one more no more!

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well possums, this is my final blog hello to you all, ahhhh!

when i said in the penultimate blog that i was in my last country, that wasnt strictly true. in actual fact i was in my last travelling country. and with every last travelling country comes the last travelling scam. and mine was no exception... i really thought my scamdar was finally switched on to full throtle but these locals, they have ways and means of penetrating the force fields of scamdar at any given moment. it was in ho chi min where i was back for just the day before i flew to bangkok (again). and this is what happened:

i was just chillling in this park and these 2 nice vietnamese women came up and started talking to me about england and how they've got a niece going there and after a while they said i could go back for lunch and to talk to her about london. so i went home with them and she was at the hospital but i had lunch anyway and they were still nice then their uncle was there and said he was a croupier on a cruise ship for black jack and was going to london for 2 months to work there and did i want to play a game, he just wanted to show me how to play. so i didnt think anythig of it, hge showed me the cruise ship in a framed photo on the wall so i didnt care. so we went to his room with one of the women and he had a little table there and it was all fine and fun. then he said he was going to show me how to cheat with him as the dealer, which he did and that was fun. then all of a sudden he said he had a client coming to his house who wants to play a chinese game but we've got to tell him the people arent there and convince him to play blackjack and the uncle said to take 200$ from him and play with that and it didnt matter if i lost it. WTF.

needless to say i wanted to run a million miles but couldnt then this guy came and it was SO obvious he knew what was going on and they made me play with this woman even though i said i didnt want to and the cheating was SO obvious i knew straight it was a scam. so then i won (obviously) but the 2nd guy had 2000$ and placed a bet i couldnt match with 200$ so the uncle said i could use my money coz i was going to win (HE SAID THAT IN FRONT OF THE 2ND GUY!) and i was like, i have no money (they wanted me to match 100$) and i even got my wallet out to show them and they all looked a bit pissed off. so i lost the bet and the 2nd guy got everything. but the 1st guy said it was ok anyway. but they would have scammed me so much. the uncle said he'd even sub me. seriously it was fucking weird! and now im weirded out and just want to go to the airport even though its 6hrs early.

and the women dropped me off, we didnt wait for the niece surprise surprise! but they were still really friendly and didt ask for cab money or anything. what a scam!

so anyway, thats the last attempted ripoff story, and the last story of south east asia. for i went back to bangkok for a night (it was 11pm when i touch down) and the next day i just did a load of shopping - when in the kok, one must shop!

by now you will all know whats coming next. thats because its taken the best part of 3 weeks to come together. back in cambodia i had a bit of a change of heart and decided that actually australia wasnt the place to be and that canada was where all the fun was at. so amongst the beach fun on shnoukville i spent a frantic week calling, emailing and blashpheming at travel agents, high commissions and embassies trying to figure out if it was feasible to cancel my australia visa, affordable to change my flights to go to canada and actually get into canada once i got there. the answer, after 5 nail biting days of waiting, was yes to all 3. so i did it, i sat at the computer and clicked the send button and changed the course of my life.

right now im sitting on my sofa, in my flat (well our flat, coz i did kinda come to canada due to the candian boy i met travelling too... minor details!) that i have been in for a week, looking out on sunny calgary, in the state of alberta, canada... my final destination! at least for now, or for an indefinate amount of time. and so far ive had much fun. calgary is a nice city, best served with a helping of sunshine so im lead to believe. its primary industry is oil and all the companies that surround that, so its kind of an industrial city. but its nice, the city center is pretty small, although i havent perused the whole area yet, and there is a definate restaurant culture about the place, yay! on the historical and cultural side of things to do calgary lacks somewhat, lets just say its not an old english town! and i dont think too much of historic importance has happened here, apart from the 1988 winter olympics. oh, and how could i forget the annual calgary stampede, the biggest stampede in the world. i missed it this year by a week. sore subject. they'll be next year.

however, whilst the sun shines calgary and its surroundings boast a feast of outdooriness pleasures for one to indulge upon. inner city folk spend many a whiling hour (as i have already done) floating down the elbow river that runs from the big dam at the top of the city, through the middle to the bottom. its a wideish, shallow river (shallowest is to your ankle and average depth is to your knees. there are a couple of swimming areas). the crowds are plentiful of all ages floating down in their dingys or airbeds or whatever else they can find to float with, some with tunes, most with booze - that has to be hidden, for the police are v strict about the forbiddence to drink in public here. it is muchos fun, the canadian landscape around the valley amongst the millionaires houses and the general banter that ensues makes for a highly pleasant and recommended day or afternoon out.

afternoon lasts a long time here. for the past 5 months i have been used to the sun setting between 6 and 7.30pm, so close have i not strayed from the equator. here the sun sets at about 11pm, its amazing, and its warm all night and bliss full. in fact its so hot here at the moment that its almost like asia. except that its not humid and i always feel clean, not dirty! you really know when you're not travelling when you feel clean for longer than a day!

