A funny little travel update

Tags

Hanoi, Health, Travel, Traveling, Travelling, Vietnam

Vietnam (and Cambodia) was supposed to be the easy bit!  That’ll teach us for having expectations!

This reads like one of those round robin Christmas letters written by an old person telling of their health woes (I realise we are old, to some!)

In Cambodia, my husband and then me had chest infections.  We spent a week in Phnom Penh, my husband was ill; then a week in Koh Rong, he was ill for the first half then I was ill for the second half; then a week in Otres Village, I was ill.

Then we went to Siem Reap for a week, I was ill for the first half, but for the second half we were actually both well at the same time and went out celebrating.

We arrived in Vietnam in Hanoi both feeling well, then spent the day out in the pollution and felt a bit affected.  My husband got worse and we realised it was flu.

We were due to get out of Hanoi but it involved a twelve hour overnight seated train journey so we cancelled and stayed put, staying indoors most of the time.

Also, our arrival in Vietnam unwittingly coincided with Tet, the Lunar New Year, when everything closes for several days.  We had to move places; we had to stand outside for a while as cabs were few and far between and other people kept taking them!

When we arrived and were shown to our room, it was basically just a partitioned off area of the reception, little bigger than the double bed, with no fan, the walls open at the top, so no way to keep mosquitos out and no net, and the windows un-curtained so people in the top bunks of the room next door could see in.

My ill husband needed to be in bed but we had to find somewhere else, and got a (rip off) cab to the new destination.

None of this did him much good, but luckily as soon as we were shown into our new room we knew it was okay: big, clean, own bathroom, comfy bed, duvet and towels.  (And hot water, although it’s funny how often we forget to use it as we got so used to cold water in India)

The whole family came up to meet us and say Happy New Year and even gave us gifts!  The owner walked with me to the supermarket, one of those that stay open, with a limited supply of biscuits, juice etc., and she phoned around until she found a pharmacy that was open and walked me there and back too.

They cooked us noodles, and later rice and vegetables, as there are no restaurants open.  They are very kind, but can only provide instant noodles or plain rice with boiled veg, mind you beautifully cooked piles of broccoli, carrots and cauliflower feels good to eat.

On day three my husband was well enough to go out and we went to the supermarket, which has a seating area, and does very basic food, and had plain instant noodles and iced tea.

I also found a big supermarket and got fruit and baguette; presumably thanks to the French, both Cambodia and Vietnam have delicious baguette and great coffee, and the guesthouse makes us hot black tea in pretty English looking cups and saucers.

According to the internet there’s several nice restaurants nearby, but the guy on the desk said they may all be closed until next week, as people are with their families in the countryside.

With the guesthouse and the supermarket we have enough to eat, it’s just a bit samey and it would be nice to get out and eat somewhere outside.

We are here for four nights altogether then we travel to Sapa by minibus for some fresh countryside/mountain air.

Mind you, probably because of Tet, the pollution doesn’t seem too bad right now.  And there probably are places open in the tourist bit, it’s just that isn’t where we are.

Photos by my husband of Hanoi night market just before Tet.

Thank you very much for reading

A little bit of luxury: Siem Reap

Tags

anxiety, Cambodia, Cambodia sleeper buses, Health and wellbeing, mindfulness, OCD, Siem Reap, Travel, Traveling, Travelling

On the day of the journey from Koh Rong to Siem Reap I woke up feeling a bit sorry for myself, with a bit of a chest infection and the prospect of a twelve hour bus journey ahead that night.

As usual I was a bit anxious packing and checking and rechecking my bag, I have some OCD.  I wasn’t as anxious as usual about needing a wee, I think the more buses we’ve done, the more it’s been okay, they always stop, we’re always okay, that has gotten me used to it.

Indian sleeper buses have singles down one side, doubles down the other.  This bus had doubles down both sides.  This meant that the corridor was very narrow and the sleeper compartments were very cosy.  Still, it was nice and clean, with a pillow and a good heavy cotton blanket each.

The walls at the ends between the sleeper compartments were open for the last bit at the top, meaning you weren’t totally private from your neighbours.  We heard our young neighbours chatting excitedly and sending pictures to their mums, before they settled down to watch separate things on separate devices.  One of them had downloaded several films and I think they were disappointed when their friend said actually I’ll watch my own thing instead.

