My Top Tips for Travelling Around Australia and South East Asia

Travelling is something I think everyone should do where they are able, in whatever form that is. Whether its 3 years getting lost in the rainforest, 2 weeks living it up in Bali or a 5day adventure in Rome, travel really can broaden your horizons and change your outlook on life.

Everyone who goes travelling will have different reasons, whether its a small case of running away, having some time to go or fulfilling a life long goal, and because of this, everyone will have different tips for travelling too. 

My tips stem from 4 months of trotting around SEA and Australia on my own, and these are the tips I would give my siblings, my friends, my school kids, anyone! So lets get into it:

1) When you arrive at a destination after a loooong flight, try to stay in a private room or with family. The reason why? Jetlag is a bitch. There is no escaping it. It sucks balls and will leave you wiped for the first week of your trip. When I flew to Australia, I purposely flew to Perth first so I could bunker down with family friends, have a safe and secure start and get over my jetlag in familiarish surroundings. When my friend came over to Thailand, we stayed in a private room so she could get over the jetlag and feel better about the culture shock (and the shock of hostels!). I would highly recommend stretching your budget if you can to cover a couple of days in a private room after a 17 hour flight, for peace of mind and not having people constantly walking in and out and disturbing your precious sleep like can happen in hostels. 

2) Trust hostel reviews. If its below an 8*, don't stay there unless you have to. This is from experience of walking into a Brisbane hostel, not being booked into the room I requested, no aircon and walking into find someone wanking in the bed underneath mine (and no, he didn't stop). I felt so uncomfortable that I rang my mom crying at 4.30am UK time and booked myself into a very expensive hotel for the night. I had the backup budget to allow this and also it was possibly the best thing I could have done for my mental health at the time. I could shower with music on, watch tv in bed and order room service! Hostelworld is where I booked all of my hostels and would highly recommend booking through them, just set the filter to 8* or above, look for places with aircon and you won't go wrong. 

3) Pack light, trust me, you won't need a bigger rucksack than 40L. I am a notorious over packer, having just packed for a family holiday to Crete for a week the same amount of gear for 4 months of travel. I find it hard to let go. Packing light will improve the quality of your trip ten fold. Why? it will be far less heavy. My Osprey Farpoint 40 (the link is to the cheapest place I found the bag) can be taken in hand luggage (which makes things far cheaper on flight baggage). You'll only buy shit that you actually like and care about. You can send things home, I sent home lots of gifts just before leaving Australia, it was expensive but worth it. Yes it's not quite so much fun when you discover Cotton On and how good Malaysian H&M is but trust me, your budget and back will thank you later. 

4) If you have periods, stock up tonnes of tampons before entering Asia. It is apparently nigh on impossible to get tampons in Asia, believe me, I tried. Wherever you're flying from to get to Asia, if they sell tampons, buy them. I was lucky that I had three people coming to visit me in Asia who could supply the goods, but if your fully riding solo, a big stash of tampons or one of those moon cup things will be a godsend, truuuust me. 

5) Get your phone unlocked before you leave. This was the best thing I did before going, taking an unlocked phone meant I could buy dirt cheap simcards everywhere and not be worried about being unconnected. Yes it might be fun being 'off the grid' to some but I go slightly crazy without Whatsapp, Google Maps and the ability to know where the fuck I'm going. If you're in the UK, all phones at Carphone Warehouse are sold unlocked, and 4g EE Max Plans let you use your data normally in Australia too, which was amazing as wifi in Aus becomes useless after Brisbane (who knew?).

6) Don't be afraid to spend a bit more for more time, comfort and safety. The thing that I was most scared of throughout my entire trip was the prospect of travelling to the Gili Islands. I freaked out alooooot about the boat over as I had visions of torrential rain and capsizing and pirates kidnapping me, how dramatic. I ended up using Gili Getaway who were great. Super clean and safe looking boats, friendly staff, not the cheapest but they came and picked me up and dropped me off for a small fee in Bali which made me feel so much safer. Also if there is ever the choice of a 1 hour flight or an 18 hour train, just take the bloody flight and save yourself some time and patience...

