#i got off the minibus at the wrong stop

[bitchyfoxymama]

Saviors - Sinclair Brothers x F!Reader

Warnings: abuse but not from the Sinclairs, murder, language used against reader, Bo being out of character. Fluff, let me know if I missed anything.

A/n: this is possibly the second longest one-shot I've ever written besides petals and bullets. I hope you all like this one.

...

You, your two friends, well they were technically your boyfriend's friends and said boyfriend had decided that driving from California to Florida to go to Disney world would be cheaper and way more fun than flying. What a dumb idea that was. Your clock read just after midnight and you've made it just forty miles out of Baton Rouge when your back left tire blew on your Volkswagen minibus. 

"Fuck," you moan out as you gently pull to the side of the empty road.

"What? What happened?" The sudden jolt from the blow tire woke everyone including your easily irritated boyfriend, Ben. 

"I think we blew a tire so I pulled over," you say un buckling your seat belt just as you turned the key in the ignition. You open your door, the Louisiana air is sticky and wet. Of all the places to break down it had to be here. 

You stop next to your back left tire and inspect it, a rusted nail sticks out of the tire as it slowly deflates. You begin mumbling swears as you open the back of the minibus searching for the spare you are more the positive you replaced when the front tire blew six months ago. 

"Fucking damnit!" You place both hands in your hair giving a frustrated tug. 

 had already gotten out at this point and was standing next to you, his voice making you jump. 

"I asked you if you had put the spare back in, god do you always have to be so stupid!" He slams his fist against the side of the minibus. 

His anger makes you feel small, if there hadn't been people in the bus he would have punched you instead of the bus. 

"I-I could have sworn I put it in," you say barely above a whisper. 

"Yeah? You thought? Well you didn't and now we're stuck out here in bumfuck Louisiana!" 

"Hey, what's going on?" Rebecca rubs the sleep out of her eyes. 

"Y/n forgot to replace the spare tire and now we're stranded here til morning when another person probably comes down this road." 

You look down ashamed, reaching out to grab the camping gear and flashlight. You head off the road and just want to set up camp and sleep. You've been the only one driving for the last couple of days. 

"Come on let's just set up camp so we can all sleep and hopefully get help in the morning. 0 on, let's find level ground." You don't want to make Ben any madder than he already is. 

Everyone gets out of the van and follows behind you with sleeping bags and backpacks, in case someone stumbled upon the bus and decided to have some sticky fingers. 

Once you're all settled, you finally turn in for bed. Ben, still angry and annoyed, decided to sleep next to Rebecca and her boyfriend, leaving you alone near a tree stump. You let the tears flow freely from your tears. None of you noticed the truck slowly driving past with their lights off or the man that got out and took the spark plugs.

…

When the sun begins to rise you peek your eyes open and see everyone has already begun packing up camp, it seems they forgot to wake you. It's silent. Not the friendly enjoyable silence, no this silence is awkward, as thick as the Louisiana humidity. 

You walk back to the minibus, packing everything up as they all wait for a car as they lean up against the bus. Maxwell, Rebecca's boyfriend, opens the side of the bus to sit half inside and half out. 

You decide to turn the keys in the ignition to at least getting the inside of the bus cool. But to your surprise the ignition does turn over. 

"What the fuck is wrong now," you groan getting back out of the car and popping the hood, "where the fuck are the spark plugs?!" 

You slam the hood shut and walk over towards the trio standing outside the bus. 

"Who took the spark plugs out of the bus?" 

"What are you talking about?" Ben asks giving you an annoyed look. 

"The sparks are missing, did you guys hear anything last night?" You ask again looking around the three of them. 

However just before you can get your answer a truck comes round the bend. It's an old beat up pick up. The driver slows and stops just before you guys. 

"Well howdy there? Whatch y'all doing out here so early in the mornin'?" He's a scrawny man with a cute dog in the bed and you think that makes him all the more attractive too you. 

"Oh well we-" you're cut off by Ben. 

"Well my girlfriend here, she blew a tire and seemed to forget to get a new one. She also says she's missing her sparks but you know how women are with cars," he says roughly slamming his arm over your shoulder, making you flinch. The stranger's eyes flickered to you softening for just a moment before going back to a stoic look and staring at Ben. 

"I see well, I can take you to Ambrose, it's just 12 miles up the road, my brother owns a mechanic shop and he should be able ta help yall with yours problem. Only this is I only got room for two of ya's," he says rubbing his chin. 

"Why doesn't Y/n go? It is her car after all," Rebecca says looking at you. 

"I'll go too right babe? Can't have you going alone," Ben says, squeezing your shoulder painfully, you have to bite your lip from crying out. 

And so you and Ben pile into who you all found out to be Lester Sinclair. He was the youngest of three. 

"So where y'all from anyway? Don't seem like locals round these here parts," 

"Oh well-" 

"Were from California, driving cross country this summer to go and see disney world" 

You stay quiet now and just look down at your lap. You don't feel like getting Ben angry once again.

Lester looks at you from the corner of his eyes. Planning on ways to make your boyfriend shut up and let you speak for once. He had this overwhelming sense to protect you. Don't go thinking that healing black eye and the way you flinch any time that no good asshole would touch you. 

that. But why did yall choose to drive and not fly? Seems like you'd saved some time flying?" 

"Yeah well it seemed fun at the time until this one had to go and get the tire popped" Ben says annoyed. 

"Well shit, I forgot the roads flooded. We may have to go the long way." Lester says stopping in front of the road that leads into Ambrose. 

"Oh that's OK! We can walk from here, that way you don't have to worry about going an extra way," you say, smiling up at him with a genuine smile. He smiles back at you but doesn't miss the scowl on your boyfriend's face.

You wave at Lester after you've both exited the truck, you give jonesy a rub behind her ears and head over to the little step stones that have taken place in the washed out road.

"Come on, the faster we get into town the quicker we can get the shit we need and on the road again," Ben said, grabbing your arm and pulling you hard. He drags you all the way to the mechanics shop. He knocks on the front door. 

"Hello! We were told you were open and could help us!" Ben yells. 

…

Unbeknownst to the two of you, Bo was on the back roads talking with Lester. 

"She needs our help, he doesn't treat her right neither. She's got a healing black eye and every time he touched her she flinches, and you should've seen her, she's finer than frogs' hair split four ways," 

"Hmm, and you say she's got two other with 'er? Well bring them back to Vin and he can take care of them while I go and help our visitors. You grab them sparks and hide them in the house, right?" 

Lester shakes his head headed back into his truck to get Rebecca and her boyfriend. 

…

Back at the shop, Ben was getting impatient and you were bored. 

"I'm gonna go explore, since I'm just a woman and wouldn't know anything about cars right?" 

"You don't have to be such a bitch you know," he huffs. 

"Well you are such an asshole, after this all over and we're in Florida, I'm going to drop you all off and head home, beauce this," you say pointing between yourself and him, "is over. For good this time." 

He back hands you hard enough to draw blood from your lip that his fist made contact with.

"Fuck you Ben!" You screech, "find your own ways to Florida you fuckwad" you walk away up towards the house of wax wanting to clear your mind and maybe have a good cry. 

You are amazed when you make it up the hill to the beautiful building, only realizing as you got to the front that the architecture was made entirely of wax. You gently pushed open the door and stepped inside, giving  yourself your own guided tour of the house. 

Everything was beautiful and the little intimate details intrigued you. 

"These look so life like, the artist must have such magical hands," you say in a hushed voice as though you were in an art museum and let's be honest here you really were. 

Hiding in the shadows, watching you as you gushed on and on about his art work was Vincent Sinlair, the middle son of the Sinclair brothers and the artist behind the house of wax. 

His eye stared at you as though you were a beautiful piece of art that needed to be taken care of and looked after. He silently followed you around like a lost puppy. 

Once you finished admiring the art work and decided enough time had passed and Ben more than likely got the parts needed to get back on the road. You walk towards the exit when the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. You peak over your shoulder and you are more than certain you saw a flash of long raven hair. 

…

Back at the mechanic shop just after you had left Bo's voice was heard booming from inside.

"Hold your fuckin' horses, I could hear you banging like all hell!" He opens the door with a scowl on his face, Bo hopes to see you there as well. With the way Lester was talking you up he was excited to see the beauty that was you. But alas you were there, only you annoyed looking boyfriend. 

"Whatchu need?" Bo asks, folding his arms over his chest. 

"My girlfriend's minibus has a popped tire and missing sparks. We need them as soon as you can give them to us. And I can make the pot sweeter," Ben says, pulling out a $100 from his wallet. You see Ben, Rebecca and Maxwell were silver spoon babies, you were lower middle class. 

"Well I'll be damned. As much as I'd like to take you up on your offer, I'll have to check in our basement to see if we have them. Why don't you come with and we can work out the price," Bo says, making room for Ben to come in through the door. Ben walks in further into the shop not paying any attention to where Bo had moved. Rookie mistake. Bo hits him over the head and Ben is out cold. 

When Ben wakes he is secured to an old barber chair under a grate in what he assumed to be the mechanic shop. He's gagged and wiggling trying to escape. He's screaming but nothing comes out. 

…..

When you make it to the mechanic shop, you try the door and are happy to see it's finally open. 

"Hello! Is anyone here? Ben! Where are you, you still here?" You ask out walking around, fingerings all the different products on the walls. 

"Why hello there darlin'" you jump at the sudden voice behind you. You are greeted with quite the sight, a gorgeous man with a trucker hat and mechanic overalls.

"H-hi! I um, I'm looking for the guy I was with, he came here to get a new tire and spark plugs. Have you seen him?" You can feel a blush creeping up your neck. Curse your affinity for getting nervous about gorgeous men talking to you and making you lose all sense of yourself. 

"That one fella with the permanent annoyed look? Yeah, I sent him on up to our house, we didn't have the right type or sparks here so I sent him up there to get help from my twin Vincent. I could take you up there if you want or you could wait here?" He says while taking his hat off and running his hand through his damp hair. It makes him look all the more attractive to you.

You smile at him, "is your brother the one who made the art in the house of wax by chance?" 

"That he is ma'am, that he is. He's our own lil family artist," he says showing off his award winning smirk, now how about we get you on up to your friend? Maybe even get some food in yall too. You must be hungry." Just as the words left his mouth your stomach growled causing you to blush and wrap your arms around your noisy tummy. 

You smile at him. You've smiled more around these two strangers than you ever had in your entire relationship with Ben.

"Of course, please lead the way," you follow after him and to his pick up truck, this one much nicer than the one you previously rode in only hours before. The silence on the drive to the house is silent but peaceful. 

You get a better peak at him as he drives, he's attractive and knows it. His hands are big and veiny. Suddenly you are having thoughts about how they'd feel between-woah there y/n you have a boyfriend. Wait wait no you don't you broke it off with the fuckwad. Yes continue with the thought of his fingers in between your thighs as he moves them in and out of your- 

"Doll?" Bo lays his hand on your shoulder startling you. 

"Yes?" The blood rushes to your cheeks and head almost making you dizzy.

"I said we're here now," he says while fixing his hat and getting out of the truck. 

"Oh." You peep out as you follow him into the house. It's beautiful, it's very homey and definitely has the feel that three grown men live here. 

"I'll get started on some lunch for you" he says walking to the kitchen as you stand awkwardly in the living room. 

There are footsteps heard coming up from what can be assumed is the basement. When the door opens you are met with a beautiful sight, a man appears sporting long black hair, half up in a mini bun. He's wearing a wax made mask. He was beautiful. 

"Wow you are beautiful," you say out loud. 

He head snaps towards you and he then signs 'Thank you' you smile, you took a few ASL classes in high school. 

"Are you the one who made all the beautiful sculptures in the wax museum?" 

'Yes, did you like them?' He signed again.

"I didn't just like them, I loved them! You have such a beautiful talent!" 

'Would you like to see more?' He signs, 'I have just finished one at the workshop I have in the basement of the house of wax,'

"I would love to, but I'm only in town until my minibus is fixed. It would've been a great honor to see it though!" 

Just ask he was about to reply, Bo is calling you both to the dining room table. 

…

The 3 of you are enjoying a wonderful meal when it's interrupted by the front door being slammed open. All three of your heads look towards and see Ben. 

"B-ben!" You stand abruptly. 

"Get the fuck away from them y/n! They are a bunch of freaks!" 

Neither man speaks as they are stiff as a board.

"What do you mean? They've been nothing but nice to me this entire time," you say staying put. 

"That one locked me up in some torture device!" He says pointing to Bo, causing you to look at him, "I think they're the ones behind the missing sparks and blown tire," this causes you to slightly step back. 

"Now darlin' it ain't what you think, ok maybe it is," Bo begins looking at Vincent for help. 

"Get the fuck over here now, so help me. Don't be fucking stupid!" Ben says. 

"What did you say?" You look at him. Without you even realizing, you subconsciously grabbed the knife on the table. You don't even realize what your doing until you hear Bo say "don't go at the throat or head. Vinny needs those intact." 

"I am so sick of you abusing me and belittling me! I am so sick of it!" You scream. 

"You wanna stay with the freaks you crazy bitch? Fine you do that but dont you ever forget who owns you." He says stepping back away from the three of you. "You don't own me, you've never owned me!" You land the first blow in his stomach twisting the blade. You don't stop until Bo is pulling you off of him. Holding you close to his chest as Vincent wipes away the tears that have begun to fall. You're free, you're finally free of the abuse. 

"We'll always protect you doll, always." Bo says as he holds you close and kisses the top of your head. 

[blu-joons]

Telling Him You’re Pregnant ~ Kim Taehyung

“Y/N! You need to hurry up or the bus will go without us!” Taehyung yelled across at you.

