Sunday 1 May 2016

Australia: alien no more!

Arriving in Melbourne was easy. So beautifully easy. No signs to translate, no screaming announcements in foreign languages, no Benny Hill runarounds looking for lost bags when they've just been put on a different carousel to the rest of the flight just because. It was just so easy. The bus had wifi, the tram had clear maps, and the hardest thing to comprehend was how on earth to respond to "how ya goin' mate"! I could navigate, pavements had people on them rather than motorbikes, and before I knew it I was reunited with my beautiful and generous Aussie friends from ENP, Beca and Laura! It was all just so easy.

I'm not weirdThat's contentious, but let me explain. In Asia I'm easy to pick out as a foreigner. I wanted nothing more than be seen as a walking dollar sign and then open my mouth and shock people by being able to speak their language! Hopefully one day I will do that, but given my Khmer is limited to food and my Thai is mostly apologising for being lost, I was just the walking dollar sign. My skin, my hair, my assumptions - everything about me is a neon sign of "different" when I'm in SE Asia. I had to learn the culture from the outside in, go to museums and temples and people watch without them noticing I was there because as soon as an alien comes in behaviours unconsciously change. In Australia you could put me in a line up and there's no way of knowing if I am local or not. Blending in means I can absorb the culture because my mere presence is not changing anyone's behaviour, it's not being talked about, and it's not being avoided. I even blended in well enough to get heckled by a homeless man for being a shit lazy student who couldn't be bothered with lectures and was wasting the state's money. Swings and all. 

As much as it's lovely to blend in, I am still me which means still a bit of a plank. It did take me a week to figure out that CBD meant central business district, and to not cross the street as soon as I heard the bleeps going from any set of traffic lights within a 50m radius, but compared to everywhere else I've been so far, I'm not a physical alien anymore. 

My favourite thing about Melbourne is that nearly everyone's got the time of day. People are nice, people will help, people run after you when you drop a 20 on the ground - I know you get those people in every city, but it's just SO prevalent in Melbourne it's incredible. Fitzroy is gorgeous and I absolutely fell in love with all the street art which coats the suburb six layers thick, the Melbourne museum which unashamedly takes on really difficult topics, and the sheer number of quirky little restaurants and bars all over the place. Australia is expensive compared to the UK for sure, but with that comes some amazing deals: $2 pintxos at Naked for Satan every lunchtime, $4 pizza at Bambinos, free tasters on every street corner - YES BUDDY! 

Australia is also quite strange though. Booze isn't sold in supermarkets, you have to go to special liquor shops for that. Timtams are a religion, and everyone is addicted to camping. Makes sense, sure, but still. Community wifi is a thing, and public squares will just have free open connections for anyone to use! Absolute highlight of strangeness though has to be walking through town and hearing one of my favourite bands playing a free gig in the square and just eating cold cheesy pasta in front of The Cat Empire! Just too much, too much. 

Melbourne is definitely a very happy place for me! 

Ground rush 2.0

Ground rush 2.0 hit in Bali and it hit hard. I was between a rock and a hard place: excited to get to Australia and see my Aussie friends from ENP, learn to dive, and visit Uluru, but also terrified that I was halfway through my trip and I wasn't actually experiencing it. Being so focused on figuring out the immediate (what am I eating, where am I sleeping, where is my bus going to, how can I get to where I need to be, etc) had left me completely numb to what was coming up or what I was doing at the time. I was absolutely buzzing for diving, of course! But first I had to figure out how the Greyhound busses worked, how am I getting to Uluru, where should I be staying in Cairns, etc. It's all pretty peesy if you have unlimited time because you can just see what comes your way, but having a schedule made it pretty imperative to be on top of it all. It's hard to take the advice to "live in the moment" - as much as I truly wanted to, if I did that then I'd have nowhere to sleep and no way to get where I needed to be.  I think that's another thing of travelling alone. If you have someone to share he organisation then it's much easier to keep an eye on the big picture whereas all I'm seeing is one puzzle piece to the next to the next. After a couple of days on the beach I figured that I needed to compromise: stop trying to plan ahead for the things that can't be planned yet, and figure out what can be and leave it at that. I still hate the phrase "it is what it is" with a passion, so let's go with "that's what we can do for now, so enjoy what we've got". 

One week in Bali - volcanoes, beaches and the dreaded bedbugs!

Between South East Asia and Australia I planned to have Bali as a decompression period. I needed to change my travelling style from totally crazy everything everyday and constantly on alert to a much more chilled outlook because finally in Melbourne I wasn't going to be alone, so everything could be a lot more relaxed. Bali kind of worked out as planned... But mostly not quite!


