Bikini's and booze Part 1.

I look out of tinged windows in Bandaranaike airport, Colombo – the clear blue skies tease my eyes and prickle my skin as I think back on the most beautiful holiday that I’d been thinking about for months, and now it’s come to an end. The smell of cinnamon and cardamom waft around my computer screen as I sip on a chai latte in coffee bean and reminisce…

We started off here in a very different zone, our ‘4’ hour journey (that ended up being about 10) was delayed about 5 times before we landed. The one runway in Male (the capital of the Maldives) proved quite troublesome when there was more than one plane that needed to land, so we waited in the air until it was our go, with regular 3 minute updates from the talkative pilot.

After a conversation at dinner the other night I found out that the Maldives have made an agreement with the US to move there once the islands sink, I think they’re predicted to last for another 40 years? How bizarre though, imagine being from this side of the world and uprooting to a totally different country because yours was underwater..

So we sat in Male, confined to our cabin on the plane without being allowed to leave as they walked up and down every 20 minutes spraying that horrible air freshener, itbeginning of our holiday…

felt like a scene from Auschwitz – we entertained ourselves playing drawing games and making lots of noise with the onset of cabin fever and slight insanity that was relieved a few hours later when we reached Colombo! Excitement soon turned to panic as dad realized he’d lost all three of his bankcards at the

My brother mooched around the airport pushing trolleys and asking us all to hurry up, I comforted dad with extreme empathy for his situation – was it 3 or 4 bankcards I’d managed to lose over 6 months of travelling? Mum wandered around asking the people behind the travel booths how to get her sim card to work and then we received the good news that the cards had been found! So we all waited in anticipation for another 40 minutes, to then discover that someone else’s cards had been found… booo!! With the stress of the situation, the heat from outside and the long journey, everyone’s temper was on the rise. We all crammed into a car with our mounds of luggage along the new and pristine highway that made us feel like we were back in KL – it’s a beautiful highway, appropriate with the increasing tourism in this country post-civil war, but half the country can’t afford to drive on it! On top of that, it was built for free by Chinese prisoners, as the money to build the bridge was borrowed from China hence they’ll reap half the profit for the next 20 years while not having spent anything on the labor to build it! A recent response from a Singhalese taxi driver on the issue was ‘It’s ok though! They were put in prison for petty crimes, they’re not murderers!’ haha, love a bit o’ positive thinking.

Morning yoga

So we got to our friends place, showered up and got ready for dinner, to find dads cards stashed in a ‘secret’ zip of his wallet, dear.oh.dear.

We walked over to ‘The Lagoon’ in Cinnamon Grand, our favorite seafood restaurant in Sri Lanka, for a reasonable price you get to sit next to a beautiful garden/ pond adorned with fairy lights, the fresh seafood is lain out on beds of ice with the ‘cooking styles’ chalked onto a black board next to them. You choose your seafood and cooking style and then watch the chefs cook up a beautiful meal of tamarind prawns, red curry fish, black bean oysters etc. with a few complimentary chocolates to take the edge off after the meal.

The boys chilling

J was arriving on a later flight so instead of dossing on the computer I went out for a drink with mum and a few mates, the Asian glow set in pretty fast but thanks to the dim lighting it could be played off as over-done blusher :p. R. was an interesting man, despite his financial success he took the greatest joy in living on $300 a month in a little town on the border of India where he went back to basics and enjoyed life, void of society’s stressors. He could only do that for half a year before having to return to Colombo to work for another 6 months – but what a dream! We discussed the value of money vs. time and a 'In Time' was mentioned in which time was the currency – the rich always had too much and the poor are always running out, doing anything to gain even a few valuable minutes, living in panic until they realize it’s too late.. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdadZ_KrZVw), Interesting concept eh.

Ulpotha

We got home, swaying slightly, and after half an episode of ‘Orange is the New Black’, J walked through the doors buzzing at having had a great conversation with the taxi driver. A glass of water, PJ’s, snuggle time and finally, sleep.

In the morning J and dad went off to Kolpethi fish market, an experience within itself if you’ve never been to a hot, smelly, loud and busy fish market in Colombo. Haha, I laughed at the prospect that this was their first bonding activity, I guess they’ll remember it well. I did my yoga, met up with J and tuk-tuked around Colombo, pointing out all the familiar sites, vijithayapa bookshop, the national museum, my old house, shops and restaurants. I couldn’t believe how much was changing – the Shangri-La has taken up a massive portion of land, right next to the ‘ECT hotel’ (whatever that is…), the Marriott’s round the corner from that and TGI Fridays has moved into town! When I lived here our one hang-out hot spot was the Coffee Bean! That’s old news now… A quick stop in Odel and then Liberty Plaza to buy a camera for the trip before rushing home to make our deadline – 10 minutes before the van pulled up to take us to Kegal that was about 4 hours away. Up the windy roads we drove, playing ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ on the iPad while noticing the light outside dimming to darkness. The van couldn’t quite make it up the steep hill to Guava House so we jumped out, grabbed our bags and walked up to the fairytale house of wood and glass that R. had designed. Big hugs were in order with our second family who’s house it was, all of whom looked absolutely knackered post-hike up Adams Peak – a gorgeous site that we didn’t manage to conquer this time round. The darkness of the night hid the rubber trees that surrounded us and as J hadn’t seen it during the day I nattered on about what would be revealed come sunrise.

