grets's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 69,282 | Welcome to my World by grets - last update: Aug 21, 2009 |
You have just entered Grete's world. Welcome! Portmeirion, Wales
In May we went us to Eastern Turkey, covering 3000+ kilometres in two weeks.
2009 has started with a trip to Ireland to meet up with my good friend Larry (Littlesam1) and his partner Mark, and to realise a long-standing ambition to visit the UNESCO Heritage site of Newgrange.
In February we took my parents to Devon, UK. Since my mum has been in a wheel chair I have to to appreciate the problems associated with disabled travel.
In March we took a cheep and cheerful package holiday to the Dominican Republic. Although I loved the country, the holiday confirmed what I already suspected: a Four Star All-Inclusive Resort is not our style. The highlight was realising yet another ambition: swimming with dolphins.
In April we spent an interesting few days exploring the little visited and still quite untouristy former USSR state of Belarus.
In May we toured the eastern part of Turkey, with some awesome mountain scenery, fascinating historical sites and beautiful cities.
June saw us spending 28 hours in a tiny wooden shed - a bear hide in the middle of the Finnish taiga near the Russian border. We spotted 24 different bears, 11 at one time, and had a fantastic time!
2008 was an amazing year - again - for travel. We visited 17 countries: Yemen, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, China, North Korea, South Korea, Ukraine and Cape Verde.
Obsessive Compulsive Travel Disorder
I have been suffering from this rare, little know malady for some time now, and I am concerned with ensuring that my condition is kept at bay at all times. There is no cure for this ailment; the best you can hope for is the continual availability of medication. The single, most successful remedy for this affliction is to ensure that you have plenty of ongoing and recurring voyages. Therapy, in the form of foreign travel, has to be administered on a regular basis. If the interval between each dose is too prolonged or intermittent, a reasonable supplementary drug can be administered by way of travel reading, travel shows, travel planning, travel talks etc in order to ensure stabilisation of the illness at all times. I would consequently like to recommend to the medical profession that this drug be available on prescription from the health service.
With this in mind, I permanently stock up on antidotes – making sure I have at least one trip planned and booked at all times. In between being able to take my real medicine, I spend time on therapeutic activities such as VT.
I have currently stockpiled the following medicine for future use:
France for August
Weymouth for September
India in October
Greenland for December
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|  | Amazing Christmas trip 2006 Christmas 2006 saw us travelling to Ghana, Togo and Benin, to experience a culture so different to our own.
Our route took us to the following detinations:
Accra - the cosmopolitan capital
Mankessim for a historical look at the evolvement of the region
Cape Coast and Elmina to see slave castles
Kakum National Park with its canopy walkway in the rainforest
Kumasi to meet the Ashanti King
Ashanti Region
Lake Bosumptwi is sacred to the Ashanti, but not much there for the tourist
small villages to see everyday life
Mole National Park for walking safaris and game drives.
Larabanga to see the oldest mosque in Ghana and visit some very interesting villages.
Tamale for a very brief visit
Gnani - one of the definite highlights of the trip! A real witches' village.
Yendi - a market village
Then into Togo and
Bassar to meet the Bassar King
Kara - another market village.
Kante - the gateway to Taberma Valley
Koutammakou - the UNESCO Heritage site.
Niamtougou - a very interesting look at unusual market goods.
Djendi - a amall village where the men have a foot fetish!
Sokode - a brief stop in Togo's second largest city.
Kparatao where we saw a very interesting fire dance.
Just outside Bafilo we visited another local ethnic group, before making a stop at Tchambe to see a historical fetish shrine.
In Benin we spent some time in the large town of Abomey, including witnessing a mask festival, before taking a boat across Lake Nakoue to stay in the stilt village of Ganvie. After a lot of painfully slow bureaucracy in Cotonou, we were finally on our way to the historically important Ouidah and its incredibly disturbing slave history.
Back into Togo, another highlight of the trip was the voodoo ceremony in the village of Atitogan as well as the fetish market in Lomé, which was also one of the more disturbing aspects of this trip.
The tip finished back in Accra. |
Why do I travel? I have many reasons for travelling, but the main culprit is an insatiable curiosity.
1. People.
I am curious about people, how they differ from me and what the similarities are. I am interested in their food, what they wear and how they live. I am fascinated by their history and inquisitive about their culture, religion and social activities.
2. Animals.
I love watching animals in their natural habitats, seeking them out in the wilderness and experiencing close encounters of the furry kind. Or scaly. Or leathery. Or whatever. The unpredictability and unreliability of the chase appeals to me and makes the reward all the sweeter.
3. History.
I have a wonderful series of 18 books called “What Life was Like” featuring various epochs in the world history. I imagine myself there. I visualize the people, the clothes, the fashions and the way of life. Meandering amongst ruins, envisaging how they lived, what they wore and their topics of conversations gives me immense pleasure. This sensation first hit me like a thunderbolt during a visit to Ephesus in my early travel days. Until then, historical ruins had been merely ‘dry’, text-book history in my mind’s eye. Then I saw the chariot marks in the cobbles, and a sudden realisation descended upon me: These are real marks made by real carriages carrying real people. It was as if a door had opened to an entirely new world for me. I was a born again ruminator.
4. Landscapes.
Verdant rolling hills dotted with spring flowers bouncing from the still drowsy winter soil; majestic mountains searing into the heavens amid gentle fluffy clouds tinged with a hint of pink from the emerging sun; mighty rivers crushing swirling torrents ever forward as the course of the waterway twists and turns amid trees and boulders; the austere and ascetic beauty of a winter panorama with trees laden heavily under yesterday’s snow and spoor in the snow from a small animal fearless enough to brave the subzero temperatures; dust hanging heavily from an orange desert sky, penetrated by the red ball of the weary sun taking its last look over the vast, African plains before descending behind dark and brooding silhouettes of acacia trees.
