5 tips and tricks to survive traveling 3rd world

Having lived in a few different countries I have felt my own variations of homesickness. I mean lets face it, life outside of the USofA is different. So to combat I have come up with a few tricks to keep that homesickness at bay.

1. Bring your favorite treat (gummies, popcorn, gum, chocolate etc). chances are they wont have it or it tastes different. Even though I have found my favorite treats in each country, after a time you start craving that one thing and it helps just to have a little taste of home to keep you from going crazy.

2. After travelling and at times sweating in places that aren't up to Americas standard of clean, I start feeling like crap... for whatever reason taking some time to really "pamper" myself makes me feel better. Whether that is washing clothes, shaving my legs, putting lotion on those said legs, or going somewhere nice that requires you to ditch the traveling clothes and dress up.

3. Take a rest day and do something "American" like going to a movie, taking a nap, reading a book, finding an American restaurant.

4. Before you leave pack something you enjoy (food, a book, music, clothes, products for great hair) and when you hit those days where you start wondering what you were thinking in going abroad, pull out your "sanity pack".

5. When you first arrive, write down the things that amaze you and that you find fascinating. When you start having days when you cant remember what you liked about travelling pull out that list. Be candid when writing it.

No Shame in stopping at the Krispy Kreme for a donut every time we went thru Bangkok

Thailand offered great, cheap smoothies



Loved the gate art in India





Every now and then we come up with crazy ideas that provide many laughs and stress relief

My favorite thing to watch at big sites is everyone posing, when you don't have the
perspective their photographer does, people look hilarious.

Take a step back and watch all those people..

Sometimes if you just remember the magical feeling of arriving in your dream destination it is enough

Everywhere has a heart warming moment if you look

Watching how excited everyone gets (adults and kids) when they see the magic come alive

What tricks do you have when travelling?

Pray for...

Normally when a tragedy happens I see and post about "Praying for...." but with events of the last few days let alone the month and year I am at a loss of what to say and do. Prayers and thoughts are all well and dandy but what else are we and can we do to help? Everywhere needs help and thoughts, no where has been immune to tragedy.

This year alone we have seen Flooding in Chennai India, Earthquake in Chile, Papua New Guinea, Japan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Argentina, Fiji, Mexico, Tonga, Greece, New Zealand, and many more. There have been a total of 13,370 earthquakes in 2015 alone ranging on the Richter scale from 4.0-8.3 with the deadliest being in Nepal with over 8,000 people dead. (source Wikipedia list of earthquakes 2015)

Refugees from Syria, Mass shootings around the world most recently in Paris, & California.
Some ask, "is it safe to travel?" after some thought my answer is no. Even within our own communities we are taking that risk, however it is so needed. By traveling we represent our country in a way politicians cannot, we show the true American spirit rather then the Hollywood stereotype.

All of these disasters present an opportunity for the human race to step forward and show their better side. We have all seen the worst of humanity with terrorist attacks both domestic and international, now is the time to have the best of humanity come forth and show good still does exist in the world.
Smile at your neighbor stop to help someone as they are struggling, any little act goes a long way. We can fight with kindness. It is time to see the beauty in the world again, both in the culture & beliefs of others as well as in the natural beauty all around.

"I don not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to express it to the last"- Voltaire

Wonders of New Delhi!

Last leg of the trip, Delhi. After we hired our taxi driver to take us from Agra to Delhi I am pretty sure we all fell asleep. I can't help it, something about car rides in the rain are magical to me and lull me to sleep. We had a rough start, the hostel we were going to stay at was completely booked, but we did get a few recommendations from the staff for other hotels. 

Hudson and I went to check out a couple hotels while the group sat with our stuff. Once we decided on our hotel we went out to explore and found a great little restaurant tucked away amongst the shops. 

Finally the true moment I had been waiting for, the 4th of July celebration for American citizens at the embassy. I had prepared for this, once I realized there was a celebration in Delhi I began working on my fellow friends to help them realize their own desire to go party. In Darjheeling Ann and I had found these awesome leggings to enhance the American spirit. Oh and US passport  is required to enter. 

