FMFA, Beasts on Tour and the many Apocalypses - Where does Pharmacy fit in?!

Hi everyone!

So as per, it's been faaaaaar too long since I've written here. But here I am, trying to detail the more interesting things I've been up to/experiencing since last time, in some kind of chronological order.

If you want to read a specific section and skip the rest, here's a pro tip. Hit "ctrl-F" and enter the following appropriate keyword, followed by pressing enter to jump to that section.

Keywords: FMFA
                 I have a course to do
                 Beasts on Tour
                 Saturday, Competition Day
                 Apocalypses
                 Moving Forward?

We;re going to start with FMFA. 13th, 14th, 15th of March.

Future Music Festival Asia, 2014, was the first concert I've ever attended (despite living in Reading, yes, I know...) It was 75 GBP for a 3 day pass (not camping like in the UK) so a compartive steal compared to any festival in the UK. I had to skip day 1 due to training commitments overlapping, so headed to day 2 with Reema, Amy, Hector and Joe all excited. Day2 was the trance day, so whilst not my favorite thing, I had a good time and enjoyed the general atmosphere.

Day3 was what I was excited for, and why I had brought a ticket at all. The line up looked pretty insane, and we turned up super excited. Only to notice that it was all a bit tooo quiet for the alst day of a festival. Turns out, that the whole day was potentailly suspended due to a number of drug related deaths at the previous day. We hung around the entrance with all the other festival-goers for a few hours waiting for an official announcement (which was late,) and ended up just heading off accepting that it was to be cancelled. Really dissapointed, I drowned my sorrows in the cheap gourmet burgers of MyBurgerLab. Guess I've got to try stump out for Reading tickets this year somehow!

The lineups.

I have a course to do

March on the whole, was a pretty crazy month for me in terms of time. We were doing our Sexual Health and Pregancy module - which was all online (podcasted) lectures, an essay and a group project to complete. On top of that, it was the month before the Cheer team went to our first competition, so we were training 4-5 times a week (every day of the last one...) for 3-4hrs a session (followed by an inevitable team dinner as we refuelled at our favourite local Mamak for 1-2hrs). I don't think I've ever been as busy as I was during this month, and with Geshwin threatening to hand in complaint forms about my contribution to the group project(I got all my work done on time in the end, don't worry), sleep levels were running low and my general sanity was kept propped up by endless amounts of caffeine and enough Ibuprofen to sink a small battle ship (Krystal was getting seriously worried by the fact I seemed to always have my next dose to hand). On the other hand, I feel like having so much to do and many different commitments has increased my ability to cope with similar situations in the future, and that feeling pressured actually made me more productive for once. Yay. 

Beasts on Tour

My favourite part of the whole blog. So, all the aforementioned training was towards the Beast's first ever competition as a team (only founded last September) held in Singapore. We had about 2 months worth of coaching prior to this (and in that time learnt at least 3x what we had done in the previous 4~ months on our own), from Kheen Ho, Ayman, Ivy and Bob of the wonderful Cheer Aces. They dedicated a whole lot of time for us, in addition to our weekly paid session, in the form of extra free sessions as the deadline drew nearer, and letting us travel to use their gym. Being able to use the proper facilities was awesome, and watching the Aces' teams train was a real eye-opener to where we stand and how high the ceiling can go. If by any chance any of the Cheer Aces guys/girls are reading this, thank you for letting us share your mat time, and being so supportive - being cheered on and encouraged was a great feeling.

Enough of my soppiness (for now,) and back to the training. Learning (most of the stunts) and putting together a whole routine in 2 months was always going to be a tough task, and sadly the Beasts weren't helped by higher powers. A week out from competition, I was going through the opening partner stunt sequence with my flyer;Shazlin, until we had an accident, leading to a trip to hospital, and one less member of the team able to compete in Singapore then we had before the training session had started. Thankfully, Shazlin is ok. My motivation to keep on training took somewhat of a dive, and for the next few days turning up to practice was an exercise in dragging myself there, whereas formerly it had been the highlight of my days. Having to remove my partner stunt team from the routine as there was no other flyer available who could take her place and learn the stuff in 5 days, I became an assistant for Dani/Syliva's partner stunt team for that part of the routine.

