Bangkok has me now!

After my 7 hour wait in the car park, we decided to take a train instead of a taxi then hop onto a tuk tuk to keep things cheap. What a mistake... The tuk tuk dropped us god knows where, we then took a million more trains and boat rides... finally resorting to a taxi having spent more than it would have originally cost! 4 hours later (it should have taken 30 mins) we made it to Khan San Road where loads of backpackers stay. Hopefully this was not a sign of things to come... 

It was now late at night so we caught some sleep in our £10 a night hostel and woke up bright and early the next day to start exploring. 

We visited many temples which were so beautiful and detailed. They had much more intricate detail and glitz than the ones I'd seen in Sri Lanka. At Wat Benchamabophut (catchy name) there was a giant gold Buddha. 

I also decided to copy another tourist and sit in the door way of the temple. Well a local woman was not happy with that! I got an old school telling off. A word of warning to future travellers... 

We also went on a canal boat ride and fed the fishes for 'good luck' (any excuse for money). They were manic and their must have been thousands and thousands of them! 

That night after having some dinner we made a visit to Pat Pong to see what these famous ping pong shows were all about. WOW did we get more than we bargained for!!!! Interesting and never again is all I can say! 

The next day we visited Wat Prakaeo, or in English... the Grand Palace. I dressed in what I thought were appropriate clothes, but was told that my leggings were too 'sexy sexy' so I had to rent a skirt. I quite enjoyed my Indian look...

Inside the palace was manic. There were Chinese people running around frantically taking pictures EVERYWHERE! The whole palace was so amazing though, the detail was incredible, like nothing I've seen before. I can't even imagine the length of time it took to build and decorate so many buildings, each with such different detail and design. 

....I just thought he was cute...

...the little boys ok too. 

In the evening we got a 10 hour VIP bus ride up to Chiang Mai. I'm getting used to these long journeys! It wasn't bad at all, with air con, curtains, blankets and reclining seats. After hearing that the buses sometimes get hijacked, Kate and I took things to the extreme and chained our bags to the seats and hid our valuables down different parts of our clothes! 

You'll be happy to hear that all went well and I am now continuing to live the dream in Chiang Mai

X

Time to Reflect

When I first wrote this post (and the previous) I was sat in Bangkok airport waiting 7 hours for my uni friends Kate and Nathan to arrive. This is take two as both got deleted! (Thanks blogspot). 

I can't believe my time in Sri Lanka has come to an end. I had such an incredible time, met inspirational and amazing people and truly got to experience the country (which I'll definitely be visiting again!). 

Sad to go! 

For me my favourite project was the orphanage. It was the most challenging, enjoyable, emotional, frustrating and rewarding of them all (emotional roller coaster). They were all such incredible babies and little children and it was a joy to be around them, I couldn't help but get attached! 

Unfortunately my last afternoon at the project wasn't a nice experience. There was only Rachel and I volunteering which is less than usual, so the staff immediately took advantage of this by stealing at least 20 of the 30 nappies that we brought (apparently they do this a lot then sell them on). This meant that almost all of the smallest babies had to have the cotton tie up nappies that fall off, resulting in wee and poo covering the beds, floors and Rachel's top! 

As Rachel and I struggled to keep at least 12 agitated (and many poorly, one of which clearly had a bad fever and wasn't being treated) babies happy, all of the staff sat having tea, occasionally getting up to unnecessarily herd the older babies with a stick.

Too many babs too many many babs! At least they have loads of toys...

When we got home and told Janaka, a whole can of worms were opened. We learnt how corrupt the entire orphanage is, including the commissioner and matron. The orphanage receives thousands and thousands of pounds of funding each year from charities and yet most if it 'disappears' into thin air meaning that the poor babies see none of the benefits. 

They receive bundles and bundles of clothes and toys, yet the babies have no toys and the toddlers have toys that should only be touched with gloves and a mask. And the clothes... there aren't even enough to go around and the clothes that are there have to go through the smell test. If I think they smell of wee, they're clean, if they stink, they're not. Something's not right there...

