Novi Sad & Serbian Armed Guards

Church from small wine & honey making town next to Novi Sad

Day 1
During the lovely yet eventful 8 hour train ride from Hungary into Serbia across rolling sunny sunflower fields, I had my passport confiscated by Hungarian border officers, and then a toilet visit rudely interrupted by Serbian border officers.

Our train was detained at the border for several hours while Hungarian border officers stamped everyone's passports. Finding something not to their liking in my passport (they didn't explain what), the two officers left the train with it. I could see them holding it, pointing, shouting and gesticulating wildly to other officers off the train much to the amusement of surrounding passengers. Afterwards, it was promptly returned with no explanation (much to the disappointment of surrounding passengers, who obviously thought something interesting was about to occur).

A little while after this incident, but still no sign of departing yet, I was BUSTING for the toilet. I literally couldn't hold on any longer. Since the Hungarian guards had left, I snuck off to the toilet. All was going well, until mid-way into my visit, 5 armed Serbian guards unlocked the toilet door (from the outside!!) and ran in screaming and shouting, seemingly unconcerned as to my vulnerable state. I started screaming and tried to kick the door closed, which they strongly resisted and got very mad about. It probably wasn't the wisest idea but I was in a state of shock. Satisfied I was not a terrorist or a would-be illegal immigrant, they also left without further explanation.

Novi Sad town square

We eventually arrived into Novi Sad. I wasnt sure what to expect, it definitely wasn't somewhere I would have chosen to visit if it hadn't been on my tour's itinerary. Luckily I was pleasantly surprised. I found a lovely small university town with cobblestoned streets, a lively yet pretty main square, and a fortress on a hill where they hold the annual EXIT Festival, which was happening 3 days after our departure!

Novi Sad shops

Only saw the town by afternoon/evening, and it was lovely. Going to explore a little more tomorrow!

Day 2
Had a tour of the city this morning with our tour guide. We then hiked up the hill to Petrovaradin Fortress, where the EXIT Festival was to be held. We saw some rocker looking dudes wandering around and wondered whether they were from famous bands (I have no idea lol). The views over Danube were fantastic...and my god was it hot!!!

Stopping for some refreshments

We took a trip to a nearby town later in the evening and got to sample some honey and wine that they were famous for. Went out for dinner along the Danube...lovely!

Pretty little town next to Novi Sad

where we sampled honey...and lots of wine!

View over the Danube from Petrovaradin Fortress

Budapest

Chain Bridge

Day 1

Arrived in Budapest and settled into my hostel, Budapest Bubble. What a great hostel, the owner is so lovely and friendly..would stay there again in a second!
Was in a bit of a mood as I just found out some sad news from WFFT, Sundae had passed away after a horrific accident. So I didnt really want to do anything, just sat in the hostel and chatted to some other people staying there, then went and had a wander around the local area and had a traditional Hungarian meal of Falafel Kebab lol..followed by a few capiroskas made by a Brazillian guy at our hostel..hehe!

Day 2

Decided to do a walking tour today. Started at 9.30am at Deak Ter. I caught the train to Heroes Square where I met the very small group.

Heroes' Square

We saw the Palace built for the Millenium Celebrations, the "Anonymous statue", St Stephens Church and Fashion Street. Walked across the Chain Bridge to the Castle Hill district, where we had lovely views of Parliament House.

Fishermans Bastion

Views of Parliament House

We also saw the Opera House at Opera Station. After the tour I walked down to the Nagycsarnok (Great Market) to get some lunch, which consisted of ogorki kapusta (sauerkraut filled cucumbers....LOVE these), and a warm apple and cinnamon strudel. Went back to the hostel and made pasta for dinner. Stayed home as I have to meet one of the girls from my tour, Kayla, at Szchenyi Baths tomorrow quite early.

St Stephen's Church

Day 3

I have found the secret to beautiful, flawless and soft skin.  Get yourself on a plane to Budapest to spend the day at Szchenyi thermal baths. I arrived early in the morning and spent the entire day soaking in the various different temperature thermal spring water pools, and left around 2.30pm. It was incredibly easy to spend the whole day there!! There are so many pools and all at different temperatures...hot, warm, cold, and varying degrees thereof. You are supposed to dip into the various temperature pools and not stay in the same one for too long. To mix things up and get the circulation moving around your body.  My skin felt amazing for days afterwards. Super soft like a baby's.  I couldn't stop touching it seriously it was so soft.  Great value too!