Once in there was american food, games, and FIREWORKS! 

The best part was the dancing, I love a good dance party and once Ann and I got up and danced our little hearts out we were joined but many more fellow American citizens. Dancing has never felt so good.
Once the party ended I met one of the members that work at the embassy, we chatted and had a great time, she introduced me (and in turn everyone else in the group) to other ex-pats. We passed the test(mostly since we don't drink) and were invited to join them at the Belgium embassy to watch the World Cup in the quarter finals as they played against Argentina. The Belgians provided Beer which everyone was super excited about, and since we don't drink we became their new favorite friends.
It was such an amazing experience to have, this trip was so worth the stress and effort.

Sunday we found a ward (very difficult to find the meetinghouse) and attended church. After we went to the Lotus temple. Beware there is a long winding line to get into the grounds, but it goes fairly quickly. It was such a beautiful and peaceful place from the building to the grounds, totally worth the wait. The Bahia faith is a beautiful belief.

The more I travel and learn about other cultures, religions, and beliefs I realize we as the human race have much more in common than not. Yet as humans we to often focus on the differences and let those differences tear us apart. What would the world be like our main export was respect, and love for one another. We are all living our own personal truths and doing what we can to survive and thrive in this life. How amazing would it be if we all stopped to help another? This is one thing that impacts me the most about travel, I am representing my country, my religion and woman. Am I leaving people better than I found them, with a positive lasting impact so one day when someone speaks ill of what I represent and hold dear, the individual I met will think twice before believing that ill.
We often hear one person can't change the world.. But one person can if we believe in ourselves, for better or worse. To name a few people that changed the world. Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Michael Jordan, Nelson Mandela, Walt Disney, Madam Curie, Florence Nightingale the list goes on and on. So yes, I believe a smile and a positive word can change the world.

Back to our Delhi trip, to end the vacation we met up with one of our friends from the embassy to get lunch before we left.
Ann & I both ordered salads and this (to the left) is how they came.. Something different… After we grabbed a couple of Autos and raced to the airport, barely making it in time to catch the bus from the auto drop off to the airport, and then barely making it to check in for our flight. We even got an escort to get us thru security and down the terminal to our flight. Turns out my seat was double booked so I enjoyed a nice flight in 1st class. It is a miracle we have not missed a flight or bus in this country when traveling. We have had so man "walk on" moments.








Lastly one of my favorite things in India but especially Delhi are the "warning" signs and slogans. The picture below says STOP Criticizing. Thank you India for reminding us to be better people.

Traveling India's Himalayas, is it for you?

Darjheeling, India

What can I say about this place, I love it. When I think of India, this is not the place I picture but has fast become one of my favorite places. After the heat and chaos of the city it was so nice to go up to Darjeeling and get away from the heat and chaos. The mountains have always had a way of healing my soul and rejuvenating me for another "round" in life.

After flying into the worlds smallest airport, Bagdogra we hitched a ride in a hummer up the step mountain road. *disclaimer if you get motion sickness or if you don't like "thrilling" rides than this trip is not for you. Distance wise it is quite close, as in 45km, but time wise it is a few hours away. The ride was quite the adventure with 12 people in a hummer up the step and winding road ascending deeper and deeper into the clouds.

Along the way our driver stopped to put a covering on all our luggage that was on top, we wondered down the road to see the beautiful lush forest, but before we went to far he warned us to watch for tigers and wild elephants!
Interesting side note, every hummer has a driver and an assistant, many of them ride standing on the back bumper! India is so different then America in more ways then one.

