My very first diary entry...be warned they will be long, i can't help it!!
Ok, so i feel it is quite a significant day in my preparations...
Oh something to be aware of, if you don't realise already guys...I am a wimp!! This trip is about conquering alot of fears, and challenging myself. Obviously people are my least concern...as i've said before if i get nervous about meeting new people i usually just talk more..is it possbile you're thinking? I must remember to talk slowly on my trip, otherwise I will get more of english people thinking I am speaking another language...I'm sorry I don't speak german..um..neither do i?
Today i, not quite conquered, but certainly came alittle closer to, overcoming two fears- I made it to the dentist after 5 years, oops, and all i had was one tiny filling. Well the word filling still filled me with absolute dread, no tiny will change that. BUT!! Shockingly, or more so, as everyone tells you, it wasn't that bad! So one very expensive private dentist later (left it too late of course) i came skipping out, feeling jubilant!
My next jubilant moment of the day came at teatime when i saw out of the corner of my eye something black run across the kitchen floor. I have got very good over the last 24 years at spotting black things running across the floor, bed, table, and even better at running very quickly in the opposite direction. It often turns out to be a piece of thread, beetle, grape (true story) which leaves me laughing at my own stupidity. This was of course not the jubilant moment...
It all started back in february this year...
Sian, my senior at work showed me a photo of a small spider and i screamed (open plan office, nice) and ran outside. It was there and then i thought if i'm going round the world i had better get a grip! If i can't cope with good old fashioned english spiders, how am i going to cope in oz? The thought of spiders actually made me not want to book my flights, which is absurd. So a plan of action ensued!!! Sian took great joy in printing out hideous picture after picture each week and slowly my desk, which had once been surrounded by my little pony, barbie and blythe, had now become a tarantula displayboard, much to the displeasure of most of the girls in the office. I could not even touch a piece of paper with a tarantula on, even folded over (crazy lady!) and by the end of april i had terrance the tarantula masking taped to my pinboard (pins don't seem to work, irritatingly), a toy spider resting on my computer and had even progressed to searching 'spider' on google. All tiny steps, but massive to me and my ridiculously irrational fear. I am now at the youtube stage, although i tend to avoid video's entitled spider vs bird, best bits of aracnaphobia and camel spider.
So, back to the kitchen...I picked up the glass...rethought it and reached for a taller plastic cup, my brother's birthday card (much to his dismay) and went for it...gross. Then it ran...quickly!! More nausua...then i got the cup over.. and it was a big farmhouse style spider. Getting the card under is tricky but worse is picking the card and cup up together and being sure it can't get out...but I did it!!!!! And the jubilant feeling encompassed me as i skipped around the kitchen and high fiving my mum (official spider mover for the last forever). Obviously the skipping took place after I had deposited the beast outside.
A very long story...but that is 24 years long! So i have called up the west midlands safari park and am awaiting a possible one on one with my new friends...can I be near a real terrance? Can I touch it? Can I hold it? Without crying, vomiting, dropping the buggar and getting in alot of trouble for smashing one of the park's favourites? It's a big ask but watch this space i guess...
Planning stage 2- Partying...oh and holding tarantula's of course
A very busy few weeks, including several fabulous leaving do's and a trip to the zoo...
Where to start? Firstly a trip up to lincolnshire to see my fabulous Grandma and family, then a 7 hour drive to dorset! At some point I had thought it was a good idea to plan my yellow fever jab the morning before two huge party nights out, but thankfully i didn't seem to get any side effects (or maybe the double hangover just masked them!) I said bye to my young farmer friends in dorset with a few pints, then I had my leaving do in bournemouth on the friday, elena even came back from spain early for it!! I felt loved! We went to 60 million (of course!) and then partied to james zabiela, massively fun times! A university reunion in southampton saw us returning to dirty dirty kaos...!
Once home we hit the pubs of bewdley, lots of drinks consumed and lots of laughs ending the night with some very dodgy prawn toast..wing wah???!! On saturday it was mamma styles lasagne al la blackstone and some david bebb home brew 'cider'...spartacus! I had a wicked time guys thankyou!! Bloody love the box game (picking up a cereal box with your teeth as it gets smaller each round) some of my friends flexibility was insane...gold stars to sophie, katherine, sarah and the winner or course lewis- in tight jeans as well...some damage was done surely?! Dip and bob!!! Excellent umpiring dave, dip and bob!! I'm trying!!!
On my return to the midlands, I attempted to book my spider therapy session I had hoped to go on before my travels (hoped but dreaded!) it was looking less than hopeful until Dudley Zoo offered me a one on one two hour session for £50. i took it! If you are afraid of spiders I 100% (not 120% quiz team!) think you should follow my first diary entry and then book one of these sessions, here's the details..
The session was run by a zoologist called David who was fantastic. We spent the first hour or so discussing the specifics of my phobia, and learning about spiders! Did you know spiders don't actually eat flies...they eat all sorts of insects particularly cockroaches, but they only suck the blood- they are vampires! When you find tissue like wasps on the windowsill they have been spidered! there are on average 100 spiders in each house, even new builds. They have also been on earth 400 million years! fact fans!
He then taught me a 'mantra' (i was sceptical of course) three deep breaths in and out with the three main phrases-
I am in control.
I am ready to change my life.
I can handle this situation.
They felt like empty words but when faced with the real thing they really helped as you will see. This mantra could work for any phobia, it's all about your mental attitude and keeping your breathing calm, keeping oxygen to your brain otherwise you will stop thinking and that's when we become irrational!!
David then bought out a tarantula skin which they shed, it looked basically like a tarantula but it was hollow where the body was. I began to hyperventelate slightly at this point and have a wee cry. This is where the breathing exercises and mantra came in. Once i had calmed down David invited me to place my hand underneath his hand which took a long time. It sounds not a big deal but I had the sort of phobia where i didn't even like cartoon spiders! I then touched the legs and got used to being near it. Finally i placed my hand on the table and after a long while i held it. After this i asked if we could video me holding as I needed proof! I am clearly pertified as you will see in the first link below. (Ok it won't do the link and i have too much packing to do to fiddle so just copy and paste thanks!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq2bZQZi0-s
He then bought out the real thing. Meet Raptor (great name for a arachnophobe to hear) the red knee-ed tarantula.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfV6Bkd8RZg
Finally Larry a rather gross black tarantula. Particulalry enjoy me making up words at the start of this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOsjcdITrcs
So!!!! It can be done! I said 6 months ago I couldn't hold a spider for a million pounds and I genuinely believed that. whoop whoop!!! i want my million pounds now please!! Now let's just hope I don't see a single one whilst i'm away, but if I do, you know what? I think I can handle this situation!!!
Right , i have been away for over two weeks and this is the first chance I have had to actually sit down and write my first proper blog entry! So i joined a Contiki tour in Anaheim LA two weeks ago and have been busy 24/7 ever since...
I arrived the night before my tour began and after a tour meeting me and a couple of the girls went for tea at Bubba Gump Shrimp. I had never seen one before and thought it was just fantastic! It's basically a Forest Gump themed restaurant with every type of shrimp you can think of. Anway sidetracking, so on our first day we went to San Diego and spent a few days visting the Zoo, doing a boat tour, drinking margerita's in mexican style restaurants and adjusting the crazy no measurement system - if you tip well you get pretty much just a glass of vodka with a splash of sprite. Nice. Our tour manager was called lauren and she was awesome!! I was alittle aprehensive before as i know a tour guide can make or break it sometimes, but she was super enthusistic, really knew her local knowledge and was really organised. The tour ran to Contki time on the dot and this did result in me and a few of the guys being left behind in San Diego as we were finishing off margerita's..oops! She did warn us! And we all learnt from then on, the coach will not wait!
After San Diego we headed to Pheonix where I did a balloon ride! We saw the sun rise...twice! We saw some coyote's which one ozzie girl identified as kangaroo's before realising her error...oops. As we travelled across the states from the coast through Sedona up to the Grand Canyon the landscape changed so much, from desert, mountains, through to rocks and canyons, all made the long driving days more interesting. The grand Canyon was awesome!!! We did a helicopter ride which was the biggest adreneline rush I have ever had. We had to cross the forest before we reached the canyon and as the forest stops you're suddenly a mile higher above ground and your tummy flips like crazy. We did acouple of these 'drops' and i was giggling like crazy, the pilot was like do you like them? yeah!! So he said turn off your camaras... and he took the helicopter up high and then (i swear it felt like this) turned the engines off or dipped them or somthing because we literally dropped from the sky. my tummy flipped about 10 x over! Considering i'm sucha wimp with scary rides you'd think i'd have hated it but oh my god it was totally worth the 200 bucks!!! whoop! After that we hiked the canyon but it takes so long to go not that far, we only did the first rest stop and back up which still took about 3 or so hours. We met some people on the way down who had hiked rim to rim in three days, crazy people! The air is so thin and i was starting to feel abit ill anyway, i wasn't drinking any water (shocker) and i felt soo dizzy, kept losing my balance..eeek! rehydrated after that though as didn't fancy falling off the side!
After the Canyon we headed to Las Vegas baby!! By this point i was starting to feel pretty rough which was bad timing but i trooped on and lauren took us to this massive club Encore. It has a swimming pool inside it, so vegas! And of course so many places to gamble. It was a halloween dress up night and oh my god! The outfits are insane. Girls in the smallest bikini's, one guy with a real monkey for an accessory and two guys dressed as jack sparrow, sorry Captain Jack Sparrow and the other guy from pirates too, the rock star can't remember his name. They looked so real, i kept doing double takes, could it be johnny depp??!! I gambled 20 bucks and lost 20 bucks of course! One guy on our tour spent $3000 in vegas...??!! The casino's are mental- circus acrobatics, botanical gardens, real lion enclosure...so much crazy stuff.
After Vegas everyone was wiped out so it was a perfect time for a more relaxed few days which we got in bass lake. After sharing hotel rooms with just one other person the whole trip we were in log cabins of 8. We all had a big dinner together, about 15 of us, and i cooked pasta for everyone. Then we had marshmellows on the fire!! There were so many brilliant people on the tour (52 of us all together) and it was a really content evening for us all amongst new but good friends. The next day we went to Yosemite national park! I was finally starting to feel abit better after 5 or so days of feeling rubbish (and i never get ill!!grr) and we hired bikes for the afternoon. it was the best way to see the park, it really is beautiful, forest and rivers and waterfalls. No bears though unfortunately! Our bikes had no brakes, you just had to peddle backwards to stop...interesting.
Next stop san Francisco!! More than half our tour left here which was really sad but it ment the group was alot closer and it made for a more relaxed last few days which was a nice change. There are so many cool people I have met, many up the east coast of oz! So they will be getting a visitor in the New Year. My friend Chantelle has also invited me to her house for Christmas in New Zealand which will be awesome- she has been travelling for two years and went home today for the first time! My friend Ed is doing quite a similar trip to me so we will be meeting up across the globe- we also found out we went to the same uni for the same three years and he lived with someone i know!! crazyness.
San Fran was so cool, we celebrated halloween in the castro, the cities gay district. it was insane- alot of men in dresses and some in not much else- genuine birthday suits was another favourite! eek. Halloween is crazy here, everyone loves it, so that was a really fun night out. Lauren our tour guide came out and got drunken with us too, in her hannah Montana fan outfit! In the daytime we chilled out in Golden Gate Park, it had an amazing atmosphere, a load of guys had started playing the drums and people were just flocking to them with their own instruments till it was this full on band! It was so hippy, i loved it! We rode the cable cars which Oh My God, Health and Safety would have had a field day! We just hung on the side and the hills are steeep!!
After san fran we travelled down the coast to Hollywood via a night in Carpinteria. Hollywood really is just the sign on the hill, the Chinese mann's theatre (the celebrities hand and feet in cement) and the stars walk of fame. But that was still all awesome to see, we went to Venice Beach too, which is the orignial Muscle beach and where arnie was discovered. The tour offically finished but most of my good friends were staying on a few days so we all hit universal studios and disneyland!! The simpson's simulator ride was fantastic, it was based in Krustyland. love it! They were filming Desperate Housewives the day we were there but we couldn't catch a glimpse. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory and the portions sizes were ridiculous, it made me a bit mad actually as the food wastage was mental. I couldn't even finish half my meal, and of course i had to save room for the famous cheesecake of which there were about 40 to choose from. i went for white chocolate,caramel and macadamia. YUM. But i couldn't even eat half of that- what's happening?!! (fat camp rules?)
I have just got back from Disneyland which was sooo much fun!! Loved it, loved it loved it!I'm just waiting for my bus to the airport and I am off to FIJI! Feel's really strange saying bye to all my tour peeps but is so awesome as i will see so many of them on my future travels, whoop. It feels like i have been gone from home so much longer than two weeks, the tour was so full on and busy constantly which was awesome but I'm looking forward to some chill out time on the beach.
Hope everyone at home is well and things are 'super swell' with you all. Big Love! xxx
oh and mum, yes everyone can read your message to me as it's a messageboard but you can email me shellonbeach@hotmail.co.uk, ask pete! love you x
Bula!!! Hello Fijian style. (probably said it about 50 times a day, as manners to say it to every single person you passed!)
You have been warned, if you look out the window and see rain, wind, general miserable november weather it might be best not to read on...
So!! I arrived in Fiji after an awesome time in america and a 12 hour night flight, landing at 5 am local time, aware i had booked nothing. At first I was abit suspicious of the 'sales' ladies, espically as one swept a very half asleep shelley into an office and started the pitch...it wasn't until later I realised the Fijian people are just very friendly and helpful. So with my island hopping pass I jumped straight on the ferry up to the top island (another 5 hours travel) so I could spend my 11 days travelling down the Yasawas. (The name of the group of islands).
The first island resort I visited was Coralview, which had just the best staff, they were so friendly and fun and I felt really at home there. Every night there was traditional Fijian singing and dancing, and the main guy joe loved doing magic tricks with me- only because my reactions were so extreme i think! I was genuinely elated everytime, especially when he made the trick so it appeared I had done the 'magic' or, as when i asked 'how do you do that??!!!" he replied 'motion of the ocean!'
I ended up staying three nights there as I decied to do my very first introductory dive.Bearing in mind my general paranoias of open water/sharks/genereal death my mystery deepsea creature I was alittle apprehensive to say the least. In preperation I thought i should get used to the water quick! I snorkelled for the first time and then went on a cave trip- which was awesome!! You had to swim under water to get into the second cave, just take a deep breath and under the rocks you go, it's only for 2 seconds but when you don't know it is really scary! it opened up into this pitch black cave with just one torchlight and we swam through the tunnels with 20 or so others. That afternoon Rob took me over to another island to do my dive, I told him i was alittle nervous and he said it's not that different to snorkelling...he looked alittle suprized when i told him i'd only done that for the first time the previous day! But the great thing was it wasn't a big group it was just one on one, we ended up going about 12 metres deep which is the deepest you can go on introductory. After I was buzzing!!
The next island I went to was sunrise lagoon, which is near to Blue lagoon, (apparently a brooke shields film was done there?!) it was beautiful but the resort was very basic and local. We did crab races, and drank alot of Kava. Kava is a drink made from the root of a plant which they tell you is a traditional Fijian drink but I think it might actually just be a way of making tourists drink muddy water and then laughing at them. Anyway it's quite a ceremony and there has to be a spokesperson, which ended up being me. Their job is to speak for the group and decide if we have more by saying 'Taki' but the trouble was after drinking half a coconut full of muddy water the last thing you wanted to do was go round and do it again. I'd look around the circle of faces and at the locals..and everyone would look back...and they'd wait..and i'd think really? you really want more? we have had 8 rounds already!.. but they keep making more bowls of the stuff and i realised my role was fairly irrelevent, we stopped when they ran out. It makes your lips and tongue kind of tingle and become alittle numb but nothing more, althought the locals were heard at silly oclock stumbling in so maybe it affects people in different ways!
Manta Ray Island was the next stop and it was just brilliant! There was so much amazing coral straight off the shore we snorkelled a good 4/5 times and i saw my first shark! My friend harry said he had seen some, so i kept calm and tried not to think about it and then when he was about 10 metres away he pointed down and did the sign for shark...it took every bit of me to swim across but I was so glad i did, was amazing! 'Just a friendly reef shark!' I played volleyball for i think the first time which was so much fun, despite my utter hilariousness...kirst iI think you would have found it quite amusing! Not sure I'll be winning any medals but it didn't matter.I also learnt how to make a basket out of palm tree leaves too. My first attempt was abit rubbish but once I knew how to do it I sat and made another, which i think was actually pretty damn good! I was told I could take the class the next morning but I think that was maybe alittle too over complimetary. After Manta ray I went to White Sandy Beach where there were just 5 guests..just so happened it was their specially planned "Fiji' night and we were treated to 10, yes thats 10 dances with some very muscley and enthusiatic Fijian men and some very calm and slow Fijian women. At the end of their massive performances came a tiny little clap from the five of us. Pippa you would have died of awkwardness!! But the dancing was amazing, even if I did want to crawl under the bench at times from the situation!!
Throughout the trip i met some awesome people, sometimes people are wicked for that day or that night and you love the fun times you have and move on, other times you might click, end up spending a few days and plan to meet up at later dates and then other times people just stalk you round the island..haha. Met some wicked swedish guys and we sort of ended up being on similar islands for most of the week so by the end we just travelled together. Had a wicked time with them and learnt some useful swedish, although I have realised i am actually even more of a terrible linguist than I realised! All i can say well is 'Tack' (thankyou). Linus thought it would be amusing to teach me a few choice words which are probably not the best opener if I ever come across any swedes!
We headed to Beachcomber, the party island. I had been super careful with suncream but my brand new english skin did get abit burnt here and apart from the bar and a shade-less beach there wasn't masses to do. It's advertsied as the crazy party island and to be honest it lost the small resort 'family' feel for me. We had a fun night and I met some wicked people there but was quite happy to move on. The two dans were wicked- Me and Quebec dan spotted baby black tipped sharks in the shallow at silly oclock in the morning (a couple of foot big!) was so surreal to see 6 baby sharks darting around in ankle deep water! A hangover in the sunshine is not the best plan so when me and Art teacher Dan started recited Micheal Mcintyre comedy it was a much needed giggle and reminder of home. Literally rolling around on the beach in uncontrollable fits off laughter, brilliant.
Finally me, Anders and Linus (my swedes) moved onto what should have been my final island, but when we got onto the main boat we realised this island was actually a $600 p/night luxury resort and not included in our 'Bula Pass' Oops. Luckily instead of being stung, we ended up spending a free afternoon on Mana 'couples on their honeymoon everywhere you look' island and getting the last boat back to South Sea Island (which you could walk around the shore in about 90 seconds if it wasn't for the coral..ouch.) We spent the afternoon at Mana, taking advantage of the infinity pool, and being taught fijian songs by locals as Anders attempted to learn the chords. Some great lyrics included 'welcome to mana island where the girls are easy...that's the fijian way' Not sure if they sang that to the honeymooning couples or not.
South Sea island had lots of free activities, so i 'learnt' to sail, and spent my last day snorkelling and catching some very very hot sun. The swedes headed back up the Yasawas and I headed back to Nadi to the mainland to catch my flight to Aukland.
Fiji was absolutely amazing!!! I had just the best time, met some wicked people that I am sure I will see in New Zealand. It really was golden sands, clear waters, beautiful corals, palm trees, wonderful cultural traditions of dancing and singing and some amazing locals. I am now sat in a hostel in Aukland with Ruby, a fab girl i met in Fiji. We are going to look into Camper Vans tomorrow and then we will be hitting the road! really excited!!
The strangest thing about arriving in Aukland was seeing a massive Father Christmas on a shop front...sun, sea and pina colada's don't really allow any headroom for the fact it's the lead up to Christmas. England must be going mental right now! I hope you are all enjoying hearing 'baby all I want for christmas is you' / i wish it could be christmas everyday/ that george micheal one, whilst shopping in co-op/boots/pet shops/anywhere with music. Ahh, actually i love all that!! Enjoy it for me! Stockings and sacks of presents to Invercargill please!!! I'm spending christmas with my USA tour friend Chantelle, lovely lady! Will Santa know I've moved?!
Ok time for bed, mine and ruby's clothes are having all the sea, salt, sand and general dirty islandness washed out of them and I have to go hang it up around the hostel room. nice.
Love hearing from all, hope you are enjoying the blogs?!
Vinaka!!
I am sure you will all feel slightly smug to know it is pouring with rain in New Zealand at the moment so no Fijian sunshine to report here...
I flew into Aukland on 18th November, and it was like flying from Paradise into February, rainy birmingham-somewhat of an anticlimax. I was on the same flight as Ruby, someone i had met island hopping, and we had planned to hire a campervan and travel around together. Once we started to look into prices we realised campervan-ing is insanely expensive!! (And to be honest alittle isolating in some ways). So we decided to join the 'Stray' bus tour, which in essence (sarah!) is a hop-on-hop-off bus service but it also stops along the way at points of interest and you are travelling in a group so there's plenty of people to mingle with. If you decide you like a certain place you can just stay longer and catch the next bus, with a brand new group of people.
First stop was Bay of Islands, which is meant to be a really beautiful coastal area north of Aukland. I think after Fiji it took me a while to be amazed by much really, and it's a strange feeling but when you have been in a country a while there is a sort of community you feel part of, and coming into a brand new country it's easy to feel lost suddenly. We had a good busload and a great driver called Scratch (they all have 'stray' names, not sure why!) and we stayed in a hostel that had free bikes and kayaks so we did a bike/hike to see some waterfalls (the first of many, NZ has alot!) and kayaked out around the islands. We also took a day trip up to the Cape which is NZ most northern point, where the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean meet...there's a defined line in the ocean where they crash into each other...well that's what i was hoping for anyway! On the way back down we took a break from NZs bumpy roads and drove along 90 mile beach (which is actually 64 miles of course, logical) which is actually a 'highway!' We went sandboarding in the dunes and it was so much fun! It took about 10 minutes to climb the almost vertical (not much of an exaggeration) slope, sliding back in the sand three steps for every one you took. Then at the top you just flew yourself over the edge on a body board! On the way back we stopped at Whangerei Falls (Wh is pronounced F) and spontaneously all went swimming underneath them! It was such an amazing feeling, but so hard to breath, the force of water just seems to make it really hard to catch your breath.
Once back in Aukland (probably the least enjoyable city I have ever visited, although I had expected it) we (me, Ruby and two Canadians we met in Bay of island, David and Laurie) joined our new coachload for the main part of our tour heading off around both the north and the south island. First stop, the little coastal town of Hahei where we hiked up (and up and up) and down to a beautiful beach before sampling some hot springs at Hot Water Beach. The hot water is sat just under the sand so after a gruelling session of digging out our little pool (or me and Pam just jumped in someone else's!) it was like being in a hot tub right on the beach, some places were even too hot to sit in...until we were got by the sea waves...brrr. Time to dry off and head back to the hostel for a great bbq cooked by our driver Seagull. Kumura is so tasty!
We soon realised Stray had told us abit of a porky, the bus's weren't leaving everyday from Aukland, this meant if we wanted to stay longer somewhere we could only stay three nights, not two as advertised. This meant some serious planning (oh god the plans!) as we had to also pre book all our bus's as not to get stuck anywhere. By this point our little foursome had grown, Pam (also Canadian!) and Jamie (are you from Landon?) joined us. There were more people on the bus of course but we all seemed to have a good laugh together. When we got to Raglan everyone was pretty undecided on wether to stay just the one night the whole bus was staying anyway or stay an extra two more. Me and Laurie changed our bus on the easy-to-use-but-not-really-internet-system and then as i was making dinner who should call my name...Dan from Fiji! Feels like your'e seeing an old friend when you bump into someone you have met travelling previously, particularly when it is a different country! And he sort of reminds me of quite alot of my friends from home, in his sense of humour, so was great to see him. After a night at the lodge everyone had decided there was no need to stay longer, so me and Laurie attempted to change our bus back to the morning, but since Dan and most of his busload including two English girls Charlotte and Rachel had stayed on, our bus was now full! We got on fine in the morning but on our first stop of the day, Waitomo caves, two more people had booked on making me and laurie seat-less! In the end we had to pay for a localbus to take us to the next destination Rotarua, this meant missing out on a traditional Maori evening (dancing, singing, Hungi cooked food (earth oven) and watching the guys learn the huka (rugby war dance type thing) as this was in an impossible to reach location without our Stray transport! We were so fustrated but we got over it and ended up having a great time eating shepherds pie and a couple of pints in an Irish pub!
But let me backtrack...Waitomo Caves is where we went 'Black Water Rafting' it sounds alot more deadly than it actually is though! It was quite a challenge for the claustrophobic in you but worth it for all the glow worms! We entered the caves through a small hole and somehow I was leading so I had to walk down a pitch black stream (with my trusty helmet light) and wait for everyone. The caves followed a route that included lots of climbing, some tight tunnels, streams, swimming (freezing!) and floating down on inner tubes, with our lights off the glow worms were everywhere! Once you learn it's actually their poo that glows it feels alittle less magical, but it looked amazing all the same. Finally we did some jumping off the rocks into the water, where Ruby lost her helmet and it took about 10 minutes of diving to relocate it! Jamie did a more adventurous trip which included some abseiling, and he managed to get himself lost! The guide told him to go round the corner to meet the group and he missed the 'hole' he should have gone through, he kept going for half an hour thinking he needed to catch up. Imagine rambo style now, he's pumped on adreneline, racing through tiny crevices and over waterfalls, swiming through rivers...suddenly he comes to a crossroads and it dawns on him...maybe he went the wrong way. Once he makes the decision to turn back he starts thinking about the film 'The Descent' and getting more and more concerned he is lost in a web of cave tunnels, and what happens if his light dies? He turns is off to check if he can see...pitch black. The panic rises, he can't believe he fitted through these holes on the way there, they seem impossible to fit through now. He calls out hello? Finally after the longest hour of his life he hears 'Jamie!' He's been saved from his front page tabloid splash back in England! Phew! Was spine tingling when he told us though!
Once our crew had caught up with us in Rotarua we all went white water rafting! It was amazing! We had all been out the night before, where we saw the first of dan's legendary dancing, and were feeling alittle concerned about the extreme waterfalls! The river is classed as Grade 5 in some places, mainly due to the 7 meter waterfall we were going to be rafting down. And 7 metres is actually alot higher than you realise! Our raft of course was the one that tipped over, I was probably under water only for a couple of seconds but because it all happens so quickly you don't have time to take a big breath of air before you're under. I just was under water one second, thinking where is the surface the next and my life jacket pulling me up in the next. It was extremely adreneline pumping for sure! Me and Laurie also went zorbing, where you basically jump inside a massive clear plastic ball with some water in and get flung off the side of a hill! It's hilarious, you just keep giggling!
Next stop was Taupo, along the way we stopped at Huka Falls, beautifully turquoise rapids which thunder through a canyon into a waterfall, a good word to descibe it would be violent! It was at this point the clipboard went round the coach for skydiving, I knew I had wanted to do it since I had left home but now it was suddenly here! The weather was perfect, blue skies, a few clouds, so there was no way I could back down. The nerves kicked in and stayed with me for the rest of the day, it was only once we arrived at the Skydive centre (Skydive Taupo) and watched the pre-video, that i suddenly felt really calm. (Those phobia breathing exercises from my spider sesh really work! Just keep the oxygen flowing!) My instructor Peter was really chilled and the only time i felt scared was the second the door opened at 15,000 feet and the first two jumped out. Because you are strapped to the front of the instructor, when they sit on the edge of the plane you are already just hanging there, attached to nothing but your guy and just waiting for him to jump! My DVD hilariously confirms that this was the 'worst' bit for me! I had to just shut my eyes for two seconds as a wave of panic flew over me (there was never an option for me to change my mind but if I had wanted to this the moment I realised it's too late!) we fell, but once that swooping tummy sensation passed it was unbelievable! It's hard to even describe because you seem to forget it so quickly! Once you can put your arms out to the side it is an insane one whole minute of free fall, at terminal velocity. wow. Once the cord is pulled you almost feel like it's over...the parachute opened...you survived!! Then we got a beautiful glide down to earth over Lake Taupo (large enough to fit Singapore into). It was probably the most I have had to push myself to do something, as although I wanted to do it, there was still an element of I-am-jumping-out-of-a-plane-at-15,000 feet-oh-my-god! But it was amazing, completely worth it and we lived off the adreneline for days!
After a few rainy days in Taupo (and a much needed errands day) we visited the hot pools which Taupo is known for, and it stunk!! Very smelly sulphur in the air! A new busload arrived as we had stayed on a few days and my 'initiation' into this crazy group of big characters was a shot which we all did containing chilli infused sambuca, tequila, tabasco and another spirit I'd never heard of, I'm unsure of the name of this shot but I like to call it 'death.' After this ordeal we headed onto Tongariro National Park, home to Mount Doom of Lord of the Rings fame, although that obviously isn't it's real name! 'The Park' hostel was like coming home. The rain poured outside and we all sat drinking hot chocolate, reading books and chatting, around the fire on big cosy bean bags. Heaven! A few of our 'crew' had gone onto The Park earlier than us and meeting up with them again was brilliant, our little team now consisted of about 9 of us, a mix of English and Canadians. (You say that 'wrong' convo's ensued; Aluminum, oregano etc) The Tongariro Crossing is in the top ten one day hike's world wide, but due to terrible weather it was cancelled which was such a shame, but we still enjoyed a cosy, homely stay, with as charlotte said 'the best chocolate brownie i've ever had.'
Our stay in Wellington was short lived, we arrived late afternoon and left at 6.30am for the ferry crossing to the South island. We made it count though, a very educated visit to the museum followed by some drinks, kareoke and more of Dan's thrusting dance moves! Butterfly! It was a very unusually girly night for me- my hostel room mate lent me her straighteners (first time in 6 weeks) and make up even made an appearence! Our 2 am bed time didn't seem so clever when we got out of bed at 5.30 for the ferry. Ouch!
The North Island has been adreneline pumping, challenging and fun times as it's been all about the extreme sports. There has been some beautiful scenery but not all breathtaking yet, I'm still holding out for the South island though as most people say it is their favourite. There's also been a definite feeling of finding my feet alittle, I guess this is my first sample of true travelling, american tours and island hopping aside. So here's to black water rafting, zorbing, white water rafting and sky diving, sweet as!
Well it’s been a while since my last blog, what with Christmas and all it’s festivities, but I promise to be more regular with my entries from now on as I’m sure you’re all on tenterhooks for the next chapter! Ok well maybe not, but just in case here’s the South Island west coast styley…
After an early morning, cold and windy ferry crossing we arrived in Picton ready for our South Island adventure! There was a long driving day ahead of us and feeling the effects of our late night karaoke session, we finally arrived in Abel Tasman National Park early evening after a couple of scenic stops. Everyone who travels New Zealand sings about the South Island so although I didn’t want to have high expectations I was excited to see what it had to offer and Abel Tasman didn’t disappoint. When we arrived at The Barn our very disorganised driver (named Goose after the Topgun favourite, as his parachute didn’t open either…but you have to leave the plane for that...he chickened out!) anyway, there were not enough dormitories for everyone so we volunteered to sleep in the tents. This worked out to be a brilliant idea, they were tents, with beds!! There was a lot more room than the dormitories, no bunk beds, a lot cheaper and the best nights sleep I’d had in ages. It felt very homely as we were given hot water bottles (we needed them!) made me think of winter at home, when I’d get into bed and realise Dad had put me a hot water bottle in already, made me feel loved! That evening was meant to be a BBQ and mussel tasting by our driver, but he wasn’t the most professional guy and we ended up cooking the bbq ourselves and having pre cooked mussels (he was scared he would poison us!) It made for a great way to get to know our coach newbies and that great camping feeling of being in the outdoors with no television and just a campfire for warmth was starting to wash over us all which was just what I needed.
By now the travelling group that had developed in the north island was starting to become a really great established group of friends. Abel Tasman was really the place our little group bonded and properly got to know each other as friends and not just travellers for the moment. Just to refresh your memory, and so names aren’t just names throughout the following tales I have to tell, this was our little group…There were three Canadians, my lovely Laurie who I had been with pretty much since day one, Pam our resident sleep talker and David, my 17 year old lil bro (someone needs to keep that boy in check!) Then us English, Ruby who I had met all the way back in Fiji, same as Dan, the art teacher from Derby, Charlotte (you’re brilliant!) and Rachel who were travelling together after finishing uni (Rachel taking a well earned break from her medical degree) and Jamie our South Landon diamond earring lovely. So that’s the main crew, and back to it…
Abel Tasman is on the north coast of the South Island and the next morning we got the chance to see some of it’s beauty on a three and half hour coastal trek. Sometimes New Zealand can feel like England, a forest walk, or rolling hills. Other times you are looking up at waterfalls, hiking a glacier, or in this case looking out across beautiful green/blue ocean and sandy beaches and then you know you are the other side of the world. Rather than walking the same trek back we had signed up to a sailing boat which would take us out for three or so hours, to a seal colony (is three seals really a colony?) and back to our campsite. We had some time to kill before the boat left so played Frisbee and went for a swim, it never get’s any warmer, brrrr, but it has to be done! The skipper had warned us it would get windy (obviously) so to hold on to any hats, etc. Within minutes of this Ruby’s hat went flying in to the sea and with her apologies the skipper turned around to collect it. I don’t know what they put in our lunch but me, Laurie and Dan were in the most ridiculous mood, we were lay on the trampoline at the front, wrapped up in the blankets they handed out. We decided the way Ruby had said ‘Sorry, I dropped my hat.’ sounded like Sad Sack from The Raggy Dolls, which we thought was just hilarious. Ensue maybe a full hour of us just repeating the word sorry and rolling around the boat in fits of giggles. Obviously the nickname Sadsack stuck, much to Ruby’s dismay. That night we headed to the local entertainment…a crazy, maybe folk, maybe Grecian plate smashing, maybe Russian, maybe who knows…but it was live music and we danced!!
The next day it rained! It rained till there surely couldn’t have been anything left. Luckily there was a big covered decking area, with bean bags, a log fire and a pool table. So we played scrabble, made jigsaws and Laurie and Jamie taught me how to play pool. Laurie is great at the whole angles thing so I actually improved 100 per cent. Well I went from never hitting the ball to potting them so good times! There were some beautiful ponies in the field next to us and the girls were going to do some trekking the following day. After riding all my life, with the last 5 years as an exception it felt strange to think about riding a horse I didn’t know. It was quite nostalgic stood there stroking these two beautiful chestnuts and chatting to the owner. I was considering working for a ride, mucking out stables and I was actually looking forward to it, but turns out the guy was alittle rare and I thought better of it. Although the girls did go for a hack the following day and came back alive but definitely in agreement that he was unusual to say the least. We frequented the local ‘fush and chups’ stand for tea, I walked down on my own to meet everyone listening to vampire weekend on my ipod and skipping down the road, maybe I’m a little unusual too hey?! When I got there I ordered a veggie burger (bad farmer’s daughter) and it was The Best ever! Someone made a comment that I am a absolute trooper, always dancing and up for a fun night out, then full of energy the next day. A good way to be me thinks. When evening came we all sat around the log fire on bean bags, drinking beverages and toasting marshmellows (how organised was I to think of them two days previously when we were in the supermarket?!) This became our standard evening at The Barn, and probably some of my most content and happiest memories of New Zealand. The skies were so perfectly clear every night, with no light polution, I don’t think I have ever seen a brighter starry sky before, magical!
The next day the sun was shining, it was perfect beach weather so Charlotte, Rachel and I grabbed our bikini’s and headed out. Laurie, Jamie and Dan had gone to fly a stunt plane, the only place in the world (they say) where you have full control, all that spinning wasn’t for me but I was so pleased for Laurie as her slipped disc in her back had meant she missed out on the skydive. The estuary was a 5 minute walk from our campsite but we were told the nearest cove was a 45 minute walk. We saw a golden bit of sand in the middle of the estuary and thinking it was high tide, we figured we’d be fine. We had to wade alittle bit out and once there we lay a line of shells a couple of feet from the water so when it rose we could tell. (how bloody clever is that?!) Turns out not so clever, within half an hour we realised it was rising quite quickly so had to wade back in thigh high water across the estuary, oops. Whilst the girls went for their ride I found a gorgeous little alcove all to myself and tried to top up my fading Fiji tan. It was also about time for some exercise (maybe 2 months overdue) so I went for a run on the beach and did some situps, and generally had alittle me-time which is so rare when you’re travelling. When I got back to the campsite everyone was on their horse trek so it was just me and Dan, and it was about time to shave off his travel beard!! A big day for everyone, haha. Who should show up today, but my friend from USA, Ed, who I’ll also be spending Christmas with. He was about to embark on a three day trek, with all his gear, for a whole 51 km. Ouch.
Whilst we were playing pool the previously day I had an epiphany, not sure that’s the right word for something that isn’t positive? I was considering out loud how little ’skills’ I had. Having designed for the last 7 years with uni and my job, I reflected on how little intellect or knowledge. It wasn’t meant in a self critical way, more of a observation and something to improve on. Anyway around the campsite that night Laurie retells this and it turns into a ’hilarious’ conversation, seeing the start of ’I have no skills’ becoming something of a common phrase. The following day was our final day in Abel Tasman, and we ventured up to Coquille Bay, ¾ hour walk away, where we whiled away the day in the sunshine, playing ball in the sea and topping up tans. Laurie, Dan, Jamie and I played catch in the water and once again ‘I have no skills’ with my lack of catching left everyone in hysterics for hours. Maybe I do have skills…making people laugh?! If we dropped the ball there was a forfeit, I left the beach that day as the tea-bitch, hot water bottle lady for everyone and collecting the firewood all night. Ahh good times! But I must say I made an awesome fire that night with no manly help of course! I got in my run on the beach and then we headed back for tea, where me and Dan teamed up to make the best meal- he was on the meat and I was on concocting something delicious with what we had left since our shopping -ready steady cook style. Everyone else was running out of food, ahead of our supermarket stop the following day so their peanut butter on toast dinner meant an audience of green eyes as we tucked in. Peanut butter has haunted me throughout New Zealand, everyone seemed to buy jars on day one and eat in every day, god I hate that stuff!
Abel Tasman completely recharged my batteries, I left there feeling completely myself, happy and content and loving my little travel crew. There’s a great sense of familiarity and comfort when people know you as a person and the in-jokes within the group meant we were always laughing. Next stop the very random Barrytown...
Leaving the nature behind for a night it was time to hit Barrytown, or Bazvegas as it should rightfully be called...
