Bangkok 6/8 FIN.

Last night we went to see a Thai boxing match which was ace. Some were about 12 years old! Crazy. In the daytime we went to Chinatown. Bad move, when we finally got there it was nothing. It shouldn't even be classed as a Chinatown, it sucked big time. Mike and I went for a Thai massage..it wasn't the most relaxing massage I've ever had. It was more of a pushing muscles, stretching type thing. I did feel..stretched after.
I fly home tomorrow. Dang. I don't want to go home. I want to see everyone again, but I guess after the initial excitement of that has passed, everything is just going to go back to how it was before I left the UK. Working, worrying, generally being in gloomy England and I'll want to escape again. I can't wait to make some music though.
Got last of shopping done tonight. My travelling is done. I don't want to go home, no, I REALLY don't want to go home. The whole idea makes me really nervous. I'm not sure why, but it freaks me out. I just feel so much more free when in a foreign country with no one that knows me. And now I have no money I'm just going to have to go back to work. Well, these past 3 months have been pretty amazing. Unforgettable experiences. And I hope I can return to Borneo sometime in the future. Amazing place. South East Asia in general is a pretty awesome place to be.

Bye bye Bangkok, Khao San Road, South East Asia.

Terima Kasih, Khob kun ka, Ar kun, Cam on, Khawp Jai!
...That was really lame wasn't it? I just wanted to show off that I know thank you in all languages of the countries I visited! ;P

Peace out xxx

Chiang Mai-Bangkok 5/8

Yesterday we went elephant riding. It was good. Apart from them obviously being chained up most of the time, that sucked. But they seemed to be treated pretty well. The thing that sucked though was that our driver on the way over had no idea where he was going so by the time we got there the show was nearly over. But we saw them doing the paintings, throwing darts at balloons, and giving one guy a thai massage!
We then had a meal in Chiang Mai then overnight train to Bangkok. Highlights were the man selling/singing orange juice. And Mike's FHM playing cards, the joker card is just brilliant. Bahahah. Hold up, is she wearing a BIN BAG?!

Chiang Khung 3/8

I survived the night! Now on another 9hr boat journey..wahey!
About 7hrs out of the 9 were taken up by endless games of shithead. Best way to pass the time.
Chiang Mai tomorrow..elephant riding..still not sure about it as you don't know how they're treated when not in front of tourists.

Pak Beng 2/8

Today was a 9hr boat journey up the river to the small town Pak Beng. Just now Marisa and I had a fit. I found a cockroach in my bag and it came out and scurried behind my bed. We can't find it. I'm paranoid as hell. All electricity goes off in 10 minutes. Cockroaches like the dark. It will come out. Its going to crawl all over me. AHHHHH. I just told my gecko friends out in the hall to eat the muthfucka if they see it. Hopefully I will survive the night.

Luang Prabang 31/7

This morning Marisa and I ended up chilling around town (Vang Vieng). I admit ashamedly, we watched friends. But you can't escape it..its shown at every restaurant! You walk past them all and all the westerners look like zombies, in a total trance at the screen. We are all clones.
6 Hr bus journey to Luang Prabang today. I got off the bus and my whole body is in pain. A delayed reaction from tubing I think..it hurts to move.. :(.

1/8
Today we went to a waterfall, was really cool, we climbed up to the top of it, I got leeched twice. God damn! I thought I had escaped those on leaving the jungle! We then went swimming in the waterfall water below which was soo refreshing. We also saw a bear rescue centre..amazing. The ones there were confiscated from poachers and from the animal trade. Walking back from dinner just now I saw this kid's dad pushing him down the road in a beer crate..one way to have fun!

Vang Vieng 30/7

Today was AWESOME. In the morning we went kayaking down the river and we stopped off at this cave. We had to swim into them, the water was cold. Once in the cave we got handed candles to guide our way through. It was really, really slippery in places. There was this bit where there was a slippery slope into the water. Best way to get down? Slide on your ass ;) Saw bats.
The way out was..a tiny gap, had to crawl headfirst through. Definitely not for claustrophobics!

Then in the afternoon..TUBING! So you get a tube..and you float down the river on it, stopping off at the bars alongside it. We stopped at nearly every one. Some had swings and stuff..so fun, and one had a huge slide. We got fueled up with beer, then buckets of whiskey, coke and red bull. Played some volleyball in the mud..one random dude dunked me in it claiming 'YOU'RE NOT MUDDY ENOUGH YET!!' In between serves I ran to the side, had a gulp of drink then ran back. Was fun! So tubing is awesome. Dangerous..but only if you're stupid enough to get utterly wasted.
At one of the bars we ended up playing a drinking game with a bunch of people which was fun until too many people came and it got confusing.

I didn't get any pictures from tubing as I would have surely broken my camera. However, this was the aftermath. Definitely NOT sober.

Vientienne 28/7

Left Lac Sao to go to Vientienne, the capital of Laos. Today we did a tuk-tuk tour to take us to the temples which was cool.
The next day Marisa and I tried to find the morning market, we walked a long way in the wrong direction because, well, its us. But once there it was pretty cool, people didn't hassle us! Not like Ho Chi Minh City where people actually grab your arm and you have to fight to get past.

Lac Sao 27/7

Hanoi wasn't great..we walked about for ages. Tried to get into the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum but ended up getting chased out by a guard for going the wrong way..he was fairly aggressive! Went to a ridiculously busy museum, it sucked. Just arrived at hotel in Laos. Journey to the border was long and windy.
Tonight we went for dinner at 'The Only Restaurant'. This town is like...one street!
Then one of the waiters said we could go to the school across the road to an English class. So we ended up in this classroom doing one to ones with 15-19 year olds! My kid was really cute and nervous, aw. They asked us to sing songs from our countries.. I helped Marissa out by busting out MJ's BEAT IT! Was great.