Guava house

We sat down to a yummy Sri Lankan dinner that left our lips swollen and noses streaming with the hot green chilies and after a few flower fumes and a glass of wine we were chatting and laughing away until our eyes began to droop. I crawled into bed while J and J managed to stay up with a bottle of Arrack (Sri Lanka’s local rum, made out of coconut) to accompany them until 3am, only to be awoken by me a few hours later tehehe.

Our days in Guava house included drunk rounds of charades, some heated debates, hot curries, muscly fish, frisky walks in the forest, cold swims and morning yoga – a fantastic start to the holiday ahead.

Ulpotha was our next destination, a ‘5-star hippy commune’ that was created by our friends G and V. No electricity, organic vegetarian food, yoga, Ayurveda, a fresh water lake for swimming, natural outdoor showers, bicycles, mud-huts and mountains – we’ve been coming almost-annually for New Year and I was excited to share this experience with J.  As it’s such a hugely spread out place, it’s always disorientating arriving at night and walking around with a little light while trying to stamp your feet loud enough to scare off the snakes on the path. We made our way into our little room in the mud-hut by the cade – a little ‘snack/ drink’ hut that always has something yummy to munch on but is packed with enthusiastic yogis at about 7.30am – a natural alarm! Hmm..

We’d made the mistake of leaving our kerosene lamp burning in our room with no windows, so re-entering our hole after leaving it greeted you with a strong waft of kerosene gas, no wonder we slept so well…  The next night was the attack of the mozzies so I suggested sleeping on the 1-person swing chair next to the rice paddy outside. We dozed in and out of shallow sleep until the yogis wondered past us at about 6am and we grumpily slid away into our den. As though we’d paid off our karma by sleeping on the swing, that day we had the choice to move to the lake hut that required a boat to access it, or the tree house that was about 25m off the ground in the top of a beautiful tree overlooking the lake. We chose the tree house, not realizing quite how scary it was to climb up it. I dreaded thinking what would happen after a few drink on New Year – luckily we managed by not going back until 8am the next morning while we were dysfunctional with fatigue but not too intoxicated/ wobbly.

The moment it turned NY!

The ambalama was near us so we knew when meal times were, grabbing a clay plate you fill it up with all the delicious organic curries and red rice, eating gracefully with your right hand and pushing the food into your mouth with your thumb. Large finger bowls with pieces of fresh lime were set out to clean your hands after eating so you could grab a slice of fresh pineapple and a cup of ginger tea. In our hut we had a secret stash of goodies that I’d share out when red eyes appeared, the novelty of English sweets wasn’t so high anymore now that I lived there, whereas the others reacted with ‘Real MnS sweets!? What!’ bursting with excitement as they fumbled with the blue toffee wrappers.

The first fireworks of new year

After dinner we’d go and sit with the adults to sip on Patron in the little courtyard that was bathed in candlelight. Flower fumes rose over to the swinging chair that hung over the lake, as we thought about the crocodile that’s bright eyes stood out against the darkness very close to where we were sitting a few months before we’d arrived. They’d managed to catch it and release it into a different lake by dangling a poor puppy as bait... survival of the fittest?

This year the lake was very low as the rains hadn’t come as planned, the water mark could be seen about 1.5m up the ancient stone rocks that stood in clumps in the water. Trees that were usually completely underwater now stood tall and where we had once swam was now land dressed in grass that we claimed as our private beach, laying our towels over it and roasting in the sun. The peace was occasionally disturbed by the odd BANG as A.’s son scooped together mud to create bombs that he filled with firecrackers, left in the sun to dry and ignited with a quick shout to warn us all. ‘What’s your son planning on becoming?!’ Dad said jokingly, A. turned to his son ‘There are bigger firecrackers in the car, just warn us before you set them off so we can run’ this is when computer games get taken too far... But a pretty cool skill for a 10 year old I must admit.

Ambalama

Once we were sufficiently roasted we’d wade into the water, the bottom of which can’t usually be felt at all but now you could walk across the whole thing.

‘Let’s play water polo!’ G suggested, the oldies against the teens. It’s hilarious watching adults get competitive as the mature demeanor fades and everyone’s inner child comes to play, wading through the lake with thick squidgy mud sifting between our toes, it got everyone panting soon enough! After a while I called half time for a quick beauty-break during which we lathered the mud all over our bodies, it rapidly turned into a mud fight. Mmm, muddy hair, muddy body, muddy everything and rinsed off with only a few wriggles underwater leaving your skin soft and clear – how’s that for a new product slogan :p. A side effect that must be mentioned is the slight ‘fake tan’ look that for some reason only appeared on dad haha.  

Outdoor showers

I went to wash off the residue in the shower and as I put down my soap on the stone beneath the palm tree I heard a big thump, as though something had fallen from above my head, I glanced up to see the second half of a 2m long rat snake slithering between the dried palm leaves and out of the showering area. Ugh, I shivered and got under the cold water to rinse off the memory, at least they’re not poisonous…

On the last night we treated ourselves to a romantic hot shower. You ladle out the hot water that’s boiling in a huge cauldron outside over fresh flames and mix it to your desired temperature into your own little cauldron. While one soaps up, sitting on a large rock, the other pours water over them with a coconut ladle until the cauldron’s empty and then you swap over. It’s always more convenient having one before the sun goes down so your imagination doesn’t go too wild with creepy crawlies emerging from the depths of the forest.