Your head nodded slowly as you tried yet again to pull yourself up from the sofa, but once more the throbbing pain in your stomach stopped you from moving. You sighed in frustration as your body collapsed against the back of the sofa, trying desperately to get up as Taehyung became more and more frustrated beside you.

“I think you should just go without me,” you whispered, feeling how exhausted your body was. “I think I might just stay here and get some sleep instead; I’ve got this horrible feeling in my tummy.”

“Do you want me to stay here with you? I’m sure the production crew won’t mind,” he offered, but your head shook, glancing out of the window at all the crew waiting for the boys to get ready.

“I’m sure I’ll be alright; you’re needed to film.”

His expression softened, “I want to be sure that you’re safe too, I can’t do that if I’m off adventuring.”

Your head shook, resting your hand against the pain in your stomach, “I’m sure once I’ve had a bit of a sleep, I’ll be alright, you go off and have fun, don’t worry about me.”

Once he’d picked up everything, he needed from around your room in the rented house he pressed a soft kiss to the top of your head before running outside to join the rest of the group in the minibus to see where they’d be travelling to today.

At last, you allowed yourself to lay out across the sofa, still feeling the awful cramp in the pit of your stomach. Even though Taehyung had told you to call him if you needed him, there was no way you could disturb his day.

Outside of the door you could hear a few of the staff members clearing up after their breakfast was recorded, going in and out of each room to check if the equipment was alright. As the door of your room opened, you smiled gently as one of the directors jumped.

“I thought you went with the boys,” he asked, checking over the cameras in the corners of the room. It was only once he’d done that and looked at you properly, did he realise something was wrong. “Do you need me to call Taehyung?”

“No, don’t,” you quickly requested, doubling over at yet another sharp pain. “Can you just ring for an ambulance instead, please. Taehyung can’t know about this whilst he films.”

As the pain became progressively worse you couldn’t stay in the room for much longer. Your fears were growing more and more over what could have been causing such a horrific pain in your stomach, unlike anything you’d experienced before.

Unaware of what was going on back at the house, Taehyung tried desperately to enjoy the activity the production had set up for the boys. But each time a smile graced his face, his mind would instantly go back to you.

“She’ll be alright,” Namjoon reassured him as he watched his expression drop, “why don’t you ring her if you’re worried?”

As soon as Namjoon gave him the permission to step away from the shoot and call you, he jumped at the chance. He was hopeful that you’d pick up, but instead his call went straight to voicemail. It only added to his worries as he tried to figure out what was going on, asking around the camera crew once again if they’d heard anything.

As he did, he spotted several of them sharing knowing glances, silently debating what to do. His frustrations grew, desperately demanding that he be told what was going on. Only as he was, he instantly regretted it, immediately taking the mic pack off from around him, marching straight over to the cars refusing to listen to everyone’s protests.

The whole drive to the hospital was one of terror for him, racing in as soon as the car pulled up, yelling out your name to anyone that would listen.

“I’ll take you to her,” a voice called out, waving him across into her direction down one of the corridors.

He raced over to the nurse that waved, pushing through the crowds of people until he got to the room you were in. “Thank you,” he smiled as the nurse stepped aside.

His hand shook as he reached out and opened the door, smiling softly as he saw you laying awake in bed. The machines and cables around him were worrying but seeing how much more settled you were then when he left you that morning filled him with relief.

Your hand reached out from under the duvet for him to hold, feeling him grip onto you tightly. His eyes scanned the room for something that would let him know what was going on, but he was left clueless.

“I’m alright,” you quickly told him, trying to ease his mind. “They’ve told me what’s wrong, but I’m not sure whether it gives us more or less to worry about.”

“How do you mean?” He asked, moving a little closer to your bedside. “Is it something serious, why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

Your head shook before he could panic himself too much again. “How would you feel if I told you I was pregnant?” You questioned. “The reason my tummy hurt so much was because I’m pregnant Taehyung.”

It took a moment for your words to register before the corners of his mouth turned up into a disbelieving smile. He begged you to repeat your words a few times before he allowed it to sink it, relaxing into his chair.

“I’m happy,” he assured you, pressing a kiss against the back of your hand, “it never even crossed my mind that that could have been the cause of it. Are you definitely sure that’s what it is? Have you done a test?”

“There’s no doubt in the doctor’s minds, I’m definitely pregnant,” you clarified, “apparently situations like this are a lot more frequent than we think, they get it quite often here.”

“I don’t even know what to say,” he laughed, resting his head against the side of your bed, “there’s so many thoughts going through my head right now.”

It wasn’t quite the way you planned on telling him, nor how you ever imagined finding out you were pregnant. But seeing the excitement on his face made everything feel fine, all your worries and concerns as you laid and waited for him to inevitably appear were quickly brushed aside and forgotten.

After a few minutes, Taehyung shifted and sat himself on the end of the bed, draping his arm over your shoulders. “Are you still in any pain? That’s probably a stupid question, with a baby in there you’re going to be in a lot of pain over the next few months.”

“Thank you for that,” you joked, slapping lightly against his chest. “I’m a lot more comfortable than I was, but I’ve been warned that I’ve got to prepare for many moments like today for a while, especially now that I’m pregnant.”

“This is definitely not how I imagined my day going,” he chuckled, kissing against the top of your head. “A couple of hours ago I was preparing to fly down a giant zipline.”

“Maybe it’s a good idea I didn’t join you guys today then,” you laughed, brightening up the situation. “I won’t be going on any ziplines for a while now.”

“You’re not going to be allowed to do anything, I won’t be taking my eyes off you now,” he assured you. “I’ll do whatever to keep you and the baby safe.”

“We’ll all be alright Tae; you don’t need to worry too much.”

“I’ll always worry, about the both of you.”

---

Masterlist

[deathbyvalentine]

An Unexpected Summoning

The first thing the cult did was buy some anoraks. Orange, so they would stand out against the dreary grey winter days. Waterproof too, so that the fine spray that came up over the pier on windy days wouldn’t bother them a bit. A few of the older members opted for waterproof trousers too, but they were in the minority. They kept three spares in a plastic box, just in case they managed to convert anybody on location. They wouldn’t want new members getting cold, after all. 

Both the bones and the cards had been consulted, saying the same thing. It was going to be today. The cards had been wrong before but the bones never lied, so they packed up the minivan carefully. As well as the members inside, they fitted two tables, eight signs, a stack of pamphlets and ingredients for lunch. It was snug but not too crowded - some valiant members opted to drive seperately, though truth be told the sacrifice was made mostly to avoid Gail’s driving which frankly, bordered on a health risk. 

It wasn’t a long drive, thankfully. Ellie and Tabitha had started bickering over listening to Radio Four and it had frayed Eve’s nerves dreadfully, making reading the map more of an ordeal than it really should have been. She was first off the mini-bus, her pale skin taking on a slightly green hue. On the pier, the waves came up high enough to just spill onto the concrete and there was a persistent drizzle. The ladies got to work.

Tabitha set up the tables and fetched the plastic coverings so Ellie could get to making sandwiches. Another point of contention. Tabitha thought they should have just bought a platter from a supermarket but Ellie had insisted homemade was more personal. And now Tabitha was acting as a wind block so the rain wouldn’t make the bread soggy and biting her tongue to avoid the dreaded ‘I told you so’. Eventually Ellie realised now the minibus was clear, that was a far better place to aid construction and happily settled in. 

The rest of the members arrived as Gail and Eve began handing out pamphlets to the very few people hurrying past on the pier. Most took one to avoid an interaction, in a rush to get out of the rain and get to where they were going. One or two paused, looked at the illustrated tentacles and then hurried on a little faster. Nobody stopped to talk, which was a shame. They could have been saved if they were a little bit more polite or a little bit more curious.

The sky was darkening, the winter evening drawing in sooner than anybody had expected. Triumphantly, Ellie placed her protected sandwiches on the table, sealing the Tupperware up tight. She was putting down the final box when it happened.

The head breached the waves first, a dark green mass that could almost be dismissed as a particulalrly large swell. But not for long. Not when it’s eyes came next, all four of them glittering. Bit by bit it emerged, with no visible mouth, just a seething mass of tentacles tumbling over it’s shoulders. Sea water poured off it as it stood to it’s full height, making the buildings on the pier look as if they were a child’s playset. If the sun had been visible, it would have blocked it out. As it was, it just created a siloutte against the writhing clouds. With one mighty hand it reached down and snatched the small mountain of sandwiches, swallowing them down in one gulp. The noise of contentment rumbled from the god’s chest like thunder. “See!” Ellie squealed, looking up in awe. “I told you he would like them!” 

[softstraykidsimagines]

Foreigner 

Summary: How do you tell someone how much you like them? How can you tell that they like you back? And what if they don't like you because of something you can't control? You don't dare to ask these things with Felix, too scared to hear the answer. Little do you know the rest of Stray Kids are here to save the day.

Requested: yes 

Pairing: Felix x Reader

Genre: angst, fluff 

Word Count: 3.3k 

A/N: Fun fact, this was going to be bulletpoint, and less angsty, but my mood went South when I started this so I was like “meh I’ll just change it and let off steam”. But worry not, there is still fluff at the end! :)

I haven’t written a Felix imagine in a while, it was fun writing about this cute bean again...

Also, I am hyped asf for I am YOU omg! The songs sound so amazing and THE CHOREOGRAPHY FOR I AM YOU! MY GOD! I’m gonna have so much fun learning it :D

One final thing, this’ll be my last post for the next week-and-a-half or two weeks? I’m going away tomorrow to see family and it’s gonna be a hectic trip so I won’t have time to post :/ But I’ll be up and running again when Toussaint comes to an end :)

Now, without further interruption, ENJOY!!

MASTERLIST

“GET BACK HERE FELIX OR I SWEAR BY MY LOVE OF KPOP I’LL SKIN YOU”, you shrieked loudly as you chased after the boy, who had taken your food. “YOU DO NOT TAKE MY LUNCH AND EXPECT TO LIVE A HAPPY LIFE!”

Felix cackled loudly as he leapt over a couch of the backstage room, only just avoiding your swinging arm. “Come on, y/n! You can’t even let your good friend have a bite of your meal? You’re way more cruel than I thought”.

Your heart made a squeezing feeling in your chest at the word ‘friend’, but you didn’t show it on your face, which was still twisted in an angry scowl, but now held a slight smile. “Give me back my foOD, AUSSIE BOY!”

Suddenly, Woojin appeared out of nowhere, grabbing you by your waist and hoisting you over his shoulder as you screamed in surprise. “Now now, that’s no way to speak to each other, kids”. Felix snorted at the mock motherly tone the eldest was making.

You groaned. “I’m not the one who took Felix’s food. You should be carrying him around”. You didn’t bother keeping the indignant tone out of your voice. You were good friends with the group Stray Kids, thanks to your close friendship with Felix. You winced inwardly again, knowing you’d most likely only ever be Felix’s friend.

Changbin walked in and leaned against the door frame, sniggering. “You can’t blame us, y/n”. He pouted. “We get starved, we need some form of nourishment to stay alive”.

You rolled your eyes. “Whatever. Can I please have my food back?” You spoke in a strained but polite tone, directed at your Australian friend. He grinned at you and gave you the little packet of food, which you immediately started munching on, despite still hanging over Woojin’s broad shoulder. Everyone laughed at your actions, and you felt warmth flood through you. These boys were like a second family to you. You could always tell them anything you wanted, without being afraid of judgement. You were forever grateful for their kindness towards you.

But of course, one boys out of the nine had become more than a best friend to you. Felix, with his dumb jokes, cute accent when he struggled with his Korean, and determination to always work hard, had captured your heart and made you fall hard for him without even realizing it. You couldn’t even feel resentment for the fact that he was totally oblivious about your feelings for him. You were head over heels for the boy, but there was a problem that you didn’t see an answer to.

Unlike Felix, unlike every one of the boys in the room at present, you were not Korean. One could argue that Chris and Felix weren’t Korean themselves, but the boys had Korean ancestors and names, while you were just...you. No korean blood whatsoever.

As Woojin put you down, you felt your spirits drop as well. You excused yourself from the room, telling the boys that you should let them prepare for when they went on stage to perform. Felix waved and called as you left: “I’ll look for you in the crowd! Try to stay to the right of the stage so I can find you easier!” You smiled and nodded, regretting every time you’d chickened out of confessing to the adorable boy.

+++++++++

As you waited for the performance to start, the room started crowding up little by little. Soon the entire front of the stage was packed with fans, all cheering for Stray Kids. You swelled with pride for your friends, seeing the impact they had. After a few minutes, the room lights dimmed and music began to play.

You smiled through the whole performance, your eyes glued onto Felix as he danced or rapped his part. At some point, he came to your side of the stage, obviously trying to keep his word and find you in the ocean of people.

As he got closer, his eyes scanning the crowd, a girl next to you screamed loudly. “I LOVE YOU FELIX! CAN I BE YOUR GIRLFRIEND?!”

You scowled, you hands over your ears, at the girl. She shouldn’t say that to him. You found it rude and unnecessary. However Felix, not wanting to disappoint the fan, waved and smiled back politely, leading to the girl screaming again, making you cringe even more away from her.

Then, Felix’s eyes landed on yours and his smile widened into a genuine one. he waved his hand a little more vigorously, before running back to center-stage to finish the song. The rest of the performance went by smoothly.

+++++++++

You stood outside of the Stray Kids changing room, waiting patiently for the boys to finish changing back into more comfortable clothes to go back home.

Jisung was the first to walk out, and he smiled happily at you. “Did you enjoy yourself?”

You beamed back at him. “I always do!”

His smiled suddenly became cheeky. “I know. As long as Felix is on stage, you’ll always like our performance. In fact, the rest of us could completely disappear from the stage and you probably wouldn’t even notice!”

Your face became extremely hot as you eyes widened to the size of tennis balls. “What’s that supposed to mean?!” You couldn’t stop the panic from escaping in your voice. “I love watching every one of you. You wouldn’t be Stray Kids if you weren’t nine”.