Ubud was the dream. Temples, palaces, rice terraces, monkeys, mountains - everything! I took in an evening performance of traditional Balinese dance at the Royal Palace which was such a highlight. The costumes, the dancing, the gamelan, everything had been crafted to create a bubble of intensity and excitement within the palace courtyard. Balinese dance specialises in contorting the face and the hands in order to mimic animals and convey stories so expressively it's an incredible experience to watch. Just spectacular! The costumes are so bright and detailed and the music is so absorbing that somehow you've been sucked into a whole new world for an hour and a half before you even realise 5 minutes has passed.



Night Train Chiang Mai to Bangkok

When I was figuring out how to get from one end of Thailand to the other I couldn't find any recent info, so here's a 2016 reference for anybody else searching for how to get from Chiang Mai to Bangkok overnight. 

I have loads of photos to illustrate this, but they've gone walkabout... Bear with for a month and they'll be up to help!

The station is located about an hour's walk out of the city centre. I would not recommend walking this journey with 25kgs of backpacks in 38 degrees and blazing sunshine, unless you are looking to rock the look of the lobster just pulled out of the boiling pan. If you do walk it, download the map when you have wifi at some point before you set off so you can check street names without using any data, otherwise you may follow my footsteps and get to know the other side of Chiang Mai very well... However you get there, get there in good time to collect your tickets from the hotel opposite the station and then head straight to the cafe just outside the station - they do a legendary banana split with comes with with toppings including happiness, dreams, and world peace.


Melbourne Street Art

The art in Melbourne really made my day when wandering around - it's beautiful, fun, political, and public. I love this stuff, so here are a few of the hundreds of snaps I took of the street art in Melbourne:














Saturday 26 March 2016

Using Elephants for Human Benefit - Is There a Line?

The very first tales of human history, oral and written, describe animals being used for human benefit. Durga rides on the back of a lion, Mary and Joseph ride a donkey to Bethlehem, Indian kings observe war on elephants, Inuits strap huskies into sleds to travel. Literal or metaphorical, we are taught through through these kinds of stories that humans have the ability to use animals to make our lives easier and better. Adding this to the belief that humans are the most intelligent and powerful animals on the planet, it seems a natural step of convenience and resourcefulness: to discover the potential usefulness of surrounding organisms and to use them to personal advantage.

Surrounded by relief carvings of war elephants, majestic animals carrying courageous warriors into the battlefield with the best vantage point possible, Angkor Wat is a perfect monument of animal and man working together to victory. Throughout Asia there are festivals which dress elephants in glorious lights and costumes, painting them beautifully so they can be admired and revered with awe by the millions of spectators who turn out to watch them pass. In China, millions of people gape at their skill and balance to be able to lift their entire form into a headstand, engulfed by the carnival atmosphere of circus lights and sounds for an incredible evening of entertainment and wonder. People pay eye watering amounts of money to have a painting by an elephant as a document of their accuracy and socio-emotional intelligence to appreciate art and colours. Paying to see these spectacular sights supports the elephants, keeps them fed, celebrates their intelligence, and ensures generations after us can see these incredible animals doing incredible things.

I visited India in 2013 (did I mention...?) and at the very end of my trip I adventured over to Jaipur to see the famous Amber Fort. The monument is incredible: a huge mass of orange stone with floating gardens and one straight slope leading directly into the Fort accessible only (seemingly) by elephant. Those huge ellies were so happy! They had leftover paint on their trunks from a festival a week or so before, they were draped in colourful cloth to protect them from the sun, and they walked with the baskets on their backs so gracefully and with such ease. They weren't swaying, they weren't stomping - they seemed perfectly content with their tasks. I'm only little, as was my basket partner, so there's no way we made any difference to the elephant - it's like wearing a backpack to a human! The ride was very short, 5-10 minutes, and the elephants all walked in a long line so they're with their herds and their friends all day long. To be honest, the ride was lumpy and uncomfortable, but I rode on the back of an elephant and that's awesome right! It's such a must-do experience, and that's great!

3 years later I paid attention when somebody showed me more.

Meeting the hero I didn't know I had

Hidden under an oversized purple flannel shirt and cowboy hat strides a tiny Thai woman, wellies up to her knees and long black plait swinging from shoulder to shoulder as she makes her way through rich green fields. Suddenly she stops dead in her tracks and disappears from view altogether. "Watch this," comes a voice from the grass, her eyes sparkling above her incredible cheekbones with a mischievous smile. A heavy second passes and the wavelength is tapped. Trunks and tails scrape the clouds as sturdy feet silently carry round, grey bodies towards the intensely relaxed, cross legged figure in front of me, racing forwards with absolutely no indication of slowing down.

