Edit: ok, so I lied, I was already back in Perth when I wrote this, but I was keeping parents, Oma and some other people in the dark so I could surprise my parents by turning up on their doorstep 3 days early. It totally worked, it was awesome :D

So Raf and I flew from Bangkok to Luang Prabang, northern Laos, in a cute little plane.
My camera was in Bangkok for repairs, so most of the photos below are from my camera phone, and some by Raf and Marissa. I did miss my camera a lot.

In Luang Prabang we spent an hour trying to find our hotel with the help of several people, after dodgy directions (and the wrong name of the place) from our friend Emily. Fun, fun :D

Emily has been living and working in Laos for a year, through the Australian Youth Ambassodor Program. She worked with remote communities in Eastern Laos (near the Vietnamese border), setting up education programs to help teach the locals about illegal logging and wildlife trade and such (or something like that…). With her, her sister and her mother, and our friend Marissa, we travel from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, via Phonsavan/Plain of Jars and Vang Vieng. They’ve organised a minivan and driver! And along the way we’re staying at quite fancy accommodation!

In Luang Prabang it’s a Laos style villa, that we have nearly all to ourselves.

It’s christmas and Emily has organised a small tree, and Raf makes some paper decorations. The girls from the hotel join in at one stage!
We have a la carte breakfast in the garden every morning, awesome! On Christmas day it’s extra special, with crackers and champagne brought from Australia.

We’re quite far north here, it’s cold at night (jumper weather!) and cool and cloudy in the mornings, then sunny and around 25 in the afternoon. My perfect weather!
Luang Prabang has a night market we enjoy, and we take a walk across the Nam Kan river to another village, and then back along the Mekong River.


On Christmas Eve we have a fancy dinner (most expensive of my trip at around $50!) at Le’Elephant. A 5 course, french type meal, very nice!

On Christmas Day we went to the main waterfall outside of Luang Prabang

It has several different levels. Above is the longest part, and below is a lower level where there is a rope swing. Scary and cold water, but fun!

Our ‘christmas lunch’ was beer and cake and fruit at a picnic table, and dinner was from a street stall at the night market back in Luang Prabang :D

On Boxing Day we got in the minivan and headed to Phonsavan, middle of Laos. Awesome landscape, green mountains, and then when we got closer it started to be dryer and looked a lot like Australia in summer! There were even eucalyptus plantations and pine trees! 6 hour drive through very windy roads wasn’t easy, but I was lucky compared to the others, as I don’t get bad car sickness, and can even read.

Laos is known as being (one of?) the most bombed country in the world, mainly ‘thanks’ to the Vietnam War. The province we were headed to, Xieng Khouang, is the worst hit. There is still a lot of UXO (unexploded ordinance) in the ground. When we stopped by the side of the road to pee, you can’t go in the bushes, because it’s too dangerous. So you’re pretty much peeing along the side of the road. Luckily there’s not a lot of traffic…!

In Phonsavan we stayed at Auberge de Plain du Jars, a nice hotel with bungalows with wood fires, run by a half Laos half French guy. The view was awesome:

The next day, after finding hair elastics at the market, our driver took us to the three main sites of the Plain of Jars.

There are random stone jar things, probably used for fermenting wine, for burials and maybe other things like storing rice throughout the year. There’s still much confusion and they’re hard to date.
We also saw bomb craters and trenches from the war. The sites have been mostly cleared, but there’s warnings everywhere to stay on the paths.
Emily and I with our friendly driver. He only spoke Lao, but thankfully so did Emily.

We stopped in Old Phonsavan for lunch and saw the two temples which managed to survive the bombings (not much did).

After a beer at a Lao place on a reservoir and dinner at the Indian place in town, we joined the hotel owner and his mates (one was the chief of police!) for a few drinks and some talk about Lao culture. A great day.

It’s Hmong (hill tribe) new year, and the teenagers play a ball game, throwing a ball back and forth, while chatting. Courtship?!