Also, we went to the tiny market. It smelt really bad. The worst part? The meat section, of course. Either side were people hacking away at bloody limbs on tables, flesh flying everywhere. There were dogs lurking about, catching a piece whenever it dropped to the ground. Whats worrying is that they eat dog here..what they're chopping could be dog. Wrong much? I felt like retching. But walking down the middle of this section seemed to be the only way out the other side of the market. Sila grabbed my hand and walked me through. Literally..blood was pouring off the tables. I thought I'd seen the last of this grossness. Until we spotted what Sila had earlier told us about..dead rat. Yup, these people also eat rat. It was just layed out, with a stick through it.
Now, I would like to meet the first person who thought, wow, this looks mighty tasty, shake him and say..'WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!'

---MOMENTS TO BE GLAD I DON'T EAT MEAT---

Hanoi 25/7

Yesterday we stayed in Halong Bay, we did a boat ride to an island where we saw caves which was pretty cool. Today we arrived back in Hanoi. Had a walk around, just came back from the water puppet theatre, it was awesome!! Tomorrow will explore more.

Hue 23/7

Arrived at Bamboo Hotel yesterday. I was pretty upset the hotel isn't made entirely of bamboo :(!
We went for lunch , during it chucked it down. So we had to walk back through totally flooded roads! Was pretty crazy, on hour later they were clear! WHERE DID IT ALL GO?!


We then did a motorbike tour through the countryside which was awesome.
It was Shaun's 20th. During dinner, this really drunk guy was hilarious. He walked in on one of the girls on the toilet, he did a double take, so opened the door twice. He then came up to her and was like 'I buy Margarita for you'. He then turned on the TV, volume was full blast but he kept switching through the channels. He then drew the back of Marie's head, it was a scribble, then attempted to play a guitar with 4 strings.
We then hit up a bar where we played drinking games, standard. ;) Everyone got drunk, including our tour guide Sila! and we ended up riding these bike type tuk tuks back to the hotel. I am glad we had a lie in today..about to board overnight train.

Hoi An 21/7

Today we rented motorbikes (mopeds, automatic) 100,000 Dong for the day. Thats about $5!. Went with Marissa, Adam and Karen. So we got 2 and shared. Marissa used to ride so she did it first. They started us out in the centre of town which was..wise. First road we almost crashed into a truck! Literally millimeters away from it, pretty scary/funny. We stopped at a gas station and I tried to get out but had to turn around, had no idea how to start it or anything, had Marissa on the back, I accelerated into an SUV. Fell off. Cut up my toe. SO, she drove from then on..I was too much of a hazard. We then drove and stopped off at a deserted beach..so lush. While they stayed there I went off on my own for a bit..driving down this open empty road at 90KPH, which felt sooo awesome!

We just had an awful dinner! The food took ages to come..I ordered a pizza, we were joking about it being the size of a Dominos personal pizza. We were wrong. It was SMALLER. Tasted like cardboard. All our food was pretty hilariously bad. But out time in Hoi An was a really pretty town, with so many tailor shops.

Ho Chi Minh City-Hoi An 17/7

This city is awesome. The number of motorbikes on the street is just insane. Its even more insane trying to CROSS the road. It becomes sort of an art form.


We went to the tunnels the Vietnamese soldiers used, they are tiny! One of the entrances was so small. Everyone tested it out. Marissa tried it and managed to get completely stuck trying to come out. Highlight. It was absolutely hilarious. Everyone was in fits of laughter, including her. And while none of the boys tried to help her out, it took 3 tiny Vietnamese men to haul her out, so funny.
I shot an M16..insanely loud! The headphones did nothing.

Got an overnight train to Nha Phang, which was pretty cool. We got off at 5am. Got to hotel. Just had a nap. Marissa is still sleeping. Will check out beach soon.

20/7
Yesterday we went on a boat trip. It was...interesting. The boat was full of people..tourists and locals. 4 people threw up on the journey. It stopped for us to snorkel. There were way too many people so the snorkeling officially sucked ASS. After that the crew provided 'entertainment'. This consisted of a band, terrible drums, out of tune guitar..singing songs from different countries! Was hilarious.
There was then a floating bar in the sea, they threw us rings and we swam over to the guy handing out cups of crappy wine. Was pretty funny.
We got an overnight train to Da Nhang then a bus to Hoi An, got to the hotel at 6am. Couldn't get rooms until 10. We went for breakfast and a walk then waited about until 10. Once in the rooms, we napped.

Cambodia-Vietnam

OK, so here's the deal..I've totally forgotten to write in the past few days due to being wrapped up in the hecticity (I don't care that word apparently doesn't exist as my computer tells me, its a cool word) of travelling about. On the 8th I met all the people in the group and we went out for dinner in Bangkok. Next day we got a bus to the Cambodian border. The minibus was awesome. It had colourful lights and flourescent 'PMS' haha. We arrived in Siem Reap. There we went to Angkor Wat..the massive buddhist temples, amazing.

We also went to the weird tree root temple..a scene in Tomb Raider was shot there.

We then went on a boat ride through the floating village which was cool. Kids would jump aboard the boat and try and sell us drinks and stuff. One kid was saying 'one banana one dollar' er..no way maayte!

In the evening we went to a bar called Angkor what? They had a special offer on..buy 2 pitchers/buckets..and get a free t-shirt. You can tell pretty much all of us got a t-shirt judging by the number of buckets..

We played ring of fire 2 and a half times. It was fun. The night ended up us dancing on the table/benches. The highlight of the night was Shaun trying to get up and do the same, but slipping on the stool and completely faceplanting the table, resulting in a couple of the half empty pitchers smashing all over the floor. The barmen came over and swept it up in minutes. Just like it was standard procedure every night. Haha. Good night.



The next day we had another long bus journey, to Phnom Penh. Here we went to the S.21 genocide prison where Pol Pot killed about a quarter of the population of Cambodia. Very evil man. We also went to the killing fields where the graves were where the bodies were found. Still today on the ground are bits of bones and clothes sticking out of the ground..so surreal..its horrible. They put all the skulls they found in one building..there were so many..people went in to pay respect.

