So as I mentioned the other day, we’re in Hoi An in Vietnam, city of temptation.
Mark and I have been angelic in our refusal to buy anything (anything at all!) since we left home at the beginning of September, but the combination of extremely reasonable and hand-tailored clothing was too much to resist, so we each bought a coat. And decided to model them for you…
Here’s Mark:
And here’s me:
And then, of course, I couldn’t resist a pair of handmade (extremely cheap) shoes, especially when they were not only GREEN but also with HEARTS! Heavenly.
Did I mention the HEARTS?
So we’re feeling extremely happy and fulfilled by our little shopping spree…. The retail therapy worked!
That’s a little of what our last couple of days in Vietnam have been like…
We’re in Hoi An, or, as I like to call it, Temptation Central. There are tailors everywhere - amazingly talented seamstresses who can whip up any item of clothing your heart desires in a couple of hours, for about an eighth of what you’d pay for it at home… Mark and I haven’t bought anything on this trip so far – one top for me, two shirts for him, that’s about it. But we succumbed to temptation here in Hoi An, and we’ve both had coats tailored. I’ll post photos later, they’re just being finished off at the moment. It is so thrilling to have something made to order! It’s my first time.
Not only is Hoi An full of clothing shops, it’s also full of shoe shops – heavenly meccas where they measure your foot and make you a pair of shoes. As in, handmade! For less than $15. I ask you! How can we resist? Well, girl shoes are that cheap – men’s shoes are more expensive. So I’ve had a whimsical pair made – picking them up this afternoon. I’ll post a pic, don’t you worry!
Hoi An is also the land of incredible food. We have eaten so well here the last couple of days. They have a whole heap of local delicacies, including wonton soup (so tasty), fried wontons (yum), cao lau (a sort of noodle soup, delicious!) and white roses, which are the least tasty but the prettiest of the lot. You can also make your own fresh spring rolls. YUM.
So we’ve been eating, shopping, and wandering around what is without doubt one of the prettiest towns we’ve seen on our travels. Set on the banks of a river, the ancient town is a World Heritage site, so all the old shop houses are in their original condition, and there are loads of lanterns hung all around, and classical music piped into the streets every morning. Lovely!
Which was why it was such a surprise to see these poor dogs dressed up like clowns this morning…
So I might think I’m a pretty savvy diabetic traveller after having tackled Malawi, Swaziland, the USA, Canada, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, but that’s nothing in comparison to Alex Williams, a type 1 diabetic from Australia who has zigzagged all over the globe, and is planning to walk across the Sahara desert next year in the Marathon des Sables. Pretty impressive stuff.
Here’s what Alex has to say about travelling with diabetes…
1. Hello! Please could you introduce yourself – name, age, how long you’ve been diabetic?
Hi. My name is Alex Williams. I’m 52 years old and have lived with type 1 diabetes for 36 years.
2. Where have you traveled?
I’ve travelled all over the south east coast of Australia, from as far north as Townsville all the way down and around to Adelaide. I can put my hand on my heart and say that I’ve probably driven on every stretch of highway in the state of Victoria. I started travelling the minute I got my driver’s license at 18 and haven’t stopped since.
My international travel started 25 years ago when my soon-to-be wife took me to “meet the family” in New Zealand. I was blown away by the beauty of the North Island and caught the travel bug there and then. But how do you describe to someone who has never done it, the adventure and curiosity of seeing an airport in another country, and then the strangeness as you drive through the city for the first time?
I’ve been back to New Zealand once since then, but as we were staying with family, there wasn’t a lot of diabetes adventure involved.
Fifteen years ago I got a job in Saudi Arabia. I travelled there on my own for the first trip and shared a flat with another westerner for 12 months. Then my wife and children were able to come over to join me in Riyadh, where we lived for the next 4 years. Each year we would do an international trip somewhere. Sometimes it was back to Australia to visit with family in both Brisbane and Melbourne, and sometimes it was elsewhere. During this time we did a 4 week driving tour around Great Britain in a Kombi Campervan, driving almost as far north as John O’Groats and south to Southampton. We spent a week in London just enjoying the history, the culture and the sheer joy of being there. http://www.geocities.com/alex_of_oz/Saudi_pages/Pommy_trip.html
During this time we also did a 5 week driving trip around Western Europe, flying from Riyadh to Paris via Jeddah and then driving from Paris to Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland and then back to Paris. We stayed in Paris for a couple of days, and then caught the overnight train to Rome, where we stayed for a week of walking. Many interesting things happened including nearly getting arrested in Rome. http://www.geocities.com/alex_of_oz/Saudi_pages/Europe_99.html
I also managed to squeeze in another trip from Riyadh to Glasgow, this time for business. The interesting thing about this trip was that the night that I was flying into London before swapping to the plane for Glasgow, was also the night that Princess Diana died in Paris. My whole trip to Glasgow was over-shadowed by Diana’s death. I caught the train from Glasgow to London on the day of Diana’s funeral. That was an experience that I will never forget. The flowers arranged around the gate to St James Palace were truly incredible.
