Teen or Tin?

We have had a nice few days away in North Wales. We spent the majority of our time just outside Caernarfon in a place called Ty’n Rhos which I mispronounced Teen Rhos whereas apparently it was Tin Rhos. Picky. Highlights included some lovely food like duck and lamb and sausages; walking through Caernarfon and seeing the impressive castle; also, walking from Ty’n Rhos to Y Felinheli and from there to Caernarfon where we sat in Y Galeri and saw some interesting painting.

We travelled home via Harlech which we walked around a bit and reminisced the previous Easter where we spent a joyful week there. Sibyl was particularly keen to visit a ceramics gallery where she had bought a miniature owl and mislaid, she wanted to return to buy a replacement model. We did exactly that, and ended up leaving with a clay tortoise too, to match our new addition to the family, Edna.

We are a unit! A family!

We are off to a lovely wedding of a lovely couple in Kent today. Our Leyland friends super kindly gave us a lift from Aber. It’s odd being in London with my immediate family (parents & bros) still being in Aber! But we’ll be back by the evening service in A.P. God willing.

The wedding today is promising to be a classick. The sun is predicted to shine, arty sensibilities from participants are promised and we will get to see guests who are good friends to us as Aber alumni.

I like going to weddings as ‘The Bradys’. It was an especially exciting element of early married life when I first read a wedding invitation to ‘The Bradys’ or ‘Mr. & Mrs. Brady’ or even the feminists’ favourite ‘Mr. and Mrs. Rhodri Brady’. We are a unit! A family! We’ll go around holding hands and have photographs of us holding each other put on facebook! But nothing beats the utter brilliance of saying ‘this is my wife’, still not bored of that one. Brill.

The Magnificent Outdoors

We arrived back yesterday from a lovely camping trip to a place called Boncath in West Wales. It’s near Cardigan. Camping is a lovely form of holiday that I have been introduced to largely by my wife. We stayed in caravans when I was younger and of course camped Christian style for week stints in army tents, but the past few years have been a real eye-opener. There is much joy to be found in going back to basics and sleeping under canvass.

Screens disappear which is a great incentive to read, chat and make fire. Being outdoors is definitely good for you, and I like now having curlier hair from the sea and a browner/redder face from the sun.

A lovely thing more recently is my Mother in-law’s acquiring of a dog. He is a Black Labrador called Helo. He makes me want to own a dog. I think dogs are great for company, to keep you fit, to get you outside more, to have a simpler being with you who is loyal and instinctive. I found that a few months ago, when we looked after Helo for a week that being forced to walk for long periods of time really helped me creatively. I was writing a sermon at the time on the first three verses of Psalm 40. I was able to plan it out in my head with much more ease because I had the space to think.

Another enjoyable talking point – leading on from the previous post – I started to ask my niece and nephew to try and think of ways that humans and animals are different. My younger nephew took a long time to think of one but eventually managed to realise that talking was a major distinction. With a little help from his older sister they eventually came up with a long list of things such as clothes, art, reading and handbags. The latter was my favourite, and an extremely valid one!

Cricket

My best man came to visit us this weekend. He was coming up this way to set up a Christian campsite and took the scenic route. We had lots of fun. Our friendship works well as it is based on a number of elements – we both grew up in the same part of the world, same church, same school (for a year). This means that much of our conversation can be taken up with reminiscences of the past, I often thought I had a better memory, but I think it is more the fact that we both remember different strands of childhood. We are also both musical and have a similar sense of humour. We both graduated this year and both have an interest in Christian work. Another reason the friendship works is that we are very different. He is logical, outdoorzee and attentive. I am impulsive, lazy and a bit thick.

The past four days have been enjoyable. Since the floods in Aberystwyth the beach is covered with driftwood. We have gone down together for the past three nights and had a bonfire. Our friends wonder if this is what Aberystwyth is like every night, we tell them yes.

We also went to Devil’s Bridge (Pontarfynach) yesterday. We took the extortionately priced steam train and sat with a boy whose parents suffered from having to listen to his incessant pleading. “Can we play cricket today?” “Today, can we go down to the beach… and play cricket?” “You know when we went to that hotel? Can we go there again and play cricket?” etc. It made me think of my writing and something that I have learned this year about action. In a good play a character has to really want something, nothing will stop them. But the stakes have to be high. It’s much more difficult to write something which isn’t life or death…

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.
But I think you’d rather play cricket.