The next few days were just general crazy training sessions, 2 of them being at Cheer Aces' gym (an hours drive away,) so we'd have to leave campus at 5pm, drive for an hour, train for a bunch (which was elongated beyond the standard 4~ as we shared mat time with their teams,) eat dinner/whatever meal it is at 1am in a zombified state, before driving back, and slumping into bed in an attempt to get enough sleep to function for my groupwork/Pharmacy work the next day before another training session. 

I know this is the longest section of my blog, but please bare with me. If you want to read it, I'll love you forever. If not, I might forgive you. This whole event meant a whole lot to me, as do the people I was lucky enough to share it with, hence the length. 

Thursday, we left campus in the early afternoon to head to the coaches gym one final time. Going through the last motions of our training, we did the routine in full to the music for what (I think) was the first time in front of a lot of the Cheer Aces, before leaving the gym at a crazyily early 7pm. We went to visit Shazlin who's home was nearby, and she joined us for dinner. We all stayed in team member's houses who lived nearby, as the bus was to leave from a nearby location friday morning, and it wouldn't be worth the trek back to campus.

Friday: 9am bus to Singapore with all the Cheer Aces teams, travelling in a large bus convoy. Rather un-eventful trip other than us being loud and making them think what have they got into agreeing to letting the Beasts tag along with them. We'll blame Grace for most of our craziness, she normally initiates it... I wouldn't recommend getting a bus to Singapore, it took about 7-8 hours (longer on Friday, we had to wait at immigration as a few people had issues getting in), compared to 1hr on the plane. That said, UNMC sponsored our transport, so I can't complain too much. 

Friday night, after arriving on deciding on room allocations (girls and boys seperately obviously, wouldn't want to be anywhere near the dreaded cooties...) and eating vast amounts of food, we had a final training session, because resting the body just isn't the done thing. What's the next done thing before a big event? Rest? Naaaah. We had a bunch of pom-poms to make. 

Saturday, Competition Day

The venue wasn't far away, and we arrived at about 10.30am, expecting to compete at 5pm. Lots of time to chill, watch other teams and get ready to step out on the mats. Until bad luck starts again. We were doing practice outside on some grass (not doing anything that's potenitally unsafe, just the basics/timing) and during the tumbling section, Cherish's cartwheel goes awry and she's down on the ground, with an elbow that's not moving without lots of pain. Aladdin (the SA sports officer who accompanied us, we love you!) went with her to the nearby hospital as it was clear she wouldn't be in a condition to compete in just a few hours time. The whole team was obviously pretty shaken, losing yet another team member and so close to the time, wasn't what any of us would have envisioned happening. We managed to not have to change the routine, and just lost a few front spots here and there as people had to change positions and learn their new roles for various sequences. By now, we weren't going to let anything stop us from getting out there and performing.

5pm. Are we yet performing? Nope. Have we been given our last stop 5 minutes on the practice mats? Nope. Any idea when we're going to get our time on the practice mats? Nope.

Whole thing is delayed, so we're all sitting around muttering timings over and over, consuming sugar and sipping on water just incase we get called up any moment.

Finally on the practice mats. 

In the end, we left for the mats at about 7.15, and performed at about 7.30pm. It had been a long day, and my feelings of nervousness and anxiety had just been replaced by the want to get out there and do it. On the whole, our routine went well, and we all left the stage happy, meeting Cherish and Aladdin backstage as we all struggled to maintain composure - I'll admit the floodgates may have opened and tears may have left my eyes. Just a maybe.

WE DID IT. ROUTINE OVER.

Saturday night, we spent being silly at our accommodation, and enjoying the fact we didn't have to worry about timings, stunts hitting or the feelings of anxiety. I'm aware this is dragging, so I'll quickly wrap up the weekend, before another soppy moment. Sunday was spent at a training exchange with the local Singaporean team, the Wildcards and our parent team, Cheer Aces. The training was mostly focussed around partner stunts. Managed to hit my first handtoss, and then a fair few more, which left me stoked. Ever since seeing Darren (one of our experienced cheerleaders) peform one back in Semester 1, I've had it written down in my little document of goals, and it felt so good to be able to tick it off :) Thankyou for the training exchange Cheer Aces and Wildcards! The journey back, was largely un-eventful, other than the standard bus trip shenanigans of course. 

