KPowintheworld

Myanmar water fighting

kpow — Mon, 5 May 2014 16:38:00 GMT

When people ask me what my favourite country is, of course I say well, it's difficult, they're all so different! But really, I have kind a favourite for certain things like food, scenery etc. As an overall country to visit, Myanmar is most definitely my favourite. Gorgeous countryside, beautiful ancient sites and genuine, lovely people. I recommend it to anyone, and actually want to go back myself since my experience was a bit...unique.

Basically, I picked the worst/best time to go, depending on who you ask. Burmese new year, known as Thingyan, was April 13-16th this year. I was in Myanmar April 8th to 18th. This means I had four, fun-filled days of crazy water "fighting", kind of. In the big cities they set up stages with live music and giant power hoses, ready to soak the (usually drunken) people riding around in the back of pick-up truck-type things. In the smaller towns, people (mostly kids and young adults or adults with them) grab buckets, water guns, garden hoses or whatever they can find, set up camp on the side of the road and wait for cars, buses. motorbikes, bikes and even pedestrians to go by so that they can douse them as throughly as possible. I got to be the douser and dousee many, many times and while it's amazing fun and everyone is in such good spirits, you really have to be a good sport about it, even if you have your camera on you, your giant backpack with everything you own etc. I had no problems, really, but it was a sliight relief when I could safely open my window on the train again.

The celebrations also made getting around a bit more difficult, since everyone was flooding by bus, train and car out of the cities beforehand, and back in afterward. Bus service also halted completely during the festival. For me, this meant changing my schedule quite a lot and basically a mad scramble to get where I wanted, since I was also short on time.

Since I'm a bit behind in blogging, I'll sum up the places I visited.

I flew in to Yangon, stayed at the most expensive hostel I've ever been to because I hadn't fgured out the cheap ones aren't bookable online, saw the famous giant pagoda (like a city!), freaked out because getting anywhere seemed impossible, made a friend with an extra bus ticket and left for Kalaw.

Kalaw is an adorable little town, famous for trekking to/from Inle Lake, which I had no time for. Instead, I explored the hillside villages.

Took the local bus to Mandalay, sat next to a lovely university student who was very eager to practice English and show me around Mandalay. Sadly, I couldn't find him on Facebook to keep in touch.

Found an affordable hotel in Mandalay, rushed off to catch sunset at U Bein Bridge, chatted with some cool tourists then joined them for dinner. Next day, Mandalay Hill. Thought I made it about 4 or 5 times before reaching the real summit, then rushed down to go catch my bus to Bagan.

Bagan is beautiful!! If I'd had more time, would've stayed to catch sunset every day at the field of pagodas. Over 3000 of them!

Back to Mandalay, failed daytrip to Pyin Oo Lwin, night train to Yangon where I hung out and caught a plane back to bangkok.

Phew! That was Myanmar in a very small nutshell. A crazy wet whirlwind of an adventure, to be continued another day!

Photos: Myanmar

kpow — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 16:37:00 GMT

A beautiful country with beautiful people :) Highly recommend a visit!!!

Paradise Cave and the middle of nowhere

kpow — Wed, 9 Apr 2014 15:59:00 GMT

After a severly rickety ride (we ended up in the back again, good thing we have strong stomachs, even hungover!), a confusing stop for lunch and purple ice cream, some already breathtaking views and changing buses, we made it to the cave site. And promptly hopped in a golf cart....? Well, as long as they weren't asking us for extra money, we were happy. We zoomed along a little ways and reached the staircase up to the cave. Now, I'd read online that these were quite the stairs, leaving people gasping along the way. To those people I say.... um, really?? Maybe I'd built it up in my head but I'm in general poor backpacker shape and didn't really have a problem. They're long-ish but not bad at all.

After a little history spiel from our peppy student guide, we went exploring. And it was soo worth the trip! The cave was huge, I can't even begin to describe the feeling of being inside it. Initially we were some of very few people inside so it was very peaceful, quiet and just generally impressive. They'd set up coloured lights along the way to highlight particularly impressive stalactites/mites but it wasn't tacky, just really cool.

Sadly, the walkway only goes in about 1km whereas the rest of the cave continues on for many, many more. So we did it in and hour and a half, I think? Walking very slowly. But it was really nice, and something different from what we'd done before. If you have time, I'd definitely recommend this trip.

