A love letter to Asia

My dear Asia,

On our anniversary, I would like to tell you how much I love you! The last year has been full of ups and downs, twists and turns.  Sometimes I feel like you drive me insane, but in the end its the craziness that makes me love you more.

What I expected would be an 8 month fling, has turned into a life changing experience. From India to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, then to China, Vietnam and back to Cambodia, I have traveled by bike, bus and train, boat, car and plane. Beauty I expected, but what you have shown me is more than that. Your ideas free my mind and the attitudes I encounter nourish my soul.

Asia, you have not only changed my life, but changed me as a person, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

I will love you, always, and forever.

Yolanda x

Vietnam, Kampot, and back to the island.

From the moment I arrived near the border with Vietnam I started to hear English again. It was a nice sound after 30 hours of silence and sign language. It was actually guys that had been on the bus from Nanning that in the seat swapping near the border both turned to me and said 'hello'. They were young engineers, practising their English and very friendly which was useful as even on the Vietnamese side all the directions were given to my bus in Chinese (I was still the only westerner).

On arrival in Hanoi I went straight to the backpacker district and stayed at the originally named Hanoi backpackers. Arriving there at 10pm, the place was in full swing with a packed bar and music blaring, but by the time I'd got myself showed and ready they were closing and heading on the 'pub crawl'. Bars in Hanoi are meant to close at midnight so a pub crawl means going to wherever the police haven't shut down yet. First it was a really cheesy club, the hair of the dog, then a bar where you had to knock on the shutter and be let in through the back entrance, up some stairs and through someone's house, but on arriving there were fantastic cheese toasties  :-)

Day 2 my friends from home arrived and were staying at one of their brother's places who had been teaching English in Hanoi so I checked out of the backpackers to join them. The people we stayed with were the friendliest bunch we could've hoped for. We were taken around and shown the best places to go - from seeing in the dawn at the local flower market, to a real Indian yoga class and even a London underground drum and bass night! If anyone reading this is up for checking out the expat scene in Hanoi I would recomend the facebook group Hanoi Masive for up to date info on everything from nights out to engligh teaching jobs.

Leaving Hanoi took longer than expected as a storm delayed my journey for two days. On the journey I met this lovely old couple that without speaking a word of english invited me to share their breakfast and join them in meditation and by the time I got to Hoi An it was beautful and sunny. I was able to walk along the river path which had been flooded a couple of days previously and take a complete tour of the oldtown before checking into the guesthouse everyone had recommended to me, the sunflower hotel.

The sunflower was where all the backpackers stayed, it was slightly out of town but had a pool, friendly staff and an amazing buffet breakfast. There were nearby Beer Hoi's and a friendly atmosphere. I can see why some people stay here a long time, I was there 2 nights, experienced Why Not? all you can drink and checked out marble mountain (which is one of the best cave/temples I've seen in Asia!) and was then ready for my journey down.

Not booking in advance, however, meant that trains and tourist buses were booked so I had to go on the local sleeper bus. The hotel manager actually said "the nice bus is booked, you''ll have to go on the not so nice sleeper bus" so I was pretty worried about my 24 hour journey down to HCM but it was fine! Nice bus, comfortable sleeper, and cheaper than the tourist bus.

In HCM I had one mission, find speakers for the bar. I initially had the idea of finding some sort of '80s boombox and roped in a fellow traveler (that had cycled to Vietnam from England via Turkey over the last year) to go on a mission to find one. Heading off in the direction of the electronics area we took a wrong turn and ended up on a back alley that had not much EXCEPT a little stall by the side of the road selling 90s boomboxes. The universe provides. Some may have thought this was fate, but nit quite having the $20 she was asking for one may also have been fate as when I explored further and found the electronics street the next day I was able to find xminis that were entirely more practical, yet less novelty. Although I would've loved to rock up back to the island with a boombox over my shoulder, the extra costs of getting batteries and a tape converter meant it just wasn't worth it.

