New Blog

Hello All!

This fantastic map has started to completely annoy me so I have started a new blog!!  The link is:  http://christine-headley.blogspot.com/

Check it out, Travel Adventures Part 2.  I did take the liberty of filling out the map and all of the places that I have been to on this blog, so you all can enjoy that a little.  I have definitely been ping ponging through the world. 

I haven't blogged in months and I have so so much to fill you all in on while I have been in Asia.  What started out as a 3 wk layover in Thailand en route to Australia has turned into a 3 month journey of which has turned out to be more than I could have ever imagined!!  In addition to Thailand I have been to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.  I will go back through my trip and post pictures on my new blog. 

Happy New Year!!!!

Stay tuned!!

That's all for now!!

grrrrrrrrrrrr

I am really upset right now!!  I was trying to be all fancy and add a map on my blog and instead have deleted my last post of Luang Prabang in Laos (which included beautiful pics of a waterfall) and have an annoyingly unwanted map at the top of my blog.   I DO NOT HAVE THE PATIENCE FOR THIS RIGHT NOW!!!

WOW!!!

Hello All!

I am in Laos now.  I had a fabulous few days in the south on Phi Phi Island!!  There is a certain edge to being so far out because the only way to leave the island is to take an hour and half ferry ride.  I was very concious of doing my best to not aquire and injuries!!  The day on the boat tour was amazing!! Spending the day on the water boating around all the islands was beautiful.  The first stop was Monkey Island.  The island is basically uninhabitable but there's a short white sandy beach.  The monkies are very friendly and come down to the beach for pictures and are very friendly.  I even saw one monkey drink out of a girls water bottle.  I snorkeled for the first time and it was a spectacular experience, possibly the highlight of my day!  The visibility was amazing and the sea life is incredible!!  We also had fun kyaking.  To wrap the day up we went to Maya Bay and took in the spectacular views of the bay where The Beach was filmed.  Then we headed back for home and enjoyed a lovely rice dish while taking in the sunset.  All in all it was a great day!!

Also in Phi Phi I had fun dancing on the beach at night, everyone was painted with glow in the dark body paint and the music was so upbeat and vibrant you couldn't help yourself from shaking your bootie!!  I also enjoyed a lovely day on the beach and wading in the luke warm waters followed by a vigorous hike to a look out point that yeilded amaziing views of the island!!

From Phi Phi we then headed north to Laos and met up with the rest of the core group that we bonded with in Bangkok at the hostel.  It was so much fun to meet up with everyone!!  We had a great day tubing on the river which didn't really involve much tubing, more like dancing and drinking along the river with intermitent river tubing between bars.  Another day about 10 of us from the group rented motor bikes and went exploring.  It was a beautiful day to get away from the tourist trap of Vang Vieng and see the country side.  To see and appreciate the way people live in this country was really eye opening!  I read in my Lonely Planet (from 2009) that Laos is still one of the poorest nations in the world.  The bike ride was pretty incredible to take in the mountain views, like nothing I have ever seen before!  The mountains are sort of jagged mis-shaped rock like formations with jungle trees growing out of them, it's pretty cool!  It sort of felt like a video game zipping along the road (I was a passenger) dodging pot holes, on coming traffic, weaving in and out of herds of cows lazily crossing the street and negotiating the patches of road where there wasn't any road.  About half way back (we were probably an hour maybe a little more from where we started) our back tire blew out.  That was an adventure.  Stupidly, in hind-sight, we had sort of lost the group.  Half of them continued on and the other half zipped back towards home while my friend and I took our time stopping and taking pictures.  So here we are, literally in the middle of no where and it's going to start getting dark in about an hour pushing the bike towards home.  Those little mo-peds weigh a lot more than they look.   I had to take matters into my own hands because I knew that at that rate we would NEVER make it back and stuck my thumb out and starting hitching for a ride.  Luckily a nice man came with his truck and picked us up and took us the the lame bike back to town.  But the adventure doesn't stop there, once we got in we had to hold on for dear life.  The driving style in Laos is pretty reckless.  So we were both trying not to fall out of the back of the little pick-up truck and also hold onto the bike so it wouldn't fall out the back either.  We eventually got back and managed to not fall out but at one point I am pretty sure that I was having an out of body experience!!  We were lucky that nothing really bad happened and now it makes for a good story I suppose.

