Le Breuil --> my French sanctuary

As per the post below, I have been spending the past 10 days at my grandparents' house, also known as Le Breuil. I grew up spending long summers here with my cousins. I have always loved this place and consider it like home. Today, I still love coming back, even if my cousins are all grown up and thus no longer around. But my grandparents alone are worth the visit. Anyway, I had never been here in May, and Spring is by far the most beautiful time of the year here.

Back in the land of wine and cheese... and reality...

When my plane landed late-night in Bangkok coming back from Hong Kong last week, I felt ready to leave, that my time was up. I had two days left in Bangkok to wrap everything up before the grand departure, but even two days felt too much. I just felt like it was time! So you can imagine my surprise the next morning when I found that I was in fact leaving that very night, suddenly reducing my time in Bangkok to one day! Despite having had numerous conversations with Sarah and Mariel about how departing flights from Asia back to the West typically leave after midnight and so to be careful not to confuse the dates, I didn't think twice about my own flight back! Thank God Sarah called attention to it, because wow would that have been embarrassing/bad to find myself at the Bangkok airport realizing I had missed my flight by a day. I can just picture myself, ha. Crisis averted! So my departure from Asia happened just as the rest of my time there did, unplanned! I spent that last day buying a dress for my uncle's wedding, getting pampered Thai style (cheap), and getting my final Thai massage...

My return seemed endless, but once I was here, I couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that I had just crossed the globe and that not only was I back in France, but I was back in middle-of-nowhere France. All of a sudden, those 8 long months in Asia seemed to have flashed by - how could all of this life experience be over so quickly? How is it possible that everything here is exactly as I left it when I feel so changed!?

No matter, I quickly consoled myself when I saw my dinner. Wine! Cheese! Before I took my first sip of wine and my first bite of cheese, I stopped myself, I needed a moment to gather my thoughts... to think back at all those desperate times I dreamt of cheeese (I actually did have a dream about wine when in Chiang Rai)... that lasted a few seconds though, because before I knew it, I had scarfed it all down. I was so giddy, I was dancing around the house until I crashed for 14 hours. I woke up the next morning to the idyllic sound of birds chirping. My grandmother finally woke me up around noon and announced that we were starting off the day with champagne to celebrate my return and that we would proceed to a special wine picked out by my grandfather - LOVE my grandparents!! My grandmother asked her friend who joined us that day for lunch whether she liked champagne. Her friend obviously liked it, and my grandmother responded, " you know, some people don't like champagne," to which her friend said with a disgruntled look on her face, "les gens sont bizarres - people are strange..." LOVE France!

As I expected, France and more particularly staying with my grandparents has been the perfect Asian antidote. I've been here for a week, accompanying my grandmother to the market, going on long runs in the beautiful countryside, eating, updating my blog, going to the opera, eating some more...! I've hung out a bit with my grandparents and their friends - yes, I like hanging out with the older generation. At the end of the day, they do exactly what I do with my friends: sit around and gossip - people will be people will be people, regardless of age... except they talk about their gardens a lot...mmm maybe something I don't do...

Anyway, suffice to say that I'm so glad I chose to hang out in the French countryside for 10 days as opposed to schlepping around the Parisian crazies where I would have been in the throws of culture shock. I will head up there for 24 hours before my flight back to NY on Monday - crazy!

I guess this marks the end of my Asian Chapter. I have no idea what lies ahead... I'm excited, but can't help starting to feel a little nervous. I know I'm returning to reality in the middle of a major economic crisis - something I have felt utterly removed from... Well I guess it's time to deal with it - wish me luck!

"It's traveling!"

My friend Benno, also known as my personal editor or alternately the first person to read my blog and to IM me comments, asked me a few questions about my last post that I thought I should expand on... He asked me to explain what I meant when I said backpacker/traveller, tourists, and gap-year-tragedies. I certainly do not consider myself an expert on this topic, but after having backpacked for a few months, I can attempt to share some thoughts on the matter.

In fact, I guess I have been thinking a lot about the backpacking phenomenon lately... It seems to me that if you have a little money saved up, this is the perfect time to pick up and disconnect. I met so many people who had just been laid off and in their words "paid to travel." This seems to be a time that is shaking everyone out of their comfort zones and forcing people to think outside the box. People typically leave their homes to reevaluate and try and see things from new perspectives.

