Category: JOURNALS OF TRAVEL

Truthful quotes from my journals Accounts from my handwritten diaries en route.

SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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PLANS FOR ART AND CRAFTWORK ABROAD

OR, ARTY TURKIYE HERE I COME.

Alert: Another unplanned absence folks but been busy getting ready!

I made a lot of mistakes when escaping to Mexico and this time my dreams for Turkiye are not going to be hampered by a lack of cash.

First day in Tulum after getting out of London

Although I am an avid list maker and practically anal in planning and preparing, I didn’t think out my financial situation for flying the coop to Mexico where I ended up staying for seven months, so this trip I am planning the hell out of it.

In Punta Allen where I spent a month swimming and writing. They were also suffering hence the sign

After all the masterplan to globally ruin our lives three years ago, I was just glad to leave the country without any thought or preparations. It literally was just to escape before there were no flights or means to get the hell out. I was panicking and in bad form. I was a shadow of my former self. A husk, a bundle of misery. Mexico would save me but I was ill-prepared on many levels but financially was the major one.

Continue reading PLANS FOR ART AND CRAFTWORK ABROAD
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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IDYLLIC COUNTRYSIDE

OR, WHEN IT WARMS UP YOU FEEL THE SUMMER HEAT IN AEGEAN TURKEY IN THE MOUNTAINS.

It might be warm at the coast but it’s very fresh up here.

An abandoned house and garden in a largely abandoned village.

Walking up the mountain alone most days it was lovely for my friend Ege and his brother to come to visit. They were so enthusiastic and made me feel like I was seeing it all afresh. Instead of moaning about the effing Rottweiler, the bane of my life on the walking shortcut, I take most days, I could enjoy going up to the mosque and spring water fountain by car. Beyond there we walked and what a beautiful landscape unfolded before us.

Continue reading IDYLLIC COUNTRYSIDE
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels

ESCAPING LONDON FOR MOUNTAINS AND MUSEUMS

INLAND TURKEY IN SPRING, IN LIKE A LION AND OUT LIKE A LAMB.

Alert: Sorry for the big delay but my plans obviously changed after the ghastly events here with the earthquakes. On finally deciding to come I had a few other hiccups. My Turcel phone decided that it wasn’t working after me topping it up with a data package, well it worked but just for one day. It’s crazy we have spent literally hours on the phone trying to find out why they are insisting that I set up an account over three months ago the idiots! Also, yesterday, when I was writing this, Google decided something more had to be paid on my email so I had that drama too as I kinda need emails for tickets etc. Also, I was told my photo limit was full so I couldn’t store pics. I spent hours trying to resolve it all and had no luck. Other bits threw me off so I sulked a bit, drank beer and got nowhere. I’ll fix it on my return to London but as we know travel always throws a few curved balls to check your mettle!

Loving the fresh mountain air and bubbling streams of the spring water

Springtime in Turkiye is a beautiful thing, especially when you’re escaping a dreary down-in-the-mouth London. It’s full of little lambkins and alpine flowers, olive trees as far as you can see and the soft green fuzz of fresh grass. Water can be heard along the way gurgling in the mountain streams. The villages are stirring after the short but sharp winter and life starts new and fresh. This is the time most tourists don’t see and indeed it is a very different land from the parched land in the summertime.

Breakfast on my first morning

My usual preparations of cleaning and tidying my place in Soho left me clear-headed and ready to travel. I was heading for a village inland from Izmir, having managed to book a little chalet at an extensive lodge in the foot lands.

Continue reading ESCAPING LONDON FOR MOUNTAINS AND MUSEUMS
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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NEW YEAR, FRESH HOPES.

OR, BEING THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF.

Sunset ride on the Ganges at Varanasi.

Happy fresh start my birdies, I’m hoping I find you all invigorated and full of hope for another year of new battles and victories. For wonderful awe-inspiring new sights and smells, sounds, tastes and sensations? Join me for a quick run down on why I’ve been so quiet and my new plans.

Horizens new. Rididing to the top of the volcano in the Philippines

GHASTLY DECEMBER.

I was sick for everything in December.

Art work in Jakarta gallery

I projectile-vomited my way through every planned festivity, sobbing quietly alone on my sofa. If anything was to prove to me I’m as hard as nails December 2022 was. I lost ten kilos in the month and went from lithe and fit to emaciated and terribly, terribly weak and fragile.

The long and winding path of life

What the hell was the matter I hear you say? I was mystified and cut out flour, eggs, dairy, and so forth. I finally have tracked it down to firstly stress, which triggered me not eating as well as usual due to lack of appetite, then more insidiously, one of my newly prescribed supplements.

