Home again, home again...

hey guys!
contrary to popular belief i haven't been in malaysia/indonesia for a month now, in truth i'm home and have been for quite awhile. i woke up one morning and thought "mmm, am thinking of my responsibilites back home more than the next awesome place i'm going... maybe i should go home"... so i did. 24 hours later i was back on aussie soil. and you know? i'm loving it :) i thought it would be much harder to adjust to life back home but it's been smashing (in one instance quite literally but i'll get to that!), new friends, old friends. i'm really enjoying life in geelong... even if the weather is appauling!

so what else is new? oh yeah, i make it safely around south america and south east asia, not a bit of harm coming to me. i'm back three weeks and in that three weeks i've been in a terrible car accident and caught the chicken pox! now it sounds pretty bad.. actually it was bloody scary but i've lived to tell the tale, and went to the pub afterwards so it can't be all that bad!

anyway, this entry is just to round things out. probably won't blog again.. or if i do, it'll be another day and another trip... but right now.. i'm ok right here :)
love you guys,
simone xxx

Georgetown, Bukit Lawang and Medan...

OK, so I've been so enamoured at having kelly around to play with that i haven't been too bothered about blogging lately. to be honest we've been so all over the place that there really hasn't been the time.

i'll break this whole thing into chunks so that it isn't absolutely enormous.

Georgetown:
party, party, party! i often forget that little kelly can dance like she can! we hooked into some vodka, played some pool, drank some beers, explored the night life of a place called slippery singoritas. i believe that tells the whole story in itself.

Bukit Lawang:
north of medan, bukit laang is all jungle. we hung out there for two days. we went trekking for a day and at first it all seemed pretty easy going. we saw our first orangutan after about half an hour trekking. she was this gorgeous animal called sandra and she was seven months pregnant. i got to feed her, pat her and have a bit of a cuddle. her fur is a bit like orange steel wool. it was really weird and yet hugely amazing. it's one of the best things i've ever done.

it was all rad really until it started absolutely BUCKETING down rain. so we're now trekking up and down this steep as hill absolutely soaking wet and slipping and sliding all over the place. we all went on our bums at least once! kels rates it as the most challenging thing she's ever done. i reckon it was just bloody fun! never mind the weird tree rash that seems to have broken out all down my arm. hmmm, maybe i should get an indonesian witch doctor to look at it for me!

So we tubed back - more tractor tyres- and got even more saturated.

that night we sat around with the locals and drank a bit of "jungle juice" (i choose not to think about it too much) and played about a million rounds of an indonesian drinking game. don't worry folks, i'll teach you when i get home!

So the next day, very sore but happy we went over to see the feeding of the orangutans in the rehabilitation center. not only did we see about five orangutans we also saw some impromptu "monkey love"!!! was NOT prepared for that! i didn't realise what was happening until i heard yeeman and kelly gasp in shock and the guides pissing them selves laughing going "do it abdul!!! (the monkey...) do it JUNGLE STYLE!" ooooook then.....

Medan:
is basically a bit of a hole. but it does give me the chance to practice my indonesian. which is fine if i want to expain who i am, where i come from and if i'm already married 800,000 times a day. ah well, at least i can confidently teach the kids those phrases!

the future:
we're off again in the next two days. andre is joining us again after enjoy a zen period of diving in thailand. we're heading down to danau toba to have a bit of a chill out period after all the rushing about, but given that i'm heading home in about three weeks we can't rest too long!

anyway, that's me in a nutshell.. what's with you? let me know!
simone :)

Taman Negara...

Ok, very, very cool day! So Burnsey, Yee-man and I made it out of KL and headed up to the 4343kms of national park that is Taman Negara. It is gorgeous. In a lot of ways it's very similar to the scenery we saw in Laos and Cambodia except in Malaysia it is much more tropical, dense and humid.

Last night we decided that we were going to try and see some of the park’s wildlife by going on a night safari. We were told that we might see kancils, tapir, leopard cats and of course, scads of monkeys. So Kels gamely climbs onto the roof of the ute, right next to the guide (who she proceeds to natter to like the afor mentioned monkey) and we all keep our eyes peeled for what promises to be simply loads of animals. One spider, a robin and two unidentified (and co-incidentally TINY) birds later we came home, shame-faced with our safari hats ready to go back onto the shelf. Great way to spend $15!!

The next day we decided that we weren’t going to be anyone’s sucker again and decided to attempt the canopy walk amongst the tree tops without the aid of a guide. This of course was a RIPPER decision and I stand by it. We cruised around the rope canopy, 45m above the ground for ages. It was so rad! High on the back of that achievement we decided to trek up to the top of the hill we were on. So we eventually arrived back to the base of the mountain, knackered but happy.