My favorite part about traveling, and forgive me if this makes me sound uninteresting or whatever, but more than seeing the sites and the country, is meeting new people. People fascinate me. Up until my arrival in Angouleme on Thursday night, I was still meeting people - people who wanted to share. Somehow people seem more open when they don't know the other. When in transit in London on Thursday, after having slept a few scant hours on the plane, I found myself in that uncomfortable waiting mode (when traveling, waiting is undoubtedly the most frustrating part, put me on the plane and I'm a happy girl), when a German girl with very sweet eyes asked me if I would like to switch magazines with her. One thing lead to the next and minutes later we were having an in-depth conversation about her long-distance boyfriend living in New York who she was planning on marrying. Later that day in Roissy, I stood in line with an ex-60s hippy on her way to Bulgaria to visit her daughter in the Peace Corps. Just by her description, I think those of you who know me will understand why this woman and I just hit it off!

My friend Calvin, Canadian boy I met in Laos, to me is many ways the ultimate "traveller." Every time something new and insane happened to me, I would laugh it off and say, "more stories!" He would respond, " it's traveling!" that kind of stuck - it became his catch phrase, I'll always remember him with his hippy baggy Thai pants saying those memorable words. He would know about traveling since he spent most of his youth on a boat around the world - lots of stories...

But there is a major difference between the backpackers who try and live a genuine experience, by not staying in the most expensive resorts -ok they cannot afford it, but it's more than that - and the tourists on holiday who just want to relax and soak up the sun. The holidayers only have a set number of days and lie in front of the sun screaming "burn baby burn!" Ha, no I'm categorizing I know, not everyone is like this, but inevitably when one is on a strict timeline, one simply cannot live the experience the same way those who do not worry about time do. Maybe that in itself is the most precious aspect of backpacking, in theory, you stay as long as you wish... When you like a place, stay an extra day, an extra week? Why not? I'm reminded of an Israeli couple we met in Laos, who when we asked for how long they were traveling - standard introductory question - they freely exclaimed, " 'til we die!!"

What I also loved about traveling was the unknown, the spontaneity of the whole affair and while my particular journey was relatively unsponstaneous compared to others, I still loved not having a plan... Getting on a bus going to a town you heard is worth seeing, but having no idea where to stay, and by extension to meet? Who would have predicted that on that fateful day on the pier on Koh Tao I would meet a doctor who would in turn treat me to 4 days in fancy resorts? He, by the way, was the ultimate Flashpacker - backpackers who have had enough of roughing it!

I will be brief on my analysis of "gap year tragedies," for they are by far the least interesting, and the ones Darragh and I hiked across all of Koh Phi Phi to avoid. On my way to Koh Phi Phi, I found myself stuck in a minivan with 4 drunk Irish girls. They had been chugging the beer since 8AM and were not going to stop. Those girls can hold their liquor! Well, it was simply revolting to watch. They were sweating like animals and to make matters worse they were blasting their hardcore trance music in the car subjecting all of us to listen to it. It was too loud for us to listen to our Ipods. One of the girls kept rudely screaming, "Taxi man! Volume!" A few days later, I heard of an English girl walk into a tattoo parlor again on Phi Phi demanding the artist to remove the tattoo she had gotten the night before. The poor man tried to explain that the tattoo was ummm permanent? The girl in her feverishly wasted state was apparently under the impression that the tattoo was removable. When she found out that the god-awful tattoo was there for life, she apparently freaked out - serves her right. If you have not guessed already, I have no sympathy for these types.

Apart from my unfortunate encounter with the Irish girls, I have to say that I almost exclusively met people worth talking to and from whom I learned so much. I will miss them!

Hong Kong baby!

Call me strange, but I can't help myself from writing a post about Hong Kong without a title like "Hong Kong baby." It just works somehow, doesn't it? Perhaps it's because I've stolen Mariel's blog title... it just stuck. Anyway, as always, I digress...!

After I left Darragh in Koh Lanta, I knew that was the end of my travels as a "backpacker." I met two lovely English girls on the trip back up to Bangkok, and had a depressing realization that these were the last "travelers" I would be meeting on this particular journey. There's something to be said about the people you meet when backpacking... Perhaps with the help of my broken hand (see, everything happens for a reason!), I met loads of interesting people from all over. Everyone has a story, everyone is traveling for a reason... I knew and know for sure now how much I will miss those people. I will miss that immediate bond, that unspoken understanding, " yes I know you needed to disconnect and process for a while... whatever your reasons were, I understand, because I am doing the same." Don't get me wrong, not ALL travelers are this way... I have had some unfortunate encounters with "gap year tragedies," 'nough said. Right, I've digressed yet again.

