Arrivals

After 2 years in Japan, a trip home inbetween, holidays to Korea, Hong Kong, and Thailand, and a fabulous stopover in Malaysia, my journey was finally over. Here at the airport, greeted by my Mum, Paul, and a dozen lovely balloons, I still had enough genkiness to give the camera a final Japanese pose. What the hell do I do with my arms on photos now????

p.s The journey isn't really over....I'm off to Prague on saturday! :-)

Asia stopover

I had decided many months ago, that I was not just going to go straight home after Japanland. I figured I would want a bit of time to myself, after a teary Japan goodbye, and an emotional England arrival. I had also never tried traveling on my own, and so decided to take advantage of the free Malaysia airlines stopover, and explore a bit of this wonderful country on mi tod for 9 days. I was apprehensive about spending so much time on my own, and did wonder if my sanity would allow me to make it through 9 solo days...but actually...i was fine! Granted, I was starting to talk to myself a bit by the 6th day...nah, only kidding. As it turned out, my own company was bearable, and I also chatted to some other colourful characters throughout the 9 days. As I have been back in England for about 3 weeks now, and so my memory has faded a bit, and also as I can't really be bothered to write a lot due to looming job applications, I thought I would break my trip down into little sections for your perusal;

PLACES

* Kuala Lumpur - spent a lot of my time here due to heavy luggage load from 2 years in Japan - busy, colourful, diverse, exciting, vibrant, lots to do, great shops, great spas, friendly people, taxi drivers trying to rip you off (and one cool one who drove me round for a day!), yummy food from many different places, bright lights - the Petronas Towers at night were amazing! Hot! Mediocre markets (Thailand has made me a bit blase.) Different religions and places of worship (Chinese temple, Hindu temple, Muslim mosque), existing side by side in apparent harmony.


* Melaka - spent just one night here, in a very luxurious boutique hotel - pretty, historical, interesting, and touristy, but not in the evening when all the day trippers had left. Great Chinese food, and lovely Chinatown streets with colourful and quirky stalls and shops. Interesting antique shops where I bought a beautiful little trinket box, and lots of cute streets and alleyways. Beautiful churches, and bright coral / red Dutch square, where trishaw drivers attempted to drum up business ( I had a 2 hour ride..it was great fun!)



* Singapore - spent 3 nights, 2 days here...1 day too many!! Liked it, but there isn't an awful lot to do here as a tourist. Tall skyscrapers, weird and wonderful architecture, amazing shopping malls and department stores. Clean! Great Indian food. Yummy ice-cream from the stalls on Orchard Road. Fun open-top bus tour, following the heritage route of Little India, Chinatown, and all the colonial influences in between. A map that was impossible to read...for me. Second day would have been spent on the beach...but it rained! Booo!



SIGHTSEEING

* Sultan Abdul Amad Building - Malaysian supreme court in KL - beautiful architecture, and perfectly viewed on a blue-sky day. Yes, the road was swarming with tour buses, but it was still possible to get a good photograph. Merdeka Square (opposite the building) was also a really interesting place, as it is the green where the Malaysians declared independence from the Brits.

* Masjid Jamek - beautiful mosque in KL. I went, I wore the headscarf, I wandered, I snapped piccies, and then I left quickly because my head was too hot in that damn bit of cloth!

* Islamic Arts Museum - amazing place. No photographs allowed unfortunately, but absolutely stunning museum.

* Batu Caves - just outside KL - great Hindu temple in a huge limestone cave. After a trek up 277 steps, you finally enter the cave, and wander around looking at the brightly painted statues of gods, and trying to avoid the evil cave-dwelling monkeys.

* Christ Church and Stadthuys - the fabulous pink / coral / pinky church and townhall in Melaka. It was just so pretty! Surrounded by the flower-adorned trishaws, tacky souvenir stalls, and many a tourist gazing at the beautiful Dutch square, and soaking up the sun.


FOOD

* Amazing Indian food...roti canai was divine, and my potato and cauliflower curry in Singapore was yum!

* Amazing Chinese food ... the best wontons I have ever had. Melaka, your Chinese food rocks!

Oh yeah, and the traditional Malay food, and the Indonesian also was pretty good!!!!

PEOPLE

* Mr Singh my taxi driver for a day in KL - he drove me round for about 5 hours (at a very good price), and told me lots about KL, and Malaysian life.

