Cheeky Monkeys and Chilling Out

I can't really blame being busy for not having posted for a while, I've just been wrapped up in the joy that is Ubud and spending my days chilling out and enjoying being in one place for a while. Ubud was made for chilling out, I read somewhere, possibly in my guidebook that Ubud is a place where a day turns into a week and a week turns into a month, or words to that effect. I can see why, I'd be happy here for a few months or years even.

So here's a rundown of what I have been doing in the last ten days or so.......

• Reading. A lot.
• Taking dips to cool off in the small pool at my lovely accommodation Raka House.
• Shopping. A lot. I was going to save my limited bag space until I got to Bangkok just before I come home and do some shopping there but the choice here is too good to pass up. I'd love to bring my mum and sister here. Just checked my baggage allowance on my flight home, can still do shopping in Bangkok. Phew.
• Having bargainous massages and facials. Had a facial yesterday for £4. It was probably the best I've ever had. I've also had a traditional Balinese cremebath which is a treatment for your hair. You basically get lovely smelling herbal type stuff put on your hair and then massaged in, followed by a neck and shoulder massage. This is then washed off and you get a blow dry and you hair smells and feels amazing. Trust me mine needed it, it's never looked in such bad shape!
• Cookery class. It was much fun. Mostly I learnt that Bumbu Bali spicy paste goes with and in everything. Will be making some of that when I get home.
• Mooching around, sitting in cafes overlooking beautiful green rice paddies and drinking such things as lemongrass ginger fizz (and the odd mojitio). Bliss.
• Visiting the criminals in the Sacred Monkey Forest. I've never seen so many monkeys in one place before and these ones are very definitely cheeky monkeys. You are warned they like to 'remove' items such as sunglasses, hats and anything else small they can grab. Still every now and then you hear someone scream and turn around to find a monkey making off with its latest pair of shades. They will jump on you if you have any food, which you are told not to take but yet people sell you bananas at the entrance to take in with you, ERROR. I even saw a monkey trying to open one poor lady's bag. She was most upset, but with all the screeching she was making I did find myself urging the monkey on, thinking you've brought it on yourself love. I spent most of the time walking around eyes on the monkeys (quite tricky there being so many) telling them "I know your game, I've got nothing for you" and feeling quite smug that I made it out with all my possessions.
• Jewellery making class. This was most excellent. I designed and made my own lotus flower ring. Well it's supposed to be a lotus flower, it's definitely a flower anyway. You have to draw your piece and then use a small saw to shape it from the silver. They do the tricky heat bits for you, I imagine if we did that there would just be a gloopy mess of what was once a piece of jewellery. Then it's all polished and Ta Da! You have you very own piece of silver jewellery. I will never look at it in quite the same way in shops again knowing the processes that go on. I thoroughly recommend having a go at doing this if you ever see a class anywhere.

That's about it so far. I want to go for a walk out of Ubud, visit the palace, possibly see some dancing (at 2 hours plus a show I think I'd lose interest pretty quickly) and undoubtedly have another massage before I move on. My time on the trip is rapidly running out and whilst I've long since lost the enamour of living out of a bag I'm not quite ready to come home yet. I have some more diving arranged after Ubud and then basically a night near the airport before I fly via Singapore to Siem Reap. I'm trying to soak it all in, in just over three weeks I'll be home! Best go and wallow in the pool while I still can......

The small pool at Raka House

Struggling with the design at the silver making class

Can you tell what it is yet?

Visiting the market with the cooking class

The (many) ingredients of Bumbu Bali

Sate sticks - Fun to make

Waiting for their latest victims to enter the forest

The kiddos were fighting neither mum was very impressed

Amazing trees in the forest

What's that you've got there?

He's spotted his next pair of shades

Awwww, so cute but yet so evil

Beautiful Ubud

Finding Nemo

It's been a while and I've been ever so busy, arriving on Bali, heading off to Gili Trawangan, turning 30 and learning to dive! It has been an amazing few days and a 30th birthday never to forget. Unbelievably probably my least drunken birthday since I was a teenager and my most memorable, hmmm maybe there's a link there Kasia? I swam with turtles and found Nemo on my 30th not many people can say that, it makes me smile just thinking about it.