But worse of all, to keep the 70 babies asleep all night, so that the 2 members of night staff have a peaceful sleep, the babies are fed overdoses of cough syrup.. or worse.. au de cologne! It's sickening and the worst part is, it's not going to change. 

All that can be done is for volunteers to actually spend their time there, trying to make it a better place for the babies and interacting with them so that they get some kind of stimulation. They literally only cry to be held, they can be so hungry that they're picking tiny crumbs off of my trousers or so thirsty that they're licking urine off the floor... yet their only cries are for a cuddle. It's unbelievably sad. 

Their smiles make it all worth while 

One of the rare occasions I saw them get water. It was almost boiling hot and shared between about 12 babies... But nonetheless, it was water! 

Sad goodbyes... 

I also really enjoyed my time at the street kids project. The children are the loveliest most well behaved children I have ever met. The teacher is amazing and you can see how much she loves them and how much they love her. The project does so much for them, it's hard to get my head around that when they leave they're going back to a street not a home. 

Music time! 

I also loved helping at the nurses school. It was so different to the other projects and challenged me in a different way. It was nice to chat and form friendships with the nurses, with them being around my age. You really feel appreciated and welcomed which is so lovely.

The whole experience has really brought me out of my perfect little bubble that I live in and I hope has changed me for the better. What Janaka is doing with these projects is really inspiring and I feel privileged to have been a part of it, if only for a short while. 

Right now... The journey continues. Next stop, Bangkok! 

X

Kandy Land

Last weekend Sofie, Rachel and I took a trip to Kandy for the weekend. With a name like that, how could we not go!? 

We took a 7 hour train which cost a whopping £1.60 and wasn't actually all too bad! We'd often have the sea right next to us on one side and the jungle on the other, so it was nice to enjoy the scenery! (Look at me getting all mumsy). 

Well.. I say it wasn't bad. Until I realised my bag was sat in someone's urine... Delightful. It now all makes sense why the locals sit with their bags on their laps!  I do have some sympathy for the guy (I hope not girl) who just had to go... a 7 hour train journey with no toilets... If you've got to go, you've got to go!... All in the name of travelling hey!!

We stayed in what felt like a luxury hotel... Air con, breakfast, swimming pool, amazing views. Although we had to splash out a little as you'd imagine. £7.50  a night. Scraping the barrel! 

On our first day we travelled a couple of hours in a tuk tuk to the Millenium elephant sanctuary. 

First we washed the elephant with the inside of a coconut. 

...at the (elephant) car wash..! Christina Aguilera eat your heart out! 

Then one by one we climbed on the Elephant's (called Saliya) back and it squirted us with water from it's trunk. It was so much fun and felt so weird to be sat on it! 

I was the last to sit on Saliya, and so suddenly found myself clinging on for dear life as he got to his feet and started to climb up some stairs!! Obviously I was a complete natural. Call me Tarzan! (Fun fact - part of Tarzan was actually filmed there!) 

Small lie - I couldn't have looked more awkward! I never knew sitting on an elephant would be so painful! 

Then all of us hopped on and went for a little journey around the sanctuary. It was so amazing (and scary)! 

Strike a pose! 

On our way home we stopped off at a spice garden. It was really interesting hearing about all of the different health and beauty products that had been made from the natural ingredients growing in the gardens. I even got swept into the moment and ended up buying a slimming  tonic that will apparently speed up my metabolism (yeah right). Well... when I'm living on rice and noodles for 4 months I need to try anything! 

Natural potions - A beauty and health junky's dream!

The next day we met with two other volunteers that we had got to know at the orphanage and headed to Dambulla. It's basically 5 caves which are like temples inside, at the top of a mountain. Of course it involved steps. Sri Lankan's just love steps! 