Jisung laughed. “You’re not wrong there”. He became more serious again. “You don’t think all of us have noticed by now how you look at him? You give him a look like he could never do any wrong in the world, even if he does“. You knew he was talking about Felix stealing your food earlier. He continued. “If you don’t say anything soon, the rest of us will, because we’re pretty sick of how oblivious you’re both being”.

Your heart leapt uncomfortably. “You wouldn’t”. Now the fear in your voice was quite plain. “You can’t. He doesn’t like me back anyway”,

Jisung tipped his head to the side. “What makes you think that?”

Before you could even take a shaky breath to answer, the door opened and eight other boys filed out, Chan in the lead and others babbling loudly behind him. You quickly realized that they were all complaining about how hungry they were.

“But Chan HyuuunnnnggGGGGGG”, whined Seungmin. “The store is on the way home, we wouldn’t even have to take a detour”.

Chan sniffed, obviously not impressed with the members’ behavior. “Absolutely not. We can all wait until we get back to the dorms. Then we’ll make something, okay?”

“But that’ll take ages”, chipped in Minho as the others groaned loudly. “Can’t we at least buy some snacks?”

Chan’s face turned a peculiar shade of purple, as if he was holding in a yell. With sympathy washing over you, you stepped forward. “Umm... I actually have some snacks that could tie you all over until we make dinner”. The boys gave you a shocked look. “I-- I bought them earlier, thinking you’d all be starving at the end of the day. I could even help make dinner tonight, if it speeds everything up”.

You held out the snacks and the boys all took them, thanking you over and over, then stuffing their faces with the delicious treats. Chan took one as well, looking as if he could kiss you. “Thank you so much y/n”, he said with fatigue obvious in his voice. “You’ve saved us from biting each other’s heads off”. You nodded with a smile, glad you could help. When everyone had finished their snacks, you all left the building to clamber into the minibus and head back to the dorms.

+++++++++

After you all piled into the crammed dorm, you immediately offered to make a delicious hot dinner while everyone got ready for the night. With grateful sighs, they all trailed off to change once again into pajamas while you put a large frying pan over the gas with a clang.

You spent a few minutes alone in the small kitchen, mixing a few ingredients, trying your best to not spill or burn anything. Soon you heard comfortable voices coming from the living room, telling you that the boys had all settled down and were talking happily, sounding tired but content.

All of a sudden, you heard Chan voice ring over everyone else’s. “Felix, why don’t you go help y/n in the kitchen. I feel guilty about making them cook by them self, even if they offered to”.

Next came Felix’s indignant voice. “Then why don’t you go help? I don’t wanna get up!”

His question was followed by a few giggles and teasing. Jisung asked something that you couldn’t make out, and the boys burst into a fit of laughter as Felix shushed them in a panic. “Don’t let them hear you!”, he squeaked. “They’ll hate me if they find out”.

You smile disappeared and you started to become uneasy. What had Jisung said? What would make you hate Felix? You swallowed, your throat dry, feeling dread spread through you. Then you heard footsteps approaching and you quickly turned back to the stir fry, which had started to smoke slightly.

As you tried to mix everything around so as not to ruin it, Felix appeared next you, startling you. You hadn’t expected him to actually come and help after what he’d said.

“Careful”, he told you, pushing your elbow closer to you. “You don’t want to burn yourself”.

Your cheeks heated up again as you stared back at him. “Umm, thanks”. You started to pay attention to the frying pan and cursed loudly, making Felix snort. “It’s burning!! Shit, don’t be ruined please!” You tossed the contents of the pan around, praying that the food was still edible.

When you’d managed to make everything look normal again, Felix cut in: “Have you made the ramen noodles?” You cursed again, turning to start making them, but he stopped you. “Hold on, chef. You’re creating enough chaos as it is. I’ll take care of it”. You wanted to retort with a cheeky remark, but you quickly remembered what you’d heard from the living room, and stayed quiet.

As you finished up the stir fry, you focused a bit more on Felix. He was unusually quiet right now. You reminded yourself that he must be incredibly tired after the long day, but you couldn’t stop the voice in the back of your head whispering that he was usually energetic unless he was just about ready to collapse from exhaustion.

When the noodles were ready, you quietly finished preparing the dish and you both took the bowls out to the eight other hungry boys. The rest of the evening was spent eating in a happy silence, and when everyone started yawning, you announced that you were heading home to let them sleep. You exited the dorm to the chorus of goodbyes from the boys. You tried listening out for Felix’s voice, but with a sinking heart, you couldn’t pick it up. So you closed the door with a heavy feeling weighing you down, and you headed home.

+++++++++

A few weeks passed, and the memory of the conversation in the living room faded from your mind. You hung out with Stray Kids when you could, and started feeling more like your normal comical self again. However one day, that memory resurfaced with a new unpleasant one.

You were about to knock on the practice room door, to give Felix and Chan, who had been practicing together for the past couple of hours, when you heard them talking in slightly hushed voices. You knew by the tone in their voices that they were talking about something serious. Without thinking, you pressed your ear to the door.

“You gotta tell them, Jix”, came Chan’s stern voice. “You gotta end this. You’re playing with their heart”.

You felt like your stomach had dropped to your feet. Despite the growing dread inside of you, you kept listening.

“I can’t”, Felix retorted, his voice laced with guilt. “I can’t tell y/n”. You flinched in shock after hearing him say your name. “It’s better if I just leave everything as it is.....” You covered your mouth to muffle a small worried sound, tears pooling slightly in your eyes.

Was he just faking your friendship for some personal gain? You kept trying to think rationally, to reassure yourself that Felix wasn’t like that. He was a kind, sensitive kid who loved joking around with everyone and would start crying if any one of his friends started crying. You knew the Felix who would quote memes, tire himself out just to help as many other people as he could, or would smile like a child when he was with his loved ones. You thought you the Felix who’d try to steal your food, who would text you random thoughts at 2 in the morning, who would smother you in a huge hug whenever he saw you. Was that just acting? What was behind the scenes? You’re mind snapped back to the practice room, where you heard Chan snap impatiently.

“This is serious, Felix! You’re being cruel to them. You may as well lie to their face when you talk to them”. Felix must have replied, but you never heard what he’d had to say. You were already dashing away from the practice room, the hallway blurring around you as you made your way to the elevator.

“Hey, y/n. What’s the hurry?”, called Jisung, who had been walking in the opposite direction. “Wait... are you okay?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Sungie”, you tried to say evenly, but your voice wobbled.

Before you could get much further, Jisung grabbed you and spun you around gently. “You’re crying a river right now. Come on”. He gently pushed you into an empty conference room, closing the door behind him with a snap. “What happened? If there’s any way I can help, tell me”.

You started crying harder now, alone with your friend. What if he was faking his friendliness with you as well? You finally said shakily: “Are-- are you my friend, Jisung?”

The boy looked lost, confused, and hurt. “Of course I’m your friend, y/n. What’s this all about?”

You didn’t answer. “And is-- is Felix my friend?” Your voice broke. You sounded pitiful to yourself. How you break down like this?

Jisung was staring at you with wide eyes. “Why are you asking me this?”

You let out another loud sob. “You’ll think it’s stupid...”

The boy in front of you held your arms firmly. “Y/n. You can tell me. Please?”

You hesitated one more second before blurting: “B--because I’m not Korean!” You suddenly felt how much the thought had been weighing down your mind all this time, and a new stream of tears began. “I heard Chan telling Felix that he had to stop lying to me, that he was being cruel and playing with my heart”. Now you couldn’t stop sobbing between words as you continued. “I-- I also heard him complaining ab--bout helping me cook b--back in the dorms a--a few weeks ago. You said s--something that he didn’t want me to h--hear. Now I think that all this t--time he’s b--been faking being my f--friend”. You stared at ground in shame, waiting for Jisung to respond and wiping away, in vain, a few tears marking your cheeks.

“Y/n...” Jisung sounded at a loss. “I... can’t believe him... that dumb bastard!” You wrenched yourself from his grip, not wanting to hear anymore.

“I don’t want to hear about him, I want to forget him”, you said, your body shaking violently. You backed away towards the door. “I need to go home. I’ll see you tomorrow, maybe”. And with that, you flung the door open and fled into the hallway without looking back.

You sprinted through the streets, not bothering to hide the tear marks on your cheeks, wishing you could run further than to your home, further than to the other side of the planet. You just wanted to disappear...

+++++++++

You sat curled up on the couch, listening to the TV blaring, but feeling like it was a simple background noise as you stared into space, still contemplating what had happened only an hour ago.

You’d made a fool of yourself in front of Jisung, and you felt a grim certainty that he was going to tell Felix about it. You dreaded going back tomorrow, but you had to act as if nothing had happened, so as not to alert the other boys of anything. You couldn’t let this affect your friendship with them.

You drifted into an uncomfortable sleep, shifting between vague nightmares. You scowled as the TV seemed to grow louder. I knew I shouldn't have put it on the action-movies channel, you thought numbly. You opened an eye slightly, and as you returned to a hazy consciousness, you realized with a start that it wasn’t the TV making the loud noises.

Someone was banging loudly on your door.

With a groan, you heaved yourself off the couch and trudged over to your front door, trying to straighten your hair and rubbing any tear marks off your face. As you got closer, you recognized the voice in the hall outside.

“Y/n please open up!” It was Felix. You started to turn away when he spoke again, his voice muffled by the heavy door. “Jisung told me everything. I’ve been an idiot but please, please... just let me explain everything”. You heard the desperation in his voice, making up your mind. You unlocked the door and swung it open, your heart in your throat.

You must have looked horrible, because when Felix laid his eyes on you, he blanched significantly. “I did this to you”, he whispered. And with a shock, you saw his eyes becoming misty with tears. “I didn’t know that I was hurting you so much, I was being stupid and I was too scared to tell you everything, I--” He sniffled. “I should’ve confessed to you earlier”. He looked at the ground and wiped his eyes.

You couldn’t help but feel your heart tear at the sight of Felix upset. You couldn’t help how you felt. You just wanted him to smile. “How can you like me”, you asked, also tearing up again.

He looked back up at you, eyes wide. Before you could continue, he shook his head. “Jisung also told me that you thought I couldn’t like you because you aren’t Korean. Y/n”. He took a step closer, and you stayed where you were, unable to move away. “Where you were born, where you grew up, your nationality, what language you speak, none of those matter to me. You’re you. And that’s perfection to me”.

You let out a weak bark of laughter. This was real. Felix had really said that to you. You couldn’t stop a smile forming on your face. “I’m so stupid”, you said.

“No, I’m the dumb one”, he replied, also laughing slightly. “I should’ve said something instead of scaring you”. He hesitated a moment, then leapt forward and enveloped you in a bone-crushing hug. “In this case, will you go out with me?”

You hugged him back tightly, smiling against his shoulder. “As if you have to ask”. You both stayed like that a while, happy. Then you pulled apart, and you suddenly realized that Felix had a bright red mark on his left cheek. “What on Earth is this?”, you asked incredulously, reaching out, concern in your eyes.

Felix suddenly blushed, so that his hole face was the same colour as the mark. “Umm.... Changbin slapped me when Jisung told me --in front of everyone else-- what you’d said. He said that if stupidity was painful, this is how it would feel”.

You couldn’t help it. You burst out laughing, and soon Felix did too. Once you’d both stopped, leaning against the door frame, he tilted his head to you. “Do you think you could kiss it better? It still hurts”. He pouted slightly, and you rolled your eyes. “Pleeeaaasssseee?”

“Okay, fine”, you giggled, shaking your head. He turned his head to the side and you leaned forward. Just before your lips made contact with his cheek, he turned his head back to face you, and kissed you.

wOW it’s really late rn, but i had to finish this heh

[footloose-travel]

