Hello all,

Once again I feel the need to apologize for being out of touch for sooooo long….but it seems that my body is determined to give me hell on this trip and have been sick quite a bit again. Ironically enough when you are sick you have all the time in the world to email….but not a bloody single thing you feel like emailing about.

                                        Bali

My flight to Bali was hell….runny nose, cough, high temperature and a 5-hour waitin Malaysia…I was definitely not at my best. There is nothing like trying to kill time while you feel like your body is trying to kill you. Of course, at this point I, myself, knew that it was ALL my own fault…..it shames me to admit it, but on our Halloween night out in Vietnam my near-celebrity status caused me to stumble, and I smoked 2 cigarettes. Success got to my head….. I would like to blame “Brut” my personal bodyguard but unfortunately, I’m going to have to take FULL responsibility for that one.
3.5 months smoke-free. I am ashamed…and then I was punished by my own body!

What is it about airports that make them want to put the air conditioning up so flipping high all the time. I couldn’t even bear to sit next to my gate because I was so cold and decided to go and find some huddle of warmth somewhere. (It ended up being Dunkin Donuts) An hour before my departure I headed back down to wait for the boarding. I sat there for a while staring at the “boarding now sign”…wondering why it was, no one was actually boarding the plane. Eventually decided to ask if I could board, and got met with icy cold, death stare from unfriendly, evil man who informed me that my flight was already closed for boarding. My luggage apparently had already been taken off the plane and they had called me 3 times over the intercom. Seems that I had missed the fact that there was a time change between Cambodia and Malaysia. I, of course, did what any mature, sick and miserable Gayle
could do…burst into tears and started begging and pleading with the unsympathetic, ice man to please put me on the plane, and that I was very, very sorry!

Very pathetic……needless to say he didn’t really care and informed me that they were not stopping the plane (Not even for me) and that the next flight left in an hour. And yes, I would have to re-buy my ticket. He must have taken some pity on the snivelling wreck in front of him because he told me the ticket would cost $60 but then only charged me $40. I could hardly complain. My newly bought ticket was however bright blue which was a clear indication to all the staff that looked at it from that point on ….that yes…”This is the girl who delayed the last plane.”

Hell was not over yet as I still had to make the 5-hour flight on the cheapest airline in the world that doesn’t believe in providing blankets for their customers and also loves having the air conditioning on full blast. (unless of course you want to buy one for $11- Who in their right mind would EVER want to buy an airline blanket?) And so past the 5 coldest hours of my life.

I suppose it goes without saying that once I arrived in Bali my luggage was lost. Was assured by nice, friendly, airline man they would bring my bags to my hotel the next day. I didn’t care…I wanted to sleep. Arriving in Kuta Bali (The most touristy part of Bali) at 11.30 pm I found the cheapest, and probably dirtiest hotel I could, just so excited about the prospect of warmth and sleep. I thought it would probably be a good idea to quickly go get some water, seen as I had hardly drunk anything the whole day. As luck would have it I got caught in a torrential downpour on my way back to my room. It wouldn’t have been so bad had I actually been able to find my room….but the hotel was like a maze……so I ended up spending about 10 minutes walking around, and around, and round…..in the rain….first trying to find my room and then trying to find the front desk…….I found neither.
Eventually found the hotels Internet cafe and asked him to please call the front desk.
By the time I got back to my room, absolutely drenched, I was delighted to find, no hot water, no towels and no dry clothes to change into. Was not a happy camper to say the least!

I spent one day in Kuta Bali and had to get out. To say I absolutely hated it would be an understatement…….it was just too touristy and seemed to be filled with hundreds of surfers of the non-smiling variety. (or maybe that was just me? I wasn’t my best)
I decided to go to one of the Gili Islands, Gili Trawangan as I had heard great things about it and it was small. And this is pretty much where I spent my next 10days…

I ended up sharing a room with a very sweet French girl I met on the boat for my first 3 nights there. Our first night out it became very clear to me that not only can I no longer smoke anymore but now I can’t even be within 10metre of anyone smoking. As a result of my night out I ended up with a really bad chest infection…and then spent the next 5 days on more antibiotics…and in hiding, from the evil smoke. Its true, I have turned into a human smoke detector…..and apparently every man and his dog smokes in Gili…

So on my last night on the island finally feeling healthy and more myself I met up with an Aussie guy who was basically doing the exact same trip as me the next day…i.e he was going back to Kuta Bali, flying to Singapore on the same flight as me than waiting for 6 hours before his next connecting flight.

He only arrived quite late in the evening, said he hadn’t been drinking much and seemed like a pretty decent guy so we agreed to do the last leg of Indonesia together. I, needless to say, was very relieved that I wouldn’t have to go back to Kuta Bali alone. We had different boats booked back to Bali so we agreed to meet up in Kuta.
MMMM…what can I say about meeting this man the next day? Never in my entire life have I EVER met anyone so serious and with such an aversion to smiling. I couldn’t even believe it was the same person from the night before. But never fear I had more important things to worry about as it seemed that my fever was suddenly back with a vengeance! It felt like every single bone in my body was aching, even my little pinky fingers and little toes were in pain
I sure as hell didn’t feel like smiling…. so my new found travel companion and I were perfect together. We went out to get something to eat that night with a guy he had met on the boat. They had an “all you can drink for $10 beer special”…and I watched in amazement as he knocked back about a pint every 10 minutes. Needless to say after pint no 4/5 he began to relax and smile a bit…..which sincerely made me doubt his claim of “not drinking much” the night before

Anyway I felt awful so took myself home straight after dinner and left “Happy” and his friend to do the partying!.
At about 2 am “Happy” comes home passes out and starts snoring louder than a bloody freight train. I tried to wake him but he was out cold. What to do? I tried sleeping on the bathroom floor but the sound echoed through the walls….so eventually ended up sleeping outside on the deck chairs by the pool, till 5 am when we had to get up for our taxi. I was not happy.

