I'm baaaack! And I've gained A STONE! Ahhh sh*t!
I'm feeling TOTALLY pumped as for getting back on plan though
I've been really looking forward to it! Call me a spoiled brat but I'm SO BORED of eating out for every meal! I'm 90% sure that if I were just off plan at home I'd not have gained half as much in the 3 months, but because I was out and had so few nutritional options often, it just made me go "**** it, I'll have what I want and face the music later."
Bali was really difficult for food as they didn't have proper supermarkets in our area, just small corner shop like places that only sold crisps and peanut butter crackers and stuff, no fruit or anything... So snacks were crap, and since I had so little control I just let loose and ate whatever. The breakfast buffets were lethal too, couldn't resist the pancakes at one place in Bali! G was unwell for the whole time in Bali so we weren't as active and I think the 1/3rd of a stone probably crept on in those two weeks
Anyway- as I said, totally pumped to be healthy again
(disclaimer: this attitude will probably change in a few days
)
So: THE TRIP! What an experience!! All of the countries we went to were so totally different
my favourites were probably Cambodia and Hong Kong (shocker! Really didn't expect to think much of HK!) and surprisingly I got on with Thailand the least, it was just so damn touristy and the locals were really arsey to us, it dampened the whole thing a bit... But boy did we have some awesome experiences there!! So I'll do a mini break down of what we got up to in each place, will try and keep it quick so as not to bore y'all! All these pics are the ones on my fb as we haven't been through DSLR pics yet
Japan (4 weeks) :
We went to SO many different towns/cities in this time, it really was go-go-go! We usually stayed in each hotel for 1-3 nights max, so a lot of packing, traveling and lugging bags around, but I really feel like we got to experience a lot of what Japan has to offer, it was great
the people are so lovely there too- strangers would go out of their way to help us (and would offer it, rather than us asking!) and when I asked to take photos of locals they were always happy (Especially as I'd ask in my key Japanese phrase of the trip: "Shashin o e deska" (might be spelt wrong) = "Photo- is it OK?" Or basically "can I snap happy on yo' face?"
We saw a lot of cultural stuff, lots of temples but also experiences... We trained as samurai!
learn't how to wield the swords and dressed up as them, learning routines... Fun! But I don't really like the whole samurai way of life, ninjas are way cooler. For example, samurai's have this 'seppuku' thing where they DISEMBOWEL THEMSELVES and it's seen as, uh, a gracious way to die! They'd literally stab themselves in the gut and then slice across... Even children would have to do it sometimes! And samurai's wives were taught that if their home was invaded to run upstairs and kill themselves LOL, fail. Ninja's were so sneaky and we went to this old ninja town called Ega Ueno where we went to a ninja show, museum and castle... In the museum there was a ninja house and they gave demonstrations on all these sneaky hiding places like walls that turned into hide-outs and places the ninjas would hide if caught- way better than suicidal samurais lol! We dressed up as ninjas for the day there and that was SO fun, we even got to pose with these uber cute ninja poodles who's owners wanted to do a mini photoshoot with us for a competition hahaha:
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I explained a load of the early stuff in the trip a page back so I'll not overly repeat, but the onsen hot spring town was really lovely, bathing under the stars in a natural spring (SO HOT, burning hot!) and watching the snow monkeys bathe! We also went to some awesome shows like this ninja show with lasers and acrobatics and ariel performances and just- totally wow! Really beautifully lit and VFX too, and also went to 'Robot restaurant' where they had this huge epic robot battle happening right in front of you! Massive robots and skimpy clothed women, it was great! Japan is so damn awesome
^Bathroom slippers provided in Japan LOL
^Free roaming tame deer in Miagjima
^ My favourite Japanese dish - Okonimyaki on the right and yaki soba on the left, being cooked on the grill plate on our table
We also stayed in a monastery in the mountains where there were a collection of quaint temples in the woods- stumbled across them and they were so underrated that we hadn't heard of them, but they were my favourites of our whole trip!!
^ We were served a traditional monk meal in our room at the monastery
it was... pretty gross
Hong Kong (6 days) :
We were knackered from moving about so much in Japan so it was a relief to stay put in one hotel for 6 whole nights! Packing in mornings would take about an hour alone as we had too much stuff!!
