Adventures on a night in Paris

My one amazing night in Paris. I arrived into Paris from Stuttgart early in the morning and after jumping on the metro I found my way to the hostel to dump my bags. Unfortunately it was far too early for me to check in for the night, so I left them in storage and decided to go for a wander around the beautiful city of love.

I headed towards Notre Dame as a starting point for my day and found myself sitting under the beautiful church contemplating how amazing the architecture was and ofcourse wondering why I sitting there without a croissant or a baguette or atleast something else stereotypically French. Perhaps I would also need a beret. Obviously contemplating the most important things in life. Clearly.

I went for a stroll along the river and down alleys filled with shops and quaint café’s stopping at a bakery to get a delicious mushroom quiche and a tart filled to the brim with berries. Now content and filled with delicious pastries (which future B may begin to regret, however I shut that thought up with each delicious bite) I continued to stroll down seeing where my feet would take me in this beautiful city. Quickly looking at my watch, I realized that I had little time before a skype date home, so I jumped back on the nearest metro station, headed to my hostel, snatched my laptop up and went in search of internet access. After 20 minutes of wandering around with no luck, I jumped back on the metro having seen a starbucks with wifi earlier. 

Yes, I know, Starbucks, possibly the most ‘un-Paris’ place to go, but hey, I was desperate!

I ran into starbucks, set up my computer only to realize that I had been an hour out when I was thinking about the time differences, doh!  So I was over an hour late now for my skype chat. So, I did what any good daughter would do. I sent email after email to my Dad so that his phone would jingle, he would get up and come back online. It’s always fun to be obnoxiously persistent when it comes to emails. And that persistence paid off in the end – take that people who say to stop being so annoying! Annoying gets results!!

A young guy sat next to me about to work on computers and asked if I would mind keeping an eye on laptop while he went to get a drink and I informed him that I would karate chop anyone who tried to steal it. After my skype chat I began a conversation with my table neighbor and he asked me what my plans were for the night. Not having any plans and just going with the flow, he gave me his number in case I decided to go out for a drink.

I headed back out to go finally check in at the hostel. They told me I was located on the 6^th floor, but what they failed to tell me was that it was 12 flights of stairs up in a very narrow staircase. Dammit!  Carrying my exceptionally heavy backpack, plus a day bag, I lugged my way up the 12 flights. If this doesn’t do amazing things for my leg muscles, I don’t know what will!!

So puffing like Homer Simpson I finally reached my room, and crashed on the bed trying to recover and catch my breath. After lying on the bed for about 20 minutes I mentally kicked myself in the pants – I was in Paris and so far I had essentially been to Starbucks and was now lying on my bed. Ohhh the shaaaaame.

So I picked myself up, changed my clothes and headed out for the rest of the afternoon. I decided that I would remain true to my nerd/artsy side and go make my way to the café that is featured in the movie Amelie. This movie is one of my all-time favourites, about a girl that anonymously goes out of her way to make people smile and meddle in their lives for their own benefits, while secretly pining for a love of her own. It is full of the right amount of quirkiness that appeals to me soul. So I set off to find the ‘Café des 2 Moulins’, where the fictional Amelie worked. Fun fact about this café, the business was going under until the film makers approached them for the movie, and since the movie has become so widely popular, business has begun booming.

I hopped on down the streets of Mont Marte to find this café and instead found myself getting lost down alleyways of Paris. After stopping to view my surroundings after about 45 minutes (I am sure it was only supposed to be a 20 minute walk from my hostel??) I decided to go for Plan B since the sun was beginning to set, jump on a train, make my way to the Moulin Rouge and eventually find it.

I hopped out of the tube station and found myself facing the magnificent Moulin Rouge. It was pretty cool however very different to what I thought it would be, however my mindset of the venue comes from the movie, and it’s pretty clear that it would of and has changed through the years since the movie was set. I went for a walk down the street and found a myriad of bars as well as ‘specialty’ stores, but hey, I was in the red light district!

I got stopped a few times walking down the street by men feeling the urge to comment on how ‘beautiful’ I was. One young guy who could not speak any English, but could speak some Spanish (and I knowing a little) had to ask if I had a boyfriend because he didn’t want to miss the opportunity. I blushed and told him that I did have a (fake) boyfriend, but thank you for his compliments and kept walking. I must say the day was turning out to be an incredible ego boost, and I decided to take all the whistles as compliments also, rather than being creepy and also rather than focusing on the fact that they probably thought I was a prostitute seeing as though I was walking through the red light district. Whatever, an ego boost is still an ego boost, and just seems more charming when it is coming from the French!

I actually managed to find the Café des 2 Moulins and of course it was incredibly busy. Wanting to relive some moments of Amelie I found myself a free table and ordered a crème brulee which I could crack with a tea spoon, and a coffee. I took the atmosphere in replaying scenes from the movie in my head as I watched couples and families in conversation.

My crème Brulee arrived and  eagerly picked up my spoon ready to crack that bad boy. Unfortunately the top was a bit soft and didn’t have the same effect. They must get so many people in ordering them that they pre-make them and keep them in the fridge which just seems to soften that burnt sugar goodness. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed, but it still tasted delicious and I wasn’t about to complain. I mean, HELLO, I was in Paris!

After my deliciously healthy dessert/dinner I found a payphone and decided that I would infact call the guy I met at Starbucks. He said he was on his way out to a bar just opposite the Moulin Rouge. Well, well, well, what a coinky-dink that I just so happen to be outside the Moulin Rouge!

We met outside the famous red wind mill and he took me to a bar across the road. As I sat down at the bar, I looked around me at the decoration. Hang on, this seems familiar, there are kangaroos, and koalas aaaand, woah, it dawned on me that I was in an Australian bar. Having not been in an Australian bar EVER, it kind of blew my mind but was a nice bit of familiarity. The bar tender who was friends with the guy I met laughed at the fact that I was probably the first Australian to ever come into the bar. So I became the connoisseur of the selection of Australian beers. I chatted with my new friend for a while about all the random things in life, and ordered more drinks of ridiculously stereotypically Australian named cocktails before heading to another bar to have a bit of a boogy. Again, there was more drinking and talking and laughing before arguing where the Amelie café was. Not wanting to be proven wrong, I insisted that we go find it, because I knew I was right. So at 5am we are trolling the streets to prove that I was in fact correct. Turns out, I was. Win!!!

After stumbling back to my hostel at 8:30 in the morning I managed to get in a half hour nap before check out.

In my slightly hung over state, I checked out of the hostel, leaving my bags in storage and decided that I needed to make the most of the day seeing as though I was flying out late that night. I made my way to the Champs Elysee to make my way up to the Arc de Triomphe. I stopped into the stores ogling the pretty things that I couldn’t afford, and then I saw it. There was a gigantic Haagan Dazs café, shining like a beacon of light through storm clouds. My hung over state said “Hells yes” as I made my way across the street in a zombie like fashion. My eyes were clearly bigger than my belly had plans for but I ordered 3 scoops of amazing ice cream and ending up only eating one. Turns out ice cream really does suck for a hangover, but I enjoyed it anyway!

Next stop, saying howdy to the Eiffel Tower. I stood and watched it while the rain began to fall. Bright coloured umbrellas began to pop up all around me, but not having an umbrella I didn’t mind. I felt at peace and like I was part of some old movie watching couples walk past huddled close together under the umbrellas, shielding themselves from the skies that were opening above them. It truly was magical.

I broke out of my daze and looked at the time, it was time for me to head to the airport and fly off to Scotland. As I walked back to get my bags I wondered whether it would be appropriate to have a nap on the floor of the airport. Either way, it seemed like a brilliant plan to me.

