Update

Well, the 811rv is going really well indeed. I've now lost 4kg in 4 weeks and lost a BMI point. The hardest thing is eating enough. Pretty much all my symptoms have resolved and I'm pretty much ready to start exercising again.

The BF moved into his container house last week too. We went shopping on the weekend for kitchen cupboard doors and some appliances and looked at bathroom stuff. It looks really good already and I can't wait to put pictures up.

I haven't made it to a number of my TCM classes which is a little worrying but we have a mid-semester break next week so I'm sure I can catch up with most things.

We're planning a road trip this weekend for my birthday! Can't wait!

Being vegan is easy...

...but being raw is harder.

I find being raw vegan, especially on the 80/10/10 is quite easy. I barely get any cravings, but occasionaly I do crave cooked "comfort" food such as bread etc. I rarely crave animal products any more, and if I do, say cheese, I simply think of what it actually is (ie solidified animal secretions) and that turns me off straight away.

I have a day back at work to do and an assignment over due for International Health, so I guess I know what I'm doing today.

Join PCRM's VegRUN! - Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)

Join PCRM's VegRUN! - Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)

The usual

This weekend I'm working so it's the usual of trying to get enough sleep while on call, and doing homework at work while on downtime.

I'm really enjoying this 811rv diet although I didn't eat enough calories yesterday which made me a bit tired but then I quickly tried to eat more fruit before bed which was a bad idea as then I was too awake to sleep. Typical.

I bought the dog two new toys today and he really loves them :)

Card-carrying vegan

I've flicked the switch - I am now 100% vegan for life.

I knew there was something in vegan diets and something in raw diets that made sense. Why wouldn't one be healthier for eating only beautiful fresh fruit and veges?

I went back to raw vegan a few weeks ago now to regain my health (that I lost last year thanks to over-doing it, working shift-work and eating junk). I had tried it a few times this year but it was hard ot stick to.

Well, now I'm doing the 80/10/10rv diet and it's working a treat. No cravings, 2500+ calories a day, it's all good. I think I've been doing it for 3-5 weeks now, not sure.

I haven't had any detox symptoms either, which is weird. Maybe being on-and-off vegan/raw vegan for the past 6 months or so helped a lot. My skin cleared up almost instantly, which is almost annoying as I've spend so much time and effort and money since I was 15 to clear my skin. Geez. But I wont rant about that today. Mind you, each time I had a "slip-up" in the past few weeks my skin would break out and get itchy again, so 100% 80/10/10rv is necessary.

Anyway, as of this week I am 100% vegan, no doubts about it, for life. The health benefits got my onto vegan, but the ethical side of it is keeping me 100%.

I watched a movie called Earthlings. It's free and on YouTube. It's feature-length. Well , it's horrifying and it puts right in your face everything you try to not think about when you consume animal. Yuk. It really  upset me and I wont eat animal ever again. I didn't watch all of it as it goes onto animal as clothing and animal as entertainment (including testing products etc) but I'm already educating myself. I already stay away from leather and silk but now I think wool may have to go too.

I'm undecided about what to do with the leather/wool clothing that I already own.

PS The bi-carb/baking soda works well but you gotta do extra washes, ie if you normally shampoo once, then shampoo twice with bi-carb.

My new shampoo

I'll tell you how it goes

Natural deodorant recipes

I have become slightly obsessed with my coconut oil since purchasing it. I never expected something natural to work much better than a store-bought product containing many ingredients.

I'm now searching for deodorants, soaps, and shampoos to add to my beauty-routine collection.

Here are two recipes for making natural deodorant. With both, you can add essential oils for a scent. These deodorants will not prevent sweating but will kill the odour-causing bacteria.

Coconut oil
2 parts baking soda
2 parts starch (arrow root, corn starch etc)
3 parts coconut oil

Vodka
1 part vodka
1 part water (distilled)

The coconut oil recipe will be solid at room temperature, so you may want to make small "bars", and the vodka recipe is a liquid which you may want to store in a jar and dip a cotton ball into to apply.

