Thank you Asia.

I am so sad to be leaving Asia. This is a very special place. It has given me so much. And it is the people who make it so special. They have shown me so much about life, about ways to live and how to be happy. And they have done it in a quiet, peaceful, friendly way, never pushing or insisting but offering help when asked for.

It has been more than i thought it could be! I dreamed of my travels and wondered what they would bring me, but i never imagined or dared to believe it would be as good as this, or as life changing. I have been thinking about all the places i have been, the people i have met, the things i have seen, the things i have experienced and there have been so many moments when i have just felt like the luckiest girl in the world. The people I have met have made this trip so special. Not just the wonderful people who i have made real life long friendships with but also the people i met, day to day, the people who run the guest houses, Internet shops, food stalls. So many have taught me about how to be, how to act, how to be kind, how to be courteous and how every action and word has a knock on effect. How important it is to have a positive impact on those you meet. I am going to try to write done the things i will take with me from this wonderful trip and all the things that make Asia so special.

It's the man sweeping the streets in Singapore who looks at me smiles and pops his top teeth out and sucks them back in with a big grin, which gets even bigger when i laugh at him.

It's climbing up to the sixth storey of a car park Kuching, Borneo, and finding the most fantastic seafood stalls, who will cook up fresh prawns in black pepper sauce.

It's the madness of India, the dirt and heat all mixed together. It is packed with people but they don't seem to mind. It's being woken every morning by the sound of a man hacking up and knowing that I am so lucky not to have that as my alarm bell for the rest of my life. But it's the poverty, the child with rags and no shoes, his dirt covered, tear stained face holding out his hand for a few rupees, and the mother who goes from rickshaw to rickshaw as they stop at the lights hoping someone will give a few rupees to her and her child. And the piles of rubbish all over the place. Seeing the plastic bottle you put in the bin being thrown into the river to be washed downstream... Nothing is a surprise in India, everything is just the way it is...

It's the peace of Laos, the calm and the beauty. The smile of each person when you say thank you in their language "kawp tchai". It's the slow mindful way there make your food and help you out.

It's the smells, the spices of India, the urine and sewage, the cow smell and dirty dog smell. It's the incense and flowers from the temple on the corner. It's the coconut in Thailand and the seafood in Malaysia.

It's being in India and realising that you now think it's normal having to swerve onto the other side of the road into the 3 lanes of oncoming traffic to avoid the cow milking it's calf in the middle of the roundabout. And you think you've got a slow, bad driver when he actually stops at road signs. It's unpaved roads and bumpy journeys in old buses with seats that are no longer attached to the floor. But it's also reaching Thailand and being so happy to have air con buses and flat smooth roads.

It's the banter and the bartering and realising that nothing has a fixed price and everything is for sale. It's the constant hassle to buy but no problem when you don't.

It's the magic of each different country. Each one with it's customs and cultures which are mixed so strongly with their religions and spirituality that they can almost no longer be separated. India, this place like no other, where all religions and spiritual ways are revered and respected. Where the Hindu caste system is deeply ingrained. With temples on top of mountains and people making pilgrimages over thousands of miles. It's the willingness of the Indians to accept the leader of a different religion to their own as a refugee from his own country and to treat him with respect. And to happily live side by side with the thousands of his people who followed and turned McLeod Ganj into a Tibetan town not an Indian one. And it's the Tibetan monks with their saffron red robes and mobile phones. It's the continual sounds of "om mani padme hom" being chanted in every cafe and in every monastery. It's the monks debating, clapping, stamping and laughing and smiling.
It's Thailand where the King is a demi-god to be praised and the Buddha is the teacher to follow. With all the gold Buddhas housed in lovely Thai temple. And Laos, where the temples are not so extravagant but old and with atmosphere. Malaysia with it's mixture of Muslims and Chinese Buddhist/Taoists. Where some women wear headscarves, some full burkas and others high heels and short skirts. And Brunei, with the most beautiful Islamic architecture, and the most extravagant marble mosques.

It's the amazing food! The spices, the coconut milk, the tom yam, the noodles, the curry, the rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice..... The night market in Brunei. And the excitement of finding an Italian restaurant run by an Italian in Chiang Mai! It's the awful food which leaves you running to the toilet every hour for 3 days! And how do they make profit on a meal that costs less than a pound?

It's actually learning you prefer squat toilets!

It's swiss cottage and swiss hill. And arriving in Chandigargh with Frida and the 2 of us wondering if we had fallen asleep and woken up in a different country!

It's McLoed Ganj, the Dalai Lama arriving home in his car, doing the kora, Buddhism, Richard, Venerable Deyke, Ruth, Lucy and Frida again. It's Este, and Hedwig, Tibetans and meditation. It's learning tibetan cooking in Llamos kitchen and seeing the whole milky way in the sky then snuggling up in my sleeping bag at night.

