OR, LEAVING BORNEO AND ARRIVING IN KL FOR A BIT OF TLC.
Journal Excerpts and Perfect Timing a continuation from last post!
KUALA LUMPUR
It wasn’t even in my plan to go there.
KUALA LUMPUR, MUSEUMS, ORCHIDS AND BIRDS.
THE MATURE ART OF TRAVELLING ALONE REBECCA@ART-WITH-ATTITUDE.CO.UK PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST!
Tag: Food
Punta Allen. Paradise on earth.
OR, HEAVEN ON EARTH BIOSPHERE OF SIAN KA’AN MEXICO.
Alert: This was posted a year ago. I am now very homesick for my Punta Allen family (in Mexico) especially swimming dog and Sonia. Although I have been considering this idyllic notion of buying a super cheap farm in the hinterlands of Bulgaria. (Of growing my own organic food and storing it in one of the outhouses. Building my own kiln in the garden and creating beautiful ceramic pieces while having the company of the like minded around me when needed.), I am now just terribly miserable without that PA environment and lifestyle. So this is for everyone who is feeling a little blue at the moment to brighten up your day with my first exploration of PA with my broken hand limply cradled in my arms.
FROM MY JOURNAL. 9TH MAY 2021
Pain throughout the night. I had definitely set back my recovery but what to do? More painkillers and sedatives, a tormented sleep only to get up to open the windows in the night after the AC went off.
When I staggered out of my room in the morning the beauty of the place really dawned on me I had only seen the little twinkling lights the night before and it all looked disconnected and really quite scary.
Punta Allen is an unspoilt village with only very transient tourists passing through. It’s a fishing village and an amazing microcosm. I presume they have been hit by these times but I doubt people really stay here it’s more for the fishing and visiting the Biosphere Sian Ka’an where they have a huge variety of flora and fauna including jaguars if you’re very lucky. It’s at the end of the Boca Paila Peninsula. On that fifty km of rough dirt track down there, live around 500 salty souls.
hotel villa roseliz.
Arriving at family hotel was a stroke of the best luck. It’s such a beautiful place and is appointed twenty paces from the white beach front. David the owner and Sonia have taken good care of me which would never have happened in the more impersonal places here. I was in poor shape but I extended my stay because, well, I felt as if this was the place to recuperate both body and soul. I didn’t want to leave and the huge bonus of love from the doggy too has really made the difference between just having a place to rest your head, and having a caring sort of family. They have massage here and a kayak if you fancy going out on the crazy beautiful aquamarine sea. Indeed someone said in a review that the massage was ‘magical, cosmic and ancestral’. Can’t really get a better review! I just wanted to tell you about this place because sometimes in life, and especially when you’re a damaged old bird travelling solo, you need the milk of human kindness. Sonia also will also cook some tasty food if you preorder.
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PREP FOR GOING OFF-GRID IN MEXICO!
OR, the drama to move commodities to the end of the world!
Alert: Posted a year ago, my life got so fabulous when I joined the tiny community of Punta Allen. My month of living very simply on the beach with dogs and small dramas each day. The simple life is really the best life.
The Internet really playing up will add more pics later! One of the things that happen off-grid!
The bus ride back was fast, only the three hours, but I was glum. Although I knew it was just one week in Tulum I had finally found my groove in this small paradise. The journey itself was great because it leaves at eight in the morning, no hanging around and great light to take pictures. Upon reaching the hotel side of Tulum though, my depression deepened. Plastic loud tourists milling around and all the trappings that go with under a thin veil of being very ethnic.
As soon as I arrived in Tulum my ears were assaulted by noise. I was so used to crashing waves and wind that to hear all these fucking cars and lorries, loudspeakers of vendors of gas, and fruit and veg, and other shite that I freaked as I got off the collectivo. Also a new thing, police loudspeakers about covid and masks. This just felt hostile and I felt really low.
For all the inconveniences of living on the edge of society, it’s a whole world of difference if you’ve been used to being a lone wolf for a while. I sit here back in Punta Allen another time and although there’s no bloody WiFi at the moment because it’s ‘windy’ I still am blessed to be here and just writing this up in ‘word’ to copy to blog later.
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CENOTES THE ROUTE TO THE UNDERWORLD.
