Wanderlust is defined as a strong desire to travel, and it holds true that not all who wander are lost. I am a solo female traveler (although I don't always feel alone) and I hope the sharing of my experiences inspires others to travel!
¨When you cease to dream, you cease to live¨~Malcom S Forbes.
"I'm in love with cities I've never been to, and people I've never met."~John Green
Earlier this week, I passed my 1 month anniversary here in Australia. What a nonstop whirlwind it has been, full of something to do everyday and every night. I'm finally feeling like I know where I am, have my bearings, and have gotten so used to things that I sometimes forget I'm in Australia. But some things keep you grounded here, remind you that you are down unda.
I was walking around Camberwell, and found this..... um, that baby toy has no head. Does that classify as recycling?
Australia: The land where they drive on the left side, line dry their clothes and dishes, constantly say 'no worries,' vegemite and nutella are indeed everywhere, they don't drink Fosters, they almost never call each other by their first name, and they are genuinely nice people.
"Sagittarius: Cheerful, Enthusiastic, Generous"
Australia: Where everything is abbreviated like breakfast is brekkie, arvo is afternoon, and chocolate is choco. They add a 'u' into labor, color, neighbour and tons of other words. They call you Sheila and Mate all the time,
Australia: A place with great names for places like Warnnambool, Gippsland, Dandenong,
Geelong, Great Otway, Ningaloo, Woolloomooloo, Lilly Pilly Gully Circuit. (Thanks Holly)
Some of you may of heard of life cycles, that’s to say repetitive
cyclical events reoccurring throughout your life. Some people talk about them
in religious or spiritual contexts; like the 7 year cycle of Chakras and human
development. Or, some people talk about them in the context of relationships; a
great friend once talked about a 7 year cycle of relationships – if you can
make it 7 years, you can make it for life!
Well it has recently occurred to me that I have a traveling
cycle, and not until I booked my trip a couple of weeks ago, did I realize that
I have a 2 year max before my feet get too itchy to handle. So let’s
take it back to the first trip – Honduras Summer 2006 ( I caught the
international bug and it STUCK) – South America trip 2008 – 2009 (found my home
away from home) – Southeast Asia 2011 (tried something new and different) – and
now 2 years later, I’ve booked my trip to Australia !! Now keep in mind this
isn’t a conscious decision, something just bubbles up in me and that little
voice in my head (which I highly recommend listening to) says “it has been too
long…. Let’s get moving…”
So, Australia you say!? Some of you may be totally excited,
some of you may be surprised, some of you may thinking you’d like to visit me, some
of you may be disappointed it isn’t Croatia or something obscure. Well as “normal”
(I use that hesitantly) and “familiar” as Australia may sounds, let’s take a
closer look at this country I’m headed to….. see below…. Hold your
laughs/screams.
You see that extremely gorgeous amazing face in the south?
Your eyes do not deceive you, that is not Marilyn Monroe, it’s ME! While you may see danger in that I’m
surrounded by sharks, mosquitoes stingrays and Tasmanian devils…. I see
opportunity. Now while I don’t always wrestle Tasmanian devils… out swim sharks….
And remove DNA from a mosquito and petrify it in tree sap in order to bring it
back millions of years later…but when I do, I drink Dos X’s . (Wow there were
so many pop culture references in that, I amazed myself! ) Anyways, I bring that up because I want to
emphasize that hopefully I’ll be weekend warrioring.
[Now after that intermission, I return back to reality]
I will be living in the city of Melbourne, going to school
there for a semester (trimester). I’ll be in school, in classes, studying
global studies subjects, getting ‘er done like a boss. I leave June 25 (and will be back before the end of the year). I’m very excited for
this opportunity to be an exchange student, I think this trip will be very
memorable. While being a backpacker is fantastic and I love that lifestyle, I’m
excited to try a different way of traveling. This will mean that I’ll have a
home base (don’t know where yet), and I hope to get involved with some kind of
work or volunteer opportunity to get even more involved in the culture.
I want to encourage people to come visit me, if they’re
interested. It would be a fantastic opportunity. And if you are a student (or
under 26) , you can get some pretty decent discounts on tickets.
So what do you say, let’s throw another shrimp on da barbi!!!
The ever popular phrase in Southeast Asia of 'Same Same, but Different' is all to right. Laos is the same as other southeast Asian countries, but definitely different.
I decided I want to experience some more jungle by heading to northern Laos to the city of Luang Nam Tha, a hot spot for trekking. Although the weather had been cold and rainy north of Luang Prabang, I was looking forward to the change of climate to cool the blood. It is a small town tucked away in the jungle mountains. I decided I would like to really get to know the scenery, so I booked a 3 day 2 night trek through the Laos jungle. I know, totally normal right.
