
The following day had an early start with the Buddhists chanting at 4am...urgh. Although this place is just awesome, the Buddhists were getting my goat a little. I bet you've never met anyone who gets angry at Buddhists before, probably one of the more passive religions!
That day I happened to read a bit about a celebration that takes part at this time of year to celebrate the bringing of new monks to a temple, and from then on had more patience for them, but my goodness we couldn't have picked a closer spot to the temple! ( as a side note, these monks were the cutest things ever! Little 6 year old boys being dressed and made up like little gods riding on the beds of open trucks, dancing about and then on the final day having their hair shaved and being dressed in the robes of a monk. However this new status doesnt seem to change these kids too much, in their down time they played with remote control cars and chased each other around the temple grounds.)
Feeling rested and alert (ahem) we hired mopeds and for the second time in my life I tried to balance a motorised two wheeled vehicle.
The first time was an extremely unsuccessful time at the age of 16 when I drove sideways along a wall and managed to scrape off a good few layers of skin. I had high hopes for this second experience.
It was as easy as riding a bike! Honestly, I mean come on, I was riding a 115cc automatic, things don't get much easier than that!
After precisely 1 minute of getting used to riding we took a ride to the hot springs just outside of town. The day was lovely, the sun was blazing after the showers of the previous evening, the air was fresh, the ride was beautiful, and as I gained confidence I found myself really appreciating the worlds beauty. The hot springs themselves were unbelievably hot and one could, if you so desired, boil eggs at the top and bathe nearer the bottom, in almost-too-hot freshwater. A lovely afternoon was wasted there reading and chatting a little. :). After we got bored enough we got back on the mopeds and drove to a mountain, which we read had a spectacular temple at the top. I led the way and rode up an unimaginably steep hill until forced to stop by the sheer gradient of the thing, turning into a spot at the side of the gravel track to park my moped, Kris and Niki followed suit with Cat bringing up the rear and to almost devastating affects forgetting which was the brake and which was the accelerator. As she teetered on the precipice I realised what an exceptionally lovely friend I have and how much I don't want her to die. To say we all sprung into action would be a gross representation of our reaction. I almost fell off my own stationary vehicle and screamed, "pull the break man Catherine!" Then jumped up to pull back the bike/keep it level. Kris just sat, and Niki shouted, "let go!" Cat did let go of the accelerator and was ok other than a couple of scratches which seemed to bleed profusely. (artistic licence has been put to use here by the way, she wasn't actually dangling or anything) the temple turned out to be a ruin anyway- the only impressive thing about it was the giant bell we all hit and made great resounding sounds down the mountain.
After our great motor adventure we were planning on going to an art show but I wasn't feeling well and decided to have an early night.
I awoke with a fever through the roof and a cough to rival that of a 80 year old smoker, so needless to say I spent the next few days in bed and my lovely Catherine nursed me to health feeding me water, tea and fruit juice, laying cold towels on my head and visiting the pharmacy on my behalf to get antibiotics and cough medicine.
What a beautiful woman she is, and what a great mum she'll make! (attrctive, tall men, enquire within!)
Somethig that I came to realise during the great illness was the compassion and care which was showered upon us all by the owners and workers of the place we stayed, bringing us tea, checking on me when I was ill and Niki when she was hungover. They were fine examples of beautiful people.
A couple of days later I surfaced to the world, still feeling a little shaky, but ultimately exceptionally restless. We started the day with a bout of fitness in the form of very unprofessionally executed yoga and a bit of pilates, all of which I decided to do in the dirt while wearing a white skirt. Yes, I'm that smart. After that I went to get a tattoo with a bamboo stick. And then Cat cut my hair.
For the sunset we went on the bikes to the nearby canyon and had a well romantic time. Well it would have been romantic but I'm not gay with Cat or Niki, so it just reminded me of what I'm missing at the moment. Frown.
After a quick turn around and some food we got back on the bikes (best thing in the world) and rode to the jungle where there was a fund raising party going on for the victims of the Japanese earthquake. Wow. Just wow. Words cannot describe this night of pandemonium. I wasn't completely well, my chest was still in massive pain then i had a bit of a dramatic asthma attack, so I left pretty early at 3.30. It was still epic and I wish I wasn't driving and unwell cause I think it would have been great to pull an all nighter. In the time actually spent at the rave there were the most beautiful black guys dancing with fire, crazy people drugged up dancing with the speakers which were blasting out all types of music, a digeridoo player, some of the most interestingly dressed people I've ever seen, a massive flag made from bed sheets that you wrote a message to Japan on, a man making t-shirts, food being sold, a bonfire, a dj pumping out dubstep and electronic music, a girl with a broken ankle after falling down the stairs, about 700 gallons of alcohol consumed and other general mayhem.
And I heard that after we left it just got better!
The next morning as we were at the 711 getting some water at 9am we bumped- quite literally- into some of the revellers who were just returning. Quite a bunch of crazy, dehydrated, crazy, dancing, crazy, lovelies!
A few more days passed, and we did much more of the same thing, minus the partying, both talked to our families a bit and generally lazed about. (oh and booked tickets to the Philippines).
Then on our last night, out of nowhere as we were sitting having a drink and listening to some music Jenni turned up! Our wolf pack are amazing and have the propensity of meeting up at all of the most random places! Yet again we extended our stay for the sake of hanging out with a wolf pack member without one single regret.
Pai has been by far my favourite place so far, for the bikes, for the music, for the waterfalls but mostly for the complete love we've received from the people here.
We left Pai, had one uneventful night in Chaing Mai where we stayed in the most comfortable bedroom yet, and then jumped onto the night-bus to Bangkok.
Pai itself is a haven for hippies, Rastas and ex-pats who need rest. Everyone is so accommodating and free love presides!
There were massage schools, bamboo tattoo parlours, organic restaurants, yoga schools small bars, family ran businesses and cute little bakeries in abundance. That's just the front street! This place had everything for an easy life!
Upon our arrival we made friends with a girl called Niki, she seemed rather funny and we decided to share a room with her. Good choice! Niki turned out to be one hilarious woman who we quickly warmed to, it felt as though we'd known her for ages!
That nigt we hung out at the place we were staying, Edible Jazz, listening to a humorous French man play a wide genre of music and drinking the most delicious fruit shakes.
We retired to our room after a bit and were serenaded to sleep by the music blasting from the Buddhist Temple next door. And by serenaded to sleep I mean we lay awake until the music finally finished at about 3am... Out partied by monks!
The following day had an early start with the Buddhists chanting at 4am...urgh. Although this place is just awesome, the Buddhists were getting my goat a little. I bet you've never met anyone who gets angry at Buddhists before, probably one of the more passive religions!
That day I happened to read a bit about a celebration that takes part at this time of year to celebrate the bringing of new monks to a temple, and from then on had more patience for them, but my goodness we couldn't have picked a closer spot to the temple! ( as a side note, these monks were the cutest things ever! Little 6 year old boys being dressed and made up like little gods riding on the beds of open trucks, dancing about and then on the final day having their hair shaved and being dressed in the robes of a monk. However this new status doesnt seem to change these kids too much, in their down time they played with remote control cars and chased each other around the temple grounds.)
Feeling rested and alert (ahem) we hired mopeds and for the second time in my life I tried to balance a motorised two wheeled vehicle.
The first time was an extremely unsuccessful time at the age of 16 when I drove sideways along a wall and managed to scrape off a good few layers of skin. I had high hopes for this second experience.
It was as easy as riding a bike! Honestly, I mean come on, I was riding a 115cc automatic, things don't get much easier than that!