We didn’t watch anything together either though.  We sat/lay top to tail for more space.  As soon as we got into our space I felt myself relax, and I spent a long time just sitting and noticing and enjoying that feeling.

Every now and again I had to deal with coughing/trying not to cough, AC doesn’t help with that, whilst not drinking more than miniscule amounts of water, and sucking sweets.   I did lie down and sleep for some of it although it was a bit squashed even for me (I am short).  Once we stopped for the loo, and then the bus arrived two hours ahead of schedule, at 6am.

We hung out at the hotel cafe and had breakfast while we waited for our room to be ready.  We’d thought we might have to wait hours, but it was ready surprisingly fast.

The mattresses of South East Asia are not known for being always comfortable for soft Westerners.  So to arrive after a long night journey in a room that is clean, with white sheets, duvet, four squishy pillows, two cushions and a comfy mattress.  Oh, and hot water.  And towels.  Well, it’s a little slice of heaven.

There’s even a 7/11 nearby where I bought myself a facepack for some pampering.  I might even get myself a massage before we go, now my cough is getting better.  Siem Reap is lively and interesting, with pretty lights and good places to eat.  I have a writing desk in the room and a good work ethic.  Next stop Vietnam!

Thank you very much for reading

For actual photos of the trip see Instagram travelswithanthony

 

Travel update: Cambodia

Tags

Cambodia, Coconut Beach, Koh Rong, Sihanoukville, Travel, Traveling, Travelling

This is where we stayed for eight nights on Coconut Beach on Koh Rong.  It was more luxurious than it looks, it had electricity and a fan, and a mattress almost a foot thick, and lovely squishy pillows.  The beach was beautiful with soft white sand and the sea was calm and deep blue in the day and opaque green later on.  I walked to the local village to buy fruit and crackers each morning, and every day in the late afternoon when the sea was at its most beautiful my husband and I went in together and swam, floated, and discussed the meaning of life.  Cambodia is very hot, and each day I spent a good couple of hours indoors writing, working on my book.

I said the sea was calm, it was, until the day we were due to leave, when it was too rough for boats to moor up at the pier, so we stayed an extra day.  I was relieved as it meant I could spend the day sleeping on the lovely mattress, having caught my husband’s chest infection.  Yesterday we left, the sea was still a bit rough so the journey to the main pier (same island) in a small-medium open wooden boat was exciting/scary in places.  Then we got a biggish speedboat to the mainland- Sihanoukville- and from there a tuk tuk to Otres village where we are staying.  Otres beach is a twenty minute walk away and isn’t as nice as Coconut Beach and without much in the way of facilities.

That doesn’t really matter though, what’s noticeable is the building work going on all over Sihanoukville- loads and loads of huge high rise blocks, huts close together, and loads of land cleared for building work.  Where we are actually staying is nice, but step onto the main road around the corner and it’s dusty with building work all around.  Many of the businesses are for sale or rent and maybe it won’t be long before this area is redeveloped too.  Sihanoukville used to be popular with backpackers and hippies (we have seen a few drug addled Westerners stumbling around), but apparently it has changed beyond recognition in the last eighteen months.

We’ve found a couple of cheaper places to eat in the vicinity but apart from that we will probably not be venturing far.  The road to Sihanoukville was painfully bumpy and really dusty in the tuk tuk yesterday.  That is all fine though, our place is really nice, a wooden hut with a good mosquito net and plenty of shared bathrooms with free body wash/shampoo, an on site restaurant and, best of all super friendly cats and cute playful kittens!

Thank you very much for reading

All the best

Rachel

Writing, travel and life update

Tags

amwriting, Belief, Cambodia, confidence, Living in the moment, Motivation, spiritual memoir, To do lists, Travel writing, writing

Writing

In Nepal we met Matt, a fulltime traveller, volunteer and mountain climber.  Since the closest I have ever come to mountain climbing is watching Touching the Void I was fascinated to hear about what it was like.  Matt talked about moments of fear, of having to push it back down and not let it rise.  He said climbing was as much mental as it was physical.