Travel took a back seat for a few years until about 2005, when I travelled to Bangalore in India for four and half months. This was a business trip in which I was meant to train them up so they could take my job. I still have my job. This was also the first time I had travelled in a third world country, so the food, hygiene and medical side of things were interesting. All went well with few dramas. While there I wrote a number of stories, with one focusing pretty much on my being diabetic – http://www.geocities.com/alex_of_oz/Bangalore_stories/Missive_8.html
There is another story that talks about the time we were travelling between cities and I started to have a hypo. That can be found in the India stories here – http://www.geocities.com/alex_of_oz/Story_index.html
The last trip I did, which was 3 years ago, was a 4 week trip back to Bangalore. This time the food caused me some difficulty because I was staying in a serviced apartment where I was reliant on other people providing and cooking the food. You don’t realize how reliant we become on our “western” time schedule until you are living in a third would country where time is much more flexible.
3. What was the most difficult thing about traveling with diabetes?
For me, the most difficult thing about travelling with diabetes is keeping track of where there is a reliable source of food, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For example, lying down on the public seating benches at Rome airport to stay until the first plane left in the morning, only to discover with 2 minutes to spare that the food shop that we can see just across the walkway is not staying open all night as expected, but is about to close and won’t open again until the plane is airborne. And guess what? I don’t have any emergency food in my bags.
Another difficulty is the effect that the jetlag, time differences and physical and emotional stress has on the sugar levels. There is an underlying constant awareness that the sugar level can plummet at any moment, which is especially stressing when travelling by yourself. This happened to me while in a hotel in transit in Bahrain; the sugar plummeted and it took me 2 or 3 or 4 hours (see what I mean) to get it back. However that was not in time to catch the airport shuttle bus!
4. How prepared were you before you left?
I believe I have experienced most things a diabetic can experience while travelling, and learned from the experience. Yes, I have woken up in intensive care in hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia after having a massive hypo. I needed to go under a general anesthetic so they could put my arm back in place. I had managed to dislocate my shoulder while having a fit in the hypo.
I have found myself without food, and learned from the experience. I have found myself with nowhere clean to have my injection, and learned from the experience. I have been challenged by the customs officers in Jeddah airport when they saw my injection kit, only to be deflated when I told them “Sucre dam”, which means “sugar blood” in Arabic, which is their way of referring to diabetes. I learned from the experience.
And I’m sure I will learn more when I travel to Morocco and walk across the Sahara desert.
5. Do you have any hints or tips for diabetics who want to travel?
Always carry a doctor’s letter
Always carry extra insulin and equipment
Always have emergency food with you that is robust
Always know where food can be obtained
Write lots of lists, to reduce the stress level and therefore the hit on sugar levels
Always pack your medical kit and emergency food in your carry on luggage
Maintain 2 medical kits; one for your carry on luggage and one for your suitcase
So long as you plan properly, there is no reason why you can’t travel
… is really the message that we want to send with this journey.
That no matter what your chronic condition, you can take heart in knowing that it is possible to follow your dreams, just like I’m doing with my diabetes and our travels.
Part of our Take Heart Campaign is finding handmade hearts in each of the countries we visit, which we’ll auction off to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, who are searching for a cure for diabetes.
I have to say, although Cambodia started off a little rough and hectic, we are really loving it these days – it makes such a difference to be in the South, where all is ocean and beauty (apart from the thousands of beach shacks selling beer and the kids trying to get you to buy bracelets wherever you walk).
This weekend, our Celebration Weekend (not only Mark’s birthday but also our 3 year anniversary – what an accomplishment!) we were lucky enough to go on a scuba diving weekend. I haven’t dived since I was certified in Lake Malawi, nearly two years ago, so I was a tad nervous… When you first learn how to scuba dive there are so many things to remember that I was worried I’d forget something crucial and panic underwater. Needless to say, I was worrying for nothing.
