Far Eastern Adventures

And back to Minorca...

2008-05-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

So for anyone a bit confused where I am I have now been back in Minorca for 4 weeks! I made it home via a fun overnight stop in Bahrain (I was put up in a hotel for free, luxury, good old Gulf Air!), 2 days at home to try and get over the jetlag and realise I had no clothes, then hot footed it back to Gatwick (my 4th airport in 5 days, crazy) and on to Minorca to teach sailing for 2 months. Vietnam seems like such a long time ago and all so far away.

Alas the weather hasn't quite been up to standard and out of the 4 weeks I would say we have had only a week of proper sunshine. Today it is just raining and no wind so our day off has been spent mostly eating and watching films. It is great to be back though and great to be sailing again. Just bring on the sunshine!

The final installment...Vietnam

2008-04-30T09:17:00.001-07:00

The sight of PQ as we arrived on the ferry made us both heave a sigh of relief. Beautiful beaches and clear blue waters, yes! We installed ourselves in some bungalows (not the nicest, one bed turned out to have been peed on and they didn't change the sheets...mmm) and started to Relax. Our day was made when we realised that in fact we'd got to PQ a day earlier than we thought and so we had 4 days there!

Not much to say about the next few days really, we moved bungalows and found some much nicer ones, lay on sunbeds, read many books and sat in the sea. I had my leg hair removed in an original way (some ladies attacked me with a reel of cotton, a little painful but probably v environmentally friendly!) and got a massage. It's a tough life! We found an amazing place to eat right on the beach, watched a thunderstorm and one night splashed out, put on our fancy frocks and headed to La Veranda, a vvv posh resort and had a truly memorable meal. We kept giggling as we felt so out of place, I think the waiters thought we were crazy!

Sadly you can't spend forever in paradise so we had to leave PQ and head to Ho Chi Minh, which was frankly terrifying. There were motos and bicycles everywhere and a deafening cacophany of horns blaring as each person tried not to run over someone else. We kept our eyes closed and stuck to taxis!

A day of culture and horror at the Reunification palace and the war remnants museum (probably the most distressing museum I've ever seen) and then suddenly it was time for me to go back to Bangkok. Aargh where has the last 3 months gone?

Temples temples temples (and a motorbike on a dirt road)

2008-04-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Despite not being entirely better Andrea and I dragged ourselves out of bed to do a seriously hardcore day at Angkor Wat. Deciding we were too ill for cycling (v wise decision) we found a tuk tuk driven by someone who I think was called Weevil, who was the cutest Cambodian we'd ever met. Patting ourselves on the back for beating the tourists most of the way, we managed 8 or 9 temples in 11 hours, not bad for 38 degree heat and us both on the crackers! The temples, even the second time round, were amazing and Andrea's enthusiasm made them even better! Angkor is probably the most amazing man-made thing I've ever seen, I can't describe them properly here, just go and see them! The next day we made it to a few more temples but sadly didn't beat the tourists and after lunch we gave up, retreating to our air conditioned room and Home Alone...

We were slightly apprehensive about our bus journey to Phnom Penh which turned out to be painless with lots of legroom! However, then came decision time...how does one get to Phu Quoc???? We set off to Kampot to cross the border in the south of Cambodia, a crossing only recently opened and therefore not in LP yet. The bus to Kampot was supposed to be 2 hours; 4 1/2 hours later we stopped at Kep, still an hour and a half from Kampot so we got off and decided to wing it. We ended up jumping on the back of two motorbikes, our rucksacks between the driver and the handlebars and bounced over a dirt road for an hour. However, it was one of the most picturesque journeys we've taken, through rice fields, salt fields, little bamboo huts, villages apparently unused to the rather bizarre sight of westerners on the back of a motorbike with children running out to wave. We reached the Cambodian border, a little shack, an hour later then crossed onto the Vietnam side which was a rather more impressive big concrete gate with an enormous room for immigration. I think they were trying to make a point.

A further bumpy moto ride and 2 hours on the most bumpy bus of all time we managed to make it to Rach Gia to get the ferry to PQ. Success! Further amusement ensued when we could not find a restaurant in Rach Gia and our efforts to find one were met with blank looks. Not so used to tourists here!

Stuck in Siem Reap

2008-04-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

Our last day in Vientiane was very relaxing, we saw a couple of temples in the morning, resigned ourselves to being soaked all day and ate a lot. Poor Andrea had a pretty rough evening; first the electricity went off in our room (only our room, not the whole hotel) leaving her standing under a cold shower in the dark and then her long looked forward to pizza just did not arrive, causing her to go slightly insane and do a pizza dance. The poor waiters were quite worried about us!

Andrea and I took the very wise choice of flying from Laos to Cambodia, serious luxury and we were quite smug at the thought of not having to take a 3 day bus ride to get here! We arrived at the airport 2 hours before to find we were the 1st people there (including the staff) and everything was closed (it was 4.30 in the morning, damn, we could have had 1/2 an hour lie in!), quite a bizarre experience. The plane ride was smooth and no mishaps though (we were a bit nervous about flying 'Laos Airlines') and we got 2 meals!

Unfortunately since arriving at Siem Reap both Andrea and I have been hit with rather bad stomachs, which means that our day of hard core Angkor Wat sightseeing today didn't quite get off the ground and Andrea is still in bed at 3.00. I am a bit gutted as Cambodian food is amazing and I'm just not hungry! The upside is we have a TV in our room and they showed the Sound of Music yesterday! So we are spending an extra day here hoping that tomorrow we will be well enough to brave the heat and crowds of Angkor. The downside of this means we have to cut off a day on our paradise island in the south of Vietnam at the end, boo. Let's hope they show Mary Poppins this afternoon.

A taste of the real Laos

2008-04-14T02:01:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days have been rather 'intense'; we headed east to Phonsavan, home of the 'Plain of Jars' (as it says on the label, a bit like stonehenge but with jars...), happy to get off the tourist trail and hopefully see some of proper Laos. Maybe we saw just a little too much of it!

Day 1 - to Phonsavan
We arrived at the bus stop having bought our tickets an hour early to find that the bus was full and there were literally no seats for us. A bit of argument later the ticket operator had shoved 2 kids off our seats and plonked them with their parents. As more and more people showed up for the bus it became clear that there was no such thing as a full bus and somehow they had to all fit on. The solution..stools in the middle of the aisle (I think there were about 20-25 people sitting in the aisle by the end). We got some perspective and stopped moaning about the lack of air conditioning and the long bus ride. At least we had seats! The bus was 9 hours round hair pin beds and up and down mountains, with us gripping on for dear life! The scenery was absolutely beautiful but the road was pretty horrendous. We passed a couple of accidents along the way which made us fear for our lives (haha this was nothing, wait till later!) and hidden dangers lurked in villages along the way where the children would lie in wait with buckets, hoses and water guns, woe betide anyone who was stupid enough (or asleep as I was at one point) to leave their window open. We got soaked!

The next day was one of the most bizarre I have ever had. The trip we took with Sophie and Paulina (2 girls who also had to endure the horrendous bus ride to get here) was a day seeing the plain of jars, a plain of bomb craters, a village which used bomb shells in its everyday life and work, a trip to the local market and a trek to a waterfall. I think the best way to describe the day of near death experiences is to introduce you to 'At least...', a game Andrea and I have invented to play when everything is really really rough!

AT LEAST.....