Productive day(s)

Well, I just want to tell the whole world how my Chinese Medicine Foundations exam got graded incorrectly and I found myself and extra 20 points on my exam, just by taking the time to go and review it!

It's a pain in the bum at some unis, and some don't allow you to at all which was a major gripe of mine with OUM changing their exams, to review your exam. Well, excuse me for wanting to know what questions I got wrong just in case I ever have a patient with the same complaints but here I am not knowing what I know and what I don't know.

My CM school is quite small, so this week they allow students to drop into the office and have a look at their exams. This is great because you can take notes of where you need to revise so for the rest of the course and career you know what you're doing.

Anyway, I've felt like the biggest dumbass for the past 3 weeks, thinking I only got 51% on my exam! Turns out, I got 71%.Geez. So my final grade for the subject jumped from 64 to 77 or something like that. That's a Credit to a Distinction. I ended up with D's across the board, thank you very much.

Today - just now - I finally submitted my assignment for Herbal Medicine. I quite enjoy this subject on Skin and right now I want to be a dermatologist (if anyone's been following this blog for the past 2  years I've gone from emergency physician, to general practitioner, to paediatrician, to emergency paediatrician, to integrative medicine, and now to dermatology.)

I also saw an advertised job for an alternative health dermatology specialist with a salary range of $80-100k. This is where I'm aiming to hit with a cruisey 9-5 M-F job, not an insane any time of the day or night all weekends and public holidays in any weather job. Of course, if and when I ever become a registered doc I should clear that no worries, but it's good to know my other options in the world of alternative health.  I feel like I need about that much to comfortably pay off my mortgage, to maybe get an investment property (for my retirement), and to take one overseas trip a year (not an expensive one though), and to do be cringing at the thought of bills being higher than expected or stressing because the price of petrol rose 10c. Yes, I am still striving towards a self-sufficient and sustainable life-style.

In 1.5 hours I return back to work. Well, actually I'll probably go in half an hour earlier to get myself organised. I start on-call tonight. Eek. It's difficult coming back. I have to admit, I'm starting to get over the adrenalin rush of paramedics and look forward to the day I am chillin in my clinic. But, I need to go back to work to study - sounds funny. Since having my stressful episode at the beginning of the year, I have been conscientiously practicing only studying at work, and never after work at home and rarely on my days off. This is much healthier and I do a lot of study at work as I know that is my only time to do it. So, I need to go back and get back into it and I'm really looking forward to that aspect of returning to work actually.

Well that's all as I have to go get ready. 

Dream Journal

I thought I'd start a Dream Journal section on here because of them are so weird and I want to record them. Even though dreams are not "real", they are still an interesting part of life and often provides insight into your thoughts patterns and emotions.

So last's night's dream:

I was on my honeymoon with the BF. We stopped off in LA on our way to Mexico. We went out to a bar and met Tom Cruise. He was a little strange but nice enough and we had a few drinks with him and he taught us some sort of bar game.

Later in the night, the BF and I went to leave the bar and walked out to our car in the carpark which was a new model black VW Beetle. We saw in front of us Tom Cruise and his bodyguard in their car, which was a small delivery van. Their battery was flat so we offered a jump-start. All four of us were in the van when I asked the bodyguard to be careful with the jumpstart wires and then he decided it would be funny to electrocute me. I begged him to stop but he kept going until I had to be resuscitated by paramedics.

Analysis:

The BF and I want to go to Mexico and we will probably fly via LA. We're not sure when we're going to go. When we were in Bali we got asked numerous times if we were on our honeymoon. I think it's perhaps because we looked so happy and in love, and because Bali is a popular honeymoon destination.

Tom Cruise has been in the media lately since his split with Katie Holmes. I was reading the front of magazines at the supermarket a few days ago. I wondered to myself how weird he might be in real life. A few weeks ago I was looking up his strange Scientology rant on YouTube out of boredom. I considered how strange it would be to be married to someone like that. I used to think he was really good looking too.