OR , DON’T BE SHY, JUST JUMP IN TO MAGIC ICY POOLS
FROM LAST YEAR, A LESSON IN SHAKING OFF THE BLUES
Although I lost my mojo for a few days, I gave myself a sharp talking to. I was beginning to get depressed. I think it was after being chased by the troupe of dogs in this neighbourhood which has now made me walk the long way round to my local shop. Add to that a lot of drunks and crack heads suddenly started to congregate around my street. This meant I couldn’t really go out after six unless I asked Charlie for a lift. I hate being beholden to people so this was getting me down. However all is well again with a few tweaks, I’m nothing if not adaptable.
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Windy Beaches and sand in your beer. WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES.
Alert: Here I am still looking back at a year ago this week, so don’t you think I snuck off again! I am simply trying to get my mojo back after being back here and not travelling since my hideous experience with Heathrow’s ‘quarantine’ hotel hell on my tortuous return from Mexico last September.
ONE YEAR AGO….
OR BLOODY XEL-HA IS STILL NOT OPEN AND APPARENTLY HASN’T BEEN FOR NEARLY A YEAR.
Archaeological Zone of Muyil or Chunyaxché.
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TRAVELLING SOLO WITH ALLERGIES.
OR, HOW NOT TO HAVE A ROUGH RIDE.
Do you want your trip to be fabulous and Zen, not puking into the sink in your room whilst purging your other end into the toilet? Or worse being laid low for a few days with a variety of energy-sapping and weird symptoms? Either way, if it’s your allergies or just Delhi Belly you can take measures to avoid misery.
My mate just came over from a very long haul on working on a luxury yacht and she came to stay with me for a few days before returning to her family in Cornwall. It was great. Too much gossip too little time, but the long and the short of it was that it reminded me of the trials and tribulations of having food intolerances, allergies or indeed a disease from allowing you to eat certain foods. My pal has both Celiac disease and also dairy intolerance so this makes food a little bit of a much-needed obsession.
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QIGONG AND TAI CHI FOR OLD BIRDS AFTER XMAS.
OR, PREPARE YOURSELF FOR WHATEVER IS COMING IN A POSITIVE WAY.
This is just about weaning yourself off the overindulgence of the festive season and becoming more mentally, physically and spiritually healthier beings now and for the New Year and all your wonderful travels. I love you all xx
THE SINNING OVER CHRISTMAS
Christmas day I was the traditional glutton and slobbing around in my jimjams. I was alone but prepared for some solitude after the partying with family and friends, with and without dislocated knee and later broken ribs. I had protested with both injuries and had had great but exhausting, and sometimes very painful, rallies. I had done my bit and had been living on fumes.
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DAY EIGHT. SECOND WEDNESDAY.
I was still terribly confused, still thinking I had to get a flight to London even though I could see I was already there in the terrible no mans land that is Hotel California.
CACTI AND SALT FLATS IN THE MOUNTAINS…BY MOTORBIKE!
OR THE OLD BIRD GETS PUSHED TO HER LIMITS BY GOING UP AND DOWN SHEER MOUNTAIN TRACKS .
I arrived in Tehuacán exhausted and burnt out and had done nothing for days once I found the museums and site which I specifically travelled here for were all closed. I had allowed myself a meltdown, a collapse if you will. I had stayed in my room just sneaking out for food and drinks. I was absolutely broken. Then as usual, I shook myself down and got myself a sort of improvised tour.
ZAPOTITLAN SALINAS
Reception told me that the guide knew the area well and just because the gardens were closed there were plenty of other paths with exactly the same types of flora. The botanical gardens were just a more tarted up area of the same old, same old. As it transpired they were right so I got myself a bus and headed out of town to Zapotitlan. As soon as I got on that bus I was straight back into adventure mode, my agoraphobia melted and I was ready for action. The bus driver dumped me at the edge of the road and I walked back to the Zapotitlan letters in a mist of fine powder and exhaust smoke.
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FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD. CONNOISSEURS STEAK AND WINE RESTAURANT.
OR IT DOESN’T GET BETTER THAN THIS: CARN&VORO.
I never write posts just about restaurants but I will do so now. When you find something this good it deserves applause. connoisseur
I’ve had a couple of off days after my flight. Felt exhausted but for a change I forced myself to have a siesta, it was a Margaret Thatcher one, twenty deep sleep minutes. I felt a hugely better and hungry so decided that I was going to try a restaurant with good meat, a really fine steak. Luckily just round the corner from me I saw what seemed to be the ticket the “Parilla de Barrio” or neighbourhood grill. I felt I needed a place of quality and indeed that is what I got.
Old Bird Travels Solo! 