The next day we drove, through the mountains again, to Vang Vieng (just north of the capital Vientiane). At one stop it was so cold and foggy!! High altitude, cool! Annemarie and I:

In Vang Vieng we stayed at Nam Tok Guesthouse (friend of Raf’s) which was great. Again we only had one day, but we visited 3 caves, the third one being one filled with water, that we had to tube through! So much fun!

Vang Vieng is surrounded by limestone karsts, which I love. There’s good caving, rockclimbing and river activities in the area.

The next day the final leg with the minivan and so many people travelling together, and we arrive in Vientiane. On the 31st we started with a surprise champagne brunch at Sticky Fingers for Em’s birthday.

Later we moved to my friend Renae’s house. I know her from Perth, she’s a couchsurfer, so Raf, Marissa and I couchsurferd with her for a few days. We had to stay in Vientiane till after the long weekend because we needed to get visa’s from the thailand embassy.
It ended up being 6 nights and days of 2010 celebrations. It involved a lot of cocktails, watching dvds, playing with the cute toy poodle Minnie, ten pin bowling, pool, foozball, home cooking and driving around on a supercub motorbike/scooter. Good times :D Though, learning to drive the super cub (gears!) while stressed and trying to find the thai embassy, with Marissa on the back, in peak hour Vientiane traffic (with motorbikes coming at me on the wrong side of the road) was a liiiitttle crazy. But still fun when I succeeded without injuring anyone! :D

And then Marissa left to go back to Thailand, and Raf and I took a night sleeper bus down to Pakse, where we met up with our friend Kate and her dad.
We went down to Champasak and visited Wat Phu. Then we went and hung out on Don Khon in the 4000 Islands (next to Don Det) for a few days and bicycled around and visited the waterfall. Along the way we crossed the mighty Mekong River several times.



From Don Khon we took a boat out onto the river to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins at sunset. There’s only about 70 left here on the border with Cambodia. (there’s a few thousand in total around southeast asia, mostly near India).
While we were on the river we asked our boat driver to take us to Cambodia. There was a little island with a hut selling beer! We had to pay a $1 fee each to the lady there, and then pay for the beers separately, but success, we drank Angkor beer (ok, so it’s not as nice as Beerlao, but had to do it).

Made our way back to Pakse, and then crossed the border back into Thailand and stayed in Ubon Ratchitani.

Sleeper train
I’m writing this on the sleeper train from Ubon Ratchitani in Eastern Thailand(Isan) to Bangkok. This is my third sleeper train in Thailand (have also travelled on a sleeper train in Vietnam, and sleeper busses in Vietnam and Laos).
It’s 19.45, the train left the station at 19.30. Initially you’re sitting in seats and it looks just like normal train.

Then a steward comes along and pulls down the top beds and pulls out the bottom beds from the seats, puts sheets on them, a pillow case over the pillows and gives you a blanket. It happened early on this train, so I’m writing this from my bed. Raf and I booked bottom bunks (this is second class/fan) so she’s on the other side of the train. Random thai dudes in the bunks above. Three other western looking backpackers in this carriage.
Edit: I thought I had a good sleeper train photo somewhere, can’t find it. Figuring it must be on that mobile I lost, grr! Well, here’s a crappy one with Raf not looking pleased…

At the end of the carriage there’s a little room/bed for the steward a toilet and washbasins. The toilet on this train is a squat one. Toilet paper and the bidet/spray thing is provided. Bit scary when the train is jolting around…could get messy :o
Other trains we’ve been on have had western toilets. I’ve only had to use squat toilets in the cheapest places I’ve stayed in, in Thailand and Indonesia. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos seem to have the most western toilets, I guess due to the french influence a while ago.
The big windows on the train were wide open, but the steward closes them when he makes the beds. The door at the end of the carriage is also open. I was standing there earlier, holding on, as you could easily fall out if there’s a jolt! Fun :D
There are racks in the middle passage for bags, so my bag is right next to me. If you’re a top bunk, then there’s a rack up there too.
I forgot to mention the curtains. Everyone has a curtain in front of their bed. Essential for keeping the light in the passageway away.
We’ll arrive in Bangkok at around 7.30 in the morning.