I used to own a new model black VW Beetle and often think about getting a new one again. I don't need a new car but I still think about it some times.

I don't know where the van came from.

A few weeks ago the BF had trouble jumpstarting a car with his battery-powered emergency starter and he said yesterday that he wants a new one for his birthday. When people use them I always get worried they will electrocute themselves. As a paramedic, I know how dangerous electricity can be.

Sometimes when the BF tickles me I ask him to stop and he keeps going. I don't like the feeling of being disempowered and often wonder how horrible it would be for some women to be in a violent relationship.

Coconut oil for hair and skin (and general update)

I bought some raw organic coconut oil from the organic grocers the other day. It's the stuff which is solid at room temperature. I bought it to ?cook with ...even though I'm trying for 100% raw...anyway, I bought it and I used it in my hair as an overnight treatment (well, originally I thought I rinsed it out but it needed shampooing out the next day) and it worked amazing - better than any other salon treatment I've ever used, and I used to be a hairdresser. I tried massaging some into my scalp and it seems to have helped my dandruff for sure.

As I was in the bath, some got onto my skin through it rinsing in the bath water and my skin looks amazing too, so I thought I'd put some just on the dry patches on my face, and they looked and felt amazing too. So I thought I'd put it all over my face and neck last night and I woke up with beautiful skin. So this morning I "washed" my face in the coconut oil and I am loving it. I never have nice skin.

I'm also currently using beetroot as a blush (the fresh stuff, not canned) and I love that too. The mixed blackberry and spirulina powder works good as an eyeliner and ok as a mascara. I got these tips from Megan Elizabeth.

Perhaps my skin is looking so good because I'm at the end of my fives weeks off work, I went to Bali in the sun and surf, or that I've been eating 100% high carb raw vegan for a week (minus one big mishap yesterday afternoon which I'm leaving in the past). Probably all of these combined I'd say.

-----
I've bargained with myself that if I get >1500 words of my assignment written today I'm allowed to go shopping for an outfit to wear this weekend for the BF's birthday. I'm trying to reward myself as bargain for eating well as I can usually study no probs, but on annual leave from work I'm finding it painful to be at the home desk instead of...anything else!

I wouldn't normally buy a brand new outfit for an occasion, especially not form a high street retail store, but the BF requested it so instead of arguing my case I've decided to "let go" of being right and instead by loving.

----
Med school update: I've requested a deferral from OUM so I can figure out what I'm doing. I'm still waiting on a letter of recommendation to finally submit my application to IUHS. It's unfortunately all come down to finances. I'm so glad that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel re my finances so it will be a matter of re-grouping and going again. I'm really super-keen, but I can't do what I can't do and I still haven't won the lottery....

I've now purchased the Dr Najeeb videos as they are currently on sale, so I will be doing those at work daily when I go back next week.

----
Fitness it on the back-burner right now but I'm hoping it will make a come back soon as the weather improves along with my heath.

----
Container house: we have our first one on our land now! Yay! It needs some work but I'm hoping to start semi-living in it shortly when I'm at the BF's farm.

That is all and I better go finish this assignment.

BF's b'day

It's my darling's birthday this weekend so I'm taking him out to Melbourne. VIP tix and lux accom is what my baby deserves.

Here is what I've booked so far:

Hope he likes it...

Raw vegan

Last week of annual leave. Just went to the tax accountants today and not really doing much although I should be studying.

I got some lovely organic groceries I'm so excited about. I also got some raw organic coconut oil. My groceries, excluding the oil, we're about $70 and should last me about 3 or 4 days, so that would be $140 a week for me to eat 100% high carb raw organic. I was hoping for $100 a week but I can afford it right now until I figure out how to organise myself to buy in bulk. For now, I don't mind so much because I'm probably spending the same I would have on my SAD (Standard Australian Diet) due to all the take-away and restaurant food. Also, my health and well-being is certainly worth the investment.

