Beachside Bubble

I'm writing this blog after banging my phone several times against the bed, turning it on and off again a few times, and generally yelling at it. My phone has been struggling with the humidity, and the couple of scratches it picked up in Australia. So far I've been relatively patient with it. Today I am not. I have just come back from three days of blissful peace, of no wifi and only 6 hours of electricity (6pm-midnight). It's been incredible.

The first day I finished the book I'd been chugging my way through. The second day I'd read an entire second book by 11am. In the afternoon, I learnt how to play backgammon, as well as a Cambodian card game, before challenging my competitors (three kiwis and a fellow Brit) to a game of Exploding Kittens. In the evening, we chatted at the bar whilst they drank cocktails, and I had a sprite or two.

The third day in the morning my games partners left so I had a quieter day - I had a wander down the beach and wrote  some of my diary (I'm up to Bangkok now so I've almost caught up!). The afternoon I finished another book, and did some puzzles. I watched the sunset and did my good deed by collecting a whole bag of litter that the locals had left on the beach.

And now I am back, fighting with my phone, dealing with tourists, staying in dorms with strangers who don't bother talking to me, wishing I could have stayed longer in my little beachside bubble. Probably a good job I only got there at the end of my trip - I may never have left otherwise.

War Crimes

When I think of mass genocide, with reasons for death being race, or imperfections, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I think of WW2, of Hitler and the gas chambers. It's what I was taught at school. We all know about it. But if you think that this was the last time this mistake was made, you're wrong.

The Cambodian genocide started in 1976. It ended in 1979, just one year before my older brother was born. A quarter of the country was killed, and often in much less humane ways than Hitler came up with.

It's important to remember that these things didn't stop with Hitler. Winning the war did not heal the world. There have been even more recent genocides than the Cambodian ones, particularly thinking of Rwanda in 1994 - within my lifetime.

I spent a sombre morning walking around both the prison where innocent people were tortured until they confessed their "crimes", and the killing fields, where they were sent when they ran out of "crimes" to confess to. I won't go into too many details - you can find them on the Internet if you want - but the one thing that really got me from the audio tour was the repeated quote "Cambodians killing Cambodians" and it reminded me of a song by Cara Dillon about the Northern Ireland issues:
"I wonder just how many wars are fought between good friends"

The answer is certainly too many.

Angkor What?

I was already in love with Cambodia just from the bus drive to Siem Reap. I knew I would be, that's why I was so determined to get here. I checked into my hostel and soon found myself booking onto a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat. Yes people, a sunrise tour. That meant being at the front door at 4.30am! Luckily everyone else in my dorm had had the same bright idea, so we all woke each other up. I ended up tagging along with two British girls - Mel and Lindsey - and we headed off into the dark with our Tuk Tuk driver.

Sunrise over Angkor Wat is pretty incredible. Even on this day when it was cloudy, it was still pretty spectacular. Lots of the tourists made the mistake of thinking because it was light, sunrise was over, and so wandered off, giving us an even better view :-)

After sunrise, we spent the next 3 hours wandering around temples, with our Tuk Tuk driver (I want to say his name was Heung but I have probably spelt it wrong!) giving us a few extra details along the way, and letting us borrow a guide book - great!

I spent the next day here too (this time with a Danish girl!) adding another 4 hours amongst the massive temple complex. Built mostly in the 12th century, it was rediscovered in the 19th, and most temples have been restored to their original state, carvings redone, new wooden steps added to reduce the wear as tourists weave around them. But some (including Ta Prohm) have been left as they were found, with trees wrapped around the sandstone blocks, roots pushing them up, slowly causing collapse.

I honestly don't know which was more impressive - the restored ones, or the ones left as they were found - and I wondered what those European explorers must have thought, how they must have felt, as they pressed through the jungle, only to come across these giant ancient structures. I knew what I was coming to, and I was still blown away by the enormity of the whole complex and the minute details throughout. For someone who had no idea, it must have been something else entirely.

The Journey.

I'd always intended to do most of my travelling overland. It hadn't worked out from Malaysia to Thailand, but Thailand to Cambodia seemed more promising. I could have got the bus from Khao Yai (the national park), which involved several changes, but I decided to go back to Bangkok to get the direct bus to Siem Reap. They drop you off at the border, and wait for you on the other side. You can even leave everything on the bus (as long as you've got your passport!).

I had booked my ticket the day before, so all I needed to do was get to the bus station. The hostel staff told me it was too far to walk, so I ignored them and walked - it was half an hour. As I got closer to the bus station, it became apparent just how much rain there had been the night before, and I had to wade, ankle deep, through a couple of fairly major lakes that were once roads. The buses still seemed to be running though, and one entrepreneurial Thai had even set up a little ferry cart across one particularly wet patch!

I got to the bus and was relieved to find other westerners. The Thai-Cambodia border is pretty notorious for scams and dodgy visas, and the hope of travelling with other English speaking travellers was another factor in coming back to Bangkok.

The first half of the journey went without a hitch, some snacks, lots of naps, and a toilet stop. As we got close to the border, the bus steward (for want of a better word...) warned us of one of the usual scams (paying for arrival cards - 100 baht - they're free!) and myself, the English couple behind me, two German girls and an Aussie guy (travelling with his philippino wife who didn't need a visa) agreed to stick together to make sure we got the right thing!