7) Don't book a 3 day boat trip if you know you get sea sick. This you would think would be self explanatory but I clearly didn't listen to myself and paid £450 to sit on a boat in the Whitsundays for 3 days trying not to vomit. It clearly wasn't one of my best decisions and I would only recommend a day trip to the Whitsundays, you cover everything in a day, and save your tummy alot of shit. Oh and if your trip is booked for a week after a cyclone, cancel it and wait for better weather, believe me you'll thank yourself (something I wish I had done!).

8) Tigerbalm is the best thing you can buy in 7-11. Yes the toasties in 7-11 are mega and are worth shitting yourself for (hello dairy intolerance) but nothing beats tigerbalm. Tigerbalm calms those mossie bites down pretty instantly and is great for if you manage to slide down a rock and tear your ligaments, massaged in to help with the swelling. I brought a full tub home with me because it is just the bees knees.

9) Local food is the shit and you should just eat that. Pho is like crack to me, Khao Soi in Chiang Mai will change how you see noodles, Eat your way around George Town and get all the currys down you! AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT DRINK ANY DRINK WITH ICE IN DOWN KHAO SAN ROAD. Don't repeat the same mistakes of me and my friend, you'll massively regret it when you're in a taxi to Bangkok airport and throw up outside the terminal. Stay classy. 

10) My final tip. Do not waste your time eating KFC in Australia, it is shit. What is that shit they put on their chips there? Gross. Where you want to be eating KFC is in Malaysia. The chips are ridiculously good and the meal is stupidly cheap too. 

My best tip though is make the most of it,enjoy yourself and don't do anything you're not comfortable with. You'll have the best time, meet some cracking people, develop your wordliness and confidence and come back a better version of you, hopefully with a tan. 

Lots more photos are on my insta! @livingheather

January 2018

God new year new me has never been more apt. I have loved this month. Good things have been happening and its so fantastic! Something I could never say about 2017.

I left the prawns and my gang, I was so sad to leave as I felt I was just getting started, but I was so ready to restart the teaching adventure. What a difference a nice school environment can make. I love this new school, absolutely love it. I feel freedom there, security, wanted and no one is shouting at me every five minutes. My feedback is positive with areas and suggestions to improve, theres no 'you're disappointing the children' here. Even if I don't pass because I'm not good enough, I'll cherish this time for helping me remember why I love working with kids and for giving me my confidence back.

January has been a month for me to also adjust once again to something my dad did, you might have seen my post on sober alcoholics, I've come to the conclusion over 2017 and especially now, I just can't have people in my life that drain me, and he is one of them. I will always love him but I can't abide him or like him or any of his actions anymore. I am tired of being the one to manufacture a relationship and it's up to him now. I'm out, and for my own mental health and wellbeing, I think that's for the best.

and January marks the fact that I am going on the big travel adventure next month! The 26th Feb cannot come quick enough. My plan is to do mini blog posts on the countries and big cities I visit (provided wifi is ok!) and answer some of the questions I have and can't find answers for!

Short and sweet but what a positive month, bring on February

xxx

Sober Alcoholics

It's been nearly three years since my dad decided to get plastered, attempted to drive home from his factory but instead plowed himself into a load of parked cars and got himself arrested. The day before his birthday. It marked a seismic shift in our family and our relationship with each other.

November

November has been kind to me. I have finally been given a school and a start date to go and get my teaching qualification, and I am gonna go in there and kick arse. It's a completely different school and area than I have ever lived in/ worked in before, which will be a challenge but I am so excited to go and teach somewhere completely new, somewhere with different challenges and issues. I am hoping that going back into school will make me want to go back into school; I feel that I don't want to be a teacher anymore once I qualify, which most people get since how badly I was treated in placement 2. I am really enjoying having my evenings to myself, to watch tv and hermit myself, in a good way. I'm really trying to focus on what I want to do if I don't want to teach anymore. It's really hard, I keep saying that 2017 has been the worst year of my life and it has- Jan to June were abysmal and the fact I didn't have an emotional breakdown shocks me and makes me so bloody proud of myself. This is the career I've wanted since I was 11, and that I am so traumatised towards it at the moment is making it hard to want to do it for the rest of my life. 