We set off really early on Saturday morning and took a two-hour boat ride to Koh Roh Samleng, where Eco Sea Dive have their wooden bungalows. We spent that day snorkeling around the coral reef and rocks right outside our bungalow (and seeing all kinds of beautiful tropical fish) and swimming in the clear turquoise sea, off the totally unspoilt beach… Magical! There’s a small village on the island, and the villagers were lovely – nobody tried to sell us anything and the kids called out ‘Hello hello!’ everywhere we went. The bungalows were really rustic – basically like camping on the beach – and in the space of an hour (just before bed) we saw a giant spider (the biggest I’ve ever seen) and a mammoth gecko, seriously, this thing looked like a small crocodile! Okay, well, not that big, but it was just hanging out next to the bed. Not the most soothing sight before sleep.
That night it poured with torrential rain, so we didn’t get much sleep anyway (tin roofs make a lot of noise), but luckily we had to be up at 5am anyway, so sleep wasn’t a top priority (I never seem to sleep properly on nights when I have an early wake-up call).
We set off on a big boat to the mystical island of Koh Tang – it’s too far from the Cambodian and the Vietnamese shores for most people to get there, so it’s only visited by the three dive schools in Cambodia, and then only on special occassions.
It. was. incredible. As I said, I was really nervous going in, but as soon as I was underwater I felt like I’d stepped into a National Geographic movie, or a fairytale. The most astounding coral in bright colours and crazy shapes, all populated by an abundance of tropical fish, sting rays, eels and of course an amazing array of anemones and flora. Words can’t really describe how extraordinary it was… A completely unspoilt reef, and our group were the only people there.
I’d forgotten how peaceful scuba diving is, too. When you’re under the water, time seems to stop. It’s just you and nature, and the steady sound of your breathing. It’s the most amazing feeling… I’m hooked!
We had two dives yesterday, and lunch on the boat, and then headed back to Sihanoukville – a five hour boat ride (phew) that left us totally exhausted, but happy. Today we arrived in Kampot, a charming French colonial riverside town, and found a most delightful guesthouse where we’ll be for the next few days, so we’re decidedly settled and cheerful. AND we found some birthday cake for Mark this afternoon! Bitter chocolate and espresso…yum.
Of course, the other reason I was nervous about scuba diving was because of my diabetes. Any exercise will cause your blood sugar to drop, but scuba diving – which seems like such mild exercise (really just paddling with fins) – is pretty intense. I decided, seeing as we were doing two dives one after the other, that I would take less insulin with breakfast and purposefully go high, and then I could always take more insulin after the dives. I didn’t want to risk going low underwater. Going low while you’re diving is really dangerous – it impairs your decision-making skills and your fine motor skills and makes you all fuzzy headed, which is the last thing you need underwater. My plan worked pretty well, after both dives I was still in an acceptable range, and it didn’t have any lasting low blood sugar effects. The other option is to come straight out of the water and have something sweet, to counteract the low, but I didn’t want to risk the low coming earlier – I’m not that scuba savvy yet.
All in all, a great success! We’ll be doing much more diving in the future. I can’t wait!
(Here’s our Best Moment from yesterday – on the boat. Check it out:)
We’ve had a very productive week – working, catching up on admin, figuring out onward plans, getting our Vietnam visas, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and trying to dye my hair (which resulted in this disaster – carrot orange. Today I attempted a fix-up with dark mahogany, which turned it extremely dark brown. Luckily I’m not too precious about my hair colour!)
So we decided to reward ourselves for working so hard by going on a day trip yesterday – a snorkeling day trip to three islands, with a barbecue fish lunch on the beach thrown in. It’s a popular tour around these parts, every second hotel seems to be advertising it, so I didn’t really have very high hopes… But it was wonderful! A really great day.
The minibus picked us up first thing in the morning, and took us for a simple breakfast (baguettes and jam) before dropping us off at the boat. We went on a 20 minute-or-so boat ride to the first snorkeling spot (lots of fun, I love boat rides) and then snorkeled amongst the coral and fish there for about half an hour… Next we were taken to Bamboo Island, where there’s a long beach and the clearest warmest water you ever did see. We swam there for a while, and ate our freshly barbecued baracuda (yum!) then walked through a coastal forest to the other side of the island, where an even more pristine beach was waiting for us. Like something straight off a postcard… Quite incredible.
