Life in Piedmont

The welcome wagon

View from Santo Stefano Roero

We arrived into Asti on the train to be picked up by Virginia - who's family we were to be staying with for the summer - and we were both nervous as this was a whole new experience entirely, even if we had got to know Virginia from email and Skype conversations.

All of the nerves were melted away as soon as we met her though and before we knew it we were at the grandparents house meeting more of the family: grandparents, aunties, cousins, nephews etc! The grandparents is a real open house where people come and go at any time, food offered constantly, pool available for everyone and we instantly got the vibe how close the family were. It was a surreal introduction as Claire and I looked at each other with a look as if to say 'this is amazing!'.

At the same time we got our first introductions to the two kids we would be looking after: Adelaide who is 10 and Corrado who's about to turn 6. Corrado gave us a glimpse of what was to come with his introduction as he was running around chasing his cousins by the pool completely naked! As I was to find out, that was typical Corrado.

Adelaide and I at the local folk festival

Adelaide speaks fantastic English and is great to get on with, she also has the touch of theatrics about her which can make things very entertaining.

A good way to keep me quiet... and Corrado!

As for Corrado, he understands quite a bit of what you say but he barely speaks English. He's obsessed by all things army and he's such a bundle of energy. I know I was a bit of a terror as a kid and as such I see I have a few similarities with him - which Claire said she could also see when we were pulling faces at each other and running around the house playing war.

The first few days were a bit of a whirlwind as Virginia was off work to show us around the area, in which time we visited local towns, old castles, art exhibitions and more. We loved every minute of it, but the few seconds we had to sit down each day were welcome as we were so tired from it all!

They really like to keep busy here, which is great as although the towns are quite small, there always seems to be something going on at one of them nearby. The place has a plethora of interesting sights to see and historical facts that seem to be overlooked by all but these proud Piedmontese. We've both learnt so much about Italy's history since being here and there's still so much more to learn such as details of the Savoy dynasty, to the world famous local Barolo wines.

As for looking after the kids, we started off mainly looking after Adelaide as Corrado still had a couple of weeks of school left. During the days we would visit places, do some sketches, play outside etc and have a great time before often (weather permitting) heading to the grandparents "Nonna Chia's" for the afternoon to lark about in the pool where there'd often be cousins around too.

Soon afterwards, Corrado became a more permanent fixture in our full days, which did up the ante - considering there's two of us, we were still challenged! But we've improved over time and things are a lot easier when the sun's out as your entertainment options increase dramatically.

On one of our first weekends we took the chance to visit nearby Turin, which I will talk about in a later blog post as it'll be the first of a few trips...

Getting back to "fitness base zero"

We both felt that our diet hadn't been the best on our travels as sometimes a combination of options and budget mean you don't eat as well as you should, however this was being put back in place here as every meal we were eating felt like a culinary delight that was also a lot healthier than we'd had before! Even though Virginia didn't feel she is a master chef by any means, we loved her recipes nonetheless - from the pasta's to the mozzarella in carriages to the homemade pizzas.

My own "preseason" training!

This was all really good as I felt eating better was one part of my plan to get fit again - these months on the road have left me feeling lethargic and sloth-like, so having time to run regularly on quiet country roads was just the incentive I needed to put my training plan into action. A few weeks in and I'm already more energetic and feeling better about myself, but I've got a long way to go before I feel I'm anywhere near my old race standard.

The last 5 weeks of our adventure

So in all, it's been a fantastic few weeks in northern Italy, with plenty of great memories, meals and drinks that I'll never forget, my favourite of all so far being strawberries from the next door neighbour soaked in moscato d'asti - I nearly slipped into a pleasure coma.

As I write this we have about 5 weeks left until we return to the UK and on the one hand we are making sure that we are making the most of our remaining time here and on the other hand we are also preparing ourselves for our return home, to a whole new chapter with no defined path.

It's a weird and contradictive feeling to both look forward to going home and realising I should be savouring every last moment until then, but then again that's a big lesson I've already learnt - realising how much I like the UK after all: yes, the old "grass isn't always greener on the other side" saying, but sometimes you have to experience how that grass feels on your bare feet to fully learn that lesson.

