vickygoestravelling

my journey to health and well being via exotic destinations

Category Archives: Travel


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In search of our ancestors: Fogels in Boskovice and Brno

[continued…] The next morning David and Jess leave early. By 8.45 we’ve heard nothing and anxiety returns. It’s a good three hours drive to Boskovice and I need to be there by 2pm…Finally we hear the news and its not what we are expecting! Not having a licence is the least of our problems – we have no vehicle! The rental place is closed down! So they have been trying valiantly to secure another transport but it’s Easter and nothing is available. 

Eventually they manage to track one down which appears to be bona fide (car hire in Prague is renowned for being a scam we discover) and it will be  delivered within the hour…we wait and wait but they can’t deliver it to us (heart sinks), we will have to walk with all our luggage to the other side of the Old Town square. I am feeling distinctly nervous now as it 10 am, but lo and behold there is a van! And a good one!

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In search of our ancestors: Fogels in Prague

On the bridge over the Vltava outside the National Theatre near the family home

My half-sister Bonnie messages me to say she and her son David, his wife Jessica and their two boys, Aden and Leon, are coming to discover their Czech roots for Spring Break. ‘And we can’t do it without you!’ Spring Break? That’s impossible I say – three stops in five days with jet lag! Plus it’s Easter week so it will be crowded!

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Mexico 4: Uxmal and the Ruta Puuc

Palacio del Gobernador, Uxmal

We are anxious about crowds, so we set off very early to reach Uxmal, arriving at 8.15 am. The last part of the road is very narrow, as it is the route used by the lorries avoiding the toll road to Campeche. Amazingly the only other people there are another English couple who take a fine photograph of us three in front of the Piramide del Adivino, the magnificent structure that greets you on arrival. Atty is excited because, although living in Mexico, she has never visited an archaeological site before.

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Mexico 2: Chichen Itza

Temple of Kukulcán (El Castillo)

After a week on the Mayan Riveira we pick up a hire car in Playa del Carmen, which will be ours for the next week. We had been nervous about driving in Mexico but, despite the towns and cities being slightly hairy due to there being no obvious rules of engagement, aside for give way to the left on roundabouts – the main roads are mainly empty due to the tolls, so easily navigable.

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Mexico 1: The Mayan Riviera – cenote diving & Tulum

Diving at just above the sulphate layer and 30m at Angelita cenote

A couple of years ago we successfully bid for a week in a house in Merida at a charity auction. For some reason we never got round to using that week but, one summer afternoon, feeling rather gloomy, I rashly booked some flights to Mexico for the first two weeks in November!

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Check out my new website – Vicky’s Big Adventure!

Finding my mother’s diaries and travel notebooks of her journeys, now published online as Travels with my Mother, inspired me to re-read my travel diary of my overland trip to India in my gap year, in 1976.

So by clicking on this link you will join the often arduous yet fascinating journey of 18 year-old pursuing her dream trip to the Hindu Kush!

Here are some photos to whet your appetite:


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Sleep, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, sleep – another gourmet dive trip on the Dewi Nusantara

This is our fifth time on this magnificent boat. We are thrilled to be going with co-owners Simon and Eira Day and some friends of theirs, Julian and Leah, making up a good British contingent. In fact we are lucky in that the majority of our fellow passengers are delightful and fun; we are specially thrilled to be with Janusz and Alicja Draminski, renowned underwater photographers, despite being in their 80s!

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Volcanoes and vegetables in Beristagi, Sumatra

Down the 200 steps for the last time! We are reunited with Mr Gali, the driver, and set off with Gerry our guide for the next five days, for the four-hour drive to Beristagi. Initially we retrace our steps to Medan before turning off. We drive through miles and miles of palm oil with villages lining the road. It is Friday and there are men begging, using butterfly-style nets to catch the donations. People here are generous to the poor – these men are are unemployed, although with all these plantations around the rates ought to be low.

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Tracking and trekking in Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra May 2025

 

Wati, my attacker

After fond farewells with our Dewi Nusantara shipmates at Jakarta airport, we depart bang on time to Medan, an overnight stop in order to reach Bukit Lawang, where we will spend three nights in our search for the elusive orangutang. We have only seen them in rehab mode in Borneo, and it is about the only place to see them in the wild. The National Park has between 6-7000 apes, spread across about 8000 acres, so we are hopeful. However, incursions into it for expansion of oil palm continue despite legal battles.

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Beating the January blues in the Alps

The mountain blues of peace – ‘from whence cometh my help’

If it sounds like an indulgence – it is. Every year we de-camp to our apartment in Champery to take advantage of emptier pistes (more about that later).

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