We were dropped off outside an office, and there was a sign saying visas. A friendly Thai guy asked me for my passport which I held out. He took it off me and asked where my photo was (you need a passport photo to get a Cambodian visa, but you can also pay for one at the Cambodian visa office, which I was intending to do). Suddenly he was whisking me off to get a photo and at this point, alarm bells were ringing, but he had my passport in his hand, so I was following him! He took me to somewhere where I could get a photo (for a price - 150 baht for the photo and 1600 baht for the visa. More than I should have been paying!) but I replied firmly that I knew I could get them at the Cambodian visa office, and after a couple of firm No's he handed my passport back and pointed the way to the Thai departure office, where I caught up with the English couple and the Aussie. The German girls had been caught up in the scam, just like I almost had.

We made our way through departure, and into this bizarre no man's land between Thailand and Cambodia, which can be accurately described as the land time forgot. It's full of men pulling wooden carts (usually empty when I was there) and huge modern casinos. A bit further on there was the visa office. A non descript building with very few signs, but definitely the right place. We paid for our visas (US$30 - I paid an extra $5 for my lack of photo) and carried on to arrivals, where we were given departure cards for free, and our visas got stamped, before we got back on to our bus - first ones back! I was so glad that I had found other people to go through the process with.

The German girls (along with a Russian girl that I hadn't even realised was on the coach) had paid almost double for "express visas" which meant they filled in the same form, but a man went to the embassy for them with their forms and passports whilst they waited. On this day, they were slower than us by about 10 minutes - so much for express!

The rest of the journey was plain sailing, and the hostel I am staying in even organised transport for me, so there was a man waiting with my name on a card!

Early night tonight so I can watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat tomorrow - bring on Cambodia!!

In The Jungle

Racing along in the back of the jeep so fast that one of the girls is feeling very sick, we're all wondering how on earth we're going to see any animals going at this speed...

It's been a really successful day so far. Within minutes of stopping to have a mini briefing, our guide jumped up "come, come" - from 100yards away he spotted a thin snake hiding in a tree, one of those 'it's obvious once you've seen it' situations. He continued to amaze us throughout the day with his ability to find animals, insects, reptiles that were seemingly impossible to spot (we even wondered at times whether he'd been secretly carrying them around all day and just planted them without us seeing!). Thoughout the day we saw three more snakes (1 whip snake, and 3 pit vipers), three gibbons, three monkey families (adding up to a lot of monkeys!), two water monitors, two water dragons (endangered!), a lot of spiders, a hornbill, a kingfisher, a egret (white), a couple of deer, a scorpion (that he brought into the back of the jeep with us - too close for comfort!!), a few geckos and even an extremely rare endangered crocodile (as in there are only two that live in the entire river we were walking down). Our guide also found a porcupine quill, which basically counts as seeing a porcupine, right?!

We'd stopped in a few locations before spending the afternoon trekking between two waterfalls - one of which is apparently famous from a Leonardo Di Caprio film that I haven't seen - and we were now on the last bit of the day - a drive around to "see if we can see some animals".

As I said, we were dubious about seeing more animals, given the way they were driving, until suddenly we slowed down next to another tour jeep. Some excited Thai conversation and a few hand gestures later, and we quickly realised the reason we had been driving so fast - we had a very real possibility of seeing a wild elephant. Our guide had been called by his friend, and sure enough, if we listened hard enough, we could hear the branches cracking under the feet of a large animal. As we watched with baited breath, the leaves began to rustle, and our guide waved to the elephant "come this way, come this way". Unfortunately, whether it's that he didn't understand or just simply didn't care, the elephant didn't quite make it out into the clear, but our driver drove us a little closer and through the branches we could see our elephant. He very kindly turned around a couple of times, so we could see his head and his tail. He didn't come close enough for us to get good photos (sorry mum!), but it's the memories that count ultimately.

I saw a wild elephant in the jungle.

Aaand Relax.

After a couple of eventful nights in my original hostel in Bangkok (rude staff, vomiting, bleeding, broken air con, screaming - all related to separate incidents across the two nights) I decided it was time to change! I had originally stayed there because it was close to (but not on) the infamous Khao San Road - the biggest party street in Bangkok. I wanted to see what the fuss was about and I wanted somewhere with a good atmosphere. And I got it - the second evening I spent there was jenga and BBQ filled, and really fun!

But it's not really me, so after the experience, I headed to a hostel on the outskirts of Bankok (via river boat and train!) and had the most relaxing day and a half of travelling so far. I did my laundry, I read an entire book in a day. I found a nice quiet cafe. I wrote my diary. I chatted to some fellow travellers. I went to bed. I had an entire 6 person dorm to myself. I had the best nights sleep.

And now I'm off to Pak Chong, which is on the outskirts of the national park. Getting to the bus station was an adventure by itself ("hey look it's really close to this train stop" - I misjudged really close) but once I got to the bus station, the staff were falling over themselves to help me.

I'm very excited by jungle treks and the national park, and the bat cave, and waterfalls, and the very small potential of elephants in the wild. I'm not getting my hopes up, but I really hope I see an elephant!

