That I am well aware that I’m the luckiest girl in the world, and I’m so deeply grateful for the last almost-six months of travelling, but…

I’ve had enough of uncertainty. We’ve had an incredible run of hotels lately – the El Ombu Estancia, the lovely Casa Sur Art Hotel in Recoleta, and now the fabulous Faena Hotel (and Universe) in Puerto Madero. It’s been simply sumptuous. But now today we had a bit of bad luck in that our easy route to Rio de Janeiro didn´t work out, so we have a fair bit of missioning ahead of us, and things are still up in the air.

And all of a sudden I’m longing for some certainty. We’ve started looking for work back home, so all that is hanging in the balance, and we’re still not 100% sure where we’ll be for our last week, so there’s that to think about. The idea of a home and a fridge and a whole lot of sameness all of a sudden seems very attractive!

Perhaps this is what happens at the end of a journey. You start to wind down, to recalibrate back to a real-life frequency so that when you get home you don’t long for adventure every day. I’ve started eating as healthy as possible and exercising so that I can get back into real life mode, as opposed to traveller mode (which looks a lot like eat-everything-in-sight because you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, a dangerous habit to get into!) And I’ve started thinking of home, and family, and friends, and how lovely it will be to be connected again.

Don’t getme wrong, it has been simply incredible, and I wouldn’t exchange a second of it. But one week more will probably be the perfect amount of time till my homebody self re-asserts herself!
And now? We´re off to a tango show! I’ll post a clip tomorrow.

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!

More on heaven-on-earth soon, I promise.

… on our Mini Trip (2 weeks instead of 9 months!)

1. You don’t always have to eat everything that’s put in front of you. Diabetically speaking, it’s much kinder to yourself (and your diabetes) if you just taste everything when you’re being served three course meals twice a day!

2. When you’re moving around a lot, you have to make a concerted effort to do some exercise. Or you’ll feel stressed and tired (who knew?)

3. Never pack a suitcase more than half full, because mysteriously, in the night, all your stuff will expand. And trying to close an over-full suitcase when you’re running late is no fun. I promise!

4. Any time you have to fly out of Joburg (not my favourite place) to a local destination – fly from Lanseria (Kulula’s ‘new’ airport). It’s a slightly longer drive, but SO worth it once you get there. Not only are the surroundings more pleasant (almost country-like), but the check-in and boarding are a treat. It’s a small, personal airport without any of that frenetic energy that Joburg International has.

5. Something to consider if you’re diabetic and holidaying at a game farm: Sitting on game drives for 6 to 8 hours a day might feel tiring, but it’s actually just sitting – bear it in mind when you’re deciding how much insulin to take for your next meal. (Another thing to bear in mind is that championship eating is not a sport!)

Who knows how many lessons I’ll learn on the real adventure?!

So Mark and I have just had the most wonderfully exciting week… Well, week and a bit. It really gave us a taste for the adventures ahead, and let me tell you – we’re ready! Totally and completely ready. We quite happily lived out of a suitcase for 2 weeks, quite happily didn’t know exactly where we were going to be sleeping the next night, and quite happily lived in each other’s pockets without getting tired of one another.

I am all of a sudden SO SO SO excited to be going!!!

So our Thrilling Week and a Half began with a ride on the Blue Train… oh my goodness, how to describe the Blue Train? I’ll post a real review of it on Just the Planet, but let me just tell you it was 27 hours of heaven. We boarded the train tired and stressed out (we were really busy before we left) and disembarked calm and happy. Magical, indeed.

It wasn’t just the train ride – although that was amazing, watching the world go by through large panoramic windows. And it wasn’t just the food – although that was delicious, and plentiful (3 course lunch, afternoon tea, snacks and sundowners, 3 course dinner and breakfast). It was partly the service, which was incredibly friendly and totally on-the-ball. But it was mainly the experience of it… To be on a train rumbling through the wild open spaces of South Africa, perfectly comfortable but simultaneously out in the open. We loved it.

And were actually really sad to step off the train. I felt quite down.

Lucky, then, that our next port of call was the beautiful Illyria House. Totally over-the-top, completely bedecked in antiques, but with an extremely comfortable white-linen-bed and a delicious garden pagoda jacuzzi. Who knew Pretoria could be exotic? We headed off after a silver service breakfast to the Mexican Embassy to get our visas (easy as pie), and shortly afterwards made our way to the bustling heart of Joburg.

I’ve never been a fan of Joburg. It’s one of my least favourite places in South Africa, in fact. But if I could stay at AtholPlace all the time, I might even consider moving there. It was that beautiful. Every segment of the house fit into each other so perfectly that it looked like the pages of an interior design magazine… Only it was deeply comfortable at the same time. I had to do some work while we were there, and my desk was set up in front of white wooden shutters looking out over the garden… Heaven, I tell you!

After AtholPlace we spent a night with Mark’s sister-in-law and nephew (what a cute baby!) and then flew home (to Durban, the city I’m still in love with) for a few days with my family, before heading off to Phinda Private Game Reserve. Mark had only seen a rhino in the wild before we arrived at Phinda. When we left he’d seen a herd of elephant, a journey of giraffe (isn’t that a great collective noun?), a white rhino and her baby, a black rhino marking his territory, a rather shy leopard, a cheetah mother with her three teenagers, hundreds of zebra, nyala and impala, and a chilled-out herd of buffalo. Throw in a bush pig, two crocs (up close!), and a monitor lizard and you can tell we had a busy two days!

Phinda was such a great experience in itself, though, apart from all the game. The staff were wonderfully friendly and really went the extra-mile for us, and their community work projects are truly inspiring. I’m writing it all up for Just the Planet – I’ll let you know when you can read them.

Till then, time to settle back into home for our last 2 weeks before The Big Adventure begins!