Last of the great travelly epics...

Loooooong time no write. Thought i couldn't go home without finishing the adventure though.

I believe i left you all in Vietnam - 5 days to go, Ha Long Bay pending. Ha Long bay was absolutely wicked! It's just a whole load (2000 or something) of little 'islets' made out of lime stone, stuck up in the water - legend has it that they're the spikes on a dragon's back! ooo.... So, um... did a tour around there for 3 days on a boat and in caves and a killer 2 hour trek - sooooo hot. The caves were like natural cathedrals - and i think if you'll find fairies anywhere it would be there. Anywayz, when we got back from Ha Long we just had a couple of days left, where basically we didn't do alot except souvenier shop and get taken out 3 nights in a row by the 3 irish guys we met on the tour in Ha Long (btw, Anna, do you know if he ever found his camera? - i lost my diary in NZ and lost all my email addies with it...) - Baileys all round! (or cheap vietnamese beer... either way...). And thus endeth our asian adventure. We had a really expensive meal on our last night in a ridiculously posh restaurant (i think it probably came to 5 or 6 pounds altogether... :D sooooo expensive!?!) and then Anna and i bade farewell at hanoi airport.

Next came NZ, but i was extremely lucky to have to transit for a day in Bangkok and the resultant email ensued:

"But also, i sooooo couldn't have picked any better time to arrive here - Anna, it's like songkran all over again, but with yellow instead of water. This week the Thais celebrate 60 years of the corination (sp?...) of the King and apparently he really likes yellow! Coming in from the airport the really huge road (that goes just to the right of Khao San) is completely filled with yellow sparkly fairy lights, all the flowers are yellow, the tops of the bushes are sprayed yellow and at least 90% of the population of BKK is wearing a yellow t-shirt - it really is quite a sight!! I was also treated to a huge brass band, while we were stuck in traffic getting in to the city, and one of the prettiest fireworks displays i've ever seen while munching on a 20p corn on the cob- all for free and in about 3 hours of getting here - can't be bad!"

^that was a good day!

NZ is a very cool country, but my week long experience of it was something of a wash out. I arrived with a really horrible cold, straight into a 3 day storm, and a whole day where the power was cut over most of Auckland... hmm... so then i only had a few days left. But i saw all the main sites in Auckland (including Cheltenham Beach!), and i got to do some riding aswell (yay!) cantering (or occasionally racing witht he bolting horse infront if i hadn't been paying attention... ::) ) over NZ ridges in country that loooks very much like hobbitan, is a lot of fun :D

NZ was complete quasi-reverse culture shock though - it's sooo green and clean, and sooo like home, but completely different. As far as i can see it's got all the good points of britain, and then some more of its own - definitely be using my working visa after uni.

Next, after a ridiculously long flight over the huuuuugest expanse of ocean ever - i just cannnot express how massive the pacific is - i arrived in LA, which was terribly exciting. LA is every bit as crazy as it looks on tv. And now another email quote (cause i just cant be bother to write it again...):

"I made it to Los Angeles!!!! yay! It's such a strange place with such a bizarre mix of people... (esp people on the Metro buses - some very weird types to be found there...)

I'm sooooo confused - flying backwards across the international dateline has got to be the most comprehansive way of confuzzling ones senses ever - i had the whole of the 16th in NZ and then i had the whole day (16th) again in LA; and in the mean time, i arrived in the USA before i left NZ ; and am now, basically, up all of, what my head has presumed for the last 6 months, is night....

Anywayz - out exploring Hollywood today - done the whole sign and walk of fame thing... woohoo, i guess... Went up to the Getty Centre on the hill for sunset and had a really great view (of a humongous white cloud... hohum...) but the centre's pretty cool - like tate modern, but much smaller and with only one exhibition that was actually to my taste... i obviously don't appreciate C18th classical sculpture enough... i'll live...

Tomorrow - the beaches! wooo!!!

Isn't LA soooooo flat and so bare aswell - there's no green?!

And on my entire objective for coming here - to answer the question, is the USA really like it is in the movies? - i'd say that was a resounding 'yes, pretty much...' "

So, yup, did the beaches as well - venice beach is utterly insane, and has a completely new bizarre breed of weird people. Met up with a german girl and we cycled down together and looked at all the pretty canals as well.

After a couple of days in LA it was very apparent that i would have to WWOOF(willing workers on organic farms), or i would run out of money very quickly, and so it is that i just spent the last 10 days in a place called Watsonville - about 30 minutes from santa cruz - living in a tipi! :D Had a really nice time, and met some great people - definitely something i would do again. Also visited Santa Cruz and Monterey - v nice. Santa Cruz is v cool and full of hippies.

Now i've just arrived San francisco - which is sooo very opposite to LA and thoughroughly makes up for LAs lack of hills. Today I wandered around and di all the stuff i could see on foot - aswell as going on the 'cable cars' or what i would call a tram... up the stupidly steep hills. And tomorrow i';ll see the GOlden Gate Bridge and PArk and get to see the giant Redwood trees! yay for trees!

Then al that remains is a long bus journey back to LA and a long flight back home., and hopefully i will then see you all very soon!!!!

peace and funnel cake (don't ask, i dont know either)

Rachaelxxx