A quick lunch and then out to visit a local nomadic tribe, the Batek. There we learnt how to start a fire in the bush and the blow a poisonous blow dart using a pipe. Yes, much in the manner of a jungle man from the Amazon… or arguably Malaysia. It was SO cool. If I thought I stood even Buckley’s chance of getting it through customs I’d have bought one myself.

Anyway, that’s quite enough dribble out of me. We’re heading up to Penang tomorrow. Made famous for being the birth place of the soon to be great Australian author Zac Alexander… other than that, it’s also the place where we catch the ferry to Medan, Indonesia.

Hope you’re all safe and well, keep in touch hey?
Simone xx

Kuala Lumpur...

Made it safe and sound. have seen absolutely nothing yet! got off the bus after 26 hours in transit and was promptly rescued by an aussie guy who pointed us in the direction of a youth hostel. i've never been more grateful i was so overwhelmed. KL just seems huge!

in the most exciting news, kelly is coming tomorrow! i have bored yee-man with nothing but tales of how cool my friends are for absolutely days, i'm sure she'll be relieved to just not hear it anymore! while we're on the subject of yee-man she made my birthday so lovely yesterday, suprising me with little gifts all day... two jack johnson cd's, a lovely necklace.. i was really lucky to spend the day with her.

thanks so much everyone for the birthday greetings and emails. it makes me feel very loved, i'm very lucky. thank you, thank you, thank you!!

anyway, that's quite enough blather from me... i've got to go and have some breaky, i've been slow grazing on cheetos for the last two days and i'm sure my body is simply about to shut down!

talk to you sson guys,
love
simone xxx

Ko Phangan...

Well... what a half moon party! Let's put it this way, the party was two days ago, i still feel sick.. the girl i was hanging with passed out cold whilst dancing and i came home with shoes that don't match. i distinctly remember singing the vegemite song with a guy from sydney and telling a german guy how much i love munich. oh, and hanging out with a mother/daughter combo from denmark. i've never met so many scandanavians as i have in thailand!

the half moon party is set in the jungle surrounded by copious amounts of nothing with just stacks of black lights, glow paint and the world's most enroumous sound system. it make the sub-woofers of the boys doing chap-laps look like a joke (well... more of a joke than they actually are!)

erm what else about ko phangan? oh yes, it is ridiculously breath-takingly beautiful. perfect beaches, gorgeous water, lovely snorkelling. but that's all fairly stnadard for around here. where we were was lovely and quiet. yee-man and i have ventured fown to haad rin today to shoot the breeze before we start our two day odessey to Malaysia and i find the whole thing so gauche and backpackery. i know... pot calling the kettle black.

am SOOOO excited to be seeing burnsey... and of course i turn the big 2-4 tomorrow. what nicer way to spend it than cramped on a bus? aww, the simple pleasures :P am i older and wiser? i'm content and very happily single.. does that count for anything? do i seem clever than i was last week or even last year? maybe i have to wait until tomorrow and some sort of lightening change will come over me. hmmm... interesting.

alright chickens, i'll talk to you soon... and burnesy... i'll see soon!! :)
love
simone xxx

Bangkok...

ok, ok, i'm a bad blogger i know it! I have since phenom phen been to siem reap, seen the wonders of angkor wat, shot the breeze with two fabulous aussie girls, two mad icelanders, a crazy (and not in a good way!) south african, some canadians, two gorgeous americans, a bunch of poms and did i mention that partridge and the pear tree? :) nah, honestly, angkor wat was sublime, made only more pleasurable by the company, we merry band giggled up a storm.

after that it was a short hop over to bangkok where i've been hanging out for the last week. i only meant to stay a day! how ever i've gone a stint of pampering after all the rubbish accomodation and bus rides we've put up with. i've been pediccured, manicured, massaged and shopped until i could take it no more. oh yeah, i have also returned to my native blonde. i'm not entirely sure if i dig it yet. butif the reactions of those around me are at all accurate, it goes alright.

so our next step? andre has headed down to ko tao already to do her padi's course (which i really want to do but desperately can not afford) so yee-man and i are heading down to ko phangan for the half moon party and a load of snorkelling. after that it's down to KL in Malaysia to meet burnsey!!! i have to get there by the 12th, mmm, did i mention it's already the sixth? ahh, never mind! i'll make it and it'll be grand!

questions? comments? anything i can answer for you?

so what's news with you guys? baby's, engagements, new jobs... really guys is that the best you can do? :)

write me ay?
love,
simone xxx

Phenom Phen....

help!i'm stuck in phenom phen! i keep saying... "yeah, we'll leave tomorrow" and then someone comes up with a killer idea like... "oooh, let's all go to the pub!" and it's all over!

having an awesome, awesome, awesome time :)

love you guys,
simone x