5. Cities, towns and villages.
Teeming metropolises, sleepy villages, romantic cities – all full of people going about their daily life - I love them all. Favourites include, but are not limited to, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, London, Bruges and Venice.
6. Architecture.
Through the ages, man has created some remarkable structures, many of them currently in various stages of preservation. When I was 12 years old, my father bought me the book ‘Around the World with Readers Digest’, and I marvelled at the destinations featured within its covers. Such well-known wonders as Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat remained a young, impressionable girl’s dream. I never did imagine that this desire to explore the world would one day become reality.
7. New experiences.
It never ceases to amaze me that, despite the extensive travels we have partaken in over the years, we still come across at least one hitherto un-encountered experience on almost every one of our trips. | | | Imam Khomeni Square, Esfahan, Iran |
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| Snorkelling in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia |
| | Where do I travel? What inspires me to select a particular destination?
I typically travel for a specific purpose to a particular location, be it West Africa to learn about voodoo, Indonesia to see the Komodo Dragons, Djibouti for the surreal rock formations at Lake Abbé, Tibet to view Potala Palace, Galapagos Islands to walk amongst iguanas and swim with the penguins, India to spot tigers, Libya to immerse myself in centuries of history……you get the picture!
How do I come to be aware of these attractions originally? VT of course! But naturally there are other sources of information: conversations with fellow travellers, books, TV programs and magazine articles to mention a few. Although I have for many years maintained a ’wish list’ of destinations I aspire to visit; this list does not diminish for each trip we take, it does in fact expand as I add previously unknown attractions to the register.
We are fast approaching the autumn of our lives, and we have no guarantees for the continual good health or financial stability we are currently enjoying. We therefore choose to select the more demanding and challenging destinations to visit ‘while we still can’. I favour remote and primitive over luxury and crowds. I also try to opt for countries that have recently emerged from oblivion as far as travellers go – to get there before the crowds do, or to visit before they disappear off the tourist map again for political, safety or other reasons. |
How do I travel? Idealistically, we travel on a tailor-made trip for the two of us, with accommodation, transport and a guide pre-arranged from the UK, sacrificing spontaneity for maximising time spend exploring the sites. In Utopia we would be able to combine the two of course. Realistically, for financial reasons, many of our trips are with taken with environmentally aware tour operators, specialising in small group adventure tours. I do not support one company over another by design, rather I decide on the tour content within a preferred destination. During our thirty years of marriage and travel, we have used over sixty different tour operators. Sometimes we buy a complete package from the UK, other times we will purchase a flight and book accommodation on the internet and car hire in the destination.
We like to vary the way we travel, and have previously engaged in walking holidays, multi-activity trips, cruises, skiing, fly-drive, a two-week journey entirely by train, a cycling holiday, rock-climbing trips, sailing, coach trips, safaris, road trips, city-breaks, camel trekking, canoeing, resort based holidays, camping, luxury time out and day trips. | | | Camels in the desert (from hot air balloon), Dubai |
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| | What do I take? I travel with my husband David and a backpack full of curiosity. I make a point of not judging other cultures by their actions (criminality aside), just because they are different to mine. I bring a pocket full of respect and value the diversity that is the world. I observe and absorb and accept that we are all different - even though I might not always understand or agree. I wonder at the traditions and way of life of other nations and I am captivated by the beauty of little things. A child's smile, a small flower bud, a colourful costume, a field full of crops, a bird in the trees, the trickling of a stream - isn't life amazing? I appreciate the opportunity travel has afforded me - to gain an insight into other people's lives, to embrace the world with an open mind and tolerance. |
What does travel do for me? Travel is a humbling experience. I consider myself extremely privileged to be able to indulge my obsession to the extent I do. I am fortunate that I can experience the way of life of other civilisations. I regard it as an honour to be invited to learn about their traditions and customs. Travel has a way of making me feel blessed – not just because I can see for myself all these far-flung stimulating destinations , but also because it makes me appreciate what I have back home. I am the luckiest girl alive. | | |
| | Retirement If you don't have a dream, how are you going to have a dream come true?
When we retire, we dream of buying a Pinzgauer and travelling from North Cape in Norway to Cape Town in South Africa. This may very well remain just as a pipe dream, as there are currently many factors preventing us reaching our ambition:
Work. Although David managed to get his much longed-for redundancy, I am still working. David is spending a lot of his time caring for my parents.
My parents. I can not and will not travel for such an extended period of time while my parents are still alive. They are 83/84 years old at the moment, and not in good health.
Health. Nothing is guaranteed in this world, we may not be healthy enough to undertake such an adventurous journey by the time the journey can become reality.
Courage. Although it is fun to dream, would we actually have the courage to set out on such a daunting trip when it came to it? Who knows.
Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera, sera
What will be, will be |
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 Comments for grets | | | | |
canuck68 Thu Nov 5, 2009 03:23 UTC
I really hope you and your husband get to realize that dream of going from Norway to Cape Town. Somehow I think you will, | Donna_in_India Sat Oct 24, 2009 13:23 UTC
Hi Grete - I just read today that Pushkar Lake has been drained to make it deeper!! Such bad timing for you and the fair! Hope you had a good flight... | HORSCHECK Thu Sep 24, 2009 20:20 UTC
Grete, fabulous intro photo. I love it. :o) | Homanded Thu Sep 24, 2009 13:57 UTC
Thanks luv, feeling quite a bit better. Trying to get over the flu now before my trip! Hugs, Homer |
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