Given confidence from my smooth bus journey to HCM I opted to ignore the tour guide advice that the best way to get to Kampot was via Phenom Phen and take a local bus to the border that had been recommended in a few blogs I read. The internet said the bus would leave at 9pm from the western bus station so the owner of my guesthouse recommended i get the bus at 7pm from the market. Bus number 2 would've got me there before 6pm but not at 7, so I got a motorbike over for $3. There are a few buses that go to the border so i was glad i had someone write sleeper bus on a piece of paper for me. Once I found the right stall it was easy, bus left at 8.30pm instead of 9 but I was early so that was fine and meant we arrived at 4.30am and I had time for a couple cups of tea on the other end before the border opened.

As I got off the bus, bleary eyed, a local guy offered me the ride to the border and bus to Kampot for $15. Just to the border would've been $5 and I may have been able to get it for $5 on a moto the other side too but may have been stranded and ripped off more so I was happy paying for a smooth transition at that time in the morning. It was a really smooth transition, he drove me through, had another coffee on the other side and the bus left for Kampot at 7.30am. In true Cambodian style it was a game of sardines on how many people you can fit in a minivan (we had 20 in a 10 seater on this journey).

On arrival in Kampot I headed straight for a guesthouse that I thought would've just opened, Arcadia Backpackers. It hadn't opened yet, which actually worked out great for me. I was able to help out a bit with the varnishing and get a free bed to stay in. The location was beautiful, right on the riverside so I was able to start everyday with a swim and by high season the place will have everything to offer from canoes to motor buggies!

From there I did a quick tour of Bokor national park. Our "tourguide" was more of a taxi driver than a tourguide as he didn't speak enough Engligh to give us any information about the region, but did have a fantastic collection of power ballads on the car stereo. We cruised Bokor singing along to Ronan Keating but had to wait until we got back to learn anything about why there was a deserted french casino in the middle of a national park.

I'm back on the island now and the winds have changed, high season is approaching and you can feel it in the air, things are going to get busy!

China

From the moment I got off the plane (still barefoot, you can take a girl off the island but you can't take the island out of the girl) I had a Chinese translator/interpreter, in the form of my cousin, who was able to tell me the best places to go, read menus and order for me. This made things very easy and I was able to spend my time with him discussing eastern philosophy, practising yoga and qi gong (and realising how similar some of the exercises are) and generally discussing life, love and the universe (I swear we worked out the answer at 6am one morning ...).

It wasn't until the train to Nanning that I faced China by myself. My first mishap was getting my ticket stolen in the train station and having to buy a new one, but the day did not improve from there ...

The weekend before my intended train journey Typhoon Usagi approached and the boats were canceled and when we arrived at the train station at 1pm in time to get some lunch before getting on the train it said the train could be about 3 hours delayed. By the time I got back from lunch they eye saying the train wouldn't be there until 10pm so I left and came back at 10 ...

10pm was when the gates opened and I could wait on the platform. I was the only foreigner in the room so stood out like a sore thumb and when at 3am people started to leave and I tried to find out what was going on, all I got was people laughing at the fact that I couldn't understand. Eventually I found someone at the information that spoke English and found the train was due to arrive at 5am. It did arrive at 5 but it didn't leave till 7.

Once I was on the train it was fine. I fell straight asleep and the delay meant that I didn't need to stop the night in Nanning, but could get straight on the bus to Hanoi.

Internet information that I had found on the Nanning bus ticket office was slightly out of date as there are building works going on outside the station so it was lucky that I spotted an Australian with a Chinese friend that was able to take me there and order my ticket for me.

I will attempt to do China by myself one day. It is yet another example of travelling somewhere just to realise that thereis so much more that I haven't seen.

