Hitchhiking 102 - Hitching for women

Hitchhiking is an exercise in personality development. It's taught me to be more aware of people, to trust myself implicitly, manage my relationships, divert/change/adapt my conversation skills and to be more humble (when being turned down ride after ride).

I love it and think it brings more to your world and others! So here is more information on hitchhiking a little more specific to women.

As far as actually being a female hitchhiker goes, needless to say it's better to hitchhike with someone, preferably male (rather than a bear in a party hat). It makes life much easier. But the first thing I have to say is that a huge percent of the population is made up of good people. Tried, proven, tried and proven time and time again.

The second is, your intuition is worth more than you can imagine. I've never understood how good I was at assessing people until I began hitchhiking.

The third is it is imperative to give out a happy, adventurous upbeat vibe. If you have a bad feeling partway through a ride, don't slip into thinking the worst, this may bring out the worst in the driver..always believe the best in people and they will usually live up to it.

So hitchhiking for women..

I recently had a friend in Sumatra complain about the men giving her grief, sad to say there are a few countries where this is more serious, India being one that comes immediately to mind...So what can you do to ensure you put across the right message as a female hitchhiker?

Timing - The first one goes without saying, preferably don't hitchhike at night..this is when streetwalkers and drunks come out! So find a place to crash couchsurfing.org If you are traveling a long distance, make sure you start early in the morning.

Choose your driver - It's important to assess people, it's amazing how easy this can be even when the car is travelling 90km p/hr..first check the car's occupants, the type of car and the occupants face..for example, 9 times out of 10 if the driver is a single young, Indian and driving a souped up car..I wave them past.

I like four wheel drives, women, families, older men in nice looking cars and average types. You can tell a lot about someone by chatting to them, so for women, the best tip is to try your luck at petrol stations, have good time to assess, try a bit of humour to judge personality, and double check direction and towns - all before heading out on the highway!

Choose your clothing - I'm not saying wear a burkha, but it's wise to ensure you are covered and look like a tough-ish traveller when hitching. I forgot once on a short 1 hour hitch and wore my normal feminine clothing, flowing pants and singlet top, most of the drivers that stopped were leering and it took me at least 20 mins to find someone I felt safe with.

Talk! The best thing I've found to put wayward thoughts out of a lonely truck driver's mind is to ask him if he has a wife..or better..a daughter! Talking to male drivers about their families, home towns, life and yourself brings you into better focus. Saying you have been happily married for a few years also helps :)

Energy - since us travellers go and go, remember it's best not to hitch when you are overly tired. Being tired means your amazing intuition isn't running at it's highest, you are probably not giving off great vibes and you are slower to react if something happens - best advice is to stay another day where you are and start off the next day

Lie - When asked about marital status, say you have been happily married for 10 years to a huge Australian man. And when people why you are hitchhiking (especially in countries where it's rare) my brother Josh usually says he is conducting a social experiment on human kindness, hehe

Further precautions -

• Always keep your bag on your lap - your bag SHOULD be small enough to keep with you!
• Consider keeping a small weapon with you - I keep a pair of nail scissors in my front pocket - it just makes me feel better :)
• Visibly take the car registration before getting in
• Tell the driver you have a friend waiting for you on the other side, she/he will be worried if you don't arrive
• If things turn sour, slip your seat belt off in preparation and tell the driver you are going to be sick
  
• If the driver is too eager for you to get in - you probably shouldn't. I once had a guy do an illegal turn to pick me up, he was travelling the wrong direction - A blunt NO to that one!
• Remind yourself that you in the superior position to the driver. He has to keep his eyes on the road and his hands to the steering wheel whereas you have hands and attention free, after all. Don’t be bashful about laconically informing the driver about this.
• And finally, the best ever, most extreme tactic when already in the car (given to me by my mum) is freak out like a psycho, make yourself vomit - anything to disgust your driver - for sure he'll let you out of the car
  

And lastly

Since being a professional psycho-murderer* requires a high amount of planning and preparation, the following items are needed to stay in business: shovel, plastic bags, axe, rope, Febreeze, hacksaw, someone to murder, white van, trucker hat, countryside, mustache - it's highly unlikely you will be unfortunate enough to encounter one

* Only .002307% of the population fits into the active psycho-murderer category. This individual is either in jail for being a psycho-murderer or they are smart enough to plan their murders and cover their tracks ... so try not to hitch in white vans.

Happy hitching!