B xox

Ich Leibe Deutschland

I’ve done it. I have gone for an even bigger amount of time without updating you on my adventures. I believe I has been over a month, and in that time I have been in Germany, Paris, Scotland and England, not to mention home for a quick day, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Noosa and the lovely cruise ship I am currently on relaxing in the sun while sailing the South Pacific ocean, returning home after stop overs in New Caledonia and Vanuatu. 

Ok, ok, I know I am a big mean bully who just likes to squirt copious amounts of vinegar in your envious green eyes, my bad.

It’s ok, you can pick yourself off the floor, I promise to not overwhelm you all at once with extensive amounts of words right away, I will split the adventures up into several blog entries over the next week, I can’t have my very few readers dropping like flies from to many words. Big sigh of relief!! 

Alrighty, so here goes, get ready for installment numero uno!

Last time I left you I was in Germany on my way to visit my wonderful friend Hanna and her family. They live in a cute little village not far from Stuttgart. I believe it was called Dettingon… or maybe it was Tettingon. To be honest my memory is a bit fuzzy as was my German. 

Hanna had warned me that her mother knew some English but her father didn’t know a word of my mother tongue so I made the conscious decision to try out and use some of my German when I could to keep him involved in conversation. It turns out that while I could understand part of what he was saying, my brain cells were incapable of remembering German words to make fully sentenced responses back, so I kind of failed on that endeavor. I could however greet him each morning with a cheery “Hallo, wie gehts? Hast du gut geschlafen?” to which I found out that he was in fact well, and did in fact sleep well the previous night. Pretty sure my German skills are epic. Just saying. I was chuffed at least!

After dinner with her family on the first night, we got ourselves dressed up and went out into town for a few drinks with some of Hanna’s friends and her man that I had heard so much about. It was a great night sitting in town of cobblestoned streets enjoying the crisp German air and enjoying a glass of red all of us practicing German and English and enjoying the general atmosphere before heading home for the evening.

So Hanna took me out to a burg (that is castle for all you playing at home) out in the middle of a beautiful hill surrounded by paddocks. It occurs to me right now that I really need to write these things down if I am going to report proper factual information to you about the places I visit. I will work on that. For the sake of this and everything else in life, let’s call it “My Castle”. Kapeesh?

So, it seems that being the generous soul that I am, I allow people to come in and visit my castle. And can I just say that I have done wonders with the place? It really is looking beautiful and medieval. You’re welcome. To get there unfortunately you had to walk up an immense hill ;or possibly not so bad, but after little hill walking activity for either of us in Manila, I could only imagine it was what it would feel like to climb Mount Everest.

We stayed to admire the beautiful views and grab ourselves a cold drink (it’s all that walking!) before we headed off to pick up Hanna’s boyfriend.

Clearly we deserved a treat after conquering our German Mount Everest, so we decided that it was only necessary for us to indulge in a little something that I had been looking forward to immensely. Delicious German baked goods. Oh. My. Gosh. We went to this amazing little café surrounded by a tulip farm and ordered a piece of cake each. The pieces were HUGE and full of berries and other deliciousness that made my taste buds bring out their party hats and begin a conga line. The Germans sure know how to make a mean cake. If it has fruit on it, it makes it healthy…right?

We headed into town again having heard of an epic party happening that night, however it turns out, that everybody had decided to stay in for the night, so instead we had a quiet drink along the cobblestones once more watching lightening flash it’s way across the sky and the thunder clapping loud into the otherwise silent night.

The next morning we jumped on the train and headed into Stuttgart. We wandered around the city while Hanna showed me the main squares and shopping areas. We caught up with her Aunt for lunch and I was informed that I had to try the local dish of Kasespatzle. Basically it is like a mac and cheese with noodles and was the traditional dish of the region. It did not disappoint. Give me cheese covered carbs any day! Her aunt was a hoot and a half and loved Australia having been there around 20  times in her life. I really enjoyed listening to some of her stories of her travels. What made me laugh the most was how she told her nieces to learn English in either England and America because the Australian’s were too lazy and spoke their own version of English. Let’s be honest – it’s true, now excuse me while I pop over to the servo in my trackie dacks to pick up a slab for tomorrow arvo’s Barbie.

Sadly the time came for me to say goodbye to Hanna the next morning as she dropped me off at the train station to make my way to Paris. During this train trip I managed to read a short book, but also managed to absolutely kill my ipod and phone when the lid of my Coke/Fanta hybrid came undone and decided to leak through my bag. This is why I can’t have nice things, haha, nothing is B-proof.

I will post my Paris and Scotland adventures shortly after 

Until then, you have been a wonderful audience, Good night.

B xox

shots shots shots and schnee!

So here we are again. I would apologise as always for being later in my blog, but it is becoming such a habit now, that technically it could be seen as on time. Either way, I haven’t been procrastinating study, so I haven’t been writing the blog weekly. Actually I think at this point I have been writing it fornightly. Whatever, you will live.
Right now I am sitting on a train through the beautiful alps in Germany on my way to Stuttgart. I won’t get ahead of myself, and I will start the story at the beginning. I just wanted to let you know that I am somewhere amazing, and you aren’t. I am exceptionally kind like that. Oh, we just crossed a beautiful river and the green meadows flecked with yellow buttercups are enclosed between beautiful snowcapped Alps. Jealous? Am I rubbing salt into the wounds? You’re welcome!

So let me back track two weeks to when I left Thailand and arrived in Barcelona.

I arrived later at night to Sant Cugat (where I would be staying for the next week and a bit, that was situated just outside of the main Barcelona city. I was staying here with my penpal of about 5 years, Aitor, as this is where he studies. I got up the next morning, freezing cold (ahem, pretty sure someone told me Spain was supposed to be warm? Also pretty sure that that someone is a liar whose pants will shortly catch fire). It was so nice however to jump into an amazingly warm shower first thing in the morning. While Aitor headed off to class (haha sucker) I walked to the train station and headed into the middle of the city. I was still absolutely freezing thanks to coming from Thailand and only sporting shorts and tshirts, so my aim of the day was to go and buy some winter suitable clothes (even though its nearly summer here….come on guys, get onto that!) I wandered around the Plaza de Catalunya and managed to find somewhere to buy jeans, jumpers and warmer tops. Success!! And the rest of my day was spent buying a european sim card for my phone, as well as searching for a suitable adapter since mine was too ‘big boned’ to fit into the power socket. And back home I went to hang out and laugh at the fact that I wasn’t the one still studying 24 hours a day.

The next day I went into the city once more. I decided that since I was travelling alone, the best way to see the main sites and gain information, without getting myself lost, was to buy a two day ticket on the Barcelona Bus touristic, which is the city’s ‘hop on, hop off’ bus tours. I decided that today would be spent gathering information about each of the stops on each different route, and then the next day I would tackle the stops which I had decided would interest me. It was also a good idea since my camera battery decided to give me the middle finger as it died. So, I could hardly take photos of the stops and monuments. I drove all around the city listening tall the fascinating facts about the city and it’s peculiar architecture.

I have decided that this Gaudi dude is a serious weirdo. And by weirdo I mean exceptionally cool. Who else’s architecture looks like dragons scales or the waves of the sea, or a gingerbread house (you know, apart from the witch out of Hansel and Gretel). Still my favourite area to drive through was the Barri Gothic, the old Gothic styled buildings. I sat in the plaza watching people walk by as an older Spanish man sat beside me and struck up a conversation. I was a bit chuffed to try out my terrible Spanish, and we managed to have a conversation about where I was from, how long I was here for etc etc. Until he then brought out a photo of himself as a 25 year old from his wallet, and asked me if I had a boyfriend and kept touching my face telling me that I was pretty. So…needless to say I made up a boyfriend, an excuse and said goodbye. Why do I always get the old men hitting on me?? Come on!

