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redshoes
Hi! Welcome to my travel blog! ^_^
This is where you can keep updated on where in the world i am and what im up to [:)since i left
Very much looking forward to exploring new lands, meeting new people and experiencing different cultures,food and environments.
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For most of you that know me, this trip has been in the planning pretty much since i left school. My original plan was to leave secondary school and take a gap year exploring the world before going onto college. it didnt quite happen that way, instead your pushed into making life-changing decisions before your old enough to be allowed to choose lottery numbers and things just seem to snowball from there.
I guess the assumed path after finishing university is to get straight on the career ladder and not look back. But i didnt go to uni for that, and i didnt leave with that intention..
Instead, i left disillusioned about the industry i was 'educated' to go into and more determined to try and get out of the system with just my life on my back to see new places and meet new people. Along the road to doing this, ive met some lovely people and great friendships i've had have evolved into something entirely more valuable.
My reasons for traveling can be poetically illustrated far greater by masters of words than i could hope to do, so ill leave with some quotes that effortlessly conclude
Alot of people experience the world with the same incredulity as when a magician suddenly pulls a rabbit out of a hat which has just been shown to be empty.
In the case of the rabbit, we know the magician has tricked us. What we would like to know is just how he did it.
But when it comes to the world its somewhat different.
We know that the world is not all sleight of hand and deception because here we are in it,we are apart of it. The only different between us and the white rabbit is that the rabbit does not realize it is taking part in a magic trick. Unlike us.
We feel we are part of something mysterious and we would like to know how it all works -Gaarder
We travel,initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel next,to find ourselves.
We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspaper will accommodate.
We travel to bring what little we can,in our ignorance and knowledge,to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again - to slow time down and get taken in,and fall in love once more. - Pico Lyer
Travel Blog Posts
A tower, a zoo, a pony and an f1 racing car..
Published: March 3rd 2011Asia » Malaysia » Kuala Lumpur
February 2nd 2011
Apologies for the Month-long delay...net book problems!more will follow soon,i promise! Lack of photos due to slow internet but you can find them all on facebook anyway :) Flying into Kular Lumpar, wasn't quite as I had anticipated it to be. It wasn't miles and miles of a smoggy,metallic city but instead, as far as the eye could see of lush green forest. Or so I thought. As our airplane descended into the Malaysian Capital, the initial delight in seeing the lush green landscape soon turned to horror as literally as far as the horizon the 'forest' was infact hundreds of thousands of miles worth of Palm Tree oil plantations. I had read before arriving in Malaysia that the countries biggest faux-pas was selling off millions of acres of primary rain forest and making thousands of ... read more
A tower, a zoo, a pony and an f1 racing car..
Published: December 31st 2011Asia » Malaysia » Wilayah Persekutuan » Kuala Lumpur
February 2nd 2011
Flying into Kular Lumpar, wasn't quite as I had anticipated it to be. It wasn't miles and miles of a smoggy,metallic city but instead, as far as the eye could see of lush green forest. Or so I thought. As our aeroplane descended into the Malaysian Capital, the initial delight in seeing the lush green landscape soon turned to horror as literally as far as the horizon the 'forest' was infact hundreds of thousands of miles worth of Palm Tree oil plantations. I had read before arriving in Malaysia that the countries biggest faux pas was selling off millions of acres of primary rain forest and making thousands of indigenous Malay tribes homeless, to private companies to rinse the fertile land for palm oil, but I didnt think it would be quite so immediately apparent. Even ... read more
February 2nd 2011
This blog is written in Bali, where we started our Indonesian adventure and where it will shortly end...sooner than intended. Im currently sitting in the porch of our guest house as it hammers down with rain and the sky claps with powerful thunder it sounds as if the sky is going to fall in...in the last hour it has been raining so heavily,a deep river has appeared outside our room and the surrounding area and we are pondering about wading our way out to find food in the dark as soon,im pretty sure the storm is going to cut the electric. Our stay in Indonesia as been bitter-sweet. We arrived on the 12th of January into Kuta, Bali. The first thing to strike us was the intense humidity. It was SO hot it was often difficult ... read more
January 22nd 2011
Right. So its been a while since I updated huh? Since leaving Chiang Mai we headed to Auttuya, then across to Cambodia, back to thailand and to Indonesia where we currently are. Its taken me a while to find the courage to write about Cambodia and have managed to avoid it until now. We brought a ticket from Auttuaya to get to the Thai/Cambodia land boarder crossing in Poipet. We boarded a train bound for Bangkok in the very wee hours of the morning where we were to meet a man outside KFC for our minivan to the boarder. All sounded very sauded. The night train (as it was 5am and in my eyes,that is still,most definitely night time) was an interesting experience. The seats where bare minimum and there were no windows on the train..the ... read more
Where Catapillers fall from the Sky and Children play with Gunpowder..