I Wasn't Expecting That

Malaysian Summary
In truth, I probably should have stayed in Malaysia longer. I could have spent at least another two days in Kuala Lumpur, and probably another three or four in Penang, but I felt like I had to keep moving, otherwise I was never going to get through everywhere I wanted to go. But I don't want to feel like I rushed through everywhere, that I missed things, that I should have lingered. So I have pretty much decided to cut Vietnam out of this trip. To spend a week and a half in each Thailand and Cambodia. Or a week in Thailand and two weeks in Cambodia. We'll see how it works out. But I'm not rushing anywhere.

Thailand
Well Bangkok is not what I expected. When I think of Bangkok, I think of the nights, the partying westerners, the shows, and the scamming and pick pocketing that is rife in the country. And that is pretty much what you get. At night*. But during the day, wow. The city is full of culture, tradition, noise, fun - even the message coming from the Grand Palace telling you to not believe people who say it is closed (a typical Thai scam) starts with a tuneful melody, instead of just your average "bing bong". And then in amongst the tourist chaos, there are these serene little oases (is that the plural of oasis?!) of green parks, calm, shady, quiet. Even inside the most touristic places (yes that's a word, my phone spelt it for me!) there are spaces of calm, to sit and watch the world go by. And then there's the river, full of boat taxis transporting people along, tourists and locals alike, past the Bangkok skyline. And the skyline (the underground, but in the air) with its air con trains that run on time, smoothly transporting you without hassle through the sky.

I wasn't expecting to like Bangkok. But I really do.

*Not that I've really been out at night, but I could guess from the noise coming from outside my first hostel!

It's my holiday.

After yesterday's adventures, I slept for probably too long. I was packed and having breakfast by 10, which isn't too bad, but I had to be at the airport by 5 at the latest, which gave me less than 6 hours to do something (yes I can count - it's an hours bus journey to the airport). Now I have this habit of forgetting that hours are quite long, especially when I have something planned for later on. "oh I have to be somewhere at 2 so I can't possibly start that half an hour thing at 11am because I definitely won't have enough time" I'm terrible with it, and I know it. But. Filled with grand ideas of adventure, and not wanting to waste the day away, I quickly Googled some plans. After dismissing Monkey Beach due to the potential of a two hour walk each way, and an hour bus journey each way, adding up to an approximate 6 hours, and a tight turn around, I Googled a temple that I wanted to go to. Half an hour walk away. Much more feasible. So inevitably, I headed to Monkey Beach.

I had partly been spurred on by becoming friends with Ramona, and seeing her pictures of fabulous beaches and exotic locations, and feeling like my experiences just weren't up to scratch. And partly because there were monkeys there.

So an hour and a bit later, I found myself at the entrance to the national park, heading out in the slight drizzle to the beach. The drizzle soon cleared out and just left humidity. Dripping with sweat is an understatement. As I walked along the path, aware of my short time frame, I was getting frustrated with other walkers - I'd forgotten it was the weekend, and a long weekend for Malaysians at that. But on the plus side, the national park "map" (photocopied paper - black and white) said it was an hour and 15 minutes walk, which added some breathing room.

Eventually I got to a beach. It was not the beach in Ramona's pictures. Either she had a really good camera that could photoshop out lots of litter, or I wasn't in the right place. It was the second option. I carried on down the beach, past lots of Malaysian girls making sandcastles (school trip?!), and found another sign to Monkey Beach. I also found that the way to continue down this path was through the sea - it was high tide. The waves were crashing in, the water was so dirty, and there was a sewage pipe leading into the sea at the crossing point. I watched a few others take their shoes off, walk across and disappear into the bush on the other side, and decided I didn't want to go to this beach enough. There is still plenty of time for beaches, and monkeys for that matter. A combination of time, tourists and dirty water made my decision to head back the way I had come, but at a significantly slower pace.

As I got back into Georgetown, I realised it had been a good decision - it was already gone 3pm, and I had to get back to the hostel and get a bus by 4pm latest. But I was pleased that I had tried. I was pleased that for once I was in control of the situation, and it was me that made the decision to change plans, and that it had worked out for the best. And I was pleased that I'd managed to have a wander through the national park. A quick flick through my camera photos also reminded me that while my photos may not be full of beaches and exotic monkeys like Ramona's, they were full of my experiences, of my holiday. And that's the important thing.

Next up... Thailand.

The One Where I Did Climb A Hill

"I was thinking of doing that too, do you want to go together?" The words tumbled out of my mouth before I realised what I was doing. Moments earlier, I had been checking into my hostel with no real plans for the day, as a German girl (Ramona, I found out later) asked how to get to the Botanic Gardens to climb Penang Hill. A few minutes later, I was heading out the door ready to repeat yesterday, this time with company.

It turns out the walk up to Penang Hill involves a whole lot of steps, steep sections of road and some slippery paths (if you take the "longer, more risky route" as it was described to us by some locals). If I had been alone, I don't know how far I would have got before I gave up. I certainly wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. All three of us agreed on that point.
"Wait" I hear you cry "three of you?!". Yes three of us. Half way up the first lot of steps, we met Braidon, an American, who tagged along with us. Together, fighting against the heat and the slopes, we chatted about travelling, about politics, about the differences in our cultures, particularly our school systems.

