Life on the Road..

November....7 weeks in....Beijing today...Vietnam tomorrow.
There are changes in our days. Life has a pattern, or rhythm, in the sense that you leave, you arrive, you set up your washing for the joy of clean clothes, you find a place to be that makes you feel good, you greet old friends and make some new, you find shops etc that supply your needs, then it dissolves again as you move on and it starts all over again. We are changing from tourists to travellers. Within this there are the normal tensions of life that surround change but there is a lot of relaxing too, an acceptance that it is okay to go with the moment, and you do not have to be out on the street every hour of the day. Neither do you have to buy all the usual tourist stuff because you cannot carry it. This is definately a plus, though it confuses the locals!
Life challenges are smaller but still daunting. You work out where your base line is-what you can accept , like my itchy washing, my navy trousers and teeshirt so caked with soap powder I itch, but I know that in Vietnam I can get rid of them and have some cotton trousers and shirts made up, and wash them myself! We miss having running water to wash, clean teeth etc. It feels so confined to use a glass of bottled water! Sit down toilets are a real joy after the others!How many times can you act out, "Could I have some toilet paper?" Say no more! Getting butter with your toast and milk with your tea is good. I am so sick of acting that out. I will have to show the Chinese the, ' English tea-ceremony'! For the love of god!!!!!
The best things we have bought in terms of survival skills? Our little red bucket. It has been our washing up bowl, our bathroom sink, (on the five day train), our washing machine, the loo, when I was sick, Our washing up bowl etc. It has been worth its weight in gold, along with our water purifying tablets. The travel wash has been excellent in view of the small bags we have, four pegs and a short drawerstring that has provided our wash line have also been good. Our sleeping bags were vital in the Ger, when it was cold. They are cotton and provided a clean place to lie if some of the beds looked a bit suspect! Our two plastic beakers have provided clean drinking vessels too, necessary if you are going to avoid tummy bugs! So far, so good. Vietnam will test us out!
We miss being able to turn on the heating because the places we have stayed do not have carpets, warm curtains etc and the cold is setting in. Food is an issue because very little tastes the same. The omelette cooked in Chinese oil has a different taste. Sometimes you long for the simple tastes of cheese, fresh bread, coffee. In China we have carried our crackers but found nothing to put on them...maybe fresh tomato will do?? Often you adapt your acceptance levels or find foods that compensate. The brandy is only one pound a bottle! Fruit is crisper and fresher in Beijing. Some of the Chinese food is pretty good too, if you search around. Getting butter with your toast is sometimes hard going...it is a bit like the Python sketch for spam. I could have one toast with butter and the other with jam, but noth both on each...Hellooooo!!!!!!!
Trying at least one local dish in each place has been...lets say interesting...See earlier blogs!
The next adaption is to heat, hard sell and mosquitoes (maybe) . We envisage ourselves renting a beach hut along the Vietnamese coast, becoming the Timmy Hasselledoff and Prune-lla Cumbersome of the beach scene. Lets see.....