The next day the plan was to do the same except this time I worked out which stops I wanted to see. In the morning I went and saw the Sagrada Familia. This was quite an impressive church. The stone carvings on the outside were incredible, but my favourite was the inside of the church. The stained glass windows let in the right amount of light that the church was awash in rainbow colours, and the ceiling had a very interesting design that I couldn’t even describe to you even if I tried my hardest.

The next stop was the Park Guell. Remember the gingerbread house I as telling you before? Yep, well this was it. And inside the park was splattered with mosaics of all colours, and ofcourse packed with tourists all adding to the colour of the park. I sat and ate my lunch here surrounded by the trees and flowers, in a quieter spot of course. There was a man playing the guitar nearby adding to the ambience. Afterwards I headed back on the bus towards the Poble Espana. This is an old Spanish village that is filled with cobblestones and character. I allowed myself to stroll around the small streets and peer into the windows of beautiful stores filled to the brim with handmade crafts. I walked into a store filled with handmade masks, and I spent quite a lot of my time in there. For those who know me, know that I love to collect beautiful masks. There is something comforting about being able to hide behind a mask and be someone else for a short amount of time, and behind that mask is the inhibitions and stresses of reality. It’s a time to escape into fantasy. Either way, they are usually exceptionally pretty. I toyed with the idea of buying a black lace mask however my money situation did not allow me to do so. Sigh. So instead I treated myself to a truffle at a small chocolate café hidden down an alleyway and a gelato later as I sat and watched people walk by, imagining what they were thinking, who they were, and where they were from.

I finished up my day by going to the Barri Gothic and getting lost in the streets that wrapped around the old buildings. It’s nice not having a particular plan and allowing yourself to just explore what is around you, and not stressing over time. It’s nice to just be somewhere. It’s nice to just explore. I ended up coming out into la Rambla, a street in the city filled with human statues and stalls and restaurants. There is also an abundance of pickpockets here, so I held tightly onto my belongings as I watched the human statues. Yes, I have an unnatural dislike and possibly fear of human statues, as long as I am not too close to them I appear to be ok. But honestly, how can anyone sit or stand so incredibly still for so long. It is unnatural, and then suddenly they pounce out of nowhere!! My next few days were a mix of aimless wandering and relaxing at home, catching up on emails and organizing placements and accommodation as I continue on my journey.

I decided one night to book into a hostel in the main city that takes its guests out dancing and to the bars. Done and Done. Actually the day I booked into the Sant Jordi hostel it was Sant Jordi’s day in Spain. Basically it is like Valentines day, the boys buy girls roses and the girls buy boys books. The streets were packed with people selling roses and books, I hadn’t seen the city so busy!! The hostel was situated near the Sagrada Familia, and I sat outside in the courtyard just enjoying relaxing. On the top floor of the building (people’s apartments) a guy sat with this guitar singing at the top of his lungs unaware that there was an Australian girl curled up in a beanbag listening to his music. I sat there as the sun went down, and ended up talking to a Canadian that had come out to use the skateboard ramp. Who knew that Barcelona was apparently huge for skate boarders. Well, I know now!

The funny thing about this hostel is that they had specifically hired someone to take the guests to party 6/7 days of the week. What a job! There weren’t many people from our hostel going out, however Sant Jordi has about 6 hostel locations in the city, so we joined up at a bar with a heap more people. I made friends with these Korean girls who were very excited about life and provided me with much amusement, as well as another Canadian guy who was being a bit creepily flirty. The bar we headed to was the Gato Negro (Black Cat) which has about 600 different kinds of shots. Some on fire, some with whipped cream, marshmallows, absinthe and a myriad of others. The Korean girls and I ordered several different shots each trying out a new one when we saw others enjoying them. We had the boyscout (toasting marshmallows in the flame then dunking it into the shot) finding nemo (finding a smarty in whipped cream on top of the shot, without using your hands), the black widow (basically black absinthe and some other lethal alcohol) as well as many more. Hey, at 2 euro a shot, they were so cheap!! We mingled with many people, and became friends with a guy from Amsterdam, as we headed to the dance club.

It was so much fun inside the club just dancing with everybody, I had a couple of dances with some locals who bought me a few drinks before I ran back to the Korean girls, and finally ended up dancing like a lunatic with my new Amsterdam friend. We decided that since no one knew us we could dance however we wanted to and not care.

Eventually the dance floor cleared that we thought it was time to go home… was it our dance moves? Who knows! We wandered back to the hostel before I realized that we were actually staying at different hostels and this wasn’t where I was staying! Thankfully another guy from my hostel was there (even if it was the creepy flirty Canadian guy) and I said goodbye to my new friend and sat out the front with Canadian guy and California guy who I had met earlier in the night. We all chatted for a while before walking back.Thankfully the metro had started up again (since was after 5am) so we could take transport back to the hostel, but I spent a good amount of time brushing off the Canadian guy from “arresting me for being Australian”. Yep, stop touching me and trying to flirt through role play. It ain’t gonna happen, give up!! Bleugh. Although honestly he was harmless and easy to distract by pointing elsewhere.

Anyway, we finally got back safe and sound and I crashed in bed. I spent most of the next day back at Aitor’s lounging in bed. It’s nice not to do anything. Finally it was time for me to say goodbye to Aitor and Barcelona as it was time for me to head off to Germany. Yay Germany. I hopped on a plane filled with German Soccer Hooligans and headed to Memmingen Airport, Germany.

We flew over the Alps covered in snow, and I couldn’t help thinking about cookies and cream icecream. The dark trees from above scattered in the snow just reminded me of cookies and cream icecream. Mara (one of the girls I met in Manila) picked me up from the airport and we caught up on our way back to her house in Oberstdorf. She lives at the foothills of the Alps, in a cute little German town. I absolutely loved it. Wherever you looked around you, you could see the snow towered over you on the majestic cookies and cream mountains. The houses were traditional German looking with the white paint and dark brown trimmings.

She took me to the Café that her parents own and she runs with was nestled in amongst the mountains and a stream. It was so beautiful as we sat there eating a German pretzel (woohoo!) and drinking a drink that reminded me of ginger ale. It actually wasn’t so cold here and I could get away with jeans and a tshirt sitting under the sun and admiring my surroundings. She then took me to show me the hotel her family owns. I didn’t realize that the hotel was so fancy! There was a gym and amazing spa/pool area and the rooms were huge and amazing. Pretty sure I want to live there now!!! We headed back to her house where I met her family (who are all so lovely by the way!) and we sat around watching the quality television that was Germany’s next top model. Just as quality as ANTM ;) eating of course, haagan dazs icecream (sorry, couldn’t help myself!!)

The next morning we headed out into town. We went to the hairdressers where Mara went and got herself a haircut by the most talkative lady I have ever met…well, maybe not the most, but she sure could chat away. Even though she knew I couldn’t really speak German she would still continuously ask me questions that left me with a blank expression. With Mara’s new hair we headed home to have a delicious lunch with her family that her Grandmother cooked. Om nom nom… Then to the schnee! For those of you with rusty German (as mine is) the Schnee is the snow. And I loooooooooooove snow!

We headed in the cable car up the mountain (of some German name that I currently can’t think of…Nebelhorn I think) Into the cookies and cream alps. It was amazing, and I felt like a child excitedly waiting to play in the snow, particularly wanting to face plant into the untouched snow. As we reached the top you could see the alps stretching out around us in all directions, and strangely enough it wasn’t cold. I ended up taking my jacket off and walking around in my tshirt, soaking up the sun. There was balcony with deck chairs where you could lie and enjoy the atmosphere and views while enjoying the sun bite into your skin. We spent quite a while doing this before we went for a walk through the snow where I could indulge in throwing a few snow balls at nothing in particular.