Walking in the rainforest in Laos and Borneo, and in the Cameron highlands in Malaysia. Gazing in wonder as the sun sets over the slow vast Mekong in Laos. Hiring 1950s bicycles in Luang Prabang and the 7 of us cycling round the town.

The people and moments i remember.

Sitting on the back of Victors motorbike, wind blowing in my face, the sun going down, arriving at the temple and hundreds of others already at this out of the way temple. Trekking in the Himalayas with Johnathan, Frida and Ofir. Being so proud of myself for managing the first day, then getting altitude sickness and food poisoning the next day!

Leila, my first friend.

The old man who ran the internet shop at Swiss cottage in Rishikesh and who thought i was lovely.

It's meeting Sophie and Ryan in Vientiane in the dorm.

In Thailand meeting Cassie, Nick, Brad and Simon in Pai and realising how many great people there are in the world. In Borneo meeting Bruno, Lucy, Amanda, the lovely guy who ran the guest house in Kuching(!). The wonderful Abdul in Brunei who shows tourists around, just to put good feeling into the world and so that when he travels people will show him around.

It's the endless shopping malls beyond your imagination in Malaysia. And the Wonderful chance meetings you have that lead to lasting friendships. Maryam, who let me live at her condo with her for nearly 2 weeks in total! And her lovely friend Sahal who drove us around. And it's the amazing conversations and the amount you can learn from each person you meet. The beautiful Saudi girls who had me over for tea.

And Thailand, 0h my beautiful Thailand! what can I say! Backpacker heaven! How I love thee! You give me a comfy bungalow to rest my weary head in and you massage my back and feet! What a wonderful country and what wonderful people. The lovely Thai people, the fabulous food, tom yam mmmmmm.

And it's the chances I have had to learn about people, people from all over the world. And the chances to learn about meditation and Buddhism. I am so very lucky to have had all this - may I never forget that.

I wish i could remember all the things i had done and all the experiences i have had, but in a way it doesn't matter if i can remember or not because they have happened and have marked me and Asia I am so grateful for all you have given me.

I take it back...

Ok, I take it back, KL is not a particularily multi cultural place and Thailand is once again the most fab place to be a backpacker! People of different races may live here in KL but I would not feel comfortable living here! I am so fed up of standing out in a crowd. All i want is for people to look at me and just see another person, and for them not to even be interested enough to look. I am tired of always being whistled and hissed at for attention. I do not want men on motorbikes to shout at me as they go by and i might kill the next man who tells me he loves me the moment he sees me!!!

Why is my white skin so interesting? Does my blonde hair actually make me any different? I don't mind little kids pinching me or hiding behind their mums and peering at me because i look dfferent. I dont even mind women who look at me because they do it in a friendly way and don't generally ask me anything rude, they are just interested in where i'm from and what i'm doing here just as i am interested in them and their lives. But i am so tired of men pestering me and who think it is ok to talk to me and treat me differently from the women from their own culture. And this isn't just Malaysia, it has been all through my travels. Sometimes it feels like men don't see just a women, they see a white women, a foreigner on her own. They see $$$ signs and casual sex.

I am so ready to be back in a properly multi-cultural place. London rocks because i honestly don't think anyone even sees what race anyone is anymore because we are all races and all Londoners. But maybe i am sadly mistaken, because i am a white girl in london with friends from all over the world. Maybe it is different for other races living there. I hope not - because racism and stereotyping due to race/ethnicity is the stupidest thing! Maybe we are defined by the culture we are brought up in but this is not defined by the colour of our skin.

I can't wait to get to australia, I'm very excited to get back to normality- a job and a flat. And also to a culture i am familiar with. I have loved travelling, and i know i will do it again, but it is hard work being surrounded all the time with the unfamiliar. Five months has been enough, i feel tired and ready to get back to reality!

Beach bum

Ah, the life of a beach bum is pretty good, and very lazy. So in between all the sun-worshipping i will update my blog for all you lucky people with snow back home (i am very jealous, i love the snow!)



I am in Langkawi, a small island off northwestern Malaysia, and very close to Thailand. It is just beautiful, and i think my favourite tropical island so far. White sand, blue skies, warm blue sea, just like a postcard. And now that Chinese new year holidays are over it is fairly quiet too.



