LIBBY GREENHALGH

It would appear that I have brought the torrential rain from back home with me to Bali! Relish the sunshine UK dwellers I haven’t seen it for 2 days now! Though I got so Libby lobstered on day one it is probably a good thing. Bali has had quite the change in a year and it is pretty apparent from the moment you land. The airport has doubled in size and another terminal is being built. This place is exploding within the tourist industry. Buildings are going up everywhere there seems to be twice as much traffic and sadly twice as much rubbish in the sea. The Padang Padang surf camp is as gorgeous as ever and a beautiful location and so far this time I have not had to get up at 0500 for a surf.  We surfed Pandang beach (made famous by The Eat, Pray, Love movie) and the current was ripping which made for some very tired arms, however I did catch some good waves  and  it seems to have come back to me fairly easily.  With all the rain though the water is very br...

I should blog more. But in true Libby style I pushed the button hard here and I am struggling to do anything today so that is the extent of my blog!

Hello one and all newbies and oldbies!!! It is the return of my travelling blog typos, spelling and grammatical mistakes are all entirely acceptable (Sara!) You shall have to forgive me if this first one (and maybe others to come) are a little self indulgent but I have set off on  bit of a mini tour of the world with a fair amount of trepidation. This will be the longest I have been away and while I am meeting lots of people along the way there is a certain amount of loneliness that comes with it. While I spent the last few days fretting about my current trip I am now in Singapore with 15kg of luggage and an already eventful start to my trip. I feel like I have not travelled in ages and this time I am much more aware of my surroundings. Nearly everyone in the airport lounge sat around looking at some kind of electronic device - very few books and you are still in a significant minority travelling by yourself. It is the first time I have been addressed in pe...

I am afraid you are going to be greeted with a few wordy blogs and not so pictorial from now on, they will also be few and far between as the daily routine of the event begins and I am generally just working So I left Phuket about 4 days ago with Lindsey and finally got to the hotel room at about 3am, after much excited chatting with Emilie I managed to fall asleep at about 4am and got up at 0830am to go to the boat park and unload a container with the troops – which mainly consisted of moving and stacking a hell of a lot of water bottles. They were moved from one container to another and then promptly collapsed down and had to be restacked- joy of joy! But finally done and a stroll round the area with Emilie to show her vaguely where things are and more importantly to get an ice cream and everything was back in the balance! I am managing to sneak a bit of outside time in and I am hoping to get out on the water once the event starts, but otherwise I will keeping an eye ...

Last full day in Patong and therefore the last full day of holiday- tomorrow Lindsey and I will be making our way to Singapore (hoping our budget airline doesn't let us down) and heading to Perth, or I should say Fremantle, and back to work with ISAF Perth World Championships. Today was scooter day number two after my maiden voyage in Chiang Mai - I thought lets go again and take a passenger this time. Lindsey was either very brave or a little bit stupid!! After my ranting abut maps and tuk-tuk drivers not knowing where they are going we set off in the morning on our scooter to Kata beach for breakfast. Within 5 mins I had us going round the one way system again and then 20 mins later we were lost on a beach called Paradise Beach (which wasn't too bad) but concerned we may not be able to leave as the hill we came down to get there had us nearly going over the handle bars!!! So we breakfasted there and enjoyed our sun loungers!  By the time we got up the hill and back to va...

Last night was our first night out in Patong- having heard the rumours of 'sin city' - guided by our trusted friend Zoe with the following words "Banglor street is the place to go to see some sights!" -that was where we headed. I was ready to bat off the ping pong balls and darts that I was expecting to be to be flying across the streets and happily say I ticked that box off the experience list. Just a little glimmer of the neon Zoe, Lindsey and I However, disappointed is not the right word but the evening wasn't quite like that. There was neon a plenty, some banging tunes and most places you looked there were girls- no maybe boys and menus that were not offering food! It was fairly entertaining and unless you really want to pay you won't see any flying ping pong balls Following this rest and recuperation were required and some cleansing of the eyes which came in the format of a midday rise and another day and another beautiful beach. ...

Libby's been telling me since I got here that I have to write a guest 'holiday buddy' blog, so here's what we've been up to over the past couple of days.. Libby reaches the top! For our final day on Phi Phi we'd decided to do the 'strenuous but sweaty' (said Lonely Planet) walk up to the Viewpoint, which had stunning views over the island beaches and jungle.  With just 3 hours sleep for me (jetlag finally kicked in!) and us sleeping in a bit later than planned, it was pretty hot and sweaty before we even got going.  I decided very quickly after setting off that 'strenuous and sweaty' wasn't for me, so found a cafe while Libby marched on. Here's the result... she says it was worth it, in spite of the sweat dripping into her eyes. Cocktails on the beach It was then back on the ferry to Phuket (a surprisingly easy journey compared to the trip over!) and we made our way to a beach bar overlooking Kata Beach for sunset and to ...