Well I knew it would be a good trek when I met my guide, a nice Laos guy, named Porn. Umm....yea. Atleast this will be a humorous trek! So we headed off on the first day outside of town into the National Protected Area (NPA) - these NPA's only started coming to fruition in the 1990's. It is more evidence that Laos has had a tumultuous history. We headed out from a small rural village within the NPA with a smile after we saw a little boy running around with no pants with a blown up condom on a string as a balloon. Told you it would be a humorous trek!
Our group, Ria (Canada), Porn, another local guide from the village, and myself, crossed the river and trekked the first day for 5 hours. The jungle has all elements of a jungle in your imagination, rivers, big trees, big leaves, birds with ever sound, hills, valleys, slippery mud etc...but the difference between this jungle and any other i've trekked is that there is Bamboo everywhere. Most of the houses and such in the Laos area are made out of bamboo, and this is really durable useful stuff. As seen when we arrived at our 'camp'- an open air bamboo platform near the river with mosquito netting. Perfect. We set up our sleeping bags and then started a fire and dinner. All dinner, lunch, and breakfast was eaten on banana leaves and with your hands, but DELICIOUS!!! Sticky rice is the staple food in Laos. It is rice in the sense of it, but glutonous so that it sticks together in a big clump, and you pick off a decent portion, clump it into a ball, and then grab food of another dish (i.e tomato and potatoes) with the sticky rice in you hands and indulge- YUMMY! (i'm really loving the cuisine aspect of SE Asia). So we finished off dinner and sat around the fire and chatted, and presumed customary Lao tradition by drinking Lao Lao. This fire whiskey is made from rice and all Laos drink it, so we proceeded to be Lao and drank an entire bottle (Our guide Porn said that is tradition to drink the whole bottle- you can't very well cap it and drink it tomorrow! of course haha) It was all good fun though (and humorous!).
After a rainy and cold night, we started the next day trek, up and down, up and down, exhausting. We made our stop for lunch after a couple hours trekking in this very small rural village on the river where their primary language is their own dialect, and secondary language being Lao. They were friendly people and the kids loved the little toys Ria and I brought. Not to mention all the pigs, chickens, and naked babies running around your feet. Priceless.
I looked around and couldn't help but notice how little these people in this village seemed to have. Bamboo huts, bottles of Lao Lao, and a couple of farm animals. But these people seemed genuinely happy, and I couldn't help but wonder, is less more?
These people have so much less material wealth, but seem to be content with their lives, would you be happier with more, or less?
We thanked them for the stop and continued along the river for awhile to the next village where we stayed the night. Ria and I bathed in the river, which is done in a sarong like the locals, as to not offend anybody by showing too much skin. Laos people are quite conservative. Afterwards we played with all the children, teaching them Tic Tac Toe in the dirt, Rock Paper Scissors, and showed them the simply flying toys we had brought. They were elated. Later, we headed up to their school, which was a building with one room the size of my garage. They had one teacher and three classes in this one room. It being Sunday, there was nobody there for school, so we proceeded to draw on the chalkboard and practice Laos words and English words...and again play that highly entertaining game of Tic TacToe (oolala). The afternoon spent with the kids was the best part of the trek, well not to mention the happiness of endorphins!
That night after eating the chicken we had just watched them kill, pluck, and boil, we enjoyed more sticky rice, another Lao Lao whiskey bottle and company of a bunch of Lao guys asking us to sing American songs in exchange for their reciting Laos tradition music. Fair trade- although our singing was poor, they couldn't tell the difference!
The next morning, we set out parallel to the river and continued through the jungle, but eventually came to some really lovely views of the rolling green jungle mountains. We trekked for 4 or 5 hours that day until we arrived to town, sore, hungry, happy, and in the mood for a burger and a beer!!
It was a fantastic trek, and I'm very happy I did it. It was a great way to spend three days and really get a feel for Laos culture.
Well I've left the town of Mae Sot, and I was sad to see it go, especially the kids I grew so much to like in the past two weeks. I will miss that town. But I feel I left it in good hands because a new batch of teachers came in that will be staying for 2 months. I spent the last couple of days wrapping things up and saying good bye to friends that I had met and spent time with in Mae Sot.
Another reason for me leaving is that my Visa is up March 20th for Thailand...so I've got to boogy out of the country. And even though you may put the dots together and ask 'Why do you have to leave if you are on a border town with Burma?' Good question...well because of recent issues with the Thai and Burmese at this particular border town, as well as the elections in Burma, this border has been closed since July.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Mae Sot, and it reminds me to keep my ears open for more volunteer positions. I have found them to be the most rewarding memories and connections you make while traveling. Whether it is with the foreigners you meet doing similar things, or with the local people you interact with while trying to complete something.
