Coincidence or divine protection?

Since moving to London and riding my bike here there and everywhere, I've had a couple of situations where I've thought and wondered about whether something that has ended up delaying me or getting in my way has been a coincidence, or in actual fact a measure of protection.



About a month ago on my morning ride in, a couple of cyclists were taking up the whole road ahead on a big downhill slope about ten minutes away from uni, causing me much frustration (I don't like to go slow if I can avoid it). I managed to overtake them finally, got down the hill, rode up the other hill, and turned around the corner just in time to hear a big bang. At the junction where I would normally be waiting to cross oncoming traffic, two cars had collided. That delay which probably wasn't even 60 seconds long was just enough to protect me.


A similar thing happened to me again last night as I rode back home from uni. I had just ridden up that hill previously mentioned - a much harder task than going down it let me tell you - and as I was approaching the junction on the opposite side it was all green lights. I thought about trying to power it across and decided against it, as it would probably go orange just as I began to cross. So I stood there on the side waiting for a couple of minutes until it was green again and safe to cross. About 10 minutes later, just before approaching Arsenal stadium I arrived at another big junction to see a collision that must have occurred only minutes previously, as police arrived and the ambulance was wailing in the background when I crossed. This collision looked a bit more serious as well, with a double-decker bus and at least 2 other cars involved. Once again I was protected.

Of course it could all very well be just a case of "what if?"  I'm just happy knowing that there is a God on my side who loves me, has got my back and is protecting me even when I'm not aware.

Coincidence... or not?

I haven’t written any thing in a while.. This blog is a big of a amalgamation of random thoughts and things that have occurred in the past fortnight.

For the past 2 Sundays since arriving back in Australia I have attended two different churches who coincidentally happened to both be working on Exodus in their sermons. I ironically happened to hear the Exodus 3-4 message preached two weeks in a row! There were some slight differences in the main points brought up during the sermons, but still it made me wonder about signs

Last week I had 2 different friends ask me to move in with them. I know I shouldn’t particularly be looking for signs about what to do with my life, but it still makes you wonder doesn’t it? Is this a hint that I should stick around for a while??

A couple of years ago I felt a bit of a prompting to start up a young women's bible study amongst some of the girls I know and love from the Mountains. At the time it didn't end up happening because I got a job in victoria and ended moving abruptly.. anyway the thought came back to me again today. Like all things, we will see what happens.

I have spent the last week up the coast at Forster helping Jon, a friend of mine who is building a house up there for his parents. So I’ve been spending my days sanding, oiling, varnishing and doing all the odd jobs related to finalising a house. I was asked if I wanted to go to Gilgandra next week to help with the restoration of a church out there, but I’m not going to go on this particular trip. I might go on the next one if I’m still around. If. I don’t know what i’m doing. I don’t find that particularly all that frustrating, but I guess it would be good to have a little bit of an idea about what is going on! I'm debating some further study in international health, think I will have a chat with the uni coordinator tomorrow about that while I'm in Sydney.

I”m still reading this book “Don’t waste your life” by John Piper. I’ve just read about Louie Giglio’s “268 Declaration.” The number comes from Isaiah 26:8—“Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts”

“Desire that your life count for something great! Long for your life to have eternal significance. Want this! Don’t coast through life without a passion.”
But whatever you do, find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts. You will not waste your life.
What is the one passion of your life that makes everything else look like rubbish in comparison? Oh, that God would help me waken in you a single passion for a single great reality that would unleash you, and set you free from small dreams, and send you, for the glory of Christ, into all the spheres of secular life and to all the peoples of the earth.

I am passionate about alot of things. I was thinking about this a few days ago as I was chatting with Sandra, Jon’s Mum. She was diagnosed with diabetes last year, so we were chatting about that, ways it had impacted her cooking, and a couple of other nutrition related issues. She was telling me about a lady she worked with who had been diagnosed with a hiatus hernia and diverticular disease and how there were all these foods she’d been told she couldn’t eat. As we were talking, I found myself getting quite worked up and annoyed at GPs and practitioners who tell their patients and clients inaccurate information. That can really get my back up. One of the many things I get passionate about.

