Final words.....

We returned to the UK in February 2011 and I realise that I am posting this in August 2012 - nearly a year and a half later. I think this is a good enough example to show just how crazy my life or rather our life has been since returning from our trip. 

 

I want to say thank you to Kris for letting me join him on his amazing journey around half the world on his bike. It is unfortunate that it didn't work out while we were traveling together, however I hope he is happy and enjoying life.

I mostly want to thank James for dropping everything to come and join me, and continue our trip together. He resigned from two consulting jobs that he was successful at, turned down a further job offer, left his children for 3 months, and left his house, and didn't celebrate Christmas, New Year and his 40th birthday with any of his family. I don't think he will ever know how much that meant to me. 

What I didn't mention in my blog was on Tioman Island in Malaysia, James asked me to marry him. I didn't put it in my blog because I didn't give him an answer at the time! As cruel as that may have been, I am a sensible girl and I wanted it to be completely right. Since returning, I have said yes and we are due to marry in December 2012. I am very happy. 

We also now have a house in Somerset where we spend most of our free time and so James can spend the weekends with his children. I am going to be a Step-Mum!

I have since had a huge career change. In Feb 2012, I started as a Police Officer. I am still going through basic training. It was the biggest decision of my life and one that was not made lightly. This was mainly because I applied three years ago and as you can probably guess; my life has changed just a little bit since then. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted it anymore. The Police is not just a job, it is a lifestyle. After two stressful and emotional months, I finally decided I needed to give it a go and even turned down the offer of a Masters in my current role. Again thank you Christina for being so supportive and understanding!

James too has had big career changes. After 10 years of running his successful business, he is now a permanent employee of a large international company. I am proud of him taking the lunge when things were already a little unsettled with my big changes and I want to thank him for listening to me try and rationalise things!

Life is all go-go-go. 2012 has seen us move into a new house and re-decorate it, new jobs for both of us, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, exams, the Olympics, wedding planning and more exams! We are maxed out, but we ground each other by remembering how amazing our cycle trip by reminiscing as much as we can, all 3442 miles of it. 

I would also like to say a final MASSIVE thank you to everyone who donated to my two charities before, during and after my trip. Your support has been truly amazing. Having a grand total figure of just over a pound a mile really kept me going through the heat, sweat and tears of it all. At the time of writing, the figure is £3,527.00

To anyone reading this and feels inspired, my charity page is still open: www.charitygiving.co.uk/georgieisabel. 

If anything I hope it encourages you to get on your bike more!

Crazy planning in Singapore; the final few days...

When I rocked up at Heathrow airport 5 months ago with my bike all packed up nicely in a bike box with my separate luggage to check in, I thought them charging me £160 for excess baggage was a lot. Little did I know I clearly got a bargain here and must have caught Singapore airlines on a good day because it was a completely different story for poor James. Thai airlines stung him so badly that he paid 1 and a half times the fee of his airfare just on excess. It really does depend on the person on the desk and their mood. Needless to say, I was horrified when James eventually told me how much he paid. So, naturally we didn’t want the same to happen on our return journey.  

We needed to do lots of research. We worked it out that we had roughly 90 kilos between the two of us, which included all our kit and bikes. The tough bit was just finding the cheapest and most reliable way of getting it home. So, off I set through Singapore to FedEx’s offices. After lengthy discussion with the nice lady on the desk, I came away with two 25kg FedEx boxes (just in case), lots of bits of paper and forms to fill in and a sigh of relief. We had already researched our flights and booked these while we were in Melakka. We booked with Emirates specifically because they are the only airline that allows you to have a 30kg allowance on economy class, so we knew we had 60kg safe. We spent a day (yes a whole day) in our room carefully packing the FedEx box, making a note of everything in it, and weighing it every now and then with the Hello Kitty scales we borrowed from the lady on reception. We managed to cram 24.5 kilos worth of our kit in the box, which we estimated all together valued at £1000. Eeek. The rest we worked out we could take as hand luggage and in our bike boxes; another thing off our minds! Next was trying to get the bikes packed up. 