Today we took a mini-van up north to Luang Prabang which is the 2nd largest city in Laos.  The ride here was hair raising.  We basically had to cross the mountains and the entire trip we were on a cliff side.  There is no middle line, people are driving pretty fast, there are pot holes and large oncoming trucks heading your way.  I am afraid of heights and was trying my best to not have a panic attack but eventually I just gave in.  I knew that the driver drove that same road everyday and I finally relaxed and took in the amazing views!!  The mountains are so lush here and it really is like a jungle and is was pretty incredible to drive through the mountain villages!!

That's all for now...  :-)

I really don't know where to begin...!

Hello everyone!

There have been several times that I have wanted to sit down and update you all on everything that I have been up to but I honestly don't know where to start!  I had a great finish to my Euro-Adventures.  The highlight was taking a ferry across the North Sea from Holland to England to catch my flight out of London to make my way south to Bangkok.  I missed my train thus missed my ferry and was in a sleepy port town with about 5 hrs to kill.  I tucked myself in a pub that had wifi and met some locals.  The time went fast.  The ferry was really cool, it wasn't much cheaper than a flight and took WAY longer but it was such a cool experience.  It came equipped with my very own sleeping cabin, had a bar, restaurant, lounge and some shops.  I sorta felt like  I was on the Titanic, thank god we were able to dodge any iceburgs!!  But anyhow it was an adventure and a half!  Missing my train and ferry was my fist big travel mis-hap and I survived.  After the initial heart attack I just made the best out of it.

Ok, so to bring you all up to current time.  I arrived in Bangkok and was very organized getting to my hostel.  I lucked out with the hostel I chose (it was very highly rated on hostelbookers.com) and well the ride has pretty much been a roller coaster since I arrived!  At some point between Bangkok and the island in the south I realised that I was having the time of my life.  I keep having the time of my life and it keeps continuing on like a snow ball rolling down a hill getting bigger and bigger.

The vibe of some of the backpackers I met in the hostel was so awesome, it was like an immediate click!!  I went to see some absolutely amazing temples in Bangkok and took a zillion pictures, to be posted on facebook soon!  I went to a ginormous shopping center, with entire floors dedicated to electronics only (for example).  I have bartered with tuk tuk drivers and one night a huge group of us hired 3 tuk tuks between the group and raced to our final destination; wheelies and all.  At one point I thought that I might actually die but it was so hilariously funny that I couldn't be bothered with minding!  Bangkok is supposed to be the biggest party in all of Asia for Halloween and a few people staying at the hostel threw a great party!!  Once of the best parties of my life!!  Everyone was dressed up in what they could throw together and there were a few artists doing face painting.  It was truly and epic night!!

I am now in the south on the Ko Phi Phi island.  The same island where the tsunami hit 4 years ago.  It is chilling to look in the direction of where the tsunami hit, like what you see on the infamous video footage taken from that tragic day.  You can still see the beach town slowly rebuilding itself but really you couldn't tell if you didn't know otherwise.  The Thai people are absolutely amazing people!  They are so sweet, friendly and happy people.  I feel completely safe and have gotten sharper with my bargaining skills and attempts at not being ripped off.  It a weird way it is part of the charm of being in Thailand.  In Bangkok there were always these most adorable little girls trying to sell you roses and you couldn't resist because they were so cute and knowing the fact that they couldn't go to bed until they sold all of their roses you just had to buy one.  We found a great little restaurant in Bangkok as well where you could get scrumptous traditional Thai food for 1 dollar and the owner loved showing us his card tricks.  His slight of hand really was magic and he had the best smile I have ever seen!!  Kind of reminded me of the laughing buddha.  He loved blowing our minds and the applause that we would always shower over him because he was so good at it!!

Tomorrow we have (when I say we, I have attached myself to a group of travelers, 2 brits, 1 other american and a swiss guy) booked a boat tour where they take you snorkeling, to a bunch of different islands, caves, monkey island and we will watch the sunset from the island where the film The Beach was filmed.  I am excited.  It truly is a lush country!  You are definitely out in the jungle admist all of the wonder and rawness of the wild nature!! 