Woolen Oyster Card by my wife

Cool eh?

Oh and as you might have guessed by the title and subtle changes to the About section on the blog, I am now married! I’ll do a more detailed summary when I’m less busy and not moving to Wales.

The story behind the Woolen Oyster Card is that it was made for an art project when she was in school. I thought it was super cool and Blewog-worthy.

Sibyl’s Travelblog – Issue 17

After recovering (slightly) from our sickness in Agra we made our way to Khujaraho, a small town half way to Varanasi. It wasn’t an easy journey as we had to get the train to Satna first and then get on a bus to Khujarho. It took about 10 hours. Long ting.

We met a gorgeous little Indian girl on the bus though who had incredible English for her age. She had her baby brother with her too, who decided he would only be happy if his mum lifted him up so he could see us; his poor mum! His mum couldn’t speak English but the little girl managed to keep up a conversation with us for a few hours. The entire bus listening to our conversation of course. She tried to give us her bracelet which was really sweet but I wouldn’t let her. She also asked about currency in England and if we had dollars – she didn’t know what pounds were when we told her so we gave her a coin Lucy had in her purse. She and the entire bus (it got passed around) were fascinated by it for a long time!

We spent a few nights in Khujaraho. We visited some of the karma sutra temples around our hotel which is what the region is famous for. On the last day we also went on an Indian safari type thing which is what we had come to the region to do! We wanted to go elephant riding at the national park because we thought they would be kinder to them. The elephants on the street can be treated so cruelly that we decided to make the trip out to Panna National Park. First we drove around looking for tigers, leopards, panthers, crocodiles and peacocks. It was like something out of the Jungle Book! We got to see a leopard which was very exciting and some crocodiles. There were deer everywhere but there were no panthers or tigers that day unfortunately – sightings are very rare.

When it came to the elephant riding (what we had been waiting for) it turned out we couldn’t do it as it rained the day before and the ground wasn’t stable enough for the elephants to walk on. Instead they let us get very close to them and I was happy enough with that. I think they are actually very scary creatures when you are next to them! They are so big; you realise how easy it would be for them to step on you. We were with a mummy and baby elephant and the mummy was very protective (understandably)! The little one kept picking up dirt with it trunk and chucking it at the keeper. The poor thing was chained because apparently it could get aggressive but at least the mum was able to walk around freely and get to her baby if she needed to. It was really sad though – it reminded me of Dumbo.

There were some very strange men working at our hotel in Khujaraho that decided to attach themselves to me and Lucy while we were there so we were glad to leave. Men in India almost decide that you belong to them and won’t leave you alone. We were constantly asking people to stop taking photos of us or declining to have our photos taken with groups of men – often they would ignore this request and follow you around anyway. It could be quite intimidating. Women would even hand us their babies and take photos.

We got the train to Varanasi – which was another 12 hour journey. The trains are possibly the most Indian experience you can get while you are there. You decide to be in seated (which is very crowded and you are sitting up all night), in sleeper (you have a bed but it’s not gauranteed so you can end up sharing it with lots of other people) or in upper class sleeper (a little bit nicer and they are actually reserved for you!) We got one sleeper train while we were in India – not pleasant at all and two upper class sleepers. It was all an amazing experience (looking back on it). Finding your train, getting on the right carriage and then getting off at the right stop is all adventure enough. You also have to avoid the man going around attacking people’s foreheads with red paint and then demanding money. Throughout the night there are chai men walking up and down the train shouted ‘chaaaiiii’ in a very deep voice – quite difficult to sleep through and luggage carrying men with the turbans wrapped around their heads (to balance the luggage on) also patrol the trains and will help you with your bags if you pay them enough.

We arrived in Varanasi from Khujaraho very early in the morning. It is a maze of small, dark, dirty alleyways surrounding the Ganges (the river that runs through India that is considered holy by Hindus.) It is a very interesting place but quite seedy and dark in places and apparently full of crime. I tried to find a church on the Sunday but couldn’t find a thing! I do hope that some Christian work is going on in Varanasi.