From Phnom Penh we then went to Sihanoukville. On the way the road was totally flooded. So we had to get off the bus and wade through knee deep water on the road with all our bags! Once on the otherside we got a motorbike to another bus. I swear I nearly fell off the back, my bag was heavy and pulling me down!
Sihanokville was wet. Marissa and I explored the beach and went to a bar for a shake. These kids came up to us and made us bracelets..'for free', then asked us to buy some. They got real pissy when we said no. 'Thats unfair' 'You come here and be a tight ass' 'buy her food, she is starving' (this girl was clearly NOT starving, she actually looked a little on the chubby side) Jeez. Rude much? One great quote from them was 'open your heart, and open your wallet.'

That night was messy. We played copious drinking games..the beer was 50c per glass, draught. They then brought us out free shots. By this point you can probably guess we weren't exactly sober..once again, we ended up dancing on the BAR. But it was ok, the barmen were joining in. They then brought us free buckets. After them I was just, gone. They then sorted us out with a massive bucket! This made me overjoyed in my state, and I proceeded to start ladeling it out to strangers, while dancing. On rare occasions I would actually get the drink into the cup..
So I accidently went home with one of the barman's hat. I returned it the next morning as I felt bad, though I couldn't remember what he looked like so it was pretty awkward! Another highlight of the evening was Mike jumping into the sea drunk, brilliant.
That morning it rained more. So the day consisted pretty much of lazing about watching 'Star movies' I needed it. I didn't feel too great.
Right now we're in Chau Doc, Vietnam. Went on a boat ride then motorcycle ride up a mountain where we chilled in hammocks with beer (90c) My driver was nuts, he kept turning off at different places to the others!
We just ate street food. It wasn't great but the banana fritter I got off a street vendor was.

Bangkok 1/7

Arrived in Bangkok this morning. On the train the only vegetarian food they did was rice and fried egg. :. So I had that TWICE. It was pretty gross.
The bed was quite cool..for me anyway.
I slept a good few hours so that passed the time, kept getting woken up though by people walking through selling food.

Met a German girl on the train, shared a taxi and am staying in a guesthouse with her. We went shopping today..bought a couple of bits. I couldn't believe it when I saw a Michael Jackson tribute t-shirt..that was bloody quick! Hes only been dead 5 days! Jeez..

3/7

Yesterday we went to see Transformers 2 at the IMAX, so good!! We had to stand for the national anthem before! Long live the king and all that jazz!
We also spent half the day on public transport. We got the skytrain to the cinema..its not as amazing as it sounds unfortunately.
We then ended up gettingthe wrong bus home. It took us a loooong way in the opposite direction. So we got off at the end, walked across the street and got the same bus back in the other direction.
It took us 3 hours to get home after the movie.

Today we got a ferry down the river to see some temples. Saw the 'reclining buddha'..amazing!



5/7
Julia left last night..so I'm alone again. Yesterday we went to the floating market..it is exactly as it sounds! Pretty cool..
I don't know what to do with myself now..I'm here for another few days..ugh!

8/7
Bangkok is getting to me. You only need 2 days here. I've been so bored. Tonight I gave some nuts and a bottle of water to a homeless woman and her son begging on the side of the road.

Perhentian Island 30/6

So I left the island. I didn't want to..I totally melted into that place. You can just do nothing all day and its awesome..chilling out at the beach, its the most relaxing place. There weren't that many people there either..so it wasn't hectic. Was really chilled out in the evenings, with people doing firebreathing etc. Amazing place.

The driver of the boat I got back was a nutter! He was racing the other boat, though in our boat, none of us were wearing lifejackets or anything! Met an english girl who lives in Vietnam on the boat, we shared a taxi to Kota Bharu. Last night we went for some food in town, we were sat at this kinda restaurant, with a beer, listening to this guy blare out Michael Jackson hits..it was perfect!

I am currently on the train to Bangkok. It left at 12pm and will arrive at 8.45am! I don't know where the beds are...this worries me.
The good news is I didn't become a victim of violence at the border, it was fine! I just walked over the border then got a motorbike taxi to the train station. No violence! Don't know what everyone is stressing about.

I can't believe I'm on this train for 18 hrs.

The bed is above my head. Smooth moves Sadie, douche.

Perhentian Island 25/6

Writing from my shack. Today I went snorkeling, was so good! Saw a shark, a couple of turtles, lots of amazing brightly coloured fish and awesome coral.
I got sunburnt. I knew I would, arse. Tonight will be painful sleeping.

26/6
I'm currently being fumigated in my shack. Why do they burn leaves so often?
Oh..guess who I saw today..Yanik, of course, I knew he'd show up here at some point. Damn. Do not want to talk to that boy..

I'm getting used to being alone now. If people want to hang out or something, thats really cool, but if not, no problem.

I can't believe Michael Jackson is dead! :( what a total bummer. If my ipod had battery I'd totally bust out some of his tunes. R.I.P

Perhentian Island 23/6

Just arrived on Pulau Kecil, one of the Perhentian Islands. Its amazing, white sand..totally clear blue water..sweet. Now believe me when I say, my room is a shack. Its hilarious. Have a mosquito net though! They are usually RM30 a night..but when the guy showed me mine he looked around in it and said '..ok RM25 for this one.' Haha. Oh well..it doesn't bother me..I've slept in worse, I don't need anything fancy! I need cheap! and this is, relatively.

'Rock Garden'
Here is my shack:


I bet you wish you had a shack like mine.
Inside:



Long Beach:


Ahh..I'm in paradise..

Kuantan 22/6

Kuantan sucked! Nothing there. Hotel didn't have dorms, just rooms. The woman at reception was like '45 ringgit' err..what?! She pointed to the most expensive 'TV..DVD, king bed' Er..look at me. Do I look like I want/can afford a king bed?