After getting to the top (the views were worth it), we headed back down on the train and bus to Georgetown. We grabbed food (we introduced Braidon to samosas, his mind was blown), and an hour later, I was in a Buddhist temple, learning about meditation - the obvious way to end the day. Ramona had read about the lesson online and wanted to go. After the success of the day, I was more than happy to continue the adventure with my new friends, so all three of us went. (I'll leave my thoughts on Buddhism for now, this blog is about new friends, not religious debates!)

I have no idea what I would have ended up doing with my day had I not said those words at the start of the day, but I can say with 100% certainty that I would not have laughed as much, learnt as much or been as happy as I was with my two companions.

I need to start saying these words more often.

The One Where I Didn't Climb A Hill

If there's one thing I wanted to do in Penang, it was go to the top of Penang Hill. It's a hill. I like being at the top of hills. So. I Googled it. I Googled the walk path ("there is a fork in the path. The left path goes to a hut guarded by fierce dogs. Take the right path"), I Googled where it started from (the moongate), I Googled how to get there (number 10 bus), I Googled where the bus stops were. I had everything. I even found a bus stop that was closer to where I lived than the start of the route.

So I started to walk. It was a nice day, and I was enjoying wandering through new parts of Penang (turns out Penang is like really nice when you get out of the tourist bits). I saw a number 10 bus heading in the opposite direction - a good start! About 143 steps later, I realised that I was walking down a one way road. The bus would only be heading in the opposite direction. I'd walked too far for the bus stop I was aiming for... Not to be deterred, I had a quick look at my phone (I didn't have Internet access but I'd left everything open so I could still see it - I was organised.) which showed me that if I kept walking a little bit, I'd get to a bus stop, so I kept walking. And I found the bus stop! It even said number 10 on it, which was pretty impressive considering most of the ones I'd seen before had no signs at all. The Internet had said they came every half an hour. The sign said every 45 mins. No drama. So I sat and waited.

And I waited.

Another woman turned up.

And we waited.

She asked me how long I'd been waiting for. I said 30 mins  - it felt longer. It probably was longer. She told me Malaysian buses are lousy and I should go to Singapore. I'd get a bus in 5 minutes in Singapore. (I can only assume she was from Singapore, hence the bias). She asked me where I was going. I told her. She said this bus doesn't go that way from this stop. I was pretty sure she was wrong - it was a one way street (again!) and I was pretty convinced the bus went down it whichever destination it was heading to.

A bus turned up!

She asked the driver about the botanic gardens for me (the start of the route). He said it was this way (I knew she was wrong), but the next bus. Another 30 minutes. By this point I had been at the bus stop for over an hour. I was hungry and it had got to early afternoon and getting hot. I didn't wait for the next bus.

Instead I wandered round the centre, I found a cafe, I ate, I cooled down, I found a hostel for tomorrow night. I chatted to my friends (yknow, on the Internet because the hostel I'm staying in at the minute is not conducive to making friends). I went for a wander along the seafront at dusk (the sun sets in the wrong direction...), and I headed to the Danish Indian restaurant I've been eyeing up. Mostly because it claims to be Danish and Indian which confuses me. I've just finished eating (more food than I've eaten all week) and I still don't understand. It's a great spot for people watching though :-)

It's been a good day despite the lack of hill. Perhaps I will try tomorrow. It is a public holiday tomorrow though so I don't hold out much hope for the buses. Perhaps I should go to Singapore. I'd get a bus in no time there!

On a separate note - Mum, I used the words deterred AND conducive in this blog! Check me out!

Cameron Highlands

I'll be honest, my first night in the Cameron Highlands was not my best. When I went to book the bus in KL, I had planned on getting the 1130 bus. Turns out this one was full, as was the next. So I had to get a bus at 345pm, and I'd arrived at the bus station at 10.15am. Now in hindsight, I really should have gone back into the city, had a wander, found somewhere to sit and watch the crowds. But in my head, my day was to be spent travelling, so I spent a long and dull 6 hours at the bus station. I did a little people watching, I read my book, I bought that meal I was talking about before, I bought new flip flops, and some shampoo. It was ok. As was the shorter than expected bus journey. And then I found my hostel without a map - something that I am apparently getting good at. But it wasn't the day I had planned in my head, and it threw me off and left me feeling very out of sorts, for want of a better description. I lay in my bed hating it. The people weren't friendly (in truth I hadn't given them a chance) and the bed had bed bugs (it definitely didn't, and the rational part of my brain knew that!) and I was never going to sleep. I had two nights here and then I was getting out as soon as I could because I was definitely going to hate it here.

I woke up at 6.15am (having slept) to a street light in my eyes and the sound of roadworks. Not the best wake up, but regardless I was feeling a little more positive than the night before. After a chat with the hostel staff, I picked a route through the forest trails and headed off for a short hike. Unsurprisingly this made me feel much better and I found I actually really liked the Cameron Highlands. Its cool climate, nice trails and noisy insects make for some good walking. My route ended up at a local market which I also wandered through, before relaxing in a cafe and watching the world go by.

