travel

No it ain't Christmas, this is just an exclamation of 'you wouldn't believe what's happened between now and then"!

A total 'about-turn' is what's happened. Anyways back to that in a mo...

Itinery since Pakse...
Arrive Pakse. Stay in overpriced shabby room. No mosquito nets. Run by Asians from India. Discovered the one next to 'Jasmine'. 'uuurrggghh' (the funny noise Homer makes when he's in food ecstasy!), drool, dribble - the BEST curries I've EVER had!! Share room 3 of us. (No, none of that!) Bus (to my total disappointment - i.e. not boat) to Sii Phan Don (4 thousand islands). Arguements. Boyfriend attracted to girl we're travelling with AND tells her (without me there of course), but then tells me too.... Arguements.
Pakse again, by bus AGAIN. More curries. Motocycle for me - Brilliant! To 2 beautiful waterfalls. Then to Champasak by motorycle from Pakse, crossed river on raft with bikes, to see ancient ruins ex-Hindu temple converted into Buddhist one. Pakse to Tha Keak (I think)by bus. V tired. 5 day idyllic motorcycle round trip from TK. Mahaxai ('ma ha chai') met land mine (UXO - unexpl ordanance) disposal workers. Grubbiest GH EVER. Cockroaches (paid no rent). Peeling wall paint. Hairs on sheets of last person. Ban Thalan. I joined volleyball game with locals in pm. 5 punctures. Non town where ate across street & saw mkt. Then 2 nights at most excellent caves, 3 or 4 kms long, in boat with spot light. Homestay with locals. Great sticky rice. Vientiane. Dom ill. Bored. Luang Prabang. Street mkt. OK GH. Lamp shades. Local theatre. Boring caves with small buddha statues.

That's enough of that for now. I came here to discuss other stuff, but then I realised I hadn't done my itinery.

So yeeeaaahh,

Things I have learnt over the last 4 months (briefly)
* I need to give myself time
* I'm coming to terms with bad stuff (no, will not explain)
* I didn't deserve what I got (again, will not explain right now...)
* I don't have to please everyone all the time
* I don't have to like everyone all the time.
* Not everyone has to like me.
* It feels great, awesome, fulfilling to CHALLENGE YOURSELF - JUST DO IT - TO TEST IT - TO SEE IF YOU LIKE IT, TO SEE IF YOU DON'T, TO LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF - TRY IT and see.
* I'm a bit calmer
* I've affirmed that I respect other's opinions.
* I'm fun, I make ppl laugh with my spur-of-the-moment jokes
* I give everyone the benefit of a doubt. You don't know them. Where they've come from. What they've experienced. It might be less or more informed than yours.
* I'm a bloody good inspiring teacher when I know how.
* I give myself and others credit where it's due
* I'm not arrogant
* I'm getting older........ and that's goood.

What I personally need to do to keep this in mind:
* Meditate
* Challenge myself
* Write myself a letter about how I am, how well I'm doing.
* Write problem ppl a letter who have upset me (not to be sent) to say how I feel, how I've been affected by them, what limits I'm going to set on how they treat me

So yeeeaaahhh,

For 'challenge yourself'
- I'm now 'demi-vegetarian' - I believe animals are being mistreated in the UK and the USA generally speaking & unless I know that's been a happy cow, in a healthy place and been..
slaughtered without hiccoughs, then I'll eat it with a conscience.
I still eat fish though, but responsibly. Only species that are not on the endangered list or being threatened in some way. Hence 'demi-vegetarian/ pescerian' or I could pee off some devout veggies out there.
- Something I can't say here that I'm sorting out
- I'm APALLED at the crisis in Burma. Did you even know that in our 'day and age' there's a genocidal tyrant killing his own ppl, driving them out of their own country, raping kids & women, destroying homes. And this has been going on for surplus 20 years???? These ppl have nothing. The gvt isn't providing health care, nor accessible education in it's own ppl's language. In fact it's taking money from humanitarian orgs meant for the ppl. Well anyways, I'm a teacher at a refugee place for these Burmese kids who are either orphans, kids of underpaid migrant workers, or just refugee kids fleeing. I'm buying a couple of refugee artist paintings too. And they're damn good. Did you know that although Thailand has camps, it denys refugees 'refugee' status to avoid having to give them a basic education, basic healthcare, etc, etc. NIMBY I guess.

So yeah, you know, I'm enjoying doing things I care about.

Off to the Ghurka Kitchen tonight (a restaurant); just a practice run, you must understand, for the Nepal travel bit of our trip, of course!

A Ghurka Sword...
(needless to say - keep on the right side of the chef!!)