UNMC Beast All-Stars is the first team I've been apart of (other than XCountry teams, but those don't have the same atmosphere), and I love each and every one of my fellow team members to bits, if you hadn't of guessed from this blog. The whole weekend was a blast, and I don't think I could've put up with so many endless hours of training with any other group of people. Thanks for putting up with my occasional stressed out attitude, British humour and liability to go on an emotional tilt. I'm going to miss you all so much, and don't want to accept that I've only got two months left with you all. Cheer training has been the standard highlight of my days and weeks for a bit now, and that's in large part due to the people I get to spend the time with, no matter how many pushups Ayman  makes us do when flyers fall and how many times stunts get degraded, it's always a pleasure to spend time with you all, and I wouldn't wish for a team comprised of anyone else ever. You all rock. 

#LETSGOBEAST #BEAST

Where's the routine video Jacob?! I hear you ask. Good question. We're currently working on getting a HQ version of it. When we do, if you follow us on facebook, you'll be sure to see it there.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beast-All-Star-UNMC-Cheerleading-Club/751408318227318

Apocalypses

Much like how in the bible, there was seven different plagues, we're currently experiencing similar ish situations out here in the jungle. Every now and then we'll get emails about how the whole campus will have no power for a day (ok, so maybe not biblical plague proportions of bad, but that's the analogy i'm using and I'll stick with it.) A few weeks ago we had the suffocating haze, where you start to wonder how your lungs are coping with breathing in air that's visibly stuffed with pollution. The latest one to hit, is the water shortage. For the month of April, our area is in a water disruption program to try deal with shortages. We're having on and off periods - 55hrs of no water supply, 41 hours of water supply, alternated for all of April. When the supply is off, we hope that the water tanks are large enough/full enough to last until the next on time. If not, I've got about 10L of bottled water at the ready, and a 30L bucket of water for washing/flushing/misc needs. I'm prepared ish. Really makes you appreciate just how much we take running water for granted though, and how lucky we are to even have access to clean, running water. 

Moving Forward?

What's next for Jacob in Malaysia? Well, we've got 2 more weeks of Pharmacy left before we finish our last module, hopefully PAINfree. I'm terrified that year 2 is nearly over. 

There's the UNMC Ball a week today, next friday, which I'm super looking forward to. 

There's the Pharmacy Prom soon enough, which I think I'll be attending

Exam Season? Trying to pretend it doesn't exist.

Post exam season? I'm going to go visit my dad in Australia for a bit, before deciding what I want to do after that. 

If you read it all, props to you and I owe you a hug. If not, I understand. I promise (as ever...) to try write more frequently, and when I'm not so tired and caffienated up. 

"How can we escape this taxi alive?"-Chinese New Year Part 3: Jakarta, Indonesia

Hello

So it's been a while since my last installment to our CNY travel adventures, and isntead of looking at my pre-work for a protein lab next week, I decided I would much rather write the 3rd part, so here it is. We only stayed in Jakarta for 2N 1D, so it's going to be a shorter blog.

Who: Anna, Vicky and I
Where: Jakarta, Indonesia

The Taxi Story

So this is where our time in Jakarta begins, at the airport, getting into a taxi. As it turns out, we got massively ripped off (by about 3x), but that's only a minor detail in this tale. Anna had booked the hostel/guesthouse for us this time, and on her piece of paper from them, it said "travel time from airport to Guesthouse: 30minutes." Admittedly, Jakarta is the second worse place on earth for traffic, so we knew it might take a while longer than that - and oh boy did it.

After travelling for about an hour (now on a motorway,) I attempted to ask our driver how long it was - to which he responded "not far, not far, 30minutes." His English was limited, so communication wasn't easy. Cue thirty minutes later, still on some motorway. I now notice (NB: the taxi was a people carrier style one, so nothing on the outside to indicate it was a taxi,) that there's nothing taxi-ish on the inside of it - no official number, no taxi driver ID, no meter. Ok..... Here comes the slight paranoia. Again, I ask him how long it is, and he says "soon," or something to that affect. It's fast getting dark, and I've realised we're stuck in a taxi that's seemingly already taking 3x the amount of time to get our destination (with no destination in sight,) and to top it off, the taxi might as well not be a taxi at all.