Then finally we headed back down to go to dinner at the family’s hotel. And can I say, it was so delicious!!! I had zucchini filled with a pesto polenta and parmesan type of sauce with a olive and tomato paste type thing. Either way, whatever it was it was seriously yummy. After dinner we headed for a walk into town where we stopped at a street party, celebrating 20 years since the opening of this café. We got a free champagne and enjoyed having a bit of a boogy in the streets to some traditional famous German songs while watching older couples dance in the street, and an English boy dance the beautiful dance of a drunk man while yelling out what he thought were the made up German words. From here we ended up at the local Irish pub (no matter where you go, you can always be sure that you will find an irish pub!) where we had deep and meaningful chats about the world and crashed into bed.

The next morning while Mara headed off to work, I wandered around the small town, looking for nothing in particular and managing to get myself lost even though it was a small village. It seemed quite like a maze to me. Eventually I found my way back to the hotel and headed over to the café with Mara’s dad to see Mara before I left. We realized the time and Mara and I had ten minutes to head back to her house, grab my bags and drive to the train station before my train left. So while shoveling down a pretzel, we zoomed home and grabbed my bag. Mara had to get back to work, so her sisters boyfriend drove me and my bags quickly to the train station. We ran and just made the train, and he asked if it was ok to buy my ticket on the train rather than at the counter. Thankfully it was ok, and I said my goodbyes to Oberstdorf. And thus, here we are. Meeting up with Hanna for a few days with her and her family  win!!!

Until next time my lovelies, Peace! B xoxox

becoming old with old friends in a foreign country

Greetings all you blog readers out there!
So it appears I have an entire Thai adventure to relay to you all, aside from of course my stint in the hospital with dengue (as Emmah said to me “trust you to keep getting the local tropical sicknesses”).

So Emmah met me at the YHA Bangkok Airport hostel (conveniently located right near the airport!). I ended up flying in, and sleeping the entire day, and when I heard a knock on the door I was stumped as to who it could be, because it couldn’t possibly be 9:30pm and therefore Emmah, because I couldn’t possibly have slept the entire day away. Turns out… I can, thanks to the nasty side effects of dengue still working its way through my body. Thankfully the other symptoms had left, that is the red rashed skin, the stabbing pains in my lungs and stomach, the nausea however, did stay in a small amount. Doh.
So after a bleary eyed reunion (think running down the beach all dressed in white for a slow motion embrace, and then imagine it nothing like that!) and stayed up late until I fell asleep once more. Who knew I could still possibly sleep all night too.

The next morning we jumped on a plane to Chiang Mai, still chatting away (months to catch up on!) and found ourselves an awesome little guest house just outside of the Chiang Mai old city. I recommend this place if you are ever in Chiang Mai, it’s called ‘The Castle’ and the lady who owns/runs it is SO nice, and it’s really cheap and breakfast is included. And by breakfast I mean waffles and eggs and coffee and juice and fruit. It’s all so delicious . She also gave us free tickets to the zoo that another guest had left. So lovely. Anyhoo, now that I am finished plugging the place, our first night we ventured into the old town, eager to find something for dinner (slowly, slowly getting my appetite back…slowly). We found this gorgeous little restaurant and sat outside to share a pizza (you’ll find we went a little pizza crazy in Thailand…odd, yes, but the stomach craves what the stomach craves!). We endeavoured to make our way to the big Sunday markets however it began to bucket down and we got caught hiding under an awning of a nearby shop. After waiting a while for the rain to subside, we figured the markets were probably cancelled, and still feeling quite sleepy we retreated back to the comfort of our delightful bed to read a book and sleep.

We woke the next morning ready to take on the adventures of the day. With no plan, we headed down to breakfast where, low and behold, I could get waffles!!! Turns out the way to eat an entire meal after dengue is to eat waffles. No joke, delicious . We spoke to Pearl (the lovely lady who runs the place) and she recommended some temples for us to do and also passed on some free zoo passes to us.
Being a bit skeptical about zoos in other countries (didn’t want to see any animals locked in tiny cages!) we decided to start at the zoo and make our way back for the day into the old city and explore temples. We jumped in a jeepney/taxi-hybrid and made our way to the zoo. Turns out, the zoo in Chiang Mai doesn’t put their animals in tiny enclosures. Yippee. So we made our way around looking at the monkeys (hehe monkeys) and the hippos. Turns out at this zoo you can actually buy a bowl of vegetables and feed the hippos. Hells yes I was going to feed a hippo. I also discovered that inside a hippos mouth is really quite disgusting, but it was fun to watch them open their mouths wide for the carrots and corn. So cool.
We continued walking around the zoo with the sun beating down on our backs and sweat beadings it’s way down our foreheads. Holy Crap Thailand is hot! So, being so hot, the only logical thing to do would be to get an icy pole, right? Well, we thought so. Munching on icy poles, we headed over to find the pandas. On the way we fed the giraffes (such big tongues man!) and watched these young kids feed a baby elephant that was just hanging out. I will name him Dumbo, as his ears were huge, and he just had that Dumbo thing going on.

We headed to the Panda’s, but first had to stop in the gift shop purely to indulge in their air conditioning briefly. We went into the Panda house, and were able to see one hanging out in an enclosure however I believe it was around Panda lunch time, so they were taking them back for a rest and a munch.
Next stop… the Koalas!!! I know, we have them in Australia, but I was super excited to see something from home as it had been a while. Nostalgia and all that. We got a bit lost on the way trudging through the heat (the zoo is really quite big and spread out..with A LOT of hills, bleugh). We made our way to the Koala’s. They were so cute chilling on their butts in the trees. Although my only issue with this exhibit was the children’s corner about Aboriginal Australian’s….why on earth is there a teepee and totem poles????? I think they have their native cultures mixed up a bit!
We headed over to 711; yes, there was one at the zoo; and replenished our sugar and water supplies and decided to head back into the main city, as the heat was killing us slowly, or atleast our energy supplies were low.

We began the walk around the old city, however the heat was making us irritable so we made the executive decision to head back to the air con for the afternoon, before heading to the night markets, and doing the temples the following day as nothing else was planned for that day. Back to the comfy bed and reading our books (ohhh such bliss).

That night we headed out to the night markets and to scope out some dinner. We find the markets, but first stop, FOOD. Thanks to my desperate need to pee, we went to a restaurant up near the toilets on the main road. We decided to just get some entrees to share for dinner as we weren’t feeling particularly like anything spicy for dinner; too hot for that. There was a pub/restaurant near the toilets that had pub type food so we decided to eat there and head to the market after. It was the right decision because as we sat down next to the window, I let out a gasp of excitement. Shining across the street was a café with a giant sign saying the best words in the world “Haagan Dazs”, a sign we wouldn’t have seen unless we were up on the second floor. So we ordered some food, with the plan to market shop after that, finishing with the delicious icecream that is Haagan Dazs.

The markets had a really nice atmosphere. Sure, most of the stalls were to cater to the tourists with Thai artwork and random knick knacks, but fairy lights twinkled above and everything was beautifully bright. There was this endearingly pushy lady that managed to get us buying something from her, laughing at her sales techniques.
But more importantly we went to Haagan Dazs; before heading back to our hotel. Australia really needs to start selling this stuff, it’s delicious!!!

