Lady of leisure... or just a BUM!

So I'm back in the UK, and yes, after 3 weeks of being back, I've gotten so use to being a bum that I'm even too lazy to write my blog!!

Friends tell me 'Oh you're a lady of leisure now, you don't have to work - must be great!'... WRONG! Ok so for the first week, its kinda nice just chilling at home, catching up with mates and with the second series of The Apprentice...ALL 17 episodes, plus 6 episodes (so far of the 3rd series). At the same time I'm looking for jobs, meeting one recruitment agency after another... though no damn interviews...('cept one - found out this week).

So you ask, whats wrong with that? No work, just watch TV, go to visit some agencies... what a life? Well, can you imagine how boring it gets, and how damn lazy i feel - basically, this has been my life for the last 3 weeks - wake up, surf the net for new vacancies, watch 15 episodes of Smallville/X episodes and series' of The Apprentice/Bargain Hunt/Cash in the Attic/This Morning/Flog It!/The OC/Homes under Hammer..etc, eat, sleep. My brain is ticking... ticking from boredom, and I need a job to stimulate my mind!!

So anyways, I've decided to start baking, it's relatively cheap, I get to learn a new skill and stuff my face after! Then hopefully, by the time i learn to make at least 8 different types of desserts (enough recipes to open my own dessert shop one day), I'd have gotten a few interviews by then!! I REFUSE TO BE A BUM ANY LONGER!

Wrap up

Still another 2 weeks before we head back to UK. Must admit, now that I'm in HK, I am actually missing London...I realised this when I was in Bangkok a few days ago watching the film Closer, and there was a scene where Jude Law and Natalie Portman were riding on a London bus and in the background you can see the old houses and grey skys of London. Yeh, wierd, you must think, how can I miss that?! I didn't think it would be possible, but there's just a certain buzz about London that you just can't get away from!

Anyways, thought it was about time that I'd do a wrap up of my trip, just to remind myself of the fab time I had travelling round SE Asia and Oz.

Time spent away: 20th Sept - 17th Dec (pure backpacking and exploring); 17th Dec - 12th Feb (hols with family and friends)

Places visited:
Thailand - Bangkok, Koh Toa, Hat Yai, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, Phuket, Phi Phi, Krabi, Similan Islands, Koh Lanta. (Hmmm... thought we went to more places than that!)
Australia - Cairns, Great Barrier reef, Sydney.
Malaysia - KL, Kota Kinabalu, Sarawak, Sandakan, Sabah, Langkawi, Penang.
Singapore
Hong Kong

Highlights:

• Trekking in Thailand - staying in a hill-tribe village and meeting lots of new travelling buddies
• Lazing on a beach bar in Koh Lanta
• Visiting secluded islands off Krabi - Poda and Chicken Island...true paradise
• Getting my PADI in Koh Tao
• Diving in the Similans
• Seeing sharks in the Great Barrier reef
• Eating fresh met-in-your-mouth salmon sashimi from Sydney fish market
• Dribing through North Queensland and stopping to swim in freshwater lakes and mini treks through lush rainforests
• Climbing Mount Kinabalu... a real killer, but truly rewarding
• Watching turtles lay eggs on Sepidan Island and setting baby turtles free into the ocean!
• Visiting the Orangutang sanctuary in Sarawak
• Eating all types of hawker stall foods - sharing a Dai Bo (Big Bun) with Kee, Dan, Fai, Kiks, Tony and Alan in Penang
• Chatuchuk market in Bangkok
• Massages at Healthland spa in Bangkok, and foot massages in Saladeng
• Eating 25p fried rice!
• Staying with families that have their own maids...makes me wanna move to SE Asia in the future!
  
• My bro's wedding at Hyatt, getting pissed in Jewel bar and meeting lots of ming sings there (partying with Edison, Cheung Pat Tse, Twins, Maggie Q and other young 15-min- fame HK ming sings)

Must say, that although i'm now in mighty debt (about 4500 quid...) from this trip, it has truly been the best 4 months of my life, and I'm totally grateful for my credit cards, overdraft and Kee!!

Peeling....

Rank, my tan is peeling and it looks like I have a Michael Jackson skin disease! Was walking along Mong Kok today and my mum turned to me and shouted "Ai ya! Look at your face, it looks like you have a disease!", got her really worried - she even wants me to see a doctor about it! Tried to explain that it was my tan peeling but she was having none of it! She said soon it will spread to my boobs, so i need to get it checked out.... er... i think i'll just let nature take its course, getting fed up with people saying i look like a philly!

Happy 2005 all!

This was actually my first proper English new year celebration in HK. Other times Ispent new year at home cos my mum never let me out!