Back to Hong Kong. The amazing thing about Hong Kong is how the city combines qualities of some of my favorite cities in the world. It has the nature and the hills of San Francisco, the bustling cosmopolitan atmosphere and skyscrapers of New York, the European feel of London and even Paris in some neighborhoods... all of this with a rather major Chinese twist! A truly fascinating city indeed.

I was mainly hosted by Mariel - an excellent hostess, I might add. Unfortunately, for most of my time there, the weather was rather grim... But to be honest, after 2 months of non-stop sweat, I was certainly not going to complain! That first day we spent schlepping across town to the fascinating UPS main office to pick up my new bank cards, fun! We then had some local Chinese food, it felt all the more authentic as we were in Zeno, Mariel's Chinese boyfriend's company. He of course took care that we had only what true locals would order. Later that day, we took the touristy Star ferry across back to Hong Kong island. We took a picture on it - it's a very "I was there" kind of photo. We then headed down to the other side of the island to Stanley, a charming little port on the water.

That night we had some delicious Peking duck with Mariel's friends. I had a nice time that night, but woke up the next morning... surprise surprise... violently ill. I think I'm destined to be ill around poor Mariel - or anyplace I travel to for that matter. Luckily, she is a saint and took excellent care of me. So there went my Saturday in Hong Kong!

The next day we met Dominique and Hamish, who as always, were in high spirits. Dominique invited us both to her family cottage on Lantau island. I spent my last night in Hong Kong there where we cooked and played cards in front of the fire. You would never know you were in Asia in this very cozy home. Apart from a lovely walk in the spectacular Lantau mountains and Dominique and Hamish's lovely company, the highlight of the sojourn was the hot water and the bath tub - so amazingly luxurious to me after living out of a backpack for 2 months that I had two baths in less than 24 hours.

I am happy to report that my time spent in Hong Kong, apart from being bed-ridden for 24 hours, were spent relatively drama free. I did, however, go on a mini hike in the Hong Kong hills alone and nearly got lost... Let's be honest here, I'm not sure I can go anywhere without a bit of adventure. I was walking along this trail determined that it would link up with some bigger road that would lead me back to civilization, but after an hour or so, I reluctantly gave in and turned back... ah well... I guess I felt I had had enough excitement for a while.

As I had imagined when I booked my ticket to Hong Kong, my five days spent there provided the perfect transition back to the West. I was still in Asia, but in a 1st world city heavily westernized. I had been looking forward to my visit there for months and I was not in the least disappointed.

Attempts to capture paradise

So I went a little picture-crazy while on the islands of the Andaman coast. The scenery was so paradisical (I guess that's a word), that I couldn't help myself... Most of these were taken on our boat tour around the islands.

Bamboo island.

Viking resort, where we stayed on Koh Phi Phi... recommend this place!

Maya bay.

Where we stopped for lunch.

The wild waves of Koh Lanta - the picture does not do it justice...

Turquoise waters in Maya bay.

Sunset on Koh Lanta.

Maya bay, where "The Beach" was shot.

Beach Bumming...5 Thai Islands in 3 weeks.

As always, I have been incredibly lazy about updating this blog. To be honest, I thought after spending 6 hours online in Bangkok that I had had quite enough of blogging, but a month later, I feel that familiar nagging urge to update... so here it goes!

I arrived in Bangkok at the end of the month of March fulfilled by my numerous experiences, but mentally drained. My dear friend Sarah who lives in Bangkok with her two adorable children kindly let me stay with her, providing a much needed air-conditioned apartment, a comfortable room, and a hot shower! Forty eight hours later, feeling fully recharged, I jumped in cab, traversed an extremely congested Bangkok, and met up with my long lost friend Dominique, her amazing boyfriend Hamish (or Hamster as he quickly became known) and her friend from "uni" India. Little did I know that many new adventures were awaiting!

We took an exhausting overnight bus down to rainy Koh Phangan. My poor friends had come to see the sun shine and I think every single day they were there, we saw at least some rain. This however did not stop us from going out to the Spring-break-on-steroids town called Hat Rin, where the world famous Full Moon parties occur. Been there. Done that. That is exactly how I feel about that place. Glad I saw it while I'm still relatively young, but god did I feel OLD in that place! I can't party like that anymore!! Don't get me wrong, I loved spending time with my friends. I hadn't seen Dominique in years and it was incredible to have some time to reconnect. Meanwhile, some of the people I had met traveling in March were there, so we wound up having quite a large friendly group - so much fun.

When Dominique and co left, my friend Amanda who I know from my Chiang Rai days, her friend from England, and my dear friend Mariel from my Penn days showed up. We were four girls and something in the chemistry that night was just right, and we had an incredible night dancing in the rain!