Small but mighty
 
Nope not slowing at all


I first learnt about Lek Chailert through National Geographic when my thumb struck a glossy photo of a woman coiled up inside an elephant trunk. "Ooh, nice photos... Hm, that's sad," goes the thought process, "that's a needle in a haystack job" - and on went my day. Refugee crises, famines, despot dictators running countries into the ground, and I had a clarinet lesson in 15 minutes and I still couldn't find my best reeds. Up I jumped and down the mag fell, taking with it the weight of the world's problems and all thoughts of the other side of the mountain.

Mahouting with Medo

Eyes widened. Shivers down spine. 
"Hey guys, Pom wants to talk to you tonight"
SBJ. 

Pom is the manager at ENP. Pom carries an aura of badass. Pom is the lady you move out of the way of before you even know who she is. Pom is the lady who exudes knowledge and experience. Pom is the lady who silences 400 howling dogs with one bark of her own. 

Walking up to the exclusive nursery table, AKA Fort Pom, I became painfully aware of the multiple types of poo on my shirt that day: the standard coating of elephant poop had been peppered with a little bit of dog poop, with limited edition highlighting courtesy of a remarkably productive passing bird. I scrunched my curly hair in an attempt to look slightly better for her, but well aware that I was quite literally just rolling a turd in glitter. In this state I walked towards the small figure dressed in her classic black t-shirt and SnapBack with 'POM' emblazoned on the back, hunched over Mr Mustachio and Dr EvilFluff. Pom is like a Russian babushka doll: such a gentle and kind animal carer contained within a badass lady who is juggling eighteen billion plates simultaneously in order to get shit done.

"Lek has said you may go into the jungle and shadow the mahouts with some of the elephants. You will go in pairs and alternate groups. Look at the relationships, see how the elephants interact, learn their behaviours. Collect radios tomorrow."

This is a huge deal. Huge.

Puppy Love at ENP

Those who knew me before this trip will know that I've got a general tolerance for dogs but I've never been a full on ERRRRRRMAGHERD-WOOSE-A-WOOD-WURL person. I like the idea of dogs and I've always been around them and know that they are inevitably part of my life, and I love the idea of snuggling and playing, but there's always so much shedding and grease and slobber and considerations and poo. Similar to my ideas on children.

The day before I arrived at ENP I refreshed my knowledge of the park, and had forgotten (somehow) that they also accommodate over 400 dogs! Much of their rescue efforts occurred during the terrible 2011 floods in Thailand - so many villages had to be evacuated of humans that they were forced to leave the dogs behind. The ENP team at the time took inflatable dinghys and rescued as many as they could take, bringing them home to the park for them to roam in big runs and receive the medical treatment and love so many of them desperately needed. More recently the ENP generosity and love itself is becoming abused, with owners who are fed up of their animals just dumping them at the gates of the park.Thailand has a terrible reputation for dog cruelty just because they are not highly regarded at all. Much like in England we look at rats and don't think twice about putting down pest poison for them, so too are dogs widely considered in Thailand. I'm not going to preach about the pros and cons of cultural relativity with regard to the respect awarded to and placing of different animals in different societies (although I would love to do research on that), so let's just settle on the fact that for some of the dogs Thailand doesn't want, ENP provides a home with the hope that the dogs will find their forever homes with adoptive families throughout the world.

Elephant special food and care

At ENP we show love in a huge number of ways, but we go full scale Jewish grandmother when it comes to showing love through food. The majority of our ellies are happy destroying corn stalks, grazing the park's grass, having a cheeky watermelon basket and reaching up into the canopy to break branches for the best leaves, but some of them can't.


Om nom nom banana rice balls

Tong Kham and Yai Bua have each faced years of malnutrition and abuse, and came to us in a state of starvation and sickness: both needed to gain 300kgs from their arrival weight, and their health was truly critical. For these situations we prepare rice balls: sticky white rice, salt, and nutrient pellets, all mushed together with tamarind and yellow bananas to make it taste nazz. Each ellie will get a different number of servings throughout the day depending on how much weight they need to gain or how well they take to the rice balls, and their progress is monitored to see how long they'll need these yummy grubs for.

They think it's tasty...


Elephant Invasion!

Do de do de doo, shredding some corn... poot te poot te poo, shredding more corn... Do de do de doo, bagging some corn... Poot te poot de poo, carrying some corn... Do de do de doo...
HOLY MOTHER OF MOLY THERE'S AN ELEPHANT IN THE KITCHEN.


Now what should have gone through my mind next should have been: "there's an elephant who has broken into the kitchen looking for extra food. You are carrying a bag of food. You are heading towards the elephant. You should move the food and yourself out of the nose and eye range of the elephant." 

What actually went through my mind was: "COOOOOOOOOOOL." 

Dani was really going for it, that gal. The human kitchen staff came rushing out to move their motorbikes out of her way, just in time as Dani reached up to the nearby tree and pulled down entire branches exactly where the bikes had been moments earlier as she selected the finest leaves for consumption. She used her trunk to expertly reach for the baskets of rice balls, salads, and watermelons all being prepared for the morning feeding rounds and all of which had been hastily pulled away out of her reach after her first few trunk dives had destroyed the perfectly formed batch of rice for Bou Loi. I wondered why she hadn't put her legs up yet, she could definitely climb onto the platform... 

