Island life

There’s something about being on a tiny little island that gives you a sense of at ease, I don’t really know what it is or how to describe it but there’s just always something different about my attitude and approach to things when on these tiny little islands dotted around Asia.
I’ve spent two days on Gili Trawangan and what a beauty it is – granted it is now bustling with young tourists looking to party the night away but that doesn’t take away it’s beautiful blue waters, fresh light sands and chilled back way of life. But if you’re looking for a quieter more peaceful get away I would suggest Gili Air or Gili Memo – unfortunately I didn’t have time to visit all three this time round.

The journey itself from the Bali mainland to the islands is rather long and tedious – not so much due to distance but to a lack of coordination and organisation on behalf of the company. You spend a lot of time waiting around for the right bus, the right boat and then for the boat to finally get going or to have a place to park. After a bumpy start with my accomodation I was finally checked in, refreshed and ready to hit the beach! I indulged myself with a luxury massage with a sea view and settled in for a relaxing evening! 

    
   
I had an early start the next morning to visit the local dive site named Manta Point – although oddly no mantas in sight! We saw around 6/7 white tipped reef sharks and a turtle just chilling (doing what turtles do best), a few box fish as well as the cast of nemo and my all time favourite – the parrot fish! 

We got back on the boat and were asked what was our spirit fish, many people answered with a shark because they were misunderstood or a turtle because they just wanted a chilled life and when it got to my turn I decided I would be the parrot fish and my logic is that the parrot fish hasn’t quite decided what it wants to do yet in life so instead it’s just a mix of every colour possible!

I’ve got in the risky habit of indulging in an afternoon nap but luckily I woke up in time to head over to the other side of the island for sunset – and what a beauty it was! On my walk over it was cloudy but thankfully they broke just in time for the sun shine through as it got lower – perfect picture time on the famous Gili T swings! 

    
    

 
I’ll be honest I’m no better than every other tourist and my travel dreams are often influenced by magical movies, fancy magazine pictures or luxury Instagram posts – the reason Bali made it into my mind and onto my bucket list was the movie (and book – which is much better!) Eat, Pray, Love and as if by magic it was playing on the outdoor beach cinema screen! What a perfect way to enjoy an evening in Bali!

Life’s too short

Koh Tao the turtle island! But ironically it’s the first time I’ve been diving and not seen a turtle for a very long time – I guess that’s just because I’ve been spoilt. Spoilt with so many good times and good experiences! But good doesn’t even begin to cover it – phenomenal – that sounds more appropriate!   
    
     
As I sit on the ferry from Koh Tao back to the mainland on my way up to Bangkok I’m pondering how quickly my year is coming to an end. I’m about to bid farewell to Thailand and see what Bali has to offer and then that’s it – I’m off to sunny (obviously actually not-so-sunny) England and it brings a tear to my eye but I’m not really sure why. I’m no longer dreading being back in England and at university for final year but instead I’m looking forward to the new challenges and to seeing what the year brings and how it will help me grow into graduate life. I’ve always said that life is what you make it and I can proudly say that I’ve always put that belief into my life too – I’ve achieved such a wide variety of things because I’ve put in the leg work! I’ve worked 5 jobs alongside university which has enabled me extend my journey home – and boy was every hour worth it! Even if despite all the worked hours I’ve still ended up in more debt, money will come and go, it always does. But you can never get the time back and you can never take away the memories!

Life is too short to be doing something you don’t absolutely love.

Drunk me > hungover me

It was a long and tiring journey across the boarder – be warned when they say it’s cheaper to change buses they don’t tell you that it is because you have to walk about an hour with all your luggage!! Okay it may not have been an hour but at 5:30 in the morning with 4 bags it sure felt like a lifetime! But it didn’t stop there – I still had to get from Bangkok down to Surathani and then over to Koh Phangan.. Luckily I’d found a fancy Bangkok hotel to allow me to store luggage and nap by the pool in between night buses.   
 Finally I got to Koh Phangan and headed straight to my bed! Luckily my roomie was hungover as hell and still in bed too! Once we’d both recovered from our opposite nights adventures we headed out to take a look around the island and grab some food. Despite booking into a 20-bed dorm there was only two of us in a 4-bed but we managed to get a good group together for dinner as my roomie had a few friends on the island and I’d bumped into a few friends I’d made on the bus down here. On the night before full moon pretty much the whole island heads over to the Jungle party – literally in the jungle! It may have just been a big ploy to get 700 baht off each and every one of us but it was a good night. Set out in festival style with the addition of the infamous Thai cocktail buckets, drunk me came out to play – and brought her (lack of) gymnastic skills to the table when asked what my party trick was. Luckily I can still do the splits although it’s never without a few scratches and very sore legs for a couple days! 