That evening was much more fun, uno and cooking with the people in my hostel (almost all Germans!) and eating yummy food! I also booked onto a tour of the local area for the next morning, which was great! The guide was so good, pointing out flowers that we never would have seen, or even if we had, we'd never have known the details - that if you crush this leaf, it smells like tiger balm, but it's not what they use to make tiger balm, and this berry comes before the flower, not after, and it's good for sore throat (but tastes like my herbal toothpaste!). We went to a tea plantation, and a strawberry farm, and generally had a very informative and educational morning!

I'm glad I got over my determination to dislike the Cameron Highlands, because it's a beautiful place! On to Penang next...

Conversations

I wonder when I'm going to get bored of having the same conversations all the time - how long have you been travelling, where are you going, where have you been - followed inevitably by another top tip on a place you simply have to go to, or sight you absolutely must see. Tips I listen to, and often discard, mostly because I've already forgotten them by the end of the conversation (except the guy who suggested I hired a motorbike in Vietnam - that one I'm still laughing about!)

The conversation I have already had enough of however is this:
"oh you're from England?"
"the UK, yeah England" (#bettertogether!)
"whereabouts?"
"Leicester"

From here, I get one of two responses
1. "hey, they won the league!" - yes yes they did. No I don't support them. I would probably care more if Notts Forest won the league. (on a side note, I did find a City shirt on one of the market stalls in KL - next to Barcelona, Man Utd, Chelsea... It was a little bizarre!)

2. Alternatively, this happens: "so, what do you think about Brexit?"*
This is the answer I would like to give...
"dear fellow traveller, I can't begin to describe how I feel about Brexit. I haven't yet been back in my country since the vote, and I am very much attempting to live in ignorant bliss until I live there again. The same ignorant bliss that you live in. You didn't get the texts from your friends describing how much they didn't want to go to the staffroom at work, how they were scared of what was happening, how many racial incidents occurred in their schools and work places in the days and weeks after. The texts describing how horrible the atmosphere was in the country as a whole. Perhaps it's not on the same scale as the Iraqi war, or the Egyptian riots, but this word, Brexit, is ripping my country apart. Please stop discussing politics when we only met less than an hour ago."

Instead I shrug my shoulders and explain politely - I'm British afterall - that no one quite knows what is going to happen, or when it might happen, so for now, we will all just wait for the politicians to make some decisions.

*I feel I should mention that not a single European has had this conversation with me - they get it.

Kuala Lumpur

The past few days in Kuala Lumpur have been great. In my three days here, I have had dinner with Gwen (a Malaysian friend who I met in India), watched a fountain, watched people, been to several markets, a football match, a temple and a cave and had a few meals with Sophie, a friend who I used to work with, and her sister and sister's boyfriend. It's been great to catch up with friends, gossip, trade travel stories and explore in the comfort of familiar faces.

It's hard to describe Kuala Lumpur, but I think Gwen put it best. It's the melting pot of Asia. It's everything in one place. Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian - you want it, it's here. I couldn't tell you what is traditional Malaysian from my time here, but I can tell you that KL was the best place to start my journey, even if I didn't have friends here. I would have stayed longer, but the public holidays in Malaysia this week (Monday AND Friday!) meant hostels were booking up quickly in the places I wanted to go to, so I made a decision and I'm off.

And I'm ready to go it alone now. I've had some local food (top tip from Gwen - in Malaysia, the more red it is, the more spicy it is!), I've been on a train, I bought a bus ticket (being British, I enjoyed standing in the queue for almost an hour!) and I'm off to the Cameron Highlands today ready for the next adventure :-)

What Am I Doing?

If I had a Ringgit for every time I'd asked myself that question today - What Am I Doing? - Well, I'd still not be very rich, because 1 Ringgit is only about 20p, but I'd have more money than I did at the start of the day anyway. I reckon I've spent roughly one minute of every 10 wondering what on earth possessed me to push myself so far out of my comfort zone, and whether I could just go to India right now and forget the next four weeks of vague travel plans.

But one minute out of every 10 means there's 9 minutes of a different kind of wonder. The kind where I stare in awe at the skyscrapers and almost bump into someone. The kind where I realise how much I've missed being hot (there is a limit though Asia!). The kind where I am amazed that my brain has remembered how to, and is still not phased by crossing roads full of motorbikes, buses, cars, that just do whatever they like. Or where I realise that I made my way from the airport to the hostel looking at a map once, and just vaguely aiming in that direction. 9 minutes of knowing that I'll be ok in the end.

That one out of 10 has meant that I bailed on my plan to "only eat local food" and I'm in Starbucks. I did justify this by ordering a croissant which is something I would never normally order - it might not be Asian, but it's still not my regular - that's something right?! I'm going out for dinner with Gwen, my Malaysian friend, tonight, and hanging out with Sophie, who's been living over here for a month or so now tomorrow and Saturday, so I'll be braver when I'm with them, and hopefully that will set me up for the rest of the trip!

I'm sure today isn't the last time I ask myself that question, but I'm also sure I'll ask it less as the month goes on. Perhaps after 30 days, I'll be down to just once a day?!

Packing for Hand Luggage

So I'm back in Australia after an incredible few weeks in NZ. As I was about to get on the plane in Auckland, I bought my next ticket. Malaysia on Wednesday night. This was Friday. It's now Tuesday. Not long to go!