HK was so bloody awesome- mainly because of our accidentally great timing, there was this annual 'bun festival' on which was just amazing! The tourist board told us about it when we arrived and asked for help at the airport, so brilliant! It was all on this small islandy bit and they had lion dances (the big dragony-lion costumes that do acrobatics and jump around) in parades down the narrow alleys between buildings and they had 'floating girls' where 6 year old girls were put on this weird pole/harness thing that made them look like they were just floating along the crowd with no support- they all looked so miserable but it was really weird to see! We got to try really strange local foods including the buns the festival were about (quite yummy and spongy with a sweet filling of red bean) and deep fried ICE CREAM! So awesome! (probably gained 5lbs that week alone thinking about it
tried so many different Sweet and Sour HK style dishes but none of them lived up to my local chinese take away at home LOL, some of them were pretty rank actually!)
We also went to TWO theme parks in HK: Disney land (yep, in the past year I have officially been to Tokyo Disney, Tokyo Disney Sea, Disney World Florida, Disney land Paris AND HK Disney land LOL) we expected it to be a bit meh compared to Tokyo's EPIC Disney Sea as the HK park was much smaller with less rides, but it was SO FUN! Got to 'meet' loads of characters and there were no queues as it was p*ssing down all day (didn't bother us at all though)!
The theme other park we went to was called Ocean Park which is known as one of the best theme parks in the world- it was just fantastic! It is set at a cliff edge so roller coasters would loop off of the cliff, really exhilarating! And great views on the rides! One of those drop rides was called 'The Eagle' and at the top of it there were literally eagles circling below us! And the best part- no queues all day! It was practically dead
we did like 10 rides in two hours and could just ask to go straight on again! Also saw a sealion/dolphin show and the place had arctic animals and aquariums too... Watching the walruses swim from the underwater viewing area was amazing! Such a fantastic day and there was a night water/fire show before the park closed which was just great, then we went to the aquarium restaurant where you sit beside the huge tank and watch the manta rays as you eat
we were the last people to leave both Ocean Park and HK Disney!!
Our other excursion in HK was to this fishing village which was basically a shanty town on stilts! Really interesting to see such a 3rd world kinda set up so close to a skyscraper city... They lived in shacks without doors and yet still had plasma tvs lol! (Not quite 3rd world
)
THAILAND (4 weeks) :
Our first week in Chiang Mai was a lazy chill week which we were in desperate need of! I didn't see much of Chiang Mai itself but it was one of my favourite places in Thailand, the people were friendliest here and it had a fun attitude! We had our day of elephant mahout training where we learnt how to ride them bareback and command them- if you tap them on the head and say 'BON BON' they lift their trunk to accept a banana
SO CUTE! Our elephant was cheeky though and kept trying to go off course and we nearly fell off a few times! But the trek through the jungle was really lovely, I'm really glad we did it this way as we saw a lot of elephant ride offers not his trip where you just sit on a seat and get walked down a road... this felt much more natural, even if I could barely walk after (gosh it hurts the thighs!)
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Bathing with them in the water after was great too
but my favourite thing was feeding them- you could feed directly into their mouths (they'd hold their mouth open) or pass it to their trunk, it was so lovely
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We also got a day with tigers! They were in caged enclosures of course, but not sedated
we got splashed a LOT by one playing the it's pool, it was so fun to photograph!!
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It was a bit scary at first as the guides were like "Yeah, just lay down on it's back while it sleeps!" aaahhhh! haha, but it was really fantastic, especially that one in the pool and the younger ones were so cute! They looked like they were going to pounce at us sometimes though! The guides were much more wary of them as apparently they're more likely to hurt you while playing
After our time was up with them we watched the young ones from outside the pen for ages as they played <3
OK, I'm going into too much detail and this is taking forever
We spent a few days in each of two jungles/national parks in Thailand- Khao Sok and Khao Yai. In Khao Yai we did a 5hr hike and saw gibbons in the wild- their calls to one another was so lovely! Really memorable... They would sing these 'wooooo!' noises
I spotted a deadly viper too that could apparently kill you in 3 hours :O "don't get too close, the hospital is further than that!" but G still was sticking his macro lens like a foot away from it! It was quite small and hidden in a plant on the ground, no idea how I spotted that! We also saw sambur deer, macaques and a bloody scorpion (phobic) and our guide told me to touch it and then like jumped it at me as a joke and I started hysterically crying which has never happened before! I was like laughing and crying at the same time because I found it funny but my body was in shock mode and streaming with tears! Really weird... And totally embarrassing!