    
 I slept the majority of the next day too – still catching up on the missed sleep from two back to back night buses! I woke up with enough time to fit in a massage before heading down to the beach for a rather unimpressive sunset!  

 After dinner we all headed back to our respective hostels to get kitted out in our full moon fluorescents before meeting back up to get painted and tipsy on our way down to the beach. 

    
    
 I’ll admit I was slightly confused as to how the full moon party was going to be different to the beach parties I saw over on Phi Phi in November until I got down to the beach – although you wouldn’t realise it was a beach as you could barely even see the sand through the thousands of people around us! What we didn’t realise that as we were getting painted up during our pre-drinks the swarms of people heading past us were crowding together on the beach! It didn’t seem like a mass of people as they all came through in dribs and drabs but once all collected on the beach – just wow! Luckily the crowds began to drift off fairly quickly though!

    
   
Every bar blared their drink offers over the music of the next bar for as far as you could see! It wasn’t long before our large group got split but somehow in the masses of people my friends from the bus still managed to find me for a dance on the stage – no matter where in the world I am I will find a bar or stage to dance on! 

Drunk me even managed to have enough food on the way home to not be so hungover in the morning as well as pack and leave out water and ibuprofen for hungover me. I’m starting to learn in my old age it would seem!

Stupidly I’d only booked the two nights on Phangan and head to be up at 10 to check out and head over to Koh Samui but thankfully is booked a very large and luxurious bed to drown myself in for the next two nights before making my way onto Koh Tao!

Siem Reap

I really do think I have seen it all now with buses. Kerry and I looked at our seat numbers when we bought the tickets and we were given 3B and 4B – we thought brilliant that should be near the front and neither of us will be stuck with the dreaded 3-seater at the back! However when the bus did turn up we were more than shocked! It was nothing like I’d seen before – they were essentially bunk beds inside this bus! Only it was two people to every single mattress with a giant metal bar going halfway down the middle! It was a very tight squeeze and with no where to put your day backpack (obviously mine is getting rather large by this stage) other than at the bottom of the bed it was not a comfortable nights sleep!A word of warning to solo travellers – check what type of sleeper bus you will be getting on! Or you could end up in a tight squeeze with a complete stranger!

We arrived in Siem Reap dazed and confused from very little sleep to of course be pestered by another tuk tuk driver wanting to know our life plans to see if his services would ever be needed! We managed to push him off and checked into another bargain luxury hostel for a snooze before figuring out what to do with the day.

Refreshed and ready to take on Siem Reap we headed down to the markets to score ourselves a few more bargain rings and paintings – and sure enough that’s what we did! I get so involved in the bartering games that I end up purchasing some items I’m not even that interested in! Rookie error! Although I am getting extremely good at getting the price I want now so that definitely comes in useful when I do really want an item!

For sunset we headed out to Angkor Wat on the recommendation from the hostel staff and tuk tuk driver as apparently there isn’t enough time to get up Bakheng Hill in time for sunset – this seemed pretty odd to me as we had at least an hour at Angkor Wat before sunset so I’m sure that would have been enough time! A word of warning to others – Angkor Wat closes at 5:30pm and sunset isn’t until after 6pm!! Although we did get some great pictures in the clear blue sky we didn’t get to see any spectacular sunsets. 

Angkor Wat itself is meant more for sunrise at this time of year so we braved the 4am wake up call and pitched up camp ready for the sunrise however luck was not on my side again with too many clouds in the sky this morning. We had a look around the other ruins, including the infamous Lara croft movie set but our lack of sleep got the better of us by about 10am and we headed back to the hostel for a nap. 

I said my goodbyes to Kerry and within an hour of settling down to catch up on some work in the room I’d met a new group of people and we headed out for dinner, a few drinks and a massage infront of Siem Reap’s ladyboy show. Cant complain at that! Even if it was an extremely bizarre show!

The next day I finally got to catch up on some work in a typical Aussie cafe whilst enjoying a delicious eggs benedict and chocolate milkshake – if I don’t look outside I could have been right back in Melbourne… But when I did look outside I was reminded of the thunderstorm that was currently in full swing! Luckily it eased off in time for us to head out again for dinner and a few bizarre cocktail shots at the infamous Temple Bar before I set off for my next journey en route to Bangkok!

‘VIP’ buses and backpacker heaven

After a VIP luxury journey from Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam to Phnom Penh in Cambodia we arrived to hordes of Tuk Tuks trying to charge us $10 for a $2 trip to our hostel. Thanks to another travellers tip we knew no city journey was worth this much so managed to barter down an unsuspecting driver to the $2 mark. 