1. We didn't get killed by any UXO (unexploded ordanances)

Phonsavan is in one of the provinces that was most heavily bombed by the US in a 'secret war' on Laos during the Vietnam war (trying to stop the spread of communism in Laos) so we hoped to understand some of the history here as well. Of the millions of bombs dropped on Laos (in secret by the USA, it only admitted it when the refugees started pouring into Thailand) it's estimated that 10-30 % didn't explode which means that it is one of the poorest regions in Laos. Farmers can't use the land for fear of bombs exploding and children think the bombs are toys when they find them. Our first stop on the trip was a field just covered in bomb craters, a chilling sight especially in such a peaceful spot. As we got out of the car our guide said 'be careful' (catchphrase of the day) as the field hadn't been cleared of UXOs. We thought he was joking, nope!

2. We didn't fall down/off the waterfall

We were told that the trip down to the waterfall was steep but the trip back up was less so but took longer. What our guide neglected to mention was the way up involved a scramble, climb and almost crawl up the side of the waterfall cascades over slippery rocks, trees and the inevitable mud! And as we thought we were safe he said to us 'be careful, there are leeches'! The waterfall however was probably the most beautiful we'd seen on our trip and well worth the scramble. Even better, there were only Lao tourists there and no westerners!

3. We didn't get struck by lightning

Our trip to the Plain of Jars had to be cut short by the onslaught of the most enormous thunderstorm. We saw all the Laotians running for the gate and one gestured to us at the sky. Our guide was extremely keen to take us into a cave and wait out the storm but we followed the crowd and just made it back to town before the storm broke. The jars were interesting (there are lots, very old (maybe back to 2000 BC) and no one really knows why they are there) but we were more concerned with not getting wet at that point!

4. We didn't get soaked/covered in flour

The Laos new year has started in earnest and we were bombarded on all sides by people at the sides of the road with buckets and mafia children with water pistols. We felt quite smug though driving past in our air conditioned van!

5. The bus was running

Phonsavan was a dump and we were determined to get the hell out of there and take the night bus to Vientiane. As we were finishing dinner the man from the guesthouse drove up with all our bags and tried to convince us that the bus was leaving without us. It should have been a taste of things to come...

6. Some of us had seats...?!

Yet again despite arriving 1 1/2 hours early there were no seats left on the bus. We were less than amused. About half an hour of arguments later (and serious stress) we managed to get 3 seats, the rest of the bus shooting daggers at us. Sophie nobly (or stupidly?!) traded her seat for a stool for $6, a decision I think she might have regretted! Yet again the stools came out and this time I think they crammed about 35 extra people on the bus. I was sat next to a rather smelly and unpleasant man which was bad enough, especially as we had a mini fight in the first 5 minutes about leg room. Speaking too soon though, as we were at the front and had more leg room they proceeded to put a stool in our leg space and...a man swaying from lao lao (the local brew), a new bottle in his hand and with a gun slung over his back proceeded to sit on this stool. What is it about me, guns and buses?!

7. We arrived in Vientiane alive

Is the only thing I can say about the 12 hour hell we went through on that bus trip. On my right I had the man with the gun and the smelly man, on my left in the aisle I had Penny puker on a stool who threw up (no joke) at least 10 times in the first 2 hours. The man dropped lao lao on my bag and kept trying to talk to me, then making comments with his friends about us. They played horrendous Lao and Thai music all night long and stopped at 2 in the morning for a toilet break in the rain (Andrea managed highly successfully to squat at the side of the road in the pitch black and the rain, very impressive!). The thunder storm came back in earnest with lightning seeming to be alarmingly close. Luckily our driver drove at a snails pace most of the way which we were extremely grateful for. 12 hours later we stumbled off the bus, I have never been so happy in my life! We nearly broke a tuk tuk (4 people + baggage = rather lopsided), staggered to a lovely guesthouse and are now attempting to recover (with the help of some lovely cafes) while avoiding the mafia lining the streets with buckets ready to soak any unsuspecting person walking along.

8. This is our last bus journey in Laos!

We are now patting ourselves on the back for the wise decision to fly from Vientiane to Cambodia. The thought of another bus journey makes me want to cry, let alone in Laos!

Luang Prabang

2008-04-11T01:54:00.000-07:00

And so finally I can describe to you one of the most beautiful places and probably the loveliest city I have ever been to, Luang Prabang. Getting off the boat we thought we were on the outskirts of town, it was so quiet and a complete lack of tourists and cars. But no, we were in the middle of the city. Beautiful temples covered in gold leaf jostle with crumbling french architecture and amazing cafes. Monks in bright orange walk down the road and women on tuk tuks cling to parasols as they balance side saddle. As it is almost the water festival though there are some mischievous people lurking at the sides of the road waiting to drench you with water, funny until you get caught! In the evenings there are markets down the streets selling incredible handicrafts (I would say the nicest in South East Asia, you get the picture), a source of much angst for Andrea and I who have run out of space in our bags!

We have spent the whole of our three days here eating and drooling over how amazing the food is (and to think we ate lots of western food in Chiang Mai thinking we were coming to the back of beyond!). We have strolled down streets and peered into temples, taking sneaky pictures of the monks, stopping for fruit shakes at the side of the road and wishing we could live here. We are putting off the inevitable 9 hour horrendous journey onwards from here and have got to the stage that going to a museum or another temple is just too much effort, time to stop at another cafe and have cake!

A note about 'The Traveller'

2008-04-11T01:48:00.001-07:00

One of the weird things about this trip is the lack of travellers that Andrea and I have met that we have actually liked (apart from the lovely Germans who we took the bus to Chiang Mai with and were quite possibly the nicest couple I have ever met). The boat trip was a case in kind for some of the more horrendous types of traveller: let me describe some of the more memorable people and then you might sympathise with us and realise we're not that unfriendly!

First up were 2 girls we noticed trying to cross the border in Thailand and making a mess of it. One had gone slightly overboard on the ethnic and was in flowing skirts, flowing hair (with a flower in it), a sarong draped over the shoulders, dangly earrings and some kind of natural sunscreen on her face which looks like she'd been rolling in the mud. They were the type of people who have pleasure in showing off how absorbed in the culture they were. As soon as we got on the sangthaew to the boat the girl with the flower in her hair called her mum and proceeded to lecture her on how to say 'kaa' properly in Thai (women say kaa at the end of words to make it more polite). Having established her mum had a good kaa she then described how 'intense' the border crossing had been and her first impressions of Laos (which she had been in all of 5 minutes). Was she for real...?!
We also met some guys on the boat crossing the border who spent the whole 5 minute boat ride moaning about how they had got ripped off they had been with their tickets, then how drunk they had been for their entire trip around Thailand. This does seem to be the norm for people in Thailand, I just can't quite get excited about it any more.
Another memorable group was the french parents and 8 year old child (the only kid) on the boat. The man was the tallest and lankiest I'd ever seen, wearing 'ethnic' clothes and kept doing weird contortion exercises on the boat as well as being the only person brave/stupid to swim in the fast flowing muddy water; the poor kid was rather a brat but covered in mosquito bites all over her face.
We were sitting opposite some of the most horrendous americans I'd ever met, slightly overweight, chain smoking and on the Beer Lao from 10 when the boat left, they took up the whole of the aisle and proceeded to get more and more noisy as the day went on; luckily the girl sniffed out a spliff and had a couple of 'tokes' in the afternoon which calmed her down a bit!
I was also sitting in front of Andy from Little Britain's big brother who smoked almost in my face and kept sitting on the side of the boat with his rather large behind in my back.

The one saving grace on the boat was meeting Rich again who I had met in KL in Malaysia and his friend, they have restored our faith in ever meeting some nice travellers! And they had the Economist which made Andrea very very happy. And the nice Irishman sitting next to us on the second day who alas was a smoker but made up for it by being charming. Halelujah!