The next day we woke up again to delicious breakfast (poached eggs this time, yum yum) and went to explore some of the Buddhist temples that the city had to offer.
Can I just say, beautiful!! These temples have so much delicate gold artwork that you can’t help but admire it greatly. We walked around the side of a temple to find great big old ruins of a stone temple. It was more than what we bargained for, it was amazing, and looked like something you would find more so in Cambodia rather than this area of Thailand. It was an old moat and sitting up in the window of the temple was a large gold Buddah, and the temple was surrounded by beautiful blossom trees and Buddhist monks hanging out. Behind that temple was another smaller silver mosaic temple that was beautiful to admire also. So many temples all hanging together in some kind of temple community; It’s a temple party!
We jumped on a tuk tuk and headed to our next temple destination. It was very similar to our first temple and we sat admiring it in the heat and watching about 100 monks all hanging out having their lunch together. We decided we needed to retreat once more into somewhere with a cooler temperature (the heat was maddening) and went to a fish foot spa that we had passed on our first night. There was a cat lying in an empty fish tank taking in the sun from the window as we sat with our feet being nibbled on by little fish. It wasn’t as ticklish as the first time we got it done in Singapore, but it still had its moments when I jumped in a surprised giggle.

After lunch and a bit more of a wander, we headed back to relax and read some more (hey, we like reading and yes, we are nanna’s!). That night we went to find this vegetarian restaurant that I had found some amazing reviews on. However the taxi’s kept taking us around everywhere and we kept getting lost that by the time we found it, it was closed. Doh. So clearly the only logical thing to do would be to grab a light dinner and finish it off with Haagan Dazs icecream. Yes, very logical. Logical and delicious.

The next morning we had to leave, which sucked because we had really enjoyed Chiang Mai and its mix of old and new culture as well as the relaxed atmosphere that we had had.
This time, we were headed for Koh Samui. The Koh Samui airport reminds me greatly of a resort. It blows my mind, a lot, big kaboom in the old noggin of mine, BOOM. Mind. Blown.

We were only staying for one night as we were going to catch a ferry the next day to Koh Panghan. We wandered around Koh Samui to find some insect repellent (seriously paranoid about Dengue now, not even kidding, in my window on the plane, there was a mosquito trapped. Pretty sure it was out to get me!) We decided to grab a cocktail and some nibbles, so to appease Emmah’s love for chips, we grabbed chips that had a thai curry sauce to dip into. Deliciously amazing, and of course as were our cocktails!

We went back to the hotel to watch a movie and relax, and emerged later in the evening to satiate our bellies. We found a beautiful restaurant where they made us thai curries and noodles and spring rolls and the best banana smoothies in the history of the world. (now I really want one as I type this, doh!).
The lady working there was so lovely and invited us to a party later that night. We declined as we knew we would have days to party on Koh Panghan, but left her a big tip just because she was so cool.

The next morning we booked a transfer and boat to Koh Panghan. We took a taxi to the resort, to discover that it was AMAZING. We had a bungalow right on the beach front, score!! We were informed that the half-moon party was that evening (all he internet sites said it was the following night, so good thing we arrived a day early) and chilled at the resort for the rest of the afternoon.

We went to the resort restaurant for dinner and they had the best pizza to share, so yum, and sat on the beach drinking pre-party cocktails. We got conned into playing a game with marbles by the son of the resort owners (who were from England) and just enjoying the ambience of the night. By 11pm, it was time to take the taxi to the half moon party. Now, the half moon party isn’t actually a beach party, as it’s in the middle of the Koh Panghan jungle decked out in neon lights and paints and people everywhere. We, already tipsy from cocktails headed over to the bar with the resort manager who came out to party with us. We got a giant bucket of red bull and vodka which we had to split into two buckets as it was so freaking strong!!! Having the contacts from the resort, we got to head up to the VIP area and look out on all those on the dance floor through the haze of alcohol vision. We went back to the bar to have a jager shot, and then stumbled around. Emmah and I got separated and so we headed to the VIP area to wait for each other before getting conned into by the resort manager to do another jager shot. Emmah ran off not feeling to well, while I tried to keep my cool, but ended up having a cheeky spew, purely of the jager shot that hadn’t quite made its way down. So, I can now no longer claim that I have never had a drunk spew. Because I have, feeling a bit proud right now :P
Emmah and I located each other and headed back to VIP to squeal excitedly with our neighbours at the resort who we just found out were newly weds expecting a baby. So there was a lot of drunk hugs between us all (except for the girl, since she was sober, being a baby mama and all).

We headed out towards the food to fill our bellies with hot chips, and I lost Emmah again and ended up randomly chatting (about random nonsense no doubt) to a Canadian guy who sat down next to me to joy his pizza. Emmah claimed that she wasn’t feeling well so she wanted to go to bed, so we said our goodbyes and headed home.

The next day was the Thai New Year, in which everyone attacks each other on the street with buckets of water and water pistols, however nursing hang overs; we didn’t emerge from our room until the end of the day when the sun was setting. Bit of a shame really… We were keen to kill our hang overs with delicious resort pizza, however the kitchen was to be closed (as were most restaurants on the island) for the next few days due to the Thai New Year. Doh. We got invited to another beach party, which we decided to check out. We walked along the beach to lights and music. I started up a conversation with an Irish guy who was staying at the resort, and about 2 minutes into the conversation I tripped over a rock and face planted into the sand. Yep, way to go B, way to keep your cool around an Irish boy! Hahaha, there were a few jokes made about the Australian falling for the Irish charm right away and we continued to the party and found the party had pizza and skittle vodka. Best Ever.

We hung out for a little while, having a boogy, but sadly the previous night inhibited us from staying out long at all. It was supposed to be the biggest event of the year, however I think people were already at home passed out thanks to drinking all day at the Thai new year festivities.

Emmah and I headed back along the beach and sat in beach bags on the beach enjoying watching the stars and contemplating travel, as we do too often when we are together.
The next morning we woke up and I was 23. Yep, Happy birthday to me! We decided to hire scooters and take a ride around the island. It was so much fun, I want a scooter!!! The feeling of freedom and wind rushing over your body as you zoom past the jungle and elephants just chilling in someone’s backyard. We had no issues until we turned a corner that was going up hill and there was a deep pot hole that took up that entire side of the road. There was no real way to avoid it, because it suddenly appeared around the corner and you couldn’t see if there was oncoming traffic. I clumsily managed, but heard a giant clunk behind me. A moment of panic that Emmah may have stacked her bike, I tried to stop mine quickly, and grazed my toe on the road which resulted in lots of toe bleeding. I turned around to see that Emmah hadn’t stacked her bike, but had gone through the pot hole. The problem now was that we had stopped on an hill and the bikes wouldn’t have enough juice to start on the hill, so we turned around to go back down, hoping to have more control that way. I was waiting at the bottom for Emmah and headed back up to find her unable to start her bike, and blocking the traffic. She managed it and we decided to head back the way we came to avoid all the hills and pot holes, and therefore avoid injuring ourselves (aside from my still bleeding toe).

We headed by the beach to relax and grab a cold drink (banana smoothy…yum!) and just enjoying the beautiful views. We also stopped in at a Germany bakery to nibble at some banana cake with Emmah singing happy birthday to me in German.
We scooted our way back to the resort in the afternoon and relaxed on the beach watching the most beautiful sunset. Pretty sure it was especially for my birthday, no questions. Thanks universe for that one  and we took the scooters into town that night for a delicious birthday dinner. With everything mostly closed we found a stall with Mexican food. After reading the sign and having a hankering for Mexican food, we saw that there was a restaurant about 1km away back the way we had come, so we headed back to find it.
And boy oh boy was it good food and margeritas (sticking to one at the start of the meal so we didn’t fall off our scooters on the way home. See, 23 and responsible haha). Even the ambience of the restaurant was chilled and nice, everything is great when there is fairy lights I think!
We nursed our exceptionally full stomachs and headed back to chill on the bean bags once more.
All in all, great birthday, I got some great presents (a kindle which I have been furiously reading on for the last 2 weeks, what a great invention! And a sky diving voucher; yep I will hurl myself out of a plane, hoopla) and had great fun with a great friend. Actually, scratch that, she is more like an acquaintance… haha, just kidding, you’re a bit of alright miss Emmah!
We had one more day at the resort and saw that the restaurant was back up and running, so we spent the day, eating, having cocktails and reading our books. What a great way to finish up the relaxing holiday.