There were loads of other tour boats around, it’s obviously a popular route, but for once it was kind of nice to be around other tourists. Everyone was loving the perfect weather and beautiful ocean, and we met a few really interesting travelers and had some great conversations. The boat took us to one more snorkeling spot on the way home, and then we landed back on the beach – exhausted, happy, sandy and, regrettably, sunburnt. I mean crazy sunburnt – bright red lobster sunburnt. Which is odd, seeing as we applied sunblock at least three times during the day.
Still, it was a wonder-full day, not only for the overdose of natural beauty (I take it all back about Cambodia not being beautiful – these beaches were extraordinary) but for a day of fun and playfulness and nothing on our To Do Lists. We’ve had to start thinking of ways to make money as we travel (travelling is a lot more expensive than we’d hoped), so it’s been a week of planning and thinking and figuring out. Fun, in its own way, we really enjoy using our brains, but such a treat to have a day of total silliness.
Mark and I had a lengthy handstand contest. I like to think I won.
Best of all, it was a completely stable diabetes day. I was a bit concerned, because we were out and about all day, exercising a lot (swimming, snorkeling and walking) and eating whatever we were given, but I balanced the exercise and food well, and I felt fantastic all day. Love it when that happens!
This weekend we’re off for an even more exciting trip – a weekend away on an island with a company called Eco Sea Dive, where we’ll visit (and scuba dive!) at two remote islands. I am EXCITED! And a little nervous… Scuba requires a lot of forward planning so you don’t go low, because it takes up so much energy, so I’ll have to have juice and biscuits on me all the time. But mainly excited!
The reason for our weekend trip is because it’s a Celebration Weekend. It’s Mark’s birthday tomorrow, and our 3 year anniversary on Sunday, so we wanted to do something special.
(Note the screech-orange hair!)
I’ll tell you all about it next week! For now, we’re off to pop (imaginary) champers and eat (imaginary) cake. Will have to find a replacement somewhere!
Koi Pond at entrance leading up to Chang Dao caves
Hua Lamphong Railway station
Absolutely in heaven!
We left the craziness of Bangkok behind, and took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, which was totally fun. We were in a second-class sleeper, which meant that after an hour or two on the train, an attendant came around and turned our chairs into beds (bunk beds – Mark was on top because I was afraid I’d fall out!) complete with fresh sheets, blankets and pillows. And curtains that you could pull across the front of your bed so that you had your own private compartment. So cool! We woke to the most incredible views of forest and fields of rice with small villages along the way, and we knew… We’d hit the North.
Row of convenient Tuk Tuk taxis
The North of Thailand, it must be said, is incredibly beautiful. Only, most tourists get off the train in Chiang Mai and miss out on the real wilderness. Not us! We’d been told a secret (by the wonderful Vanoodle – check out her blog here) about a little place called Chiang Dao Nest, a short taxi ride and an hour and a half bus ride from Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second city.
What an amazing place! The bus ride hinted that it was going to be beautiful, with sweeping views out over the mountains and forests, but when we actually arrived here at Chiang Dao Nest (our home for the next 5 nights) we were blown away. The bungalows are set in the midst of a lush tropical garden, and they’re made entirely from bamboo (with wooden floors) and home to an enormous bed. Stunning. There’s a great pool with views of the mountain all around, and a gourmet restaurant on the premises (ooh la la!)
Buddha sculptures inside Chang Dao Caves
This morning we walked about 15 minutes down the road to the famous Chiang Dao Caves, which totally blew us away. We had no idea what to expect… We had just heard that the caves were pretty cool. They were incredible! A series of interlinked caves high off the ground, in the middle of the mountain I suppose, with amazing stalactites and stalagmites, and a walking path lit up to a reclining Buddha statue. For a small fee we could hire a guide who took us through the back route, with some hair-raising climbing through small tunnels and even smaller holes, to these enormous caverns… Mind-blowing, I’m telling you! There were loads of rocks that looked like other things, too – an elephant, a papaya, a lion, and it was so dark (the guide’s oil lamp was the only light) that it felt as if we were virgin explorers seeing the caves for the first time. Wow.
Tomorrow we’re going to the temple 10 minutes down the road (the other way), which sounds pretty amazing too.
So all in all, we’re feeling a lot more settled and more traveler-savvy. We even have the rest of our time in Thailand sorted out, which is rather exciting!