Currently on the bus to Kota Bharu now. 7 and a half hour journey. There is no toilet. My solution-stay dehydrated :/.
Ahh, its ok, it stopped for food and toilet. I just bought a pack of Mister Potato crisps, salt and black pepper flavour. There were ok, I read the ingredients..MSG..palm oil..standard. Then I read below.

'May contain traces: Crustacean, celery, fish, milk, mustard, peanut, wheat (gluten)'.

Why, Mister Potato? Just, why. I would like to know exactly how you managed to possibly include such traces. I mean, crustacean? Seriously?? Do you also make crab snacks? fish crisps? Do you purposely want to stop every vegetarian/vegan from eating your food? I wanted crisps though. And although I would normally only buy veggie ones, they're also all made using palm oil. Just as evil? Probably. I can't win! But still, Mister Potato, please leave the crustaceans out of your fried snacks.

5 more hours to go! Can you tell I'm bored?

KL 21/6

Ok, so I basically just got told to piss off. Yanik came up to me and said 'I'm an independant person..I want to travel with my friends, then do Thailand on my own'.

'Alright, fine..I'll leave you then'
'Ok.'
:.
Nice. If you wanted to go on your own then why the hell did you ask me to come with you to Malaysia in the first place? Fuck tard. Do not like him. Last night he basically ignored me.

OK. So, back to travelling alone. Its alright, I must be able to figure it out, character building!

Yesterday was just so weird. I went from happy, shopping for DVDs, sunglasses etc. To a complete wreck in floods of tears on the phone to my best friend, to wandering to the 7 eleven in my pajamas at 3am, to drinking a carton of orange juice on the ledge of the hostel. I was sat there, next to the big neon sign, while looking down at this crazy homeless guy across the street miming a shotgun and thinking, it doesn't get much weirder than this!

Reform. I can do this on my own, must be able to..YEAH! East coast here I come!!

Kuala Lumpur 20/6

Haven't written in a while so here whats happened. The 'dishy' guy I said about in my dorm in Singapore..we've ended up going to Malaysia together. When we got to Melaka, he bumped into 2 people he worked with in AUS. So we're with them. Its kinda weird because I don't know them..and they all know each other so I'm pretty much excluded from most conversation. I wish I was here with a friend.

In Melaka we went out to dinner at this place where the owners were doing cheesy performances of cheesy songs. Hilarious. One guy was playing bongos to pass off the backing beats as his own.

In KL now. This hostel looks like a parking lot. Its just one big room with about 20 beds round the outside. Went drinking last night. Ended up in this 'Beatles bar' where there were a few old-ish men doing kareoke, drunk. We drank and had shisha.

Where next? I duno..I miss making music..so much.


Alright, first breakdown. Shit. Can't stop crying. This guy in my dorm just came up to me and said 'its ok?' aw. Today I was fine. I wandered about the markets and stuff. I was great. What the hell changed?! These 3 people I'm with..they all know each other, I'm like the outcast..so awkward! I can't include myself in any conversation, we were just sat drinking and I started thinking about everyone I miss. I just phoned Sean in my state, was so good hearing his voice. The thing about being out here alone is that you can't just go see a friend when you're feeling down.

Theres someone sleeping..oops. I'm probably pissing them off with my pathetic weeping. I'm so weak, SO weak. I can't even go 2 months alone?! I miss the jungle, and everyone there. I miss home and making music. But I've enjoyed this trip so much until tonight. I don't know what the hell has gone wrong. I feel so alone. I AM alone. No one here knows me at all. I thought I was getting close to Yanik, but these past few days, since we've been with his friends, he won't even make conversation with me. When I try and start one he just shrugs. Doesn't care. No one does here.. argh! I can't even read what I just wrote!

Jakarta and Singapore 15/6

I am up at 3am. I got the time difference wrong, an hour early. Balls. Nice one, Sadie.

This hotel is AMAZING. Room was big, en suite, mini bar, big TV, hot shower. Theres also pools and saunas but I arrived too late to use them :(. Insanely posh..I've just come from the jungle..what is this?!! Theres a western toilet as well, which flushes by itself! I no longer have to pour water down it to flush it.
Wow:


I went a bit crazy and had an ice cold beer from the mini bar. It was SO GOOD.
This was my reaction to my hotel room:



Arrived in Singapore. Hostel is alright, I feel so out of place though! So many pretty people with nice clothes. I don't have nice clothes..I have work clothes, jungle clothes. I would like to buy nice clothes but unfortunately do not have much room in my bag. I explored a bit today, got a camera cable, had lunch. There are so many vegetarian restaurants! Amazing!!
It can get pretty lonely eating by yourself though..I do kinda wish I was travelling with someone. I miss everyone on the volunteer program.


I feel strange. I have not slept properly in 2 days. I've gone past the point of tiredness and fallen onto the otherside. My brain is buzzing. I was just in the internet cafe wasting time. I stared at that screen for too long. My vision has moments of blurryness. I think I know what it is I have. Angered brain syndrome. After 3 attempts (very long attempts) to upload my photos, each time it said 'Upload failed!'. Each time I saw this message pop up like a very unwanted large insect residing at the end of your mosquito net, only to be poisoned by the chemicals impregnating the net. I almost felt this small tumour growing.

With every flash of the sign my eye twitched that little bit crazier. Of course, in my state of lack of sleep, and from the copious amounts of fried vegetarian delights I have thrown down the hatch today, I am physically unable to act out in anger at the computer. Instead I stared intensely at the screen, I couldn't look anywhere else, dizzy dehydration spells kick in. I twisted in my chair a little. Chair. Theres a word I haven't used in a while. Chair. How I have missed chairs, like proper chairs, comfy chairs. Not a bench fashioned out of wood put together by inexperienced volunteers (it was good though, you know, as good as a wooden bench gets!). Chair and mattress. My body will no longer wake up numb. I will no longer forget I am actually sitting down as my arse will now have feeling. Although I won't speak too soon. This angered/tired brain syndrome seems to be spreading to the rest of my body.