All of the cave walls were entirely covered in paintings which had been hand painted and there were large statues of Buddhas and other religious figures. 

On the way back down, I was a victim of bullying!... by a monkey. I was happily chomping on my mango when they all swarmed and started to intimidate me. So much so that I felt my only option was to sacrifice my mango and throw it to them! (Better that than rabies). 

The gang 

We then journeyed further on to Sigareya which is one of the '8th' wonders of the world. There is a giant rock that they call the lion rock and at the top are the remains of a King's palace with all of the gardens and pools for his many women at the bottom of the rock. 

Of course, getting to the top of the rock meant climbing up some steps... 1,202 to be precise! But thankfully it wasn't a repeat of Adam's Peak so we actually got to see a nice view at the top! 

We had a crazy guide who actually added to the fun, and insisted that we took a million photos along the way. 

He even managed to pick me up despite him being smaller and skinnier than me.... Not something I'm proud to admit! 

The next day, on our way home we went to Kitulgala to go white water rafting. It wasn't quite as rough and thrilling as I would have liked, more like a leisurely boat trip. But the location was so nice so it didnt matter, it was actually down the longest river in Sri Lanka. 

Having set of at 10am, we finally made it home at 9pm (with an hour and a half out for white water rafting). So we were happy to be back where we call home, at Janaka's! 

Ciao for now x

Privileged

This week I felt privileged for two reasons, I had the responsibility of taking one of the babies from the orphanage to hospital and I attended the nurses graduation. 

I arrived at the orphanage as normal and had just finished changing the babies when the matron (who is a little scary) asked me to go to the hospital with three of the full time workers and four babies. I didn't really know why or what the plan was but I went with it...

Apparently outings are when the secret stash of nice clothing comes out, so I dressed my little girl in a really cute dress and pink shoes. 

I think it must have been the first time she'd worn shoes as she had a funny little stomping step when she tried walking in them which was just adorable! 

I'd guess she was maybe just under 18 months and then a tiny new born, a 10 month old and a 20 month came too. I had no idea what the hospital visit was for apart from that it had something to do with their ears. 

So I went ahead and clambered in a tuk tuk with the 3 workers and 4 babies (bit of a squeeze as they only seat 3!) and listened to them natter in Sinhalese. It all felt very surreal. 

The hospital was packed! There were people literally everywhere and stretchers would be rushed past with severely injured and ill people every moment or so. I have to say, it made my last hospital visit in the UK seem luxury! 

Usually being the only white people around, I'm used to getting stares and the Sri Lankan's are really not sly about it. But wow. The hospital trip took it to another level. Seeing a white girl in the hospital AND carrying a Sri Lankan baby appeared to be like looking at one of the wonders of the world for them!! A word of warning, Sri Lanka is not a place for the self conscious. 

It turns out the visit was for the babies to have their ears cleaned by a massive sucking pipe, much to their dislike... 

Undercover filming

...and boy did they need it... one of the babies had eight flies sucked out of her ears!!  

The little girl that I took was so well behaved and sweet and fell asleep in my arms on the way home. I found myself getting a little tearful as I'd really felt like her mum for a couple of hours, I'd taken care of her and comforted her when she got scared and now here I was taking her back to the orphanage. It's so hard knowing that they don't have that sort of love and care all of the time. 

As I said, I also attended the graduation for the nurses in the year above the class I help with English. To our surprise, we were treated as special guests! I was even asked to come to the front and light a candle to which their was a long awkward pause as I struggled with the simple task. 

it was so interesting seeing the ceremony, especially as I have my own coming up in November! 

Here's a few snips of what it entailed... 

National Anthem (and what a jolly anthem it was) and flags raised.

Religious service taken by two Monks. Now no disrespect intended... But I began to think that someone was playing a bit of a prank. We all stood throughout to show our respect and I was boiling from the start, literally, I was melting...sweat dripping all over the place (I hope I've given you good visuals)... And  the service just went on and on and on and on and on and on. Seriously, I had back ache by the end. The nurses then went up to the Monks and washed their faces with (probably holy) water and got white string tied around their wrists then prayed and touched their feet. 

