Has been lovely since staying with David and Lanee. Christmas was so nice. I have just been spoilt rotten by my second family. Nicole Lada Elliot is the cutest 1 month old baby in the world. I have drank too much tequila, seen a pingpong show, ridden in a tuktuk, shopped till I dropped, napped a whole bunch, seen Jim Thomsons house and the Grand Palace, ridden on a boat down the river, danced to some awesome cover bands, eaten a whole lot of amazing food, taken a tour of Davids jewlery factory, eaten countless icecream sundaes, watched movies, read books.

Did I mention life is awesome and I am happy? Because it is and I am.

And I am looking forward to coming home. :)

Because next year I’m bringing Christmas back. With old traditions and starting new ones. Being here has made me want to be festive again. I know Christmas can be a pain in the bum sometimes but its fun when you get involved.

So next year there will be stockings and gingerbread houses and gift exchanges and christmas trees with lots of fairy lights and family board games and santa hats and and and…

No grinches next year!

its a real christmas now I’ve made kitchy crafts and baked things.

:)

I could just decide now.

Melbourne I’m coming home - See you on the second of Jan.

I’m going to see how I feel after xmas/new years. If things are still the same way I’ll book a flight home.

I miss melbourne and i want to buy sketchbooks
and plan my pastry shop
and study
and sell jeans to camberwell mums

I feel like the travel part of my life is closed for the moment - I decided to go on this trip when I had no direction, now that i do it seems rather pointless to still be here.
Its nice but I don’t think its what I want right now.
All I want to do is bake. If that means working my butt off to save 23 grand and go study in paris I will make it happen. It wont happen in Bangkok or vietnam.

Fuck you Asia, I’m done. I kindof want to fly home early and do Byron for a few weeks then get my life back. Is that bad?

Big comfy bed. Cable tv. HOT SHOWER! (I may have spend a good 45 mins under it washing away the grime from the last week or so)

The culture shock (Little island with hammocks to big developing city) is scary and I am still a bit sick, and home sick. So I am just taking it easy and hiding out for a bit.

I need to find this baked potato before it kills me.

I might go see if I can find a cinema thats still playing harry potter tomorrow.

I miss home. And I a sick and feel like I am trapped in some horrible episode of Lost. I need to get off this island.

I need somewhere with baked potatoes and air con. And real toilets that flush. And real showers that are not a head attached to a cold water tap.

Call me flashpacker, call me princess, 2 days of puking my guts out and I just want to go home. :(

Safe in Don Det of 4000 Island fame. Slow/expensive internets but I am safe and sound and spending the week here on this picturesque island. Will be in BK on the 20th.

Monday was a day of 5am starts, public busses at 6am for 5 hours. Arrived in a town called Ban Khong Kham. We then took a tuktuk/pickup to Ban Khong Lo and chilled out next to the opening of the cave we were going to the next day till about 4pm. So it was basically a big lake like thing that turned into a river because there was water flowing out of the cave. We then went to meet our homestay family who were lovely. A teenage girl greeted us with near perfect english and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing volleyball and other games with the local kids. we then got cooked an amazing dinner of marinated chicken and cumcumber and rice. Learnt how to play a local card game which I’m still quite confused about and went to bed under a mosquito net with Raf snoring loudly. I couldn’t sleep so I decided to look at the stars which were amazing. The sky was a blanket of them. So beautiful. The next morning we got up and got served fried rice for breakfast (yuck, so heavy on the stomach) and walked to the cave which was about a k away. Walked to and inside the mouth of the cave, got on a little long boat and spend the next 2 hours driving through looking at stalectites, the walls, just amazing. I even found a little patch of mushrooms growing. So then we ran to catch a tuktuk and then another tuktuk and then a bus and finally got to savvanahkhet at around 7pm. Which is a really pretty little town that I wish I could have spent more time exploring. I did go to the Dinasour museum though and got to touch a T-Rex’s butt bone! So cool! We also went to the largest monnestary in Laos and met some very friendly apprentice monks who all asked the same 3 questions: Where are you from? How long have you been in Laos? Is this your husband/Are you married? Very cute. So from Savannahket another public bus took us to Pakse, which is where I am now. Yesterday I went on the back of a motorbike to the ancient ruins Wat Phou. Today I just chilled out because I got pretty bad sun stroke. Tomorrow I am off early to the 4000 Islands! I am missing home quite a bit but then when I see things as beautiful as the laos countryside I never want to leave here at the same time. Though I am sick of people trying to rip me off!!