After leaving Borneo i flew to Singapore and got the bus up to Malacca in the south west coast of Malaysia. This was an important town in the days of the British empire, and has been Portuguese, then Dutch, then British. And all these influences make it a truly fascinating place. Ruined churches, old forts, palaces, Chinatown. The European influence is everywhere, large imposing colonial buildings and old statues of former glory. I fell in love with the town. Walking around the old streets of china town and along Harmony Street, where there are old Chinese temples, mosques and churches. And all the residents are so friendly - i met a guy who makes old Chinese shoes for bound feet. He only makes them now to sell to tourists but his father and grandfather were shoe makers and made shoes for women with bound feet. The shoes were tiny! Baby sized! No bigger than a childs size 12.

Malacca was a great intro to Malaysia, to get a sense of the history here. The country has been independent (form Britain) for 50 years, and they are all very proud to be Malaysian. But the British have had a big impact here, not just that everyone speaks English. For the British, Malaysia had many resources and to make the most of them they needed workers, so they encouraged people who wanted to work to move here, (i think some time in the 19th century) and so thousands of Chinese and Indians moved here to work. The population is now a mixture of these 3 cultures, and there is much talk about the racial/cultural differences between them. But to tourists, the government wants us to know that everyone lives in harmony, and happily together. Sometimes this seems true, sometimes not. I was chatting to a guy staying in my hostel in KL about it - he is Malaysian, half chinese/half malay and he had a hard time growing up as neither community would truly accept him. He speaks only Malay, but has given up his Islamic faith and become a Christian.

Kuala Lumpur (KL) is the capital of Malaysia, and the most western place i have been, apart from Singapore. It is a really fun, young lively city. I went to see the Petronas twin towers and manages to get a ticket to go up to the skybridge which connects them and gives spectacular views over the city. And of course, this being Malaysia, at the bottom of the towers is a shopping mall - but no ordinary mall. This is where Jimmy Choo, Gucci, LV, Channel etc all have their shops in KL, so i window shopped for a few hours.

When I was in Brunei, I met an Italian guy who now lives and works in KL. He was having a party on the Saturday after i arrived for Chinese new year and he invited me along. It was like the UN, people from every where at this party! We went out to a club after and i am pleased to report that they play the same old music here that they play in the clubs back home - some things never change.

I met a lovely Iranian girl called Maryim at the party, and she invited me to a Saudi friends birthday party the next night. It was so much fun - i was pretty much the only European there, and they were all doing Persian/Arabic dancing and having a great time (all alcohol free of course - but making as much noise and having as much fun as we do!) They made me feel so welcome, and two Saudi girls (friends of Maryims) invited us to their flat for tea after the party, so at 3am we wondered across the hallway to theirs for a cup of tea.

Maryim invited me to stay at hers until i left KL so i moved into her beautiful condo(!) the next day, and I mentioned i was going to go to the Cameron Highlands for a couple of days, and she had never been so she wanted to come along. We invited her Saudi friend who drove us there the next day. We had such a fun time. Went for a long walk in the forest and in the hills, looked around a tea plantation, strawberry farm, bee farm, sat in Starbucks from11pm until 3am discussing religion/politics and our different cultures. It was amazing.

I like to think of myself as someone who knows about different religions and ideas, but really i only know about the western interpretation of these different ideas (if i know anything at all!)

But really, the things that came out, are that we are all the same. We are all just people searching for happiness, and meaning in our lives, and all religions try to offer this in different ways. But they all teach the fundamental things in life - like peace, compassion, love and they all try to instill in their followers some ethics and morals.

Also, the differences came out - they had never heard of Buddhism, Tibet and the Dalai Lama but they had a good understanding of Christianity and the fact that the 3 major religions all pray to the same God. They were not aware that in Europe and the west a woman can be granted a divorce as easily as a man. He has never felt the need to question his religion, but she has, but for me coming from the UK the right to question and openly discuss, criticise and comment on religion is a basic fundamental freedom and a basic human right.

They also both view the US as the most free country in the world, and a place where opportunity in life is possible. Where everyone can find success. Both of my new friends are very well educated and very intelligent young people and have lived and studied outside their own countries and it was fascinating for me, and i hope for them also, to be able to talk about all these fascinating things and for me i feel like i have such a greater understanding of Islam and middle-eastern culture, just from talking to them and listening to them, and from being free to ask them all my questions without either side taking offence to questions or answers.

For me, this is why i am traveling. Not just to see to world, but to experience it. To meet people who i may never have the chance to come into contact with in my own country and culture. And each of these wonderful people can teach me so much. They all show me the beauty of their own culture and they are shaping and forming my thoughts and opinions and helping me realise that there is no they, because there is no us, because there are only people, and we are all the same. And that if only we could all do this - meet and talk, laugh and discuss, wouldn't we all find a connection with each other. Wouldn't we all just get along in this world - or am i being too idealistic? I hope not.