I find it sad to say that I abandoned this blog after the first post, bad blogger Lauren. But I never forgot about it, I just ended up getting a job in no way related to music, and my boyfriend at the time was such a prolific blogger and music lover, he became my only source for new music. I couldn't really write about music he was writing about now could I? No. So I just kinda forgot about it.
It's 2 years later, and things couldn't be more different. I'm a young, single, carefree woman living the dream. I've been traveling around South East Asia for 3 months now, 2 months of which was spent in Malaysia and Indonesia, 1 month volunteering for the amazing charity Isara, with one month left to go. I'm aware it would be a cliche to say its been the most amazing experience of my life, but it has been life changing whichever way you look at it. You can't break out of the rat race, experience so many different cultures, dip an dive into new worlds on a weekly basis and remain unmoved or unchanged. But if I'm honest it hasn't all been sunshine and happiness, although there has been a fair amount. Its been a learning experience for me. About myself mostly, the way I am and the way I see myself. There was a dark cloud hanging over me for a couple of weeks but it lifted and I'm all the better for it. You can't try and change the person you are, you can only really accept yourself, and evolve as much as you can. So I'm practising a carefree lifestyle, feeling much more easy going, and trying not to get myself into to much trouble!
Highlights of the trip so far...
Georgetown, Penang (Malaysia)
If you get the chance to go here, do it for the food. The street food is 60p a meal, and probably some of the most amazing food I've eaten this whole trip. Pork Won ton Soup, Cha Shu Bow coming out of my ears. A wicked Reggae Bar that gives free drinks to girls from 5-9 EVERY DAY!! Head to Love Lane, stay at the Red Inn, everything else you will find unfolds before you magically.
Gili Air, Lombok (Indonesia)
This really is Paradise. Not just to look at, but to live. 3 days turned into 10 with no guilt of what we would have to forgo in order to allow it. We spent our days at Zip Bar, relaxing in the sun with the amazingly funny and friendly bar staff, snorkeling when we got hot, and of course eating foooood! In the evening we returned to our Guesthouse where the wonderful Absa cooked us dinner every night and we ate with her, her two sons, and her best friend. They became our family. Never have I been shown such genuine love by virtual strangers. They will never be forgotten.
Mount Bromo, Java (Indonesia)
This is the hardest thing endurance wise I have ever had to do. It was my idea, and yet I was the one almost in tears 2 hours into the climb... 2am. Pitch Black. Oreos in hand. Torch in the other. We set off on our own at first (me and 4 other inexperienced climbers) and then decided it was probably best to wait for the Swiss couple who had walking gear and everything. It took us 3 hours, scaling the mountain in the pitch black of the night, I was sweating profusely in the cold mountain air, but we reached the summit just in time for sunrise. It made it all worth it. We watched the sun rise over the beautiful rolling hills of Java, whilst watching the eerie morning mist clear over Mount Bromo and its surrounding craters. Its like nothing I have ever seen before.
The Isara Foundation, Nong Khai (Thailand)
Volunteering here has been so much fun. 7 Volunteers living above 3 classrooms in a beautiful surrounding garden where kids come to spend their free time playing Ping Pong or hanging out on the swings. Teaching is great- at the moment only 5 hours a week. The kids are so much fun, I love teaching them and running around like a kid with them. Living at the learning centre is like being back at University. The drama of who drank all my milk, someone always being in the shower, and the late night drinking games of course!! It's the best of both worlds- working hard and having fun. And all for the most honest and hardworking charitable organisation I have ever had the pleasure of coming across. Get involved!! Making their website your homepage (its also a search engine) earns them money instead of corporates! http://www.isara.org/
So to sum up...
I didn't start writing this blog again to make it a conventional travel blog. Music is still my passion, and now I find myself in different circumstances, I see this as a chance to talk about music in the context of traveling, where music becomes everyone's best friend. Whether you're on a long arduous bus journey, on the beach relaxing away in the sun, or trying to sleep when those damn crickets won't shut up, your iPod (with a damn good pair of Sennheiser headphones) transports you to your happy place. But what do you decide to listen to? and why? What happens when your old and reliable music collection just don't do it no more? You're about to find out.
I should probably add at this point that about 5 weeks into my trip, I went and got my iPod stolen :( I was distraught, especially because I had devised a plan for such an instance, but foolishly and forgetfully I failed to execute the plan. I was without my music for 3 miserable weeks, and even then it took 2 months to gather a respectable collection again, from various sources. It's OK though, I got by with a little help from my friends.....and their iPods :D It did however make me think long and hard about what music was essential for me to acquire as quickly as possible, what kind of music I thought I would be listening to the most and should therefore have the most of, what was worth paying for now and what could I deal with losing indefinitely. These questions are going to have a direct impact on the music I choose to share with you in the coming days, weeks, and months.
So, whether you read this out of curiosity as to what I'm doing, as a source of a new band to listen to (although I doubt very many of the bands I talk about will be new ones) or if no one reads it at all, it doesn't matter. I'm doing this for me, because I love to write, I love music, and I felt something productive should come out of this trip other than lying on the beach :)
And Finally!! Something to feast your ears on...
This is my number one most listened to Drum and Bass track at the moment: DJ Fresh - All that Jazz. An oldie but, quite fittingly, a Goldie :P
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