The last week has been a bit insane to say the least.
How often do you get to throw yourself out of a plane at 14,000 ft, which is the highest you can go, to free fall for 60 seconds screaming at the top of your lungs until the parachute goes up and all goes quiet....
Doing this, I think we can both safely say been the amazing and indescribable thing we've ever done! Hands down!
We decided to look into doing it a few days ago, and upon deciding yeah lets do it on our last day here, we went into the place we found the best price for it and signed our lives away. They then went on to tell us "why don't you do it today guys? The weathers good, and there's no guarantee it'll be this good tomorrow..."
Give me a chance to think about it,mate! Um...No tomorrow will be fine, thanks!
"They have spaces today and you could go do it in the next hour!"
Before we knew it, we were picked up from our hostel in a white stretch limo, and taken 20 minutes to the skydiving base.
There they gave us a lot of paperwork to read through to make sure we knew what we were getting into, that yes skydiving is in fact dangerous and we could possibly end up dead if something goes wrong. Thanks for pointing that out, it did everything to control my sweaty palms and anxiety of jumping from a plane.
We were also given forms to sign of who to contact in case of emergency...we put you down, Mums & Dads! ;-D Glad you didn't get any phonecalls yesterday from some random Aussie saying "G'day mate, um...your son/daughter just did a skydive...."
So, we were then taken to the airport after being harnessed up and were given instructions on what to do when we get into the air (arch your bank and cross your arms across your chest, until the instructor taps you to let you know you can put your arms out like you are flying!) and how to land (to bend your knees up to your chest and put your feet out to avoid breaking your legs upon impact.Fantastic.) and then we were good to go!

We got into this little plane, enough to fit 4 people in the back....Luke and I and our tandem masters that would be attatched to us.
They told us what we had to do in regards to sticking our feet out of the plane.
Excuse me, what? Sticking your feet out of the plane and getting ready to be thrown out.
The reality of what we were about to do,and how high we were going to do it from had began to kick in. Luke would be jumping first, me second, and let me tell you...the fear is something I cannot explain. I was absolutely out of my mind terrified. Just the thought of it, knowing that something could go wrong and that could be it.Boom.The end.
Also knowing that you were above the clouds, falling freely through the sky is just something you don't really think about every day.
The plane climbed higher and higher and the tandem masters attatched themselves to us. I kept wondering if our harnesses were strong enough...what if they broke? What if they became loose and I fell out? And then I told myself to shut up and trust the fact that these guys do this every single day and are experts. Putting your life in someone elses hands is something i've never done before...and it might well be the last time I ever do.lol.
I was looking down over Byron bay at the amazing scenery in the plane...the sea, the beaches, the coastline....some lakes thrown in for beautiful measure and I realised just how small I am. Thats no pun on my height, by the way. I mean I as the universal "I"....all of us, we're incredibly small in a huge huge world.State the obvious Liz, but honestly being up there you really do realise it more than ever!!!
So,the time has come. "Ok guys, lets get ready to jump!"
I could tell by Lukes face,and i'm sure he could tell by mine we were both panicking a bit now. I think my instructor could even tell as he told me to take deep breaths.lol.
Lukes instructor put his goggles on, and told Luke to do the same...and then they opened the door to the plane.
Freezing cold air rushed in and hit us all...sending my hair in all directions slapping my instructor in the face.At that moment I thought "oh my god,i can't do this.I'm terrified."
I was actually physically shaking.
I saw Lukes face and knew he was feeling similar, although he's a little braver than me with stuff like this.
Before I knew it,Luke and his instructor were sat on the edge of the plane, and after the count of three, jumped out.
I just saw them dissappear into...AIR!!
I didn't even hear Luke scream. I couldn't hear anything because of the loud sound of the rushing air.
Then my instructor said to me "Ok lets do this!" in such a cheerful way it made me wonder how the hell these guys do this every single day.
I don't think I moved, as I was dragged backwards because he was attatched to me towards the edge of the plane. I started saying "Oh my god...oh my god..."
We sat on the edge, dangled our feet over, and everything in me didn't want to do it.I didn't want to put my feet over the edge of a plane! It defies human nature! Why would you want to do that?!
I looked down (shouldn't have) at the view below....the sea, the coast, tiny buildings, some clouds.... and heard my instructor counting to three.
I felt us surge forward and we were falling....I honestly think for a second my heart stopped.
The scream that come out of my mouth as we left that plane and flipped forward a few times speeding through the air, was the loudest i've ever screamed in my life. No joke.
We straightened out in the air and I rememebred to bend my body in the shape of a banana lol.... that's about all I could remember to do as I was tapped on the shoulder about 2 or 3 times...it was the instructor telling me to un-cross my arms from my chest and spread them out as if I was flying.He was also pointing at the little camera on his wrist telling me to look at it to make a good photo...he motioned to do peace signs and thumbs up and such. It was then I started to enjoy it....you don't even feel sick, you actually feel like you're being pushed up from below....and just literally flying. There's no real "falling" feeling to it apart from the initial tumble out of the plane.
We free fell pulling a few sly ashleys on the way down and then I was pulled upwards as the parachute came up.And then everything went quiet.
From the sound of the wind rushing as you fall at such a speed through the air to dead quiet was quite eerie, but a huge feeling of relief followed it.
The instructor handed me some ropes to guide the parachute with, telling me to pull it left to make us go in one direction and another.
I think Lukes instructor was spinning him around with the parachute a lot in the distance as they made their way closer to the ground.
After steering the parachute for a bit I gave the reigns back to the instructor who told me to just relax and take in the view.
The views were absolutely amazing... lakes, rivers, mountains...I felt like I could see everything. I saw Lukes parachute in the distance getting further away as he got closer to the ground.
We made our way down slowly and smoothly, landing a bit awkwardly as my legs had gone to jelly I couldn't pull them up far enough...my instructor ended up going over my head and landing in a heap in front of me. Whoops...sorry KP! lol.
I also realised as I got up that the land had given me a builders bum.
OLE!
Just what every girl needs.
Stupid jeans bought from Thailand! (Thai girls seem to ,on the whole, lack in the bum department) Clearly not designed for a western girl with an arse!
I know Luke noticed this as he pointed it out later, and apparently my instructor noticed too according to Luke. Cheeky! lol. In more ways than one! (or two as it were HUUURP!)
We were on a natural high for about 5 hours after this, and the champagne we were given in the limo dropping us back to our hostel definitely went to our heads very fast! We had a bottle between us and it was goooo-ooood! ;-)

