Les Miserables

Hello the faithful ones,

I am alive. I have not been abducted by undesirables and my organs harvested for sale. I have just been too gosh darn miserable to blog. I know I am backpacking around without a care or worry and am basically (cliché alert) living the dream. But sometimes the dream isn’t that dreamy. Dreamy sounds weird when you say it over and over. (As does any word really.) Anyway the past few days haven’t been that peachy that’s all.

Let me break it down for you.

From Phuket (the place of the muay thai camping which I was a little sad to leave) I caught a bus to Surat Thani, with the bus almost getting stuck in flood water several times and the journey taking 7 hours instead of the usual 5 it should have. At Surat Thani we were informed that the ferry to Koh Phangan would in fact not be running that day because the road to the ferry was flooded and we were to stay there for the night. Surat Thani is basically a hole and the hotel I stayed in was a hole within a hole. The next day it appeared that the weather situation had not improved and apparently would not for a few days. So I hopped on a bus BACK to Phuket to catch a plane to Koh Samui to hopefully catch a ferry from there to Koh Phangan. The bus trip was uneventful and fine except for the people who had to stand the whole way in the aisle because the trip was overbooked  (not me thank goodness or I would have lost my shit.) So I got to Samui at about 5ish that day and attempted to catch a ferry across to Phangan but was told that no ferries were running for the rest of the day. I found a lovely (i.e. revolting) place to stay for the night and hoped for the best. The next day the first few ferries were cancelled. Thankfully though I was able to get on the 1.30pm. The trip was not what I would call pleasant and the boat attendants kindly handed out vomit bags to all on board. The trip was thankfully only half an hour – any longer and I may have been forced to make use of the aforementioned vomit bag. We arrived in Phangan to glorious rain, hopped in a mini bus taxi and headed towards Haad Rin where I was most likely to be able to catch my next mode of transport – either long boat or 4x4 – to the Sanctuary, the place where I was going to stay to cleanse myself and reach a state of zen-like calm, but which happened to be on the other side of the island. The trip, which probably should have taken about 15 minutes in real life ended up taking 2 and a half hours.  This was due, for the most part, to the 2 separate landslides across the road that we came upon and which had to be moved by an earth mover from our path. It was at this point that I was convinced that I if I didn’t perish from mudslide or drowning, it would definitely be due to asphyxiation from carbon monoxide poisoning. It seemed that our driver wasn’t aware of global warming etc and enjoyed leaving the car running with all windows up for the long periods of time it took him to disappear into the rain to investigate the next interruption to our journey. We did slide open the windows every few minutes for some air but obviously had to shut them when the car started to fill with water. Anyway, drama queen, that I am we did arrive in one piece at HaadRin and searched for someone to take us (I met an Australian chick in the taxi who was heading in the same direction so we kind of decided to stick together) to the Sanctuary. Everyone we asked laughed AT our faces. Apparently the last boat that tried to get across to that side in the weather tipped over and the dirt road was closed. So we found some rooms with very mouldy mattresses and a very loud tin roof to stay the night. My room made me feel like I was in prison but it WAS one of the few places that seemed to have a generator and therefore power because the electricity was supposedly out on the rest of the island.

Rain greeted us this morning and after some investigation we realised that we were going to be going nowhere at all so we hunted for less depressing accommodation. This involved sloshing ankle deep in dirty rain water down the streets trying not to lose our slops in the mud and get blown over by the wind. We found a block of bungalows which had power from a generator and which didn’t make us want to off ourselves.

Anyway tonight power was restored to most of Haad Rin and we were able to wonder around and everyone looks much happier with their lives in general. I was even able to find a pharmacy to procure some cough medicine - on account of being stricken with consumption. You see the rain has not been ideal for recovering from a cold and I sound like a cross between a 270 year old greyhound - having an asthma attack and choking on a bone AT THE SAME TIME.

