So I gave myself a little bit of wiggle room with no. #3 on the list, I didn’t know which would come first (and frankly I’d still love to learn to ski) but the opportunity to take a surfing lesson came up and I jumped at it. Whilst I was on my trip to Australia I joined a group visiting Jervis Bay very last-minute, and to my delight part of this trip included a surfing lesson.
Now I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself a ‘surfer’, and I certainly have a lot more to learn, but I did manage to (with a little assistance from Geoff, our instructor), catch a wave, stand up on the board, and ride it in to the shore. And let me tell you, it was absolutely thrilling. I can’t wait to do it again and can certainly see some of my upcoming summer being spent in the water trying to recreate this moment. The only thing I’m sad about is how much colder the water will be; better invest in a wetsuit!
I am now back in Manchester, following an extraordinary journey home from Sydney, via Melbourne and Abu Dhabi. I have taken the following 21 flights since the start of the year:
Manchester – Bremen
Bremen- Manchester
Manchester – Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi – Sydney
Sydney – Auckland
Auckland – Sydney
Sydney – Melbourne
Melbourne – Sydney
Sydney – Melbourne
Melbourne- Bangkok
Bangkok – Vientiane
Vientiane – Hoi An
Hoi An- Da Nang
Da Nang – Singapore
Singapore – Bali
Bali – Singapore
Singapore – Penang
Phuket – Sydney
Sydney – Melbourne
Melbourne – Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi – Manchester
Sometimes flying can suck, especially long-haul, I have really bad circulation, so my worst nightmare is a long-haul flight on a plane where they’ve gone totally over the top on air-conditioning, and you end up cold to the core but there’s nothing you can do about it. However, planes have become one of the things that I have become so grateful for. I wonder, realistically, how long it must have take for people to get to far-off places on boats and such before planes were as common as they are now. Facetime is also something that i’ve become very grateful for. I’ve had the joy of sending letters to some friends whilst i’ve been away, and although nothing compares to getting a piece of post that isn’t junk mail, but is instead a carefully hand-written letter the efficiency of Facetime is unparalleled.
So in 44 days in Asia, I went to 6 countries, and managed to do it rather inefficiently as I visited two of the countries twice. For some reason, when we were travelling through Asia, the formatting of the blog website, WordPress, went really weird when I was doing it on my phone (or Bethan’s iPad), so it is so nice to have my laptop back after over 6 weeks without it. This is going to be a longer blog (you’ve probably figured that out already) but it’s kind of a wrap-up, I don’t know that blogging is ‘my thing’.
The boats were one of my favourite things
One of the most unusual parts of our trip was when our friends and family sent us lots of messages asking if we were okay, and we were unsure as to why. We were staying in Patong, in Phuket, Thailand when a bomb had exploded. We didn’t even know. Part of one of the roads had been closed off and there was police tape. We also had our bags checked as we were going in and out of the mall, but we’d not really thought anything of it. It turns out there were bombs in many higher profile areas in Hua Hin, Phuket, Phang Nga, Surat Thani, and Trang. We had passed through many of these places, and were in Phuket at the time, and yet, there was little to nothing about it on the news, and the whole area seemed peaceful. It’s strange how you can be right in the ‘eye of the storm’ as it were, and it remain incredibly calm.
On our last day in Phuket, we went to a waterpark. It was just shy of mediocre, but Bethan and I had much fun, repeatedly going on the same few slides, the wave pool and the lazy river. We brought our cases with us because the waterpark was very close to the airport. Apparently, that’s just not something that people regularly do. We knew that ‘Splash Jungle’ was going to close at 6pm, and that our flight was at 1.50am (it didn’t leave until 3.20am, but that’s a whole other story!) It was going to be ฿500, which is about £11, to take a cab ride for 15 minutes from the waterpark to the airport, but we had time to kill, and money to save. Google maps told us it would be about 1 hour 40 minutes to walk around to the entrance along the roads, but anyone who has been to Phuket airport will know that it is literally right next to the beach. So we trudged along the beach way instead, with large backpacks: I had about 9kgs on my back (Bethan had even more) for an hour and got to the airport rather exhausted. It looked about half the distance of the route google gave us so I reckoned it would take about 30 minutes.
See, it seemed to make so much more sense to go the beach route!
Accounting for walking on the sand (that sunk very quickly beneath our feet, particularly with all our baggage weight) I still think we made pretty good time. I’m always going to be that person that suggests the stupid but more adventurous route, it’s just who I am. On the plus side, the beach was gorgeous, and the sunset was incredible. It’s a shame that it was followed up an incredibly stressful time at the airport, and the most disorganised flight I have ever witnessed. I won’t bore you with the details, but feel free to ask when you next see me, that is, if you are one of my friends. If you are one of the strangers that reads this blog, I don’t really understand that, but thank you. I don’t quite know why you read about a stranger’s life, particularly when my blog has no theme or comprehensive structure, but it’s nice that you all “like” it. I am confused, and yet grateful.