A 30th Birthday like no other

Learning to dive is the best thing I have ever done. I loved loved loved being underwater, it is magical in ways I can't eloquently put into words. This wonderful relaxed calm state takes over your mind and body and assuming you've got buoyancy under control you can happily drift around looking at the underwater world in utter amazement. On dive number one we were underwater for over 50 minutes and saw three hawksbill turtles like the one in the photo, clown fish (Nemo), flute fish, trumpet fish, trigger fish, drummer fish, moorish idols (more Nemo cast), pyramid butterfly fish and so many more that I can't even remember. I didn't want the dive to end and with the water being 29 degrees there really wasn't any need for it to other than that oh so important factor of air!

I don't think I stopped beaming all day, even when we were going through the study modules. The only thing I didn't like doing was the mask skills, and this did lead to a slight paddy on the PADI course. As part of the course there are lots of skills you have to complete both in the confined water dives in the pool and then demonstrate out in the sea in the open water dives. In the most part these are 'in the unlikely event of' type scenarios. For some reason I couldn't handle the mask work where you had to flood the mask and then empty it. I kept inhaling the water, panicking that I was choking on it and then having to surface. Fine in the pool, not so much of an option in the open water.

Eventually I got it under control enough to be able to empty the mask on a half flood and full flood but the next day came the even trickier task of filling the mask, taking it off and sitting for a minute before putting the mask back on. I knew this was also followed by a mask flood, removal, swim and mask replace. My lovely instructor James was so patient with me and quickly realised we needed to move on because I had got myself a tad wound up. There was a brief moment when I thought uh oh I wont be able to get my certification. Thanks to some team work from the instructors who have seen lots of this kind of thing before we tried me just swimming around on the surface with my mask off and the regulator in. I was happy enough doing that so then I realised it was something about the shock of the water flooding the mask. Bingo.

Next day James and I started a bit earlier in the pool, this was my last chance to get it and thankfully first go I managed it for both skills. With a calm positive attitude it's amazing what you can achieve. All that I had to do was a mask removal and replace in the open water, surprisingly this went OK too, I even opened my eyes this time!

I passed the exam on the final day and am now a qualified open water diver, meaning I can dive to a depth of 18 metres with a certified diving buddy. I definitely want to do some more diving whilst I'm here, it seems silly not to when there are some great dive sites on the doorstep and I should be getting some experience under my belt.

We finished the course with a few drinks to celebrate which ended with a drunken bike ride home, I really really wish this had been captured on video. I was giving a loud commentary the entire way back as I wobbled my way around the island trying to avoid the few late night pedestrians senisbly on foot, horses (no vehicles on the Gilis) and other potential hazards along the way. I blame the vodka joss shots. Excellent night though much fun had and a great way to finish up my all too brief time on Gili T.

Right now I am sat in Padangbai on Bali watching Eat Pray Love with another traveller in our guesthouse as I'm waiting to head off to Ubud. Seems very appropriate and I have to admit I wouldn't mind if Javier Bardem was there waiting for me. Probably not all that likely though Kash.

On the way to Gili Trawangan

Lovely Eden Cottages

Lutwala Dive Team

Teacher and Students

Lombok

Singapouring the praises

Alas I only had a very short time in Singapore but I fell for it, like big style. Like started looking up how I could possibly get a job and move there style. It is possibly the perfect place for me. I loved the multicultural nature of it, I loved the fact that it felt like East meets West. Everything I miss from home coupled with all the good stuff from Asian cultures that I love. The more I saw of the city itself (didn't have time to explore the rest of the main island) the more I liked it and was wowed by it.

