A little update from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

:) Well... It's been a while hey!

I've been here in Australia for more than seven months already! ...And this is my first blog update... Haha... ;)

Long story short: I live in Surfers Paradise in a beautiful place with another Finnish girl, studying at Griffith University, currently on my last semester of Master of Arts and Media, I've done a bit of traveling around, Melbourne seems to be the favourite destination ;), I run and surf and cycle and swim and relax in the spa :), enjoy the sun and beach, smile a lot, miss people at home, can't wait to see Jaana and Juuso in Sydney in three days, excited and nervous about a little 42 k run in Sydney on Sunday :), just love life! :)

Bangalore, India

I'm in Bangalore, India, right now! Busy, busy, busy is this city - so many cars and so many people!! I've learned to like it, but still happy to go to somewhere more quiet tomorrow :D The only thing that bothers me, is that everybody is staring at me all the time - went to the zoo, and I think that to a lot of people I was the most exotic animal there ("giant white scandinavian", lives only in the far north in an iglu! :D) Also went to the botanical gardens, science museum (surprisingly cool!), safari (lions and tigers!) and saw a really cool light water show. Anyway, India seems really interesting, kind of what I expected - heaps of people and cows on the streets :D Anyway, going to Kerala tomorrow, should be really beautiful and more peaceful!

Singapore

Singapore it is then! Organized and clean for change! :) They've got all these weird rules here - can't even drink water in the train... ($500 fine!!) I'm staying in Little India, which seems to be the best part of the city for budget accommodation.. Also getting used to India a little bit :D Flying to Bangalore tomorrow!

Oh, one funny thing that happened in Phuket!! I usually don't meet too many Finnish people while travelling, and when I do (around 5 times during the last couple of months), I always go and talk to them. And so does everybody else! Well... Did the same the first day in Phuket - and these people were staring at me like I was crazy!! Haha :) And after the first day I realized that you can't walk in the town without hearing Finnish language at least every fifteen minutes! So many Finnish people there was! So, I realized that in a place like Phuket, where there are A LOT of Finnish package trip tourists, only the fact that you're speaking the same language is not a reason good enough to go and talk to someone! Should have known that, but just didn't cross my mind at that time :D

Phuket, Thailand

Right now I'm at my hostel's "living room" and there's a tv show about hot air ballooning in Levi, Lapland, Finland!! Looked really beautiful - and I'm the lucky one going there in four weeks! :)

I'm in Phuket now, and I think that I've found the place where all the Finnish people go to in Thailand! Haven't met too many Finnish people while travelling, but yesterday I went to the Sunday market here, and probably every third person there was speaking Finnish!!

Koh Chang, Thailand

So we ended up on Koh Chang then! Spent one day in Bangkok and came here on Sunday. Koh Chang is a lovely island and there's lots to do here! We've been elephant riding (actually got to sit on the elephant's head!) and today went on a sailing trip, which was awesome too! Went snorkelling and I got to help with the sails and to steer the boat. Tomorrow we're probably going to rent a motorbike and go to some other beaches on the island. Having a really good time and I'm really glad to get to travel with a friend for a week!

Bangkok

Hey!!

Long time, no see... So I'm in Bangkok again! I flew from Bali to Bangkok on Tuesday last week and stayed for one night before flying to Phnom Penh Cambodia on Wednesday.

Stayed in Phnom Penh for a couple of days but unfortunately got a cold the first night, so I was basically sleeping for two days... I should have learned by now, that I should never get a hotel room with air conditioning that you can't turn of... So, I didn't really see anything in Phnom Penh. Only went to a fun restaurant to get something to eat a few times and was playing pool with the local girls! I wasn't too disappointed for not seeing the "sightseeing stuff" in Phnom Penh, because the recent history of Cambodia is really sad and the places people go to see are quite depressing.

From Phnom Penh I took the bus down south to Sihanoukville to stay there for a few days. Rented a moped and just drove around and went to some nice beaches one day. Then I did an overnight diving trip to Koh Rong Samloen, which was a really nice little island! It was only me and a French Canadian girl plus the Canadian dive master staying at the place on the island, so it was really nice and peaceful! We did four dives altogether and in the evening had some really good food (fish, rice, vegetables) cooked by one villager. The village was nice and we were just walking around the island and also visited the school they had there. The kids here are so cool!