As we were the ‘friends’ and not the ‘paying guests’ at the retreat, the yoga classes were always full to the brim so we took over the empty yoga shala once everyone had left, stretching into our body gloves and filling up as much space as possible. One afternoon we engaged in a deeply intimate meditation called ‘____’ in which you look into your partners eyes continuously for however long you can, I wriggled at how uncomfortable it was for the first few minutes and soon followed J’s lead and got into the flow, watching each others faces distort and change color with the intensity, it was an interesting experience to say the least… So the ‘calm’ box was ticked off, now the craziness was due, it was New Years eve after all.

The Sri Lankan drummers made their appearance in full traditional dress with anklets jingling and their hands moving against the drum faster than anyone I’ve seen before. Caught in a mesmerizing trance, the girls came out to elegantly dance to the rhythm followed by the little ones that moved in impressive synchrony. And then, dinner was served. Spread out across a huge rock by the beautiful banyan tree that was adorned with flags and hanging lanterns, we sat and ate our New Years meal, drinking beers and arrack to keep the spirits high. I was told about an hour before this, that I was to DJ part of the evening with no playlist planned whatsoever, how bloody stressful, flicking through all your songs one by one with total despair even though you’ve heard them all a million times before. But despite the stress it was a musical success, we all danced and jammed and lay on the straw mats, looking up at the array of stars and down at the lotus lights floating in the lake. Fireworks went off every hour until 8am by which time the village shaman had arrived to give the blessing for the New Year by boiling and eating the notorious ‘milk rice’. We’d spent the last few hours sitting with the remaining party animals around a fire with a few spliffs, watching the light of the sun slowly mask the stars, we climbed our way back up to our tree and crashed out till lunch. New years eve wasn’t a very messy night besides my poor brother’s first drunken spew all over dads white trousers, you gotta learn somehow…

The evening of the 1st was a little more eventful, I paced wide eyed between the huts, guiltily trying to avoid the game of charades that I’d organized earlier for all the yogis in the ambalama. They all soon went to bed and we created our own games that were paired with funny conversations until the room began spinning in various directions and the night came to an end after 3-glasses of wine and my head in the toilet. J lead us back to our tree with the help of the little Belgian man shining his torch up to us so we could avoid a terrible fall on our last night in Ulpotha… Avoiding confrontation with people from the night before, we left with heavy heads at 6am the next morning for a 6-hour drive to the beach down south. ‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M36OGCfYp3A'

Living in a dream (Part 1)

In our flower garden :)

We've touched down and adjusted surprisingly fast to KL life all over again, it's like we never left - how fucking fast does time pass? It was only yesterday that dad was sending me off in a taxi, with my huge backpack that I could barely carry. My heart was racing as I saw Jack sitting there, tired as anything at 6am just before we caught out flight to Saigon, Vietnam. I've learnt some of the biggest lessons of my life is the hardest ways, had the lowest lows, without which the highest highs would not be possible, found the love of my life, seen the most incredible sights, met the weirdest, coolest, funniest people (many of whom I'll definitely see in the future), been to the craziest raves and the most beautiful beaches; Experienced the worst tummy bugs, colds and flu's, taken everything you need to take on a year off and somehow (much to our parents surprise) returned in one piece. At the end of reading all my posts, you should know 'what they don't tell you before you go travelling', not the fine and dandy advice of 'go and find yourself in a bed of roses' because it's a lot rougher than a few flowers, though the fumes do help ;)

Bamboo tea

So since my last post, we had a slice of Pai, an accidental tour around the North of Thailand to do our visa run to Burma, back to Pai and then all the way down south to the opposite end of the country for a bit of raving in Koh Phangan, ending my travels far deeper than I thought I'd ever be, down at 20m below surface level in Mango Bay, Koh Tao, with my open water diving PADI! And then somehow, after a 34 hour journey, we took a long sleeper bus to Surrathani, on to Hat Yai (where we missed our bus) a stop off in George Town/ Penang and then at 4am.finally.we arrived. Surrounded by high rises and spaghetti-motorways, we're home again, but are we really?

Chillin in a giant telephone box..

We inhaled our breakfast before our early morning bus to Pai, thankfully not eating too much in anticipation of the incredibly windy roads that lasted for 3 hours (when your driver's hitting the accelerator like he's on speed). Up, up, up into the old town that was discovered accidentally by a group of hippies, and now inhabits the most eclectic mix of ethnicities and tribes in all of Thailand. After surviving the 6 hours of windy roads from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng (Laos) this was a breeze, and getting to our destination was worth every bend. We sat down with our new mate from Chang Mai 'D', at a lovely rustic cafe called 'L'Artiste'. The first thing you notice is that unlike many other places we'd been, here people cared about their guest houses, cafes and restaurants. You could see down to the smallest detail that it had all been thought out, strategically painted, placed and primed to look beautiful and fit into the gorgeous surrounding mountains. We all rented bikes and headed off to a few waterfalls to get in as much of Pai as possible given that there were so many things to see and do. The first waterfall we went to was alright.. if sliding down huge slippery rocks into shallow water is your thing.. the boys all managed it seamlessly, while I attempted the baby slide at the top, crashing and burning in front of a live audience of English Lads (always the best) as I went too slowly, flipped onto my front and narrowly avoided banging my face on the side of a rock... so after my elegant performance, I decided the bigger slide just wasn't for me. The next waterfall we checked out was hidden in a huge cave, stepping stones lead through the murky water to get to the final 'fall'. We climbed up above the water, to a far more appealing site, until we stood still, looking down below at the lush green bamboo and listening to the rushing water.
We headed back, along the amazing windy roads, perfect for nimble motorbikes, and stopped off at a viewpoint for sunset. The only frustrating thing about driving is that when you want to look up and just take in the curly clouds and colourful houses dotted all over the mountain side, you just can't do it for long enough, in fear of forgetting about the whole 'driving' part..