* The random characters I met in my backpackers hostel in Singapore - the girl who had no money, because she had been robbed in Australia; the Filipino guy who seemed to be trying to get everyone to visit his country; the young American guy who was trying to explain to a group of older guys how to 'get' women...idiot!; the Brit guys in my dorm who I nattered with about going back home. It seems there are an awful lot of people in the world who are trying to put off getting a 'proper' job, and settling down somewhere!

* My plane pal on the way back to England - she was on her way to Denmark, and had been travelling for like 2 days (from Oz)!

* The mean taxi drivers, the sour-faced chicken-rice woman, my camp hairdresser, the friendly antique shop lady, the pesty-Indian boy who wanted chat and be 'friends', the oldest trishaw driver in Melaka whose legs were so thin it looked like they'd snap, the smiley chubby hostel owner, and all the other colourful and weird characters who made my trip so...interesting and fun!

The final weeks in Japan

The final couple of weeks in Japanland were filled with parties, farewells, speeches, and more parties. Here are just a few piccies to show you the great send-off we were all given before leaving our adopted home.

My rubbish Japanese and my nerve were tested during what seemed like a million farewell speeches. I made one to each group of teachers at my different schools, and was asked to make one to the entire student body at my base school. After 3 minutes of English, and about 4 minutes of Japanese, I bowed, left the stage, and walked through the gym to the sound of hundreds of students clapping. I didn't cry...and I also didn't make any mistakes. Whoo!

A final Hagi weekend. There was a BBQ, dancing, skinny-dipping for some, a rainy trip to the beach, mosquito bites, a 3am taxi to a hotel with air-con, and a stolen umbrella on our Tsuwano road-trip. It wasn't quite the chilled-out weekend I had envisaged, but it was great to see everyone nonetheless.

A great farewell party with my English Club students. We started with 3 hours of karaoke, and ended with a yakiniku feast. We all sang some English songs together, including a finale of 'Let It Be'. I'm sure I was beaming as I looked around at my 'kids' singing and reading the Beatles classic. It was quite a cheesily emotional moment. At dinner, they presented me with a fabulous album of letters and photographs which, unsurprisingly, made me cry!! It was really hard to say goodbye, but I did it in a typically 'Lauren' way, and gave them all hugs. They seemed a bit embarrassed by the gesture, but I hope it made them realise how much they meant to me.

A lovely farewell party from YES (Yanai English Society). They are a great group of people, and I thoroughly enjoyed attending the meetings every month, and chatting with everyone.

Saturday night fun in Tokuyama. We had the yummiest food ever in 'Banana Leaf' (the ebi chilli was divine!), accompanied by sparkling wine, and great friends! One of those great relaxed nights out, where you realise how lucky you are to have fab pals, and when you know how sad you'll feel when you have to say goodbye.

My last night in Yanai. It was a truly fun and fabulous night. Thanks to Kat, Hannah, Saki, Keith, Yoshika, and Fumiko, I was able to enjoy my 2 favourite places in Yanai one last time...'Daifuku' for yakiniku, and 'Party' for karaoke. Highlights of the evening included the delish sayonara cake that Kat-chan bought for me, stealing a plate from 'Daifuku', and belting out 4 hours of epic karaoke. A great way to say goodbye to my lil town, and my great local mates.

My final day in Yanai was a bit of a whirlwind, as I rushed round to finish my packing, post a final box, cancel my keitai, eat a final Tonton etc etc. Kat came round in the afternoon, and then we were picked up by my teachers to go to the train station. At the station I was given a wonderful send-off, as colleagues, friends, and students (all of English Club turned up!), came to wave goodbye. They even bought cheap tickets to come on the platform with me. I cried of course! It wasn't the most glamorous of exits....tears and sweat (it was a hot afternoon!)...but I will always remember it, and the people who made me feel so special!

I'm back!

Back in England, and back to blogging! I've actually been home for over a week now, I just haven't had the time or inclination to sit down and do a good ole blogging session! However, now I've settled back into lovely York life, and I'm over my jet-lag-induced sleepiness, I thought I should jump back on the blogging train, and attempt to get it bang up to date. So, over the next couple of days, expect tales and pictures from my final days in Japan, my great trip to Malaysia and Singapore, and my return home. Just because my time in Japan has ended, doesn't mean my rambling blogs have to stop!