After precisely 1 minute of getting used to riding we took a ride to the hot springs just outside of town. The day was lovely, the sun was blazing after the showers of the previous evening, the air was fresh, the ride was beautiful, and as I gained confidence I found myself really appreciating the worlds beauty. The hot springs themselves were unbelievably hot and one could, if you so desired, boil eggs at the top and bathe nearer the bottom, in almost-too-hot freshwater. A lovely afternoon was wasted there reading and chatting a little. :). After we got bored enough we got back on the mopeds and drove to a mountain, which we read had a spectacular temple at the top. I led the way and rode up an unimaginably steep hill until forced to stop by the sheer gradient of the thing, turning into a spot at the side of the gravel track to park my moped, Kris and Niki followed suit with Cat bringing up the rear and to almost devastating affects forgetting which was the brake and which was the accelerator. As she teetered on the precipice I realised what an exceptionally lovely friend I have and how much I don't want her to die. To say we all sprung into action would be a gross representation of our reaction. I almost fell off my own stationary vehicle and screamed, "pull the break man Catherine!" Then jumped up to pull back the bike/keep it level. Kris just sat, and Niki shouted, "let go!" Cat did let go of the accelerator and was ok other than a couple of scratches which seemed to bleed profusely. (artistic licence has been put to use here by the way, she wasn't actually dangling or anything) the temple turned out to be a ruin anyway- the only impressive thing about it was the giant bell we all hit and made great resounding sounds down the mountain.
After our great motor adventure we were planning on going to an art show but I wasn't feeling well and decided to have an early night.
I awoke with a fever through the roof and a cough to rival that of a 80 year old smoker, so needless to say I spent the next few days in bed and my lovely Catherine nursed me to health feeding me water, tea and fruit juice, laying cold towels on my head and visiting the pharmacy on my behalf to get antibiotics and cough medicine.
What a beautiful woman she is, and what a great mum she'll make! (attrctive, tall men, enquire within!)
Somethig that I came to realise during the great illness was the compassion and care which was showered upon us all by the owners and workers of the place we stayed, bringing us tea, checking on me when I was ill and Niki when she was hungover. They were fine examples of beautiful people.
A couple of days later I surfaced to the world, still feeling a little shaky, but ultimately exceptionally restless. We started the day with a bout of fitness in the form of very unprofessionally executed yoga and a bit of pilates, all of which I decided to do in the dirt while wearing a white skirt. Yes, I'm that smart. After that I went to get a tattoo with a bamboo stick. And then Cat cut my hair.
For the sunset we went on the bikes to the nearby canyon and had a well romantic time. Well it would have been romantic but I'm not gay with Cat or Niki, so it just reminded me of what I'm missing at the moment. Frown.
After a quick turn around and some food we got back on the bikes (best thing in the world) and rode to the jungle where there was a fund raising party going on for the victims of the Japanese earthquake. Wow. Just wow. Words cannot describe this night of pandemonium. I wasn't completely well, my chest was still in massive pain then i had a bit of a dramatic asthma attack, so I left pretty early at 3.30. It was still epic and I wish I wasn't driving and unwell cause I think it would have been great to pull an all nighter. In the time actually spent at the rave there were the most beautiful black guys dancing with fire, crazy people drugged up dancing with the speakers which were blasting out all types of music, a digeridoo player, some of the most interestingly dressed people I've ever seen, a massive flag made from bed sheets that you wrote a message to Japan on, a man making t-shirts, food being sold, a bonfire, a dj pumping out dubstep and electronic music, a girl with a broken ankle after falling down the stairs, about 700 gallons of alcohol consumed and other general mayhem.
And I heard that after we left it just got better!
The next morning as we were at the 711 getting some water at 9am we bumped- quite literally- into some of the revellers who were just returning. Quite a bunch of crazy, dehydrated, crazy, dancing, crazy, lovelies!
A few more days passed, and we did much more of the same thing, minus the partying, both talked to our families a bit and generally lazed about. (oh and booked tickets to the Philippines).
Then on our last night, out of nowhere as we were sitting having a drink and listening to some music Jenni turned up! Our wolf pack are amazing and have the propensity of meeting up at all of the most random places! Yet again we extended our stay for the sake of hanging out with a wolf pack member without one single regret.
Pai has been by far my favourite place so far, for the bikes, for the music, for the waterfalls but mostly for the complete love we've received from the people here.
We left Pai, had one uneventful night in Chaing Mai where we stayed in the most comfortable bedroom yet, and then jumped onto the night-bus to Bangkok.
Saturday, 9 April 2011
We decided to travel to Thailand on a plane as apose to at least 35 hours on the bus and dodgy borders.
Although I think that the buses, trains and tùk tùks are something everyone must try, and not something i would have liked to miss, flying was such a delightful luxury at this point in the game.
We arrive at our destination; in a different country no less, 3 hours after leaving our hostel. A completely unheard of miracle!
After settling in I took a nap and Cat started to plan our trip to Australia. Dear people of the world, if you want to choose a good travel companion, make sure you choose Catherine Kite, or at least someone with her outlook on life, general loveliness and propensity toward wanting things to be sorted and in good order.
That night we hung out with an extreme girl from several different places in Europe, depending upon when you asked her. We also met a cool Belg and yet another Frenchy!
Chaing Mai was a bit of a culture shock in reverse. We had left Lao, one of the countries named in the poorest 20 of the world and been catapulted into a city with either a McDonalds, Burger King or Starbucks on every street corner. Overly made up (wo)men beckoning clientele into the bars with bored looks on their faces. Western style restaurants churning out drunken Europeans and Americans. Beautiful Thai women holding hands or linking arms with portly--no overweight, 60+ white men, usually with some sort of awful body odour problem. That particular practise made me sick.
But, probably unsurprisingly there were redeeming features about his city- the best $1 Pad Thai ever eaten, a lovely river teeming with fish running through the main street, friendly faces when you make the effort to greet people, sabadeekaa, for future reference. Oh and I totally forgot they offer the best courses, for anything, ever! Massage, art therapy, yoga, muay Thai, and of course cookery.
I am now Thai chef! We went to cookery course where we learned how to make all manner of delish dishes! Although it was only half a day long I managed to cook up an absolute culinary feast of thai green curry, basil chicken, caramelised bananas and of course Pad Thai. Thought I would explode with all of that food!
That night we hung out with Belgium and Frenchy 3 at the Sunday night market. I love that place, so many talented people selling their wares and crazy people walking around- a great place to practise the sport of people watching.
Belgium bought many various bugs from the market and chowed down, he made a bug fuss over nothing though! Of course i had to try the bugs- afterall it's a big adventure isn't it?! I tried a silk worm and a small cricket. No big deal.
Until about 45 minutes later when the thought of what I'd eaten was too much for me and I threw up. I'm so tough!
Today was a slow day after bad nights sleep. I am really missing various members of our gang, and have other emotional traumas which are just putting me completely at loggerheads with myself.
I Love Cat though, she is constantly pulling me out of my shitty moods especially when I'm missing people. An excellent friend and a wonderful distractor! And full of clichés.. Hehe!
We did a few little errands throughout the day and booked a bus ticket to the north but still felt completely out of sorts until out of nowhere someone jumped on us from behind...FRENCHY & Frenchy 2, they greeted us with such warm embraces I almost burst into tears of joy!
Of course we extended our bus tickets and hung out with them for the night drinking at a little bar then moving on to a club for some dancing and an impromptu foam party when I found a canister of shaving foam! Yet another excellent past night with members of the wolfpack!
We got a minibus up to Pai the next morning, another twisty turny ride ending with the most beautiful views but the most sad stomaches! Imagine being in a washing machine after eating noodle soup or something- you'll get the feeling.
Although I think that the buses, trains and tùk tùks are something everyone must try, and not something i would have liked to miss, flying was such a delightful luxury at this point in the game.
We arrive at our destination; in a different country no less, 3 hours after leaving our hostel. A completely unheard of miracle!
After settling in I took a nap and Cat started to plan our trip to Australia. Dear people of the world, if you want to choose a good travel companion, make sure you choose Catherine Kite, or at least someone with her outlook on life, general loveliness and propensity toward wanting things to be sorted and in good order.
That night we hung out with an extreme girl from several different places in Europe, depending upon when you asked her. We also met a cool Belg and yet another Frenchy!
Chaing Mai was a bit of a culture shock in reverse. We had left Lao, one of the countries named in the poorest 20 of the world and been catapulted into a city with either a McDonalds, Burger King or Starbucks on every street corner. Overly made up (wo)men beckoning clientele into the bars with bored looks on their faces. Western style restaurants churning out drunken Europeans and Americans. Beautiful Thai women holding hands or linking arms with portly--no overweight, 60+ white men, usually with some sort of awful body odour problem. That particular practise made me sick.