We went back to Koh Samui the next day to fly to Bangkok as Emmah was to fly back to Melbourne that night, and I was to fly to Spain the next day. We hung out at my hostel for showers and went back to the airport to have dinner together before Emmah’s flight, our last bit of Thai food for the trip. Pretty sure Emmah had to fight back tears, but I was as cool as a cucumber and gave her friendly punch on the arm and left her to her tears. Ok, that was false, sure there was a hugs, but no tears. Only a month until we are hanging on a cruise ship together.
I headed back to the hostel to catch forty winks in prep to be up at 4am to head back to the airport. My sleep sucked though because I woke every hour out of a dream of having to give myself an injection in the morning. Sheer panic for the needle phobic girl. I did manage it however, but hated myself after, lol

My flight was pretty uneventful, but the flight attendant spilt apple juice in the lap of the guy next to me within the first hour of the 10 hour flight (she didn’t say thing either, just wandered off), so he didn’t order any more drinks for the remainder of the flight.

We flew into Helsinki, and I felt a child like sense of wonderment overcome me when I saw snow outside the window. The guy next to me probably felt like there was this weird chick invading his personal space as I edged closer to the window.
I jumped on my next flight to Spain and got a sudden chill as I hopped off the plane. I thought Spain was supposed to be warm? NOT AT ALL. So cold, especially when I have just come from living in the tropics, pretty sure I need to do some shopping for warm clothes, I have one thin cardigan, and that’s it. :S
So the Spanish adventure begins!

Sorry about the exceptionally long blog this time, but I have had more time to write it.
I’ll keep you posted 
Love B xox

exams, goodbyes, boats and maniac mosquito's

Wow, it really has been a long time since i last posted to you fine viewers of this blog. So much has happened, such as leaving countries, exams, blissful boat rides in tropical paradises, which also leads to dengue fever. son of a bitch.
So really, it's not neglect as such, it's merely just being uber busy. I know, i use that excuse alot, but is it really an excuse if it is the truth????

So i will try my hardest to keep this as brief as possible, because, let's face it, it's going to take me FOREVER to fill you in, much longer than it will take you to read it.

So firstly i had my final week of assignments and exams. I can quickly skim over that telling you that i am so glad that is over!!! I hate exams. So stressful, while trying to pack up our house and get everything organised. It was a nightmare. Hopefully we have passed though.

Our final presentation the night before we left Manila was a final kick in the pants. We presented and went to hand in the assignment and the teacher gave us feedback on what to change and redo...ummm lady, we LEAVE in the morning... when do you suggest we redo everything??? I felt super bad to leave the majority of the work with our partners on the project though, since we didn't have the capacity to do anything else at that point. Sorry Nikay!
It did seem to be one final kick up the crotchal regions from the university. pretty sure it hates us. alot. lots of hatred from UP to us.

That night we also had our final goodbyes with our new lovely Filipino uni friends. We all headed out to Shakey's near our house and ordered mass amounts of pizza and pasta. Such lovely people, I will really miss them all.

A few of us headed back to our place and Hannah and Haneka helped to pack up our house (or mostly Tania's room at that point) which was exceptionally nice of them. You know you have some good friends when they are folding your delicates ;) haha.

The next morning we were finishing off the last of our packing and organising and our Landlord came around to finalise everything. Something we had been wanting to avoid because she really isn't the brightest bulb on the tree and is convinced that the residence before us owe her a months rent...not sure what she wants us to do about it, they are long gone.

Anyway, there was alot to do and we got screwed around with some of the bill payments etc and that seemed to be manila kicking our asses one final time. grrrrrrr.
APPARENTLY NOT. as we were finally leaving, my bag strap broke and we were unable to easily get a taxi. I could try to explain it all to you, but it just wouldn't do justice to our final annoyance of leaving. And just when we thought we would be lifelong friends with Manila. NO DICE!!!

We got on the plane and headed to Palawan. You have no idea how excited I was about this. A tropical paradise, away from computers, with no plan but to spend the night on different islands, cruising like pirates with nothing but a song in our hearts and rum in our bellies. True Jack Sparrow style.

We arrived in Puerto Princessa and stayed at this amazing hostel called Banwa. It was pure artists hostel and i can say that it was the best hostel I have ever seen in my life. After lot's of backpacking, I believe this statement can be verified and taken as gospel.

We met some lovely girls from Denmark and a lovely boy from sweden (excuse me while i fan myself down, Damn those Manila goggles!)

Now onto the rest of the stories. tut tut, have no time for daliances!!

SO - we hopped on a bus the next day to head up to El Nido. The van was exceptionally squishy and they sped around corners at dangerous speeds. I had to close my eyes with the fear of breakfast coming up faster than anticipated. I woke up at one point to see a rain storm happening outside, and yet the van hadn't slowed in anyway and still weaved around corners dangerously.

That night we got into El Nido and stayed at the Spider Pension hostel. Can't say that this was in any way luxurious...i am not even sure the bathroom had been cleaned at all, but it was somewhere to rest our heads. We spent the night at a restaurant watching as rats ran across the floor and looking out into the beautifully starlit sky.

The next morning was when our tour started. We took a tricycle to the Tao office and tried to get ourselves paid and organised. Alex and I paid for a crate of red horse beer to share for the trip and we were ready to go.

Another Australian guy rocked up still drunk from the night before and we found him later passed out on the beach. Alex had to remind the crew to make sure he was brought on the boat as well and not left behind.

Basically we spent the next few days in absolute bliss, getting to know our amazing team of Kuya's, and each person on the boat. Seriously some wicked people, and ended up snorkelling pristine waters and staying in huts in beautiful tropical destinations. The chef on board made delicious fresh food for each meal, seafood and vegetarian and we stuffed ourselves silly.

The first night there was even massages on the beach as we relaxed under the stars. oh, and a monkey!! and you better believe that made friends with that monkey!!!!

The day the weather was less than desireable, but the rain didn't stop me from spending time sitting out on the bowsprit of the boat trying my hand at sea shanty's while balancing in the rain. There was several options if i fell... fall as be eaten by the propeller of the boat, or a shark, however that didn't seem likely, so we can clearly conclude that the only logical explanation if i fell would be that i would suddenly sprout a tail, and have some nice shells for bras and swim around for the rest of the life enamoured by shiny objects with my shellfish friends.

The second night our house was made with a of tarps and during the rain storm of the night we awoke to the bamboo snapping, water pouring in and Alex shouting TSUNAMI!!!! We appeared to have accumulated water in our roof over night and once it poured in on his side the rest bounced several inches above my head threatening to squash me. We shouted in high pitched voices how we needed a roof to our kuya's and they, like the seven dwarves set off to work. They came with buckets and emptied the water and tied the roof back up and went to bed. Wordlessly. It was amazing. I love our kuya's.

Only photos can really describe the trip really. I will attempt to put up.

The third night we were on an island with a random kareoke machine in a shed. as you do. So while I am being fed shots by the crew members we all got up belt out a tune and watch our Kuya's dance their hearts out. SO FUNNY!!!

After we got off the boat on the 5th day I was all ready to go have a Kuya party that night with everyone as a final goodbye, however my stomach had other plans and i found myself instead hugging the toilet bowl for the night, not sure why i was sick.

We left the Philippines the next day and I headed to Bangkok where i slept overnight at the airport. Yep, the white chick with limbs wrapped around a suitcase sleeping on the floor, that would be me.