Food stalls, night markets, plastic bags
All over south east asia there are roadside stalls offering takeaway food, and sometimes there’s some plastic tables and chairs provided. They usually serve things like fried rice and noodles, noodle soup or rice soup(a breakfast thing), fried chicken, satay stick things, fried donuty things, indian roti pancakes. Varies a lot per country what is served.
Often a city or town will also have a nightmarket, where the stalls are altogether in one area from around 4pm till at least 10. Especially thailand does these well, lots of variation.

They’ll often have tables and chairs set up. I guess kind of like a food court in Australia. So cheap, so good. And can often be quite adventurous when you’re in a non touristy place and you just point at things and see what you end up with.
If you order takeaway (or sometimes even when you don’t), the food will come in styrofoam, or just as often, small clear plastic bags. Even salad or drinks come in plastic bags. They tie an elastic band around the top, and with drinks just stick a straw in it.

Last night in Ubon I grabbed a salad in a bag (lettuce, cucumber, corn kernels, tomato, hard boiled egg, little bag of dressing) from one stall and sat down with Raf at a table where she’d ordered chicken with rice. I borrowed a fork, and as I was struggling ripping open the bag and pouring the dressing over the salad, the lady from Raf’s food stall handed me a plate and a spoon. Awww, so nice!
For dessert I had a pice of baked pumpkin with coconut custard in it, which also got handed to me in a plastic bag. This is a traditional thai dessert, we made it in my cooking class in Chiang Mai.
Earlier in the day we ordered a chai nom yen (tea milk cold=ice tea with sweet milk) in a little hole in the wall restaurant, and that also was handed to us in a plastic bag. No elastic band, just a straw stuck in. Usually the ice tea gets given in a plastic cup with lid though.

Modesty
In south east asia, it’s generally disrespectful to walk around with shoulders and knees uncovered. Most definitely in temples and sacred places it’s just not done. The more tourists there are, or the bigger or more modern the city is, the more it’s just accepted. I have no trouble keeping my knees covered, but I still don’t find light airy t-shirts as comfortable as singlets. I’ll usually remember to wear something with sleeves or bring a sarong to cover myself up in temples. And I’ll usually try to wear my shirts with sleeves more in more traditional towns. I already stand out enough as a tourist (though not as much as tall or blond people, and my skin is as dark as many as the locals now! Actually, I regularly get spoken to in Thai and once was asked if I was half thai. Just then a guy on the train spoke to me in thai!)!
When swimming at tourist spots like a waterfall, the local people generally go in the water fully clothed. When they bath in rivers (poorer areas), they’re usually in a sarong. Though, I’ve also seen quite a few half naked people by the side of the road washing themselves, I think just in Laos.
At popular tourist spots, western tourists including myself generally do what we always do, not wear much. I have occasionally kept my singlet on though, and am usually wearing boardshorts.
Today we paid about $2 to hang around the pool at a fancy resort in Ubon. There was no one around but there were a lot of hotel rooms looking onto the pool, and it was a very thai place. I wouldn’t sunbathe topless anyway, but I didn’t even feel comfortable walking around in my bikini. Though the staff were amused I think. I walked past two ladies (cleaners I think) hanging out in a doorway near the pool, and they said something like ‘hello, very good, very good’ and sort of jiggled around and laughed. I had my arm in front of my chest so I think they were trying to tell me not to be embarrassed, haha.

On a slightly different subject, generally you take your shoes off when you go inside places here, including many some shops, all beauty/massages and guesthouses. Restaurants you leave shoes on. It’s become nearly second nature, and is easy when you’re wearing thongs/flip flops.
I recently realised that I have been wearing thongs for pretty much 5 months straight now. Only when I’ve done a trek or a whole day of motorbike riding (around 10 days in total on my whole trip) have I worn my walking shoes! They’re not that pretty (I really wish I could have found the black ones of this model instead of brown, boo!) and it’s just too annoying having to take them off when entering somewhere! And obviously it’s been very warm for most of my trip.