Albania, An Unexpected Surprise

        Expectations are a funny thing. I’ve mentioned previously that I try to always keep an open mind because my expectations are often nowhere near what the experiences turn out to be. When going to some place like Paris one would have high expectations based on what they heard, the romantic reputation of the place, etc. So when it came to going to Albania I have to admit I did not have high expectations and thought we would only want to stay a couple days and move on. I had nothing concrete to base these expectations on and did not really do any research before we got there except to plan a couple days out. What a pleasant and unexpected surprise Albania turned out to be. I had no idea that many Europeans (especially Germans) come to Albania for their vacations, that there is a lot to see and that we found it as interesting as we did.         The first campground we stayed was in Gjirokaster, run by a young couple and also had an excellent restaurant. We were made to feel very welcome and had one of the best dinners we’ve had so far in this part of the world. We had a huge platter loaded with their traditional food of meats, cheeses, roasted vegetables, breads, olives, pastries with spinach and fresh fruit. I also had some of the wine they make there locally and John had a beer. All of this came to less than $20 and we were treated like a combination of family and royalty. While there we went to explore their World Heritage City and Castle which was a typical medieval fortress.         As we headed to the next campground the open countryside was full of mountains and wide valleys with great expanses of olive groves, orchards and farmland. When traveling these roads it is common to meet sheep, cow and goat herders moving their stock along. The “super markets” are about the size of convenience stores and generally do not carry much meat or produce. There are fruit and vegetable stands along the side of the road everywhere, and in the larger towns you may be lucky enough to find more variety this time of year. There are butcher shops and small bakeries and we had to make many stops to find everything we wanted to fill our normal grocery shopping that we were used to getting in one place.         Outside of Berat we found another good campground with nice facilities and decent homemade wine. We stayed there 3 nights and everyday either the owner or her son brought us iced coffee as a treat. One morning we took the bus into Berat so we could see the town and visit Berat Castle. Even though we were given basic information as to how to get there and which bus to take, sometimes things can get a bit misconstrued in the translation. We knew to take the bus right out front but somehow ended up taking the wrong one and getting off in a place different than where we expected. We asked around and were told in very broken English that the castle was down the road and to go “this way”. We did find the road up to the castle but it was not the main road, it was quite steep and very rocky. Since castles are always built up high on cliffs and mountains I knew there would be a walk up but usually the road has been paved. After scrambling along after John for awhile with no castle in sight and sweat dripping down my face, I decided to turn around and go back onto the main road and wait for him. I found a place to have coffee where I could relax while waiting. A young man brought me coffee and we started talking. His English was good and I explained why I was there. He gave me the WIFI password, brought me some water and said I could stay as long as I liked. I let John know where I was and when he climbed back down he met up with me and ended up having some coffee and conversation as well. John thanked the young man for taking such good care of me, and he didn’t want to charge us for the coffee and even ended up giving us some local fruit to take with us.         Our next stop was Shkodra and our campground was built at the base of yet another castle which we had an excellent view of from our campsite. When we checked in we were asked if we would like to visit the castle and we simultaneously said NO, we have had our fill of castles. Although they had fireworks from the castle that evening we were not aware of until we saw and heard them, and they were quite spectacular. We signed up instead for a tour that consisted of a 2 1/2 drive to a ferry, then an hour ferry ride on Lake Koman, then a stop at a Guest House along the lake, then another boat for a couple hour ride on the river. The mini bus picked us up at 6:30am and made a few stops along the way until we were full. The views were nice, but the road was a pot-holed disaster. After the ferry when we got to the Guest House we climbed up the hill and were then told there would be no river tour and we could kayak (too cold), walk into the village or take another boat ride around the lake. None of these options were what we signed up for and there were 8 of us trying to not get annoyed. Instead we all opted for the boat ride around the lake and made our way down the steep steps built into the cliffside to a different smaller boat that the owner had to bail water out of before we could launch. The ride was pleasant enough and after about an hour we were brought back and climbed up the 128 steps (John counted them) to the small area where they served us an excellent lunch. We climbed back down and waited for the ferry to pick us up and take us back to the minibus for the long drive to the campground. Overall a very long day, but the weather was beautiful and we slept well that evening.         We quickly learned Albanian drivers are as bad as Italian drivers when it comes to being aggressive and entitled, the roads are a mess and the ongoing construction can add unanticipated hours to your driving time. We also learned that Google Maps likes to take us on what John refers to “ingenious shortcuts” that inevitably gets us stuck, or on roads we have no business being on in our camper van. In Albania there is often no other way to go so we bravely forge on even though the road is not big enough for 2 vehicles, has steep drop offs without barriers and has no signs to indicate if it is even a passable road. We found ourselves on one of these types of roads and John expertly was maneuvering along when we encountered a car coming the other way. There was barely enough room, but whew we made it. Around the bend we came upon a traffic jam (more like a cluster f**k) where there was a bus (full sized) as well as other cars and small trucks. On this part of the road it was a little wider but we couldn’t really see what the hold up was. As we inched along with vehicles passing us just as slowly going the other way, we came upon a huge 18 wheeler truck! It was on the other side of the road and holding everything up. People were getting impatient and trying to pass in obviously impassable areas and beeping their horns. We then saw a wedding party in the line up of cars and since they couldn’t see what was ahead they started beeping even more. For some reason this scenario struck us as hysterical and we started laughing and shaking our heads saying you just can’t make this stuff up. Finally we got out of the cluster onto what could pass as an almost normal road and were still laughing, but also with a sense of relief.         Albania is a poor country with an abundance of natural beauty. They are still catching up from the brutal strain of their history to being a free market in a democratic republic. We didn’t realize the work they have put into becoming an enjoyable tourist destination and glad we got to experience it. The people we encountered (as long as they were not behind the wheel) were warm and friendly and truly cared about making our experience there a favorable one. The continued warm hospitality wherever we went was genuine, the food was excellent and most things very inexpensive. Before we came to Albania one couple we met said to drive through quickly and not stay there because it was dangerous. I don’t know what they based this on but I’m sure there is evil and wrong doings going on, as in any place. What I do know is we never felt uncomfortable or threatened and had a thoroughly enjoyable time here.         For all the photos see John and Charlotte’s flickr sites. Just click on either of our names.

[thefamoustownofyeadon]

I will carry on writing this stuff until someone stops me Sing Hallelujah for the cats own good

Johannesburg 1991 and then again 14 months

 An interlude

For a while, we lived in staff housing on the hospital site. I have lived in about thirty houses and of all those this simple house and the one overlooking the harbour in Bermuda were the best. It was a brick-built house with a corrugated iron roof and a painted stone stoop or veranda. I think of it as being a little colonial looking but that would be stretching the definition a long way.

 We had a water tower in one corner of the garden and a low railing fence which ran the middle over which we played endless games of badminton in the evenings. The hospital kitchen, next door attracted large numbers of feral or stray cats which were usually in a poor state of health. I contacted the SPCA (South African equivalent of the RSPCA) and for a price of R50 each they agreed to sterilize and immunise all the cats I could get to them. They gave me a stack of cat traps which essentially were simple metal cages with a drop-down gate. The hospital paid for each treatment. 

For those who are technically minded the approach, I used to catch the animals is known as Operant Conditioning. It’s the first cousin of Pavlov and his dogs but relates to behaviours which can be controlled. Essentially it means if you reward a behaviour it gets more frequent. Lots more but that will do. Step one was to get the cats to come to me. I got leftover food from the kitchen each evening in coffee tins  (RICOFFY brand). I would walk past the cats which hung about in the road that ran past my house and then bray the tin with a spoon when I poured the food into bowls. The cats got used to the noise and would come running.in their ones and two’s, but I wanted more. Then I hit on the idea of singing as this would be more of a singular signature. The cats would come to associate my voice singing with being fed. The first song’ I tried worked. The Hallelujah Chorus by Handel. Now the cats came running in much greater numbers. Up to twenty cats would come bounding from all directions at the sound of 18th-century choral music.

Step two was laying out the traps on the lawn with the ready prepared bowls two metres in front of them. Each day, the food would move nearer and nearer the cages until after a week of slow, steady progress the food was actually inside the cage. The gate being held in the up position by twigs. I had some bad experiences so over time developed my own PPE to protect against cat attack. I wore an outsize donkey jacket the wrong way round, a scarf across my face and a pom-pom hat on my head. On my hands, I wore oven gloves. All the time that this step by step approach had been going on I had sat in a chair with all this gear on and a  sweeping brush in my hand, so the creatures came to feel familiar with me and got trust. Then when they had total trust and happily went into the cage I would knock away the twig with my broom handle and the trap gate would fall. On a day off I would repeat this a few times and then drive the cats in the cages to the SPCA in nearby Alexandria township which was very unsettled at the time. I very foolishly took my daughter Emma with me. She has memories of lying on the floor of a minibus surrounded by cats in cages. I have never calculated the number of cats captured and  treated. I am guessing it would have been about fifty. Some came to live in our garden and the kids got fond of them. Their names were Bobstein, Snooky Boy (who was a girl) DCF (Disgrace to the cat family) and others I cannot remember. 

We moved temporarily to the Isle of Man in April of 1991. But returned fourteen months later. I stood with the kids and sang the special song, and cats came running from every direction. Bounding like horses in a race over fences.(If you are a behavioural psychologist that is evidence of a very significant result) Tomorrow a crowded house

[shaunfloyd-blog]

namibia to malawi;

there’s a reason i haven’t already written about the post-namibia part of this trip; crossing into botswana and zambia was where i was confronted with real africa for the first time and i wasn’t ready for it. i was in botswana for two hours and received a speeding fine in a zone which had no speed limit sign. the zambian border slugged me for everything imaginable; entry visa, a vehicle temporary import permit, road tax, carbon tax, insurance for a month and some stupid fucking compulsory stickers which were the same colour as my reflectors. then a persistent guy wanted money for having ‘provided security for my car’, the sticker guy ripped me off big time, and the one who had kindly ‘helped’ guide me through the process wanted around fifty bucks, plus there was no cash machine at the border (which turns out to be typical) and he had lent me money so we had to drive 60 k’s to livingstone for cash and he wanted an extra twenty for the taxi back. worst day of my trip.

i’m ashamed to say i enjoyed spending the next couple of days in the company of honest white people but that’s truly how i felt. 

you’ve seen pictures of the falls etc. it was luxurious and lovely. i had an indulgent gin and tonic on the swanky royal livingstone sun deck as the sunset and thunderstorm fought gallantly for the crowd’s attention. everything in the town was expensive so i only stayed two nights.

the day i left for lusaka was hot and humid. the worst combination for a temperamental shaunfloyd. i left mid-morning after first running around trying to find a map of the country (the tourist centres don’t stock these), and tightening a few loose nuts on the (t)rusty rav rocket. the 484km drive was the slowest i’ve driven. my speedo is broken so i can’t say exactly how fast i was going but i can say with confidence that i never came close to 100 km/h. dodging goats, cyclists, potholes, overturned trucks, and reckless minibus drivers (with stickers justifying? their carelessness by recommending HAVE FAITH IN GOD), and then slowing to a stop at police roadblocks every hour to tell the uneducated smug police-person where i am going, where am i from, why my drivers license is creased and other equally useless time-wasting questions. and then a toll gate! so my three months of road taxes doesn’t cover this road? aaaargh it was getting to me. after about eight hours of frustration i reached my first real african city and again i wasn’t prepared. it was chaos. i hadn’t bought a zambian sim card so i was relying on a google maps screenshot to guide me to lusaka backpackers. all i had to do was turn right at the big roundabout then take the second right and i was there but my frustrations got the better of me and i turned at the wrong big roundabout and got lost and did a few circles and then it was dark and everything looked menacing so a retraced my steps, got stuck in traffic again, then managed to arrive at the wrong place; flintstones backpackers. what a shithole. a few locals were playing pool in the dingy common area. some greetings crept out of faceless bodies in the shadows followed by mocking laughter. the lady at the reception was uninviting and seemed to sigh throughout the entire check-in process. i had a cold shower, a warm beer and went to bed early, only to be woken regularly throughout the night by locals coming in and each one turning the light on and fumbling to arrange their mosquito net around the bed. i had failed to do this properly and had mosquitoes to add to my discomfort.

the next day i spent the morning waiting for a roll of film to be scanned. in the meantime i went to the nicest cafe i could find which had a sign boasting wifi (i needed to make a call). i ordered and asked about the wifi and it wasn’t working. i went back to the camera place to find the scanner wasn’t working. i got in the car, paid the parking man, paid the car-cleaning man and got the hell outta there. no, actually a cop booked me for running an amber light but actually maybe just half the fine would be suitable if i paid in cash on the spot. hnnnghhhh!

the drive to luangwa river was similar to the previous day except the potholes took over and became small sections of dirt roads, which several trucks had fallen victim to. it was tedious work. another cop pulled me over suggesting that the surfboard between the seats would prevent me from escaping in an emergency. i protested that there is no chance the 30 people crammed into the 12-seat minivans would stand a chance but he insisted i pull over. fortunately his fellow officers were less cruel and let me continue without further hassle.

the river camp was a relaxing change of pace. i joined the alcoholic dutch owner and his ahh young zambian woman-friend in watching some faulty towers. the next day i hiked up a hill for a view of the river and the slow and steady life of the local village fisherman. back on the road and as i drove further east, zambia blended into malawi. the landscape was lush green and hilly. the villages and people started to look more pleasant and well kept and even the police would smile and wish me a safe journey. i stayed my final night in zambia in the upbeat border town of chapata.

at the border i was determined to ignore all the ‘generous’ help and advice of the loiterers and dodgy money exchangers. crossing the zambia side into nomansland was without hassle, just the usual blank unfriendly looks. then i attempted to pay the visa and didn’t have enough cash. so i went to the oneandonly atm, which was out of order. then to the bank support branch which doesn’t do cash withdrawals. *sigh!* so it was drive back 40 k’s to chapata, or give in to the pestering border businessman offering me a loan. i gave in. i got the visa. then the import permit took about an hour, mostly because the staff were busy behind the protection of the glass having breakfast or lunch (it wasn’t the time for either) and gathering around to read a funny article in the paper. after twenty minutes of this one guy pretended to be startled by the gathering queue and approached to tell me to fill out a form and pay the guy next door. the guynextdoor’s system was down so i went back to old mate procrastinator to fill in a substitute ‘ifthesystemisdown’ form. i made it through, paid the malawian insurance and then gave my new loan-friend a ride to the next town to pay him back which was a bit of a shemozzle but we managed. and i was in malawi! relief washed over me as i blah blah blah

ach all this complaining is exhausting so i’ll end there. be warned people. don’t go to zambia. especially lusaka

[jessiewre]

Day 10

Tues 14th Jan

Usual breakfast, this time sat with French Flo. We got on the taxi boat with our mate Hillary and he took us to a slightly different pier, one that was private in a nice hotel. Looked good.

But then WHO should be standing there, hanging around like a bad smell, but the annoying taxi driver guy who we’d told we didn’t want to travel with and that we would call him if we needed him. What were the chances? I dunno, maybe high but felt like he was tracking us for frigs sake. He was trying to hustle some other muzungu but then tried to move in on us too, saying ‘I’ll take you to Kihihi, you won’t be able to find a safari vehicle’ etc etc. Phil was like ‘Hey, remember when we got the boat the other day and it cost us 20,000 each? Well we know it should have been 15,000 total. Yeah, not good. You cheated us. That was not good’

The guy looked embarrassed and awkward then starting trying to speak to Hillary and bribe him to make us travel in his car (we found this out afterwards).

We politely said No thank you, then walked off to get onto the Boda Boda motorcycles that Hillary had organised, feeling slightly smug but also like we just couldn’t be arsed being around him a moment longer. Then the driver shouted ‘I’ll do it for 120 dollars!’.