I still wasn't feeling to well when i turned up in Phuket, but i spent the next two days with mum doing elephant rides, AVT rides, and white water rafting as well as checking out the islands. I still was feeling quite nauseas and exceptionally tired, and i wasn't sure why I was so sick. Mum and Dad did a swap over and after a day with Dad i was in bed with immense pains in my stomach that he took me to the hospital. After blood tests it was determined. I had dengue fever.

I spent the next 2 nights in hospital on an IV drip and trying to keep the contents of my stomach where it belonged and trying to work through the pain. Turns out i had every symptom of dengue fever, and now i have a severe paranoia of mosquito's. One comedian says in his show "When Noah was choosing animals for the ark, was he in a foul mood when he put mosquito's on board".... i think so!!

I have since said goodbye to dad (he painted my nails for me and played angry birds with me in the hospital :D) and have now caught up with Emmah in Bangkok to fly out to Chiang Mai.

Wow, i did that all quite speedy. Condensing it all down so that i can be up to date. yay me!

Anyhoo, I better be sociable.

Peace out Hombre's and whatever you do... STAY AWAY FROM DENGUE, ITS A BITCH!!!!

xoxoxox

sharks the size of whales, computer rage and Singapore

I am sitting here in singapore with amazingly fast wifi, a computer that actually works, and some time on my hands (which i really shouldn't have since i have exams in two days time....) but i will eventually get to that story. First I will tell you how i got to this place.

The Wednesday after my last blog (which i wrote on the tuesday...true story, i just checked ;) hehe) was a day of being kicked in the crotch by Manila once more. Just when i thought we were becoming best buddies, and would be trading 'friends forever' necklaces and vowing to be eternally faithful to each other, I was given one giant kick to my imaginary gonads. I think Tania got the biggest kick, but she decided to bring me down with her, haha. we obviously care about each other in the Manila 'Aussie house'.
She informed me that she found out that I had to leave the country on the 31st of March due to visa reasons. I knew this already, but i was told that if i left and acme back i could renew my visa for 21 days, with enough time before my flights. So, i had booked a flight to Singapore to meet up with Dad, hang out with him, and also sneakily pass on some of my luggage that i wouldn't take travelling with me.

So what I was being told now was that my flight to singapore didn't count as a visa renewel, as it needed to be after the 31st of March....handy bit of information i could have used earlier.

So, the question became, do I leave the country after the 31st again, and come back with 2 days before my flight to Thailand, or do I just change my flights and go to thailand a week earlier than expected?
The latter appeared to be the cheapest option for me, so I did that. My lovely parentals decided to make a holiday out of it also and will be meeting me in Phuket for the week, before I fly back to bangkok to meet with the lovely miss Emmah for ten days of thailand travel also.
That night however, we decided to blow off some steam and go to Kareoke. first some dinner and low and behold, what is that i see sitting across from us. a mechanical bull you say? interesting, interesting. Should i give that a go? yes? oh you twisted my rubber arm. But i am in a skirt? nah who cares!

Yep, so on i hopped in the middle of a shopping center restaurant area, cowboy hat on, riding one of those mechanical bulls that you see in movies. i am here to tell you that it is harder than it looks. I fell off three times, BUT i also stayed on for a while, so i count that as a win in my books ;P so after eberyone staring at the whitey on the bull, we headed into kareoke.

Safe to say, we were awesome...or perhaps that was only in our own minds. but there was alot of climbing on the couches, and yelling into the microphones. It was alot of fun.

the next blow to the gonads was the following day. International Women's day. I really wanted to attend the march for this in the city, but had a day full of classes in which i was presented in them all. So I turn up to my shakespeare class...teacher didn't show. I hung around for my Literature class....teacher didn't show (starting to think that I could have gone to the rally in the morning....grrr) and I hang around for my afternoon class. Thankfully the teacher did show, but we didn't get to present. Instead she presented us with another kick to the groin, perhaps a punch in the noggin also, when she told us about our final exams, final assessments, and surprise! you also have to do a presentation on top of that. Yay for your communication skills Manila, never let me down....grrr...
Needless to say, I was not in a great mood that afternoon, and then the teacher asked us to do some role play performances for the rest of the class. I am pretty sure I was 30 seconds away from going up to her ear and yelling 'YOU WANT ME TO PERFORM FOR YOU AFTER ALL THAT NEWS? YOU WANT ME TO BE YOUR PERFORMANCE MONKEY WITH A HAPPY FACE?? WELL EXCUSE YOU!! NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, INSTEAD I WILL CHOOSE TO POUT LIKE A TWO YEAR OLD AND STICK MY TONGUE OUT AT YOU! I WILL BITE MY THUMB AT YOU SIR.. I MEAN MAM!"....aaaaaand then we performed. Alas, the argument happened in my head.
I saw all my weekend trips shatter in that after noon and it made me a little depressed. However it only took the walk home to decide 'up yours Manila, I am still going swimming with the whale sharks this weekend, you cannot defeat me with your copious amounts of study, you dirty rotten scoundral!'

There may have also been a tub of icecream involved in this depression revelation...i'll be honest.

and now for kick in the pants numero...i have forgotten what number i was up to, so let's just say numero infinity.
My laptop that I bought in Manila, if i have not already told you, has died. it slowly ate itself from the inside out. I think maybe it felt like it was in Manila too long. Either way, I have been struggling to get it fixed. I took it back to the store and they updated my software. and then bam, it was my hard drive that needed replacing. So, they took it off to me send to the service center. They said it would be ready to collect in three weeks. I asked them to promise me since i would then be leaving the country, so it couldnt be later. There response was a lot of 'yes mam, yes mam' and enthusiastic nodding.
"it can't be later than the end of march" "yes mam, yes mam"

So, on the friday, with numero infinity, i get a text message from one of the workers "mam, your laptop will be back the first week of april, you can come pick it up then"

NOOOOOOOOO. So begins the messaging back and forth saying
"no, i leave the country, can it be back earlier"
"no mam"
"well... i need it before I leave the country"
"come get it when you come back to Manila"
"i don't come back to manila.. I leave the country" *insert exasperated slap to my own head*
"you don't come back to Manila?"
"No"
"I am sorry mam, we can not make the promise that it will be back by the end of March"
"But you already did make that promise to me. I understand that you can't keep it now, but you did promise me"
"sorry mam, but it wont be fixed by the end of march, i cant promise that"
"no, so don't fix the computer, i will be back in 3 days to the store to pick it up"
"but it wont be fixed mam"
"yes, i know that. dont fix it, i will fix it back in australia"
"but it wont be fixed mam"
"yes... i will fix it in australia, because i leave the country..."
"ok mam, can you come in tomorrow to pick it up?"
"no, not tomorrow, Monday"
"ok, so just text me when you are coming in Tomorrow"
"no, not tomorrow..I will pick it up on Monday"
"not tomorrow?"
"no, not tomorrow... Monday"
"ok Mam"

So.....you can understand my frustrations...... i pretty much was yelling into my phone that whole day and throwing it across the room every time i got a text message.

So anyhoo, the next day I was supposed to be going to work with chilren in conflict with the law. was looking forward to that, however i wake up the next day, jump in the shower and come back to my phone with 15 missed calls, in the span of 5 minutes....interesting.

I answer the phone to my partner on this particualr project, and she tells me that they cancelled, and we need to go visit this program for our final assessment. bleugh. So we frantically try to stay calm and reschedule, into the only afternoon we have free until the assignment is due.

Anyhoo, so that night we meet up with Mara, one of our lovely new German friends, and we jump on an 11 hour overnight bus to Donsol. We opted for the normal buses because the windows were better than the freezing cold air conditioned buses, and it was cheaper. However having said that, the seats were less comfortable, so we weren't able to get much sleep during the night, squished like sardines into the seats, with necks cramping like crazy.

