‘At home wherever you go’*

Tags

Anything is possible, Cambodia, Incredible India, India, Love India, Narrowboat, Nepal, Thailand, Tokyo, Travel, Traveling, Travelling, Vietnam

All the places we’ve stayed… in chronological order… with links to relevant blog posts

We had a budget per night of £10 (or US$13 or IDR1,000, roughly).  We stayed in private rooms, except for me in Tokyo.  We kept well within budget most of the time, often staying in rooms which cost half that amount.  We blew the budget in Tokyo (£20 per night), and went over once in Delhi and once in Bangalore, and towards the end of our Pushkar stay when prices went up due to an event.

* from an article in an old magazine about the benefits of meditation, read in a cafe in Pondicherry, India

Delhi, India (Hotel) pictured above Arrival meltdown and First sickness

Our first stop.  That spot is special to me, I did my yoga there, ‘I’m doing yoga, in India!’ and I lay there in the hall on the cool floor next to the bathroom the night I was sick.

Train Delhi to Goa

Colva (Hostel/Guesthouse) Colva (Hotel)

Agonda (first Beach hut)

Agonda (second Beach hut) pictured above

Hampi ‘the other side of the river’/ ‘hippie island’ (Guesthouse) pictured above

Hampi temple side of the river (guesthouse) pictured above

Anjuna (guesthouse)

Arambol (guesthouse)

Panaji (guesthouse)

Varkala (bungalow)

Varkala (guesthouse) Meeting our people

Kovalam (hotel)

Varkala (hotel) Everyday enlightenment

Kanyakumari (hotel)

Kochi (homestay),

Night train to Chennai

Chennai (hotel)

Chennai (guesthouse) pictured above A piece of my heart is still in Chennai and Broadlands Guesthouse

Pondicherry (guesthouse)

Bangkok, Thailand (guesthouse)

Night train to Surat Thani

Haad Rin (bungalow)

Thong Sala (bungalow)

Sri Thanu (bungalow)

Night train to Bangkok

Tokyo Japan (capsule hostel) pictured above

(My husband went to Cambodia while I was in Tokyo, he stayed in two different guesthouse rooms.  He also did a trip to and from Bangkok with his daughter, and so had an extra overnight train journey, and three nights in three different hotels, so he wins on numbers!)

Kolkata India (guesthouse)

Night train to Varanasi

Varanasi (guesthouse)

Varanasi (guesthouse) 3 hours (unbearable due to building work)

Delhi (hotel)

Sleeper bus to Pushkar pictured above

Pushkar (guesthouse) first room

Pushkar (guesthouse) second room pictured above

We were there for a month and felt like part of the family.  They upgraded us for our last few days!  I loved Pushkar, home to Babas, gorgeous looking cows, and fun monkeys.

Delhi (hotel)

Kathmandu, Nepal (homestay)

Nagarkot, Nepal (wooden chalet)

Varkala, India (guesthouse)

Hampi (guesthouse) first room, second room So many things to love in Hampi…  and our second room

Bangalore (hotel)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (guesthouse)

Koh Rong, Cambodia (tent) pictured above (travel update Cambodia)

Otres Village, Cambodia (bungalow) Writing and contemplation

Siem Reap, Cambodia (hotel) A little bit of luxury

Hanoi, Vietnam (apartment)

Hanoi, Vietnam (guesthouse)

Sapa,Vietnam (hostel)

Hanoi, Vietnam (hotel)

Night train to Dong Hoi, Vietnam

Dong Hoi, Vietnam (pub/hostel)

Hue, Vietnam (hotel)

Nha Trang, Vietnam (hotel)

Nha Trang, Vietnam (hotel) next door

Dalat, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, pictured above, our last room in SE Asia

As this posts we will be waking up in a Travelodge in London, before getting a train to Northampton, then a bus, to begin our new lives living on a narrowboat in the Northamptonshire countryside!

Thank you very much for reading

How to write a book

Tags

How to write a book, India, Kanyakumari, Nepal, Placebo, Project 333, Rufus Wainwright, spiritual memoir, Thailand, Tokyo, Travel writing

Writing update:

Because we travel on 7kg hand luggage allowance only, I ruthlessly declutter even notebooks once the content has been typed.  I tear the covers off notebooks, pull the written-on pages from writing pads and discard the rest.  Although I usually have an A4 or more usually an A5 pad in the room, when I am out and about I have a small notebook.  Sometimes a really tiny one.  I often only have a waist bag and don’t like to carry a heavy bag.

The loose folded pages at the bottom of the pile, the two coverless notebooks and the small and tiny little notebooks contain a few additional notes from Nepal, and pretty much all the notes for India Part Two as in from October when I came back from Thailand and Tokyo, to when we left in January.  I have typed some notes up as I’ve gone along, and some of the blogs from that period will contain useful aide memoires, but these notebooks are priceless.

Does having a collection of tiny little notebooks to carry around and take care of cause me anxiety?  Well yes it does.  I wrap them all up in a plastic bag, then put them inside a polka dot draw string bag, then in my big handbag for travelling, otherwise they stay indoors.  (Other than the current one in my waist bag, of course.)

