What my weekends consist of...

I tried, and failed, to upload this last night, so please pretend that you are reading this yesterday...

I'm writing this on a long journey back from seeing my family and friends up north, and feeling a bit lonely and sorry for myself to be honest! But then I have always hated goodbyes and going back to my mundane life after weekend or holiday funs. I think the only time I haven't was at the end of my travels. I was completely ready to go home and see my family and friends, who I'd missed massively.

For some reason all of my favourite people seem to live so flippin far away from me! And it doesn't help that I live in an area of the country where the roads in and out are rubbish (barely even any dual carriageways, let alone motorways) and where the only trainline goes to London. So to go north (which is where my bro and sis and live), I first have to go south. Absolute nonsense. And, of course, I have to sell and arm and both legs in order to afford such a journey, unless I know what my plans are three months in advance. Where is the incentive in being green and using public transport?! It's at times like these when I really miss my little red ...

Anyway, enough of the ranting, I had a FABULOUS weekend. I got to see and snuggle with Sally Sausage (my 3 month old niece, who just so happens to be the most beautiful and perfect little girl who ever graced this earth) on Friday night and Saturday.

I had a good old mooch and a bit of a shop in Leeds and then chilled out with my bro and Boba on sat night & today at my brother's swanky place in Leeds. I've decided that Leeds is defo one of my favourite cities. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is that I love, but I just know that it is somewhere I could happily live. And if I did, I would defo live in Granary Wharf, which is where my brother's flat is. He lives in Candle House which is right near the train station and has a beaut rooftop terrace which overlooks the whole of Leeds. We spent a bit of time up there yesterday and I made myself comfy on a hammock. If I closed my eyes and pretended the temperature was about 20 degrees hotter I was transported back to SE Asia or Indonesia ... aaaah.

Apart from a few episodes of Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch - swoon - who'd have thought?!), church this morning and a delish steak dinner, that just about sums up my weekend. I feel as though I've blinked and I'm back on the long lonely journey home.

Back to work tomorrow and counting down to next weekend when I'll be making more train journeys (and probably more ranting blog posts :-/) to see some more of my faves (and going to an LDS UV party.) Heck. Yes. 4. More. Days. Can't come quick enough. I feel as though my life consists of weekends and counting down to the next weekend. How I miss my pre-travelling social life.

Anyway, gotta go and change trains. Actually, I have to get off this train and wait a whole 45 mins for the next one. The joy of living in farmer country. Ugh. Laters peeps, I'll try and make my next one more interesting and less self-pitying and whiny!

Rella xoxo

The view from my bro's rooftop terrace...

I've been a terrible blogger...

So, the blogging thing didn't really work out for me while I was travelling - I discovered that my time was very precious on my journey and so every spare minute I had was spent having adventures :-D

So, since I got back the following are the CLASSIC questions I get asked about my trip:
1) What was your favourite place?
2) What was the best/worst experience you had?
3) Did you meet any interesting people?
4) Did you have any romances?
5) Was it scary/did you get mugged/raped/murdered etc

I will answer these in order:
1) This is THE hardest question to answer and the answer depends on how I'm feeling or what it's in relation to. So, as is standard for me, I will answer in categories.
Favourite food: Vietnam - definitely. So much to choose from, but my favourite was fresh spring rolls. Went to a cooking class there which was one of the most fun things I did and really made me appreciate what goes into Vietnamese cooking. Just YUM. Yet to find a good Vietnamese restaurant since I got back, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!
Favourite people: Cambodians. So open, friendly and positive. Amazing when you consider what they went through.
Favourite landscapes: New Zealand - a postcard view literally around every corner. So much untouched and just beautiful.
Favourite lifestyle/weather: Indonesia - actually, more specifically Gili Meno off the coast of Lombok. I've never been to a more chilled out place in my life and so flipping gorgeous. I got to spend 3 luscious days there swimming, sunbathing, eating and snorkelling. And it helped that it was spent with some of my favourite people from my travels (ahem Katie and Lina ;-))

So, yeah, those are my faves! Unfortunately Australia and Canada don't get a mention. I did love it in both those places, especially Rottnest Island on the West coast of Aus, Melbourne and Vancouver (in particular Saturna Island) but today the places above are on my faves list!