Once we got to our hostel we were beat! With only enough energy to eat and sleep we treated ourselves to a burger in the attached restaurant and then climbed our way up the steep steps to our room. I’ll admit I was very doubtful as to how the night was going to end up after we exited through the back of the restaurant and past the owners bedrooms on the way up to our room however fear not, as when we were shown into our room it certainly did not disappoint!! Luxury queen sized bunk beds, soft blankets and extremely clean room and ensuite – we were in backpacker heaven!!  

 The next morning after we had finally finished planning and booking the rest of our Cambodia adventure we set off for the local markets to pick up some more jewellery and of course I couldn’t say no to a few extra souvineer pieces, they don’t seem to have many masks for sale here to add to my collection so instead I’ve started developing a collection of local canvas paintings. If I ever do end up settling down into my own house I’m going to have some fantastic pieces to decorate it with!  

 We’ve treated ourselves to a bit of a bakery day today after needing a break from noodles galore! You can definitely tell that Phnom Penh is a bit more of a tourist city! 

   
Next up was a chance to appreciate some of the Cambodian beauty at the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda – despite the hefty price tag ($6 extra if you don’t turn up in appropriate clothing)! Unfortunately we didn’t get much of a chance to sit back and admire with another bus to catch this evening but I don’t think I could have stayed much longer in the blazing heat anyway! The tshirt which is sold (not provided!) was far too thick to sit around in for any longer! 

    
    
 Back to our hostel for a quick rinse down before catching a supposed VIP bus to Sihanoukville – supposed being the key word there! There was definitely nothing VIP about this bus! It was very crowded and very small!! On the way out of Phnom Penh we managed to get some photos of the crazy ways in which Asians travel around! 

    
 Kerry and I went for window seats either side of one aisle but boy was that a bad idea! A young couple then joined our bus and the only remaining two seats were between us… This would have been fine if the couple could keep their hands (or faces) off each other but of course knowing our luck they couldn’t! Shortly after the man in front of us began watching some kind of porno on his iPad! We really worried what kind of bus we’d gotten on!

Luckily we arrived safely in Sihanoukville and after a few taxi/tuk tuk issues we made it to our hostel for a good nights sleep before heading off to Koh Rong tomorrow morning for a piece of the island life!

Playing chicken

Touch down in Vietnam and once we’d managed to get our heads round the inflated currency (£1 is about 33,000 dong but we still felt fabulous withdrawing 3 million each!) we were on our way into the city centre.
After being told from airport information that the cheapest way to get to the centre was a taxi costing US$25 we were beginning to get worried that maybe Vietnam wouldn’t be as cheap as Thailand was in November but alas the minute we headed towards the taxi rank we were ushered inside a minivan who’s driver enticed us with a US$5 each journey – bargain! Or so we originally thought… There was definitely something dodgy about the whole thing – the bus was hiding in the background trying to look as inconspicuous as possible and the driver and ticket seller were keeping both eyes open (for police I presume) looking very suspicious!

After they’d over filled the tiny mini bus our $5 was collected and we were on our way – although the driver never asked anybody’s destination so we weren’t entirely sure where we’d end up!

With Kerry being a first time traveller she wasn’t exactly used to these kinds of roads and spent the whole journey gripping onto my arm, jumping in horror every now and then at this near accident or that baby of the back of a motorbike. All part of the adventure I like to think! 

   
After a quick catch up on some work we headed out for dinner via some dodgy map directions towards the ‘bar’ area. Hanoi is just crazy! Flying mopeds in every direction and you just have to play chicken on every single road – I love it! We somehow ended up in a central area with a very large roundabout which we had no choice but to literally run through, trying to dodge as many mopeds as possible! I think they did a better job at dodging us than we did at dodging them! We found a building which seemed to have a rooftop bar/restaurant and headed towards that with the aim of being a safe enough distance away from the hectic streets but when we arrived at the building and were asked whether we wanted Korean, Vietnamese or Italian food there was a clear winner and we were directed to the third floor rather than the rooftop. We’ll try the local food tomorrow…. We promise!

After dinner we braved the roads one more time to find this bar area we’d been told of and with the help of a few locals we were in luck! Although I must admit we heard it before we saw it! The atmosphere was crazy!!! This is where all the backpackers have been hiding! There was one visible ‘club’ which we obviously headed straight towards but all of the other ‘bars’ were mostly an empty looking room with a tiny counter at the back which I presume counted as the bar, all areas (including the streets!) were filled with backpackers sitting on empty milk crates cuddling there 50p beers.  