And after five chilled out, camp fire nights we were due some partying! The whole bus was going fancy dress and the theme was things beginning with ‘S.’ At first we were baffled, couldn’t it just be pirates or something?! Then Charlotte, Rachel, and I ran into Jamie and Dan in a charity shop on our stop to find outfits and an idea was formed. Back on the bus everyone was keeping their outfit’s a secret ready for the big reveal. On our way we stopped at a beautiful lake, and got our first taste of the dreaded sandflies. Laurie, Dan and David were wearing board shorts so did a running jump off the pier and into the freezing water. Since I have been travelling, I’ve attempted to live by the ’Yesman’ philosophy. It’s usually better to say yes to things, who knows where it will take you, who you will meet and what fun you could have. You rarely regret saying yes. With that, and hating to miss out on the fun, I stripped to my underwear and did a running jump too! You say bikini, I say underwear, same thing really. Now would I have ever done that at home?! As we were nearing Bazvegas it had started to rain, the beginnings of the torrential rain we would see along the west coast. Our final stop was to see the Westport seal colony, the awesome pancake rocks and blowholes with massive crashing waves all around. We were drenched to the skin when we got back on the coach so weren’t really in then mood for an 18-30’s style pep talk when we arrived at our hostel. When I say hostel it was more of a bar with dormitories attached. The ‘organised fun’ feel wasn’t really what a coach load of tired and wet travellers were in the mood for, but after drying out, lining our stomachs and putting on our fancy dress outfits we were ready to party!
We were doing it proud for the Brits, we were The Spice Girls! Can you possibly guess who I was? With my New Zealand flag ‘Union Jack’ dress (we localised it) my girl power and of course my red hair. We backcombed Rachel’s hair to the max for ‘Scary,’ Jamie donned a sporty crop top and Charlotte had her pouting to a T. Dan’s absence throughout this getting ready sesh made us question if he was backing out as baby spice…but we needn’t have worried, he made his entrance in an exceedingly short pink nightie, two mismatching platform shoes he had found in the dressing up room, a pink handbag, rosy cheeks and to top it off a pink head band with yellow plastic bag, hair bunches sticking out. (Visually trained Katherine?!) We made our entrance into the bar as the Spice’s and a night of girl power ensued. Laurie had been very secretive about her outfit…She was me! “S’ for Shelley. She had raided my clothes and spent the night being super enthusiastic, drinking cider and dancing like a loon…oh dear! There were plenty of drinking/party games but the highlight no doubt for everyone was our splendid dancing to the Spice Girls ’Stop’ on the bar, with some New Zealand Maori Haka moves thrown in there too. I’m fairly certain you wouldn’t get me dancing on any bars back home, but I guess I was Geri for the night! The bar men just loved having a new group of travellers every night to entertain and being the show offs that they were took great delight in their outfits…nothing but a chefs apron. Pert bums for all to see, particularly during their Macarena dancing on the bar. At the start of the night Andy the bar manager had given an open invite to their daily workout, with a little smile, not expecting anyone to be sober enough to handle a 9am start. On our little exercise kick Dan and I agreed to do it. This didn’t feel so smart when at 9am I was facing an hour of circuits ‘army’ style with 6 fit men. I don’t think anyone had ever actually joined them for the workout, they seemed a little surprised. The main guys were heading into the army the following month so you can imagine how intense the workout was, but determined not to quit I did the girls proud, probably the most intense work out of my life! Girl Power!
My smugness/achievement didn’t last too long though, when I woke up the next day with an 8 hour glacier hike ahead of me and every muscle in my body aching. The glacier is currently 12 km long and along with the Fox Glacier 20 km south, it is unique as it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres above sea level, sitting amongst the green rainforest. Due to strong snowfall it is one of the few New Zealand Glaciers (of which there are over 300) still growing and it’s flow rate is around 10 x more than a typical glacier.
There are many Maori stories for New Zealand’s natural beauty and I thought maybe you’d like to hear a good example of one; The Maori name for the glacier is Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere (The tears of Hinehukatere). Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to climb with her. Wawe was a less than experienced climber but loved to accompany her until one day an avalanche swept Wawe from the peaks. Hinehukatere was heart broken from her lover’s death and her many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier.
Anyway back to present day. Donning our head to toe waterproofs, which we were going to need considering it rained from dawn til dusk that day, Charlotte, Rachel and I headed out. The most challenging part of the day was actually getting onto the glacier, once we had walked through the rain forest and crossed the Waiho river. A high, sheer wall of ice faced us, with some simple steps ice-picked away and a hand held rope for back up. I wasn’t expecting anything ‘scary’ and it threw me alittle but everyone slowly trudged to the top and once we made it I just had the thought ‘It will be so much worse going down it later!’ The rest if the hike was nothing to steep, as long as you concentrated on where you stepped and gave abit of time to get used to your ‘crampons.’ Due to the continuous rain the river below was around a foot away from flooding, in which case our guide told us we would be getting helicoptered off the ice, fingers crossed for a free heli-ride! No such luck, we just had to wade through the rising waters back to the rain forest. One girl did get a free heli-ride, she sprained her ankle and couldn’t walk. It was really impressive just what a small space the pilot could land on, the guides were furiously hacking away at an ice peak to flatten it up enough for when they flew in.
That evening we all treated our limbs to the hot pools. The torrential rain continued, and it was so refreshing to jump out from the covers of the pools and stand out in the cold rain, before jumping back in to the 40 C heat. Our little gang had all done different hikes, with the boys (such men!) doing the ice climbing (no thankyou!) so we all were reunited after our day apart. It sounds crazy but it was probably the longest any of us had spent apart from each other, when you sleep, eat, party together everyday. Laurie greeted me by pushing me off the side, how lovely, but all us were in such a playful, happy mood. It’s a feeling of achievement I guess and doing it amongst friends.
When we left the following morning for Makarora we had a few new recruits in some Dutchies Sana, John and Simo and there was also Harry, a German lad I met in Fiji who had also been with us for most of NZ. The next stop was Lake Wanaka, one of my favourite places, alongside Abel Tasman. It’s unbelievable really, a beautiful glacial lake surrounded by snow capped mountains with most importantly, the best icecream shop on the waterfront! On the way we stopped at Puzzling World, a place full of optical illusions which bought out the child in all of us (mine wasn’t hard to find). The maze was also brilliant fun and one of my skills may well be navigation/orientation as our team totally won! I still stand by the other team using an emergency exit door, something laurie wanted to do but I told her we could do it without, and we did.
Dan and I hiked Mount Iron that afternoon, with everyone else opting for a more leisurely chill out. It was steep! And we did it at a pace! Our reward was 360 views of the lake, mountains and surrounding area, but more importantly it was the location for our cherry stone spitting competition with our $3 punnet from the market. This is not one of my skills. That night we made use of our kitchenettes (such a novelty!) and communal outdoor area by cooking en-masse fajita’s. I seemed to be turning into a ‘main’ chef without even intending to. So with David as other head chef and plenty of helpers we fed the 12 or so of us. That night saw the night of a thousand drinking games, or maybe just 5 but still. We were such a big group and it was so much fun, plenty of great Canadian games to bring back with me including ‘Boxhead’ and ‘Why are you sitting on my lap?!’ We ended up at the hostel bar for some doubles pool, something that was becoming a regularity.
With glorious sunshine, the morning saw some of us heading out for what was to be the most intense 4 ½ hour bike ride of my life. Images of an idyllic cycle by the lake were squashed by a mountain trail of steep inclines! Never underestimate the importance of having your bike seat at the right height, no matter how hard I cycled I just could not keep up with everyone. It was getting pretty infuriating as I didn’t think it could be my fitness levels considering my activity in the last week. Once I move my seat up it was like a new lease of life, whizz!! We followed the lake for a few hours, stopping for our packed lunch (!) and taking a dip. Once again us girls were unprepared so Rachel and I jumped in in our underwear, you only live once hey? It was freezing! It was amazing because you can drink the water as it is pure glacial water, so tasty! We also found a great little swing, but it was no Blackstone rope swing! After lunch we headed in land to the mountain bike tracks, with Dan leading us up a gruelling route to the top, pushing Pam to scream out ‘Dan, why aren’t you sticking to the main path? I hate you!’ Pain makes you say funny things and God those hills were P.A.I.N. But so worth it, the downhill was adrenaline pumpingly steep and twisty. The last section started to get scary steep though and as Pam had broke her back the previous year us girls stuck together and headed for an easy route down. Dan continued on what we thought was the intermediate but turns out he did advanced and we did intermediate. He said when we got to the bottom it was crazy steep in places! We all felt we deserved a treat so ate icecream by the lake followed by a cider! Good source of calcium and one of my five a day surely?
That evening we went to the cinema as we had been told it was an experience not to miss, and true it wasn’t just any cinema. The only screen it had was full of comfy sofa’s and bean bags and the food order service meant I started the film with home cooked lasagne and salad, an interval also gave everyone the opportunity to purchase a freshly cooked warm cookie. Yum. The only downside was the film choice, one option, 2012. A ridiculously cliched end-of-the-world tragedy film with John Cusack as the ‘hero’ really?! It turned out to be massively entertaining though, a brilliant unintentional comedy. I particularly enjoyed the moment Cusack pulls himself out alive from an earthquake sized whole, 100% impossible, I actually clapped at this point, much to the embarrassment of my friends! I realise I am a nightmare to go to the cinema with. Next stop Queenstown...
Today we were leaving Wanaka for the party capital Queenstown and after a phone call home I was feeling abit homesick and ready for a new place and a few new faces. I spent a few rare hours on my own, having a wander around the town, where I bought a wee sketch book which I had been intending to do for a while. I ended up in a coffee shop, quite contently doing some sketching, listening to my first bout of Christmas tunes (oh how I love Mariah) and drinking hot chocolate. Passed several hours chatting with a guy on the sofa next to me, who ended up coming out with us all that night. That’s the great thing about travelling, everyone is in the same mindset of meeting new people, so you never know where you might meet your next party friend/travelling buddie/life long mate. It’s sad that travelling is the closest you get to this, because there really is nothing stopping you from doing exactly the same in ‘normal’ life, except that people don't expect it. It would seem odd to sit and talk with a stranger for hours, but the chances are you would have an enjoyable conversation. Here no one is a stranger, everyone is a potential friend. I looked around the bar that night and there were at least 20 faces I knew, with over half of them good travelling friends. It was a great yet surreal feeling, half way around the world and never feeling alone.
Early the next morning Charlotte, Laurie and I went for what was my first fry up since leaving good old Blighty. We giggled and gossiped about our night whilst we ate our breakfast and re hydrated! It was so nostalgic of the many times I have been in exactly the same situation with all my friends back home. We had quite a giggle about my error- when buying my sketchbook the day before, as the cashier handed me my change I intended to say ‘That’s brilliant’ (wow I’m a happy customer) but it came out of my mouth a very enthusiastic ‘You’re brilliant.’ She just looked at me like I was mad and I turned and ran out of the shop. Oops. Classic Shelley sillyness.
Luging was the plan of the day, and ever since it had been decided, I had been looking up at the gondola we would be taking to the top of the mountain and thinking ‘wow those gondola carriages are tiny compared to that steep mountain, that makes me feel alittle nauseous!’ Turn’s out I can jump 15,000 feet out of a plane but apparently I can’t do gondola’s and chairlifts! I ended up having a mild panic attack, everyone was so shocked but no-one more so than me! Jamie just put his arm round me and I hid my face so as not to see the ridiculous heights. Once at the top relief was momentary as I realised 1. we had to go back down the gondola and 2. there was a chairlift to take us the actual very top. Once I had calmed down and got a grip I got on the chair lift and we were away. I will not be defeated by any fears!! Luging is basically a course you follow down the hill in small carts, which just have a brake and a go lever you use to go slow/fast. There were so many of us that it made for a great day of racing, and in particular the boys trying to rally each other off the tracks. Que some rather entertaining photos where everyone hysterically compares me to a 'Grandma,' not sure why but I kind of agree, oh dear. That night was our 'christmas' as Charlotte and Rachel were heading north the following morning, and it would be the last night we were all together. Everyone was allocated jobs, me and David chefs, so we cooked christmas dinner for 10 people with no oven, just a hob (pre cooked chickens are a blessing) and a hostel kitchen full of other travellers cooking their pasta. It was a challenge but it turned out ok, mum maybe some of your catering for the masses has rubbed off on me?! We all swapped secret santa presents too which all seemed to follow an in-joke sillyness. Great times.
The next morning was the start of our southern loop, with Milford Sound as our first stop, in the heart of the fjoird land. We stayed at a place called Gunn's Camp, log cabins by the river, sounds idyllic but it was a complete rip off for $25 and the sand flies come for free. Everywhere. Those buggars bites seem to last months! Honey, our driver cooked an all in bangers and mash, perfect home comfort that we all needed. Jamie and David, although I am sure Jamie wished it was just David, decided to do some DIY white water rafting down the tiny rapids by the camp. Armed with their bouyancy aid, which came in the form of a blown up bin bag, they headed down the river with us all watching for entertainment/safety. Including all the extreme sports it was probably the most dangerous thing they've done, but there's no stopping a determined 17 year old. We got the log fire going and they sat there warming up whilst we played cards (there's always time for cards)!
It dawned on me the following day would be my last day with the gang before I stayed on in Invercargill for christmas with Chantelle. Although I was looking forward to seeing Chantelle, my little gang was everything I knew of New Zealand and I knew I would miss them so much. Harry and Pam headed off to Stewart Island for the night, but at $150 ferry crossing it seemed alittle steep, even if they might see the infamous kiwi bird. Dan and I had come to the conclusion that you can go hard for around 10 days and then you need a break, to sleep, to as the kiwi's say 'chillax' and this was the day for all of us. Laurie was keen to see 'The Avatar' and I wasn't really too fussed but it was absolutely amazing! In a nutshell, (and without ruining it because you should all see it!) it's about how far earthlings are willing to go to drill for precious stone on Planet Pandora and how far the local inhabitants are willing to go to protect their home. Everyone thought I was mad because I couldn't stop raving about it when we got back to the hostel. It just makes you think, when you look at the dirty machinery verses the natural beauty, and makes you sad because it's a true reflection of our society. Also the computer animation was stunning! That night we headed to an Irish bar for some live music, ended up the 'Irish' band were actually in kilts and playing the bagpipes, I said 'hey, this isn't Irish,' to which the reply was 'It's celtic isn't it?'
In the morning I had to say goodbye to everyone and I was devasted! As they drove away I wished I could go with them but I had made plans with Chantelle and her family so i didn't want to change them. Chantelle and her mum Michelle picked Ed (Me, Ed and Chantelle all met on our American tour) and me up and we went back to their home for the grand tour, via a cup of tea and slice of cake at nan and grandads. Along with Chantelle's sister Leesha, and her friends Trudy and Andrew we went road tripping to Te Anau for a friends gig. We spent a great night dancing to rock 'n' roll covers and stayed over at her friends. In the morning I rang home as it was my Grandma and extended family's early christmas, and I spoke to everyone, 10 or so people! Ed had a two hours for $2 phone deal so he said I needed to make the most of it, think I was on the phone for 1 hour 49 minutes. Mum had passed around christmas cards at dinner with everyone's names on and they had all put one word to describe that family member. Mum read mine to me down the phone and I was not prepared for it, was so lovely, had a little tear! I think 100 miles an hour was one phrase, is that the way I talk?! Thought it was such a lovely idea though, Mum always thinks of creative stuff like that.
On our return to Invercargill we met Chantelle's youngest sister Jinny and dad Daryl, who it appeared was estatic to have another male for manly conversations such as the car industry, which Ed managed to make it through like he knew what he was talking about. All of Chantelle's family were so welcoming and it was such a novelty to have good, home cooked food, and the puddings, wow, pavlova is heaven. We were prepared for a very homely week, as locals, leading up to christmas and as part of that we hired a few New Zealand films, including 'The World's fastest Indian' set right in Invercargill, Goodbye Porkpie and Whalerider, about maori traditions. We did some local walks too, one at Bluff point (so steep), the most southernly point of land before Antartic. Cool hey?!
Chantelle observed that she is quite a different person at home to when she is travelling, it was quite sad to see as she said she didn't really like the person she was at home. She's coming back to England in the summer for another 7 months, I guess everyone gets the travel bug! I don't think I can be anyone but myself really, when you travel you obviously have less stress's in life, no job, bills to pay, it's living the life, but you still are away from home which can be hard. It was really interesting as Leesha is an artist, she does 'wearable arts' crazy, elaborate costumes and she is studying architecture at university so it was great to chat and look through her work. She took us for a bike ride whilst Chantelle went for a horse ride along the beach and we rode our bikes in the Pacific Ocean! Leesha seems to have a skill- she has found about 200 four leaf clovers in her lifetime, so when she found her 201st she wasn't too fussed and gave it to me!! Will I be lucky forever? It is now pressing in my diary and I am carrying it around the world so let's hope so.
Ed and I decided the reason it didn't feel like christmas was because we weren't buying presents for anyone so we decided to do stockings for each other. Chantelle dropped us in town a few days on her way to afternoon milking. (She works at a local dairy.) It was a very stange feeling after being independant for so long, to suddenly have to rely on lifts to places, having pick up times and needing to be home in time for tea! We visited the museum to see the nearest living creature to a dinosaur, tua taura, (they move maybe a cm a day I swear!) and the motorbike from the film we saw-world record for fastest vehicle under 1000cc. We also dropped $130 on alcohol for thankyou's, now it feels like christmas! As much as Michelle had said not to worry, you can't turn up on christmas day empty handed. (Especially with the amount of rum Ed was intending to drink!) We went to 'chillax' in the park and came across a crown green bowls, turns out there was a builder's christmas 'do' on, and they invited us to join them for bbq in the sunshine, a few pints and a couple of games of bowls! When you travel you get such spontaneous, random times and this was just the sort of thing I was craving. I also got the bowl touching the small one (technical term?!) so I maintain I won even if according to the rules blah blah blah...That night was a family outing to the local christmas concert with some great and not so great local singers, dancers and comedians, the highlight was a Micheal Jackson tribute thriller dance (at a christmas concert)! Oh and Grandad loving the free glow sticks that got handed out!
The next day we visisted the quaint town of Riverton where we ate 'fush and chups' and I got to sit inside a giant Paua shell (a shell in a shell, get it?) Then we headed up to Andrew's for some clay pigeon shooting, I was pretty much terrible, sorry Ash think I need more lessons! Two more sleeps to go..now it's Christmas eve!! A very excited Ed woke me up to inform me one more sleep to go, and we spent the day wrapping presents, watching Love Actually (now it feels like christmas) and sunbathing (of course) and Ed'd countdown continued (7 hours and 23 minutes to go). Christmas drinks at Andrew's (5 hours 3 minutes to go) entailed some scary drinking games, (3 hours to go) and a little white lie (of course I've already had one) escaped me from a shot of whicky, gin and absinthe. Wanting some english tradition Ed and I had bought some mulled wine, but the fact that the only one we could find was called Mountain Thunder and came in a plastic bottle might give you a clue to how it tasted! (2 minutes to go) Put it this way, it was nothing on yours Dad!
The big day!! For the first time ever I attended church on Christmas day! Chantelle likes to go each year so although I was alittle aprehensive it's always good to try new things. It was a very relaxed service, including much to my delight my first carols of the season, apart from learning the New Zealand version of 12 days of christmas (nothing on our version Philly). Once we got home it was present time!! Ed and I actually seemed to be the most excited out of everyone, maybe due to our stockings (we used a pair or orange and black, stripey, fancy dress tights Ed had aquired on his travels). Each leg full of presents, we had much fun opening them all, maybe more fun than everyone else with our highly silly stocking fillers. Ed is a good present buyer it seems! Or maybe because I had been walking around bare foot since my flip flops (jandles) and plimsoles had died so I was probably pretty easy to buy for! We spent christmas lunch and most enjoyable afternoon at Auntie Miriam and Uncle Marks where we took full advantage of her fabulous hospitality (me for the 7 pudding options, Ed for the rum). We spent a very relaxed evening watching a film and generally feeling party-full on delicious food. A classic christmas evening, although I missed the cheese and Hayden's combo a la blackstone. I wished christmas fabulousness to family and a few friends on the phone before it got too late to call (13 hour time difference meant it was now 1am and the house was sleeping). A very strange but enjoyable Christmas, easily the most I have missed home but different enough to enjoy it still. I definitely missed Christmas Eve in the Talbot, it's always such a fun night with everyone and the one opportunity to catch up with people sometimes. It made me feel (momentary lovey dovey moment) so lucky for my awesome family; how we all genuinely enjoy each other's company and for all the fun times that I've had and will have with fabulous mates. I am just outraged that on my first Christmas out of the country and it's a white Christmas!! I was not bitter or jealous or gutted at all, but abit of sunbathing helped me feel better, hehe.
Sadly Boxing Day was our que to leave, joining the stray bus onto the west coast and university city Dunedin. I would be seeing Chantelle back in England in the summer and I suspect she will be making a trip to the farm! After such a warm welcome and homely stay with Chantelle and her family it felt strange to be back on the bus, but I was looking forward to the next adventure. Who knows where it will take me and who I will meet?
I was back on the open road heading back to Queenstown via Dunedin and already seeing familiar faces; our bus driver Seagull (I dread to think how he got that nickname) had been my first bus driver from the North Island. He took us on a rainy but enjoyable tour of the Caitlins, the coast between Invercargill and Dunedin, full of sealions and dolphins (although much to my fustration I am yet to see any). Of all the things to do in Dunedin we spent the following morning at the Cadbury's factory, who supply all of New Zealand and most of Australia with favourites such as Chocolate Fish and Pebbles. Who says liquid chocolate isn't a nutritious breakfast? Yum. Before leaving Dunedin we climbed supposedly the steepest street in the world Baldwin st, with an everage gradient of 1 in 3.41, I can vouch that it really is very steep, we felt the burn! As we boarded the bus for Queenstown another familiar face turned up, a girl we knew only as 'Polish' from the west coast part of our travels (people get clever nicknames when you travel, I was England for a while in America). I hadn't known her particularly well then but we spent our bus journey reminiscing about our old travel buddie's and planning a big night for later. It was classic money-saving drinking as we followed the happy hours around the town and took advantage of a pile of maps covered in 241 vouchers! Who should I bump into in one of the bars but Chris Harrison, a fellow Bewdley High Schooler!! We got all over excited about seeing our first Bewdley-ite on the actual other side of the world and him and his friend joined us for what turned out to be a fantastically random 241 night. There are no dirty kebabs to be had in Queenstown, it's all about the infamous Fergburgers, which are quite literally the size of my head. 3am saw me defeated by my kids version, but I found some hungry Preston lad's to help me out with the chips.
After a much needed lie in I got the best wake up call, my friend Laurie was ment to be flying home to Canada, but on a whim had booked a flight to Melbourne landing two days before me! With Charlotte and Rachel already there a mass reunion was just the thing I needed to get me excited about oz! A fab foursome for our east coast adventure! After that news my hangover faded to nothing and I was smiling all day as we chilled out by the lake, before heading to the bar to meet our previous nights party people. Whilst sipping cocktails out of teapots at Queenstown's world famous (amongst travellers at least!) World Bar we bumped into Preston and his friends and they joined us for more teapot shenanigans. He was travelling with his friend Luke, brother Chester and a guy they had met at their hostel who was christened 'Trilby' for his chosen headwear (his facebook name has even changed now)! This was the beginnings of our Queenstown party-team in our lead up to New Year and seeing as mobile phone's are a luxury, the bar became an easy meeting place. Ok, ok it helped that it was the first bar I had come across in the whole of New Zealand that sold cider on tap!! The following day Ed and I chilled out by the lake in the sunshine and took in Queenstown's warm and friendly atmosphere. Wanting a chilled night we checked out cinema times and bumped into Trilby who told us of a poker night down at one of the bars 'Lonestar.' After a very quick lesson in poker from Ed we headed out to win big!! (All in Joe!) It was such a cheap night and so much fun, $5 bought you $10,000 chips with one buy in option later. As I looked around the table I felt totally out of my depth, there were eight of us and it was obvious everyone was a regular. Ed's cocky attitude (he has lived in Manchester for the last two years) meant he was out first and soon enough two more were gone whereas I seemed to be raking in the most chips! I don't think any of them knew how to read me, probably because I didn't know half the time either, although when I was confident I started dancing in my chair and I think that made them know I wasn't bluffing!! I was on a ridiculous high and it didn't even matter that I didn't win as I played the duration (til 3am) without buying back in, against the main poker guy and the three big shots, only losing out with my 8 and his 10. Absolutely loved it, full house!!
The next day I got to meet the infamous 'two marks,' two of Ed's travel buddies from Hawaii, for a couple of pre New Year's eve drinks along with Trilby (one sleep to go as Ed would say). One sleep later and I was awoken by a well missed accent- Canadian! Our litle hostel 'Hippo Lodge' (at the top of the tallest hill!) now had five new 'New Year Party goers,' Jake and Julie a honeymooning couple away for three months and three lads who had just graduated, Nick, Ryan and Koval. I seem to be slowly aquiring more home stop-offs for my next trip-Canada road trip 2011! So far every Canadian I have met has just been totally sound and great company. Along with Trilby we all spent the whole day playing cards, drinking games (I was sneakily using my 13% vodka that me and Laurie had bought by error, but great for having to down drinks and still making it to midnight) and playing/singing to guitar. Fabulous day. We skipped into town (maybe that was just me) to meet the two marks and co, where Preston and Luke stumbled across us on the dance floor 'We've been looking for you guys everywhere!' Now the party was complete, all my new Queenstown friends there to see in the New Year. For midnight there were fireworks down at the lake so along with 1000s of other travellers, locals, families and party goers we saw in the New Year at the waterfront. I don't know who suggested it first but before I knew it Preston (donning his 100% british beef boxers), Luke and I were running hand in hand into the lake in our underwear to cheers and a following of 50 or so more! It was absolutely freezing but completely the best way possible to see in the start of a decade. I will remember it forever, it was so spontaneous and so unlike anything I would ever do in 'normal' life! We all met the next morning and relived the night again sat out in the sunshiney beer garden. Finally the time had come to say goodbye to Ed, he was heading south with the two marks and I was (it had been decided the night before, last minute's always the best) going to road trip it with Preston and co back to one of my favourite spots, Lake Wanaka. I had wanted to spend time in Christchurch and Kaikora on the east coast but sometimes opportunities are there to take! Queenstown really had been a party week and I was ready for some 'chillax' time before Oz. Ed was the first person I had travelled with as just a twosome and we had had a blast, team Shed!! Even if people had treated us as a couple, very strange how people treat you differently when they presume you are boyfriend/girlfriend, more as a pair, less as individuals, I didn't like it!
Preston (I still didn't know his real name at this point so his nickname had stuck) had been working out on a farm a couple of years back and knew of a rodeo that afternoon in Wanaka. It was just the sort of thing Young Farmers would go to back home and I felt pretty content sat in the sunshine, watching the rodeo with all Preston's old workmates. All the lads were prime YFC members, New Zealand style, although I think they'd have to bin their 'stubby's' pretty much hotpant shorts on men. Not so manly! On the way back to our Base hostel (they are all over NZ and Oz and have absolutely no character) we went swimming in the lake and spent a fun afternoon running and jumping off the pontoon. I cannot do summersaults, I must remember this, back slap, ouch! That evening Queenstown was catching up with us so we just chillaxed and watched Anchorman, Cannonball!! The morning bought torrential rain which gave us all the perfect opportunity to catch up on internet (so happy even more photos of me in my underwear are now on facebook- it's innocent, we were swimming!) and washing clothes (always feels a massive achievemnt of the day, ridiculous i know!) I wanted to show the lads the cool sofa-cinema but it was fully booked, it actually turned out in our favour as the guy in the cinema told us about the open air cinema in the park later on that night. Although none of us were massively excited about seeing Madagascar (although you've gotta love the 90's dance music, move it, move it) we headed down there with our sleeping bags, Tui beers (love pub quiz bottle tops!) and popcorn (seriously). Imagine our delight as the opening credits rolled and a cheer went through the crowd as the park began to recognise the song...Topgun! Luke practically hyperventilated, his favourite film of all time and we watched the entire two hours with quotes and comments of 'The next bit is brilliant' and 'This is the bit in hotshots where...' Maybe this is what it's like to go to the cinema with me?! 'I feel the need, the need for speed.' Once the film was over we all lay out in our sleeping bags till the early hours of the morning star gazing. It was so beautiful and clear and I so desperately wanted to see my first shooting star (how it is that everyone but me has seen one?) No such luck but we did see at least 7 satellites orbiting the earth, a first for me.
Who should we bump into the following morning...Ed and the two marks! It was a total suprize for both of us and fab bonus to my last full day in New Zealand, we spent it playing golf and Cropool...Croquet on an oversized pool table, ridiculous but fun and the only one in the world apparently! The lads hadn't been sure where their next destination was so not wanting to be stranded I had booked a bus to leave for Christchurch that afternoon. Once I got on my 7 hour bus journey NZ would be over for me so I was delighted when the boys decided to head to Horarota, just 45 minutes outside Christchurch, and offered me a seat for the road trip extravaganza. I'd figure out the last 45 minutes in the morning, as long as I made my 3pm flight! It felt like a proper road trip, we even played 'shelley (or now shellfish) went on holiday and she took with her...' Although I'm not sure what use I would have with a sheep and Abba's greatest hits. We stopped off at a lake with New Zealand's largest mountain, Mount Cook, as a back drop. It really was an unbelievable skyline and we did the standard traveller thing of taking a 1000 photos. We stopped for dinner at what turned out to be the fanciest place I've eaten at for all of NZ, quite apt for my last night. Although we were all stuffed on car-journey sweets, oops. We were staying at Preston's old farm cottage where he had lived whilst working here, which meant a free nights accomadation with friends. Preston was a star and used local inside info to get me a lift to the airport, it all worked out perfectly! The boys seemed to look out for me quite abit and they didnt accept any petrol money I offered but I like to think I enhanced their travels with my random fabulousness, haha. They certainly made my New Year's Eve unforgetable and my last few days in NZ so fun and unpredictable. I defintiey would never have crossed paths with the lads back home, let alone befriended them and that's the fantastic thing about travelling, it just opens up your mind. It was a shame to say goodbye but that's the nature of travelling and now onto the next adventure!
New Zealand really has been the time of my life, it's just been unbelievale and so much more than I could ever have imagined. There are always going to be low points and christmas had it's challenges, as to be expected, but mostly these times were few and far between. From the mountains to the lakes, skydiving to white water rafting, the glaciers to the rainforests and finally the party times. All this went into making NZ just an amazing time but it's the people that shape my memories and make the adventures and good times complete. So here's to the next few months, who knows who I will meet, what I will learn and what challenges I will face. I'm free as a bird and it feels fantastic!
P.S According to the majority of my friends and family they have predicted I will be falling in love with some hot Aussie guy, my experience of them so far is arrogant and way too full of themselves but like I said I have an open mind and reserve all judgement so watch this space...haha...
Im Here!! After a four hour delay (with rumours of over heating engines, yuk) I finally landed in Melbourne and missioned it over to the hostel the girls were staying at, Flinders Station backpackers. After a shuttle to the city I decided to walk to the hostel as it was only 20 minutes away, but after being bus-ed door to door on our Stray NZ tour this was a bit of a shock to the system. As a drunk passer by exclaimed 'Backpacker, you're carrying a horse!' Not totally accurate but my backpack certainly felt as heavy. Time to get ruthless, I threw out quite abit and sent a parcel home via ship (2-3 months!) obviously the second I got rid of stuff I needed it the next day. Typical.
Anyway back to my night of arrival...I dumped my stuff in the dormitory and seeing Laurie, Rachel and Charlotte's familiar bags and clothes made me feel so at home and excited to see them. A scribbled note on the door let me know they were in the bar and although it was now 2am for me, I rushed down to see them with a renewed energy. It had only actually been two weeks or so since we had last traveled together, but it felt like forever, and we hugged it out and screamed like girls (cringe)! It makes you feel less homesick when you catch up with old travel friends, and Australia hadn't seemed to friendly yet so it was just what I needed. The girls had been quizzing all night and were currently in the lead, after the final round...we won!! A whole $50 at the bar. Quiz team I hope your proud.
The following morning it was back down to business and I had a day of work to do. What's that? It's been a while, it seems like an achievement if you get your washing done, write your blog or send postcards home (you probably realise I'm not very good at that, I do write them they just sit in my bag for a few weeks/months as I forget to buy stamps). I had let my old employer's Mudpie know the major cities I would be in, in case they needed anything for the trend website, and they had asked me to do a street report in Melbourne. I had researched Melbourne with Ed's Lonely Planet whilst in NZ, the only place I have used the guidebook's for actually. I tend to just go with the flow, and explore when I get there, this also leads to less disappointment as I have no expectations of places. A street report entails approaching people with interesting dress sense, whether eclectic, bohemian, city slicker etc and asking if they would mind having their photograph taken for a magazine. Some are instantly flattered and turn to pose, others (mainly the guys) are slightly embarrassed, and some just look at you as if you are mad and say no. I headed up to Fitzroy, according to the Lonely Planet, a hippy, unique and young designer area with some funky bar's and cafes. I also spent a few enjoyable hours at Victoria's market, a massive hubbub of reggae bands, fresh tasty food and enough clothes stands to get lost in. And plenty of people with individuality. Perfect. I took the opportunity to purchase a smaller bag for nights out, I was aiming for something sophisticated but was seduced by a black patent Minnie Mouse one!! I also got apple shaped sunnies, that's more me now isn't it. A good day's work done and now time to play. That night us four girls sat playing poker, with milk bottles and strawberry sweeties for chips, and a few others joined in to make it more of a game. My sweetie pile was so overflowing I could afford to eat a milk bottle (maybe my skills lie in gambling?) and seeing as I was winning, when Rachel went out I lent her some sweets. It's all abit of fun right? And seeing as it was pretty early there was no point her sitting there not playing. She only goes and wins the whole game! I need to learn to be less nice.
The next day Charlotte's foot had completely swollen up after falling on it funny, from the super tall, super unsafe, bunk bed ladder. We didn't think too much of it as she didn't seem in too much pain, even with Rachel, our resident medicine student keen for her to get an X-ray. We attempted to get Medi-card's but turns out they need to be posted to your address. That's a great system for travelers. So with it seeming too much effort/money to sort, Charlotte maintained it wasn't that bad and we spent a few days doing the Melbourne Museum, city tours and markets. That afternoon, with Charlotte's foot still heavily swollen we decided it was best to go to A and E. Mainly because Charlotte's mum had contacted the insurance company, isn't it funny how parents tend to be right... Although all of us were in the mindset of 'Oh, it'll be fine, just wait and see how it goes.' Rachel was fairly adamant an X-ray was a good idea, and she was right, one of the bones in her foot was completely snapped in half. Oops. The four of us spent a very cool afternoon in the A and E waiting room, with it being 37 degrees outside we were loving the aircon! Whilst Charlotte got a half cast and bandage put on we waited. This was the first time I've been subjected to racism actually. There was a very drunk, angry guy with a sprained ankle waiting to be seen. For some reason Charlotte had gone in before him, turns out for good reason with a broken bone, but he could not handle it! He was generally muttering to himself about how outrageous it was, how she should have gone to a GP (for an X-ray?!) and shouting in our direction (with a few expletive's in there) 'You pome's, coming over here and getting treated before an Australian.' It was the strangest feeling to have someone that angry at us just for being English. Laurie was also outraged 'I'm Canadian!' Pome stands for Prisoner Of Mother England in case you wondered, or am I the only one who didn't know that?
That night the girls headed down to St Kilda, a beautiful beach side area of Melbourne, with a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and some cafe's, bars and shops with character. I stayed on in the city to meet up with some old Contiki USA friends, Meg, Emma, Jacob, and Danni and Davin, and Carly who I had caught up with the day before in her lunch break. We spent the night in Federation Square in a cool bar called Transport, and it was that familiar feeling again of old travel friends. I think they all found it quite bizarre that I was there, in Melbourne, and they all seemed sad I wasn't staying longer, Danni and Davin were like 'We wanted you to come to our engagement party next week!' Anyway, fun times and I also managed to acquire a straw trilby for free, and without having to drink any tequila, I just need to get some ribbon to cover the 'tequila' banner. It's strange when you say bye to people like that, because in reality when will you ever see them again? You just have to say, well when I'm here next or when your in the UK and you never know.
After a mission of walking, trams, 36 degree heat and heavy rucksacks (proper backpacking now I feel!) I made it to the Oslo hotel backpackers where the girls were already staying. Charlotte was pretty frustrated, with her old fashioned crutches making every step for her an effort, and the heat/no aircon making it all the more so uncomfortable. With this in mind she stayed at home whilst us three headed down to the beach. We felt bad for leaving but she was very fair and told us to go all the same. Wow! It was hot, it must have reached 38 degrees (have you noticed I can't find the degree symbol?)! Laurie used to have a soccer scholarship back in Canada, (women's football is bigger than the guys over there) and she got massively over excited to see a Football Tournament right there on the beach. Unfortunately it was too late to join a team so we just watched the sunburnt, English lads vs the tanned Aussie's for while and then retired to some sunbathing on the hot sand. There were so many jellyfish in the sea, Rachel actually jumped into Laurie's arms in shock! It's quite strange as they all wash up on the shore and there must have been over 10 or so in a small area. They can sting you and it seemed to be a fairly common occurance, but we were fine. As long as you don't touch the tentacles it's ok, so I stroked the top part and the girls were repulsed! They didn't really bother me, obviously I wouldn't be so friendly is it was a box-jellyfish.
That night, with much effort on Charlotte's part, and one taxi fair later, we had dinner at a tiny, vegetarian restaurant called "Lentil as Anything.' It was pretty unique as you didn't actually have to pay, just whatever you could afford, great for us! Since coming to Australia I realised what a high life holiday we were all living in NZ, now it was time to budget, scrimp and save where possible! The restaurant was set up for struggling musicians back in the day, the idea being when they made it big they would pay big, thanks for all those free/cheap meals they had recieved. Once the rent/wages/food etc has been allocated for any surplus is used for charitable work and any volunteers, food donations are greatly recieved. It seems too good be to true, all working in harmony, but they are still running so it must work! And the food was delicious so were grateful. I will donate big when I'm rich and successful...
After a morning on the beach we had been invited to a bbq with some of Laurie's Canadian friends who had moved to melbourne. Or more acquaintances, she had played volleyball with one of the guys Mike, and considering how little they knew each other their hospitality was so kind. Mike and Dax, an impressive 6 foot 8 tall, cooked us a tasty bbq in their garden, and provided some cool beers whilst we all sat in the sunshine and got to know them. After a long journey of tram, crutches, piggy backs and chair lifts for a very tired Charlotte (4 blocks of walking can seem like a marathon!) the food and drink was massively appreciated. We spent a really fun night playing card games and chilling out in their pool (of the blow up variety). It was also my first ever attempt at beer pong which I can safely say I suck at! Aiming to get a pingpong in a red cup should be easy right? Such frustration. We needed to get the last tram home but we were all having such a laugh that the boys just said to get a taxi later and not worry about paying them our share of the food etc. It really was so kind of them and made up for the less than friendly Aussie travelers. When I first arrived in Oz it was such a shock to go from New Zealand, where hiking boots wouldn't be frowned at in the pub, everyone owns a rain jacket (the height of cool I'll have you know) and everyone is always friendly and chatty. You could chat to anyone with out agenda. Here, and intensified as we were in a city, everyone was very conscious of themselves, their image, their clothes, the guys/girls around them. I'm hoping it will improve but at the moment it is not an environment I feel relaxed or myself in. It also makes me see how little I fit into the fashion world, I need a job that fulfills me, through helping people or making a difference. Any suggestions on a postcard.
