Cancun

Coco Bongo Beach

My first day in Cancun involved a lot of jet lag as I had lost 13 hours flying from Indonesia, the airport losing my bag and therefore struggling with Spanish in an attempt to retrieve it (mighty successfully I should add) and a birthday party complete with pinata, tequilla and tacos. It is a pretty good way to sum up Cancun really; vibrant, confusing and you´ll be super tired by the end of your time here if you´ve done it right.

The ´Zona Hotelera´or would once have been known as ´The Beach´but now there are so many sky high hotels lining the coast that this is no longer an appropriate name. Getting on to the beach if you aren´t staying in one of these buildings involves finding a rare gap in the nightclub strip on to the beach, or sneaking through a hotel lobby. The beach itself is incredible- I can really see why it is popular: it is hard to believe in just how blue the water is. As well as this, it seems impossible to find a stretch that doesn't play loud club music from the bars along the sand. The place is famous as a Spring Break destination for American teenagers, but in Cancun it seems to be Spring Break all year round.

The natural beauty of the beach and the city of Cancun itself seem to be a kind of contradiction to each other. The very young city is also, in my opinion, very ugly. I accidentally found myself deep in downtown after missing my stop on the bus. People automatically assumed I was Mexican, because tourists never stray this far, which made things difficult. I think I said  ‘no hablas español’ more times than I ever will again in my life along with ‘donde esta Centro?’. Luckily, people are pretty friendly here and I did manage to make it back to the hostel with minimal problems, but it was still an uncomfortable experience. 

However, I really loved some of my experiences here and it made me very excited to see the rest of Mexico, which I now have every intention of doing. Sunday evening involves free salsa dancing lessons in the park, with everyone of all ages taking part and having fun for a couple of hours in downtown. The ´hippy´park is filled with artists just practising their trade, whether it is painting, dancing, fire shows or snake handling whilst relaxing with friends. These were my favourite, very welcoming moments in Cancun.

Cooling off after interviews...

Bali

Ubud, Bali.

You find yourself having to re-learn things that you thought you’d mastered years ago in Bali. For example, crossing roads is no longer a case of ‘Stop, look and listen’, but the skilled analysis of whether those blokes on scooters are skilled enough to dodge you if you walk now. Usually, yes,  but it took me a little while to stop feeling like I was staring death in the face whenever I wanted to explore the other side of the street.

It is a crazy place, with so many people it becomes a little dizzying at times. But, so long as you aren’t looking for winter, there is something for everyone here. Surfing, beautiful scenery, culture, history, food, trekking, partying, ANYTHING. Whatever you want, you’ll find it in Bali.

This is both a beautiful thing, and really very scary. I heard many people making jokes about the sex and drug tourism which is prevalent, which frankly horrified me. When tourists and local people alike can make jokes about the horrific suffering of some of the people who live in the area there is something severely wrong with the way the industry is functioning.

Eco-tourism isn’t prevalent in many parts of Bali, but I feel that a push towards this could improve the situation greatly.  I don’t think that the areas with a strong party reputation like Kuta will become eco-tourism hubs, but the well-established tourist industry wouldn’t need to change too much in order to become much healthier. The answer seems to be in educating visitors about how to behave responsibly before they arrive. Whilst some people actively seek the grungier side available, a lot have accidentally stumbled across it, and these people are very much in the majority and therefore have the power to alter the way the system is functioning.

Local market at 5.30am

A wider push in Australia and the countries of Europe, who provide most of the travellers in Bali, to educate people about where to stay, buy souvenirs and what activities to do in order to protect the local people could really improve the lives of so many who are exploited. For example, buying handicrafts in Ubud that have been made locally is a sustainable way to get souvenirs, as opposed to the sweat-shop factory souvenirs also available. When you party, staying away from the local alcohol Arak is a good idea for your health, but also you will support bars and clubs that make enough money to properly support their staff and behave responsibly. They are only the smallest changes to a tourist’s experience, but it could have a drastic effect on the industry as a whole.

Music Teacher, Tour Operator and General Good Egg

Kuta Lombok

People are calling Lombok the ‘New Bali’. There is good reason for this, as direct flights from Australia to the island will be active from September, making access to the much, much easier.

This means big things for the people that live here and the environment too. One Novotel Resort has already been set up in Kuta Lombok, providing the beginnings of some of the luxury travel that you expect to find in Bali, and the local people appear to really benefit from its existence. Although one opinion is that the small hotels cannot possibly compete with the big luxury brand, actually Novotel provides for a completely different kind of tourist, and therefore doesn’t take business away from the local people. In fact, it provides more jobs as a market has been set up, traditional dances take place in the hotel and private drivers are needed to serve the needs of the clientele.