2) The best experience I had was DEFO skydiving in New Zealand over Lake Taupo and in sight of Mount Doom. It was completely exhilarating. Words can't even describe. I would recommend doing it once to ANYONE. Seriously. The worst experience I had was being ill - which actually happened a lot. The only place I didn't get ill was Australia! I got very sick in Cambodia for 2 days (bleugh -but dropped a dress size!), got a chest infection which started in Vietnam and finally left at the end of my Indonesian trip, a horrible cold on the South Island in NZ, followed very shortly after by shingles. Ugh. Not ideal, but I managed to soldier on through, and picked up some nice strong drugs in Indonesia and Canada (including some Oxy - ooh yeah - all prescription, ofc!) Oh, and I got my iPod stolen on Christmas Day, when I was on Fraser Island :-( sad times.

3) Yes, of course I met interesting people! My bestest group was defo on my Cambodian leg - so many great people and we all got on really well. For anyone who's done that kind of trip before, you'll know how rare that is. And there were a couple of gems along the way (a couple have already been mentioned). I could spend hours talking about all the people, but since this is already an uber long post, I'll leave it there.

4) A lady does not kiss and tell...

5) Nope, no particularly scary experiences - a hairy experience with a huntsman spider at the breakfast table on Fraser Island. And that time when I thought I might actually die from the shingles pain. But nope, no muggings or attempted murders. Felt very safe all the time I was there.

So, that's my whole trip in one blog post. Sorry if its a bit disappointing, but if there are any particular places or experiences which you would like me to write about or post pictures of just pop a comment below and I'll be happy to oblige :-D

In other news, I'm going to start a blog (and possibly a vlog on YouTube, if people are interested) with reviews of beauty products I'm using, clothes I'm wearing, books I'm reading, music I'm listening to, films I'm watching, food I'm eating .... I could go on, but I think you get the idea! It will probably focus most on the beauty side as I realise that I have accumulated a LOT of beauty products and people might want to know what I think is and isn't worth the hype. I've also got a lot of beauty blogs which I subscribe to on here and YouTube, and I've always thought it would be fun to do something like that myself. The address is lotothejo.blogspot.co.uk, so please head over there in the next week or so (I haven't uploaded anything quite yet) and let me know what you think. I'm not suggesting that everyone else will like what I like, but I always like to get other people's opinions on things before I invest time or money into them.

Anyhow, for those of you have actually stuck this blog post out to the end, WELL DONE! And sorry. I'm going to try and upload at least one post on here every week now - just little updates on my life and thoughts I've been having. And probably plenty of mentions of my precious niece, Sally.

Right, off to take some piccies and swatches for my first review.

Sweet surfing and see you soon,

Rella xoxo

MASSEEEEVE APOLOGIES!!!

Hello all you lovelies and Happy New Year! So, I've been RUBBISH at writing my blog thanks to being ridic busy and not having as much access to internet as I'd imagined I would :-( However, I have been writing my travel journal and have taken TONNES of pics so far, so all you important people will get to hear the stories straight from the horses mouth (so to speak).

I'm in Manly, NSW at the mo and enjoying the chance to catch up on sleep and journal writing, and I may even get the chance to write a couple of blog posts, if you're lucky.

Anyhoo, just thought I'd let y'all know that I'm still alive :-)

Peace out, A Town down and all the best for an amazing 2012.

L xoxo

Quick Low Down - Cambodia to Vietnam

Ok, so this regular blogging thing, whilst travelling, is proving to be trickier than I thought! I'm also still unable to upload any of my pictures, but for those of you on FB, you should be able to see some of the ones from my friends that I have been tagged in...

So, I'm going to give you some bullet points of what's happened so far, including highlights (and lowlights):

Weds 9th November - Drove from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (pronounced Per-nom Ping - we got great amusement from getting Randa to repeat this because we loved the way he said it!).Stopped at a silk farm along the way and saw some local girls at work - AMAZING stuff and so intricate.Was a little bit surreal as it's owned by and American guy named Bud.Haha! I purchased a scarf and went and thanked the girl who made it (she was like a little kid at Christmas when she saw her item had been bought!) and had a piccie taken with her. We also stopped at a little place which is renowned for selling fried crickets and tarantulas on the roadside -EEEWWWW!!! A few of the lads ate the tarantulas, I just tried a bit of the leg.It just tasted like fried stuff, but it made me gag a bit when I thought about what it was I was actually eating. Yuk.There was a huge bucket of live tarantulas under the fried ones too and Randa kindly decided to take one out and scare the living daylights out of me. On arrival in Phnom Penh we went on a tuk-tuk tour of the capital and took in the sights.It was a fab time to be there as it was their independence day (coincidental as this would have been a particular anniversary date for me, but I now I'm celebrating my independence through my travels!!).We stopped at a restuarant which overlooked the river and were treated to some amazing fireworks.Perfect night! LOVING the spring rolls here. Loving all of the food, to be perfectly honest!