And then it seemed like I was stuck in the most awful ‘deja vu’ ever.
Airport, freezing cold air conditioning, fever, body ache….. 6-hour wait for connecting flight in Singapore. In fairness to “Happy,” he didn’t just leave me in the airport like I told him to and he seemed to not mind having me around even though I was the most miserable person ever…..so for that I am very grateful…I think having to do it all by myself again would have been even worse.
We did end up taking a taxi into Singapore just to have a look around…although I slept through the taxi ride and then passed out in a restaurant while he went and did some exploring. So, all in all, I saw Zilch of Singapore. (Although Midgit has assured me it is lovely!)

Boarding my flight to Australia I was pretty much dreading it……but it seems that God had taken pity on me as I ended up sitting in Business class with plenty of leg room AND free blankets…..I was in heaven. Small miracles!

                                                        Australia

Arriving in Cairnes I still felt awful and decided that It would probably be a good idea to let a Western doctor have a good look at me once and for all…even though it was going to cost me $60. He kinda muttered something about ‘ pneumonia’ and suggested that I go to the hospital to have some IV fluids. At the hospital, I ended up seeing another doctor who said that he didn’t think the drip would make much difference and that it would just cost me more money. He said it was probably something ‘viral’ that I picked up in India and that all I had to do was go home and just drink lots of water.

And so I was on my way out the hospital door thinking how sweet it was of nice (cute) doctor to try and save me some money…when the nurse called me back and handed me my hospital bill…………$550. (350 pounds) For him to give me a 5-minute examination and to tell me to drink water ??? I only had $900 for my entire month in Australia…and they wanted $550 of it? Over my dead body!
They called a guy to come and speak to me….and he agreed with me that I should have actually been told the price before the consultation… I told him I didn’t have that kind of money on me and that I would have to come back and pay it. 
I then took myself home and spent the next 5 days drinking water and stewing over what I should do about this bill. 
I eventually, after speaking to loads of different locals, decided to just leave it. My fear of Karma was greatly reduced by my fear of having absolutely no money left for Australia!

And that brings me to the end of my first week in Australia…..Cairns is absolutely beautiful…..and if you are going to be down and out somewhere then this is the place to do it. My hostel was right on the beach front which was an added bonus.

My second week in Cairns and I was determined to make up for lost time…Monday and Tuesday I booked tours to some rainforests and waterfalls. Yesterday I had a snorkelling drip planned…..but I woke up feeling completely nausea’s again. I lay there trying to decide what to do…I knew my body was just exhausted from the last 2 day trips and I just needed to rest for a day…BUT it was the GREAT Barrier reef! How could I NOT see the great Barrier reef? (And I was flying to Melbourne that evening…so this was my last chance!)So I dragged myself to the boat. Was greeted by a gorgeous, green-eyed dive instructor, who immediately asked if I was ok. He suggested I take some sea sickness tablets as the water was going to be very rough that day, which I did. Rest assured we were all given a detailed description of the “use of the sick bags.”
I’d be dammed if I was going to puke in public, in a brown paper bag. So I sat there for about 40 minutes feeling awful…..just wishing it all to be over! The cute instructor kept coming and asking me if I wanted to move to the back of the boat as I would feel better there! Eventually, I decided to move only to discover that he lied….the back of the boat was full of all the sick people throwing up into those blasted little bags. It made my job of hanging onto my breakfast that much harder. But I was determined…ESPECIALLY not with the cute instructor standing there. ..after about and 1h40 minutes I called cute instructor over to ask him how much longer……..he said 10 minutes and then we started chatting about other stuff…..about 3 minutes into the conversation, I was overthrown by the need to throw up. Had to actually push him a way to do it. Way to go, Gayle…..nothing like throwing up when you are chatting to a lovely man!
So yes. it’s true…I threw up in one of those little brown sick bags. And then had to hand it to him to throw away for me. Charming!
But that been said…..it was worth it. The Reef was absolutely beautiful. Dad, I thought of you and wished I had a water camera to take photo’s for you….you would have loved it!

And that brings me up to the end of my 2 weeks in Cairns.
I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have been really upset by how much of this holiday I have spent ‘recovering’ from one thing or another. You take it for granted how lucky you are to have a healthy/able body that pretty much does everything you want it to. The worst I think is the complete apathy I feel for days after being sick….just no energy and no desire to do anything. I know its also got a lot to do with the fact that I haven’t been eating healthy, nutritional meals….so I am really starting to look forward to coming home and kicking this thing once and for all.

Anyway, that’s my news….not the most informative travel blog yet…but its the best I have for now.

Love to you all.
x