what else is different? well, you're not supposed to jay walk if there's a crossing on your road. people drive everywhere because the city is spread out. theres not much of a walking culture really. most people shop at the massive warehouse shops on the outskirts of towns, the massive shopping stores where everything comes in BIG and you realise you'll be eating pasta for the rest of your life and not just for dinner coz you were only able to by a 5litre jar of pasta sauce that has to stay refrigerated once opened hence taking up all your fridge space and leaving you with no option but to make the most gianormous lasagne that would feed 3000 people and freeze it in one of your many freezers that is required to house all the excess food you have had to make so that you get a varied diet throughout the week without having to throw away the 4litres of pasta sauce you didnt use from the 5litre jar you were forced to buy.

and thats all i have to say about that. actually, you can go to smaller shops throughout the city, they are our exquivelent of tescos express except more expensive and, bigger, naturally.

other things worthy of note. you have to buy alcohol at a liquor store, cant buy it in a supermarket or anywhere that is not a liquor store (you see where this driving culture is coming in now?!), most roads, well all inner city roads, are built like a grid, like new york. so the city is divided up into 4 areas, north east and west and south east and west. and within that all avenues run north to south and all streets run east to west. and their all numbered. so i live 120, 25th ave, SW. thats it. and when you talk to people about directions they'll go 'walk down 25th until you get to 4th. then you carry on until you get to 4th and 8th and thats the main city centre'. yes of course. start bringing into it the same road names but different districts and its not confusing at all! ahem.

the other thing thats different about calgary of course is the rocky mountains! not officially in calgary, but a mere stones throw away. and we went camping there this weekend and it was AWESOME! we drove out along the flat vastness that is the canadian ranch land until we hit mountain land, kanaskis county. you can see the mountains from the city on a clear day but watching them looming before you is v breath taking. and once in the mountains they are amazing. ive been privigleged to see a lot of the world and a lot of land scapes and scenery. but ive never seen anything quite like the rockies. its just like it is in pictures, miles of spruces and pines lining the valleys of the mountains with snow peaked caps and lush ice turquoise clear lakes at the bottom with the odd canoe on. beautiful. and the camping was so much fun too. v beautiful sites where we could have fires and music all night.but it was a bit of a rush to get a site.

most of the areas cant be booked and work on a first come first served basis. so we wizzed in and out of all the city dwellers making their way to the mountains for the weekend only to find everywhere we wanted to go was already full. but it was ok coz we went 40mins back and found somewhere just as nice for the eve. the next day we went back and tried our luck again. after being given the run around by grandad martin, who ran the joint, telling us we had to go to overflow and see 'marv' and if marv said that was ok then we could have a spot when the next people went, but of course when we got to pocaterra (the overflow car park) noone was there and we had to go all the way back and plead our case... he gave us the best spot after that! anyway, after all that we spent the day by the lake, mark trying his hand at fishing (unsucessfully, but im sure not due to his technique or the amount of alcohol consumed) whilst i watched the chipmunks scurry about the place.

we were really lucky with the animals we saw! moose, ground squirrel, black squirrel (they're all over the city as well), chipmunks, a yellow bellied marmet and a baldheaded eagle (the one with the white head and tail... very rare to see!) hows that for an introduction to the canadian wildlife!

and there was a massive thunder storm with loads of lightening that struck one of the mountains and caused a forest fire whilst we were there. there was no danger for us but we watched the mounties in full swing as the water bombers planes and helicopters took to the sky and loaded up from the lakes before zooming off to put the fire out. they repeated this action for a good hour before the panic was over and the fire was out. all in all it was a very exciting weekend out in the mountains. shame ive only got pictures of the first eve coz the battery died - me and cameras just arent meant to be i dont think!

well i guess the time has come now for me to sign out for the last time. the travels have come to an end and life is settling back into a pattern, of job hunting, again! as always its been emotional and, as was the very first thing i wrote on this blog site, an epic journey and an adventure of a life time. there has been, as predicted, ups and downs, highs and lows, wows and woes and i wouldnt change any one of them (except maybe the boat trip in malawi, that was grim!). its been amazing and i wish it wouuld keep going forever, but all good things sadly must come to an end, at least for now. and here begins again, the new phase of the travelling expedition, life in another country!

i wish i could say something more profound to complete this whole blogging thing. its going to be a little strange not jotting down and racking my brains to remember every day to day detail of my life to compile them every now and then in a torrent of internet blogging abusage. but im sure ill get over it and fill my life with something far more meaningful (pub anyone?... if only they existed here!). onwards and upwards for everyone my dears.

keep in touch all, im only ever a click of the internet, or a call on skype away!
over and out for the final time
holly
xxx

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