In Khao Sok we spent a night on a floating raft house where we swam in the lake and went on boats looking for wildlife- saw some dusk leaf monkeys from afar but not much.
(sorry about the crappy phone pics)
^that dude in our group was so tarzan like, he'd jump around on that log like and ape and beat his chest LOL. He was with this other guy and they would wrestle on that log and I SWORE they were a gay couple but the other guy said something about his gf back home... Hmmm!
^From inside the raft house we slept in... It was really uncomfy and hot and the mosquito net was all over us but still a great experience.
We trekked through rivers and to a cave which we swam through- fun! Our guide found a huge toad swimming by us, hehe. We also went to a bat cave, then on our boat ride back saw a tiny tiny lesser mouse deer swimming by our boat!! Our guide jumped in and caught it to show us and then brought it back to the raft house where I was shitting myself that he might have intended to eat it (he was a bit funny and they'd cooked snapper fish they'd caught on the trip that day for our lunch!) but it escaped (luckily)
I was a bit sad that it was a baby and wouldn't be able to find its mother
but when we got back to base camp I saw in a wildlife book that they are actually solitary creatures and that was it's full grown size!
The next night in the jungle was in a luxury tree house
SO NICE!! Wish I'd taken more pics of the treehouse itself and inside but we were too busy out exploring and when we got back it was dark.
^Our treehouse/balcony overlooking the river
G spotted macaques climbing across that cliff! And when we wandered around at night I spotted TWO SLOW LORRIS
!! They are my favourite animal and a guy at the resort said they are pretty rare to spot and he'd never seen one! But I knew how to look- at night you shine a torch high in trees and they get disturbed and look down and their huge eyes reflect the light like a cats eyes. We saw two quite far away but I could make out the body as it crawled up a branch
SO EXCITING and I spotted them all by myself about 100m from our treehouse ^^
As we brushed our teeth we were joined by a huge gecko too
but it ran away behind a beam when we got our cameras out so I spent 10 minutes throwing water at the wall trying to scare it back out LOL.
Bangkok was fun, I got plastered on Khao san road and ate a fried scorpion :/ the next day I found a leg of it had fallen into my bag and my inhaler- took a puff and found it in my mouth EWEWEW not as fun when sober!!
Oh and G got felt up by lady boys in a cabaret hahaha:
We did a day trip to the old capital Ayutthaya and it's ruins:
In BK bus station this guy had a pet baby squirrel and I got to hold it OMG SO CUTE!! :
For the last leg of the journey (apart from Khao Sok which was after this) we went to the island Koh Samui for a week and did some excursions to Koh Phangnan and Angthong national marine park where we saw loads of gorgeous dusk leaf monkeys really close- they ran right past us like a meter away into the nearby tree! Can't wait to go through those pics
they were GORGEOUS!!
We did two luxury boat days out which were lovely! One was a gentle cruise on an old junk boat where we snorkelled and went jet skiing which was AWESOME! Didn't realise quite how awesome that would be but WOW! Such a rush!! But the main part of that day was just chilling on the boat (and getting to jump off it lots into the water!)
The second boat tour was quite different as it was less lazing around (getting lobsterfied in G's case
) and very active! We did a snorkel trip around this really cool area and saw a squid and lots of cool fish
then we saw the monkeys and did a nasty stair climb to see a view... it was so hot that day! Lots of dips into the water off the speed boat.
Cambodia (2 weeks) :
We spent the whole time in Siem Reap so no moving around- hurrah! The temples were really cool, especially Ta Phrom where Tomb Raider was set!
I even went to some areas that were off limits
felt REALLY like Lara Croft then, hehe!!
We spent two days looking at temples and one day just following the macaques around
there were baby ones and they were SO CUTE! G is obsessed with macaques, we spent hours photographing them! It'll take an age to sort through all the damn monkey pics!
but here are a few cute ones I saw while they were uploading:
Cambodia was really memorable for the people there though, they had such a sense of humour and were really fun compared to Thai's! I loved shopping there too, the markets were so cheap! We saw a cultural dance at an orphanage and a local circus of acrobats too, but the best day out was exploring a rural village on a bike tour and photographing the dozens of smiling kids we met along the way! So lovely
the same tour took us on a boat trip through a village on stilts and followed the river to a lake where a Vietnamese floating village just floats down the lake all year! It was awesome to see all these houses just floating together! Kids swimming about and people getting on with their lives on a house surrounded by water!