80 degree hot springs

The viewpoint was scattered with rocks that had all been painted different colours, and we swung around in the big hanging metal chairs that were painted to match, chatting until it was time to go home.

If anyone's looking for a gorgeously cheap place to stay in Pai? Go across the rickety bamboo bridge, passed the first 2 guest houses and you arrive at 'Phu View guesthouse', $7 a night for a huge bungalow on stilts in a beautiful flower garden, with it's own bathroom, TV and huge double bed -- we'd found our niche. At night the marketeers appeared with their crystals, art pieces, hippie clothing, delicious food of all types, jewellery made from old stone/wood and so much more. You know how sometimes you wish that everything you wanted could just be in one shop or on one little street. Well Pai made my wish come true, the fact that money had to be involved to actually obtain anything material, kept us slightly apart, but at least browsing doesn't cost (much to J's frustration as he hurried me past every evening).

The face in the flowers

Running into 'I' in Pai :)

That night the sniffles came on, I'd caught J's cold just as he'd gotten over it, damn. Luckily I was in the perfect place for it, ailments of all sorts could be found. The funny man that always wore the gorilla hat was round the corner from us, selling his delicious 'ginger and honey tea' in tubes of bamboo, and 'hot n healthy noodle soups' for under $1 next door. When you're sick and you actually listen to what your body wants, and do as you're told, it really makes a difference. So within 2 days I was up and at it. The next morning, just as I was turning the key in my bike, I turn around to see 'I', a from my yoga retreat in Cambodia, we squealed with excitement and planned a day out -- waterfalls and hot springs it was. The weather was not calling for hot springs, but they were there to see so we thought we may as well see em. After a long and beautiful drive (and getting lost one or two times) we managed to soak ourselves in the 40 degree river - reading about all the health benefits it was giving us. We slowly lost all sensation in our bodies and when the heat got too much we got out, feeling light headed for minutes afterwards. The only cool water source around were the sprinklers for the grass, so we stood under them, appreciating the cool trickles of water down our hot bodies. Up at the top of the hot springs were the big daddies, 80 degree water that had steam rising out of it and eggs thrown around the sides that lay boiled beyond belief. After a chill and a chat, we made our way back to the bikes, hopping over the millions of red ants that lay in our path, and as we rode down the hill, the little old village ladies popped out from their houses making a 'smoking' sign and holding out bags of flowers - we laughed, of course it was the ones you'd least expect.

Tachileik in Burma

I found a lovely 'whole-foods'ish' place to eat for breakfast and as we sat down with our coffee's we ran into the Dutch girls we knew from Chang Mai; more familiar faces - one of the best parts about travelling. The day was glorious, it went up and down in waves as we skipped around our flower garden, drew with our new crayons and painted with our new paints, watched the snowflakes on the walls and pacman on the ceiling, thought crazy thoughts, saw faces in the flowers and laughed our heads off. I had a thought that day about the importance of sexual energy in relation to our universe, bear with me..

When 2 beings come together and merge in such a way to raise their energy to the point of creating a life, it's literally the source of all energy/ life; That meiosis, that merging of 2 objects to create another form of energy, is just a minuscule example of the creation of our world (the big bang) and planets, the sun, the milky-way, the universe, the multi-verse, it's infinite yet it starts as something that you can experience and understand at such a basic level.. just a thought.
That night we wandered around Pai with our jaw clenched, feeling slightly weird as we ate at our local cheap plastic chair place that had whatever dish you wanted, as J sat across from me with his notorious rainbow headband, talking casually to the dog beside him.

