Indopore

I would like to start things off by dedicating this post to my late Grandpa, David Mills Lambert who passed on the 17^th of May, 2017 – he was ninety-five. We love you and we will always miss you.

Khao Sok, Thailand (taken 2014)

So, here I am feeling bloggish before I go see Wonder Woman – should any of you have seen the advertising leading up to Suicide Squad you’ll understand why my expectations are waving at half-mast. Anyway, I haven’t been very active on account of TAFE, which is proving itself to be very rewarding (except for the finance class), but a lot of travelling is being done lately – a lot of it by others.

The stories and plans I am hearing about are most definitely inducing the envies kiddies. MOST. DEFINITELY.

That said though, on account of my actions last Monday night, I would like to share that I’ll be using my passport again come January, 2018.

I’ve held a lot of positivity in the planning of this little stint away which I’m happy to have named – Indopore. I do like to get creative when naming my adventures and this is the result (Hugging Australia, Kaiju Watch ’13, Are Those Porcupine Tongues and The Dorito Tour are past examples.)

For the sake of clarity, I am going to Indonesia and Singapore (you didn’t see that last one coming, right?) for just under two weeks and I could not be more excited.

After my Dorito Tour to Europe and Morocco I long considered where I would bugger off to next and of course, the list liked to grow. I can tell you now that several regions that came to mind included the Middle East (a road trip around Oman!!! and even Iran), Central America (I have friends living in Colombia right now who I’d love to see again) and even going back to Europe (so as to tick off more of their KFC interpretations – so far Northern Ireland is winning.)

But!!! I eventually decided to try things more budget minded (since my funds aren’t as plentiful and I’ve found this style to be very rewarding), so I settled for South-East Asia.

Now you’re wondering why he settled on Indonesia and Singapore.

There are reasons.

I’ve long desired to return to Thailand to see the floating lanterns of the Yi Peng Festival (I know it goes by two names) in Chiang Mai and then head over to Myanmar to take in the valley of temples in Bagan, but that trip is time sensitive and I just won’t be able to do it come November, plus there are funds to consider.      

I would love to see Vietnam and Cambodia, which I’ve long convinced myself that these two MUST be done together. Again, the funds are going to get in the way… but fortunately there are several restaurants near mine that serve some good Pho.

Taken 2017

Keeping these reasons in mind, as well as the fact that I wouldn’t have snorkelled within about a year and a half come January, I felt that Indonesia was the right spot. Being more specific, I will be going to Ubud, Padangbai and Denpasar on the island of Bali which has a party scene I’ll be more than happy to skip – not sorry Kuta. NOT. SORRY!!!

Now, how did I add Singapore to this plan? Looking up that trusty Skyscanner, I found several promising Jetstar flights that could get me there and back lasting no more than six hours each way – the day time flights would be a welcome and I was happy with the cost advertised… before I remembered that I’d have to pay for luggage. Still, the cost looked doable.

That said, I soon stumbled upon one flight that had a return lasting up to twenty-nine hours. Curious, I had a peak and found that eighteen of those twenty-nine hours would be spent in Singapore… which induced a light bulb moment (that was the source of that clunking sound should anyone be interested.)

Has anyone else liked the idea of seeing an extra country at no extra cost? Stupid question but yeah.

I know it will only be for one day but there are several positive factors that weigh into this quite well.

-          Changi Airport is very close to the city of Singapore via public transport.

-          A lot of the attractions I want to see (Gardens by the Bay, Little India and Chinatown) can be seen in one day.

-         Singapore is close to Australia, meaning that if I like it I can return quite easily… unlike that beautiful Morocco (I will walk you Chefchaouen.)

So there you have it – the reasons!!! Add to that that when I booked my flight the price had also dropped considerably so I saved myself about a hundred which I was happy with... which will go towards some snorkelling day trips.  

Additionally, one thing I wanted to share is how I revealed all of this to the many.

Several people knew of my plan, such as my parents and a few friends, but I thought I’d enjoy sharing the news via a ‘Guess Where I’m Going Post’ with the many who I knew to be avid Facebook junkies (Brenna over at This Battered Suitcase has a lot to answer for).

Taken 2017

The only clues I provided, at first, was that I’d be going to two countries and the only hints would be ‘gardens by the sea’ and ‘literary’ (I was most intrigued to learn that Ubud hosts a writing festival every year and yes, ‘literary’ threw so many of them off).

Happy to say that said ‘Guess Where I’m Going Post’ racked up about 120 comments in the better part of one and a half hours (yes, this is pride speaking), many of which speculated that I was going to places like England, Wales, Japan, Iceland, Croatia, Syria, the US and the Ukraine before a picture of my Lonely Planet guide narrowed things down.

I wanted to have some fun on Monday night and I got it so werd.

I guess this is it for now. Remember, school is coming first for me right now so I don’t know when I’ll be posting again but I hope you’ll be back to read.

Happy and safe travels everyone!!!