‘Too late’ I said and we left.

Honestly could not wait to get away from him, he was so annoying.

The Boda ride was good but boy trying to hold yourself in a comfortable position while wearing a giant travelling rucksack is bloody difficult. I pulled into the bus departure area with Hillary, and Phil’s bike was nowhere to be seen despite the fact he’d been in front of us. GREAT.

Hillary was like Oh I dont have the drivers number oops.

Even better.

Hillary told me to wait there while all these locals started saying Hey! Muzungu! And I was like Hey yes I am a muzungu, and he went to try and find them. I started saying Muzungu! Muzungu! repeatedly back to everyone and they laughed and stopped hassling me. Phil’s boda arrived after 5 minutes, as had taken him to completely the wrong bus station. Slight relief.

We bought a local SIM card here with the help of Hillary (god bless Hillary, he was amazing) plus some water for the journey, then got on the minibus to Kihihi which was already full of locals. They looked pretty excited to see us and I looked in and said ‘Agandi!’ And they LAUGHED THEIR HEADS OFF while saying ‘Nijey!’ at the same time.

Phils initial seat was pure on the wonk like, he said Wow its like I’m surfing on this seat - which got another big laugh - so he moved to the other fold out seat in front. Both our seats were the temporary fold out ones but we weren’t going to make anyone swap so just sat one in front of the other. Bought two vege samosas which turned out to have only RICE inside. The blandest samosas you’ve ever had, certainly not suitable for a genuine Indian. But obviously we ate them, cos we were hungry init.

The journey was fairly comfortable for the most part. We sometimes stopped for people to buy things from street sellers (I didn’t need any cabbage at that point so said no thank you) BUT THEN we reached an issue.

The road had turned into a total mud pit mess and there was a total jam of vehicles while a digger tried to fix it. ‘Time to get out, we could be here for a few hours’ another passenger said to us.

There were at least a hundred people hanging around, most of which were surprised and confused to see the muzungus climbing out of a bus - but they continued to chew on their sugar cane and watch on like us as the situation barely improve.

We wandered down the road to look a bit closer and the digger worked fast to try and shovel mud out the way.

Suddenly, after about half an hour, a vehicle on the other side began to charge through the mud and just go for it with absolutely no warning whatsoever. One guy had to leap out of the way to avoid it as it loudly revved and skidded and skied across the mud. Unbelievably, it made it all the way across and didn’t get stuck!

So this was the flood gates opened. Everyone started to try and wing it across the mud pool, it was like a weird efficient chaos.

We continued to walk across the mud so we didn’t have to be inside the vehicle in its attempt, plus we figured it would help to keep it as light as possible - then we watched as our vehicle gave it a go.

It started off ok...ooh it got quite far...and then...it got totally stuck in the mud.

Guttttteddddd.

The other passengers got out (yep, they had decided to stay in the vehicle for the attempt) and they started to rock the bus to try and free it. I almost offered to help but figured that I’d be better off assessing from a far incase they needed a detailed eye witness account report or something afterwards. It was a hairy moment as it sounded like the engine might burn out. At one point Phil picked up a plank of muddy wood and began to walk towards the bus to try and be a hero and wedge it under a wheel.

But the Ugandan’s had got this, the bus got free before he reached it and it muddied its way across the bad stretch. RESULT. Apart from Phil’s totally muddy hands.

Two bodas arrived for us in Kihihi (shout out to Hillary who organised everything with his mate) and we took the uncomfortable 40 min ride to the place Phil had booked on WhatsApp - River Lodge.

They upgraded us to an en-suite for a deal rate and there was a beautiful balcony with a view of the river. You soon forget about a painful journey when you arrive somewhere like that.

The deal was full board so we didn’t even have to THINK about dinner, we just gave the time of 7pm and turned up to a delicious local curry and rice dish.

I could feel a bit of a cold coming on so went to bed well early and Phil sat with the local guys round the campfire drinking beer and trying to convince them to take us into the park the next day on motorcycles.

Yeah, without a vehicle to hand, we were going to struggle to get into the National park for a safari...

[twatkcox]

[The Keihancarl Diaries: November 16, 2019]

It's me Keihancarl once again, and I'm heading east… well, not the one that involves the LRT-2, which is currently operational from Araneta Center-Cubao to Recto for the time being.

And it’s time to experiment with my outfit this time, as I tend to wear my black fleece coat on most of my mall-hopping trips. For this trip, it's the black cardigan and the pastel yellow button T-shirt that I’m wearing, along with the rest of the usual clothing.

I left the house around quarter to ten, and there's moderate to heavy traffic along the way. I took the UV Express up to Quezon Memorial Circle area and took an e-jeepney/minibus (a.k.a. the Beep, also the name of a contactless card used for payment) to Cubao. Yes, it’s an e-jeepney, but more of a minibus as it features plastic or upholstered seats (depending on the unit) as well as plastic handles for standing passengers. I got off at Cubao and then took a jeep to Eastwood City, which is my first stop for this trip.

I visited a couple of shops: Mumuso and Fully Booked.

The Mumuso branch in that mall is where I first saw the red socks during my last visit to the mall back in August 2017. The red socks are then bundled with dark gray ones. Yeah, I wasn’t able to buy one at first, which is quite a shame since I love red socks. I eventually bought a pair at the Vertis Mall branch hours later. I could’ve bought a pair or two earlier if not for my extremely limited budget for that trip at the time. Now on to the present, I still couldn’t find a single pair of red socks in that branch, as well as in other branches. Guess they’re pretty much of a limited rare item nowadays.

Fully Booked remains the same, as always. I usually check out some interesting manga books there and that was that.

Outside, there's an event on the cryptocurrency exchange. I then head to the bridge area, where I took most of my selfie pics.

And of course, I also took some pics in different parts of Eastwood City, especially in the mall area. While I’m taking selfies using my monopod, there is something wrong with my smartphone's camera. It keeps on taking duplicate pictures despite doing different poses for every click on the monopod button. I had to restart my phone a couple of times to fix this problem. Well, these are the only selfie pics taken using a monopod.

While taking some pics inside Eastwood, I noticed this street sign that is really hard to read (from a distance) and badly needs fixing. The lettering needs to be repainted.

Heading to my next stop, the East Ortigas/Frontera Verde area. I had lunch at Lawson first, which is a five-piece chicken nugget meal with two cups of rice (it says unli rice, both on the menu and the receipt). It is really good. The sweet and sour sauce makes it a perfect condiment for the chicken nuggets, though one packet is not enough.

I immediately proceed to Tiendesitas mall right after that, but I had a hard time finding the entrance to the mall itself. I was thinking of entering the mall area via the sporting goods shop Decathlon, but I eventually manage to find the entrance via the Pet Village area. Regarding the aforementioned sporting goods shop, I actually did check inside, but I exited the same way. Anyway, now that I got inside the mall, I started checking some of the stalls there, particularly the antiques and the furniture section.

Across Tiendesitas is SM Center Pasig. I didn't check any of the shops there.

Next stop, SM City East Ortigas. It is formerly known as Ever Gotesco Ortigas until acquired by SM sometime in 2015 or 2016. The mall renovation commenced right after the acquisition, with slight alterations to its layout. Despite this, the escalators and the spiral stairs are retained. I first visited the mall two years ago, so this makes it my second time. Anyway, it took me long enough to catch a ride from C5-Ortigas Avenue intersection, but I managed to get there in less than 20 minutes.

I only checked a couple of shops there.

Love their Christmas centerpiece too.

And just as I was about to head to Greenhills Shopping Center, I thought I might want to check its neighbor, Robinsons Cainta. It took me a fifteen-minute walk from SM City East Ortigas to get there (less than a kilometer, in case you’re wondering). It didn't take me long enough to check the entire mall, though.

Taking a bus to Greenhills Shopping Center, I had to stand throughout the entire bus ride. The bus itself is jampacked and I can hardly stand up straight without losing balance even if I managed to get a grip on a metal bar, not to mention that I was wearing my black fingerless gloves during the entire trip.

Reaching Greenhills Shopping Center, I only check the book shops. The Booksale branch at the V-Mall is no more (soon to be replaced by an optical shop), but at least there's still a branch at Shoppesville (at the other end of the bazaar area). And checking the bazaar area, I just happened to find some awesome anime shirts in one of the stalls, only I decided to pass for now.

At the Booksale branch in Shoppesville, I was actually thinking twice about buying that Love Hina manga assuming that I might have it. Oh well...

I only took a short MRT ride to Araneta Center-Cubao Station, but I had to reload my Beep card at the counter since there aren't any self-service machines at Santolan-Annapolis station. The reason for this is because my Beep card had an insufficient balance. I completely forgot all about it until I tapped my card and the insufficient balance error appears.

Around this time, I'm starting to feel weak and cranky due to a combination of hunger and dehydration, not to mention that I don't generally take breaks between stops. I somehow manage to make it through without yelling and ranting about such random stuff (mostly inconveniences) at anyone inside the mall or the train.

Reaching Araneta Center-Cubao station, I immediately grab a bite at a 7-11 branch in Araneta City (formerly Araneta Center). Since I never had a drink of water since lunch, i did consume a liter of water in between bites of hotdog sandwich. After that, I try to catch an e-jeepney/minibus ride to SM Fairview, but I end up chasing one all the way to the terminal (the old Araneta Bus Terminal). I had to get in line first before boarding. Earlier, the e-jeepney/minibus that I rode (going to Cubao) had hard (but comfortable) plastic seats. This time, the e-jeepney/minibus that I boarded (going to SM Fairview) has upholstered seats, similar to the large airconditioned buses.

And by the way, here's another e-jeepney plying the Eastwood (Quezon City) and Rosario (Pasig) areas. I’m expecting to see a lot of these on the road, as part of the PUV (public utility vehicle) modernization program.

Traffic is light in most parts of Commonwealth Avenue, save for the North Fairview portion. It started raining upon reaching North Fairview, but that didn't really bother me at all. The Lagro-Bristol area is flooded though, probably knee-length as a result of the heavy rain that didn’t even last more than 20 minutes.

And I managed to get home (finally) after a tiring mall-hopping trip. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to bring out my umbrella since the rain stopped upon reaching SM Fairview. The heavy rain is actually kind of expected anyway since it is on the weather forecast, but it sure was a surprise when it did.

Okay, so I've finally featured Eastwood, Tiendesitas, and SM City East Ortigas on a TKD post. And I finally get to ride the Beep (e-jeepney/minibus) twice. Isn't that awesome?

So where to next? I'm thinking of BGC-McKinley-Makati for my December trip. Until next time... well, and remind me not to overexert myself as well.

All pics are uploaded to my private Instagram account, @kcox105

[tessatechaitea]

Dark Nights: Metal #2

I could tell this cover was by John Romita Jr. because of Batman's stupid batarang. I believe that's the specialized batarang used for attaching trees to super-villains¹.

This is just cruel. Stop manipulating Swamp Thing into doing your dirty work, Batman!

Now that I know the Batmen were all members of the Bat-family, I want to know which jerk was captured by Aquaman. So embarrassing! I bet it was Red Hood. It turns out Batman was in Robin's VW Minivan which is what they all should have guessed because I guessed it but forgot to mention it. Now you're probably thinking, "Oh right! I bet you did! What a liar!" But you should know I'm telling the truth because I could have just as easily (and more believably!) gone back and edited the review by saying what I was going to say before I got distracted! You know what? I'm going to do it anyway! Fuck your sense of reality! Anyway, Superman figures it out and swoops down to threaten Batman. He picks him up and flies him into the sky saying, "All I have to do is barely squeeze. You can't even imagine how little pressure I need to add to my grip before your torso just rips like wet toilet paper. I mean, it's difficult not to explode you! You realize how many mathematical calculations I'm doing every minute just so I don't destroy everything I touch?! Imagine walking around a world built out of tissue paper and trying to navigate it without destroying it completely?! To me, you Earthlings are less substantive than a jelly doughnut!" But Batman is all, "If you squash me, you'll die because I drank a gallon of Kryptonite after getting out of the shower this morning! I'm like a deadly piñata!" Fun Fact #1: To get the "n" with the tilde on it, I looked up "jalapeno" on Google so I could copy and paste the ñ. I don't know why I didn't just look up piñata!" Fun Fact #2: When I just went to past in the ñ in piñata in the previous sentence, instead of typing CTRL-V, I typed CTRL-N and just about shit myself when my entire review disappeared! Luckily I realized pretty quickly that I'd just opened a new browser page. Batman finally decides to explain everything to Superman instead of being killed by him. It's a simple choice, really. But it's not a simple explanation! On no! The explanation is going to go pretty deep into Scott Snyder's previous story arcs to try to explain the most glaring errors in each of them.

This is even more convoluted than I was expecting! Perfect!

Now it's time to speculate on the fifth element! I bet it's Plasticmannium! Or maybe whatever shit the Orb of Ra is made from. Oh! Maybe it's Kryptonite and Batman doesn't realize he's already become the doorway because he drank that gallon of it earlier! Wonder Woman arrives to make Superman doubt Batman is being honest with him. Only Superman would ever believe anything out of Batman's mouth! He's so credulous! Even Ma and Pa Kent were fond of saying, "That boy'll believe a sack of worms if they told him they were a vagina!" That is so a Midwestern saying. Since Batman is obviously lying, Superman takes a drastic measure.

Superman didn't do this to save the world. He just did it because he's fucking sick of Batman.