The dreaded canyons

The next morning after a strange sleep was a fresh start, yoga in the garden, breakfast at the amazing cafe 'boomelicious': Hash browns with poached eggs, bacon and salad with tomato jam (droooool). We wanted to do something active before sitting docile on a bus for the rest of the day, so we checked out the canyon TOTALLY underestimating what was to come. We began our little stroll along the path that soon disappeared and we found ourselves at the bottom of the crumbly brown canyon. We looked up in dismay, we couldn't go back where we'd come from as it was too steep and there was nothing to hold on to. We somehow managed to lift ourselves up, free-climbing with a backpack, on fragile-crumbling brown dust that fell away in our hands. There was a point at which J managed to slip down a pencil thin piece of canyon and I sat there, watching the fast-approaching storm and knowing we had to get back before our bus arrived - below me on either side was a steep drop and ahead was a thin path that had to be landed on perfectly, or else we'd fall to our deaths or break a lotta bones. With a lot of focus and sweat, I landed on the path in front of J and we walked on, the adrenaline pumping as we neared the end. On our final hurdle, my legs trembled as my body felt itself falling and my hands gripped onto dust, J. pushed me up and I scrambled to the surface with shaking legs, pulling him up behind me in return. We looked back at what we'd just managed to climb up and out of, and just gaped in disbelief. We ran back to our bikes as it began to pour, I wore the water-proof poncho to cover the backpack and Jack shivered as we zoomed along slippery roads to make it back in time for the bus, heading off to to Burma on our 9 hour bus ride. Luckily I shot-gunned the front seat, so with my legs stretched out in a pair of hippie pants, I settled in and managed to finish a whole book, 'Brain Rules' by John Medina (highly recommended if you're into psychology).
Our bus ride was supposed to be a quick visa run but turned into a full-day of picking up people in Chiang Mai and other areas of Northern Thailand, who were on the same mission. Kicking up a fuss worked in our favour and we blagged ourselves 2 free tickets back to Chang Mai for when we returned. 'Tachileik' in Burma is the inauthentic border town that's used for Visa runs, and the Burmese are prepared for everyone that walks across that border. We walked through the little market, swarmed by people selling cigarettes, perfumes, clothes, soaps and antiques. A familiar noise stood out amongst the sellers and I looked over my shoulder to see a plastic Psy singing 'Gangnam Style' - god it's everywhere. When we were rinsed of all our money we went back through to Thailand with my sandalwood soap and fake Kath Kidston bag, and made our way back to Pai for a chilled out sesh on the balcony, followed by 5 rounds of pudding, while sipping slowly through our bamboo tubes of tea.

My long lost sister...

Our last day in Pai was rained out, so we played a round of pool, munched down Pad-Thai and hopped on a bus to Chiang Mai where I found my long-lost sister ;)
The hardest thing in SEAsia is trying to figure out what 'a good deal' is when everyone's supposedly selling it. We finally figured out the trick of bus tickets - buy them from the station, and at the last possible minute . 10 minutes before our bus drove off we heard shrieks and screams, turning the corner we watched the ticket ladies going mental, waving their arms around to sell their last tickets - a scary site I can tell you. We were so happy to finally be able to choose our seats so we got the ones at the very front, next to the huge TV. We played backgammon on the floor until the bus started moving and the movie began! We were delighted when we realized the movie was in Thai, with Thai subtitles that the conductor was reluctant to change. We were handed pink strawberry buns and vegetable juice as a complementary snack (hm..) so sleep seemed the best option. We were pleasantly awakened at 2am by fluorescent lights and blaring music, as we stopped for a midnight snack. 30 minutes later, we took off again, only to be pleasantly awakened for the second time at 5am, an hour before we arrived - the purpose of this, we never found out, but the music soon stopped when a grumpy passenger broke the speaker.. So I lay out a blanket and started doing yoga, the bumps proving quite a problem and the confused looks from the passengers making me giggle, but it filled the time.

Above the waterfall

We planned to spend a day in Bangkok and skip on another night of accommodation as we slept on a bus to the islands in the South. Scrubbing up in the ever-clean burger king at 6am, we asked a local where to buy 'good and cheap coffee', he replied 'Starbucks is over there' - it got me thinking.. In the locals eyes, Westerners = Starbucks, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Whitening creams, shit. That's the image we've been given, and in response to that image, guess what chains and products are taking over Asia?
So we walked around, bought cheap coffee (that was better than any starbucks could be, and 1/10th of the price) and sorted out our bus ticket to Koh Phangan, with much difficulty. The only thing we wanted that afternoon was a swimming pool, so we wandered Bangkok, being turned away from all of them as we weren't 'guests'; but we still managed to sneak into a lovely infinity pool belonging to a hotel nearby, doing a couple lengths and hopping out sharpish as cortisol levels rose in response to the 'INTRUDERS WILL BE FINED' signs that littered the walls. What to do in the heat of the day in Bangkok, when you're templed out and don't want to shop or eat.. hm. We headed to the cinema to see the new hit 'Now You See Me' - Hollywood, you did well.
We leisurely made our way back to the Travel Agent, crashing out on each others shoulders as the bus shimmied its way through the long country down to Surrathani. 12 hours later, at 6am, we'd arrived. We struggled to keep our eyes open as we waited for instruction at the bus stop; A man proceeded to walk over to me with a brochure and after lots of talking and persuading, sold us 3 nights at a gorgeous bungalow in the North of Koh Phangan - we bargained him down, he spoke to the manager, we got our receipt and after an official stamp, the job was done, with 'free pick-up' included. We were driven for half an hour to the ferry, where we crashed out for another 1.5 hours and finally, we arrived in Koh Phangan. It was about 11am at this point, and we were ready for a shower and a deep breath of flowers. But then things started to deteriorate.