Even stranger that talking to Virginia and Davide - who both lived in London for a while - they experienced exactly the same emotions on their travels and by the time they returned to Italy, they really felt like they appreciated once again their way of life - something that for some people, people who have that urge to travel, cannot get unless they see what else is out there in this big wide world of ours with their own eyes first.

In the meantime, we've 5 more weeks of shenanigans with the kids, amazing Italian foods and stunning scenery to enjoy, so ciao for now!

Koh Phangan and the pilgrimage to Bali

Koh phangan

Haad salad beach

We spent our second full week in Thailand on Koh Phangan, which was the neighbouring island to where we'd been staying: Koh Samui. We took a ferry there (once again waiting longer than we were being transported) and arrived at our accommodation during a heavy downpour.

The place we stayed at was a proper resort hotel, which was a whole different feeling to the beach bungalows we'd had the week before. Beach bungalows are great because they have a great vibe - especially if there's a hammock - but there are some things they lack which is why we were glad to be at the hotel. A pool being one: whilst I love the sea, I think Claire's fear of being bitten etc by anything I'm the sea has rubbed off on me down the years and as a result I too now freak out if something even brushes past me, meaning that being in an empty pool is a lot more reassuring! Also regular cleaning of rooms is another commodity you don't realise you miss until it's absent.

The week on Koh Phangan itself was actually pretty uneventful - which I didn't care about in the slightest! We mostly lazed by or near the pool, jumped/bombed into it and splashed everyone else in it. We also frequently walked to the village nearby to take advantage of cheap prices at the 7-11 to keep costs low (theory being, spend less in Asia, spend more in Italy!)

Pool life

Haad yao beach

We were on the beach of Haad Yao, which was absolutely gorgeous - especially at low tide and during sunsets. We did often get bombarded by insects just before sunset a few times which meant we often had either very early or late dinners!
We also visited the nearby beach of Haad Salad after we found out Claire's brother stayed there when he visited a few years ago - so we replicated the photo he took there! There were loads of sea cucumbers at the beach there, which while isn't threatening is weird simply as to their numbers, but the beach is really good there too.

Beers at sunset

I spent one day dreaming about running the London marathon again (as it'd just happened that week and all the Facebook posts were making me very inspired to do it again) - and I was so motivated I went for my first run in months even though I had no proper running gear. I did 4 laps of the beach in about 25 minutes (no idea on length), which wasn't bad as I've never ran in 36 degree heat before and I'm out of shape! Plus my trek shoes gave me blisters so I felt my running urge might be satisfied until we return to Europe (where I plan to run regularly when we stay with our host family).

Come the end of the week we had both really unwound, but that was soon to end: ahead of us was an energy sapping, sleep deprived journey via planes, trains, automobiles and ferries to Bali.

The long, long journey

We went there via Kuala Lumpur as the flight from there (air Asia) was the cheapest option by far even with the costs of getting from the Thai islands to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The shipping container accommodation in Surat Thani

To get there we took a ferry to mainland Thailand and stayed overnight in converted storage containers in Surat Thani, then got the 8am train to hat yai, where we had to wait and switch trains (and worry if they'd accept our e ticket as it is clear as mud whether they do - but they do thankfully), we were then on another train at 4pm from there and rode that until 5:30am the next morning when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur sentral station after only about 3 hours completely interrupted sleep (you have to get off and get back on the train at the border). Then we had a Macdonalds for breakfast as nothing else was open, we got to the airport by coach to wait quite a few hours for our 3:45pm flight (having a SECOND Macdonalds for lunch - none for months then two in one day!), we then finally realised an ambition in crossing the equator on that flight before touching down in Bali. We then got picked up and taken to our place in Ubud by car and finally arrived at 9pm local time.

Safe to say the journey was exhausting, but we've finally hit Bali - a place we've both long heard stories of and dreamt of and the last major leg of our south east Asia tour before we head back west (via a one day stopover in China). We've got 17 days here and we can't wait to see if it really is the paradise we've always heard of.

What's made it into the backpack?

So here we are, less than a week to go, we're 'mobilised' and it's time to bring together all of the items that have made the cut that will actually go into our backpacks for our travels.

There are a few items that have a big significance to me so I'll take you through why they're so important as well as giving you a run down of what else I'm bringing that I think will be vitally important on our travels.

