Much needed time by the pool. Xxx
I'm
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Cambodia...
I thought I had a culture shock in Bangkok but wow. As soon as we arrived we had guys hopping up with only one leg and one eye begging for money. Been to the killing fields and prison today. It was all too much for me, treading on the ground with human teeth sticking out of it knowing that thousands of people were tortured to death beneath your feet...I had to walk away. Nothing really shocks me much anymore but today has been a real eye opener. Seen enough human skulls to last me a lifetime thanks. It's ridiculously hot here too. Highlight of the day is the street restaurant. It's run by guys who have taken kids off the street and trained them to cook and waiter. And the food was incredible! Mushroom spring roll with lemon mayonnaise, chicken and pumpkin curry and fried tofu with vegetables and fruit salad. Amazing how well I'm eating now! Although the appertiser was a real rare delicacy....tarantula served with honey rice wine and pepper sauce. I mananaged half of it until it suddenly clicked I was eating a spider and I started to gag. Maybe I'll turn into spiderman now? Early start tomorrow. Off to Siam reap and some
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Whilst I have some free time...
I'm blogging from my hotel room in viang vieng. After a ridiculous 8 hour bus journey with over half the contiki group suffering from a sickness bug and with no toilet...it's safe to say it was the worst ride of my life. Someone being sick every 15 minutes. I wish I could tell you I'm exaggerating but alas I am not. I'm thankful to just have my standard Bali belly syndrome which is nothing that a few crackers and Imodium can't fix. Mind over matter as our tour leader would say.
Amazing how just last month any sign of remote sickness and it was the end of the world for me. Now it's the case of either suck it up or miss out on some amazing experiences I'll never get to encounter again. Last night in puang bragang I wasn't feeling particularly hungry and it was raining outside but our tour guide assured us we had to visit this restaurant. So after wangling through dark alleys (there are no street lights in Laos. Some parts only just discovered electricity last year) we came across utopia. I was in awe, shoes not allowed, low slung mattresses, tiny tables serving the best bangers and mash I'd ever tasted. Yes I realise it is western food but the gravy was dropping with beer Laos. Plus you try eating noodles morning noon and night!!
Amazing how a simple night out for dinner can awaken my senses. I may be feeling sick physically but mentally I am so incredibly happy to be here. The only downer is missing everyone from back home. Im having restless nights sleeping which means I am constantly dreaming. And every dream so far has consisted of my Essex life surrounded by my family and friends doing mundane things. Amazing how I've switched dream worlds aye? There was a time where all I could dream of is me exploring the world and now that I'm here you guys are never far from my mind.
Enough rambling now. Tonight is an early night for me as I want to be 100% ready for tubing tomorrow! Our theme to wear tubing is hot pink. Not sure the boys are too happy about this one but they are severely outnumbered on this tour.
Friday, 13 January 2012
WOW
Ive been so terrible with my blog!!!! Apologises I just so happening to be having the time of my life.
But Bangkok looking back can only really be described in one word. Mental. We really threw ourselves in the deep end staying at a hotel before our tour which was outside a scrap metal heap yard and a brothel. Tuk tuks were a small joy and taxi men were complete arseholes. I was thankful to start to tour with contiki so I didn't leave Bangkok with a bad aftertaste. We visited the Grand Palace, did the khlongs river tour and reclining Buddha which were just amazing. Sian and I escaped to Lumphini for the day just to get out of the crazyness of Bangkok. It had a pretty nice national park and street market. The street food I LOVED but I'm pretty sure like any typical westerner it made me ill as a dog. for 50 baht you get a bowl with no idea whats in it other than knowing it was delicious. Later I discovered one of the ingredients was fish balls but christ knows what else is in there!
We left Bangkok and took an overnight train to Chaing Mai. The train itself was hilarious, drinking beer offered by ladyboys and dancing in the gangways. Our tour guide said it would be the best night sleep we'd ever had...well, someone was telling aussie porkies, and had clearly never slept on the top bunk before. The next day we were working on 2 hours sleep visiting chang Mai temple and being blessed by a monk. Later on we did cooking course and inbetween the meals I could not stop throwing up. Bad case of the "Bali Belly" and sadly didn't even get to eat the meal I made.Luckily they gave us a recipe book to remember everything so when I'm home I can made a mean Pad Thai!