We were a little stressed as it was Chinese New Year while we were in Singapore, and don’t get me wrong, this was a great experience but it meant a lot of the shops were shut. We had emailed over 10 bike shops before we came into Singapore to see if they were open and would be able to help pack our bikes and three came back to us. We traipsed over to one shop the other side of the city to suss them out and find out costs etc. It was a very professional shop and we trusted them with our babies. They were able to clean our bikes (yay - a big job in itself), pack them up in boxes and have them ready for us to pick up before going to the airport. They were pretty good and very interested in what we had done. Phew on a massive scale. The next thing was to look at the map and work out how to cycle across Singapore to get the bikes to the shop! Although it was hot and a bit stressful, we somehow managed to muddle through and we got there in the end. 

We felt a little lost without our bikes for a bit and suddenly a huge weight lifted off our shoulders when we realised how things were all coming together. The bikes were with the bike shop and we wouldn’t see them again until we opened the boxes in England. The FedEx box was packed and would be picked up from our hostel reception (thank goodness – it was heavy!). The next thing was to find some relatively warm clothes. After our cold experience in the Cameron Highlands, where I was wearing every single item of clothing, I certainly am pretty rubbish when it comes to coping with the cold. Going back to England in early February with summer clothes, in my mind was not an option. So off we went to the shops (the ones which we open anyway). Slight issue however; why would shops in a country where it’s roughly 38 degrees sell jumpers and trousers? Hmmm… We persevered and much to our surprise I managed to find a long sleeve top, a hoodie, a pair of jeans, socks and hightop trainers, while James managed to find similar – excellent!

Now, it was time to relax and actually see some of Singapore. Our hostel was in the Arab quarters of Singapore; a great part we discovered. Loads of great restaurants and little shops to look in, we spent a day here in itself. We massively enjoyed Singapore Night Safari Zoo. It was such a fantastic experience. The aim is to arrive at the zoo for 5pm just as its getting dark. We had some dinner there and off we went on our little train tour and then enjoyed the rest of the night exploring on foot. The highlight of the evening was when we were watching the flying squirrels in their huge contained area. We were watching them for ages running along the tops of the trees and playing ‘catch’ with each other. We had been there quite a long time as we wanted to see them ‘fly’. We were just about to go when suddenly one of them launched himself off the top of a tree and came swooping down to where we were standing and flew right above our heads and nearly into another patiently waiting chap, who had to duck at the last minute or the red furry little dude would have landed right on his shoulders. It was amazing and they are probably three times to size of what we would know as a squirrel in the UK. Marvellous! Nature at its best : )

Lantern mad in Chinatown

We also headed over to Sentosa Island; an island south of Singapore than looks out to the ocean. We went over by cable car. It was very Disneyland-esque. It is the year of the rabbit and so all things rabbit was just everywhere! Lots of colour too!

We enjoyed a bit of beach action, even if it is fake! It was nice to have a bit of a swim, until the most bizarre thing happened. It started raining, but naturally no one really does anything because it's warm rain and we all know it will stop shortly. Everyone on the beach continued to swim or sunbathe. Yet all the lifeguards suddenly went crazy! They started charging up and down the beach, blowing their whistles and telling everyone to get out the water. Then a lifeguard on a Segway was driving up and down shouting down a megaphone telling everyone to get out as there was a chance of a category 4 lightening storm coming!! It was hilarious. We couldn't belive it, and by the sounds of the locals around us, neither could they. It's funny how things like this stick more in your mind that sights. What was even funnier was watching people try and sneak back into the sea, and the reaction of the lifeguards who would chase them down blowing whistles at them. 