We were taken to a Japanese restaurant in Wan Chai. Apparently the place in HK for Sushi. When we arrived at the place, I was taken back - I was expecting plush exterior and concierge - but instead it was a block of old flats, hidden between some dodgy garages. Walked up 2 flights of stairs and we arrived at the restaurant, which was a smallish room nicely furnished with dining tables and jap-style interior. It was 7-course meal, which lasted nearly 3 hours - the food was LUSH! The sashimi was fresh and sweet, the meat was tender, juicy and melt-in-your-mouth! I couldn't say it was the ultimate best jap restuarnat i've ever been to, but I would definitely rate it one of the top jap restaurants i've been to. I was told that below the restaurant housed the main fish and jap food supplier for all the top jap restaurants in HK - that was why the food here was so good here!

After eating, we celebrated the new year at a bar called 1/5, pretty plush bar filled with a good mix of locals and foreigners. Though it was a little too packed to have a boogie...

My new year's resolution... errr... don't eat too much junk food....again...

So sad to see...

...Phuket washed away by the Tsunami. Feels unreal that we were there not so long ago - just hope that our diver friends are well and safe over there...

....Hong Kong - this once fashionable, trend-setting city, now losing it's style. I saw this developing last year I came back, but this year its totally in-your-face. Hong Kong is now looking more and more like Shenzen - full of terribly dressed and obnoxious mainlainders. Usually when I come to HK, I would stock up on clothes for the UK. It won't be happening this year. All the shops are now catering to the mainlanders' taste. No kidding - walked into Kookai , and it was filled with racks of jumpers and cardigons lined with furry multi-coloured bobbles or fluffy trim or sparkly plastic jewels - same goes for Morgan. Walked into my once-reliable shop b+ab and was totally shocked and disappointed by the selection of "China-fied" clothes! WHYYYYY!!!
Walking around the malls and sitting on the KCR, you feel like you're in China. Even the honkies in Central and Causeway are losing their dress-sense, and falling for the mainlander style! Ok, so these China people are helping the HK economy with their big spending, but I really feel they are making Hong Kong lose it's style.....

Dive-aholics anonymous

My name is Ellen Hau and I'm a dive-aholic.... yep since I got my PADI certificate in September, I've blown nearly 500 quid on diving trips, and I've even bought myself a wetsuit and a mask - despite the fact that I've only got my backpack to carry it all in!

The last 2 days I spent on a liveaboard dive boat. Sleeping, eating and drinking diving! It was the most fab experience! I even got to do a night dive which was utlimate fun. Diving into the blackness of the ocean, with only our little torches to guide us (and some other diver's "car headlight" torch - which practically lit up the whole bay!). We saw lobster, crab and a big moray eel. It was so cool shining our torches under the rocks and corals, finding little creatures and fish sleeping.

All in all it was 7 dives (though i didn't manage to wake up for one). The best dive of all was the last, we hadn't seen any sharks for the last 5 dives, so we hoped that the last we'd have better luck. And what an ultimate way to finish our trip by bumping into 3 sharks, a moray eel and one of the most beautiful dive sites I've been to so far. The lilac fan corals, the branches of the yellow finger corals set against the soft white sand, and tiny silvery-white fishes, reminded me of a japanese garden snow scene.... gorgeous.... I wish I could just continue diving for the rest of my travels, but its seriously burning a hole in my wallet!!

Lanta travellers paradise...

So after arguing about whether to spend an extra 80Bht (1 pound) on getting the ferry or get a minivan (save 80Bht) to Koh Lanta, we decided to be tight and save... and we were told the journey time was gonna be more or less the same "about 2 hours" and that it would be a "straight-forward ride, no changing" - bollocks! Our journey started on a five-minute truck ride, get out, move all lugguage to a big luxury coach. Then, for the next 45 mins on this coach, they tease us with a Bridget Jones DVD, and half-way through we're ushered off the coach again to move to a MINIVAN. Move all lugguage again. After 10 mins driving - stop outside a tour office. We wait for two extra people to squeeze into this 10-seater mini-van, which was already full, somehow the driver convinces the thai-boys sitting at the back of the van to move up and share 3 seats with 4 people. 2 hours into the journey, we arrive at a FERRY PORT (!!) -I'm told by this thai girl sitting next to me that it was gonna be ANOTHER 2 hours. We jump from one ferry port to another in this minivan (not literally "jump") and travel through unfinished roads, then we finally reach our destination - KOH LANTA.

I'm impressed, I was imagining this place to be buzzing with hippies and party people, but its actually really peaceful and soooo chilled out. Its almost like Amsterdam, but on a beach. The beach we stay at is lined with the odd bungalow resort and Amsterdam-coffee-shop-esque bars, playing raggae... so cool! The beach is beautiful, calm, with hardly anyone on it. For the next three days we spent life with NO TV (yeh, for once in this life), and just chilling on the beach. Night time, we lie under the stars drinking cocktails....and Kee has a new talent, he is now Kee the builder! Yes he can!