So,as a result of going to Nimbin last week (Australias version of Amsterdam) and eating a cookie each (even though we were advised to only eat half as they were "strong"....we didn't quite believe they'd have anything in them.Shame on us.We ate them anyway.) which after half an hour kicked in and made us both go on some crazy weed induced trip. We ate them on a multicoloured bus on the way back and our crazy busdriver stopped the bus to start telling jokes. Me and Luke were sat at the back thinking WHAT THE HELL?
The music was louder, voices were louder and everything felt like it was a video game. I felt like I was in a bubble of weirdness and as a result we both decided to stay an extra night in Byron as we didn't know how on earth we were going to get our luggage onto the greyhound and have anyone take us seriously. Booking back into the hostel was hard enough. The poor woman who served us must have wondered, quite respectfully, what we were on...as (and I don;t know if this was the case -I was just paranoid) every movement I seemed to make seemed to happen ten times faster than it actually did, and yet time went so slow. By 5.30 we were in bed and sleeping it off. In the room we'd previously checked out of. We woke up the next day and it was almost 10 hours later....:-/
So, because we stayed, we then looked into changing our flights, which it turns out couldn't be done any earlier than the beginning of July. WHAT!? Thats too long to be still in Australia.
It turns out after much thought, our best option is to go to America & Canada another time. It kills me to do that as I wanted to meet my family so much, but knowing that Australia would kill our bank accounts in that time...we knew we'd rather have a good time here,which is hard because it's so expensive...and make our trip last by going to Asia again ,as we loved it so much first time around and there was a lot we didn't get to see, also because the price of everything over there is so much cheaper.
I know if we went to America & Canada we'd be skint and wouldn;t be able to see much, where if we go to Asia we can live comfortably for a few months and see loads before coming home.
We found a cheap fligh to Asia which leaves 5 days time, it's a long flight which we did through Air Asia...but it cost us about a third of the price we woulda got it through anywhere else. We also needed something immediate, as we don't have much left to see. We have been in touch with STA and they can fly us home from Bangkok.
So,we didn't make it to the states and canada this time...but we're already planning our next trip! A bit more thought out money wise and obviously we won't have Australia to put any expense in the way beforehand! ;-)
Australia has been amazing, but then so was Asia...and there's a part of me that has been longing to go back there since we left. Thailand I mean, more than anything.It's a beautiful place with beautiful people and it's so different to anywhere i've ever seen!
America & Canada is something we'll save up to do for a few months in the future, in the next two years probably. The sheer size of the states is so big, if we were flying in to the side my family live on it would have been fair enough, we would have done it, but because we were on completely the opposite side, just getting across America would be impossible.
And we couldn't change the flight to go into Canada without paying a huge sum on top of it either. BAH!
Oh well, we made the best descision for our situation. I mean you can't really complain can you, when the choices in your life consist of what country to go to and when?! It could be a hell of a lot worse.

