How not to lose someone in Bangkok

The night before, on Kaoh San Road

I lift an eyelid, then two. My eyes don’t seem to work well, and my throat is made of sand paper with a hint of dust. As my vision is attempting to come back to normal, it’s now my nose that is awaken by a strong mix of spices and sweat, and my ears are being attacked by non-stop honking on the streets and loud tacky dance music. I finally see clearly. I’m in my guesthouse room, in Kaoh San Road, Bangkok. The walls are yellow with patches of rotten moisture. It’s worthy of the start of The Beach. But I’m not alone. I turn my aching body to my left. I am alone. I should not be. 

Next to me should be emerging from the cover some bright ginger hair belonging to my best friend Liz Bell.

We have been on the road with me for over four months, across South-East Asia. To be fair I could not have done without her, she’s been making sure I don’t lose any of my belongings (or my mind for that matter), reminding me in her very articulate English accent that I started to copy “Ally Cat, have you forgotten something again?”. Yes, I probably did, I always do. But I had my role in this partnership as well, because with her perfect English rose look, the white pale skin, the golden red hair, there was never a day without a full tube of suncream to be applied.

Liz and I, last day in Sydney, months later.

And right now, she is not here. I try to put my thoughts together, I stand up, I look around. Her bag is not here. She is not here. At all. The hammer pounding on my brain is not helping. Think fast, faster. Get up, get dressed.  I run down the stairs on to the street. I catch a glimpse of someone’s watch, 9.30. It’s already hot and sticky, and the street is filling up with backpackers walking with their dead tourist eyes, woman with fake tribal hats and food stalls displaying spring rolls from the night before, fried bugs and cheap pad thais.
As I grab a bottle of water, I make a conscious effort of remembering the night before.

My travels from A to Z

I haven't done a post in a while, being busy living on a paradise island and getting really ill from a cut (more on this later), so when Connie from ConnVoyage tagged me in this A-Z, I thought it was a good way to come back to blogging and share with you my best travel experience!


A: Age you went on your first trip.
I think it was 7. My parents took me to Edinburgh (Edinbraaahh). I think that's when I got bitten by the Travel bug (Sorry Nicole, I needed to use the expression haha!). First time on a plane, first time out the country, I loved every second. Oh and I had my own room in a 5* hotel. Win.

B: Best (foreign) beer I ever had.
Hum, I'm not sure. I'm really not a big beer fan. But I'll tell you that. I do enjoy one very cold beer at the end of the day, preferably somewhere exotic. You know this feeling. When it's hot and sticky, and as the night settles in, in a mix of sweat and dirt, sit down with friends and enjoy the local brew.

C: Cuisine (favorite)
Tricky question. Very tricky. So tricky I cannot get it down to one. So I'll have to say French/Japanese.
I am french and I love going back home for the food! Call me chauvinistic but I love it. Right after that comes Japanese food. Not only sushis, but everything. The flavors are so fresh and varied.
 

D: Destination (favorite and least) 
Cambodia was probably my favorite part of South East Asia. I find this country absolutely fascinating and its history as well. Siem Reap was a very special moment for me,  I dreamt to go there since I was a kid, and finally getting there got my stomach upside down with excitement. Being in Cambodia was also my first "paradise beach" with the turquoise water and the pristine white sand.

My least favorite? Pattaya. I'm pretty easy going, and generally quite happy to just being on the road. But it was so seedy, so wrong at so many levels. You can breath the cheap perfume coming for the girlies bar, and smell the sweat off the backs of overweight middle aged men who have left their families to come to places like these. I have a serious issue with these people and tend to loudly express it when I see it . Anyway Pattaya was just a terrible place.

The glamour of Travelling, just like an A-lister



Jonny, I and Liz: First day in Bangkok



"I can't, we are jetting off to Bangkok in a few days, because you see you are doing a RTW trip...What do you mean you don't know what RTW means?"