It always takes time to adjust to a new country and this time I was prepared for it. You need to get your bearings alitte, adjust to the new culture. In NZ I had a mind map, places and people I knew, and the memories I attached to them, it makes you feel like you belong there. I am sure the further up the coast I go, there will be familiar faces, but I am glad to be with the girls because I would probably feel alittle more alone right now. It's no bad thing, but I'm happier this way. Plus we seem to work pretty well as a four, it would have been very tricky for Charlotte and Rachel to manage with Charlotte's foot, spreading the load of bags between us three non-injured girls makes it alittle better, but still ridiculous! With our greyhound bus pass booked from Melbourne right through to Cairns, next stop Canberra...
Ok. So I spent over an hour writing up this blog last night and then the shirty hostel lady just turned the internet off and I lost it all! Agh!!! She just said 'Internet off at 10pm' and that was it, she didn't care. So, this blog is going to be brief because I'll go mad repeating myself!
Canberra, the purpose built capital city, perfectly designed, and therefore known to have no soul or character, but we couldn't pass by without a quick stop. We had a nightmare bus journey of 13 hours (in my previous blog I ranted for two paragraphs about the insanely rude and infurating bus driver but I'll spare you this time) and the aircon breaking so the temperature reached 40 degrees inside the coach, only three degrees cooler than outside, before the coach completely gave up and the engine died. The driver of the bus they sent to replace ours had bought the whole family along for the ride as their aircon had broken at home. One of the children was about 10 years old and he had down synderome. I spent a fun hour or so chatting and signing with him and his brothers, made me miss Richie alot! The bus driver dropped us door to door to our hostel, seeing as Charlotte was on crutches, which he really didn't have to do and we were so grateful!
I never realised how important aircon is to my happiness!
It was Charlotte's birthday whilst we were in Canberra and seeing as the main thing to do there is visit all the museums, art galleries and the war memorial that's what we did! Seeing as the city is so well designed they all sit side by side which made it very easy for us. Charlotte was so happy because we borrowed a museum wheelchair, and seeing as every step was an effort with her 1800s crutches she was a happy birthday lady. We were abit cheeky and borrowed it to go across the park to the Houses of Parliament too.
In the evening we went out for a birthday meal and we layed the table with party poppers, party hats and fairy princess party cups which we drank out of the entire night. Me and Rachel partied in honour of the birthday girl as the effort involved in going 'out' was not really what she fancied for her birthday. Me and Rach used our party cups to the very end, they even got used in the morning for fizzing hangover cures. Oops.
Next stop Sydney...
This hostel is so infuriating, they turned off the internet connection again today without checking to see if anyone was on the computer and I lost half of this blog too!! Twice in two days. Not having much luck lately, teach me to get behind on my blogging i guess! There is a storm brewing here (am in Byron Bay at the moment, trying to catch up on blog!) and the bats are goign mentail, such high pitched shreaking! And now kasabian has come on the radio, I'm a happy lady. Anyway here goes...
With the use of a 'borrowed' shopping trolley the three of us expertly moved all our bags from the bus stop to the hostel, whilst our lovely invalid struggled in the rain with her crutches. I have never been so happy to feel rain before! Ahh, so cool and refreshing!
Sydney seems to be full of free meals/$5 buffets for backpackers, which suited us perfectly, so as soon as were were settled in at the hostel we headed out. The Shark Hotel does possibly the best buffet of my life and for $5 we were all feeling smug with our find. Mmm salad. We had called ahead to book the hostel and asked if there was an easily accessable room because of Charlotte, they put us on floor seven at the top of the building. Nice. Let's hope the lift doesn't break....oh that's right it did. Charlotte and Rachel had already spent a week in Sydney over New Year so it was mine and Laurie's turn to check out the sights. We got kitted out like proper tourists for the day, with our rucksacks, maps and camaras. It's amazing when you travel how you look at everything as a photo opportunity, thing's you would ignore back home. A fountain, oh my goodness the excitement, quick let's get a photo, will you take one for me? Anyway, we got some good pics thats day, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, Art Gallery (I just never notice those 'No photo's' signs in those places oops. Must be years of retail report's for work, make's me oblivious) and finally Australia Museum. The 'Surviving Australia' floor highlighted just how many dangerous animals there are here, but it's all exciting, not scary really. Until I see the fin coming towards me, haha. The bridge and opera house are impressive but when you finally see big iconic places like that they usually impress you less than things you had no knowledge of. Worth seeing of course but very normal too. As we were walking through the botanical gardens I looked up and thought the tree's were full of birds, I then realised they were bats! Massive bats, hanging in the trees till evening came. They were absolutely everywhere, definitely the most impressive sight of the day!
The next day the three of us with two fit feet walked the coast from Coogee beach up to Bondi Beach. It took a couple of hours and was so sunshiney and hot. That is the day I learnt, always wear a bikini in Australia even if you don't know what the day will be, you will always want to get in the sea to cool down! There are swimming areas all along the coast, natural swimming pools made by the rocks to seperate from the ocean, pretty cool. Bondi is just a mass of bronzed bodies and surfers, something that will become the norm the further up the coast we go. We may even turn into those bronzed ones, I'm working on it! That evening we had alittle look at Sydney's nightlife after taking advantage of a free meal at one of the bars. Australia and New Zealand just cannot seem to make good sausages, not sure why. I miss lincolnshire ones. We played pool in one of the bars and the girl in the other doubles team was an absolute pool shark, her team mate hit the table to make a near miss ball go in the pocket, outrageous behaviour! Bit of a shock when doubles pool has only ever been abit of fun and good way to meet people, again confirming the unfriendly Aussie-ness we had expereinced so far. I think it is more city-ness though.
Laurie and I explored Paddy's Market today, after a long trying on session we bought new sunnies, none ever suit my face agh!! Heart shaped is the way forward, (Pair number three, Good rule, never spend more than $20 on a pair because they always get lost, scratched, fall to the bottom of the ocean) Darling Harbour was on our list of things to check out and the waterfront's atmosphere was buzzing with street performers, didgeridoo players (very impressive) and music playing out. After we had soaked up the atmosphere we went home via the well talked of fish market to find something for tea. I'm not great with the smell of fish at the best of times but as we walked in I was almost sick, I just ran straight back out. Laurie laughed so hard at me, but she said once you were inside it was fine and she was right, we must have gone in near the bins or something. Gross. We made an awesome dinner that night with salmon, prawns (which I deheaded for everyone quite well I thought seeing as I've only ever done it once before) and veggies, bring on the nutrients! Made me think of Sazel and her love for prawns, they were massive! The market was so cheap as well which just made it taste even better! That day whilst we had been exploring Rachel had gone with Charlotte to hospital for her 7/10 day check to see how things were going. Best scenario she could be weight-bearing with a boot, worst case continue with the crutches...oh we didn't think about option C (apart from Doc Rach) that the bone had not moved back towards healing at all and she would need an operation. As this started to sink in we all knew the only option...she had to go home. We were all so sad, to lose out travel friend, but mainly for her, the devastation of having to go home when you are in the high life and adventure of traveling would be crushing. After my seven hundred goodbye's it would have felt so wrong to be at home three months later. The more we discussed her options the more the thought of having the operation and recovering at home, with family and friends and then flying out all fixed for Asia was the best decision. So after alot of insurance polava and injections for the plane her flight was booked for two days time. With the heat, the bags and the general nature of traveling (walking, beaching, swimming, exporing) we all knew it was the best thing to do but we were still sad! We had a special dinner of fajita's (chicken is a luxury!) for her last night and she flew out the following morning. Did I have a tear? Is my name Shelley...you knew it.
I had my first swim ever (can't really belive it's true) in a 50 metre pool and I loved it! That mile goes so much quicker! Good to get some exercise, it woke my brain up abit after all the city greyness. Potentially had one of my most embarrasing moments ever, for old Shelley anyway, travel Shelley thought it was hilarous and didn't care. Because guess what? We left that afternoon, never to see anyone there again. Love traveling! So I forgot I was wearing a bikini and went to climb out of the pool without using the steps like I ordinarily would do. The whole water/bikini/sudden movement thing didn't work in my favour and my bikini bottoms completely came down, mooning the whole pool. Hahahaha. What a fool! Rachel was pretty close and got abit of a shock I think, she just said "good tan lines shell!' Our friendship bonded on new levels that day.
We left Sydney that afternoon, with our foursome down to three. I always knew the countryside was an important part of me but I have never missed it so much. After melbourne, Canberra and Sydney my whole soul, spirit and general being feels so grey, like my batteries have run out. Cities are just not for me, I appreciate the culture and cosmopolitan lifestyle but I am really so much happier away from all that. It also reminds me of more material things that I don't want to have to care for. So we are leaving grey, concrete, too cool for school people and on to sunshine, rainforests, walks, beaches, soul and spirit!
In the words of Richie, 'I am cannot wait!'
Next stop Port Macquirie...
We left the city!!! Freedom!!! Elation!!!
We arrived at our hostel 'Ozziepozzie' which seems like a ridicuous name but turns out was a fabulous hostel! It was heavenly compared to highrise flats, but we are were all feeling slightly strange without Charlotte there with us. The hostel had a swimming pool, cinema room, bbq and lovely terrace courtyard to sit and eat dinner/play cards/sleep in the hammocks. All these things will become standard as we head up the coast but at the time it was the ultimate in luxury. A swimming pool, right there!
We had all adjusted to a slower pace of life due to not wanting to leave charlotte alone all day, wanting to save our pennies for Fraser Island and Whitsundays and just generally not feeling particularly inspired by our surroundings. Today was the first day we had woken early (for me...I just can't do it unless I have to! And since my phone broke I have no alarm which suits me!) with a plan for the day and we felt excited! Let's explore! We hired bikes for $5 and cycled all along the coast to Sea Acres Rainforest where we joined the guided tour not realising this entailed stopping at every single tree with interesting comments such as 'This is a red leafed tree...because it has red leaves.' But the guy certainly knew his stuff and we did learn some cool stuff and get to try a sandpaper fig. Didn't taste too bad. On our way back we stopped off at a few beaches for a much needed cool down swim in the ocean and to eat our packed lunch. So cute. Shelly Beach was a bit tricky to get to so I accepted defeat, I mean it's not even spelt 'right' and I'm sure there will be a million up the coast! The road seemed to be the most up and down, hilly biking, but after our intense, four hour ride back in Wanaka, New Zealand, Rachel and I were more than prepared. The bikes we had were old if-you-want-to-break-peddle-backwards which meant no gears and cycling to your death down each hill and cycling like mad up the next hill. Tough!! The coast was lined with rocks and someone, somewhere, someday had painted one, which turned into miles and miles of colourful messages and pictures along the seafront. Really inspiring and I loved reading through them. 'Believe and you can control your destiny.' It's true.
Our last stop before home was the Koala hospital. It was so interesting and they look so fluffy and cute. They have a nasty scratch to them of course but from afar, cute as you like. I learnt a fact- all marsupials are lactose intolerant so they are fed soy milk as they recovere from dog attacks, road accidents etc. Random and useless fact of the day for you. It's sad because they have to return the koalas to the same area they found them in as they tend to stay in a certain area all their lives, this often means the same animal will come back to the hospital many times in their lifetime for the same injury. When we got back to the hostel we played/jumped/giggled in the pool and took silly underwater photos with Laurie's camara, much fun times. Finished off the evening with a film session, and free popcorn from the hostel. Perfect.
On Charlotte's return she text us and the Doctor told her that she doesn't need an operation at all and could be fit in four weeks, so looked like she'll be flying back out sooner than she thought. We were fustrated as the Aussie Docs were so sure and she had HAD to fly home, but she was super happy and relieved which is a more sensible emotion! Always pays for a second opinion hey?! Just be glad we weren't in Asia I have a feeling they may have suggested amputation! I guess it was still the best thing to go home so she can recover quicker.
We spent the morning walking around The Kooloonbung Creek, staring in awe at the 1000s of bats in the trees/skies and being all jittery about the potential of crocodiles. It's ok we asked a fisherman, who laughed at us and said not round here! Felt so great to be in countryside, it really was beautiful, with all the stunning green eucyliptus, bats chattering, and dragonflies flittering around us. A few charity shops later (i'm allowed a new dress if it costs $5 right?!) we cooled off in the hostel pool and packed up ready for our bus journey that afternoon.
Each hostel has a bookshelf for us poor travelers to swap our books and usually it's a struggle to find something decent. After a couple of pretty unimpressive books I wandered over to see if there was anything half decent....and I stumbled across the third Twilight book. I was so insanely happy about it, it could have been lined with gold. I have read the first two since traveling and couldnt afford to buy the third here so it was like it had my name in it. One happy lady. That's the bus journey sorted.
Next stop Coffs Harbour...
On our journey to Coffs Harbour the bus driver pointed to something out the window, and there on the side of the road, under some trees were three kangaroos!! Was so cool to see them just sat there, normal as anything. When we arrived in Coffs harbour one of my room mates was a brummie!! Well a wolverhampton-ite but it was great to hear the accent!!
Our hostel, Ausitel, advertised as having aircon, came with a tiny fan for the enitre social area and there really was no where to stay cool but the sea or the pool. Your whole body is just inwardly hot, with no place to cool down, even at night it stays hot and the pathetic fans in the room don't do much really. Oh well, good practice for Asia and I think I am adjusting! Beach day planned we grabbed our bikini's and went to soak up the sun. There was a massive jetty out into the bay, probably standing over 20 foot above the sea and there were tens of people jumping off it into the sea below all day. It had been a while since any of us had done pushed ourselves and it looked like fun so we wondered down to take a look. Turns out it looked pretty godamn high from the top. If you could have run and jumped it wouldn't have been so bad but there were railings there so you had to climb over them and stand on the edge...this made it so much worse! It took me a couple of false starts but I made it, my stomach actually dropped from falling so high, and my ears hurt from the pressure of how far down I went into the water! After a couple more jumps and some silly photos (we needed evidence, it's high!) we swam back to shore. I don't think we realised quite how far out it actually was and after a couple of minutes swimming I started to think about how deep the ocean was underneath me, freaked me out!! Laurie was worried she couldn't swim the distance, that didn't even enter my head, I was thinking about all the creatures underneath me!! Fun day though and good to get some adreneline pumping through us for a change.
We chilled out in the pool back at the hostel and played ball. Then we decided to see what Coffs Harbour had to offer in nightlife seeing as we had gotten way too used to spending our evenings with a film or playing cards. Coffs harbour hotel kept us amused all night with some pool, dancing and snakebite. The locals were bermused by it, they had never seen it and people kept asking us what we were drinking and then going to order it themselves. It was so funny, this guy said 'So if I go and ask for it, they'll know what it is?' we started a trend! Got chatting to lots of random Aussie's that night which was fun, getting to know the locals! One guy, some middle aged biker, was telling me about how Prince William was in Sydney and wasn't it exciting? I said um yeah...I said I think you Aussie's get more over excited about the Royal family than the pommies do. He was outraged and gave me a massive lecture on why the Royal family were so great and how lucky I was. So bizarre!!
In the morning me and Rachel went for a walk along the creek to the Botanic Gardens. We thought we might get lucky with spotting some koala's but still not luck, oh well, the gardens were still beautiful. The rest of the day was spent watching Twilight in the lounge and sticking to the sofa's in the escapable heat!
Coffs Harbour was a great little stop off, but with all we've heard so much good stuff about Byron Bay that we can't wait for our next stop...
We still haven't really met anyone particularly on our wave length since we got to Aus, no one significant which is a shame. After NZ we just had such high expectations I guess. On the bus ride up to Byron Bay though there were some decent guys and it was so good to chat with new faces with something to say. I was talking about America with one guy, Jared, who had done something similar to me, good because sometimes you forget how many amazing things you've actually done.
Our room at the hostel, Cape Byron YHA, advertised wth aircon, came with a lovely useless fan and the air was still. I think the girls are finding it harder to adjust in the heat so I feel for them, but even I wasn't looking forwad to five nights in still heat.
In the morning we took alook around town and got our bearings. Turns out Byron is a really relaxed, laidback, surf styley beach town, with alot of character and alot of friendly faces. We spent the day on the beach, and a really lovely beach just 200m from our hostel, and bumped into Mick, the friendliest scottish guy ever, from the bus. He told us about happy hour down at the Arts Factory, a hostel just out of town that we had looked at before but had been abit pricey. Happy hour was pretty early, starting at 5, and the girls were unsure, so I reverted back to Queenstown shell- I said we are lacking spontenaity in our lives at the moment, let's just go with the flow and see where it takes us! After the pep talk we wondered down to the Arts Factory, which turned out to be this amazing hostel/campsite right on the lakeside, with this buzzing festival feel to it. Some of the other lads we had chatted to on the bus were in the bar so we joined them and the night began!! It was our first night on Goon, the only way for travelers to drink in Aus it seems, $10 for 5 litres of wine...imagine the quality! We spent a very fun evening playing card games and ball games in the pool before going to dance in LaLaland. After we headed down to the beach where there were loads of hippies drumming away and girls dancing with fire poi, so amazing! A much needed night of new faces, fun times and randomness. Oh and whilst at Arts Factory I saw my first huntsman spider! I acually cimbed onto the wall to take a closer picture of it and get a proper look!
The next day was another beach day, and Rach and I took advantage of the 50 metre outdoor swimming pool right on the seafront. Love life! The beach here gets alot of jellyfish called bluebottles, they can be as small as your fingernail and have a sting similar to a wasp, will hang around for half hour or so. Laurie and Rachel both got stung on the first day so I was awaiting my turn, Rach then got stung again and I seemd to escape it! They all get washed up on shore and there are just hundreds all lined up on the sand. Perculiar little creatures but quite cool. After a very chilled out day we were ready to celebrate hard for 'Australia day' when we woke up the following morning. Rach and I started the day with a swim and then we set up in the beer garden, soaked up the sun and enjoyed the free bbq the pub had to offer. We may not be Australian but we partyed for them, even if we kept it on the down low that we were actually pomes. (Every country I travel to I learn about the natives, oh and how the English came rambling in and taking over. Oops.) Another fun afternoon of games down at the Arts Factory ensued, there were four friendly girls to join the group too, so plenty of party people! People always say you MUST go to Cheeky Monkey's if you go to Byron Bay and so we did. It is the strangest place, there's no dance floor so everyone dances on the bolted down tables and benches. They are the dance floor. Becca even facebooked me to ask if I had been, love being reminded that people I love have expereinced the places I am now. A very fun night of dancing, followed by the beach. There's something totally europhic about sitting on the sand, looking out on the ocean and up to the stars, at 3am. You are upside down, by that I mean, there's no plough in the sky. It's those moments you realise oh yeah, I'm actually on the other side of the world, the southern hemisphere!
Spent the morning shopping! Unfortunately it had come to point where I couldn't pretend I could live without a pair of shorts any longer! I have never worn shorts at home, or ever wanted to, but here they are just a neccessity. So I am now the proud owner of a pair of shorts and some boardies. I've changed. The three of us girls also bought beads and hemp in the bead shop, Laurie promised to show us how to make bracelets. Rach and I went swimming but after 2 lengths we had to get out because there was a storm coming. I guess it's not the best idea to swim in an open air pool with lightening. Very stange to have to leave because of that, but kind of liked it, never experienced that before! Chilled out watching the tennis, already on quarter finals. Philly's facebook staus said she missed me, made me feel very homesick when I read that! Nice to know people are thinking of me, I think of you all so much.
Byron bay has been without doubt my favourite place since coming to Australia. Always half the place and half the people you meet. We had some much needed fun times getting to know some new faces, something that has been lacking in Aus. I thought, would I have met alot more people if I hadn't been with the girls and the answer is most probably yes, but I don't know if I would have met anyone significant still, as the way you travel here is so different. You might see familiar faces up the coast but there are always so many hostel options you need to plan to meet. So the people I would have met would probably have been just for that night or that day. And besides the girls are still new friends to me, even if I feel I have known them a lifetime, it really is only two months! I think I would actually feel potentially quite alone and more homesick, especially as the east coast is my least favourite place I have travelled so far. I think Fraser Island and the Whitsundays will make it for me though.
Next stop Surfer's Paradise...
So we made it to Paradise...The most ironic name for a place ever. With my back to the ocean and my feet in the sand the view is...oh one of high rise flats, office buildings and Macca's. The arguement goes on, everyone here calls it Macca's...it's Maccy D's right?!
Our Backpacker's in Paradise hostel was adequate, at $21 for a 20 bed dorm I wasn't going to complain. We just spent a very slow day looking around town, chilling in the pool and getting to know some of our roomies. That evening a bunch of us went down to the green in town and watched the Australian Open Semi-final. Murray vs Cilic. That second set was so awesome, as he changed the whole momentum of the game in one backhand. After the game we went to a bar offering free drinks for ladies. So bizarre, there was literally no catch, just go to the bar and order what you want, for free!! It was the strangest night though, the bar girls were wearing lingerie as the club was called Bedroom, why would you get a job there?! The club was full of girls in high heel and figure hugging dresses, all taking themselves way too seriously. That happens back home of course, but it was like nothing i've ever seen before, I just kept laughing, I mean they were all pretty and slim etc, but they just looked ridiculous! Rach and I gravitated toward some guys who were dancing like loons in the middle of the dance floor and joined in. That's the way to dance, jumping around and actually having fun!
The next day we took a bus out to the water park Wet'n'Wild. It was so much fun and for a first timer I loved it!! It was perfect for me, you all know what a wimp I am when it comes to rollercoasters, there's not really much point me going to theme parks back home. But here, you can only go so high or so fast, and there's definitely no upside down moments on waterslides!!! The only one I shied away from was a a single person slide, it was pretty much vertical, hideous. Apart from that it was a hilariously, screaming, giggling, spinning, soaking day. Loved it.
Next stop Brisbane...
Brisbane started with a bang! When we got there I knew the Laneway Festival I had wanted to go to was still on, and although I hadn't bought a ticket I decided to go check it out. One of my favourite bands Mumford and Sons were playing, they had been shocked enough last spring that someone would travel all the way from Bournemouth to Liverpool to see them, so I thought another hemsiphere might top it! As I started walking in the direction of the street the festival was on I suddenly felt very alone. It was evening and had started to get dark quite quickly, and I realised it was actually one of the first times I had been alone for a very long time. The walk was uneventful but I was pretty glad to get there after starting to feel very small in a big, dark city, particulalry when I walked past a homeless food hand out with a few drunken trouble makers. When I got there I met some girls who were just leaving the festival so they let me have one of their wristbands along with two other lads who were scavenging for wristbands too. We chilled out on a look out, above and outside the site, to watch some bands (I was too late for Mumford but realising I could have seen them for free was abit gutting!) We still needed a stamp for the festival but I just thought I'd go for it, so I skipped right past the bouncer, flashing my wristband and beamed at him, like any happy festival-er would. Good times. The lads had revealed their odd side(they told me they were going to buy some coke off a dealer and if he didn't give it to them they were going to beat him up...then the poilce arrived..haha, what losers) alittle since our meeting so I happily skipped through the crowd as quickly as I could to lose them. Once at the front I enjoyed a rather fabulous Florence and the Machine set, followed by a rather delicious over priced hot dog, followed by a nice and safe taxi ride home. When I got to our hostel, Tinbilly's, I nipped into the bar for a much needed glass of water, where I saw Laurie having a drink with a friend from home's sister who was also travelling and had been working in the bar. I relayed my night to her and I think i must have looked slightly manic because she was like 'What drugs are you on?!' I guess that's just what live music does to me, I was insanely happy! A very random night, need to venture out alone more often it seems.
Laurie decided she needed to go back to Canada, she only came to Australia on a whim (and to stalk me) and the borrowed money was starting to way heavy in her mind. Although we had been having plenty of fun, so far Aus hadn't been quite as magical as NZ and with Laurie not fairing well in heat she'd had enough. I was completely gutted when she mentioned it as it sort of came out of the blue. Rachel and I have to get to Cairns, that's just part of our fantastic world journey, but for Laurie that is her final destination. Laurie is without doubt one of my favourite people and I am so happy I could have met her and shared some of my trip with her. Plus it's always handy to have a friend-for-life in canada, use her for holidays etc..haha only joking. But did I mention I'm going to canada next year? Road trip! A year feels like a long time when you are used to spending 24/7 with someone. Anyway with this in mind Brisbane became our make-the-most-of-laurie time. I was still hopeful she would change her mind but our first night in Brisbane didn't really do much to persuade her with a particularly loud couple from the bar getting to know each other till the early hours. Rachel and Laurie actually went to reception and asked for another room for the rest of the night once the listening ordeal was over. I just tried to go back to sleep and hoped there wasn't going to be a second round. Truely the most disrespectful hideous thing. Why sleep in a 10 bed dorm if you intend to do that?! Anyway rant over.
Laurie had been losing things over the last 24 hours and when I couldn't find my camara it dawned on us that we had been robbed! It had happened in Surfer's Paradise at some point and they had just gone through our side pockets and taken quite abit- my camara, my ipod, all my chargers, Lauries phone, chargers, make up and a few other pieces. The funny thing was I had left my camara charger in Byron Bay so the thieves thought they were being super smart by taking both the camara and the charger but not so lucky. They got a 'glaciered' camara and no charger. That has to be the silver lining surely? As much as it made me feel abit vunerable and realise I need to be alittle more vigilent I just thought Haha!! Only alittle bit though, mostly I just was suprized that anyone would take a camara in a travelling community, when everyone knows the sentimental value of photos. Luckily, as I had saved them all recently, I only lost 50 or so pictures, so i got over it pretty quick. Needed a Dad-hug but a phonecall sufficed. I knew he cared when he used an expletive to refer to them, made me smile thanks Dad. I'm not accusing anyone but I think I would see some prettyily made up girls taking lovely photo's behind the reception at 'Backpacker's in Paradise.' Oops. We forget our sorrows with a few games of pool in the downstairs bar and then went to meet some of our party people from Byron Bay for some dancing.
Tiesto, Tiesto, Tiesto!! Rachel, Jared and Kenny (from Byron Bay) and I had tickets to a massive DJ playing in the Botanic Gardens. A gig in the Australian sunshine...wicked!! More like dancing your heart out amongst 1000s of soaking wet ravers in torrential rain for 6 hours. AMAZING!! The rain just made the gig even more euphoric and everyone went mental everytime there was a downpour! It was a life is awesome moment for sure.
Laurie, Krysta (Laurie's friend) and I went to the Asian Gallery of Modern Art, there was some pretty cool kitsch stuff in there. One installation was just a room (take your shoes off please) with tens of thousands of pieces of white string hanging from the ceiling. The idea is you walk through it, but it felt so bizarre as there were quite a few people in there already and you had to walk pretty slow so you didn't bump into each other. Pretty unique I thought! After our success in Melbourne we entered the bar quiz...less mentioned of that the better actually. But I did improve on my pool skills quite considerably that night, and when you have 'The Knuckleheads' quiz team trying to put you off by learing, moving the ball and knocking the que that's no mean feat! Rachel and I booked up all our Fraser Island and Whitsunday trips today, lots of dollars out the bank!!
Today we had the most amazing day!!! Time for the infamous crocodile hunter Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. We took the Croc Connections bus which was ran by an ex employer and (as much as he liked to tell us) close friend of Steve's. There was a great build up to the day by watching some of the crazy croc hunter's 'Crikey' moments on a dvd and hearing stories from our driver. It made me think of the first time I ever saw his show with Carrie, her impression's had us in giggles for days. The zoo was like no other zoo I have ever been to, it was totally interactive, it was about falling in love with the animals and going away wanting to work harder to save them from extinsion, cruelty etc. First we got the chance to feed three beautiful elephants, stroke snakes, lizards and watch tiger's play and interact with their trainer's. The Bengal tiger is absolutely magical, and as there are only 5,000 tigers in the world they will be extinct within the next decade if we don't do something to stop it. Tiger's are hunted for many things including chinese medicines and the zoo has a program to raise money to try and stop this happening. We became 'Wildlife Warrior's' that day and saved one tiger for one day by buying a little wristband, well it's a start. We spent a very surreal afternoon cuddling and feeding koala's and kangaroo's. A spoilt and loud little girl was running straight towards them all and one of the kangaroo's simply punched her in the face!! I know it shouldn't be funny but the mother really shouldn't let her two year old run around with wild animals un-supervised and she wasn't hurt too much. It really was the most random and delightful thing I have seen in a while! It was our last night with Laurie before we had to head up the coast and leave her to catch her flight in a few days time. We chilled out in our dorm, and soon got the giggles which turned into general hysteria about anything for the rest of the evening. A perfect last night! We all wrote little messages in each other's travel journal's and I cried when she read mine out. We have a running joke from NZ which you might remember, about me having no skills. She wrote at the very end of her lovely message 'Being you is your biggest and best skill.' Not sure why but it made me cry (it is me). Happy tears!
I went shopping!! After confirming my insurance company were actually super awesome I bought a new camara...a lumix...ooooh!!! It's almost too fancy. Keep it away from the sand..ummm ok it might die before I'm home. Thanks for the offer of a camara Jen, but with my track record (camara number three) I would be worried about it's chances! After hugging it out with Canada, Rachel and I got on the greyhound bus north and as we drove off waved goodbye to Laurie with tears in our eyes. Ok I'll reword that, Rachel was having a very lady like tear, I was sobbing!! I am so emotional!! I think it was the saddest goodbye for me as I know with most people I will see within a matter of months, or they are English so live nearer, or I just wasn't as close so they didn't need tears.
But it's time for what many people say is their favourite part of the east coast...Fraser Island! Tune in next week folks for all the Fraser fun...Ok ok I'm very behind, just go straight to the next blog!
We arrived at Hervy Bay and once at our hostel Fraser-roving we were straight into our Fraser Island briefing along with a familiar face Jared! We got put into three 4WD groups of 8. We sat there for a good two hours listening to all the information, don't drive in the sea 'Lose you $1000 dollar bond,' don't camp in the wrong place 'Lose you $1000 dollar bond,' don't do etc etc. Oh and the sea is a Tiger Shark breeding ground, there are dingo's that attack small children so girls go to the loo in pairs (no toilet's at campsites) and here's some newspaper cuttings of how many people have had accidents or died in the last 12 months...ok enjoy! Quite a serious talk, turns out they are actually stopping the self drive tours this spring (or that's what we heard) as they have quite a high death toll. The only way you will have an accident though is if you're being stupid, driving drunk, speeding or generally being too cocky (or your driver is being these things and you don't stand up for yourself). As if to confirm the stories the first thing that came off the ferry as we waited to load was a 4WD all smashed in at the front.
We had been pretty efficient in our shopping earlier that morning, with eight people communally shopping for three days it could have been a nightmare but luckily we were blessed with the most easy going and comprimising group (and the best one out of the three leaving that morning we all thought!) The car briefing before that had been the start of a long running jokel; The guy said something along the lines of 'Girls listen up, you'll need to buy some washing up liquid...' He couldn't finish his sentence before i was like 'The girls?' he just looked at me as if I was mad, 'Yeah the girls do all that sort of thing don't they.' I was all sarcy and just said something like 'Oh ok sure, we'll do the girly stuff and the guys can mend the cars and fight the dingo's right?' Everyone was smiling but I think the guy genuinely had said it without realising there was a problem. As from that point everything was like, oh you better get this heavy box, it's mans work etc. Get in the Man Zone! It's so funny though because we made a joke of it all the time, the boys cooked the meat when we ate bbq (so every meal basically, I have never eaten so much meat!) and the girls prepared the salad etc. And you know what? I don't know if it was just that our group was all happy to help out and no-one needed directing but if Fraser was a team building exercise we would have won with bells on. I can't help but wonder which it was- our easy going group or a joke leading us to follow in our traditional roles. I guess men and women having their seperate roles has worked for very many generations and I must say it did make me think about it when we got back from the Island, particulalry as I usually get abit indignant when someone doesn't ask for my help carrying a heavy box for example, asking for some strong lads. I am usually like 'I'm a farmer's daughter!' Truth is I'm not strong at all just determined. It's great when things happen that question the way you think about something, it just opens your mind that little bit more.
That first day the lads drove first (man zone anyone?) and once off the ferry we drove down to Lake Makenzie, the most brilliant white sands and the bluest of lakes possible. Probably the most beautiful sight I have seen since I have been in Australia, which considering I have been here a month has been a while coming! Paradise was unfortunately filled with pesky tourists(!) on self drives, cluttering up the beach, so we swam over to an island in the lake which had only a handful of locals on snorkelling for turtles! Half the group went back to the van to make up some bread rolls for lunch (no food on the beach as it will attract the dingos'!) again we are totally on score for winning the team building exercise! We ate in the picnic area just as a coach tour were packing up their catered lunch, the driver gave us about 30 muffins and 10 chicken drumsticks so they didn't go to waste. Free food!!!! Very happy campers. We pitched up camp in the sand dunes away from the other two vans as we had lost them, but it worked out perfectly for a night of Team Stinky bonding. We didn't smell that bad by this point, it was the name of our van! After we had bbq-ed ourselves out (and eaten too many muffins) we drank goon, tried to wee in the bushes without being attacked by the dingo's circling our camp, and paid a visit to our neighbouring campers. After all the merriment (it was probably only about 10pm by this point but it felt like the early hours!) we all laid out on our matt, looking up into the brightest, least light polluted sky I have ever seen. It felt like you could see the way the stars curved around the earth. I need more constellations to look out for other than Orion's belt and the plough! Still can't see the Southern Cross, just need to find an Aussie with the tattoo of it (shouldn't be too hard.) There's abit a sore point that I haven't seen a shooting star before. No one can believe it, 'It's so easy,' 'I've seen sooo many.' Even lying there people would say 'Did you see that one?' NO!! So I tried so hard but to no avail. Mel hadn't seen one either so I didn't feel alone in my uselessness!
Mel and Rich were an English couple who had met living over In hong Kong for the last two years. They were on a five week break between jobs and were just such fantastic company, so intelligent and fun! Jared we knew from down the coast so it was great to see him again. Then we had Simon, our resident manc, and Sarah and Helen who all three were travelling together for a few weeks after the girls had upped and moved to Aus and were happy to see their English mate Si. Travelling in the camper van beast Elvis! And finally me and Rach of course.
The following morning was my turn to drive, and after four months away from the wheel I couldn't wait. It was a couple of hours drive up the beach highway/runway (look out for traffic on the ground, and in the air!) and it was quite tough to find a good bit of sand to drive on that wasn't too deep we would get stuck and wasn't too close to the water's edge thatw e would get salt water in our engine and 'Lose our $1000 bond!' I settled in fine though but we soon came across a warning sign but we were unsure what for, so headed further up the beach (as guided by the man zone) cautiously. I could see straight away we were going to get stuck in the deep sand, you can't go cautiously through that! Once we were well and truely stuck Rich jumped out to see how deep the ravine actually was just metres ahead of us. His whole 6 foot 3 inches dissapeared so thank goodness I was cautious. Pretty chuffed I managed to get us out of the sand though, with abit of digging behind the wheels from my happy helpers. You can see how easily accidents happen, if I was a driver that had been cocky or showing off I would have taken team Stinky head first over that 'step.'
On the way to Indian Head and The Champagne Pools (rocks where the water crashed over them, making it a shark/stinger free zone supposedly) we stopped at the great wreck, The Maheno Ship. It wrecked up on the beach just after WW2 when it was being taken to Japan for scrap metal (not too exciting a story). But stunning wreck, absolutely massive and it just comes out of nowhere on the horizon. After a very hot afternoon at the Pools we made up camp along with the other two vans at Eli Creek, a fresh water creek with a strong enough current to take you gliding down the stream. Some young locals had set up an esky (cool box) with beers, had inflatable anaimals and were clearly cashing in on the tourists! Again our super team-building-skills meant camp was set up and bbq number 618 was served about an hour before the other teams were sat down eating. (I think we would have been the same if we had had the fondly named 'Princess' in our group too, I don't think she liked to help out.) All the vans sat together ating, drinking, chatting and laughing. We star gazed again and this time I shut up and concentated. Everyone kept asking if I was ok, as I didn't talk for about half an hour (I can do it!) and it paid off...well if it wasn't a red S.O.S flare it was the biggest shooting star anyone had ever seen...and my first!!! May as well do it properly hey! A very content moment lay there with the ocean crashing down on the sand, with just the dunes to protect us, looking up into the bright sky, heads all side by side.
After a very refreshing morning bathe in the creek (who needs soap...?) we set off for Wabi Lake, set against rolling sand dunes and full of nipping catfish. Not quite the beauty of Lake Makenzie but certainly Australian looking, wouldn't have been suprized if a croc head had poked up through the water. Not in croc country yet though thank goodness!! Had one final BBQ in the wooded clearing of Central Station on one of the many permanent BBQs you find throughout Aus. On the ferry back Captain Yank (not his christened name) pointed out a turtle swimming next to us! Captain Yank was a guy from another van who I shared some very interesting conversations with about politics, Obama, the war and history!! He's a marine and has just come back from 6 months in Iraq so had some interesting things to say. Once home, seeing as we had gone way overboard on the food shop we had plenty left for a lovely evening meal together, and even a fry up in the morning (there was so much breakfast envy from the other vans that morning!) Rich and Mel were heading north to Airlie Beach and had space for two hitch hikers, so rather than take the greyhound we road tripped with two of our favourite Aussie travellers. After an awesome breakfast of Eggs Benedict (treat!) we hit the road, in convoy with Simon, Helen and Sarah.
Fraser Island was the most enjoyable expereinces of the whole of the east coast for me. I just felt so happy to be off roading, camping under the stars and getting to know some wicked people. Next stop Whitsundays...
Rich and Mel, (our english friends who have been living in Hong Kong for the last few years) and Rachel and I left Hervey Bay in their trusty little car. We had planned to meet the Elvis van with Simon, Sarah and Helen in Town 1770 but the torrential rain meant the roads in were flooded! We ended up just heading straight up to Rockhampton, which turned out to be a tumbleweed-no-one-around-old-industrial-town-which-had-a-deep-south-western-feel to it. We had dinner and played pool with our Fraser crew before going to sleep in a very eerie place. We had spent a few hours talking about horror films and the paranormal (foolishly including the film 'Hostel') turns out mine and Rachel's room had a mysterious locked door in one of the walls. This freaked me out so much!! The guy at the bar said it led into another room that wasn't used anymore. Great! Que dreams of torture rooms and poltergiests. But amazingly (I know) we woke up alive. After the best breakfast of Eggs Benedict (I'm turning into a flashpacker!! Can't be helped when your lift is eating there!) we spent another long day driving up to Airlie Beach, were we caught up with Jared (another of our Fraser crew) that night for a few drinks.