Thursday 10th November - This morning we visited S21 and the Killing Fields, renowned places showing the  horrendous atrocities carried out by the Khmer Rouge.Between 2-3 million people were killed in the space of 3 years, 8 months and 20 days, all in the name of Communism.It was a really tough morning and really took it out of me, and the others.I had a bit of a cry when we got to the end of the S21 tour and I met one of the two living survivors (7 people survived out of the 20,000 that were imprisoned there and tortured).He was miming everything that had been done to him as he couldn't speak English, and it broke my heart. It's unimaginable what humans will do to other humans, even their own people. If you've not heard of the Khmer Rouge regime or Pol Pot I strongly suggest reading up on it. In the afo we went for a look around the Royal Palace, did a bit of market shopping and haggling and had a cheapo full body massage. Unfortunately, by this point, I was PROPER sick and so took to my bed and dosed up on drugs in the hope I'd get better soon!!!

Friday 11th November - Nothing very excited happened this day thanks to the sickness bug I'd come down with. Ugh. We got a boat on the Mekong from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc and crossed the Vietnam border in the process. I changed $50 into Vietnamese dong and became a millionaire (20,000 dong to every dollar)!!! Then, got to the hotel and laid in bed suffering for the rest of the day ...

Saturday 12th November - Travelled from Chau Doc to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon. We wtopped for lunch on the way and all commented on how much we missed Cambodia!! Feeling more human... We arrived in CRRRRAZY Saigon in the afo and got a cyclo tour of the city. It's really a city of contradictions. We went past the really posh area with 5 star hotels and designer stores like Chanel and Chloe, only to see a man a stones throw from Ralph Lauren crouching in the road and doing a poo. Gross. The traffic is mental - I can't believe I haven't seen any accidents as none of them seem to follow any road rules! It was the last night with my Cambodia intrepid group, so we went for dins and then to the Crazy Buffalo for drinks and dancing - Randa got particularly drunk (SE Asians tend to go red and get really bloodshot eyes when they drink!) so we had to take him back to the hotel. Bless 'im. We were also treated to a bit of a festival feel as there were hundreds of bikes out on the streets in massive groups beeping their horns and cheering, as Vietnam had just beat Brunei 8-0 in the football. So much fun, but sad to say good bye to the group!

Sunday 13th November - Made a visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels with Amina - there are over 250km of tunnels from the time of the Vietnam war. The whole system is amazing and the techniques that the locals used to hide from and capture the Americans were ingenious. The yanks definitely underestimated the resilience of the Vietnamese people.I had a bit of a go a tunnel but you had to crouch all the way down and it was really stuffy, so I got out at the first opportunity I had! We had a hilarious guide at the tunnels who called himself Lionel Richie, and gave us a rendition of 'Hello' before we left.Classic moment, caught on my vid :-) To add to our historical discoveries particularly with regards to the wars in Vietnam, we headed to the War museum in Saigon. I was completley unprepared for what was there and I hadn't realised how devastating the war had been on so many levels, for the Vietnamese and for the Americans. Agent Orange (dioxin) was the biggest culprit and is still affecting people today as it has caused the children of those who were exposed to it to be born with all sorts of terrible deformities. It was very difficult to look at some of those pictures.There are also massive areas of countryside that were completely flattened by it and aerial shots show how the beautiful lansdscape was completely destroyed. Much like the Killing Fields and S21, this really zapped me of my energy. In the evening I met up with the rest of my group - Lucy (a Psychiatric Nurse from Perth), Rebecca (a Psychology student from Wellington) and Lukas (another traveller out for a few months from Belgium). Our guide's name is Y (pronounced 'ee' - going up at the end otherwise it has a different meaning if the tone goes down!) and she's fab. Very enthusiastic and very quick witted! We had to run out to find Nic, Debs and Sam as they got a bit lost trying to find the hotel, but we found them and headed out to dins with the group - delish, AGAIN!

Siem Reap

So, I'm here! Sorry it's taken me a while to update you but I've been VERY busy, dontcha know!!