Very soon I am sure things will be pretty much roses and angel babies and frigging whiskers on kittens. All I need really is:

·         The sun to shine tomorrow – metaphorically, physically and spiritually

·         The boom box belonging to the tool heads next door playing Eastern European rave at level 12000 to explode and for said tool heads to lose the ability to speak due to wounds sustained in the explosion

Too much to ask???

Farewell.

PS I must confess I wrote the above 2 nights ago but then it wasn’t able to be posted due to no wifi / internet. The sun has not come out to shine yet and alas the boom box did not explode. But I found another retreat place to do my intended detox fast on a more accessible side of the island. Irene, the Aussie chick is also here doing a yoga program. This place is pretty hippy / new age with all manner of things like reiki, chakra balancing and tarot card reading. I might come out of here a full blown fairy Scientologist and will probably have to change my name to Moon Blossom. But everyone seems really nice and I haven’t been asked to sacrifice any goats just yet so I think I am going to stay for the time being.

That is all.

Phi Phi Paradise

Hello.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never be a champion muay thai fighting machine so have taken it rather easy the last week or so, missing several training sessions and chilling more than is strictly necessary. I DO want to hit it (it being the training) with a large stick until I leave but before I put my game face I thought I would gallivant off to Koh Phi Phi for a spot of exploring.

I caught the ferry with 3 other chicks (who I train with at the gym) early on Sunday from Phuket Town, with the idea of spending a night or 2. After some lunch and wondering along the beach and around the markets, one of the girls headed back to Phuket to catch a plane back home and the rest of us booked our asses onto a trip to the beaches and bays around Phi Phi, which was to end in a night of camping on Maya Beach – where they filmed the movie ‘The Beach’.

First off we stopped off at Monkey Beach which was very crowded with tourists and a bit disappointing. I felt a bit sorry for the monkeys - although they didn’t seem to mind too much and carried on with the business of eating ticks off each other quite happily. We then went snorkeling on the look for black tip(ped?) reef sharks, which we found. However they weren’t very big or particularly scary.

Cliff diving followed the snorkeling. That also wasn’t too scary. The worst thing about it was the swim from the boat to the cliff – doggy paddling in the large waves trying not to get dashed against the freaking sharp rocks. The girls were only allowed to jump off the cliff once (because we are lame apparently) so I did an 8m jump and then doggy paddled back to the boat to watch the boys be heroes, back flipping and the like. On the way to Maya Beach we stopped at another bay and had some questionable pad thai for lunch, took 456 photos and carried on our merry way.

On arrival at Maya Beach I almost cried when I saw the 4000 boats of tourists - with their lime green speedos and gay European hair. I pictured taking in the beauty and the tranquillity etc etc at one end of the beach – just me alone with my thoughts  – well alone except for Leonardo Dicaprio. With no shirt on. Anyway eventually most of the boats left and about 40 or so of us were left on the beach to camp for the night. And there was eating, some drinking, lots of chatting and eventually sleeping on the beach on mats under the stars. It wasn’t particularly comfortable, but after camping in Nepal, the soft sand felt like the feathers of a thousand little ducklings. After breakfast we headed back to Phi Phi with a quick swim in a bay for those with hangovers.

Obligatory Maya Beach photo.

Zoe headed back to Phuket in the early afternoon and Jo and I found ourselves a place to stay with a pool. After checking in and having a quick swim,  I headed off to find my very lovely friends, Caroline and Brian who also happened to be staying on Phi Phi. We had a massive catch up (although I did most of the talking) over mango shakes and later over an extremely DOPE vegetable curry and even later over pancakes.

The next day, well rested after a night sleeping in an air conditioned hotel room (cue angels singing) Jo and I skulked around the markets before catching the ferry back to Phuket.

Tracy out.

Trouble in Paradise

Don’t be alarmed parentals – I don’t really mean proper trouble – I just couldn’t resist the drama of the title.

Events that may be construed as ever so slightly troublesome:

1. One of the trainers punched me in my sunburn (and my face while he was at it) while sparring today (like hello I thought muay thai was pretty much same same as scrapbooking but with mouth guards). 
2. On the way back from the beach I got caught in a rain storm on my scooter and nearly skidded under a car. Plus rain stings like a mother when you are driving through it.