The next morning was spent stressfully (sounds ridiculous) shopping for bikini's. Mine had died a death a long time ago and Fraser had really killed it for good. We both knew exactly what we wanted (always an error) so could not find it!! I think this is why I became a designer actually, I was fed up of never being able to find exactly what I wanted. After we spent the morning with Simon by the lagoon (man made lagoon's are quite common up the east coast as the sea is too full of dangerous animals- mainly stingers!) Then it was time to head down to the marina to catch our boat 'The Samarai'...
We got chatting to two Irish, Sue and Luke, whilst waiting for the crew. The first thing the crew guy said when he arrived was '' Right if you want your drinks to stay cold I'm going to need a dollar from each of you for ice.'' I thought this was the most random thing, why pay $250 at the travel agents...just pay $251, It wasn't until the next day on board I saw the use of our dollar-ice- in the crew's beer freezer! After that ''dollar-ice'' became the phrase for being ripped off!! Once on board the 20 travellers and 4 crew felt very overcrowded for the small sailing boat. Having never sailed before it took me a while to adjust to the tiny beds and cramped spaces, but visions of sleeping under the stars above deck sounded good. Oh scrap that...The second we left for the open ocean it started to rain. It rained. And it rained. There was thunder. There was lightening. There were four cocky Aussie's it appeared out on a boys jolly. Just so happened they had to take 20 extras along. Although there was something beautiful about seeing the lightening across the whole horizon of water, it made my stomach turn everytime as I envisioned storms and us all being thrown into the shark/jellyfish invested water miles from land. Lovely. When you haven't sailed before it takes a while to believe the boat is meant to be completely on it's side, whilst you hold on! We had thought the rain would stop soon but we soon realised it wasn't going to and by this point we were all so soaked through it made no difference. I'm not sure why but we never even considered bringing our waterproof jackets! Fear soon turned to giggles though as Sophie, Clare and Emma (three gals from Sheffield), me and Rach and the two lovely Irish Sue and Luke stuck it out until we anchored. We were in the relative shelter of Hook Island and Whitsunday Island for the night. Everyone was feeling quite miserable actually. The crew seemed completely unapproachable and with 16 girls and only four guys there was no real alpha male characters to balance out the crew. Their unapproachable and over confident characters were proving abit too much for everyone, when all we needed was someone to reasure us. We all went to bed feeling alittle sorry for ourselves and fustrated by the cocky Aussie mentality.
After a rocky, stomach turning nights sleep, we woke up to a very sorry breakfast of jams, peanut butter and cheapo bread. First stop was Whitsunday Beach National Park, which in the sunshine would have been a beautiful white sand beach with blue seas but in the rainy gloom was not quite so spectacular. Rachel and I went for a walk and bumped into Mel and Rich! Although there some nice people on our boat the only people we were having a real laugh with were the Irish so it felt so good to see 'old friends.' We listened enviously about their boat 'Avatar' (should have known it would be good with a name like that!) a catamaran! Nice and stable, ahhh. When we got back to our boat I realised this was the first day I had ever properly 'moaned' since coming travelling. The crew had knocked my confidence by not being easy to chat to and I just wanted to get back to dry land. I realised I needed some PMA. Postive Mental Attitude. Once back on the boat I chatted to the crew (Skipper, Scuba (instructor), Chef and Benny, I didn't call any of them by their real names and it seemed to catch on) was my generally jolly self and started to feel alot happier. Then we had lunch. The food could only be described as poor student food. I don't think I even ate like that. No. Poor student food cooked by a guy. (sorry guys). And for lunch...Frankfurters!! We had been on the boat for three meals and still not seen fruit and vegetables. This made me and Rachel very sad! We stopped at Luncheon Bay (not named after shark feeding frenzies, but after Flinders, the guy who explored the Whistundays, as this was his lunch spot!) for some snorkelling. We saw Rich and Mel again and told them about our five star lunch of frankfurters. Mel laughed very awkwardly and said ''I best not tell you what we had.'' Go on... ''OK, when we got back form the beach we had cakes and tea and coffee and biscuits. Then for lunch we had lasagne, coleslaw and salad.'' Only my favorite things in the world! We just laughed about it by this point though! She also said their skipper was a racist, sexist 50 year old man who liked to be in charge. I met him on the beach and we would have defintely fallen out! The snorkelling was good, saw the biggest fish I have ever seen, about three foot!
On our return to the boat we had tea and biscuits!! Shocker! It really did put everyone in a much better mood, biscuits have magical powers I think. I also had to accept that I didn't just feel abit unsteady on the boat but I had full on sea sickness. I need to learn that being ill isn't a weakness!! I took a few pills and that's when I realised most of my feeling crap was actually down to the sea sickness. If I had taken a pill at the start I might have been fine! Silly, Stubborn, Shelley.
After that I was a different person! I made a playlist on the Ipod that blasted out and danced around the boat whilst most of the gang chilled out below deck. I chatted to Skipper and Scuba, learning abit about sailing and marine life and generally felt alot happier. The rain had also eased alittle and it was as if the crew could see their cocky bravado's weren't really washing with any of us. They were trying alittle harder and so in turn were we. The turning point came after dinner. It was Luke's 21st birthday and Benny popped his head out of the hatch and said ''Well it's not a birthday without cake!'' and presented Luke with a chocolate cake topped with 5 glow-stick-candles. We all sang Happy Birthday, got a few drinks out and started to celebrate! Then Scuba started a game called going to the races. With the four Ace cards layed down, we named them all (as if they were horses) and then everyone made bets on who would win. Then as each card came out of the pack the matching suit Ace moved forward one place. It really bought everyone together and we spent the entire night playing games, chatting and laughing. It was such a turn around and thank goodness! We also played a game which (I thought it was quite amusing) the guys obviously played every trip. Similar to 'Why are you sitting on my lap?' but instead you have to kiss that person. Hilarious to watch the boys picking out their chosen targets for the night! Sadly it worked as well, I think most of the crew were cuddled up with a Swede or Dane or German. Luke, one of the Irish, was a brilliantly straight talking gay guy who actually said to Benny that night 'Yeah to be honest we all thought you guys were a bunch of w*nkers! But you actually turned it around.' Loved his honesty. Cake always makes people happy you see.
The next day, waking with slightly sore goon-heads we were snorkelling by 7.30 am! Pearl Bay is home to 'Elvis' (a big fish, can't remember what type, well over three foot) and we fed him from the boat (bread!!) and snorkelled with him. The water was actually infested with so many jellyfish and although you are wearing a stinger suit you can't help but feel alittle apprehensive seeing as some are fatal. The Irukandji are the size of your finger nail and you don't know you have been stung until your body is in insane pain and you have about four minutes to live. Nice. We said to Skipper there were alot of stingers and he looked slightly concerned but said it would be fine. It was only after that we learnt a lady on the previous trip (three days before) had been stung on the neck and rushed to hospital! Rachel wasn't feeling particulaly in her comfort zone but I looked after her and once we were further away from the shore they were much more sparse. I actually think they are quite beautiful. It's those sharks I'm more concerned about! It's the fear not the dying that scares me. If I am stung by a jelly and don't realise it's not quite as scary for me as seeing a massive shark biting my arm off haha!! When we got back we heard a 60 year old woman had been attacked by a reef shark (just a friendly reef shark!) snorkelling where we had been, he took a massive chunk of her bum whilst she hit it as hard as she could. Crazy stuff!
As we headed back to dry land Rachel took the wheel and under Skipper's supervision sailed us back! Most fabulously I might add. That evening we had our boat social in a bar and all had drinks and pizza. It was one between two and seeing as Rachel is unable to eat cheese we had it without. She said 'Shelley you are such a good friend having cheeseless piazza for me!' It was great though because I really felt mine and Rachel's friendship strengthen over our sailing trip. It was quite interesting to see that the crew were no longer cocky and over confident on dry land, it was in fact all of us that radiated confidence with our new friends. I guess the boat is their comfort zone and their territory. Rich and Mel came to the bar with their boat load too and we had a great night. Most of our boat went home early so it was just Mel and Rich's boat with me, Rach and Luke. Great party times.
In the end I can look back fondly, no not quite, happily on the sailing trip, we had some really fun times and as Benny said, in the winter (not rainy season) it is heaven. Glorious sunny days and warm evenings. It is rainy season so what did we expect really?! It was the crew's personality transplants that changed the feel of the trip too. I think my advice is just to know what you want from your trip and do alittle research. It is so easy to go into a travel agent and think well, whatever we pick will work out fine (I'm too relaxed here maybe!) oh and take sea sick pills!!
Next stop, last stop, Cairns!!!
Well after 6 weeks of 'We're on our way to Cairns'' we have made it!
After a wander round town we settled by the lagoon and watched all the Chinese New Year celebrations going on in the park. We had dinner in Nando's (flashpacking again, eek) and went to the cinema to see Valentine's day. We had promised to treat ourselves to the romcom for our Valentines day!!! Obviously we were both inundated with offer's, naturally, but we declined. Haha. The film was a poor man's, or rather Hollywood's Love Actually. Didn't really care about any of the characters, not like the heart wrenching scene in Love Actually where Andrew Lincoln takes his boards to Kiera Knightly to admit his love. Ahhhhh. Although Taylor Swift was actually pretty hilarious as a loved up teenager.
Today we left for Cape Tribulation for our overnight tour, booked with Cape Connections. Hoping for a fun group of potential friends to while away the time back in Cairns we were alittle dissapointed by our small group. A silent couple from England (I actually thought they were non english speaking for half the day because they didn't even talk to each other!) An irritating German guy who we knew from Brisbane. I don't even know why he was irritating, everything from his know-it-all manner to the suncream he never rubbed in all over his face. A very quiet french guy and me and Rach. But nevermind!
Our driver was a very knowledgable bush man and it was fascinating to listen and learn to all he had to say. We stopped at Mossman Gorge, a beautiful river (croc free still) and the start of the rain forest. As we were looking out over the rocks and the river crashing through them, some adreneline junkie crazy man ran straight past us and dived into the fast running water. He must have known the river well, because it was impossible to tell the depth. He then swam across the strong currents to the other side and did the same thing diving off a large rock, no hesitation! We also stopped at Daintree Wildlife Park. The complete opposite of Australia Zoo. The birds were in small cages and were not let out. There was no life there, it was purely to make money. A very sad place.
We walked through the rainforest and our bush man picked some wild fruits for us to try- walking stick palm fruit and native ginger fruit. Our hostel was actually log cabins in the middle of the rain forest and hardly any people. We had the pool to ourselves! We were just getting into some exercises, sit ups etc, when an American guy came over and being a personal trainer (oh dear, we haven't exercised for weeks..) he was showing us all different (harder) ways to do it all!! He sat there with his drink in the sun whilst we sweated it out! That night we got alittle too over excited about cooking our own dinner (after poor student food on board the sailing boat) and just cooked a load of veggies!! I think for a traveler in Aus I eat pretty well actually. Maybe I drink well too...?
We took a 2km walk through the rain forest, saw a large spider in a massive web, lots of birds and an enormous dragon fly!! The signs up by the sea said to please keep away from water's edge, salt water crocs live here and jellyfish!! That afternoon on our drive home we did a Croc Cruise on the Daintree River. It is actually not the best time to see croc's as our Skipper infomed me, it's like looking for Father Christmas at Easter. The water is warm so there is no need for them to sit on the surface and be warmed by the sun. Our hopes yet again of a good social group were dashed when we joined the coach to a holiday of four generations of a Chinese family! Being their New Year there are alot of Chinese holidayers here at the moment. They were so over excited on the boat they pointed out every stick and started taking photo's till the Skipper assured them it was not a crocodile! So when I thought I had seen one I double checked before announcing to the entire boat and looking foolish! But it was a croc!! It was about 5 foot, making it 5 or 6 years old, and at that age they can still be eaten by another crocodile (their mum, dad, brother etc, they don't care!) so they tend to hide on the side of the river. But without my croc spot we wouldn't have seen any so that was pretty cool. We also saw the smallest kingfisher in the world, and the second smallest in the world. Our skipper, turns out was a bird watcher enthusiast! He said it is almost impossiblt to spot the smallest kingfisher and got way over excited about it, I have a feeling he couldn't care less about the crocodiles! On our way home passed Croc-Island on the horizon that is shaped perfectly like a massive crocodile.
Back in Cairns we checked back in to the same hostel as before 'Bohemina Central.' A fairly standard, not overly special hostel but quiet so could get some sleep! Rich and Mel had checked in that day too so that night we all went out for dinner (the best Fajita's ever) caught up, chatted and laughed alot as usual. They are such interesting people, my favourite Australian travel friends for sure. Mel is the same age as me but she seems so much older, she just seems to know so much about histroy (well her degree was in history so I'll let her have that), geography and culture. Over the last 24 hours I have just so happened to talk to every single member of my immediate family. I was so happy to catch up with everyone, but I think it did leave me feeling quite far away from everyone! Homesickness is easily cured if you are around friends though so was all good. Becca actually rang me at 6am which made me love her even more, that she didn't check, and that she could only chat for a short while before going into dancing. Once I was awake (and with Rachel an early riser) we went to a pay as you go gym for the morning. Felt good to do some exercise but a bit sad to see how unfit I am! I miss my gym in bournemouth!! Never thought I would say that! It's just great sometimes to have routine with exercise and somewhere to do it. When I lived at home it was easy to go for a run along the river bank etc, but here it's alot more difficult. We are trying though! We went out with mel and Rich again as it was their last night before they flew to Sydney. We also met up with Jared and went to the 'infamous' Gilligans. We drank Champagne at midnight for Mel's birthday!
Feeling the effects of champagne and needing to escape the heat me and Rach went to the library! Ahhh aircon. I love you. I sat and wrote a million postcards. It's good to know I have so many people in my life that I love, or that would expect a postcard! But I think it's the most writing I have done in months!! We had a very chilled night in with some favourite rom-coms, Bring it on (which we discovered we can both sing the entire song at the beginning...I think maybe all girls in their early twenties can do that?!) and Step Up!! Travelling life IS exciting honest! Sometimes you just need a night in!
I learnt a cool fact- Bats (or flying squirells) are counted in Cairns in their thousands (they are sooo noisy, screeeech) in Bundaberg down the coast they are measured in their millions!!!
Great Barrier Reef day!! The Ocean Spirit Oyster reef and Uluru cay boat trip. With our experiences of boats we didn't have high expectations but it turned out to be a large steady boat that took us the few hours out to the reef. In the back of my mind I knew the reef was in the middle of the ocean but I secretly hoped for a few islands dotted around and for it not feel quite so middle of the ocean. But when we stopped it really was just miles and miles away from any land, a three hour boat ride in fact. What with rainy season in Queensland the grey sky made the ocean look even deeper. Once we were all stinger suited up, with our fins and masks ready, we sat on the side of the boat ready to go in. It was no deeper than places I have already snorkelled but something about being in the middle of the ocean made me very much not in my comfort zone whatsover. It was funny as Rachel had felt so uncomfortable with the jellyfish in the Whistsundays and now it was me feeling uneasy. We had both bought a camara bag, on Rich's recommendation, which made your camara waterprrof and sand proof. Ideal! The actual fish and reef were no where near as good as Fiji, but it was quite fun diving down and trying to capture good photos of the fish. Lunch back on the boat was my favourite....salad buffet!! And fresh prawns, which I had to behead for us both as Rach couldn't stand it! Lunch made us so happy! Just as we had imagined it for Whitsundays, salads, pastas, rice salads, chicken, prawns. YUM. On our next snorkel location I felt alot more relaxed, not sure why really, I think because the sun had come out making the sea alot more of an inviting blue. There are so many occassions when you are traveling that you really don't want to do something. Like that day, wow the last thing I want to do is get into the water, and you feel so vunerable. BUT you just have to, so you just get on with it. We didn't see many new fish and gutting for me, no turtles or sting rays. But it was still great to snorkel as always, and on our return to the boat we were offered cake and as we headed back to the mainland a glass of champagne, ahh this is the life!
Rachel went to the gym. I did not! Who goes to the gym in the morning?! After we went for some book shopping in charity shops. There's alot of time to read when you are trying not to spend money! We both found sun dress's we liked and after buying them for a bargain of $5 we realised they were very similar...blue and white stripey!! And we both wanted to waer them out that night. I said, well obviosuly the only way we can both wear matching blue and white stripey dresses is to go out dressed as sailors..!! So we spent the afternoon looking for sailor hats!! It was actually so good to have a 'project' to do! I am sort of missing work or putting my brain to use. Our outfits ended up being blue and white stripey dresses, white sailor hats, a finding nemo toy and hand drawn Sailor Jerry tattoos all over our arms! It was meant to be our last night out together before Rachel went down to her farm stay and I flew to Perth. We had a great night out, dancing on tables and chatting to lots of new people. Turns out people LOVE to steal hats! Agghhhh!
Feeling alittle delicate we went for a fry up!! Decided to have one last Flashpacker day and went to see Avatar in 3D as I hadn't seen it in 3D yet. That is the first film I have ever been to the cinema to see twice. James Cameron, you are a rich man. The following morning we went swimming and later on met up with Simon, our friend from Fraser island. We took advantage of the $3 bbq (really!) down by the lagoon and then me and Rach spent the evening writing in each others books and chilling out before she had to leave on an early bus for her farm stay in the morning. It didn't really feel like we were leaving each other after traveling for almost three months on and off. It's amazing how much traveling has done for her, I have watched her grow into a confident girl radiating happiness and will miss her so much.
The strangest day on my own, I don't think i have had a day like this maybe since I have some travelling! Although did go for a few drinsk with Simon and some other friends in the Woolshed before heading home to pack! Whilst doing internet 'jobs' I saw two facebook status's that made me feel loved-
Carrie's said 'Carrie wants Shelley home.'
Tom's said 'Tom is looking forward to sparkly shell spreading her glitter dust in perth'
Ahh!
So it's time to leave Cairns, I have actually really enjoyed just chilling out here with Rach, going up to the beautiful rain forest and seeing the reef. I don't think we really got to see the reef's greatness and I was so lucky as I flew out because I did get to see it! The Greatness isn't in the snorkelling beauty really, it's in it's greatness from the sky, it's shear size. The day was crystal clear, no clouds. I looked out of my window for at least half an hour watching the glorious blues and shapes of the reef in all its beauty.
On to Perth...to Tom and to mel and the adventures the West coast has to offer...!!
Ps. I just have to say. I am writing this in an internet cafe/travel agent and the woman behind the desk is possibly the loudest, most irritating, singing, shouting, thinking she's hilarious woman ever!!! And I have been in here for 4 hours...aghhh!!! Love you all that much! xx
Well I must admit at this point, I am slightly behind. Slightly by three countries. I am currently sat writing this in a very busy internet cafe off the even busier Khao San Road, Bangkok, Thailand. Which there is every chance I could fall in lust with. After Australia's sky high prices and moody locals this place is heaven! And I even think I might prefer my 200 baht (4 pound) bikini to my $70 (40 smackeroonies) Aussie fancy-pants one. Bargain City. But let's attempt to transport ourselves (for the sake of all that is blog-y-ness) back to where I last left you. I was boarding the plane from Cairns ready for my great big Western Australia Adventure...
I seem to be developing a fear of flying, more so I am just no longer in my comfort zone, which is most inconvienient when you find yourself on the other side of the world. It is almost impossible to be any further away. When we were young we would take our annual summer holiday to Sutton-on-Sea (who needs camping in France, this holiday comes with a live-in Grandma xx). Digging sand castles, making moats and letting mamma styles make us into beautiful sand-mermaids (so skilled) on the beach, I remember being told dig for Australia, as every child probably was, so that leads me to believe I am directly underneath Lincolnshire...right? A girlie holiday to newquay at 16 was the first time I realised it was possible to see your feet through water and not leave the sea covered in a grey tinge. And now I am in Thailand. Wow. I have side tracked.
So, I think I need to transport myself back to Australia.
After my flight, with alittle delay in Sydney (again great ariel views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House) I made it to Perth, local time late evening, my time early hours of the morning. I was to be staying with Tom, my old flatmate, who had got a great opportunity to transfer from his English teaching job in Bournemouth to Perth. Who would say no to that? (He has also, present day, accepted his next job in Thailand, what a life!) I spent the evening in the relaxed courtyard/swimming pool area of the Billabong hostel, the main hostel in Perth and also attached to English First, Tom's place of work. A large majority of the students take up residence here throughout their 3 month term. I got introduced to a thousand faces, Brazilians, Spanish, Italian, French, Swiss, Dutch....etc. After a short walk (I soon learnt Tom's 'short walks' were more of a 30 minute power walk) we made it back to Tom's house which he shared with a slightly manic but smiley Belle and her voluntarily mute son Fyre (or he just didn't like me...okay okay. He didn't answer me once in two weeks, rudeness!) The great thing about seeing Tom was that it felt like I'd just seen him the day before, I guess that's the mark of a good friendship.
Turned out I had arrived in perth during a heat wave. This was no English-summer-hose-pipe-ban-it's-reached-30-degrees. Now I love the sunshine, absolutely love it. But Tom's house was not blessed with Aircon and in turn, Tom's room was not equipped with a fan. It remained over 38c for at least 7 days, topping at 43c, and the following week was still mid thirties. If Belle hadn't donated one of their fans part way through I think I would have melted into a thousand sunshines. I would love to know what the night time temperature was (no thermometer's under the verander Dad) but it felt as ifit hadn't dropped below 35c most nights. The heat meant the idea of exploring Perth city centre, without a transportable swimming pool to jump into every 15 minutes, was not a pleasant one. With that in mind, and Tom letting me know it would be fine to take advantage of Billabong's gloriously refreshing pool, I spent the day down by the pool. It was such a busy area during the day as students cooled off inbetween classes, making it a very social place and a great way for me to get to know Tom's friends, who the majority of are his students. That night was the weekly football match with the students, ran by Tom at the local park, this week French vs rest-of-the-world. I was in goalie...haha..I haven't changed that much! It gave me a great chance to get to know some of the girls who had come along to watch their friends, Brazilians Issabella and Claudia and Frenchie Angeline, all who would become good Perth friends. After footy we headed out for a couple of drinks and although travelling/heat had tired me out it was the perfect night for me to get to know everyone. The girls were there and also several that would become familar faces, Spanish Juan (from the island of Majorca no less and also Tom's bezzie), French/Spanish Diego, Brazilians Gomez and Danilo and plenty of others.
Another day by the pool in 40c heat, spent the morning with Dutch twins Maria and Joanee and Swiss Italian Karin, and the afternoon with the locally known 'French Connection' named for how they all stick together and speak French when everyone else is trying to speak English. If I was in France and I knew a bunch of English people I'd be just as guilty, only problem is they are paying something like 6 grand just for the course fees, and by the time you've added your accommodation, flight and alcohol...you really want to come home speaking English! I attempted some French, but since I haven't spoken it for 8 years you can imagine how terrible it was. That evening I met another circle of Tom's friends at 'The Irish House' which suprisingly has some Irish people living there! Oh and possibly the only friendly Aussie I have met in three months, thanks Damo! Although strictly speaking he is from Tasmania. After a few drinks out on their veranda (which could only have been designed for copious amounts of pre-club-drinking with 20+ people) we hit 'The Deen.' Tom practically wet himself with excitement when he told me about this club, which he says is his favourite ever. Big statement. Known for it's Brazilian beats, live bands and party-goers from every corner of the world the club buzzed with energy.
The next day will make history. FACT. What happened on this day has never happened before and I highly expect it never to happen again. Most people are aware of my desert-training-survival, I can't help it my body just doesn't ask for water, ever. A running joke with friends is that one sip will quench my thirst all day. Well. This day I had the most insatiable thirst (continued heat and perhaps needed rehydrating from alittle vodka) and managed to consume five and a half litres. This is Unbelievable. I went to lunch at a small japanese cafe with Gomez, Claudia, Danilo, Issabella and Marco and left lunch with an invite to their Rottnest island adventure the next day. Claudia and Gomez took me to see Cottesloe Beach, a forty minute train ride away, which had the biggest waves, it was possible to swim past the break and feel the wave pick you up a couple of metres in the sway. That evening Tom was working at his local 'English Pub' The Elephant and Wheelbarrow (his Bournemouth pub was named The Goat and Tricycle, my bet if for The badger and Pedalo next) so Juan and Diego offered to cook dinner for me and we ate and had drinks with everyone by the pool till we were kicked out. General rule is any non-guests need to be out of the pool area by 9pm. Beacuse of the deal between EF school and the hostel (garruenteed students all year round) they can't kick anyone out so I can see how difficult it must be to enforce this, especially as half the students live in home stays up to an hour from town. This whole situation massively angers the night duty guy, who is possibly the most scary, Roald Dahl-esque character I have ever known. Tall and lanky with even lanker grey hair and an angry set face we would watch him storm around the pool till he stood at the head of the table, hands on hips, legs shoulder width apart. 'Who ever doesn't live here it was time to leave three hours ago, and I know who you are.... Stop having so much fun and making so much noise.' Eek. To be a regular occurance.
Rottnest Island was simply beautiful. There were a pretty big group of us that got the train up to Fremantle that morning where we took the ferry across. Due to our lack of booking Claudia, Danilo, Issabella and myself took a later boat and ended up spending the day together, meeting up with the others periodically throughout the day. This arrangement worked well with me as the bigger the group the less chance they would speak English (being a mix of Portugeuse and Spanish) and it gave me a chance to get to know my little group better. The only way to do Rottnest is to hire a bike and spend the day biking around the island, from bay to bay, snorkelling, sunbathing and enjoying the, as me and Danilo termed it, Blue-tiful views. I never knew the sea could contain so many brilliant blues. Is there a pantone called Rottnest? No didn't think so. But there is one called 'Morning Glory.' Hmm. Our worries that our lateness would leave us bikeless was laughed away when we walked into what they boast to be the biggest bikehire in the world, a sea of thousands! My head is stupidly small it seems so bike helmets (always compulsory when hiring) just sort of loll around on my head, I doubt they would protect me at all, which usually infuriates me all the more so, having to wear something that is both uncomfortable and useless. It was pure delight when I tried on one of their many sizes and it fit, so what if its 'small childs' and is covered in train cartoons?! With our snorkle gear strapped to the back of our no-gear-peddle-backwards-to-break (which I am becoming a dab hand at I must say) we were ready for the off. Ready Team? Discovered in 1696, the island was named after the common island 'bush rats' or Quokers, which we were lucky enough to see some of the friendly creatures that morning. Rottnest has very few cars and even fewer reisdetns making it the perfect 'overseas' holiday destination for Aussies. We spent a gorgeous day cycling up hills, hot and sweaty, and down, feet sticking out each side of course, whooping and loving the breeze, well if I am wearing a child's hat I best play the part. The temperature sat steadily over 38c all day, meaning our beach stops were not just out of enjoyment but totally essential to cool down and the water was so cool and refreshing after cycling in the strong rays. Danilo shared his music which set the feel for the day, I just love the sound and atmosphere to Brazilian music. A water fountain on the horizon at the end of the day looked better than gold, we raced toward it, and luckily it didn't dissapear like a mirage. A near perfect day.
What a way to top off an already great weekend, than with a music festival? Since becoming friends with Tom he certainly has increased my love for dance/trance music which I love him for because it's such a buzz! We started the day by cooking a typical English Breakfast for Diego, Juan and Claudia round at Tom's house. Tom asked Juan to pick up some beans on the way, a fantastic Brazilian/English communication error, he bought kidney beans! He was told baked beans are like the glue that holds the breakfast together and he took the butt of the jokes for the morning but they still seemed impressed by our nations brekky! We even had photos. With our stomachs filled (good job, it was the only meal we ate that day!) we took up residence at "The Irish House' with some cold beers, or in my case ciders, till mid afternoon when, as a 20 strong group of excited ravers we hit the festival! We danced the afternoon away, but the absolute highlight of all that is trance/letting go/dancing to the music/making friends due to my heart shaped sunglasses (people just luurve the sunnies) we danced hard core to a three hour Above and Beyond set. Was great to spend some time with Tommy because although I have been living in the same house and living his life for the past week, he's always working! So we raved it up hard to make up for it. Tom also started a song for Diego (who is one of my favourite people here) to the tune of 'there was a man who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o B I N G O. Only, you guessed it, He comes from france, he comes from Spain, Diego is his name-o...etc. Much hilarity and united feeling singing that all day! One of the best weekends ever. Love life.
With the temperature cooling down to 35c I thought it was about time I got my head out of the cider bottle/Billabong pool and explored Perth some more. I spent a few days visting some of the beaches including Scarborough beach, which along with Cottesloe and City Beach is one of the top three faves in Perth. It was a really pretty beach and I enjoyed a very relaxed day, even if the waves seemed a bit too big to negotiate! We had a night in with a film, Tom thinks it could be his first night in since he moved to Perth in September. It is completely beliveable, he is one of the most sociable people I know. A few days later I had a much needed wander around town, where I got chatted up twice because of my heart sunnies! Shame it wasn't a hottie. I also did a very naughty thing. I exchanged my travellers cheques for cash and...bought an Ipod. So technically it's free right...? Ever since mine got stolen I have been music-less and Danilo said he wouldn't mind uploading some Brazilian music for me. Total luxury item I know. As I strolled by the Quay I came across a pub Tom had mentioned "The Lucky Shag' and with it's wooden decking out onto the water it was pretty inviting. I spent a relaxed afternoon writing postcards, having a phone chat with the rentals and my brothers, and enjoying a pint of...Stowford Press Cider! I couldn't belive it! The last time I saw that cider I was in the smallest pub in england on some hill in Dorset, ahh lovely Square and Compass. A very content afternoon. That evening it was a mass birthday celebration for several students and so 40+ of us ate pizza, ate pasta, and drank wine. Thomas, a french lad who confirms all that we think of French being arogant (it's done tongue in cheek but we all know he thinks he's pretty perfect too!) was shocked how many names I knew, he pointed out student after student and I continually got the right name. Quite amusing how impressed he was at such a small thing. After dinner me, Diego and Tom went for a dance in 'The Deen' and this week was so much better than the previous week, with a live Brazilain band who were fantastic! Sarah they did a brazilian version of House of Pain, a la Mrs Doubtfire!
After lunch with my friends Angelo, Issabella and Danilo, me and Danilo spent the afternoon listening to music and transferring some to my brand spanking new Ipod. I felt so bad because it took forever but was so happy to have portable music once again, and he didn't seem to mind. Awesome. That evening we celebrated Diego's 21st birthday and Chilean Franchesca's leaving do. Tom was gutted to have to go to work, especially as one of his Uni mates had arrived in Perth that day. Nikki was one of very few English people I spoke to in those few weeks and although I had loved being around other nationalities, (that is why you go travelling after all and the east coast is full of pommes) it was great to just chat normally! By this point I had also made a good friend in Angeline, a beautiful and happy Swiss french girl and we, along with Nikki enjoyed the party together, amongst all my new friends. The evening's BBQ and drinks by the pool was raucaus from the start but the highlight came with the cakes. After fifty or more of us had sang Happy birthday me and Juan launched into a round of D I E G O!! Which everyone soon picked up! Another favourite song, and one that will forever remind me of Perth, especially now I know the words, is the spanish song that goes something like-a- Ba La La Ba La la Bamba... Soy capitain, Soy Capitain...not sure on the title but you will all know it. Diego made a speech, along the lines of 'Last night I had a dream, that all my friends were here celebrating my birthday, and it came true...' Followed by a humungous cheer and Diego going into Ba La La at the top of his lungs, and fifty merry friends following suit. Happy birthdays followed in Spanish, French etc. There must have been singing at the top of our lungs, and the most electric, united feel, for a good 45 minutes...que Roald Dahl baddie. I said oh sorry we're just happy, at which he turned to me and said 'I know you don't live here so shut your mouth.' EEEK!!! The police were called apparently, but I was tucked up in bed before all that polava!
Spent a great day on the beach with Tommy, Angeline, Nikki and another friend of theirs who had moved to Perth. Really liked Nikki, we are each other's trips in reverse. I got excited that she was off to New Zealand and Fiji and she was elated for me that i was on my way to Asia. Perfect. Today was a big day though. One Styles sister becomes two!!!! We met Mel off the shuttle bus at Billabong Tom was the ultimate gent carrying her bag home, we went for dinner (possibly one of the best Spagetti bolognase, mmm) to catch up whilst Tommy went to work. She told me all about her trip to tasmania the previosu week, sounded amazing! Spent hours chatting, 5 months is along time apart.
Our last day in Perth, and what a way to go out with a bang! Tommy was keen to go to some beach party he had heard about, which sounded like the perfect plan, so me, Melly, Nikki and Tommy caught the train up to Joondalup. As I have mentioned there are only the three main beaches that ever really get mentioned in Perth but Tom assured us it was just a lesser known one. Lesser known translates to a pub with a sand filled beer garden and a bikini competition! A fantastic accident! Good work Tommy! So we thought were here, it's taken us an hour by walking and train, that's probably the longest I've ever travelled for a pub, so let's make it count. Round one, Four ciders please. We arrived at lunchtime ready for a day at the beach but it turned out to be a perfect way to spend a sunday afternoon. We all got on so well, think alot of Nikki, and of course having my sis and one of my bezzie mates there was fab. Nikki wants to be a fashion buyer, had a really interesting talk about all things fashion and I realised I had completely disregarded working in that area again. Our discussion made me see nothing is a full stop. Who knows. We were joined mid afternoon by Diego, Juan and co, great last day for me to say goodbye to everyone. Oh and our vote went to Miss Honolulu.
Once upon a time there was a Spanish boy and a Chilien girl who studied English in Perth, after three months of sparks a romance finally blossomed. (why does it always happen at the end..?) They soon became inseperable.
During this time Girl's home country was devastated by a hurricane, and with communicattion limited she spent a distressing 24 hours before hearing her immediate family were alive, but not knowing the fate of her extended family. Boy and Girl bonded even more in this time as Boy supported and comforted Girl. Soon it was time for Girl to leave for her planned 10 days exporing the east coast of Australia before flying home to Chili, unlikely to see Boy again.
Boy was red eyed, tearful and heart broken.
Girl arrived in Sydney. Girl missed Boy. Girl decided she would rather spend her last ten days with her friends in Perth, and as we know the real reason, with her Boy. Girl books next flight back as soon as plane lands!
Boy is woken at 8am by a knock at the door. It is Girl! Ahhhh! He is in shock, but so very happy. They spend a sun shining week together before they say their real goodbyes, more tears and no knock at the door this time. As boy said, will I ever meet a girl that would fly back from another city just for me? That has to be love.
Isn't that gorgeous? I can believe in love you see, point proven. I hope you liked my story.
I was grateful for my flights more forgiving hour of midday, after hearing Mel gathering her bags at 4am! I said to Tom, 'I'll see you at Full Moon Party then.' He said it sound ss funny, people normally say 'I'll see you at home,' or 'meet you at the shop in 10.' I said that's just our lives at the moment! Once I'd landed I took the shuttle into town to meet mel at our hotel Park Royal on Beach road. I thought it was swiiish! Mel was in work mode though and wasn't overly impressed. What the hell, we took advantage of the buffet at dinner, which turned into a taste/test session of trying to identify the flavours/meats/squishy bits...this pudding is hideous what's that flavour, onion? Apparently it's the Asian fruit Durien, an interesting taste.
Stuck to fruit and made-while-you-wait pancakes instead of the array of noodles, chicken, seafood on offer at 8am. Plenty of time to fit in to local ways. It was raining cats and dogs as the rentals would say. We visited the colonial Raffles hotel, which according to my personal travel agent can reach up to 1000 pounds per night. Named after Sir Raffle who founded modern Singapore, the hotel was built at the end of the 19th century and has a museum, shops, art galleries and gardens on the first few levels open to the public. The Singapore Sling is a famous cherry flavoured cocktail which is apparently a must at Raffles. As we walked into the bar it was such a sight, every table full of middle aged English holiday makers with a red cocktail in their hand and 1000s of crushed peanut shells tossed on the floor (tradition apparently). I couldn't see a single other drink in the whole bar! We followed suit of course, at $25 it's the most expensive drink of my life I think. We took a stroll down by Clark Quay, which would be a lovely area to enjoy if it wasn't tumbling oceans down on us. Mel was in work mode so we visted a couple of hotels she sells regularly to see if they are any good, so she can sell them with first hand knowledge. How dedicated. Loved our personal tour of the hotels though!
The Night Safari is a very popular way to spend an evening in Singapore. The idea is that most animals are nocturnal so you get to see more of their natural behaviour as you ride through the undergrowth on the little train or walk along the trails. You do feel alittle too close to some animals at times, I swear that hyena could have made the jump across and he was staring right at me, eek. A really enjoyable few hours, once you adjusted to the odd feeling of walking around the dimly lit paths! Flying foxes are magical, they have no wings, just stretched skin between their feet and they can fling themselves 500m! That's half a kilometre, wowee! They had those tanks where you can get your feet cleaned by fish...Mel wanted to try it but we ran out of time. We did see a couple trying it at the end who said it felt very bizarre.
Well the time really has come to say goodbye. Melly is off to London and I am taking the short flight to bangkok, where I will be for a few days and a night before I am joined by my life-long friend Philippa. I feel alittle apprehensive about arriving on my own after the things you hear about Bangkok just being mental but here goes. Had a few tears as we said goodbye, which I blame Mel for! Big love sis, awesome adventure xx
Well hello there lovely blog readers. Please don’t feel I have deserted you all. It has been one busy month since I arrived in Thailand and when you are sitting comfortably, for I think it may be a long tale, I shall begin…
When I first arrived in Bangkok, after spending so long in Western countries, all my senses were heightened and easily amazed. The smells, sights and sounds of the well traveled Khao San road in the heart of Bangkok kept me easily entertained. My first taste of street food, Pad Thai (a bargainous 60 pence), my first experience of haggling when shopping (which just reminded me of the Eric Idle bit in one of the Monty Python films, ten points if you know), and Thankyou for pointing at the Tuk Tuk and telling me what it’s called, but No Thankyou, most kindly I don’t need one. Three, seven, twelve times over.
Perhaps the two strangest sights were the most western; watching a group of locals gather in the middle of the road to watch Liverpool vs Man United, and being rather bemused to see a full on punk, better suited to life on the Camden Bridge striding down Khao San.
Something that had been in the media in Australia before I left was the red shirt protests. It was all happening just one street away and was quite a sight, but it felt as if just you or me had popped on a red tee and gone down for a jolly, none of the violence that has hit the news the last few weeks. My great friend Philippa was due in the following evening and I had gone to wait for her in the same spot I had been dropped off at. With one text to say she had been dropped off elsewhere and was just walking blindly in what she hoped was the right direction, I turned back up the road not sure how to give directions I didn’t know, (and Bangkok is down right difficult to navigate!) Who do I see walking towards me in a flurry of (real) red hair, a big relieved smile and a tiny frame? Turns out Philippa’s airport bus had dropped her on the other side of the protest and said they couldn’t drive through; she had walked directly through it, unscathed of course.
