The blog is back! I apologize for the rather distinct lack of posts, internet was a hard thing to come by in Africa (and quite frankly, so was free time to write). But I’m in Europe now, sitting on the train to Edinburgh as I write this and posts should hopefully become more frequent.
Since it’s been a while since the last post and a lot has happened since then this post is going to be kinda an overview of the last two months rather than a detailed post like previous ones (because it would never get finished if I tried to cover everything and I really would like to get caught up and back on track). As usual though this will be a picture heavy post (are you surprised? No? Good 
) And with that why don’t we pick up where I left you in Thailand?
The remaining weeks of the TEFL course were fun and very busy. We had a ton of homework because of all the lessons plans we had to write but we still always found time to go out and have a relaxing dinner, usually on the beach (really, why would you eat anywhere else?). Our classes went well, the Thai students really are wonderful and most of them are actually interested in being there and learning, wish more students in the States were like that.
When I wasn’t studying or writing lesson plans I started planning my itinerary for the week after the course. My plan was to fly to Chiang Mai and then work my way back down to Bangkok by train and bus, seeing the sights along the way, similar to what my sister did when she spent ten days in Thailand and I was able to copy parts of her itinerary, which made planning much easier. I was excited and Sophia decided that she’d come along with one of her friends, whom she was meeting in Chiang Mai.
So with rough itinerary in place my attention focused back on finishing the course. It was fairly uneventful, we all passed and received our certificates in addition to fairly nice, fairly large backpacks (like, proper backpacking bags, not school bags), which was a nice unexpected surprise. I had yet to realize how much of a pain in the ass that bag was going to be to haul around the world (and to ship home, what a nightmare).
The one nifty thing that did happen during the last week of the course was that JB got in contact with a monk who did traditional Thai tattoos (like with the big needles and everything, no machines here) and went to get a piece done. It was stunning, the level of detail that can be achieved is mind-boggling, everything was so clean and precise. Well JB decided that one wasn’t enough and went back to get another. This time me and my camera got to tag along. It was amazing to simply be there, much less be able to photograph it and I came away with my first serious photo essay. A pretty cool experience all around (and JB got three beautiful pieces of ink to remember Thailand by).
Well, the course ended and Sophia and I flew up to Chiang Mai to start our little adventure. The city is beautiful and, after a little trouble finding her friend, we headed out to explore the city. We ended up at an infamous little club/bar called 2am and danced the night away (literally, we got back to room a little before seven). I got up a few hours later to explore on my own and set up my jungle trek for the next day. It was a good day that ended with Chiang Mai’s famous Sunday Market (one of the coolest markets I’ve seen, there was a little bit of everything). Sophia and her friend decided that they were going to stay in the north and explore the area around Chiang Mai rather than heading south with me so after my trek (waterfalls, elephants, and rafting; all spectacular if you ignore the fact that I had a nasty case of food poisoning) I head off on my own.
It was a week full of adventures. Everything from missed/wrong buses to spectacular ruins to beautiful temples to communication problems to wonderful people. Saw pretty much everything I wanted to see, took a ton of pictures (most of which are still being edited, my apologies), and got to enjoy the Thailand that I had pictured before I arrived in Ban Phe (northern Thailand is very different from the southern regions). My last stop was Bangkok, my 36-hour trip to civilization before heading off to Africa. It felt nice to be back in a city and, despite having strep throat (not a great week in the health world for me, eh?), I acquired Mister Donut (after having been eluded and taunted by them since my arrival in Chiang Mai), Starbucks and, much to my great delight, Alice in Wonderland. In English. In iMax 3D. I was giddy to say the least. The movie combines many of my favorite things in film (Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Helena Boham-Carter, Alice in Wonderland) and I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was going to miss seeing it in theaters. After all, what was the likelihood that it would be released in Thailand the same day it was released in the US? Pretty good apparently
My brief stint in civilization was nice but soon it was time to leave Thailand and head off to the wilds of Africa. After almost missing my flight from Bangkok, it was a short hop to Kuala Lumpur then on to Johannesburg. The flight was uneventful till we landed and one of my bags failed to show up at baggage claim. Normally wouldn’t be a big deal but my sick-adled brain had packed all of my electronics chargers in that bag rather than carrying them on like a smart person. Needless to say I was less than thrilled but there wasn’t a whole lot I could do beside file a report and hope that it would show up soon. So I sat at the gate for my flight to Richard’s Bay, ate donuts and people-watched, trying to figure out who else there was also on the African Impact program. I guessed one right (his lowpro backpack gave him away ).