Due to having no idea what my plan actually is beyond landing in kuala lumpur, but knowing that I want to do land transport rather than flying (once I get there, obviously!), I've made the potentially insane decision to go hand luggage only. Most of my friends have laughed at this, mostly because they know how much I love to overpack, and honestly, it's been one of the hardest packs ever, even with the fact that I am limited by what I brought to Australia in the first place. The rest of my stuff is being collected today to be sent straight home, meaning I don't have to drag it round Asia with me.

I have packed and repacked my hand luggage bag a few times. Things keep getting added, and things keep getting removed. I have now narrowed it down to:
- 2 pairs of shorts
- A pair of trousers
- Two tshirts (including guide shirt for sangam, and my necker!)
- Underwear/socks (max 4 pairs!)
- Swim wear
- flip flops
- Trainers (super light weight ones which cost nothing if they have to get ditched!)
- My toiletries (under 100ml per item, in a clear plastic bag already)
- A pack of cards
- My kindle, ipad, camera, phone and charger (all in one!)
- towel
- Passport!

I'll also be wearing a pair of trousers, a shirt, a jumper, a scarf (head wear in temples), a rain jacket and my walking boots - the heavy stuff ;-)

It still seems like too much, and also definitely not enough...

Only one way to find out!

GlowMaggots and Other Adventures...

"Lights out!" shouts the guide, as we glide down a river in a plastic tube through a cave. Suddenly, above us appears our own personal night sky, but instead of stars, the dots of lights above us are actually the bioluminescence of the thousands of glowworms living on the roof of the rock tunnel.

Just to give some context, we'll backtrack a little. Chris had found an advert for some black water rafting in a magazine while we were still down on South Island. We'd chatted about it a few times, and eventually decided we weren't going to do it - the combination of potentially tiny holes, cold water and money put us off. Until. We were sat in a lovely (albeit slightly bizarre) oversized barn, masquerading as a restaurant with beef casserole or beef casserole on the menu. A few fellow guests from our holiday park had joined us, and we were chatting about our trips so far when black water rafting came up. Two of them had done it that day, and said it was great. They also mentioned a website called bookme, which we hadn't heard of before, but has lots of discounts for stuff around NZ, and happened to have 54% off black water rafting the next day. With the reassurance that caving was a minimum, the water wasn't that cold and some rare free wifi, we were soon booked to go.

Due to another guest having what can only be described as a crisis of confidence part way through our first adventure, we ended up going twice, so the rest of this description is a bit of a blur of both trips!

After arriving at the office (yes, I do have my swimwear, towel and a spare pair of socks!), we were off to the changing rooms to be given probably the most attractive (note the sarcasm) clothing I have ever worn. A wet suit, jacket, wellies and some fantastic "cave pants", followed shortly by a full body harness and helmet, just to complete the look. I was less than comfortable, but ready for the first step - learning how to abseil (nailed it :P), then on to the abseil itself, 27m down into the cave - I was too excited and went first both times!

Once in the cave, we headed upstream for a while - the first time we did the ultimate trust test - holding hands, torches off, trusting Hannah, our guide to lead the way by the light of the glowworms. This was one of my favourite bits of the whole experience, and I normally hate not being able to see, but there was something pretty magical about it. The second time, the current was noticeably faster as it had rained all night, so we walked upstream with torches on, but stopped for a lovely chat from Rachel (our second guide) about glowworms (which are actual glow-maggots, they eventually turn into flies that can't eat, only survive for 3-4 days, and spend most of that time having sex.) followed by actually finding some glowworms, which was awesome, because we've seen the glow a few times, but never managed to find the creature itself. They look a lot like maggots really :P

After this, the rafting started. One at a time, we sat down into our inflated tyres that we'd carried upstream with us, and floated down the river, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes bouncing off the rocks like a water based bumper cars. At times we rafted in the dark watching the glowworms, at times with our torches on making sure we didn't hit too many rapids/rocks. Sometimes we went alone, and sometimes as a whole group together, laughing at each other bumping into rocks, bumping into each other, or falling out as the case may be. I was much better at staying in my tyre the second time, although the only time I actually fell out was on the first trip, when Hannah was just trying to help me stand up - luckily it was shallow enough that even when I was kneeling the water didn't come to my hips, and the whole thing just ended up in both of us in a fit of giggles.

On both trips we did a little bit of caving, although in slightly different parts of the cave. And by we, I mean Chris did. I have squeezed myself through small spaces before, and I know I can do it, and I know I don't enjoy it, so I decided I didn't need to have a go this time. Chris seemed to enjoy himself though, despite his previous reservations, and it was good fun watching his feet disappear through holes, particularly the one where he went downhill head first.

After all of the rafting excitement, we then had the less than appealing task of walking back upstream again, as we had rafted back past our exit point. With the strong current and a giant floating tyre that wanted very much to go downstream, it was hard going at times, and I was glad when we got to bits of rock and beach that we could walk along - even if it was just for a few metres. We also stopped for a hot squash and bit of chocolate to give us a sugar boost part way back, which gave us one last chance for torches off glowworm time!