Receive their nurses caps 

All given a candle ( I think it was symbolic of something) and they recited something in synchronisation. 

They all stood opposite their parents and handed them a flower. I thought this was a nice touch.

Dances, some of which were the nurses that I teach. 

Speech after speech after speech. You think speeches in the UK drag, well try listening to them in a different language! 

Both of these events this week again showed how good it is to not just travel, but to volunteer. It's so unlikely I would have got to do such things otherwise and it's these sort of moments that will stick with me and make me feel that I've really got to know and experience the Sri Lankan Culture...and from an inside view rather than as a tourist. 

 Like I said...privileged X

Did I Actually Just Do That?

Last weekend definitely had me questioning... Did I just do that?!?? 

Before I go off on one about Adam's Peak, I'd best explain what it is. Simply put, it's a place where four different religions go to worship, which makes it quite unique. At the top of a massive mountain, is a temple and pilgrims climb to the top to worship (and tourists climb to the top to see a breath-taking view and sunrise). 

It's 6km to the top which doesn't sound too intense, I could probably run it in half an hour (maybe)...but add a steep incline and 6,200 steps and it takes on another level! 

We'd heard from other volunteers that it was a must do as the view was just incredible, but they emphasised that it was a must do once and once only, as it was so hard and they ached for days. So of course, I needed to do it! 

So a group of 8 of us set off at 8pm on Saturday night (after having been out until 5am that morning...wise) as the journey would take 6 hours and it was best to start the climb at 2am so as to see the sunrise. When we arrived our worse fears had come true... It was pouring with rain, and I mean pouring. Try standing in a power shower and you'd get the same effect... What makes it worse is it was freezing as we were so high! 

But having travelled 6 hours, it was a must do! So we met up with our guide and began the climb. The rain was so intense that almost immediately my trousers were soaked through and the leggings underneath, I even had to wear my backpack underneath my rain coat, mainly to save the life of my poor iPhone inside.

As we got higher, the steps got steeper and less and less like steps, a better description would be a waterfall. Yes. We were climbing up a waterfall. 

Finally after 3 and half hours of pretty much constant climbing, very sore legs, entirely soaking wet bodies and strangely positive attitudes, we made it to the top!! 

And what a sunrise it was.....

 

Uhoh, this was the beautiful view, the beautiful sunrise which is the whole reason we put ourselves through the trauma. Grey, grey, grey and a closed temple! By this time we had become a little delirious so found the whole situation oddly amusing! 

We even found refuge in what looks like a crack den... 

Finally, after 6 and half hours in total, we made it back to our mini bus and I endured a 6 hour drive home in soaking wet clothes with air con blasting out. 

I would have to say it's the hardest thing I have ever done and I'm still aching almost a week later, with not even a nice picture to warrant the hell i put myself through. But hey ho weirdly I don't even regret it. On my way to carefree hippy. 

Ciao x

 

I did get one cool picture which I felt was worthy of bringing my iPhone into the rain for...amazing waterfall!! 

The Week in a Nutshell

Time has flown by and another week has gone! I can't quite believe I'm more than half way through my time here. But the thought that I still have 4 months of travelling makes it seem not so bad! 

Here's an overview of my second week in paradise...

On Sunday (26th) we were up bright and early for a trip to Sinaraja Rainforest. The journey took 3 hours but felt like luxury in comparison to the rickety, jolty buses we've been getting. Air con, flat screen TV, seat belts. What more could you want! 

At the rainforest there were some workers ploughing in the rice fields covered in mud from head to toe, I don't know how they do it in the bright sunshine and their feet must be destroyed! But nonetheless, they still managed to smile and give a wave to the cameras! 