Running shoes

My trusty Nike Lunarglide+5 running shoes - the comfiest I've ever had and these babies have already seen some fair mileage, but they have a lot more to do yet!

To me these are a must to take on my travels. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I absolutely love to run. Back home I run as part of a running club (I'll miss you Westbourne RC!), plus I run for pure enjoyment as it makes me feel better instantly no matter what mood I'm in. Running gives me the remarkable capacity to both help me think about things going through my head and to also help me drift away from the things that are on my mind. So to imagine my life in a whole new environment as well as a new career without the escape that running gives me is almost an impossibility.

Above all else I think I'm going to absolutely love running around new places, using it as a way to explore. Even this week as I've moved to my mother-in-law's in Creekmoor, Poole - an area I do have a good bearing of but not 100% - I went for a long run to get re-acquainted and explore local routes I didn't know existed, and I loved constantly changing my route to go where I want and using my own sense of navigation to make sure I remembered my route home. Fair to say I won't always have the best self-navigation on my travels, but as long as these hold up I'll get home in one piece!

Tablet

The Hudl tablet from Tesco - rave reviews already and you can add me to the list!

For all my wanting to live a technology-free life, these days it just isn't possible (plus how would I blog?!), so an important decision was made to try and find one device that could meet both mine and Claire's needs on the road - and taking a bulky laptop wasn't going to work. So we decided we'd 'get with the times' and get ourselves a tablet, but being on a budget meant we couldn't go for an iPad. After much research and deliberation we settled on the Hudl from Tesco as it was supposed to be the best low budget tablet out there at the moment and I'm already hard to part from it! It's slim, light, works really fast, and above all else it's able to contain all of the apps we're going to need on our travels such as Skype, Facebook, Kindle, email and of course - Football manager!

iPod

As we decided to go for the android based system of the Hudl tablet, we knew that we wouldn't be able to sync our music we already had on iTunes, so making sure we had good iPods that were fully loaded with all the music we're going to be able to put on it for the next 2 years of so was massively important.
Both of us have spent ages collaborating playlists, buying more music, asking friends for music and then re-collaborating our playlists again so that we have playlists that we can simply have on us for a couple of years and not get bored of!

I've had a big help in getting music from one of my best friends Adam (who is in the amazing band called 'Lost in the riots'), and he has taken time to create personal playlists he thinks I'll like so I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thanks bud for all your help!

Clothing:

• New teaching attire (chinos, khakis, shirts, tie etc)
• Running gear
• swimshorts
• x1 hoodie
• x1 waterproof jacket (emblazoned with the mighty Southampton FC - representing of course!)
• x1 Saints shirt

Other than these, I won't be taking hardly any other clothing other than the bare essentials and t-shirts. I've been told that clothes are dirt cheap out in South East Asia and that I should travel light and just buy more out there - a plan I'm sticking to! The Top Gear Vietnam special where they bought tailored suits for about £60 also gives me encouragement that this will be easy to do and if they can find enough clothing to cover Clarkson, they'll have enough for me! Although, I've also heard that there are issues with getting the right sizes out there as a man as I might just find that I'm either too tall or broad for their standard sizes (me? broad? I know, I laughed too).

Shoes:

• Multi-terrain trainers (for all occasions!)
• Espadrills (for lounging)
• Wetshoes (for swimming without fear of something biting my feet) 
• shoes (for teaching)
• Fliflops (for.... flipflopping)

Gadgets:

• Bridge camera
• Mobile phones
• Rechargeable battery station + batteries
• Pacsafe (to tie up our backpack and keep it safe from thieves)
• Underwater camera
• iPod speaker

And the pick of the rest:

• All items required for my eyes - prescription sunglasses, contact lenses, ray-bans etc..
• Malaria tablets
• Emergency medical pack + medicines
• Diary + fancy pen (for writing in style)
• Essential documents (certificates, visas, passports and so on.... probably THE most important bunch of items!)

Of course there's more, as well as things I could've bought but have decided to wait and buy out there, all because at the moment I have to try and somehow fit everything I already have into the backpack as it is!

So if you're at the airport next week and you think you see a giant Turtle collapsed on it's back unable to get up, it'll probably be me weighed down by my bag - give me a hand up if you pass by eh?