Last three places visited
Cape Town
Budapest
Portugal
(and in the UK, bath and longleat!)
Next three places to visit
Woburn abbey (safari park!)
China /South Korea/ Japan
South East Asia
Favourite 5 places
1. Ipoh
2. Rome
3. Lisbon
4. Cape town
5. London
5 essential travel items
1. Swiss army knife
2. vaselene
3. pencil/ pen
4. sarong/ spring scarf
5. JW (!)
Favourite type of holiday
Lots of culture, nature and warm weather! With as little fellow tourists as possible.
5 places I'd like to visit in the next 5 years
1. USA
2. South America
3. India
4. Eygpt and Jordan
5. New Zealand
Where I wouldnt like to visit
Im not that bothered about Dubai (I have been stuck in the airport for 7 hours so maybe that counts already) The idea of loads of rich people in the middle of a brand spanking new city in the middle of the desert does not excite me.
Coldest place
Budapest was pretty damn cold, Ive never felt such icy wind- although luckily we had a lovely warm spa baths in our hotel to retreat to.
Hottest place
It's gotta be Sudan. My dad was living a cabin literally in the middle of the desert, and I remember one day the generator broke down, so the air con (An essential in the desert) turned off- Ive never been so hot in my life!
Best wildlife seen
South Africa was pretty amazing- Whales, baboons etc. But Sudan was pretty good, we saw a massive moniter lizard, lots of desert gerbals, many scarily massive insects and of course Camels!
Best food
Very hard one, but probably Morrocco.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Monday, 28 June 2010
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Putting me on a downer
The other night I want out for a leaving do at work, and got chatting to this guy who has just started working there.
The conversation got onto how I'm going travelling, and his eyes lit up
he started ranting about how he is the 'expert' on travelling and he has been to every country in the world and how I can ask him for advice because he is the expert.
He asked me where I was going, and before I could get past china, he started ranting intensely
HIM: 'Oh, don't go to china, you'll hate it and you'll get bored. Do you know they don't speak English? if you dont speak the language you'll be fucked. Don't go there you wont be able to cope'
ME: 'Well, I'm planning on learning some of the basics, I think Ill cope!'
HIM: 'oh no, you don't understand they don't have clubs and bars you know'
ME: (laughing at this now) 'I'm not really going for that reason, I'm not going to get pissed every night!'
He continued on like this ranting for ages,
saying that 'hes just concerned that no one has told me the bad part, how i don't know how it will feel to be the only white person.
I explained (getting a bit annoyed by this point) that I had travelled and I'm not ignorant.
And he shot back 'where have you been travelling'
so I explained about my childhood, and how yes I had experienced culture shock, and how in Sudan in particular I knew how it felt to be the only white person in the room.
He shot back again 'no, no its not like Sudan, its fucked up you don't understand'
At this point I was just sick of his ranting so i said that he was so negative and he was putting me on a downer, and went to buy a drink.
The whole thing just really pissed me off.
And actually it didn't put me off travelling or going to china,
It actually made me worried about meeting people like him when we are travelling!
The kind of person who travels to get pissed in every country and spends all his time with fellow English people drinking lager and shagging the local whores.
The kind that when you meet in a hostel asks 'have you 'done' south America yet?' and tells anecdotes about how he was 'fucked up' and punched a tuk tuk driver in Vietnam.
Its the side of travelling that fills me with dread.
Ignorant English speakers drinking their way around the world, not giving two shits about the countries they are trampling through.
The conversation got onto how I'm going travelling, and his eyes lit up
he started ranting about how he is the 'expert' on travelling and he has been to every country in the world and how I can ask him for advice because he is the expert.
He asked me where I was going, and before I could get past china, he started ranting intensely
HIM: 'Oh, don't go to china, you'll hate it and you'll get bored. Do you know they don't speak English? if you dont speak the language you'll be fucked. Don't go there you wont be able to cope'
ME: 'Well, I'm planning on learning some of the basics, I think Ill cope!'
HIM: 'oh no, you don't understand they don't have clubs and bars you know'
ME: (laughing at this now) 'I'm not really going for that reason, I'm not going to get pissed every night!'
He continued on like this ranting for ages,
saying that 'hes just concerned that no one has told me the bad part, how i don't know how it will feel to be the only white person.
I explained (getting a bit annoyed by this point) that I had travelled and I'm not ignorant.
And he shot back 'where have you been travelling'
so I explained about my childhood, and how yes I had experienced culture shock, and how in Sudan in particular I knew how it felt to be the only white person in the room.