Unfortunately LP being extremely small we have managed to run into most of these people at some point during our 3 days here. We ended up sitting right next to the obnoxious americans at dinner last night, typical!

The Journey

2008-04-08T23:12:00.000-07:00

After 3 days, a bus, a boat and over 24 hours of solid moving on transport we have finally made it to Luang Prabang in Laos. I guess this is what 'travelling' is all about?

THE BUS
Our first day we arrived at the bus station in Chiang Mai to find there was a 1st class bus directly to Chiang Kong (the border) in 20 mins. Perfect. Unfortunately by the time we got to the front of the ticket queue there were 2 minutes till the bus left and it was full. It was quite a heart wrenching vision to see the bus leave without us! 5 hours later we were squashed onto a 2nd class bus with minimal air conditioning and 5 seats to a row (I didn't even fit on one seat so spent the journey with one butt cheek off the seat) and an extra 2 hours to get to where we wanted to go. A test of endurance to say the least! Lonely Planet seem to think that the 'only' way to travel is to take public buses and you're not a proper traveller unless you do. If I ever meet the editor I'm going to slap him.
Finally 7 1/2 hours later we arrived at the border town and were nearly killed on a tuk tuk to a guesthouse as the driver was actually insane. We were both rather hysterical by this point! The guesthouse was set in beautiful gardens with cool bamboo huts but unfortunately had the most irritating owner in the world who drove us both mental and didn't give us any useful information whatsoever!

THE BORDER
The next early early morning we made it across the border, having to pay 5 baht for 'overtime' to get our passports stamped as apparently it was a Thai holiday. We then hopped into a long tail boat over the Mekong to Laos, paid our $35 for visas and were officially not aliens any more!

THE BOAT
We were convinced that we would be able to get a bus from the Laos border to Luang Prabang despite being told in Chiang Mai by about 6 different tourist agencies it wasn't possible. At the border we found out yes there was a bus but it was 16 hours without air con. The memory of the bus the day before decided it; the boat it would be. Not the 6 hour fast speed boat that you had to wear motorcycle helmets and had a strong possibility of dying on but the gentle 2 day meander down the Mekong with a stop in a village along the way.

The plus point about the boat was that it was shady. The downside was that it was entirely filled with westerners (we were surrounded by some of the most obnoxious people I've met on my trip (see the next post)) and our 'seats' were wooden benches very close together. Luckily I'd invested in some cushions for us or our bums might have fallen off! As we set off a rather nice river breeze ruffled our hair and we thought, hey, maybe it might not be so bad!

The boat ride itself would have been lovely if it had been a mere day. Meandering down the Mekong we passed hills and mountains, children swimming and waving, women washing clothes and little wooden huts for villages. The sad part was when we stopped and our boat was swamped by kids selling beer. But I guess it gives them some money that they wouldn't receive otherwise. In the evening we stayed in quite a charmless village with limited electricity; we were so exhausted by this point we would have slept anywhere though!

The next day we arrived at the boat very early to find we'd been upgraded overnight and almost half the seats were now padded (car seat like). We managed to get 2 of the last few nice seats remaining and sat feeling smug as everyone that turned up later was forced to sit back on the wooden benches. Unfortunately our favourite smoking Americans turned up almost last of all and ended up sitting right by us on the wooden benches! Sod's law!

When we finally arrived in Luang Prabang 9 1/2 hours later I felt like we hadn't been on dry land for a week. It was just such a relief! And then we got lucky, almost making up for the nigthmare boat trip. We were walking down the road looking for a cheap guesthouse when a guy from a very posh place offers us a place to stay. After laughing because it was way too expensive he asks us how much and now for $20 a night we are ensconsed in the most beautiful teak room with 2 enormous beds, a TV, air con AND a fan, and the piece de resistance, a shower curtain! Maybe that was worth the journey?!

A week in Chiang Mai

2008-04-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

The cookery course we did in Chiang Mai was a definite experience and well worth the whole 15 pounds we paid for it. We were taken to a local market and learnt about the 3 different types of basil and 4 different types of eggplant before being driven to the cookery school and cooking 6 different Thai dishes, all of which we got to eat afterwards. I even managed to produce some Thai tasting dishes (toned down on the spice front though!) which I was quite proud of. So be prepared for some Thai cuisine when I get home.

We then took to the hills for a 3 day trek. We were extremely lucky and had a small group, the only other people were a french couple who we were only with for the first day and a memorable Japanese student called Hide (prounounced hee-day, I accidentally called him Heidi for the whole of the first day!). The trek was fantastic and one of the best things I've done in my 2 months here. Here are some of the selected highlights about our 3 days:

- The elephant ride at the beginning of our trip (maybe not a highlight but definitely memorable). They tried to fit Andrea, Hide and I on one elephant which involved Hide sitting on the neck. He fell off as soon as the elephant moved its head, headfirst onto the ground. Andrea started hyperventilating as she's scared of heights and we thought he'd knocked himself out. They put him back on the elephant's neck and I spent most of the ride clutching onto him for dear life praying he wasn't going to fall off again!

- As we were stopped for a minute on the elephants we suddenly felt this thing poke itself between Andrea and I. It was the trunk of the elephant behind us searching for the bananas I had on my lap! He promptly found them and I had a wrestling match with the trunk as he took not just 1 banana but the whole bunch. Greedy thing, it looked pretty pleased with itself!

- After a sweaty and very hot 2 hour walk we arrived at a waterfall. Plunging into the waterfall and cooling off instantly was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had! Hide also brought out his shampoo and proceeded to wash himself there, a great advert for Herbal Essences!

- I woke up for sunrise the next morning and was greeted by the dogs and the pigs from the house were staying in. An incredible view and no one else to disturb it, amazing.

- The second day I managed to fall up a hill and into a river, nice one! We also had another amazing swim in a waterfall with absolutely no one else around.

- We saw more snakes than I saw in the jungle in Malaysia including a tree snake, one of the most poisonous in Thailand. Every time something rustled in the leaves after that either I or Andrea would scream, causing our guide much amusement.

- We spent the second evening teaching Hide and our guide how to play some english card games by candlelight.

- We were woken at some ungodly hour on the 3rd day by the rooster right underneath our bamboo hut and the pig grunting nearby. Not sure I'm made for the country life.

- The last waterfall we swam in involved clambering out via a very slippery rock. Andrea and I were like 'amoebas escaping the primeval slime' as we inched our way out. Most embarrassing was that we were cheered by some other trekkers when we made it!

- The last part of the trip (after a horrendous downhill slope that terrified me) was sitting on a bamboo raft floating gently down the river (negotiating the rapids) and being splashed by all the local kids as we passed them. A perfect end!

- The shower when we got back to our guesthouse was one of the best feelings ever! We then went out for a proper pizza and gelati to celebrate and had 12 hours sleep!

Bikes, buses and air con

2008-03-31T02:51:00.000-07:00

By far the best thing about having a travel companion is the fact that we can afford air con! We debated getting a fan room today and then decided for an extra 2 pounds it was worth it just to be cool. Since I've been in Malaysia Thailand has become HOT, almost unbearably so!

So after a rather ecstatic reunion at Bangkok airport with Andrea last monday we spent a whole day catching up and a rather frantic day seeing temples, Chinatown and riding the sky train (to get ice cream, not specifically but it was a bonus!) before taking advantage of the ROOFTOP POOL that we had at our hotel (for 7 pounds a night..)! We also ran into Iain and Alice who I met in Taman Negara who took advantage of our hospitality and gatecrashed the pool as well, it was great to see them again though.

