2013: A Year in Review

As cliche as it is to say, I honestly cannot believe another year has gone by.

2013 was certainly one of my busiest years to date. I spent the first half of the year as a nomad in Asia: visiting tea plantations in Malaysia, snowboarding in Japan, volunteering with elephants in Cambodia, overcoming my fear of riding a motorbike in Vietnam, participating in the world's biggest waterfight in Thailand and meeting some of the friendliest people ever in Myanmar.

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Sen Monorom, Cambodia

Yangon, Myanmar

Sapa, Vietnam

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Post-Asia it was time to move to Melbourne, where I met up with this guy who became my boyfriend, tried my hand at being a barista and went on an amazing road trip. From there it was off to tropical Fiji, where I explored its underwater world and hung out in a local village. I was lucky enough to reconnect with family and friends in beautiful British Columbia, as well as meet Ben's family in Shropshire, England for the first time. After that it was back to Australia to try living in a different city (and to earn some money for 2014 travel plans.)

This guy.

Barista-ing, Melbourne

Great Ocean Road, Victoria

Coral Coast, Fiji

Tofino, BC

Ben's house in Shrewsbury, UK

Eleven countries, one boyfriend, countless new experiences... 2013 has certainly been eventful. While this year has made me realize that I couldn't lead this type of nomadic lifestyle forever, it's also reaffirmed my belief that traveling is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. There are certain aspects of a more settled life I'm already looking forward to one day but there are still too many more things in this world I want to see, do, learn, taste and experience first.

I don't yet know what 2014 is going to look like, although I have some ideas (Diving the Great Barrier Reef? Visiting my Cambodian 'family'? Attending a wedding in England? Teaching English in Korea?) so stay tuned!

Dreaming of a W..arm Christmas?

Although my first eight years of life were spent in sunny Southern California, the holidays I really remember growing up took place a little further north. Christmases in good ol' Surrey, BC weren't always white but they were definitely never warm. My fondest Christmas memories have all taken place in the cold, which is why the two have always gone hand in hand for me.

Then in 2011, while living at home to save money to travel (and going a bit stir-crazy in process) I applied and was hired to work on a Hawaii-bound cruise ship over the holidays. In addition to being a pretty unique way to spend Christmas, it was also the first truly hot one I'd ever celebrated.

The following year I left home to go traveling. By December I found myself in tropical Thailand, intending to celebrate a second sunny Christmas by attending a Full Moon Party on the island of Koh Phangan. However, my grand plans were thwarted just days before by some little mosquito who was kind enough to infect me with Dengue Fever, which left me more or less bed-ridden. It was certainly a memorable holiday but not for the right reasons!

Fast forward to Christmas Day 2013 in Sydney, Australia where I'm currently living and working. I was expecting to have another sweltering Christmas but (gasp) it was actually raining here today! Although it was a bit wet, it was still warm enough to go for a nice swim in the ocean and have a beer at the beach.

While these past few Christmases have each been incredibly memorable, it's sometimes been hard to remember that it really is Christmas. I think I'll always associate this time of year with the memories I made back home: watching Christmas movies by the fire, going for winter walks in the park behind my house, sledding on nearby hills, enjoying hot holiday drinks from Starbucks red cups, listening to Christmas songs on 103.5 QM/FM from the warmth of the car (only people from the Vancouver area will know what I'm talking about on that last point) and making igloos (okay, so I only did that once... but it was one of the rare occasions where I managed to live up to a Canadian stereotype!)

Don't get me wrong, I have genuinely enjoyed the Christmases I've spent abroad/in the heat and wouldn't change them for the world (not even getting Dengue!) but I don't think Christmas will ever truly feel like Christmas for me unless I'm somewhere cold. Or more still, unless I'm at home. Until then...

Merry Christmas and lots of love to my family and friends around the world!!!

Christmas 2011 - Hawaii, USA

 

Christmas 2012 - Koh Phangan, Thailand

No photos, due to the fact I was incredibly ill with Dengue Fever. Boooooooo.

Christmas 2013 - Sydney, Australia

Words from a Monk

Although I find blogging the best way to share my travel stories and photos, I'm still very much a pen and paper kind of girl. Since I began this trip nearly 10 months ago I have been using a planner, rather than my iPhone, to keep track of various things like flight dates, how much money I've been spending and useful phrases in foreign languages.

The other day while flipping through said planner, I came across a page with a short yet meaningful message written way back in December. It was from Sony, a monk I befriended in Siem Reap. Reading his words couldn't help but remind me just how random and wonderful traveling can be, something that hasn't been on my mind as much since I've started working rather than traveling.