Right  now I am sitting on the porch of my guest house, the staff (all Thai) are having a mini party listening to the Cranberries, there's a cat crashed out on the wooden floor and I can hear the crickets and frogs making noises (and other random jungle animals) all around me.  One of the things that is so cool about this island is that it is so small that there aren't any cars, just bikes.  You can literally walk everywhere!  When we arrived there are hoards of people trying to sell you accomdations.  They have a wall full of flyers for each place and once you decide where you want to stay you go to a table and pay for it right there on the dock.  Then there's a guy who comes with a make shift wheel barrel who carts your bags to your guest house.  It's crazy!  I love how raw it is here, it's an adventure, it's beautiful, breathtaking and mind blowing and the type of people that this place attracts is something special.  This truly has been magic for me!!  I am extending my ticket to Australia because 3 weeks here just isnt' going to be enough!!  I am sorry for the run on, un-organized, flowing straight from my head to the keyboard type of telling my story but it's the best I can do at the moment.  I love you all and don't want to think about how much I miss you because it will hurt to much!!!  It's difficult to be so far away from home but in a spectacular way!! 

that's all for now...

Exploring Holland...

Hi All!!

On Friday Harry dropped me off at my hostel in Amsterdam.  Even though I have been traveling solo for almost 4 months now I have to admit that it was nice to have my friend take me there and walk me to the door (and of course help with the heavy bags!). 

In Amsterdam I met up with a girl, Erin from Australia, whom I met in Barcelona.  We had two good nights in Amsterdam.  It is a crazy little city!!  During the day it is very charming with all of the canals and candy cane house-like buildings.  It's weird though because walking through Amsterdam's streets I sort of felt like I was in a movie set, it didn't seem real.  Even though the buildings are of an old fashioned style they look so new.  One of the things that I found most bizaar about Amsterdam was that the buildings were so squished together they were leaning, either to one side or forwards.  It is like the builders didn't use levels... strange.  For a party city I found it to be quite clean compared to cities in Portugal or Spain.  However the dutch are very germanic and the entire country is pretty much spotless!  Amsterdam was also seemingly really quiet for a "party" city.  It was funny to walk around and enjoy the random groups of people laughing boisterously obviously enjoying some of Amsterdam''s "goodies".  At night Amsterdam lit up with all of the neon lights, for me it was a very sterile play ground for adults.  All in all I enjoyed it but to be honest found it a bit of a strange environment. 

Yesterday Erin and I headed to Rotterdam.  It was nice to get away from the crowded and crazy Amsterdam and chill out in the quiet city.  It was a Sunday night so there wasn't a whole lot going on but we managed to find a small bar that had cheap beer and live music!

Today we are in Utrecht.  It's very cool so far with a young vibe to it!  Lots of students and a beautiful cathedral, the tallest in Holland.  We didn't do a whole lot today but are hoping to hit the city hard tomorrow.  Wednesday I am off to London and Sunday I fly to Thailand!!  It hasn't really sunk in yet!!  I feel like I am almost on auto-pilot!!  But I am really looking forward to getting back in the sun and exploring the beautiful beaches that Thailand is so well known for!!

That's all for now...

It's nippy in the north!!

I am currently staying with long time friends of the family Harry and Nicole in Eindhoven which is about an hour and a half drive from Amsterdam.  It's great I met Harry over 10 years ago in Mexico (my first out of the country trip with my grandmother when I was a young girl which was an experience that sparked my enthusiasm for travel!) 

It has been great to stay with my "european family".  I have my very own room, free use of a washer and dryer and the fridge!!  They are so sweet, Nicole even asked me which food I don't like prior to stocking the kitchen!!  They are so sweet and it is these simply luxuries that come to mean so much when you have been "on the road" for 6 wks!  I think that they wonder what is wrong with me because I have been sleeping so much and actually at times I wonder myself! :-)  But for whatever reason I just sleep, sleep, sleep!  Today we went to a beautiful city on the southwest coast of the Netherlands which was lined with an amazing soft sandy beach along the North Sea.  I had the best nap of my life on that beach today!!  The sun was out and it was warm, though I and everyone else on the beach was fully clothed.  Still, surprisingly great weather for Holland in October!! 