Then our time came for us to pick up our bikes from the shop. Do one final pack/sort and tape the boxes up and off we went to the airport. Everything from checking in to stopping over in Columbia, a break in Dubai and back on a flight to London was smooth and before we knew it, we were back in the grey skies of Heathrow looking a pale miserable faces.   : (

Final leg to Singapore

Oh my goodness, I can't believe that after all this time, this post is only just being published! I referred to my blog the other day for something and thought it didn't look right. Turns out I had written the below blog and others after this but had never posted them. So although the post date is 3 May 2012, it should actually read March 2011 - oops, sorry anyone who has been waiting for the final posts!

We were sad and we felt disappointment that we knew our journey was very very soon about to come to an end. Our last two days of cycling from Mersing to Singapore were strange; sullen almost. Torrential rain tore at the coast line and big plops of rain fell on us hard, and it stung. It rained nonstop. At one point it rained so hard that we couldn’t see further than 4 metres in front of us. Visibility was so bad, we had to stop because the power of it and the wind was exhausting; we were concerned that vehicles on the road would not see us far enough ahead. Even with fluorescent jackets and lights on, I could barely see James cycling in front of me. 

It was a sad atmosphere and not at all enjoyable, purely because we knew that our cycling time was ending, but also our time in SE Asia and our time together was ending. I think it would be fair to say that neither of us particularly wanted to go back to the UK. We could carry on, down to Indonesia, or perhaps straight to Australia. I played with the idea in my head, logistically, financially, emotionally. I had an urge to rip up the plane tickets, but I couldn’t. It was time to return to reality. Time to face the sullen, miserable pale faces of England. Time to face the cold weather and time to sort out finding somewhere new to live. Gah! No wonder I didn’t want to go home! 

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for us coming back to England. I was looking forward to seeing my awesome Granpa. He had deteriorated while I was away and it was great to see him once I got back. I was so nervous that he would go while I was on the cycle trip. It was as though he kept on going for me and waited for me to get back to say a final goodbye. James also missed his children dearly and was very excited to see them again. I too was looking forward to meeting them and the rest of his family. Thanks to my fantastic old boss, Christina, I also had my old job to go back to. A huge relief on a massive scale. This made the return feel all the more bearable. Thanks Christina!

Stopping for shelter to let the worst pass. Looking a little drowned!

One of many water sources that had burst into the road. We had to wait a while for the road to clear of traffic before I made James test how deep it was!

My turn!

Road was like this the whole way from Mersing to Singapore.

Working hard!

Going into Singapore was as predicted; terrifying. Busy suburban dual and tri lane traffic squeezed past us. It was so tight, that we were just as stop-start as much as the traffic was, because we just couldn’t get past the cars; especially me being a little wider due to the trailer (not my bum thank you!). Getting nearer, we spotted a lane specially built for motorcycles and we took it, which was possibly the best decision ever! No cars, road width and instantly we felt safer. They even had immigration booths built the motorcyclists, which was great for us as it was quiet and there was no pressure to get out of the way of the cars. 

Sadly our lane stopped here due to road works, but you just about see the bridge over the water and Singapore in the distance.

Getting right into the centre of Singapore was interesting; something had changed. It was no longer torrential rain and the air seemed different. I suddenly felt very inferior. Perhaps it was cycling past the sky scrapers, or the beautiful, shiny and glossy shops such as Gucci, Prada and Jimmy Choo. I saw beautiful girls in heels, dressed up head to toe is designer gear, big face-hiding-sunglasses and silky hair, swishing handbags and expensive mobiles. I saw gorgeous men in pointed shoes, suits, leather briefcases and perfectly styled hair. It was all so.... Western. And for the first time throughout SE Asia, we did not fit in. There was not a cyclist in sight. Bicycles do not exist in this city.

We found our hostel we booked weeks ago to ensure we had somewhere to stay. Suddenly we were back in Western prices and it was a shock to pay £24 each compared to the previous night in Malaysia at £3 each! Still we were grateful to have our own room in the bunkbed central hostel, with a window! And they were happy to keep our bikes in their back yard too, thanks Sleepy Sam’s.