The next day was the infamous Full Moon Party. Now hold on kids, remember the Tarot card reader? Little Thai man who predicted my motorbike accident?? Right, well he also told me I would be losing a lot of money in the coming month. I didn't think much of this as I would be traveling and obviously be losing money... Cut to Full Moon Party.. Mariel and I are dancing away until one of us decides we should go get a drink. We walk over to the bar and to my dismay - but at this point, I'm feeling pretty jaded to the ridiculous things that are happening to me - I discover that my bag was sliced open and my wallet was stolen!?! At this point, I'm thinking, Ok Clearly I MUST have done something wrong to have all this bad karma coming my way! Then I remembered that I DID eat some dog in Laos.... Oh I see! Ok tangent... Back to the situation at hand - LUCKILY Mariel, an amazing person and friend, was with me and helped me out for the following days...

The next day, Mariel and I sluggishly made our way to Koh Tao. It would be an understatement to say I was a bit of a wreck...'Nough said. Anyway, we didn't give Koh Tao much time, as Mariel needed to be back on Koh Samui to catch her flight back to Hong Kong the next day. So Koh Tao was a resting/recuperating 24 hours for us.

Poor Mariel only had 4 days in Thailand and unfortunately most of them were spent in the rain or traveling... but nevertheless it was incredible to see her again after 2 years. The day before her departure we were standing on the pier waiting for our ferry to Koh Samui when a man with an American accent calls us over ," How about I buy you two a beer?" "umm, I'm recuperating from that, so not a good idea..." I sheepishly reply... "Well I hear water is good for that!" Enter Doctor Dave (AKA life savor), an American doctor from LA who burned out and spur of the moment bought a ticket to Thailand to decompress. We proceeded to spend the journey back enjoying a lovely conversation with him and later that night he generously took my friends and I out on the town.

The next day Mariel left - the first beautiful day in 10 days, of course! After her departure, I emerged only to find out that all the Western Unions were closed for days for the Thai new year. Panic set in... What was I going to do!? I seriously had maybe 50 baht (less than 2 USD) to my name - panniiiiiicccc!!! Dr. Dave somehow got wind of this and offered to take care of me until I figured out how to get money. Now I know what you all might think, I was very hesitant at first, but people, I had no choice! I was lucky to have someone be this generous. For a brief existential moment, I attempted to think about the meaning of trusting strangers, but truth be told, I had little flexibility on the matter and somehow I felt it was OK, so I went for it. The man asked for nothing in return, I believe he just wanted my lovely company - I mean, who wouldn't, right? So... Juliet ended up getting wined and dined in the poshest of resorts in Koh Samui for 4 days. Not bad! So suddenly, my karma was looking up. Dr. Dave and I became good friends and I guess he restored my faith in humanity or something like that :)

Four days later, I traversed the peninsula to meet my Irish friend Darragh who met me in Koh Phi Phi. We decided to go as far away from the noise as possible. So we hiked along a dozen beaches, sweating like I've never sweat before, until we reached a rasta-esque bungallow resort known as "Viking Resort." I couldn't recommend this place more to anyone going to Phi Phi. We had our own private isolated beach in one of the most staggeringly beautiful places I've been to. As if that wasn't enough, we got a private jam session on our second night there by the famous rasta Thai band Job To Do! I had seen them in concert at the Rasta festival in Pai when Liz visited, but this was INCREDIBLE. Anyway, needless to say Darragh and I just loved it there. One of the days we took a boat trip to several islands, and I spent my time desperately attempting to capture paradise...

After a few days, we ventured over to the most relaxed island of all Koh Lanta. Although Koh Lanta was not as spectacular, Darragh and I both agreed that the place somehow had a wild, more freeing quality to it. The beach was long and it was the first time that I swam in waves! I am such a happy person when I swim in waves. It was the PERFECT place to end my Thai journey. My time with Darragh couldn't have been a more ideal way to spend my last days in Thailand. We were both partied out and just wanted to relax and talk.

It was with a heavy heart that I left Koh Lanta and headed on the never-ending voyage back up to Bangkok where I spent several hours back at Sarah's before getting on a plane to Hong Kong. Hong Kong = new adventure = new post - stay tuned!

Au Cambodge...

Cambodia... Very very different not only from Laos, but also from Thailand. In Laos, our clan could be heard chanting "woop woop" the second woop in a high pitched tone. In Cambodia, although the wooping continued, it just didn't quite feel the same there. The tone felt more sober, probably mostly because of the heavy recent history...