Once we reached Darjeeling (as an american you will pronounce this completely wrong, it is not a 3 syllable word, Dahr-jee-ling… it is more like one word slurred together. Dahrsheling.. it is a softer j… )
Anyways back on track once we reached our home for the week we were in love, it is chillier up there but such a welcome respite from Hyderabad. Up there everyone was a lot more relaxed and just went about their business. We had reserved 2 rooms for the 10 of us, but when we checked in they told us we had to pay an exhorbant amount extra for the extra people, but they wouldn't let us cancel either, finally after much back and forth the head manager (or the owner) came from off property and was amazing, he not only didn't charge us extra but he let us use a 3rd room as well. He cited that since we where helping his country he wanted to help us. (so nice of him, people are amazing!)

Everywhere in town is either uphill or downhill, and our rooms were up the stairs (it is all outside stairs and our place was like a villa I suppose, but each room had its own separate feel… but we did have roof access and that was amazing!
We went into town for some dinner and then headed to bed, the next morning I was wide awake thinking it was noon, but when I looked at my phone it was 6am! The sun rises early here, but it was so quaint to have a cup of lemon tea and enjoy the stillness of the morning.

Once everyone was up we stopped at a bakery and grabbed breakfast pastries to eat on the way to our explorations. We started off in search of the tibetan refugee camp, but ended up taking the back road to Observation Hill. As we walked up the hill we saw a monkey and got so excited, and then another, the top of the hill was shrouded in fog but we continued our walk upwards. Soon we started seeing lines of Tibetan prayer flags followed by more prayer flags and still more. The top of the hill is a place where buddhism flourishes and there are many shrines and temples. I found a quite area and just thought for a while, it was such a magical place, so quite and so
removed from the world. The monkeys would run and jump along the lines of prayer flags.



We eventually walked around the top and were able to talk to some buddhist monks about their life and they gave us a blessing and good luck. I noticed that as the monkeys would try and get close and into the temple all the guardians had to do was pick up a rock and they would scatter, they didn't even have to chuck the rock picking it up was enough. We all began to gather as we prepared to descend the hill and venture around some more.  1/2 the group was going down ahead, Anna & I stopped to wait for a few more stragglers to come down.  (did I ever mention that monkey are curious??)
As Anna and I were standing around a young monkey decided that it would be adventurous and climb my leg.. Not wanting and I'll affects I gently nudged the little guy away from my leg… apparently that was very upsetting, he jumped back 35 feet or so and screamed. All the adults in the vicinity took that very personal and came running with bared teeth at me. Umm yes this was terrifying, I went to back up and tripped on the ledge into a small ditch on the side. So not only do I have monkeys getting ready to end my life, I also happen to be trying to balance and not fall and thus render myself totally and completely helpless. One monkey made it and grabbed my leg and bit down hard (I had made a last minute decision to wear my denim jeans instead of my leggings that morning.. this may have saved my life.. Literarlly) As soon as he bit down I flung him off my leg (natural instinct) which only made them angrier. At this point I realize it is probably the end, I am backed against a wall, and if I turn and run they will be on me faster than an open flame can ignite a dry field.
As I am realizing this I pull my hands up to shield my face and take back mocking death by monkeys…at the same time my friends realized what was happening and my hopeless predicament and came charging swinging bags at these ferocious primates. I can not tell you the amount of relief I had at seeing them.  I tend to be a suffer in silence type, so I don't know if I ever even screamed. I was just so focused on the situation. Oh this whole encounter happened within the span of maybe 2 minutes and I was gifted with instant black-and-blue bruising from the encounter.  Later that night at dinner some of the girls were freaking out over the fact that I was attacked by monkeys and were surprised I was so calm about it. There was one other family in the restaurant with us.. As they got  up to leave they informed us that "next time we want to throw around racial slurs to be mindful of who was around". We were all in such shock. Luckily Matt and Hudson quickly got up and followed them out to explain that I really was attacked by monkeys and it had nothing to do with racial slurs.  Just for the record I never want to try for a better story than that.

Ankgor Watt- The Ruins of the Jungle

Today we begin with our delightful traditional breakfast of toast, rice, and eggs, with some type of sausage as well. Soon after we head out and to our delight our "Tour Guide" is our driver from the airport! He gives us a low down on the itinerary for the day, saving THE Angkor Watt for our last temple visit and then rounding out the day watching the Sunset. (good, right??)