So really all in all still a fabulous day in Thailand. And still kicking work's arse any day.

Good day to you.

Don't be a hater.

Hello my fabulous 11 followers.

I have been holding off posting about my goings on in Thailand because I don’t want you guys to hate me. I am rather living the life here and if I start posting all about it you might be sad. Especially if you are reading this from work. Because if you are, you will want to be sad AND you will want to poke me in the eye. With a chair.

Now that that is out of the way - my home for the next few weeks is Rawai on the island of Phuket. Inspired by my lovely friend Leigh, I decided to sign up for 4 weeks of muay thai training at a gym in the area. To get fit, learn some new skillz and also hopefully lose some weight so that the photographer at my cousin’s wedding doesn’t have to use the wide angle lens.   

I DID doubt my decision when I arrived though last Saturday. After a 347 hour overnight bus trip from Bangkok (which people here totally have judged me for, saying I was being cheap - apparently I should have caught a plane instead), I was struggling to stay awake and was a tad cranky (Me? Cranky? Impossible I hear you say.) I was shown to my room and introduced to my room  mate and it all reminded me a bit too much of boarding school. I was also then very kindly shown the sights by one of the more flamboyant employees at the gym, on the back of his scooter. With his long hair blowing in the wind. Into my mouth.

The bottom line was that I was unsure of things and I wanted to climb into a cupboard and pretend to be a shoe horn.

Anyway turns out my room mate is a hoot and 3 hours after meeting her I was attempting to arrange her hair into dreads. Because she wanted to be a pirate. As you do. And everyone I proceeded to meet was lovely and friendly and spoke English (which was a bit of an issue for me when I was Nigel-No-Mates in Bangkok for 3 days).

The training schedule is basically 6 days a week: training in the morning and afternoon for about 2 hours at a time, with yoga Tuesday and Thursday mornings as well. The first week I kind of eased myself into it and got the hang of it all. However today being Monday and a brand  new start to the week (all well and good if one didn’t go out until 4.30 in the morning after one had drank all the vodka in Thailand on both Friday and Saturday nights) I also had an hour long one-on-one private lesson with one of the trainers. My intention was to accelerate the process of unleashing the muay thai fighting beast within me. But instead it made me want to vom. So I have taken the afternoon off to write this post. Hurray.

So each day, between the morning and afternoon training sessions I might head to the beach or the pool at the 5 star hotel down the road. Here I might lie and read my book and look out at the sea (and the large German ladies with no tops on).  If I am not chilling, I am scooting around on my moped with the gang or eating amazing Thai food or getting my sauna on or having an amazing massage (for about AU$10). 

Before you decide you would greatly like to muay thai my head I had better sign off.

Peace and love and round house kicks to the facial region. X

Base Camp, Baby! (Part 4)

Hello All,
OK this is the absolute last time I am writing about the trek. It must be getting old and I am sure you will all breathe a sigh relief when you know longer have to hear about acclimatisation and no longer have to read all the weak adjectives I came up with to describe the amazingness that is (are?) the Himalayas. I have just finished the book 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer (he wrote 'Into the Wild' as well) about his Everest summit attempt and he writes so well and is able to convey so much about Everest and the region and how amazing everything is and how messed up you get while trying to climb Everest proper (not like us) that when I read it I felt like my silly ramblings were a bit, well silly. Anyhoosie.