The stunning view on our walk to the airport
I returned to Sydney last Monday. The past few days have been a little bittersweet, although, more sweet than bitter… I’ve spent time recovering, having dinners, walks, coffees and adventures, meeting up with some of the beautiful people that i’ve met here. I’ve seen iconic parts of the area, like the Bondi-Coogee walk, and the Blue mountains, that I didn’t get to see before because I was too bust writing essays. I think, in some ways, it has been much harder coming back here: I think the transition back home would have been much easier if i’d just gone straight back to Manchester from Thailand, but easier is not necessarily better.
Saying Goodbye is hard. Last night I had a wonderful time (losing) at pub trivia- thanks to my housemate Baith for the suggestion- with some great friends that i’ve made throughout my time here. Plus I had dinner with the girls, and my friend Harrison (who is very brave being the only guy at dinner with, say, 20 odd girls). Saying goodbye is harder still when you don’t have a next date to see people again, but it’s always better than never meeting the people in the first place. If saying goodbye was easy then you probably never really invested in each others lives, and so i’d rather go through the sadness and sorrows i of farewells than never care enough in the first place to let people in and to love them.
I have literally thousands of photos to sort through, but my flight home is going to be a 33 (and a 1/2)-hour trip from leaving for Sydney airport to when I arriving at Manchester airport, so time is most definitely on my side! Like all overwhelming tasks, with time i’ve learnt to take things one step at a time. First I uploaded them all. Next I just went through and orientated them correctly. Then I shall remove any that I don’t like, or that are out focus, and then i’ll slowly work my way through editing them. Big projects require manageable chunks.
This is one of my favourite photos from the trip, it’s totally un-edited. #nofilter
I’m twenty-two, I’ve visited five continents, lived in 3 different ones, and had 22 addresses (two of which i’ve lived in on more than one occasion). I don’t know if I will ever ‘settle down’. So far, seeing so many different things has only had the effect of making me want to see more. For now though, I’ve got my final year of university to get my head down and make the very best of that opportunity that I have in front of me.
Blogging (and journalling), have helped me to stop and reflect on crazy lifestyle that I live, and the events that are occurring all around me. I hate the obnoxiously obvious ‘moral of the story’ type films, but this (my all-time-favourite-film), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is far from that. So I will end this blog with a very wise Ferris quote:
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
It’s been a week, so here’s a 700 word (7×100 words) catch up blog. I would apologise but you should know what I’m like by now!
Being London-born, Manchester-based girls, you probably wouldn’t expect boats to be our thing, but living in Sydney meant becoming accustomed to the ferries. So far on our trip, we’ve taken a boat to Gili, a boat back to Bali, and recently we took a boat from Penang to Langkawi. Tomorrow we will take another boat to Satun. (After that it’s buses all the way to Phuket, before we fly back to Sydney on the 15th).
The boats we’ve taken have ranged greatly in quality (despite being about the same price as one another)… The first was a small speed boat that stank of petrol (and not in a good way), there was barely any airflow, and everyone looked like they were going to throw up. The second was luxury in comparison: there were TVs with films that you could opt in to watching by using the noise-cancellation headphones. They brought around water and sweets and iced flannels (surprisingly lovely in the sticky humidity).
The one we took to Langkawi on Friday was somewhere in between, it was technically a ferry, the biggest of the boats so far, which meant that you didn’t feel the waves as much, but this also meant more people (namely small children). It was a much longer journey, at three and a half hours, and there was an obnoxiously loud film on that was actually really violent and totally inappropriate for said small children. We will see how tomorrow’s boat compares.
Other things I’ve learnt is that “leftovers rice” actually has a name! If I cook too much rice and have any left over meat I often just fry it up with onions, random veggies, egg and soy sauce. Turns out this is actually a dish here. ‘Leftovers rice’ is actually called Nasi Goreng. Also, we’ve found this amazingly cheap custard buns for breakfast which are MYR0.70 which is like 14p. There are definitely ways to cut corners if you want to budget, although, our budget hasn’t been too tight: we found out today this makes us ‘flash packers’.
Langkawi is a completely duty-free island which means that you can buy lots of goodies super cheap (I know airports are duty-free too, but I usually find them super expensive). Since Bethan and I both packed really light, we won’t be taking any such goodies back with us. I only ha a 7kg hang luggage bag, and her backpack is checked in, but is still only 10kg. It is, however, bursting at the seams. It’s more because we both have a 23kg luggage allowance for our flight back to England, and presently have cases that weigh around 30kg, so we know we already have to ditch a whole bunch of stuff when we’re back in Oz. A couple of my housemates asked me why I don’t just pay for extra baggage, but for the amount that you have to pay, I don’t think I own anything that valuable.
