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Hello and welcome to my first blog update! Due to popular* demand I am starting my travel blog. I hope you find my update interesting, informative or mildly amusing at the least at my travelling exploits.
Im going to try and keep it as honest as possible if all wrote about was sun, sand, diving, drinking (and repeat) Im sure it would make for very dull reading also its rarely the day to day reality.
A number of people have asked why Im travelling again (at 34yrs is not exactly the norm)and its not an easy process leaving your job, home and western comfort. Obviously saying goodbye to my family and friends was a complete wrench (even harder the second time around), I feel emotional now even thinking about it. However settling back to London life after my last trip was difficult too and I felt that I had unfinished business...just one more trip, more specifically this time to do more of what I love, which is Scuba Diving.
I felt I needed to change things and try something new and as Albert Einstein said Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
I am currently in Thailand but thought I would give you an update on my Sri Lankan trip...
Epic travel fail
I've just finished my first two weeks in Sri Lanka, more specifically Unawatuna. 'The Plan' was to do 3 nights in Unawatuna and then travel the rest of Sri Lanka, the golden cultural triangle, the famous jungles...however what has actually happened is that I spend 14 days on the beach. I'm not completely to blame for this as the day I have planned to leave and get the train to Kandy (National Park) but the train bridge broke and there was no way of getting there (unless I spend £120 in a taxi). I did so a trip to Yale Park (it took 3.5 hrs to get there) so I did some of Sri Lanka but other than that my efforts have been pretty lame.
The problem has been that I loved Unawatuna! The lifestyle is so chilled and the people so friendly, each time you walk up and down the road every single person says hello to you. Being from London this is obviously a surreal experience and my initially thought was 'what do they want' or 'what are they trying to sell me', there is an element of this but generally they are so friendly and welcoming.
The effect is that as you say hello back you end up saying hello to everyone, including the westerners and in the end everyone is talking to everyone else and I think its the friendliest place Ive been to! I made many news friends, in particular a girl call Daniella who was also from London, a Danish couple celebrating their 25th anniversary and another Romanian couple who are also travelling (and I hope to see again in Thailand). I'm not even counting the locals here and one particular hotel owner Gayan (owner of Dunnes) and I become good friends and he really looked out for me and we spend many an hour debating marketing tactics for his new hotel (only open 2 weeks).
Even though I was only there for 2 weeks I felt really accepted and part of the community, in the main they all look out for you. The only area which can be a bit tricky is being a single female traveller. Now attention from men is always going to be an issue, I mean their not made from wood ;) But it does become an issue when you're followed or harassed. One particular example is when I did some dives (my 50th FYI). It was only myself and the Sri Lankan Dive Master and on the 3rd dive he kept signalling for me to hold his hand. Now normally when on a dive you take direction from your Master or Instructor, they are there to guide and protect you and in the past if there is some current or poor visibility I have held hands for a short while. However this appeared to be for an extended period and I couldn't understand why it was necessary.
I kept pulling my hand away and he kept signalling to hold, in order to show him I was in control and wanted to be 'free' in the water I did a roly poly, unfortunately this seemed to give a signal to him that I would want to do a cartwheel with him and it turned in to some kind of bizarre under water 69 position....overall I wasn't happy and even more so at the end o the dive when he signalled for me to hold some coral, which I did dutifully, but ended up with spines in my fingers and on antibiotics for a week.
So overall some valuable lessons learnt ...and it makes me even more determined to become a dive master and take more control when I'm diving!
Journey to Thailand
So I've arrived in Thailand and after a hectic few days in Bangkok and sleeping with wood termites at the hostel I started my journey to Khao Lak. The journey was pretty harrowing, not because I did the over night train and slept in a carriage with 3 snoring men but due to the complete screw up with the buses once I arrived in Sutthanni. I arrived at the bus station at 5am in the morning, this bus station in Thailand was little more than a tin roof with cats, dogs, bugs and backpackers huddled under it. There was a sense of serenity and expectation about it though and even though everyone was clearly exhausted having arrive from various locations we all sat and watch the sun come up and a guy with dreads played REM loosing my religion on the guitar, it was all rather 'backpacker cliché' but fun and still beats sitting in the office.
The only major down fall was that my journey onward was due to take 2 hrs but in fact took 9...this was due to various bus changes and getting a local bus which broke down and had breaks didn't work properly (they kept using a stone to support the wheels when we stopped on a hill).
But Im here and starting my investigating in to my dive master training, Im nervous but mainly because I have such high expectations for the training, Ill keep you posted.
*About 4 people mentioned that they enjoyed my blog last time (one was my Mum)
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Mrs Bennett awesome bradders! keep it up xx