A ruddy good time, this life...

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I'm told there is this thing called culture shock, but thankfully I have yet to encounter it...I think because the powers that be have decided my time traveling shall be a relaxing, easy going, wonderful time in my life..I wonder from time to time what the future holds for me, it can't always be this good, truly...Whatever happens, I'm just so thankful for the moment, the right now...it's all we have and I intend to enjoy it, come what may...

So Indonesia rocked. It really did...it was begus sekali...so good. I ended up extending my visa for a week and spending more time in Bali with the friends that were left and the new friends we made there...my last few days were spent much like the first, lounging, surfing, eating cheap and amazing food, taking 14 year old Isis from France out to the clubs for her birthday (with mum's permission of course), and getting to know more amazing Balinese folk.

I boarded an early flight back to Yogyakarta with the intention of seeing some temples, climbing a volcano and spending some more quality time with Dan's stellar friends...after a big night out, however, I fell ill and thought I was going to die for about a day and a half...no, not dengue, not malaria, not even a bad hangover...nothing more exciting than some food poisioning or Montezuma's revenge.

Poor Dan took great care of me, however, and while I writhered around with a fever and though we had to pull over for a puke on the side of the road, we managed to get out and get me a sweet deal on a fantastic baby labtop computer...a 120 GB Acer Aspire One...I figured more technology is never bad, neither is quick access to movies, music, the internet, built in webcam and mic, my new 10 page journal in word, or more recent blog updates...not to mention the amount of photos I've been able to upload or the skype I've used to talk to the folks...it's a rockin machine and I'm so thankful to Dan for getting me some sweet programs on it before I took off...

Dan and I went out for a nice Dim Sum brunch (which I was still too sick to eat), and took me to the airport for a teary goodbye...well, it was a lovely goodbye actually but after such a nice time it was hard to say goodbye to such a great new friend...

The original plan was that I would be in south east Asia for 4 months, then make my way back to Bangkok to pick up a flight to London for September 10. A friend from home, Chris, was to start his SE Asia trip at the same time as mine ended, and thankfully our paths crossed...Chris was to meet me on the 4th in Bangkok and we were to spend a few days together lounging around in Thailand...

When I arrived in Bangkok once again, I went tramping around with some pepole I shared a cab with from the airport looking for some cheap accomodation. I knew the Koh San area a bit so decided to stay there...I ended up staying at the same place Kat, Aaron and I had shared back in May, in a much cheaper room...after a shower and a walk about I ran into friends in the lobby - a bunch of the group leaders from 2 different companies were spending their last few days in Thailand relaxing without any annoying group members before flying back to Canada. I spend a few days with Mel, Kevin, Patrick, Jonas, Kelsey and some of their Thai friends shopping, going to movies, meeting new people and relaxing...it's during this time I realized how jaded Thais are in this part of the coutnry...hot, sticky, smelly, overpopulated and polluted Bangkok is not the ideal place to stay for 10 days in Bangkok...I had to get a few things mended and my tailors would say everytime I walked in for a chat, "Erin, what are you doing here, why are you still here?!?" Well, I was waiting for Chris, and wait I did...

At this time, there was a serious political situation going on in the country...after only 7ish months in power, the new Prime Minister was over taxing everyone, not following through on his political promises, and behaving poorly, much like the last PM who the people overthrew in a nonviolent coup...this is eactly the same problem the peopel are having now and they're all trying to get the PM out! The political situation when I flew into Bangkok escalated for a few days but then became old news by the time I left...basically people had begun to rally, thousands moved into the grounds outside the government house and offices just a few blocks from Koh San and spent their days chanting, cheering, making speeches, and making music. I didn't have the desire to check it out, but Jonas and Patrick got in a taxi after the Jazz club one night when I had gone home and asked the cabbie to take them to the middle of the rioting...they came back with stories of drunken Thais listening to music and having a merry old time...they said it was like a music festival...of course this happened quite a few days after a Thai travel agent told me of the night when he went down and was given a baseball bat and a hat and told to go get 'em...he said he ran in the other direction and heard a gunshot and was witness to the only casualty of the rioting thus far...scary!

