Pieces or castles

My thoughts are super scattered and my heart is torn. The hours turn into days, days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months. Yet, so much happens in every hour, every day, every week, that it feels like years since I last saw home. Time means so much but moves so fast. When you travel time takes on a very different form, it shapes itself into an illusion. So much happens everyday that it feels like you've been gone for so long, yet in reality very little time has passed. With so many more months of travelling ahead my heart often wonders what will happen after all the allotted time actually passes. Where will I be? Who will I be? And how much of my heart will be left? There are so many things about life that I do not know, nor understand. What I do know is that everyone is seeking someone special is life. Everyone is looking for love but that really cant surprise anyone. We are not meant to walk this earth alone. There is abundance in everything in life and especially in love.  There is this unseen, but strongly felt, power that pulls us together into twos. It is like there is gravity within our souls that pushes us to look for our compliment. The one who we are to share our story with. I have learnt that almost everything in life comes back to love. Many of us spend our whole lives waiting for it but then when it comes knocking on our door, we want more. We want to change its form or change the person but love doesn't just come in the form of a partner or someone who shares our bed, love comes into our lives in so many forms. Love comes to us in the form of friends, the  grocery store owner, the bus driver who smiles with his heart, the people who cross our path and those we call family.
This all brings me back to my scattered thoughts and torn heart. For the first time in my life, I am not looking for a lover nor do I feel one has a place within my life. But I am still giving love and receiving love everyday but from a different stance. The difficult thing is, whenever we change our view, our perspective automatically changes and the questions that now fill my mind drive me farther to confusion. My heart feels so full that it might explode but on the flip side I feel like I have lost pieces of it. I don't hold back in my friendships nor in life therefore, I give whatever I have to those I meet; my story, my thoughts, my views, and my heart.  Perhaps I give too much of it or perhaps I don't yet know how to hold on it but how is one to hold on to their heart when they travel the world? I have not fallen in love with anyone but I have fallen in love with everyone. There are so many fabulous people that have come into my life that I feel beyond blessed. Everyday I met these extraordinary people with such interesting ideas, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. We share, we explore, we laugh, we join and then we part. Each time it is getting a little harder and a little more difficult to part. Each time I feel as though a little piece of my heart gets left behind with them as they fad away in the rear view mirror. I remind myself to breathe and remind myself to trust in what I know. "Everything I need is within me and everything I need to know I already possess. Somewhere it all comes back to trusting yourself". - me

Nevertheless, the question keeps coming back. Can I continue to give away pieces of my heart? Or, do I build an visible castle and leave the closest parts of my heart locked away? My initial response to the latter is always immediately "No". Thus, my mind continues to race and attempt to find a way to keep my heart whole. Perhaps there is no answer. Perhaps this will remain one of the many things I do not know about life. That is okay because not all questions need answers and not all answers need questions. As my thoughts continue in circles, like the swings at the fair, around and around and around, my heart will continue to give in the only way it knows how - completely. Maybe my heart will end up scattered across this beautiful earth or perhaps I am just learning. Learning a new perspective or a new view, on how to give, how to love, and how to share. To some this post will make absolutely no sense, to others they understand perfectly how we give parts of ourselves to those we travel the world with. For all those whom we shared the same path, short or long, and to all those who are about to come into my life, a piece of my heart is now yours. Perhaps in learning this love is where my salvation lies.

D-D-D-Diarrhea

Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea

Over the last few months I have received numerous facebook messages, emails and texts, from people enquiring if I had gotten diarrhea or food poisoning while travelling South East Asia. Obviously, I am a very open individual, otherwise a blog wouldn't be be very feasible, yet blogging about diarrhea takes things to a new level. Nevertheless, it has taken a lot of time to answer private messages so now it's time to go public....

My travels began in China, and since then I have travelled through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and currently I am in Thailand.

During my travels, I have eaten every type of street food possible from bloody chicken, to questionable meats, to strange meat buns. This is one of the most beautiful things about travelling - trying the local food and really experiencing how the locals eat. Therefore, my various travel mates and I have always attempted to eat local dishes which usually means eating cheap. While in China I made a conscious decision to begin brushing my teeth with tap water. Although many travellers consistently use bottled water to brush their teeth, if you are going to have iced coffees and eat fresh vegetables (washed in water), you might as well put your toothbrush under the tap. The majority of travellers brush their teeth with local tap water and are fine so it's not something I would trouble your mind with. So far, I have been extremely lucky and haven't had any major episodes of diarrhea, food poisoning or nausea from food. Of course, I have had nausea from buses, trains and planes but not from the food here in Asia. My stomach is more sensitive to motion than it is to bugs. There have been three days when my poop hasn't been as solid as it should be, but I believe that it was most likely due to many days of two many beers with the Irish, versus bad food.

Unfortunately my luck ran out while in Thailand and food poisoning came knocking on my door. While in Chaing Mai, my girl friend and I went on a two day trek in the mountains with all meals provided. The meals were fantastic and were nothing different from what I have previously been eating in SE Asia. However, upon returning back to Chiang Mai, the majority of the people on the trek came down with a nasty case of food poisoning which sent us praying to the porcelain gods for 12 hours or more. At first, I thought it was the dinner we had just eaten but when the food passed and our stomachs emptied but the vomiting continued I knew something major was up. I will save you the gross details but lets just say we needed two bathrooms that night. So, we sucked it up, drank as much water as possible, and allowed our bodies to pass out the bug. One of the unique things about SE Asia is that almost anything you can imagine is available at the local pharmacy. Thus, if nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach or diarrhea hits you, there will always be an available remedy. 

Food rules while travelling - 

1. Get your vacations prior to leaving your home country. 

2. Bring gravol & diarrhea pills.

3. Wash your hands as much as possible or use hand sanitiser. 

4. Make sure whenever you eat meat get it cooked well! 

5. Eat all the local food you can and don't stress about getting sick. If it happens, it happens but don't limit your travel experience out of fear of illness. The experience of sharing and tasting local food with friends, from around the world, will be memories your heart and taste buds will cherish forever.

"One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends" - Laurie Colwin.