Once we started getting into the rainforest, our tour guide put salt on our shoes to avoid getting leeches. Several volunteers still got them but thankfully although Mosquitos love me, leeches aren't so fond, so I came away unscathed! 

We saw all sorts of fruits and spices growing in their natural habitat; mangos, coconuts, pineapples, black pepper, cinnamon, to name a few. We also saw a load of different insects and creatures, like giant squirrels, viper snakes, spiders (eughhh... A couple of nights later I went on to dream that a spider was above me when I was sleeping and went as far as to duck to avoid it!) and most memorable to me... the bottom half of a monkey with its guts hanging out, to which the wild dogs that followed us the entire time decided to enjoy as a meal. 

Despite the amount of pineapple I eat, I never even knew it grew like this. Pretty cool!

Here I am bouncy on a springy tree which felt like elastic. 

There was also a waterfall which we had to carry our bags over our heads to get to which was lush to swim in. A couple of volunteers jumped off of the top, but when the guide didn't follow, I decided to give it a miss... (Unlike me). 

Straight after the rainforest, a few of us got dropped at the beach for dinner. We met the South African guys from the previous night and Lucy, Lisa and I decided to stay for a few quiet drinks, although we were pretty worn out from the day. Well whoever said you can just have quiet drinks.. time got away from us and before we knew it, it was 5:30 and we'd been up for 24hours. We went to a really cool bar on the beach called Chillies (they can't just put chilli in every single meal, they have to name a bar after it too). It was filled with Sri Lankans with long dyed blonde hair who were the epitome of surfer guys ( it looked very strange). 

Us and some of the South Africans. 

Little did we know, whilst we were out enjoying ourselves we'd created absolute panic back at the volunteer house, as having expected us back at 10pm, they were fearing the worse come 5:30am. Although I'd sent a text to let them know, I hadn't been receiving their calls so they thought that someone had kidnapped us and were texting off our phones!! (Oops) how the mind wanders... 

After 2 hours of sleep, I was up again for the nursery project. Thankfully the kids behaved so I didn't have to give any of them a gentle back hand. Even at the community project later in the day, the boy that I ranted about last week was almost good as gold! 

One of the girls who came along to our community centre.

My work of art. They learn from the best...

In the evening a load of us went to the beach for dinner again for a leaving meal with the South Africans. It's such paradise sitting on the beach having dinner. I could never get bored of it! 

I went to the nursing project again this week and they don't have a teacher at all on a Wednesday afternoon so Lucy, Daisy, Sofie and I were in control f the whole class. With no experience of teaching and them all being our age, this was a little daunting... But we took it in our stride! Firstly I introduced myself as Ihadn't  properly yet, and they asked me all of the essential questions... How old am I, do I have a boyfriend, am I married, what are my hobbies. I find it really funny because although we're similar ages, they find boyfriends and fancying a boy hilarious and giggle like they're thirteen, it's their most popular topic to talk about! 

When asked about my hobbies, I said dancing. Well they jumped on that! One of the girls had me come to the front of the class with her in front of about 40 class mates to do a dance off. It was hilarious and my skin went a beautiful colour of red thanks to the heat and embarrassment. She then had the others come to the front too as the class laughed along at us copying her dancing (she's got moves!! None of the classic English side to side stepping and fist pumping).

In the end half the class was up and we were dancing energetically to what apparently was Sri Lankan chart music. Whilst we were dripping with sweat (lovely) after an hour of... lets call it music class... the nurses all managed to stay pristine and hardly sweated a drop.

 

Afterwards we decided to cool things down by playing some hangman and guess the celebrity. It was such a fun afternoon and all of the nurses are so lovely and welcoming, I can't wait to go back! 

On Thursday morning, I went to the special needs project. It's at a school called Sacred Heart in Galle and we volunteers help in a class which consists of special needs students. Any student with any kind of disability seems to get put into the class. Several students only disability was that they were deaf, whilst others had down syndrome or appeared to be severally mentally disabled. As well,  the students ranged from about 4 to 17, so were no way all of a similar ability.