Onto more positive notes, I have finally found my feet in my job at work and have started making proper mates, I don't feel quite as lonely as I have done since I've moved back home which is really helpful for me and my brain. 

Travelling plans have ramped up dramatically- all of my 11 (gahhhhh) flights are booked, my aunties now coming for my two weeks in Vietnam (hiya comfy hotels!) and I've booked many of my hostels. My current plans are to write a small summary of each country as I go along, so 1) I don't forget anything and 2) so other people might stumble across some info, cos lots of bits I've been really struggling to find online, and being the control freak that I am I just need to know where that boat comes from or where I can get on that bus. When I have more elements, I'm gonna write a post about my plans so far, what shit I've taken with me too, just to see when I come back what has actually been helpful and what hasn't!

I had a week off in November too (which is rare for me) and I made the most of seeing my favourite people and doing absolutely nothing, as it's my last week off before I go travelling in Feb! I went back to Sheffield to see some pals graduate (it was really hard watching the ceremony I should have been in) and some of my best people came to visit me too, which just made me feel so much better and so much more like myself. 

I'm just feeling really quite happy in myself, which I've only ever had brief glimpses of in the past, I know I'm not as skinny as i would like (and I'm rather banking on travelling to help me out with this!) but I'm sort of ok with it currently, I'm being good with my food choices again and I'm maintaining around 11 stone, which is ok to me! Granted this might only last for a week or until tomorrow or until forever but I'm savouring it and feeling quite content. 

And the best part of November for me was seeing The Killers again. Holy shit balls. I just love them and they played my favourite song of all time which I really wasn't expecting as its an album song off Hot Fuss and I would be lying if I said I didn't cry. I was there with my family and were all mega Killers fans and it was just bootiful.

So that's me for November, here's to a very merry December!

Hev

October

Slightly early I know- we haven't quite got to the end of the month yet! But as we all know my urge to blog (and time to) comes and goes, so I thought I would make a start now.

I've had a good month. Nothing horrendous has happened! It makes quite the change to be honest with you. I'm still temping and I am still enjoying it, sometimes it is slightly stressful, but it ain't on a lev of teaching! Talking of teaching, would I be sounding dramatic if I say I think I may have mild PTSD from last year? Every. Single. Time. I think about January to June, the longest and worst six months of my life, I cry; heck, I'm doing it now. It really makes me wonder if I will actually cope going back into a classroom; I'm sure I will, I fucking love teaching kids about food, but I don't think I will be able to bear it if my momentary mentor is a cowbag this time. Placement 2 damaged me, and the reaction of my Uni, my tutors lack of giving a shit and this never ending battle to get a placement 3 is still damaging me.  

I think about dying slightly less than last month, I've started exercising a bit more again and I think that really does help my brain shut off. My brain is hardwired to cling onto anything and everything that my personality is scared or horrified by, and is rather annoyingly something I'm gonna have to battle and live with for my entire life. Dying is my biggest fear, and I am going to have to make my peace with its inevitability. 

Travelling plans have ramped up! After I write this I am going to write a big post about my plans so far, but I am feeling far more organised and less like I am going to shit myself, which is always a plus with my control freak self. I am definitely 80% fucking buzzing, 10% terrified and 10% nervous.

I do think I am in the middle of a bit of a quarter life crisis- no solid career, teaching limbo, limited pals, no sight of a nice boy, feeling very lonely quite alot of the time, but its ok, I am muddling through- I always muddle through- and I will get my arse on that plane on the 26th of February lined with vodka and excitement for the future. I keep joking that I want to go find myself, but I do, I need to find myself soon, before I go a bit insane!

Apart from the mini crisis and super mild PTSD October has been fab. Lots of fun, lots of laughter, lots of love for Jamie and Claire finding each other again in Outlander, and lots of anger about Liam leaving the bake off! (It is a fucking crime that Kate and Stacey are still in, I tell thee!)

Keemon November, stick it to me