Published: December 11th 2010Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai
December 11th 2010
Thailand. Wow what a contrast to Vietnam. We flew from Hanoi to Bangkok and arrived at about 1am on the 29th. We then had to wait until 9am for our next flight to Chiang Mai. (After being informed by Joe that we couldve got a train far easier and cheaper than flying, though after a month and 2 weeks in Vietnam,we just wanted to get out so it didnt really matter so much) Airport seats are not the comfiest things to try and get some sleep on, and after too many failed attempts, we gave in and headed to Starbucks, much to jimis disgust. Airports in the dead of night are strange, strange places. Bundles of material are dotted around in some of the most obscure places, occasionally the wriggle a foot or a head out ... read more
A pirates life is the life for me..
Published: November 30th 2010Asia » Vietnam » Northeast » Quang Ninh » Halong Bay
November 29th 2010
I write this entry on our last day in Vietnam. And what a journey its been. The past week we have been busy bees. We left our swanky hotel back in Hue and boarded our hanh cafe night bus bound for Hanoi. It was smaller than the previous sleeper bus we'd been on, we were the first ones on, followed by another white couple. We were promptly ushered to the back with the promise: 'Much room,big for legs,better for you.' It seemed the rawest deal of the whole bus, sharing the top level with 2 others, with no legroom and the narrowest seats. We decided that we probably had paid 3 times as much as the locals and for a 13 hours journey - we deserved to be comfortable, so we moved further down to get ... read more
Suits,sneezing and swanky
Published: November 20th 2010Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Thua Thien - Huế » Hué
November 20th 2010
We have successfully begun our journey 'up north and after leaving Hoi An yesterday - the land of tailored clothes we are now in Hue. One long bus ride away from Hanoi..but only one. Leaving Go Vap Orphanage was probably one of the hardest things in our journey so far. Unfortunately i was will for a couple of days..(i suspect due to one of the children coughing in my face, i immediately felt coldy that evening..but who am i to speculate ;) ) So we were cheated of a few extra days with the beautiful children who we'd become very attached to. We would've loved to have stayed longer, though unfortunately HCMC being so expensive and traffic so bad it was getting very costly to be there for the 2 weeks we had hoped so we ... read more
There are 9 million motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh..
Published: November 12th 2010Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1
November 9th 2010
After my last blog... we did a tour of Mue Ni which was mostly sand dune sledging and sunset watching, which was very nice. We also had a group of pretty cool people, 2 of which had just done the Philippines like us and another 2 that are doing pretty much the same route as us but backwards to it was cool to hear about where they had been and what to expect. The next day, we headed in-land to the central highlands and Da Lat. a 4 hour coach journey that probably in the history of my life didnt see me falling asleep..not least because i could see how the driver was driving on the hairpin bends with drops either side. We got there safe and sound though, only to be greeted with a weeks ... read more
Good morning Vietnam!
Published: October 28th 2010Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Thuan » Mui Ne
October 28th 2010
Well we made it here! After the affects that typhoon megi was having in Boracay we were concerned we wouldn't get off the island. The last few days in Boracay were probably our funnest, despite the crazy wind and insane waves.. The day before news of the typhoon in Northern Luzon (quite far away from us) had reached us, we went down to the beach to see the highest tide we've seen since we were there and crashing waves (a great contrast to the lapping ripples that we had been accustomed to) we decided it was time to buy some form of inflatable and get on these ridiculous waves. The children were in the sea, attempting to jump and dive waves that were twice the size of me let alone them..so we figured if they've got ... read more
October 19th 2010
Today started off our last week in Boracay. We organized going on an 'island hopping'/snorkelling trip around the island as we havent really explored much. We struggled up early and jimi ran to the dive shop to buy us an underwater camera. Our guide John met us from where we are staying,Ocean Breeze, and we walked to d talipapa (the local open market) to meet 2 Korean girls that we were to share our boat with. (both of which were incredibly beautiful and looked no older than us..when we asked how young they were they said they were 27 and on holiday from banking in Seoul!) We got on a tricycle and headed towards another part of the island where our boat awaited us. There, we met a couple from england (the first english people we've ... read more
redshoes
| Joined | November 1st 2009 | Trips | 0 |
| Last Login | February 5th 2013 | Followers | 1 |
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