After the cave, a bunch of us were heading on to Hanoi so got dropped off at various places around the nearby city of Dong Hoi aka small town Vietnam. Nowhere remotely touristy in sight, we got advice from some people on the street and settled in at a local restaurant. A bit of hilarity ensued. They welcomed us in, we sat down and a woman comes out of the kitchen and taps me and one of the other girls on the shoulder and motions to follow her...we think. We followed her into the kitchen where she pointed to several giant vats of food, none of them really recognisable. Now one of the girls also happened to be a vegetarian and I wasn't sure if Tom was eating so when she held up four fingers we said no, not four people eating, three! After a lot of back and forth which included us running back out to see if Tom was eating and get the girl to check if she could eat the food and just a lot of gebneral good-natured confusion, we all ended up with a ton of tofu, rice and veg in front of us, gorged ourselves and paid 40 000 dong each, which is what she'd been indicating earlier. It wasn't over. At the end of our meal, what seemed like every secondary school student in the city poured into the restaurant, sincerely amused at the group of foreigners in their midst. They still avoided our table though, even though there was room, and there was a lot of chair scraping and table shufffling to fit evetryone in.

We finished up and gave the students their extra space, then headed back to hang out at the pick up spot until the nice long, 14 hour bus ride to Hanoi.

Sorry no photos here, they're lost!

Photos: Hue

kpow — Wed, 9 Apr 2014 15:50:00 GMT

And a "Hue" we go!

kpow — Sun, 6 Apr 2014 14:22:00 GMT

I admit, I've been dying to use that terrible joke for a long time, since we left on a motorbike from Hoi An, heading to Hue. I'm not apologizing :P

First of all, the drive along the coast and through the mountains (people throw that word around a lot, they were hills, really) to get to Hue was absolutely gorgeous, one of my favourite moments in Vietnam. I admit, though, it was a slight test if my fear of heights (again, ugh) gripping the back of a crappy motorbike to stay on through the fairly steep ups and downs with stunning and terrifying views of trees and beach. Let's just say good thing I trusted my driver ;) and it was totally worth it. We stopped a few times here and there to use facilities, adjust helmets, consult the map and have a coffee/granola bar, but made good time and rolled into the city after about four and a half hours.

Surprisingly, we found our hotel no problem. After promising to come back to visit the travel agency staff who accosted us about tours before even getting off the bike, we checked in to a quaint little place in a cute little alley full of hotels and cafe/restaurant/bars. We realised later we were about a 7 minute walk from the hostel area, nice, because it was quieter but still easy to find a good night atmosphere.

We lingered around the area, waiting for our bags to be delivered as promised by the place we'd hired the bike. A lot of waiting followed...eventually we gave up and went exploring a bit, checked out the main areas.

Got our bags eventually and grabbed a nice dinner at a cool-looking place near the hotel. Now at this point I was learning that nowhere in Vietnam is only one kind of place. Everywhere is ALSO a travel agency and possibly a couple more thing. Literally, I've seen signs that say "hairdresser", "massage", and "tours, bus tickets", all pointing to the same place. So, naturally, the owner of the restaurant presents us with a booklet of tours they offer and to sway us introduces us to the Australian/Kiwi couple at the next table who've done one of them already. We didn't book the tour but had a nice chat and then evening of drinks and jenga with them.

The next day was hot and lazy, we made it to the Citadel, the main touristy point in Hue, which was really cool, and stopped for some locaol food on the way back, some kind of fried pancake things. Got s foot massage. Got a drink. Lazed. Booked a trip to Paradise Cave and then Hanoi the next day.

As is usual for us the night before an early morning, we ended up going out. I blame the free shots. Always blame the free shots. Anyway we managed to make it up the next morning, stuff some food into our mouths as the bus driver was shouting at us to get in aaand off North!

Quaint little Hoi An

kpow — Sat, 5 Apr 2014 16:42:00 GMT

Once Tom got his bag back, it was such a relief to be in Hoi An. I decided not to be sick anymore and had the best pizza ever for dinner (didn't quite feel up to local food yet), we stayed a bit out of the centre so it was quieter and not nearly as tacky...it was just nice.