But, probably unsurprisingly there were redeeming features about his city- the best $1 Pad Thai ever eaten, a lovely river teeming with fish running through the main street, friendly faces when you make the effort to greet people, sabadeekaa, for future reference. Oh and I totally forgot they offer the best courses, for anything, ever! Massage, art therapy, yoga, muay Thai, and of course cookery.
I am now Thai chef! We went to cookery course where we learned how to make all manner of delish dishes! Although it was only half a day long I managed to cook up an absolute culinary feast of thai green curry, basil chicken, caramelised bananas and of course Pad Thai. Thought I would explode with all of that food!
That night we hung out with Belgium and Frenchy 3 at the Sunday night market. I love that place, so many talented people selling their wares and crazy people walking around- a great place to practise the sport of people watching.
Belgium bought many various bugs from the market and chowed down, he made a bug fuss over nothing though! Of course i had to try the bugs- afterall it's a big adventure isn't it?! I tried a silk worm and a small cricket. No big deal.
Until about 45 minutes later when the thought of what I'd eaten was too much for me and I threw up. I'm so tough!
Today was a slow day after bad nights sleep. I am really missing various members of our gang, and have other emotional traumas which are just putting me completely at loggerheads with myself.
I Love Cat though, she is constantly pulling me out of my shitty moods especially when I'm missing people. An excellent friend and a wonderful distractor! And full of clichés.. Hehe!
We did a few little errands throughout the day and booked a bus ticket to the north but still felt completely out of sorts until out of nowhere someone jumped on us from behind...FRENCHY & Frenchy 2, they greeted us with such warm embraces I almost burst into tears of joy!
Of course we extended our bus tickets and hung out with them for the night drinking at a little bar then moving on to a club for some dancing and an impromptu foam party when I found a canister of shaving foam! Yet another excellent past night with members of the wolfpack!
We got a minibus up to Pai the next morning, another twisty turny ride ending with the most beautiful views but the most sad stomaches! Imagine being in a washing machine after eating noodle soup or something- you'll get the feeling.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
The first day in Luang Prabang we were surprised by the most beautiful weather and we settled into the city by wandering around with overjoyed looks on our faces- who knew how easy it'd be to forget what the sun felt like on our skin!
We soon met up with Austria and Jen. We grabbed a bite to eat from a woman we soon dubbed as the happiest woman in the world due to her ever bright countenance and hired bikes. I haggled because Frenchy wasn't there to do it for us and off we went to explore our surroundings. The city itself is really pretty and has a number of little boutiques selling nice dresses, shops selling hand made jewellery and more temples than you can shake a stick at! To go with the massive amount of temples there were a heck of a lot of monks, all ages, sizes, and of different levels of solemnity! That night after an all you can fit on a plate meal at the night market, we went to a lovely bar called Laos Laos garden for drinks and girl time (plus Austria, who may have had a rude awakening into the ways of women!)
While we sat there I heard the call, "what the fuck?!" we all turned around to see nome other but out lovely Frenchy! We hung out for the night and arrange to meet him the next day for the tour we'd booked earlier that day.
The day trip a was excellent, despite being a bit of a rip off, to think we paid $32 for 2 nights and 3 days trip to Halong bay, and we were paying $45 for a day--oh well. The trip was great and it was nice to not have to worry about anything at all.
In the morning we went to ride on elephants, which was lovely if a little smelly! The hide of an elephant is surprisingly tough and the hairs are very coarse, not the most comfortable animal to ride but a great experience.
In the afternoon we went to the waterfalls. With the turquoise water and rope swing I felt like I was in paradise.
I managed a spectacular crash into a tree because I was too scared to let go of the rope! Very graceful and super cool I'm sure! After that embarrassment I managed a couple of great swings into the water to redeem myself, but was massively outshone in both grace and beauty by Austria and Frenchy, who like most boys are just able to do stuff like that easily!
Early evening took us to a little village where child labour is in full swing. We were sold bracelets by lovely little kids who chimed 5000,5000,5000,5000 until you bought something! At one point I had to use my teacher voice on them cause we were all getting sick of the 5000 chorus!
The little boys were playing an awesome game of beat the crap out of each other with clods of mud. Like snowball fights but way more vicious. Of course I joined in for a few minutes hitting various members of our group with mud much to the shock of the lads! Then I offered to buy one of the babies for 5000 from his mum; she found his hilarious and told her neighbour across the way who also though this was hilarious, offering me a toothless laugh that left me smiling for the rest of the day!
That night was Lisa's last and so we went for goodbye drinks at Laos Laos. After the bar closed we hit the road and went to the only club in town to dance our hearts out to an obscure mix of western and Thai music. I loved that club, and had no idea how much I missed dancing until that night.
After the club lots of people came back to our hostel where they sat outside until the wee hours of the morning!
The next day was a day of mourning as Lisa left and the group was smaller yet again. Argh- that girl really does have a special place in my heart, she's one of those people who you know you're supposed to meet and be friends for life!
That night we had an awesome fondue dinner to say proper goodbyes to the rest of the gang as we were splitting up he following day.
As we travelled up north to Nong Khiao for a few days on a local bus with the wind blowing in my hair and a steel pole separating my spine from the right side of my back, I realised how exceptionally lucky I am to be here.
Strangely I miss work, and less strangely I miss my family and my wifey and my heather, but I am so very happy I am here- gaining new experience, getting to know myself a bit more, and changing, in ways I didn't think I would. And mostly meeting some excellent people that I otherwise wouldn't have met.
Anyway, I stayed in a lovely little bungalow on the riverside in Nong K. Very peaceful, it was like going on a holiday within my travels! Went to some caves but forgot my headtorch like a fool, banged my shoulder and it hurt lots so we sacked the cave exploration in the intrerest of personal safety and walked home! On the way we waded through a river which was like marshland of poop under my feet- not the best idea, but a lovely day!
I liked that village a lot and the people just seemed lovely. I don't know why, but I am so incredibly broody here! I literally have to put my hands in my pockets so that I don't pick up every child from their mother! Just for a hug- don't worry I haven't moved onto kidnap yet!
We soon met up with Austria and Jen. We grabbed a bite to eat from a woman we soon dubbed as the happiest woman in the world due to her ever bright countenance and hired bikes. I haggled because Frenchy wasn't there to do it for us and off we went to explore our surroundings. The city itself is really pretty and has a number of little boutiques selling nice dresses, shops selling hand made jewellery and more temples than you can shake a stick at! To go with the massive amount of temples there were a heck of a lot of monks, all ages, sizes, and of different levels of solemnity! That night after an all you can fit on a plate meal at the night market, we went to a lovely bar called Laos Laos garden for drinks and girl time (plus Austria, who may have had a rude awakening into the ways of women!)
While we sat there I heard the call, "what the fuck?!" we all turned around to see nome other but out lovely Frenchy! We hung out for the night and arrange to meet him the next day for the tour we'd booked earlier that day.
The day trip a was excellent, despite being a bit of a rip off, to think we paid $32 for 2 nights and 3 days trip to Halong bay, and we were paying $45 for a day--oh well. The trip was great and it was nice to not have to worry about anything at all.
In the morning we went to ride on elephants, which was lovely if a little smelly! The hide of an elephant is surprisingly tough and the hairs are very coarse, not the most comfortable animal to ride but a great experience.
In the afternoon we went to the waterfalls. With the turquoise water and rope swing I felt like I was in paradise.
I managed a spectacular crash into a tree because I was too scared to let go of the rope! Very graceful and super cool I'm sure! After that embarrassment I managed a couple of great swings into the water to redeem myself, but was massively outshone in both grace and beauty by Austria and Frenchy, who like most boys are just able to do stuff like that easily!
Early evening took us to a little village where child labour is in full swing. We were sold bracelets by lovely little kids who chimed 5000,5000,5000,5000 until you bought something! At one point I had to use my teacher voice on them cause we were all getting sick of the 5000 chorus!