On top of the Chinese village in Pai

The free pick-up never came, so after talking to the manager on the phone, we caught a tuk-tuk over steep hills to get to the beautiful side of the island. We walked down a steep path, questioning whether this deal had happened, and saw the crystal blue waters ahead of us right next to the bungalow that was on the front of the brochure we'd seen - it did exist! We handed over our receipt to the manager and got a laugh in response.. 'Go to the police, this is fake'. What? I burst into tears, it was so unfair. After such a long journey, and so many mishaps and thievery over the last 6 months, we really didn't need more money slipping through our fingers. I cried and cried as the family that ran the guest house talked, their voices getting louder and louder until one of them lead us over to a table and sat us down to talk. Her crazy NA son was pointing to his necklace 'You know Buddha?! You're too young to know the game!! Everyone's lying to you! Everyone! Just get out of here! Go away! Get the fuck out of here!'. The family reacted passively in a typical Asian fashion, smiling away and avoiding all trouble as though no one was angry. We had no clue what he was talking about or what they were trying to say. Who was lying? And what game?? My tears gushed and my anger rose 'Karma?! Do you know what karma is?!?' J. stood in front of him as he moved towards me with his fists out. His mum told us we could stay but we weren't going to risk it, so tears still flowing, we hiked with our backpacks, up the steep hills that we'd just driven down, in the 12 O'Clock sun. We hadn't eaten since the previous day, so we stopped to eat, collect ourselves (and a few tissues), rented bikes and headed as far away as possible from the crazy man with the Buddha necklace. We stayed in a basic hut on Bantai beach called 'Sea Love bungalows' run by a cool eclectic gang of people, and that night, under the black moon, we found Eden.. (Read Part 2 for the rest!)

(A little verse of summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkDDRdKaN8o)

Recipe of the day: Lemon Meringue Pie
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/lemon_meringue_pie

Seaside and sunshine to yogis and gongs

Breakfasts in the pavilion at Seagarden

The birds are tweeting and the yogis are chanting; I'm on my third day of a detox retreat at 'Hariharilaya', located 12km North of Siem Reap. The days typically start at 5.30am, the resonating sound of the gong entering into our rooms as our soothing wake-up call (a nice change from your typical iphone or blackberry alarm!) Everyone makes their way to the yoga hut for the morning set, stretching into your body glove with eyes half open and finishing fully energized. The yoga varies in type every morning, some days it's rigorous Hatha while others it's slow and steady vinyasa/flow. A half an hour chanting session follows, to focus everyone's mind as we read the sanskrit words in front of us, before the 20 minute meditation, the last item on the agenda before breakfast is spread.  The rest of the day consists of various talks (on spirituality, Dharma, enneagrams etc), more meditation and optional workshops, acupuncture, blind massages, reiki, opportunities to cycle around the village, explore nearby temples, sun-tan naked in an enclosed bamboo hut, paint, draw, exercise,  read from the library of books and so much more. Everyone's typically off to bed by 10ish, worn out from the full-on day of activities. The man responsible for all this is 'J', a 33 year old yogi, who from the age of  6 joined the philharmonic orchestra in the US, touring the world until he decided to go to university and study linguistics for 6 years. Continuing on his spiritual path he has since created a yoga centre for people to share their passion and knowledge.

Woop woop!

It's amazing giving your body a break from any sort of toxins. The food is vegan here, and so creatively thought out. Incredible superfoods are available every day, one example is the amazing Kombucha tea: 'a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast' that's fermented using a fungus (manchurian mushroom) for months - it sounds odd, but tastes delicious after the natural flavourings are added to it  like lemon, mint, passion fruit etc. it's quality is to detoxify the body and energize the mind, basically, it's amazing, and is gulped down minutes after being released. Bee pollen's available in sachets to sprinkle over breakfast and if you need a bit of sweetness, 'bliss balls' with dates, coconut, palm sugar and oats are available for a dollar! ;)

I've been cycling around the village at 5.30am every morning since I've been here - A nice way for your eyes to slowly open into the day. It was funny coming out of my dream world and seeing the locals totally awake as they hacked away at pig heads and trotters in the local market and stopped the cat- fish from wriggling around in the big metal bowls. Further on down the dusty lane a little 6 year old boy rode a bicycle, carrying his friend behind him. Another little boy, who looked about 10, was leading a herd of cows along the road. He stopped, I wished him good morning in Khmer as he returned it with a shy smile, and continued walking the skinny cows through the lush paddy fields. A naked little girl held her arms out, balancing as she put one foot in front of the other on the high wall that surrounds 'Bakong Temple' - part of the ancient ruins known as Angkor Wat. My direction sense is hopeless, so of course I made the one wrong turn you could make and ended up lost and surrounded by empty food stalls, stressing out about what time it was, with no watch or phone to assist me. A sweet Khmer lady offered me a coconut and lead me to the right path and luckily, I arrived back in time for the gong to reverberate through the room, signalling the beginning of morning yoga.

I've come here for a bit of self-reflection, while J works for a few more days in Otress. I can't quite believe my stint there's already over. Every day merged into the next, probably due to a few too many flower fumes and the lackadaisical attitude of the place. Each day started with a morning swim while the sea was metallic and still, followed by a meditation and an Ice coffee (that we've now mastered, as well as the odd cocktail recipes that we want to remember). There were down days in paradise, when M's puppy died unexpectedly and the mood fell low as we all felt his sadness. But having to work at a bar and socialize always forces a smile that's eventually taken on as something real. The chefs (that hated what they did, and took it out on us constantly) had a nice streak one day, and prepared a group meal of fresh fish, lettuce, rice noodles and a delicious sauce to top it off - a great way to unify everyone for a few minutes before business took over again. I managed to finally cut my own king coconut, nearly chopping my leg off as I swung the machete in the wrong direction. But with time, lots of whining and too much sweat, I finally managed to do it without J's help, or A telling me that I needed 'more power!!' That night we had 9 of our mates sitting around the bar, dealing cards from our side, we managed a massive game of 'Yaneev', an Israeli card game that every traveller must know. It was a struggle playing, dealing the cards and making drinks at the same time, but it kept the night moving. That evening the liquor was flowing, so I decided to go craazy and have 2 shots! It was the end of the night, and my job was to wash the glasses. I gripped onto the bar stools trying to straighten my vision as I grabbed a chair, dragged it behind the bar, and proceeded to wash the blurry objects in front of me, sitting down with soap and water pouring everywhere - I was a mess. Soo since then alci's been off the wish list.