Szchenyi Baths

Unfortunately there were riots on the way home, and many of the streets were closed. There were loads of riot police standing around directing people down a most inconvenient and long way back to the centre of town. Took me 2 hours to walk back to the National Museum area as the Metro was shut down, and the way the police were directing us was down the back streets, zigzagging our way back, therefore taking much longer. There was mass confusion and no police officers would tell us what was going on. I missed the start of my tour meeting because of this..so annoying. Went out for VERY average Chinese with our tour group because the Hungarian restaurant we had booked was closed as they were afraid of being firebombed...scary!!!

View from Castle Hill across to Parliament House

White Nights of Midsummer in Helsinki

View of the Lutheran Cathedral from the ferry

After my flight into Helsinki and much wandering around in order to find my hostel, (Hostel Erottajanpuisto), I finally got found it around 8pm. Talked to 2 lovely Australians, Liz and Zoe. Were talking for quite a while but it still felt really early. It was 9,30pm and totally light outside, as if it was 5pm!!! They have the White Nights like St Petersburg, (the sun never setting in Summer as they are near the North Pole) the most amazing thing to see.

Old Kauppatori (Market Square)

Juicy fresh cherries!

The next day I woke up really early and set out to the Kauppatori (market) to get some breakfast. I had a really long and flat doughnut with warm raspberry jam inside with a coffee for Euros 4, which was the best deal I could find. It is Finland I suppose! Then wandered around the Old and Outside Kaupattori looking at woolen knitted hats, FUR from poor foxes and an assortment of other small, innocent animals (GROSS), red juicy strawberries and cherries, reindeer meat, smoked salmon, caviar, dark Finnish breads, etc. I decided to make myself a picnic for lunch later on so bought a grainy brown roll, slices of Emmental cheese and olives.

New Kauppatori (Inside market)

Dried fish..mmmAssortment of caviar snacks!Helsinki Railway Station.


Uspensky CathedralInterior of Uspensky....magnificentHavis Amanda Fountain

I set off by ferry to Suomenllinna (Island Sea Fortress), taking in the gorgeous archipelago scenery on the way.

Arrived there at around 10,30am and there was no one around...but as the day went on there were hordes of Finnish families with young children having picnics. I pulled out my bread roll, stuffed it with the Emmental and made myself a little picnic, watching the huge Baltic ferries sail by. After I had enough of roaming around the islands I caught the ferry back and set off to see Uspensky Orthodox Church, which was lovely inside and out. The same can't be said about the Lutheral Cathedral, one building I had been so looking forward to see. It was absolutely GLORIOUS to look at from Senate Square, but upon going inside was quite....unremarkable. Still, nothing can take away from how amazing it looks from the outside, I must have stood staring up at it for about 30 minutes....WOW!!!
View from the back of the ferry

Lutheran Cathedral

Had the rest of my roll and cheese for dinner whilst talking to some lovely girls at my hostel, Sarah from Utrech, Netherlands and Laura from Iowa, US. Early night tonight, have to get up at 5,45am tomorrow for my flight to Budapest!!!

Back to Bangkok

I've been back in Bangkok now for 2 days, yesterday I caught the Sky Train to National Stadium and visited Jim Thompson's House. Jim Thompson was part of the CIA but lived in Thailand after the Second World War. He single handedly revived the Thai Silk industry to make it what it is today, and he amassed a wonderful collection of South East Asian art during his life here. His House is now a museum for South East Asian art and has a workshop with lovely Thai silk, I was tempted to buy a scarf but it was so expensive. Later on I went to MBK and had a manicure, pedicure and facial for AUD $40, so cheap!!! Today I'm just taking it easy at my hotel, The Atlanta, as I have my flight to Helsinki tomorrow morning and I have run out of money...damn that hospital visit for breaking my Thailand budget!

Koh Tao Island

Chumporn Pier - Gateway to Koh Tao

Got a taxi from the Centre into Hua Hin with Liz and had dinner and did some shopping at the night market before our Lomprayah night bus arrived at 11pm. Went to dinner at La Villa, the Italian restaurant we always go to in Hua Hin. Tried another one once and it was horrible, I think we've had dinner at La Villa 4 times now! Arrived in Koh Tao and was met at the pier by the lady from the bungalows we're going to stay in, Laem Thian, which is on a deserted beach on the Eastern side of Koh Tao. It's a 35-40 minute drive from Sai Ree beach on Koh Tao, and there are no other bungalows for miles around. We stayed there for 2 nights and then decided to stay on Sai Ree beach for the rest of the time, as Laem Thian bungalows were just too far out and you couldn't do day tours as there were never enough people at the bungalows to justify running them.

Road to Laem Thian bungalows

Laem Thian Bay

We stayed at Sai Ree Cottages for the rest of our time on Koh Tao, which was lovely, right in the middle of Sai Ree beach and close to all of the restaurants and bars, and travel agencies where you could do day-trips.