The last time I bound them up to pack I was thinking about the book, and the work, and about getting it all done, and then I saw how the books had arranged themselves.  There were just two words visible from the open pages of one of the notebooks:  Work hard

It’s actually part of a t-shirt slogan I noted down ‘Work hard, stay humble,’ (one day I will get around to that post, Indian t-shirt slogans are the best) but for now, I’m taking it as a sign or a mantra and I’m having it for myself.

In the photo of the little pile of notebooks is a green notebook.  Until a few days before I had also had a red one the same, both from the Kerala period May- August.  My husband had brought them back for me from shopping one day.   ‘If you love me, buy me notebooks.’  These two had been the worst, in terms of the oldest, the smallest, and had been carried around all over the place, India, Thailand, Tokyo and back to India again, once or twice I’d thought I’d lost them, but I’d put them somewhere safe.

Typing up the bits from them hung over me like dealing with the huge Kerala section.  In Otres Village, Sihanoukville, Cambodia, I worked through a chest infection on Kerala, Varkala, and opened the red notebook.  It had a few bits and pieces for the main Kerala, Varkala chapter, and it also had notes about the trip we’d taken to Kanyakumari.

I’d written a draft chapter about Kanyakumari at the time and posted it on the blog in a bit of a hurry.  Re reading the original notes I realised the blog wasn’t as warm, and the notebook contained potentially more depth of feeling.  After a moment of disappointment/overwhelm, I realised it was ultimately a good thing.  I retyped everything from the notebook, unless it was exactly the same as in the draft, so that I didn’t miss something.  I got the typing finished before we left, and whilst we’ve been at Siem Reap I got the Kanyakumari draft redone.

And then in Siem Reap I went back to the main Kerala, Varkala section, and opened the last notebook, the little green one; and found… that there was nothing to find.  Every page had a line crossed through meaning it had been typed, which I also checked, or was blank.  Sometimes the universe just throws you a bone.

I decided that was the moment to stop for the day.  My husband had gone out to give me writing space.  Rather than just plough on to the next thing I thought I’d take a moment to celebrate what I had already achieved.  Listening to this song alone in our beautiful hotel room, the end in sight, was a moment of pure celebration and joy:

The next day I did a final bit of tidying up and sent the Kerala draft to my husband to read: 23,000 words, and the section I’ve struggled with the most.  It’s still a draft, but it’s ready for a rough read, and it’s time to move on.  And oh yes, that felt good.  Below was the song for that moment, that pure burst of energy:

For anyone doing anything creative I wish you full power

 

Thank you very much for reading

‘So many ways to dance upon this Earth:’ Nepal

Tags

buddhism, Enlightenment, Nagarkot, Nepal, Self realisation, The hotel at the end of the universe, Travel, Traveling, Travelling

‘I don’t feel anything,’ I said to my husband as we stood in the midst of a perfect Instagram/Facebook photo opportunity, standing at the top of a viewing platform with the sun rising over the Himalayas.  I felt more about the cat on the wall in Chennai, I thought.  The mountains did their work on me though, even if I didn’t realise it immediately.

We’d set the alarm and got up at six am to walk a short way to a half-finished hotel that had a viewing tower.  Before we went down we did a kind of half-hearted meditation, focussing on our breath whilst looking, half-hearted as it was cold, our feet ached, and there were two other people about.

As the sun rose it lit up little pieces of one peak, then another, then more and more, first tinged pink then lit white and silver.  In front were pine trees, some fuzzy to look at, as if my eyes were blurred, reminding me of the trees I saw in Tokyo.  I saw an animal in a tree, I thought at first it was a monkey, then I realised it was long and slim, more like a big black stoat.  A man back at the hotel later said it was a mongoose.

If you’re looking for enlightenment, The Hotel at The End of The Universe could be a good place to start.  Conversations with the beautifully named Oasis, who owns the hotel, help to shine a little more light upon the path.  The sight of The Himalayas, trees all around and the clean mountain air provide restorative relaxation.  Wooden chalet style accommodation, a restaurant, bar and sunny terrace provide everything you need.

We got back, had breakfast and I stood outside in the sun, near the others but alone, I had to keep moving to stay in a sunny patch.

The others were talking with Oasis, I listened for a while before moving a chair to join them.  Oasis, a Buddhist, seemed to have an easy relationship with death.  Maybe also because of the earthquakes, and the mountains.  ‘So I die,’ he said.  ‘What about the people left behind?’ my husband asked.  ‘Two, three days, then they okay, okay, he die,’ Oasis said.

We all talked about the journey towards self realisation.  I expressed that maybe once you find it* there’s nothing left to do but die, so maybe it’s best not to get there* until death.  Oasis said, ‘You can just enjoy yourself.  There are so many ways to dance upon this Earth.  Drink, don’t drink, it’s all the same.  When you live in the moment you don’t  concern yourself with death.’