Tomorrow we head to our final destination on our great Asian tour: Thailand. We’re going to Krabi for 3 days and Phuket for a further 4. On our last day we’re going to a waterpark before our flight, because really we’re both just big kids.
Mainly, there’s not much to update you all on, we’ve spent a lot of time chilling at the beach here in Langkawi, and got up to see the sunset on day (this wasn’t at all intentional, for some reason both of us were wide awake around 5am). We also had time to check out Penang’s street art and very good coffee. We went on a hike to a place called Monkey Beach in Penang, that wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t so hot. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so sweaty in all my life. There was a bit of the ‘path’ that had a rope that you had to grab on to- it was practically abseiling. I just felt sorry for the small French boy that was screaming and crying half way along. I could see why.
That moment when a wave hits your from behind as you’re taking an ocean selfie!
So I’m a whole week behind on my blog (this means I have 7×100 words to play around with, but I’ll just do 4 days worth for now so you don’t get too bored!)
A week ago we were in Gili Trawangan, an island near Bali in Indonesia: probably one of my favourite places of the trip so far. By Friday night we were in Singapore and now we’re in Penang, Malaysia. Our trip has taken some different plans to what we were expecting, we flew from Singapore to Penang because the flights were pretty cheap and we have to get to Phuket by August 15th for our flight back to Sydney, I think we would have been fitting too much in to too little time if we’d not done this.
If this trip has taught me anything, it’s that less is more. Less places, more time.
I met with some friends from back home and they just spent 3 weeks in Vietnam, but really explored it thoroughly, and honestly, I think it’s a really good idea.
I tend to be a realist when it comes to my reflections on the world (some people would say cynical), but I know life isn’t just all the smiles and Instagram filters. So, in an effort to be positive, here are some of the last weeks highlights:
Extravagant beaches in Gili (and of course, our tandem ride)
Banana pancakes for breakfast at our homestay
Taking a speed boat that had TVs in it, so watching the film Red, whilst sailing the high seas
Meeting my mum’s best friend’s goddaughter and going for a drink with her, her partner and my two friends on the roof of marina bay sands whilst watching the sun set over the city
Staying at my friends pool house and getting all our laundry done (a real luxury for the average backpacker)
Going to a night safari and seeing all the nocturnal animals
Seeing both Singapore’s light shows, both on the bay and in the gardens, amongst (what we nicknamed) the Avatar trees
Really good Indian food in Little India
Absolutely nailing the MRT system like we’re the locals (and then not…)
Penang’s amazing street art and coffee shops
Playing Me and Bethan’s new favourite game of how much can we get out of our leftover foreign currency coins at the airport
As usual I am somewhat behind with my blog, but what’s new?
Bethan and I have had multiple incidences now where people have assumed we were a couple. In Ubud, we had the ‘fanciest’ room (this is all relative, obviously) but ours had these big fancy engraved doors and we are pretty sure it was the honeymoon suite.
A couple of days later on Gili Trawangan, the man sat us down at the table with the ‘most romantic’ view for dinner.
We decided that we’d just keep up appearances and hired a tandem to ride around the whole island.
When I first started studying Sociology, “delayed gratification” was one of those buzz terms that always got thrown about, but I can’t find a better one to sum up today. After leaving Padang Bai, we had a rather tumultuous two and a half hour speed boat ride to Gili Trawangan. We were sat where there was no breeze and, well, let’s just say it was not fun.
However, it was worth it. This island, free of cars and motorbikes, full of the most beautiful beaches and sunsets, has been nothing but delightful since the moment we step foot on it.
As most of you know, throughout my trip, since I left the UK for Australia, I have written one blog post of no more than 100 words daily, however since WordPress (the blog website) has not been working for me, I have had an ten day lapse. Unfortunately for you lot, this means ten days worth of one hundred words (yes, that’s 1,000, but that is in fact the length of a regular blog), however fortunately there has been ample activity, so there is much to talk about. I may even include pictures.
Since I left to do my study abroad semester in Sydney, I have visited Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Singapore. I still get to see Indonesia and Malaysia- don’t worry, I know how fortunate this makes me, and I’d probably be jealous of me, especially when stuck in the city of rainy Manchester (where you can usually find me).
Bangkok (Thailand) was hectic, then we visited Vientiane (Laos), which was beautiful, and calm- although I had food poisoning, somewhat ruining what would otherwise have been a perfect time of exploration. After that we went to Hanoi (Vietnam), those drivers have no concept of a red light. Seriously, the traffic there is crazy, you should google it. Apparently it is even worse in Ho Chi Minh, but we didn’t go there. Instead we went to Hoi An, which has been my favourite part of the trip so far. Now, I’m in Singapore, but only briefly for a stopover before I fly to Bali tomorrow.