2009
Lived in Mt Lawley with Pat
Lived in Fremantle with Raf and Ayesh and random couchsurfers
Was a couchsurfing host a few times and a couchsurfer once in Karratha
New Years camping in Boranup, cave, and Southbound Festival in Busselton
Cleared out and cleaned the Thornlie house and handed over the keys
Outdoor movies, beach, parties parties parties (any excuse, usually dressups), drumming on the beach, endangered wildlife in the hills, circus shows, garage sales, soup kitchen mondays, Freeway Bike Hike, weekends south to visit the parents, Jazz Cellar, World Pillow Fight Day, Yanchep NP, Rock Paper Scissors World Championship Heat, Black Books, red wine, Creatures Loft…
Big Day Out (Neil Young, Cog, Mammal…), Perth Festival gigs, Soundwave Festival (Alice in Chains, NIN, Lacuna Coil…), West Coast Blues n Roots, Cog, Karnivool, RTR In the Pines Festival, The Black Keys, Jeff Martin, lots of local gigs Went on ABC720 a couple of times talking about what’s on in Perth at 6.30am on a Saturday morning
Roadtrip to the Goldfields
Quit my job of 4.5 years to concentrate on EnjoyPerth! and travel
Sold or gave away half my belongings and put the rest in storage at my parents house
Did housesitting in Canning Vale, Innaloo and Shenton Park for friends
Esperance roadtrip with Dhugal where I sprained my foot/ankle
Changed my tattoo
Roadtrip to Broome and back via the Pinnacles, Geraldton, Hutt River Province, Kalbarri, Shark Bay, Carnarvon, Coral Bay, Exmouth, Ningaloo/Cape Range National Park, Karajini National Park, Nullagine, 80 Mile Beach, Broome, Bidyadanga, Karatha with Raf and Doug
Officially got divorced (it’s a boring yellow piece of paper)
Made a heap of new friends and strengthened some older friendships
Backpacked around southeast asia for nearly 6 months:
Indonesia: Climbed Rinjani, the second highest mountain in Indonesia and saw lava flow from the volcano, Komodo Dragons, extreme food poisoning, lazing on tropical islands, snorkelling, good books.
Malaysia: caves, rope bridges in the jungle, snorkelling with turtles, reef sharks and nemo, awesome Indian food, jungle tour to see the Rafflesia and 4WD, a lot of whiskey
Vietnam: Vietnam War history and remnants of French colonialism (baguettes, cheese, architecture), mud in the streets from Typhoon Ketsana, met up with Emily and toured around central Vietnam, sleeper bus, sleeper train, hired a bicycle, hired a scooter, trekked through the mountains and stayed over night with a Red Dzao (hill tribe) family and did shots of rice whiskey, boat tour of Halong Bay.
Thailand: Thai cooking course, scooters, waterfalls, hot springs, Cave Lodge, awesome coffin cave, Loi Krathong, fireworks from a hotel roof, elephant conservation centre, ancient city, burmese border towns and refugees, trekking through the jungle to the best waterfall in Thailand, crazy Bangkok, lazy days with Raf on an island in the south, back tattoo, motorbike with Eric, scooter roadtrip around Kanchanaburi
Cambodia: the ancient and amazing temples of Angkor, blood tests, dengue fever, khmer rouge history in Phnom Penh
Laos: christmas in Luang Prabang with the Lapinskis, fancy french dinner, another awesome waterfall, Plain of Jars, lots of french rum at the Auberge, more awesome caves, tubing through a cave filled with water, nye in Vientiane with friends…we made it last for 6 days… More on that in the Laos post I will hopefully do tomorrow.

I could regret certain things from the past (education, work and relationship choices), but I choose to see them as learning experiences, just ‘life’, and generally I’ve had a lot of fun. Things I didn’t do and still want to do (like more travel, different ‘career’ choices’), is going to happen slowly. The main thing I struggle with is how much I want to do, and the limited time (and sometimes funds) I have. But it’s about choices, and it’s awesome I have the freedom to make these choices and prioritise.