The little boys were playing an awesome game of beat the crap out of each other with clods of mud. Like snowball fights but way more vicious. Of course I joined in for a few minutes hitting various members of our group with mud much to the shock of the lads! Then I offered to buy one of the babies for 5000 from his mum; she found his hilarious and told her neighbour across the way who also though this was hilarious, offering me a toothless laugh that left me smiling for the rest of the day!
That night was Lisa's last and so we went for goodbye drinks at Laos Laos. After the bar closed we hit the road and went to the only club in town to dance our hearts out to an obscure mix of western and Thai music. I loved that club, and had no idea how much I missed dancing until that night.
After the club lots of people came back to our hostel where they sat outside until the wee hours of the morning!
The next day was a day of mourning as Lisa left and the group was smaller yet again. Argh- that girl really does have a special place in my heart, she's one of those people who you know you're supposed to meet and be friends for life!
That night we had an awesome fondue dinner to say proper goodbyes to the rest of the gang as we were splitting up he following day.
As we travelled up north to Nong Khiao for a few days on a local bus with the wind blowing in my hair and a steel pole separating my spine from the right side of my back, I realised how exceptionally lucky I am to be here.
Strangely I miss work, and less strangely I miss my family and my wifey and my heather, but I am so very happy I am here- gaining new experience, getting to know myself a bit more, and changing, in ways I didn't think I would. And mostly meeting some excellent people that I otherwise wouldn't have met.
Anyway, I stayed in a lovely little bungalow on the riverside in Nong K. Very peaceful, it was like going on a holiday within my travels! Went to some caves but forgot my headtorch like a fool, banged my shoulder and it hurt lots so we sacked the cave exploration in the intrerest of personal safety and walked home! On the way we waded through a river which was like marshland of poop under my feet- not the best idea, but a lovely day!
I liked that village a lot and the people just seemed lovely. I don't know why, but I am so incredibly broody here! I literally have to put my hands in my pockets so that I don't pick up every child from their mother! Just for a hug- don't worry I haven't moved onto kidnap yet!
Our bus arrived at Pakse where we were told we had an 8 hour wait for the connecting bus. With tired minds and bodies we sunk into the plastic chairs in the waiting area to wait.
As we sat there daydreaming and drifting in and out of conversation we were shocked to see Frenchy and Tom disembarking from their bus. After only 5 hours we were reunited!
The boys decided to come with us to vang vieng and we set off on a 4 hour long winding bus ride without anything resembling air conditioning. What a delight!
I imagine 10 years ago that Vang Vieng was a lovely little village with a couple of places to eat, bamboo bridges over to the smaller islands surrounding it, kids going to school, weekend trips to the caves and a sense of nothing big ever happening.
Vang Vieng is still a small town, but lining the streets are open plan restaurants with cushions to lie on and tables for the western food served, wih each place blaring either family guy or episodes of friends on loop on widescreen televisions. The streets are lined with fast food kiosks selling crepes, sandwiches and fruit shakes.
The main clientele are in their early 20s and are there to get completely wasted while meandering down the river on inner tubes, dropping in on the bars along the way to consume mushroom shakes and buckets- yes buckets - of Lao Lao and coke. As the Lao Lao is a lot cheaper than coke, the ratio of this local wiskey to coke leads to a potent mix that I'm sure would floor an elephant.
The bars have swings and slides into the river, which would be amazing to use, but as it's dry season, they are terribly dangerous, however the mix of drugs and alcohol lead the general public to believe they are invincible. Every year there is at least one death and probably about 365 extremely bad injuries due to his stupidity.
As Luck would have it, although at the time we were devestated, it rained a cold, unpredictably strong rain throughout our trip. Tubing was cancelled for us. Ah well, I like my life and limbs, so as I said, it was a blessing in disguise!
Saving grace for Vang Vieng- the caves! We were still with Frenchy, so passing the time sitting on our bottoms was not an option! He roused the troops and we all donned our warm waterproofs and embarked upon a 6 hour hike to the caves. We waded through rivers, cut across private fields and pushed our way through overgrown jungle to get to the caves where we explored with our dim head torches careful not to look at the walls which at times teamed with interesting insects to which we were in extremely close proximity! So much fun was had that day, and as I wrote all of our initials on a cave wall (with clay or something similar) and signed it with the date and "wolfpack", I really felt a great affinity for our family.
That night I experienced a bucket first hand and the less said about that the better.
The rest of the time in Vang Vieng was spent reading, walking around and waiting for the crappy weather to pass. It didn't, so we did!
The last night together we pushed the three beds together and Cat, Tom, Lisa, Frenchy, Raechelle and I had a sleepover and watched a beautiful french film 'the choir'. It was such a beautiful end to our time together.
The next day the girls made
I wroth that about 2 weeks ago, but wanted to finish it before i posted, oh well! It's been such a long time since i wrote anything here- which is just a sign of personal journalling, writing emails or just having too much to do! It's not that I don't want to keep these updates going, i know I'll appreciate them in the long run.
So...The girls left to Luang Prabang, which is in the north of Lao. ( or Laos if you prefer!)
The ride was..well it felt like we were travelling on a road made of soggy spaghetti, designed like one of those "follow the squiggly line and find Fido a bone" puzzles. The rain had been coming down in droves and the road was at times seemingly impossible to drive on, but where there's a will, there's a way, and our driver certainly had a will!
We arrived 3 hours after our ETA cold to the bone, desperate for a wee and utterly miserable. After the túk túk driver tried (and succeeded somewhat) to rip us off we arrived at a hostel and collapsed into bed.
*in the travelling sense where everything is so temporal yet feels so permanent
As we sat there daydreaming and drifting in and out of conversation we were shocked to see Frenchy and Tom disembarking from their bus. After only 5 hours we were reunited!
The boys decided to come with us to vang vieng and we set off on a 4 hour long winding bus ride without anything resembling air conditioning. What a delight!
I imagine 10 years ago that Vang Vieng was a lovely little village with a couple of places to eat, bamboo bridges over to the smaller islands surrounding it, kids going to school, weekend trips to the caves and a sense of nothing big ever happening.
Vang Vieng is still a small town, but lining the streets are open plan restaurants with cushions to lie on and tables for the western food served, wih each place blaring either family guy or episodes of friends on loop on widescreen televisions. The streets are lined with fast food kiosks selling crepes, sandwiches and fruit shakes.
The main clientele are in their early 20s and are there to get completely wasted while meandering down the river on inner tubes, dropping in on the bars along the way to consume mushroom shakes and buckets- yes buckets - of Lao Lao and coke. As the Lao Lao is a lot cheaper than coke, the ratio of this local wiskey to coke leads to a potent mix that I'm sure would floor an elephant.
The bars have swings and slides into the river, which would be amazing to use, but as it's dry season, they are terribly dangerous, however the mix of drugs and alcohol lead the general public to believe they are invincible. Every year there is at least one death and probably about 365 extremely bad injuries due to his stupidity.
As Luck would have it, although at the time we were devestated, it rained a cold, unpredictably strong rain throughout our trip. Tubing was cancelled for us. Ah well, I like my life and limbs, so as I said, it was a blessing in disguise!
Saving grace for Vang Vieng- the caves! We were still with Frenchy, so passing the time sitting on our bottoms was not an option! He roused the troops and we all donned our warm waterproofs and embarked upon a 6 hour hike to the caves. We waded through rivers, cut across private fields and pushed our way through overgrown jungle to get to the caves where we explored with our dim head torches careful not to look at the walls which at times teamed with interesting insects to which we were in extremely close proximity! So much fun was had that day, and as I wrote all of our initials on a cave wall (with clay or something similar) and signed it with the date and "wolfpack", I really felt a great affinity for our family.
That night I experienced a bucket first hand and the less said about that the better.
The rest of the time in Vang Vieng was spent reading, walking around and waiting for the crappy weather to pass. It didn't, so we did!
The last night together we pushed the three beds together and Cat, Tom, Lisa, Frenchy, Raechelle and I had a sleepover and watched a beautiful french film 'the choir'. It was such a beautiful end to our time together.