The police are told to do nothing, just look mean in their riot gear, but those for and those opposing the government were in a hairy mini war for a few days there...I was getting a pedicure (a very bad $3 pedicure I might add), when the woman treating me told me I shouldn't go outside...indeed many yellow shirted Thais were marching down the street with random weapons...2x4's, golf clubs, baseball bats...

Although while we were there it seemed silly, the country WAS and I believe still is in a 'state of emergency'...Poor Chris...he sent me a text message from LA the day he was to arrive stating he couldn't make it after all due to his insurance company bailing on him for boarding a flight to a country in such a state...he went back to Ontario to figure it out and ended up arriving after all, a few days late...

In this time, I managed to get some serious shopping done and wrap and send off all my Christmas presents...phew! It really did take quite a while but in my little fan room with me taking constant cold showers and listening to tunes, and thinking of my family and Christmas, it was actually quite nice...

I moved into a bigger room with A/C and a free brekfast and Chris arrived in the pouring rain...I was sat in the lobby of our hotel with 2 new friends I had made, drinking a bucket waiting for his arrival..he marched by and stared at me, pointed at me and said "You!" hopped the gate and gave me a huge hug...

Although he was jet lagged, our time together was lovely...I went for the 2nd time to the Grand Palace, we took tuk tuks, the sky train and the river boat to the weekend market, ate cheap food and took a day trip to see the floating market, the bridge over the river Kwai and Kanchaniburri...all things I had seen already, but it was a delight to see them again with Chris...we also went to the Tiger Temple in Kanchaniburri, which Kat and I had tried to get to back in June but due to our flat tire and ill planning were unable to see...the Tiger Temple is basically just an animal sanctuary owned and operated by some monks but the highlight is obviously the tigers they have there which you stand by and get your picture taken with...they are so cute but so huge and scary...

Some people say they don't want to go see the tigers because they drug them, but I think they're just absolutely knackered from sitting in the sun in the middle of the day...they sit there and sleep and pant their little heads off as you pet them and try not to get eaten...

Lovely country, lovely people, lovely boy...when I got into the cab in the rain in the evening of the 9th to catch my 00:20 flight to London, I was definitely in tears...Chris said "It was a little heartbreaking to watch your taxi slowly drive away over the feral dogs and cats last night. It took a few hours to really hit me that you were gone and thanks to you I'm having a sad day in Bangkok!" Aw! Not only did I have to say goodbye to Asia, a country which I am now fully in love with, but to this great French speaking, Metis, cheerleading, musical guy...as my Dad would say, "sadness..." Chris is planning to meet up with me again at the end of his trip so we can stay with his friend in Scotland...hopefully it all works out, my mental, random planning...

My flight to London was 12 hours, but it went by surprisingly quick...I slept for most of it, picked at my food and watched a movie before we landed...

I had been frantically, last minute of course, emailing everyone I had met on the road who was British asking them if they had a couch for me as I wasn't sure of the exact plan once I got in the country....thankfully, I had one super promising reply...Joh Pressley, from Clapham (Brighton, originally), who I met the second day I was traveling, 8 months ago in Australia, invited me to stay with him and even said he'd pick me up from the airport...bloddy hell, yes please Jon, Cheers!

So at 7 AM I walked off the plane to find Jon waiting for me looking as cute and dashing as always. What a stud. We marched off with my huge bag to his car...his porsche, to be more exact, where we stuffed the bag in the boot, which is actually in the front of this beautiful automobile, and zipped back to London...talk about traffic!! I have decided that the people of this country need to take a chill pill, asap. Every car was filled with people reading newspapers or working and busses were top notch full with others doing the same thing...it's all work hard, play hard here though...if they're not working, they're working out...running by me with their baby carriages, weights, Ipods, playing footie, lunging about...