We treated ourselves to a £2 cocktail and after a bit of a dance and a wander around the area we headed back to hotel in fear of the 6am pick up to Halong Bay in the morning. 

Happy 50th Singapore!

Touch down in Singapore and reunited with Kerry! It’s been over a year since we last saw each other but it doesn’t feel like any things changed, I’m very happy to have another friend out joining me on this journey and I can tell how excited Kerry is too! I got a bit teary again when I first saw Kerry – I think it was maybe the realisation that my year abroad and time in Australia is officially over and seeing a friendly face really brought it to the surface. But I’m not letting it get me down when I still have an exciting 6 weeks ahead of me!!

Singapore has great transport links and you can easily get the underground train straight from the airport to Chinatown with a few changes but one thing we didn’t account for was the fact that today marks Singapore’s 50th birthday – luckily that provided us with free transport tour unluckily it also meant that the trains were paaaaacked which isn’t so fun when you’re just getting used to the humidity and carrying a very heavy backpack (and two other bags)!!

People were literally pushing and shoving to get on a train – it was absolute madness!! I’ve never seen anything like it before!

  
 We gave up after we had to swap trains for the second time and decided to head out and attempt to get a taxi – bad decision! We were waiting for well over an hour in the queue and even the few free taxis that drove past wouldn’t stop! Eventually we made it to our hostel – very hot, very sweaty and very hungry! We headed straight out for some food in Chinatown and found a few street markets – not that either of us am had a clue what the food was that was being served!  We were adamant not to get food poisoning on our first night in Asia so headed to one of the only Chinese restaurants still open for some noodles, sweet and sour chicken and spring rolls – playing it very safe!!

After the most glorious cold showers we got into our cell like beds and hysterically laughed at each other through our tiny peep hole!

 
Despite getting up early the next morning we didn’t manage to get our act together until midday – with only one day to see the whole of Singapore it causes a few difficult decisions to be made. First up we headed down to Orchid Road – a huge contrast to Chinatown where this road is full of the elite designer stores… Something neither of us can afford!! It was nice to see this legendary road though and I was surprised to see so many Australian stores within the more normal shopping malls!

 We were helped by the most fantastically knowledgeable lady in the information centre who planned out our day for us… Obviously the next stop was the Zoo!

Singapore introduced the first night zoo in the world however if you’re looking for more animal interaction and a wider display of animals (as opposed to sitting on a team and being told about them) then check out the regular day zoo. We were treated to White Tigers and Polar Bears (both the first I’ve ever seen – and I’ve really been to my fair share of zoo’s!) as well as plenty of orang-utans, other monkeys and your standard set of African/Australian animals. We ended the day with the adorable elephants which is also the first time Kerry has ever seen an elephant! I’m looking forward to finding some conservation camps across Asia where she can meet an elephant up close!

After covering a good amount of miles walking around the zoo in the heat and humidity we were exhausted but we couldn’t stop here – there was still the light shows at Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay to check out before we left tomorrow! We stopped off at Verve on the Bay for a pizza/pasta treat after a long day and then made our way down to the Marina Bay Sands admire the hotel from afar. We tried to treat ourselves to a night here but unfortunately due to leaving it too late and the National Day it was just too expensive for our budget however today Kerry and I have made a pact that within the next 5 years we will make it back to Singapore and we will stay at Marina Bay Sands (and hopefully for longer than the one night!).

 After our moment of appreciation we walked over to Gardens By The Bay to see the impressive Avatar-style gardens. We couldn’t see much of the entire gardens with the dark sky however it did make a good setting for the light show!

  

Unfortunately our time in Singapore has come to an end already as we bag up again and head off for Vietnam!

Beginning of the end

I genuinely cannot believe how fast 21 days can fly by!! It feels like a lifetime ago we were starting our west coast journey and already it’s coming to an end. I’ve had such a fantastic time and met so many more amazing people – definitely not ready for it to end!!
Today we headed for Edith Falls, a beautiful waterfall which I am luckily enough to be visiting for the second time. From memory the hike was a lot harder back in December with the added humidity! Today seemed more of a casual climb, although that did make it even harder to brave the cold water pool!! 

    
 After a relaxing morning at the waterfalls we were back on the road again to finish off our 7210km journey! 4210km from Perth to Broome and a further 3000km up to Darwin! Wow! This brings my time in Australia to a full circle in just over 13 months! 

As amazing as this west coast journey has been it is very nice to be back in civilisation! As we pulled into Darwin centre we all wowed at the number of people and buildings around us and we tried to remember how to function as normal human beings! 