One day we rented a bike and drove out to My Son, some ruins about 45km outside the city. They were lovely and peaceful to walk around, although the bomb pits strewn here and there were a bit disconcerting but hey, we were in one of the hardest hit areas of the war.

We almost missed the adorable central area, we thought we'd made it but were actually about 2 streets away. But we found it, river, red lanterns, quaint shops, dozens of tailors, and all. It was lovely.

**I seem to have lost the pictures I took in Hoi An, long story but I'll see if I can grab some from other people to use

Nah Trang.

kpow — Sat, 5 Apr 2014 16:33:00 GMT

Not much to say about Nah Trang, it was a series of unfortunate events for both of us. Phone/iPod stolen, hand nicely sprained, sick for about 4 days and bag almost lost forever on the night bus from hell. We walked on the beach but I was too ill to ever go in. The vibe wasn't great anyway, it's super tacky, catering to the hordes of Russian tourists and not cheap. I probably saved a ton of money not being able to eat or drink much.

That was Nah Trang.

Photos: Ha Long Bay

kpow — Sat, 5 Apr 2014 15:38:00 GMT

2 days one night, a little bit of mist, some giant rocks and some cool people!

Dalat: a breath of fresh mountain(ish) air

kpow — Wed, 2 Apr 2014 21:07:00 GMT

When we arrived in Dalat it was around 5AM and already clear we were at a higher altitude. I borrowed my friend's coat, not having my scarf handy. We were meant to have a free shuttlebus to our hostel but it looked like they were fillling up pretty quickly so we ganged up with a couple other travellers we'd met waiting for the bus in Saigon and split a taxi. On the drive it then became clear we were not in the big city anymore. Nothing was big, nothing looked very commercial and, most importantly, nothing was open. There went our plan to have a nice coffee while waiting for our hostel to open up. So we went right there, all of us feeling guilty but relieved when the owner and her daughter appeared sleepily to give us tea and seats while we checked in. Being in a new place is always exciting so, bedraggled and exhausted as we were \, we dropped off our stuff and headed out to where the owner had said there would be breakfast.

We discovered Vietnamese cafes. Or cà phê, as they were often written (apparently the writing is mostly Portuguese influenced, not French! We looked it up). Amazing. Just what we needed. For those who don't know, Vietnamese coffee is especially famous for being a. very strong and b. pre-digested by weasels. Nope, not kidding. I actually only discovered this way, way later but...it's so good I would have drunk it anyway! The white stuff at the bottom is sweet condensed milk to balance the bitterness and it also often comes with Vietnamese tea to do the same.

But powerful as they were, 2 of these bad boys still didn't wake me up enough to properly wander a new place. Nap time.

After a luxurious 3/4 hour nap we were anxious to explore. Because we'd signed up for the group dinner at 530 we had limited time and opted to rent a bike and head to a nearby lake. After about 45 minutes on what Tom described as the crappiest bike he's ever ridden on, including ones in undeveloped Burma, we found a lovely sprawling lake among the hills.

We made it back just in time for dinner, which was probably the most amazing meal I've had in my travels so far. For a measly, "mama", as the owner is called, cooked up bowls and bowls of different pork, beek, chicken, tofu and vegetable dishes. With heaps of rice, of course. I ate until I thought I would explode, then a group of us settled down with some beers.

A few hours later, it was time to head out on the town! Nothing big, since it was a weekday in a small town but we had an amazing night of karaoke with "sister", as she's called, singing Backstreet Boys and bad 90's rap.

Home at a reasonable hour an ready for canyoning the next day!!!

What is canyoning, you ask? Well, I asked that very same question pretty much right up until I was doing it. Basically, it's descending a canyon in various ways such as cliff-jumping, dry and wet abseiling, floating etc etc. We did all of these things and it was terrifying and amazing. My first abseil was a complete fail, I fell and had to awkwardly get my feet back on the rocks...but I improved quite a lot after that. Soo thankful I didn't fall during the waterfall abseil! It was horrifying enough to be clung to a rope, horizontal, with my sock feet (apparently shoes are more slippery?!) against the rock of a 25 metre waterfall.