The next day the girls made
I wroth that about 2 weeks ago, but wanted to finish it before i posted, oh well! It's been such a long time since i wrote anything here- which is just a sign of personal journalling, writing emails or just having too much to do! It's not that I don't want to keep these updates going, i know I'll appreciate them in the long run.
So...The girls left to Luang Prabang, which is in the north of Lao. ( or Laos if you prefer!)
The ride was..well it felt like we were travelling on a road made of soggy spaghetti, designed like one of those "follow the squiggly line and find Fido a bone" puzzles. The rain had been coming down in droves and the road was at times seemingly impossible to drive on, but where there's a will, there's a way, and our driver certainly had a will!
We arrived 3 hours after our ETA cold to the bone, desperate for a wee and utterly miserable. After the túk túk driver tried (and succeeded somewhat) to rip us off we arrived at a hostel and collapsed into bed.
*in the travelling sense where everything is so temporal yet feels so permanent
Friday, 18 March 2011
I've been in Laos for almost two weeks and I don't feel as though I've experienced Laos properly yet. My sentiments stem from how well I come to know people from that country rather than the people I meet on the way, but if the latter were the case I'd have to say that I found my family here.
On March 7th I departed from Cambodia in a flood of tears and with a mixed bag of emotions.
I certainly wanted to stay in this place, eating at our local; where they loved us, exploring on a bike, waving at and taking to locals from the back of a skilfully driven motorbike, hitting up the deliciously warm, man made lake and gazing at the stars which seemed to shine just that much brighter 2km out of the city. But...but a greater part of my mind told me I had to move on, that there was so much left to see and do in the short amount of time I have on this trip.
So. I left. Not 2 hours into the 12 hour drive our bus popped a tyre and we were stuck in something resembling a village for a coupe of hours while it was fixed. Subsequently we missed our connecting bus and spent the night in an almost tourist free town.
Although at first it seemed like we were going to expire after 1 day in this sleepy town, things picked up on a walk along the river where Cat and Lisa joined in with the local outdoor aerobics class and proved to be great entertainment for the rest of the village. Soon there were about 30 motorbikes full of people who had stopped at the side of the road to watch these two falang dancing in time with their friends, mums and aunts.
We then went for food and really met each other properly. Our group of stranded travellers consisted of Hicham aka Frenchy, who had managed to coerce the bus driver into paying for our accommodation and a free bus the following day.
Jenny, a German girl who has very dry humour and lucky for us a little something to keep us happy overnight.
Raechelle, a kiwi with interesting one liners and one of the most expressive faces I've ever seen.
Cat, my travel buddy from the start who everyone falls in love with immediately.
And Lisa who is actually so similar to myself it's rather freaky. Obviously I love her massively and not just because she realises when I'm quoting song lyrics in random conversations and completes them or because she rolls her eyes a millisecond before I do, but because she gives me the amount of cheek I give everyone else...perfect!
After a night of bonding over beers, music and laughter we all became best friends* and were instantly a team.
At the first rest stop we gained another team member: Tom from Seattle with the most impressive forearms Cat has ever seen! Also one of the the most humorous guys I've met in a while.
We finally arrived to 4000 islands after almost 2 days of travelling all feeling slightly weary and desperately hungry. The team stuck together, found a place to stay and went for food. After being moved on by the owner of our hostel for being too loud we walked along the dark main street and arrived at the beach where we chatted and watched the stars until we could keep our eyes open no longer.
The following day started really slowly which seems to be very in keeping with things here in Laos. A top tip for anyone travelling to Laos, anticipate being hungry at least one hour before you think you may want to eat, service here is very...relaxed!
After breakfast, which turned into lunch, we found bungalows with a view of the river at sunset and settled in. The day consisted of swimming to a nearby island, finding a 50ft bamboo stick and swimming it to our island, not very productive, but extremely funny.
That night we went to a reggae bar, played cards (obviously I kicked ass!) and had a generally hilarious time. By this point we were already a family and it was great to see how everyone behaved with each other as we relaxed and our real personalities came to the surface, rather than the meeting people personality which everyone has for a while in the beginning.
Frenchy loves to be in charge of us, telling us where to go and planning fun days, we all really appreciated his plans. Even if at times they were slightly harebrained! Planning while on 4000 islands consisted of frog marching us around the island in search of a bridge while we were all a bit hung over, hiring bikes and cycling to a famous waterfall over 'short cuts' of rice paddies, swimming in a lagoon finding a boat to take us to go and see very rare fresh water dolphins... I could go on!
We spent most nights hanging out on the porch of our bungalow listening to music and chatting. We met quite a few people this way who just came to hang out with a really diverse group of people. On the second night Christian aka Austria turned up and was almost immediately adopted into our wolf pack and hung out with us for the remainder of our time on 4000 islands.
The next morning the wolf pack split up leaving Germany and Austria on the shore of Don Det, as the girls headed for Vang Vieng and the boys to some caves. Although it had only been a few days it was an emotional farewell, those boys had really looked after us and their company was highly enjoyable.
On March 7th I departed from Cambodia in a flood of tears and with a mixed bag of emotions.
I certainly wanted to stay in this place, eating at our local; where they loved us, exploring on a bike, waving at and taking to locals from the back of a skilfully driven motorbike, hitting up the deliciously warm, man made lake and gazing at the stars which seemed to shine just that much brighter 2km out of the city. But...but a greater part of my mind told me I had to move on, that there was so much left to see and do in the short amount of time I have on this trip.
So. I left. Not 2 hours into the 12 hour drive our bus popped a tyre and we were stuck in something resembling a village for a coupe of hours while it was fixed. Subsequently we missed our connecting bus and spent the night in an almost tourist free town.
Although at first it seemed like we were going to expire after 1 day in this sleepy town, things picked up on a walk along the river where Cat and Lisa joined in with the local outdoor aerobics class and proved to be great entertainment for the rest of the village. Soon there were about 30 motorbikes full of people who had stopped at the side of the road to watch these two falang dancing in time with their friends, mums and aunts.
We then went for food and really met each other properly. Our group of stranded travellers consisted of Hicham aka Frenchy, who had managed to coerce the bus driver into paying for our accommodation and a free bus the following day.
Jenny, a German girl who has very dry humour and lucky for us a little something to keep us happy overnight.
Raechelle, a kiwi with interesting one liners and one of the most expressive faces I've ever seen.
Cat, my travel buddy from the start who everyone falls in love with immediately.
And Lisa who is actually so similar to myself it's rather freaky. Obviously I love her massively and not just because she realises when I'm quoting song lyrics in random conversations and completes them or because she rolls her eyes a millisecond before I do, but because she gives me the amount of cheek I give everyone else...perfect!
After a night of bonding over beers, music and laughter we all became best friends* and were instantly a team.
At the first rest stop we gained another team member: Tom from Seattle with the most impressive forearms Cat has ever seen! Also one of the the most humorous guys I've met in a while.
We finally arrived to 4000 islands after almost 2 days of travelling all feeling slightly weary and desperately hungry. The team stuck together, found a place to stay and went for food. After being moved on by the owner of our hostel for being too loud we walked along the dark main street and arrived at the beach where we chatted and watched the stars until we could keep our eyes open no longer.
The following day started really slowly which seems to be very in keeping with things here in Laos. A top tip for anyone travelling to Laos, anticipate being hungry at least one hour before you think you may want to eat, service here is very...relaxed!
After breakfast, which turned into lunch, we found bungalows with a view of the river at sunset and settled in. The day consisted of swimming to a nearby island, finding a 50ft bamboo stick and swimming it to our island, not very productive, but extremely funny.
That night we went to a reggae bar, played cards (obviously I kicked ass!) and had a generally hilarious time. By this point we were already a family and it was great to see how everyone behaved with each other as we relaxed and our real personalities came to the surface, rather than the meeting people personality which everyone has for a while in the beginning.
Frenchy loves to be in charge of us, telling us where to go and planning fun days, we all really appreciated his plans. Even if at times they were slightly harebrained! Planning while on 4000 islands consisted of frog marching us around the island in search of a bridge while we were all a bit hung over, hiring bikes and cycling to a famous waterfall over 'short cuts' of rice paddies, swimming in a lagoon finding a boat to take us to go and see very rare fresh water dolphins... I could go on!
