Goodbye... And Hello

Hello all. It's been a long time coming but I have a confession to make... I've moved.

These past few years on Blogspot have been great but I feel that now is the time to grow and move on to something bigger, which is why I've made the move over to WordPress.

You'll still get the same madness (that I hope you've enjoyed) and other words about my thoughts and travels but you'll have a search menu to make things easier.

So if you want to join me, use the link thesheepwashere.com and help make the new turf just as wonderful.

The Sheep Was Here is now on Facebook and Instagram so feel free to have a look over there to.

Once again, thank you for reading. Happy and safe travels everyone. 

Indopore

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

Khao Sok, Thailand (taken 2014)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are reasons.

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

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

Taken 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taken 2017

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

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

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

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

Happy and safe travels everyone!!!  

Little Steps, People

Writing this post up has been on my mind for a while and, what with my workload for school looking a little intimidating, I figured I’d get it done now. Quick forewarning, I will be getting a little emotional.

Taken 2014

So, traveling first became a dream for me when I saw a tourism ad on the television that consisted of the Remarkable Rocks in South Australia. It, along with many others, were nice and inspiring ads and I’m most certain that others around the world have had similar moments. Thanks to social media, it’s become an epidemic that we can all get on aboard with.

An abundance of images are floating around cyberspace featuring temples, beautiful cities and natural environments that leave our jaws dropping to the ground – seriously, travel is the best disease ever!

Now, let’s skip ahead from the inception moment to the long desired one when ‘Young Aspiring Traveller’ – they know who they are – is of age, has worked their arse off and finally has their bags packed… and something stops them from getting on the plane.  

This, I can only trust, can be a heartbreaking moment kiddies…

Reasons can vary – the Young Aspiring Traveller has broken a vital limb, the airline has pulled a Tigerair and been forced to cancel all of their flights to Whoop Whoop or the chosen destination has been hit by some uneasiness, hence putting the plan on hold. If the Sheep is talking about you, good reader, you have said Sheep’s sympathies. Some things just simply cannot be helped.

However, there’s one excuse that I simply cannot tolerate stopping the YAT from getting on the plane. Said YAT has pulled out of their dream trip… because their parentals don’t want them to go.

This is wear my emotions will start to kick in.

Brenna of This Battered Suitcase fame went live on the Facebook abomination a few weeks back, in which she answered her followers’ queries (thanks for answering mine) and shared one saddening question by a young woman. The young woman in question pointed out that her parents didn’t want her traveling simply because they believed it to be unsafe.

A little bit later I was reading about Cynthia over at Every Footstep An Adventure (you want a good travel blog you suss out the Canadians – they know their shit) who was meant to take off with a friend before said friend’s parents made them pull out.

My heart breaks for anyone who has been placed in this kind of shituation.      

Taken 2016

For the record, parents have a right to be worried for their children’s safety – it’s only natural, and I’ve always believed that there’s nothing more dangerous in the world than a parent protecting their child, but children do grow up.

They develop aspirations and if said aspirations include a passport, than I say, ‘Let them go.’

My own parents had their reservations about me going my own way – to Thailand during the coup of 2014, and they even expressed their concerns about me crossing Australia for my first weekish long holiday (our homeland by the way). This pissed me off (in a quiet way) and it made me angry and so forth, but I reminded myself, they never experienced what I wanted to do. They weren’t able to reassure themselves of what could really happen.

This is where the fear stems from. Some have the luxury to raise their children with the odd trip via customs and immigration, whilst others won’t – reasons will vary and the latter shouldn’t be blamed. Not everyone is granted such privilege, but with budget travel another much welcomed epidemic the privilege can be very real. So, with all of that said, if it can be done parents, share in your child’s disease.

And this is where my big shot of advice gets thrown in…         

I’ve had people come to me asking for advice on locations and tricks to use and I’ll happily give them the answers, should I have them – TripAdvisor forums don’t always bear fruit and asking those who’ve attended Google university is just plain illogical to me. If I don’t have said answers though, I’ll point them towards individuals (solo females, people with special needs, those who’ve been to a certain destination and so on – I’ve met my share of these awesomniacs) who have first-hand knowledge.

That said – to stamp the fears out good parents, I highly recommend seeking out fellow parentals who’ve seen their offspring off at the airport. They can help reassure you that travelling can be the best of things.   

You’re likely to know your share of passport holding elders. If you do, go to them, ask them every question you can think of and put yourself at ease. If you don’t, beg your friends and family if they know any of their own and hunt those people down relentlessly.  

Information can be the tamer of our hesitations - it can put us all in a positive frame of mind that will get us all out the door and looking in the right direction that some of us can so sorely need. The world is calling – Lonely Planet’s yearly top ten destinations is temptation enough.

Taken 2011

It’s the best thing you can do for yourselves and most importantly, for your YAT.

Little steps, people.