My favourite part I think was the whitewater slide. How to explain this?? You lay on your back, head down, in the river at the top of a group of rocks, the guide holding on to your leg. Then he pushes you off and you (hopefully) have a slightly turbulent but really fun 5-second ride down to the bottom. You might hit a rock or two but you've got your life jacket as padding. Trust me, it's fun!!

Anyway after a day of intense physical activity that I am no longer used to and testing my moderate fear of heights, I was happy to snooze in the van on the way back, then have a well-deserved beer back at the hostel.

A bit later that night, "sister" took us out for food, since there was no group dinner. We, about 20 foreigners from various countries, piled noisily into a small local restaurant, much to the bewilderment of the locals eating there. Hopefully they found us more amusing than annoying...we weren't too raucous.

On the menu were two options: corn spring rolls and meat (pork?) in rice paper (yes, basically spring rolls but I wanted to clarify the difference). There was a lot of confusion about who wanted just one or both etc etc but in the end we all had enough delicious food to be happy.

The rest of the evening was spent hangin at the hostel and while the rest of the group went hiking the next day (after canoyning?? How?!), we were off on the bus to Nah Trang.

Ho Chi Mihn (Saigon) and bubble tea

kpow — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:01:00 GMT

I became a bit obsessed with bubble tea at this point. I'd seen a couple places in Phnom Penh but never at the right time so had gotten the idea really fixed in my head. So it was very convenient when the shuttlebus from our highway bus (huh? I'm confused too, don't worry) dropped us off in the tourist area of Saigon, we needed wifi to contact our contact aaand there was a lovely looking bubble tea place advertising said wifi right on the corner! Done and done.

While sipping deliciously refreshing tea and squishing on bubbles, we got in touch with a lovely Italian girl who hosted us on her couch/floor for our stay in the city. We finished out tea, hopped in a cab and after getting only slightly lost (the cab drivers here often only pretend to know where they're going) and getting directions fromsome English boys walking on thestreet, we met a whirlwind of a girl, who promptly whisked our bags away on her motorbike, coming back in 5 minutes with her flatmate to do the same with us.

After a gorgeous homecooked meal of pasta, salad and spanish tortilla (another of the flatmates was Spanish) and a bit of getting to know each other, we called it an early night.

Over the next four dáys the touristic highlights of Saigon included

1. The reunification Palace, famous for several reasons including being the site where the Vietnam war ended

2. The War Remnants Museum, a clearly one-sided but still quite tragic look at the war

3. The central market, where you are baraged from every side by eager vendors...though that's quite standard at a market pretty much anywhere in SE Asia

4. Riding around in the chaotic yet somehow extremely eficient and functional traffic that is 99% motorbikes...on the back of one of those motorbikes (yes mom I wore a helmet!)

Sadly, we were not able to get to the CuChi Tunnels,one of the main things to see. It's our own fault, we were just lazy at first (it's a two hour ride and we didn't want to spend money on a tour/get up really early) and then when we finally did get around to it, on our last day, we got so hopelessly lost just trying to get out of the city we decided to just call it quits...and go get an ice coffee and yes, some more bubble tea. I was disappointed but some things just aren't worth the stress.

Across the border, hello Vietnam!...Maybe?

kpow — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 15:51:00 GMT

Our trek to Vietnam could've been nicer. Turns out the tour staff had accidentally (?) switched the amounts of time we'd be on the bus/boat across the border, so that instead of an hour on a bus and a few on a boat, it was the opposite and therefore much less enjoyable than promised. We were also a tiny bit hungover and sleep-deprived, so when we finally arrived we accepted the first offer of accomodation available, the floating hotel we docked at in Chao Doc, Vietnam. We weren't meeting our future couchsurfing hostess in Ho Chi Mihn for a couple of days so we decided to spend some time relaxing in this small town.

That'seally the end of that story, we relaxed, explored a bit and realised there wasn't much to see. We tried to find some local food but there just weren't really people at any of the places so ended up at our hotel restaurant. There's apparently a nice mountain nearby...but we didn't get around to it. We didn't quite feel like we were in Vietnam yet, just kind of in transit still. Onward to Ho Chi Mihn!