So this was 2000 to 2009…

Major life events + education + work:
Graduated from high school in The Netherlands (2000)
Started and graduated from university in The Netherlands, a bachelor in business administration-facilities management (long story what this is, why I started it, what changed for me during) (2000-2004)
Got a car license, got a car with P (black Peugot Uno)
Moved in to an apartment with P (2002)
Married P (2003)
Moved to Perth, Western Australia with P (I’d lived in WA as a child and have dual citizenship) (2004)
Worked at G in various admin positions (2004-2009)
Bought a house in Thornlie (2005)
Started the blog EnjoyPerth!, now a proper website (2006)
Bought a rescue dog, Bailey (2006)
Divorced P, sold the house and found Bailey a good new home (2008)
Lived in various locations in Perth with friends/family (2008/2009)
Quit my job to concentrate on EnjoyPerth! and travel the world (2009)

Holidays:
Backpacked through Australia with P, WA, NT, QLD, NSW (2000)
Camping in Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and The Netherlands (2001-2004)
City trips to London, Berlin, Barcelona and various in The Netherlands (2001-2004)
Many camping trips around WA with various people (2004-2009)
Holiday with family and P in The Netherlands (2007)
Roadtrip to Broome via Ningaloo, Karajini etc etc with Raf and Doug (2009)
Backpacked around Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, mostly alone (2009)

It’s been an awesome decade. I guess the decade I’ve been most in control of my life so far.
But the other decades have been awesome too:

90’s
Lived in Kalamunda (Perth Hills), Bidyadanga (aboriginal community 200km south of Broome), Nullagine (town/aboriginal community between Marble Bar and Newman), Bridgetown (south west), Koedijk/Alkmaar (6 weeks when first back in Holland) and Rijssen. Started high school in Australia, finished in The Netherlands. Was part of a youth circus. Had pet goats, chooks, dogs, rabbits, ducks, guinea pigs and hamsters. Performed in plays. Made life long friends. Got a scooter. First kiss. Got a boyfriend. Then got a serious boyfriend. Holidayed in Perth, south west WA, Bali, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany. City trips to London and Paris. Went to my first big concert (*cough*BoyzIIMen*cough* blame my brother). Music festival (Lowlands). Night club (Lucky). First alcoholic drink (probably bessen, berry gin).

80’s
Was born in The Netherlands (82). Migrated to Western Australia (87). Lived in Graylands Migrant Centre, Maida Vale, in a campervan going around Australia, and Kalamunda. Started primary school in the campervan. Holidayed through Europe, stopovers in the Maldives and Singapore, Western Australia (and that 4 month trip around Australia). Got the two dogs I grew up with (Takkie and Springer). Learnt Dutch and English, to read and write (but not hold my pen properly). Ride a bicycle and swim.

Here are some random ones I did write down:

Trek near Umphang, months ago
Our mahout (elephant handler), climbed from the neck of the elephant, over us, and stood on it’s butt and peed off the back. We had stopped to let the baby elephant drink milk, and we were last in line of all the elephants.

Last week in the car in Northern Laos:

Raf: there’s a machete next to the driver, for if we have to hack through jungle
Emily: No, everyone has a machete for when you hit a buffalo, and have to divide it up. Whoever hits the buffalo, gets to keep it. Or half.

Emily is serious. She knows stuff, she’s just lived in rural remote Laos for 10 months. She’s said so many other things I’ve already forgotten :( Except this ones. This is a ‘joke’ in Laos, but really, it’s true.

In Vietnam they drive on the right, in Thailand they drive on the left, in Laos they drive in the middle.

It’s true, though Vietnam is more the middle too.   Also, they like to drive on the wrong side on the road here, when the traffic is too busy to cross the street. I came across at least 10 of those just this morning on my crazy trip on super cub motorbike to the Thai embassy. Vientiane rush hour traffic, oh what fun!!