Wooden homes around Kuta

Possibly more importantly, it also helps to fund a movement that helps to keep people in Kuta safe. The area has suffered with tourists no longer visiting after it got a reputation for being dangerous, with many reported robberies and attacks. With the creation of an alliance largely paid for by the hotels called BMW (Bina Masyarakat Wisata), the area is protected with security guards that patrol day and night. According to the local people, the biggest benefit of having tourism in the area is this added safety for ALL people.

A popular surfing beach

Lombok has to be the most beautiful place I have ever been to, and whilst I appreciate that people need the benefits that resorts such as Novotel bring, I really hope this doesn’t impact the environment too much. The beautiful landscape and deserted beaches are what give Lombok its charm, and so controlling the development of such resorts will be a really important priority to help maintain a balance between the economic and environmental needs. Providing more jobs is the most significant need for the local people, and it is really important that this happens in order to support a growing population, but perhaps the big businesses who will inevitably buy the land that is so cheap at the moment can take the time to consider the most environmentally friendly way of doing so.

Riding scooters can be treacherous because of these characters. Cheeky Water Buffalo.

The beaches are currently owned by the government, with local people squatting on them in small wooden huts. But when the government claims back the land, and all of the temporary construction that line beaches are replaced by concrete buildings, the coastline and aquatic life will have severe problems, along with the people who will be displaced from the homes and jobs they have been in for years. It is only a matter of time, and if Bali is any kind of indicator, it really won’t take long.

Typical beach front 'Warung', or restaurant

Gili Trawangan

Some people I met on Gili T were hassled every few meters with offers of various drugs, but I apparently have an innocent face, and was offered snorkelling gear instead- the two main activities for tourists in the Gili Islands. This is a party place, disguised as a snorkelling place. Although Island Security protects the locals and tourists, no police are on the island allowing for many illicit activities, such as widespread drug use and the mysterious absence of dogs. This ‘freedom’ and the crystal clear, warm waters of the paradise beaches attract thousands of people to get loose.

Whilst you would expect there to be a lot of problems stemming from this kind of culture, there is actually quite a peaceful balance in the area. Tourists arrive to party, and then get bored of the beach-bum life and start to dive, funding a pretty good lifestyle for people on the island. To be a divemaster is a high aspiration for some local people, and considered a very cool job. This puts the dive shops in a very powerful position, and it is a position that they don’t seem to abuse. In fact, they fund all the environmental conservation and take their position very seriously as responsible businesses. From all of my research so far I have found that diving tends to improve environmental conservation in an area, and Gili Trawangan takes this to the extreme, as conservation would be non-existent without the popularity of diving.

So it seems to work out just fine that people will dive all day and party all night. There isn’t a resentment of tourists here because the village was created when tourists started to arrive. I was actually in the Gili’s at the quietest time of the year, as Ramadan causes many of the restaurants and bars to shut earlier, or even to not open in the first place. For this reason, I am well aware that my opinion of just how well functioning the island is may have been different had I visited during the craziest times of the year.

In a place where the government doesn’t really get involved and where making money is the main priority, the big decisions that affect the environment such as for development and waste disposal become hard to control. Although conservation attitudes are widespread with no vehicles being allowed, cats being cared for and new coral being actively encouraged to grow, the bigger picture is beyond the control of the local people. As well as this, in my opinion wherever there are drugs there needs to be caution, but controlling widespread drug use in a country where the sentence is already capital punishment must be very difficult.

However, my most interesting revelation for the island? People are full of conservation ideas and plans, but no one had an answer for how to control the drugs in Gili when I asked, because no one viewed it as a problem. 

Taman Negara

There are far too many things capable of killing me in Taman Negara. Spending time in the rainforest should make you see how vulnerable you are to Mother Nature- I ended up asking around for advice about how to deal with various forest creatures, unfortunately resulting in me hearing five different ways to deal with leeches, so in the event one would attack I would have no idea which method is best to use.  

However the fact that none of the guides, experts or simply more experienced travellers are afraid to hang out with the Huntsman Spiders and Pythons puts you in a weird kind of comfort zone. That, and all of the people that fill the easy-to-reach parts of the jungle make it worryingly easy to believe you are just as competent here as you would be in the back garden.

But the truth is, yes that Slow Loris you saw is really cute and it is very exciting to see him climbing through the trees at night, but that same Slow Loris is venomous and his bite could potentially kill you! I am a little afraid of trekking in rainforests, but that is wise isn’t it?

The National Park has tried to make it very easy for ‘trekkers’ like me though to avoid getting eaten by leeches, snakes and all other nature by putting down boardwalks around the shortest routes. I found it really disappointing to find that my path and ‘trekking’ was so timid. Talking to the people who work here, I found out that in some of the villages on the outskirts of the park tigers are a real problem and people are attacked by the big cats. One man said I was welcome to go and stay in his village if I wanted to see what the real jungle was like.  This was a very tempting offer, as the promise of seeing more authentic jungle appealed to my adventurous side.