Natural birth control

I've spent multiple consultations with multiple GPs and OBGYNs talking about birth control options as  my body and my mind do not like what we've tried so far.

Lately, I've been using a phone app to help my monitor and use the rhythm method. The problem with the calendar-based or rhythm method is it assumes every woman has the same luteal phase after their period. I got put onto the app by my friend who is trying to conceive.

Natural birth control, or fertility awareness, uses the monitoring of basal body temperature as well as combining calendar method information. Monitoring cervical mucous is another way to help gain more information about what phase of your cycle you are in.

Background info - women produce only one egg per month (ovulate) and that occurs on only one day per month. Conceiving can occur around only 6 days per month as sperm can live for up to five days, thanks to the cervical mucous, and the egg can hang around for about 18 hours after ovulation - this brings a total of only about 6 days per month max. Cervical mucous signs of fertility is when it is of a raw egg-white colour and consistency - this should happen during the 5 days leading up to ovulation. (For more info re cervical mucous see this YouTube video).

If you use your calendar (free iPhone apps available) and monitor your cervical mucous, this alone has a 93% effectiveness - around the same as condoms.

If you monitor your basal temperature and use a calendar, this provides up to 99% effectiveness. Combining all three methods - calendar, cervical mucous, and temperature, will provide a contraception effectiveness of greater than 99% (or if you want to get pregnant, this helps you too).

LadyComp is a great device that  combines a thermometre into a computer calendar that gives you coloured lights for whether you are infertile or fertile (depending what you want).

It feels good to be in control of my own body, to not be taking synthetic hormones, to not be worried about the increased risks of cardio-vascular disease, liver disease, and cancer. To not be gaining weight and losing my mind. My last contraception, Implanon, made me gain 20% of my body weight in less than a year and I'm still stuck with it now.

My question is - why has not one single doctor even briefly referred to these methods in my 19 years of fertility?

Back to reality

I'm back in my routine, although I still have about another two weeks before I return to work. I am, however, back at uni x3 (Chinese Med, Herbal Med, and International Health). I have a total of four subjects this semester. My to-do list is rather lengthy.

I want to go raw vegan again, so I started my morning with banana with coconut and cinnamon and a rose hip and hibiscus tea. I can't wait to buy a Vitamix blender, an Excaliber dehydrator, and a good juicer. Then I should be set. For now I'll have to make do with my crappy juicer, my cheap blender, and no dehydrator. It's a zucchini and tomato with fresh basil and pine nuts salad today, maybe some lemon juice and shredded coconut too and perhaps some spices....mmmm I'm so hungry.

I'd like to buy more organic. Right now after returning from holidays, my funds are a little low, and the nearest organic grocer is 40km away. There are some organic veges in the supermarket near CM school (I thought there were more but I was duped by the plastic "wicker"-style baskets they normally put the organic stuff in which was all in one place but only a few of the baskets had organic veges in them). Anyway, here is a link to the Clean 15 which are the fifteen fruit and veges you don't have to buy organic as they usually contain very low levels of pesticides. This is an American list, but I'd like to think that the foods that don't require pesticides it's fairly universal. Well, the list is a start anyway. There is the partner list, the Dirty Dozen, which lists the worst food i.e. the ones you should only buy organic.

Ok off to make my salad......

Bali Day 8 - 9

(Snorkelling the coral reef at the shore of Amed beach)

Day 8

We sadly had to check out of the elephant safari park and head 3.5 hours north to Amed for our diving course.

We arrived to find our accommodation at Divers Cafe to be fairly basic, but at $30 per night for a beach bungalow, I was happy. The BF wasn't that impressed, but he did have good reason as there was no running water and the front door was locked using a padlock and it didn't really close completely shut.

We arranged our diving course for the next day and got our diving gear organised. We were supposed to have Lash for our instructor, but she sadly informed us she had trouble renewing her instructor licence for the season online and she found us someone else.

