Erin and Justin

We are still in Kent with Rhys and Nina, whose kindness and generosity has been outstanding, given that our couple of weeks has now actually, today, been a month.

You can see Kent photos at: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/Kent/?start=all

Finding work is a bit of a nightmare. The pay for jobs we want is so poor without GSCC registration...

And we can get that, but to get it, we are required to complete:
a) an application form, which is actually the size of a slim book, and includes details of ALL employers, along with full contact details, that we have had since age of 16, and we must include explanatory details for any periods not accounted for (eg, travel), and provide documentary evidence (such as stamps in passport).
b) a "personal statement", that we have to write, to demonstrate in explicit detail how we have met each of the practice requirments of each of the core competences of a diploma of social work, through our experiences of employment over the past 10 years, and through our multiple related degrees...!
c) "documentary evidence" to support any claim that we have made in our personal statement. This includes degree certificates (transcripts are not enough), and birth certificates (passports are not enough!!!), as well of copies of job descriptions, references from employers, policy documents we've written, meeting minutes, etc etc etc...basically a bunch of documents that take a hell of a long time to get hold of.

And then, once we have these documents, they need to be verified - and since we are not currently working in social care, they have to be verified by 2 people, one being our previous employer.

So to give you an example, for Erin's Bachelor degree certificate to be verified, process = Print out request for reissue and statutory declaration forms, to state that the testamur has been irreplaceably lost. Find a JP and get them to sign it, then post the request. Sent 8 Jan. In a week or so, they get the request and they process it. But being a testamur, a legal document, it must be put before the senate to be stamped with approval. But senate does not meet until 5 Feb. 6 Feb they'll send the degree, arriving hopefully around 10-11 Feb... Then (in theory it has to be copied and sent back to previous employer, along with all the other documents that need to be verified), to be verified, and then given to another person whom "has been known to the applicant for a period of no less than 5 years" to be verified again, and then sent back to the UK. Then the verified documents can be added to the application and sent off with £155 PER APPLICATION (which is a lot of money, when paying for 2 unemployed people, with Australian dollars!).

As if this wouldn't be bad enough, we've then got to wait for 2-3 months for the application to be PROCESSED, before we know whether or not our pplications have been successful. Damn!

So we are thinking now about other options so as to get out of England while our applications process, so as to stop watching our hard earned dollars disappear in groceries and train tickets costing pounds.

Ideas have been to travel through India for a couple of months, maybe China, maybe Eastern Europe; do some voluntary work in India or Africa or somewhere else; teach English in Japan or Korea or China or somewhere else; do some other kind of work, anywhere else...!

Any ideas..?

After a fun but quiet NYE in London with Kellie and Adam, Katherine and Mike and their Aunt and Uncle, we went back to Sam and Zoe's house in Camden Town for a week of looking for work and seeing London.

It was a strange and funny week, we met with recruitment agencies one day, then the next day during a walk to the Tower of London we met 2 really funny and very resilient homeless guys (who would be homeless in London!!?) that we spent a couple of hours with, and the next day we took another walk to visit the Freud Museum - the house that Sigmund and Anna moved to when they came to England to escape Nazi reach.

Now we have come to Kent, to stay with Justin's cousin Rhys and his partner Nina, and things feel like they're falling into place a little bit. The beautiful guitar that we bought in Bangkok, that got damaged during our flight to England, is being fixed, and our packages from Vietnam with our presents (you'll get them one day, when we can afford to send them!) and our warm, and not-quite-right-looking, clothes that we had made for us have arrived, and we've seen Daniela to collect them, and Erin caught up with Christine and Sam, and we're feeling a little bit more connected to, and excited about, being in the UK.