We (oooh it's just so exciting to write 'we' in all my entries now!) then took a v horrible non air conditioned 4 hour bus ride to Kanchanaburi which we vowed we would never do again! Kanchanaburi is where the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai is so we spent a day thoroughly depressing ourselves learning about the Japanese occupation of South East Asia. They weren't very nice to the PoWs so there were some rather harrowing exhibits in the museums but it was interesting to learn about a completely different aspect of WWII. We decided to hire bikes (Andrea not feeling up to braving a motorbike yet) and cycle round the town which was quite treacherous, we were cycling down rather narrow streets being overtaken by motorbikes and lorries very fast on all sides. I maintain we would have been safer on motorbikes! The best thing about Kanchanaburi though was our incredible guest house, it was right on the river and we had a little bungalow on stilts. A perfect way to recover from the museums was sitting on our veranda overlooking the river and reading Dan Brown (which I read in less than 3 hours, a personal record!).

The next day, 11 hours of travelling later, we made it to Sukothai. We had quite a funny journey to get there as we had to go back to Bangkok. Having paid for a minibus to take us directly to the bus station we had quite a funny argument in the middle of one of the main roads in Bangkok when the driver refused to take us there. He nearly tried throwing out our bags and driving off but contented himself with dumping us at a petrol station and putting us in a minivan there instead. The bus to Sukothai was surprisingly luxurious, we were given water, snacks and a meal ticket for lunch! And air con which was a blissful relief.

Sukothai was the old capital before Ayutthaya and is a massive site of beautifully preserved ruins surrounded by lakes and moats. We had rather a hot day of cycling around them (decided to brave the bikes again but luckily there were fewer cars!) and faded after about 3 hours, there are only so many chedi (tower things) you can see in 35 degree heat!

Now we have made it to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand having met the most charming Germans so far on our trip on the bus here. The next few days are going to involve a cookery course, trekking through hilltribe villages, elephant trekking, bamboo rafting and trying to work out how the hell to get to Laos. The travel agents are adamant there are no buses to where we want to go so we might have to take a 2 day boat ride with potentially no shade...argh!

A dose of normality

2008-03-24T02:08:00.000-07:00

For the last few days I have decided to ignore the budget and just be a tourist in KL and in Singapore and it has been amazing! Once we finally made it to KL and found a hostel it was a shock to be in such a civilised place! I had a fun day trying to get grand prix tickets (finally success on that front, more later), staring in the mall at all the designer labels (Gucci, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Rolex etc all under one seriously expensive roof!); going up towers with my new friend Osama and getting soaked by the rain. We finally managed to have a very civilised cup of tea which was much cheaper than the beer in KL!

Coincidence that the grand prix was in KL the weekend I was there? I'm not sure but I thought it would be rude not to go (and with tickets less than 20 pound for a hillside seat!) even though I could only go for the qualifiers. I managed to make my way there with the help of new friend Xavier and we settled ourselves on the hill, drunk our smuggled in water and watched the action. Having never been to a gp before my overriding impression was it was pretty noisy! Unfortunately I hadn't done my homework properly and so was a bit clueless which car was which (my gp fan days were about 5 years ago) but it was great watching them all zooming past. There was a fun porsche race in the middle as well.

My journey to Singapore was rather stressful, the circuit in KL is quite far away from the city and so I nearly missed my bus (which typically left 30 mins late after all that), was soaked from the downpour and the air conditioning was on full blast as usual. I was nearly left behind at immigration (luckily was helped out by some nice Sri Lankans!) and then arrived in Singapore an hour later than planned, so instead of the all female dorm I'd booked at the hostel I was shoved into a room with 5 other men, all of whom snored at various times of the night and who had the air conditioning on so cold I thought my toes were going to freeze! Not an auspicious start to the weekend....

However, meeting Fran from Trevs (who is here doing research) made up for my not so good night (I moved to the female dorm the next day and got some sleep eventually!) and we had a lovely day wandering round Singapore, me in high excitement about the cleanliness of the place (and the toilets, wow, they are just luxury compared with Malaysia and Thailand!). We then decided quite randomly to go to a spa, put our feet into some water and have them nibbled for about half an hour by 'doctor fish'! Quite an experience and my feet felt so soft afterwards! Going out for a curry in Little India in the evening was interesting though, all the men in the entire district it seemed were out on the streets standing around, I couldn't see any women so we got a lot of stares, esp when we accidentally walked down the prostitute street!

Today I've been to the zoo and behaved like a small child. I got very excited at seeing orang utans and the elephant show was hilarious (more for the commentary than the elephants). My companion for the day was a rather 'eccentric' Swiss lady who had just been in Australia for 3 months to improve her English, it was still abysmal though! She was wearing (I have to describe her because you had to see it to believe it) bright blue flowery boardshorts, an orange Indian-like top, topped off with luminous orange nails and a pink and purple hat. She was rather short with short and spiky hair and a few tatoos. I was almost embarrassed to walk next to her!

The most inspirational woman award from my trip so far though goes to the 75 year old woman from Birmingham who was in my dorm last night. 75 and still backpacking, amazing!

So tonight I'm back to Bangkok, meeting Andrea (woo! I'm so excited!) and hopefully finding a hostel. Hostels in Bangkok, I've decided, don't like me as despite having tried for a month we have been unable to book anywhere yet! So here's hoping Khao San Road isn't too busy tonight...

How many Malaysians does it take to open a bus?!

2008-03-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

Just a funny image to finish off my time in the jungle...

I had forked out lots of money (a whole 4 pounds) to get a minibus back from the jungle the evening after the tour had finished. I thought I had almost missed the bus so I ran up soaking wet (at the end of the tour I jumped fully clothed into the river to wash all the mud off!) only to find the driver rattling the key in the lock of the bus and unable to open it. 45 minutes later there were 6 or 7 men standing round the truck each trying their best to break into the truck using the key that evidently didn't work. I couldn't understand why they didn't just change the key?! I'm not quite sure how they finally managed to open it an hour later, especially as the crow bar hadn't seemed to do anything!

I am now in Kuala Lumpur having felt the need for some civilisation after my jungle experiences. Funnily enough despite meeting a Cambridge graduate on the bus we managed to miss the stop for the capital city and ended up in a town about 3/4 hour away! Luckily we found a bus back but I do wonder if my brain has been frazzled by all the sun, surely it can't have been that difficult to get off in the biggest city in Malaysia?!

Into the jungle...

2008-03-20T06:23:00.000-07:00

I've managed to make it back to civilisation dirty, muddy, sweaty, wet and exhausted after an epic 3 days in the jungle!

The first adventure was taking the jungle railway from Khota Bahru through the jungle to the starting point for Taman Negara (the jungle, it even sounds exotic and exciting!). I got to the station at 6 in the morning only to be told there were no seats left and I couldn't get on the train. I tried to shed a few tears but quickly realised that the ticket guy wasn't going to budge and so managed to get a seat for half of the journey with the promise that I would move and sit on the floor for the rest of the trip. The seat part was comfy; I caught up on some much needed sleep (with a lot of clothes on as the air conditioning was fierce!) then at the station where I had to move every seat filled up and I was left sitting in the restaurant car surrounded by men whose sole past-time seemed to be staring at me and smoking, there were literally no women in the restaurant car! I tried listening to my ipod and staring pointedly out of the window trying to ignore the stares and the 'where are you from's but in the end I got fed up and went and sat on the bin! The journey through the jungle was pretty cool, it was only a single track railway with the jungle less than a foot away on both sides but once we'd stopped for 2 hours for no particular reason I was quite glad to get off!