I also get passionate about music, singing, dancing, injustice, segregation and people being left out. Just to name a few things.

And my last day arrived :(

This sad to say, will be my last post from my trip here in south east asia. I am currently in Phuket wasting the next 10 hours or so until my flight. I thought it was either at 4, 6 or 8pm (and forgot to actually check) so caught a 9am ferry over this morning, when I could have easily caught the 2pm ferry and spent some more time on the beach! ah well. Its all good!

I'm heading back to Sydney tonight. I can't say that I'm particularly excited or looking forward to it... I am looking forward to my friends wedding and catching up with friends and family, but I have been really loving travelling and would like to continue doing so.... And once again over the past 4 days while at Phi Phi islands I got that same feeling/incentive like I should stay, that there is a definite ministry opportunity there amongst the travellers and other permanent/temporary residents on the island.

anyway, to recap the last few days......

Saturday I left KO Phangang (via multiple modes of transportation) at the early hours of 5:50am in a mini bus which took me about 2 minutes drive away to a truck taxi where another 3 people were waiting. The truck took us to the pier where we did the typical thai ticket shuffle. I seriously do not understand why the receipt you get from the travel agent is not sufficient to get you from your initial to your final destination. no. instead you swap that for additional tickets along the way which usually say the exact same thing! strange. got the freighter ferry to a town on the mainland where we piled off the ferry, waited in the sun for about 10 min then jumped on a coach bus that took us the 1 hour drive to surat-thani. My talent for being occasionally clumsy (and bruising like a peach) shone again when I slipped down the stairs climbing out of the bus and bashed my arm against the wall. We then waited at the next travel agent with our stickers indicating where our final destination is (I always lose mine though) for the next hour. A mini bus arrived and 3 of us headed to Krabi/Phi Phi jumped on board. It was a very cruisy and comfortable drive. I played guitar most of it, and slept the other half (or at least attempted to). We arrived in Krabi and then I had to wait an hour and a half for the ferry to get to Phi Phi islands. I was informed that we'd arrive at phi phi at 3pm, but that was actually the time that the ferry was going to leave. hmmm. ah well.

Made it to Phi Phi about 5pm, found myself some accommodation after a bit of wandering around and then hit the beach for some chill time. In the evening I happened to stumble past 2 of my old friends, Martin and Raphael from my vietnam days - the french boys who convinced me to buy a guitar!!! It was great to catch up with them. They were working at a cool chilled out roof-top bar called banana bar. Every night afterwards we would go and play guitar when the music stopped (after 1-2am) till the very early hours of the morning. I was really hoping to go diving, but had unfortunatly caught an ear infection while on Koh Tao, so was dosing myself up with antibiotics and ear drops in the hope that it would be clear by tuesday for a dive or 2.

Sunday
On the advice of one of the diving guys I'd chatted with the night before, I hired out a kayak at about 11:30 for 3 hours and took off for a solid 3 hours of kayaking. By the time I made it back to sure I was pretty much wrecked! I stopped off at Monkey beach to watch the monkeys for a while, have a bit of a swim and then cntinued going around the coast line which is all cliffs. It was quite rough at times and part of me was thinking that it probably wasn't the smartest move in the world as a) no one knew where I was if I went missing b) the people i hired the kayak from didn't know who I was! But I enjoyed getting out on the water and exploring. I actually went all the way up to the other end of the island (the end where phi phi lay of maya bay "the beach" is) before turning around. And I got to see a turtle!!! Not up close, but he was there about 20m away poking his head up for a bit which was cool.