Caught the train back to Bangkok after a 2.5 hour delay, then a taxi to Stefan and Poi’s (Raf’s friends) house in the eastern burbs.

They were awesome and their maid made us a late dinner! Their maid lives with them, is a young girl from a poor family, she works about 4 or 5 hours a day (cooking, cleaning, washing), and the rest of the time she has free. She earns well, and they’re planning to send her to high school. Still, it’s weird, hehe.
The following morning I caught a taxi with Stefan to the nearest train station, and while he went on some business, I continued to MBK, one of the biggest shopping malls. I needed to drop my camera off at the Canon service centre there, and buy a new mobile phone. Camera will be fixed in 5 or so days…but I’ll be in Laos by then :( and got a new model of same phone I had, simple nokia with 5mb camera).

Then I decided to go watch Avatar in 3D on the 7th floor of MBK, so it was necessary to buy a warm hoodie (jumper with hood), which I need anyway for north Laos. They have the aircon up way too high here.
Was a long movie, so didn’t make it home till 8pm after 2 trains and a taxi.
Another friend of Stefan and Poi’s also arrived.

Avatar…I have mixed feelings. I enjoyed it overall, as a fun, visually nice movie. But I’m not a fan of silly fantasy things, or sci fi in general. Good that it was pro nature and pro indigenous peoples, but still…I dunno. Can’t be bothered thinking more about it right now.

The following morning Rafeena and I caught a cute little plane to northern Laos.

After a night train, a 2hr wait at 5am in a small city (we had savoury food with chilli for breakfast at the market) and another train, we got to Kanchanaburi, which is 200kms west of Bangkok, at around midday.

We ended up hiring two normal scooters (I wanted to get manual/motorbike, but they didn’t have any available and I just chose the easy option). We left our big bags with the guesthouse and scootered 65kms to Erawan Falls National Park. There we hired a tent for 50baht (around $1.50). The lady told us we wouldn’t need blankets as it didn’t get that cold. It did really. We slept without matts in all our clothes on and under sarongs. I luckily also had my silk sheet liner thing. Got a bit chilly and uncomfortable by early morning. But you know, we saved  a few dollars ;)
The 7 tier waterfall was very nice, and we swam in one of the pools and let the fish bite the dead skin off our feet (free fish spa!), which is ticklish and creepy but you get used to it. And luckily the big fish stayed away.

The awe factor of the waterfall didn’t come close to that of Thilawsu near Umphang further northwest though, where you can see all the different tiers at once and it’s just so much wider and higher. But after that, every waterfall in asia probably won’t match up, hehe.
One our early morning walk along the river on the ‘nature walk’, Raf spotted a lizard in the water. It swam underwater and then stayed really still while we took photos.

In the evening we had dinner at the cheap market stalls near the entrance, and chatted to some Tjech, french and english people.

The following day we rode on, and got off the beaten track a bit. Had lunch in a non tourist town, by signalling with out hands for food and two words and we ended up with fried rice with pork, vegetables and of course chilli.  Unfortunately my mobile phone dropped out of my pocket somewhere. I was using it to take photos as my camera is broken. Damn, I’ve never lost anything important like that! Luckily my phone isn’t *that* important to me, and my australian sim wasn’t it. Most annoying was losing the photos on it, as Raf hasn’t taken that many photos. And for example the photo I took of her driving in the campsite on the scooter with the tent in one hand flowing behind her.
We made it to Hellfire Pass, which is one of the many passes on the Death Railway(Thai-Burmese railway built by Prisoners of War in the Second World War, ordered by the Japanese), hacked out by hand in 3 months. The site is now a museum and memorial site, run by the Veteran Affairs Department of the Australian Government. We did an audio tour.

We also saw some small tree snakes wrestling in a tree and one fell out.