In Jerantut I met the lovely Ian and Alice and a very nice, rather earnest, German cyclist called Jenz. We had fun negotiating the local supermarket and then the next morning had a 3 hour boat ride to Taman Negara. The boat was pretty low and we got wet but it was fun, seeing beautiful birds and a big lizard as we zoomed up through the muddy water. Ian, Alice and I braved the jungle, tucking socks over trousers and covering ourselves with deet (I went one step further the next day and stuck duck tape around my socks as well, I looked a right sight!) to try and avoid the leeches. First stop was the canopy walkway, a massive rope ladder in the top of the trees about 45 m above the ground, it was fantastic! Then we decided to climb a hill which was completely exhausting. It was so hot and humid in the jungle that as soon as we moved we were literally dripping with sweat, nice! By the time we made it back we were exhausted and not amused by the people who said it was a nice 'gentle' hike up this hill!

After a rather sleepless night in the dorm (some rather loud snoring and sleep shouting during the night didn't help!) I signed up for a 2 day trek into the jungle. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I think I had rather a romantic view of a nice walk, sleeping in a cave with the jungle noises in the background and some funny stories to tell the next day. I don't think I'm made for the whole trekking malarky! The boat ride up the river was lovely but the trek was one of the hardest things I've ever done (and some people do it for 7 days...why?!). The jungle was incredible, we saw no one else the whole day and it was exactly as I'd pictured: dense trees, enormous roots and Tarzan-like vines, deafening cicidas. We also saw elephant footprints, mushrooms galore, insects including enormous ants (no big animals though we saw some wild boar on the way to the canopy walkway). The walk involved scrambling over trees, crossing rivers and trudging through mud drenched in sweat, hard hard work even though we only walked about 8 km. After about 5/6 hours of trekking we reached the cave which was such a relief, I had never felt so disgusting in my life! A 'jungle shower' involved standing in the river and pouring water over ourselves which was the most amazing feeling. The cave was enormous, rather smelly and full of bats which was a bit creepy; we made a fire, had some dinner and listened to the immense sounds of the jungle and thunder outside (we had just finished gathering firewood before it poured with rain). Needless to say sleep was quite elusive, we only had a thin mat on the floor, all my clothes were wet and I had a very loud snoring guide next to me not to mention the squeaking bats! But hey it was an experience!

The next day after the rain all our clothes were still soaking (putting on wet boots is not fun) and the leeches were out in force. The paths all became twice as treacherous as we slipped and slid over the mud and tried to avoid the leeches (luckily we had some trusty walking sticks by this point or I wouldn't have made it!). My tactic of drenching my shoes in deet, long trousers and socks seemed to work but the others got completely attacked by the little buggers! We had more streams to cross over branches (tightrope walking isn't my strong point so I got wet a few times), more trees had fallen down over night and by the last hour I was trudging and sliding in the mud in a very bad mood (I had a fight with the mud and lost, Uganda people know how much I love mud!). But we finally made it back to the boat and I got away with just one leech, yes! In hindsight I think I will say it was an amazing experience but right now I'm just so happy to be clean and not jumping up and down looking for leeches all the time!

A couple of days in paradise

2008-03-15T02:14:00.000-07:00

Aaah the beaches of South East Asia, I don't think I could ever get sick of them! The Perhetion islands are my kind of paradise, no roads, electricity for only 12 hours a day, the most incredible blue water and a little hut to myself on the beach...I was still with Mark and Sophie (who I met in the Cameron Highlands) at this point and we had rather a hairy boat trip over, arriving on the island completely soaked, then having to trek for about half an hour to the other side of the bay through the forest, not fun with big bags! But one look at the beach when we arrived made it worth the journey.

It was a relaxing couple of days (not much to report apart from some attempted body boarding and a lot of burning!) but I had to say farewell today to Mark and Sophie and head back to my not so favourite town of Kota Bahru where at least I've found a hostel that was open! I've had a whole week not alone which has been amazing. Tomorrow I'm heading to the jungle on a 9 hour train that leaves at 6 in the morning, should be an interesting experience! For now, I'm going to find the famous night market and eat as much as possible to stock up for tomorrow, the food is incredible there and all about 20 p!

The kindness of strangers

2008-03-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

My one piece of advice if you go to Malaysia, don't go to Ipoh! I arrived on the bus in the afternoon and decided to have a look around the town before my night bus up north. I jumped on a local bus without a clue where I was going (LP hadn't deigned to give much information about the place) and ended up in the back end of nowhere surrounded by car shops and the most enormous black cloud pursuing me. It was one of the biggest rainstorms I'd ever seen and eventually a man led me into a shop and let me sit there until the rain had stopped. After some telling off for being on my own (Where is your husband? Why are you not with your family?) I had a lovely long chat to the lady who owned the shop and by the end of the rainstorm (about an hour later) she had decided I was like a daughter to her, gave me her umbrella and a kiss and instructed me to get married quickly! While travelling as a girl on my own has been quite stressful sometimes: everyone is very disapproving especially in Malaysia; people have gone out of their way to look after me and I have been so touched by some strangers' kindness to me.

I had quite a hilarious journey to Kota Bahru which is right in the north of Malaysia, next to the Thai border. The bus itself wasn't the most comfortable and I was stuck next to a man whose snores rattled the bus! Luckily I was with some people I'd met in the Cameron Highlands so when we arrived at 4.20 in the morning at the bus station I was very glad I wasn't on my own! We wandered around for about half an hour in the completely dead streets; we eventually broke into a hotel and camped out in the reception until 6 when the receptionist came back from watching the football and found us a room! We're still trying to work out if we can get away with only paying for one night as technically we'll only be there for 24 hours...cheeky!

The next stop is the Perehetion islands for some more sunning myself and then on to the jungle. I'm just hoping to get some sun now as it has been cloudy here all day, I'm getting a bit fed up of all the rain!

Cameron Highlands

2008-03-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

The Cameron Highlands are in the centre of Malaysia and famous for tea plantations and strawberry farms. I met some people at the bus station who warned me it was cold but it was freezing! I guess probably England spring temperatures but coming from 30 degrees it was all a bit of a shock and I had 2 rather uncomfortable nights sleeping in all my clothes!

I finally finally met some nice (normal!) people on the bus journey and arranged to go on a tour with them to find the biggest flower in the world. This involved a 3 hour trek through some serious mud (anyone remember me and mud escapades in Uganda? I'm not a fan to put it mildly!) and a hair raising ride up a very steep hill in the back of a pick up truck, I thought I was going to fall out/over the edge on numerous occasions or at least knocked out by the branches we kept driving under. However the walk was quite fun, involving lots of clambering over and under tree roots clutching onto bamboo for support. The flower was a bit of a let down to be honest. It takes 15 years to grow and only flowers for 7 days. Yes it was big but it was just a flower and not even that pretty! After a quick refreshing dip in a waterfall we slipped and slid our way back down to look at some tea plantations (I was covered in mud by this point so looked a bit of a state. But I didn't fall over which is a first for me!) which were beautiful, rolling valleys covered in different shades of green; stocked up on strawberries and braved a butterfly farm full of insects and snakes (the cages all looked pretty dodgy though).

The next day I decided to go back to the tea plantation and negotiated buses to get there, meeting an Italian guy said 'incredible' a lot, I'm not sure if this was at the views or at the difficulty we were having communicating! I then rather stupidly hitchiked back, realised my mistake as soon as I got in the car but the guy was charming and chatted the whole way back. I guess sometimes you just have to trust your instincts..