Work is looking like a bit more of an issue - we have to get professional registration to get jobs that pay alright it seems, and we have to get hold of a few documents like degrees and birth certificates before we can apply, but it looks like a few registration options open to us. Erin can only work for a year with this visa, and to get a different one, has to earn a certain amount over a year. Justin though, with his UK citizenship (even though he's never been here before - so good/unfair) can take any job with any pay, so maybe we'll be on one income for a month or so while registrations process...!?

See our photos at: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/London/?start=all

After spending a night with Zoe in London, it was hard to tell if confusion was due to jetlag or red wine. Regardless, we got it together to get ourselves back to Heathrow airport to meet up with Katherine's Mum Trish, and her partner Brian, to wait for Katherine to arrive from Perth! She was delayed because of fog too, but eventually she came through the gate with her eyes falling out of her head, and we headed "home" to Salisbury.

Now, we thought we were pretty lucky to have friends to be able to spend Xmas with, let alone STAY with over Xmas, but who would have imagined that we would be so fortunate as to spend Xmas with Katherine, staying with her and her family, in her mum's house, WHICH HAPPENS TO BE A 4-STAR B&B!!!

SO lucky!

And there were only 2 paying guests there - Tim and Diane, a lovely couple from Los Angeles, who knew the family from staying at their B&B on multiple occasions - so it was all very intimate and warm. And Katherine's brother Mike arrived from Queensland a couple of days after Katherine, surprising their mother into tears and shock (and shock that her kids were able to surprise her)!

So we spent our Xmas feeling part of a family, which with Brian's kids there, and Katherine's friends and Trishes friends, it was a big family! It was a Xmas with presents and a roast dinner and lots of wine - and games and dancing that followed the wine - and we even woke up to stockings filled with presents on Xmas morning!

Our Xmas in Salisbury carried right on until NYE... Thank you so much Trish and Brian, and Katherine and Mike, for making us so welcome!! xx

OUR XMAS PHOTOS ARE AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/Xmas/?start=all

Having spent 3 months in SE Asia, mostly moving on every few days, we had not carried too much more than we needed - which meant that we did not have any warm clothes, not even a pair of jeans and a jumper to wear on the plane!

So, we met back up with our sweet swedish friends from Laos, Henrik and Sofia, and it was nice to spend our last day with them - and they needed to shop too!

It had been our intention all along to shop in Bangkok and sort our winter wardrobes out, but a nasty tummy bug, causing both of us to want to stay within metres of a toilet (and a reasonable one at that) put our plans out a bit, and we spent just a few hours traulling around a kind of shopping centre where all the shops were close together and the walkways were narrow, and the shops all looked the same and - did I just come from there? Or there? Did we say we were going to meet on this floor? Outside? Where we came in? Where did we come in...?

And we ended up with some alright clothes, and a supply of toiletries, etc to last us a good couple of months in England, so by the time we need to spend pounds, we'll have earnt them!

Our flight from Thailand to England was via Germany, where we got delayed due to London fog. We spent an extra few hours there, and spent Euros on beer and spent a delerious state making international calls and texting people.

Eventually we made it to London

SEE OUR FINAL SE ASIA PHOTOS AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Farewell%20SE%20Asia/?start=all

We were ready for the next installment of our adventure, having spent the past few days surrounded by Brits, so we were excited, more than sad, to be moving on from our island paradise.

We journeyed back, with one of those Brits - Ade - to the Krabi Province, this time to the Town of Krab, where we decided to take advantage of our afternoon and see a the "Tiger Cave" a temple where a single monk has as many shrines to himself as to Buddha in the temple. The temple is in the side of a mountain, and there is a cave inside it which looks like a tiger or a tiger's paw or something... We went in to have a look, but if there was a tiger-something there, but we couldn't make it out.

There were loads of monkeys at the base of the mountain, and there was a very tall staircase, leading up to a giant buddha at the top. There were a few buddhas up there, actually, and on the way up there was a terrific statue that looked a bit like a Buddha-Santa-Tarzan cross.

What was amazing actually, were some beetles and moths that we found at the top of the mountain.