In the arvo we got out in the water and snorkelled the reef. The visibility wasn't the best but it was nice to snorkel again after so long (last time was probably Samoa in 2010).

Day 9
Today we got up early and had breakfast before our diving course commenced at 8:30am. Seeing as we had already done the theory of Padi online, we were ready for the practical. We got briefed, geared up, in the water, and then....I didn't like it! Not at all! I felt like my regulator was too resistant, I hated the sensation of my weight belt dragging me down underwater, I was tired and felt stressed, and then I began a downward mental cycle of getting upset with myself and thinking too far ahead about all the underwater skills I needed to achieve (which by that stage I had convinced myself were impossible for me). I spent the day resting and calming  myself and retrying breathing underwater for longer and deeper in the swimming pool. The BF took to it so naturally and did two dives in the ocean. I decided I would need longer to advance to that stage.

I felt like an absolute loser as I was surrounded by scuba divers at Divers Cafe, and me, "The Loser", couldn't even go to the deep end of the swimming pool. Everyone else looked so tanned and toned and happy, and I was pale and chubby and sad. Blah. I am, however, resolved to conquering this fear of...drowning...but for me it will take longer than a day. The BF said quite rightly that I got through the theory easily and quickly and he got through the practical easily. So, we can't all be good at everything all the time and we should try and do things we are not good at as well as the ones we are. I wasn't good at this at all.

The BF completed his last dive at about 3:30pm and after that he said "I want to go back to Kuta and get out of here and stay someone really nice for our last night in Bali" so we promptly packed, checked-out, and took a 3.5 hour taxi ride to Ayana Resort in Jimbaran. He had a massive headache so some water, electrolyte drink, a bit of a spew, and some acupressure and massage from me the student doctor of Chinese Medicine, as well as a nap in the taxi, made him feel a lot better by the time we got to Ayana.

Bali Day 7

(Elephant Safari Park Lodge, Taro)

Day 7

We travelled from Ubud to Taro early to go to the Elephant Safari Park and Lodge. This place is owned and run by an Aussie ex-pat and his Balinese family. The elephants have been rescued from a sort of pound in Sumatra from where they are native but are in conflict with the local farmers. 

This park is absolutely amazing. Well, it's as good as you can have animals like this in captivity I think. The one-on-one relationship with the elephants and their individual mahouts is remarkable. 

In the photo above is one of the elephants in her "bedroom". They are chained during the night so they don't roam around everywhere and are left with plenty of food at night and then again in the morning for breakfast before their day starts. Elephants eat an astonishing 250kg of food a day! And are vegetarian!

Each elephant has individual skills. Some do the treks, some do tricks like soccer, and some paint! I had my t-shirt painted by a very talented elephant named Ramona. We also got to wash Ramona with a hose and scrubbing brush which was such a memorable experience.

I'd recommend this place to anyone.

We stayed in the budget room which was about $250 per night. You can simply visit the park but I would recommend staying there as the trekking and entrance fee etc sets you back about $75 per person anyway, and you get breakfast included with the room. The more expensive rooms overlook the park, although ours still had a lovely view over rice paddies.

We caught our elephant "chauffeur" from pre-dinner drinks to dinner. The more expensive rooms have a chauffeur service from the rooms to dinner. 

Bali Day 3-6

(Mt Batur)

Day 3

Oh so happy to be getting the hell out of Kuta. That place is friggin insane. 

We got a taxi from our hotel to take us to Ubud. Along the way we stopped at some silver smiths, a batik weaving and painting place and a wood carving place to see some traditional artisans. The BF bought two handmade kites, which you see everywhere in Bali, traditionally used to scare birds from the rice fields.

We stayed at Villa Mandi in Ubud, which I can certainly recommend. It only has 4 self-contained villas with a lovely infinity pool overlooking the rice paddies. It is a short drive or about 20 min walk to Ubud central and is far enough away to be quiet. For $40 per night, it was as steal.