Let's just say that if I experienced any culture shock, it was this...coming from a blistering hot foreign country where store owners sleep in the back in front of their mini tv's with fly swatters in their hands and children sleeping next to them who you have to wake up if you'd like to buy anything, to the mad, crazy, posh and chic United Kingdom.

Jon is in property development and managing and for the past 9 months has been working on redoing the bottom floor of a 3 flat building that was build over 100 years ago in Clapham...it is just in the process of being finished and for the past week we've been trying to spend parts of each day taking building rubbish to the dump, cleaning the dusty floors, walls and furniture, re arranging things and cooking amazing meals...Salmon and scrambled eggs, Chili Con Carne, Guinness steak Pie, Meat and 2 veg...

As Jon is one of those workaholics, when I got here he was a bit stressed...in retrospect, I think I should have spent this past week working on my health, you know doing less drinking, smoking, staying up late and getting up late, movie watching and general doiing nothing, but instead we decided to do just that...and boy did Jon need it! We actually ran into his neighbour who said "geez Jon you look so relaxed!"

We did accomplish some things....we took the tube and the double decker busses everywhere, checked out Brick Lane weekend market, took a road trip to his parents home in Brighton, a haunted, 300 year old 3 level flat a block from the ocean and accross the street from a thousand year old church...we did the south bank walk and saw London Bridge, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the super posh Mayfair district, Oxford street, Covent Gardens, Borough market, millenium bridge, St Pauls, Camberwell which is a rather sketchy part of town where we experienced some teenagers attempting to take our lighter to smoke on the bus (big no no), we went to an exciting football game where I was one of the only women in a massively packed pub, and we saw an amazing concert, Bon Iver...if you're into chill music and amazing songwriting, you should definitely look him up...

We hung out with amazing, stellar people...Jon's sister who is an assistant head at a big Comprehensive (public) school in South London... friends I made in Australia and South East Asia and one of my friends from Uni who lives and teaches here, and I spoke with many more mates who I didn't see this time but will definitely visit on my next visit, sometime in October...

Jon is a stellar friend, a stellar cook and a stellar tour guide...I have had such a ruddy great week living it up with him here in this flat, and he says he's fully enjoyed his time here as well...we laugh together about all the men I meet on the road, and I convince him that they're all just friends! Well, the ones I cherish the most, anyway...He hasn't taken a week off like this in ages, and due to the current recession is thinking seriously of renting his flat (which he can make a killing from), and heading off to South America or Indonesia to travel for a few months...he's not the only person I like to thiink I've influenced to travel...it really is the cat's pyjamas...

So the only sad thing to happen as of late...big sigh...hold on...I have lost my best friend - my camera...I believe it was due to the over consumption of alcohol and my infatuation with muslim taxi drivers...we talk about their families, they teach me new words, and we groove to their favourite arabic tracks...the last time I saw my camera I was singing along with the driver and Jon was pulling me from the cab...as it rolled away I realized my bag felt a bit lighter and my heart sank...the cab company is about to file a restraining order against me due to the number of calls I give them..it's just not coming back to me and I have to accept that!

Another reason Jon is stellar...when you have a mental breakdown and cry your face off, uttering phrases like "I don't care about the camera, the children in Cambodia have nothing!!!" he makes you tea and strokes your hair...uttering not a word all the while.

Love him...

Today I board another flight, a ticket back to reality, well away from this lucious lifestyle anyways...I'm heading to Cork, Ireland where I will meet with friends from home and we will set off in a van for 10 days surfing all over Ireland...then we will catch a plane together to Alicante, Spain, and do the same thing there through Spain, Morocco, Portugal if time and logic permit...

If you are my mother and reading this for the first time, I'm so sorry about the camera! I will not be recieveing a new one for some time, as I left my old one to be fixed for super cheap in Indonesia with Dan who is in the process of getting himself a new one and is using mine in the meantime, but I have been donated an old digi from Tim, Jon's sisters boyfriend...it will have to do for now!

What are friends for? Well they're not to be lost...so hang on to all your best mates and never let them go...

Right, see you again soon, yeah?

Erin

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