Meaningful Tour of Thailand One of the things which compelled me to sign up for this tour was the unique mix of volunteer placements, educational experiences, and obligatory tourist traps that it entailed. I’ve been on organized tours before, but this one, as the name implied, seemed more meaningful. Case in Point: After experiencing the edgy, chaotic charm of Bangkok, our group was scheduled to spend almost a week in the town of Lopburi, where we would be staying in a Buddhist Monastery and learning the art of Thai massage, meditation, and yoga. This was an unbel [View Full Entry]

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Introduction to Thailand I arrived in Thailand, the next country on my 1 year odyssey, with a sense of anticipation humming under my skin and absolutely no idea of what to expect. At the beginning of this trip, I had every minute mapped out and documented in a handy waterproof notebook. I had even colour coded the chapters by country and cross referenced relevant contact information. It didn’t matter that I never actually referred to this cacophony of information while traveling; it still existed as a sort of safety blanket in my backpack. However, during one of my lugga [View Full Entry]

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Teaching in Tuka This year I passed what was perhaps the most unusual birthday of my life. Not only was I 10,000 miles from home, but I also ended up spending my 26th birthday country-hopping from Singapore to Indonesia, sleeping in an airport, and teaching at an Elementary school in the tiny little town of Tuka, Bali. It was certainly a far cry from my usual birthday tradition of bowling and homemade pizza for dinner. My birthday started out with me fighting sleep while hanging out in my hostel’s lounge room waiting for 2:30am so that I could catch a taxi [View Full Entry]

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Where East Meets West As mentioned in a previous blog entry, Indonesia has some very strict visa regulations. Despite the fact that this country consists of over 13,000 islands stretching between Malaysia and Australia, tourists are only able to get a 30 day visa on arrival. I had planned on staying in the country for almost twice that amount of time. My original plan of bribing an official to grant me a visa extension quickly fell through. This left Singapore as my next-best option. Singapore is the closest (and therefore cheapest) destination from Bali. No visas are requ [View Full Entry]

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Scooter Tour through Bali First let me preface this blog entry by stating that I’m absolutely petrified of motorcycles. Actually, I have a hard time with fast vehicles of any type - from boats to cars to downhill skiing. There’s something about traveling at high speeds which makes me feel perilously out of control and helplessly bracing myself for a fierce and fiery death. However, if I don’t use this adventure to face and conquer my fears then what’s the point of being here? Two summers ago I decided to confront my fear of heights by throwing myself out [View Full Entry]

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Vacation from my Vacation… Saturday February 7th, at 5pm, marked the end of my solo travels. At least for awhile. As can undoubtedly be expected by any sane and rational woman, my mother was a trifle worried about her young and single daughter traveling around the world by herself. I imagine that I would need to be a mother myself to understand the relentless litany of horrors that paraded through her mind every time she thought about the adventure (or misadventure) that I was embarking on. Which I’m sure was every single night. To ease her mind, we arranged for my [View Full Entry]

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Central Java - Singing in the Rain… On Monday February 2nd, I set out on this long convoluted flight that would eventually land me in sunny Java for the beginning of my almost 2 month stay in Indonesia. Being the penny pincher that I am, I elected to take this roundabout 15-hour flight that would take me back to the U.A.E for a 3-hour stopover, before flying me to Jakarta in West Java. Since I was using the same airline as I did on my original flight to Nepal, I was desperately hoping that history would repeat itself and I would [View Full Entry]

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My Whirlwind Week in India… On Tuesday morning I said goodbye to Kevin and grabbed a jeep down the mountain to the New Jalpaiguri Train station. I had originally booked a ticket to Varanasi that left at 4am that morning, but had not realized at the time that the mountain roads were too dangerous to navigate by night and so would have had to go down the mountain on Monday afternoon and spend the night at the train station. I looked online and saw that there was a train scheduled to depart at 1:05pm the following day to Varanasi, and though [View Full Entry]

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No Tea in Darjeeling? My first impression of Darjeeling was that it was a little slice of heaven tucked up amidst the clouds. This was not the first impression that I had expected to have of India. And in fact, I’m convinced that Darjeeling is not actually Indian at all. It feels like Nepal, looks like Nepal, and a lot of the people that I’ve met thus far have spoken Nepali. I imagine that since it is so close to the border, Darjeeling has become a fascinating hybrid of the two cultures. Either way, it was exactly what I needed after [View Full Entry]

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The Road to India… It was the moment of truth. Time to see whether I’d honed the survival skills necessary to navigate through the insanity that is India. Would I make it through the 13 days with my wallet untouched, my stomach lining intact, and my sense of naiveté undisturbed? Only time would tell. But first, I had to survive the 18 hour journey across Nepal to the Eastern border town of Kakarbhitta. With the daunting prospect of India stretched before me, I did not even spare a thought to the potential trials and tribulations that I might experience on this [View Full Entry]

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