Photos: Da Lat

kpow — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 15:37:00 GMT

nature! and scary activities

Photos: Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon)

kpow — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 22:51:00 GMT

Cool city! Great vibe, lots of motorcycles

Tintin in Phnom Penh

kpow — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 15:04:00 GMT

Yep, apparently our friend Tintin was here, hiding from the enemy Khmer Rouge...or so says the tank top I searched high and low to find, and also a few ceramic picture plates they had around at the markets.

Sadly, the Khmer Rouge isn't really just a story rife with exciting action, bad jokes and fortunate coincidences, as I found out at the Killing Fields a $20 tuktuk ride outside the city. I won't give you the details, you need to see it for yourself but definitely the most upsetting place I've ever been in my life. With real testimonials and an alarming amount physical remnants of the genocide...well I think you get the idea. My friend decided to also check out S-21, a former high school turned into a prison but I opted for shopping instead. It may sound shallow but you have to draw the line somewhere and from the details I heard after, I made the right choice.

Phnom Penh itself was alright, another big city, as people told me. It's pretty fun bar-hopping around certain areas, you can find reasonable prices and some interesting characters in the bar staff.

Onward from Phom Penh to Vietnam! We boarded a little minivan early in the morning, eager to get on a boat and cross the border what Lonely Planet deemed "the most scenic route".

PS sorry for lack of photos on Phnom Penh, couldn't bring myself to take any at the killing fields and wasn't too much else that caught my eye!

Koh Rong-wait, you turn electricity OFF at night?!

kpow — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 16:39:00 GMT

Koh Rong has probably the most beautiful beaches I will ever see in my entire life. Seriously. The pictures do not do it justice, although of course I will post them anyway.
To get there you can take one of several ferries from Sihanoukville. I took a different boat from my friends just because of where I was staying and timing etc, so didn’t meet up with them right away. Instead, I wandered the beach and eventually found some wonderfully cheap accomodation at a quaint little place called Mango Bay…now I’m being a little sarcastic here because basically it was the only dorm I could find, my backpack was heavy and it was hot as hell so I decided to ignore the pervasive aroma of certain herbs and at least try one night. Good choice! A few cool people in my dorm and I headed out for dinner not long after that, and we ended up grouping together with my booze cruise friends and some other people.
As a group of about 10, we set off the next day for the other side of the island, which we’d heard was absolutely amazing. We could luckily leave our big bags at our hostels but off we trekked with smaller bags and tents for camping on the amazing beach. $5/tent, for two people= cheapest accommodation I’ve had this trip!

My first jungle trek was, thankfully, not too long but the rocky drop on the other side actually required clinging on to a sturdy rope for dear life and practically abseiling down. Wow, I was not prepared for that and my legs were sore for a couple days after! We were also all sweating buckets by the end, so gladly jumped into the crystal clear water immediately upon arrival.
Suntanning, sunburning, sunlounging, sun-drinking etc etc ensued. The only toilets were locked for the guesthouse guests only and the one restaurant”you can see in my pictures was, to say the least, simple. But it was all we needed.
Sadly, the heat or possibly some kind of bug got to me and around mid-afternoon I started feeling pretty badly. I think we decided in the end it was sunstroke, I was drinking plenty of water but possibly Gatorade would have been better…still not sure but anyway, I stuck to the shade mostly and still got a couple of swims in.
After watching the gorgeous sunset, a bonfire was set up and the evening began. I tuckered out at about 9, I think, with a fever, giant headache and a very troubled stomach. Damn.
The next morning I was on the mend, managed another swim and a couple cookies and still managed to enjoy the fact that I was on a beautiful beach in Cambodia with some really cool people. But I was a bit eager to get back to the other side of the island.
Luckily, no one seemed up for trekking back, so we all pitched in to hire a boat. It was a lovely ride of about 25 minutes and we were back at the main area. We were all so tired we decided to stay one more night on the island, instead of leaving that day as planned. I was back in form by then so had a great night playing beer pong, flip cup and an interesting German drinking game we learned called Flunky Ball (sp?). For those interested to learn all you need is 2 giant water bottles and a coconut...Canadian friends are you up for the challenge?!