opening a restaurant

When I arrived on Koh Rong 4 months ago I had no grand plans and certainly never dreamed that I would be opening a veggie restaurant on this Cambodian island, but that's what I've done!
It started with a painting, I was looking for somewhere to paint a mural as I had done in Thailand and Laos, and Vagabonds had space for me to paint. I was told they wanted a mermaid so I started sketching and by the time I met Dave, the owner, I had already begun painting on the wall. He quickly offered me free beer, food and accommodation to continue painting and with a free rein to paint what I wanted where I wanted it was an offer I couldn't refuse.
My role as in house artist quickly expanded as I offered to help out with everything I could in this guesthouse/bar and within a week I was manager!
As the business was just starting up (we had the opening party two weeks after I arrived) and wasn't really serving much food, Dave said we could experiment in the kitchen, but we couldn't order expensive foods such as meat. This gave me the idea of trying to make some good vegetarian food...
My parents are vegetarian and I was brought up working in vegetarian cafes in Glastonbury so I'm used to cooking vegetarian food but my first couple attempts at veggie burgers came out as sloppy pumpkin mess.
With everything else going on it took me until the end of June to get a menu written but as soon as that was done it was amazing how quickly we transformed into a restaurant.
There is already a good selection of western food on the island and Pan Mai and Tom, the two girls who work in the Vagabonds kitchen, could cook a full English breakfast with their eyes closed.
Introducing a vegetarian menu, however, meant a lot of new dishes that they had never cooked before, using different flavours than they are used to and a whole new style of cooking. The girls have done an amazing job of learning a lot of new dishes in a short space of time but it's tough work introducing a whole new menu in a week, let alone teaching stock control, efficiency and what needs to be prepared in advance. At the moment it's low season though so there aren't many customers and we can use the next couple of months to practice and really get it right for high season.
Yesterday we demolished one of the dorm rooms to build a new, bigger kitchen and moved the bar to create more restaurant seating so in the next few days we should be able to have a grand reopening party of our new restaurant!
So if your in Koh Rong at any time soon, come check out the menu, maybe even stay for a 'Yolanda special' - a baguette with marmite, poached eggs and cheese  :-)

5 things I love about my life

1. Having pink hair.

People say blondes have fun. Pink's have more fun. Fact.

2. Living on an island.

It feels cut off from the real world. No roads, no cars, just beach, jungle and sea.

3. Starting a businesses.

The whole island is young and developing. Most businesses here are less than a year old and it's exciting to be part of creating the scene. I started by painting on the walls and was managing the place before we opened so it really feels like my baby.

4. The wildlife.

Every night I fall asleep to the sounds of geckos and crickets. Wake up to chickens, a snake coiling itself around a nearby tree and a buffalo rolling around in the mud. I go for a swim and have to tread carefully around the giant pink starfish dotted on the ocean bed and barracuda coming for me. Swim at night and there is phosphorescent plankton. At work my dog bounds up to me with a million kisses, dragonflies hover around and a giant butterfly lands on my head. (Of course not all the wildlife is good, sandflies are the bane of my life and it's not possible to keep anti venom on the island as we can't keep it refrigerated consistently. There is always a price to pay for paradise.)

5. The people.

You meet some interesting characters travelling but the ones that have decided to live on a Cambodian island are certainly a rare breed.

A week in the life of the island

Last week was pretty eventful...

Monday: Met the minister of tourism for Cambodia.

The whole village and several businesses owners lined up on the peer at 10am to greet the minister only to find out he wasn't in that boat. A couple of hours later when we lined up again a speed boat arrived with a lot of important dignitaries. I shook everyone's hands then sat in a 2hr meeting, getting filmed for Cambodian TV looking interested and nodding along but not understanding a word that was being said. Lots of smiles and claps though so I guess we are doing something right.

Tuesday: Started first aid training.

As part of the Koh Rong Conservation project there are a couple of nurses on the island that are running a first aid clinic and offered free training to long term staff at the bars so that when they go we can man the clinic ourselves.

Wednesday: I was meant to learn about island fevers such as dengue, but instead got a fever.

It may or may have been dengue but whatever it was it wasn't fun. I did, however, move a mattresses and mosquito net onto my balcony so was able to lie down staring at palm trees for 6 days. You know you've found somewhere special when you can still be this happy when your ill with a fever!

A little poem about bangkok ...

Bangkok you've been epic, as usual, a blast.

Each time I return is more fun than the last

From buckets on Khaosan and scummy hostels, to red wine in the pool at 5 star hotels.

Markets and malls and cinema 4D,

tagteaming germans,

stop!

Roly poly!

Thank you to the friends that have made this the best,

now one night by myself to get some rest.

Then back to the island I shall go.

It's a hard life in Asia, don't you know!