 Ankgor Watt

Made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992

It was first a Hindu Temple, but later when Buddhism took over, 

many of the wall murals were changed so the Hindu gods became Buddha

We began with Bayon Temple, our tour guide (I should really start writing down their names as they say them) dropped us off and let us go explore the complex.  As we were staring up at the massive temple, trying to take it all in, a young man approached me and asked if I wanted to climb to to top of one of the towers.

The front face of it had worn steep stairs, (and for someone with a fear of stairs, it was not at all a pleasant sight, but the adventurous side of me won..) but the back had stairs that were still just as steep, but were slightly more intact.

So up I went, with the thought that I am going to hate coming down these. The view was worth it, there was many smiling Buddha and my friend even caught just the right angle so I could be nose to nose with Buddha.

Jamie found us eventually and came up to enjoy the view, which was beautiful, did I mention how gorgeous it is here??  PS no touch up, just raw photograph!

Then came the dreaded part of going down. You have to go down with your foot turned to the side, and even then only half your foot is on the step... I wish it was one of those things you could just close your eyes and be done with it, but that seemed a little to risky for obvious reasons.

From there our new found friend gave us the complete tour of the temple and all its highlights. At the end, he gave us his shpill on how he was a student at the school for tour guides (who knew they had a school like that??) and asked for a donation to help his friends in the Orphanage. Being skeptical but kind, I gave him some money. He seemed disappointed at the amount, not because it was small but because I am American and we are "loaded with money". I suppose that is my cross to bear in exchange for the privilege of traveling.


From their we went to the next temple across the way, however this one was a working(??) temple so unless you had pants/skirt that covered the knees*, you weren't allowed in. I was wearing shorts that day, so I waited outside while Jamie went exploring. While she was in the temple, I did check out some of the royal palace that was situated right next to the temple.

We headed with our driver to Angkor Thom, once again he dropped us off as we went on our way. Both of these places are very cool, and I would suggest seeing them as well as Ankgor Wat. There is a lot more opportunity for exploring in these temples as there aren't as many tourists. The Cambodian gov't is working on restoring these places so there are some places that you can't enter, but I didn't feel like I missed out on anything.  We did find this very cool Tree...

Lunch was a grand occasion, we stopped at one of the local tourist restaurants and were seated in the AC portion. Like all of Asia, the bathroom is an adventure, just don't plan on clean bathrooms or TP outside of your hotel and you'll be just fine. This place was better then most, with your choice of Western toilets or squatters. But it is mandatory (by my decree) that you try a squatter at least once.
After lunch we went to Angkor Wat. What an amazing temple, with a gorgeous reflection in the pond in front, and a small tourist market to the side. There are monks that still practice back behind the market, and there is a small graveyard back there as well, with the massive memorials.

To end our day we went for a hike up this hill that had a great view, due to language barrier/accent, we misheard our tour guides instructions that we were watching the sunset up there. It was a great view of the area, but with signs that said "close at 5:30" we assumed everyone had to be off the hill. But apparently that just means no more admittance after 5:30. So we tragically had to watch the sunset from in front of Ankgor Wat.. Hard life I know.

We returned to the hotel for dinner, and finally got our Margherita pizza with our ever favorite smoothie. MMMMmmmm So good!! Jamie and I decided to go exploring down the street, and found the night market. At first glance it was a small market, but it's a TRICK! It has alleys of stalls that just keep leading you further and further down. The one time I decide I want something, there is no one around.. Typical.  But we have some great finds, including a painting of cambodian fisherman, coconut bowls, and a cute dress for Jamie. And with that we decided to call it a night.

*When Traveling thru the world, especially Asia, I have found it convenient to carry a scarf to cover the arms/head, and a back-up skirt/pants. As I don't understand Asian culture, I might not have prepared as well as I should have, AKA not dressed appropriately. In the Western world, and even a little bit in the Middle East, I understand the general dress code protocol.

