Simone on the move

So I summed up the last decade, but I wanted to do the last year in a little more detail. Believe me though, even this long list is still a summary. Busy much?!! Life is short.
The biggest thing this year was traveling, for the first time ever by myself, for the first time ever to non western countries, for the first time ever for such an extended period of time. I made many new friends along the way and caught up with old friends towards the end of the year. I’m not done yet, ‘home’ in February, at least for a while. I have the rest of the world on my mind…

2009
Lived in Mt Lawley with Pat
Lived in Fremantle with Raf and Ayesh and random couchsurfers
Was a couchsurfing host a few times and a couchsurfer once in Karratha
New Years camping in Boranup, cave, and Southbound Festival in Busselton
Cleared out and cleaned the Thornlie house and handed over the keys
Outdoor movies, beach, parties parties parties (any excuse, usually dressups), drumming on the beach, endangered wildlife in the hills, circus shows, garage sales, soup kitchen mondays, Freeway Bike Hike, weekends south to visit the parents, Jazz Cellar, World Pillow Fight Day, Yanchep NP, Rock Paper Scissors World Championship Heat, Black Books, red wine, Creatures Loft…
Big Day Out (Neil Young, Cog, Mammal…), Perth Festival gigs, Soundwave Festival (Alice in Chains, NIN, Lacuna Coil…), West Coast Blues n Roots, Cog, Karnivool, RTR In the Pines Festival, The Black Keys, Jeff Martin, lots of local gigs Went on ABC720 a couple of times talking about what’s on in Perth at 6.30am on a Saturday morning
Roadtrip to the Goldfields
Quit my job of 4.5 years to concentrate on EnjoyPerth! and travel
Sold or gave away half my belongings and put the rest in storage at my parents house
Did housesitting in Canning Vale, Innaloo and Shenton Park for friends
Esperance roadtrip with Dhugal where I sprained my foot/ankle
Changed my tattoo
Roadtrip to Broome and back via the Pinnacles, Geraldton, Hutt River Province, Kalbarri, Shark Bay, Carnarvon, Coral Bay, Exmouth, Ningaloo/Cape Range National Park, Karajini National Park, Nullagine, 80 Mile Beach, Broome, Bidyadanga, Karatha with Raf and Doug
Officially got divorced (it’s a boring yellow piece of paper)
Made a heap of new friends and strengthened some older friendships
Backpacked around southeast asia for nearly 6 months:
Indonesia: Climbed Rinjani, the second highest mountain in Indonesia and saw lava flow from the volcano, Komodo Dragons, extreme food poisoning, lazing on tropical islands, snorkelling, good books.
Malaysia: caves, rope bridges in the jungle, snorkelling with turtles, reef sharks and nemo, awesome Indian food, jungle tour to see the Rafflesia and 4WD, a lot of whiskey
Vietnam: Vietnam War history and remnants of French colonialism (baguettes, cheese, architecture), mud in the streets from Typhoon Ketsana, met up with Emily and toured around central Vietnam, sleeper bus, sleeper train, hired a bicycle, hired a scooter, trekked through the mountains and stayed over night with a Red Dzao (hill tribe) family and did shots of rice whiskey, boat tour of Halong Bay.
Thailand: Thai cooking course, scooters, waterfalls, hot springs, Cave Lodge, awesome coffin cave, Loi Krathong, fireworks from a hotel roof, elephant conservation centre, ancient city, burmese border towns and refugees, trekking through the jungle to the best waterfall in Thailand, crazy Bangkok, lazy days with Raf on an island in the south, back tattoo, motorbike with Eric, scooter roadtrip around Kanchanaburi
Cambodia: the ancient and amazing temples of Angkor, blood tests, dengue fever, khmer rouge history in Phnom Penh
Laos: christmas in Luang Prabang with the Lapinskis, fancy french dinner, another awesome waterfall, Plain of Jars, lots of french rum at the Auberge, more awesome caves, tubing through a cave filled with water, nye in Vientiane with friends…we made it last for 6 days… More on that in the Laos post I will hopefully do tomorrow.