The best advert in Malaysia

2008-03-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

As I was on the bus today I saw an advert for shampoo (can't remember the brand sadly or I would rush out and buy some) with the caption 'As used by Malaysia strongest hair woman (Malaysian book of records)'. Brilliant!

From sharks and hippies to popadoms

2008-03-06T22:39:00.000-08:00

Bear with me on this one, has been quite an eventful week!

English camp finished last friday with some especially riotous kids (I taught them splat which they seemed to enjoy, the seasons weren't going down too well!); they all gave us flowers (I got a rose from one of my favourite kids Nok who I think had a soft spot for me...was quite useful when trying to control the classes!), had some pictures taken, got our hands shaken off and then the kids ran after the truck shouting and waving as we left. I'm beginning to sympathise with celebrities! Carolyn and I were then dumped at the side of the road to get a bus to Krabi where we were going to do some r+r on a beach for the weekend (thoroughly deserved, the camp was exhausting!). It was sad to say goodbye to the old TVC truck (but as it was such a long way to the school I wasn't THAT sad, being bumped around in the back wasn't much fun!) and the other volunteers, a mixed bunch who had become a bit like family since I had been there. I was quite emotional at saying goodbye to Jeremy, our friendly American with the bright yellow trousers and crazy hair; we spent most of the week 'gently' teaching him about British humour and who decided to get away from us all by going to Mongolia...

A bus, taxi and longtail boat ride later we made it to Rai Leh (pronounced the same as the Essex town!) and were greeted by an enormous rainstorm. Rai Leh is a little bay about half an hour from Krabi and only reachable by boat; it has a posh side with a pretty beach (Rai Leh west) and a side with cheap accommodation but a muddy beach (Rai Leh east). Guess where we were staying...Despite the LP's raving about the beaches here we weren't overly impressed, yes they were beautiful but alas the rest of the world had also discovered this and to quote Carolyn 'It's just like Blackpool'. The big limestone formations all around the beaches were beautiful but hard to enjoy with all the topless sunbathers around (queue some very loud and quite funny comments from Carolyn, it did seem to work though!)! On the second night we managed to find a party which luckily for us was directly below where we were staying with live music until about 3 in the morning (another night of no sleep, the first night the bed we had to share was so uncomfortable!). The place was full of dredlocks and very very happy Thais...as we walked past the bar the next morning there were still a few passed out in the corner!

So being a bit disillusioned with Rai Leh we headed for Phi Phi, and felt like we'd arrived in Ibiza...(remember Kavos?! This was worse!). The main town of Phi Phi had been wiped out during the tsunami but you would never have known it, it had been rebuilt almost exactly as it was and it was horrendous! The beaches were lounger to lounger packed, that sewer smell was everywhere and rubbish littered the streeets and the beach. We managed to have an amazing meal on the beach in the evening (my best pizza of the trip so far!) and then a drink watching fire poi but then made the mistake of walking through the town and were greeted by far too many brits abroad and staggering drunks (they were selling buckets of whisky and coke on the street for 3 pounds so it was hardly surprising really). Argh this wasn't why I'd come to Thailand, it was worse than Durham!

After rather an emotional goodbye to Carolyn the next day I was once again on my own and decided to move somewhere a bit quieter. I jumped on a longtail boat to a beach around the corner (well more like fell in, it definitely wasn't that elegant with a big rucksack on my back) and found myself a nice bamboo hut for the next couple of days. I met a very chatty Californian masseuse who treated me to lunch but then regaled me with conspiracy theories about 9/11 for an hour. I had decided to be brave that night and sit in a bar and try to meet some people but unfortunately walking along the beach at 10 that evening there was NOTHING! I guess you can't have it both ways can you...

The next couple of days were very relaxing: a trip on a big boat (we saw THE beach from the film 'The Beach' but it was packed with so many day trippers, horrendous) with some of the most amazing snorkelling I've ever seen (I saw Nemo! I was very excited) and some friendly Brits and Aussies (all couples, where are the lone travellers??) and more snorkelling the next day with, I'm not joking, SHARKS! It was a bit of a heartstopper, I was happily swimming along and all of a sudden I see a fin and a tail swimming in front of me. Eek! I saw about 8 in total looming out of the gloom around me; they were only about a metre long and apparently harmless but that definitely counts among the most scary experiences of my life! The other fish were incredible, at one point I was alone and completely surrounded by about 200 fish, amazing.

Finally yesterday involved 6 different modes of transport and 13 hours of travelling to get to Penang in Malaysia. I had got a bit sick of Phi Phi: the Thais (and travellers) there seemed to be among the most unfriendly people I'd ever met and I was a bit sick of all the beautiful bronzed people in bikinis. I think I'm turning into an unfriendly grump to be honest! But I met some lovely people on the minibus to Penang including a student in Penang who was so friendly (he gave me all his family's numbers in case I got into trouble in Thailand) and an inspirational Swedish girl on her own who'd been travelling for a year, restoring my faith in the travelling world.

Penang is so different to Thailand, it's a real mish mash of India, China and colonial England. The houses all seem to be falling down and walking along the street are people in beautiful saris, chinese-y looking people and lost looking tourists! I had a pretty interesting lunch braving one of the restaurants in Little India. Presented with a banana leaf as a plate and with lots of different types of curries piled on it, waiters running around with buckets of rice and popadoms, I was expected to eat this all with my hands (at this point I asked for a fork, there's only so local I can go!).

I'm still not entirely sure what my plan is at the moment but I'm counting down the days until Andrea gets here. The joys of being a girl on your own are starting to wear a bit thin: the constant stares and questions ('Yes I'm alone!'), a fight with the immigration officer (he wanted me to pay him, luckily my nbf the student stepped in and rescued me!) and having to wait to get a boat because the boatman simply won't go with just one person. The worst bits are meal times, it's an endurance test to sit there nonchalantly and try not to bolt the food down and run. I'm trying to perfect my cool 'i'm alone and don't mind' look but I think it just comes out looking rather desperate! Not to say that I haven't met some nice people, I met a great couple of old malysian ladies this morning who made some jokes about the english coming back to survey their colony and gave me some chinese coins 'for prosperity' as we parted but I'm not quite sure why I only seem to attract old ladies and strange women!

Rain and food!

2008-02-28T03:12:00.000-08:00

(Bear with me while I describe my gastronomic experiences, it has been a good week!) On sunday night we were invited round to another volunteers' house, Sunny and Andy, for some serious Thai cuisine. Sunny had gone all out and cooked enough to feed an army, including special chicken and cashewnuts for me, a coconut soup with prawns and chicken, beef soup, starters and to round it off we had shortbread (proper english stuff!) and so much fruit! And special mention must go to Andy for amazing dragon fruit and apple shakes. Monday night involved an all you can eat (yay!) bbq where we were just given the raw meat and a stove to cook it on, amazing! And tuesday I had a strop and demanded pizza, we searched high and wide for pizza that was under a fiver (considered extortionate here!) and finally found a place for three pounds, it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had! And I'll stop raving now (but when you've eaten nothing but rice for 3 weeks pizza takes on a new significance!).

Unfortunately the other overriding theme of the week has been rain rain and more rain. It involved a mad dash from the beach to the nearest restaurant on the motorbike yesterday; finishing the outside lesson early at the orphanage and racing to the truck as we saw the enormous black cloud getting closer and closer; getting rather wet in the back of the pick up truck (and laughing at everyone on their motorbikes) and comedy pantomime horse style running under a mat to try and stay dry!