With the two of us talking ten to the dozen (how old am I?) and 6 months to catch up on, we dumped the bags in our flash-packing hotel on the Khao San road and headed to a bar. Translated, bar actually means plastic stools on the pavement, cheap cocktails and a sign saying ‘No ID cards checked here.’ I think there’s a sign outside the Collier’s that says that too isn’t there?! I think we tried almost every cocktail on the menu, with no cider here it’s time to branch out hey? A very amused bar man suggested the sexual innuendo cocktails for us, one including the imaginatively named ‘Sex on the Khao San road.’
We started the morning, or was it afternoon, in a little restaurant I had discovered, where I had spent very relaxed breakfasts away from the hustle and bustle of Kha San. With low tables, big cushions and plenty of good food I felt like I had found a tranquil place for the less green traveler and I wanted to show Phil my find. We sat down to fresh apple juice and the biggest bowl of fresh fruit, musli and yoghurt, with plenty of entertainment on the alleyway in the form of a sashaying lady-boy!
After plenty of ‘helpful’ tuk tuk drivers standing over us as we tried to subtly re check our map, and ignoring their ‘No, no, no, it’s closed today, special day, I take you somewhere better…’ we made it to the Grand Palace, (which was open by the way). There’s no other word for it really, with it’s overwhelming gold buildings adorned with jewels on every inch and the Emerald Buddha (which they discovered later was actually jade, oops). We had to borrow some stylish shirts to cover our arms, out of respect, and after the last few days we were getting used to taking our shoes off before entering most buildings. We ended up having dinner in the same place we started the day at, Ethos. Unless you want to stand and eat street food, the restaurants don’t have a particularly relaxing environment on Khao San. We bumped into Laura, a lovely girl we had met in the bar the previous night and so the three of us sat down to dinner together. We headed home for an early night, but with all our chattering it was more like 3am before we got to bed!
We took a river boat down to china town where we ambled through the markets, tried to find a temple (hard to navigate I swear) and after a clueless tuk tuk driver took us back to the Grand Palace, gave up and caught our bus down to Koh Tao, one of the southern islands. Unfortunately the bus gave me high, and never met again, expectations, as it came with loads of room, reclining seats, air con and blankets…and a movie! After nine hours the entire busload of sleepy travelers was dropped at a bus stop in the middle of who-knows-where, where we waited, with alittle faith and alittle concern, before we were picked up one hour later and taken to the docks, where we again waited, for two hours, for the ferry. A bunch of lads had decided the best way to spend their waiting and all bought a bottle of Chang, local Thai beer, also rumoured to be made with elephant wee…ok I think that was a joke. We joined them and the two hours went by pretty quickly chatting to Jake, Nanna, Art and a few others. The three-hour boat ride passed in the same way, Art (Dutch guy with a crazy American accent) is a freelance artist something or other…but he basically does art programs for kids in schools etc, how much fun is that? He was coming south having done SE Asia so it was interesting talking to him about it all, got me excited for the next few months traveling! Jake was on a passport mission to Bangkok after having lost his and was returning to Koh Tao to wait for it to be resent. Nightmare.
We arrived at Koh Tao, a popular island for people to get their PADI diving certificate, which involves a three to five day course. We hadn’t booked accommodation and after 6 or 7 places offering us a room until they found out we weren’t diving (no time, money) and suddenly they were fully booked! We went and ate breakfast, sat crossed legged on cushions, whilst considering our options. Phil was undertsandably pretty concerned and I was just like ‘oh, it’ll work itself out.’ And low and behold it did! We settled into our boiling but lovely ‘bungalow’ cabin before exploring the beach and heading out for some drinks in ‘Bans’ with Art, Jake and his friend Charlie. The bars have cushions and low lying tables throughout, which usually spill out on to the sand, where you can sit and admire the skills of the fire Poi guys. There was a few of them up there on the shore, no big show, just continuous fire playing, one guy was mesmerizing as he danced to the music whilst throwing his fire around! There were a couple of kids as young as seven who were amazing. Later on that night a fire rope came out for limbo and ‘skipping rope’ games and all the men got up to prove their manliness of course. We finished the night at “lotus’ bar dancing our hearts out in the shallows.
After a few days spent in the similar pattern of beach, lazy afternoons in café’s sat crossed legged, on floor cushions, looking out at the bay, and evening’s taking advantage of the delicious cocktails on the beach with the lads, we decided it was about time we did something! With our snorkel trip booked for that morning we woke up to the strange sound of…tropical rain! We ran to our reception to check if it was still going ahead (in Aus, it would for sure, money, money, money) he looked at us as if we were mad, ‘yes, cancel! Take it easy!’ and a full refund. Lovely. I knew I would be meeting Charlotte and Rachel, my NZ and Aus travel friends at the Full Moon party on the next island the following day, but must have been fate our trip was cancelled as we walked right into them on Koh Tao. Ensue a lot of girly screaming and hugging and high pitched talking. A guy’s nightmare right? They had seen my facebook status three days before saying I was here and had been looking out for me! Rachel was on her way to get a tattoo! After traveling together for almost three months, I was so pleased to be there for the long awaited tattoo, which she had with traditional bamboo. It was amazing to watch the skilled Thai guy with this bamboo stick and a needle at the tip, directing it into her skin to create the most accurate design of a lizard. Later we went for dinner and drinks and generally caught up on our travels since we last saw each other. We saw Jake and Charlie at the bar and they took us to a ‘Flintstones’ bar, literally like being in a cave, so random!!
The next morning, I can safely say was the worst hangover/illness of my life. We had to check out at midday, and with Philippa’s phone still on English time she turned to me with a startled look on her face ‘it’s quarter to five!’ Fifteen minutes!! No time for shower. Clothes all over the place. Not packed. Head pounded. Stomach clenching. We raced down to reception to hand the key in, seeing as we could lock the door without the key, and came back up to finish packing. With our boat to Koh Phangan not until 3pm we had some time to kill. We sat on the veranda recovering from out sudden activity. Quite a while seem to pass, I checked the time. Philippa said ‘Quarter to five.’ And then we gave each other a very odd look! So much confusion, until I realized…British summer time has begun. We still lost our one hour in bed and we’re not even in the country!
After a very rough one and half hour boat ride to Koh Phangan we made it to our lovely bungalows (Tantawan Bungalows, highly recommended) on Haad yao beach. What a way to be greeted, with a ‘Hello gorgeous,’ and a big hug from one of my best mates, Tommy! After leaving him in Perth, he got a job starting in Cambodia three weeks later, so had travelled up from Kuala Lumpur, and we had arranged for him to stay with us for four days over Full Moon. It was fantastic to see him and the three of us spent a very chilled evening in a restaurant down by the sea, where me and Philly ate for the first time that day. I still think it was sickness, not hangover!!
The next day we took in our surroundings alittle bit more over breakfast with Charlotte and Rachel, the ones who had originally found this haven. The lush blue swimming pool, the hammocks, and the wooden bungalows dotted across the hill with their verandas looking out over the sea. People had said Koh Phangan was the party island, but only if you stay near the party! On the west side, there were beautiful beaches, lovely restaurants and a chilled out atmosphere, which was just what we needed after our partying at Koh Tao. Down on an almost deserted beach later that day as we were sunbathing, a wedding took place! It was a really beautiful setting but we felt a little bad for intruding, and for the terrible choice in music. Who would have Tio Cruise?! That night we decided to experience some Thai culture by going to the highly anticipated local Thai Boxing! It was such an experience, and once you got over the whole fighting part the whole tradition of the praying and the good nature of the boxers made it.
Full Moon Party!!!! You hear some pretty mental things about Full Moon parties which I can talk about now that I have survived it, no worries there Ma and Pa! General stories involve a lot of alcohol, easy access to drugs (which can sometimes be a scam to get you arrested, off you go to a Thai jail while the police pay off the dealer) lots of travelers in one place and plenty of people ready to mug you off. Combine that with a pretty rough and rocky sea and you can see why some people steer clear of it. But I wonder what the ‘horror’ stories to some festivals would be, or what the Lonely Planet might say about the safety of London? The bottom line is have fun, party hard but don’t be an idiot! I did have to move a guy who had passed out on the shore before the water reached his neck. Idiot. Don’t take anything with you that is valuable. You hear stories of people getting their passports stolen, one, they are usually the guy passed out on the beach, and two, why take your passport?! Idiot. Despite having common sense all the stories had us all expecting the worst. Jake and Charlie were coming over and we offered them a space to keep their stuff and a room for the night, more the merrier. So our happy little rave group now consisted of four of my close friends in Phil, Tom, Charl and Rach and two new friends in Jake and Charlie.
I had been feeling particularly un-rave-like earlier in the day, a little teary for some reason. When I stumped my toe on a cement step (almost broke I swear, the pain lasted a week!) the tears trickled out. Tom said he fancied going for a wander and I asked to come along. Being a boy, tears make him nervous, so he said ‘Only if you stop crying!’ We walked down by the water and went for some food in one of the chilled out restaurants, taking up some cushions that faced the waters edge. When the waiter came round, before I could get a word in Tom had ordered me a cocktail. Tom’s motto is ‘If in doubt, Stomp it out.’ This basically means if your feeling abit tired/sad/lame just get over it and dance harder! It was just the attitude I needed and after a few hours we returned, having acquired Jake and Charlie who were grabbing some dinner too, ready to party! The seven of us chilled out on our veranda, having some drinks and getting our outfits ready. Mine was a guy’s ‘full moon’ t-shirt I had bought earlier that day, which I had cut the sleeves off to make into a dress. On the way to Haad Rin, the beach where the party is held, we all piled into the taxi (this particular one had no seats just one big space on the back of the truck) where Tom launched into a round of ‘I am the music man…’ which kept us all entertained for the forty minute ride! On arrival we took advantage of the UV paints and all got to work covering each other in flowers, hearts, and in Tom’s case branding my leg with LFC. I didn’t realise till later on...of course Liverpool Football Club. Are you proud Pete? The night was of course fantastic as we worked our way down from drum n base to trance to cheese. We managed to see almost everyone we knew from travels; Simon from Fraser island, Mike and Dax, Laurie’s friends who had cooked us up a bbq in Melbourne, Nanna, from the ferry in Koh Tao, Lizzie and Katie, two girls I sailed with in Fiji, the only person we didn’t bump into was Art. Pretty good for a beach of thousands hey?! As the light came up we all got a new lease of life and didn’t make it back to the bungalow til 9am, where we all dived into the swimming pool to cool off. Impressive that we made it all the way through without losing any of our number, although I think that may have alittle to do with some us being more sober/aware than others! Brilliant, brilliant night. Unforgettable.
We all chilled out for the day, tried to catch up on sleep and went for a lazy lunch down on the beach. Floating in the ocean has got to be one of the best feelings. Content.
Time to leave the islands on the east coast and trek over to the west, to Koh Phi Phi, known for it’s beautiful beaches and it’s amazing recovery after the 2004 Boxing day Tsunami. The nausea that had plagued me since I arrived in Thailand really gave me a tough time on Koh Phi Phi, and if I hadn’t been with Phil I probably would have done my standard thing of ‘I’m not ill.’ But with a nurse around I actually made it to the pharmacy, even though I hated admitting I wasn’t well. When Philippa first arrived I laughed at the size of the first aid kit she bought along, I said I haven’t used mine in 5 months around the world. I ate my words. A combination of lots of injuries needing bandages (mainly the boys!) and actually knowing what the stuff does! I don’t know what to use Savlon for!?! Anyway. Ignoring that I felt like throwing up at regular intervals throughout the day/night, I was fairly confident I wasn’t going to (more frustrating I think!) and we spent the day on a long boat, snorkeling around the island. We were taken to several near by islands including Mosquito Island (don’t want to be there when the sun goes down), Monkey beach (they can get viscous you know!!) and Maya beach, the filming location of ‘The Beach’ and absolutely stunning. It’s not just the golden sands that make it beautiful; it’s the dramatic, volcanic cliffs and islands jutting out of the ocean. Breath taking really. After watching the sunset from the boat we headed in land. No sharks, but plenty of amazing schools of fish and some beautiful purple anemones.
Koh Phi Phi is shaped alittle like a concave egg timer- the ends being rocky, mountainous and overlooking the village and beaches in the middle. We took the steep, and tough (for a nauseous girl!) steps/hills up to the viewpoint, following genuine signs for ‘Tsunami evacuation point.’ At the top was a photo taken after the Tsunami had hit and it was so hard to look out to the horizon and imagine the terror that the island must have felt as they could see what was happening. It hit from both sides of the island with a 6.5 metre wave on one side and 2 metre on the other. 70 % of the buildings had been destroyed, 850 bodies had been recovered, 1,200 people were still missing and 104 surviving children were missing one or both their parents. 18 months after the wave had hit, 23,000 tonnes of debris had been removed, mainly by hand (as to look for passports and ID) and the hotel rooms were open to tourist again. As we sat on the beach waiting for our ferry to leave, people began running from the sea and beach, shouting, grabbing their things and heading for cover. They had seen a very unusual sight, literally a grey ‘swarm’ of rain moving along the beach. It made me think about that moment, sitting in the sunshine and looking out to sea on Boxing day, six years ago.
The islands in south Thailand have been a great introduction to the country, I’ve been so lucky to have so many people around me that I care about, met some great new people and adjusted to the new culture. Next stop is Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai.
After two buses, a stop over in Bangkok, almost being left behind by our local bus after a toilet stop in the middle of nowhere and 29 hours of traveling, we made it to Chiang Mai! Ten days of fan rooms and boiling hot nights had led us to splash out on an aircon room, and it was beautiful! If the islands were about chilling out, catching up and partying then Chaing Mai was our cultural, busy, achieving time.
The first day we walked around the city, adjusting to our new home and visiting several near by temples, the Three Kings statue and the Chiang Mai cultural centre. It was quite hard to take in any information there though due to the way it was presented so I said as long as you can take home one piece of information you’ve learnt something! Ready? Chiang Mai was founded by King Mungrai in 1296 as the head of Lanna Kingdom. Boom. After being all cultural…we went to the zoo!! It was the first time I have seen a Panda in real life and I imagined them to be very docile and unenergetic. Couldn’t be more wrong! He was so playful, running around his enclosure, getting stuck in the rope ladder and generally entertaining his guests. And there was a baby!! I think Chiang Mai Zoo is doing something right hey?
With our most helpful (and bargainous) tuktuk driver taking us from place to place (love Thailand) we had a full day of sight seeing, starting the day with the highest temple in Thailand, Doi Suthep, with 306 steps!! They let a white elephant wander into the hills and where it died is where the temple was built…something like that anyway. We had wanted to go to Tiger Kingdom, where people can sit with fully-grown animals but were feeling unsure, surely they are drugged? When we arrived the animals seemed lively and content when they weren’t sleeping in the heat, so we felt more assured. The idea of sitting by the side of a fully grown male tiger for a photo, however hand-reared it may be, is not something we were too keen on. There was a sign saying ‘Do the tiger’s bite?’ and the answer was well of course they bloody do! Just be sensible. Sensible for us was going to see the baby cubs! Ahhh. They were so lovely and it was amazing feeling to be sat stroking what you could let yourself believe were just domestic cats, just the most beautiful you have ever seen. After a quick stop at the Orchid farm, which if it had been in season would have been an amazing sight. I hadn’t rang home for while, but I had been feeling alittle homesick so wasn’t sure whether I should. Talking about home and familiar people with Philippa, and Mel before that, had got me thinking a lot more about life when I get back and all the people I miss. I rang home and with no answer I rang Mel’s mobile. She said ‘We were just talking about you! Me and Bec are picking Richie up from Spokes and he’s awarding points. Me, 10 points, Bec, no points.’ Everytime! Poor Bec. I give her 100 points. Apparently I got 101 points. Mel said ‘But Bec came to pick you up and Ashulee’s not even here?!’ His answer was ‘My birthday.’ When I left England I told Richie I would be gone 8 months and to give him an idea of time I said I would be back for his birthday. Everytime I speak to him on the phone all he wants to hear is that I will be there for his birthday, then he tells me he loves me and hands the phone to someone else. It made me feel homesick but happy to hear the banter.
Mahout elephant training day has got to be one of those days I will remember forever. ‘First one’ has he introduced himself was our charismatic, joker of a tour guide who took us to a market to pick up some fruit for the elephants and gave us our ‘mahout’ (elephant trainer) outfits. First one took us to the ‘classroom,’ a dirt area away from the main camp with two elephants, Mai-bun and Sung-Si and a seven-month old baby called James Bond, because he is so badly behaved! Richie- an elephant called Bond, how fantastic?! James Bond will stay with his mum for up to three years and as a wild animals would live up to 150 years, less for a working animal. Many of the elephant camps in Asia are set up because it’s not possible for elephants to roam free in the same way as African Elephants do as there is so much farm land here. In northern Thailand many camps are filled with the ‘ex-employees’ of the wood trade in the jungles that has now ceased to continue. As First-one pointed out a life in tourism is a pretty easy life for an elephant, being fed plenty, taking a few walks a day and not having to lug any heavy logs around. Before we learnt how to get on the elephants we fed them plenty of bananas, watermelon and pineapple (no skin for baby) and went over our Thai language including ‘Yood’ for stop, very important. We learnt three way to get on, the main way is to tap their front leg, then with your right hand holding on to the top of their ear and your left hand holding on to their tough skin, you put your foot on to their leg and ask them ‘sung’ (higher) and they raise their leg. Magic. Well it also included a bit of scrambling up there as we aren’t that tall! Wow it felt high up! Knees tucked behind the ears, catch the banana bunch First one throws and feed your elephant to say thanks. The second way is used mainly by pro’s and that’s by the head! You ask them to drop their head and you lie on it, then they bring it back up and you have to sort of slide down their neck and then turn around. Bit tricky as you can imagine. The third way is to ask the elephant to lie down, which is then easy enough to climb on, but it’s not easy for them, being so heavy, so they tend not to use that way regularly. We had paid for a two/per elephant day, but seeing as we the only two there we got to take one each. The only thing I had been concerned about when we booked the trip was not feeling safe on the animal, or having no control. Having rode ponies all my life I feel I have experience with animal behaviour and awareness for when something isn’t right. That afternoon I had to ride the mamma and it was very different to the morning session. I was very aware of her protective feeling toward her baby, who trotted along next to us as we wandered into the jungle. Not having a mahout on the elephant with me like Phil, and being on a different, protective mamma animal made me start to feel alittle unsettled. We took them into the water, washing the animals to cool them down. After that we walked into a clearing to give them time to eat, a lot! The mahout walked along next to us looking out for both mum and baby, playing with the baby and messing around. Mamma stamped her feet and flapped her ears and if I’m honest I really wasn’t in my comfort zone at that point! My mahout didn’t speak any English either so when I tried to ask him anything he couldn’t answer me, which only added to the feeling of insecurity. My elephant didn’t really listen to any of my Thai language, like go or stop (!) so I stuck to leg aids, elephant skin is abit tougher than horses but with a lot of effort she did seem to pay abit more attention to that. After that, we took them for a mud bath which turned into a mud fight with us and the mahouts, making for a fun end to the day.
The next day we took a trip up through the mountains to the small, hippy town of Pai. We climbed to the top of another temple (I may be templed out soon, need to save myself for Angkor Wat!) and watched the sunset behind the mountains. The next day after a relaxed lunch by the river, we went up to the hot springs, which were in the middle of the forest and just the most beautiful, tranquil place. The top pool reached 80 degrees, they had one little sign saying ‘No swimming’ (!) and another saying ‘No boil egg.’ There were remains of eggs around the edge of the pool. We followed the stream down as it fell into pools and tiny waterfalls until the temperature was cool enough to swim in. Cool enough was still more like forty degrees though, I could barely stand it! After having cold showers for the last six months, sitting in hot water was just the oddest feeling. It really was just the most beautiful surroundings, butterflies and dragonflies darting over the water, the trees shading us from the heat of the sun and not a soul around.
After three weeks in Thailand and with no excuses left (sunburn, illness..) it was time for a traditional Thai massage. It was amazing how systematic they were, every part of your body was manipulated, worked into, stretched. It made me realise how much tension I have in my body, it seemed that with almost every touch she managed to catch a nerve somewhere. I kept quiet as I thought this will do me some good in the long run but oouuuch!! That evening we wandered the streets of the night market, held once a week right ouside our hotel, the stalls unfold for miles, down every tiny street and around every corner, selling beautifully hand crafted items. You know it’s a good market when most of the customers are locals! It started very relaxed but as the hours passed we were beginning to get trapped in the cattle herding crowds and I was grateful to get out several hours later!
Time to cook! Everyone always raves about Thai cooking courses so we though we best book one up. ‘Thai farm’ took us out to their organic ‘farm’ (small holding mel!) away from the greyness of the city and after a stop at the market to pick up our ingredients we arrived. Max, our chef, was fantastic, he thought he was literally hilarious, laughing uncontrollably at every joke he made, which made us all laugh, making him laugh even more. He kept saying if something was a good idea it was the Thai way, or ‘Easy way.’ Made me think of Richie everytime as he always answers ‘easyway’ if you ask why he is doing something that way. So logical. At one point I said You’re crazy max,’ he replied with a slight pout and alittle hurt in his face, “No, I funny.’ We all reassured him of course. What a cutie! Max took us around the ‘farm’ and talked to us about the fruit, vegetables and herbs that were being grown. If there is a heaven I think it might smell like lemongrass. Mmmm. We had a great group of people, one of the girls Johanna had just come from six months working in an orphanage in Bangladesh. It sounded like such an amazing experience and made me think about whether it would be something I could do when I go to South America. She said the children often get sponsers-for-life who come and visit, pay for school etc. I said ‘Do they ever want to adopt?’ She answered ‘All the time, but the government would rather have a dead muslim than a live Christian. There are so many people in Bangladesh no-one is going to notice if a few children dissapear.’ It made me feel so angry and sad.
We spent the day learning several traditional dishes, mine were yellow curry, tom yum soup, chicken cashew nut, pad thai and mango with sticky rice. Once I’ve had my fix of wester food and feel like eating rice again I’ll cook for you when I’m home.
April 13th-16th is an important time in Thailand. It is the Thai New Year. Traditionally, part of the New Year is a time to give thanks to the elders in your life, similarly to a western Mother’s Day, taking water to them. This has developed over the years and now the main celebration comes in the form of one week long, national waterfight! It is like nothing I have ever experienced, or will experience in my life again. As we drove back into town, after our cooking day, our open truck was bombarded with water pistols, buckets of water, and worst of all ICE water! The moat around the old city makes for a perfect never ending water source and the roads near by were full of water fighters from 9am-10pm. There was no way you could stay dry, tuk tuk drivers, moped riders, westerner’s inparticular. Without any weapons to defend ourselves we just embraced it, it was such a unique experience. Although one of the American’s sat by the open door did get the worst of it.
The next morning we set off on our two day trek up into the jungle. As we picked up our group and started to drive out of the city we saw it wasn’t just around the moat that the water fighting was centred. Every house on the side of the road had a bunch of children/ teens/students gathered on the roadside, targetting every vehicle that drove by, and most of these lot had power hoses! Staying dry that week wasn’t really an option! Our trek started with an hour long bamboo rafting down the (very low) river, as we turned the first corner we saw what our hour would entail, hundreds of Thai’s lining the river’s edge with buckets, pistols and big grins. Possibly the most hilarious hour of my life as we engaged in the biggest waterfight possible. Their faces were a picture the first time a very dry guy sat on the side pistolling me, I jumped off my raft, waded over and started soaking him with river water, all the Thai guys around him laughed as I won victoriously! After that I didn’t both staying on the raft and had some brilliant battles with all the thai’s around me, all in good spirit and finishing with ‘Sawadee Phi Mai’ Happy New Year. Fantastic.
After that we started our trek which was quite hideous for the first hour, up hill, and I mean up hill. Through rice paddies (dry!), over rickety bamboo bridges, but mainly just up. Our tour guide seemed to forget we weren’t used to the heat and probably weren’t as fit as him so stopped about twice in three hours. When we made it to that waterfall we were all so happy, it was so cold and refreshing. Aside from the struggle it was a beautiful environment, with all the rice fields, cattle and views for miles. We even had to walk trhough a bush fire at one point, Ray our guide just picked out a path that wasn’t on fire and we traipsed through the ash. Another hour and we made it to our village for the night, with no electricity we were all sat in candle light by 7pm, playing games and bonded over the toughness of our trek, that I reminded everyone we did actually all pay to do and now were complaining about!! We all slept under one large mozzie net in a sort of open wooden barn, not a single mozzie bite the next day, but 30 from one night in a hotel?! The next day was alittle bit more relaxed as we walked the half hour to another waterfall for swimming and then onto the elephant camp for an hours ride. I am so glad we did our elephant training day because if this had been my only elephant experience it would have been alittle dissapointing. When you sit in the seat you could be sat anywhere, anywhere rocky and unstable, but still, there’s no interaction with the animal really. They were still beautiful and we got to feed them but it didn’t compare to our day! There had been a VIP group of trekkers just behind us on our trip, who had a minibus (so didn’t get soaked everytime they drove anywhere) imagine our delight when they had boarded their elephants and the mahouts took them over the the water cooler where the elephants began snorting water all over themselves, and the VIPs to cool down. Shrieks a plenty! There is no avoiding Songkran, New year.
After a brilliant three and a half weeks it’s time for me to leave Chaing Mai and Philippa and head to Laos. It’s been an amazing time and we have done just so many unbelievable things that will stay with me forever. But it is time to leave the comfort of a best friend and head out on my own again…
After spending two weeks with my close friend Tom in Perth, two weeks with my sister Mel and three weeks with one of my best friends Philippa, it was finally time to head out again on my own. I am so glad I got to share part of my trip with people I love but I left England as a solo traveler and so it is only right I should finish my trip in the same way. I left Philippa with a hug and a 'See you next week,' always the easier goodbye, if a lie. My transport to the bus terminal arrived and I drove through the streets of Chiang Mai for the last time, on the back of a motorbike, clutching my bags and relieved the New Year waterfights would not be breaking out for another hour. The journey across the laos border and into the realitively small (but not for Laos) town of Luang Prabang would take us three days, one to reach the border and two on the apparently-awful-but-once-you-made-it-great-experience two day slow boat. It is possible all the 'bad luck' I ever, and hopefully will ever have traveling, happening in this small three day period.
My Round The World plane ticket had just once journey left, to London, Heathrow, provisionally booked for one month after I had arrived in Thailand to avoid any visa issues. My only job (and I don't have many whilst traveling) was to change this flight via Quantas at some point, with 21st April burned on my brain, and my arrival date into Luang Prabang set for 17th it seemed ideal- no issues at the border and plenty of time to change my flight. But to when? Deciding was to actually give myself a home date, something I had avoided for the last 6 months quite successfully, therefor puting off any real life and continuing in the protective travel bubble. (Where am I going to work? Which path do I want my life/career/soul to take? Where should I live? What is important to me? When will I admit the idea of a boyfriend isn't quite so terrible? This all sounds like way to much to think about, maybe I'll just save up and pick a new country to travel next, yes I like that plan. Oh and I think I'm delerious, scrap that boyfriend comment.) How long did I realistically need to complete the last three countries? With all these thoughts you can understand how easily I put off making a decision.
After dinner at our hotel on the Thai/Laos border, with my new bus full of travelers I headed to an internet cafe, logged onto my Trailfinders page and stared at the screen with absolute stillness, shock and disbelief. My flight to London, Heathrow was booked for 14th April, not 21st, and with the date that day being 15th it seems I had missed it. Insert expletive. How had I let this happen? How had I not checked this a thousand times? With the type of ticket I have I was fully aware this tiny error was actually going to have a not so tiny effect on my bank balance. Or maybe I could just live in Asia? With no phones, phone cards, or helpful people I reluctantly returned to the hotel and accepted there was very little I could do until my arrival in Luang Prabang two days later. Sticking my head in the sand actually seemed like a nice escape from the ridiculously self-inflicted situation I had found myself in. As I walked back along the main road, I suddenly felt very alone. Although not late, the darkness made me feel very aware of being alone and once back in my decidedly shabby/insect littered hotel room I thought of the flash-packing aircon/clean room Philippa and I had made our home over the last week. Perfect timing for a lovely text from her.
Breakfast was spent having a very confusing conversation with the aggressive hostel owner as she sorted out our Laos visas. Second piece of bad luck as I realised my emergency US Dollars and Pounds were no longer in my bag, I couldn't even think when they could have been taken. I no longer had the $35 I needed for my visa, I sat torn between racing to the ATM ten minutes away or hoping we would pass one on the way. As the minutes ticked by I told my new travelers to make sure they told the taxi to wait and started to make it down the road. The crazy owner drove past me (on her way from doing visa stuff) on her moped and shouted 'Dollars' at me until I explained that yes I had thought so too but now I had none. She sent me back to the hostel and lent me a bicycle (taking me on her moped obviously wasn't an option!) so I biked what would have taken at least 10 minutes to walk and found the beautiful, magical, saviour ATM. Of course my bank card didn't work. Naturally. After a no-option credit card withdrawal (Agghhh, please don't charge me too much) I made it back to hostel and the 9 of us plus luggage climbed into the truck and went down to the river. After crossing the river, into Laos, we spent what felt like two years sorting out visas/passports/stamps (the biggest and most shiney in my whole passport) we were then told the slow boat would not be running as there were not enough people so the only option was a 16 hour local bus. We were took to the bus stop with three hours to spare and sat getting to know each other and watching as our bus filled up with locals (choosing to sit for those three hours in their non-aircon seats), rice bags under the seats, luggage on the roof and monks sat on plastic stools in the ailse. With one final attack of New Year water from some drunk westerners (that then turned out to be on our bus) we sat, soggy (thank you so much) ready for our 16 hour journey. No biggie right? Twenty nine hours in Thailand spits on this journey. Or so I thought. Without doubt, to date, the worst journey I have ever had. Ever. I am a pretty accepting person but it was a struggle! The best parts of the roads resembled our farm lane and we only had the pleasure of those for three of the sixteen hours, so you can imagine what the rest were like. Windows open to stop us bursting into flames, but with the cool wind, came the dust. At one point I heard a large bang underneath me, which I have got to say made me jump so much (!), but just a burst tyre. Once that was fixed (with the saddest looking spare tyre I have ever seen) we continued through middle-of-no-where. One of the girls next to me asked 'How are you sleeping?' I replied 'Determination.' I had only taken out enough money on my credit card for the visa and realised once on the bus I would not be eating that day! On the brighter side we drove through beautiful countryside, gorgeous remote villages with children playing and chickens (skinny, skinny) roaming. You could get lost in a trail of thoughts taking you from tree to tree and hut to hut, until of course you were interrupted by the bus horn every 60 seconds. I think there is a speaker inside the bus. Anyway we made it. At 4am. In the rain. With only one hostel open. Two rooms. Three single beds. One Double. Nine people. One spider. Several cockroaches. Suck it up.
The following morning I took a walk into town and checked my emails, hoping for a reply to my 'panic panic help me help me' email to my sister regarding my almightly mess of flights. The reply, rightly deserved, was a pretty pissed of, 'I told you to sort this out before, ring Quantas! I am busy with all the ash.' Not entirely sure what she was referring to I walked to the ATM feeling abit sorry for myself, and as the final straw of bad luck, slipped over in the rain! I couldn't help smiling at how ridiculous I must have looked and promised to myself that was the last bit of crappiness I would be having. On return to the hotel, two Swedish girls Ebba (yes, pronounced like the band, fantastically) and Sarah and two English girls Helena and Olivia, short on time had booked the next part of thier journey onto Vang Vieng (home to the famous tubing, more on that later). It was a shame as out of the group they were the people's company I had enjoyed the most, but I wanted a few days to chill out and enjoy Luang Prabang. The rest of us, unaminously decided to change hotels and found our way into the Old Town, home to many more backpackers and a french, relaxed, cafe type feel. Time to ring Quantas. I rang the Hong Kong Office, as by chance a man before me was calling and had the number, and explained my situation as politely as I could. The lovelist, most fantastic Chinese man of all time told me he could change me flight on my old ticket, yes, even though I had missed my flight, and no it would not cost me any money, yes I am sure. After a few heart stopping 'Computer says No' moments where he told me 'The system is having trouble processing it.' And I thought yeah, without my credit card details! But. It went through! I am officially the luckiest lady alive. I say I am laid back but I know now I am just down right disorganised. Moral of the story, it always works out in the end!
Sharing a room with the most miserable dutch guy ('I don't like to read.' 'I don't like to see the cultural things in countries.' We'll get on swell.) and spending time with nice enough but for no longer than a three day journey girls, breakfast felt somewhat trapped for me, or maybe it was the smoke wall surrounding me from their cigerettes. 'Do you mind if I smoke?' With the lighter already out. I'm thinking 'Yes I mind, I am eating my breakfast as you can see.' I say 'No problem' because for some reason it would make me the one being awkward saying 'Yes.' Just wait five minutes!!! Sorry, this is pent up fustration from all of Asia- I believe I am the only person here who does not smoke, social smoke or 'Oh it's only since I have been in Asia.' Get it out of my face. Ok rant over. As I was losing all faith in ever meeting someone interesting (slightly dramastic after three days I know) an Irish girls asked to join us. After the others had left Aoife and I sat chatting in the cafe for the rest of the morning, laughing and just getting-each-other, which was such a relief. She would be in Vang Vieng a few days after me and I felt my traveling community was starting to build. Me and Dutch-misery left that afternoon on the seven hour bus to Vang Vieng and as the minibus filled up with travelers I was in my element around funny, interesting and sociable people! Three New York Doctors and two Kiwi''s were the main contributers to a sociable journey, and despite the sheer mountain drops, no fences and no appreciation for sticking to the right side of the road on all blind corners (why bother when a horn is so effective), oh and the best noddle soup ever in some shack in the middle of the mountains, we made it to Vang Vieng. After checking into a hostel (2 or three person Guest rooms are more standard so a dormitory is a find!) which already had several residents (gotta love those cockroaches, but for less than $2 I was exstatic) we found a restaurant for dinner. Vang Vieng sits by the river and is made up mostly of comfy, cusions strewn restaurants with Friends, Family Guy or Simpsons playing and travelers hungover and/or chilling out after a day at the river with some good food. Just as we were ordering I saw the two Swedes and two English girls across the road, always lovely to see familiar faces. They joined us for dinner along with their new friends, two Swedish guys William and Felix. The six of them were like a blonde, tanned, perfect advert for Sweden. Later we started in 'Q bar' for drinks and I spotted the New Yorkers from the bus, and with two more guys Benji and Toby (managed to be into their third week in Vang Vieng) and a few bar men joining us our 'group' was forming. A very energetic round of drinking games (in which others seemd to inhale up to six buckets and I quietly managed to sip away on one all night) and everyone began bonding! The first thing that dissapointed me about it all, but was also I suppose obvious, was how much the men talked to the girls they were trying to (whats the poilte way to say it?) well, let's just say I had got so used to talking to anyone and everyone whilst traveling, without agenda, that to be surrounded by blonde beauties attracting alot of male attention not just for their conversation was abit different. Vang Vieng is definitely something of a party town and I loved that, but the whole judging on looks definitely knocked my confidence for a while!
As the days rolled by we started to establish a routine, river by day, shower, dinner, drinks at 'Q bar' and then onto 'Bucket bar' for dancing, 'Limbo bar' for crazy people wanting to limbo the fire rope and finishing off with 'Rock bar' dancing out hearts out to some long forgotton tunes by Artic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and the Killers. Our first day down at the river ended up being a decent sized group, with most of the people from the night before making it for breakfast at the agreed time of 1pm (!) and after a ride in the worlds smallest tuk tuk we piled out and jumped right into the cool water. Back up actually. My first thought was oh wow there are those water spiders they have on 'I'm a Celebrity..' and I always used to scream and turn away from the tv. I realised they were mainly gathering by the 'shore' so i jumped past them and forgot all about them. Progress!! I didn't hold those tarantula's for nothing. Whoop. The idea is you take a tube and float down the river, being pulled in to bar's along the way by guys throwing out ropes to catch. It's amazing how little control you have sat in a tube. But for now, with not quite enough time to float to the 'end' we decided to just swim. As you sit on the bar decking, surrounded by travelers drinking their free shots and not-so-free buckets, looking out at the river, the mountains in the background and the deathly swings, slides and zipwires into the murkey waters it's amost laughable. It really is the most dangerous idea. Let's get drunk, swim down a fast flowing river, swing out and drop into water that might or might not have rocks beneath it. Yeah!! Or not. One of the New York Doctors Jonathon asked if I was going to do the swing. I said it looks horrific. I hate that stomach dropping sensation. He agreed. Moment later his two mates, with him tailing behind, were up on the platfrom jumping. Afterwards he asked again if I was going to do it, I said 'I'm not a man, I don't have to prove myself to my mates!' He laughed, 'Yeah they do it, I can't not do it.' As the days went by and I sat there in the sunshine, watching normal girls like me, crazy adreneline guys with their triple backflips and all my friends doing the swings I thought, 'If I was in New Zealand would I have pushed myself more?' I am so much more mellow at this stage of my travels, I don't feel the need to prove to myself I can do it. If the swing went into a clear, deep swimming pool, I would still have to push myself so much, it was high! But everytime I thought about how much of it was fear related it didn't matter. When I left home Mum said to be (knowing how wimpish I can be, and how it fustrates me) 'Don't push yourself to do everything, assuming you are afraid, if it seems unsafe maybe it is. Please just risk assess.' I thought of those words everytime I waited for someone to come back up to the surface. I felt content watching, people tried to encourage me, but I realised I really am very self assured sometimes. It just didn't bother me. I thought will I feel fustrated with myself for not having done it when I leave but I didn't think I would. Ebba said to me 'It's so cool, you don't ever feel pressured to do anything you don't want.' I watched as a girl from another group went up their to just 'see' (something I had contemplated) and then as she backed away, realising it was too high for her, her group of travel 'friends' started chanting 'Do it!' over and over, until the entire bar joined in. It was quite sweet because a guy offered to go with her and they swing out together and dropped into the water, afterward I asked how it was and she replied "Horrific.' Sometimes you just know your own mind. We had a brilliant day of it though, including some very ridiculous mud volleyball and much laughter and bonding with our new travel friends. That night after our usual routine, whilst in Limbo Bar, there was a powercut, due to the storm moving in. One of those moments you just smile through every part of you as a group of us sung out classic Oasis and Beatles tunes into the early morning sky, looking out at the not so far off lightening. Magical. We of course got completely soaked through as we ran home in the storm, in the dark (the whole town was out of power still), but it was so adrenaline pumping as we used the lightening as our only source of light!