I arrived into Siem Reap airport at about 9am on Sunday morning and because I already had my visa I was able to whizz through immigration :-D When I got outside there was a stand for taxis, but I was offered a ride on the back of a scooter for 2 dollars - with my 65L bag and everything. So, I thought it best to get into the travelling and adventure spirit and said 'Why not?'!!! Well, with hindsight I can give you a few reasons why not: 1. No helmet was provided for the passenger 2. There is no right of way system in Siem Reap (or perhaps Cambodia as a whole!!) 3. The driver spent the WHOLE trip trying to convince me to buy his guided temple tour, and then said I was lying when I told him I was already booked onto a tour. I realise now that it wasn't the most safe or sensible thing to do on myfirst day, but I came away unscathed and it gave me a good look at local Cambodian culture!! (Note to the olds - don't worry, I will not be doing this again. Well, not without a helmet anyway :-D)

I'm off out for some shopping at the night market and street food now, but will update again later! L xoxo

So, I'm back after a super long day and have set some time aside to fill you all in on what the dealio has been...

Since the beginning of the tour we've been staying in a cute hotel called 'Freedom Hotel' which is apparently the nicest of all of the places we'll be staying on this trip - air con, laundry service and a lush swimming pool. I met the rest of the group on Sunday night (apart from my roommate Amina who didn't arrive til later that night) and they're a fab bunch. There's Jo and Matt from London (28 and engaged), Sue and Barry (Bazza) from Hamilton in NZ, Josh and Sam (Whitey & Blackey!!) cousins from Wellington in NZ but living in Brisbane, and Dave and Nick, mates from Melbourne. We did our intros and then headed out for some Khmer food with our guide, Pho Randa (Randa is the first name) who's a local from Siem Reap and an ACE guide. I got a sneaky video of him today when he was explaining some things to us at one of the temples as I LOVE the way that he speaks!!  I met Amina when I got back to the room after dinner and drinks - she's from the Bahamas and had a nightmare of a journey thanks to Qantas leaving her checked in luggage at London. Not a lot of love to be had for Qantas right now!

So, Monday morning we were up and out by 8 to start an EPIC day of temple seeing - I won't bore you with all of the details as most of it can't really be appreciated unless you see the pictures (and I haven't yet worked out how to upload them to here :-/). Needless to say, they were all amazing in their own ways. They are all between 800 and 1000 years old and hold a lot of history and stories within them. I found them to be very symbolic of what the Cambodian nation has been through over the last millenium, and how they have continued to pick themselves up and rebuild their nation. They really are a nation which has become accustomed to invasion, hardship, and change, due to the climate, surrounding countries and civil war. You would think that they would have become a hard and bitter nation, but they are proud of their heritage and the fact that Cambodia still stands and they are some of the funniest and happiest people I have met. Oh, and the kids are SO CUUUTE that I have had to use all of my will power to not do an Angelina Jolie and just smuggle one home with me.

So, it was a very long day of temples (Bayon, Ta Prohm - the tomb raider temple, and Bantay Srei - pink sandstone), followed by a trip to the landmine museum. founded by Aki Ra. It was yet another example of the adapatability and inherent goodness of the Cambodian people. Aki Ra was employed as a member of the Khmer Rouge at the age of 10 and was taught how to fight and plant landmines. As a young boy he didn't understand the consequences of his actions, but when he became an adult and saw the harm and destruction that the mines were causing he took it upon himself, personally, to start clearing Cambodia of landmines. He has single-handedly cleared thousands of landmines and as time has gone on has received more and more support. The charity now also helps those children who have been orphaned or injured as a result of landmines. I am impressed and overwhelmed by the lengths he has gone to to try and undo the wrongs of his childhood. I'd definitely encourage looking him up and donating to the charity - it's such a worthy cause (there you go, the fundraiser in me is already creeping out!!)

Monday called for an early night as this morning we were up at 4am to be out at 5 to see the famous Angkor Wat sunrise. It was a great experience and I'm pretty pleased with the photos I managed to get - dad would be proud! There were a LOT of tourists there, which was a bit annoying, but you can't expect a sight like that to stay hidden for too long. It's a really amazing temple with a really peaceful feeling about it and some of the most intricate and oldest bas reliefs I've seen out of all of the temples. I could have spent all day on the third level just looking out at the views. Bliss.

Due to our early start, we managed to get the tour of the temple done BEFORE brekkie - which was a relief as today has been an absolute scorcher thanks to the clearer skies - and then headed off to see a floating village on Tonle Sap lake. There are locals trying to sell you souvenirs whereever you go, which I expected. I didn't expect for so many (CUTE!!) children to be selling things as well!! It's so hard to say no to them, but you have to otherwise they all come swarming and then spit at you if you don't buy off any of the rest of them. Most of the time you see the parents stood in the background egging them on. Pretty uncomfortable. Yet another thing which added to my desire to smuggle them home! However, we all broke our 'no buying from kids' rule when we were at Tonle Sap lake. On our walk to get the boat there was a young girl, probably about 7 or 8, with a digital camera who came walking towards us and just started snapping. We thought it was cute and smiled (well, some of us smiled!) and carried on our merry way to the 2 hour boat journey. On our return, she was stood with tiles that had our pictures on them!!! A young entrepeneur indeed! Since she'd gone to all the trouble of making them we felt we couldn't say no. Plus, she was REALLY cute (noticing a pattern?!?!)