Before leaving home there were many things I never thought I would do: dance in the street to celebrate the 80th birthday of a woman I just met, participate in a Taiko drumming class, take part in the world's biggest water fight or make friends with a monk (more than one in fact) but I did. Travel can be challenging, tiring and frustrating but if you keep an open mind, you will undoubtedly be rewarded with countless memorable experiences like the ones mentioned above.

Thanks for the reminder Sony.

Adios Asia!

After seven months, eight countries and approximately 180 servings of rice, the sun has set on my time in Asia. 

Traveling in this part of the world has been a completely eye opening experience. I had no idea just how different everything, from toilets to modes of transportation, would be! There are many things that I love about Asia and am definitely going to miss...

Beautiful beaches

Riding on the back of motos

Visiting temples and pagodas

Eating cheap and delicious food

Befriending monks

Tuk tuk rides

'Interesting' fashion statements

 ... and some things that I got used to, but will not miss in the slightest

Enough said

Crazy traffic and way too much honking

In addition to adjusting to new norms, I've also learned a great deal about countries I previously knew very little about. The genocide in Cambodia, the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the Secret War in Laos, the oppression in Myanmar... while I could have read about these events from home, for me it's no substitute to visiting these places and meeting people who've experienced things first hand.

Killing fields in Cambodia

Bomb crater in Laos

While I'm sad that this chapter of my trip has come to a close, I'm also very much looking forward to the next one. It's time to explore the land down 'unda, where new people, experiences and sunsets await. Bring it on Australia!

The World's Biggest Waterfight

I have literally been soaking wet for the last five days. Why you ask? I've been celebrating Thai New Year, AKA 'Songkran', which is hands down the coolest festival I've ever seen.

Songkran falls every April from the 13-15. While there are several more traditional aspects of the festival such as going wats (temples) to pray and offering food to the monks, the most popular custom of Songkran is the throwing of water, which symbolizes cleansing and renewal for the new year. Over time, this has evolved into a massive water fight - Songkran has actually earned the title of the biggest water fight in the world!

The most famous Songkran celebrations take place in Chiang Mai, which is where I was, and it was nothing short of insane. We're talking everybody and their dog (literally) out on the streets, armed with a water gun, bucket and/or hose, trying to get everybody else as drenched as they can. Throw in blaring music, foam, free food and a parade, and you'll start to get an idea of how Songkran looks.

For obvious reasons, unless you have some fancy waterproof camera gear this festival is pretty hard to capture - people take absolutely no mercy on you if you're holding electronics! I managed to get a few shots of the festivities...

Celebrating Songkran in Chiang Mai was just incredible. Like so many other things I've done on this trip, I feel like words and photos can't do it justice - the energy of everyone there, locals and foreigners alike, is what made it so great.

I'm in Bangkok now and have one more day of Songkran to face. Although this festival has been amazing, I have to admit - I'm kind of excited to be dry again!

Sawadee pee mai ka! / Happy New Year!

Flavour Frenzy

Yesterday I finally did something I've been meaning to do for ages (and in doing so crossed another item off of my Wanderlist) I took a cooking class!

Chiang Mai has countless cooking schools but I went with one called Asia Scenic and was highly impressed. The day started with our instructor, Sue, taking us on a tour around a local market. She showed us various items that are frequently used in Thai cooking and bought some ingredients we would be needing for the day.

So many types of rice!

Local market

After touring the local market we hopped in a van and headed about 20 minutes outside of the city to the cooking school's little 'farm'. Sue showed us around and identified all the different plants, vegetables, herbs and spices growing at the farm. I recognized things like chillies, coriander, lemongrass and eggplant, but some were completely new to me: kaffir lime, galangal, tumeric... practically everything was incredibly flavourful, just trying a bit of something on the end of your tongue would send your taste buds into a frenzy.

Sue teaching us about the different plants

Then it was time to get cooking. Each person got to make five dishes. I made:

Pad Thai

Spring rolls

Khao Soi, traditional noodle dish from Chiang Mai

Coconut milk soup

Dessert: deep dried bananas

I'm not much of a cook so I was pretty proud of myself that everything turned out alright (although we did have some help). The dishes sound and look complicated but when you start from scratch you're able to see that it's really not as tricky as it seems - just time consuming! 

We got to eat everything we made so we stuffed ourselves silly. It's hard to pick a favourite dish but I think Pad Thai is the one I'm most likely to try making at home.

It was such an enjoyable day and the food was deeeelicious - the course was well worth it!

Frying my spring rolls!

The students hard at work

Fellow chefs