After Sihanoukville I took the bus to Siem Reap. I had only one day left to discover the Angkor Wat temples, but the one day turned out to be really amazing! I met a German girl on the bus and stayed with her in Siem Reap. We had a really nice tuk-tuk -driver the whole day and he drove us to all the most impressive temples. It's pretty amazing that a whole city like that actually exists! The temples are huge and they are basically in the middle of the jungle. Also, the details and all the carvings look impressive! We started the day before sunrise (5 a.m.) because the sunrise at the temples is just really impressive and went around the whole day before going on a boat trip to a floating village nearby. The village was pretty awesome - all the houses, shops, schools and churches were boats, they even had a basketball court on a big flat boat! And the village changes its location depending on the season!

Yesterday I had the craziest (and kind of funniest) bus ride ever! The trip from Siem Reap to Bangkok is not really long in distance but it took more than 12 hours! And the bus wasn't really designed for tall people, so it was pretty interesting... The road on Cambodia's side is in a really bad condition (just an unsealed red sand) and I heard that the airline flying from Siem Reap to Bangkok is actually bribing the government for not improving the road... (!!) Anyway, arrived in Bangkok after sunset yesterday and went to look for a place to stay with two German guys. Luckily I got the last single room and they got the last double! Then we went out for dinner - and actually stayed out the whole night until like 4.30 in the morning... The first time during this trip that I actually properly went out! :)

Now I'll go for breakfast with the guys and then to the hotel's pool (!) before leaving to the airport at noon to meet up with Jenni!! Can't wait to travel with a really good friend for change!! I mean, I like travelling by myself, because you always meet people anyway, but it's so different when you have a really good friend to share all the experiences!

Seminyak, Bali

Perfect perfect perfect!!

Yesterday morning I had the most perfect surf session ever!! I was catching every sigle wave - catch one, paddle back, catch another one, paddle back... Had such a good time!! :) The waves were perfect for me, not too big but still powerfull enough for long rides. Today instead... Not that perfect... Haha :)

So, after coming back to Bali I decided to stay the night in Padangbai because I was just too tired to take another busride (After 1 hour on a boat, waiting, 2 hours on a bus, waiting, 5 hours on a ferry...). Found a quite a nice place to stay and a really fun cafe where I had a really good chicken salad (I'm not tired of rice and noodles, but a good chicken salad is always a good chicken salad :) Especially after not having one in a long time!). Then on saturday I took the bus to Kuta where I stayed for one night. Sunday morning (yesterday) came back to the surf camp and went surfing for the whole day.

Gotta go now, leaving for another surf session in 20 minutes! Tomorrow I'll fly to Bangkok! To get used to Indonesia and especially Bali took a little bit of time (especially because of all the illnesses I had..), but after one month here I wouldn't want to leave... Def have to come back some day! There are so many more places in this country that I would like to visit too!

Gili Meno, Lombok, Indonesia

So, one week here has passed by... What a lovely little island this is!! There are no cars and only a really small amount of people (tourists especially). I just love small islands where you can walk around the whole place in less than one hour. And it seems that everybody knows me and it's just impossible to go from one place to another without stopping to chat with someone. And so many people remember my name! It's funny that people you don't remember seeing before remember you (I've got such a bad memory myself..).

The days here I've spent just relaxing, swimming, reading (I'm almost finished with my fourth book!), walking around and talking to people. I've also doen a couple of dives which have been really good! Today I'll go once more, before having to leave tomorrow morning. We've seen a few sharks, manta rays and turtles, also a lot of fish and some coral, but sadly most of it is damaged..

Yesterday I went to Gili Travangan (Air, Meno and Travangan are the three Gili islands) for the day. I rented a bike and drove around the island a couple of times - not that long distance but def felt like doing some proper sports, so hot and the path going around was so soft.. Also did a lot of swimming and had a really good After 8 ice cream (they don't have ice cream in too many places here!) :) Travangan was a lot more busy than Meno where I'm staying. It's actually funny, nothing really happens in here, but it's still fun and I'm really enjoying it here! :)

Tomorrow I will have to leave back to Bali. It's a long journey - boat, bus (2 hrs), ferry (5 hrs), bus (2 hrs) - and a lot of waiting in between.. But it's ok, because it's fun to see the country and in the ferry just relax and sit outside.

A lot of fun people I've met here on the island. Everybody says hi to everybody and all the time you just start talking to people. The locals are so friendly! And the tourists who end up on this island seem to be really nice as well! Yesterday I met the first Finnish person for almost one month!

