The last journey...here comes Fiji

My endless summer is feeling a little more like winter the past 48 hours being in Brisbane. I feel like that spoiled brat in Australia who is complaining about the cold but I just went from southeast asia with temperatures at nearly 40 degrees and Bris is currently sitting at 14-16 so I feel like the Jamaican bobsled team arriving in a Calgary winter (yes, thats a cool runnings reference).

I spent about a month traveling with the boys and we had an amazing trip covering thailand, cambodia and vietnam. Vietnam was really different from what we expected and a bit more expensive. We stayed in Saigon in a popular area where there were many shops and high fashion designer brands. We made the trek to the coast to the beach of Mui Ne for a couple nights but sadly the weather did not comply so we didn't get to experience the beach as intended and since it was low season there were not many people around but Phipps, Stewy and I managed to have a good time going out and meeting a Dj who took us to a couple after parties.

The boys got custom made suits from a place called hanh's who absolutely adored the boys and the fact that they got 6 suits between the two of them. It was a cool experience watching the Vietnamese people run around measuring and talking about cuts, material, etc. but the planning process wasn't as exciting so I took a break and checked out the local mall. Saigon was a cool city and one strip of the street was much like Ko San road in Bangkok where people all sit out on chairs in the street and drink for cheap. The guys got their suits finalized and I played dress up with some of the gorgeous dresses in the shop. For those of you who know me well know i love a man in a suit so seeing the final products was exciting for me! I sadly had to say goodbye to Stew on our last morning and joined him in the airport to say our goodbyes after 8 months of living together, traveling together and basically being together 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Airport goodbyes are awful and I spent most of the time crying and continued it on my cab ride back to the hotel.

I'm sure some of you saw the drama on my facebook about the Vietnam airport and trying to get into Indonesia. Basically what happened was that to fly into Indonesia you need a ticket saying you are exciting. I didn't have a ticket booked out of Indonesia as I wasn't sure how long I was going to stay in Bali. The Vietnam air asia team was extremely rude about this and were not going to let me on the plane. I had to negotiate through tears and confusion and eventually they made me buy a random ticket to Singapore on the spot for $400. I found out later that in most cases they should have just let me go if they wanted to be nice. Anyways, got to Jakarta and had to buy my temporary visa and they wouldn't accept my remaining Vietnamese dong and I was having issues with my bank card as per usual so the drama continued in trying to pay for the visa to get into the country. I was the only white person in the entire airport and I mean that quite literally so it was very overwhelming. I ended up hanging out with the immigration police in a private room discussing the issues and eventually having them cheer me up. They confirmed that if the vietnamese air people wanted to be nice they could have not charged me for that stupid singapore ticket..grrr...
I ended up getting on my flight to Bali after havin to explain why I wasn't going to Singapore repeatedly as neither of us could understand each other well. Lots of hand gestures and "NO SINGAPORE!" involved lol.

Met up with Brittny and Sophie who I met in Byron Bay for our adventures in Bali. Arrived and took a cab up to Ubud where Eat Pray Love was filmed. We had a beautiful bungalow on Monkey Forest road. I spent the first few hours in Ubud just looking at shops and wandering around. I had a beautiful dinner with the girls at a place called Bridges that was a little pricier but extremely cheap for the five star fine dining we received. We were treated like absolute princesses and had one of the best meals I've literally ever eaten, barramundi :) mmmm. Later we went to a really cool shisha bar and met up with some crazy aussie ladies that the girls had met the night before who were absolutely outrageous and so funny. I was nearly crying of laughter at them and their antics. They had their balinese driver with them who they paid off for the day to drive them anywhere and took him out for dinner and drinks and spoiled him.
Brittny wasn't feeling well the next day so she spent most if not all of the day in bed trying to recover. Sophie and I toured around and went to the Monkey Forest which was really cool to see all the monkeys running around and coming right up to people. We went for dinner at a place called Cintra and had another low key night. We met a guy named Dave from the UK who gave us tips on the Gili islands so the next morning we took the fast boat aka worst boat ride of our lives to Tarawanga island. Soph got sick :( and I came very close it was a very rough ride but we made it and checked into the place Dave suggested where the locals adored us and had many good things to say about Dave and his buddies. We hit the beach and I had one of my first jaw dropping experiences when I saw the beach. crystal clear blue water, beautiful sand and moutainous islands across the water. Absolutely breathtaking. Later I ran the entire perimeter of the island which was about 8km and went a bit further after for an even 10. It was so cool to see the entire island and saw some really beautiful resorts. We only had a couple nights on the island due to time so the girls decided to go for a scuba dive the next day while I embraced the beach hard, laying out, writing and just relaxing. We met up later and went partying on the island as the entire island parties mon, wed, and fri. We played beer pong with the locals on our resort (Soph and I won harddddd second round) We met some Canadians and had drinks, dinner and then partied the night away.