OUR PHOTOS ARE AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Krabi/?start=all

And those stairs, if you go there, suck, they're a killer.

This really was our time of rest. Ten days of staying on a secluded beach - Ao Toh Ko - on the far side of Phi Phi Island, away from the very very crowded and very popular town beaches.

Now, this place was excellent because:

- IT WAS A SECLUDED BEACH
- We had a bungalow on the water - and it was cheaper than a grotty room in a big ugly building in town!
- The water was spectacularly clear, a beautiful surprise after our time at Railey
- We went snorkelling nearly every day
- The woman who owned the bungalows and the restaurant (which had WONDERFUL food), Pohn, was gorgeous, friendly and an absolute scream
- We met Gabrielle, a paramedic and anaesthetist from Switzerland who is terrific fun, and keen for swimming and snorkelling, and harrowing uphill hikes through the jungle
- We also met Mark and Krista, from Canada, who had been travelling NZ and SE Asia for 15 months, who are awesome musicians, and who are keen to plan our driving route in Canada in August
- Will and Ali came and met us there!
- and we also met Ade, Andy, Marie, and Fraser
- We went into town and watched Thai boxing in a pub where we could volunteer to participate, and it took some real convincing for Justin to stay out of the ring.

Apart from our one night out for Thai boxing, there is not a lot else to write about because we spent our time reading books, swimming in the ocean, eating, snorkelling, watching crabs, and hiking through the jungle!

SEE OUR PHOTOS (INCUDING UNDERWATER PHOTOS!) AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Phi%20Phi%20Island/?start=all

It’s funny what we have come to view as expensive. Our room at Ya Ya Resort is600Baht per night (in BKK we paid 400, Lopburi 160, and Chiang Mai 250) and a big breakfast here, including fruit, toast, eggs, sausage (or mushroom!) coffee and fruit juice is 160THB. At the end of Railay East it’s 100THB and on Railay West its 200THB. When you consider however, that 100Baht = US$2.50, a big breakfast at double the cost is still not “expensive”. Yet, for the past 5 weeks or so we have been paying US$3-7, so we found ourselves asking eachother “Is 600 ok with you? It is a lot of money…” Unbelievable! The UK is going to kill us!!!

This is sadly last leg, but is also the exciting, and relaxing “holiday” part of our SE Asia adventure – the best way we can think of to bring this chapter to a close.

So anyway, back in the real world (What’s that again!?) we have spent the past 5 days staying at a resort on Railay Beach, a headland between Krabi and Ao Nang, where we have lazed about on the beach (where there are a number of monkeys(!) who in comparison with those at Lopburi, are very well mannered!) eating pineapples, and have been swimming and snorkelling and kayaking in the beautiful, clear, warm sea… We are so lucky!

SEE PHOTOS OF RAILAY AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Railey/?start=all

Tomorrow morning we are going to get the ferry to Phi Phi Island, where we have heard really mixed reviews. Being peak season, we have booked ahead, and hopefully found the right spot – its on a (supposedly) reasonably secluded beach, and we have a beach bungalow there – also for 600Baht! YESSSS!

It is amazing to be back in Bangkok, time has just gone so quickly – we’ll have jobs soon (gulp!)!

We met back up with Will and Ali and showed them photos of monkeys (hundreds more than we posted!) until they felt upset, and then we saw some of Bangkok!

PHOTOS AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Back%20in%20Bangkok/?start=all

We had quite a definite plan for Bangkok – shopping. That was all we really wanted to do: find some warm clothes for an English winter, small speakers for computer/iPod; find a waterproof case for the camera, a guitar, maybe a firestick, see what options there were for a new computer, look at other completely unnecessary electronic gadgets that we might “need”, along with toiletries and stationary shopping, and anything else that might be a quarter of the price here compared to the UK…

But we spent a long time looking and not a lot of time buying! We did however, buy a guitar, and we did meet back up with Will and Ali for a couple of days, and might see them down south too!