We stayed in a nice hotel overlooking the river and because we arrived so early in the morning we were able to watch the sunrise over the river! It was beautiful. It was horrifying how many people bathed in the Ganges because they believe it is holy (according to Wikipedia) 2,000,000 people ritually bathe in the water daily while the bacteria count is 120 times more than is considered safe!

We caught another train back to Delhi. We got to the train station by cycle rickshaw by a man that kept pretending he was a helicopter while not looking at oncoming traffic. Very scary! We stayed in the Tibetan area in Delhi for a few days before flying out. It was a very different experience of India. For a start everyone was Tibetan, it is tiny and there are ‘free tibet’ signs everywhere. Even the TV in our room had the message flash up before it turned on. We experienced a few joys of a major Indian city while we were there such as McDonalds, KFC and Connault Place which is full of western shops! Yay! After a month it was a welcome break.

We left for the airport at 4am to fly to Australia. In true Indian style the roads were as noisy and scary as in the middle of the day! It was a complete shock when we arrived in Melbourne at 6 in the morning and the roads were deadly silent (no crazy rickshaw drivers swerving and beeping.) It took me a while to realise what the difference was – it was quite unnerving at first. We got through customs fine too – a relief! I was worried because we were coming from India and they are so strict with what you can bring in to Australia (there is a whole show on customs) and dirt on your shoes (to protect their wildlife) I thought they might decide to fumagate us, but we survived.

Sibyl’s Travelblog – Issue 14

Thailand.

We finally arrived in Bangkok after a long and frustrating journey. We navigated our way around Bangkok airport (it’s huge) and found a bus then we were on our way to Khao San Road – the epicenter of all backpacker life in Thailand. My first impressions were that it was a lot more westernised than Vietnam! They have McDonald’s, Subway, Starbucks, Boots, Burger King and Tesco, all of which Vietnam are deprived of. I was extremely excited as you can imagine! The first thing I did was buy Boots shampoo, conditioner and body wash. Yum. Shortly after that I had a Subway – Meatball Marinara of course!

Thailand is a lot more touristy, and therefore more expensive. After lugging our bags around what seemed to be dozens of hotels (we had lost our first nights accommodation because we were still in Vietnam) we realised we would not be getting anywhere nice for what we were willing to pay. We had gotten used to relative luxury in Vietnam. We would have to get used to tiny rooms with no windows and cold showers between us. Lucy and I had still not found a hotel and were wondering aimlessly down Khao San road pouring with sweat when we bumped into Josh and Leah. They’re Hampstead school friends who we knew were in Bangkok but were not expecting to bump into! It took a while for them to register that it was us standing in front of them waving. We all ended up finding a hotel together as they were looking too.

 

We met a lovely couple, Sam and Rosie. Rosie is English and Sam is Australian – they met in Europe. Rosie is living with him for three months now and we will hopefully visit them both when we are in Australia. We went out with them a couple of times which was very cool. We spent a few days in Bangkok – mostly wondering down Khao San road. There is such a strange mix of cultures here and you can tell it can be a very desperate place at times. I don’t think the Thai people know where they stand amongst all of it. There seems to be a massive Bob Marley following in Thailand and everyone gets there hair dread locked on Khao San.

Bangkok is the dirtiest city I have ever been to. Rats roam the streets unafraid even in the day; unlucky for Josh, he is afraid of them (‘Musophobia’, fear of mice and rats – Ed). We also braved the water taxis – which seem the cheapest and most efficient way of getting around Bangkok. They were a lot of fun but dodgy getting in and out of them. They were mostly full of Thai people. It was good to get a taste of Thailand without tourists and Khao San Road. Before we left we had a much deserved (we had tired them out) foot massage. It was amazing and in a lovely setting – outside with a waterfall type fountain thing behind us. It sounds random but it was very relaxing.

We were in Bangkok for 4 days and then got a night bus to Koh Samui (our first Island stop.) Josh and Leah decided to come too.

Koh Samui was gorgeous. We found amazing bungalows on the beach (facing and only a few meters from the sea.) They were very back to basics which I loved. They were just wooden and tipi shaped huts. It felt like camping with the big mosquito net, it was all cozy at night. We spent a few days relaxing on the beach and gorging ourselves on amazing Mars shakes from the restaurant.