Sairee Bay Main street

Sairee Beach - complete with live-in dogs

We decided to do a full-day snorkelling day trip with AC Tours, I liked the fact they were an eco-friendly company and didn't feed the fish during boat trips (which damages the eco system as the fish feed on human food, which they often can't digest, and die). We visited many different snorkelling places around the island, my favourite was the Japanese Garden on Nang Yuan Island. Nang Yuan Island used to be a holding place for political prisoners during the war, and its name translates to 'Vietnamese Lady".

Swedish families aboard our full day snorkelling trip

Having a blast onboard

Relaxing on Nan Yuan Island

It is a gorgeous island, with lush vegetation, white sand, warm water and wonderful snorkelling! After 3 days at Sai Ree Cottages, it was time to leave Koh Tao and head back to Bangkok for my flight in a few day's time.

WFFT Week 4

This week did a Phetchaburi day trip with Katie, 25 (USA) and Davinia, 18 (England), and saw Wat Mahatat, the King's Summer Palace, another Wat, the name escapes me at the moment, Monkey Mountain, which is a Wat in a cave in a mountain, which was definitely the highlight of the day! Then we went to the Hilltop Palace, but it was closed for renovations to the cable car that day, so we went to Wat Kampang Lang instead. Afterwards we went to Big C in Phetchaburi and took our Centre driver, Tek, to Swenson's for an ice cream. I don't even eat icecream usually, but I think I was missing Western food a bit after my 4 weeks at the Centre. At Swensons Petchaburi. This week has also been so sad, my last working week. There are so many things I will miss: watching Gallamair and Gaga (baby malayan sunbears) play, Joey (longtail macaque) getting angry and throwing stones, but then being sweet a second later and doing "lovely macaque face", Loi (pigtail macaque) doing "greeting macaque face", Mr Oo (white handed gibbon) playing on his swing, Bandit and babies (longtail macaques) playing, Dum Dum (white handed gibbon) giggling and running along the ground, Kot (rhesus macaque) doing "threatening macaque face" to me when I give him his food, warning me not to take it away, Nee's (white handed gibbon) sweet face and greeting when I walk past, Bong (white cheeked gibbon) doing the 'robot' and her songs, Sandie's (binturong) sniffing, Bouncer trying to beat Joan (Asiatic black bears) to the food (and always winning!), Oompoom (malayan sunbear) racing around his enclosure and only going into his side gate once I have shown him an acceptable amount of food, Randie (greater hornbill) biting my toes every time I tried to sweep his floor!! I will miss these things so much :(

Bye WFFT, I hope to return to you one day...I have never felt so happy as when I was there :(

WFFT Week 3

Dum Dum the baby gibbon

This week has been very eventful, there has been SOOOO many animal escapes, quite unbelievable! All but one have been macaque escapes, they are very intelligent animals. When you place them in the side enclosure to clean out their cages, they pick up the lock or carabina clip and turn it over in their hands, you can see their minds ticking over about the best way to open them. One macaque has to have his cage padlocked because he figured out how to get the carabina clip off...very crafty!

Had a scary experience... I was standing there with Liz and the volunteer co-ordinator, Emma, watching the two baby sunbears meeting each other face to face for the first time, it was very touching. Then, all of a sudden, the whole field of long-tail macaques next to the bear cage came wandering out of their gate, one of the Thai staff had locked the padlock and closed the gate, but had accidentally left the key in the lock Of course macaques, being the inquisitive and highly intelligent creatures they are, figured out how to unlock the padlock with the key and all came out for a look around. There was the alpha male, followed by two other males, then 6 females. They were no harm to us, but it was quite scary because they are 4-5 times stronger than a human, and if they are angry, can rip out your jugular with their long teeth!! Thankfully they went straight back into their field once the Thai keeper came along.

Another event at the Centre was one of our Leopard Cats went missing. I was in charge of feeding Nocturnals the night before, so was quite distressed it could have been let out because of me. Emma assured me it was not my fault...and that a python had got into their cage during the night and strangled and ate the male cat of the pair, then couldn't get back out of the cage again. The Thai staff removed it early in the morning but the volunteers who went in to clean the cage later that morning thought it had escaped. Unfortunately I was at the hospital later in the day and the python decided to regurgitate the poor cat, not a pleasant sight. On a more pleasant note, we went to Hua Hin twice this week, once on Thursday for Maria's leaving do, of course we also visited the Night Markets.

Hua Hin Night markets

On Saturday we went again for the Jazz Festival on the beach, which was amazing!!! Afterwards we went to Wave Bar which is a HUGE club with a predominantly Thai patronage, which has live a Thai band and lots of dancing. We got to sit in the VIP area and they poured our drinks, was the best night out ever!

Huan Hin Jazz Festival

Fun at Wave Bar