2 hours into the journey. It's now dark outside, and we've come off the motorway. I can hear the girls behind me whispering to each other and rustling around in their bags, removing passports and purses, ensuring they are on their persons.

2 and a half hours into the journey. We pull of a main road and start to drive down what looks like a more residential road, dimly light, and seemingly in the middle of nowhere for all we know (we thought our guesthouse was going to be somewhere in Jakarta, so had expected to end up in something resembling a city by now at least). Driving past two guys standing on the side of the road, the taxi slows, and stops.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," our taxi driver mumbles to us, before getting out of the taxi, locking it, and walking down to see the two guys we just drove past.

Looking back in the taxi, Anna and Vicky are just as worried and on edge about the fact we're in the middle of nowhere, and he just got out apologizing to us. Drop the sphygmometer, I wouldn't have needed a device with the longest name ever to tell me that my blood pressure was probably sky high at this point in time. Now, we're all pretty much convinced this it - we're either going to get mugged here for all we're worth, shot in some random field, and it's all going to go downhill like "Taken," except this time, there's no Liam Neeson to save us.

It's ok. We survived. Turns out he was just asking them for directions, they weren't his cronies hellbent on mugging some white tourists. Phew. That was a relief and a half. The directions they gave him weren't any good either though.

After about 3hrs, he decided he might be a smart idea to phone the guesthouse for directions, and we finally arrived, all in one piece, after three and a half hours in the taxi. Speaking to Anna and Vicky afterwards, they both in their heads had been thinking of when to take out the taxi driver and make a run for it - and I can say they weren't alone in trying to come up with escape plans.

Tamara Guesthouse

So, this was our home for the brief stay we had in Jakarta. Turns out it wasn't anywhere near the city centrally, so not the best location at all - false advertising! The main lady in charge, was an American called Joy, and to say she was eccentric was to put it lightly. Insanely clever, but absoultely crazy, and could talk the backlegs off a donkey - in the evenings we tried to take it in shifts, letting one person go escape to the shower, whilst the other two tried to survive a conversation with her.

Despite her personality, she had our utter best interests at heart, and the Guesthouse was a great place to stay. All meals were provided by the handyman-chef called Ignaice, the silent character to Joy's endless chatter. Tea and Coffee's were provided en masse (much to the happiness of my ever growing Caffiene addiction.) The whole place's decoration was almost colonial in design, with grand glass chandeliers and fancy two-story rooms, it was a bit like walking back in time.

Two photos of our room. The girls slept in a bed on the upper floor, whilst my mattress was just to the left of the green desk in photo 1. You could have easily lived in this space for a period of time.

As we only had one day in Jakarta to spend doing things, we asked Joy over breakfeast what was the best tourist thing to do around. Turns out, there isn't a whole to do tourist wise, but we ended up heading to somewhere called "Taman-mini." I'll do my best to explain it. It's a large park, fulled with completely different sections. There's a reptile house, a bird park, a cable car ride, an Indonesian Culture Museum, a Science Learning Museum, a Disney-esque castle and a boating lake, and that's just what I can remember. Definitely an odd place. There was enough to keep us entertained for the whole day however, as we wondered around exploring different parts (including me touching a snake - it involved about 5 minutes of slowly edging closer to it, my hands shaking more than a leaf in a storm. I'd like to point out it wasn't just a small snake, but some kind of python, and about 4-5ft in length.) 

Twice during our time at Taman-mini, we had what I'm dubbing the "Tourist Celebrity Experience." If you're a fellow international student out here in Malaysia, I'm sure you've experience this one, be it here in Malaysia, or abroad on your travels too. The first was with another group of Tourists from the Middle-East, who stopped us and asked for a photo. You want us to take a photo of you? Nonon, we want a photo of you with our young (5-8 I'd say,) children. Riiiiight. The next was with a bunch of high school children who wanted to interview us for some English Project (just prior to this we had brought ice creams, so any of their photos/footage of us will contain us holding ice creams...)