We had dinner and lunch the next day at an indian restaurant located just in front of the accommodation. It was a 3-story bamboo structure which was pretty cool in itself. It over-looked the rice fields and coconut trees and was had a 3-course dinner and the local Bintang beer for a total of about $20 for the tow of us!

Day 4

I insisted that we have a rest day. I had been pretty flat-out leading up to the trip, and hadn't quite normalised from the flight. Even though the flight was during the day, it really took it out of me. I could feel my tonsillitis symptoms flaring up and started to feel quite achy. So, we just went down to the market early in the morning to have a look and try some local delicacies, and I picked up some cloves to chew on (they are good for tummy-bugs i.e. intestinal parasites) jus in case that was part of my problem. WE went back to the accom for the arvo and chilled by the pool. I drank my Veuve Cliquot that the BF had bought Duty Free for our anniversary. At night we went into Ubud to see a traditional dance at the Palace.

The BF discovered he had lost his atm card! He had all our spending money (well, most of it) so this was indeed a set back. After one internet banking to get us back on the road, we went to bed early before our 2.30am start the next day.

Day 5

Today was hiking Mount Batur. At about 1700m from sea level, we hiked the last 500m or so, but it took a good 2 hours. Some of it was steep and difficult and some would be described as a rock-scramble. The Europeans that had all the gear and obviously hike frequently put us to shame, but we made it eventually. I was also dry-reaching the first hour or so and started to panic about getting tonsillitis. At the peak we watched the sunrise and had boiled eggs and banana for breakfast. Then we walked around some other craters and generally were in awe of being on an active volcano. The steam rising from small pits was amazing.

Afterwards we had a buffet lunch from another location looking back at the mountain and we couldn't believe how far we had hiked. I enjoyed it so much I'd like to do more hiking.

The BF wanted to stop at a Lewat coffee place, although I'm quite against using animals in this way as the Civets are kept in small cages to produce the coffee. I did try it though, and was not exactly impressed with the taste so I can say it's not worth it more multiple reasons. The lemon tea was beautiful and I must find some of it here at home.

We also stopped to look at terraced rice fields and I picked up my one of only two souvenirs which was a cow bone calved into a intricate detail of traditional Balinese style.

Day 6

I'm having trouble recalling what we did this day! Day 4, 5 and 6 are a bit blended into one-another. We did finish the evening at XL Lounge which had great food and cocktails and we spent about $100 which was a lot for Bali but a really great night. We also stopped for a massage on the way home.

Edit: I remember! We went to Bali Safari and Marine Park. It was pretty good. We got to cuddle a baby orangutang and ride a camel. We saw a white tiger and watched a really good musical production.

Bali Day 1-2

The most relaxing ride at Waterbom - "The Lazy River"

The first two days in Bali we spent in Legian, which is basically Kuta beach - the most touristy place in the whole of Bali.

Day 1

Our flight was long and there was no entertainment available, so we were SO glad we downloaded some movies onto my iPad to watch. We watched The Artist and My Week With Marilyn, played some poker and listened to some tunes.

On arrival to Bali I was exhausted already. I had read about the "Porters" in the Denpasar airport that collect your bags for you and carry them to your taxi for a tip. I forgot and when we arrived we weren't sure where we were going so the Porters must have seen us and targeted us straight away. As soon as they picked up our bags I was like "Damn it". The BF thought they were Customs as they had these official uniforms on. I only saw a small "Porter" badge on one guy and then I remembered what it said in Lonely Planet (and also I have had similar experiences elsewhere, especially in Kathmandu). They took us only so far, about 20m, and I stepped in and said thanks but that's enough, here's RP5000 each, which is equivalent to 50c. They weren't happy but I was firm. We found the correct 'metered" taxi place and at least avoided getting ripped off a second time at the airport. We were kicking ourselves in the taxi for getting duped as soon as we landed in Bali, but we were a lot more vigilant for the rest of the trip and avoided the same problem one the return trip.