Love Bus Magical Musical Malaysian Odyssey (or LBMMMO for short)

LOVE BUS - http://www.projectlivemusic.tk/

Penang - Things to Do

Penang rocks my world! It's impossible to capture how cool and beautiful it is. I've met up with Josh here and we have a cozy ad above a cafe called Soul Kitchen on Chulia Street.

We are just in time for the Thai water festival. Streets filled with water bottled toting Malay, Indians and Burmese. I didn't know it was so possible to be so wet!

One way to see Penang is skimming around coastlines on a scooter. Josh and I ran down to the local tourist strip, Chulia Street and rented a scooter for 20 ringgit to zoom the pretty hills and beaches..

Monkey Beach is 2 hours hike from Telok Bahang beach, gorgeous! Hiking through raggedy rocks and old, peaceful trees to camp right on the beach and ran off to scavenge for coconuts. Pitching a tent and watching a big, old black storm roll in over the horizon.

Um, many others things have been enjoyed here. Not least of al he fabulous LOvE BUs bonanza and love parade through the streets of Penang.

But here, we enjoyed beachfront yoga, wing chun training, acrobat workshops, dragon dance, thai chi, free Sikkh food, Burmese New Year and of course..music music music...

- hehe - full of love love love!

MAGICK River - Kuala Kubu Baru

Wet waterfalls and skinny swimming..Brother Josh and sister Lan Anh next to raging mother river chilling with the original people of Malaysia, the Orang Asli.

And the good news is you can stay too!

Antares and the Children of the Diamond Constellation welcome all dreamers, star gazers, poets, musicians, star speakers and of course hippies with wide arms and flowers in our hair...

From everyone's favorite spot in KL, Le Village, take the 35 bus to Rawang, then the bus to Kuala Kubu Baru..when you get to the town give Antares a call - 0102007346 - and he'll tell you what to do!


Check out my album on Facebook Magick River Photos

Magick River and Nine gypsy hippies LINK

Penang Presence

Penang Island (Pilau Pinang) is a 5 hour bus trip northwest of KL..and a zoom past the luscious rainforests of the Cameron Highlands..

This small city is full of architecture and antiques. 'Charming' is the best way to describe Penang. Curved archways lead you past Chinese medicine shops, dark shophouses (godowns) with quaint second-world war houses lining sleepy streets. Muslim prayer calls mingle with the scents of Chinese ancestor worship incense..an incredible mix of cultures, languages and beliefs.

The town is known for its well preserved colonial buildings, surviving from the 1930's it gives the streets an ancient feel. It confuses the mind, I can't work out if Penang is a modern city or an ancient Chinese town. It's definately multicultural. Muslim mosques decorate the skyline with minarets, psychedelic Chinese temples color the streets and in the distance you'll catch a glimpse of high rises rivaling KL's glossy, glass covered skyscrapers.

However to the Malay, Penang is best known for its street food! Hawkers line the small streets, especially on the tourist Chulia Street. Char Kuay Teow - bean sprouts and slightly charred flat noodles with seafood, chilli and soy sauce is special here. But, there are a plethora of food choices to tantalise and satisfy the senses. Man, I love Malay cooking...Mum makes a mean chicken curry and any number of delicious Nonya dishes, and eating here tastes like home.

I've found Josh chilling out in the Soul Kitchen playing music with the "Love Bus bandits..we are set to explore the rest of this lovely place!

Look out, here come two little Australian-Malay monkeys to play :)

My Malaysia

I got on an airplane..first time in two years!

It's incredible, to fly, being inside clouds, in the air..truly amazing
I got off in Malaysia.

Deep breaths of the thick, warm air of my mother country, my eyes gazed over the varied faces of this country. Tall, short, fat, thin, black, white, asian, indian, mixed, english, canton, malay, hindi, english..singlish...and everything in between!

A quick shower and not long after, I was eating! Typical. Satay chicken and a giant steamed fish, plates of food covering the table and faces of relatives smiling at me over it. I haven't been to Malaysia in 12 years, yet I remember the food here is like nowhere else.

Roti chanai, nasi lemak, rendang, curries, noodles - a culture that loves fried chicken as much as I do! The origins of my gastronimic heritage is clearer here, written all over the rounded bellies of my extended family.

Malaysia is the most developed country I have been for almost two years.

I'm experiencing a level of culture shock I might have experienced if I'd gone to Australia..although if breathing real air is something you must sacrifice in order to have cleanliness, give me Hanoi's overflowing gutters any day! The air-conditioning here is relentless.