Before you start sucking your own dicks (both figurative and literal ones so that all genders are included!) everybody at Marvel thinking DC has just flushed itself down the drain by killing the only one of their characters anybody really cares about, it turns out it wasn't actually Batman. Superman just killed Clayface. Although Clayface can't really die, I don't think. He's like an Oompa Loompa: immortal and weary of life. Meanwhile in Antarctica (unless it's actually the Arctic, seeing as how DC has had some poor history with keeping the two places straight), the Legion of Doom's headquarters rises from a lava pit. The Legion of Doom is currently staffed by all of DC's immortal characters. There's Vandal Savage and The Phantom Stranger and the other immortal guy and that other one plus the one that's immortal and also Cain and Abel and Lady Blackhawk and Morgaine le Fey and Shazam's wizard and all the other ones I can't think of. Their plan is to shoot the astral brain of the Anti-Monitor through the Rock of Eternity and into the core of the Multiverse. I don't know if that will save the world or it's just something they want to do for the lulz. Superman and Wonder Woman finally track the real Batman to the tomb of Prince Khufu. Just before they get there, Dream gives Batman a little advice about how to find his way home when this shit all goes wrong. And it all goes wrong pretty quickly. After Batman pulls Baby Darkseid out of his backpack and threatens Superman with it, I think, "Wait. What?" Um, anyway, it's all a trap! Batman knows everything except where to find the tomb of Khufu because he actually entered the tomb of Hath Set! I know, right? What an idiot! Now the Strigydae are about to mantle the fuck out of him! It's not as confusing as I make it sound, I assure you! I mean, sure, the Court of Owls shows up and some black squiggles take out Superman and Wonder Woman after which the Court pours a substance called Batmanium all over Batman so that the doorway can open for Barbatos. But that's not technically confusing! It's just, um, ridiculous! Batman turns into a cosmic doorway through which steop out eight Dark Batmonsters. One is Aquabat. One is Doomsbat. One is Cybat. One is Wonder Bat. One is Flashbat. One is Green Lanterbat. One is Jokerbat. And the last one is probably BarBATos. Unless he's The Phantom Strangebat. In other words, the Earth is fucked. Because if the Justice League can't even beat one Batman, how are they going to beat however many I just said stepped through the gate? What was it? Seven? Eight? So that's the story of Metal! I bet you all wet your pants over it like I did, right? I mean, I think I just wet my pants because I took too long writing this and didn't get up to go to the bathroom. But I probably would have from the excitement and intrigue and Batman's ultimate failure! That part was really great! ________________________________________________________ ¹I didn't just make that up. See whichever stupid issue of All Star Batman had that bit in it.

[thepensiverambler]

PAMUKKALE

The night before arriving at Imece for the first time I had spent the night at Izmir bus station so it was fitting that on the day that I left I should return to spend another night there. I felt like a local as I strode into the vast station, unrolled my roll mat and spent the night in surprising comfort. We (Sophie, Davide, Matilda and I) woke the next morning to catch the ‘5 30’ bus to Denizli. Apparently ‘5 30’ really means 6 but soon we were on the bus for around 4 hours. During those 4 hours I snoozed a little and wrote my previous post on Sophie's phone. Having had wifi for only a couple of hours a week for my time at the village, I've grown accustomed to not using my phone a great deal. Upon leaving the village I took the opportunity to take my technological abstinence one step further by leaving my charger behind. (Edit from swood -if this makes it sound like freddie decided to challenge both himself and modern convention by deliberately leaving it behind, let me make it clear that all that happened was he forgot it because he’s a melt). With such powerful smartphones as we have today the hindrance is greater than simply not being able to contact people. I rely on my phone to track my location, take photos and most importantly to write my blog. I refuse to buy a charger as I'll be home in a few days and will be surrounded by a plethora of chargers. I shall instead rely on the kindness of locals to lend me a charger when and where they can. Upon arrival in Denizli we were loaded onto a minibus bound for Pamukkale. By the time our minibus left it was already full yet we kept picking more people up. First a mother and her 3 children stood patiently, then a boy around my age with an ear ring, then another mother and her 2 children. As the bus filled up I started to wonder at what point the driver would have to refuse people. I suppose everyone could have someone on their lap if they had to. Before it got to that stage the four of us were bundled off the bus and into another. This time we were alone. Instead of going to the bus station the driver took us straight to the office of the bus company he worked for. They told us to book a bus today or we probably wouldn't be able to catch one the next day. Unsure about our plans for the coming days we made our excuses and backed out of the office, had breakfast and checked into a hostel. At around 12 30 fatigue hit me. I don't mean to melodramatic but I was so tired I thought I might drop down at any moment. Was the labour of the village catching up to me? I decided there was no 2 ways about it and that if I wanted to be a functioning member of society in the afternoon I'd have to take a quick nap. A brief 2 hours later I rose to Sophie telling me that the Italians were waiting for me downstairs to go up to the salt flats. I dragged my leaden body from my heavenly mattress. We headed to Pamukkale’s main attraction; the salt flats. They were remarkable. I've never seen anything of the like, from a distance you would mistake it as for snow. When one walks on it barefoot, (and one has to walk it barefoot or the police would blow their whistles and shout) it was coarse to touch, like a gigantic roll of white sandpaper with water flowing over the top. The view from the top was absolutely incredible. We walked up to the top in the midday heat, all the while I was longing for the bed I had so rudely been dragged from instead of sweating buckets without enough water. Upon arrival we discovered there were more ruins to explore, so explore them we did. It was difficult to gain much information about the history of the ruins so we either had to use our imagination or just accept that we were simply admiring large old stones. Again, the main question on my lips was simply “how did they move all these stones around”. We watched to sunset over the salt flats whilst Davide and Matilda paddled about in the stream of warm water and then headed into town for a beer. 3 of us ordered draft beer which was as flat and watery as you could imagine. Safe to say the second round was bottled. We had an extremely late supper where I asked the waiter if I could use his phone charger. Despite our hostel being opposite a fantastically tin foil covered club after dinner we called it a night. I was in a bed with WiFi. What luxury. Such privilege had been the stuff of dreams during my days in the the tent but now it was a reality. The day before our hostel owner had she could give us a discount on her brothers Paragliding company. After little more gentle haggling and looking worried it would be too much she agreed on a price of 100 lira (25 euros). It was dirt cheap and we couldn't say no to such an offer. We rose, sho wered, breakfasted, paid the man got in a minibus and a few minutes later ran of the side of a cliff. We flew over the ruins, the salt flats and landed in a rocky car park, shouted and waved at the people below us. It was, in a word, amazing. Afterwards, the experience was soured a little by our pilots trying to convince us to buy the photos of our experience. It would have been another 100 lira therefore doubling the price of the flight. It was not a hard decision for me. Afterwards we had lunch with Davide and Matilda before saying goodbye to them as they will fly home on Wednesday night. Sophie and I had decided we were going to try and see how far along toward Istanbul we could get tonight. We didn't have much of a plan it has to be said. We asked shop owner after shop owner if they had any scrap cardboard we might use to make a sign. It took 45 minutes before we found a kind roadside shop owner with a fantastic beard that gave us Çay and cardboard. So with our sign and our thumbs out we sat and waited. We waited for a while and then decided that we were on the wrong side of the road. We crossed the road and waited some more until a car full of people stopped and told us to go on the other side of the road. We crossed the road again. Maybe our sign wasn't big enough? We wrote Istanbul much larger on our sign. Still no one stopped. Perhaps people weren't getting the idea that we weren't expecting them to take us the whole way. We wrote Denizli, on our sign. About 10 minutes later a man in a white car stopped and picked us up. He dropped us in Denizli saying that if we crossed the road we would surely get a lift to Istanbul. We were full of hope and wonder but before we could set up shop by the side of the motorway and man came to talk to us. He spoke no English. I speak next to no Turkish. Regardless we were able to understand that he was advising Sophie should wear more clothes as with the clothes she was in it would be very dangerous. ‘Ok’ we said and I passed Sophie a hoodie despite the sweltering heat. He then explained to us that there would be no direct way to Istanbul and that most of the cars on the road would be headed to Ankarra that night. He kept asking where we would sleep that night. We didn't know. The plan hadn't been that coherent. After a long while on the grass beside the motorway this kind man offered to take us on his motorbike to the bus station. We accepted as he painted a pretty dim picture of our chances of getting a ride to Istanbul today. So on the bike we got. All three of us and our bags. It turns out we were with the most careful man in Turkey. He'd stopped to make sure we were safe and the he drove slowly and without any sharp movement. It's was 3 kilometres to the bus station but we had to pull over for 2 breaks. As I believe our drive was struggling a little with the weight pressing upon him. When we arrived at the bus station our dutiful tour guide took us in and made sure we were looked after by an English speaking bus company employee. We had two choices; we could get a bus to Izmir, stay the night there and try and hitchhike from Izmir the next day, or we could catch a night bus. We flipped a coin. Izmir. Sophie decided she wanted to go to Istanbul. Istanbul it was.

[willswalkabout]

Peru part 3. Return to Cusco

Way too long coming I know, but oh well, I’ve been busy and lazy and the whole thing should be done within a week or so. Peru part 3 (Cuzco part 2), here goes.

I’d done my Machu Picchu expedition over the space of 3 days, which meant that upon returning to Cuzco I had no intention of trekking the very next day. This intention was far from fulfilled, as that evening I met Jaina and Kelsey, both travelling together from the US. They had very limited time in Cuzco with a flight to Lima on the Friday. Given they wanted to do Rainbow Mountain I decided it was better to do a bit tired with friends, than refreshed alone. We booked it that evening and took an early night, given the 430am meet time.

We reconvened in the dark, bleary eyed and hoping to get some sleep on the four hour trip to the mountain. We were told the first two hours of the ride, which took us to breakfast, were on ‘good tarmac roads’. Of course everything is relative, and it was still far too bumpy for me to get any kind of sleep. All the tours offer the exact same package, the only variables seem to be price and the quality of breakfast. We went with our hostel’s deal, which is definitely not always the best option. Breakfast however was excellent, certainly in comparison to some horror stories I’ve heard, of some stale/mouldy bread with a juice carton. We had Spanish omelette, frankfurters, toast, jam and coffee. I scoffed down as much as wouldn’t seem rude. There was then another two hours on a more treacherous road which Kelsey and Jaina enjoyed to a lesser extent. The drop to the right side was sheer, and plunged approximately 100ft by my reckoning. Eventually we arrived at the mountain which to little surprise, had been found by a few other tour groups before us.

I’ve learnt on the trip not to let this put me off. It usually means there are stunning views, and enough space to still get an Instagram where it looks like you’re the only person there.

It’s about 5km as I remember to the summit, and takes about two hours. It was the first time the altitude had really hit me, we were now at 17,000ft, with Cuzco being at 11,000ft. This made the hike pretty challenging, I drunk two and a half litres of water easily on the way up. The walk is made more frustrating by the fact you can pay about £15 to ride a horse up. The horses are for the most part dragged up the mountain by 5 foot tall Peruvian women. Neither the horses or their owners look like they ever get days off, and I really felt for some of the animals in particular who looked so worn down, every step was a struggle. The situation wasn’t helped by the fact most of the horses were ridden by overweight westerners. The other riders were a good few Asian tourists filming the entire ride on go pros. I’m sure a riveting watch for all the family when they return home. They don’t have a separate path, so you are constantly being made to give way to a plodding horse on its as it climbs up, or ducking out the way of a horse that is being made to canter down the hill riderless, to pick up its next rider. Saying all this the view from the top of the mountain is absolutely stunning. You can see for miles, and you have the entirely unique scene of the painted mountains. The last climb is the hardest, meaning it isn’t quite as busy at the very top, this bit is too steep for even the most alive of horses. We managed to walk down to a quieter spot to take a plethora of photos. Luckily we were one of the first of our group of around 20 to reach the summit, and so had a great amount of time to take it all in. Casually residing on the other side of the canyon to the rainbow mountains is Peru’s 4th or 5th highest mountain. Higher than any in the UK of course, it stood as an intimidating presence, and apparently has never been climbed.

I found the route down more challenging than that up. Although the path did undulate, I think this was more due to the pure accumulation of time spent so high up. By the time we finally reached the minibus all three of us were struggling with pounding headaches and lack of breath. More sleep was managed on the way back to the hostel where we pulled in at about 7.

We were all starving and so headed to a place called ‘Green Point’. It is Cusco’s only totally vegan restaurant. We mainly went because Kelsey’s vegan, they had been the day before. I was a little apprehensive, and they spent much time apologising in advance in case I didn’t like it. I couldn’t have been more wrong, it was some of the best food of my entire trip. I had the quinoa burger with sweet potato fries. It came with three different dips and was incredibly filling. We somewhat waddled back to our hostel after. We’d at one point spoke of going out that evening, but by this point none of us could move. I said my goodbye’s to Kelsey and Jaina, who had a flight at 7am the next day.

The next day was relaxed and very enjoyable, and really helped to validate the fact I had chosen to spend 11 days in the city. Myself and Alison found a bijou but delicious coffee place for breakfast with one of the prettiest menus I have ever seen.