A local guy: 'Minna, MINNA, come here!! How are you?'
Me: 'Hey, I'm good thanks, and you?'
A blond guy: 'Moikka'
Me: 'What? Hei!! Ootsa Suomesta!?'
Henri: 'Joo :) Mulle kerrottiinkin jo, etta taalla on suomalainen tytto, jonka nimi on Minna'
:)

Another funny discussion:

(After chatting with this guy for a little bit)

An (over-talkative) American guy: 'Are you Australian by the way?'
Me: 'Eh.. No.'
American: 'Are you from South Africa then?'
Me: 'Eh.. No. I'm from Finland.'
American: 'You're the biggest Finnish girl I've ever seen'
Me: 'Oh, ok.'
American: 'I mean, in height, not in width'
Me: 'Oh.. Thanks, I guess.'
American: 'Hey, that must be it... Everybody knows you because you're so tall!'
Me: 'Ok, cool..'
American: 'Are you a swimmer? Because you look like a swimmer.'
Me: 'Eh.. No.'


Then this morning when I was having breakfast and reading my book:

The owner of the guest house: 'Do you smoke marijuana?'
Me: (Where did that come from!?) 'Eh.. No. Do you?'
The owner: ' Yea, I just started again. I should stop.'
Me: 'Yea. You should.'

They say that drugs are not illegal here. Because there's no police. Yea right.. But fortunately it seems to be pretty harmless!

Ok, now I'll have to go. I'm going diving, really looking forward to that! Tomorrow morning I'll leave back to Bali. I'll go and stay at the surf camp for a couple of days before flying to Bangkok on Tuesday. My friend Jenni from Finland will arrive in Bangkok on the 7th of February (YAY!! :) ), so I have about a week and a half before she somes. So.. I ended up just booking a flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia! Heard that it's really interesting, and then I want to go and see the temples in Angkor Wat too. Probably taking some sort of a boat (cruise or something like that they have there) from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat). I need to by me a travel guide to make some plans!

Seminyak, Bali

Hey! I'm feeling wonderful now!! All the illnesses are gone and tomorrow I'll be off to Gili Islands! :)

Me, Meli and Madelaide were driving around Bali for three days with a rental car. Such a beautiful island this is! The south part of the island, where I've been staying at the surf camp, is a little bit too busy for me, but when you go to the country side, it's more quiet and relaxing, a lot less tourists and all the locals are so excited to see western people! Beautiful views from the mountains and better beaches than here! We saw probably the best sunset ever, had a great dinner in a lovely place (27000 altogether for all of us, including the drinks = less than 2 euros), enjoyed our time with Meli's indonesian friend who she met in Lovina last year, went on a boat trip (I couldn't go snorkelling because of the ear..) in a national park and drove some crazy narrow mountain streets with great views!

Yesterday we went shopping to some outlet stores and I found a couple of nice things, for example a pair of really nice Roxy jeans for 111000 (about 7,50 euros). Today we went to a nice beach in the morning and just relaxed.

So, tomorrow I'll be off to Gili Islands - really looking forward to going to a small island with no cars (the traffic is insane here!!). I'll write again from there, or when I come back (don't know how the internet works there)!

Seminyak, Bali

So, that wasn't all for me then... Just keep getting all these illnesses... !!! I don't get it! The flu came back and I also had some problems with my stomach for a few days (Bali-belly they call it)... Yesterday cheched my weight and realized that I had lost about 4 kilos, so no wonder I was feeling really weak! And then I got an ear infection too!! My left ear is blocked and swollen and I can't really hear anything with it! I went to the hospital to see a doctor the day before yesterday and now have a whole set of medication (ear drops + 4 other medicine), so hopefully will get better soon!! Right now I'm feeling really good (except for the ear), and managed to eat a proper meal last night for the first time in few days :) The annoying thing with the ear is that I can't go in the water with it, so no surfing or diving or anything for me for a while...

Yesterday went for a massage, it's really good here! And also cheap, 55 000 (less than 4 euros) for a one hour full body massage. Today me and two Germans, Melanie and Madelaide, are leaving the camp for a little trip. We rented a car for three days (100 000 per day, so about 20 euros altogether for three days). We're planning on going around the whole island. Should be a lot of fun! Melanie is driving, because she is the only one with an international licence.

Ok, gotta go now! Packing and then leaving for the road trip! :D