We left the next day, after Ignaice cooked us Ommlettes for breakfeast, an early taxi taking us to the airport (this time, without hiccup... thankfully,) marking the end of our short hop into Jakarta. With hindsight, Jakarta isn't the most touristy of locations, but it was another stamp into the passport, and I can now say I've been to Jakarta. We had fun at Taman mini, and all have left with the Taxi story forever ingrained in our minds. Next stop was KL for a brief stopover for Vicky and I, as we were to say goodbye to Anna before journeying onwards to our last stop - Hong Kong. That blog might be written tomorrow, I'll see how I feel.

Missing everyone loads,

\

Jacob xxx

Wat you looking at? - Chinese New Year Part 2: Cambodia

Title pun from the ever funny Vicky.

Here we are, back again, installment number two, which I'm sure will either be met with groans of "who ever let Jacob touch a keyboard," or "I guess I should be reading this..." Either way, I appreciate the reading <3
The accompanying photo album can be found on my facebook page.


Where: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Who: Anna, Vicky and I
When: 25th-29th Jan 2014

Yes, you've read that right, Alice dropped us like it's hot. We all had an emotional farewell at the airport in Bangkok, before trying to come to terms with it - acceptance is the first stage, or so I've been told. Srsly though, Alice had different travel plans, so we parted ways as she went onwards towards Hong Kong.

Travelling in style
Our ride from the airport to our hostel. Not quite what we expected. 

By the time we arrived on the 25th, it was getting late, so after a quick check into the hostel, we went to find dinner and then slept - we're the biggest party animals around.

Our hostel room. Again, practically luxury.
Anna makes a cameo apperance.

If you're to ask anyone what they know about Cambodia, odds are the first thing they will say is Temples/Angkor Wat. And no, you're not getting a citation on that one. As such, our first activity was to go see some temples. And by some, I mean lots. Angkor Wat? Check. Angkor Thom? Check. Bayon? Check. Ta Prohm? Check.

Jacob, what are all those words?! You may ask, and I'm going to give you a quick and easy way to distinguish between the aforementioned temples (only a few out of probably hundreds...) so you too, can sound like you know all about Cambodian history and impress your date when she/he turns out to be writing a dissertation on the architecture of Angkor Thom. Or y'know, just for general knowledge. Whatever floats your boat.

Angkor Wat: The big famous one (a complex)
Angkor Thom: Also big, not as famous (a complex)\
Bayon: The one with stone faces
Ta Prohm: The one Laura Croft was in.

Simple. For Angkor Wat, we ended up hiring a tour guide, a man who approached us within the complex, and assured us that he knew "everything there was to know," and he did seem pretty clued in. I highly suggest doing this for at least Angkor Wat if you're not going in with a pre-booked tour group, or spending a few hours reading Wikipedia before/afterwards. All in all, we spent about 7~ hours looking at various Temples - a short amount of time according to our hostel staff. If you want to spend days there, it's perfectly possible, but I feel we got to see the main ones, and that was enough for us.

Listening to our tour guide, the man in the blue

Somewhere towards the top on the main Angkor Wat Temple

That night, our tuktuk driver for the day, suggested we go to a "dinner dance" which is where whilst you're having dinner, there is traditional Cambodian dances taking place on a stage. Whilst what we got to see of the dances was good, the time he said it started at, was about 15minutes before it actually ended. Bit of a shame. Headed for more central Siem Reap, we explored the night markets, which were a nice mix of touristy things, as well as more traditional crafts and the like. After grabbing dinner, we sat in a bar on Pub Street (think a strip full of Bars and Westerners, and you're on the right track), listening to live music, and waiting to see if Hector, Faye, Alice (Brooks) and Joe would materialize - they were also in Siem Reap at the same time, and we'd roughlyish arranged to meet up with them (they did).