I am here alone. Why am I alone? Why have I done this to myself? Am I brave or just really stupid? I mean this is ME, I'm so incapable on my own!
Hold up, a very 'dishy' guy just walked in. I love that word, dishy. Reminds me of my mum as its the sort of embarassing word she would use. Like 'yonks'.
He is tall and blonde, yup. I want to look up again but my current state renders this idea unsuccessful. My neck hurts. I want cheese puffs. Like a massive pack of them. Of course they would have to have a very overexaggerated description on the back. Just like 'tango' wafers. I will write out what it says on the back of Tiramisu flavour. Ahem.

'Let Tiramisu, transformed into appertising crispy wafers, indulge you just like the Duke of Florence from Italy. Imagine you have white wings and are floating on a fluffy cloud. You are in heaven, and heaven is in your mouth.'

See that, that is brilliant. Never mind the bad grammar and total lack of any sense, the guy who makes those up has an awesome job. Quite jealous.

I need sleep. My body needs to stop but I just keep writing. My neck really aches. Feel rather weak, tempted to just fall back and lay on my bed and-(at this point I had actually falled back on my bed while still holding the pen, so there is a line down the rest of the page.)

Benjarmasin Airport 14/6

Currently in Benjarmasin airport waiting for flight to Jakarta. Went for dinner last night in PKB with Dave and Catherine (we had chip butties :P) They told London that they quit the job! I thought they were great co-ordinators, but I can totally understand how friggin' stressful that job must be, especially with all the miscommunication that goes on!

I'm looking forward to getting to this mega posh hotel in Jakarta!
I was just sat in the waiting area and opposite me were a bunch of women pointing at me and smiling. One wanted to shake my hand, then one wanted a picture with me. It was like being back in Belantikan! I thought, surely they've seen a white person before? They were going to Jakarta..plently of white people there! Though I guess I'm the only white person currently in this airport!

Camp Leakey (the second visit) 10/6

Arrived at Camp Leakey last night, guess who was already sleeping on the jetty, yup, Siswi. Dawn and I still slept on it though, I prefer it to the boat, I like looking up at the moon and stars in bed.

Got woken up at twat o'clock though..5.20 am, by Dawn telling me Siswi had woken up so we had to get up. She hung around for a while then left. It was a chill out day, which was nicem went to the feeding then played volleyball. I returned to find out Siswi had been playing with my pants that were drying on the jetty. So I have to wash them again -_- cheers, Siswi.

13/6
It was really nice to end the project at Camp Leakey, I love seeing the Orangutans. Yesterday Siswi gathered some leaves together and was just wandering about with them on her head. Every few metres they'd fall off so she'd have to put them back on! Maybe she thought it was going to rain?!



I had one last play on my guitar, got everyone to sign it, and left it at the camp. I was so sad to leave it. On the journey back on the boat I just wanted to pick it up and play!! But I'm glad I left it there, hopefully I will go back in a few years time and it will still be there :)

Nanga Matu 8/6

The mural is finished. Looks amazing! It was so cool watching all the villagers help out with it, really awesome.

Here it is:


Today we took group photos around the village, then we set off. I was really sad to leave :( The journey back to PKB was long..

Nanga Matu 6/6

Finished painting the toilets today. I thought we were going to be painting more white, instead we painted the rims blue. I wore my white t-shirt. My white t-shirt is no longer white.

We started painting a mural on the outside of the school :)

Nanga Matu 5/6

Last night was the party in the village..our leaving party. During the day people from other villages came to watch another Dayak ceremony.

They killed a cow for us. I felt sorry for the cow..as I walked past it..watching it's last ever sunset. It was a pretty big thing killing a cow for us..they have 3. Anyway, it turned out the cow was pregnant. So they also barbequed the baby cow. Horrible..to them its just more meat though.. I can't imagine how scared the both of them were. God damn.

In the ceremony before lunch, it was Maria and I that got asked up to do the ritual and dance..and drink. So we had to down 3 glasses of the alcohol. After 4 weeks of not drinking any alcohol, after this I was actually a little bit drunk! It felt good though. 3 volleyball games took place..then the other villagers left.

The ceremony resumed after this. More dancing. A LOT more dancing. I went up again and guess who I was paired with ..Pak Ronald.. :!!! Hmm..that wasn't set up at all was it!
Now, I'm not exaggerating when I say our dance went on FOREVER. I swear, about triple the time of everyone elses..I was exhausted! The traditional dancing got pretty boring..so I mixed it up with my own moves..disco'd it up a little! Hah. Hope I didn't insult their culture..I got a lot of thumbs up though! It felt like it wasn't going to end..I was so hot and sweaty.

We weren't allowed to drink anymore after this point..but every man in the room seemed to be shitfaced. I asked a very drunk Ido if I could have a go on the instruments they were playing and he was like' YA!!'

The guy playing what kinda sounded like steel drums but..louder, tried to teach me how to do it properly but was just making no sense in his drunken state. So I did it my own thing..they seemed to like my drumming I think! It was really fun.

Drumming away:


Ido and I:


More of the SAME dancing took place. I continued to mix it up. Dawn and I incorporated the disco moves. We did a ripple chain at one point, it was awesome, went down well with the villagers!

It then went a bit crazy..the traditional dancing actually turned into what looked like kung fu.


People then brought in speakers and a TV..! They were planning on doing an Indonesian kareoke..until the generator ran out of diesel.
I don't think Ido felt too great this morning. We started painting the walls of the toilets and the roof is now on!

Nanga Matu 2/6

We've made a lot of progress with the toilets, yesterday we cemented the walls :)

Me, mid-cementing action:


Boone seems to be hopelessly falling for Maria! He also keeps teasing me about Ido...

The baby birds unfortunately didn't make it..I'm gutted.

After cementing the walls we left for Bintang Mengalih..another village where we were invited to a traditional Dayak ceremony! These only happen like once or twice a year! It was celebrating that they passed some eco law or something..
The boat ride was an hour long..very loud. We dropped our stuff off at the place we were staying the night in (a large empty room) and went to the cutting of the wood..they just paranged through bits of wood! Like cutting a ribbon at an opening but..Indonesian style, wearing crazy hats.

