Sorry for the lack of updates the last few weeks, things have been very busy and Internet access difficult. There are many stories still to tell but I think these will have to wait but don't worry, for those interested, there will be more tales and even some pictures!
So anyway, where are we at... well, we've left Lata, in fact, we left a short while ago. Unfortunately we had to leave a couple of days early. This was mainly due to the fuel situation, a ship did come but only brought about 9 barrels worth (a bit useless when it takes 3-4 per flight) So anyway, there wasn't enough fuel for us to get on our original flight so we had to get on a slightly earlier one, it took some persuasion for them to let us on the supposedly full flight, but eventually they did. The day we left was rather sad, we'd both grown to live quite well with the simple lifestyle. It wouldn't be until the day after we'd left, whilst sat in our hotel enjoying a much needed steak that it would finally sink in that we'd left. The journey itself, back on the small plane, was rather hairy as it rained all the time. The first thing we did on arriving at our hotel was order a cheeseburger!
By some extraordinary luck, we managed to then re-arrange all our flights so we left Honiara the next day, bypassing Fiji but for a brief wait in the airport (where we were nearly offloaded), flying onto Los Angeles. From the back and beyond to one of the richest, most crazy places on Earth! We set up in a Hotel in LA and set about hiring a car, this turned out to be one of the scariest things of the whole trip (normally that probably wouldn't mean a lot but considering what we've been up to on this trip its saying something!). I've never driven an automatic, left hand drive car on the wrong side of the road before. I had a small tantrum where I strongly considered taking it back, with missbliss's encouragement, I fought on and with the addition of a sat-nav unit made excellent progress and now it feels just like normal!
So that's where we're at, our Solomon adventures are over and we're heading for home very shortly. Hopefully I'll keep my blog very busy over the next few months, there will be Solomon stories to tell not to mention the other million things to do when we get back which includes: being back at med school, applying for Foundation posts!!! (shitters), finding a house, catching up on things from the last couple of months and all sorts of other wonderful and interesting things.
Anyway, in the words of Warner Brothers, 'that's all folks'.
Friday 12 October 2007
it comes to an end....
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2 comments:
Laughed when I read the bit about the cheeseburger. It's true, sometimes what you need to reassure or re-orient is the comfortingly familiar.
My personal best-remembered version of this was when I went to Bangkok on holiday 15 or so yrs back. First experience of a developing world metropolis, and was rather unprepared. On my first day there I set off to follow a guidebook walking tour route that said it would "immerse you in the sights, sounds and smells of real Bangkok". They weren't kidding about the smells, especially in some of the street covered food markets.
Anyway, after five hours of brain-boiling heat and humidity, pollution that amde breathing in feel like sucking a car exhaust pipe, general bedlam and aural / nasal assault, I felt so "Bangkok-ed Out" that I had to retreat to an air-conditioned hotel bar for a quasi-American setting, complete with wallpaper Muzak, a cheeseburger (snap) and a cold beer.
Anyway, look forward to reading more posts about your Solomons stint in due course. And hope the upcoming transition back to the NW of E isn't too jarring.
Just out of curiosity... what kind of car were you expecting?
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