What happened then? A standard night of cheap alcohol and merriment? That'd be too standard and un-eventful for a night out when travelling. Around midnight, Hector left us - his stomach wasn't feeling too good, and Joe decided he fancied some ice-cream from a certain shop, so we parted - or so we thought. Within probably a minute of leaving us, Alice B spies the silhouette of Hector definitely not feeling good on the side of the road, and starts running to get to him. The rest of us see her running, and think "ooooh, running, sounds fun," and join in, before learning that she's actually not doing it for the fun of it. Cue dramatic music, as a motorbike drives by, before the back wheel skids out, sending the bike and it's two passengers skidding across the road right infront of us, sparks and all. Thankfully they weren't going that fast, so as they stand up, I got the bike up (gotta get my workouts in somehow when travelling...) and out of the road, as the rest check to see if they are ok. Seemingly un-shaken, the hop back on and drive off. Riiiight, that's not how a standard night out normally ends - both events took place within the space of about 30 seconds. Deciding to call it a night before anything else happened, we parted ways.

The Cambodian Trio

The next day wasn't the most productive surprisingly, we had a lazy start (with lots of water and ibuprofen for me on the menu,) before walking to the Angkor Wat National Museum. Ok, so it doesn't sound like the craziest of activities, but it was actually pretty good, with 8 different galleries, and enough information to soak your brain cells in for hours, I'd say it was worth doing. That evening we went to see a circus show. The circus was run by a charity called PPS, which also runs a school, giving kids from disadvantaged/rough backgrounds an education in trades and arts. This gives the temples a run for their money for my favourite part of our stay in Siem Reap, easily. 

For our final day, we spent the morning looking at various craft workshops/locations, which turned out to be not as good as we had hoped. The mainly consisted of a brief tour around the process and what was being done at each one, before being dropped into the shop to buy those products - we went to a soap one, and an art one. In the afternoon, we went to the Landmine Museum, which was a 45minute tuktuk drive away, but worth every moment. I had a brief idea about the recent tumultuous history of Cambodia, but learnt many things that I wasn't aware of , as well as being exposed to the very real effects that are still being felt by Cambodians today. Afterwards, we headed to the very serene Peace Cafe, which felt appropriate after learning about the horrors of past conflicts. That night, we met up with the others again for dinner, before we left for Indonesia the next morning, and they moved down to Pheom Penh. 

Reflecting on all of our travels, Cambodia was my favorite destination, and I'd quite like to visit Phenom Penh sometime. A wonderful country, with very friendly people, and steeped in history - both ancient and grandiose, as well as the more recent and raw. 

Of Protests, Buddhas and Elephants - Chinese New Year Part 1: Bangkok

Hellllllllllo,

I'm now back on campus! Woooo, bring out the welcoming party. Or not. Arriving back last night was somewhat of a shock to the system; I'm not used to going away, and then coming back to somewhere that isn't actually home - and campus is like a ghost town at the moment. Before I get onto the meat of the first part of our adventure, here's a little something I recently recived that I wanted to share. I about squealed and would've jumped off the bed if there was room in our tiny Hong Kong hostel room.

There may be a lack of photos in this blog, and (at current) a lacking accompanying photo album on facebook. Erm, that's because I accidentally managed to delete the photos off of the camera for Bangkok, in my efforts to collate them all - I made a new folder on the camera itself, to put them in that one from various locations on the camera. Unplug the camera, move up to TCR for fast upload, open up camera folders - and it's gone. Smart one Jacob! So until I can get hold of a USB Memory Card Reader, and then attempt to run data recovery programs on that, I have none of the photos I took from our trip to Thailand... So if you're reading this, and are near campus/on campus and have a card reader I can borrow for 30mins tops, please save me <3 To make up for that in the meantime, the collection of quotes from our holiday will also go up today.

Thailand

Who:Alice, Anna, Vicky and I
Where: Bangkok, Thailand
How Long: Three days

After what seemed like the longest exam period ever, the four of us set off to LCCT on the 22nd of Janurary to begin the much needed holiday. Being the clued up travellers we are, we had all been keeping a (nervously so) close eye on the recent developments in Bangkok - including the government declaring a "State of Emergency" in the capital. As such, we arrived knowing the dangers and risks, and what to avoid (the protest areas.) Upon perhaps two hours of arriving at our Hotel (Lemontea Hotel in Pratanum, a great place to stay, and very reasonably priced,) we'd managed to walk into one of the protests. Oops.