I survived my night's stay in the Madrid airport.  I was better prepared this time which was a bonus!  Also another traveler in Barcelona informed me of a very useful website called sleeping in airports.com  I checked it out and it really came in handy!  I probably only got 3.5 hrs of sleep on the hard granite floor but it was restful then followed by a 2 hr. nap on the plane and another 1 hr. sleep in the car and another 3 hr. nap at the house, like I said, I just can't get enough sleep these days!!  Resting up for the adventures that lay ahead I think!!

For those of you who aren't in the loop I am heading to Thailand in 2 wks.  I will be traveling in Thailand for 3 wks. then onto Australia!!  It was an idea that I had kept in the back of my mind and while on this trip I decided to go for it!!  I applied for a working/holiday visa in Australia and was approved so I will be able to work while I am there to continue to fund my traveling.  At this point I have submitted a few applications to some riding stables and have a connection to a racing barn in Australia as well.  Who knows though, I may end up pooring pints in a bar...  I am pretty much open to whatever job I can get that pays decent!!  However I am really starting to miss riding, I mean a lot!!!!  In fact it is starting to cause physical pain like going through withdrawels or something so I need to do something about that pronto!!

Tomorrow I am getting shots for my trip to Asia, I hate needles but it has to be done!!  Then Nicole and I are going to a friend's farm.  They are show jumpers and the father won the individual silver medal in show jumping 10 yrs ago!!  I am so excited to see their amazing farm and meet them!!!

That's all for now...

Lisbon, the city of vampires!!

I am really liking Lisbon.  I am here for a week, I just didn't have the energy to cram pack a lot of traveling within one week so I decided to just stay in one place.  Because I am staying in Lisbon for several days in a row I decided to to work at my hostel in exchange for a free room during my stay.  It has been really cool working at the hostel.  I am making beds which is funny because I don't habitually make my own bed at home so I find it a little ironic.  Being apart of the "staff" has been really fun!  There are several people working here that are from all over and getting to know them and socialize with them has been the best part! 

Lisbon is crazy!  I came here and my plan was to chill out, relax and rejuvenate for this entire week.  My average bed time has been 6am!!  During the day the city sort of sleeps but at night it completely comes alive and the streets fill with people!!  It's been really fun but I have been struggling to keep up with it, catching a few hours of nap here and there.  :-)

I have made a friend with a guy named Chris who works at the hostel.  He has been living in Lisbon for 4 months.  He is a very cool guy and it has been great to attach myself to him as his shadow.  He had a friend visiting from Australia so I tagged along with them for a great day at the beach and another day where we took the train to a great beach town where we rented bikes and peddled along the coast for some amazing views of the Atlantic!!  On the last night of Chris' friend's visit we had a big dinner party at a friend's house.  It was the highlight of my time in Lisbon!  The old building has so much character.  It was once a university building converted into an apartment building.  The party took place on the top floor so we had the opportunity to enjoy a glass of wine on the roof for an amazing view of the city!!  It was so much fun to meet and party with the locals!  Portuguese are super friendly and nice.  Very warm and a great sense of humor!!  We made so much food and I ate way too much!!  I actually ate so much that it hurt!  Then after the big meal we went to a park that overlooked the city and the castle of Lisbon on a hill opposite us.  The castle was showered in warm lights that made it look like it was glowing in the dark of night.  The park was full of people!!  Really cool!!

Yesterday I had a very chilled out day including naps, some good home cooking and a movie.  All of the theaters show movies in their original language with subtitles.  I can't remember the last time I went to the movies, it was great!!

Lisbon has a certain authentic charm to it.  It's a little rough around the edges, if you will, but has such a laid back vibe filled with many creative people.  I really really like it!!  So far it is one of my all time favorite cities including Granada, Spain and Copenhagen, Denmark!!  Love these cities for the local people, music scene and creative vibe!!

Tomorrow I leave for the Netherlands..