This offer is reaching more and more tourists who are sick of the ‘well beaten’ path, meaning that these villages will inevitably become the new places to visit, leaving the old ones where 80% of people survive off of the tourists struggling to cope. It seems to be an unshakeable trend, so is there a way to protect the communities that survive off of the tourist industry?

According to the experts, not really. Taman Negara, and in particular the town Kuala Tahan, really showed how worrying being reliant on one industry can be, especially one as fickle as tourism. 

The Perhentians

Long Beah, Pulau Perhentian Kecil

So, depending on who you ask, advice and reviews of the Perhentian Islands can be very different- my boyfriend described how chilled out it is, divers in South Africa raved about all the different types of Nudibranch and a local guy I met in Kuala Lumpur earnestly advised me “CAREFUL OF ALL THE DRUGS”.

Personally, I found all of these descriptions to be true. You can certainly feel the island vibe and get swept up in that way of life. Shoes? What are they? Monitor lizard in the shower? The more the merrier. Going to eat in a restaurant on the island is like going into someone’s home where they sometimes make food for people, which leads to friendly banter with the staff and up to a two hour wait for a stir-fry. You certainly won’t get away with being high-maintenance on this island and it is for only this reason, in my opinion, people don’t enjoy the place. People who are afraid of the frogs in the toilet and can’t accept the hose that hangs from the wall as a shower won’t last long here.

But that is a shame, I think. I am not worried about the ‘poor’ service and basic facilities because it is these things that help to give the island its charm. You only get electricity for 12 hours a day in most resorts, but not for lack of energy. The locals just don’t think that having electricity all day is necessary and so they switch it off. Who needs to charge their phone when they can go snorkelling with turtles? The sea has an average temperature of 30 degrees, so who needs a hot shower?

However, as the demands of tourists increase as more Malaysians and ‘flash-packers’ push up prices with their glamorous version of backpacking complete with hair straighteners and high heels, the islands will continue to change. Already, wifi is becoming more readily available, along with western food and there are even plans to build a bridge between the big and small island much to the disgrace of many of the people who live there. Expansion is in motion, and there isn't anything that can really stop it.

Having said that, I can completely see why people will keep going and I strongly recommend that everyone does. I spent at least two hours every day swimming very slowly in circles being followed by tiny fish like a really rubbish shark, just because the water was so warm and the sea so calm it felt difficult to leave once you were in. Not to mention the hundreds of amazing colourful fish, baby sharks, moray eels, sting rays and turtles.

So my review? You might grow gills you'll spend so much time in the water and that is totally okay. Take it easy.

Addo, Aliwal and Out

My last week in South Africa was mainly about the animals- Addo Elephant Park and Aliwal Shoal Marine Reserve.

In both of these places I questioned just how brave I really am when I am no longer top of the food chain. Lions, buffalo, hippos and a whole range of sharks are a reality for people who live in South Africa, and dealing with them in a safe way is important. A ranger at Addo has survived lion, elephant and buffalo attacks in his time working in the park, and for this reason it is said he will go down in history. As well as this, a shark expert in Aliwal Shoal told me the most effective way to deal with aggressive sharks is to punch them in the face. No really. It is his job to beat up sharks that may get too feisty with divers. It is somehow reassuring to know our fight-or-flight instincts are still intact, and at the same time scary that in the end that is all we really have when threatened by nature.

Yet so many of us are still fascinated and not scared of these hostile creatures, ending up with attacks happening relatively often. It is easy to see why when you drive around Addo and stumble across a whole family complete with small children who have jumped out of their car to try and take a photo with the lions.

Ignorance, bravery or craziness? It is hard to tell with all people, but ignorance seems to be the most common problem. When the lions are so far away and appear to be sleeping, they seem gentle as if you could edge closer to them- but they run at 80km an hour and are opportunist killers. Humans are easy picking for them, and that is how accidents happen.

But ignorance isn’t only a problem for people. When shark attacks occur, there is often an outcry to kill sharks in the area in order to protect the humans who choose to surf/dive there. But (apparently) sharks are quite placid by nature, and when I was in their territory you could almost believe that. Not one of the experienced divers or experts on wildlife was scared of sharks, because they are confident and know exactly how to deal with them. I think I need a little more practice to have that kind of bravery.

Furthermore, Addo Elephant Park has lost two rhinos so far this month to poachers. Not only this, but warthogs apparently go missing often as people come in, shoot them, and take them home for tea. The ranger I talked to was disgusted by this, but at the same time chuckled and told me they are very tasty though. There are so many warthogs, it is hard to feel sympathy for them while you are there, but the much bigger problem of poaching of the endangered animals calls into question the ignorance of the people who still buy these illegal products.

In short, it seems very clear that educating people could help save so many lives- both animal and human.

I have left South Africa now and I'm currently chilling in a hotel in Malaysia! I was sad to leave as there is SO much I could have done, but being unexpectedly bumped up to business class on the flight certainly made it easier! Thank you very much Qatar Airways, and see you later South Africa! I'll be back.