The Bizarre aeroplane club

 The next day before work J and I went to explore a few of the local beaches, coming across a bizarre Russian-owned club. The theme of the place was 'aeroplanes' and they took their theme seriously. They'd installed a massive aeroplane in the centre of the club, that you could climb into and mess around in. The DJ booth was the front of a truck and the sides of cars were hung up on the walls. It lead onto the beach, right next to a busy harbour. We jumped around, played pool and sped off to the next beach as the seconds ticked on before work was to begin. The other beaches were all beautiful and completely empty, similar to the expensive resorts, that were 5-star but lacked the main component - guests. One huge island that we could see from the beach, had recently had a huge, ugly, concrete bridge constructed from the mainland, allowing you to drive across. Only it wasn't for you to drive across, it was for the Rich Russian owner of the island, that built it because he wanted the pleasure of driving to and from his island in his expensive car. What some people do with their money just makes me laugh..

A fraction of the Sunshine Family

Topcat's been one of the best forms of entertainment, and although it's only $2 an hour, somehow every time a group of us went, each of us always ended up having to pay a bill of $20+.. We've since watched: 'Death at a funeral', 'One flew over the cuckoos nest', 'Senna', 'Lawless', 'The matrix', 'Exit through the Gift shop  and various others that don't spring to mind. After watching 'Exit through the Gift shop , a documentary made by a family friend that shows you the true grit that street artists experience, you really feel a sense of respect for them (the good ones). It's funny how a piece of art can be illegal one minute and then valued at $14,000 over night. Just another example of the impermanent nature of humans and our interests..

Otress sunsets

Our nights after Topcat or whatever excursion we'd been on, usually ended with a huge group of us sitting together on the big, comfy circle chairs on the beach, passing around doobs, playing shithead or yaneev and laughing about silly things. J's hungover mornings always made me laugh, especially when he had to dig out the drain for the dishwasher. Looking at his delirious, sweaty and unhappy face made me giggle - a glass of ice water was all I could offer. Every day went pretty well at work, we were usually on top form and had great chats and relationships with all the customers that came and went. However on one rare occasion, it didn't go so well. After only half a cookie that D&S had with us (if you're in Otress, $6 cookies at mushroom point ++!), things began slowing down and getting funnier. The orders were all confused, calculations for bills weren't happening and conversation started getting really difficult. We had 'a talking to' the next day, and it never happened again..


After a very slow night, I woke up with itchy feet again, so J and I rented a kayak for half the day, and journeyed off to a mystery island. We were the only ones there apart from the few fishing boats that were anchored in the surrounding sea. We climbed over big rocks, looked into stagnant rock-pools of mosquito larvae and dead crabs (that looked like 'the pit of death' in 'The Life of Pi'), caught crabs, meditated in the shade and skinny dipped in the clear blue water, with no one around to tell us not to. We'd taken a plastic bag with us for the few things that we'd decided to bring, and noticing the condensation in our bag of flowers, J spread them out on a rock in the sun, family Robinson style. 5 minutes later, it crumbled to dust in our hands - it was that hot; and no matter how much sun cream I lathered on, my skin still managed to turn a light shade of red. Despite the burn, it was probably one of the most exciting experiences, discovering a new island, that yes, had probably been seen by a quite a few others, but it was so nice being able to enjoy a place for it's beauty without being hassled or charged. After a few hours on the island that we'd claimed our own, we kayaked back, tension rising as we battled against the current, the frustration causing us to argue over meaningless things, with no way of escaping each other. We'd stop now and then to re-direct our kayak that seemed to have a mind of it's own and finally, we arrived back, everything resolved and nothing to complain about. It's funny how even if you're in paradise, you can catch yourself whining or complaining about nothing to just fill the time and find some imperfection. Try and see if you can have a day of not complaining about anything, just catch yourself before you do, and see how you feel afterwards - it's one of my goals.

Our adventure day on our mystery island

A new group of mates washed in and out with the tide, lovely E returned home to the Isle of White after a few blissful days. One of my favourite moments was on that perfectly moonlit night, a group of us all went swimming in the still shallows of that perfect Otress ocean, mouths hanging and eyes glistening as we watched the lightening storm miles away, flashes of light filling the sky every 5 - 10 seconds as I rocked with J's arms wrapped tightly around me. The girls were supposed to leave a day after E, but like everyone caught in the Otress spell (and a few financial mishaps), they thankfully prolonged their trip. W'W, a friend we'd made a few weeks before, surprisingly returned also, and now has a job on one of the nearby beautiful islands 'Koh Ta Kiev'; his excitement manifested itself in trying to convince all of us to move there and enjoy the benefits of his job with him 'free kayaking, return trips to the island, snorkelling, fishing, food and weed' we could recite the list a hundred times over, a few more days of hearing about it, and his ability to speak would've been severely impaired by one of us.