The night before he’d played cards with us and two other tourists.  When someone said they wouldn’t be able to play because they were drunk, he said, ‘You’re still the same, it makes no difference.’  There was much laughter that evening with people forgetting it was their turn and getting confused whilst learning a new game.  Oasis sat laughing and smiling like a Buddha.

And during our discussions the next day, he remained so totally centred, even in the midst of disagreements and comments that I perceived as almost rude, although, as I reminded myself later, maybe it’s only rude if you allow yourself to get offended.  ‘Focus on yourself, not what others are doing,’ he said.

‘You have to manage your thoughts, because when you get to a certain level, what you think about, comes.’  I told him that I was at ease with that now, because I felt good and I see how it all works, but that in the past I’d been anxious about that concept, getting into a panicky loop of worrying about fearing and manifesting spiders.

‘That’s why it’s so important to maintain wellbeing,’ I said.  ‘Even a tractor, definitely a dog, and people, operate best when they are ‘well,’ well maintained and happy.’

*although there’s nothing to find and nowhere to get to

A travel blog type bit:

On the way there (Kathmandu to Nagarkot), we paid our guesthouse man to drive us in his car.  We had to pay men at two separate points along on the way up, for the entry, for the road.  It was only a few pounds each time but it was relatively expensive and because it was unexpected it was annoying.  However there is nothing to be done by arguing, we tried!  On the way back we got a bus, these are plentiful and frequent, firstly from Nagarkot to Bhaktapur then Bhaktapur to Kathmandu.  We did not have to pay the extra road/entry charges and the bus fare was way cheaper than a car or taxi.  The bus was bumpy and rather exciting, as was the car, with the sheer drops down the side…

Thank you very much for reading

Photographs taken by my husband 

For more photographs of our trip see Instagram travelswithanthony

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All you have to do is realise it: Nepal

Tags

awareness, Kathmandu, meditation, Nepal, spirituality, Travel, Traveling, Travelling

To people newly arrived from Germany it felt warm, and they wandered around in t-shirts and were bemused at the Nepali people bundled up in their hats, fleeces and North Face quilted jackets.  To us, newly arrived from India it felt very chilly.  During the day outside in the warmth of the sun especially when walking it feels almost hot for a few hours, but the temperature drops quickly as the sun goes down.

Fortunately warm clothes are cheap and plentiful; as well as North Face quilted jackets everywhere there are lots of shops full of winter coats and jumpers, thick leggings, velveteen hoodies and knitted trousers.  There are also numerous discount stores with tables out on the street piled high with plain fleeces, cheerful furry fleeces in bright colors, heavy synthetic blankets and warm hats and socks.  There are piles of thick fleecy bright pink Hello Kitty trousers for babies and toddlers.  I love the fact that warm, practical clothes are everywhere and affordable.  A Nepali man said to us, ‘Cheap, yes, you can get a good jacket for £10.’

The children look absolutely adorable in thick knitted hats with ear flaps.  Many of the women are dressed in sarees or Indian style dresses and trousers with shawls, knitted cardigans, padded anoraks or blankets on top.  Outfits are a juxtaposition of styles and colors with an emphasis on keeping warm.  I love how it all just feels so practical.

Nepali people are famous for being warm and friendly and we have found this to be true.  I’ve seen more women working and had more conversations with women than in India.  I had a sign language conversation with a lovely woman who gave me pieces of orange, I admired her nose stud and we showed each other how many ear and nose piercings we had.  She picked bits of fluff off my fleece and told me in sign language how many children she had, nine.  Nine! I said on my fingers, she stuck out her tongue cheekily.

Our guesthouse, a hostel with some private rooms, is a bit like a homestay, our landlady cooks for us if we want.  She hugs me easily, I love that easy physical familiarity so un-British and which feels so warm.

Food: momos, of course, the most thinnest lightest delicious-ist nan, sabji, veg curry, dhal soup to pour over rice, black eyed beans and beaten rice, like rice flakes.

Pollution is a problem, I use a fabric mask that I bought in Delhi and am operating a one day out one day in kind of routine.  After being out for a long time it can feel almost nauseating and the taste in my mouth is like the day after smoking a lot of cigarettes.

Since arriving in Nepal my husband and I have been meditating every morning, taking it in turns to lead and both feeding back afterwards.  It makes such a difference and I am so happy that we are back on the path together.  I want the quest for self realisation/increasing awareness to be a central part of my life.  We’re always on the path, of course, but it’s easy to talk the talk and not walk the walk.  That ten minutes each morning honours our commitment and permeates the entire day, and it’s only ten minutes!

I’ve almost finished typing up my outstanding notes from our time in Kerala then I will work on getting that section finished.  It’s really long, twice as long as my Thailand section and happily for me contains loads of good material!

I’ve started a new Instagram page under my Sadie Wolf name where I can be free to just express myself about writing and self awareness and so on and as a vehicle to promote the blog and in the future the book.

Instagram: Sadie Wolf so_simple_so_amazing

Thank you very much for reading