The next day we moved onto Chang Rai were we stopped off at an amazing temple called "the white temple." I'll be sure to put pictures on facebook eventually! We also visited a hilltribe of tinnnyyyyy little people with long necks and big flesh tunnels. Emo boys havent got shit on these guys. So crazy to see how people live on literally nothing. That night we checked out the street markets and the guys ordered some deep fried bugs. Sadly my Bali belly wasn't into deep fried waterbug but one day on this tour i'll try some.
which now leads me to travelling to Laos. Crossing the border was amusing in itself. You literally get your departure ticket stamped in thailand, jump on a small canoe and cross a river and pay 35 dollars and your in Laos! The first day we stayed in a remote village which literally had one shop were a bought a blanket for 30,000 kip. The kip kind of makes me feel a bit gangster as it's only 11,000 kip to the pound, but rocking up with a million kip in my bag I felt I could of owned anything in Laos. The place itself it so beautiful. its crazy to think in the seventies how much this placed was affected by the Vietnam war. one bomb every 8 minutes for 9 years does not sound like my cup of tea.
But weve been here for two days now and i've loved every minute of it. Yesterday we took a bike ride around luang prabang and stopped off at the crazy snake man stall to take a shot of "fermented snake"...I can only described it as an incredibly strong whiskey that after a few seconds you have a weird sensation of floating and feeling like Popeye, then the fact that you just drank snake hits you and you feel like you want to vom. Another interesting experience has gotta be riding a bicycle whilst high on snake juice through Laotian traffic. Essex drunk driving at its new peak.
After checking out another temple (feeling very spiritual on this journey ha) we all hit the town for dinner, the water buffalo burger washed down with a strong jack daniels for only 4 pounds...I was in my element. The laotian people bend over backwards for you and there quite happy to do it too.
Which now leads me up to today...probably one of my best mornings so far, the elephant trek through the jungle. It only really hit me whilst typing this how incredibly lucky I am to be doing this. Gone are the days were I wake up with an ounce of dread of my shoulders ready for another day working in retail, today I woke up and thought...I'm going to go ride an elephant. The pictures and videos are amazing so I cant wait to show you guys! the man Cam said I was a born natural, maybe i've found my new career path? Topshop retail dog turned elephant whisperer?
Now were just killing time until we visit the waterfalls today. Its fairly chilly for Laos but i've been okay in my playsuit and "thongs" as the aussies call them. Off to have lunch with the girls. another great thing about this tour is the people. Apart from a couple from Devon were the only Brits on tour. But its made the experience so much more enjoyable and i've learnt so much from the aussies and canadians. The british couple are planning to move to Sydney after this tour so we luckily have a place to crash when we get there! Even though theres 30 of us, its a really close group and everyones looking after each other when were sick which is nice. Its only been 5 days but it feels like i've known everyone for a lot longer, and already im forgetting what my own accent sounds like. Im trying my hardest not to sound aussie but now it rolls off the tongue haha.
Okay well thats it for now! Be sure to update when I can xxxx
But Bangkok looking back can only really be described in one word. Mental. We really threw ourselves in the deep end staying at a hotel before our tour which was outside a scrap metal heap yard and a brothel. Tuk tuks were a small joy and taxi men were complete arseholes. I was thankful to start to tour with contiki so I didn't leave Bangkok with a bad aftertaste. We visited the Grand Palace, did the khlongs river tour and reclining Buddha which were just amazing. Sian and I escaped to Lumphini for the day just to get out of the crazyness of Bangkok. It had a pretty nice national park and street market. The street food I LOVED but I'm pretty sure like any typical westerner it made me ill as a dog. for 50 baht you get a bowl with no idea whats in it other than knowing it was delicious. Later I discovered one of the ingredients was fish balls but christ knows what else is in there!