As it turns out, we need not have been so worried about it. The protest area we wondered into, was one of the main streets in Bangkok, that they are currently camped out in, and have been for some time. Street stalls line the road, the shops behind doubtlessly annoyed at the lasting intrusions. If you want a t-shirt saying "Shutdown Bangkok," then you're in the right place. The opposition leader was making a speech a street over, and we could hear his voice booming over the microphone, the speakers and large screen broadcasting him weren't quite necessary this close by. Enough excitment we decided for night, lest we start feeling rather Che-Guevarat-esque, we left to go do a bit of exploring around the area, and wondered through some of the night market stalls, grabbing dinner at a restaurant on the way.

All of a sudden my hair started to grow out, and a most wonderful 'stache graced my upper lip upon entering the protests.

At the airport, in the process of booking a taxi, we had stumbled across a tour operator. This was to be the basis of our first whole day in Bangkok. The tour bus and our guide picked us up in the morning (of the 23rd,) for the "Temple and City Tour," visiting two large Buddah Statues in two seperate temples around Bangkok. For the un-aware, there are a total of 8 differennt Buddah poses seen in statues, with each being assigned to a different day (Wednesday has two, the greedy thing,) and the one that you pray to, is the one assigned to your day of birth. The first Buddah we saw, was the "medidating buddah," one made of solid gold(I think?), and weighing in at a hefty 5.5tonnes.  Next up was the "Reclining Buddah," and this one happened to be the 3rd (only 3rd?!) largest Buddah in Thailand. At a crazy 15m high, and 46m long, it was fairly impressive to say the least. Not solid gold this time though.                                        

Down by the feet.
Once again, photo from Alice, as you all know the saga of mine...

And here is a picture, from Alice.
 I'll learn to open my eyes in photos one day

The rest of our tour (City) was just being driven around to see a few governmental buildings, the Royal Palace (which is private,) and then a jeweler shop and a tailors - the last two being fairly common type stops at the end of tours as we've learnt, with the drivers/guides receiving bonuses/benefits for taking people to these places, so we just pretended to be interested in the things before making excuses to leave. In the afternoon, the girls went off for a Thai massage (the sign stated in no uncertain terms that it was JUST a massage,) whilst I grabbed a power-nap back in the hotel room. Before leaving our tour guide, we booked onto a tour for the next day, and bought tickets for a Cabaret show in the evening, at somewhere called "Asiatique," a short boat ride away down the river. The whole Asiatique area had lots of restaurants and bars, as well as good views of the river and Bangkok skyline. I can't say I had ever been to a Cabaret show, so it was an experience, but a very good one at that. A drink being included in the ticket price was a nice bonus too - evenmoreso when it started with G and ended in "in and tonic." I didn't start giggling, don't worry. 

Photo with performers after the show.
 Don't ask me to tell you who's a he and who's a she.

 

Our tours for the second day (24th) involved a lovely early morning start, as we had to drive 90min outside of Bangkok -destined for the floating markets. I wish I had my photos now, as I've got a great one of Vicky and a floating fruit seller re-enacting Michealangelo's famous "Creation of Adam,"(clothed...) as adorns the Sistine Chapel, but that'll have to wait till I manage to recover the photos... :( The floating markets were really good, lots of touristy things, but also more traditional sellers on their small boats up and down the river/canals, selling fresh fruit, noodles (they cooked on these tiny boats - pretty much wooden kayaks,) fried bananas and more. There was also, much less to my enjoyment, various stalls with large snakes for photo opportunities, never once failing to trigger what felt like my fight and flight response every time we had to walk past once. Next on the list of acitivites, was riding an elephant. I'll share with you, a pearl of humour from this activity. 

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"Because were coming on an elephant."

Anna and Alice's elephant saying hello. 