Our next stop was Koh Tao. I loved the island as soon as we arrived. Dive shops everywhere, really relaxed feel and even more beautiful than Koh Samui. My mum’s friend had recommended her brother’s dive shop. It was a really cool ‘eco-friendly’ dive shop, they run conservation programs as well. They have a beautiful little garden on the beach with rabbits and a bakery opposite. We ended up staying in the flat above the bakery because it had four beds and so worked out cheaper than getting separate hotel rooms. It was perfectly designed because Josh got his own room and we got to have a girly room. And we had hot water for the first time in Thailand! We stayed about 6 days in all. I loved it – it felt like home; leaving was horrible.

While we were there I did my diving course and I am now a certified SSI diver. Yay! Diving was the most amazing thing! Bit tricky to get the hang of breathing underwater (and not breathing through your nose) at first because it completely goes against instinct but the best feeling when you are under and you are weightless and you can breathe and see everything. So cool! It was easy to panic when my goggles came off or when water went up my nose but I just kept having to tell myself that I was still able to breathe and it was all in my head. I saw a sea snake and an eel. I didn’t see a shark and I didn’t get eaten by one (Katy will be pleased to know) Josh did the whole diving course with me. Lucy came for one day but didn’t like it. She was glad that she had the experience though and she went Rock Climbing with Leah the next day. One extreme to the other.

We celebrated Lucy’s birthday while we were on Koh Tao as well. We got an amazing cake from the bakery with sparklers and had a lovely dinner on the beach. We pretty much tried every dish. The curry in Thailand is amazing – as is the Pad Thai. There were awesome beach bars in Koh Tao too – bean bags and rugs on the sand with flame throwers as entertainment.

We went to Koh Phanang after that (where all the crazy full moon parties happen.) We had just missed one of the huge parties and the destruction it had caused was still obvious. I am glad we missed it! We stayed on the ‘party beach’ for one night in Haadrin and I hated it. You couldn’t walk across the sand without treading on a bottle cap or a broken bottle. We stayed in bungalows named ‘paradise bungalows’ which were more like council flats with graffiti all over the walls and dirt everywhere. Our windows would not lock and pounding music went on through the night. Leah joined us in our room because we all felt so uneasy – it felt safer girls together. Lucy, Leah and I left early the next morning after the worst sleep. Josh decided to stay on.

We took a chance (we did not have a reservation) and went to bungalows on the island recommended by Sam and Rosie (the lovely couple) called Silvery Moon Bungalows. Most amazing place! You got dropped on the top of a cliff and had to stagger down a steep path (with huge backpack) through a forest down to the beach. It was private – completely cut off from everything. The bungalows were cheap but lovely and rustic and clean! A couple ran it – she was Thai he was western and she was the best cook ever. I spent so much on food. She made the best pancakes and so we took Pancake Day as an excuse to get them! It was so relaxed and was just what we needed after Haadrin. Unfortunately after 4 days (2 more days than we were planning to stay) we had to leave.

We were going to go to Phuket but Silvery Moon was so perfect we decided to relax there before heading back to crazy Bangkok.

We said our goodbyes to Leah on Koh Phanang and went our separate ways. She is continuing her travels in Thailand for another month. It was really sad saying goodbye! – Although it was at 6 in the morning so we were all a bit numbed by tiredness. She wrote us a lovely goodbye letter.

We got a night bus back to Bangkok and spent the next couple of days wondering around with no money! I wrote a lot of this blog at 1 in the morning because that is when the Internet cafe offered free Internet (Got to save the pennies! – Ed).

God answered our prayers the day before we left Bangkok. I met a Christian! He had John 3:16 tattooed to his arm (very Thailand) and I asked him if he was a Christian. We spoke for about half an hour about travelling and the bible. It was such a blessing to have that contact and have even that quick meeting and fellowship. I am being reminded constantly that God is always watching over me.

 

Sibyl’s Travelblog – Issue 13

After a tearful goodbye with Glenn, Emily and Georgie (she gave me a little turtle statue as a goodbye present recalling our turtle experience) me and Lucy got on the Sleeper bus to go down the coast. We payed for an open bus ticket – and got 5 stops along the coast.

An artist's interpretation of Sibyl's goodbye.