Elephant enrichment

One of my favourite things about elephants is how hilariously destructive they are. What super precious and protected 800 year old tree? OH you mean my post mud-spray scratching post. NBD. Nope, I haven't seen your brand new motorbike, but let me show you my super awesome nail file - it's got flames up the side!


Ellies are renowned for being intensely intelligent animals. Their social intelligence enables them to remember intricate social ties between herds, recall exact locations of the burials of their relatives, and to recognise the faces of elephants they once bonded with and then were separated from for huge stretches of time. Their physical intelligence matches this, with exceptional fine motor skills which enable them to use their trunks with such dexterity that they can peel an ear of corn one leaf at a time! The very tip of their trunk has so many nerves it's hyper sensitive to touch, allowing elephants to pick up a single thin twig, break it down to ideal size, and then use it to scratch their eyelids with pin point precision and total control. Medo was an absolute boss at this - I'm pretty sure if that stick were an eyeliner pencil she'd put us all to cateye shame. For such a huge animal, it was such a shock to me to see such delicate movements!

Elephant Nature Park: Week Two

Following my incredible first week at ENP I moved onto the second week volunteer programme which was a lot more intense and closer with individual elephants than the first week. 

Week One was a brilliant introduction to ENP and the truly incredible work Lek and her entire team at the park are doing, giving me a taste of how everything clicks together and why this work is so important. Week Two, however, was an incredible experience for being so close to individual elephants, getting a lot more responsibility, and being able to get to know the inside workings of the park a little more.

Ruling the Cinema Spot with my tankard of tea


For the first few days I had an absolutely invaluable opportunity to shadow mahouts with their elephants in the jungle sections of the park which really opened my eyes to the social bonds and communication between elephants. I had never seen such free interaction between ellies and it was so beautiful to be able to observe them enjoying their natural habitat and becoming elephants again, rather than the same environment being their prison and being a slave within it. Read about these trips here!
Medo doing her thang


Elephant Nature Park: Week One

I felt at home as soon as I arrived at the Elephant Nature Park office in Chiang Mai. I knew it was going to be an amazing experience by the first 5 things I encountered through the door:
  1. Beautifully helpful, cheerful, and happy staff helping me through check in and registration
  2. Free T-shirts (1 for each week you're volunteering)
  3. The best banana muffins I've had in a long time which perfectly served my Hobbit-travelling-style food requirements for second breakfast (especially after holding my map upside down when booking my hostel, resulting in an hour long trek across Chiang Mai at 5.30AM on Day 1...)
  4. Free water bottles and over the shoulder HOLDERS. I kid you not, this is the best piece of kit I've obtained throughout 3 months of backpacking, and I am going home to make my millions by crocheting similar contraptions ready for the wild demand when Cambridge receives its annual quota of 3 days of summer. 
  5. Similarly bleary-eyed volunteers from all over the world who didn't look at me weirdly when I immediately dove into the pile of banana muffins and joined in with my overtired excitement about the bottle holders
3 muffins (ok yes, 5 in the office and 2 for the road don't judge me they were so good and there were lots of them, I was basically just making everyone else feel comfortable enough to dive in too) and 2 cups of tea later I rolled into a minibus and the dream was beginning: I was on my way to Elephant Nature Park for 2 weeks of volunteering with my favourite animals! 

This girl is so much more elegant than I am. Just look at that leg lead.

Saturday 19 March 2016

Return to Thailand: Not So Settling in Chiang Mai

Oigch. That was a Grr of an arrival. Miscommunications with the hostel resulted in my totally confirmed and definitely going to be there shuttle definitely not being there and me being totally shattered and drained after an emotional goodbye with my super awesome travel partner and boyfriend in Cambodia having to figure out how to get from A to B. I hadn't planned anything because my shuttle had been totally confirmed. It was dark, I was tired, I had no plans, and I'm scared of the dark when I'm in a new foreign place and I have no plans.

I booked an 8.0 hostel, but as soon as I laid down on my bed I knew it was going to be a terrible night. I was exhausted, it was too late to change hostel, and so I laid on my back on a mattress which appeared to genuinely be a wooden palette wrapped in styrofoam with a sheet on top. 8.0? GTFO. At 3am I was on the brink of tears as the exhaustion and frustration and pain all came to a head: I had chosen as good a place as I could, and it was still mightily shit. I climbed down from my bunk and laid on the decidedly more comfortable floor, finally drifting off to sleep. 