The floating village was like something from another age (apart from the phone advertisements and the TV antennae). During the wet season all of their houses become floats, but apparently during the dry season the ground can be walked on rice is grown there. It was really difficult to imagine the lake ever getting that dry, as we had to go 1 hour out into the lake by boat to see the village. For me, this was, yet again, another example of the amazing ability that these people have to adapt and survive in conditions that you wouldn't believe were liveable. Not only were they surviving, but they were LIVING. They have a school there, a pagoda, a restaurant, and the kids and families were the happiest I've seen. All smiling and waving. I'm growing to love this country and it's people more and more by the minute <3

Anyway, I think that's enough for now - I don't want to go too mad with this blogging thing too early on as I may struggle to keep up! Plus, I need to pack my stuff which is all over my room at the mo. Oops... Off to Phnom Penh tomorrow, Cambodia's capital, so will fill you in on that later. I'll also let you know a bit more about what the food has been like (clue: YUM).

Right, sweet surfing my lovely interwebz friends and family!

L xoxo

Finally at Heathrow!!!

So, for those of you who didn't know, my flight got delayed by nearly 12 HOURS!! Thankfully, I found out before I set off for the airport so I got an extra night (well, half a night!!) at home. Mum and dad kindly drovemeto Peterborough train station this morning to catch a train at 04.10 into London, from which point I made my way to Heathrow which is where I am now! Yay!

I'm feeling ridiculously excited now and just can't wait to get there! Just had myself a bacon sarnie and some fruit from pret and I'm now waiting to hear which gate I need to go to ... it currently says 'Please wait' so I should hear something very soon ... aaah, Gate 24! Yay! How about that for awesome blogging hey - realtime!!

On that note I will love you and leave you to go the loo (TMI, I know - get used to it!!) before heading over to my gate and my flight! Eeeeeeeek!!

Sweet surfing my lovers!

L xoxo

Tomorrow....

So, this is it! In less than 24 hours I will be on a Qantas flight to Bangkok. AAAAGGGGHHH! I'm a mixture of emotions at the moment. I feel very excited at the prospect of all of the amazing places I'm going to see and people I'm going to meet. I'm anxious about getting there safely and meeting my travel companions. And I'm feeling a bit sad about not seeing my family for four months, including over Christmas and New Year. I'm thinking I won't get the best night's sleep tonight and I'm BOUND to have strange dreams. But I have to keep reminding myself as long as I've got the essentials it'll all be fine!


I've packed, unpacked and re-packed my bags a few times and I'm more or less there...I think! I was relieved to find that my main pack is WAY less than the maximum of 23kg that I'm allowed. Phew! Another achievement on my part is that I'm only taking 3 pairs of shoes. I know, I know, you will assume that is impossible, but it's true I tell you!! A pair of walking shoes, a pair of Merrell sandals and a pair of flips. Done. Got my bright yellow poncho packed too, as apparently there is gonna be some rain when I get into Cambodia - max temp of 32 though so can't complain too much :-D


In other news, I got a call from Oxford police today saying that they have arrested 5 people for the attempted theft and criminal damage to Little Red - result! I was literally punching the air and making (really naff) punching sounds when I received this news, only to find out afterwards that my dad was having an important telephone conversation in the next room. Oops :-/


My ma and I went into town to cash in all the spare change in my money box and it came to £14! Well, I was impressed. The staff in HSBC were not as I made a RIGHT racket emptying my money box. Mwahaha. I also received a panda-fied and beaut postcard from my sis, an AY-MAY-ZING card from the love of my life (Jess Witts) and had a telephone convo with my guardian angel (Emma Hamilton). In all, a very positive day, which hopefully means I'll have a very positive trip...


Anyway, I will try and keep you all updated as much as I possibly can while I'm away, and I'll *try* not to get too boring ... I do have the tendency to ramble, as you can see!


Night night peeps!


L xoxo


P.S. If you want to see where I'm going to be and when you can go to http://www.travellerspoint.com/member_map.cfm?user=lvingoe