All in all I loved our stay at Tanei Guesthouse in Seim Reap and will stay there again if I'm ever in the area, which I hope to be.

Day2 in Phuket Paradise

I love lazy mornings, Jamie... not so much. She did pass the time by playing Bejeweled and letting me sleep, since jet lag finally caught up to me. So Sunday morning, after sleeping in, we headed over to the weekend market, just down the street from where we were staying. However, turned out that is was a night market, so we jumped on the back of a motorcycle taxi and headed to Wat Chalang. 

Wat Chalang is a Buddhist temple, and it is amazing. There is a mixture of tourists, drivers, worshipers, and even a wedding couple. The bride is beautiful in her traditional wedding wear, and the groom looks like Prince Charming. As we enter the temple, after removing our shoes, we are stunned by the beauty of the murals and the many statues of Buddha.

 

My Favorite part are all the elephants!

As we continue on we are assaulted by the sound of loud popping, like gun shots. Our eyes quickly scanned the courtyard, via the window, searching for some chaos, but everyone was calm as day (never got that expression.. maybe days were calmer back in the day??) So we attributed it to a one time occurrence someone light the firecrackers in celebration of the Bride and Groom who looked like they were straight out of a fairy tale, the classics, you know? Like Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty.
Anywho, I've gone off topic, back to Firecrackers. The rest of our time spent there we heard Firecrackers probably 7 times!

**come to find out, according to Phuket.com, & Justluxe.com  the act of Lighting Firecrackers is to show gratitude for an answered prayer and thus celebrating their good fortune**

 

The Lovely Gardens

All in all I loved the simple elegance of this Buddhist temple, complete with all the minor details. If you are traveling thru Phuket I would definitely recommend stopping by Wat Chalang, if for nothing more then a good healthy heart pounding start to your day, when you find yourself a little to close to the oven meant for Firecrackers.

 

From Wat Chalang we hailed a motorcylce taxi and headed up to Big Buddha, which completely lives up to its name. It was quite the hill for our motorcycle to climb with 3 people, but once at the top the view was gorgeous, and the was monks reading scripture over the speakers completed the scene.

 

Heading back home, proved to be quite the feat. Our driver got lost several times, despite his original reassurance that he knew the street we lived on, in "old" downtown Phuket.
We eventually made it after help from some very helpful ladies at one of the resorts, and another kind soul at the market near our place where we were eventually dropped off. 
Times like this I realize how much we are at the mercy of others, and rather then being upset, it is better to roll with the punches and realize we will eventually make it, but at the moment we are having an adventure, and there is nothing I can do, so enjoy. 
I LOVED traveling by motorcycle and would encourage anyone else who is brave enough to trust a complete stranger with their lives, to travel this way as well. 

The Sunday Market was a blast, located on Walking Street, along Thalong Road, the street is closed for the day while everyone sets up for the evening. It was so fun just to wander around and experience the carnival like atmosphere with the food, the dancers and the vendors. (we found more 'handmade' unique things here, then any other shopping in Thailand) The Market doesn't open till 4pm so the vendors all bring lights and make it a night market. The street also has a network of colored changing lights.

 

Such Cute Performers!

Another place I suggest, that we didn't go is The Point by Patong beach, it is the last place the sun sets, and has some gorgeous views. 

We also researched Memorials from the December 26, 2004 earthquake and resulting Tsunami. One that seemed more prominent is an underwater plaque near Tonsai Bay/Krabi. Do your research on this one. It has some cool significance. 

Khao Lak/Phi Phi Island Police boat- another notable memorial is the Police boat that was washed a shore, at the time it was on duty for the Royal family. It was never moved and has since been set up as a memorial.

Buddhism Weekly Holy days are based off the Lunar Cycle, Full Moon, New Moon, and the 2 half moons. Important to know, since many shops, and restaurants are closed on those days... (Info found on http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/147862-what-is-buddhist-holy-day-of-the-week/)