louiseinlimbo

Whilst the first half of 2024 has generally been quite cheap (Vietnam and Laos mostly £3-4 a night for hostels), I have a few organised tours booked for the second half and the costs are going to really mount up, so I responded to an advert I saw looking for a volunteer in a Turkish cat sanctuary – seven weeks with no accommodation costs, just food to pay for … with what turns out to be something like 16 cats (many are feral, so they come and go), some with disabilities, in a small home down the bottom of a lane in a nameless village with just one shop that doesn’t even sell any fresh produce. I also felt that it would give me the ‘down time’ I’ve been needing – to reflect on where I’ve been, plan for where I’m going next, and maybe even take time out to read, listen to music and watch videos. Well there has been less time out than I’d expected, not so much because of the time spent putting out bowls, cleaning litter trays (and the house generally) and watering the garden, but because

Bahrain wasn’t exactly at the top of my bucket list, but I’ve harboured an irritation that I couldn’t pass through it on the way to Saudi Arabia on my 2021 trip as I’d wanted, as Bahrain didn’t recognise COVID vaccination certificates from Senegal – so I was happy when I saw that the small number of international destinations from Multan included Bahrain (which was on the way to Turkey where I needed to be next).  There appear to be no hostels in Manama, and the (relatively) cheap hotels I found online had received ratings of between 2 and 3 out of 10, with comments about baths thick with algae, cockroach nests in cupboards, etc.  Enough to put even me off!  So as I had to spend rather more money than usual and stay in a proper hotel, I decided to limit myself to three nights – two full days to see the place. I prepared a list of the main sights I wanted to see, and set off on the first morning.  I’d decided to walk rather than go by bus, as the latter involved two different buses whil

I was pleased to find that there are international flights out of the city of Multan, as there is a shrine in the area that I really wanted to see.  So I added a few days to my Kalash Festival trip with a plan to make my way to Multan afterwards.  Then once in Pakistan, and speaking to a guide about how to get to the shrine and also the Derawar Fort, it was suggested that I spend a day in Lahore and take a late evening bus to Multan, so as to see the famous Beating the Retreat border ceremony close to Lahore, in Wagah. So I spent the daytime around the Walled City, Lahore Fort, the Badshahi Mosque, and other mainstream sights (the majority of which I probably visited when backpacking across Asia in 1984, but I don’t remember now), and then headed off to Wagah.  OMG, what a crazy ceremony it is!!  Carried out daily on both the Pakistani and Indian sides of the border since 1959, border guards dressed up in over-the-top costumes perform an elaborate series of moves (including ‘high kicks

I dithered over this trip for quite some time, having received an invitation to visit Chitral from the assistant guide for my day in Peshawar last year.  We seemed to ‘click’ in a brief (20 minute) conversation in Peshawar, when he asked about my family and I explained that I was single and childfree – he said he was the same.  Unusual for a 50-year-old Pakistani man.  I’d let him have my WhatsApp number and facebook info, and then he made this invitation, said that I should visit for the Kalash festival and that he’d be delighted to host me.  Finally I decided that I would go, and I booked my flights in and out of Pakistan. Once it was all confirmed, the tone of his messages changed.  He told me that he loved me, that I was only the third person he’d loved in his life, that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me…  My flights were non-refundable, and as this guy is (i) a very religious Muslim, (ii) employed from time-to-time by the most well-known guide in the country who is a

I couldn’t leave the country without visiting Halong Bay or getting a glimpse of the hill tribes in SaPa, so I booked a couple of tours through my hostel. I’d read a few reports that Halong Bay gets too overcrowded with tourists these days, but I didn’t feel that seeing a few other tourist boats made any difference to the experience.  It’s a beautiful place, with some 2,000 ‘islands’ (limestone pinnacles) jutting out of the sea, some with impressive caves running through them, , one of which we visited.  We also did a side-trip in local style bamboo boats into a lagoon.  It made for a great day trip - helped by a very good lunch buffet on the boat, and some nice fellow travellers to chat with. SaPa is further from Hanoi, so I needed to do an overnight trip, spending one night in a village in what was described as a homestay but was actually a separate building built specially to accommodate tourists - with modern rooms and bathrooms - so not a real homestay experience, but comfortable.