We spent most nights hanging out on the porch of our bungalow listening to music and chatting. We met quite a few people this way who just came to hang out with a really diverse group of people. On the second night Christian aka Austria turned up and was almost immediately adopted into our wolf pack and hung out with us for the remainder of our time on 4000 islands.
The next morning the wolf pack split up leaving Germany and Austria on the shore of Don Det, as the girls headed for Vang Vieng and the boys to some caves. Although it had only been a few days it was an emotional farewell, those boys had really looked after us and their company was highly enjoyable.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
So we left that hostel and walked down the main backpackers street, trying to find a place to stay and feeling somewhat like Mary and Joseph with all the refusals we got!
Finally we gave up and sat down to get coffee. As I drank the best coffee I'd ever tasted, my spirits lifted and I hit the road again looking for a place to stay. We found a place, at least 6 flights of stair up, and settled in to the spacious dorm room- with air con! Luxury!!!
Although our time in Saigon started so badly, things soon got a lot better.
We spent some time exploring our surroundings and drinking a lot of coffee. Unfortunately I've become the caffeine addict I once was yet again, but it's so good here I can't resist.
One of the more interesting things was a visit to the tunnels near Saigon. This is one of the places where the Vietnamese Army hid and fought from during the war with America. It was so interesting to see how these people, who are naturally very small in their build used that to their advantage. The entrance to the tunnels was extremely tiny, and hidden so well. The biggest shock was the video at the end of our trip, it was so obviously filled with propaganda supporting the communist way and a great attempt at brainwashing us all. I was very glad that there were no Americans in our group as it was more than a little anti American. We followed the life of a nine year old girl who fought against 'the brutal killing men from america'... In her life she helped during the night, baiting the Americans to come closer to the rest of the army under the cover of darkness, during the day she farmed with the other children. "A rifle in one hand a plough in the other"
Very interesting indeed. It was almost as though that past of Vietnam is trapped in time and full of unforgiving.
I've started go become a more active member of couchsurfing.org which led me to be able to arrange a free guided tour of the city with a student who is studying tourism at university. He was great fun and took us around for a couple of hours leaving us with a group of his girlfriends with whom we hung out, got drinks and played the most popular game in Vietnam. The game involves playing keepup with something that resembles a shuttle cock. You can use any part of your body, the one rule is DON'T LET IT DROP!!! we managed to gather quite a crowd of amazed and amused locals as we played unsuccessfully for about 30 minutes...imagine, White girls playing sport!
We left Saigon feeling a greater love for the place than when we began and I would love to visit again, but maybe this time not arrive at 4am!
We left up the Delta Mekong and took a tour with a fantastic group of people. Including 2 awesome Aussies, one wonderful American and 2 class Canadians. There was also a family on the trip who were just fantastic. Back in Canada they're farmers for 6 months of the year and the remainder of their time is spent travelling. The kids are Amazing! So well travelled and so very clever. Of course being with them made me once again yearn for a family of my own, kids to show the world to and a partner to have all of that excitement with! Well one day!
We arrived in Phnom Penh very late at night after a bit of a hold up on the border as one of our group had overstayed in Vietnam. We, Cat, Kate, Phillip and I stayed at the first place we came to which had one bed and a thin mattress on the floor..oh joy!
The next night we went to look for a hostel and upon arrival we found that the week before it had been pulled down! In its place leaving a space that opened onto the lake at the bottom of an alley of hostels. Phillip, one of the Canadians, was still with us so we all got a room together at another hostel which was clean enough, despite the strange stains on the wall, which meant we were paying next to nothing for a night.
We soon made friends with many of the local tuk tuk drivers who had made our area into a place to chill, drink and watch the sun set beautifully over the lake.
Being taken under the wing of Sam a tuk tuk driver and Phil the hostel manager we experienced a Cambodian's Cambodia. We went fishing at a holiday spot for the locals, we were advised on where to go and what to see and we borrowed bikes to explore our surroundings.
Phil explained that all buildings in that area are going to be bulldozed to the ground within the next few months as they're redeveloping. Unfortunately the redevelopment consists of filling in the lake, and making a massive highway. I feel extreme lucky that we happened upon this hostel and all of these amazing people before this place no longer exists and these people are redistributed all over the city like cattle.
I was so sad to leave Phnom Penh, and all of the friends we made but as much as I hate to admit it, time is pressing and we've still got so much to do.
At this point I must mention that Cambodia has become my new favourite place in the world.
We then came to Siem Riep and checked into a beautiful, spacious room with a fantastic balcony.
Obviously we have visited Ankgor Wat and a great many other temples, each as fantastic as the last. Sunrise and sunset with a background of 1500 year old temples is something everyone should experience. I completely understand why it's one of the seven man made wonders.
Yesterday Phillip, who made the trip with us "borrowed" a motorbike and we spent the day burning around the city, discovering places we never would have known about otherwise and relaxing in the shade. An absolutely amazing day, but 3 on a bike is pretty snug!
Cat and I are leaving for 4000 islands in Laos tomorrow, I'm very sad to leave Cambodia and the people here, I must return.
Finally we gave up and sat down to get coffee. As I drank the best coffee I'd ever tasted, my spirits lifted and I hit the road again looking for a place to stay. We found a place, at least 6 flights of stair up, and settled in to the spacious dorm room- with air con! Luxury!!!
Although our time in Saigon started so badly, things soon got a lot better.
We spent some time exploring our surroundings and drinking a lot of coffee. Unfortunately I've become the caffeine addict I once was yet again, but it's so good here I can't resist.
One of the more interesting things was a visit to the tunnels near Saigon. This is one of the places where the Vietnamese Army hid and fought from during the war with America. It was so interesting to see how these people, who are naturally very small in their build used that to their advantage. The entrance to the tunnels was extremely tiny, and hidden so well. The biggest shock was the video at the end of our trip, it was so obviously filled with propaganda supporting the communist way and a great attempt at brainwashing us all. I was very glad that there were no Americans in our group as it was more than a little anti American. We followed the life of a nine year old girl who fought against 'the brutal killing men from america'... In her life she helped during the night, baiting the Americans to come closer to the rest of the army under the cover of darkness, during the day she farmed with the other children. "A rifle in one hand a plough in the other"
Very interesting indeed. It was almost as though that past of Vietnam is trapped in time and full of unforgiving.
I've started go become a more active member of couchsurfing.org which led me to be able to arrange a free guided tour of the city with a student who is studying tourism at university. He was great fun and took us around for a couple of hours leaving us with a group of his girlfriends with whom we hung out, got drinks and played the most popular game in Vietnam. The game involves playing keepup with something that resembles a shuttle cock. You can use any part of your body, the one rule is DON'T LET IT DROP!!! we managed to gather quite a crowd of amazed and amused locals as we played unsuccessfully for about 30 minutes...imagine, White girls playing sport!
We left Saigon feeling a greater love for the place than when we began and I would love to visit again, but maybe this time not arrive at 4am!
We left up the Delta Mekong and took a tour with a fantastic group of people. Including 2 awesome Aussies, one wonderful American and 2 class Canadians. There was also a family on the trip who were just fantastic. Back in Canada they're farmers for 6 months of the year and the remainder of their time is spent travelling. The kids are Amazing! So well travelled and so very clever. Of course being with them made me once again yearn for a family of my own, kids to show the world to and a partner to have all of that excitement with! Well one day!
We arrived in Phnom Penh very late at night after a bit of a hold up on the border as one of our group had overstayed in Vietnam. We, Cat, Kate, Phillip and I stayed at the first place we came to which had one bed and a thin mattress on the floor..oh joy!
The next night we went to look for a hostel and upon arrival we found that the week before it had been pulled down! In its place leaving a space that opened onto the lake at the bottom of an alley of hostels. Phillip, one of the Canadians, was still with us so we all got a room together at another hostel which was clean enough, despite the strange stains on the wall, which meant we were paying next to nothing for a night.
We soon made friends with many of the local tuk tuk drivers who had made our area into a place to chill, drink and watch the sun set beautifully over the lake.