Our first stop was Siem Reap where we quickly discovered that one of the major differences with the other two southeast asian countries is how well Cambodians speak English. They speak well enough to joke around, actually understand sarcasm, and get into fights with tourists. Cambodians are characters. Our first tuk tuk driver attempted to scam us, and when I raised my voice, he raised his back (something I am not used to after Thailand, see my note on saving face). Finally, we just got into another tuk tuk.

We spent 2 days at Angkor Wat, which was incredible. We hired a guide, well worth it, if anything just to speak to a native Cambodian and for him to tell us about his country and its insane history. I don't really know what to say about Angkor Wat, apart from yes it's really impressive and yes if you find yourself in this part of the world, do not miss it!

On my last day in Siem Reap, we went and checked out the Floating Village. I have never seen anything like this place. It is literally a village floating on water. Houses , stores, and even schools are floating on the main lake in Cambodia, Tonle Sap. Cambodia is supposedly huge with fish and they mostly come from this lake.

After 3 days in Siem Reap where I spent some time with my long lost roommate Jen who happened to be there at the same time, I left from Phnom Penh. I temporarily separated from the clan, in order to make sure I would be back in Bangkok in time to meet up with my friends and to get an x-ray... I arrived in Phnom Penh and checked into Happy guesthouse, a very happy place indeed. The rooms were disgusting, but the back deck area made the place worth it. I met a whole new crew of wonderful people, including Darragh from Ireland and Ariane from Montreal. Darragh and I went to the Killing Fields and S21 together the next day... We had only just met, but seeing the vestiges of the tragedy that unfolded in Cambodia together definitely made us fast friends.


I'm not sure I have the energy to delve into the Cambodia's past, but essentially there was a mass genocide in the 70s, orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge regime headed by the tyrannical Pol Pot. Things didn't really get better until well into the 90s.
Anyone who was slightly educated was tortured and brutally killed. S21 is the prison where a lot of this was done. A very difficult day indeed.


A couple days later, my new friends and I went to a dump, where 150 families live, to feed the children. I met a French nurse and I helped her disinfect the numerous wounds the children had. When we arrived on our truck, the children were running towards us, they knew who we were. I mentioned that Cambodians speak beautiful English, even these children at the dump spoke well - arguably better than the Thai English teachers at my school - shocking. The little girls and boys were adorable and smiled the entire time. At one point, I was overwhelmed with emotion, but stopped myself from showing it, who am I to cry when these children live here and are smiling? Leaving was hard... We were there for an hour, but these kids live here indefinitely. I would recommend to anyone who is traveling to Phnom Penh to do this. You know and see your money going to the right place.
This was undoubtedly one of my most memorable experiences perhaps on my entire trip.




I said Cambodia was sobering and now you can understand why. My last stop in Cambodia though was much lighter. I headed down to the coastal town Sihanoukville. The coast was lovely, but skippable. I mostly enjoyed it because I reunited with the family and Ariane on my last few days and just relaxed, that's pretty much all I did.

My venture back to Thailand yesterday was of course not without drama. As my friend Ben wrote to me, I don't know what I have been doing to attract all this bad karma (he suggested I've been flushing puppies down the river every night) !? Ha, no I joke, I know how lucky I am, especially after being in Cambodia, broken hand and all, I wouldn't trade my life with anyone, not for a second...

Anyway, I had been told to enter Cambodia as a French citizen, because of Cambodia's relationship with France. I wanted to come back to Thailand as an American, because of my teaching visa. I was not allowed back in as an American, because I had been stamped out of Cambodia as a French citizen, and Thais were apparently not allowed to let me in on a different passport. It worked with Laos, but Thailand is apparently more serious, ha - who knew? So I found myself dealing with a lovely little fee to extend my visa, nice.

Back in Bangkok, it is seriously pouring! I thought this was the dry season? I went and got my hand x-rayed again today, and much to my dismay, my bone looks pretty broken still. The doctor reassured me "Don't worry!!" Apparently, it's all about the functionality of my hand, and my body is a magic machine, bla bla bla. Anyway, it is what it is , right?

These two posts have taken me forever to write with one and a half hands and I will likely not be doing this for a while again. I am heading to the islands for 3 weeks of straight beach bumming, jealous? Dominique arrives tonight (yay!) and tomorrow we leave. I'm so excited. So many people are meeting up including Mariel, Kirsten, Alicia, Marianne, Claudia, the list goes on and on...

I will be uploading my pics to facebook soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

PS: Tomorrow is April 1st, meaning my last month in Asia, meaning I get to see many of you again soon, I can't wait!!!!!