Really loved Cambodia, wish we'd had more time to go to the other cities there (pre-booked the hotel sadly!)
Oh and on our last night I ate a CROCODILE burger!
I wonder how many syns crocodile is?
tasted kinda like turkey but way more moist!
Singapore (4 days) :
Singapore was kinda like a less interesting version of HK
I didn't like it much... But the zoo was awesome! They have three zoos all in one place- one is a river themed zoo/aquarium, one a night safari and the other just the main zoo- we went to all three in two days.
The main zoo had an enclosure where lemurs and fruit bats and lesser mouse deer all wandered freely- was SO AWESOME to get up close with the lemurs who were totally cool with being stroked and drank water from our hands!!
But my favourites were the squirrel monkeys in the river zoo- they were free roaming too and climbed up on my arm, SO CUTE! You could offer your hand and they'd hold it with their soft paws and give you a nibble to see if you had food... Or in G's case THREE of them were on his head searching for fleas at one point LOL. I got a great video of that
Notice how sweaty G is? It was SO HUMID in Singapore- eurgh! Cambodia was hot, but Singapore was SO sweaty and gross!
The night safari was interesting- a way to see nocturnal animals in their lively hours. I actually spotted a flying lemur which are apparently wild but take residence in the zoo's rainforest like setting- hehe! The sugar gliders were really frigging cute too. We did a tram tour through the park which was a nice end to a really long day of zoos (river safari then night safari- about 13 hrs of zoo time in one day!)
Bali - (2 weeks)
G was quite unwell (had been brewing since the end of Thailand, tummy bug that wiped him out) so our first week was pure beach/pool holiday! Balinese people were fun and friendly, our hotel was NICE- two infinity pools, 4* for £25 a night!
Our next hotel was EVEN BETTER though! The best on the trip! It was right on the beach and had really nice grounds (sort of rainforesty) and a turtle pond
we got a crazy discount because of a mistake on booking.com lol! £25 instead of £70 a night!!
When we finally did some excursions the highlights were a coffee bean plantation where coffee was made from mongoose poo
We got to hold a mongoose for about half an hour (as there weren't many guests) and it was SO CUTE!! Ffjreofheiuhr!! It fell asleep in G's arms- CUTEST THING EVER! No phone pics so will have to wait until I've gone through the DSLR ones for those.
We saw a fire trance show which was AWESOME! It was by a temple where there were loads of macaques too and the show happened at sunset so it was really fun to photograph with a dramatic sky behind. There was loads of chanting and it was all very dramatic and interesting- loved it!
We also saw a shadow puppet show but as it was in Balinese it dragged on a bit not being able to understand it.
Went to a water palace and an ancient village (kinda a tourist trap lol) and had lunch on this idyllic, deserted black sand beach... It was really lovely but upset my stomach- grr!
^ Also tried the local delicacy of... eh... Shrooms! LOL. They're kinda legal in Bali- it's a bit of a grey area and they're sold quite openly. This was the picture on the store we got them from
it was fun apart from the nausea!
The last couple of nights of our trip were in Singapore as we were flying back from there- we'd kinda seen Singapore already last time so one of the days just chilled in the room watching movies which was NICE! But the other day we went back to china town and I bough enough souvenirs/gifts to fill the remaining bag space
our hand luggage weighed 15kg each because of camera gear and laptop etc, our allowance was 7kg but luckily they didn't check!
my luggage was 25kg too! It's really a miracle that no-where weighed the hand luggage or we'd have been screwed!!
Anyway, flight home nearly killed me as it was overnight and I really struggle to sleep on flights. We left at 11pm and got home by 2pm (Singapore time) which is 9am here (was reaaaally fun trekking through central london on the tube at rush hour with all those heavy bags... not!) had an early night and woke up at 5am. 9am now and I'm going to go have some lunch lol!
Really bummed that I put on a stone but at the same time I've really felt the difference and am looking forward to getting back my confidence again. The break was great for breaking through my strict boundaries and easing up my attitude to food... Am just going to take it easy this week with whichever plan I want and use up as many of my 15 a day/105 a week syns as I want!
There's no way in hell I'll be able to catch up with everyone's diaries with the amount of stuff I have to do, but I'll pop by and get with the current stuff soooon!
Love y'all! Hope you've been doing well
x