This is one of the best pieces of art I've ever seen, I love it

The next day I fell into my classic pattern of solo travelling: fill all the time and space which has recently been filled by companions with stuff. 11 hours of walking every street in Chiang Mai old city, exploring every temple and every market stall possible, and I was absolutely wiped out. So much so that my face genuinely caused the receptionist to ask if I was okay and whether I needed help. 

Beautifully colourful art in the markets


Fun fact: Chiang Mai is home to a lot of female-only prisons, and the city has a huge variety of prisoner-run community outreach and integration programmes including cafes, massage, restaurants, and shops. Pretty cool. 

Strange fact: walking through Chiang Mai on Valentine's Day meant I accidentally walked through a match-making festival! Couples came to be told whether they were compatible enough for a successful marriage and singletons came from all over to be blessed for better luck in love. Interesting stuff.

Shopping for love in a temple car park

That night I stole an empty low bunk in the dorm which had an actual mattress and as I sank into it I let it all wash over me. I had had a great time exploring the temples and markets, I had loved seeing the artwork paving the streets, but I was just exhausted. I couldn't wait for the prospect of staying in one place for 2 weeks. Putting my bag down and leaving it there for 2 whole weeks! Unpacking my things and not rushing to re-pack them all for the next day, taking my trainers out and not instantly reshuffling my boots to fill their gap... Most of all, I was so looking forward to seeing the same people for an entire block of time. Hostels are great for socialising and meeting new people, but everybody is on their own path and all you do in most situations is to cross paths as you both continue your trajectories. You might be in the bunk below a potential best friend, but if you're sick or tired that night and you don't feel like striking up conversation to find out, then that's the opportunity gone. To be in the same place with the same people doing the same project for the same fundamental reason: now that was a great thing to look forward to! 

Chiang Mai: where the streets are paved with art


Bring it on, Elephant Nature Park. 

Getting into the elephant mood

Wednesday 16 March 2016

My favourite butterfly from Borneo

Finally had technology to begin getting my photos from my proper camera to my cloud so I can access my nicer photos!

Monday 7 March 2016

S-21 and the Killing Fields of Phnom Penh

Graphic.

I stumbled across the Khmer Rouge when I was reading one of my forensic anthropology textbooks. I studied Modern History for 7 years - how had this never hit my radar before?! Mao's China, The Cold War, even the development of the World Wide Web, but an organised national genocide in South East Asia? Nothing. The Vietnam War was in our textbooks but never taught, and I was the only one in my class to get far enough through the read about it. Rwandan genocide? Che Guevara? Mexican drug cartels? Nope, but hey, did you know that Gerald Ford was the 38th US president and has 4 children? Wow that changes my outlook on the world.

Education, however, is difficult. As in Rwanda, Cambodia hasn't had an opportunity to be angry, mourn, or heal these events. There has been no recovery time because subsistence farmers cannot afford to take a moral stand against the neighbour who killed half their family: when you depend on the food you farm, you can't stop farming because you don't want to share the field with certain people. So then an impossibly horrible situation occurs whereby victims are forced to stand alongside their abusers and just get on. Tutsi working alongside Hutu, Khmer living alongside Khmer Rouge. It creates a suppressed anger and resentment which bubbles under he surface, locked down by a glass floor of silence: silence because it's too painful to remember, too fresh to uncover, too dangerous to talk. 

It is difficult to get a personal understanding of the Khmer Rouge because it is never, ever spoken about in Khmer society. Everybody in Cambodia was affected: families, friends, even the base people (countryside families who had never been involved in the cities) suffered from rationing and punishments even though they were considered the aspirational type of Khmer. The scars are obvious: the countryside is riddled with unmapped landmines, littered with killing fields, and blanketed in silence. The only way to learn when visiting, therefore, is to venture to the prisons and killing fields which have been memorialised for education. These are exceptional sites.

It was a bright, sunny Tuesday when I peeled myself off the rubber seats in the back of the Tuk Tuk and walked into a beautiful green courtyard. Trees lined every side, children's play bars stood at the sides of the bright green lawn, and white frangipani flowers twizzled delicately as the light breeze lifted them from their branches and carried them floating to the pavement. I sat on a wooden bench and plugged in my earphones, watching birds fly past the light yellow buildings around me and began my harrowing journey through the history of the Khmer Rouge.

Two Weeks in Cambodia - The one where I'm not a Larry!!

As with all of my countries, I had a hit list of what I wanted to do in Cambodia (Angkor Wat and genocide learning) and the rest was all up for grabs. The second week was fixed, as my partner in crime was flying out for a super awesome week in Siem Reap full of temples and celebrations and hanging out by pools together, so that left me with the first week of February to kick around in Cambodia by myself.

