Perhentian Islands

... were Beautiful. We spent a luxurious week of doing absolutely nothing. After days of diving and sunbathing, we headed for endless milkshakes and Tom Yum soups at the Cafes and Restaurants. 

Wet Dog^

We filled our evenings drinking 'Monkey Juice' (essentially Banana flavored Poison) at the ever-busy Panorama bar, with a live band every night. After a few drinks we would head across to the 'Black Tip' bar to watch the fire shows and the convincing lady-boys, whilst chilling on bamboo mats in the sand. On the Saturday, they held a party for the whole island which lead us to a boogey with our beloved dive master: Crumb. It was GREAT. A night out on the town really doesn't compare to partying with the sand between your toes and sweat dripping down your face -  Brilliant. 

If you head to The Perhentian Islands, you simply MUST try a banana and chocolate milkshake from panorama, we had literally 3 every day and never regret the calories.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Although everyone insists that KL is a place you HAVE to stop... we are not quite sure why.

We may have missed something, or it may just be that we are island girls and panic when we cannot see the beach... but two days was defiantly more then enough to see and escape the city.

However, we did slightly over indulge in western life with a little shopping and tourist attractions.
On our first day we decided to jump on the hop-on, hop-off tourist bus, which showed us around all the attractions in KL, we pondered around museums, visited the palace and explored the aquarium, which was actually really good (we love sharks!).

We filled up on amazing street food in the streets of China Town, cooking our own tofu and broccoli in the steamy pan in front of us, then smothering it in satay and chili sauce - delicious. China Town is also the place you want to be for a bargain; a mulberry purse for three pounds? - Yes Please.

On our second day we headed to the 'Biggest Bird Park in the World' because Jodie loves the feathery creatures. From Flamingos to kingfishers, we were well and truly surrounded by lots of colourful egg laying specimens and also an entire park full of bird poo, mmmm.

We made our way to the Perinthian on the overnight bus, which was delayed 2 hours, followed by 8 hours on an wild ride through the trees, a 2 hour coach and then a speed boat- but WELL WORTH the journey.

:)

Goodbye Bali

For our last days in beloved Bali we headed back to Kuta for a final night out in Sky Garden, HOWEVER, this was not until after our travelling day back from the Gili's of EIGHT HOURS, we decided to save about 3 pounds each and take the public bus... huge mistake, we ended up surrounded by buskers, moving sweet shops, pot noodle counters and endless sales pitches, hilarious to say the least! But if you have the option; take the fast boat, it cuts 7 hours off your journey!

Of course we headed back to Sky Garden for our final night out; we simply cannot get over FREE DRINKS for two hours....... its brilliant.

After a month of travelling Bali, we still only managed to see about 2 thirds, we weren't able to squeeze in the entire North-West of the island, surely an excuse to head back with more friends in tow?

Goodbye Bali, we love you

Next stop Malaysia....

The Yoga Barn (Ubud)

After a short but sleepy boat ride on the public boat with the locals and a melon, we jumped on the bus to Ubud! Probably the only place that we had any idea what we wanted to do; rafting, visit temples and the rice paddies. That was until... we found the wonderful Yoga Barn.

'A little piece of tranquillity n the heart of Ubud'

Immediately we fell in love with the jungly location and never ending list of classes on offer; Yin Yang, Hatha, Sound healing, Esctatic dance, take your pick.

We decided on an unlimited pass for seven days, creating our own little yoga retreat.

We ended up going to an average of 3 classes a day, normally including at least one Yoga and one meditation class. Aside from our beloved sound healing with White Star and Esctatic dance, a few of our favourite classes were Vinyasa Flow (with Carlos; yoga to a ukele, why not?), Crystal Bowl Mediation and Sunday Dance.... a long explanation of each will be boring unless you are here, so maybe start saving and head over to Bali and the Yoga Barn?

ALSO even if you don't like yoga... the FOOD was the best we've had on our trip so far. All organic, eco friendly and vegetarian... The Little K has managed to create a recipe for the perfect Dhal and Chapati, or feta omelette wrap, simply amazing.

Slack lining at the YB

BIG LOVE FROM BAAAAAAAALI, heading to the gilis tomorrow xxxxx

We made it!!!!! First stop: Tanzania!!

WE MADE IT
for us that's an achievement in itself, trust.

It wasn't in our original plan to come to Tanzania, but then again what was? However, as the Kenyan elections were going ahead, and there was no guarantee that the uproar they caused last time would not be repeated, Camps International sent all there volunteers to Tanga camp for a few weeks until everything died down. 

At first this caused a little stress with changing flights booked with STA etc., but aren't we glad about it now!! It's always great to tick another country off the bucket list and exciting to see the differences as we drove across the border and into Kenya.

After the four flights(!!) it took to get us to Kilimanjaro, surprisingly (due to our awful luck at the best of times), a smiling Camps representative 'Sammy' was there to greet us and drive to our campsite. Nothing to worry about!  Our journey was amazing.  It was just unbelievably cool to drive past every tiny village with millions of kids trying to get you to wave back at them, and jumping for joy when you do and millions of adults just sat in the shade, staring out at the world.

When arriving at the camp, we saw our soon-to-be friends for the next month hard at work and COVERED head to toe in mud. 

Our accommodation for the next week was a reasonable enough looking tent.  That was until the great storm hit!!! Our sponge mattresses soaked up what they could of the lake that surrounded us, the odd sock, passport or camera floating where we lay.  We screamed for help but our constant 'guys?...guys?' was no help.  In the morning however, we discovered the rest of our camp-mates had been giggling at our calls outside together, wondering why on earth we didn't just LEAVE the tent! hahaha

For our project work here, we were finishing building a school for the local village.  It was great to be working right in the middle of the community to see who our work was benefiting as well as to be jumped upon constantly by the village kids shouting 'mzungu mzungu' (which means 'white person' by the way...fairly close in sound to 'mzunga' which means penis..hmm) at you and acting like your biggest fan. In the afternoons, we took in turns to teach the locals (students aging from 6 to 55) computers and English - and we learnt a little Kiswahili too.  The others who were already in Tanga had been seaweed farming and de-worming the animals - so I'd thoroughly recommend staying for longer than the 1 month we did at Camps.

Next up...Muhakka!
Much love from somewhere that's not Jersey these days

Meg + Jod