I am by no means a full professional writer; I have been paid for short stories but otherwise I have self published mini books and do the blog.  Right now I am writing a full length book for the first time.  And yes, it is at least fifty percent mental.  By which I mean managing fear; motivation; why bother/what’s the point/should you be doing something else thoughts; distraction; lack of confidence; lack of concentration; and above all self belief.  I manage all this by, firstly, committing to bum on seat, internet off, for the set amount of time, an hour or two most days; and secondly, by just focussing on the next task in hand.  Here is my current list:

Beyond that, of course, is a whole load more stuff to do, editing, polishing, ensuring it all flows and fits, sorting out my ‘spirituality’ ramblings, and my repeated use of phrases such as, ‘I felt a lightness, a sense of possibility,’ let alone the fact that does it even have a plot?  But if I think too much about all that stuff I’ll never face my next session!

Travel

We are in Cambodia for a month.  We had six days in Phnom Penh and we are now on the lovely paradise island of Koh Rong.  We have a week here, today is the second whole day.  I can walk up a very steep hill (exercise!) to the local village to buy bananas and oranges and sit and have a drink before the walk back- it’s not far but it’s very hot; swim in the sea which I did yesterday evening once it cooled, and eat.  Apart from that there isn’t much to do so I have absolutely no excuse not to get lots of writing done!  I got up early this morning, hence the sky is a bit cloudy in the photo, but that is the view from my nearest cafe.

Life

During our last weeks in India my head was busy with What’s Next?  I tried to stay in the moment, or at least, in the trip, but in the end I thought, Well I’m a writer, perhaps if I write everything down it will get it out of my system.  My husband had also been thinking about the future, so we decided to spend a bit of time talking about it, then forget about it.  I wrote everything into a Word document, thinking I’d put it on the blog, and then it disappeared.  I always email everything to myself as back up, so I could have found it, but I decided to just let it go.  I don’t need to do anything now (except write the book and the blog), and my future self can sort out the rest.

Thank you very much for reading

For photos of the trip see Instagram travelswithanthony

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Travel update

Tags

Delhi, India, Pushkar, Travel, Travelling

Photos of Delhi by my husband

Everything took a bit of a wobble this week, due to three things: an outbreak of Zika virus in Jaipur where we were meant to go to next; getting sick; and realising being in a horribly polluted city is, well, horrible.

We had a train booked to go to Jaipur in Rajasthan in the early hours of Monday 15th. However, there was/is an outbreak of Zika virus there. Zika, whilst it is very dangerous for pregnant women, is not fatal as far as I am aware, and most people who had it have recovered, but we still didn’t want to risk getting it. It’s transmitted by mosquitos and they just love my husband.

And then we got sick. I’ve had one or two days of a funny tummy quite often, even recently in Varanasi, Tokyo and Thailand, but this was the first time of being proper sick since the last time we were in Delhi, when we first arrived in March.

So we decided to skip Jaipur and go to the next place on our Rajasthan itinerary which is Pushkar, but could only get there by bus, it wasn’t possible to get a train at such short notice. This meant we had to stay holed up in our hotel room in Delhi until we were well enough to manage an overnight bus journey (no loos on bus!).

We’ve been holed up in our hotel room- for six days!*- not only because we’ve been sick but because the pollution levels of Delhi, whilst always bad are currently appalling.

They apparently implemented emergency plans, ceasing the burning of plastic and enforcing factory regulations, which sound to me like the kinds of things that should be happening all the time anyway, let alone other things like electrifying the auto rickshaws etc… I really feel sorry for the people who live in Delhi all the time.

Here is a link to a photo of a Bryan Adams concert that took place whilst we were there, and information about the problems and control measures.  

Anyway, this has made us reassess our plans, which had involved going from city to city in Rajasthan, a week in each, then Kathmandu, another very polluted city, for two weeks. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but the reality of being in a polluted city has made us question if that was such a great plan.

*Watching funny X Factor auditions on YouTube, watching Dear White People and Big Mouth on Netflix, and sleeping like a cat.

 

But, as my husband said, ‘Things change quickly in India,’ and here we are in Pushkar. We arrived Thursday morning and oh do I feel happy! Lovely big light room, comfy bed, super friendly staff, beautifully painted guesthouse with gorgeous roof terrace with food. We’ve met nice people at the guesthouse and out in Pushkar. Pushkar itself is lovely with its holy lake, well fed cows, lots of cool stalls and good food.

See you next week, and thank you very much for reading

Photos of Pushkar by my husband