First up was a 7 hour bus trip to Phnom Penh filled, as ever, with the blended harmonies of Cambodian Karaoke on the TV, a man hocking and spitting to the left of me, and a woman violently vomiting to the right. Delightful. Spent the first hour becoming Kirstie the mozzie slayer, ruthlessly Jackie Chan catching and crushing mozzies with my bare hands like my brother-in-law taught me. Life skills. 




Fun fact: the dengue carrying mosquitoes are quite easy to see, as their backs have white stripes. Handy. 
Gross fact: when you kill a mosquito which has just fed, you get a smear of blood everywhere which is probably not yours. Nazz.

Whilst a night bus would be economically ideal (save a night of accommodation and half a day of exploration time!), the reputation for night buses is truly atrocious. Accidents are often not recorded, being chalked up to 'hitting a fallen log' or 'pot holes', security is terrible with reports of random extra passengers being allowed on to sit in foot wells and pathways so the drivers can get more money, and there have been numerous horror stories of sexual harassment and molestations with solo female backpackers. All in all, then, that'd be a hell to the no.

NGO Food in Cambodia

There are so many restaurants with NGO projects in Cambodia - here are some of the ones I tried and really loved.

Daughters of Cambodia
Right on the riverfront of Phnom Penh with a gorgeous balcony and craft shop below, Daughters is a great place for lunch or a people-watching snack! Learn about the work Daughters does to bring women out of sex trafficking and help them to develop skills to transform their lives, such as cooking, craft, hospitality, and more. Try any of the smoothies and you'll just fall in love with the place - banoffee is my favourite! 

 

Daughters of Cambodia, Phnom Penh

When I was 8 year old, my primary school best friend moved from sleepy Ickleton to bustling Singapore. I remember being so devastated that she'd be leaving - who would I walk around the football pitch and chat with at break time now? - and really not understanding where she was going or why. Mum got out the big atlas to show me where Singapore was, and later Phnom Penh when she moved again to Cambodia, but I still didn't understand the reason why I was walking around the pitch by myself.

12 years and the glorious Internet later, I saw a Facebook post by my friend which I didn't really get. She was wishing her Mum a happy Mother's Day, saying she was sad to not be with her but she understood that sharing her Mum with all the daughters of Cambodia was so important, and she was so proud of the work her Mum was doing. It was dissertation season so my mind skipped over the bits I didn't understand (story of 2/3 years of my degree) and I kept scrolling down my news feed, knocking back my standard cup of tea and handful of chocolate raisins. Bag of chocolate raisins. Fine yes it was a pint of milk and two bags of chocolate raisins they're one of your five a day can we move on now please and thanking you. 

Sex trafficking - Eastern Europe and South East Asia. That association has been in the back of my mind for a fair while. The media feeds us statistics, we feel bad that these things happen, and then it's back to the priority of making colour coded sticky notes for my exam revision because visual learning is a thing and I'm definitely not just procrastinating and making things look nicer. One article I do remember clearly, though, was a study using a computer generated image of a very young girl to lure people looking at her images and talking to her into actually talking to a team of police agents working on the huge operation. They modelled the girl to have very juvenile features based on those of young Cambodian girls, because Cambodians are apparently one of the most sought after people in the trade. The article went on about how successful the sting had been, but something clunked in the back of my mind. She was so little.

Sandan Restaurant, Sihanoukville

I've written a fair amount about NGO work in Cambodia, and this is another one which is worth a special mention. Similar to Daughters of Cambodia in Phnom Pehn, Sandan works to give its students a better life. Rather than escaping the sex trade, however, Sandan helps the homeless and at risk population of Sihanoukville by accepting them into their programmes and training them as chefs and front of house in their ever popular, successful, and high quality restaurant. The students get accommodation, income, and training, and we get a great meal. Win win! 

If Sandan were in London, paparazzi would buy apartments across the street. It's a glamorous place with crisp, white tablecloths, dazzlingly shiny wine glasses, and a gorgeously relaxed yet special ambiance. I went with two girls I met in my hostel and had the best meal of my travels! We were shown to our table, given wine and food menus, and made to feel like super smooth VIPs. 


Wednesday 3 February 2016

Freebies!

I looked so awful returning from a beach jog that the hostel receptionist grabbed me by the elbow and rushed me to the bar for a free beer! I'll drink to that!



Tuesday 2 February 2016

Amok!



A traditional Khmer dish, amok is a light but filling curry with a hearty kick! This beauty was a chicken version served in a coconut husk with sticky rice and a beautiful view of the riverside. 

Lush.

2 Weeks in Sabah, Borneo

Backpacking in Borneo feels like opening a Double Decker bar after a hard gym workout - a blissfully indulgent but hard earned treat.