In the afternoon I decided to go the opposite side of the island in the opposite direction with the aim of reaching Long beach. I happened to stop randomly on the side of one beach to take pictures of the boats in front of phi phi lay and who do i spy sitting on the beach? none other than Scott! So funny how we keep bumping into each other randomly. We went out for dinner with some other people he had met on the buses and ferries across from ko tao and all organised to go on a boat trip for the next day. At night I ended up playing guitar with my french friends till 6;30 in the morning... oops :)

Monday
After about 2 hours sleep I was up and at again to move rooms into a place sharing with scott so i had cheaper accommodation and he didn't have extremely bizarre habits of other dorm mates impacting his sleep and memory. The group of 6 of us started the boat trip around the two islands that comprise Phi Phi islands. A little hiccup to start with where our driver was pulling apart the engine but other wise no dramas - especially since he was smoking weed pretty much the entire time we were out on the water. We had been informed upon booking that we would get breakfast and lunch, but unfortunately all we got was a very small container of fried rice and some water. So I was pretty much starving hungry when I got back to land!! We stopped at monkey beach to watch the monkeys (obviously), at mosquito island to snorkel (and be stung by a jelly fish and bashed on the head accidently by the pole the rudder is attached to ) at Bamboo island (which ironically is covered in pine trees) to eat lunch and then Maya bay aka "The Beach" on Phi Phi Lay for a couple hours of snorkelling, exploring and chilling in the sun. It got quite rough at some stages while we were out on the water in the long-tail boat, then it rained a bit and we all got wet. The monsoon season is approaching which means that the seas are often a bit more choppy than normal.

At night we went out for dinner, had some good food and then headed to banana bar where we did our usual body painting (there are black lights everywhere which makes the paint glow in the dark), dancing and lounging about. The streets are emptying out quite quickly at the moment as most tourists head to Ko Phangang at the moment for the full moon party on the 28th. On Monday there were 2000 people that took off on the one boat with that destination in mind! I was provided with some education in more music styles and decided that I really like dancing to 'dubstep' an english style of music that is very distinctive. fun fun. :) "early night" whre i ended up getting to bed at about 3, as I was going diving in the morning - had decided my ear was well enough!

Tuesday
Up at 6;30 as I had booked into doing a wreck dive which left at 7am. Unfortunately no one else had booked in for the dive as well, so my other option was to join in on local dives at 9am. I went and had some breakfast on the beach and then chose that option. Both dives went well, not quite as clear as Koh Tao, but we still saw plenty of coral and fishes - a massive puffer fish that was at least half of me!! we saw some dolphins above the water at one stage as well (not while we dove though). Lunch was at Maya bay in between our dives and we were back at our island by 2;30. I went exploring the island to meet up with the group at long beach, which is an extremely nice beach. we chilled out there by the water until the sun set and headed back for food. Had a great night out, chilling, painting people (getting my face completely covered in paint), playing guitar and singing till the early hours of the morning (ie, not going to bed....)

Its been interesting, how I've felt really comfortable here on this island, similar to when I was at Vang Vieng. I've made some good contacts and gotten along with so many people here, and had a great time chilling, jamming and making music. I have had a lot of people tell me I need to do something with my music, start recording. So, I guess we will see what happens when I get back, what further opportunities arise there.

Wednesday.

So, that brings us to today and my final hours of my trip in south east asia, well at least for now.... :) I'm counting myself lucky and hoping nothing drastic happens over the next 24 hours. I have managed to survive the last 10 days with no major incidents occurring which has been good as my travel insurance ran out on the 18th and I forgot to extend it so have had no insurance if anything goes wrong...

I am yet to have any proper sleep as I stayed up all night last night (having woken up at 6:30 am yesterday), maybe a 20 minute doze on the ferry over but thats about it. hopefully that forces me to sleep on the plane. i really hope so. I can't sleep unless i'm flat horizontal usually. When I stopped playing guitar (about 5:50am) I went back to my room, had a shower and packed some of my stuff then went and woke up scott to go climb the view point and watch the sun "rise". Awesome, tough walk that just keeps going up and up and up. From the top it is very clear to see how and why the tsunam i in 2004 wiped out the place so badly. It was a bit cloudy so in reality we watched it get light, chatted and listened to some good tunes. It has been awesome seeing how we kept managing to bump into each other on the last few locations without any planning - just sheer coincidence and God at work!!! I've enjoyed our chats about christianity and beliefs and reaching out to people, its been great. That hour or two on top of the mountain was a great end to my days in thailand, and a really chilled out vibe that left me feeling happy and refreshed and ready for whatever adventures are coming my way from now on.

now all there is left to do is catch my plane tonight at 10:20.. (note to self I should REALLY check flight times before catching a flight). It is slightly amusing though when I think about it, as I was early to catch my flight over to vietnam and now i'm extremely early to catch my flight back to aus!

