The land of the Thai!

Hello Thailand! 

Luckily, I arrived here as planned on the 14th, after the nearly missed flight incident.

Chrissy T was supposed to be waiting for me at Phuket airport, but in true Chris fashion he changed his plans last minute and went straight to a hostel. Without telling me. So I sat in Phuket airport for a while before realising that I should probably connect to some wifif to get hold of him and find out where he was. Anyway I found him and everything turned out ok.

Josie and Chrissy T reunited. 

Phuket is gross, if you're planning on going.. Don't. After seeing the rest (or at least a bit more) of Thailand.. I've no idea why we flew into there. We did however experience (Chris's idea) probably one of the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life.  Ping pong show? 

Nevertheless here's a couple pics.. 

Doesn't look that gross I know but you havent seen the rest of Thailand..

We got a bit stuck up a hill. 

And I eventually did my laundry after 4 weeks of back to front, in side out, none at all, etc 

After Phuket we caught a boat to koh phi phi. Very gorgeous island but also great for partying which we accidentally did a bit too much of. Chris kept attracting loads of random bearded men friends with his new beard which he's very proud of.. 

This is a party fire dancing show. 

More Koh Phi Phi pics: 

After Koh Phi Phi Chris flew home (to be best man at a wedding..) and I took a boat to Krabi. 

Not sure if this giant crab is because of the name Krabi or not. 

After Krabi came Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Two idyllic, beautiful, honeymoon-material islands. Where's the French man gone when I need him! 

And this is Anthrong National Park (close by Koh Phangan): 

So proud of this photo. 

And this one. 

I made some moped friends on Tao because I didn't want to moped alone (the roads are death traps.. I fell off the side of the road once and got stuck in a hole another time. (Don't worry mum, I'm ok) ). Anyway.. This is where we drove to:

Wow? 

After the islands and the park, I unfortunately had to fly up to Bangkok, which Is where I am now. So far so good I guess! 

One last pic.. 

I have super bad Thailand tummy (as in not kept anything in my stomach for about 4 days.. It comes straight out the other end). So the doctor said ''take this antibiotics (hands me purple packets) and not eat any dairy. Drink coca.''

I took the antibiotics, but I have also just eaten this ice cream sundae. 🙊✈️❤️

Climbing the 3700m Mt. Rinjanj and very nearly missing my flight.. ✈️☀️😎

This is a post from last week.. I just forgot to post it!! 

I'm in KL airport with a 6 hour wait untill my flight to Phuket.. as a result of buying the cheapest possible ticket. 

I nearly missed my flight to KL from Lombok and my name was even called on the tanoys! I felt famous! 

I got to the airport super early and was all checked in with heaps of time.. But when I was about to get on the plane, the final passport checker lady starting flapping her arms at me and speaking super fast. I got super panicked (as you would when your flight is about to leave) because she wouldn't let me through. It turned out that I hadn't got the stamp for paying airport tax in my passport. Because I hadn't paid airport tax.

I now realise this was because after checkin I'd gone into one of those airport food places (starving) and out of the other side.. Meaning I had skipped airport tax! Anyway, id given all my currency as tip to the taxi man (because I'm generous and thought I wouldn't need it).. So I had to go back outside the airport to the atm machine (with about 12 minutes to take off), buy the airport tax (ridiculous), and back to the boarding gate. I had to sprint and my legs hurt so bad from climbing a mountain (coming later).

They literally shut the doors to the plane behind me and we started taxying as soon as I sat down!! 

That was today. Back to the beginning.. 

The remainder of my Bali trip was fantastic. I went to Uluwatu beach (world famous surf). I didn't actually surf (because even though I've been in Oz a while I'm embarrassingly bad). Instead we sat in a beach bar and watched the gorgeous surfers/ sun set from afar.

After Uluwatu we checked out the surf comp at Padang Padang, and then spent a couple days chilling at the beaches in Senur. 

I said goodbye to my travel buddies and caught a boat to Gili T. I took the local boat because it was cheaper, and ended up next to a woman holding 2 chickens  under her arms!! 