I'm stationed at my aunties house, her family rearranged in order to fit in mine (when they arrive). Cosy, in a towering complex, surrounded by hundreds of other towering complexes. The lego blocks that house the Malay/Canton/Chinese/Indian population of Malaysia.

It's just begun to rain. The fat hot drops that only an Asian sky can release...

ok, see you...I'm going for a splashy dance!

Hanoi again, Hanoi again, jiggety jig!

First night back in Hanoi and I'm lugging a giant djembe on the back on a minsk motorcycle to a packed gig at a French bar...

Now another full moon has shown her round face, and I've wiled away my month in Hanoi with friends, festivities and some deep relaxation..and music, music, music

We played birthday gigs, belly gigs, cafe shows and couchsurfing events..

I've been loved up, surrounded, fed throughly and rested..

I've had pollution sickness, homesickness, travel sickness, minor mental illness..

And now, the next phase or border run, MALAYSIA!

Homeland...of sorts.

Mother, brother and family are waiting across the sea. It's been a long time between hugs...and I can't wait!

Forest Dwelling Spacetime Dreamland

I went to Jupiter for a month and met a spaceman with a penchant for greenery, advertising for a wife..

A few months back, instead of jumping on a plane and losing myself in India..I decided to head back to Laos to discover forest dwelling..a peek through the crack, so to speak..

Though I turned out not to be the wife in this story..my two months here taught me creation is simple..maintainence, enjoyable,, and forest dwelling, supremely rewarding.

Family owned, the property is run as a business rather than a community, still, there were snatches of a potential community to come. The whole environment is calm and green..white trails surrounding thatched roofed buildings..each one designed using local materials and labour..people, trees and bamboo.

With no need for a large income, no labour saving devices, or electricity to speed things up, the pace of daily life slows considerably and here a minute seems to stretch for longer..work and leisure are blurred..and community is an everchanging myriad of family, kids, local staff (and family), strangers and friends all coming and going.

Days were spent mixing work and play..mountain biking stoney tracks or across silt powdered roads..walking around the land..pumping water for washing and bathing, sweeping, cleaning and maintainence, work in the kitchen and the land..mingled evenly with reading, writing, drawing, painting, building and socialising.

Here, I was able to experience things I hadn't before and had a few experiences and sensations I could have truly done without!! (i.e. walking barefoot leaves you open to spiky bamboo, living with termites leaves you open to being bitten and so on.)

But the incredible things I saw, heard and felt will stay in my memory forever..and miss. True darkness..a caterpillar in snowflake disguise, bizarre bumblebees...alien predator insects..fluorescent dragonflies..soldier termites marching on patrol in long black lines like a sea..the popping and crackling of voracious fire as it devours paper thin bamboo..howling packs of jackals in the night..the ridiculous 'pooop pooop pooop' of the cuckoo..magnificent ancient trees..

Long slow days, some cold some hot..

some contented, some confusing..

..but all now a dream..

Hitchhiking 101

So, it seems there are a few places more difficult to hitch in...Asia being one of them. I guess because of the huge amount of backpackers here, especially on the routes I did in Laos. It seemed there were less offers of assistance on these roads. many drivers expected I wanted to be walking (which I did).

In many Asian countries there are private vans and cars with paid drivers. Don't bother flagging these cars down, they charge a rate to take you to your destination, much like taking a bus and quite the opposite of what you want to achieve.

Here are some basic rules 'of thumb' -

1. Be prepared to walk. In countries where hitchhikers are not common, it may take you a while to find a hitch but there is no point getting sad about it!

2. Wear bright fun clothing, a smile and have a clear sign. Taking your sunglasses or hat off when cars come may also help in the trust department as people can see your full face. Use a friendly wave and point in the direction you want to go rather than sticking out your thumb - it helps!

3. Choose a good location. Make sure you are somewhere drivers can see you..and have time to think about picking you up..and that there is enough space for them to stop safely. You don't want to cause any major traffic accidents!

..and preferably not here...

4. Be careful walking on highways..try to find a lift before, at toll roads, service stations, restaurants etc You'll be amazed what a simple chat can achieve (provided you speak the language!)

5. Speaking of safety, ensure you have your intuition and judgment skills switched on, you can easily assess the feeling of a person from one look - remember to do this! If you don't feel safe, the person is too eager to get you in the car or there is something else, simply don't get in..you'll always get another lift!