Knowing that in a few months though it's coming to an end makes me sad and happy at the same time.
Sad because I just want to be able to do this forever, and while I don't think either of us will go away for quite so long next time...I know we'll do it again...for a few months to six months...but never as long as we planned for 11 months to a year.
I mean if you live somewhere fair enough, but if you're travelling living out of a backpack ....you kinda miss things from home.
And thats what makes me happy...knowing we're both coming back to meet our loving families and friends and get to spend time with you all!
I miss all the jokes we had with you all, sitting in front of the fire when my mum plays on the wii, my dads sunday roasts lol...I miss Nitas chilli and Jeff's shouting of "BARN OWL" hahaha.
I miss going up to Lisa & Geraints and having a curry and a bottle of wine, Michelle and Steves just getting plain drunk haha... I miss doing Karaoke with Checkie and Chris or going out to Cardiff with you both.

And of course we both miss our friends a huge deal, we've had each other to be insane together but it'd be amazing if you could all be here with us too.

The other thing that i'm kinda sad about is some of the things i've seen...how can you possibly see the poverty in Cambodia first hand , cry for hours over what has happened to that country and not have it change you inside? I've become less selfish and things that used to bother me just don't anymore.
I actually can't wait to go back to Cambodia just to be around the amazing friendly people there.
Something I want to do when I get home is set up some kinda charity to help that country out...9 times out of 10 when I speak to people who haven't been there, they don't know what happened during the 1970s with the Khmer Rouge. Which to be honest is so bad, I didn't even know to the full extent of how bad it was until I went there.
I read a book about a girls experience of it "first they killed my father" and have sat there crying my eyes out at what her and her family went through. Everyone hears about the devastation that happened in Vietnam...that still happens today in Africa and all over the world really. But nobody ever hears about Cambodia and how long their people have suffered for. What happened with the Khmer Rouge has really affected so many people there then and today. You can see the sadness in their eyes, and it hurts terribly to see that. Saying that, Cambodia is a beautiful county which I feel many people should visit. The people, the food, the landscape it's all absolutely gorgeous.

Another thing is...how can you possibly throw yourself out of a plane and not become different? All the fears I used to have of stupid little things don't mean anything anymore.
I've been so inspired since this journey started and every day seem to come up with new ideas to get what I want out of life. It's definitely made me more confident and made me not worry about the little things anymore!

Well we have Sydney and then Melbourne to do, and fly out from Melbourne on the 22nd and 9.30am Australian time. We arrive in Phuket the following day at 9pm their time. Long journey stopping in Kuala Lumpur for four hours before we get the connecting flight to Thailand.
Whoever knew that we'd start our journey in Bangkok and it would also end there too?!
A place i'm looking forward to seeing again, I don't think we got to see everything we wanted to last time!
So off to Sydney tonight... it'll take about 13 hours to get there, and then we'll be finally meeting up with Melany our Canadian friend! :-)
until next time....xx