Once back to our exit point, we then had the minor detail of climbing out of the 27m hole we had originally abseiled down into. Thankfully, there is a reasonably nice section of rock, which mostly slopes, and has plenty of foot and hand holes at good distances for climbing in wet suits and wellies (If a kid tried to climb like that at work, I'd laugh and send them back to change - not ideal!). After everyone has climbed out, we headed back to the glamorous changing rooms for a hot shower (Rachel gets top points for putting the showers on while we were getting our wet suits off so they were already warm when we got in!) and dressed before heading back to the office to have a hot soup, bread roll and a slideshow of pictures from the day.

Both days were fantastic and had different highlights, both our guides were brilliant, and we're so grateful to Kiwi Cave Rafting for giving us a second chance to finish the adventure - so glad we had a flexible plan with a spare day!!

Glaciers, lakes and pancakes

Apologies if the formatting of this blog isn't quite right - I'm writing it on my phone! Will check it when I get my laptop to free wifi :-)

The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind of walking, hiking, snow, forests, and beaches... Here's a brief run down:

Fox Glacier
After a lovely lady in a national park gave us a weather update, we rescheduled our helihike to the day earlier, and what a great decision it was. Friday, just after lunch, we were kitted up and flying in beautiful sunshine up to a glacier - I don't know if we were more excited about helicopters or the glacier, but either way we were really excited! Pretty soon on our hike we were shown our first ice cave, with the statement of "it's pretty narrow", which half way through we discovered was the biggest understatement of the century, as we ended up lying on our back, sliding down the ice with just an inch of space between our faces and the ice - we both agreed we would never have gone in if we'd known, but we came out on such a high, very glad that we did go in!! The rest of the day didn't involve quite so much squeezing but did involve more ice caves, and lots of pretty pictures (to be added when I get my laptop to wifi!)

Lake Matheson
Also near Fox Glacier, this lake is a great one for taking those reflection photos that are iconic of New Zealand. Unfortunately the best time to take those photos is dawn or dusk, and we were certainly not up at dawn after the excitement of yesterday, but the views were stunning all the same!

Pancake Rocks
We headed to pancake rocks mostly because of the name, but also because it was the perfect driving stopping distance! A quick check in the information centre told us high tide was the best time and that was at 12.40, so we set off in search of some caves first, and we were not disappointed. As it's winter over here, we passed just four people all morning, and when we got to the caves, we were the only ones in there, so we could explore to our hearts content (which I was more keen on than Chris I think!). After getting as far as we could through the stalagmites and stalactites, we headed back to the pancakes, and watched the high tide slam around them, wearing them slowly away. Unfortunately no blow holes, but impressive all the same.

Lake Rotoiti
Another good driving distance, we stopped at this lake mostly based on one line in the Lonely Planet that said it had some nice walks. Another helpful lady in the information centre sent us up a hill with an "easy gradient" (if that's an easy gradient when I'm her age, I'm beyond pleased with myself!)that meandered in and out of the bushline as it climbed. We got up to the snowline, stopped for some lunch, and decided to keep going a bit - a decision that pleased Chris more than me, as I kept sinking in the snow! We made it up to a little hut that travellers can stay in, and turned around - the walk back down was much faster!

The Ferry
The next day we were in Picton, a little town consisting mostly of hostels, motels and hotels to house the travellers getting off the ferry from the North Island. We wandered along the coast line for a little bit, before heading back to the campervan to get on the ferry. On the ferry, we watched the impressive coastline until it was out of sight, and then planned our route round the North Island, which will include hobbits, thermal areas, glowworms and more! Excitement!

Avalanche Peak Chat

Our walk in Arthur's Pass National Park, in the form of dialogue excerpts.

"Hey, let's go on this 6-8 hour walk up the side of the mountain and back down"

...

"Before I give you that guide, I have to ask... Do you have crampons and ice axes?"

...

"We've not had much snow this winter, so you should be able to get up to the edge of the bush line and back down, but stick to the paths and be sensible."

...

"You know how we said we were going up the side of the mountain? I didn't think it would be this much up."

...

"oo there's snow!" "oo there's a pretty view!" "oo more snow" "oo another pretty view" "oo the snow is getting deeper"

...

"Getting up this track is pretty slippy, but I think getting down will be even worse. But that's a problem for after a cheese sandwich."

...

"10/10 lunch spot"

...

"There's no snow on the rock ledges, let's climb higher"

...

"That's the top just there... oh wait..."

...

"We're almost at the edge of the bush line...oh wait..."

...

"I don't think the views will get any better if we climb any higher."

...

"Yeah, I was going to suggest a controlled slide down."

...

"These bridges were near the start, right?"

...

"I'm bored of going downhill"

...

"You know how we were going to climb up to that waterfall afterwards. I don't think I can be bothered."

...

"Those bridges weren't near the start."

...

"Yay, the bottom. Let's just have a kitkat"

...

"You should definitely go to the waterfall viewing platform, it's only 20 minutes!"

...

"You know when I said I couldn't be bothered to climb to the waterfall. I was right."

...

"Ok. It was worth it."

Quake City

Walking into Christchurch didn't feel like walking into a city centre. No big tall skyscrapers, no massive branded shops that are in every city in the world; There's corners without coffee shops, and there's barely a road anywhere without road-works on. We wandered and wondered where all the people were, why it was so quiet, why the tram goes round on a tiny loop to nowhere, desperate for passengers to give it some purpose. It wasn't until we sat down in Cathedral Square, in front of a derelict old cathedral that we realised the earthquake of five years ago was the answer to all of our questions, and the reason that there is a definite lack of identity in the middle of the second largest city New Zealand.