Yes, travelling can make you sound ohsocool (or snobby, your pick) but it's not always all glitter, buckets and beaches to die for. In a post inspired by "Travel with a nine year old", here is a few of the moments you tell yourself: "Why, Oh, Why did I want to do this."


-Thinking you are going to a club (all was planned by the boys we were travelling with), ending up in a sex show with things flying out places they SHOULD NOT. OR EVEN BE CLOSE TO IT. EVER.

-Watching my best friend throwing up in the middle of nowhere on a 14hours visa run to Malaysia with a number of angry backpackers staring (including the driver) and waiting in the heat, because of course the A/C doesn't work. And while you really really want to help her, you cannot do anything, if only to engage with the backpackers "Soooo, where about have you been before?"

Looking over the Blue Mountains, Sydney

-It's falling on my rear end about 1000times while trekking in Thailand in spectacular manners. Turns out I'm not as agile as Lara Croft. Big disapointment there. I did have a long plait and short shorts.

-It's fracturing your arm in Laos and have no idea HOW? Blame it on the bucket.

-It's holding your best friend's hand at Vang Vieng Hospital while she gets a wound cleaned up facing the wall, trying to happily chat while you see a man arriving in the ER room with his body open in half. Just not to freak her out.

-It's crashing your bike in a massive sign that says "Come and see the monkeys closer". I did.
-The lovely sound of people shagging in the bed above mine, when I'm working at 7am.

-Trying not to fall on a monk in a crowded bus while balancing yourself on one foot because there is a whole on the floor of the bus where your second foot is supposed to stand. And not to forget that you are still holding onto your backpack. And that for 3 hours (kudos to Liz).

-It's running away not to be slap with a dead snake.

-It's being spiked with god knows what twice in four days in Koh Phi Phi (I was safely brought back to my room, just in case you were wandering about my safety, eh.)

And there is plenty more...

And to that I can add the loss of all kind of privacy, being walked on more than many times, getting used to sweat, dirt, cuts, mosquito bites, long waits, extra costs, 24h travel bug, being mugged, lost, drunk, depressed, happy. And you know what the best part is, I would not change a thing (A part maybe being mugged, not cool.) .

Where do I sign for round 2?

When paradise turns into hell part 2 :

If there is one thing I am scared of while travelling, it is to be sick. Not just a cough, I meant some obscure painful disease. I hate taking medicines or going to the hospital.  I did get sick a couple of times: once in Chiang Mai with the “24hours traveler bug” which means that now it is impossible for me to eat my favorite Thai dish Pad See Ew , and a chest infection in Laos. Nothing that sleep, water and anti biotics could not cure.

Kurt Steffens, 19, from Airlie Beach did not quite have it so easy.

 Kurt worked at Bucket bar for a while in Vang Vieng. Whoever has been there knows that this place is dangerous for your health and soul. But the Aussie traveler had to face much more than a bad hangover from tubing.

“I started off feeling sick while I was staying at Vang Vilay Guesthouse. After 5 days I had not eaten anything or gone to the toilet... I was dry reaching just for that moment of upheaval when my belly did not hurt, it was the most excruciating pain of my life,” he says.

Putting on a brave face and thinking it was only a bad stomach ache, he refused to go the hospital (And if you have been to Vang Vieng hospital, although staff is lovely, the premises need serious upgrade).

“After the 5th day I literally felt my appendix burst and was in even more pain. The lady who owns the hostel came and checked on me about an hour later and then took me down to the hospital on the back of her scooter.

“I got x-rays and they found out that my bowels had tied themselves in a knot and there was a litre of infected puss flowing round my stomach…That had caused my appendix to burst, so I had to get  both removed and stayed there for 2 days.”

After 2 days spent in “Hopital de Vang Vieng” as once upon a time France tried to make their mark on Laos, Kurt received the visit of an Australian doctor. He ordered straight away an ambulance to drive him all the way to Northern Thailand in Udon Thani.

“I was in Intensive Care Unit for 5 days getting morphine every 2 hours because I was hurting so much. When they realised I wasn’t getting any better, they had to x-ray me again only to find out all my insides had turned septic!  They had to open me right up again and clean all my organs out!  Finally, three days after the operation I got out of ICU.