We arrived and were met by Andrew, who runs the African Impact St. Lucia programs and waited for the luggage to come through. My day was made when both of my bags showed up, unharmed and most importantly, there, in my hands. The rest of the group seemed nice as we all loaded our luggage into the van and headed off to St. Lucia, about an hour away from the airport. I slept for the majority of the drive.
St. Lucia is a tiny little town (again, one main road, though much, much nicer than Ban Phe) situated at the southern end of the iSimangilisio Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Beautiful location with good access to the park, the estuary and the beach. The volunteer house ( a spectacular house with huge living room, two story tiki deck with bbq pit, and a swimming pool) was about a 10-min walk from town (longer at night because you had to skirt around the little grassy area because of the hippos that hang out there). My roomies were Leslie and Alison, two lovely Scottish girls from Glasgow (Kelly, from Australia, was in our room for two nights before she decided to abandon us in favor of a bottom bunk in another room. What nerve ;P).
The first week was mostly devoted to our little photography intro course taught by the fabulous Emil von Maltitz, a South African photographer. All of us learned something (there were six of us from all levels) and had quite a good time (despite the moaning about getting up at 4:30 on two of the mornings to shoot the sunrise ). We had photo critiques each night which were useful and a popular photo of the day vote, where everyone in the house (not just the photographers) voted on their favorite photos.
The rest of the month was a crazy mix of game drives, bush walks, Conservation Club at the local high school, volunteering at the Crocodile Center, photo editing, and a bunch of other things. Obviously the game drives were one of the highlights, we got to see some pretty amazing things, including a juvenile Martial Eagle, Africa’s largest eagles, in flight. Working at the Croc Center was one of my favorite parts, we did everything from catch and move juveniles (about 3ft long) to help baby crocodiles hatch (they’re sooo cute!). Our last week we helped release an adult croc who’d been injured and rehabilitated and got to spend a day slogging through a swamp forest to track and tag wild crocs. We all stank by the end of the day but it was really, really neat. I mean seriously, how many people can say they’ve trekked through a swamp forest hunting wild crocodiles?
Even though the project was only Monday-Friday, our weekends were always busy. The first weekend a big group of us went up to Mozambique to snorkel with dolphins (amazing!), stopping on the way there to watch turtles hatch at Kosi Bay and hitting Thembe Elephant Park on the way back to see elephants (which f course we didn’t see, but it was still a nice drive, the park is quite beautiful). Other weekend activities included surf lessons at Cape Vidal (I managed to stand up on my third wave!) and game drives to Hluhluwe-iMfolozie park. The game drives are what I did that last two weekends I was there and they were the best drives I did all month (along with our first drive to iMfolozie, which was also amazing). I got to see cheetah two weeks in a row (there are only around thirty of them in the whole park, which is about 9000 hectres) and on my last day in Africa I got to see a pride of lions hunting warthog and the day ended with our jeep getting charged by a bull elephant. One of the most amazing days of my life.
But then, sadly, it was time to leave Africa. Originally I was supposed to return to the States after my program ended but I’ve been bitten hard by the travel bug and decided that I wasn’t ready to go home yet. So instead I hopped on a plane to London to start a two-month tour of Europe. I only spent a day and a half in London before heading up to Liverpool to stay with a friend of mine, meeting her at Warwick Castle for the day before we headed to her home in Liverpool. I spent a week there, exploring the city (which is a very nice, eclectic place) and starting to catch up on all the life stuff that had fallen by the wayside in Thailand and Africa.
With a tentative itinerary in hand I headed back to London for a week to explore and do the tourist thing. I went to the British Museum, saw the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament, took a bus out to Stonehenge and watched the changing of the guard. I also got to wander around Camden (my kind of place, lots of quirky stores and fantastically dressed people, like the Harajuku of London with less colour) and visited an old Victorian operating theatre. Another busy but fabulous week; London is a really cool city with a lot going on, I would have loved to spent more time there but there are other places I want to see and only so much time and money to go around (and London was not easy on the wallet.)
So here I am, sitting on a train to Edinburgh for a week in Scotland before catching a flight to Barcelona to see VNV Nation in concert and explore the city before heading off to Paris. From there I’ll make my way to Leipzig for the massive Wave Gottik Treffen music festival and end my trip with a week in Berlin and dinner with friends in Switzerland. So stay tuned for adventures on a brand new continent!