The city of Bath

The historic city of Bath is a place best known for it culture, history and sheer opportunities to relax and luxuriate (mostly relating to its famous hot springs and the historic roman baths built around them).

I had decided to catch up with some old friends from uni and after some discuss on the matter we decided that Bath make an ideal place to spend a glorious summers day. Pulling into the station I discovered them standing outside the station next to what proved to be our ruin; Cocktail Bar Bath.
After a few cheeky cocktails we were ready to hit the city and see what it had to offer.

Bath itself is a beautiful city filled as it is with grand historic building, vibrant greenery, lovely parks and elegant streets. As we wandered along taking in its sights we took in ladies taking high tea, took in the beauty of the complex housing the baths themselves (we didn't go in due to the truly large amounts of money it would have cost), had a chance encounter with a man who offered us the chance to hold the pigeons that he had tamed, gawped at the brightly coloured pig statues that lined the street and took in the beautiful structure that was Bath Cathedral.

After all of this we felt like a sit down was in order and so we stopped for a spot of lunch in a part of town overlooking the splendid Royal Victoria Park which offered us beautiful views of the surrounding greenery.

Afterwards we took a rather languid walk up to the Royal Crescent, an impressive set of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping arc before an impressively large park. We took the opportunity to sun ourselves on a bench for a little while before strolling back down into town. After taking in a few shops around town (including the lovely gift shop attached to the roman baths) we had one final coffee at a lovely little coffee house by the station before saying some fond farewells.

As I pulled away from the station I was really happy to have spent the day with friends in the historic city of Bath.

Rust and water

The sea erodes things, its one of the truly ironic facts of our planets that the ocean that gave birth to us is constantly seeking to break down every part of the land that it touches.

Whether it is by its slow erosion of our shores by the constant action of its waves, the devastating effects that a storm by the sea can have on our homes,  the poisonous effects of the high amounts of salt that the sea contains or the corrosive effect of sea water on metal that causes it to rust away. The sea is constantly at war with the land.

But in the same breath that the sea may take away it also gives back. It is the primordial womb from which all life was born, it is a haven for an extraordinarily diverse number of life forms, by evaporation it gives us life giving rain and by its physical processes it regulates our planet and its temperature.

Sadly though little by little man is being equally corrosive to it. We dump copious amounts of chemicals and litter into the sea, we over fish it until less and less of its abundant life remains, we heat our planet, melting ice caps and causing the very oceans to creep slowly and inevitably upwards.

The sea is our lifeblood and slowly, little by little we inject poison and filth directly into that vein until we ourselves are poisoned. The truth is that as much as the sea may take away, it at least gives as much if not more back, maybe we should try to be doing the same.

If not we may be left with an ocean that is little more then just rust and water.

Phu Quoc island

After three weeks volunteering and a few days of non stop traveling I felt the time had come to take a well deserved break. Rather then taking another flight, I decided to take a sleeper bus instead and was rewarded with passing through the incredibly scenic Mekong Delta (more on that later).

This being about my fourth desert island I decided that relaxing was the way forward and I spent much of my days there idly chilling at the hostel or on the beach, with the occasional swim or spectacular sunset to round out my day.

The food on the island was surprising good, with some truly excellent fresh seafood. The highlight came when the hostel I was staying at put on a great late night BBQ which included freshly cooked squid, some massive prawns and freshly cooked fish. What with all this, great company and a band made up of two rather free spirited gentlemen strumming away on their guitars I really enjoyed my rather brief stay on the island.

Kampot

I had been recovering nicely from a stomach bug (or so I thought) when I left Koh Rong. Unfortunately for me it turned out the bug wasn't finished with me and it struck just as I arrived the beautiful town of Kampot.

This lovely river side town was unfortunately where I spent much of my time groaning inside my hotel room. An end was in sight for my bug however and on my last few days I managed to rent a bicycle to take around town.

The place was beautiful, filled as it was with picturesque stilted houses, indoor markets filled with metal workers, a lovely stretch of river and beautiful french building that were slowing edging their way into slightly decay.

The ride I took into the back village of thatched houses, red dust roads and friendly locals was definitely the highlight of my time there.