We headed out the the sunset night markets down on Mindil Beach for a few treats! I had the most amazing jacket potato with garlic butter, bolognese and sour cream – such a treat after not being able to chose your own food for 21 days!! The night markets here were similar to that of Melbourne’s summer night markets but with slightly less variety on food (mostly Asian cuisine) – that being said they are definitely a must see if you’re in Darwin on a Thursday or Sunday night!! There’s such a feel good atmosphere down there with everyone enjoying themselves. 

    

 

The last Aussie BBQ

Guess what we did yesterday – go on, guess…… Yep you probably got it right…. More driving! Today the journey was Bungle Bungles to Lake Argyle and boy did it start out a bumpy one again. Getting in and out of the Bungle Bungle range has got to be one of the worst roads I’ve ever been on!! There was no sleeping through that journey, in fact I was lucky to just not bang my head every two seconds. After about two hours on these rough roads we finally made it out of the Bungle Bungles alive!!

We stopped off at Kunanara for lunch and a chance to catch up on some emails with signal back. I’ve come to quite enjoy not having signal although it’s not so enjoyable once you get it back with millions of emails and messages to catch up on!

We got to the campsite with just enough time to set up before dark again but the midges were out in full force tonight!! Ariane and I went to check out the bar again and just as we arrived the singer started to play my song – brown eyed girl! Timing or what!! We headed back for a speciality pizza dinner although it wasn’t the easiest to cook! Especially with a tour guide who didn’t really have a clue what was going on and definitely didn’t care! 

The next morning we headed out for a boat cruise on Lake Argyle – it was a fairly basic cruise and we didn’t get to see anything spectacular but it was interesting to learn about the largest man made lake in the whole of Australia. The dam was built in the 1970s to block up the River Ord using only local rock – no metal or steel in sight! To get the rock they set off the largest non-nuclear explosion in the southern hemisphere within these mountains causing enough rocks to fall off and build the dam.  

   Though hydro power, many of the local towns are able to reduce their diesel consumption – I’m always surprising impressed with how many Australian towns are using recycled energy to reduce carbon emissions!

The water stored in lake Argyle is also used as a local reservoir of water storage for growing crops.  

   As you can see there are many different uses for lake argyle – beyond the tourist attraction, however I’m sure many people come to see the huge population (over 25,000) of fresh water crocodiles which also live here.

Later on in the day we crossed the WA / NT border and got to pose for a few photos with the sign! I was also quite impressed that without even having signal my phone new to change the time! – technology eh! 

 Tonight we stayed just outside of Katherine in a campsite made for the tour company. We had little huts named after (mostly European) cities and Ariane and I stayed in Athens for our last night together as roomies!

Tonight also marked my last Aussie BBQ before I have to leave Australia in the next couple days. We celebrated the end of our trip with a fantastic feast and Ariane even made Elephant Apples for desert!! Apparently a key skill for any Swiss teacher!

 It has been an amazing 21 days up the west coast of Australia and an even more amazing year – I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to say goodbye!

The children who run free

I can’t believe 16 days of this trip have flown by already! I’m excited to head over to Asia and relax a little on some beaches but it also means I’m getting closer and closer to the end of my year of travels and adventures. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to head back to reality but I suppose the sooner I head back the sooner I can graduate…..and hopefully head out on another trip!
We spent the morning in Zebedee Hot Springs on the El Questro Station Resort (I do think resort is an odd choice of word to use though!). It was the first time I’ve actually got in the pools here as everywhere else has been far too cold for my liking! I’m definitely going to struggle when I get back to Manchester weather! Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend that long here but the time was mostly spent laughing at Lydia again!

Next up was another gorge – shocker! This time El Questro Gorge which was less rock climbing but more rock scrambling… Not the more enjoyable thing to do in a pair of converse and I’ve managed to twist my foot somehow so the walk back was even less enjoyable! Fingers crossed it heals more before the next walk! 

Hayley and I sat and relaxed for an hour or so at the pool as we were people watching a variety of families who seemed to let their children run wild around the rocks with no concern for their safety! 

    
 We were able to have a nice and relaxing afternoon at camp – great time to have a nice long shower and get started on the slow roast lamb dinner we cooked up. It tasted delicious! Although the meat was a little chewy it was just nice not to have some kind of meal with a weird Asian sauce to it. I’m very much looking forward to being able to choose my own food again soon!!

As we were sat around the campfire one of the girls jokingly asked our English doctor what he would suggest for my foot and surprise surprise all he could suggest was paracetamol and ibuprofen (which is all he’s suggested to anyone all trip!)…. I don’t know why I always seem to have such useless experiences with English doctors – Australian doctors seemed to be far more useful!