Being taken under the wing of Sam a tuk tuk driver and Phil the hostel manager we experienced a Cambodian's Cambodia. We went fishing at a holiday spot for the locals, we were advised on where to go and what to see and we borrowed bikes to explore our surroundings.
Phil explained that all buildings in that area are going to be bulldozed to the ground within the next few months as they're redeveloping. Unfortunately the redevelopment consists of filling in the lake, and making a massive highway. I feel extreme lucky that we happened upon this hostel and all of these amazing people before this place no longer exists and these people are redistributed all over the city like cattle.
I was so sad to leave Phnom Penh, and all of the friends we made but as much as I hate to admit it, time is pressing and we've still got so much to do.
At this point I must mention that Cambodia has become my new favourite place in the world.
We then came to Siem Riep and checked into a beautiful, spacious room with a fantastic balcony.
Obviously we have visited Ankgor Wat and a great many other temples, each as fantastic as the last. Sunrise and sunset with a background of 1500 year old temples is something everyone should experience. I completely understand why it's one of the seven man made wonders.
Yesterday Phillip, who made the trip with us "borrowed" a motorbike and we spent the day burning around the city, discovering places we never would have known about otherwise and relaxing in the shade. An absolutely amazing day, but 3 on a bike is pretty snug!
Cat and I are leaving for 4000 islands in Laos tomorrow, I'm very sad to leave Cambodia and the people here, I must return.
Ok back to the update update stuff. I miss writing in a more serious vein at times..anyway. So much has happened, and it's a bit hard to keep updating as regularly as I should and also I'm not doing too well at keeping updated on the email front- please have patience with me!
At times I feel like we're rushing this trip far too much, but then if we are to see everything we want to we kind of have to keep this pace up.
We're almost leaving Vietnam, and I'm sure by the time I get around to posting this we will have already passed over the border to Cambodia.
Upon arrival to Saigon we were lept upon by about 20 men shouting "motomoto!!" or "you wanna taxi?" it was 4am and it was all so disorienting that my first impression of Saigon was one of complete dislike.
We'd left a perfect beach scene, some really nice friends, and the cooling sea breeze for this?! Over polluted, over populated smelly city. We booked into a hostel which had a room with no windows, no fan and a welcome mat of cockroaches. The heat was stifling and it was only 6am!
After trying to find one redeeming quality to the place and failing miserably we descended the 12 flights of stairs
Cripes I wrote this 3 weeks ago and forgot to finish and post it... Oh well!
At times I feel like we're rushing this trip far too much, but then if we are to see everything we want to we kind of have to keep this pace up.
We're almost leaving Vietnam, and I'm sure by the time I get around to posting this we will have already passed over the border to Cambodia.
Upon arrival to Saigon we were lept upon by about 20 men shouting "motomoto!!" or "you wanna taxi?" it was 4am and it was all so disorienting that my first impression of Saigon was one of complete dislike.
We'd left a perfect beach scene, some really nice friends, and the cooling sea breeze for this?! Over polluted, over populated smelly city. We booked into a hostel which had a room with no windows, no fan and a welcome mat of cockroaches. The heat was stifling and it was only 6am!
After trying to find one redeeming quality to the place and failing miserably we descended the 12 flights of stairs
Cripes I wrote this 3 weeks ago and forgot to finish and post it... Oh well!
Saturday, 19 February 2011
What is this life so full of care we have no time to stand and stare
No time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep or cows
A poor life this so full of care we have no time to stand and stare
The cheapest way to travel around Vietnam is by bus. We've spent about 48 hours lying in sleeper buses in the past week. Please don't be fooled as we were - sleeper is a lose term to say that there are beds on the bus that people of a certain height may catch about 4 hours sleep on if they're lucky. Unfortunately, Cat at 5"12'(heh), and even I have problems fitting our limbs into the beds in a way that is conducive to sleep.
All that to say that I'm writing this from my top bunk on the way to Saigon, more recently known as Ho Chi Minh City. As I've mentioned, sleeping isn't particularly easy to come by, and the lights are off so I can't wile away the time reading, I am almost forced to lay here and think.
Being one of the only people awake on a bus makes me philosophical. Or maybe it's just the pace of life recently, slow and steady.
My mind doesn't want to focus on anything specific but flits to lots of things that have happened throughout my life, things that have yet to happen, and all of the different paths I could go down depending upon tiny choices that affect life in massive ways.
I feel like I'm in the tunnel scene on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Faces of past loves are running through my head after a recent conversation with Cat. Wrong words spoken in the heat of the moment are replayed evoking quite a heavy feeling in my heart. These are replaced by thoughts of utter gratefulness for the love and enduring kindness of my family and most of my friends. Moments that have made me smile, times I've fell to the floor from laughing so hard my knees just give way.
Thank you for being there for me you lovely people.
I've begun to miss "home" a bit...
No time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep or cows
A poor life this so full of care we have no time to stand and stare
The cheapest way to travel around Vietnam is by bus. We've spent about 48 hours lying in sleeper buses in the past week. Please don't be fooled as we were - sleeper is a lose term to say that there are beds on the bus that people of a certain height may catch about 4 hours sleep on if they're lucky. Unfortunately, Cat at 5"12'(heh), and even I have problems fitting our limbs into the beds in a way that is conducive to sleep.
All that to say that I'm writing this from my top bunk on the way to Saigon, more recently known as Ho Chi Minh City. As I've mentioned, sleeping isn't particularly easy to come by, and the lights are off so I can't wile away the time reading, I am almost forced to lay here and think.
Being one of the only people awake on a bus makes me philosophical. Or maybe it's just the pace of life recently, slow and steady.
My mind doesn't want to focus on anything specific but flits to lots of things that have happened throughout my life, things that have yet to happen, and all of the different paths I could go down depending upon tiny choices that affect life in massive ways.
I feel like I'm in the tunnel scene on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Faces of past loves are running through my head after a recent conversation with Cat. Wrong words spoken in the heat of the moment are replayed evoking quite a heavy feeling in my heart. These are replaced by thoughts of utter gratefulness for the love and enduring kindness of my family and most of my friends. Moments that have made me smile, times I've fell to the floor from laughing so hard my knees just give way.
Thank you for being there for me you lovely people.
I've begun to miss "home" a bit...
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Sapa
After a while a place becomes like home, you begin to recognise the people, the street names, the same tuktuk guys asking you if you want them for an hour.
Hanoi was very quiet during Tet, quiet in that all of the shops and many of the businesses were closed. Yet it was still really busy with what seemed like most of the extended families converging upon this city with great force.On New Years Eve we went down to the lake, which is a central part of life here, and joined with the masses to watch the fireworks and wander around the lake buying popcorn, sausages on sticks and balloons. It was great fun to see these otherwise rather reserved people really cheering and whooping with joy with the explosion of 15 minutes of fireworks.
After being in Hanoi for a week Cat and I joined a tour in Sapa, which is in the very north of Vietnam. We had been talking to people who had come back from Sapa the day before we left, and with them came the news that it was freezing cold, completely overcast but still a nice little trip. But really, not worth the trouble.
Boarding the night train with an air of complete trepidation, we began our trip. The train was nothing like we had expected, the beds were very comfortable, they provided water, and the toilet was actually of western standards! No squatting to the floor while on a moving vehicle! What we're loving right now...
On arrival we wandered around the village for a while and were instantly accompanied by Hmong women, maybe about 6 of them following us around for 4 of us girls. At this point we met the Shelias. (Loan and Jules) who became our main buddies for the trip.
On returning to the travel agent we met our tour guide with whom we walked about 16k to the homestay. The day was fantastically sunny and I got massively burned! (I blame the malaria tablets...damn them making my skin all sensitive!) Obviously it was completely muddy and slippy, but it was worth it. The views were just fantastic and the group we walked with were a cool bunch of people.One of our member fell into a rice paddy and handled it brilliantly. I will post pictures, but right now I'm unable to. While we were walking we passed a lot of children and women, but i could count on one hand the number of men we passed. Everyone seemed to be chewing on sugar cane, so I gave it a try. It tasted like chewing on a really mild sugar flavoured watermelon. So very refreshing, but I'm sure there are very few redeeming qualities within a sugar cane!