For me, Sabah has been the gift that just keeps giving. All the grand experiences have been wonderful, but even in the daily goings-on I've learnt a great deal. Malaysia has a lot of sit-down loos, although I seem to have a knack for finding the remaining holes in the ground in desperate times. Unlike in India when I accidentally locked myself in to one and the school caretaker nearly performed an exorcism and Kenya where I lost my balance and plunged foot first straight down said hole, I seem to have finally mastered the art of not being completely incompetent in this division. Embrace the victories, right?

My wonderful hostel owners in KK made me feel like family, taking care of me when I staggered down the stairs after climbing and making sure I had enough to eat on long bus journeys. The scenery I just can't gush enough about. The mountains, jungle, rainforest, beaches, waterfalls, fruit, wildlife - I just can't get enough! I even took a 6 9 hour bus from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan to see more of it rather than a 40 minute flight, which was only slightly tainted by the looping soundtrack of farting, burping, spitting, and retching coming from across the aisle...

In my first week I explored the city, went to the beach, got lost in a night market, had a magnificent day at the Sabah Ethnology Museum, and climbed Mount Kinabalu. The infamous Gaya Sunday Market was sprawling with tourist trinkets and local foods, but for me the terrible conditions and treatment of animals for sale was far too negative to outweigh these. The regular night market is very tame, however, and is just crammed with locals, food, and clothes. Week 2 was also exciting, with 3 days in the jungle wildlife spotting, visiting the best orangutan sanctuary I've experienced, island hopping, and eating my way through the city again, including the Gaya Street Chinese New Year kick off festival! No such thing as too much dim sum. I also spent 2 weeks being chronically underdressed compared to the super snazzy holidaymakers from China and Korea, decked out in the most beautifully Pinterest outfits and heels with perfectly porcelain faces despite the 35 degree heat. That's talent, my friends.


Manutik Island, Kota Kinabalu

Monday 1 February 2016

Mowgli Time! The Kinabatangan River and Jungle

Brace yourself, I'm very excited. Almost as excited as I was when I Skyped Tom to tell him I was going offline for a few days because I was going to the JUNGLE! I said Lara Croft, he said Eliza Thornberry, we settled on a Dora the Explorer/The Magic Schoolbus crossover. I think I lost out there. 

After an 8 hour bus from KK to Sandakan and a night there to refresh, I was picked up in Sandakan by a minivan and whisked away to the Kinbatangan river within 3 hours, stopping to pick up other people along the way and bumping our way along the last few "roads" to the crossing point. We got into a boat and hopped over to the other side of the river, climbed a plank and plunged straight into the jungle at the Nature Resort Kinbatangan! 

Loving life in the second row


The resort is absolutely glorious. A row of wood cabins lined the path to the reception centre, secluded from each other by free growing jungle and the occasional monitor lizard. The first thing that struck me was the pure quiet of it all - no phones tapping, no Whatsapp buzzes, nothing. The second thing was how noisy it all was, but gloriously so! Dragonflies buzzing, birds calling, cicadas making smoke with their back legs - so much noise which I never normally hear, and it was lush. After checking in and an ice cold glass of rose cordial I skipped off to my dorm with 3 of my bus pals, delighted to find comfy beds and a bug screen across the window - I like nature, but not enough to cuddle up to a bazillion mozzies every night.

Sunday 31 January 2016

Focus


Pub Street, Siem Reap 

Sometimes a shot just comes for you - I was waiting for my totally nutritious chocolate and banana pancake to be made when I got this!

#theyseemerollin

Saturday 30 January 2016

Headhunting and House Building - Exploring Sabah Museum!

I have a very established love/hate relationship with museums. I know I should think "WOO YAY knowledge and learning and new stuff!" but I invariably think "oigh, blurry plaques and looking at 8 million identical ceramic plates, thrillsville...". In what seems to be becoming a regular event now, Sabah Museum turned my expectations upside down by being an interactive version of the Discovery Channel, and my memories of The Magic Schoolbus came rushing forwards! 

Having held my map the correct way and followed to the spot the museum allegedly stood, I landed in the middle of a patch of deserted rainforest, having left all cars, road signs, and recognisable paths far behind. I climbed for 15 minutes, past an abandoned ticket booth with smashed windows and no signs of human life in sight, genuinely wondering if I had accidentally strolled into the set for the next Jurassic Park.

Not creepy at all...

When I reached the top, I emerged from a dense bush of sticky fern leaves to see, very clearly, the entrance gate standing approximately 200m to my left and on the opposite side of the buildings. For all my excellent map handling skills, I had come from the back.

Brushing myself off and regaining sweaty, sweaty composure, I got my entrance ticket and wifi code (?!) to use with their interactive QR codes on different exhibits, and I skipped through the sweeping doors into the beautifully chilly museum. Instantly hit with "NO PHOTO" signs my heart sank a little because it already looked so cool, but actually I think it was a great thing as it made me really pay attention and learn about what I was seeing, in order to describe it properly. So brace for geeky excitement, because it was awesome

As in all great educational love stories, it starts with a bloody massive whale skeleton. Bryde's whale, to be exact, and it was huge.