I was staying in Little India which I loved, thanks to some great tips from the brother of a friend who is living out here I had myself a very tasty curry for my dinner not long after arriving. Yum! Thank you Rob. I was staying in one the of 'Fragrance' hotels a small chain in Singapore and I was in the Elegance on Dunlop Street. Online it seemed like it was going to be quite big but was actually tiny and when I checked in I asked for a double room and was told that alas there were none but I had been put in the 'largest of the superior twin' rooms. The guy on desk made such a fuss about me being in the largest twin room, with superior in fact just being hotel speak for the cheapest rooms we have that I was expecting to walk into something akin to the monster room in Nha Trang, I'm not kidding you could've fit this room easily 6 times in that room. It was tiny!!! I can only imagine that the other twin rooms involve standing beds to be any smaller than this one. Still the room itself was nice and the hotel was in a great location so all in all it was grand. A room is only crash pad after all.

I also loved Singapore for the fact I finally got to see The Hunger Games. I've been excited about the film ever since I read the books when I was in Nigeria last year and for reasons not entirely clear it was cancelled from cinemas in Vietnam where I had hoped to see it. OK so they said it was too violent, but actually more about depicting people rising up against the heavily controlling state. Anyway you might think it's a strange thing to do to go to the cinema when you're travelling but I LOVE going to the cinema and it's one of those things I really miss. I even had a choice of places to go and watch it. Of course I chose the most confusing one with screens on about nine levels of a twelve story complex and box offices all over the place too. I actually couldn't find a floor with a box office on it thanks to making the mistake of going up the escalator rather than in the lift, well we all know how I feel about lifts right? Finally I found one on level five and then my screen was on level 12. Most confusing cinema ever. But frankly I didn't care and I loved the film, can't wait for the next one.

After the early morning cinema adventure I navigated my way around various locations including Boat Quay (old Chinese quayside), Raffles landing place (well that's obvious), Cavenagh Bridge (old bridge), Merlion Park (the symbol of Singapore), Marina Bay (fancy fancy fancy hotel complex and all sorts) and finally Chinatown. I loved it all. I think I walked around gawping most of the time, and managed to get myself lost at one point accidentally ending up inside the Fullerton Bay Hotel and not being able to find a way out thanks to the space age doors. Special.

As usual there are some pics below of my adventures, I could make them all integrated and stuff but it usually goes wrong and I get stressed and I'm way too chilled out for that so there you go. Oh and if anyone is reading this who happens to have some kind of shiny job going in Singapore that doesn't require me to be a financial or IT specialist let me know.

Little India

What it says on the 'tin'

Raffles!

Boat Quay on the right and Marina Bay Sands Hotel floating in the left

Boat Quay (lots of restaurants now)

Lovely projectile Merlion in the Marina

The highly impressive Marina Bay with boat on top, including an infinity pool!

Temple in Chinatown

Chinatown - shops and hotel

Market in Chinatown

Goodbye Vietnam

Today after nearly ten weeks I left Vietnam, I only intended to stay for one month so that probably tells you something about how much I love that country. If you ask people about places they'd go back to a fairly common response is that there are too many places to see to warrant going back anywhere. Vietnam however definitely makes my list of places to revisit, especially once they get the bullet train and you can travel from Hanoi to Saigon in 10 hours instead of 36!

There's far too many things to list that I'm going to miss but some of the random things that are popping into my head right now are;