So now we are heading for the island beaches of south Thailand! We fly in to Krabi today, and out again on the 19th, and have a loose plan of staying somewhere around Krabi, and Koh Phi Phi and maybe somewhere off Phuket… Who knows!? We will have a day and a half back in Bangkok before we fly to England, so we will buy the other necessaries then…

The only reason that we came to Lopburi, and the reason we carried on with our struggle to make it here, is because there are hundreds – maybe thousands – of monkeys. They’re everywhere. On everything – it’s crazy! They steal things from moving cars, they pull the protective insulation off the powerlines, they swing from shopfronts and they bully people for their lunch! Remember the movie Gremlins? When they’re everywhere? Destructive and mischievous… its just like that, but they’re macaques! And Justin fed them, and let them crawl all over him (and wasn’t he itchy later!?) Its incredible that we never heard of this place before coming to Thailand!

There is far more to see, than say, so that you can believe it. The photos don’t even do it justice, but GO TO http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Monkeys/?start=all TO SEE PHOTOS!

PS: we have only published a tenth of the photos we took...

After an inspiring but exhausting day with the elephants, we climbed onto the night train from Hell.

As we didn’t have a sleeper ticket, we were on high-backed bench seats in a carriage that had windows that were half-glass half-grill to ensure that adequate ventilation was maintained, and had a toilet at each end – neither of which had toilet paper, running water or anywhere to store what went in it – it all went onto the tracks.

Normally this would cause us no concern, as the train was leaving at 9:30pm and arriving at 9:30am, so we would sleep in between. However, the train was freezing, absolutely freezing. We each wore two to three layers of clothing (however light the clothing was), and wrapped ourselves in sarongs and leant against eachother, and could still barely sleep for the cold! Then at about 5am when we woke up, we came to realise that the train had been stopped for almost 2 hours, and that there had been some kind of accident. At 8am the train started up again, and 20min later, stopped again.

First we were advised that the train would carry on at 10am. Then 11. Then 1-1:30, then at 2pm.

Those train toilets, and half-windows that would not have otherwise bothered us, had become upsetting.

At 2:20, after being informed by a local tuk-tuk driver that the train was likely to sit right there overnight, we went with 5 others to get a taxi. They were going to Bangkok airport, so as to make their flights. As we were headed to Lopburi, and the fastest route to the airport did not go through Lopburi, we decided to go with them until Ayuthaya, and then get out and get a bus.

This became quite an expensive affair, as we paid 6x the cost of our train tickets for the taxi journey, then paid a quarter of the cost of our train tickets for the bus from Ayuthaya, to arrive in Lopburi at 9:30pm, instead of 9:30am! And right after we checked into our hotel, two girls that had been on our train, and stayed on it, checked in.

SEE PHOTOS AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Hell%20Train/

Please view their website: http://www.elephantnaturepark.org

Elephant Nature Park is a sanctuary for elephants, set up as an exemplary elephant tourism alternative to elephant camps or begging elephants.

Elephant Camps are surprisingly common, and popular amongst tourists. These are places where elephants give rides and perform tricks like dancing or painting. Assumingly, most tourists do not give any thought as to how these elephants come to learn these tricks, and what being “broken” means, so that the elephant is able to “work”.

Elephant Nature Park is run by an incredible woman named Lek, a Thai woman who grew up in a local village where elephants are used for work, and are “broken” so as to be able to perform that work. She has volunteers supporting her, and one of those volunteers – an Australian woman named Michelle – went there for a 2-week volunteer trip with her husband in 2002, and has only returned to Australia in that time to pack up her gear and collect her dog. They live there now, spending their days talking to tourists about elephants and promoting elephant well-being! What a job!!!

We fed elephants, got in the river with them and scrubbed them, watched babies play… it was a really amazing day! And we took about 500 photos!