He shot back again 'no, no its not like Sudan, its fucked up you don't understand'
At this point I was just sick of his ranting so i said that he was so negative and he was putting me on a downer, and went to buy a drink.
The whole thing just really pissed me off.
And actually it didn't put me off travelling or going to china,
It actually made me worried about meeting people like him when we are travelling!
The kind of person who travels to get pissed in every country and spends all his time with fellow English people drinking lager and shagging the local whores.
The kind that when you meet in a hostel asks 'have you 'done' south America yet?' and tells anecdotes about how he was 'fucked up' and punched a tuk tuk driver in Vietnam.
Its the side of travelling that fills me with dread.
Ignorant English speakers drinking their way around the world, not giving two shits about the countries they are trampling through.
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
So close and yet so far...
Sometimes I feel so far away from travelling.
I wonder sometimes when things are going shit, if it will happen at all.
Work is so shit at the moment, people are going like rats leaving a sinking ship, my boss made a snide comment when I had a day off that I'm probably looking for a new job too (how funny! Little does she know!)
There is no point in finding a new job for only a few months, but sometimes I wonder if I can hold out in this job....
I was speaking to someone yesterday who told me to just go for it, book the tickets and set yourself a deadline, fuck it if you havent saved our target amount.
otherwise we'll just pushing it further back, and back and back.
He's right of course, because what we first talked about doing in September/October is turning into more like December/ January.
I think I might just take his advice and buy the plane tickets! eek.
I wonder sometimes when things are going shit, if it will happen at all.
Work is so shit at the moment, people are going like rats leaving a sinking ship, my boss made a snide comment when I had a day off that I'm probably looking for a new job too (how funny! Little does she know!)
There is no point in finding a new job for only a few months, but sometimes I wonder if I can hold out in this job....
I was speaking to someone yesterday who told me to just go for it, book the tickets and set yourself a deadline, fuck it if you havent saved our target amount.
otherwise we'll just pushing it further back, and back and back.
He's right of course, because what we first talked about doing in September/October is turning into more like December/ January.
I think I might just take his advice and buy the plane tickets! eek.
Monday, 7 June 2010
Air Asia Routes
Looking at possible flights to travel between countries,
Air Asia always gets loads of backpackers recommending it for cheap flights.
But actually I was frustrated that they didn't have what I need and have pretty limited flight routes, everything goes through KL and Bangkok
I was looking for a Japan (possibly Kansai airport) to Shanghai, China flight as a possible way to cut down transit cost (the boat is about £200)
And a Vientiane, Laos to Bangkok flight to get around the visa issues of coming into Thailand overland.
Air Asia always gets loads of backpackers recommending it for cheap flights.
But actually I was frustrated that they didn't have what I need and have pretty limited flight routes, everything goes through KL and Bangkok
I was looking for a Japan (possibly Kansai airport) to Shanghai, China flight as a possible way to cut down transit cost (the boat is about £200)
And a Vientiane, Laos to Bangkok flight to get around the visa issues of coming into Thailand overland.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
money and dates..
I put a big chunk of money in my travel savings account yesterday.
It was such a good feeling, like the ball is really rolling y'know?
So, Im still worried about money, but at least I feel like im doing something about it.
Im trying to not spend money on stupid things, and Ive been bring packed lunches to work and stuff (although on a hot sunny day like today, im gutted I only brought in tinned soup!)
Ive been thinking about dates, and wondering if its really all that bad if we dont leave till a few months later than planned, cos' at least that gives us some time to save up more.
And I dont really want to rely on asking my parents to help us out.
Th eonly thing is im not sure I could stand any extra time at my job, Im so bored and pissed off here, and I dont think I could cope with organising another Christmas in this company :(
My aim was always to be gone before Christmas, but that only leaves us 6 (ish) months to save and organise everything.
Which may seem like a lot of time, but saving the amount of money we need for a year is not easy.
It was such a good feeling, like the ball is really rolling y'know?
So, Im still worried about money, but at least I feel like im doing something about it.
Im trying to not spend money on stupid things, and Ive been bring packed lunches to work and stuff (although on a hot sunny day like today, im gutted I only brought in tinned soup!)
Ive been thinking about dates, and wondering if its really all that bad if we dont leave till a few months later than planned, cos' at least that gives us some time to save up more.
And I dont really want to rely on asking my parents to help us out.
Th eonly thing is im not sure I could stand any extra time at my job, Im so bored and pissed off here, and I dont think I could cope with organising another Christmas in this company :(
My aim was always to be gone before Christmas, but that only leaves us 6 (ish) months to save and organise everything.
Which may seem like a lot of time, but saving the amount of money we need for a year is not easy.
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
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