Coral and Coconuts: Beach Hunting and Island Hopping in Kota Kinabalu

Before you even think about island hopping from KK, make sure you check out the divinely deserted Tanjung Aru beach is a long stretch located on the West side of the city. Gorgeously shady park and water which can genuinely be described as hot, Tanjung Aru is a lovely mainland alternative to jumping on a ferry. The downside to this beautifully quiet beach is that there are no food or drink sellers, so make sure you grab some food on the way. You'll want the number 16 bus from Marina Court if you're going local, and the fare is 5RM. If your visit is like mine, you'll only be sharing the beach with crabs and monitor lizards!


U wot m8

If you're determined to leave the mainland, Kota Kinabalu has a group of 5 islands within a 15 minute ferry ride from Jessleton Point, which is 15 mins walk from the Centre Point Mall. First up is the ticket hall, in which 10 desks of tour agencies flog exactly the same tours at exactly the same prices! Some of these touts can get quite aggressive though, so just move along to the next one if you don't like the treatment. This is definitely one of those times where you haggle even though the price is written down. Touts end up adding on all sorts of "marine taxes" which are absolute pocket padders so argue it heartily! A 2 island trip should cost you 30RM at the desk, and then 10RM at the first island as "conservation tax" - if you're hopping, keep hold of the receipt for this one otherwise you'll be paying it at every island! 

Sea View Sandakan - Hostel Review

Great food, nice staff, but that's it. Rough but well meaning, this hostel is basic but does the job. For 20MR per night it makes for a good quick stop between activities - I stayed here for 1 night when I took the bus from KK to Sandakan. 

Location 4/5
Good, right on the seafront and between the local Central Market with food courts and the Harbour Mall with clothes, pharmacies, etc.

PODs Backpackers - Hostel Review

A small, quiet hostel in a great location. 35RM per night and lots of freebies available in the fridge and cupboards! 

Location 5/5
Great, on the main road by the seafront and next to the Centre Point mall. 2 mins walk from the huge food night market, and just 5 mins from the clothing night markets. Right next to the local bus hub and opposite the waterfront bars and decking. Very convenient for everything in the city!

How To Organise Climbing Mount Kinabalu

When I was trying to sort out my climb, I couldn't find anything recent on the Internet to help me along the way. So, just in case anyone else is in the same boat, I hope this helps a little!

Here is my post about the climb itself, in case you need any more inspiration to get your boots on and feed your soul some mountain air! 

The view from the registration office



Fitness

Some crazies climb Kinabalu as a race, whilst others take it as a hearty stroll. You don't need to be a gym junkie to climb Kinabalu, but the better fitness you have the easier and more enjoyable the experience will be. Nobody gets points for having to be carried down the mountain by the rescue squad, so at the very least do some training on staircases before you attempt the climb! You should at least be able to climb the equivalent of 12 staircases without stopping, but the mountain pace is slow and steady so you're not going to be bolting anywhere. It's a tiring and challenging course and as with a lot of physical things it's mainly about your attitude. 

A lot of people climb mount Kinabalu with no hiking experience at all. It's doable, but it'll be slow and hard and your legs will be jelly on the way down! That's not to put you off, it's just to give you a realistic view. If you have dodgy knees, the way down is likely to aggravate those bad boys more than a salt rub to sunburn, so be prepared with some supports or, in the footsteps of an Aussie I met on the way, have a crate waiting for you at the bottom!


Friday 29 January 2016

Cheeky Macaque


Caught this cheeky little macaque scampering up a tree on the Kinabatangan River! Beautiful guy and such a brilliant jungle trip. Post coming soon!

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Hanger is real


We all have those days where you just have to put your foot on the basket and take all the food 😊

Saturday 23 January 2016

Sunset at Laban Rata



Climbing Mount Kinabalu

Intense and awe inspiring, Mount Kinabalu is the 20th most prominent mountain in the world and the most exciting, challenging, and humbling experience I have ever had. 

Day One

6am
Nailed it. Bag is 50% clothing, 50% snacks. All over this.

More likely to lose a foot to diabetes than hypothermia on this one
Just about to leave my hostel when the head chef calls me back and asks where I'm going. In his soft, old grandpa voice he speaks slowly:
"Ooooh. The mountain... You know people died in June? ... Nobody saw the quake coming... 7am, just after the sunrise... Schoolchildren, you know? ... No warning... Nature can be cruel..." And then, with a Professor Trelawney type snap of voice he said:
"Do not leave your guide, Miss Kirsten. Never leave your guide. Stick to him, and don't leave him."

My van horn beeped outside and I bid Hostel Grandpa adieu, thanking him for his advice and simultaneously trying to shake it off.