After that we drank a bit of tuak, their home brewed alcohol, out of a horn.
I then got completely bombarded with men with camera phones..was like a proper paparazzi! I couldn't get away for a good 10 minutes..photo after photo after photo..



It then chucked it down. But people still played volleyball in the pouring rain..there was also a random tug of war..! So funny to watch them slipping all over the place!

We then went to the ceremony. This started off as different people making speeches that seemed to go on forever. They then did this weird thing where they started talking really fast into the microphone, they took it in turns. It was so funny, it was like an Indonesian rap battle! Like 8 mile or something, with people randomly cheering when they said something they liked. They also added a drum beat while they were rapping. That too went on for what seemed like eternity. By this time my arse was, as far as I was aware, non-existent.

They then started the ritual..a plate of rice with an egg on top was on the floor. People took it in turns to go up and this guy would come up to you with a chicken with its legs tied together, and a knife. I was thinking, shit, please don't kill a chicken in front of me, I'll cry. But they just touched it then touched my forehead..blessed by a chicken! Although..I guess it would probably end up on plates later on though...

We consumed more alcohol as part of the ceremony..breaking OFUK rules..oops! The people who did the ritual then did traditional dayak dancing in the middle of the room while everyone danced round them in a circle. Very, VERY repeatitive!

I got bombarded again by more people wanting photos. By this point I was knackered.. We got back to the house about 11pm. We slept on the bare floor. For some reason they wouldn't turn off the light. There was still so much noise from the parties going on. I think I managed to get a solid half an hours sleep. Today I ache.
We left about half 6 as mostly everyone was up before then from not being able to sleep. Straight back to work..more cementing! Looks close to finishing now though...

Nanga Matu 26/5

They killed 2 more chickens today. A couple of the volunteers won't eat it, said it doesn't feel right as they couldn't face the killing.

Yesterday, Roni (one of the kids) killed a mother bird to get to its babies. Roni kills a lot of birds.
Catherine took the babies off them and has been trying her hardest to look after them, get them back to health..they were newborns. Her and Dave are feeding them with milk through a syringe, its so cute, they just open their mouths and let it pour in, despite not being able to see yet ^_^.

Its hard..I just wish people would get taught to have some respect for animals..but its understandable in a tiny village in a developing country. It just gets to me seeing kids playing with animals for their own gratification and entertainment.

The work today was filling bags of sand and carrying it to the 2 holes for the toilets we are going to build for the village. The villagers go to the toilet in the river, they also mandi in the river..so this is an attempt to make it more hygenic for them! Sespit toilets.

Some guys from another village came to watch us work. We are the circus in town.
OMG WHITE SKIN!
This one guy told me he loved me after seeing me 20 minutes, put his arm around me while I was carrying sand, asked for my I love you necklace and generally perved on me. It was really annoying. He didn't even help out or anything..just..perved. He came to the camp..and left shortly after being given many evil looks from Depsi! Haha.

Boone seems to be helplessly falling for Maria. He also keeps teasing me about Ido.

Nanga Matu 24/5

Todays work was more carpentry..building the water tower. I can't saw wood at all. Ido did 2 planks in the time it took me to do 1. Fail.



Ecco, who we met at the Yayorin base in PKB came today. A couple of the volunteers requested a couple of chickens to kill and eat. So he brought with him 5.

However, 2 died from stress of the 5 hour journey in a box with their legs tied together. And 1 was on its death bed anyway so they killed it. They threw that one away as they don't know what it died from. Like a piece of rubbish. God damn.

Tim and Barry killed the other 2. Glad I wasn't there to witness that. Apparently they did it too quick..Indonesians do it slowly and very painfully to drain the blood.

This whole ordeal didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. However, I do think it was quite unnecessary. I mean, how hard is it to go 4 weeks without meat? I wouldn't have minded it happening if these chickens had been running about freely until they were killed. But they were kept in tiny cages, legs tied together on what must have been a horrific journey for them. No one seemed thankful for the lives of them..no one said anything, they just ate. To me, there didn't seem to be any respect for these animals. I know thats the culture here though. But I duno..I don't know why I expected more from the volunteers..they just must have been pretty desperate for the meat.

Its a more real experience though. Its not done behind closed doors here. Tim said it made him think about how meat gets to his plate a bit more.

It was Yukas birthday..we made hats for the party!! Boone helped me make mine..and I won the competition! We then snacked a lot and I played lots of guitar with Ido.
We also got the stuff we ordered from town..SilverQueen chocolate...so good. Maria and I ended up with a massive bag of nuts.

Nanga Matu 23/5

Today was funny. We went to Petarican, another village in the Belantikan region, for a football match. Its a larger village than Nanga Matu (has more than one street). Yayorin (the NGO we are working with) doesn't work there as they have already agreed to a logging concession. You can tell..they have their own football kit with their names on!



It started raining and got worse throughout. I hadn't taken my poncho. WET.
There were a few injuries, not surprising seeing how many of them were slipping all over the place, hilarious to watch. Harry hurt his foot and Ido busted his arm diving to save a ball..which he didn't save.

We must have looked so odd to the villagers. All the other people watching at the sideline were quiet, while we were being all British like 'GO ON BAZZAA!!!' (barry)

We got 2 kelotoks back, one ran out of gasoline so had to be towed by the other one. I am now not surprised by stuff like this happening. I am in Indonesia.
When we returned to camp Pak Seriamat (one of the carpenters we are working with) cooked chips!!!! What an english day, football, rain, and chips!

I hope Ido is alright, he is actually quite a sweet guy, buys me chocolate and stuff :)

Nanga Matu 22/5

Hey hey! So, guess who's back?! Mr Ear Infection. Yup, thats right, that muthafucka. It feels like my right ear permanently has water in it..it sucks! Hopefully getting some ear drops soon.