Me with one of my classes. :-)
So I head north on the twisty and windyroads toward Mae Sariang and Mae Hong Son ( I know pronunciation is tough, but you get it while you are here) I went by sungtao, the name for a pickup truck with a fancy bench set-up in the bed of the truck. Well...at least they are good for some fresh air...and some rain to the face.
On my way out of Mae Sot on an absolutely beautiful ride through the northern jungle and mountains of Thailand...it started to rain. I didn't know at the time that this would be the beginning of 4 days straight of rain...had I known, I would of, well I wouldn't of done anything...maybe bought a scarf!! BBrrrr....Cold for the first time in Thailand. I stopped after an awesome sungtao ride in Mae Sariang and stayed the night there. I was treated in luxury with delicious green curry with chicken, yummy coffee, the sounds of rain, red silk sheets (:-O gasp!) as well as a TV!!!!!! Out of all those things, let whichever you want amaze you or catch your interest...whether some yummy curry sounds good to you, or the red silky sheets sound sultry, or perhaps you are interested in what I watched on TV. If not, i'm going to tell you anyways, so get over it and read on !! When flipping through the channels of Thai TV we were confronted with the following choices...
News about the unfortunate Japan earthquake (in Thai, so not as informative as you think)
Thai 'MTV' with the newest and greatest Thai-pop
Ten Things I Hate about you II (yes there is a second one!)
Raising woodstock (questionable)
Australian hippie shows
A live video cam of random coffee shops (no acting no sound, just the video camera recording customers, and the occasional water spill or security gaurd)
And just when you thought there wasn't any more, the winner! A 24 hourLIVE video cam of a zoo PANDA!!!!! Yes the station shows 24/7 a video camera of a Panda. FYI since we watched some, Pandas don't do much at all but sleep sleep and walk around. Boring, but there is a TV channel showing it 24/7- only in Asia!!
From Mae Sariang, I headed to Mae Hong Son. I had run into one of my students from Mae Sot school at the bus station and we made the trip together. And yes, it was still raining. Mae Hong Son was a nice mountain town surrounding a small lake/pond with Burmese/Shan influence showing in their Wats (remember a Wat is a temple) I couldn't see much because it was torrentially downpouring all day, but Brad sent me some handy information about that particular town, sweet that he is. There are many hillside tribal communities around there, including the Longneck tribes. They are famous for their necks being abnormally long, it is because they were the coils on the neck and each year they add a coil, extending their neck even further. I had a girl in my school at Mae Sot who did this for part of her childhood and did have a longer than normal neck. I only spent a day there and moved on, in hopes of escaping the rain.
Mae Hong Song and the lake. In the back Burmese Shan tribe temples
I moved onto Pai, the hippy village of the North. The town name is pronounced Pie or Pi and it is pretty hippy-ed out. By that I mean there are places to get dreadlocks done all around, people with dreads all around, hippy people, laid back atmosphere and full of things for foreigners to do when they cross long distances to be with other foreigners. An interesting place to walk around. But the real beauty was surrounding.I met a friend and we rented motorbikes (100 Baht for 24 hours (approx. 3 dollars- then add in gas)). First stop of the day was at Mor Paeng waterfall a couple of kilometers outside of town. A pleasant little waterfall that looked strickingly similar to Three Sisters in the San Diego county area near Julian. From there, after a strong (and possibly spiked) jug of coffee at this local hippy Thai place... we headed to a hillside Wat (temple) that overlooked the beautiful valley of Pai. An interesting thing that struck me is how brown the landscape is. Because it is March, and this month along with April and May are the Hot and dry seasons in most of SE Asia. There isn't the lush tropical forest you think of when you think of Asia...at least no this time of year. After the hillside temple, we headed to the Pai Hotsprings, but were met with a pleasant roadside surprise...ELEPHANTS!!! There was an elephant training camp or elephant refugee place on the road and right there were two amazing elephants, Mai and Po. I was able to touch the elephants and everything. They are amazing creatures when you get up close. Videos and seeing them from afar at the Zoo doesn't do these animals justice. Just remarkable really! Their skin so rough yet soft and their huge trunks you can hug. And they love to get their ears rubbed. I can't really describe it much better than I was jaw-dropped and lost track of time just looking and touching these animals. The day's (and possibly a trip) top so far! We continued on to the Pai Hot springs and enjoyed a soak in the pools for a $2.50 (i know you are jealous) . Finishing off the day riding around at sunset through the hills and valleys and rivers of the countryside and headed to Pai Canyon. A cool little scene for a beautiful sunset. I was QUITE the day indeed!!!
Can you say Classy Red Scooter!?!
A pretty roadside cafe
Waxing never seemed so enticing
As of now, I'm on a break from the bus headed to Laos. By tomorrow morning (my time) I'll be in Laos, my second country of SouthEast Asia. Until then, life is definitely good.
