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Feeding Kangas in the Blue Mountains

A pattern is quickly emerging with my night routine. Feel tired, go to bed at 8pm, wake up wide awake at 3am for 2 hours before falling back to sleep for another 2 hours. Usually, this would wind me up no end, but I find myself making use of my Spotify account in the lounge looking over the Sydney skyline in the dead of night, which is as beautiful as you can imagine. If this is jet lag, it hasn’t been awful. I’ve still been sleeping for over 8 hours a night, despite it being broken. I think the jet lag and the flight time from the UK to Aus is so hyped up to be the absolute worst, but it is just what you make of it. The fight truly did not feel that long, and the way I looked at it, after months of stress and working, it’s quite nice to have some disconnected hours just reading/watching films/drinking/eating. In terms of the jet lag, it’s important to force yourself onto Aus time no matter how tired you are. Then, it’s really not as bad as it’s made out to be. We woke up early a...
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Hiking in Manly

Because of the early night, everyone was up pretty early, feeling refreshed and excited for the day ahead. The temperature dropped to 28 degrees, which felt absolutely perfect after the sizzling first day we had, which ended up being a great way to climatise ourselves to Australia.  After a breakfast in the apartment and an hour of admiring the view, we headed out and walked the short walk to circular quay, I suppose the Grand Central Station of Sydney - with a twist. One of my favourite things about the city is the tube stations we have in London are replaced by Wharfs, the Oyster card becomes the opal card, and people ‘tap on and tap off’ ferry’s and boats to get around Sydney and it’s surrounding areas and bays. No wonder this place is so much happier, whilst there is still a metro system, you have the delightful option of boats to get where you need to be. Much less stressful, cooler and certainly more picturesque! After a quick iced coffee stop we hopped on a 20...
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Hello Sydney

After a smooth departure from Sydney airport, we arrived at our hotel shortly before 12pm Aus time. A quick dip in the hotel pool and a freshen up were desperately needed after just short of 2 days travelling. We were then shown to our apartment, a scene which instantly lifted our tired and jet lagged ridden moods. The view completely took my breath away, and it quickly sunk in that I was actually in Sydney (a fact that’s pretty easy to accept when you’re staring at the harbour bridge and the opera house from your sofa). Excitement well and truly built, we ventured out into the city for the first time. The heat hit me at this point, as it was a steaming 38 degrees on our first day - hot even by Sydney standards. It was pretty easy to enjoy the sunshine from cafe Sydney, a popular restaurant and bar just opposite the circular quay. A few cocktails and iced teas down, I was served the freshest and most delicious fresh crab I’ve ever had the delight of eating. I couldn’t recommend Cafe ...
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I am still alive / journey to Australia

Jet lag is setting in - and it's fair to say I am not feeling my best. I’m being dramatic, I’m literally not even in Australia yet. I just had a 13 hour flight from London to Manila, Philippines. Seeing through a couple of hours of dozing before catching our connecting flight to Sydney. I’ve kept myself as awake as possible to attempt to get myself onto Oz time ahead of getting there at 10am tomorrow, however I’ve just worked out that I haven’t slept for 30 hours, so I think it’s safe to say I’m screwed regardless.  It’s been a while. Since travelling, since writing for this blog, since being back over on this side of the world. Being in Manila brings back memories of solo traveling to South Asia 3 and a half years ago now. It strikes me now just how young I was when that whole - fiasco? - occurred. I know Australia is hardly Sri Lanka, but it still feels good to be out in the world again. England becomes a bubble, which seems very small when you’re out of it. I made th...
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Sri Lanka days 15-27: Hospitalisation!

In true Ari style, it was all very dramatic and very sudden. One minute I was sat on the poolside stargazing and joking around. The next minute I was upstairs doubled over in the most indescribable crippling pain I've ever been in all down my left side, before passing out on the bed for the rest of the night. Even rushing to hospital the next morning I thought nothing of it, and when the doctor said I needed to be admitted, I asked how long for because I was due to walk up the beautiful Lion Rock, something I'd been looking forward to the most about my trip. Unfortunately for me, the answer was 'a few days.' That same day I was moved to a hospital closer to where I was based, 5 hours down south. It was there I spent my first night in hospital. In Sri Lanka there are two types of hospitals- private, and government, where similarly to the UK government hospitals are funded by the government, and private hospitals are funded for by the patient. Most of the p...
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Sri Lanka: Days 10-14

Unfortunately, these few days that commenced our weekend away were spent feeling too unwell to do much. The first week of the trip I hadn't felt great but still tried to do everything, down to FOMO (fear of missing out), but my health started to take a turn at this point. I managed to get to my project most afternoons, and snuck in another trip to Hikaduwa for pizza, cocktails, and midnight swims. Despite deep down knowing something wasn't quite right health wise, I decided with 12 other volunteers to spend the weekend in Kandy, something I'd set my mind to in the midst of planning my trip a year before I even got there. Another early morning and a 5 hour bus journey later, we arrived in Kandy for our first activity: elephant riding. Another thing I'd been desperately looking forward to, however the actual experience was most uncomfortable and was spent clinging on to the poor thing for dear life. I'm glad to have done it: another thin...
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Sri Lanka: days 7-9

In the early hours of the morning, a mini bus clattered up the bumpy road leading to our house to pick us up to go for our first weekend away. And given that, in the end, it turned out to be my only weekend travelling in Sri Lanka, it didn't disappoint. After a few hours drive up through beautiful mountains we stopped to do white water rafting, which although I was terrified about doing turned out to be absolutely awesome, and highly amusing due to lots of screaming and falling all over the boat. After a quick change and some lunch, we continued our journey through the mountains until we reached the coldest point in Sri Lanka, at a mere 13 degrees. It was here we went to St Claire's tea center, where they pick and produce the tea. We then continued our journey to our hotel, where ate and waited around to find that there wasn't enough room for all of us, so we ended up moving to a particularly cold hotel where I used blankets and duvets for the first time in Sri Lanka! ...
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