That said, food has been a bit tricky, I must say. We don’t quite have the budget to eat at the gourmet restaurant three times a day, so we’ve been stocking up on food to eat for breakfast and lunch. Only, most of the supermarkets (obviously) only sell Thai food, and they’re not much for snacking-without-cooking. So most of the portable snacks we could find (for the train and for lunches these days) are either highly processed white breadstuffs, or biscuits. Not ideal!
Still, there is loads of fruit for sale (I bought a kilogram of Thai lychees for about R2.50 today!) and for our one cooked meal a day we’re eating lots of veggies. I seem to be striking it lucky with the insulin to exercise ratio – we’re still walking around a lot but I think I’ve figured out how much less insulin to take to balance out the exercise.
And so far – one week in – I haven’t had a bad health day, or a bad diabetes day! Hooray!
We have a little tradition, here in Cape Town. Every Sunday (or Saturday if the weather is better), Mark and I go on a Nature Walk. It doesn’t have to be for long – usually only an hour or two – but it does have to be somewhere in wild, unspoilt nature. We’ve done forests, mountains, beaches and wide open spaces… And we’ve got it down to a fine art.
Constantia Nek
We strap on our sensible walking shoes, pack some snacks (usually fresh fruit) and make sure we have a water bottle or two on hand. Then we head off, walking slowly at first, to warm up, but gradually getting faster and faster, till we’re striding along, taking great big lungfuls of fresh air. Sometimes we’ll talk, sometimes we’ll be silent, lost in our own thoughts or the beauty of our surroundings. Sometimes it will be a lighthearted, playful nature walk, other times it will be quiet and peaceful. You never really know until you’re in the middle of it… that’s the beauty of exploring nature.
Orange Slices
Although I also love that it opens up your mind. I said to Mark yesterday, as we were clambering along a rocky path on beautiful Silvermine (we made a video – we’ll post it soon!) that getting into nature lets my mind work in different ways. It seems to wake up and stretch, to walk along unfamiliar pathways, to think of things I wouldn’t think of at home, in my everyday routine.
And that’s what I’m so excited about for our forthcoming trip… I’m so excited that we are going to be confronted with things that make us think differently, and look differently, and feel and hear and smell differently, every single day. And that we’re doing it together. Because no matter how beautiful the surroundings, it’s infinitely more beautiful when you’re doing it right next to someone you love.
Now you can plan one! Whether for a real life adventure, or to plan a dream trip (that will be more likely to come true if you actually have a specific route in mind!)
How? Good question. This time yesterday I wouldn’t have been able to tell you… But then I discovered a magical little tool called ‘Round-the-World Booking Tool’ on One World – www.oneworld.com
I was actually a little hesitant to click on it in case it didn’t turn out to be what I’d hoped for… but it was! And more. You see, when you’re planning a round-the-world trip there are all kinds of terms and conditions and confusing rules and regulations that can make your head ache – you’re allowed 16 flight segments in 5 continents, but you’re only allowed to fly in one direction (East to West or West to East) and you’re only allowed a certain number of flight segments within each continent. You’re also only allowed to fly the routes that the airlines in that alliance fly (which isn’t too much of a bother with One World – they’ve got everything from British Airways to Cathay Pacific to the LAN group in South America).
Still, when you’re something of a control freak (as I am – had you noticed?) and you really just want to get your flight path organised, the whole thing can seem a little overwhelming.
Which was why I was so thrilled (really thrilled, down to the tips of my toes) when I discovered this Round-the-World booking tool. You type in the cities you want to go to, and then choose your flights and your itinerary is built in real time… Really freaking cool.
I’ll keep you posted as I go along with how easy it is to follow through on the process, but for now – go and dream! At www.oneworld.com
That’s the theme of the story I wrote for Real Simple magazine in July last year. It was called ‘Sugar Rush’ and it was about how being diagnosed with diabetes made me reassess my definition of success, and start living the life of my dreams.
And… It just won the South African leg of the Novo Nordisk 2009 Diabetes Media Prize! Which is a huge honour. And makes me very happy because it means it’s going through to the international leg of the competition, and so am I! They’re flying me to Vienna in September for a 4 days diabetes conference. Fantastic!
I’ll try and figure out a way to get the PDF online… Not too sure how to do it yet, but I’ll keep you posted! I just read it for the first time in almost a year, and I have to say I’m rather pleased with it. I managed to capture the mood of how I feel about this subject, and I think that’s all any writer can ask for…
(Note the screech-orange hair!)