The next three weeks I am changing from adventuring with my parents to adventuring with Bethan, my fellow London-born-Manchester-university-Study-abroad-at-Sydney companion. After Bali, it’s time to spend some quality time in Singapore, then over to Malaysia, and working our way all the way up the coast to Phuket (Thailand).
Over the past three weeks, I have learnt how much I appreciate having my clothes in a wardrobe, milk in my tea, and the other small details that you take for granted. The novelty of shampoo sachets and hotel shower caps really wears off. But, more importantly, I got a new qualification: I am now a PADI certified diver. I literally watched the first scene of Finding Nemo unfold, you know the bit where he is swimming in and out of an anemone? Well, I saw a clownfish doing exactly that. Don’t worry, I wasn’t the meany scuba diver to snatch him up though!
If you’ve never been under the water diving, it really is a whole other world. It’s magical, I don’t really have the right words to describe it, but it’s like a secret that you are suddenly privy too, you and the other divers.
We had a pretty hilarious indecent with one of the hotels. It was a “blind book”. Apparently this is a semi-regular risk that my parents take. On Hotwire, you can book a hotel without seeing which hotel it is, you just see the rough area, the number of stars, and the amenities. It worked in their favour when they were in Las Vegas and ended up staying in some huge suite of the Trump Tower with an awesome view. However, our booking in Hoi An was not so smooth. We were put in this basement room, opposite the staff kitchen, with this super loud fan, so you had to choose whether or not too loose sleep because of the noise or because you were too hot. Thankfully we were only there three nights. On our last morning we were packing up the cases when all of a sudden something fused and all the electricity dipped out. So mum opens the door and we realise there is some kind of a flood as the water proceeds to seep into our room. She grabs the passports and get straight out of there (she has a very over-active imagination and i’m sure the Titanic sprung to mind), leaving me and dad to packing up at super speed. Turns out that there had been a burst pipe that has caused the problem, but it certainly wasn’t the only problem that we had there.
After that, the hotel we moved on to was great, such a blessing.
I got to meet with some friends who were also traveling through Vietnam, and coincidentally we were in the same city at the same time. When older people say that
“the world is becoming a smaller place”
I tend to think that they are right. The increase of flights, facetime, whatsapp and the like, really allow traveling to be so different to how it must have been years and years ago. I’ve even had the joy of sending and receiving a few hand written letters in my time away, and I can safely say, no form of communication beats post that isn’t just bills.
I feel as though my blog has been slightly more negative than I may have intended, but the funniest stories never come from all going smoothly. If you want to see a few more glamorous pictures of my travels, I have posted a small number on Instagram over the past few weeks, and you can find them here.
The truth is, the past three weeks have been a rollercoaster of hectic business and tranquility, and an overall lack of routine. I am excited genuinely, for the next leg of the journey, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I am looking forward to being back in Manchester, for a whole number of reasons, not least, because I won’t have to pack up my tooth brush every night.
I have now had twenty-two addresses and so I am mega excited that despite having to move again (I had to move all my stuff out when I moved away to Sydney), I’m moving back into the same house, and the same room- how’s that for a bit of continuity?!
All in all, I’ve missed the reflection that the daily blog forced me to do.
Today, I did not die, but I almost did. I’m pleased because death by kangaroo, however, is not really the way that I had planned to go.
I am very fortunate that I have never been in a car accident, and I am really fortunate that someone told me that the key is not to swerve, and I am extremely fortunate that there wasn’t a car behind me when the kangaroo jumped out of the roadside and I slammed in my brakes and skidded to a hault.
Obviously, the kangaroo hopped away completely oblivious to all that had taken place.
Today was the first day of my 3 day holiday alone (I was with friends before). I was nervous because I’m an extrovert. I did not know how I would handle this much time with myself, but so far I’ve had an incredible time. I knew that there would be no other chance for me to see The Great Ocean Road if I waited for others so I decided a trip alone was better than no trip at all.
The only downside is that I resorted to taking a selfie: my Instagram name is thesummerflower if you want to find it.
It doesn’t really matter which beach, I mean I am excluding Brighton ‘beach’ here- if it’s got stones instead of sand, it doesn’t count.
I grew up by Bournemouth beach, which I have to admit, is pretty extravagant, and i’ve seen a lot of beaches for my short time on earth. I remember complaining as a kid when our friends from London came down to visit and we ‘had’ to go to the beach. It’s the one thing I hate the most about Manchester.
Anyway, this is me, being happy, at Wollongong beach.
Anyway, this is me, being happy, at Wollongong beach.
Less Than One Hundred 