The next day we took the boat back to Kuta, Bali and spent one night in Kuta on the town. We got a gorgeous resort with huge pool and beautiful room for fairly cheap and then hit the town hard. Kuta is very comparable to Bangkok on the level of craziness. A lot of people don't like Kuta because of that reason it does not look or feel like the "bali" you imagine but it is outrageous. We partied the night away checking out some of the biggest clubs and dodging the many Australian guys that take over Kuta on vacation. the night was insane and involved lots of drinks, dancing like crazy, sophie jumping a 6ft gap from one stage to the next, people scaling the ceilings like monkeys and more things that are better saved for in person conversations.

We all flew out the next day at different times and we had some of our best shopping in Kuta. After having to barter for the past month my skills were prime in Kuta and managed to get some incredible deals. the girls also got really good at it and were getting deals left right and centre. In Bali they are so much easier to barter with and actually do chase you down the street to make deals which is awesome. My best purchase was probably Dr. Dre's headphones the ibeats for $5 which took a good half hour of negotiating after the guy started at a ridiculous price.

I flew out of Bali at midnight and arrived in Brisbane around 8am yesterday. Didn't have the greatest sleep on the plane obviously but powered through the tiredness to get my hostel and hit the streets to plan Fiji. Found a great travel agent and spent a while with her working everything out and finding out my best option. I then went to some shops but resisted purchases as I'm now back to Australian prices. Since its so cold I made my way back and went for a 6km run down by the river in the evening and came back early to warm up with soup, hot shower and movie before bed. I was out by around 9pm after not having much sleep in the past 48 hours and didn't wake up til 11am today! I did another 8km run this morning and then went to book Fiji. I will be staying in a resort called Amunuca Island resort on a little island called Tokorwiki or something similar cant remember! I will be leaving on friday for 10 days in the sun. My criteria to the travel agent was send me somewhere where the beach is beautiful, the resort is beautiful, i have a gym, pool and the peacefulness, where i dont even have to talk to anyone if i dont want to haha. She found me my oasis and I will be there in a few days. So excited!

In the meantime I am staying at City Backpackers on Roma street in Brisbane, met a few girls from my hostel but have little to no desire to go anywhere as I only have my south east asia clothes and will freeze if i leave haha. Stewy flies home tomorrow so theres a chance I could run into him somewhere but if not hope he has a good flight home--I know he is SO excited to see everyone and I am very jealous that he gets to so soon. I miss everyone like crazy and am getting ready to come home. I know after Fiji I will be ready to get back to Canada as it has been an amazing journey. I can't even begin to describe the crazy amazing experiences I've had but feel like a different person who has learned a lot, experienced a lot and will never forget the things I've done and seen and the people I have met.

I apologize for the extremely lengthy post but I am not sure if I will be writing or using internet in Fiji. I will have many many stories for everyone about Asia when I get back but they will be far better shared over some drinks than on a blog! To those who weren't sure or can't remember or maybe I just never told i will be flying back to Calgary on June 21 and spending a month in Calgary to go to the stampede. I have tickets to the Rodeo Finals, Chuckwagon Finals with my family as well as Brad Paisley/The Band Perry and Paul Brandt!! I could not be more excited! I will be looking to move back to London around July 20th-ish and will be living at Barney's patio for the remainder of hte summer lol. I can't wait to see everyone and think about all of you all the time :)
Lots of love hugs and kisses from here in Brisbane!!
xo
Court