In the afternoon, we were headed to a show/Zoo place of sorts. Not before a buffet lunch of course. Om nom nom Thai food. The first show, as befitting for Thailand, was an Elephant show. It went through the cultural and historica signifcance of Elephants to the nation, as well as more silly things, like Elephants playing football or doing handstands. There was even a mini battle re-enactment involving Elephants, which still sounded a tadge risky, with fake explosions and sword fighting happening around these large animals. It was a very good show, and one I'd recommend anyone visting Thailand to try and see something similar.The same place also had a crocodile wrestling show, yet this one wasn't as good. The two guys seemed to just be provoking the animals by dragging them out of the water, and then putting various limbs/bodyparts into their mouths. Hey, perhaps it's perfectly safe, it just seemed a little too far for me. The evening was a chilled one, resting of what was a rather busy day.

The 25th, sadly, was our last day in Thailand. We didn't do much, had a lazy morning and packed, before heading off to the Airport to see Alice off on her travels as she was leaving us, and then waiting around a fair while (too many hours for me to want to remember) for our flight. We passed the time reading books, being silly and thinking about what we were gonna do in our next destination - Siem Reap, Cambodia. 

That's it for Thailand, and once again, sorry for the lack of photos from yours truly at present - I'm a numpty.Hopefully I can sort it out, and I'll probably do Cambodia's blog tomorrow, or maybe this evening. For now I'm off to the gym (it's been two weeks, I've gotten serious withdrawal symptoms,) 

And no, for anyone asking, we didn't go to see a Ping Pong Show. 

Not that kind of Ping Pong. 

Exam Season and Travel Plans

I haven't forgotten about this! Honest!

It's been a while, for sure. But that's largely because not a lot has been happening :( Semester ended on the 14th of December, and about the only thing that's happened since then is the family visiting over Christmas. Andy, Sara and Annabel - family friends also made it out to KL so caught up with them too. Was awesome to see them again and spend time with them - yes, even you Jed! Just stop growing, you're making me look short. Joshua spent one night sleeping over on Campus with me, eager to spot whatever wildlife he could - nothing terribly exciting sadly, we only saw the big snails (they're about 4-6 inches long...) millipedes,frogs and of course the campus stray dogs. He turned 8 whilst in Borneo (they're next destination after KL,) and to get all mushy on this blog (I try prevent this happening too much,) it was his first birthday I've missed, "I wish you could be there on my birthday Jacob," is a statement I still remember - and I absolutely wanted to be there, but after already spending 5 days not studying at all, I couldn't justify spending a week in Borneo.

Wait, you mean this isn't my diary where I write all the emotional things... woops... Apologies, it's early early morning (nearly 4am) and my filters are gone.

Ever since then, revision has been the name of the game. Second year has been a huuuuuuge step up from first year, and I've been trying my best to keep my face firmly glued to lecture notes and study matierals. At the time of writing, I've done two exams, with two more to go. Light at the end of the tunnel. My sleep schedule has detiorated from anything standard, to waking up at midday, and working until 4am - I might need to try fix this soon, seeming as we're going travelling..

TRAVELLING. TRAVELLING.

My primary motivator for coming to Malaysia for the year (aside from the awesome food and weather,) was the oppourtunity to go travelling around South East Asia on the cheap. Perhaps my ideas of how much/often I'd get to go away was a tad warped, due to the ramping up from 1st->2nd year,  and passport issues. BUT WHATEVER. ITS HAPPENING NOW. The day after our last exam, Anna, Alice, Vicky and I fly out to Bangkok. If you're not away, Bangkok is in a rather tenous state right now, with the threat of (another) coup on the brink, and protests simmering on the edge of violent/peaceful. So, if you see a picture on BBC news of 4 white people running away from gunfire, that might be us. 

What we aim to avoid

From there, Alice is leaving us, and then the three of us are onto Cambodia, followed by Indoneisa, and finally, Hong Kong, before returning to campus a couple of days before Uni starts up again. I'm really looking forward to this, and I'm sure it'll all go swimmingly without any adverse events. If you're not of the same thought, send me a message detailing what you'd like to receive from my will.

I'l be sure to update everyone on what we got up to on our return, and that'll be my next blog post. Hope everyone in the UK is feeling ready for their upcoming exams, and if that's not applicable, hope the weather isn't too bad, and you're doing well.

Much love,

Jacob xx