On one of our stops we hung out with some little lads who were playing a game that seemed to be rather popular. Find a really big stone and throw smaller stones off it to try and smash it. Over the next few days we saw a lot of that sort of game. I love how kids really can just amuse themselves with the oddest games!
When we arrived at the homestay we all took a short time to recover from our walk then we drank beer in the fading light and chatted with each other. Watching the dinner being prepared was something else though! The host family killed a couple of ducks right in the kitchen, and bled them, they then prepared a duck blood soup with herbs and garlic. Unfortunately, this was not something that we got to eat, I would have loved to try it! We ate the most amazing banquet of food, rice, spring rolls, vegetables, beef chicken..and lots of other stuff. But i think by this point they could have fed us poo and we would have eaten it, we were famished!
The following day we at crepes for breakfast and were on our way, up and down through the muddy marshes and across the rice paddies, then we reached the waterfall, a quick stop for pictures and then onwards to the base of the waterfall. Out tour guide promised us that it was far too cold to go swimming, but we were made of tougher stuff than that! In we went..and my god it was freezing. Certainly more refreshing than chewing on sugar cane!
We managed to gather quite a crowd of fascinated locals who thought that we were all a bit crazy!
This was slightly rushed but i wanted to get this up before going to Ha Long bay, when I'm sure that more excited and hilarious things will happen.
And my goodness, I hate my writing style here. Guh!
Hanoi was very quiet during Tet, quiet in that all of the shops and many of the businesses were closed. Yet it was still really busy with what seemed like most of the extended families converging upon this city with great force.On New Years Eve we went down to the lake, which is a central part of life here, and joined with the masses to watch the fireworks and wander around the lake buying popcorn, sausages on sticks and balloons. It was great fun to see these otherwise rather reserved people really cheering and whooping with joy with the explosion of 15 minutes of fireworks.
After being in Hanoi for a week Cat and I joined a tour in Sapa, which is in the very north of Vietnam. We had been talking to people who had come back from Sapa the day before we left, and with them came the news that it was freezing cold, completely overcast but still a nice little trip. But really, not worth the trouble.
Boarding the night train with an air of complete trepidation, we began our trip. The train was nothing like we had expected, the beds were very comfortable, they provided water, and the toilet was actually of western standards! No squatting to the floor while on a moving vehicle! What we're loving right now...
On arrival we wandered around the village for a while and were instantly accompanied by Hmong women, maybe about 6 of them following us around for 4 of us girls. At this point we met the Shelias. (Loan and Jules) who became our main buddies for the trip.
On returning to the travel agent we met our tour guide with whom we walked about 16k to the homestay. The day was fantastically sunny and I got massively burned! (I blame the malaria tablets...damn them making my skin all sensitive!) Obviously it was completely muddy and slippy, but it was worth it. The views were just fantastic and the group we walked with were a cool bunch of people.One of our member fell into a rice paddy and handled it brilliantly. I will post pictures, but right now I'm unable to. While we were walking we passed a lot of children and women, but i could count on one hand the number of men we passed. Everyone seemed to be chewing on sugar cane, so I gave it a try. It tasted like chewing on a really mild sugar flavoured watermelon. So very refreshing, but I'm sure there are very few redeeming qualities within a sugar cane!
On one of our stops we hung out with some little lads who were playing a game that seemed to be rather popular. Find a really big stone and throw smaller stones off it to try and smash it. Over the next few days we saw a lot of that sort of game. I love how kids really can just amuse themselves with the oddest games!
When we arrived at the homestay we all took a short time to recover from our walk then we drank beer in the fading light and chatted with each other. Watching the dinner being prepared was something else though! The host family killed a couple of ducks right in the kitchen, and bled them, they then prepared a duck blood soup with herbs and garlic. Unfortunately, this was not something that we got to eat, I would have loved to try it! We ate the most amazing banquet of food, rice, spring rolls, vegetables, beef chicken..and lots of other stuff. But i think by this point they could have fed us poo and we would have eaten it, we were famished!
The following day we at crepes for breakfast and were on our way, up and down through the muddy marshes and across the rice paddies, then we reached the waterfall, a quick stop for pictures and then onwards to the base of the waterfall. Out tour guide promised us that it was far too cold to go swimming, but we were made of tougher stuff than that! In we went..and my god it was freezing. Certainly more refreshing than chewing on sugar cane!
We managed to gather quite a crowd of fascinated locals who thought that we were all a bit crazy!
This was slightly rushed but i wanted to get this up before going to Ha Long bay, when I'm sure that more excited and hilarious things will happen.
And my goodness, I hate my writing style here. Guh!
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Bangkok for a Night
I can't write this journal.
I've sat here and written 3 false starts, I just can't seem to put what has happened so far into words without too much detail, reading like an obnoxious aspiring writer, or coming across a little bit too excited. But I think if you're reading this then you probably know me well enough to know that i don't mean to come across like either of those things.
Sebe has lived in Bangkok for 12 years and his place was down the street from our hostel. We met later on for drinks, drinks, and more drinks. Oh, and the best food I've ever eaten in my life. Rice, some sort of ground chicken, barbecued king prawns, bok choy, spicy papaya salad and beer. All of us ate and drank to the full, with a lot to spare for $14
Unfortunately this trip to the roadside restaurant was a bit tainted by the fact that there was a horrific looking, overweight American man sitting with a 20something year old thai woman. Fawning all over her, while she just looked very upset, and completely uncomfortable. Makes me sick.
I've sat here and written 3 false starts, I just can't seem to put what has happened so far into words without too much detail, reading like an obnoxious aspiring writer, or coming across a little bit too excited. But I think if you're reading this then you probably know me well enough to know that i don't mean to come across like either of those things.
Arriving in bangkok the weather was beautiful, just what you'd expect arriving in a country so far away from england.
As we were trying to explain where we wanted to go to a taxi driver, a guy asked us if we wanted to share. Being a trusting person (read:Naïve) i jumped at it, while Catherine mumbled something in the background which sounded a lot like, 'but you shouldn't trust strangers jessy'.
As we were trying to explain where we wanted to go to a taxi driver, a guy asked us if we wanted to share. Being a trusting person (read:Naïve) i jumped at it, while Catherine mumbled something in the background which sounded a lot like, 'but you shouldn't trust strangers jessy'.
It turns out, as silly as it was to jump in a taxi with the first Thai speaking Frenchman I've ever met, it was also the best silly thing we could have done.
 |
| Cat, Sebe and I |
One of the more hilarious moments of the night was when he was telling us about what he likes to do in his spare time.
Sebe, "...and i like to take my shoes off and walk naked in the jungle. It's just so nice to feel the ground on your feet."
Catherine, "mmmm...yeah, that's great..'
Sebe: "Yeah and when we go walking barefoot...OH MY GOD...what did I say before???? Did I say naked?!?"
Catherine: "Oh you don't go naked in the jungle..?"
We all laughed for ages, i think the funniest thing was that i realised what he meant, and Catherine genuinely thought that this man, who we had just met, was telling us about his naked adventure walking...strange child!
 |
| Cat showing off our new digs for a night |
Back to the hostel Cat and i both had a bit of a rubbish night of sleep, eaten alive by mosquitoes, lying on a bed as comfortable as marble floor and jet lagged to high heaven, i think i got about 2 hours sleep. It's an amazing adventure though. Wish I'd started before now, there's no way I'm going to fit the whole world in at this rate!
Friday, 28 January 2011
96 Hours
I have only got 96 hours until I get on a plane and fly to South East Asia.
I am wetting myself!
Obviously I've left everything until the very last possible minute, but whatevs. Anything I forget to do obviously wasn't important enough to remember.
This is just to keep people updated on what's going on. I don't know if I'll get much of a chance to update this, but here's hoping...
I have my passport, and my bank card. Everything else is just added extras.
I am wetting myself!
Obviously I've left everything until the very last possible minute, but whatevs. Anything I forget to do obviously wasn't important enough to remember.
This is just to keep people updated on what's going on. I don't know if I'll get much of a chance to update this, but here's hoping...
I have my passport, and my bank card. Everything else is just added extras.
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