Sihanoukville sucks you in

kpow — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 16:35:00 GMT

Sihanoukville was my next stop, on the South-Western coast. The idea was just to spend maybe a day on the beach and a day diving. A week later, somehow I was still there-and this is a very common story. Already some people I‘d met had made me vow to make a trip to the nearby island of Koh Rong, insisiting it was far superior to Sihanoukville. And it was, so I’ll make a separate story for it.
In Sihanoukville, honestly, I did a lot of beach lounging and drinking and not much more. I also did some boat drinking-my first booze cruise ever!!! Despite the girls I’d met the night before who’d promised to be there and didn’t show, I decided to stick with and am sooo glad for it. The cruise itself was hilarious and insane, though I (stupidly) only brought a few dollars so was a bit limited in my drinking (don’t worry, I borrowed from some new friends a bit!). We got some swimming in, some drinking games, etc etc. It was really fun and there I met the friends I ended up going to Koh Rong with. But that’s another story. Haha.
Basically, Sihanoukville is a little beach party town, good for a couple nights for me but not much longer. After Koh Rong I moved to a quieter area of the beach and just kind of relaxed.

Photos: Sihanoukville/ Koh Rong

kpow — Wed, 5 Mar 2014 17:29:00 GMT

Beachy beach beach!!!

Photos: Angkor/Siem Reap

kpow — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:27:00 GMT

All I can say is amazing!

Bangkok- round 2

kpow — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 16:55:00 GMT

Well I didn't get scammed this time. That's a plus. Rode my first motorcycle taxi, in a tired haze from the train station to Khaosan Road. That was terrifying but fun. Had a few drinks in the evenings while icing my poor sprained pinky toe. Saw a cool temple but failed at seeing the Royal Palace (by the time I found the entrance it was closed! 1530, who knew?). Booked the next leg of my trip...to Cambodia!! Woooooo!

There were a variety of factors involved, such as recovering from Full Moon, but Bangkok just didn't do it for me. Next!

Clambering over ruins in Angkor (Siem Reap)

kpow — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 16:53:00 GMT

So, my original plan was Cambodia for maybe a week, tops, I pretty much just planned to hit the Angkor Temples and then pass on through. Well… I got a bit stuck. In a good way! Mostly.
It didn’t start out great, honestly. My first meal in Siem Reap left me with a queasy, unhappy stomach and though a couple Tums warded off actually getting sick, the feeling continued pretty much no matter what I ate for the next few days, even something as simple as a fruit shake or ice cream. My body also started rebelling against me in a few other ways, I won’t get into the strange details but anyway, I still got out to the Angkor Temples a lovely 3 times in four days. And it was soo worth it!
The first day, a few people had recommended cycling as the best and cheapest way to see the temples, so $2 later I rode off out of the city. After a bit of confusion about ticketing (I took the wrong road and missed the ticket gate woops) I parked in among the tuktuks and followed the vast crowd of people in Angkor Wat.
Now let me say right now, I’ve seen quite a few temples, living in Japan and travelling around Asia. These were by far my favourite and I think will always stay that way. Most temples you can walk around the outside, possibly go in, take some pictures, buy some charms. Angkor you are literally climbing over the temples. You are climbing in and on and around hundreds of years of history!!! So cool!! I think the cultural factor plus the possible higher level of activity really made these temples a great experience for me.

Now, I might have been able to appreciate some of them better if I hadn’t accidentally taken a wrong turn and instead of the “mini tour”, taken the “grand tour”of the temples, about a 30km ride around in the heat of the day. A few tuktuk drivers passing me actually did double takes, turning fully around, basically to say “how the hell did this girl get way out here??” There were a few times when there was literally not another soul in sight and I doubted that I was even in Angkor anymore…but then I’d arrive at another temple and be reassured once again.
Finally, some lovely Austrian girl took pity on me and gave me her map, allowing me to see just how far I’d come…and how far there was still to go. Needless to say by about my 5th hour into the ride, I was ready to just head home. I skipped one of the vital temples just because I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate it, and I still had a couple days to see it anyway.
Over the next couple of days I wasn’t super active, still not feeling 100% but managed to see the major temples and then some, as well as the famous Angkor Wat at sunset. Lovely! I also got a Khmer massage (owwww!), visited the night markets, had some delicious Cambodian food and some drinks with cool people from the hostel. And watched a live feed of the Gold medal men’s hockey in Sochi, of course! Canadian spirit was running wild in the streets! Too bad I had to catch my night bus to Sihanoukville right after, but that’s the next story.