Our first stop was Hội An with a brief stop off in Huế . The sleeper bus is very Harry Potter style with three rows of bunk beds going all the way to the back of the bus. Good in theory but the beds are very short (for the Vietnamese) and the driver beeps the horn all night so you can’t really sleep. The bus from Hanoi to Huế was supposed to leave at 6:30 pm but was full so we ended up waiting on a motorway for another one until 8. We had similar experiences everywhere we went. We had eaten nothing that day because of the stressful last minute packing (my own fault) and so had to make do with Marmite on Ritz crackers (spread with our fingers real backpacker style.) It kept us going though and I think we would have eaten anything we were so hungry.

We arrived in Huế at 6 AM so decided to go straight on to Hội An. They failed to tell us that the morning bus had been canceled. Eventually (2 hours later) they found us another bus and we were on our way to Hội An which is the loveliest place ever. I think if I was to live in Vietnam I would live there! In the time waiting for the other bus I managed to trip over a step with my backpack on – because of the extra weight on my back I couldn’t get my balance back. I ended up doing a somersault and landing on my head! Very painful and I think I was a bit concussed afterwards. I lived to tell the tale though!

Hội An is a chilled sea side town hat has a very European feel to it. It has lots of little cobbled streets which kind of reminds me of descriptions of Venice. There are little Vietnamese kids run around blowing whistles that they are trying to sell. We got bicycles every day and rode to the beach (about a half hour ride) good exercise and we got very tanned and in Lucy’s case burnt.

They do great fresh sea food by the sea and it’s tailor town – you can get anything made in a day. Me and Lucy got some lovely dresses made. It’s so exciting waiting to see what they will turn out like!

The sleeper bus from Hội An to Nha Trang was also overbooked so they tried to get me and Lucy to agree to go on a seating bus for a 12 hour journey, this was because the people who did not have beds refused to get off the bus and kept pointing at me and Lucy saying we should give them our beds. They were really horrible – on the verge of grabbing us and pulling us of when a lovely Vietnamese guy got off instead. I felt so bad for him. It was no one’s fault but the bus company really. Horrible bus experience!

In Nha trang we were just lazy on the beach. Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the beach.There were lots of funny motorbike drivers who would stop us and try to sell us tours of the city. We met an awesome guy who called himself and his motorbike Eddie Murphy – it was written on the side in big red letters. The weird thing was that he actually did look like him!!

On the next bus journey (about a 7 hour journey) we met a guy called Jamie from Yorkshire. In a weird coincidence Lucy spotted him in the background of one of my photos from Hanoi, 2 weeks before meeting him – he didn’t believe us though but it is definitely him in the picture. Stranger things have happened!

Our next stop was Dalat. It is in the mountains and all my Vietnamese teachers had told me I had to go there and that it was the Vietnamese honeymoon destination. It is really beautiful with lots of lakes and horse and cart rides. You can hire those swan boats on the lake. I can see why the Vietnamese think it’s a romantic town. There, me and Lucy met up with Liana – one of the gappers that had been traveling. She had already been there for 3 days and we went to stay in the hostel she was in. It was so cool – we all shared a room on the top floor that was an attic room with sloped wooden walls. It had such a nice feel to it – really rustic and it was so cheap!

It was another 7 hour bus journey to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) from Delat. It got very hot as we were going down the coast and that bus journey was quite unbearable. It was very strange being back in Saigon – as my only experience of it was my first week there with gap doing my teacher training course. That week was all a bit of a blur and kind of like a school trip where you do not really get to see the place you go to. It was all very organised for us – we didn’t have much freedom. I was nervous going back but I actually really enjoyed it. It’s a lot more westernized than Hanoi – it seems to be a lot cleaner and there are actually bins whereas everyone throws there rubbish on the street in Hanoi.

On the second night – my supposed (ended up not being) last night in Vietnam we met John. John had been mine and Liana’s teacher on the gap course in the first week. He is a great guy, he’s a dancer and did all the choreography for Vietnam Idol (like American Idol), he teaches English and teaches how to teach English and does a dance class. He works way too much but still found the time to come out for a drink with us which was lovely. He insisted on paying for everything and then told us we had to come to his free cardio hip-hop dance class the next morning which was apparently ‘for all levels.’ Lucy didn’t want to and neither did I but Liana kind of made me and he said we could drop off our bags in the morning as we had to check out that day. I am really glad I did it – it was fun but really not for all levels and I could not walk for the next five days. My muscles were so sore. Lucy said it was like being with an elderly person and not fun when you have to drag a massive bag about with you.