Gili T is incredible! It takes 15 minutes to travel from one side of the island to the other. 

This is the sun set ☀️

This is the tourist boat arriving to the island. 

I went to the full moon party (mad), dove with white tip reef sharks and turtles and met a really sexy Parisian guy who invited me to Paris! Win! 😎 

Anyway, then I sadly left Gili T and went to Lombok to climb mount Rinjani. It was a 3 day 3700m climb.. To which I was like ''easy! I'm climbing Everest Base Camp next month''. I was so wrong!! Either I'm very unfit (likely) or it was VERY hard. The last 300m you have to climb before sunset (and it takes 3 hours, because it's like vertical sand climbing) so you leave at 3am! About 50 (vertical) m from the top I was very close to giving up and a few of our team did!

This is our camp on the first night.. 

After Lombok I took an early flight to KL, and then I'll be on to Phuket! Hello Thailand! ✈️

Bali!

I'm sat drinking a Bintang on Seminyak beach (just arrived this morning), I've got nothing to do until dinner with the hostel kids this evening, (it's only 4.30pm), I've found free wifi.. Basically this is perfect blogging opportunity.. I can't put it off any longer! 

So!

Bali Bali Bali. Home of the 1 dollar incredible looking food, the 7383738282 terrible 11 year old moped riders, the inevitable food poisoning and giant hippy yogi community. I think the first and third points here are linked. 

The incredible looking food and Crystal from Yoga Barn. 

Some more food..

A paddy field.

A yoga studio within a paddy field!? 

I arrived into Kuta, the touristy capital of Bali. It's kind of like Ibiza for Aussies, but cheaper. Anyway, it wasn't my thing, so I got a ride to Ubud. Ubud is an hour inland and is a lot less touristy/built up. It's got a massive hippy yogi vibe and everyone is invredibly chilled/happy. I stayed in the dorm at a place called Yoga Barn with some cool chickaas as my room mates. 

We explored a bit of Ubud and saw the temples etc.. 

This is me in my hippy pants at the entrance to Ubud Palace. 

Crystal and I I front of Mount Kintamani! 

Ubud markets.. Hectic!! 

Yesterday, we snuck into this posh hotels backyard to use their incredible pool..

This is a whacky fruit cocktail and Ayana trying to decide what is best for her tummy (she's got Bali belly). 

Then we got a £6 massage and pedicure.. (It was tragic but they're usually really good!)

Two old guys started chatting to Moa in the posh pool we'd snuck into. I was kind of concerned that she seemed to be stuck in such deep conversation with them and went over to rescue her. It turned out they were actually totally harmless chatty old guys (by old I mean 75+) who'd invited us to the local Sunday evening hang out - Drangonfly Spa. We had to catch a ride with them and trek through a padi field, but it was SO worth it! 

This is the field..

This is the spa!

This is the infinity pool.

When it went dark a fire was lit and someone got out a guitar and started playing yogi songs! Incredible! 

I stayed in Ubud all week, because I loved it, and didn't feel quite ready to be on the move. I've still got 8 weeks. We did some other cool stuff like visiting a coffee plantation, riding local mopeds and hanging out at Siam Sally's. 

Eventually I had to leave UBUD. Next time I've got two weeks spare I'm going straight back because it's awesome. Maybe I'll take my hippy little sister! Anyway, I've moved to Seminyak and am here for at least a couple of days. I've booked a boat trip with some snorkelling around Lembagon tomorrow and some surfing the day after. I asked the surf instructor I booked with 'Is it ok for beginners' and he said (Balanese accent) 'yes, even for you, it is ok' with a really straight face. Do I look like I'm really unbalanced or something?!

Exiting times :) When I first left Oz I felt very alone and wondered what on earth I was doing.. But now I'm 1 week in and loving it!

I'll leave you with some cat poo coffee.. I think it's called Kopy Luac? Anyway.. I saw the cat that poos it out and it was gross.