Christchurch is desperately trying to find itself again, after being literally shaken to the ground. Beautiful buildings that once stood are now piles of rubble, in an area waiting for a new building. New buildings have developed, and are bright shining beacons of the future in a world that has few reminders of the past. Office blocks are growing, museums have found new homes (or been created from the events themselves - Quake City). Hotels are appearing again, and tourists are slowly making their way back to a city (and wider area) that desperately needs their income. There's one lonely food cart on Cathedral Square (who sells some decent French Fries - try the chilli mayo!), and a city mall (Re:Start) made from shipping containers, which hopefully isn't temporary, because it is a great visual representation of the incredible things we can do in the face of adversity. A new memorial is being created by the river bank, to all of those who lost their lives during the quakes. Christchurch is rebuilding itself.

And amidst all of this is the cathedral, part standing by itself, part being held up by scaffolding, and part demolished, fenced all around, with no access to a once proud structure which is now clearly not safe to enter. Due to disagreements about who should pay for the next step, it stands alone in the city, the one last remnant of 22^nd February 2011. One last reminder to those who lived through it and are trying to piece their lives back together, to the tourists who only saw what happened on the TV and can't quite picture it (because that kind of thing doesn't happen to you, right?), and to those who have simply forgotten it happened, and need to remember the reason why Christchurch still isn't quite up to full strength. 

Australia Five Photos

So I've been in Australia for 7 months now, mostly working for PGL at Camp Rumbug, and it's been an absolute blast. It's hard to describe everything that's happened, so I'm going to do that thing where I post my top 5 photos and an explanation of each in less than 150 words... Here goes.

Me and my Brits (L-R:Jake, Drew and Katie) These are the guys I lived with, ate with, had water pistol fights with (sometimes indoors - sorry Mum!), BBQed with, went to the zoo with, played cards with, watched far too many films with, and went to the beach in matching hats with. We're so cool. They were an absolute pleasure to live, work and play alongside :) 

Each morning on group, I had to go to work at least half an hour before breakfast and make and butter toast for my whole group. This is roughly 1 loaf per 10 people, and when I had up to 200 people (including teachers) in a group, that works out as a whole lot of toast far too early in the morning. Why am I talking about toast when the picture is clearly of the sunrise? This is the view that made it all easier. The view that made standing at that toaster bearable. Foggy days were hard work - luckily there weren't many of them! 

This is some more of the gang, at a party in our house. They are complete lunatics, but they are my Rumbug family. They were welcoming, and accepting of all of my (our) British idiosyncrasies (most of the time - it's still a hoover though guys). They put up with me in my good moods and my bad, and as with my actual family, criticised my odd socks every day. They invited me to their houses, let me invite myself round to their houses, had a surprise birthday party for me (not the party pictured), fed me, laughed with me, listened to my rants, worried about me when I had a cold (and got stressed that I was still wearing shorts in the winter) and helped me whenever I needed help. They are awesome people. 

Mostly, I had weekends off. This one weekend, I had big plans to stay up all night to watch Wimbledon, and to sleep during the days (time zones make watching sports in the UK very difficult!). I knew that I had to go to the post office on the Saturday morning though, so I got up thinking I'd drive there and back, and straight back to bed. On the drive there, it was such a beautiful day, I changed my plans. I headed down to Wilsons Prom, the local National Park, and climbed Mt Oberon, and had the most spectacular views. Found a quiet spot and had some time watching the clouds float by.  

Over Easter, we were lucky enough to get two weeks off work. Me, Katie, Drew and Claire flew over to Tasmania, and had a fabulous 2 weeks, with great weather. We stayed in Hobart for a few days, headed down to Port Arthur (one of the British Prisons), went up to Cradle Mountain (I've got a great photo of a rainbow over Lake St Clair which was very close to being on this blog!) and Wineglass Bay, we stayed in a town called Penguin (The only town called Penguin in the world), and camped on Bruny Island - this photo is from our private beach that we camped next to. Life is so hard when you have a private beach! 

As you can see, it's been pretty spectacular, and spectacularly pretty. I'm now off to New Zealand, followed by South East Asia, so will be blogging mostly to keep Mum happy ;) but it's also good to have some kind of record of my travels, because I am terrible at keeping a diary! As this chapter of my adventure comes to an end, and another one is about to start, this one quote sums up how I'm feeling pretty much perfectly...

"As I go on, my idea of home is expanding &

I can’t wait to find out how big it will be" 

- Brian Andreas

Blog Break

So, apparently I didn't write anything about my actual Latvia trip, or even my SECOND Latvia trip - the one where I was the leader of the project in 2015. For details on either of these projects, please follow these links:

GOLD Latvia 2014

GOLD Latvia 2015

2016 has found me in Australia, working for PGL at the most beautiful camp in the entire world - Camp Rumbug (I may be a little biased). My time at Camp Rumbug is almost at an end, so when I finish I'll write a blog about that and then continue on with my upcoming adventures...