The following day it was just me and the four Swedes who took to the river, and this time we hired tubes, ready to 'Do it properly.' As we would learn it takes alot of will power to not get stuck at the bars, just because it's all so sociable and the idea of sitting in a inner tube for the three hours it takes to get back to town via the river sounds alittle tedious. We had good intentions but they weren't to last. Being the only solo traveler in the group that was beginning to form sometimes felt quite obvious to me, as friendly as everyone was, it was still different. With just me and the swedes it actually gave us all time to get to know each other in a smaller group and by the time we returned to town I felt alot more comfortable in my place alongside everyone. I had spent alot of the day with Ebba and felt particularly close to her. Another night of playing 'Slaps' drinking game (if i never play it again that would be ok, maybe five nights in a row kills the fun) the only game a table of 20 seemed able to comprehend. Two of the lads Benji and Toby were decent rugby players back home and proved this by introducung a new rule on one number 'At number 20 you have to squeeze a lime into your eye,' demonstrating for us as he went. The girls declined of course, but the men stepped up!?!??
Down at the river the next day I was so happy to find normal guys, who weren't looking to hit on every girl and could be good company. I played beer-pong (nine cups are set up at either end of the table with beer to 'weigh them down,' each team tries to get a ping pong ball into the opposite teams cups) with them and Felix, one of my lovely Swedes, and after a terrible first round of me getting no pingpongs into the cups, I rocked! I threw the ball and Felix drank the beer, perfect team. Afterward one of the lads Andrew and I teamed up and I was loving it. Hey, New Zealand Crew, I have skills. Laurie, my beer-pong skills mean you won't be ashamed of me at any parties when I come to Canada! As we were sat watching the (mainly) guys swing out into the river, Ebba suddenly jumped up crying and ran to the back of the bar. With our feet dangling over the edge I looked into the water and saw a snake swimming, well snaking, through the water. Earlier that day Ebba had asked me to get her a bottle of water from the bar as she couldn't go up there. They had tequila with a snake in the bottom and she was petrified. I ran to see her and I have never seen anyone react so badly in fear. Her whole body shoock, she was bright red all over and sobbing uncontrollably. It was also the fact that we had to go back into the water and that she had already been in the water the last three days. She said I know I shouldn't be scared of them, but growing up my mum was so scared she would faint. We lived in the woods and saw them so often.' It was quite unbelivable to see, but after another hour she got herself back in the water and I was really impressed considering the state she had been in. Sarah, Ebba and me had become something of a three over the last four days and we just seemed to fit.
Aoife, from Luang Prabang, had facebooked me to say she was here, but without phones it's hard to arrange anything really. That morning I was in the process of sorting out my Vietnam Visa and needed a photo for it, so had to go to a different internet cafe, polava etc, 'meant to be' as always because there was Aoife sat on one of the computers in there! She came with me and my Swedes down the the river for the day and then we all went out that night, which was sadly their last, and partied! I met her in the Irish bar (really) next door and met some of her friends including Canadians Jess and Maddie, where we listened with amazment to the open mic guy rapping, he was literally unbelievable. We all went down to our 'local' Q bar to meet the Swedes and as always bumped into plenty of familiar faces. After a beer pong championship with the Q bar men who we had got to know over the previous five days (and which we did awesomely in- good job Ebba!) we got some UV painted flowers and went off to bucket bar to party for the last time. Five days can feel like a lifetime and I was so happy to have spent that time with Sarah and Ebba, and now to have Aoife there too! I wasn't really in Asia, I was in Sweden! All my friends seemed to be! Hendrick, the cutest 18 year old kid who I had been talking to about jobs the night before was chatting away to me that night for a good two minutes before I realised he was talking to me in Swedish! We all know how deaf I am and there was such loud music (I am so old) I just thought wait a while and you'll catch the drift...then I was like that's not even my language! Brilliant. Sarah and Ebba's friend, (but just alittle closer to sarah..) a Canadian guy Miles, had arrived a few days ago too and we had had some great conversations down by the river about anything and everything. He was talking about how he wanted to write a book about his travels and I thought Ditto (although who knows). As he started to talk though I thought maybe I had done alittle more research as he talked naively about making alot of money...! The two of us and Aoife had a much needed conversation about books and films with him posing such questions as 'What makes you read a book?' I felt like I was in some sort of workshop but it was very interesting!
The next morning my lovely Swedish girls and boys left, and with much plans of a trip to Stolkholm or a trip to London in sight we hugged it out and I watched as my first good girlfriends of Asia drove off. There are so many times you say, oh I'll come vist you etc. and in your heart of hearts you know it probably just won't happen. But I truely hope one day this will happen, such great people. The following day I met up with Jess and Maddie, two girls I had met through Aoife, and who would become good friends of mine. We spent the day watching far too much friends (makes me feel at home, isn't that so wierd?) and Family Guy (once you get past the irritating voices it is funny!) then we went out for our last night in Vang Vieng. I had had one night 'in' in nine days, (where me and Miles lounged on restaurant sofas, watching a film but talking through the entire thing, he maybe talks as much as me!) mainly because who wants to sit alone in a cockroach dormitary?! And it is so sociable when you are out, although people couldn't believe I was drinking just coke some nights. When you are sober, it gets to early hours and you realise everyone around you is actually very drunk and you know it's time to go home, buying a delicious cheese baguette from the street sellers on the way!! Jess and Maddie had a 'group' of travel friends in the same way I had had before everyone left and so I spent the night with them, my beer-pong friends and Si, my Fraser island camper from Aus! He had facebooked me earlier that day and as I was replying, he was in the same internet cafe! Always works like that! So I had a great night catching up with him and getting to know Jess and Mads mates.
Time to leave party-town and jump on a 28 hour bus ride to Hanoi, Vietnam. With having to wait for my visa, I was in Vang Vieng a few days longer than I had planned, which in the end worked out idealy as I met Jess and Maddie and also got to catch up with Aoife and Si. Vang Vieng really is a crazy place, with the river and it's tubing and the bars with their tvs, buckets and dancing, I had such a great time! Now onto Vietnam and time to be alittle more cultural...
The bus journey's in SE Asia really are an experience. They test your patience to the limits! I had heard bad reviews of the journey from Vientienne to Hanoi, Vietnam, not just from fellow travelers but from The Lonely Planet and other similar reviewers. After The Worst Bus Ride Ever I was preparing for something twice as bad, so imagine my delight when I realised our bus was a sleeper bus, when you can stretch your legs it makes a journey seem so much better! The actual journey (roads, sheer cliffs, fearing for your life) was no problem, it was more little irritations that built up over the 28 hours. A girl I had vaguely known from Vang Vieng got moved out of her seat by a woman with a toddler, thinking she needed to just get past her, but she then took her seat and pointed at the child as if by explanation! The girl (westerner) spent the journey on the floor between the beds, lovely. The bus drove for maybe five hours and then parked up all night in a car park of a hotel...cheeky or what? Sleep in the bus, with the engine off, so no aircon. Or pay for the hotel. No thanks! I swear I didn't sleep once..the toddler was chattering away for six hours!!! I know children like to chat and I am child friendly, really, but as a parent she shouldn't be encouraging it and talking super loud...it's 2am! Most fustrating. At one point he was silent and I thought fantastic...till i looked over...the only reason he was silent was because she was breast feeding him. Surely he was too old?! They also, as I would learn from future sleeper bus experiences, play a local Vietnamese Variety show (I guess you could call it that, sketches, singing, terrible acting) and it is always on SO loud and distorted. I try and get into it sometimes thinking it will be less annoying but it's hard to get the jokes! The wierd thing is they will turn all the lights and tv off around 8pm, then turn it on at random times like 11pm, so you're just about asleep and you realise you're below the speaker...noo! Anyway, aside from these slight irritations, I had a pleasant suprise when I saw Helena and Olivia on the bus, two English girls I had done The Worst Bus Ride Ever with and spent time in Vang Vieng partying with. Once we got to Hanoi we shared a room at Hanoi Backpackers and went out to look for an internet cafe...we found one after walking so far- normally you can't turn a corner in SE Asia without finding one. Due to the Communist government, Facebook is mostly banned, although there are pretty easy ways to get around it, something to do with the chance that people might form groups against the government. It is illegal to discuss politics in Vietnam, and seeing as I don't leave for a few days I might not go into depth about it here (!) but you don't really notice the government's influence day to day, there's more propaganda in the South, it's more under the surface I guess.
I was very happy to have a message from Maddie and Jess, the Canadian girls I had left in vang Vieng, saying they missed me and were coming to find me! After our free breakfast Helena, Olivia and I took a wander round the city to get a feel for it and our bearings. We spent the morning in the History Museum, and I've got to say it really made me think about London's museum's- mainly the Science Museum and Natural History Museum. I have visited alot of museums around the world and I have come to the conclusion that ours are awesome!! (Eight months around the world and the patriotism I feel is for 'the museums'...?!) Every travel companion brings out different sides to you and the girls were very happy to spend the afternoon getting pampered in beauticians, so whilst they had manicures and the like, I had my first paid haircut since leaving home (my hair hates me) which included the most amazing head, shoulder and face massage. I wasn't really sure what to do when she started shoving her fingers in my ears though, very strange! I had to have alot of will power not to move as she massaged my neck...alot of you will know how much of a struggle that would have been for me, she kept smiling alot in an amused way. Obviously when you come to a new country you want to learn all about the culture, the people...oh and take advantage of the fancy cinema!! I'm sorry I can't help it! Clash of the Titans in 3D, those Vietnamese subtitles were practically sitting beside us! There was a brilliant moment half way through the film when Olivia turned to me and poked her finger through one 3D glasses lense, it was empty. After the film she said she had wondered why the writing was blurry, it made me love her all the more!
After free breakfast (by which I mean a baguette and a banana, or if you fancy noodles at 8am go for it) I went to the post office to send Laurie the leather bound journal I had bought for her in Thailand, knowing she had been on the search for one when we had travelled together. I had to fill in five forms (no exageration), very thorough. She recieved it about three weeks later and was very happy, I love making people happy! Is there a job description to fit that? Maybe I can work for camelot and I can be the one to confirm people have won millions...hmm.
Anyway, we spent the day walking around the city, visiting the Pagoda in the middle of the lake, (the famous setting for the legend of the turtle coming out of the lake and taking the King's sword, it is said to still be lying at the bottom of the lake) and the evening watching the Water Puppet show, a very cultural experience. As we walked to the theatre, we had to battle our way through crowds of people around the lake, where there was the unmistakable excitement of people waiting for fireworks! Turns out we were in the city for the 35th anniversary of the last US troops to leave Vietnam. And on an occasion like that everyone needs monkey's riding tricycle's right? I couldn't believe my eyes! The fireworks were pretty spectacular and once they had finished we watched the (fairly odd looking) water puppet's with absolutely no idea what was going on (as they were singing in Vietnamese), but I loved it's total obscureness!
We found an amazingly cosy cafe Puku, it's down a questionabley dark alleyway but opens up on the first floor to sofas, a friendly atmosphere and the best homecooked food! We spent many an afternoon there, relaxing, reading our books and ordering a steady flow of food! Helena, Olivia and I became 'regulars' over the few days we spent in Hanoi, and we would always sit there curled up on the sofas chatting about home, life, and just getting to know each other and having a giggle. One of the days I was chatting to two American guys, probably in the late forties, and out of travel ettiquette talked to them about why they were in Hanoi. They said for work and of course I asked what they did for a living. Best response ever. 'We work to stop the development and progress of nucleur weapons around the world.' What do I do? Do I really have to answer that? Que a mumbled 'I'm a fashion designer'...proud moment. I really do my bit for the world! I love sitting in a random cafe on the otherside of the world and over a warm banana muffin find out your neighbour has a job like that!! I am going to get some odd looks when I start chatting away to people in coffee shops back home.
We spent the day visiting the National Art Gallery which had some really beautiful pieces, many inspired by the war which gave a harsh view of the fighting they endured. (The use of gold leaf and goldpaint was stunning.) We also went to the Temple of Literature, where I was hoping for an epiphany (!) on any potential for my writing in the future (only half joking). It was quite a day for thinking about all the creative (both artistic and written) ventures I'm hoping to look into once I return home. On the way back our taxi man tried to charge us 200,000 Vietnamese Dong (just under 7 GBP). The journey there had cost 32,000. Cheeky shit! I was polite but firm. We offered 60,000, still double what it should have been. I didn't want to be seen as the rude westerner so I went to a nearby shop and asked their opinion- was it a reasonable price for the journey? 'Kim' rang the taxi man's boss from the number on the taxi and we found out he was overchargng! She was so helpful and he was so rude to her. It really isn't the money (although the difference would have paid for all our dinner) it was the fact he was taking the piss out of us, thinking we woudn't know. In the end I gave him the 60,000 and said I'm not trying to be difficult, Kim said this was a completely reasonable amount. As he drove off he swore at me, both in English and in Vietnamse, so crude. Sorry mum but I am afraid after a 20 minute stand off where I didn't raise my voice once, I used a sign I don't think is in the sign-a-long dictionary. It made me feel better though. Then me and Kim hugged it out over our little victory!
I knew that Maddie and Jess had arrived in Hanoi but Facebook is slow when making plans so I didn't expect to see them that day. As we were walking out for dinner I saw them sat in a noodle soup 'restaurant' and was exstatic!! Helena and Olivia wanted to go the the night market so Maddie, Jess and I spent the evening catching up, eating dinner by the lake and icecream in 'Fanny's' (you would be curious too). It was a lovely evening and we made plans to all meet for breakfast the next day. That didn't work out too well. The next day I couldn't move, I was ill! Rubbish. I didn't have the energy to move all day, and it was one of thsee rare times I was actually sleeping in a dormitary, one of the girls was sweet enough to go buy me some water and that was all I could hold down. That evening we had made plans to go to the cinema (Maddie and Jess were keen to go and Helena, Olivia and I were happy enough to go twice!!), although I felt awful, I felt 10 shades better than wretched which was how I had felt all day. I thought if I lie here in pain not being able to sleep I may as well sit in the cinema in pain being entertained! So I showered and made it downstairs. I felt pretty delicate and had a lovely sleep on the sofa of the restaurant whilst the girls ate dinner (!) and then we saw Datenight. Tina Fey and Steve Carrell are funny people. I was relieved to get home, but glad I had gone out, hoping it would tire me out enough to sleep. The next day I cerainly felt alot better but not one hundred per cent so I slept most of the day until dinner with Maddie and Jess. Helena and Olivia had gone to Halong Bay that morning and the plan was to meet them there in the next few days, but we ended up booking an organised tour, after hearing it was the best way to see the Bay and so missed out on seeing them again which was a real shame. They are waiting for friends to arrive in hanoi so have alot of time to kill, maybe we will see each other in Cambodia. Dinner (at Puku of course) was the simplest food possible, being the first thing I would have eaten in 48 hours (a record for me), but even I wasn't ready for plain pasta and tomato sauce just yet. I'm never actually sick, which is worse really, but I felt yuck. Still, our Halong Bay trip was booked for the following morning, the girls asked if I was sure I didn't want to wait until I felt better but I was fed up of city-ness! Next stop the ocean!!
The 'helpful' English girl behind the desk in the hostel had some terrible selling techniques, telling us the cheaper tours were terrible and the only option was their $120 tour, pah! For three days? Ha, don't think so matey! Our $50 one turned out perfect, thankyou very much! Halong bay is a four hour bus ride out of the city and the ledgend goes that a mighty sea monster thrashed his tail across the seabed creating the 3000 islands that jut beautifully out of the ocean today. The first stop once all settled into our on-board bedrooms was a visit to one of the many caves created (maybe by the toes of the seamonster?!), this one was absolutely huge, not quite a patch on Jewel Cave in WA but still impressive. Afterwards we kayaked out amongst the rocky islets and luckily for us, with the sea level low, we were able to go under a 'tunnel' and into a usually enclosed lagoon where we saw huge jellyfish! It was a really peaceful-look-at-our-beautiful-Earth moment looking across the ocean, and then up the huge cliff faces of the limestone. We all spent the evening on the top deck of the boat getting to know our fellow sailors (as such). Jess and an Irish girl compared motorbike exhaust burns in identical places (half way down the calf, standard) and Jess won out on that one. Sean, a Canadian(who when we were talking about how tough our two day treks had been told us of his 14 day trek in Nepal!!), Kat, my lovely hippy Aussie roomie, a brillaintly charismatic gay couple from Toronto (Maddie and Jess's hometown) and three English lads were amongst the main social group. Breakfast was at seven to most people's annoyance, I heard one girl complaining 'We paid for this trip, they should do breakfast when we want it.' I thought this was such an odd attitude..it's a tour! There's an agenda and obviously a reason for early breakfast, deal with it! We arrived at Cat-Bah island (the only inhabited island in Halong Bay,and named after the vietnamese for woman as the men used to all leave the island to go fishing), and the first stop was to climb up one of the rainforest covered mountains/hills/somewhere in between for a beautiful view. Flip flops were not the best footwear, and everyone was wearing them. It started out with steps, then steep hills, into finally actual rock climbing! It was so much fun, holding on to rocks, trees, roots and scrambling along. The way down was abit more strategic! Three-points-of-contact at all time did me proud! At the top there was a stomach churningly high, I guess it looked like a pylon, with steps going around the outside. The sign read no more than five people, and as the 20th person ignored it I decided to enjoy the view from ground (which was still pretty high!). Whilst Maddie, Jess and Kat were at the top an Isreali guy proposed to his girlfiend! Ahh.
Once we had all dumped our stuff at the hotel we all hit the beach. It was a very brown sand, rough sea, type beach and it actually looked quite English! It was lovely to be part of a big group again, and we all sunbathed, chatted and swam. That night after dinner me and the English lads started talking about English politics. I had been gutted to realise I had been so disorganised I had missed my opportunity to vote this year. The guys were from a highly conservative area and what started out as an interesting chat about that day's vote turned into an amazingly enjoyable debate on progressive tax system vs fixed tax! It was obvious his conservative views were very strong, but also that he spoke of numbers and facts (learned from his A level subjects) and that I was less fixed on one Political parties view but was talking from experience. Living as a tax paying citizen and living as an 18 year old lad yet to leave home are two very different worlds. We talked about it for maybe an hour and I loved every second of it! I just love hearing people's opinion's on things, I think it was the first time I have talked politics with someone heavily Conservative, and a young Conservative at that. We all spent the evening at a local bar, playing pool, card games and generally having a good time. I was still not feeling my old self in terms of energy and was quite happy to call it an early night and head home with Kat. She was a great girl with some interesting viewpoints, she had been working in a orphanage in Cambodia which sounded amazing. I had talked to Tom who was living in Phnom Phen about the possibility of me voluntuering for a week, but as you will read later that sadly became impossible. The following day was spent traveling back to Hanoi and feeling relaxed in a new group of friends. Dinner was Maddie's choice- she is somewhat obsessed with Noodle soup and it seems to be rubbing off on me. Although hers had meat and enough chilli sauce to kill me and mine was plain jane. We had happily agreed to travel down the coast together for as long as we could (the girls had a tighter schedule than me) and our first stop was Hue due to leave the following evening.
On return from our trip and feeling alittle more energised, having recovered from my poorlyness and my soul refueled from being out of the city, I was feeling really positive. It's got to be said the last few weeks I had been thinking alot of home and feeling almost ready for it. Eight months is a long time to 'travel' to be constantly moving. I admitted to my friend Ed in an email, I think I could be 'tired' of traveling. He was shocked and appalled. And so he should be! I realised I had four weeks left and as soon as I had seen all the people I love on my return I would be wishing I was right back out here, so I needed to make the most of it! With this renewed positivity and as if confirming my feelings I had the most amazing email. I think it's ok with her to write this...I mean you'll hear it one day I guess! You may already have. The email read 'I love you and I was always better at singing songs than writing emails so this is want I want to say...' My beautiful friend Carrie had written me a song!!! I listened to it and felt so loved, pure happiness, sadness, euphoria, lifted, inspired, and missing my friend. I sat in that internet cafe smiling like a silly baboon, as I listened to the song another six times. One lyric totally confirmed my decision to live my final few weeks to the full, it reminded me why I wanted to come traveling in the first place. Jess and Maddie listened too and were amazed- at her voice and at the fact a friend had written a song. It was amazing. Jess writes songs on her ukelee and Maddie demanded a song! She also hoped her theatre school friends would be performing a play dedicated to her on her return! So on that fabulous note I went to bed feeling the next four weeks will bring some amazing times and I was going to live them to the full! Little didI know what was just around the corner...
The first stop on our open bus ticket down through Vietnam was the small riverside town of Hue, where there was very little to do except a boat tour. Jess, Maddie and I visited a traditional Vietnamese house and fruit garden (bananas, guava, fig, lychee, cinamon, peanuts, lemongrass, jackfruit, durien (smells awful!)) and a temple famous for it's octagonal shape that overlooked the river. As far as Hue highlights go that is pretty much it...until the bus journey out of there, and that is really where this story begins.
In my diary this page is scribbled with the title 'WORST DAY EVER.' Drama, Drama, Drama!! After a relatively short bus ride down to Hoi An I put down my book and looked down to pick up my bag...only for it not to be there. The moment of realisation was horrific. The thief had a pretty good find, it was one of those rare times in eight months where everything I needed was together, ordinarily I separate all my valuables, but Sod's Law was in full swing that day. My beautiful leopard print purse that Cheryl bought me including my drivers license, credit card, debit card, cash, sentimental items, my camara, my USBs with all my Laos and Vietnam photos, my phone (only crappy $50 one from Aus) and...my PASSPORT!!!(and two ready to post birthday cards for Carrie and Philippa!) I haven't felt that moment of pure regret/fustration/sadness in a long time, it sort of washes through every part of you and you wish for anything you could reverse time. I was in this state as I got of the bus, and after several checks I knew in my heart it was gone. I just stood on the pavement and screamed!!! I literally didn't care if people thought I was crazy, I am crazy!! I was crying (naturally) and as all of this was going on I was still being offered hotel rooms, surrounded by locals, leave me alone!! 'Why you cry? Oh...you want hotel?' Once I had swapped numbers with the bus conductor guy (what? he was cute...) for contacts we dumped our stuff in a hotel and I went straight out to cancel my bank cards. Barclays I have got to say, considering the urgency of the situation, were terrible! Customer services, no points. The guy at the cancel line told me I was on the business line and I needed an insurance number, so put me through to the main line where I got offered a million options, none that were relevent of course which was CANCEL MY CARDS NOW!! I re-rang got through to him again...more polava later...oh look someone's drained my account. No not really, but seriously time's a ticking! Finally I managed to cancel both cards and then set about learning how to even begin getting a new passport. This is where the fun starts. The girls were fantastic. First stop Police station, maybe a 15 minute walk, told to come back tomorrow. The girls encouraged me to get some dinner seeing as I hadn't eaten that day really. Over noodle soup we reflected on the situation. I was alot calmer and realistic once my emotions were under control. I hadn't lost that many photos, my cards were cancelled, I'm sure Accessorize still sells that purse (!), and my insurance will cover any financial losses (camara, cost of new passport). So really I decided to look at it this way- I may have lost everything valuable to me, but turn it around and I have nothing to lose. I literally have nothing to lose. How can that be anything but a positive, completely free feeling?
The next few days passed by in a blur of to do lists, visits to the police station and general sorting my life out. I finally rang Mum and told her the bad news, I really wasn't looking forward to it for some reason. I think I felt foolish for having all my valuables together (complete rookie mistake) but I guess eight months is a long time to be 100% vigilent. I said 'Well I guess the worst has happened,' to appear positive, to which Mum replied 'Well no, the worst that could happen is someone plants drugs on you in Bangkok ariport.' Thanks mum, fingers crossed for that one! But aside from a Thai jail, bodily harm or death this is pretty high up on the travelers least wanted situation. I didn't want her to worry about me because I actually felt ok about it all, now I knew the process. Firstly, after a fabulously informative email from my sister Mel, I rang the British Consulate in HCMC/Saigon. I spoke to a woman called Chi, who I will rename 'Most Helpful and Wonderous Vietnamese of all Time.' (But for the sake of typing might stick to the original name.) Chi explained what needed to happen and in what order. I needed a police report number, of course I knew all this from the LAST time my camara got taken, in Australia. Easy right? It took me seven visits to three different police stations, being redirected as soon as they didn't understand me. I had (after my third visit) gotten my hotel receptionist, who had reasonable English, to write out in Vietnamese what had happened and what I needed. Even with this, they barely read it, shaking their heads and turning back to the TV. Fustration! My signing was amazing. My enthusiasm and determination unquestionable. They just did not want to know. It was as if they didn't want to have to report on theft in their country or help out a westerner. I read (on my fourth visit) in their hand written records 'Stolen bag, recorded. Cannot give crime report number. Cannot give crime report. Have a good day, take care.' So they Knew what I was talking about! I rang my insurance company, a lovely man with a northern accent (always gives me hope when they are northern, not sure why?!) told me as long as you report the crime to someone that's ok, it could be the hotel receptionist. So I asked her to rewrite an official letter, of course it was in Vietnamese (I just hoped there would be a Vietnamese intern at the insurance company!). I needed the crime report number for my new passport application (two forms, one to tell them it was stolen, one to apply for a new one-which needed parents passport numbers, marriage details, another phonecall home). Another phonecall to Chi, who said Vietnam don't use crime report numbers, but I should be able to get a report. I had asked to use my Dad's bank details to pay for the passport (LOVE), seeing as I didn't have any bank cards (!) but as I began to fill in the form I saw it had to be the card holder, so another email home, Dad had to fill it all in and fax it back to Chi. This is only the first day, still with me? Next attempt was the passport photo. No heavenly passport machines in sainsburys this time. After being directed three times (Vietnamese just can't say no, they just direct you even when they have no idea!), an hour of walking and soaked to the skin with unexpected rain I met the girls for dinner, giving up for now. So for my day's efforts I had not completed my passport form, not aquired a crime report number and not had a photo taken. Excellent. On the way home we spotted a photo place, one job done. The girls had hired bicycles for the day and headed down to the beach (doesn't that sound lovely?!), and unbelievably their bag had been taken!!! Luckily, after my situation they realised they were carrying around both their passports, most of their money and bank cards so emptied it out the previous night. The thief only got two half read books (mush to the annoyance of the readers), some small change and sun cream. And their open bus tickets. Then I realised that was something else I needed to replace! A trip to 'Trekking Travel' and we were told to come back at 7am.
'All three of you don't have tickets?' Asked the suspiscious Vietnamese man behind the counter? Yes, really. After an hour of him half attempting to call people and Maddie running out to an internet cafe to get the number of the place we booked the tickets with, he told us to come back at 11am. The girls were going out on a tour for the day to see an old temple ruins (bombed in the war), so I went back at 11 and after much to-ing and froing had success. It was so odd, he had the phone number but seemed to not believe it was right, and was reluctant to call. Much of the time I spent there was with us both sat and nothing happening. Finally he did and I spoke to the man- I said 'You remember us, three girls and one has dreadlocks!!' Three new tickets were written out immediately (it's a lie he pondered on it for 20 minutes for reasons unknown). First success of the day. I collected my photos. Second success, sort of. Truely awful. I look like the angriest human being, with no hair, as they photo shopped the back ground to make it white, taking half my hair with it. I didn't care, it's a photo. I mean I will only have this photo till I'm 34, no problem...!! It will always tell a story I guess. It's just so hard to have a decent photo when you can't smile! Next stop Immigration office (which I had been sent to the day before by the police to try and get rid of me) I wanted to check it was correct for a passport. If I pointed to the pile of passports on the desk in front of you, and then at the one photo in my hand, and I put my thumb up or down, measuring the sides with a questioning look on your face, you might hazard a guess at what I mean? No, far too much effort. Back to the hotel I hoped to run into Maddie or Jess as I needed someone to countersign my passport application and photo! Chi said under the circumstances it would be ok for them to sign, seeing as I was alone. The form read 'I have known Miss Shelley Styles _x_ years' Umm, a twelfth?! Luckily bumped into Maddie who was back after a rock/paper/scissors loss, collecting more money to pay for lunch. She was delighted to have lost out and now be the one to countersign for me!! On my way to the post office I thought I would give the police one last go. Within minutes I had a stamped police report. Easy. So what was all the fuss before? They just didn't feel like doing it?! Once at the Post office I realised I needed to photocopy the report. Everything takes 10 x as much energy here, photocopying is easy of course. Now find a photo copier in a town you don't know and where no one will help. But! I managed and with the clock ticking (taking the bus in one hour) I made it back to the post office and finally managed to post off my application by courier to HCMC. It could take up to two weeks so I was hoping it would go smoothly and I could pick it up when I made it down there. What a day! Getting that Crime Police Report was possibly the biggest achievement ever. Forget my first word, first steps, A levels, Degree, first job, no this is the biggest. It felt utterly impossible because no one (except our wonderful Chi) wants to help. It's not that they can't understand you, it's that they won't.
Jess and I decided I had had all the bad luck I was going to get, and as the universe works in our minds, I was owed some massive good luck very soon. Sunshiningly spectacular. Bag tucked close to me, fresh pineapple from the street cart for a snack, we traveled the 12 hours overnight to Nha Trang (after the bus arrived two hours late). Nha Trang. Ahh Nha Trang. In three words? Beach, Buckets, Dancing. Oh and noodle soup. That was our week in Nha Trang, and I needed to dance away my troubles! I was owed some good times. After finding a hotel room for $8 (between us, and with a spare bed?!) we slept for the rest of the morning and were woken by tunes from Jess's ukelee. We spent the day on the beach (hottest sand of my life) and bumped into some friends from Vang Vieng- Toby and Benji, and Kala and Brianna. That night we went to Red Apple bar (the main hostel where beds are $7 each- fools! But buckets are $2) and met up with the others. It was great to be out in a big group again and we hit 'The Sailing Club' on the beach for dancing all night, aquiring more and more party people to our group. At the end of the night most people drifted onto 'Why Not?' bar. I'll tell you why not, it cost 30,000 VND to get in! Ok so it's only a quid but it's the principle- it's empty and it's only open for another two hours. Everyone would congregate outside chatting and trying to get in. We tried explaining if they let everyone in they would make more money on drinks than if they just let a handful that would pay in! Still the party was always outside for us. The guy who took the money was so sweet though, he would use this time to go through his English dictionary and ask for our help. I tried hard to explain that 'House breakers' wasnt really a normal English term but he just asked 'In a sentence?' Maddie was hilarious, completely determined to get in for free, they kept having to remove her from behind the fence. Love that girl. Pure entertainment. After lucking out we decided to go the beach, but somehow ended up following someone called Tim. Who was this Tim and where were we going?! There were 15 or so of us now so it was a decent group of good people. Extras included a couple of Aussie guys, a Canadian called Conrad, and two Dutch brothers Thijs and Nik. The night finished off with a refreshing swim in this mystery Tim's hotel swimming pool. Perfect. We spent the next day on the beach, having noodle soup for dinner and partying all night. A pattern that would become fairly standard! As we frequented the same three busiest bars each night we soon began to recognise alot of faces. I had chatted to Leor the night before outside Why Not? bar, about his determined view that London should be it's own country, a brilliant conversation to have at 3am. Leor and his North London crew were out in force the following night and were all most entertaining dancers, fitting our silly dancing ways. Ended the night on the beach with Maddie learning London slang, possibly the most brilliant thing, to listen to a Canadian try and talk North London. 'She's four'een.' (Just for you Maddie) Most are too rude to write down.
I think we can all agree I have been having way to much fun for it to last. An email from Dad and Chi, my passport photo is the wrong size. The face needs to be 29-34mm, mine is 27mm. Really. (Dad said 'I've had a phonecall fro a very helpful and friendly lady called Chi.' See, everyone loves her!) I asked the woman behind the photo counter if she understood as I explained the sizings, 'Yes, yes, yes.' Whilst that was being processed I looked into how Dad could wire me some money, seeing as my stash would soon run out and I had no way of getting to my account. Barclays could send my card out to me, if I could prove I had an address where bills had been sent to me- obviously not possible. Once Dad had run into town to transfer the money I called back and he gave me the pin. At the desk the lady barely spoke, shaking her head. I decifered I was missing two numbers. Phone to Dad. MoneyGram not WesternUnion. You have no idea how many yellow WesternUnion signs have haunted me and how hard it is to find a MoneyGram!! I have always thought 'wiring money' sounded very Hollywood film. Thelma and Louise are on the run and need someone to 'wire them some money.' It's not hollywood, it's fustrating as hell!! Took taxi as nearest one I could find was alittle further out (even with distances that seem walkable, crossing the road is a life or death situation with all those motorbikes that I will happily avoid if I can). After several false starts we found the right bank (me and the taxi man bonded over football, he named footballers for our journey including Wayne Rooney, Micheal Owen and a few I didn't even know in English.) Bank was shut- 5.05pm. Come on! Go back tomorrow. Out for dancing to calm my fustrating day! London lot out, and plenty of familiar and new faces. Why Not? bar randomly decided to let us in (third night lucky) and it was brilliant! Let me rephrase that. The club was dead. But I enjoyed myself! I played pool with a Vietnamese gay couple and then we proceeded to have the most awesome dance off ever! It was just the three of us on the dance floor, dancing our hearts out! Everyone was laughing at how crazy we were going but it was absolutely awesome! Good work out.
On the way to the hot springs and mud baths I stopped off at the bank which took a while to find- no taxi drivers know where anything is- and it was shut, it was saturday. The days of the week have never mattered when you travel, suddenly I needed to pay attention. For the second time in two weeks, Jess kindly offered to lend me some money until Monday. I would have been lost with out those girls, not just financially, despite everything I was having the best time. The hot springs really were hot. As I dipped my toe into one pool as a test, Jess did a running jump past me and came out gasping, it was 38C! Pretty hot when it's already mid thirties! The mud pools were an odd experience but afterward they made your skin and hair so soft. We gave a group of Vietnamese men a real laugh (although not sure it was that hilarious!) by showering in the men's by accident. Oops. After an afternoon on the beach and cooling off in the sea (not 38C) we ate at our lovely local 'restaurant.' Vegetable noodle soup 17,000 VND, Pineapple shake 15,000 VND. Delicious and just over a pound. Had some very interesting discussions that night with a couple of the London lads and another friend joe, with the most unkept dreads ever. Subjects that came up included religion, marriage, children etc. Josh said he believed in a higher being and I found his viewpoint really thought provoking, 'It's like explaining to ants about apes, and to apes about humans, as it is to humans about a higher being.' After that deep conversation we of course rocked the dance floor. Maddie and Jess and the London lot were dubstep fanatics and I have never seen someone move like that! Love Maddie's dub dancing!! As it was a saturday night The Sailing Club had moved the dance floor down onto the sand (which is hardwork to dance on!) and we raved it up along with our now oversized crew. We were let into Why Not? bar for a curious reason none of us know why- the bouncer/tiny little Vietnamese man just came up to me (I was sat chatting, of course, with my back to it all) and put one hand on my shoulder, 'You can come in for free,' and then let all my friends in too!! The following day was beach/noodlesoup/dancing! Is my life getting repetitive?!
I had returned to pick up my photo but it was totally wrong, over the next few days I had three photos taken and seven versions made up, all wrong. Everytime I explained by pointing to my face, writing the measurements, even getting my hotel receptionist to write it in Vietnamese, but I'm sure you can guess by now, no one wanted to be particularly helpful. In the end I had to give up, no amount of patience, signing, vietnamese writing could get me the right size photo! With a white background! I emailed Chi and she said to wait til I got to HCMC and she could send me to to a decent place, in the meantime she had sent the orginal application and we could hope the photo would be accepted.
The girls went scuba diving all morning and I attempted to get me some money! They were just shutting for lunch (11.30am-2pm, I could work that kind of day!) There were still people in their seats but no-one wanted to help (standard) and I was told to come back at 2. After a few hours on the beach and catching up with Joe and his mates (one guy has carried a heavy looking chess board around the world, they were all like 'that's so cool' I though what a loser, what a waste of space in your bag- don't you know they do travel size ones...???!!) Attempt two- the bank told me to go to a different bank because their moneygram was broken, (which they couldn't have told me at 11.30am) I went to that one and was told to go to the previous one. Finally someone drew me a map (love this person) and my waiting taxi man took me. I walked in and had a good feeling-'Do you do moneygram and is it working?' 'Yes.' I did alittle dance and the lady looked at me like I was mad. That was the first part, finding somewhere I could do it, the next was getting a fairly decent sized sum of money with no ID. I had a photocopy of my Drivers license but my copy of my passport had got lost somewhere along the way. I also had a copy of my crime report. All was going sort of ok, until she asked me to sign a form. She looked at me and said 'Same?' Of course my signiture on my drivers license is so neat and small (it has to fit in that tiny box on the form, and I was only 16!) So I signed a few more times to confirm, but then I got all paranoid about making them look identical. They all looked completely different. Uh Oh. Luckily after a very long time they gave me the money. I found best technique was to say as little as possible and smile alot. Success! After stowing my money away in every random nook and crany my rucksacks provided I went to the beach to meet the girls. We seemed to have a standard routine, at around 5 oclock the beach would get super busy with locals, and they always seemed to start playing football directly around us, we ignored it (apart from Maddie who would be freaking out) until she would give in and move forward and we followed. Every day we'd try and go further along the beach but we still were in their bloody football field!! Jess got some lobster cooked by a Vietnames lady on the beach. It is really amazing, on a wooden stick they balance on their shoulders, they carry a stove/bbq on one side and a coolbox of seafood on the other! We went for dinner with a German couple the girls had met on their diving trip, and it was then I realised how lucky I was that the girls were on such a tight budget. Considering my situation I needed to be careful and the girls were exactly the same, I never realised how careful we were till I was looking at the menu and the cheapest thing was 60,000VND. If you were on holiday you would say 'That's only two quid.' But were not on holiday, it's life, and two quid every dinner is expensive! Still we had an interesting dinner with new people. Out that night we spent the evening with Hass, John (now with a broken hand) and Tim, some decent guys from the last few nights. Maddie and Jess were pretty chilled out that night but I was dancing, dancing, dancing!!! They just kept laughing at me and calling out 'Lay-Lay!' my new nickname, as in Shell-lay. Sat down on the beach to watch the sunrise, good life. We were meant to get the bus out of Nha Trang the next morning but seeing as it left at 7am and we still needed to book seats it was probably for the best when we didn't hear the alarm. Jess went down to the beach and me and Mads achieved absolutely nothing. Well no thats not ture, we did food runs and watched Clueless and Revolutionary Road. Call it our sunday.
Dalat, I had visions of villages dotted across the mountains (not really sure why) but it was just a bustling city with a pretty cool food market (any type of fruit/veg/chicken/fish/dog, probably) a dried out lake (to build the bridge) and The Valley of Love. Again my vision was a beautiful valley, with waterfalls and birds singing. Actually on first impressions it reminded me of a closed theme park (perhaps the type used in a horror film), with animal statues everywhere, hearts built into everything and eerily 'romantic' music playing out over the gardens. As we took the steps down the lake it improved...they had swan peddle boats!! Our day was complete! We spent a much giggle filled few hours on the lake, being serenaded by music (where was it coming from) and trying to go round what we thought were islands and having to 5 point turn out of dead ends. Jess had been wearing the saddest pair of plimsoles since I had met her and they had died some time before that. She couldn't give them up. She managed to drop one in the lake by accident and it was gone forever, we were shell shocked!! That night we bumped into Amy, Flinn and Kalula, who the girls knew from Hanoi. We all went for dinner and ended up in some Vietnamese jam session. It was brilliant! I was dancing with the two year old of the family, spinning her round to the totally out of time but fantasticly energetic music. What an unexpected local treat.
