Around the World in 120 Days

First stop: Thailand. Aka, LOS (Land of Smiles). After flying back to the UK for a week, we headed off. With a fleeting stop in Abu Dhabi, followed by a small tumble down some very public stairs, finishing with (another) long plane ride, we finally arrived in Thailand.

Following the steady stream of backpackers, we took the overnight train down to Surat Thani. An interesting experience to say the least. The drop down flip beds were quaint, and despite the ladder required to climb up to, manageable. Even the random stops and noisy commuters were novel. Less thrilling however, were perhaps the toilets. Essentially a hole in the floor of the carriage which opened up onto the tracks. Interesting. Aiding this already difficult setup was a definite lack of anything to hold on to. The whole escapade involved a lot of balance and strength in the quad muscles. At least I savoured a little dignity, unlike HT who was subjected to a demonstration, despite her protests, on the proper squatting technique. 

Finally we arrived at Shiralea (Had Yao), Koh Phangan. We had racked up an impressive 48 hours of solid travelling and were exhausted. Koh Phangan is the stereotypical picture post card island. Gorgeous beaches, gorgeous weather, and gorgeous people. And as a result, we spent three exquisite weeks there. HT completed her PADI (whilst I did some not so subtle sulking on the sidelines – bastard asthma), I wakeboarded, and together we managed to survive the Full Moon and the Half Moon parties, both of which, I hate to say, passed by in a blurry haze. 

Reluctantly we left Koh Phangan and headed to Koh Phi Phi island, the other side of Thailand. We arrived in the midst of a downpour, everything was completely flooded. After we had organized accommodation, we felt that vodka was the best way to pass the time. We spent that evening (and subsequent ones) at Jordans – apparently no place is complete without an Irish bar. 

Phi Phi, Thailand

Phi Phi, Thailand

Phi Phi was promising. We had a brilliant first night followed by a fabulous day of rock climbing. Unfortunately, it only went downhill from there. Two days after arriving I discovered I had conjunctivitis, a highly contagious eye infection. Sorry HT. I feel our trip was slightly marred by this unfortunate event. Even so, we were living in paradise so couldn’t really complain. I would like to think that with the help of HUGE sunglasses and (countless) bottles of eye drops, we massively manned up. By the way, there is a chance we may have been to blame for the outbreak of said disease June 2010. 

View from climbing, Phi Phi, Thailand

Rock climbing, Phi Phi, Thailand

Regardless of the rather negative remarks we had heard about Phuket, we headed off that way. Had a ‘small world’ encounter when we met a friend of a friend at the lovely hostel we were staying at (surprisingly standard when travelling). We spent our last few days in Thailand horse riding, sightseeing, suntanning and warding off Thai MAAASSSAAGGGGGEEEESS, which unfortunately I found to be rather painful. Indeed, my one experience was quite disturbing. At one point, I was literally fighting back tears, I politely asked my Thai woman to be a bit gentler. She just laughed politely and kept going at what I suspected, an even harder pressure. Needless to say, I did not wish for a repeat.

Next stop: Malaysia. 

NB: Thanks HT for the pictures! I had just broken my camera by forcing into the hold on a moped and promptly sitting on it.  

Back to the Sandbox

A year later, I was finished with formal education. I loved the idea that I was free to do whatever I wanted and go wherever I pleased. Well, in theory at least, in practice, not so much. Having spent all my (pretend free) money (student loan trickery), I was pretty broke. So I did what the majority of graduates do straight out of university, I moved home. Only that didn’t involve just a 2-hour train ride back (with a few buses thrown in somewhere along the line for good measure), home was a 7-hour plus flight away.

I also decided that whilst I enjoyed studying public relations, I felt I needed to make a change, do something else for while, after all variety is supposedly the spice of life. And what job can you combine with travelling… the obvious answer seemed teaching. Specifically teaching English as a foreign language. I chose the best course I could find (CELTA) and after a month long intensive short course designed to throw you into the deep end of teaching, I headed back home to Qatar.

Qatar

Until recently, not many people knew about Qatar (cue outcry over FIFA 2022). Confusion often crops up over the pronunciation – “cutter,” “gutter,” “KUH-tar,” and my personal favourite, “Qwatar.” (not entirely sure where the “w” came from). For eight months of the year, the weather is near perfect. For the other four months though, it feels like you’ve been thrown headfirst into the fiery pits of a furnace. Literally. Mid-summer temperatures push 50 degrees Celsius, and the key to general survival is running from one air-conditioned room/car/chilled pool to the next. The heat is unbearable. Even the sea is too hot (baffling). Weather aside, the country is almost brand new, it holds infinite possibility. Opportunities are rampant. 

I then spent the next nine months planning my upcoming journey around the world….’cting! Oh that and sitting by the pool, suntanning, going to the beach, and wakeboarding.  For those who don’t know what that is, picture snowboarding on water whilst being dragged along behind a boat. Basically waterskiing but infinitely cooler.

NB: I may have given a slightly rose-tinted view of Doha. Sure the traffic jams are endless, sure every single road has been dug up…at least twice, and sure the driving is crazy (do you see a common theme here). But I can’t help it, it's my home! 

The desert at dusk

Wakeboarding in the canal

Wakeboarding

The (Bastard) Travelling Bug

The first time I went travelling was to Eastern Europe. It was between my first and second year of university and with very little money and even less travelling experience, I set off with two friends. Following the release of Hostel, our first stop was Bratislava (obviously we did NOT see the movie prior to leaving). To say I had the most incredible time doesn’t even begin to cover it. Jumping out of planes, throwing myself down waterfalls, accidentally stumbling across a nudist beach (try not to think about the naked lunges we were subjected to) and being sh** on by a dog whilst sleeping in a garden were only some of the highlights (perhaps not the latter so much). Even so, we managed to return to England in just about one piece and I was itching to skip off somewhere new.

Hvar, Croatia

So a little over a year later I did. This time to Greece. Armed with a little more  experience and a lot less money, we set off in the summer of 2007. Following my previous years’ dog/garden/sleeping escapade due to lack of available rooms anywhere, we decided to book our first few nights’ accommodation in advance. If you learn anything from this blog, it’s this…always organise somewhere to stay on your first night! Even if you don’t like it, at least you’ve got something. It beats wandering around at 1am with a heavy rucksack desperately trying to find a bed. And the room you do eventually find might have some weird sort of animal living in your toilet making even weirder noises with a door that doesn’t lock (nightmares of The Thing emerging from the bathroom ran amok that night).

Our six weeks in Greece flew by. We hopped from island to island, starting in Lefkada, quintessentially Greek, and finishing in Ios, decidedly not so quintessentially Greek. Due to lack of funds, we spent a random week in Crete in a hostel room that must have been pushing 40 degrees during the day and not much less at night. I don’t think the tiny room, two extremely small windows, 12 bunks, and a very ill person appeased the situation in anyway. In order to combat the terrific heat, we spent our time at the beach swimming in a rather overcrowded, unpleasant sea. Or we did until something rather nasty floated by us, at which point we had to find ourselves another beach. 

But like the previous years, university was calling, so back we went.

Lefkada, Greece

Lefkada, Greece

Santorini, Greece