Battambang to Bangkok

I had to quickly finish the last entry, ending on how funny it is that you end up meeting up with people randomly that you didn't particularly expect to see again. This happened to me while I was in Battambang. I happened to re-meet a Swiss guy, Klas who I had met on my last night in Siem Reap. It had been his first night and we had gone to dinner with another sole traveller and I had shown them around a little bit of the town at night time. As he had only just arrived in Siem Reap that night, I naturally didn't expect to see him again.

However, after catching the boat to Battambang and arriving in the late afternoon, checking into my hotel I was exploring the city at night after some dinner. My conclusion was that there was little activity and most people were in bed by about 8pm. So, I had started to make my way back to my hotel to read or something when a girl and guy rode past me on bicycles. I thought, hang on, that guy looks really familiar, no, he wouldn't be here in Battambang. They stopped in front of me before a hotel and then he turned around and fancy that, Klas was in Battambang. It was a funny moment. He'd decided when he had woken up that he would catch the bus (which coincidently beat me to battambang) to meet up with some other friends who he had previously travelled with who had just arrived in town.

From that chance meeting, we decided to go together as a group in the morning (Easter Saturday) to explore the country side of Battambang. Klas, Hillary (the girl he had been bicycle riding with) and myself wanted to get dirt bikes to do this. However, four of the other girls had already organised a tuk-tuk driver. So what ended up happening was that Klas and I hired 250cc dirt bikes with Hillary a pillion with Klas. Then we followed the girls in the tuk-tuk around for a few hours so we knew how to get to some of the main sights of the area.

Subsequently we got sooooooo dirty!! Alot of the roads we went on (actually pretty much all of them) were dirt roads, and the main roads particularly had a bit of traffic and some trucks going which ended up in lots and lots and lots of dust. Absolutely filthy by the end of the day, but it was definitely worth it and so much fun! I was loving being on a 'real' motorbike again even though my foot was a bit painful changing gears initially (the swelling hadn't completely gone down yet).

First we went to the killing caves where we had to climb a mountain in sweltering heat. Upon arrival at the site, we had to pay $2 each to the "tourist police" - funny concept yes I know, but basically the tourist police charge you to visit historical sites, or for doing the wrong thing etc... Then we climbed the mountain, with the help of 1 child guide (we had to argue hard to get down to one). He showed us the killing caves, where the Khmer Rouge had bashed the heads of women and children and then thrown them into the cave. At the site the bones are kept in a glass cabinet on display to respect the deceased and as a memorial shrine of sorts. There were a few other caves on the mountain that we explored through as well, most with bats using them as a home.

After the killing caves our little party went to a village where we saw different fruits and vegetables that they grew, tried some different fruits and sugar cane. Before our group split up, the last thing we did in the afternoon together was to ride out to the bamboo train to have a go on that. Apparently it will be closed next year, but it is debatable as to whether that will really happen because they have been saying that for a few years..

We debated for a while over the price, and ended up hiring 2 bamboo trains. One to carry us, and one to carry the 2 dirt-bikes. Bamboo trains are basically 2 axles and a big bamboo mat with a small motor that is placed on top. They can be dissasembled within seconds and there is a hierarchy that determines who has right of way when two trains meet when going in opposite directions. Ultimately, the train with the largest load ends up getting right of way, and a motorbike or scooter wins regardless of the load due to the difficulty (and lack of space on the side of the train) of getting them on and off. On our little 5km journey we ran into another opposing train which meant we got to watch them pull it apart!