We asked around about accomodation in the area but most things were above our budget and the one cheap one we were told was gross and had lice. So we ended up riding back to Kanchanaburi. Ended up riding about 150kms that day. Sore asses. Dusty. Watering eyes from the wind in our eyes. Good times :D

That night we had an awesome steamboat/bbq buffet dinner at the night market, but unfortunately Raf got sick really quickly and spent the next day in bed.
I went out on the scooter in the afternoon and visited Chung Kai War Cemetery and a temple cave just outside Kanchanaburi. The Lonely Planet said that in 1995 a tourist was killed by a crazed monk in the cave. I walked into at 5pm, alone. No other visitors around. Bit creepy! But halfway through I bumped into a scottish lady who turned out to be half Dutch. She was glad she didn’t know about the murder when she went into the cave on her own!

The last morning I rode out further, picked up the pace on the highway towards Bangkok, then turned and crossed the river at a dam, and looked at some temples, but didn’t have time to go in.
Checked out of our accomodation and went to visit the Bridge over the River Kwae, part of the Death Railway. It’s just a memorial/tourist thing now. Made famous by the book and movie. But pronounced like square without the s.

I am writing this on a train to Kanchanaburi, it’s 9.30am. Rafeena and I have been travelling for nearly 24hours, we left Ko Pha-Ngan yesterday at midday on a ferry, caught a bus to the train station then a night train to a station before Bangkok.

We were on Ko Pha-Ngan for 12 days, it’s the longest I’ve stayed anywhere since leaving Perth 4 months ago! Though even the 6 weeks before leaving I was moving around in WA a lot, so it’s been longer.

Lazing around in a hammock reading books and catching up on work online was good, but towards the end it was even better exploring the whole island by scooter and motorbike.
We had different company in our 12 days. The first few days were spent with Kat and Jim, an English couple we met on the ferry. We arrived in choppy seas and monsoonal rain, but jumped straight into the ocean anyway, lightning and thunder surrounding us.
The question still remains, the notices in our bungalows that said ‘this is a nudist beach, please keep it clean’…was it bad english and did they mean nature or natural beach?!!

Those first few days I couldn’t resist the lure of the bamboo needle, and got my star tattoo on my neck extended down my back and to my side. Took 3.5hours the first day and 1hour the second day. Second day hurt, going over sensitive skin. Bamboo tattooing is down by hand, I don’t think it hurts more than a machine, but it takes longer. Heals faster though.

A few days after we arrived Marissa joined us, an awesome American girl we met through couchsurfing in Perth. Hopefully she’ll also join us for christmas and new year in Laos.

For our last few days Erik joined us, another American couchsurfer we met in Perth. At this stage Rafeena and I had already hired scooters and were starting to explore the island, but Erik took it one step further and hired a real motorbike. Raf was starting to enjoy the scooter (her first time riding one), but at a slow pace. So I joined Erik in some faster trips around to the other side of the island. Still, we were careful, the concrete roads often had potholes and halfway through the middle of the island they turned to gravel and sand, made worse thanks to rain in the past.
Going at a snail’s pace around a corner we fell over in slow motion. I didn’t have a single scratch, thanks to our slow speed and Erik holding up the motorbike long enough for me to get out from under it. He ended up with some nasty looking bloody scrapes on his knee and ankle, but luckily they weren’t deep and nothing broken. First motorbike ‘accident’ for both of us! He’s been riding for years but we could have done with less tyre pressure on the gravel.

The weather has been great for most of our stay, occasional cloud, but that usually makes for an awesome sunset.

We discovered some beautiful beaches, cute waterfalls (nothing big) and snorkelled around Ko Ma, a small island in the north.

I’m a bit scared of the ocean (mainly jellyfish, scary fish, random seaweed…) and I don’t wear contacts, so can only see things at close distance when I don’t wear my glasses. The whole swim took nearly 2hrs, and I surprised myself!  Staying close to the side of the island when we were on the far side where it got deep quickly and there were waves, and just following Erik who could see better helped me. Also surprised myself with my relative fitness level, I declined his flippers for most of it and though my arms were tired at the end, I felt fine the next day!

That afternoon saw the most spectacular bird I think I’ve ever seen, the Great Hornbill. Reminds me of a tucan! Just after I took photos, it flew away, but came straight at me, I had to jump out of the way and may have squeeled a bit!