We left Bangkok and took an overnight train to Chaing Mai. The train itself was hilarious, drinking beer offered by ladyboys and dancing in the gangways. Our tour guide said it would be the best night sleep we'd ever had...well, someone was telling aussie porkies, and had clearly never slept on the top bunk before. The next day we were working on 2 hours sleep visiting chang Mai temple and being blessed by a monk. Later on we did cooking course and inbetween the meals I could not stop throwing up. Bad case of the "Bali Belly" and sadly didn't even get to eat the meal I made.Luckily they gave us a recipe book to remember everything so when I'm home I can made a mean Pad Thai!
The next day we moved onto Chang Rai were we stopped off at an amazing temple called "the white temple." I'll be sure to put pictures on facebook eventually! We also visited a hilltribe of tinnnyyyyy little people with long necks and big flesh tunnels. Emo boys havent got shit on these guys. So crazy to see how people live on literally nothing. That night we checked out the street markets and the guys ordered some deep fried bugs. Sadly my Bali belly wasn't into deep fried waterbug but one day on this tour i'll try some.
which now leads me to travelling to Laos. Crossing the border was amusing in itself. You literally get your departure ticket stamped in thailand, jump on a small canoe and cross a river and pay 35 dollars and your in Laos! The first day we stayed in a remote village which literally had one shop were a bought a blanket for 30,000 kip. The kip kind of makes me feel a bit gangster as it's only 11,000 kip to the pound, but rocking up with a million kip in my bag I felt I could of owned anything in Laos. The place itself it so beautiful. its crazy to think in the seventies how much this placed was affected by the Vietnam war. one bomb every 8 minutes for 9 years does not sound like my cup of tea.
But weve been here for two days now and i've loved every minute of it. Yesterday we took a bike ride around luang prabang and stopped off at the crazy snake man stall to take a shot of "fermented snake"...I can only described it as an incredibly strong whiskey that after a few seconds you have a weird sensation of floating and feeling like Popeye, then the fact that you just drank snake hits you and you feel like you want to vom. Another interesting experience has gotta be riding a bicycle whilst high on snake juice through Laotian traffic. Essex drunk driving at its new peak.
After checking out another temple (feeling very spiritual on this journey ha) we all hit the town for dinner, the water buffalo burger washed down with a strong jack daniels for only 4 pounds...I was in my element. The laotian people bend over backwards for you and there quite happy to do it too.
Which now leads me up to today...probably one of my best mornings so far, the elephant trek through the jungle. It only really hit me whilst typing this how incredibly lucky I am to be doing this. Gone are the days were I wake up with an ounce of dread of my shoulders ready for another day working in retail, today I woke up and thought...I'm going to go ride an elephant. The pictures and videos are amazing so I cant wait to show you guys! the man Cam said I was a born natural, maybe i've found my new career path? Topshop retail dog turned elephant whisperer?
Now were just killing time until we visit the waterfalls today. Its fairly chilly for Laos but i've been okay in my playsuit and "thongs" as the aussies call them. Off to have lunch with the girls. another great thing about this tour is the people. Apart from a couple from Devon were the only Brits on tour. But its made the experience so much more enjoyable and i've learnt so much from the aussies and canadians. The british couple are planning to move to Sydney after this tour so we luckily have a place to crash when we get there! Even though theres 30 of us, its a really close group and everyones looking after each other when were sick which is nice. Its only been 5 days but it feels like i've known everyone for a lot longer, and already im forgetting what my own accent sounds like. Im trying my hardest not to sound aussie but now it rolls off the tongue haha.
Okay well thats it for now! Be sure to update when I can xxxx
Monday, 9 January 2012
Well folks...
It's here. The first blog.
So where do I begin is the main thing? I guess to say the flight here was eventful in itself. Thanks to my travelling companions mother we managed to wangle the exit seats for both flights so all 5ft 8 of me got to stretch out in style. Although the downfall was stopping off in Mumbai...where security is,how do I put it? Shit. Queueing from what seem like hours our flight was meant to leave ar 1:55am but when it came to five 2 and we were still in the queue, the angry toy story soldier simply said he "did not care" that we would miss our flight. Needless to say, if you get a chance to travel through Mumbai, I wouldnt.