TO SEE MANY PHOTOS, GO TO: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Elephants/?start=all

They kicked us out! We can’t believe it!! We have to leave tomorrow because they said there was no room for us, and that someone else had booked ahead for a room and one of their tours! …and the real reason we were kicked out was because we had not bought one of their tours!! And they hadn’t even asked us! So our stay in Chiang Mai was going to be a day or two shorter than planned, and we are booked on the overnight train (even though we couldn’t get a sleeper!!) for tomorrow, after we have spent the day at Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for elephants, where we can see elephants being elephants – a tourism alternative to “Elephant Camps”.

It’s a bit of a shame to be leaving earlier than expected, as we were planning to look around at the night markets (which in Chiang Mai, especially on a Sunday are HUGE) to see if we could buy some cheap warm clothes for our trip to England, but its good to be heading to Lop Buri.

Anyway, it’s funny being back in a real city, in a world that has Starbucks and McDonalds.

SEE OUR FEW CHIANG MAI PHOTOS AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Chiang%20Mai/

Choosing how we were going to leave Luang Prabang and get to Thailand was a task. Our options were: a) Fly – 2 hour journey for $100 each; b) Slow Boat – 2&1/2 day journey for about $37 each (plus accommodation along the way); or c) Speed Boat – 15 hour journey for $40 each.

a) The flight would be expensive, and on Laos Airline, who do not perform safety checks on their aircraft in between flights, do not have training of an international standard, and do not produce statistics regarding their flight records and instance of crash (which apparently is more frequent than one should be comfortable with);

b) The slow boat would take 2&1/2 days of travelling, stopping in Pak Bang the first night, which is apparently an awful spot, half way to the border, and stopping at the border on the second night, because the boat arrives right after immigration closes. We would have to buy cushions to sit on, so as to avoid spending 2 full days on a wooden bench seat, have to pay for accommodation at 2 places where we had no interest in being, and would miss 2 days that we could potentially be spending in Chiang Mai;

c) The speedboat is dangerous. The Lonely Planet says that accidents involving a boat hitting a rock or a branch seem to occur on a weekly basis, some of them fatal.

Due to our seemingly bleak options, we had decided to fly to Chiang Mai. But we booked too late and there were no seats available. After speaking to multiple travel agents and locals, we decided that the Lonely Planet was wrong – or that it was old and out of date. We were assured that there used to be many accidents, but that now, with increased tourism, the boats are safe, comfortable, and dry, and that the last accident was a couple of years ago – in the rainy season. And it’s the dry season now! So we bought the speedboat tickets… and some dry bags, just in case!

So let us describe the speedboat. It is a small wooden boat, and the passengers sit on the floor, on a plastic-coated foam cushion. Bags are strapped on the front of the boat, and seats – well, sitting spaces – are separated with wooden dividers about a foot and a half apart, with the spaces being a little over 2 feet wide. Two people sit in each space.

That speedboat ride, in the morning, was great, and we couldn’t believe how lucky we were! It moved at a pace that was slow enough for us to take in the sights of the Mekong, and there were only 4 of us in the boat, so we had room to spread out.

We ate lunch in Pak Bang, happy that we weren’t staying there overnight, like our poor friends, Will and Ali, who cautiously and sensibly, bought slow boat tickets.
After lunch however, we were put on a new boat, with 6 other people, and 6 other people’s luggage, which made for a very heavy, very crowded, very cramped and very uncomfortable journey for the next 4 hours, wearing our lifejackets and helmets, sitting with our knees at our chins, unable to shift more than an inch or two. It was hell. But we made it, and in the nick of time to get through the border too!

SEE PHOTOS AT:http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Speedboat/

Sadly, due to our haste to make it through in time, we took no photos at this border crossing, which we expected to be far more formal, given that we were entering Thailand. Immigration to be stamped out of Laos was on one side of the Nam Ou river, and immigration through into Thailand was on the other side, with a small boat to take us between the two. Initially we got on the boat without even stamping out of Laos, because we didn’t NOTICE it! It was a travel agent that we had spoken to about a minibus that noticed we hadn’t walked off the boat ramp and up to the immigration window to stamp out!!