11 hours later the bus driver informs us we need to get off the bus, take a trike to legazpi and then take a van to get to donsol. So we jump off and do exactly what he says. We had to wait a while for the van, since they dont leave until it is full, but we met a lovely guy from Czech Republic and a nice french girl :). It also turned out great because you need 6 people to a boat to go see the whale sharks. we go have some breakfast while we wait for our boat to be ready, and then finally jump into the boat by 10am.

They inform us that we can't touch the whale sharks or we will be sent back to shore, and that there can only be 6 people to one whale shark, and when he says jump, we jump in the water.
Tania informs him that she won't be going into the water since she isn't a confident swimmer, he yells something to the effect of nonsense, and tells her to put on a life jacket. So there we are sitting at the edge of the boat waiting to spot a whale shark. Without much notice, he yells JUMP! and we all jump in the water and start to follow him. we look down and right below us in a whale shark. It was amazing, however there were far more than 6 people to one shark, more like 20 so you kept getting booted in the head. So we would need to be the first ones to the shark to see it properly without injury.

We swam back to the boat and all waited on the edge for the next spotting. Tania told us how the guide pulled her in the water so that she could see the shark, and we were all excited because she did it!! (not that she had much of a choice, but still!! hehe)

The next following times i became collatoral damage in Tania's bid to conquer the sea. she would flounder and almost rip out my earrings with her vicious hands :P and even at one time jumped in the water after me, and instead of looking if anyone was below, landed straight on top of me. I think it was in her attempt to drown me, either by keeping me under the water for prolonged times, or knocking me unconcious so that me may steal my few belongings.

Either way, we managed it, and we would swim alongside some of the BIGGEST whale sharks, they were enormous!!
We would be swimming along looking at both sides until someone pointed below us, and we would realise that the whale sharks were less than a meter underneath us. It was such an amazing experience. We were so lucky to be able to see 8 of them, when people who went the previous day didn't see any. Luck was on our side. Perhaps it was because we were outside of Manila???

That afternoon we decided instead of staying the night we would endevour to find ourselves an overnight bus out of Donsol. Unfortunately it turned out that the transport stopped quite early in the day, but we prevailed. We managed to hire a van to take us back later in the night to the main bus station. First they said they would take us to see the fire flies at night on the river, then to the bus station. woo woo!!

We got to the river at 6pm and jumped on a boat and watched the sunset. It was such a spectacular view, and the sky was streaked with reds, pinks, oranges and even pastel greens smeared in amongst the other colours. It reminded me of fairy floss at the carnival. As the sun went further down, the trees provided beautiful sillouettes against the intense coloured backgrounds, and the fire flies began to emerge. They were so amazingly beautiful, I have never seen anything like it. They would dance in amongst the tree branches, and the sound of clapping caused them to shine even brighter. We caught them in our hands and in our hair, and named one who was the victim of our clapping and could no longer fly some gangster name (tania was determined that he was ethnic, therefore needed an ethnic name....always straight to racial issues tania, always) and watched them dance in unison lighting up the trees like christmas. It was remarkable to see and experience.

We had to head back along the river to our van, where we said goodbye to our new French friend, and headed to the bus. We caught a bus after from the side of the road which took us 2 hours to get to another terminal. We finally found a bus that would take us to Manila. The bus again was a very basic bus. Even more so basic than the original bus, and I felt slightly uncomfortable with so many locals with their eyes intently on us. Yes, let's all stare creepily at the foreigners.... i think it is some kind of sport.
The bus suddenly became exceptionally packed, and the back door was broken. As people slowly got off the bus in the first hour we found ourselves able to spread right across the seats to lie down for the long journey home. The back door was broken so the air whirred in leaving us freezing cold, but eventually someone was able to jam it closed.

I slept across the seat for a good 20 minutes before i woke up to someone shoving my legs out of the way. Two locals had gotten on the bus and decided that my seat was the one they would sit out. I was once again crammed up against the window looking jealously on Alex, Mara and Tania who were fast asleep stretched out over the seats. Dammit.

I was so sleep deprived by this point that i wanted to cry with frustration, however i thought better of it, watching the two locals trying to fall asleep also. I realised by allowing them to sit down also was a good thing because they were just as tired as i was. So, i sucked it up. Eventually in the last 2 hours of the 11 hour bus trip, they got off and i was able to spread out once more and manage atleast 2 hours of sleep with my head smacking against the window a little less often.

We got back to the house and managed to soldier on with some of our studies, however i was so exhausted i needed a nap. When i woke up, i decided i would head in to pick up my laptop. As i message the guy to tell him i was coming in, he replied saying he wouldnt be there, and to which i said i was going in anyway, because he didnt need to be there, as the laptop was at the store regardless.
I got in there, and nope, the laptop had been sent off to the service center. Welcome back to Manila, the land of poor comunication. Even with 4 days to co-ordinate, nobody appears to inform anybody to not send the laptop because i am coming to collect it, so it gets sent off.

They informed me that i would be able to pick it up on the thursday as they would ring the service center. So i grumbled my way home.

The Wednesday rocked around and after getting some assignment work done on Tania's computer (since i am out, bleugh) I went to the children in conflict with the law meeting. We got to meet child leaders and advocates who like the salinlahi put on performances to teach kids and families about the children in conflict with the law, and positive punishment rather than harsh law punishments. They kids were really amazing, we even spoke to the families of the kids, and those working in the community offices who support the program. It was a great well rounded perspective. Although i needed Nikay (my project partner) to translate everything for me, and back to them.

After getting home later that night we went out for Thai food, and headed back home where we crashed after a long day.

The next day i spent going to classes and phoning the store with my computer to tell them i was coming in to pick it up. and voila, ofcourse no one had contacted the service center. So i had some very stern words with the store and the workers saying that I kept being promised it would be back, as i leave the country next week, and i would accept nothing except what i was promised. If by tuesday next week i hadn't gotten my computer back, i will expect them to replace mine with a brand new one, because either way, i was leaving the country with a computer since i paid for one. They assured me it would be back on tuesday....we'll see... I am doubtful, and ready to do some good old fashioned tantruming.

So, Friday morning i woke up at 3am and headed to the international airport. I met a wonderful lady in line for check in who told me that she works in Singapore and only ever gets to come home every 9 years. She has had to leave her 1.5 year old daughter at home with her grandmother, so she can work and provide money for her future. She probably wont see her daughter 'Princess', for another 9 years. it was truly a sad story, but such a common one. She will spend the next 9 years raising someone else's children, and never seeing her own. Safe to say it broke my heart.

I got into singapore and straight away had a nice long bath. Ahhhh i miss baths, and hot showers. ohhh it has been so long. Dad got home from work later that day, so i was able to get some study done and some napping done also in that time. We went out for a thai dinner down at Clarke Quay and were able to just catch up which was lovely. The next day while i waited for my teacher to email me the stuff i needed to study for my exam on tuesday, we went and did some shopping, had a delicious kebab for lunch, went up to Mt Faber and had a lovely walk around, and then relaxing by the pool while i read my shakespeare for my exams. We went for a walk around little India that night looking for something for dinner. I was in search for the restaurant i went to last time i was here, but was unable to find it, so we went to another. The food was delicious but not as good as the other restaurant ;)

We ended up with delicious Haagan Dasz icecream for dessert (YUM!!!) and went for a walk around Clark Quay (right next to dad's hotel). The rest of the night we just chilled and chatted.

Today I finally got the email from my teacher, so the rest of the day/night will be spent studying hard. But this morning before this email we headed over to Sentosa island on the cable cars, had a ride on the Luge, and went and explored the history of Singapore in the 'Images of singapore' exhibition on sentosa, all to be back at the hotel by midday where i will now proceed to study. I depart singapore tomorrow afternoon, to be back in manila late at night before my two exams the following day. ew. wish me luck!!


Until then,

B xo