Once we got off the train we all went our separate ways as us 3 on bikes wanted to go and visit the temple ruins (can't remember the name) which are believed to be a bit of a pre-cursor to the temples of Angkor Wat. Having already been to the temples of Angkor, I could definitely agree that they were made by the same sort of people in the same kind of style. The temples were on top of a massive massive hill which took quite a while to climb up on. Once again we met with the tourist police at the bottom of the hill and had to pay another $2. If we had been another 20 minutes later we would have missed them as they had left by the time we reached the bottom of the hill.

On the way from the Bamboo train to the temple, we got ourselves a little bit lost. But it was so much fun! We were tearing about and riding on these little dirt tracks that took us through many many villages where children would come running out yelling hello. Very cute and reminded me alot of Africa days. It was nice to be out amongst the real people of Cambodia rather than the touts and people harrassing you. Everyone was extremely helpful. We stopped many times for directions to the ruins and everyone always gave us directions, with our limited english-khmer exchanges.

The last thing we did before it was dark was attempt to find the abandoned Pepsi factory that was abandoned in 1975 with the Khmer Rouge take-over. According to Lonely Planet it was easy to find, with all the equipment still in place. It was not an easy find at all!! We struggled to find it and eventually managed to do so. The areas that you could access (by jumping a fence) had all been looted and pretty much burnt down, but there was 1 old broken glass pepsi bottle still in that area. The majority of the warehouse was now shut-off with padlocks on the doors. Peering through the grates and cracks in doors you could see rows and rows of bottles, but little more as it was getting dark.

It has been interesting to note over here in Asia that there has been no reference anywhere whatsoever to Easter, no easter eggs, no hot cross buns (I was craving them yesterday!!). Complete contrast to back home where I saw hot cross buns in January before I had even left Australia!!

Yesterday on Easter Sunday I caught a bus from Battambang to Bangkok. It was a very long hot and sweaty ride as always. We got on the bus at 8am, arrived at the border a few hours later and waited in the queue for at least 30-40 minutes. There were about 50-100 people waiting to leave Cambodia with only 1 officer at the desk... agrrhggh! But eventually I made it through, crossed the 'friendship bridge' and past all the casinos of poipet and quickly passed through the border into Thailand.

Once through I had to wait about 20 minute for a pick up truck to collect us and take us to a restaurant where we waited for the bus. We waited for almost 2 hours for the bus to come!! Subsequently we arrived into Bangkok at 6pm instead of about 3pm. I met a Shannon, an American girl on the boat and we got along well together so ended up sharing a room here in Bangkok.

Bangkok is not what I expected. I guess I expected this crazy big built up city with traffic everywhere. Yes there is traffic, but from my observations, compared to Saigon, Bangkok is alot quieter. There aren't as many high rises and its actually kind of cool. I am staying on a street parallel to Khao San (the main backpacker strip) which has a really nice atmosphere. Right now there is a guy playing live acoustic guitar outside the guesthouse where I am staying. I'm enjoying that alot!

Today Shannon and I went exploring the city by foot and got through all (or at least the majority of) the shopping that we needed to do. I got myself a new phone (finally 2 months after mine was stolen), at least it is new to me. It is technically a 2nd hand phone, but still it's new to me! :) We walked quite a few kilometres in the heat, but it was good as you could stop and jump into a 7/11 for some cooling air conditioning if the heat and sweat got too much. You aren't harrassed by the touts and tuk-tuk drivers any where near what you are in other countries. I learnt that today (Monday) is the Kings day and that the Kings favourite colour is yellow, so people often wear yellow on Monday. At the moment there is some protestations happening around town, but they are peaceful. Everyone is wearing these red shirts, bandana's and these red hand clapping things. On our walk we went through a few areas where the protesters were gathered. There was a big concert where a guy was singing (I couldn't understand unfortunately) and everyone was clapping along. It seems to be about dissolving parliament due to corruption, but I haven't really looked into it too much.