After the dance class we went back to his house. He had offered us rooms (because he has two spare bedrooms) but me and Lucy were leaving that day. Liana took up his offer though as she was in Saigon for another week. He got us take away pizza, we watched Clueless and chilled pretty much all day before our flight at 6. Me and Lucy made a quick stop off at the war museum before going to the airport. The museum was really disturbing and was very strong propaganda for communism and against the Americans in the Vietnamese war but it was very interesting to see. It is definitely one of the most openly horrific Vietnamese war museums. It reminded me of the holocaust museum in Washington – it set out to shock you.

Me and Lucy arrived at the airport at 4 (leaving the required two hours before our 6 o clock flight to bangkok.) Our flight was nowhere to be seen on the check-in board, so me and Lucy went straight to information to find out what had happened to it. They told us that it was canceled and that we were on the 8:50 flight instead. They let us check-in though and gave us a free food voucher. We had lots of time to kill but it wasn’t too bad with our free meal, book and iPod handy.

At 8:50 we were finally on the plane. Settled, strapped in, seat was up, stewards were sitting down ready to take off and then there was an announcement – there had been a technical problem (the engine had broken) and we all had to get off. Then it was more waiting around (3 hours in fact) and then back out of the airport, collecting our bags, giving in our passports and being taken to a hotel for the night. It was really frustrating because we had already paid for our accommodation in Bangkok!

We had not eaten since 6 and by the time we got to the hotel it was 2 in the morning and everyone was tired and hungry. There are always those people that make as much fuss as possible! We did ended getting a bowl of Phở , which was nice. The hotel they put us in was really posh – it had a hot shower and the shower had a door and there was a bath and a kettle! It would have been great had they given us a bit of warning that we had to leave for the airport in the morning but instead we had five minutes to get downstairs and into the shuttle buses to go to the airport. No shower and no breakfast! We ended up getting to Bangkok at three in the afternoon on Sunday but we were just thankful to finally be in Thailand.

Sibyl & Lucy in Hội An

Blewog-nam. #1

As some of you may know, on the Wednesday of last week I left my home country (England) in order to visit my beloved in Hanoi, Vietnam.

I’ve been trying my best to keep a diary, I’ll try and keep them short, interesting and entertaining.

Oh yes, I should mention the appalling title, if any of you humorous folk can think of a better title for my Vietnamese Blog entries, I would be delighted.

Here it is:

Here I sit in Gatwick Airport, it is 04:12 AM on Wednesday the 11th of November 2008.

Today I am to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam. There I will meet my fiancée Sibyl Cooke Steed.

My flight is apparently to take over 26 hours, with 6 of those hours being spent in Doha, Qatar. Oh yes, did I mention I am flying with world famous Qatar Airways?

I feel sick because I went to Costa Coffee and got a ‘Medio’ hot chocolate with whipped cream and a chocolate dip stick. I also had a slab of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Caramel and every 30 seconds or so I would drop a square into the hot chocolate. The square would sink slowly to the bottom and I would get my extra long spoon and scoop out a huge lump of melted caramel joy. I ended up eating the whole slab. I now feel like I need to throw up.

I was relying on these hours and hours of waiting around that I had to watch some classic DVD’s. But for some reason the Mac Book Hoojimaflip has decided that it doesn’t want me to play them because there is an error. How considerate of it.

I can’t sleep to fill this time because it would be just like me to sleep through my flight.

I had to come early as my Dad said he wouldn’t take me super early in the morning. But he did take me at about one and left an hour or so ago; after reassuring me that my flight probably did exist.

This is the biggest most grownup thing I have ever done in my life so I have been super paranoid about bringing all the right stuff and not forgetting ANYTHING. That is why I decided to leave my ticket at home.
Well… it wasn’t that bad, but I did leave my e-booking reference details which basically was my ticket. How could I be so thick? I went on the internet and noted the flight details from my e-mail, I hope and pray that it will work out. If it doesn’t I might actually cry solidly for the next 3 months.

I like flying though. It’s so fun taking off and all that. I wonder who I’ll be sat next to one the plane? I shall be sure to report.