In the first hour of arriving in HCMC/Saigon, depending who you speak to, we saw four American lads we had partied with in Nha Trang (we'd played fives), Jess's friend Matt and Greg from Vang Vieng. There are 9 million people who live here and 4 million motorbikes...crossing the road is a nightmare! Over dinner Greg proceeded to be Mr. Most Awesome HCMC travel guide, giving us a five day itinery to keep us busy over the two days we had. Much appreciated. My dinner was the best greek salad with caramalised onion chutney, heaven and a bit of a change from noodle soup!! I had a fun day of sorting out another money transfer from my amazing Father. Timing was everything- I needed the addess before he could do it, which I only had on arrival in HCMC, it was now friday and so it had to be completed today before the weekend (here the weekend is such a pain!). We had a window of one hour, considering the time difference, where he could make the transfer, I could call to get the pin (in the only international phonecall place I knew) then jump in a taxi across town to the bank. It really didn't seem like they were going to give me the money, finally she said 'Normally we need ID...but you are a special circumstance so we can do it.' I am a special circumstance indeed. I also visited the British Embassy and met Chi! It was emotional. I then went across town to get the correct photo taken and back to drop it off. Went out with the girls from Dalat that night, nice girls but quite young. When I asked if one of them was 18 (relevent to the conversation on university) she replied ' No! Huh! I'm 19.' as if she was soooo much older. I also learnt she lost her virginity at 13 and when my face (naturally I can't help it) said exactly what I thought (shocked/suprised/why are you telling us this?) she said 'Oh I can tell you're disgusted.' I thought to myself, that is uneccessarily young, and you wanted a reaction otherwise why did you bring it up? Just find people who try to act all older and more superior hard work. Did see the American guys, which made for some light relief, but generally felt pretty quiet and not myself all night. The next day we made it to the War Museum, which was absolutely unbelievable. It was so interesting and difficult at the same time to learn about the war, it's hard to believe how recent it was, with the violence and aggression that was used. The photos were sickening, soldiers enjoying torturing 'Communist's' that were clearly just innocent farmer's. The human race can be so self destructive, it's so hard to comprehend. To see the state the bombings/agent orange left the country in and to see it now is nothing short of a miricale- the development and on going construction in this country is so rapid. That evening we met up with the same girls and I put away my quiet side from the night before and was just myself. I had a much more enjoyable night, apart from moments from the young-wanting-to-be-old. Just be yourself!! Found my Americans for some respite and also my Dutch guys from Nha Trang, great to see them! Spent a much more enjoyable evening with interesting people, but missed Maddie and Jess! Me and David discussed the recession in America and Politics in both America and England, he had studied it at college so it was a very enlightening subject. I love that while everyone is getting drunk and talking about whatever I find the people I can have a totally different/intellectual(on their part!)/worldwide conversation...and then go to King Kebab with!!!
The girls had to leave the next morning for Cambodia, but still being passport-less I was heading down into the Mekong Delta and then onto Phu Quoc island. It was really strange to say goodbye to them after a month together, but I was also excited for the last chapter. I had talked about wanting to go to Canada next year and Jess had sold Toronto pretty well, so watch this space. They were also flying back to Europe (where they started their travels) so a cheap Ryanair flight may be in order this summer. They really are such brilliant people, they love the wierd and abnormal people and celebrate the geeks, freaks and odd behaviour! I loved how much they didn't care what people thought, and whilst that is mostly true of me too, they made me realise I could be alot less self conscious. I just loved their outlook on life, how much we giggled, how relaxed we all were together and how open minded they were. I loved how honest Maddie was, and how brilliant Jess's songs on her ukelee were. I just godamn love 'em!!
There was only a handful of interesting people on my tour (with half our group a clique 18 year-old-private-school-collective, not to judge, but they weren't massively friendly on the attempts to chat to them) including Rose a fellow (can I say that?) Brummie! It was so brilliant to hear a midlands accent and we hit if off, she was happy to have some girl company she said and we spent the next two days having a real laugh. She had come out traveling and a month in met Inego, who was now her boyfriend! Both of them had been traveling together for a couple of months and were planning the rest of their trip together. What a story for the grandkids. The Mekong Delta is where the Mekong river meets the ocean, which makes the map of it look almost like roots of a tree, creating plenty of islands. It produces over half the rice for Vietnam and has plenty of other factories which we visited on our trip. The first day we took the boat out to the coconut candy factory. Factory is misleading, it's all by hand and completely fascinating how much they produce. The coconut is shreaded and pulped to get the milk, which is heated until it is of a toffee consistency, then it is laid out to spread out and dry. It is cut into (with lightening speed) pieces and wrapped in rice paper and wrappers. I will just say now, I could not buy enough for everyone in my life but if I could shower England with coconut candy that would be my gift. It is heaven. I ate an entire box (that is alot of candy) in two days. Whoops. We then visited a bee farm and had the sweetest tea with honey and kumquat, good tea! After a bike ride in the afternoon heat (great timing) we went out for dinner by the river, and again not being with the girls the meals were alot more expensive! Enjoyable none the less, Me, Rose, Inego and Rusty, from Tennessee! Inego ran off to look for an alarm clock for the next morning, he disappeared twice, and took a long time which I didn't think much too. The next day, he admitted he had been to a street seller he had found who made the best dougnuts!! It was so hilarious, he had been once that day as a well and not told Rose. She said 'I would have got you a dougnut, I can't believe you!' It was so funny, why did he want the dougnuts kept a secret?! The next day we took the boat along the river to the floating markets, more of an industrial sized market with boats piled high with dragon fruit, pineapples and watermelons. Afterward we visited one of the only man powered rice-noodle factories left, a successful family run business with many orders. Once the rice milk was cooked on the stove (how that woman wasn't dripping with sweat!) another woman would take it off using a wooden 'woven bat' (?!) and lay it out on wooden slats to dry in the sun, then it was fed through the 'noodle' cutter. So impressive! (while the women worked the men used a matchstick with a cricket head stuck to the end to try and get a jar of crickets to fight...) Lastly they took us to a fruit farm where they grew kumquats and guava amongst many other fruits. I will honestly miss being able to buy a fresh pineapple for 10,000 VND (30p) so much! At one point we took a small rowed (by vietnamese women) boat into the delta, with our straw hats we really looked the part, and as we floated through the undergrowth I couldn't even begin to imagine how terrifying and awful the fighting must have been in the war.
Time to say goodbye to Rose and bus/ferry it over to Phu Quoc Island with a new group of travelers. Two lads Chris and Alan who work as divers on the offshore rigs in the North Sea, two sisters Pippa and Gemma and their friend Becky. The guys job sounded perfect really, one month on, earning lots of money and one month off traveling! They, particulalry Alan, were very much Alpha males, carrying bags, paying the taxi, but letting the 'women' make the decision on the hotel rooms etc. At first it was abit of a novelty to have that sort of guy around but after about half an hour I thought, hold on I have been traveling round the world, being independant and suddenly I am being treated as the little lady who can't carry her bag by herself etc. What? It started to really get on my nerves! But we had a nice evening out to dinner, looking out over the ocean with an electrical storm! In the morning we had different boats over to the island and said our goodbyes. I met Maddie and Kat, two girls who had been voluntuering in Hanoi and we shared a room just off the beach for a few days. The island is pretty quiet, meant to be on the verge of turning into a big holiday spot. If it was quiet, with few hotels and buildings that would have been lovely but it was very built up with hardly any people which made it feel alittle odd. Plus it was super I thought would be 5/6 days. As soon as I arrived I found an email saying my passport was ready for collection!! It made me very happy! It was a tuesday afternoon and I realised to collect it before the weekend would mean I would need to leave early thursday morning. It turned out to be enough time for the island really, unless you want to hire a motorbike and explore the island there isn't alot to do. I've made it almost three months in Asia and just one motorbike ride, but in three days I took a moto from the ferry to the hotel and back and one on the mainland. I never feel safe but you just have to trust them! It's the idea of riding in shorts and flipflops, with all your rucksacks, over gravely roads, for half an hour, with buses, bikes and cows all over the roads. We visited one of the many pearl farms there, it was very bizarre but cool to see the pearl come out of the oyster like that. One journey of motorbike, ferry, bus, motorbike, bus, taxi, and a walk got me to HCMC/Saigon.
Collecting my passport was relatively simple, and as I walked away I heard a guy explaining his situation of lost passport at the desk..I thought, if only you knew the journey of fustration you are about to embark on! The silly thing was after all the time/effort/money on trying to get a new photo done, they had used the orginal one anyway, which is possbily the most hideous photo I have had taken in a long time! Everytime I have a new thing to sort out I for some reason think it wil be simple- new visa, shouldn't be too tricky. After all my polavas why do I think that?! Nice to still be optimistic though and not cynical and negative I guess. The short story is I spent the next six hours of my day in the visa office with several journey's back and forth to collect/find out missing information. I keep a diary everyday and yet I don't include potentially useful information like which border I came into Vietnam through. Finding that out was taxing! They won't rush your visa application unless you have a ticket already booked, but if you book the ticket and they cannot do it in time you lose out! I risked it and bought the ticket. I was so lucky, they managed to sort my visa that day, even though he told me I would have to wait til monday, to which I pleaded with him and it seemed to work. I left there with a brand spanking new visa and $25 poorer. A girl who had been in two days previsously had been told to come back on friday, they now told her come back monday. I felt so bad as I had done it one day (although I was owed some luck on visa/passport issues!) They said there was no evidence of her crossing the border and that was that. I suggested writing the names of other friends that passed the border and that way they might find her too. After a long time they finally authorized it and she too had her visa. She tirned to me and we left the building and said 'Let's celebrate with frozen yoghurt!' She took me to this amazingly western place called 'Ýoghurt Space' where you put any flavours you want with any toppings like fruit, chocolate and nuts. It was the perfect way to celebrate almost a month of passport issues! The following morning I left for Siem Reap, Cambodia...
...with my shiny new passport might I add. Whoop.
As you know I actually left the wonderful travel bubble almost a month to the day, but have been alittle slack with my blog. Maybe my last blog tired me out, apologies for the length of it! But it is only right to finish off my adventures, and with only one country left I promise to keep it as short and sweet as I can...
After all my passport issues I now only had 9 days in Cambodia and I started off with the largest religious monument in the world, Angkor Wat. Made up of more than 50 temples there is plenty to see and so I set off with a girl Patty and two guys Neil and Keith who I had met on the bus from Vietnam. Our tuk tuk driver spent two days with us taking us to the main temples (including the one used in Tomb Raider, ooh, ahh), a waterfall and the land mine museum. The first day we left the hotel at 5am, giving us time to watch the sunrise and enjoy the cool morning before the temperature rose. The temples really are unbelievable, it's hard to believe they were built somewhere between 1113 and 1150 A.D. Not only for the intricacy of the carvings, statues and ornante buildings but for the fact that so much stone was manoevered without any modern day machinery and is still here today. At one temple, as I sat down, a tiny Cambodia girl came over to me, she looked at me for a moment and then turned to the bin next to me and climbed inside. She clambered out and put her hand toward me, hesitantly but proudly. She had retrieved a guide for the temple for me. I was speechless! We sat quite happily together for a good twenty minutes, while she played with the buttons on my watch and looked at me with a smile everytime they beeped. It was a really precious moment, sat there in the baking sun, enjoying the company of this amazing little girl even though she didn't utter one word. The landmine museum was quite harrowing, learning that there are still around 5 million unexploded land mines in Cambodia, and people are constantly being injured or killed. There are around 3 million in Vietnam still, and Laos is the most bombed country in the world, due to the planes dropping off unused bombs returning from raids on Vietnam. Not the sort of places to stray from the beaten track.
After an amazing time in Siem Reap, I headed to Sianoukville for some sunshine and to top up the tan before home. Shame the rainy season had started, and we had torrential thunderstorms for three days!! The only place open at 5am when I arrived was a $20 hotel (so fancy, it had a pool and everything!) I decided to treat myself for a night and not sit out in the rain for three hours waiting for the $10 hotel to open! I was back to bed bugs the second night though and after a few days of beaching in the drizzle I made my way up to Pnom Phen and to Tommy!
It was brilliant to catch up with one of my best mates, and I was ready to see the city he had desicbed as Grand Theft Auto, ''you can do anything you want as long as you got the dollar.'' He lived up to his party friend status and showed me Pnom Phen's finest nightlife, including a lady-bar and 50p Sangria. He said the lady-bar's are actually not sleazy and to get a real experience of the city we went along, one of the women sat next to me and we talked about how in love she was with this guy she was seeing. Just the same girly chat! It was good to see it as it makes you realise, something that might seem unacceptable in England does seem to work in another culture and to be alittle more open minded that we aren't always 'right.' We met Maya a fellow traveler in there too and she spent the next few days with us as we explored the city. We visited the infamous 'Killing Fields' just one of the many buriel grounds for the near on 3 million people killed in the genocide. The Khymer Rouge and it's leader Pol Pot killed mainly intellectuals and their families (to avoid revenge later in life) as they tried to build a country free from western influence, Year Zero as it was known. It was as expected, a harrowing place. Pieces of clothing washed up with the rain, littered the footpaths and fragments of bones and teeth lay in the soil. The graves had been excavated and the bones shown on display by way of respect. Hundreds of skulls stare out at you from behind their glass case, standing 20 foot tall. Two trees stood in the middle of the field, one used to hang a speaker, playing music to muffle the sounds of the screams, and one was used for beating children's heads against. It really was incomprehendable how much evil took place there, and more incomprehendable that the Cambodia people are so friendly, warm and welcoming. It is amazing how much one nation can be put through.
One great ''I'm in Asia'' moment came as me and Tom sat drinking Sangria...and I watched an Elephant walk down the road, amongst the tuk tuks, motos and cars! I loved Cambodia, for it's beautiful countryside, the fun times, but mostly for it's beautifully warm and welcoming people. After Vietnam, I appreciated it even more and some of my best moments were times just sat talking with the locals about their lives and learning about their country.
With just days to go until I was due to fly home, I recieved an email from Ed saying he was in Bangkok, after all our disorganisation we would actually be able to travel together again! I said goodbye to Tom, after a brilliant few days seeing his life in Cambodia, and boarded the slowest, most local bus all the way to the border. One lady took my email so I could return to marry her son!! Classic travel meeting plans, as no phones, ''Meet me in that pub, I think it's an Irish pub and it's green, half way down Khao San road.'' It was not an Irish pub and it was red, but Ed was sat there, and after 5 months of being on the same travel path (just weeks apart) it was brilliant to see him. Along with James, a lad I met on the bus, we had some drinks and caught up on life!
One sleep till home! After doing some souvineer shopping and accidently (!) getting fitted for a winter jacket in one of the many tailors we went for dinner. James had told us about the sky tower, a 60 floor 5* hotel with a restaurent on the open roof. Seeing as it was my last night the three of us treated ourselves to a 1200 baht dinner instead of the normal 200. It was totally worth it though, with electric storms on the horizon and the city lights making for a breathtaking view. The night went from the classiest to the sleaziest all in a matter of hours! Everyone always talks of the the ping pong shows in Thailand, and the sex trade is such a huge part of their culture that many travelers head off on a tuk tuk into the underworld to experience it. I was alittle apprehensive to say the least and it was the oddest night, but the things those girls did made you hold your hand over your mouth in shock and then clap very loudly to show how amazed you were! Let's just say things that shouldn't, come from places they shouldn't. A cigerette was smoked, balloons popped, razorblades appeared, seriously. On our escape back to the 'normality' of Khao San our tuk tuk driver announced he was Schumacher and with Ed egging him on (Manc Ed) he did a wheelie for about 10 metres!! We danced the night away in one of the clubs and it seemed it was only us and about 10 hookers, so I just thought, cool some girls to dance with and we had a great time! Although when I came to leave, my flipflops (which I had taken off) were no longer there. I made it all the way round Asia with one pair and they got nicked on the last night by a hooker!! Eating Pad Thai cross legged on the floor and talking to some new travelers was the perfect end to the most random and fun last night.
Two of Ed's mates from travels who I had spent New Year with in NZ arrived in Bangkok on my last day, so my 'last supper' was spent with old friends Ed, Justin and Dustin (the two Marks) and James. Perfect. There are women who walk round selling bracelets and drawing attention to themselves with wooden frogs (so irritaing). Ed just decided to buy the jeweled hat she was wearing, to draw attention to himself on the tele when he got the South Africa and the world cup, (beats streaking). It was the funniest moment as he put this hat on, as if a fog horn has sounded and the entire night we were inudated with women sellers. I guess they thought this guy will buy anything is he buys that hat!! I said goodbye to everyone and Ed and I walked to the bus with all my bags. I had butterflies in my stomach and felt just so nervous! I gave Ed a big hug and got on the bus for what would be the start of my final journey. I was more nervous on that flight as I headed home to reality than I ever was leaving on my own for an eight month world wide adventure. And what an adventure it's been.
So after...
9 countries
8 flights
7 bottles of sunscream
6 pairs of flipflops
5 sunglasses
4 bikinis
3 digital camaras
2 passports
and one very happy, tanned, inspired, cultured, glacier hiking, elephant riding, sky diving, zorbing, caving, white water rafting, great barrier reef diving, helicopting over the grand canyon, camper vanning, star gazing, poor but smiling lady...
...It's time to return to the world of reality and leave the travel bubble...Until next time!!
Thanks for reading everyone, and despite the often particularly long blogs I hope you have enjoyed what I've had to say about the big wide world. The decision to leave a job, a career and a life feels so huge, but as soon as you step into the travel world you realise it was the best decision you could have ever made. There might have been down moments (passports, missing friends and family) but there are down moments in normal life too, traveling just has a million more wow moments to compensate. I have met some brillaint people and made some amazing friends, for a day, a week, a month, a lifetime. Anyone who thinks they couldn't go traveling alone, you can! I hope my blog has shown you how 'easy' it is, and how amazing it will be. I have seen and done enough amazing things to fill a lifetime and I have been lucky enough to adjust to that being normality. I have faced so many fears and become so much more self assured, relaxed and excited about seeing the rest of the world.
So once again, thankyou for sticking with me until the end and now it's back to working, paying off inevitable debt, saving for the next adventure and most importantly catching up friends and family. Love you all xxxxx
So here goes, another once (twice?) in a lifetime trip, a ruck sack half the size (i'm learning) and a blog to match. I have two and a half months to see friends in Ontario, Canada then onto Central America, where i will meet Carrie for two months of adventure.
This first blog entry finds me curled up on the sofa out on the veranda of Maddie's house. The sun is shining, as it has been all week and I am waiting for Jess to arrive so we can go eat Pho (noodle soup) in China Town and chill out in the park. I traveled with Maddie and Jess for a month is Vietnam and here I am living their little world for a week, and it all feeling like the most normal thing in the world. Sitting out on the porch (just learnt correct Canadian term from a mum 'hollering' to her kids next door) feels like the most North America activity, with every house having one, seems it would be easy to develop a neighborly community. So what have I been up to in Toronto, the city of the CN tower, tallest free standing structure in the world?! Well I haven't spent $30 going up it! I don't think i can top the view I got as I came into land on tuesday night.
The first day Maddie took me into Kensington, right next to where she lives in Little Italy, it's a mini Camden, a maze of streets with cafe's spilling out on the street, the smell a mix of buritos and musty clothes hanging out front of the thrift stores. A drum kit is set up on the street as musicians busk, and a grafittied car planted full of flowers seems to belong and attract no attention. Sushi for lunch in one of the hundreds of sushi bars across the city as we meet Jess and a few other friends. Maddie takes me down to Queen St where this bohemain creativity starts to merge with the city centre and shops turn from second hand finds to Urban Outfitters and Second Cup's (another Starbucks style chain). We cut a key and over the next few days I start to feel like a true Torontonian as I come and go, grabbing breakfast in Kensington and heading out into the city. Walking everywhere instead of taking the street cars or subway means my orientation is good quickly (and I have earnt every calorie of my 'Butter Tart,' the Canadian bakery treat they can't believe I've never heard of). Maddie has class so I decide to join her, my first lecture as a student of the University of Toronto!! (home to the largest library in N. America). The subject matter of the 'third' gender option 'genderless' is a pretty challenging concept but fascinating, and as I listen to the Canadian lecturer, I feel like I am in a film!
The Toronto Islands, created in 1858 by a hurricane as it carved up the sand bar, are beautiful. I spend a gorgeous day biking around in the sunshine and admiring the skyline of the city and marveling at Lake Ontario, which reaches the horizen and may as well be called The Ontario Ocean. The few hundred homes on the island are all so quaint, little wooden cabins with gorgeous porches and swings in the trees. I feel the owners of these homes must be so fabulously eccentric as tooth statues, collections of toys guarding picket fences, gargoyles and animal skulls adorning doors feels the norm! Tonight is Maddie's flatmate Kirstie's birthday and I meet 20 odd of their friends in a relaxed, friendly evening. We huddle around the porch (in borrowed knitted sweaters) as everyone makes an effort to chat with me, a great group of creative, art school type friends that are all so brilliantly Canadian.
I spend the rest of my time in Toronto hanging out with the girls, chilling out in the parks, seeing live music and generally feeling the travel ideology of 'I could SO live here!' Toronto is a such creative city, with so much going on, but at the same time feels so calm and relaxed, none of the city stresses (although i'm not working!!). I'm sad to say goodbye to my friends and the city and it feels good to know it's only goodbye until i fly in two weeks time. I felt so at home staying with Maddie, best hotel ever! It's time to see some more of Canada though and so far I am loving it. I HEART TORONTO!
There's the chance that expectation will only be met with dissapointment but Niagra Falls does not fail to impress. On first look, 'Wow,' is the only word to spread through our tour group. Just so impressive, beautiful, incomprehendable. On the Maid of the Mist tour, as our little boat swings by the bottom of the falls and we get soaked in our poncho's, it just feels so daunting. Every part of your instinct tells you not to get any closer to this dangerous natural beauty but the boat gets nearer still, quite a surreal feeling. Afterwards as we dry off, and a feeling of elation, respect and satisfaction sweeps over me as we get some final photos from above. It feel rude to leave the falls at all, but lunch calls so we take a walk up Clifton Hill, Niagra Falls ''Street of Fun'' as the sign says. Or Ontario's La Vegas as I say. There are a million bath tubs of water going over the falls each second, and some people...The first recorded success in 1901 was Annie Taylor (girl power!), as she hit her 60s and decided to go over the falls in a barrel, and survived! 14 more attempts followed, with 9 surviving (and two going for it again!), they no longer record any attempt and it will cost you $10,000 a go in order to de-sensationalise it. The most impressive, was a seven year old boy who, whilst swimming (!) fell down the falls and survived! As the river takes a 90 degree angle down stream, the water is at such force is takes the opposite natural direction of a whirlpool for this part of the world and thunders anti clockwise, if a log gets caught, it takes three weeks to work itself out. At night 'in non tourist hours' they 'turn the falls off' and use the water to power the hydro station which in turn powers all of Southern Ontario. The whirl pool then takes the natural clockwise direction!! After a walk through the picturesque Niagra-on-the-lake, and my first ice cream (maple and walnut), we take one last stop at a winery to try Ice Wine (temperatures of -10 on three consecutive nights are needed to make it) it's time to go home to Toronto. Maddie, Jess, Kirstie and I grab a few drinks and some french toast in a chilled out bar in Kensington and catch up on our day.
To see photos look at m album; http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150872529685473.764769.788645472&type=3
It's always an unknown, staying with family, they have their own dynamics and routines, but luckily, I feel at home with Laurie's family, Mum and Dad, Danielle and Patrick, brother James and girlfriend Bess. I travelled with Laurie through New Zealand so we are used to spending time together, but it's a little different when only one of you is traveling. I understand Laurie has college and her own life to live so I try not to shadow her and just appreciate any time we can spend together. She has an exam the day after I arrive so I spend a relaxed evening chatting with her family whilst she revises.
I catch a lift downtown (Laurie lives in the East suburb of Orleans, they have a roundabout don't you know! No one can work it though....) with Danielle and Patrick at 7am, I drink my first Tim Horton's (famous coffee chain) and take a walk around the area known as The market, before walking under eight familiar looking legs of a wrough iron spider statue I believe used to live in the Tate Modern, into the Art Gallery. Rosalind (a ballet friend I made whilst she lived in Bournemouth) picks me up and takes me to her favourite swimming spot, Rockcliff pool, an old dug out sand pit. Surrounded by Maple trees and with crystal clear water, it really does feel like a secret spot...except for some fabulously eccentric older couples taking a dip. The weather really is just beautiful for October and I feel pretty lucky. As I watch the swimmers enjoying the water I feel alittle sadness that I didn`t bring my bikini and that I don't just listen to my inner desire to just go for it! Visiting friends in places you want to visit has it's pro's and con's...It turns you into a local, letting you experience 'Life' in those places, see the secret local spots and avoid the tourist path, but it also makes you 'live like a local.' I mean, the spontaneity and freedom, the lack of care for consequence disappears. Even so, I am so glad she bought me here, and after walking the Pink Lake Trail, which is actually green, in the Gatineau Hills (over the river in Quebec) I feel that content feeling only nature can bring. In Fall, the maple trees are a beautiful array of red's, yellow's and green's, it's not suprizing the maple leaf is the canadian flag emblem, they really are everywhere. On our second afternoon together Rosalind takes me biking around her hometown east of Ottawa and it`s a big day....I see my first Chipmunks!! Rosalinf helps me collect maple leaves to press as a keepsake for our time in Canada together.
Laurie and I get to hang out for the rest of the week as she is off college, where she`s training to become a paramedic which is a very intensive course. Along with James and Bess, who I have spent quite abit of time with whilst Laurie has been studying, we head out to my first Ice Hockey game! Of course I am supporting the Ottawa Sen`s and I love every part of the game, from the organ playing out songs to wind up the crowd, to the big blow up hockey sticks we are given, to clap together for a deafening noise that fills the huge arena. The only sport where they are still allowed to fight and tonight doesn`t `disappoint,` mid game two opposing players start a huge punch up on the ice. It`s pretty barbarric actually but the crowd seem to love it, and there`s no sign of a red card. So ok, the truth is we lost 7-1. I don`t care about the score though, I am elated by my first experience of Ice Hockey and just how brilliantly Canadian it is.
Seeing as Ottawa is the capital city of Canada it`s time to do some sight seeing...Laurie and I visit the fascinating Nature museum, with a shwarma stop for lunch (Canadina fave of chicken, garlic and salad in pita) and have time to admire the Houses of Parliament and their infamous green copper turrets, all on the way to the Canadian museum of Civalisation. Canada feel pretty bad about how they treated the natives, so anyone up to an eighth Native gets free schooling. We share pizza for dinner (Danielle`s night off from some fantastic cooking) with Bess, James and his friend Tom, a regular fixture to the home since they were young. We play poker, and I see James`s sulky side when I naturally forget to burn the card before dealing, I get a smile out of him by the end though. Time to meet Laurie`s friends and what better way to do it than wearing a zebra printed, orange floor length, home made toga? We play beer pong, flip cup, drink from plastic cups, dance, pretty much the standard Canadian house party I guess!
Laurie`s family were so welcoming and it`s sad to leave but time to see some more of Canada. I only hope I can offer them the same generosity and kindness when they make it over to England. As Patrick drops me at the bus he says,` Well I`ve enjoyed your company,`and I did with him, I loved listening to his stories of how he moved from Ireland just aged twenty, and how he fell in love. Danielle, ever the mum of the household (they are very lucky!) once again loads me up with delicious food for the journey, and gives me a big hug. James admits with a smile, `You`re weren`t that bad in the end.`
Laurie`s not one for getting emotional, so when she hugs me and says `I`m glad you came Shells,` I know that`s the closest I`ll get to anything sentimental and that`s ok. I`m glad too Laurie.
Hey! I would love to know who I am writing to with my blogs...if you read it, jit would be great if you could pop a 'Hi' on my message board with your name. Thanks my lovelies xx
So my writing space might not be quite as idyllic as Maddie's porch in the sunshine, but it's certainly a little more backpacker-esque, I am back to hostels after a very comfortable few weeks with friends. Quebec is the only walled city in North America and with the Citadel (Castle or 'tiny City') looking out over the river and all the tiny, bustling streets it reminds me a little of Edinburgh. I've spent the morning walking 'sous la pluie' through the streets of Old Quebec, a criss-cross of cobbled walkways, boutiques, street performers and plenty of Chinese tour groups with their cameras. Canada has been embracing the build up to Halloween since I arrived and bright orange pumpkins, witches and statues decorate the streets at every turn. To leave Old Quebec I take the 'Escalier Casse Cou' (break neck stairs, nice) up into Old Upper Town, as a horse and cart pass by I look up to see Le Chateax Frontenac, according to my now well thumbed Lonely Planet, the most photographed hotel in the world. I've got to admit it's impressive. The copper turrets pierce the sky in their infamous green colour change, although I can't help feeling it could be the most photographed hotel in the world because people read their LP's and think 'Well I must take a photo!' I decide to sit down cross legged and stubbornly, sketch it instead. I only have my Greyhound bus ticket and a blue biro, but by the time I've finished I think I have seen more of it than any eye through a camera would have. As night falls, the air turns cold and I duck into a cozy French restaurant where I finally get to sample Canadian Maple Syrup, a perfect topping for my crepe. Laurie told me 'Quebec is beautiful in every season, you need to see it in Fall, Winter and Summer.' Well Fall's ticked.
It's always an unknown, staying with family, they have their own dynamics and routines, but luckily, I feel at home with Laurie's family, Mum and Dad, Danielle and Patrick, brother James and girlfriend Bess. I travelled with Laurie through New Zealand and East coast Australia, so we are used to spending alot of time together, but it's a little different when only one of you is traveling. I understand Laurie has college and her own life to live so I try not to shadow her and just appreciate any time we can spend together. She has an exam the day after I arrive so I spend a relaxed evening chatting with her family whilst she revises.
I catch a lift downtown (Laurie lives in the East suburb of Orleans, they have a roundabout don't you know! No one can work it though....) with Danielle and Patrick at 7am, I drink my first Tim Horton's (famous coffee chain) and take a walk around the area known as The market, before visiting the Art Gallery. (They stole our spider from the Tate Modern, there can't be two?!). Rosalind (a ballet friend I made whilst she lived in Bournemouth) picks me up and takes me to her favourite swimming spot, Rockcliff pool, an old dug out sand pit. Surrounded by Maple trees and with crystal clear water, it really does feel like a secret spot...except for some fabulously eccentric older couples taking a dip. The weather really is just beautiful for October and I feel pretty lucky. As I watch the swimmers enjoying the water I feel alittle sadness that I didn`t bring my bikini and that I don't just listen to my inner desire to just go for it! Visiting friends in places you want to visit has it's pro's and con's...It turns you into a local, letting you experience 'Life' in those places, see the secret local spots and avoid the tourist path, but it also makes you 'live like a local.' I mean, the spontaneity and freedom, the lack of care for consequence disappears. Even so, I am so glad she bought me here, and after walking the Pink Lake Trail, which is actually green, in the Gatineau Hills (over the river in Quebec) I feel that content feeling only nature can bring. Iin Fall, the maple trees are a beautiful array of red's, yellow's, green's and every colour inbetween, it's not suprizing the maple leaf is the canadian flag emblem, they really are everywhere. On our second afternoon together Rosalind takes me biking around her hometown east of Ottawa and it`s a big day....I see my first Chipmunks!!
Laurie and I get to hang out for the rest of the week as she is off college, where she`s training to become a paramedic (very intensive course). Along with James and Bess, who I have spent quite abit of time with whilst Laurie has been studying, we head out to my first Ice Hockey game! Of course I am supporting the Ottawa Sen`s and I love every part of the game, from the organ playing out songs to wind up the crowd, to the big blow up hockey sticks we are given, to clap together for a deafening noise that fills the huge arena. The only sport where they are still allowed to fight and tonight doesn`t `disappoint,` mid game two opposing players start a huge punch up on the ice. It`s pretty barbarric actually but the crowd seem to love it, and there`s no sign of a red card. So ok, the truth is we lost 7-1. James says we have bought lots of new, young players, so we won`t be any good this season, much to my amusement he`s not very happy (I can`t help smiling when men get so worked up over sport...sorry). I don`t care about the score though, I am elated by my first experience of Ice Hockey and just how brilliantly Canadian it is.
Seeing as Ottawa is the capital city of Canada it`s time to do some sight seeing...Laurie and I visit the fascinating Nature museum, with a shwarma stop for lunch (Canadina fave of chicken, garlic and salad in pita) and have time to admire the Houses of Parliament and their infamous green copper turrets, all on the way to the Canadian museum of Civalisation. Canada feel pretty bad about how they treated the natives, so anyone up to an eighth Native gets free schooling as if to balance it out. We share pizza for dinner (Danielle`s night off from some fantastic cooking) with Bess, James and his friend Tom, a regular fixture to the home since they were young. We play poker, and I see James`s sulky side when I naturally forget to burn the card before dealing, I get a smile out of him by the end though. Time to meet Laurie`s friends and what better way to do it than wearing a zebra printed, orange floor length, home made toga? We play beer pong, flip cup, drink from plastic cups, dance, pretty much the standard Canadian house party I guess!
Laurie`s family were so welcoming and it`s sad to leave but time to see some more of Canada. I only hope I can offer them as good a stay when they make it over to England. Patrick said as he dropped me at the bus,` Well I`ve enjoyed your company,`and I did with him, I loved listening to his stories of how he moved from Ireland just aged twenty, and how he fell in love. Danielle once again loaded me up with food for the journey, and gave me a big hug. James admitted `Ì wasn`t that bad,` our easy banter from the start of the week had started to subside into me not being totally sure how real it was! I really enjoyed being a part of their daily routine and getting to know them all, and of course getting to spend time with Laurie. She`s not one for getting emotional, so when she hugs me and says `I`m glad you came Shells,` I know that`s the closest I`ll get to anything sentimental and that`s ok. I`m glad too Laurie.
So my writing space might not be quite as idyllic as Maddie's porch in the sunshine, but it's certainly a little more backpacker-esque, I am back to hostels after a very comfortable few weeks with friends.
Quebec is the only walled city in North America and with the Citadel (Castle or 'tiny City') looking out over the river and all the tiny, bustling streets it reminds me a little of Edinburgh. I've spent the morning walking 'sous la pluie' through the streets of Old Quebec, a criss-cross of cobbled walkways, boutiques, street performers and plenty of Chinese tour groups with their cameras. Canada has been embracing the build up to Halloween since I arrived and bright orange pumpkins, witches and statues decorate the streets at every turn. To leave Old Quebec I take the 'Escalier Casse Cou' (break neck stairs, nice) up into Old Upper Town, as a horse and cart pass by I look up to see Le Chateax Frontenac, according to my now well thumbed Lonely Planet, the most photographed hotel in the world. I've got to admit it's impressive. The copper turrets pierce the sky in their infamous green colour change, although I can't help feeling it could be the most photographed hotel in the world because people read their LP's and think 'Well I must take a photo!' I decide to sit down cross legged and stubbornly, sketch it instead. I only have my Greyhound bus ticket and a blue biro, but by the time I've finished I think I have seen more of it than any eye through a camera would have. As night falls, the air turns cold and I duck into a cozy French restaurant where I finally get to sample Canadian Maple Syrup, a perfect topping for my crepe. I feel content as I write in my diary and listen to the French conversations buzzing around me, what little I learnt in High School is coming back to me quicker than I expected which is a good feeling.
Laurie told me 'Quebec is beautiful in every season, you need to see it in Fall, Winter and Summer.' Well Fall's ticked.
Montreal sprawls through China town, arty Mont Royal, commerical St Catherines St, down to Old Montreal and the port, and with only 20 hours to appreciate it I'm feeling over whelmed! I wander through Old Montreal's narrow streets, but as its starts to get dark I don't feel too comfortable and I question if I am becoming less brave or more sensible the older I get. I take the subway (much safer!) up to Mont Royal where I find an independant restaurant and have dinner, determined to get as much out of the city before I leave in the morning. I could have a drink in the indie looking bar on the street, or join the hostel pub crawl but I'm happy spending the night chatting to the Hostel receptionist, who gives me a party hat (I was jealous of his, naturally) and gives me two hours free internet! Being friendly is the only way to be in life! As morning comes, I'm up early, ready to see the city, but it only makes me almost miss my bus! Running with rucksacks is not fun, but a 6 hour mega bus at $20 feels pretty awesome. As I arrive in Toronto I feel I am coming home, and nothing beats that feeling more than finally turning my key in Maddie's door, drenched from the nights downpour I'm caught in on the walk from the bus, and being greated by Kirstie, Maddie and Jess. We eat student dinner and chat and hug and laugh and are generally just one big gaggle of happy girls!
Canada has been amazing, to see my friends (and know there will always be a friendship there) and experience the country that was next on my list, but as Laurie said 'You've only dipped your little toe in.' It's true, and although I thought I might attempt NOT to plan a trip in 2012 I am already thinking about jumping head first into West Coast Canada...oops.
Well I HEART you Canada, but I am ready for some serious sunshine. So, hello Carrie, hello Mexico, hello 'proper' backpacking...
I read a great quote on my travels that speaks volumes to me,´A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.'
I think we all know I´m never going to be a facts and figures kind of girl, though I try for you, and truthfully the relationships between people has always been my natural interest. But when it comes to sharing 'your' relationships it all feels abit unsteady all of a sudden, to share your inner most thoughts, as if to lay your diary bare, is vunerable, un-nerving. It feels neccessary though in this journey through Central America, life, love, and worth sharing to those who care to read it.
As Mum says, every good book needs a love story, and you (and I) have waited long enough, so here goes...
As my flight decends into Cancun, I gaze out at the birdseye view of the blue-tiful Caribbean sea, alongside my three neighbours and soon to be new friends. The more I travel, the more I adopt a 'If it's meant to be, it will be...' outlook and although I enjoy Tom, Nir and Luis´s company I say goodbye at the airport, content that if they are meant to be a part of my travels I will see them again. Sure enough as I am sipping my first cocktail on the swings by the pool I hear 'Shelley!' they greet me with hugs and kisses as if old friends and we head out for dinner. I really enjoy the group dynamic and start to feel that travel contentment I constantly seek wash over me, as I wait for the final piece to the jigsaw in the shape of Miss Carrie Hayden (she's a corner piece, vital for sure).