I then spent the rest of the day chilling in the hostel, and I think writing the Chile blog. When it came to the evening, Liz, Alison and I went on somewhat of a bar/hostel crawl. We started at the Irish owned Wild Rover, which is way up on a hill, and would be horrific to walk back to late. I had considered staying at Cusco’s self proclaimed ‘best party hostel’, and this visit made me so glad I had stayed at the wonderful Ecopackers for my entire time instead. Wild rover involved lots of dancing on the bar, but I think the fact they chose to project scenes of people having a much better time at a festival, on a big screen, told you that it was incredibly forced. After little more than an hour there we moved downhill to Loki. Loki is also a ‘party hostel’ but is older and felt more genuine than Wild Rover. I also approved of the water gun that was capable of firing shots into the gaping mouths of revellers. It was fun and I think we met a few Americans there but they may have been Canadian, that then accompanied us to Cusco’s only true club, Changos. Changos was surprisingly good. It had a big space, a well organised but reasonably priced bar, and hadn’t completely sold itself out to the backpacker market, with a good percentage of locals in attendance. It was therefore somewhat frustrating that I had to leave Changos at 230am, to watch the final British and Irish Lions test. I say frustrating, but I’d been overwhelmed with excitement ever since the end of the second test, a week previous. Finding that my hostel had ESPN 2 South America earlier in the day, was one of the single greatest moments of elation I’ve ever experienced. I grabbed a kebab and jogged back to the hostel common room. It was pitch black with everyone either in bed, or out. I switched on the television, and to my relief it burst into life with the haka, albeit with Spanish commentary. I then plugged my phone in and made a WhatsApp call to dad, watching it at 8:30am at home. I made him pause and play his stream so that our game clocks were synced up, and he gave me the commentary down the phone. It was an incredibly cagey game, and when the Spanish adverts rolled on at half time I did fall asleep while still on the call. (Alcohol consumption + comfy sofa + 3:15am). At this point dad must have panicked, wondering if he’d be able to awake me from my slumber before the start of the second half. I think I woke up about the 47 minute mark, and only missed one penalty. The series ended in the most bizarre of fashions. A controversial tv ref decision saving the Lions, and committing the match to a tie. Both teams looked around not knowing whether to celebrate or fall to the ground in despair. The sides both had big opportunities to win the game within the last 20 minutes that weren’t taken. I dragged myself to bed, still overjoyed that I’d managed to watch the game live, 3 weeks after seeing the team in Rotorua, a town that couldn’t possibly seem further away. Three weeks felt like three months, in the best of ways.

The next day was fairly uneventful. Liz, Marieka and myself did some shopping, and got food at the market. I did find out that Marieka who is dutch, plays hockey to a pretty high level, and her dad is an ICC umpire. This provided a huge amount of conversation, to the point that to our fault, we almost forgot about Liz walking with us, and had to apologise profusely. A few others had got back from a hike that day, so I was glad to introduce more people to Green Point. There were so many items on the menu I was desperate to try, I really did not need an excuse. I had the stir fry this time which was fantastic, while others sampled vegan sushi, lasagne and a few Peruvian delicacies.

On Sunday I did a jam packed tour of the sacred valley with Liz, Alison and Marieka. Jam packed because we managed to find a version that basically fitted a day and a half’s tour into one. It meant a lot of jumping on and off the bus with little time to stop, but was what we wanted really. I don’t feel guilty in saying some of the ruins were far more impressive than others. I expect the ones I was least captured by, are the most fascinating for archaeologists. I loved the salt mines, and ruins at Ollantaytambo. The agricultural farming circles less so. The guinea pig farm at the start of the tour was also pretty cool. We left at around 530am I think, and the day was pretty tiring. When I got back to the hostel I ate there, and then met Luke (who featured in Santiago and Buenos Aires), and has one more appearance to come… He was staying with his dad in Cusco. There was a pretty impressive district wide power cut, which resulted in us all huddling round the fire. I also met Eliza, a law student from Brussels who had some pretty passionate views on the UK’s incompetence re Brexit, which was amusing and terrifying at the same time.

My final day in Cusco involved my best empanadas of the trip, and a visit to what wasn’t the monkey temple… An Irish guy who’s name I’ve forgotten was set on visiting this temple, however I’m pretty sure it’s a nickname and he definitely didn’t know it’s Spanish name. After a couple of taxi drivers looked back at us with blank expressions, one claimed he knew where to go and we piled in. He didn’t. He also only managed to take us halfway up the hill he was intending to, so we got out and enjoyed the view from what was still a decent set of ruins. That evening about 10 of us got dinner at, well, obviously, green point. I hadn’t had the Lentil burger yet! I won’t name everyone but there was a group of about 8 of us, all of which have multiple mentions in the Peru blogs who had dipped in and out of the hostel on tours, but who had generally stuck together. I loved having 11 days in a place with a great group of people. The dinner was a great way to finish my time in Peru, which I did love, and would love to return to. The next day I boarded a flight to Lima, and then onto Mexico City, but that’s for the next one.

[allthingsberena]

An interview with the Independent 2013

The last time Jemma Redgrave gave a proper, full-on newspaper interview was in July 2010, just a couple of months after the deaths of her aunt Lynn Redgrave and her father Corin Redgrave and just over a year after the skiing accident that killed her cousin, Natasha Richardson – an awful succession of loss that the interviewer described as giving her face "the look that grief gives, as if a layer has been washed away". Three years later, and Redgrave appears outwardly restored – friendly, warm and unpretentious, with an unexpectedly hearty laugh that wouldn't disgrace Basil Brush. If she remains huddled under her coat in the well-heated bowels of the Soho Hotel in London, then it's because today she is sniffing her way through a cold. "It was a couple of months after he [Corin] died, so I was quite raw," she says of that 2010 interview. "I still feel the same now, just not with the same intensity." We talk more about her father and other relatives later, and not altogether mellifluously when I reveal that some of my research came by way of a biography of the Redgraves despised by her family. First and more happily, however, we discuss her work. Since leaving drama school, Redgrave has been a regular on television, most prominently as the titular Victorian doctor in ITV's Bramwell. Thanks to its huge global fanbase, however, her role in Doctor Who, in which she debuted last year as Kate Stewart (the daughter of the much-loved Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, played by the late Nicholas Courtney from 1968 to 1989) is set to eclipse all that has gone before, when she returns in the 50th- anniversary episode "The Day of the Doctor". So far we know that this "love letter to the fans" has been filmed in both 2D and 3D, and will see the return of David Tennant and Billie Piper alongside Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman, as well as John Hurt as a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor, plus Daleks, Zygons and a visit to Elizabethan England. Otherwise, a strict omerta prevails around the 75-minute episode that will be shown simultaneously around the world as well as in cinemas. That's next Saturday – quite the event. "What can I tell you about the 50th anniversary? Practically nothing," she says, giving me a first taste of her pleasingly full-throttle laugh. "When the job offer came in my agent said, 'You mustn't tell anybody about this,' and I thought, 'What am I going to tell the kids?' It's like joining M15." The cat finally exited the bag when scenes were filmed in Trafalgar Square. "The news hit the Twittersphere and within half-an-hour of our being there, there were people with Tom Baker scarves on… people with Tardis safety covers on their iPhones," she says. "It was a huge relief to be able to tell people." Redgrave's peak Doctor Who-viewing years were the early 1970s, when, classically, she'd watch from behind the sofa. "I would then have terrible nightmares," she says. "My dad said he would take me to the BBC studios so I could see the Daleks – and that frightened me even more." Does she meet one in the anniversary special? "Can I tell?" she asks the publicist sitting in on the interview, who signals her assent. "In that case, yes, I come across a Dalek. There was no acting required. It was a scarifying moment." Anything else she can tell? "I work with more than one Doctor… oh, and I worked with more than one Tardis as well." Intriguing, or at least it will be to Whovians. "The community of Who fans have been very kind to me," she says. "Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was such a loved character and I think people were very open to his daughter making an appearance and, hopefully, touch wood, making more appearances in the future." So, she'll be back? "I think Peter Capaldi is a very exciting prospect as the new Doctor, so that would be wonderful." Born in January 1965, Redgrave is five days younger than her cousin Joely Richardson, whose parents are Vanessa Redgrave and the film and play director Tony Richardson; Joely's sister, Natasha Richardson, was born two years earlier. In the flesh, she bears a far more striking resemblance to her late cousin than she does when photographed – or, at least, I'd never noticed such similarity before. Her paternal grandparents were the actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, an acting dynasty, if you like… although Aunt Vanessa doesn't like, insisting that "dynasty implies power – we're a family of professional actors. It's like coming from a family of carpenters or plumbers." "I think that's about right," agrees Jemma (née Jemima). "I associate dynasties with huge corporations… the Murdochs… it feels like a family and quite a few of us are actors." When did she first become aware that she belonged to this extraordinary clan? "I remember one of my teachers at primary school used to call me Vanessa by mistake, and I couldn't understand why and then, of course, later it became clear," she says. "It just seemed very normal to me – like everybody's family seems normal until you realise no one else's family is like that." Was it inevitable that she would follow in the family profession? "No, not at all. None of my brothers are actors – I've got three brothers – Luke is a cameraman, Harvey is a civil servant and Arden is training to be a primary-school teacher. A mixed bag. "I remember once on my grandmother's birthday, my dad was filming In the Name of the Father (the 1993 Daniel Day-Lewis film about the Guildford Four) in Ireland and my aunt and my brothers… a big lot of family… were driving round from here to there in a minibus, having a lovely time and breaking into songs, and my brother Luke heard Harvey mutter to himself, 'I was born into the wrong family.'" Her own sons with barrister husband Tim Owen, Gabriel and Alfie, are aged 19 and 13; Gabriel has just started an English degree at Sussex University. Are there any signs of a new generation of thespians? "There are going to be one or two more… possibly… but I think it's important that they speak for themselves," she says – a statement in stark contrast to Laurence's Olivier's very public announcement of the birth of Vanessa Redgrave, after a performance of Hamlet at the Old Vic, that "Laertes [played by Michael Redgrave] has a daughter." Vanessa could hardly grow up to be an accountant after that. It was Jemma Redgrave's grandmother, Rachel Kempson, who took her – aged five – to her first play, Peter Brook's RSC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, followed by more Shakespeare, watching her father in Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. "Complicated theatre really… not Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which I took my children to see." Her parents, Corin and former fashion model Deidre Hamilton-Hill, divorced when Redgrave was nine, by which time her father, like her aunt Vanessa, was deeply involved in far-left politics in the shape of the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP). "We'd been taken to demonstrations when I was very young," she recalls. "This was the late 1960s, early 1970s, and everybody was demonstrating about something. "It's difficult to explain it now… you know the whole Ed Miliband thing with the Daily Mail and 'it's very important to know where he comes from… very, very left-wing views were expressed round his breakfast table'… well, they were discussed round the breakfast tables of a lot of people who grew up at that time. The children of those people weren't brainwashed." Certainly this child isn't without her own political causes: Redgrave was a prominent member of the Stop the War movement protesting at Blair and Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq. ("There's no joy in being proved right.") She also helps at a Red Cross refugee centre in Islington, north London. What she can't stand is that any political movement would espouse a cause to the detriment of family life. "I resented the WRP, because my dad was unavailable to me and to my brother because there were such extreme demands made on everybody who became a member of that party," she says. In her book, To Be a Redgrave, her mother recalls Jemma and her cousins Natasha and Joely sitting round the kitchen table discussing how much they hated the WRP. "Vanessa was involved in the WRP for a while so we did have a similar experience, yeah," she says. I add that I'm surprised that she has stated that she has never read her mother's autobiography. "My mum was very angry with my dad for a very long time and I didn't really want to divide my loyalty," she explains. "The least complicated path through that particular difficulty was not to read it." Another contentious book is one that I had blithely borrowed from my local library, The House of Redgrave by Tim Adler, unaware that it had been lambasted by the family for an outrageous false claim that Vanessa Redgrave had once come home to find her husband, Tony Richardson (director of the original Royal Court production of Look Back in Anger and Oscar-winning British New Wave film-maker), in bed with her father, Sir Michael Redgrave. "You can't libel the dead so [Adler] can make up what he likes… I don't even want to comment on it," she says, before adding: "That book was written by a man who got in touch with my cousin Tasha and said that he wanted to write a book about her dad and that he was a huge fan. She did a bit of investigating and she said that she wasn't going to help him. He wasn't a huge fan of Tony's. This is a man whose work was groundbreaking and changed the landscape of theatrical and cinematic culture in this country. And to reduce him to his sexuality… it's… yeah." A long silence follows and we talk about other things to get the conversation flowing again – of her recent house move across north London, her cottage in Wales and her pet Labrador. And then our time is up and she is whisked off for a photo-session with the marvellous Dan, who soon has her booming with laughter again. After the shoot, I tell her that I will return the despised book to the library forthwith. "Or burn it," she says. "No we can't start burning books. Oh, all right – perhaps just this once."

[fkyeahkpop]

BTS Reaction: Their gf has never left their home country.

Request:  BTS reaction to their foreign girlfriend never being out of her home country? Love ur blog btw ❤️

A/N: This blog loves you too anon! Sorry this took so long to post, stupid internet :( Enjoy! xx

Jin:

It had been a few days since you had spoken to Jin, no matter how many times you’d texted him and attempted to Facetime him, everything on his end seemed cold. You tried not to panic too much, you knew he was busy but at least one text could have reassured you. You started to become frustrated at the lack of effort on his end, scrolling back through your texts, the last one being from a week ago telling him how you’d never been anywhere but your home country. Just as you started typing out a fairly disgruntled text to your boyfriend across the sea, you heard a car beep outside your bedroom. Standing there, smug as you can imagine, was Jin, fanning himself with a passport before nodding towards the car. ‘Let’s go on an adventure’ he’d say before taking your hand and leading you into the back of the car.

Yoongi:

‘Seriously? You’ve never been anywhere else?’ he’d ask in awe over Skype as you explained to him that home sweet home was getting a little tiresome. He smirked to himself as he started typing rapidly into his studio laptop, humming to himself. ‘Nope, I wish. Maybe someday I’ll be able to come visit you all the way in Korea.’ you chuckled to yourself, your boyfriend feeling even further away than usual through the confines of your laptop. ‘You know I’d love that’ he mumbled, seemingly distracted with whatever he was doing on his laptop. ‘How’s the 22nd of this month? Long enough to get your passport sorted?’ he asked. ‘Yoongi, no I can’t afford it...’ ‘It’s a good thing I can then, isn’t it babe?’ ‘It’s too much!’ you insisted, shaking your head in an attempt to stop an unmoving and stubborn boyfriend. ‘Is it so wrong for me to want to hold my girlfriend? I love you and I want to see you.’ He’d say matter-of-factly, shutting his laptop to prove his point. ‘See you soon baby.’