The three oldest girls who were deaf were literally left to themselves to get on with some work in their books, whilst everyone else was sticking green paper to drawings of trees and colouring in the trunks. For about an hour this is all they did, despite several finishing within about half an hour. I really didn't like it as I couldn't see the students benefiting much from the class and I felt a little helpless as I didn't even know specifically what was wrong with each child. 

It's amazing to see how different it is to England, especially as I've heard that this is fairly good treatment for children with special needs in comparison to other schools. Just goes to show how far behind us the country is. 

I was however, really impressed to see how the kids helped each other out. Immediately after eating one of the down syndrome girls who looked about 8 picked up the broom and started sweeping away frantically, ordering me to move all of the chairs as she swept. She then went on to feed one of the other girls who hadn't been eating her food. It was so sweet to watch. 

Afterwards, four of us volunteers and 6 of the girls went to a local community swimming pool which had been set up after the Tsunami in order for women and children to learn to swim, because so many had died in the Tsunami. There was no teacher so it was left to us to teach them! This was very difficult as we didn't speak their language and due to their differing disabilities, but we got stuck in and started to gain some control! 

It was amazing seeing their improvement in just one lesson, especially as some of them had never been swimming in their lives! It's things like this that make me wish that I was staying longer, to really work with them on their swimming each week rather than new volunteers coming in and having to learn their ability all over again. 

I'm still really enjoying helping at the orphanage and spent some time with the toddlers this week. They have so many toys but the best way to describe them is they're all the toys that you or me would throw out. They're broken and dirty and go straight into the mouths of each child. I'll tell you what, they're immune system will be incredible by the time they leave! 

It was so sweet seeing they're excitement when a man arrived and gave them all sweets and when another volunteer was blowing bubbles. I love seeing they're eyes light up and them squealing  with delight at the things that many children in England would just take for granted. 

When I went again to the orphanage later in the week, many of the babies were poorly. In particular my favourite little boy was wheezing like mad and his chest and stomach was pumping up and down in overdrive. I didn't want to put him down and leave him when he was in that state. I found it really quite upsetting seeing them distressed and helpless and missing out on the care that a parent would provide. 

I went to street kids project again this week and some of the slightly older children taught us some games which involved 5 stones. They were actually so much fun and Daisy and I got so into it that we ended up carrying on playing and ignoring the children (probably not what we're meant to do...). It again made me think about England and how everyone is glued to a screen these days, when these kids can create so much fun from stones they found outside the door. 

I also had the fright of my life whilst there... at one point, one of the little girls who was about 3 clambered onto my shoulders so I played around with her for a bit and could hear her giggly away. I then swung her down and there she was still giggling then as I sat her on the floor she went completely floppy like a rag doll, as much as I tried to move her and talk to her, she was still acting lifeless. 

Oh wow, did my heart beat, I thought I was going to have to actually make use of my personal liability cover for my insurance!!! Thankfully she eventually started giggling when I tickled her then instantly fell asleep on the cold concrete floor. Turns out she was just tired having been up since 3am that morning!! (Sigh of relief). 

The little girl before she traumatised me!

On Thursday afternoon a few of us went to Marissa beach which was secluded and beautiful. There are so many nice, quiet beaches in Sri Lanka, they're literally like the amazing beaches you see in movies. In the evening, as Daisy and Lucy were leaving this weekend, we went for a leaving dinner (with Sofie too) to Crepeology in Galle Fort. As the name says, they're speciality is crepes, savoury and sweet.. and man were they nice! We ended the night with a blueberry shisha and very full stomach's!! I'm sad to see them go but I guess I'll have to get used to getting close to people then watching them leave as that will be my life for the next 4 months! 

At Crepeology. 

This blog has already been longer than I wanted, too much to say!! So I'll talk about my weekend events (and god was there an event) in another blog. 

Adios x