The four days we spend in Playa Del Carmen follow a relaxed pattern of sun, sea, dancing and hours of chatting, as me and Carrie catch up on life in the most beautiful surroundings and the boys make us up to a group of five. I love chilling out by the pool, learning about the life and culture of Isreal, a new ´travel friend´ nationality for me. I increasiingly find myself enjoying spending time with Luis, and the feeling is reciprocated. Although we never make plans we somehow seek each other out, if you were to believe in energy running the world, ours seemed to connect. Balance. If we're out separately we seem to come across each other, if Carrie and I decide to leave, who should walk through the door at that moment? Not one minute sooner or later.
Hidden somewhere between the many aquetences and few golden friends for life, there is occasionally that someone you meet who, little do they know, has made such an impression on you, to affect your decisions and thinking for life. Realistically, who knows where and if our paths will cross in the future, but you never know how this world works out (if our energies continue, we could bump into each other anywhere!). I will always be so grateful for the time we shared though and unbeknown to him, the integral part he played in the on going challenge of self acceptence. It wouldn't be fair to take away his privacy by detailing conversations or moments shared, all you really need to know is Luis will be the reason I let myself believe it's possible to meet someone and it count. I finally understand what friends and family have spent years trying to tell me, how two people can connect, develop a relationship with the possibility of love. Of course, it was not love here. I don't wish to sound like a love struck teen, but when you have spent your twenties blinkered to love in the fear of being hurt, this has made my heart feel. It might sound alittle dramatic but fear not, despite my Hollywood education I am nothing but realistic.
But in truth what's more dramatic than a moment of realisation?
The realisation that I deserve to be loved.
Perhaps you think I should already know this, but it helped to be reassured.
Time to say goodbye to our Isreali friends, as they head off to start a new life on the island of Cozumel and Carrie and I join our Gap tour. Kaylie, our Canadian tour leader introduces herself and the tour members, doesn´t take long... Sabrina and Sarina, (later on we will meet Rina) German and Swiss German girls. Carrie and I are suprized and alittle apprehensive...two weeks with five girls could be interesting! Luckily Kaylie is one´Chica Loca´and the three of us bounce of each other with sillyness and constant giggles, whilst Sabrina and Sarina are happy translating between the two of them and side stepping our crazy outbursts for culture and bakeries. After an overnight bus and an early morning speedboat, we arrive at Caye Caulker, our first taste of the Carribbean and a great welcome to Belize.
´Girl, you in Belize now, you gotta slow down the pace.´
We explore the gorgeous island, and sunbathe on the broken stepping stones of an old jetty at´The Split,´ aptly named after Hurricane Mitch literally split the island in two. The best thing about coming in low season is that you get the locals to yourself! None of those pesky gringo´s bothering you. Oh the only thing that could potentially ruin our tropical paradise is, just the small concern of Hurricane Rina growing in the ocean and currently heading north. This means our snorkel trip is cancelled, as Raga Muffin spends time securing the boats, understandably protecting their livelihoods. Sabrina and Sarina are devastated, and although I am disappointed I can´t help but feel I don´t want to mess with Mother Nature, and truthfully, not swimming with sharks might be the best decision that could be made for me! Another day. Carrie and I behave in the way we have been bought up- to find a positive in every situation. As we sunbathe the day away we decide to celebrate this unique experience and with the girls in search of rations, I follow the music on the jetty and befriend it´s two Italian owners. The girls return with the news Rina is now heading straight for us... with no escape that night we drink our´Rina´cocktails, toasting ´Mother Nature,´and as if the energy in the skies is fuelling our party we dance, laugh and scream out ´We love you Rina!´ Our Hurricane Party is topped off by the brightest orange sun setting behind us on the horizon and a sting ray keeping us company below the jetty. Pure happiness. As we dance along the streets towards Caye Caulkers empty nightclubs, we aquire several locals, and with who else but Bob Marley as the sound track to our evening, we listen to the gentle sounds of the Creole language of our new friends and dance into the night.
Weeeeooooooooooooow, Weeeeeeoooooooooow.
As far as alarm clocks go, I would have to say the World War II bomb sounding, Island Evactuation siren is pretty effective. Carrie and I sit bolt up right, 6am. Our converstaion of three words conveys everything we feel in a second.
Carrie turns to me ´Shelley?´
I simply reply ´I know´ and we begin to pack our bags, quickly and quietly, with a feeling of calmness that doesn´t match the moment.
The wind has picked up, the rain has started, and we need to catch the last boat off the island before it´s too unsafe. Rina won´t be coming to stay until later, or she might even change her mind, but either way, stuck on a rainy island for five days sounds like something we want to avoid. We trudge to the boat, rucksacks, waterproofs. Writing our names down on the list all feels alittle ominous, but soon enough we befriend Jonas and Sam, a German and very English guy also waiting to ´escape,´and our giggles soon defuse any worries. Although, what became of our Italian friends? No time, save yourselves!
As we land on mainland Belize, we spend the day traveling to an eco lodge in the Belizian Jungle and the bus is filled with the sounds of reggae and weather reports, tracking Rina´s every move. As the days pass, the excitement dies down and Rina heads north, causing none of the potential damage we feared for the locals. Raga muffin is safe.
We love you Rina!
I could tell you about the eco lodge we stayed in, the compost toilets, rain water showers. I could share stories of travelling three hours into the jungle on a´road´ to see the most spectacular caves, learning about the Mayan ruins of Caracol. How I raced a Belizian military security man to the top of the temple. (He challenged me, he had a gun! I failed even with a head start). I could reminice about swimming in Rio on the Pool, a beautifull series of pools and waterfalls in the middle of the jungle.
But the only thing that I really need to tell you is this.
I am starting to feel calm about the potential spider situation inside our tiny, wooden cabin, even with the book of ´Tarantulas of Belize´helpfully left out on the table, I smile. My fear, so severe even cartoons sent a shiver through me, after alot of work, has become managable. I turn my cabin door, freshly showered. The irony of the moment, as I see a black, large spider scuttle across my bed. Of all the places to spy one! I don´t scream, cry, shake as I would have done. I calmly try to catch it with my wash bag, with a little shudder i must admit. Of course it is ridiculously unsuccessful. I try to hide it from the group as I don´t want them worried too, but my face says it all so I have to share. My calm yet totally irrational announcement that I will now be staying awake all night, is answered by Texas, who offers me rum.
Oh I love rum. Knock me out please.
Texas is a fascinating man, his father admitted on his death bed his only wish was ´to have seen more of the world.´That was all Texas needed.
´The first third of my life I was growing up, the second third I was raising my children. This third? It´s for me to be totally selfish. And I´m loving it.´ He took his inflatable kayak and faced 20 foot seas around the Carribbean Islands, he motorbiked the length of Vietnam, he....he told good stories and he had good rum.
So Mum, I couldn´t call down the stairs to you to move yet another farm house spider (the only thing your independant daughter relied on you for always), so I just said ´mind over matter,´and climbed into bed, thinking of spiders crawling over my face, until eventually I fell asleep. It was not the best nights sleep, but I did it.
No sky dive today, or 20 foot seas, but are you proud?!
The Mayan culture is deep rooted throughout Guatemala so it made sense that our first day took us to the Mayan Ruins of Tikal. A Mayan city that up until 900 AD held over 100,000 inhabitants. The single most fascinating fact I learnt today is this, Native people, the world over, are born with a round, palm sized, blue birthmark at the base of their back, if you ever need to identify a true Mayan! Spider monkeys climbing through the trees becomes the norm and the march of leaf cutting ants cross-cross the dirt paths, as night falls, their shadows turn already impressive loads into palm leaves. Tikal's temples hide like majestic giants poking their heads out of the jungle canopy, sitting in 120 sq km of the impressive 2 million hectare jungle.
A much more democratic approach is taken as there are so few of us and it starts to feel less like an organised tour and more like a group of friends, with one fluent spanish chica. Kaylie uses her contacts to give us some true Guatemalan experiences as we make our way through Flores, Rio Dulce and Antigua, the first being dinner with another tour group at our driver Marco Tulio´s home. Carrie and I bounce around, so happy to have new people, traditional home cooked mayan food and an amazing dessert of sweetened pumpkin. As great as the new people are, we find ourselves laughing more at our own jokes and each other, while everyone looks on bemused.
The infamous chicken buses translate to a hot, sweaty, dirty journey, crotches swaying dangerously at face level in the isle, or sitting on a drum of oil or rice bag, in Carrie´s case with a small child on her lap. Your stops coming, grab your bag as you get about 5 seconds to jump off! Chichinastenego market gives us the chance to see some beautiful handicrafts and perfect our barter skills. Halloween is upon us and we take a boat from our riverside eco lodge to a parrrttyy...we are looking forward to some traveler interaction to mix up the company but we are the youngest there by about 30 years...full of rich americans docking their sail boats. No problem, the spanish band plays out favourites with no clue of the words and we are first on the dance floor. We made that party!! Kaylie takes us to a little paradise the next morning, a hot waterfall in the middle of nowhere. We swim under the rocks behind the waterfall and feel total contentment, as we tread water and watch the water cascade in front of us, cocooned inside. We sit in the hot pools at the top, with mud smeared across our faces, totally clueless as to whether it has any benefit for our skin but enjoying it anyway!
San Pedro sits on the edge of the crater Lake Atitlan, surrounded by three volcanos. San Pedro volcano itself last erupted thousands of years ago, but I love the fact volcanic debris was found as far as Florida. I finally feel completely rewarded, this is true Guatemala, sure travelers dot the streets but mainly locals adorning traditional dress go about their daily jobs. It feels safer than everywhere we have been so far and the little streets offer shops and coffee bars as they slant steeply to the watersedge and the 'harbour.' The water has risen one metre in three weeks and we walk over table tops balanced on rocks as we walk from the boats to land. The water is continually rising which is a real worry for the inhabitants of these towns and villages, as the natural drainage system to the lake is failing. We bump into Jonas, our friend from the hurricane evacuation, who joins us for a cappaccino... after a visit to a coffee plantation near Antigua where I tried my first real cup of coffee, some of the best in the world. Carrie is trying to get me addicted. We spend the afternoon at Moma Lola and Theresa´s house, Kaylies second home and first Spanish teacher all those years ago. We help make tortillas over the open oven and enjoy our second home made mayan meal, followed by ´let´s play dress up´in Theresa´s beautiful traditional clothes. That night we stay with a local family, helping cook the meal and learning about their lives. It was a real test of our Spanish, particularly as I had only just started learning a few days earlier. I had flashbacks of students sat around the kitchen table at Blackstone, head in a phrase book for ten minutes, only to come out with one sentence. I´ve been trained well though and sign language is a great thing, I also found my level with five year old Josias, as he let me colour in with him and play a card game that had no apparent rules other than him taking my good cards. He made my night.
We enjoy a final dinner with the tour girls, with a 4am bus booked for the following morning to Honduras, but it doesn't arrive. After waiting four hours in the hotel lobby and several phonecalls promising they are on their way, it transpires no one is coming. We spend a long day in sleep deprived fustration organising our next move, Carrie learns 'I want a refund,' and doesn't move until she gets one, despite them trying their hardest to avoid it. The ATMs are not giving out money, we think due to it being Election day, take your pick Guatemala, the drug narc or the military guy with a history of killing children with a bat to the head. Supermarket Noodles for 40 cents felt like the most well earnt meal all trip.
It's easy to think you're having a bad day, someone's is always worse...Sabrina's travel agent, who booked her tour to end in Antigua, Guatemala, booked her outbound flight from Antigua, the Carribbean Island. Seriously. She was stuck in Guatemala, one of the unsafest cities, with no access to money for the same reason as us, basic English and Spanish, no flight booked and her parents not able to book one online as there seemed to be complications due to the money transaction. I cannot imagine a more stranded feeling. Well Mel, it wouldn't happen at Trailfinders hey! She finally got a flight out the following day, hopefully it didn't put her off travelling, as that was her first trip!
Tour time is over and although we have had some amazing experiences due to Kaylie's local contacts, and her hilarious (crazy) personality (I haven't laughed like that in a logn time, crying, stitch..), we are ready for the freedom travelling brings. We are also ready not to be land locked and look toward Roatan as our paradise for a few days of sea, sun and Carribbean attitude.
Well it has to be said, Roatan turned out not to be the paradise we had our hearts set on. Low season gave West End an almost eerie quiet feel, with noisy 'road works' on the coastal path spilling oil out on to innocent birds and rain dampening spirits. Still, we had arranged to see Kaylie, our tour leader and friend, here with her new group and the prospect of plenty of new people made us hope for some interesting connections. How wrong we were! They were the least welcoming group of travellers I have ever had the pleasure of spending an evening with! I guess there are certain 'tour' type people, and we aren't typical tour people, it just fitted at the time. Every time Carrie and I made a joke they looked at us like we were really rather odd. I would rather be odd if it means having as much fun as we do! Still, we made the most of it, a couple made some effort and it was good to catch up with Kaylie. She had arranged a 'local' dinner with a lady called Maizie for her tour group and we tagged along (don't tell Gap tours!). We tried Iguana meat, Conch soup (the muscle from inside the big beautiful coral shells) and danced the night away in the open clearing along with Maizie's eight children. I have never seen a four year old girl move her hips like that...they learn young, I can see why Rhianna is the way she is now. Big news of the night though was seeing my first tarantula in the 'wild!' Scrap the 'big' spider I saw in the eco lodge. This was a fully fledged, big, hairy, palm sized tarantula, just hanging out on the ground next to us. I stood next to him for quite a while, it was a good moment. Calming.
We whiled away our stay at Georphi's wooden cabins with boat trips to West Bay beach, zumba with a fantastic latino woman (who I'm not sure was trained but just danced anyway she liked to songs) and eating every possible meal we could at the amazing 'Chicken Lady's,' chicken, coconut rice, beans and coleslaw for $5. Best meal ever. Oh and the cinnamon rolls...ahhh. We befriended a lovely older American couple, Bill and Laura who were doing alot of snorkel trips there, they offered for us to go with them for a morning and wouldn't let us pay. 'When you are older and have money, you can help out two friendly travellers yourself.' I love it, just like the book 'Pay it forward' keep doing that until the whole world is good to each other always, favour or not. What a great way to start the day, free snorkeling and Carrie's first time! Laura told us all about her family, ''I always wanted ten children, well I had five and I got my ten with all my son and daughter in laws. Plus my thirteen grandchildren. I look around them all and think wow, look at our family.'' They showed us some of the grandchildren's thanksgiving videos, one offered up ''I am thankful for my family...and the sunshine.' Makes alot of sense. But this was my favourite, as the five years old waddles up to the camara, eating his peanut butter sandwhich and announces, 'I am thankful for tigers.....and.....elephants....and ummm....lions!!!'
Aside from the rain, being eaten alive by sand flies (last count on my legs was 82 bites, worse for me than mozzies, my skin just burnt and irritated for days) and a somewhat lack of atmosphere, we still had a good few days at Roatan, mainly due to the fact we have fun together and can enjoy talking about life, love, friends. Whilst we were there we experienced 11 minutes past 11 on 11th november 2011. Where were you when that moment passed? Did you even address it? We lay in our bed, inside our cosy little log cabin, and made our hopes and wishes up until 12 minutes past 12 on 12th December 2012. Not many years you can do that with....well actually maybe there will be a few for the next few years! We are ambitious, we aren't happy to sit back and let life plod along, we want to achieve and have success in the things we choose to do. Sometimes expectation can be a dangerous thing, like our high expectations for Roatan led to dissapointment, but in life you have to give yourself high expectations, it's what keeps you pushing for better.
We later found out from travellers that Utilia, the other Bay Island was 'amazing,' 'oh how we loved Utilia, blah blah blah,' but hey, sometimes you wish you had made a different decision but you can't regret it, you meet the people and have experiences that continually shape you. And it was worth it just for that home made cinnamon roll...
Tegucigalpa is not the nicest of cities. We would have loved to have skipped right by it on our journey down to Leon, Nicaragua, but the only way to get from Roatan, walk, taxi, ferry, taxi, bus, taxi, was to have a stop over night in Goosie. Some worn travellers say 'Oh why are you worried, it's fine.' That's great is they feel fine, generally I take what I hear and read with a sensible approach (you would never leave your front door otherwise) but here, I just felt it, I was happy to keep our stay brief. It was on the morning bus that I first saw a glimmer of a travel community, it's really quite amazing how far removed you are on a tour, even whilst travellling the same areas. They were there I guess, but we weren't. Now we are! We talk to several people including Canadian Megan and Spanish Elena, and cook dinner with them at our hostel that night.
A few months ago, by the magic of facebook, I saw a Dutch friend from my travels in Thailand's status ''November=Nicaragua!" I replied " Me too! See you there!" and left it at that, knowing these things have a way of working out. And it did, with little planning Art and I find ourselves in Leon on the same day and so spend the night catching up with a few drinks. The next morning Carrie and I head to their very nice hostel, Via Via, and meet Art, Swedish Max, and Dutch friends Anita and Marthe for a city walk. It's a great feeling to finally meet people we really enjoy, what a novelty! We almost win at the hostel quiz that night, we are drawing top marks (Dad would be proud) and lose out in a tie breaker, but we still win a bottle of rum and feel united and a good dynamic forming. We had originally decided to stay a few more days but it dawns on Carrie and I simultaneously it is the more natural decision to join them on the morning bus down to Granada. It's a great feeling to meet someone you met half way round the world and travel again with them, forming a friendship far past the one you started with. And to never expect it. That is one amazing thing about facebook, it does make the world a smaller place, reuniting with people so simple and out of the blue.
Granada is similar to Leon with it's narrow streets and artisan vibe, but it feels cleaner and safer, and our hostel Oasis is a little haven. Free phonecalls home means I talk to Mum, Dad and Richie over the few days there, take a swim in the pool, laze in the hammocks and enjoy the free coffee. It may have only been a few days, but our little group of six soon feels like a family unit and we even joke about the name Suave as our surname...I think it came from Art using it so frequently. We (Carrie) cook homemade dinner of fajitas and spend the evening together, a great feeling to be so much apart of something when you are so far from home. As Anita put it so well, 'These are people you want to put energy into.' It's true, sometimes you meet people and any conversation is just that, words to fill time, but each conversation with Art, Max, Anita and Marthe feels rewarding and benefiting to us and our friendship. We are also in good hands, Max being a Doctor and the girls being nurses, this proves very good timing as Carrie has an eye infection, one that without the right antibiotics, which Max helps her with, could have led to something pretty serious. The following morning we take a bus to a gorgeous crater lake where we chat, sunbath, swim and kayak (Max is a pro at yoga and we soon take on the challenge to try it anywhere, kayak-yoga needs good balance). In our last hour a thunderstorm starts up and I swim in the lake, one of the best feelings, swimming in the rain. Or is it singing in the rain...? We visit a cigar 'factory' and the girls make and buy their very own. They may be some of the best in the world but even that isn't enough to make me want to try it! Another family (Carrie) cooked meal and a game of poker makes for a perfect evening. I lose out to Art, still, second place, Ed would be proud.
After having my passport stolen in Vietnam and knowing the difficulties I would face if it got taken again, I treat my passport like absolute gold. Everyone understands the value of it, but until you have been through the infuriating experience of reporting the crime, applying for a new one and renewing your visa, in a somewhat undeveloped country where you can't speak their language...well let's just say I feel once is enough for a lifetime. I wear Dad's money belt religiously on all journeys, seperating every bank card throughout my person. As I climb into the bus, my money belt has unbeknown to me slipped round, but for some reason at that exact moment I turn around and instinctively put my hand there...right onto my passport. A local man is holding bags up to disguise his actions and I literally take my own passport out of his hands. It's almost a slow motion moment and I can't believe what is happening. He walks away, and as I come to, the anger and shock boils up in me, I swear at him loudly, but still relatively politely considering, I sit down shaking. I explain to my friends what has just happened. We high five, I still have my passport!! There is no feeling like it. I cannot believe how differently my day could have been if I hadn't turned at that exact moment. That's some good karma right there, I must be doing something right. Everytime I get the vision of this man with his hand in my moneybelt, fingers grasping my passport, I feel nausous, violated, I was seconds from a nightmare all over again. But really, I'm still alive and not hurt, perspective.
We have left behind the more unsettled countries and, despite this encounter, as we head south I feel more and more safe as each day passes. (Don't worry mum! x)
We jump on the ferry, a four hour ride at just $3 will take us across Lake Nicaragua to the island of Ometepe.
Ahhh Ometepe. I HEART you! What a fantastic few days, what travelling should be about. New and interesting people that bring out the best in you, nature, being active, something that challenges you and a cool drink at the end of it all. Oh and a birthday to celebrate! Ometepe island is actually made up of two volcanos (one still active) and sits on Lake Nicaragua, home to freshwater bull sharks and the original choice for the canal but losing out to Panama City. We stay at Santa Domingo, which Lonely Planet tells us has a beach....it's under water due to the rising lake, that's ok, I'm not sure I will be doing much swimming!
The dirt floor, plastic seat, lakeside breeze restaurant becomes our local and we love eating our chicken, rice and beans with plantains for $4 each night, hosted by the always laughing local Julia. Happy customers. Our group grows from our ferry ride over and we are joined by Montana, a couple of Londoners and a Dutch couple.
We start our day in the serious heat with a bike ride over the rough steep roads to the hot springs. They aren't hot. Or springs. But suprizingly it's better! A natural flowing source of water, captured in a rustic, outdoor 'swimming pool' which comes with sun loungers and an awesome rope swing out over the pool! Carrie and I are first to test it at the same time...to the growing crowd....''That's right, dos chicas!' We are soon out 'swung' when some local kids, who we can't compete with as you know have been doing it before they could walk, start climbing the tree monkey style and somersaulting off! Montana (who checked out of our hostel early to find his friends down the road) turns up at the pool with his Canadian gang and we all spend the day swimming, chatting, laughing and swinging!! I am in my element, bouncing off all the new people with banter and where I have felt alittle introverted the last few days I finally feel myself again. I find out Tattoo has a guitar and knowing how much Carrie would like to play we make loose plans to meet up later. As we are eating dinner they turn up, having walked the hour to us, it's worth it though, what was to be a chilled out jam session turns into a full on Miss Carrie Hayden gig night as she makes half of them cry and the other half fall in love with her. She plays for well over an hour, by the end even the restaurant locals have come to join our group of fifteen or so. It really was such a unique evening, this spontaneous gig, I think they will all remember it as such a special moment from their travels. They just kept asking for songs to be replayed and everyone said how the lyrics spoke to them. A really special moment to be a part of.
I had been feeling nervous about today for a while, maybe I underestimate myself but an eight hour hike up a volcano makes me alittle concerned. I can cope with the physical pain but it's the breathing that gets me. I remember when I was young I said to Mum, 'I must have asthma!' after a particulalry horrific P.E lesson, but no I think it was asthma spelt u.n.f.i.t. The climb up Volcano Maderas starts at 5 am to avoid the heat, the path is rocky, very muddy and gets steaper and steaper, naturally. At one point our guide hits a tree and calls out 'Half way,' a collective grown passes through our group, just half way?! But I suprize myself, the first part is the toughest, but after that i stay at the front and stop talking, for once, and by the last hour of the way up I am really enjoying it, climbing rocks, holding on to branches to pull myself up. The top, wow, what a view, makes all that hiking so worth it. Clouds. 'Are you kidding me? Is this is?' cries a fustrated Marthe. Another ten minutes and we reach the crater lake, I'm sure it is beautiful, but all we can appreciate is the mist. We sit in the mud (makes no difference) and eat our sandwiches with napkins soaked to them like an extra layer. I don't care how unrewarding the summit seems, to me I am exstatic to have made it! The way down, people say is harder, I can't see it, I don't struggle to breath on the way down so it may be physically difficult but I'm skipping....ok well not quite. You have to concentrate and you are covered in mud from head to toe, and in my case bruises, but we all chat, play games and look out for the half way tree, which takes it's time coming. I did it in a pair of cheap plimsoles, I just can't justify carrying walking shoes for one or two excursions, but Carrie did it in the only footwear she had other than flip flops, her birkenstock sandals...way to learn what determination can achieve. Climbing 1394 m has got to be one of the hardest physical things I have ever done and that was pretty standard feeling through out the group.
What an achievement! And all on Max's birthday! So now let's celebrate with some rum....oh which we did.
Time seems to have flown by, and with my blog all out of sync it might be hard to transport yourself back to Nicaragua, a bit like reading the last page of a book before starting. But hopefully the desire to know all about Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, which are amazing countries, should keep you as my audience...
As the chicken bus (old American school buses bought up by many of the countries in C.America) pulled into San Juan Del Sur I felt, for the first time, this could be a place to easily lose a week. The atmosphere was instantly welcoming, a healthy amount of travellers filled the streets, all sun kissed and surfed out from a day at the beach. That is what San Juan became to us, 6 days of beach, sun and surf with our Familia Suave and plenty more new faces. Sitting on the southern end of Nicaragua's Pacific Coast, San Juan was the last stop in Nicaragua for us and many others, and what a high to go out on. The sun shone plenty enough to finally start tanning, the music gave us opportunity to dance our hearts out, learning salsa from the locals and beating them at pool (the latter is all to Carrie's credit!). Our hostel was a perfect place to relax, play guitar and make friends over breakfast. Our best free breakfasts of the trip, a different delight each day; burritos, pancakes and bananas, scrambled eggs... Isn't free food magical? Almost free food is pretty special too, 'Taco Stop' became our local for lunch, dinner and post dancing munchies at 3am, and how could you refuse with prices starting at 15 cordobas. That's about 50 pence for a taco!
We had planned to go to the beach on our last night to see the baby turtles making their way to the ocean. Wiggling their tails down the sand to safety. Apparently at the start of the week there had been thousands making the perilous journey. At breakfast we got chatting to a retired couple, the lady was actually born and raised in Kidderminster...I knew I could detect that tuneful midland twang...They had been on the turtle 'tour' the night before. The road to the beach is nothing more than a dirt track, which takes up to an hour for the truck to bump and bounce along. Masked gun men jumped out, and with the path cleverly blocked by a log, they held the driver at gunpoint, and roughly took everyones valuables. The couple were very calm about it all, a great travel attitude of, 'It could have been worse.' They said 'We won't tell our children until we are home, they do worry.' Their children were now the parents, waiting at home for their Mum and Dad to get home from yet another trip! No one was harmed in the end, just locals seeing an opportunity for 'easy' money. As amazing as turtles are, with the incident fresh in everyones minds it was sensible to give it a miss. I think we will just have to watch Finding Nemo on our return home.
We loved San Juan. Feeling relaxed and relatively safe in our environment (although I met several people who had been held at gun point near the beach at night, not the best idea to go there at night though). Ping pong tournaments with lovely German boys, dancing with Canadian Wildfire and Swedish Salsa and saying good bye to Familia Suave. Art, Max, Anita and Marthe. Such a brilliant fortnight with them, the six of us fitted together to make the perfect travel family dynamic. Genuine promises of meeting up once home tend to get lost as the real world sucks you back in, but when your countries sit as neatly as England, Sweden and Holland it seems hopeful...besides I think it's about time I visited Stolkholm and Amsterdam...
''Live for those who love you'' Tattoo of the week..!
Close second... ''Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt''
So we left the sunshine of San Juan del Sur, tactically missing the Pacific Coast to make our last three weeks of travel relaxing on the Caribbean Coast. I never regret decisions made. Every turn in life takes you to new people, places, experiences and teaches you something valuable. But we weren't feeling so philisophical when the rain was still pouring six days later and the Pacific Coast was glorious! Most people's view of Costa Rica is one of beautiful, green, luscious rain forests to explore, bursting with wildlife and stunning beaches to relax on....for us it will be rainy day activities!
The border from Nicaragua into Costa Rica was perhaps our most eventful journey. Our local bus to Rivas stopped infuriatingly regularly, every half a mile we stopped for man, child and lunch bag (to be delivered further along the journey) and a stop for the driver to meet his family on the side of the street for a kiss to his baby. Ahh how sweet....no!! We knew there was no way we would catch our Tika Bus, even if they were running on local time (which means late). Five minutes away from our destination we saw our Tika bus drive past in the oppositie direction, all hope lost. Arriving at the Tika office we used our broken Spanish to converse with the lady who unhelpfully just said we would have to buy another ticket for the afternoon bus in 6 hours time. We had spent $30 on this one as Tika is a reputable bus company as far as Nicaragua goes and we had wanted it to take us safely across the border. With no other choice we managed to catch a local chicken bus for $1 to the border, hoping to catch our bus up. We had just a few dollars between us (lesson learnt, great to have emergency money stashed but you have to replace it!) as we had got rid of most of our currency before moving countries. Walking across borders is not the ideal and something we wanted to avoid, you feel pretty vunerable and it's easier to take the offer of the boys who charge you a couple of dollars to take you across and give you the immigration forms. As we queued up with our passports we saw a man with a Tikabus shirt, we couldn't have been happier!! Unfortunately it wasn't so simple, we had to fight for our bus seat as he wanted to make some money out of us. He spun us a line that we needed a new ticket as ours was only valid from Rivas, no matter that we had the ticket already paid for in our hand. Suddenly the realisation we could be stuck at the border, with no money (we had just used our last to pay immigrations pockets) a useless bus ticket and a big feeling of desperation washed over us. The boy that had taken us across the border now put his price up, another $2 from the rich white kids...we had 25 cents. That was everything. Everything. We were getting on that bus. I think once he realised we literally had no money he gave up. We felt so nervous waiting to get on the bus, everyone didn't want us to get on, driver, conductor etc...he had told us there were no seats, which was a lie. Thankfully we boarded the bus and it took us right through to San Jose. Phew.
Our 24 hours in San Jose was a harsh slap into the Western world, just one border away was Central America, now this was high rise, Macdonalds, and bright lights. Wherever you walk, as women, you get 'tssst' from men as they suck their teeth at you, or make sleazy comments. You get used to it but it really makes you feel quite sick to your stomach, they might never imagine doing anything more than commenting, but you don't know that. As we walked through town after our afternoon at the beautiful art gallery and sculpture garden we were passed by a rowdy bus full of football fans on their way to a match. It made us smile. As we rounded the corner we were faced with hundreds of 'lads' in red. We walked through with themas they made rowdy comments and whistles, for the first time we felt suprisingly safe. Why? It's just lad behaviour, same in any country. Carrie asked for a photo for her Dad ''Inglaterra!' Oh they loved that. Crowding round for the photo. Quite a moment.
We found a really special hostel called Tranquilo, which has now been taken out of the Lonely Planet (some deal between LP and another hostel to be 'Best Pick'), free pancake breakfast, free interent, big comfy lounge for movie watching, perfect. We met Micheal and Shalla, who had just, quite literally, escaped from a self sufficient community (or Cult?!) in the mountains, they shocked us with stories over breakfast. Later that night Carrie sat out on the terrace steps, playing the free hostel guitar for her own enjoyment, but it soon drew in a crowd of relaxed travellers, the first we knew of it as the hammocks let out an applause. Micheal was an instant fan and his passion and interest in the world and people around him made him a memorable character. Some of my favourite moments of travelling have been lay in a hammock, writing my thoughts in my diary and singing along to Carrie's beautiful voice and lyrics. In a way we have both been in our own worlds in that moment, but completely united at the same time. Connected. A travel soundtrack in my mind forever.
Later in our travels we would be taking a bus ride through Panama when New Jersey (through and through) tells us, ''I met this guy called Micheal in San Jose who told me about a famous English singer he met...was that you?'' We loved not only Micheal was telling people as they came through the hostel about Carrie, but that she was now famous! Well she is I guess...amongst the Central American hostels! Start small...we have touched alot of nationalities at least!
We had planned to travel to several places along the Caribbean coast but as the bus drove through, none looked too atmospheric so we just kept going until we got to Puerto Viejo. We stayed at Rockin J's, a sort of festival feel with the hostel spread out over out houses, hammocks to rent for the night, tents everywhere and mosaiics and paintings decorating the whole place. Rockin J himself was quite a character, continually high and the source of the most ridiculous conversations, you would be infuriated by him when he was there and miss him when he left. His new toy was a music studio inside some shipping containers which he showed us with some pride and some confusion. The Swedish boys played the instruments and he asked me ''So how do we record them? You can figure it out can't you?'' He spent $7000 on this computer program but couldn't work it without his other stoner mate. ''I'm going to smoke this on the beach.''' The garden led out onto the beach, where, had it been hot and sunny would have been idyllic, instead we enjoyed bonfires there each night as J would stand on the balcony and call out ''Backpackers!! Who wants marshmellows? Catch!'' There was always a drum or two and the people huddled around the fire, dancing and drumming to the beat became a crowd of familar faces, friends and some, unbeknown to us at the time, would become our Panama family.
Rockin J's became our rainy day activity time, with town 20 minutes walk away and the rain continually heavier than we could believe, we accepted defeat like the rest of the backpackers and bonded over making mosaiics, playing games, talking about life and cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Well Carrie more so...making Thai green curry with the crazy Hippie and eating communal dinners with familar faces. Our time was spent mostly with the crazy Hippie and another Swedish Max, we thought he was more a beautiful Viking man, as we told him, it's always good to have something pretty to look at. Carrie and I loved talking with him, he was hilariously trippy but had his head screwed on with the important things. He was only 20 and in love with his girlfriend back home, ''We only met a few weeks before I left and she lives nine hours away from me, but I love her.'' All it could do was make you smile really, 'young love.' Crazy Hippy had been someone I wouldn't normally spend much time with but here, you can afford to leave your judgements at home, we talked about heavy subjects like 'Free wil vs pre determined fate' and while I appreciated some of his views, I lost interest as he veered off into nonsense I don't even think he knew what he meant. He had taken a liking to Carrie which was only starting to become apparent after a few days, and he was quite expressive about it. It was starting to creep us out, so it was time to leave, we are true Brits, a bit of rain shouldn't put us off!
We wanted to see real Costa Rica so took the bus south just half hour to stay on the edge of a national park. As the bus pulled in the deserted dirt town, not a single traveller in sight but plenty of local men ''tsst'' at us, it was late afternoon and we were feeling uncomfortable as the darkness began to fall. The hostel we had found in Lonely Planet didn't feel right and as we stood with our rucksacks in the middle of the village, we both wore the face of uncertainty. Stay where we feel unsure, or get on that bus that has just pulled up and go back to Mr Creepy? Whilst we were travelling we seemed to have one mind, and we knew the right decision. As we slunk back into Rockin Js with our tail between our legs, we had made such a fuss of saying goodbye after missing our morning bus, to then come back the same night?! There were no point looking for another hostel in the dark, so we asked, as a bit of fun, for the observation tower which stood above the main area and we made a joke of looking out for creepy Hippie before climbing down each time!
Luckily there were a few new faces for the next few days ... I recognised Swedish Leo and Canadian Alex from San Juan del Sur, so sat down to chat with, it was the first time in a while the conversation didn't start with travelling, we just talked...about interesting things you would do with friends. It felt refreshing and I could see they were good people to be around. Two of the German boys from our ping pong days in San Juan also turned up, and with no idea of names we called out 'Germans!' They became our 'Little brothers German' as we never got to the names stage until Panama. They were 19 but in so many ways age doesn't matter at all, it did feel that sort of relationship, platonic ease, two sets of best friends. Along with Aussie Michelle and Jesus (could be) they all were making their way to Panama in the morning via the costly hostel transport. We saved $20 and went local. Time to cross the border into Panama, and what a border! We had to walk across a beautiful but decidedly ricketty, wooden bridge spanning the river, that marks the divide between Panama and Costa Rica. We took the local buses and boat to the beautiful islands of Bocas del Torros, knowing we would meet our new friends there later on. Costa Rica might not have been our favourite country in Central America, I think a holiday makers view of it would be very different to a travellers, but we met some brilliant people, some who will shape the next few weeks...
To keep you posted guys, as and when I found out America thinks I am a terrorist...
Well that's an interesting development...
So I just logged on to my email to double check my ESTA for my 10am flight to New York tomorrow morning...I have a new email this afternoon, less than 24 hours before my flight leaves.
TRAVEL NOT AUTHORIZED.
MY heart just sunk. What?! It tells me, yes we received your $14 thanks very much, we pocketed it back on 9th September when you applied, very organised of you. We waited until today to let you know you cannot go though. Lovely. I have no criminal record I promise! Knowing how completely 'computer says no' American authorities are I know I won't be able to rationally sort this out with a human being.The first time I speak to Mel in three months and its for travel advice. I would say this is an emergency though. If I apply for a new ESTA and it is refused I might not be able to get a visa...but a visa takes five days to even get an interview. Well I guess, if I can't sort it, I'm not going. I have been so excited about New York. I never normally have too many expectations...I should have known it was a dangerous thing! The weird part is, every time we talked about New York I had this glimmer of a feeling it wasn't going to happen. A friend got in touch as he had a flight lay over there on our last night, we arranged to meet but I still didn't believe it. I feel strangely calm, I guess in this situation there's no point getting worked up. Emotionally exhausted we gave up, flopped on the sofa to eat our dinner, the American boys bought us ice cream to cheer us up, and then Carrie played guitar. It always makes me smile. Still alive, life is good. She changed the lyrics to Jana's song and sang sillyness about the situation. 'Who likes Americans anyway?!' Well we like ice cream giving ones of course.
That was on thursday afternoon. I woke up at 3am and spent the rest of the morning talking with Mels boss Paul on UK office hours, Mel at Blackstone and visiting the US Embassy in Panama. Infuriatingly, their emergency opening hours are from 10.30-12. That is generally when people plan their emergencies for I think. Paul said 'If you can get a visa I will eat my computer. Bottom line is Carrie must get on that flight tomorrow, you cannot. You will fly in, be turned around and flown right back, with a load of hassle in between.' My passport was stolen in Vietnam two years ago and there is a chance someone could have used it, or it might be someone with a similar name has committed crimes in the US. We don't know why it was refused and we never will. So now I just have to deal with it. I just see the positive- I still have my passport. This means I am not stuck here for christmas. Things can always be worse.
So after very many phone calls all over the place, and a very teary goodbye to Carrie as she leaves for the airport at 6am, we get a plan together. I have traveled with Carrie for over two months and as I watch her taxi drive away, I wipe away the tears, feeling like I'm missing a limb. Luckily two American guys we have met along the way are here and they do what they can to be supportive which I appreciate as all our group of friends left the day before.
New plan. $1600 flight home not via America. Paul says Insurance might not cover it. Porridge for January me thinks. Well I may as well make it count. Our friend Leo, who we have traveled with for a few weeks here in Panama, has just flown to Cancun. I decide to fly there and go hang out with him on Isla Mejures for four days before flying home on the original date planned. I must have learnt quite abit about handling difficult situations because everyone in the hostel comments how calm I seem. Just accepting it, then moving on. The worst part for me is that something, completely out of our hands, has affected not only me but Carrie too. The excitement we shared for New York has turned to such disappointment. That's the worst feeling, you can be in control of your emotions, but its so difficult to see someone you love disappointed too.
So, I fly today, just about to go eat my last free hostel pancake breakfast, I am completely pancaked out, and pack my rucksack for the penultimate time.
It's all part of the adventure of life I guess. Love you all and see you in a few days xxx