J-Hope:

‘Happy Birthday Jagi!’ he’d exclaim over Skype as you held an envelope in your hand that had arrived in the post this morning from Hobi just in time to have it for your big day. ‘Hobi you know you didn’t have to get me anything...’ you said, suddenly feeling shy at your boyfriend’s show of generosity. ‘Oh Jagi it was nothing, just open it already I want to see your reaction!’ He would exclaim jumping up and down in anticipation. ‘Alright, alight!’ you giggled, tearing the envelope open. As soon as you saw what was inside a wave of emotion run you flat, clamping a hand over your mouth to stifle the gasp emerging from your mouth. The plane ticket to Korea stared back at you while Hobi giggled through the speakers of your laptop. ‘Oh Jagi, don’t cry!’ He’d laugh, you still being speechless. ‘Ok so you’re going to come and see me in Korea and from there we’re going to take a little trip to Thailand, that okay with you?’ he’d ask as you nodded so hard you thought your head might fall off. ‘Oh Hobi thank you so much! This is the best gift I could ever ask for, I finally get to see you.’ you gushed, running the ticket through your hands. ‘I’ll see you soon babe’ he’d say before explaining he had to go to practise. The whole build up to your trip he’d send photos of where he’d take you.

Rap Monster:

It was nearing Valentines Day and Namjoon had come up with the ingenious idea of taking you to Paris, since you’d never left your home country. Seeing as he spoke English he thought the communication wouldn’t be too difficult and that it would be super romantic to meet somewhere neutral and spend your time together exploring a new country. He would try and learn a few French phrases and words to keep you two safe but other than that he wanted this trip to be spontaneous. On valentines day you saw a package on your front door. In truth you had forgotten all about the occasion, thinking nothing of it normally and especially with your boyfriend across the ocean it wasn’t something you really thought about. Opening the package there was a Mickey Mouse stuffed toy with a note in it’s hands and a ticket. ‘Meet me in Paris? -Joonie x’ you took the envelope in your shaky hands and opened it to see your flight details and hotel details, seeing how hard he’d work to organise this filled you with gratitude, rushing to your phone to call him and thank him.

Jimin:

‘Ahahaha what?? You’ve never been anywhere else?’ your phone dinged with your boyfriend Jimin’s text message as you finished up your work. ‘No Jimin, we can’t all be popstars who travel around the world :P’ you’d reply, rolling your eyes at how oblivious yet sweet your boyfriend could be. ‘I know, still, how would you feel about coming on tour with me and the boys?’ You almost knocked your coffee over at that one. Go on tour?? With BTS? Not just to one country but five or six? Was he serious? ‘What??’ you replied, unable to tell if he was joking or not. ‘Well me and the manager have been talking it out for a while now and the boys all think it’s a great idea. I was going to wait until you birthday to ask but we might need more time to get your passport sorted- if you want to come that is :)’ He probably thought you were ignoring him you sat there, slack mouthed for so long. ‘OF COURSE I WOULD ARE YOU KIDDING ME???’ He replied almost immediately; ‘Ahahaha well of course, who wouldn’t want to see me? ;) Love you, maybe I’ll get to see you sooner than we thought xx’

Taehyung:

‘Sssshhhh’ Tae would exclaim as he found out you’d never left your home country. He had his hand over the camera of his phone while you were facetiming as apparently they were at a recording studio that didn’t allow cameras. ‘Hey, I need to tell you something’ he’d say, peaking your curiosity. ‘What is it?’ ‘Well...’ he’d say twiddling his fingers idly. ‘...’ you sat there, waiting for Tae to finish his sentence ‘there’s been some new... changes to the WINGS tour...’ he’d say nonchalantly, still not unveiling his phone camera as he dragged out his sentences, keeping you hanging on the edge of every word. ‘What do you mean?? Tae for god’s sake just tell me, you’re killing me here. I can feel myself ageing.’ He giggled at the absurdity of the situation before screaming so loud it hurt ‘WE’RE COMING TO SEE YOU’ he yelled, uncovering the camera to reveal himself and the boys packed inside a minibus, looking exhausted but in good spirits. ‘NO WAY’ you screamed, jumping up and down. ‘We’re taking you back to Korea with us, Y/N, we have this all planned out’ he smirked. ‘See you in an hour’ he said, giving you the kind of smile that melted your heart before hanging up.

Jungkook:

Well as far as crappy Birthdays went this took the cake, not that you had one. As the sunset on what had undoubtedly been a shambles of a ‘special day’, your mind couldn’t help but wonder to your boyfriend. Sure he was busy, but had he really forgotten your birthday? You hadn’t heard from him for days and while you weren’t worried, you couldn’t help but feel a little angry at him for neglecting you on your birthday. As you finally gave up on any kind of birthday miracle, you got into your pyjamas before going over to your curtains to close them and call it a night. That was before you saw a balloon float up to your open window with a peice of paper attached to the bottom. You swiped it from the air and upon closer inspection saw the piece of paper was a plane ticket to Korea. Amidst your confusion you saw the note scrawled on the back: ‘Will you be the Jasmine to my Aladdin?’ it read, as the opening bars of A Whole New World began to play from below you. You looked down to see your boyfriend, dressed as Aladdin, holding up his phone and singing the song, grinning up at you with his infamous bunny grin. You ran down the stairs and flung yourself into his arms, him spinning you around and kissing the top of your head. Among all the happy tears and staring at each other to make sure you were really there, you whispered ‘yes, I’ll be your Jasmine.’

[cookseytravels]

72 hours in Addis Ababa

So after 3 days in a smaller town, we were meant to have 3 days in Addis Ababa, however my travelling companion had to return to the UK, so I was on my own! It’s been a while since I’ve travelled independently outside Western Europe, so this was a bit intimidating!

As it turns out, Ethiopia has been one of my favourite countries to visit, and Addis Ababa was a great city:

I felt safe the entire time I was there, even when walking alone at night along unlit streets

It’s super cheap

The people are so friendly

The food is amazing

It’s an easy city to get around

So here’s some of what I got up to:

Coffee - Ethiopia’s gift to the world

Tomoca Coffee, Ethiopia’s first coffee shop, was one of my first stops. I’m not a coffee drinker at all, but figured I had to give it a go while in Ethiopia!

Looks delicious right? Wrong! Even drinking it Ethiopian style (about 6 sugars) it still tastes like evil.

Meet Lucy

The National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa is rather sad; 4 floors of varyingly mysterious objects with few descriptions. Except for the Lucy exhibit, which is actually really well done. And really it seemed that 90% of visitors (including me tbh!) were just there to see Lucy, ‘the missing link.’ Which was pretty cool actually.

Entoto Mountain

I was told the best way to see the entire city is to go up Entoto Mountain. I eventually made it to the market at the bottom of the mountain, and a (deceptively) shallow road was winding up. Ignoring all the minibuses, taxis and even donkeys, I set off on foot. I figured, if these little old women carrying humongous bundles of sticks can do it, so can I!

Turns out, little old Ethiopian women have damn good endurance! An hour later, over 100 floors worth of ascending done, in 26 degree heat and direct sun, I made it to the viewpoint (and regretted not paying 10p for a minibus up). The view was great and the air was fresh (Addis is quite polluted at ground level).

Nearby there was either a bar or a church… No prizes for guessing which one I visited. A cold beer was very welcome at this point!

After which I abandoned my pride and took up one of the smirking minibus drivers, who’d offered me a ride up the mountain, on their offer to go back down the mountain.

Other sights

I visited a few other places, but didn’t really take pictures;

The Red Terror Martyrs Museum - which was all about the Derg regime which took power in the 70s - interesting as I basically knew nothing about this before!

Holy Trinity Cathedral - the burial place of Haile Selassie, and Ethiopia’s most senior church - not a lot to see tbh if you’re not that interested in churches (which I’m not)

Food and drink

The food in Ethiopia was uniformly amazing; even the raw goat meat (I thought I was ordering slices of a giant iberico ham… I was mistaken) was delicious. One of the few places where every meal I had was Ethiopian. I mostly ordered tibs, which is liked diced meat with spices, served with injera (bread eaten with every meal and which serves as the plate, and cutlery, and side). Partly because it was very tasty and cheap, and partly because a lot of places had no English menu and the other foods I know how to say (wot and shiro) always seemed to invite several follow up questions in Amheric…

Some of the nicest food was just in random restaurants which are all along the streets, with plastic stools and tarpaulin covers. And amazingly, I didn’t have any stomach problems at all!

A typical meal (I’m not good at food pictures):

Drinks wise, I’m usually a gin or wine drinker, and the Ethiopian Rift Valley wine is actually very nice. I’ve never liked beer, but I’ve learnt in Ethiopia (and Laos over summer) to tolerate it; a bottle costs around 40p-60p, it’s available literally everywhere, and it isn’t very strong. My drinks of choice, whether morning, noon or night, were Walia or St George (the weirdly English nationalist picture on the bottle amuses me).

I also tried tej, which is a home-brewed honey wine. Drunk neat, it’s very strong (20-30%) and has a very distinctive flavour, and if you’re not used to it you feel the effects very quickly!

White man!

The people in Addis, and Ethiopia as a whole, were uniformly incredibly friendly and welcoming. Touts, scammers, beggars leave you alone as soon as you shake your head or say no, which is very rare I find!

Somehow, despite Addis being the capital, I saw other foreigners only once, at the National Museum. Even the hotel seemed to be entirely Ethiopian customers except me.

This meant when walking around there were constant calls (in a friendly way) of Hello ferenji (foreigner) and my favourite, white man!

Other bits

Minibuses run absolutely everywhere in the city, they cost between 3p and 20p a journey (depending on distance), but if you don’t speak/read Amheric it’s quite tricky to figure out. I just sort of ended up jumping on ones that were going in the right direction and keeping an eye on Google Maps to jump off if it turned! They really squeeze you in though, and the network of huge cracks on the windscreen of this one wasn’t totally reassuring…

My hotel was near the goat market. I actually laughed out loud when I watched someone drive up in a small hatchback, buy a goat, put it in the boot and drive off.

I’m definitely looking to come back to Ethiopia; but probably only spend a night or two in Addis after landing before exploring the rest of the country though.

If you’re going there, I’d recommend Ethiopian Airlines. A review of them is a whole other story though…

[pinkle86]

Bangkok - The Final destination

We have 3 nights and 2 days (and a morning) to fit in as much..or as little of Bangkok as we can take. 

We already have a tour to the river Kwai booked in for day 1, which is jam packed. Firstly this is a 4 hour jounrey!! We then have a visit the war graves,a musuem, the bridge over the river kwai, train journey on the death railway, lunch, elephant riding and finally bamboo rafting.

Needless to say I was already worn out thinking about it. As Phil and me had already been to bangkok and were staying almost next door to where we did before we got our bearings pretty quickly.

We arrived a little later than planned due to the terrible traffic in Bangkok - I don't remember it being this bad before. Once dropped off we had a welcome drink from the hotel, dropped bags, freshened up and headed out for food. Our first stop was Asiatique, I mentioned this last time we came here and it was really nice and relaxing. There is a free boat up the river, which is really convenient.

We quickly found somewhere nice to eat in a street stall style place, fairly cheap, quick service and good food. Afer this we browsed the shops to get an idea of the souveniers we might want to bring home. Heading back o the last boat to the hotel as we had an early start.

6.30am and we are promptly picked up and taken across town to meet our group. Bundled into another minibus we make our way to Kanchanaburi.

Our Itinerary for the day was: war graves, a museum, the bridge over the river kwai, train journey on the death railway, lunch, elephant riding bamboo rafting

The war graves were very sobering, I didn't realise how many British prisoner of war there were and who were forced to build the railway. The museum was an odd mixture of the history of kanchanaburi and the war. with bullet casing balustrades.

We then saw the bridge over the river, which was smaller than I imagined, there were people walking all up and down the tracks so I assumed that there were trains no longer on this track...I assumed wrong. not less than 5 minutes later a large horn and a huge train followed. It stopped just before the bridge, everyone stepped aside and the train passed.

Not long after this we were taken to our own train journey, upgrading to 1st class for 50,000vnd which is about £1.80! With this came a certificate, a bottle of water and a cup of tea :)

The train journey was about 30 minutes and was very relaxing and excellent views of the river and mountains. At the end of our train journey we had lunch in a local place and i very much enjoined the deep fried omelette!

The final part of the day way Elephant Riding and Bamboo rafting. I had been on a elephant before so this wasn't as magical as the first time and the place wasn't as nice, but the elephants seems fairly free roaming and enjoyed some bananas :)

The bamboo rafting was new to me though. We did this in Phuket and we had a small raft and a guide punted us along a small river (almost a stream). This time is was the river kwai...on a large floating raft....and one person to guide the raft down the current.... we were then caught by a boat with a motor to bring us back upstream. The bamboo raft was largely underwater and although at first a little scary, I got used to it and it was quiet serene.

From here we stopped at a waterfall although they hadn't had much raifall in these parts to it wasn't much to look at.

Once arriving home we went to get Ben fitted for a suit. We went back to the same place Phil got his so we knew it was a good quality. They recommended somewhere for us to eat so we ate and then walked back to the hotel.

Day 2 was a lazy start and then we headed to Wat Po and the reclining buddah, taxi over to the suit shop for final fitting and a stop in at the unicorn cafe. The cafe was amazing, we ordered drinks and cupcakes. Though none were really to the western taste. Almost too sweet and my slushie tasted like it had vodka in it!

After a long day we headed straight to Asiatique for food and shopping, A chilled out evening, new bags and watches bought back on the boat to the hotel. We stopped in for a 'night cap' at BKK Enjoy..which turned into several cocktails meaning a late start and straight to the airport for our journey home.