Depsi and Priyanto keep drawing pictures of me..they copy them from a drawing Laura did of a BOY. Hah. Its cute though.
Something thats not so cute though...earlier Catherine told me that Pak Ronald (the village priest) was asking her if he should tell me that he likes me..he is 33 :/. He wants me to play guitar in church. Oh god.

So I have Pak Ronald after me..and these kids won't leave me alone! Don't get me wrong, they are really cute and fun, legends, I much prefer them to bratty British kids..but theres only so many games of 'Go fish' I can take in one day! They tire you out!

Ear still hurts.

Nanga Matu 18/5

Ear was painful this morning. Took 2 ibuprofen and 2 something else that Maria gave me. I think its starting to get better now..not going to the project site today though, don't want to get water or anything in it that will screw it up even more!

Dave and Catherine returned, turned out they couldn't get back even though they were told they could..typical Indonesians.

At dinner Catherine appeared out her room with balloons and a cake!! I had to run to her to blow them out as she was shouting 'QUICK THEY'RE BURNING ME!!' They had bought loads of snacks and 'birthday champagne!' (orange and lychee squash :P ) So I ended up on a massive sugar high and stayed up til 10pm! (Usually go to bed about 8.30..days are exhausting.) I played guitar with Ido who is 17, he played me happy birthday, I have a video of it, will post when I can. Also played lots of cards with 2 kids Depsi and Priyanto :) and Maria and Boone.

So I practically had 2 birthdays! :) awesome.

Nanga Matu 17/5 My 19th birthday.

Just woke up. I'm 19. My ear is fucking killing me. It blocked up loads last night so I didn't get much sleep. It hurts below my ear, and inside its swollen like a motherfucker. Maria looked inside and the hole is like half the size of my other ear's. Fuck. Happy birthday Sadie, have a fucking ear infection!!

I want to go to work today though..otherwise I'll be spending the day alone..
Tim just gave me some of his chocolate that he got for his birthday, back in Camp Leakey! Chocolate never tasted so good..

I've been teaching Laura a bit of guitar, and she just played me happy birthday!! (I taught her the A major scale). Ear still cains.

I had no energy for work this morning. The others have just gone back, they made me stay here and rest because I look and feel like shit!
Well, this birthday so far beats last years in terms of suckage!
Hah. There is now a terrential downpour. I can't go anywhere..I swear today cannot get any worse!


Ok, so dinner totally saved the day. After we ate, Ibu brought out this rice and sugar cake she made! It was like a mountain of rice with Sadie written in coconut sugar stuff and '19' as longbeans! Amazing!! Then Laura gave me a card she made that everyone signed. Was not expecting that after the rubbish day!
Dave and Catherine haven't returned from getting supplies from Bayat.

Me trying to cut my cake!:



Well..what a day. One things for sure..I won't have another birthday where I'm hitting the hay at 8.30! Time to sleep!

Nanga Matu 14/5

Work today was alright! In the morning I collected rocks for making the dam, then in the afternoon I did some cementing. I was actually quite enjoying it!



We've run out of the big bottles of drinking water at camp, so now we have to drink boiled water from the river. It is brown. It tastes like smoked sausage. It is gross.
BUT, the water at the project site..the stuff we are getting to the village has no added taste! Woo! So whenever I have the opportunity, I'll fill up my bottle from there.

15/5

We found about 5 scorpions in our 'room' (Balai Balajar) today. Tiny ones, but still, fuck.
Work was alright, I got leeched on my stomach though. How? I only discovered when I returned to camp and got in the mandi room (room for bucket showering) mandi=wash, and saw it was bleeding. I didn't know if the leech was still about, I couldn't see in the dark room. Shit. They are sneaky little buggers!!!

16/5

Day off today, wrote some lyrics..don't like them. Was switching between 3 sets so my brain is fizzled. Couldn't write any music to them after. I love writing music, but get so frustrated when my imagination fails me!!

I can't believe I'm 19 tomorrow. I don't want to be. I don't really understand birthdays, I mean, don't get me wrong, they're great, fun, an event to celebrate. But..why? Why be happy that you're getting older. Tomorrow will just be a reminder that my youth is slipping away from meeee! Sometimes I feel like I've wasted my teenage years..god I hate my past self sometimes. Dick. I wonder how different the possibilities would be in life if we didn't count our age..less limits and restrictions. Theres this woman who lives in the village, when Catherine asked her how old she was she said 'I do not know, when I was growing up we didn't count our age, but I moved here when I got married, 99 years ago.'

However, I'm kinda looking forward to spending my birthday half way across the world, in the jungle, it will be an experience!

The geckos are loud tonight, I love them though.
My ear really hurts..theres definitely something wrong with it. Will try to sleep now.

Nanga Matu 13/5

Work yesterday was hard. No I mean REALLY hard. After filling up bags of sand at the bottom of the hill in the morning, we had to carry them up the steep hill to the project site for mixing cement in the afternoon. I got there and was like..theres no way..thats insane. Midday heat, bag of sand on your shoulder. One of the yayorin workers put one on my shoulder, it immediately clicked and it really, really hurt. I started walking. I didn't get far up the hill until my back just seemed to give way completely. I gave up. Couldn't physically do it! SADIE NO STRONG. I felt so useless, ended up getting so worked up about it..everyone else could do it except me!! Christ, when I got to the top empty handed, I saw 2 kids walking up with one each! What the fuck?! They are 12. They are 12 and are stronger than me. If that doesn't make you feel insanely shit then I don't know what does! God damn miniture supermen.

I'm glad I volunteered for camp duty today. As apparently the work is even harder today! Score. The others are lifting more bags of sand..AND CEMENT! insane.
So, yesterday we established I am the weakling of the group. Fantastic!

Nanga Matu 11/5

Started work today. Had a taster yesterday of the type of work we will be doing as we built a long table and benches for us to eat at!!
So today we walked to the site and started clearing stones from the stream. We are going to build a dam, and get the fresh water to the village for them to drink so they don't have to boil river water. We then cleared a pathway so we can bring the materials there. This involved paranging (using a machete) the trees away. Funny eh, in order to attempt to SAVE the forest you have to DESTROY some of it!