We stayed at a place called Ann’s Heartbreak Restaurant and Joon Bungalows, right on the beach with hammock and a swing, the restaurant/bar/our loungeroom 10m from the water. Around the corner were a few beaches with no bungalows or restaurants in sight. And then a 15min walk (or 2 min scooter ride) in the other direction was Thong Sala, the main town on the island.
Apart from the first night, we’ve been eating at the night market there every day, and at a local thai place for lunch. Cheap local prices and lots of variety, even some vegetarian options and yummy desserts usually involving coconut.

We mostly led a quiet life, but did make it to an occasional cool bar (like the sunset rock bar which took 145 steps to get to and did have a good sunset view), and the Half Moon Party in the jungle. The full moon party on the beach in the south is a huge famous happening, but the Half Moon party in the jungle was big and slightly crazy too.

And now I’m finishing this post and we’re in Kanchanaburi. Hiring a scooter and a motorbike later for about 4 days to explore the area which has national parks with awesome waterfalls, caves, and the ‘Death Railway’ (made famous by the book/movie ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’) where thousands of pow’s in World War II died. Going to try and go all the way to the Burmese border but not sure we’ll make it time wise.

Or two.

I arrived back in Bangkok at 6pm, and Bazz (on a stopover for 20hours) was due to arrive at 6.30pm and my friend/housemate Rafeena from Fremantle at 7pm. What timing!
I’ll be travelling with Raf for the next 6 weeks. First 3 weeks in southern Thailand, then 3 weeks in Laos, where we’ll meet up with our friend Emily and others for christmas and new year.
Bazz took over an hour to get through customs, and after waiting two hours for Raf I gave up and decided to get a taxi to KoaSan Rd and hope to meet her there. Turned out her plane was delayed for 3 hours, but she eventually made it to our hotel at 1am!
Hung out in Bangkok for two days (massages, christmas shopping) and then took a night train, bus and ferry, and are now on Ko Pha-Ngan. It’s lovely, except for the monsoon rain. I knew there’d be a chance of it, and am not bothered much. It should be sunny tomorrow. But after that might be worse, so we might move to the other coast which should have much less rain at the moment.

The doctor in Phnom Penh confirmed that I had Dengue Fever (I must have caught it from mosquitoes in Thailand, near the Burmese border). But despite it now being 9 days I’ve been sick (including fever, headache, rash, vomitting once), it’s a mild case. Dengue Fever is often called breakbone fever, and I never had the feeling my bones were breaking. Still, if I get it again, I have a bigger chance of getting Dengue Hemorrhage Fever, so I better be more careful. I was so happy when I had it confirmed though, so good knowing I was right (eventually), and glad it’s not malaria or typhoid fever!
I’d already started feeling better anyway, and seeing the next day was my last full day in Cambodia, I visited S-21 and the Killing Fields with Brent, a guy I met in my hostel.
The Khmer Rouge period of genocide (75-79) is very shocking, and it’s crazy that only now some of the leaders from then are on trial (like Duch, who was the leader of S-21, his trial is being televised in Cambodia).

In the evening we met up at the lakeside backpacker area for drinks with friends there, then later moved on to a night club called ‘The Heart of Darkness’. Good times. Then next day, after getting over the hangover, I felt all better. And that was good, as I was flying back to Bangkok, Thailand, in the evening.

Other random things I’ve done lately and not blogged about:

Went to a restaurant in Siem Reap that was called ‘Dead Fish Tower’ and had a pool with crocodiles and a girl doing a traditional Cambodian dance.
Kampot. Did a river ‘cruise’ in Kampot at sunset, but unfortunately didn’t get to trek up and around Bokor. Did have a nice dinner in Kampot, and slept a lot, ha. Saw a cow wandering in the middle of the city.
Met a nice swedish couple and a canadian guy who is living here, in my hostel, and went out for cambodian dessert at a street stall.
Had good but brief conversations with Brent about books and reading and consumerism, like Walden by Thoreau and read his notes. I still want to read it though.