KatieHedgecock

Hello, So, after leaving Singapore, and upon the recommendation of numerous Aussies, I headed down to Bali. Due to delays, I ended up arriving at about 1 in the morning, which is obviously not ideal. I ended up getting a taxi into Kuta for the night with another couple off the plane. Once there, we spent ages looking for a cheap, available hotel, as it was late, so everyone was either just saying "full" and going back to sleep, or trying to charge us around 200,000 Rupiah. Eventually we found one for 150,000 which was still a lot, but by that time we didn't care so much. After chucking down our bags, we did what was expected of us (being in Kuta) and went out to buy some beers before hitting the beach. This turned out ... read more

Hi again, After leaving Bangkok I arrived in Malaysia at about 1am as the plane was delayed. This wasn't such a big deal, up until I discovered the coupon system that keeps the taxi drivers honest closed at midnight, so I had to get a massively expensive taxi into town as they all seemed to have a mutual agreement not to use the meter. After going on a detour to some hotel that the driver undoubtedly would've got commission from, he reluctantly agreed to go where I had asked, and I finally got to Chinatown. Here I checked into the first and cheapest hostel, a place called Le Village. It quickly became apparent why it was the cheapest in KL, as I turned up at 2am to find all the guests still up playing poker, and ... read more

Hi again :) I left Baan Dada for the last time in a minivan to Kanchanaburi with Matte and Mathijs. It was a very long and boring trip, but we eventually arrived in Kanchana 4 hours later, just in time for lunch. After eating Mathijs and Machteld went on to Bangkok, and I got a motorbike taxi over to Jolly Frogs to meet up with Dada and the kids, who should've arrived already, having left at 7am. 4 hours later, Dada 2 turned up, and an hour after that Dada 1 finally drove up with the kids in the little truck. It turned out they couldn't all fit in the truck, so Dada had had to do some last minute welding to attach bars to the roof to tie things on to, and they hadn't actually ... read more

Dal Lentils Cumin Tumeric Paprika Water Ginger Potato Soak Lentils, Fry Tumeric cumin paprika and ginger, add lentils and water, boil for 10mins, add potato and simmer for an hour ish Stir Fry Chickpeas Tofu Oil Yoghurt Corriander Sweet and Sour 2 Cups tamarind Sugar Carrot Tomato Pineapple Salt Soy Sauce Chilli Potato Tofu Boil potato, fry tofu, mix everything up and simmer. Tofu Chilli Sauce Tomatos Cabbage Crumbled Tofu Ginger Chilli Lemon leaves Soy Sauce Salt Fry tofu, remove, fry everything else, add a bit of water, add tofu, simmer, add lemon leaves Fried Tofu Tofu Carrots Beans Tomatoes Soy Sauce Tamarind Rice Fry Tofu, remove, fry everything else, add tofu Avocado Shake 1 avocado 1 tbsp br sugar/honey 2 cup condensed milk or soy milk or yoghurt or milk or ... read more

We got back from the camping trip near the end of January, and as such, it was time for a trip into one of the Burmese border villages to administer vaccinations. Me, Matte and Mathijs got up at half 5 as requested, to discover everyone else in bed, apart from Dada 2 who was meditating, and therefore being generally uncommunicative. After about half an hour, Dada emerged and we started packing ice blocks into cool boxes to keep the vaccines cold enough for the entire trip. At around 8am (2 hours later than planned), me, Mathijs, Matte, the medic and 2 random Thai guys squeezed into a jeep more designed to look cool than be comfortable - someone had removed the seat cushions in the back and replaced them with speakers. In the end Mathijs had ... read more

We set off early in the morning in the truck to make the short drive to the kids school, in order to go camping with 200 of the scouts there. When we arrived we had to wait around whilst they did formal things like saluting and standing in columns. Whilst waiting, we were approached by a scout leader (a 40 year old guy complete with shorts and neck-tie - not a good look), who got us all to write our names next to some Thai text on a piece of paper, then split us up and made us stand with our assigned columns. I was with Tarapon and her group of "Sparrows", Yeo and his group of "Lions", and a chubby woman who was the 'Leader' and insisted on giving me an incredibly silly scout leader ... read more

At the start of this week we got 2 new volunteers, Dionne (Emily's friend) and Jenna. They are both in their 20s and are pretty cool. General things happening here. We went into Sangkhla one day which was fairly dull, the only saving being we had chocolate ice lollies filled with condensed milk - so good! On Thursday we did our normal trip into the Thursday morning markets in Huay Ma Lai to buy condensed milk pancakes, chickpea wraps and sticky rice. Then we celebrated B's last day here by going for a walk in the surrounding jungle which was pretty cool, and making banana cake, which took all afternoon as we had to cook it in an old school brick oven that was heated by a wood fire that we had to keep topping up. ... read more