When we finally touched down in Bangkok at 8 in the morning it's been a complete cultural shock ever since. After meeting some lovely old gentlemen on our flight that have travelled through Asia many a time they suggested we took the train into Bangkok...and at 20 baht a ticket (which is roughly under 50p) it saved us a hell of a lot of money. The taxis I've found over the first few days to be complete bastards. Tuk tuk it seems are all the rage here and I can understand why. Driving under a disco light with a thai boy racer in the front for less than 100 baht has been one of the many frightful yet exhilarting experiences to say the least.
Our first couple of days before our tour we seemed a bit lost. Our hotel in itself the first two nights is located outside a scrapheat and a brothel. I manage to work the train system out and we took a day trip down to Lumphini where we checked out the national park and bazaar.
Finally meeting out tour group last night we feel a bit more "westernised" although we are the only Brits on tour (bar a couple from Devon) we've met a few aussies that our only mutual subject seemed to be alcohol. Needless to say I'm sure we'll be fine here! The tour manager did warn us when checking into our hotel it would be the "worst one we'll ever stay in" and yet somehow it's one of the nicest hotels i've stayed in?! She also mentioned that our overnight train tonight we'll be the best night sleep we'll ever have...either someone's telling aussie porkies or British standards are definatly different to the Aussies!
Last night being sick as a dog (already I know. No shock to anyone that truely knows me) I missed out on a night out to "Super Pussy." Although im assured by the rest of the group that a woman threatening to shoot out darts from her vadge if they didn't tip her wasn't something I sadly missed out on.
But today feeling a lot brighter we took a trip to a big fat gold palace and some recling fat religious man. Was pretty cool! And some canal tour along the floating markets. I'm not gonna bore you with the cultural history with it all because let's be honest, I don't pay attention I just enjoy the pretty scenary.
So I guess that'll do for now, It's bloody hot here (hence me being ill, but dont' worry mother roberts I have a bottle of water constantly attached to me) but as our tour manager has nicely reminded us "It's freezing here, wait till you get to cambodia, it's silly hot"....Brilliant.
Now were off to Chaing Mai on an overnight train in half an hour...I don't know how I feel about this one. Needless to say i'm sure you'll hear about it soon!
Big kisses, miss you all xxxxx
So where do I begin is the main thing? I guess to say the flight here was eventful in itself. Thanks to my travelling companions mother we managed to wangle the exit seats for both flights so all 5ft 8 of me got to stretch out in style. Although the downfall was stopping off in Mumbai...where security is,how do I put it? Shit. Queueing from what seem like hours our flight was meant to leave ar 1:55am but when it came to five 2 and we were still in the queue, the angry toy story soldier simply said he "did not care" that we would miss our flight. Needless to say, if you get a chance to travel through Mumbai, I wouldnt.
When we finally touched down in Bangkok at 8 in the morning it's been a complete cultural shock ever since. After meeting some lovely old gentlemen on our flight that have travelled through Asia many a time they suggested we took the train into Bangkok...and at 20 baht a ticket (which is roughly under 50p) it saved us a hell of a lot of money. The taxis I've found over the first few days to be complete bastards. Tuk tuk it seems are all the rage here and I can understand why. Driving under a disco light with a thai boy racer in the front for less than 100 baht has been one of the many frightful yet exhilarting experiences to say the least.
Our first couple of days before our tour we seemed a bit lost. Our hotel in itself the first two nights is located outside a scrapheat and a brothel. I manage to work the train system out and we took a day trip down to Lumphini where we checked out the national park and bazaar.
Finally meeting out tour group last night we feel a bit more "westernised" although we are the only Brits on tour (bar a couple from Devon) we've met a few aussies that our only mutual subject seemed to be alcohol. Needless to say I'm sure we'll be fine here! The tour manager did warn us when checking into our hotel it would be the "worst one we'll ever stay in" and yet somehow it's one of the nicest hotels i've stayed in?! She also mentioned that our overnight train tonight we'll be the best night sleep we'll ever have...either someone's telling aussie porkies or British standards are definatly different to the Aussies!
