OWEN AROUND THE WORLD: Out of Asia

Flying south

Three months into my trip, I have finally made it out of Asia! I am now in Byron Bay on the East Coast of Australia after flying into Sydney at the weekend.

It was a real shock getting to Singapore. In two days, I went from 30 year old buses travelling across bumpy dirt roads in Cambodia to perhaps the cleanest town I have ever been to. It was nuts, and I guess it just takes time to readjust to prices and a society similar to what I am used to back home but which I have not been exposed to for a while. It really makes you think about how two places can have such different paths of progress, especially when you think of Singapore and its proximity to very underdeveloped places in Asia.

My last few days in Cambodia were pretty intense. I made it to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat , the former capital of the Khmer empire. It is an incredible place with absolutely loads of temples left over from past. The biggest and perhaps most impressive is Angkor Wat simply because of its size but each temple has something different to offer, and certainly the ones I enjoyed most were the temples which were fighting it out with the jungle. You had plants growing on the walls, and trees growing up from beneath the temples. There were definitely alot of people there, but depending on your luck at missing the tour groups, you could end up alone in one of these places with just you, the temple, the jungle and the animals. Some of the insects make a deafening high pitched sound creating a really special atmosphere. It certainly feels like something out of Indiana Jones. People reckon that Angkor Wat once had at least a million citizens, and was the most advanced city on the planet. What I found fascinating was how such a vast city could just disappear (most people think due to war). Its is difficult to think that Paris in 500 years might just be deserted. I guess that is almost what happened to New Orleans. Having seen silly amounts of temples and pagodas in Asia, I thought Siem Reap might be a bit much, but each place really is so different and the scale of all these temples really does hit you - I really thought it was amazing.

My final Asian bus journey was one more mission, with tires bursting every couple of hours, and extreme heat in a packed cramped up bus heading towards the Thai border. Already getting to Thailand was very different, with fully paved roads, big cars everywhere, 7/11 shops... And then onto Singapore.

In Singapore I was staying with the Marcel family, some family friends from home who it was great to drop in on - it was a bit of a surprise to see the kids so grown up (the last time I had seen them the youngest was a baby...). They also took great care with me, especially with the swimming pool in their condo! They gave me some exposure to the expat life in Singapore which seems very pleasant, especially for a family. It is a big city, but there are so many trees and tropical plants so it does not really have that polluted -full of traffic - concrete big city feel to it. The botanical gardens are amazing, and so is the mix of nationalities. It was funny to be walking around in Little India, Arab Street or Chinatown and to see a mix of many of the people and cultures which I have seen over the last three months. I wonder if it is possible that all those places might one day evolve into something as developed as Singapore.

Getting to Sydney was nice... I stayed with Christian Mignot and his family, who some of you will remember from the Lycee. It was great to catch up, have some great meals and Christian gave me a fun tour of Sydney night life. His Mum even gave me a haircut which was badly needed! It is crazy being so far south, so far away from home in the Southern Hemisphere. I headed up to Byron Bay on Monday, and this place is amazing. The beach is great and there is a big party scene here, with lots of Australian schoolies running around with fake IDs. I guess I don't really fit in to this surfing mania - I am concentrating on avoiding any lingering sharks. Some of the surfing you do see really is impressive though. Rumor also has it Jack Johnson is in town so this really is the place to be!

Here in Australia things have definitely taken a turn for the worst with the latest Ashes performance by England, as that is a key topic of conversation between everyone here and me, another pom. It is strange place in a way because in some ways it is so similar to England and yet in others it is so different. It seems as if you took the most adventurous people from England and just dropped them onto this warm holiday island with tons of sports to do! I think one shock here is the cost of living... Going from US$3 a night in Asia to US$20 a night over here is not great for the budget... Everything seems so expensive, not much cheaper than Europe. I fly out to NZ on the 12th so I am not here for long! Christmas is getting closer but it doesn't really feel like it with the burning sun and the turquoise sea...