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Because you can't leave your self behind
helen4ian.blogspot.com
11
Described by one reader as 'the best blog I've ever read' this is Ian's slightly skewed, and painfully honest, take on what happened when he and his wife, Helen, decided to take a career break and travel the world.
#110244 in All , #82 in Travel Journals

What’s not to like?

Apropos of nothing at all Ricky walked up to me on the Navimag ferry as we sailed the Chilean fjords and asked; ‘this year away of yours, have you ever not enjoyed it and wanted to go home’?  ‘G...

19 jan 12

Friends like these

Bolivia‘So, you know when we all staggered off to our rooms last night’ I sheepishly explained, head pounding, guts gurgling, and the black dog nipping at my heels, ‘well, two hours later I found mys...

13 jan 12

High and not so mighty

Peru: Colca Canyon, near ArequipaI once heard it claimed that smokers cope better at high altitudes due to their pre-existing acquaintance with a lowered lung capacity.  This, I can now scientif...

12 dec 11

Searching for the human condition

The weird and wonderful world of tinternet searchesSearch engines amaze me.  Surely, but surely, they are one of the modern wonders of the world, along with GPS, anything Steve Jobs touched, the...

29 nov 11

Have a little patience

Columbia: Santa Marta, Tayrona National Park, Cartagena, Mompos, San Gil, BogotaIt’s a game of two halves, Bob.  Six of one, half a dozen of t’other.  You win some, you lose some.  You...

24 nov 11

Black Dolphin makes a splash

Venezuela: Puerto Columbia, Barinas, Los Llanos and Merida“Elena es alegre con bonita cabella.  Ian es gordo”, explained our new Spanish tutor, Fluvio, in order to illustrate both the ‘to be’ Sp...

06 nov 11

Keeping my nerve

Venezuela: CaracasI’m no stranger to the type of sleep that precedes an early morning flight; for several years it was my Sunday night routine. The startled awakenings to check the time, the hazy fee...

31 oct 11

Letter from America

North to South American road trip: New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina,  Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, ...

26 oct 11

Driven to distraction

America’s highways and bywaysThe following clarifications to the rules and regulations that govern road travel in the United States come into force with immediate effect:Anyone caught using their cel...

16 oct 11

Welcome to America

New York, headed northThis is how the conversation with the charming US Border Agent at New York’s JFK airport went, l’esprit de l’escalier style:Him: You need to remove this piece of paper from your...

06 oct 11

Alaska: The ‘Can’t Leave Your Self Behind’ Guide

Beard grown? Check.  Warm clothes packed? Check.  Pioneering sense of adventure primed? Check.  Magnificent scenery-o-meter calibrated, faces set to stunned? Check and double check.The...

25 sep 11

Warner & Spidey get lucky

Alaska: McCarthyWhen the opportunity presented itself to go to McCarthy, a town at the end of an infamous 60 mile one way road, I was nervous.  Reading about this town some years back had trigge...

01 sep 11

Dream catcher

Alaska: Homer, Kenai PeninsulaThere’s an irony at play here, I thought, as I assessed the outfit I was wearing to go halibut fishing in the ocean off Homer, on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.  Checkin...

25 aug 11

A-Unit: thrift in the Last Frontier

Alaska, Kenai Peninsula‘Eew, don’t put that thing on my hoodie, it smells like dead people’.  ‘Well I think it’s pretty snazzy, and look, the last owner has left me a bottle top in one of the po...

24 aug 11

Cambodia: The SE Asia ‘Can’t Leave Your Self Behind’ Guide

From A to B – Getting AroundThere are no trains currently running in Cambodia so it’s buses for getting around.  The roads in Cambodia are much quieter than neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand, a ...

19 aug 11

Vietnam: The SE Asia ‘Can’t Leave Your Self Behind’ Guide

From A to B – Getting AroundTrainsThe trains were fully booked when we were in Vietnam which was a real shame as travelling North to South, or vice versa, is both a logical route and well supported b...

16 aug 11

Laos: The SE Asia ‘Can’t Leave Your Self Behind’ Guide

From A to B – Getting AroundWe were in a bus crash in Laos, which rather put us off travelling in buses.  But there’s not much choice in Laos.  There are no trains as far as I’m aware. ...

13 aug 11

Thailand: The SE Asia ‘Can’t Leave Your Self Behind’ Guide

From A to B – Getting AroundGetting around in Thailand is so simple even I managed it.  Travel agents are everywhere, more often than not in guesthouses.  Pick a destination, wander down fr...

13 aug 11

Indications of temporality

The below speaks for itself: funny signs Ive seen in SE Asia.Pleasonable (adjective): Based on good sense, brings pleasure to the recipient.I have a good offer for you that I think you will like; it ...

21 jul 11

The spectres of spirituality

Cambodia – Kep and Siem ReapI’m not a very spiritual person.  That was my conclusion during our visit to the Angkor temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  I see wonder, and I would like to see it...

21 jul 11

Vietnam – full of Vietnamese

Vietnam – From Hanoi to Phu Quoc IslandI shot a furtive and subtle glance over my right shoulder to Helen, sat at the back of the minibus, that I hoped conveyed the message ‘this is not what it looks...

15 jul 11

The diving bell and the swine

Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam (not that this is at all relevant for what follows)It can seem sometimes that being on holiday is akin to living inside a diving bell.  The constant roar of 24/7 news co...

06 jul 11

Money in the hat

Vietnam, Mekong DeltaThree of the four tourists wore their tour-inclusive pointed bamboo hats as they were paddled fore and aft in a canoe through the thin, mangrove lined canal just off the Mekong R...

03 jul 11

People are strange

Luang Prabang, Laos and Hanoi, Vietnam“Oh, hello, you were on the plane with us from Luang Prabang” she said, scurrying across the busy Hanoi street and leaving her (his eyes seemed to suggest) long-...

23 jun 11

Risks worth taking

Laos, Huay XaiThere are some risks one can choose to take, calculated risks, risks that you feel you understand the potential consequences of and choose to take anyway.  And there are other risk...

16 jun 11

Not well trained

Thailand, Bangkok to Trang by sleeper train‘Where. Have. You. BEEN’?  Yep, I’m in trouble, I thought.  The gritted teeth and fire in the eyes gave it away.  This was face-tremor anger,...

09 jun 11

Vice, its not nice

Hong Kong and Bangkok‘Oh no, it’s happening again’ I thought to myself as I sat sweating in the humid waiting room of a massage parlour on the fifth floor of a building in Hong Kong’s Yau Ma Tei dist...

28 may 11

Time’s up

Conclusion of Africa overland trip (Nairobi-Johannesburg) , Maun, BotswanaMy stopped watch, and to-do listMy watch stopped at the very moment the overland truck pulled out from the campsite in Maun, ...

22 may 11

Mokoros and mushrooms

Bovu Island, Zambezi River, Zambia“Tell him about the dust” Brett hissed as I stood in his wooden stilt hut, the Zambezi River pulsing by outside the chicken mesh windows. I had a satellite signal bo...

14 may 11

Happy clappy claptrap

Nairobi to Johannesburg, via Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, BotswanaI’ve always thought of happiness as something that is alighted upon in retrospect; a flickering remembrance, an epiphany of nostalgia, t...

23 apr 11

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