Continue reading NEW YEAR, FRESH HOPES.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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SO YOU THINK THIS IS COLD?…

OR, LAKE BAIKAL WITH ITS -40 WIND CHILL IS REALLY NIPPY!

Alert: Just wanted to look back on my Trans Siberian Express adventure birdies. I can say it was a truly magnificent solo trip and very suitable for lone travellers. The beauty of seeing the huge terrain, art and culture keeps one busy and happy with no loneliness creeping in. Links of various places are available when underlined and in bold type.

Just because it’s cold and wintry we are all complaining, normally we would welcome this for the festive season but our heightened awareness of the rip-off bills that will ensue. Escape with me on trips when I thrilled at all bracing weather as I knew it would be toasty wherever I was staying.

Purple cheeks near frostbite!

I had left in February so knew it would be a winter viewing of the harshest time of the year but I loved every brutal minute. I know that Russia is being demonised at the moment but I was talking to a lovely lady the other day who was desperate to get on that magnificent choo-choo before she dies.

View of the frozen Lake Baikal at sunset.

So here I recall a previous reminder of those chilly trips until my next trip actual to Turkey in January. Enjoy the frostiness and the ride!

ARE YOU MAD REBECCA?!!!..COLD, COLD PLACES AND HOW TO PREPARE.

Siberian winter from train.

…NO I’M NOT. A LOT OF YOU WILL ONLY WANT AND FEEL SAFE TO TRAVEL MUCH LATER THIS YEAR AND YOU SHOULD PREPARE FOR YOUR….

River Neva in St. Petersburg… frozen

…….NIPPY TRIPS

Alert: This is from a page on my site with bits added. It’s to get you old girls prepped up for colder trips when the travelling will have become a lot laxer again hopefully. Until then get yourself ready and take note from this post the way to approach any cold trip. There are links all the way through to help a bit

My trusty boots that served me so well and didn’t cost a fortune

Hurry up! It’s soon time for your Nippy Trip……

Continue reading SO YOU THINK THIS IS COLD?…
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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THE WONDERFUL UNDERWATER KINGDOM.

OR SUNSTROKE HITS HARD AFTER OVER-ENJOYING BEING A MERMAID.

Up close and part of a magic kingdom

You had to be an old mad bird to end up with sunstroke from being too in love with a turtle.

Porcupine fish

I’m a dummy. That beautiful girl, my turtle, took me for such a ride that I hadn’t wet my head once in the half hour I was with her and returning to the boat. This was in the searing midday sun in Indonesia central! I would be more penitent later as the full horror of proper sunstroke waved over me. I should have known better I’d had it before, but this time it was horrendous. I was pretty much bed bound for the next couple of days before I left this island paradise.

Too many fish!
Continue reading THE WONDERFUL UNDERWATER KINGDOM.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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DAY OF THE TURTLE. TELEPATHY.

OR, BEING ONE WITH ANOTHER CREATURE.

“Animal telepathy is mind-to-mind communication. It is feeling across a distance. We are all made of energy and connected by a vast web of energetic pathways. To speak to an animal telepathically, you just tune in to the right energy channel,” says animal communication expert and author Mary J. Getten.

My love, my companion my spiritual awakening.

Falling in Love with ‘my’ Turtle.

Her normal distance from me for twenty minutes.

A fresh morning at my new pad and a day that would change my life. I had slept well and had a lovely early breakfast before being picked up for another look at this amazing underwater environment. While there I went on seven snorkelling trips and upon returning, was constantly waiting for the next one. I never got bored and I never stopped having that lurching feeling in my stomach just before jumping in off the boat each time. The butterflies continue until you adjust to the alien underwater seascape and you adjust all your senses and become truly immersed. It’s an odd feeling, and if you’re like me you will not raise your head again above the waterline unless your goggles malfunction or you want to check where you are in relation to your boat. So basically you are very fishy for the half hour or so that they give you at each spot. Sometimes it’s at shipwrecks, sometimes it’s the main coral reef, sometimes it’s a spot near an island where they don’t have to fret over you too much.

Continue reading DAY OF THE TURTLE. TELEPATHY.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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SNORKEL BUNAKEN! CORAL AND FISH GALORE.

OR, ISLAND LIFE, THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY.

I had survived my lengthy trip from Jakarta with all its trials and tribulations and arrived in Bunaken and got back from my first fabulous official snorkelling tour and was a little singed and sandy but triumphant. I had stopped and had a cocktail at the beach and got back to my dwelling ready for a shower and dinner before hitting the sack. I was knackered. I’d had little sleep the night before and had swum about for miles with all the excitement of being in this amazing place. As soon as I got back the woman told me that food was ready and to sit down out on the large terrace, my food was ready.

Beach bar at the harbour for incoming boats.
Continue reading SNORKEL BUNAKEN! CORAL AND FISH GALORE.