“Then the stitching got infected, so I had to lie perfectly still for a week in case of my insides literally fall out! When they stitched me up again, I had to be completely awake as any anesthetic would have interfered with my bowel recovery.”

If you were looking for the perfect diet, apparently Kurt had found out the hard way how to lose weight quicker than Jessica Simpson can say cheeseburger.
“I spent another 10 days in the hospital and lost 12 kilos. Then they just let me go. I had my backpack and I couldn’t carry it incase my belly split open so I had to get some friends I had met in Cambodia to come pick me up and travelled around with them for another 3 weeks  and they were carrying my bag… I couldn’t go swimming or anything physical and I had no abs muscles. 4 months later I am just back at work on light duties and still incredibly unfit.”

Although Kurt’s story would have stopped most of us from leaving the house ever again, the Aussie backpacker is ready for his next trip!

“I’m planning my next venture overseas. I’m not going to let a little bump in the road like that stop me haha!, “ he concludes.

 Photo: Liz Bell / Facebook

Mission Asia: THE CHALLENGE

Finishing your course? Easy. Save up for travelling? Possible. Pay back your debts? Just take your time. Find a job and move to the other side of the country? Why not. But when you have less than 300days to do it, it is not that simple.

Everything started when I could not find a job. No that’s a lie… All really went to hell when my plane touched down in Heathrow two months ago. I remember the pain. Terrible. The one from the burnt skin on my back from my last tanning session on Bondi but mainly the one in my heart. I was home. Party is over.

The pain then gets greater as I come out of the airport, tears rolling down my cheeks, pushing my backpack on my little trolley. My toes, my fingers, my nose and the top of my ears are in agony. Why, you ll ask. Well, let me tell you:

It’s bloody f**king freezing in this country.

It’s january, it’s 7am and every drop of icy rain is like a dagger through my skin. You see I did not play that one very well. I left Sydney 24hours ago, straight from the beach with a pair of shorts, some ballet pumps and one of those VangVieng “In the tubing” vest. Not exactly London A/W fashion in other words.

As I force my frozen body to get on the bus, I promise myself one thing:

To get the hell out of here as soon as possible. But that was not on the cards.

The original plan was simple: Get a new flat in London and get a graduate job around 20k a year, doing something that has nothing to do with my degree, (because journalism is not really an open field at the moment), in an office, biting my nails in rage while I slowly but surely pay my debts from travelling. Then given that I havent got insane in the city, I would just as slowly save up and take my 25days of holidays somewhere nice and that would be it.

Well, that failed a little bit. Not all of it, I do have a great flat in East London, but most of it. I havent got a job, I have even more debts, and travels are not an option for the next 5 years. Bummer.

So as I was crawling on my sofa watching afternoon telly like any unemployed person, I came up with a new game plan (I like plans).

A. Go back to live at home.
Heartbreaking but necessery. I lived in London for 4 years, but it is now to time to go back to Paris. Also mainly for family reasons but no rent and a magical fridge that always seems full? DEAL.

B.Get a job.
Done. Sorted. Because before travelling and all, you had friends. And for the little circle that is left of them after leaving the country for years; they are willing to help. Cheers Zin.

C. Pay back debts.
No rent. No bills. By August say goodbye to the debt guilt.

D. Enrolled in TEFL.
Yep thats right I m getting my TEFL on and will teach in Asia for a year. That will give me something to blog about. And a good reason to leave the country.


SO that’s it, I am going back travelling and even better, live out there for a while. I’m spending all the rest of my money on a one way to Bangkok. Problem is.

AM I GOING TO MAKE IT?

I have 280 days to pay back my debts, save up some money, pass my TEFL and find a job. Easy brrrah.

And this blog is going to be my platform to tell you about it. I’ll try my best to keep it fun and up to date, with news, tips and articles on travelling.

Stay tuned, it should be a laugh.

Ally.