Day 12: Pheriche -> Deboche

Showers: 0

Wet wipes used: 8

Litres of melted snow in my boots: 73

Got rugged up in thermals, hiking pants and waterproofs on the bottom and thermals, t-shirt, fleece and waterproof jacket on the top, gloves, glove liners, buff and beanie and set off in what I can only describe as the blazing snow. Was rather fun and amazing and cool once we had warmed up somewhat. After lunch at Deboche, the snow still hadn’t let up and we (and by ‘we’ I mean the guides) weren’t going to be able to put up the tents at our intended camp site which was still a bit of a hike away so it was decided we would stay in the tea house at Deboche for the night. We were all extremely pleased about not having to go traipsing back out in the snow, all wet and cold, and made the most of the rest of the day in front of the fire reading and playing UNO. We also somehow arranged about 57 pairs of boots, socks and gloves around the fire in an attempt to get everything dry before we set off the next day.  



Snow. And prayer flags. And trees.



Day 13: Deboche -> Namche Bazaar

Showers: 0

Wet wipes used: 99

Snow fights: 1

It stopped snowing during the night to everyone’s relief. I was picturing being snowed in and stuck at Deboche for the next 12 weeks.  Everything looked magical when we woke up the next day. The morning walk was, for the most part, fabulously fun (although I lost track of how many times we slipped and fell on our asses in the snow; or maybe that was just me) – the highlight being the mammoth snow fight between us and the sherpas. There was lots of laughter and it went on forever. Luckily it ended before anyone lost an eye or their camera.



Just before the Snow Fight of 2011.



After lunch some of us headed the long way to Namche, intending to have a look the school and hospital, in Khumjung and Kunde respectively, that were built with funds from the Edmund Hillary Foundation. Old Edmund has definitely done his bit for the people of the region. His Foundation continues to support the school and hospital to this day.

By the time we got to Namche we had been slogging through the snow, melting snow, water and ice for about 8 hours and I was pleased to plonk myself in front of a fire. Once again we were supposed to be staying in the tents but it wasn’t possible for them to be put up because of the frozen ground so tea houses for all. Yay for us.

 

Day 14: Namche Bazaar -> Ghat

Showers: 0

Wet wipes used: 222

It is amazing how much easier it is to hike when you are going downhill. Nix and I decided that we were the Zimbabwean Downhill Hiking Champions (as well as the first ones to Everest Base Camp). We hiked in one day ascending what had taken us 2 days going the other way!

During the trip, 6 out of 7 of the team had succumbed to symptoms of altitude sickness and were all on Diamox. Might I mention that the only one who wasn’t ‘drinking the Kool-aid’ as Hannah put it, was Peter, the oldest of the bunch - at 59! But he IS a bit of a machine so we didn’t feel too bad. Anyway after dinner at Ghat, we were treated to a ‘No More Diamox’ cake which we all hooted and hollered over for at least 12 hours. We are easily amused. 

Our celebratory cake. So cute!

It seemed so much warmer in Ghat this time around. Not sure if it actually was warmer or if we had just become hardened mountain goats (probably the first one.)

Day 15: Ghat -> Lukla

Showers: 0

Wet wipes used: 0 (just kidding)

The 3 or so hours hike to Lukla went by extremely quickly. As much as we had all loved the trek in our own ways, we all practically skipped back to Lukla where we were going to stay at the night at a tea house, before flying back to Kathmandu the next day.

We had an excellent last lunch from the cook, said our goodbyes to the Sherpa guides (except Harka) and settled in to our rooms. Since we still had the whole afternoon, we decided to visit the hospital at Lukla which was a short hike up the hill. 

Day 16: Lukla -> Kathmandu

Showers: 2

Baths: 1

The flight back to Kathmandu was non-eventful, which is always good when you are flying in a teeny tiny plane that sounds like it has hairdryers for engines and the runway drops down several hundred metres at the end from where the plane is supposed to take off.

I am not sure if this photo does the runway justice. Hopefully you can all see how it just drops away at the end into oblivion. I exaggerate about most things but not this.

As soon  as we got back to the hotel I had a shower and washed my hair about 23 times. It also took another bath and subsequent shower to actually start feeling clean. And I wont even describe the colour of the shower water as it escaped through the plug hole. Let's just say it wasn't pretty.

Ok. The End. Hallelujah! Hope you enjoyed the novel that was my trek to Base Camp. Next stop Thailand!