• The amazing scenery from beautiful mountains to coastline and the MANY rice fields. So very green and I love all things green.
• The onezies that the ladies all wear. OK so they aren't really onezies and in fact would be better described as PJs. It seems wearing matching tops and bottoms is the thing to do. Well for the slightly middle aged to older lady anyway.
• The food. I could just leave it there really but to elaborate a bit as I'm good at waffling (no pun intended), I love how fresh and clean tasting everything is. That's kind of hard to make sense of but it's all the herbs and spices they use like coriander, mint, lemongrass and ginger. 
• Vietnamese coffee. Best. Coffee. Ever.
• How 'fruity' the fruit tastes. Like the bananas REALLY taste of banana and the mangoes REALLY taste of mango and well you get the picture. Makes our stuff seem like props that have been painted to look like fruit.
• That cheers sounds like chipmunk.
• Pho - Morning, noon or night it always tastes good.
• The youths (god I sound old!) who I met in various places along the way who were so keen to find out about where you were from and all about you and generally just to practice to their (very good) English. 
• Finding two other people who call 'genie trousers' 'poo trousers/pants' and doing lots of pointing and laughing. OMG people look in the mirror you actually look like you are wearing a giant nappy full of your own poo. Stop this MADNESS now. Although it did cause us many many a laugh. And not just localised to Vietnam, I know I haven't seen the last of these beauties. I also know it's bad to judge but sometimes you just can't help it and sometimes people really need a wake up call.
• That they actually wear those conical hats.
• That I got wear those conical hats.
• The handy carry handles on the big bottles of water - when it's hot you really want a big bottle to carry round and they have these little plastic handles around the top of the bottle. Not seen them anywhere else yet on my travels, come on people catch on.....
• Vietnamese sandwiches, OK so the French have some influence here with the baguettes and the pate but the rest of the filling is a mix of of a variety of vietnameseness. Herbs, salad, more meat, some kind of chili sauce, some kind of other sauce that I think is hot and sometimes a slice of cheese. They usually cost about 15,000-20,000 dong which is in the region of 50/60p and they are AMAZING. Generally speaking all the street food here is amazing.
• Same same, but different. 

A few things I wont miss, the hawkers (get them everywhere though), the various scams (get them everywhere though), the 'sleeper' buses and the hagglers. I suspect I haven't seen the last of a few of those things however.....

Perfect example of Poo Trousers. Nappy not required.

I Miss Saigon

Well it's been another busy week here in traveller land. I've already been and gone to Saigon, the amazing Miss Stone has arrived from home, we've been to the Mekong and now we're on Phu Quoc Island enjoying some beach paradise chill out time.

Saigon was brilliant, I loved it. It seems to be that you're either a Hanoi or a Saigon person and I'm definitely a Miss Saigon (see what I did there? Do you? Do you?). It's not that Hanoi isn't nice it's just that there's something about Saigon, it's got more of a centre, it's got more about it somehow and I loved the road where everyone faces off against each other on opposite sides. It looked like either a massive fight or dance off was about to start any moment!

Lets get ready to rumble!

The War Remnants Museum was a very chilling (if not one sided) account of the very recent past that this country has endured and it left me in tears at one point when we were in the exhibit about the affects of Agent Orange. It was the anniversary of the end of the war whilst we were in Saigon and there were flags and posters up everywhere around the city and there was some kind of performance being staged in the park opposite where we were staying that involved dancing (we saw the rehearsals) and singing.

On the day itself Hannah, Heather and I were booked onto a one day tour to the Mekong. We had an amazing day, there were many laughs thanks to our comedy tour guide and also thanks to Heather's 'brilliant' British accent. We saw coconut candy being made, rode bikes around Phoenix Island, wore conical hats as we were rowed down small canals of the river, there was tropical fruits, honey tea and some folk singing and even some crocodiles! Best tour yet by far.

First boat of the day

Coconut Candy

BEES!

Possibly my favourite photo so far

Hannah and Heather rocking the conical hat look

After the Mekong it was time to say goodbye to Heather my travel buddy for nearly the last month. It has been fab to travel with someone else and we have had many a giggle along the way, I think our dance party in the giant hotel room was one of our proudest moments. Pants to the air! You really had to be there, let's just say drying your bikini bottoms took on a new art form that night. Happy travels Heather!

Right now I'm sat on a shade lounger on Long Beach on Phu Quoc Island watching Miss Hannah Stone swim around in the sea whilst I do my blog, WiFi is a magical thing! We're here at the 'Beach Club Resort' for a few days enjoying some chill out time before we hit Singapore, although I'm not sure Hannah has anymore room in her suitcase for shopping.....

Beach Club - Phu Quoc Island