Last night being sick as a dog (already I know. No shock to anyone that truely knows me) I missed out on a night out to "Super Pussy." Although im assured by the rest of the group that a woman threatening to shoot out darts from her vadge if they didn't tip her wasn't something I sadly missed out on.
But today feeling a lot brighter we took a trip to a big fat gold palace and some recling fat religious man. Was pretty cool! And some canal tour along the floating markets. I'm not gonna bore you with the cultural history with it all because let's be honest, I don't pay attention I just enjoy the pretty scenary.
So I guess that'll do for now, It's bloody hot here (hence me being ill, but dont' worry mother roberts I have a bottle of water constantly attached to me) but as our tour manager has nicely reminded us "It's freezing here, wait till you get to cambodia, it's silly hot"....Brilliant.
Now were off to Chaing Mai on an overnight train in half an hour...I don't know how I feel about this one. Needless to say i'm sure you'll hear about it soon!
Big kisses, miss you all xxxxx
Monday, 2 January 2012
Three days left..
of my sweet Essex life. Who would of thought I'd describe my life in Essex as sweet? Maybe I'm subconsciously thinking this whole year was sunshine and roses because what I'm about to do is much bigger than me and I am scared shitless.
It feels like I'm just about to go on holiday and be back within a couple of weeks. But wait. I've geniunely LEFT my job. I am JOBLESS. On PURPOSE because I am LEAVING the COUNTRY. Why is this not sinking in yet? I feel like crying but I'm not sure why.
All I know is I've had months to prepare for this journey and I still feel completely unorganised.
Monday, 26 December 2011
2011 on reflection..
As my best friend has managed to sum up 2011 in a note to her loved ones, I thought I would try to do the same.
After a pretty rocky and emotional 2010, I did not expect much of this year. Even as the clock striked midnight on the 1st of 2011, in my head I knew this was not my year.
Boy was I completely wrong.
At the beginning of the year I managed to find myself in a new relationship. This is something I never would of dreamt of after the ordeal I went through last year but I was lucky enough to have found someone who had manage to restore my faith in men. And despite us not lasting long, and the cock ups on both our parts this past year, we've been mature enough to remain friends and it's something I am truly grateful for.
The summer of 2011 can pretty much be summed up in one word. Mental. On reflection looking through conversations with a friend I was at the peak of my sexuality. Not in a slutty way mind you (repressing some nights out here haha.) But there was a never a dull moment. My summer was filled with evenings out with gorgeous men. Each one taught me a life lesson and opened my eyes to future possibilities. I know if I ever feel lonely I can look back on this summer and know there are true gentlemen out there, and one that will eventually make an honest woman out of me.
And lets not forget the friends I have made from work. You guys made my summer filled with adventures. Frat partys, sunrooms, day rave, banana costume banter, Brighton, xmas party...the list is endless. Thank you for filling my life with laughter this year.
And to my oldest and dearest friends and family. You know who you are, thank you for giving me the strength to put my head down and get to where I need to be for next year. I can say that I am truly proud of myself, that this year I have not even a handful of regrets and I am blessed with true friends and family. Lord knows where I would be without mamma and papa Roberts, and my brother, who has been a massive help to me throughout my life.
So as this year comes to an end I can only describe myself to be a mixture of emotions, sad to be leaving, excited for the next chapter in my life but all in all a very happy individual.
Love to all x
Well now...
I was going to make a new blog, as this blog has been my little private rant when I've needed it these past few years. But what i've come to realise is, I don't have much to hide..and even if you don't like what you read, i've left the country....so who really cares what you think?
So consider this my travelling blog from now on! In precisely 10 days I will be on that jetplane, first stop Bangkok. So much to organise and yet all I seem to be doing is eating chocolate and drinking makers mark at 12:30 in the afternoon...
Needless to say I think this journey will change me!
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