I got leeched. I hate them, they are insanely gross. I got a blister from sawing a branch, and I got leeched ON the open wound! Sucked loads of blood, it didn't stop bleeding for ages. So glad we're working somewhere in the shade! its so hot...

Nanga Matu, Belantikan, Yayorin Base, accommodation for next 4 weeks! 10/5

Arrived today at our home for the next few weeks! The journey here was long.. We drove past all the evils destroying the forest..miles and miles of palm oil plantations, past loggers and mines. A pretty soul destroying journey to be honest! But is a reminder of what we are going to be working against. Once we got to the town of Bayat, we were told we couldn't get to the village, it was too late, and being on a small Kelotok in the dark is generally a very bad idea. SO, we ended up staying the night in some random villager's living room :/!! When we walked in they had music blaring out a stereo powered by their generator...really terrible dance music, it felt like we had just walked into a really bad local club. Sleeping on the bare floor was not comfortable.

So this morning we got the boat to the village, 2 hour journey, the engine is soo loud, i wore my sexy Cath Kidson poncho as i was getting wet. I sunburnt my legs badly. Why do I always think I can avoid sunburn when its cloudy? STUPID.

The village we are staying in is one street. Amazing. Apart from one other person, we are the first westerners to come here!! Very remote location. Where we're sleeping is nice! I expected a lot more basic.

Helloo Balai Belajar!

PKB-Camp Leakey (TJ national park) 6/5

Past few days have been amazing. We visited the care centre in PKB, where we saw orangutans who have been rescued from palm oil plantations..many orphans. Ones who are injured from it etc. I was really surprised at how good their facilities were, these people really care. Walking around we saw so many orangutans in cages, as it was part of the rehabilitation process before being released back into the wild. That was really hard to see. Especially the babies..you just see their eyes pearing out between the slacks. I can't believe that this is still happening.



In case you don't know the reasons why orangutans and possibly many other species are dying out, I'll tell ya! Basically the demand for palm oil is so high all over the world pretty much. Its used in so many products, snacks, shampoos..etc. They also use it at the chip shop I worked at in Farnham. Due to the high demand, large portions of the forest in Borneo (and other forests obviously) are being torn down for palm oil plantations. When they are torn down, the wildlife living there dies, it can't live without it.

That is only one of the evils destroying the forest! Another is logging..it was weird in PKB..you'd see all the shacks families were living in...then you look across the road and you see great big mansions, owned by the loggers. The other evil is mines..forests get cleared so the land just looks baron..on these their workers pretty much risk their lives for their jobs going underground with no gear or anything.

Anyway, back to the care centre. We went to the baby playground where they were all going crazy swinging from the ropes and stuff! Incredibly cute. They would run up to you and just hug your leg..then try and steal your bag. I love them.





We got a few more supplies in town..I bought a guitar for about 10quid! We then set off for Camp Leakey in the national park. To get there we hired a Kelotok (boat), which we would stay on for a few days there. Was nicer than I thought it would be!! Actually had a shower and a WESTERN toilet! Its really cool going to bed listening to all the jungle sounds around you. I woke up today and saw 2 orangutans on the jetty our boat is at, just playing about.

We watched a dvd..(yes the boat actually had a tv and dvd!) of when Joanna Lumley did the same trip. Pretty sure she was on the same boat as we were!

Met Princess in camp, the famous orangutan who appeared on the cover of National Geographic years ago. She is so clever! We watched as she tried to open the padlock to the food store room with the key next to it..!



8/5
This morning I was woken up by Siswi, the queen orangutan (Dawn, Catherine and I slept on the jetty), she grabbed my bag and I had to actually wrestle her to get it back! I only awoke when I heard Ibu (our cook for the project) shouting 'Siswi!!! no!!' Shes so quiet and devious like that! just sneaks up at about 6am and steals your stuff. Siswi is possibly the laziest orangutan EVER. She slept on the jetty..not in the trees like orangutans are meant to! She then just lay back on our mattresses, jeez!



My arm still aches loads from the volleyball game yesterday..the Indos do mean serves!! All the assistants that work at Camp Leakey are really cool.

Jakarta-Pangkalan Bun (Borneo) 2/5

Today was really long. Got up at 4am to get our flight at 6am to Pontianak. Maria and I saw 2 other white people in the boarding lounge so we went over and said '..are you other volunteers..?'. Haha. They were, thank god. A couple called Tim and Tracey.

On the flight from Pontianak to Pangkalan Bun, Maria and I didn't realise it had multiple stops. So we got off at the wrong stop, only realising when we saw Tim running off the plane after us going 'WE'RE NOT THERE YET!!!!!!!' We would've been screwed if he didn't..no other flights out that day! Once at PKB, we met all the other volunteers, had lunch (in a 'western' restaurant, hah), and wandered around town to buy wellies for the leeches and such.

We had our first injury today. On the FIRST DAY. Tim was walking on the pavement, observing some birds in a tree. This resulted in him failed to notice a large hole in the ground. You can guess what happened next. I remember dodging the hole thinking 'hmm I should really warn the others behind me about that..' Alas, I thought I'd look kinda dumb seeing as it was a VERY noticible hole. Tim got a large cut on his leg from this. Ouch..

Jakarta 01/05

I arrived in Jakarta mid afternoon..driving through I wasn't too impressed. My flight was long, but on the second leg from Hong Kong I got moved to business class because the light above my head was kinda hanging by a thread! It was amazing. Reclining seats, PROPER pillows, lush.
When another volunteer, Maria arrived we decided to venture out. We walked, down a good few roads. There was NOTHING. No shops, no restaurants, just a few kiosks! So odd. I bought a canned drink called 'Pocari Sweat'. It actually does kinda taste like sweat. Its like a really bad, flat, energy drink, gross!

Oh...MAJOR SHAMPOO EXPLOSION!!!!