The last one

This will be the final blog and one that does a bit of a rundown on some of the more amazing things I did or saw while away. Ive been putting it off for a while but having been asked a few times now what my highlight or highlights were I thought I should put something together. So here are my top 11 moments of my trip abroad. Its 11 because I was gone for 11 months and includes at least one moment from each country I visited. For those of you who dont remember I was in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand. Ive ordered them in how much they mean to me (or in some cases what I remember of them) so number one is clearly the best. Lets begin our countdown with Number 11!

11. Teaching Math & Science: This one kind of had to feature since it comprised 5 months of my trip away. I still remember arriving at the school for my first day's work under the impression I had to teach English with a little bit of Math or Science on the side. This turned out to be the other way around and straight away I had to chat to the kids for a good half hour having been told I would only have to say hello! This one takes in a lot of things from teaching itself, living in a foreign country where I dont speak the language or look like anyone else, cleaning days which were my days off, games in the classroom, relearning what I had to teach the night before I had to teach it, hanging out with the other teachers in the school who spoke english, Ajarn Chaweewan, trips to Chiang Mai (one of my fave cities if not the fave) and so much more. It was a challenging experience that took a while to get used to but left me with the confidence to take on other challenging things I might have shied away from if I hadnt gone and done this. I now forever have the sentence “Well if I can teach thai kids Math and Science then I can do this!”.

10. Phi Phi: Probably my first big trip once in thailand and working was going to Koh Phi Phi for New Year. It was a nightmare logistically because I assumed it had all been taken care of for me and I just had to show up. So it started with getting to Phuket and missing the ferry, followed by missing the gang on Phi Phi and not getting into the hostel till nighttime. Once there things picked up and I had a great time with the friends I made in teaching orientation in Bangkok. I got really drunk and really sunburned but had an amazing time. I played football on a beach, I got to visit The Beach, I got to sit on perfect white sand and swim in crystal clear water. Then there was NY Eve itself and getting off my face on 'buckets'. It was an amazing little holiday from work and we all made the most of it.

9. The slow boat down the Mekong: In a way the beginning of the travelling for me. I had moved out of Li and with my backpack on my back I was off to Laos, on a boat. Crammed onto barge for two days with a large gang of other backpackers there is little to do but befriend people and have a good time. We spent plenty of time chatting, a lot of time drinking and the boat was under a haze for a lot of the trip too. I made friends aplenty here and met them all along the way through Laos, though mostly in Vang Vieng where we did some more socialising and drinking. My first overland border crossing too which is a ritual I would come to hate but at the time was all good fun.

8. Franzjosef: Hiking on a glacier for a full day, what's not to like? It was a truly spectacular experience and one that will stick with me for a while. The sheer beauty of the glacier and the surrounding valley made this a special journey. The highlight of which was shuffling through the blue ice crevasse. There are not many places in the world left where you can get up close and personal with that deep shade of blue ice.

7. The Great Barrier Reef: An amazing day trip where I got to snorkel over one of the natural wonders of the world. The weather was good, the water was beautiful, the staff on the boat were amazing and I got to see Nemo and a turtle in the wild! Beautiful coral, amazing fish and sealife, its what visiting Cairns, Australia is all about.

6. Mae Hong Son: A week-long motorbike trip through the northwest of Thailand with Markus Chisholm. The two of us just rented a pair of motorbikes and sped off into the mountains, driving our way through some spectacular scenery and visiting some wicked towns like Pai and Mae Hong Son. Pai itself is an amazing little place and we had a good laugh there. The journey didnt end so well or it might be higher in the list but if you dont know what im talking about then look back through my blogs. I still have the scars.

5. Wat Rong Khun (The White Temple): This was a crazy place in the thai city of Chiang Rai where an artist had taken your standard red and gold temple and painted the entire structure white. He added a few little twists of his own on top of this such as the bridge over the sea of souls but the highlight was the inner wall of the chamber. On the wall that you pass through to enter it had a painting with all sorts of crazy stuff on it from Bin Laden to Superman, from Converse shoes to Neo, its one of these things you have to see to believe.

4. Ha Long Bay: A boat trip on the famous bay just north of Hanoi in Vietnam. It is a massive bay with thousands of rock formations rising up from the water like little islands (some of them are actual islands too). Its a fairly mind numbing experience as shown by the fact that all of us on the boat sat there staring around us in amazement for most of the boat journey. The sunsets were particularly impressive and I got to do some sea kayaking so all in all a pretty cool trip! Oh and there was the visit to Monkey Island.

3. Skydiving: An amazing experience if probably the most terrifying thing ive ever done. Im still not entirely sure why I did do it but im glad to be able to say I jumped out of a plane at 15,000 feet and lived to tell the tale.....barely. Ive got the photos and the dvd to prove it to any doubters too.

2. Angkor Wat: These truly deserve to be one of the wonders of the world and Cambodia itself is such a beautiful and welcoming place to go on top of it. The temples will blow you away, simply because they are among some of the oldest man made structures still standing in the world today and you can see how the ravages of time and mother nature have taken their toll. This place was in the middle of a jungle for a very long time which you can clearly see when you visit the 'Tomb Raider' temple which has trees growing on and around and through walls at what seem impossible angles. Go and see it for yourself!

1. Whitsunday Islands: Surprised at the number one? Well you shouldnt be. On this trip I got to travel on a sailing boat and help out, snorkel with fish and beautiful coral but more importantly meet one crazy, hot scottish girl. You've got to love that scottish accent......

So that's a wrap for me. There are plenty of experiences I had which didnt feature on the list such as tubing in Vang Vieng, the border crossing into Vietnam, Phnom Penh, Hoi An, Fraser Island. Sports days in the school and many, many more. It is a journey I will treasure and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.