Home.................................

---

As some of you may know we are now home. .......or at least back in the UK.
We had a fantastic trip, but we did cut it short. We decided to come home as I was home sick and had had enough of being part of this machine that is tourism.... I became very jaded with the whole thing and needed to come home and feel more grounded. Living out of a suitcase for 6 months is hard work and when you are a family of 4 it's even harder..... To say it is intense is an understatment. I dont know if I would recomend it to most families... but we did it and I hope it has changed us all.... I know it has me.....
It has made me realise that England is not all that bad. we may pay huge taxes BUT... it works...just..... In other countries fuel may be cheap but food is damn expensive, for your everyday person.... we have services that we pay for in our taxes, that may not be great but most the time they do work, watching people's homes burn down in Cambodia made me very greatfull for our fire service..... and I wont even mention the NHS...(oops sorry just did).....
One of the biggest things that made me want to come home was the other travellers. They are destroying this world bit by bit. And I found it sad to go to places that I had longed to go to only to be greeted by tourist hell.... coachloads of disrespectful idiots that think as they have paid all this money to be in these beautiful places they can do as they please. We are destroying cultures that have survived for centries as they are... only to build Macdonald's and Starbucks.... There are hotels in Cambodia that are $1000.00 a night where the maids and doormen earn $10.00 a week..... I met people that you would think were well travelled, intellegent, openminded people... only to find they are narrowminded bigots. It got to a point where I was embarressed to be part of it.
I know this is globalisation.. blah blah blah.... maybe it is good for the poor countries of the world to have this money coming in... but at what cost.... I loved Laos, and I pray to God/Goddess/Buddha/Allah, that they can keep their culture intact and not sell out to the masses.
Ok rant over.... for now...

I will attempt to sum up our trip.

America... Surprising, even Russ said he liked it more than he would have imagined... Thanks to Wolf and Sarah for putting up with us, and Dad for meeting us in LA

NZ .... well I think Russ would like to move there tommorow if I agreed, The south Island is truly one of the most beautiful places on the planet..... or what I have seen of it.... Thanks Jayne and Mike....

Oz..... We had a great time and I know it meant the world to Russ to spend Xmas with Nik.... and it was nice to see Russ's mum so settled and Happy....

Bali.... read the blog... we loved it... the people, the land... all of it.... Thanks Dippa for getting our lovely villa....

Singapore.... er.... well....

Cambodia.... Wow! One of those places when your there it's so full on you dont really think about it, then after you sit back and think ....what an amazing country. There is something there I cant put my finger on, the people have a spark that we didn't see anywhere else. They are very special, and for all the corruption there and all they have been through over the last decades, it is a wonderful country!

Thailand.... I dont think we saw enough to pass judgment, but the westernisation there seems to have taken away something that we were hoping to find. Do we need another Ibiza???? If we had been without our kids I may say something compleatly different... I would have loved to have gone to a full moon party.. (or would I??) If you want to sit in bars all day pulling prepubesent girls... fine... but dont you think there may be something lacking in your life (meow....)

Laos.... This to me was all the best bits of everywhere else all rolled into one. We had the mountains of New Zealand, The people of Bali/Cambodia, the food from Thailand (mmmm...)and Beer Lao!!!!!!

I know Russ will be adding something in his own words at some point but for now that is it..... hope you all enjoyed coming round the world with us, We have enjoyed keeping you all updated... we will now come round your houses and bore you all silly with 7000 photos we have taken............
xxxxxx

---

Comments

[edgesoftheworld]

Welcome back
I am sorry that you felt that you needed to come home early. I would have stayed on for longer on our trip but I have to say that the rest of the family have settled back here very quickly and seem very happy to be home (although we do talk about 'the next trip' occasionally!) I am impressed by your number of photos - makes our 2700 pale into insignificance!! Give us a shout if you ever come to Wales and we can swap stories! Nice blogging (with?) you Family Five