Teaching has started to get really good which makes me sad to leave but maybe it is better this way. I had just started to get to know some of the kids at the orphanage and some of the locals during the 'Lazy classes': my favourite tour operator looked quite distressed when I said I was leaving (though maybe this is because I haven't bought a tour with her yet despite her offering me a 'special price')! Today and tomorrow we are doing an English Camp at a school about an hour and a half away, a full day of intensive english lessons for the kids with an emphasis on 'fun learning'...a nightmare, who knew fun could be so much hard work?! I am desperately trying to think of fun games you can play to do with the seasons...We have been treated like celebrities there though, food given to us every time we so much as move, all the kids wanting our autographs and peering through the windows at us!

I have my last day of teaching tomorrow and then I am off to do some serious beach hopping. Though if this rain malarky continues I won't be very amused, I need to get my tan going again!The next stop is Krabbi then Kho Phi Phi where 'The Beach' was filmed. Then I have decided to keep heading south through Malaysia for a couple of weeks. Burma was proving to be too much stress and hassle so I think I will save it for another time when they have transport that works and atms (anyone want to come with me?!)...

Sights, smells and sounds of Thailand

2008-02-28T02:41:00.000-08:00

Having been in Thailand almost a month now I thought this would help you to imagine all the things I've been experiencing!

Sounds

The bloody rooster and dogs outside the bungalow waking us up at 5 in the morning! The loudest crickets. Forty kids shouting 'good mooorning teeeacher' at us. The little boy in one class whose sole English word is 'exactly' which he said with almost a perfect english accent. The trucks that drive past really slowly with advertisements blaring out of megaphones. The rain as it really starts pouring. Fantastic Thai pop music which they like playing at full blast on buses. Thai mobile ringtones, they all seem to be we wish you a merry christmas or jingle bells, why?!

Sights

All the smiles. Thais all look grumpy until you smile at them and then their faces light up. Driving in the back of the TVC truck looking out at the amazing jungle/hilly scenery (and feeling slightly sick as you drive around the bends) and overtaking whole families on motorbikes. The classic Khao Lak scene, a beautiful sunset with a speedo-clad pot bellied over bronzed German walking down the beach (or not to be sexist a saggy wrinkly over bronzed German lady with ill fitting bikini). Gorgeous little kids, I want to take them all home! Shoes outside all the houses/shops/schools. The sunsets and the beaches, wow, Bournemouth just doesn't quite live up to it!

Smells (mostly not very pleasant, unfortunately rather pungent!)

THAT sewer smell, I've almost got used to it now! Sweaty and smelly little children! Exhaust fumes from the back of the truck or from on the motorbike. Amazing coconut curry soup smell. The sweet smell of the flowers and incense that hang on all the spirit houses. The smell of rain as it hits hot tarmac (aah!)...

An intrepid adventure!

2008-02-24T07:25:00.000-08:00

After rather a stressful week of teaching I decided to skive the last couple of days and head to Khao Sok, a national park about an hour and a half away where we were in high hopes of seeing tigers, bears and being attacked by leeches! I went with the Canadian family and had fun times trying to find a guest house to sleep all 5 of them in 1 room. Eventually found somewhere and I had my own little hut to myself, rather cute (with no sink and a shower drain that was just a hole out to the ground below!). We had a great time elephant trekking through the jungle and then got to feed the elephants which was awesome! The drama all started when I attempted to go to bed that night..Just as I was about to fold in my mosquito net who should come crawling on the wall opposite but a not-so-friendly cockroach! My nice little hut became a hut of horror as I chased the little beast around the hut with a torch, discovering a pile of mouse droppings on the way, and the evil cockroach then proceeded to burrow in between the mattress and the bed! Even after spending about half an hour trying to get the mosquito net folded into the bed as tightly as possible I still had rather a sleepless night!

The next morning I had booked to go on to a tour of a massive lake about 60 km away. Met my new travel buddies for the trip, 2 rather good looking german boys (which brings my nice german count up to 5!) and jumped in the back of the pick up truck. The lake was amazing, it was so blue and had incredible limestone formations rising up out of the lake, thickly covered with trees and vegetation, like something out of a James Bond film. We even spotted some gibbons and a toucan! The afternoon involved a trek in the jungle and it was there I discovered maybe I'm not quite so intrepid as I would have myself believe! The jungle bit was fab but the last part of the walk involved going through some caves for about half an hour. Being slightly claustrophobic and not especially fond of bats, spiders and whatever else lived in these caves it wasn't really my cup of tea! We had to walk, crawl and eventually swim through the cave with flashlights in mouths, about a million bats above us and weird rock formations on either side. It was an experience! And it was only later when I finally reached the other side that I was told that 8 people had been killed there last year when the cave had flooded when it rained...eek. Think I'll stick to jungle hiking from now on!

Staying the night on the lake was fantastic, the water was so warm and there was only a group of about 10 houses so it was so quiet (apart from the german boys deciding to go midnight swimming). I went canoeing in the morning (slightly less extreme though did manage to almost get lost!), managed to find somewhere where all you could was deafening roar of the crickets, the calls of the gibbons and the water lapping against the shore, incredible.

So sadly no bears or tigers and it wasn't rainy enough for leeches but the bats were enough for me for the moment! I headed back to Khao Lak to find a beach and some R&R and it has rained all afternoon! Not very amused though I have got the coolest bike, it is brand new, orange and white and the acceleration is rather responsive! I strive to be cool enough to carry it off!

Teacher teacher...

2008-02-18T05:54:00.000-08:00

The teaching here is rather chaotic and quite hilarious. We go in the pick up truck to around 6 different schools in the area and teach classes of 30 up to about 90 of all different ages. Unfortunately this week seems to have been the week of learning road signs so I am now intimately acquainted with the ways of the Thai roads and how to say 'no farm machinery' and 'do not turn left' in Thai, always useful! The kids are so gorgeous though with the most lovely smiles, we arrive and are interrogated with 'what is your name' and 'where you come from' being shouted at us as we stand in front of the class! Their level of English is quite variable and apparently my accent is harder to understand than the Germans talking English (grr don't get me started on the germans again!) so I have a bit of trouble trying to have a conversation. The Canadian kids are quite a hit in the school too; we were bombarded with stickers from the 11 year old girls today, I think 9 year old Zak quite enjoyed it though was a bit embarrassed! His first experience of being a hearthrob...

Other teaching that we do is quite appropriately called the 'Lazy class' (it takes place in the Lazy House Bar) where we have english conversation classes with the local hotel and bar staff, taxi drivers and tour operators. This is really good though as it is often 1 on 1 the poor things must feel interrogated! I had quite a hilarious conversation trying to explain the difference between guys/guides (as she was pronouncing them both the same) with a tour operator who actually laughed herself under the table when she understood why I was confused!

Tomorrow I have persuaded the 'head' teacher, a slightly crazy expat northerner called Ken, that we dispense with road signs and do something different instead, we're going for occupations, who knows what we might come up with! We will just have to go with the flow...

Fitting in with the locals

2008-02-18T02:10:00.000-08:00

Having been in Khao Lak for a week I am now fully scornful of all the sunburnt German tourists and am determined to try and become a local, apart from the obvious problem of not really looking Thai! I now remove my shoes before going into shops, restaurants and schools; I bow to most Thais that I meet and mumble something in the hope they will recognise my faltering attempts at their language; I have bought a fantastic pair of 'fisherman's pants' which are enormous trousers that you fold over, very cool; I only eat Thai food though I can't quite manage their spicy curries yet, and I have decided the only way to travel is either in the back of a pick up truck or by motorcycle! Yes, I managed a whole day on what was actually a moped without falling off and absolutely loved it, even if I didn't go any faster than 40 kmph. Unfortunately I've rather spoiled the rest of the attempt by getting quite sunburnt over the weekend but I'm hoping it will fade!