DC's BBQ

We visited Koh Ta Kiev on 'DC Tours', run by a mate in Otress who takes you island hopping to laze around on beaches, munch down on a BBQ of fresh seafood and giant clams, followed by spear fishing, cliff jumping (off a natural rock that looks unbelievably identical to an elephant - hence the name elephant rock) and lots of snorkelling. The Seagarden crew was on-board and we shared many laughs, fumes and games of frisbee before jumping off the boat and beginning our evening shift. The next day the weather changed and the clouds blew over, whenever a storm blows in, it's always an interesting time. The animals react, the attitude changes and the restaurant gets emptier. We were sitting on the big comfy chairs talking about going into town before the thunder began to rumble; we jumped up, got onto our bike and zoomed off down the road to get there before the storm could catch us. We were running from the rain, along with the other bikes on the road, I looked up to see swallows struggling against the wind, 50 shades of grey were visible in the clouds above it. We made it inside just as it began to pour and pour and pour - cleansing the town of its stagnant humidity.

My tummy's rumbling and my brain's rewinding back to the few days that the tummy bugs took over. At our restaurant we had guests running to and from the bathroom, people in the guest house opposite us, to our left and down the road, were all suffering similar illnesses. One man was rushed off to the hospital with severe gastritis and another bused back to Phnom Pen with a similar illness. As everyone was in such close proximity, eating the same foods and sharing the same J's, we all got each others lurgies. The thing about being sick in the tropics, is half the time you don't know what it is or how you got it. It could've been the water, the puppies, the food, the air - you've just gotta let it ride and hope it's nothing serious.. being sick all the time gets tiring though and the Otress chapter was coming to a close.

W'W rescuing the J from between the floorboards

We'd made a date to leave and J was going to head to Siem Reap for a week, but plans changed and Otress seemed a better option, the heat's always easier to deal with on the beach. We'd left our jobs at Seagarden and the deal had changed from 'free food & accom' to just 'free food' - not really worth it for a 7 hour shift. So sunshine became both our home and J's work - causing tension between both places as they were situated right next to each other. A sad way to end such a great streak, but hugs were shared all round on the last day, so at least the last note was somewhat sweet. The puppies ran to me as I said goodbye, they were so hard to leave, in just a few weeks they'd grown so big and developed such personalities - but every good thing comes to an end. Our last time at Topcat was lavish, chocolate, happy herb pizzas and lots of movies. We all sweat buckets sitting at 'We One Cafe', drinking ice coffees and zoning out as we attempted to put our attention into a card game. The girls had an amazing fresh pizza at Papa Pippos, our neighbouring restaurant, followed by a refreshing passion fruit sorbet. I Inhaled my last dinner -- a stodgy burger and chips, and W'W lifted the mood by performing the heroic act of the night, rescuing the J from between the floorboards with chopsticks - making the Chinese prouder than ever. I'd ticked everything off my bucket list, I could now drive the bike alone! My last drive back from town was a bit scary, helmetless and a bit lost I somehow made it home, J. breathing in a sigh of relief when I returned intact. We'd had our last 'Toga' party and I'd done my last walk down to Otress 2 to shell hunt with lovely L from mushroom point. On my last day the clouds were grey and I prayed that a storm would come, and so it did. It was so exciting sitting in the unusually rough ocean, feeling the force of the wind knocking you back while the waves pushed you forward, the big bang that needed to happen.  I'd bought a $7 phone to call J when I got off the sleeper bus, of course an hour in, it ran out of battery. I lay there looking down at my beautiful crystal necklace, designed by a mate who replaced us at S.G, she was constantly weaving and sewing her beautiful pieces of shell, bone, wood and crystal depending on what the customers ordered. But my eyes began to droop as the val kicked in and luckily no one sat next to be so the double bed was used to its fullest as i stretched out and fell asleep for the entire 12 hour bus ride.

Coconut man

Before I started travelling I envisioned myself getting through libraries of book (ok that's a slight exaggeration, but a fair few), yet unless you make your time available for it, it just gets eaten up by a million other things. I have managed to finish 'Freakonomics', a fantastic read that I never thought I'd enjoy, given that I don't find economics a particularly fascinating subject; yet the way Steven D. Levitt writes, is so applicable to what's going on today (the chapter on 'why most drug dealers still live with their mums' is definitely the most interesting!) I've just started the 933pg autobiography 'Shantaram' by Gregory Roberts. A man who was a criminal and a junkie, yet he escaped from one of the top security prisons in Aus by 'jumping over the wall', flew to Mumbai, joined the mafia, and took part in lots of other mind boggling escapades - it's a long but fascinating read.

The end of a beautiful day

So I've said goodbye to the crystal waters of Otress; the same waters that's current pulled the 3 girls out to sea when they attempted to swim to the island a few nights ago, arriving back hours later on a fishing boat, to a worried crowd. But more beautiful and mysterious seas are to come in Thailand. And for now, I'm embracing this break in the middle of the madness. The next post will be full of the teachings that will take place over the next few days, with our resident magician/ hypnotist, a chiropractor, a psychologist, a yogi, an actor, a director and so many others that are here to share what they know. The flower girl's tuning into her flower girl self and is soo excited!


Recipe of the day: Vegan pumpkin soup 
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/soupsstewsandchili/r/pumpcoconutsoup.htm