Til the next time...

OK, so the pros and cons, just to put it on 'paper', of the following are:

A) RTW ticket:
On this you select flights to/from several countries you want to visit, you pay before you go and can change dates. The ticket must be used 12 months from 1st departure flight.

Good quality/ value companies I would recommend are:

1. www.travel-nation.co.uk (as good as below travelbag and cheaper!)
2. www.travelbag.co.uk (v well-travelled and so well-informed staff slightly higher prices)
3. www.roundtheworldflights.com (good basic sort of co)

Pros -
1. Great cos you know how much money you have left to play about with while away
2. Fairly good value
3. Have proof of onward travel when entering other countries
4. You feel like it's all organised and you only have to waoory about what you gonna do when you get there.

Cons -
1. If decide that don't want to go/ can't go to one or two of the destinations, you can't get refund; you have to take the flights
2. If you want to be away for more than a year, you can't as it's only valid for 12 months
3. Miss out on spur-of-the-momentism

B.)Only buy outward ticket, buy others on the way during travelling: Say you arrive in Thailand, and are bowled over by the charm of Laos, but need proof of your onward journey - simple, just buy a refundable flight while in Thailand, from Laos to wherever!

Pros -
1. Absolute FREEDOM!!! So you don't pass up any opportunity cos you gotta catch that flight you bought earlier! And the things that are waiting to discover you, you're likely to experience, cos you haven't planned too much!

Cons -
1. May be a bit more expensive way to do it than RTW, though i've heard it can be cheaper to buy flights once you're there - as local travel agents know the best deals in their area better than a UK one. ( You always have back up of credit card, which can be repaid once back in the job market. This also assumes you want to return to the commercial 'survival of the fitest' frenzy...)
2. More open to scams perhaps???!

I want to choose (B.), though as I have little debt (except student loan), the credit cards were for emergency use where debit cards wouldn't work, and could be paid off from my back up funds, but if back-up funds are exhausted, cos I bought flights etc, then I can't pay off the credit cards, damn, damn, damn....

Aaaaah (Brainwave!!) Mr. Manager HSBC likes me, he speaks French and has helped me out in much more impoverished studenty times, aaah!!! Yesss, a visit to the bank is due, for a look at the old overdraft facility... still has to be paid back though... but no time constraint.... hmmm.

Good evening chaps,

Well, things are really progressing. I'm well on my way backpacking. I have shamelessly neglected my blog and others - my apologies. Though I'm afraid you may have to put up with several postings as I go on about x country, x experience, x person...!

My travel philosophy: the plan is to have no plan...though I've still planned for that!! Had numerous vaccinations, checked I can get visas from neighbouring countries, sold my car, decided I'll work abroad too, etc.

I've bought my backpack (60+10lt - Berghaus' new one - no scrimping!), my tent (Coleman - v good), and my sleeping bag (Vango).

So, from 'exciting' career to doing things how and when I want to do them with NOOO pressures will be rather a shock to the system, I'm hoping...!

Enough of all that though. My Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is calling..!

I've been accepted for my thing. YES! YES! YES!

So I'm off exploring the world in August, meeting people, challenges, turtles (don't ask!!) with my tent in tow!

Am I Yes maybe, but I'm gonna be ier than ever!!!

Woo hoo!!

(mucho )

Hee, hee!!

Ever feel like you just stepped off the train ready to catch your connection?

That's how it is for me, only I've been waiting for my connection for a lot longer than I expected.

Hello there,

My blog is a sort of diary. It's my first, so bear with me,I'm not used to all this! I want it to be about France, about my past, future, my achievements, my moving on.

For today, here it goes:

I have several choices dans ma vie and these are:

a) Die early from heart attack due to regular abuse of body through alcohol, smoking and lack of exercise
b) Get sacked for not being a dynamic multi-tasking uberwoman hurtling towards a nervous breakdown in the Rat Race
c) Go travelling with D (the boyfriend), forget we need a pension,spend all our savings, get lost in a jungle then eventually move to france, become french and scorn 'les anglais', no, sorry, 'les roast-boeufs' with sufficient authenticity & hostility that Charles de Gaulle would have been proud of.
d) Vote in the May election.

No-one chooses (d) these days. Voter apathy all the way. So what do others recommend I wonder? It's going to obviously be (c); you can smell the bias several countries away!

I'm actually not doing a bad job of masking the fact that I feel really low today.

Why? Well, primarily 'career' is the answer. I came out of uni thinking, 'great, I can start a proper life now', HAH, balls, don't believe it!!! But that is another rant anyway.

PS I will upload a pic as soon as I have one. Also - visit www.huskyz.com