We arrived to our hotel - I had printed out the address and map and as we used the suggested pre-paid taxi from the airport we got to our destination, The Legian 101, without little hassle. But... once we got to check-in the hotel they informed us that there was some issue with the rooms flooding and we were being transferred to another hotel. Not happy. The other hotel was the same star rating but completely different to what I had wanted for our first night in Bali, which was modern facilities and a view overlooking Kuta Beach. Our new hotel was called White Rose and was spookily close to Ground Zero from the 2002 Bali Bombings, which happened all to recently in my mind. Our room was a twin instead of a double and was quite shit. The pool was ok, the location ok, and the buffet breakfast quite good. I had a mini-anxiety moment thinking about being blown-up by terrorists so my darling BF helped me by pointing out that none would blow-up the crappy dolphin fountain we were staring at by the side of the pool.

(The photo doesn't quite highlight how tacky this fountain was)

We took a 20 min stroll down to Kuta Beach for the sunset only to be so disappointed by the massive crowds down there. We took a taxi back to The Legian 101 and claimed our complimentary meal for the hassle of being transferred hotels. It was quite nice.

(The rooftop restaurant/bar and pool at Legian 101)

Day 2

My over-excited BF was so keen to go to Waterbom waterpark, so we went first-thing in the morning. I had pre-warned him I wasn't keen to do all the scariest rides, so he was happy that I went on four or five of the tamer rides, then took a massage while he went on all the others. He did this crazy water-slide that begins by you being dropped and free-falling a few stories and reaching a max velocity of 80km/hr. Yeh, I preferred the massage. Just watching him do it got my heart-rate up higher than his (I took his pulse afterwards). He said it was so fast with so much water flying everywhere that you can't really absorb what's happening.

That night we had some traditional Balinese photos done (on my request) then a nice seafood dinner. I can't eat much meat after being on a meat-reduced diet for so long (I'm keen to go back raw vegan now I'm home, but more on that in another post). I was happy to have the rice and veges and one prawn but thats about it. The BF got his first experience of lobster and crab.

We took a pony-and-cart ride home.

Bali

Well I'm just back from Bali and we had a great time. We got to do, see, and eat plenty.

In the following posts I will recap the 10 days....

(The above photo is from a traditional dance we saw at Ubud Palace)

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet - it must be the world's best and most loved travel guide.

So, when I first began travelling the book The Beach came out. So I read it. It was perfect for that time of my life. I wasn't going to Thailand (that time), but I was going into the travelling culture.

So, anyway, the protagonist, Richard, disses Lonely Planet for changing the way travellers move around and for affecting the travelling experience. Travellers today continue to diss LP as they do touristy destinations, but touristy destinations are popular for a reason, as too is LP.

As far as travel guides go, it is really hard to go past Lonely Planet (no, I do not work for them, but yes, I would love to). I use them all the time, and when I lived in Samoa for two months, I looked at a few travel guides towards the end of my stay (that belonged to other travellers) and everything that was in LP was spot-on and I wished I had known about from the get-go. It was exactly what advice I would have given to other travellers.

Ever since then, I rely on them with more...reliance....than ever before. When I start dreaming of another adventure, I buy the LP guide for that destination. Too bad their website leaves a lot to be desired, and I rely more on TripAdvisor as my on-line peer-reviewed source of information.

My LP collection is my favourite book collection, ok after my medical book collection, and takes up almost an entire shelf on the book case I have in the "reading" corner dedicated solely to books on travel and adventure.

SouthEast Asia on a Shoestring is one trip I've wanted to do for awhile. "If I'm going to Bali, then I'm going to do it backpackers-style," I thought. Island-hoping was high on my original agenda. This has now been replaced with scuba diving and volcano trekking. Nonetheless, I can't wait to check out a few of the budget-end recommendations in my book in Bali.

Next - I already have the Mexico LP, but I still need the Mongolia one and perhaps an African one for next year. Or maybe a Tasmania/Australia one for later this year....

"One must always plan their next holiday before embarking on their current one" - CJ.