Immigration on the other side was the same. We only formally entered Thailand because we chose to, not because we were forced to. We could have just climbed on to the tuk tuk without even showing our passports!

And then, 5 hours later, after a long and comparably comfortable – luxurious, in fact! – minibus ride, we arrived in Chiang Mai. Phew!

Luang Prabang has brought out all kinds of emotions and expectations of the world.

Upon arriving at Luang Prabang, much like our arrival in Vientiane, we could not find a room and there were no touters to take us to their guesthouse. Our minivan driver from Phonsavan had stayed with us, assisting us in our mission to find a bed despite his multiple phone calls that were quite obviously from someone who was expecting his arrival.

After we had searched for a good hour, we sent the driver on his way, and about 20 minutes later, as we checked into a guesthouse, Will and Ali realised that they had left their month-old digital SLR camera, full of photographs, in the minivan!

We knew the name of the travel agency and the agent who sold us the tickets.

After 3 days of compulsively investigating each minivan we saw, would you believe it, Will and Ali got in touch with the travel agent who arranged the minivan, who gave them the driver’s phone number, and his sister’s phone number, and then after phoning, and being assured that they had the camera, the guesthouse owner drove Will to their village so that he could pick it up! AND, they had taken photos of themselves with the camera!!

The most wonderful part of the story is, although Will and Ali had felt doubtful about getting the camera back, none of us were surprised when they did!

Just love Laos!!

The other things that made Luang Prabang beautiful, were the waterfalls. The two famous ones are Tat Kuang Si, the big waterfall, and Tat Sae, the “small” waterfall. Kuang Si, is really tall waterfall at the beginning, and then gently falls into tiers with deep swimming holes, a beautiful misty blue colour. It is surrounded by jungle, and right by the falls there is a sun bear sanctuary and a tiger sanctuary for animals that have been rescued from poachers. The second waterfall, Tat Sae has no tall section, but is much wider and in our opinion, far more spectacular. It too has amazing blue swimming holes, and it is surrounded by jungle, and it encompasses trees. It ends at the Mekong, which you see as you arrive, as the only means of getting there is by boat. It’s really incredible.

The night markets are another treat that Luang Prabang has to offer, where not only could we find the best quality items we have seen for sale yet, the same price as elsewhere, but we also found vegetarian and vegan food stalls (street stalls!) with buffet-style options, where you can fill a bowl for 5000kip – which is 50c!!!

SEE PHOTOS AT: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Luang%20Prabang/?start=all

We caught the bus for 7 hours to Phonsavan, and were shocked to find the carnage that we did. Quite apart from some very grizzly sights at the fresh food market (like skewered rats, whole badgers, and a little Bambi cut up neatly and its pieces all stacked up next to itself!) we found artillery shells displayed inside every store, restaurant and guesthouse.

During our bus trip we met Will and Ali from Bristol, and we stayed at the same guesthouse (that was heavily decorated with old bomb shells), and we also managed to get a sweet deal whereby instead of the next day paying for a tuk-tuk to take us to the Plain of Jars, come back to town, kill time and then get the bus to Luang Prabang the morning after (there was only one bus daily), we scored for about $2 extra each, a minivan to drive us to Phonsavan, via the Plain of Jars - so we were very happy to be able to get to Luang Prabang a day earlier than planned!

The Plain of Jars: It was amazing and wonderful, but about it there is far more to see than say, as like many other ancient structures like this, no one knows much about it – why it was there, who put it there, and what it was used for.

SEE PHOTOS AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Phonsavan/?start=all

What we do know however, that surrounding and throughout this sacred sight, bomb craters are plentiful, and the cleared areas are marked for walking through.