The weekend was absolutely fabulous: not content with the gorgeous beach in Khao Lak where I spend most evenings watching the sunset I spent the weekend beach hopping. First a day trip to the Similan Islands which are about an hour away by speedboat, white sand and turquoise waters and some of the most amazing fish I've ever seen (no Nemos though, I was devastated). Sadly I had to share this with more sunburnt Germans (see a theme here?!) so the view was rather marred. I was befriended by an Austrian couple who moaned from the minute we got on the boat to the minute they left it. But they made sure I didn't get left behind when we were snorkelling so I guess they had their uses!

On sunday I met my NBF Carolyn (a new volunteer from Bradford) and have now moved in with her in her nice bungalow in amongst the banana trees, sadly 10 minutes further away from the beach but made up for by the halving of price from the guesthouse I was staying in. Back to cold showers though! We hired motorbikes and set off to find Poseidon beach, in a secluded bay and nestled among rocks. Unfortunately we were greeted by...guess what...more sunburnt and topless Germans but managed to find a spot where the view wasn't impaired too much! We then 'zoomed' up a hill to find a waterfall, watched sunset from another beach and spent the evening eating curry with the Canadian family. Bliss...

N.B. As you have probably realised, the Germans are not high on my list of favourite people at the moment having been kept awake for most of the night by them partying in the bungalow next door! So if this post seems rather anti-German I do apologise and blame it on my lack of sleep, I'm sure I will be more complimentary tomorrow!

Paradise Lost

2008-02-12T01:21:00.000-08:00

So, after a pretty nightmarish journey south (involving far too many buses with no air conditioning and an added 8 hours to the journey time, but it just wouldn't be travelling without these little challenges would it?!) I arrived on Sunday in Khao Lak, a little town about 2 hours north of Phuket. 3 years ago it was just starting to pick up as a tourist destination when the tsunami hit. The waves were over 9 m high here and killed over 5 000 people. It's hard to even imagine what that must have been like. As I walked along the beach it looked so peaceful (though rather a lot of red sunburnt Germans, do they not know about suncream yet?!), an idyllic spot with palm trees, thai massage on the beach and fruit stalls everywhere. The people are all so friendly (at breakfast this morning I got shown all the family photos from one lady) but the town still feels like it's recovering, there are new smart resorts springing up all along the beach but the tourists are only slowly trickling back.

My first day as a volunteer involved going on a 'post-tsunami experience', seeing some of the effects of the tsunami and the projects now going on to help people rebuild their lives. We saw massive boats in the middle of fields and villages (at least 1 km away from the sea) that had been swept there by the waves, a new housing project with houses designed by a German engineer which were apparently meant to be tsunami proof and a craft centre set up by a Japanese monk for women who had lost their husbands during the tsunami and therefore had no way of making money. The most affecting part of the day was visiting a beach that had once been clear waters and white sand; the impact of the waves had caused the beach to be cluttered with coral from the nearby reef and massive volcanic rocks from the floor of the ocean to be deposited in the shallow water. 3 years later most of the construction work is now done and the volunteering mainly centres on teaching English to the hotel owners, taxi drivers and children in the region, as over 70 % of the English speakers were killed. Not really knowing what to expect with the volunteer centre (www.tsunamivolunteer.net), I was surprised at how small it is; there are only around 10-12 other volunteers apart from me including a Canadian family with 3 kids who I think will be great with playing with the children in the schools. But everyone is friendly and willing to pitch in and it's good to have people to chat to again.

We had our first afternoon teaching today, slightly chaotic but great fun, the children are gorgeous with a great sense of humour. We attempted to do road signs with them, there are some bizarre ones in Thailand such as 'no bicycles, samlaws and motorcycles' and 'no parking on odd days'. I think the kids were slightly baffled by this! The teaching seems quite laid back and the volunteers and people that run the centre are very friendly so I'm pretty happy at the moment! Added to the fact I am 7 minutes walk from the beach and the sea is warmer than my shower...it's a hard life!

New Friends?

2008-02-08T23:23:00.000-08:00

Is one advantage of travelling on your own is to meet new people that you would never have spoken to otherwise? This is definitely proving to be the case so far! The big advantage I can see is that you can leave them knowing you never have to see them again!

First off the 6 Turkish men from Marmaris I met on the plane from Bahrain. They took me under their wing determined to look after me once they knew I was on my own. This unfortunately involved a lot of poking while I was asleep so that I didn't miss the food/menus/headphones etc. At the airport I was 'picked up' by 3 male nurses from Saudi Arabia, 1 kiwi, 1 canadian and 1 american called Bob. Not bad going for being in the country approximately half an hour. I managed to blag my way into a taxi with them (which they then consequently paid for!) but started to regret this as Bob started swearing at the taxi driver for not speaking english properly (hello, we're in Thailand?!). George the Canadian started taking pictures and making comments about hot girls we were driving past while Bob (who I will point out was short and bald and wearing an armani scarf. Enough said) pressed up against me in the back. Quite amusing really! But a free taxi ride is a free taxi ride and it left me feeling hopeful that I could meet some vaguely normal people.

Not so. A trip to the old capital Ayuthaya (a lot of old rocks and Buddhas with heads cut off by the Burmese) for the day had me stuck with a hippy natural nutritionist who before we had even got there had told me her life story (involving her son being in prison and mentally disturbed) and tried to get me into meditation. She felt the atmospheres in the places pretty keenly and would run off taking photos left right and centre of old rocks. I was almost sorry to see her go though, we had bonded over her life story and the fact she lives in Bournemouth.

Today I have kept myself to myself for the most part (trying not to get involved with hippies again!) except for a charming German at breakfast and some very nice Irish people who gave me directions and tips. I negotiated the Thai buses to go to Chatuchak market which was immense, found some incredible shoes and tried not to buy too much. Braved a food stall for lunch and I am now killing time until my 'VIP' bus down south this evening, apparently there is air conditioning, blankets and reclining seats!

Although I have only been here only 2 days I feel like an old hat at Khao San Road. The crazy hippies and dredlocks everywhere, the shakes for sale at every corner as well as clothes and tat galore. And just for the record, it is HOT! Though I arrived on thursday to torrential rain which left the whole of Khao San Road flooded and most people wading through the road in bare feet. I sat there with my pineapple shake and watched the world get drenched around me and thought, this is the life hey!

Nearly off! The grand plan

2008-02-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

Well it's now only 5 days till I'm off halfway across the world to 40 degree heat, curry and hopefully not too many lady-boys. Typically I am not organised at all and am hoping everything will sort itself out at the last minute..visas, hostels, packing, transport etc!

I'm flying into Bangkok on thursday and then heading down south to the Tsunami volunteer centre in Khao Lak for 3 weeks. Then who knows where I might head but Burma is pretty appealing (much to my parents' dismay) or to see orangutans in Borneo. Or just be a beach bum on Thailand's beaches. Andrea, my favourite Yankee friend from my first gap year in Uganda, is coming to meet me at the end of March and we plan to go to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia before I fly home at the end of April.

Will it all fall into place or will I be arrested for lack of visas/taking accidental pictures of the military in Burma/forgetting to buy a bus ticket? Will I make it back without being tempted by a tattoo?! And will I stick to my motto: 'Do one thing every day that scares you..' Watch this space!