Right now I’m in Shillong, in India. Started working in Providence school on Wednesday. I’ll be back writing very soon….

In the meanwhile here’s a tiger I met.

Well, I’m finally in the club.

I was expecting big things when I arrived on Khao San Road, the backpacker ‘ghetto’ of Bangkok. A traveller I spoke to in Malaysia said she could only stick it for about 10 minutes and had to get away. Other bloggers have described it as the scariest place they’ve ever seen. This guy had me more than a little nervous. I was expecting a dark gloomy alley where people get to and from their hotel as quickly as possible - like my old haunt, Stuart Lane in Calcutta.
(more…)

Photos of the pottery wil be up when I get back. Can’t let you see it til it’s done!

* I realise I posted the first pottery blog 4 days ago, but it really was 3 weeks, I just fell a bit behind on the blog with all the white sandy beaches and all…..

After leaving the paradise island of Tioman, I headed back to Kuala Lumpur and got settled into life in the Trekker Lodge again. When a girl moved into my room she said she had heard about the girl who was here for her 3rd time. Yes, that’s me. This time I am here with a new mission. I’d been thinking of things to do with my students in India (where I’ll be teaching in the summer) and the principal of the school agreed pottery could be fun and educational. I’ve now enrolled in a local class and have 3 crazy weeks of commuting and building mugs.

On day two of my course I was allowed join a class. The first day I had struggled for 4 hours to make something that looked like a cup. If it had looked a little less square it would have made a fine cup. There’s two parts to this course, hand building and wheel throwing. Wheel throwing is incredibly difficult so I was glad that in my first group class I only had to use my hands.
(more…)

First a quick photo of the place I was staying.

And of the people this craziness happened with. On the left is Rob, my diving buddy and on the right is Anna, the divemaster.

(more…)

There’s no road on that part of the island, only a little path between the beach and the jungle. Every few hundred feet there is a small restaurant or a few chalets people can stay in. With no one approaching me I eventually had to ask a guy how I could get to a hostel. He just said follow the path and I should find something. And sure enough I did. This being a couples place I had the dorm to myself. Smelled funnier than the last place on Pangkor but after flushing the toilet a few times and drowning the place in perfume it was just fine.
(more…)

Getting off the plane in Malaysia, I was nervous for the first time since the start of my trip. I was worried about not knowing the language and being the only one with no head scarf. But luckily these people seem to take their studies seriously and speak very good English. And with the large Indian and Chinese population here my hair blowing in the humid breeze didn’t stick out either.
(more…)

After bidding farewell to South America I flew to Australia to see what was happening down under. When I first landed I stayed with my friend Sue. Her buddies were saying how a few of them flew home to see their folks during their year away. Luckily I had mine come to me. Mummy and Daddy Canning made the 24 hour trip to the land down under to see how their little bundle of joy was doing. Main priority in Australia for any true Neighbours fanatic is to get to Melbourne and try and see some of the actors. So off to Melbourne we went.

We didn’t get to go on the Neighbours tour because while lots of people told me how good or bad it was, no one mentioned booking ahead. We did however manage to get to the ‘Neighbours Night’, where the stars come out to play with the regular folk and we all go crazy taking photos. That night we got to meet Alan Fletcher (Dr. Karl), Stuart (Blair McDonagh) and new people who play Declan and Steve. There was a table quiz to keep us busy, while they went around meeting people. We seemed to be the only gang taking the thing seriously, and managed a respectable 2nd place. Although there was $500 for first place, and nothing for second.
(more…)

After 262 days, 12 flights, 15 nights spent on buses, 11 countries, and 1 baptism it was finally time to say goodbye to South America. Jenny and I saw a mini tornado from our bus on the ride down the coast of Chile to the capital Santiago. We almost fell over each other trying to get some photos out the window of our last sunset. In keeping with how the trip has been going we couldn’t get a direct bus to Santiago but luckily our 12 hour stop over was in a town called La Serena, where the beaches are clean and the hot chocolates are extremely chocolatey.
Before departing I have a few awards to dish out;
(more…)

Most days I have on the road are fun. I get up, figure out where I am and what time it is, and then it’s 12 hours of thinking of things to do, places to see and finding food to eat. Us travellers have our own worries and stresses though, but no matter how bad things get, we can’t complain. If we attempt a complaint, we get hit with a “I’m working 40 hours a week, you’re travelling the world” kind of line.

So in the absence of a sympathetic ear, I am going to tell my blog all about the trouble myself and Jenny had getting from Bolivia to Chile. In case you haven’t been paying attention, Jenny is the 18 year old whipper snapper I first met in Peru when she moved into the apartment Michael and I had been sharing. We worked together for a month then she returned to the mean streets of Belfast. Six months later she followed her boyfriend to Brazil where I found her and we took off across Bolivia.
Now our time in Bolivia was up, I had to get to Santiago, the capital of Chile, to catch a flight to Australia and she had a flight back to Brazil, en route to the Emerald Isle. (more…)