I ran into a little trouble with souvenir trains transferring my luggage from the train to the hotel in Darwin. I packed them carefully but each time I moved my bag or searched for something, one of the trains would start up chuff, chuffing down an imaginary track (whoo whoo). It happened putting my bags […]
The Ghan
I woke up at 3.30am on Sunday morning, ready for the plane to Adelaide. I was staying with my friends Clare and Bob. Bob, who’s an engineer with Qantas, was taking me to the airport on his way to his morning shift. I was already awake before he knocked on the door. I used the […]
The Vestibular System
I noticed it first when I was out walking. Every now and then my left leg went across the right instead of going straight and I had to adjust my legs so I wouldn’t trip. It didn’t seem normal so I mentioned it to my doctor. She suggested dehydration. When you walk a lot, she […]
Elia
Elia passed away a few days ago, said the friend who rang me. My friend was sombre so I was too but I kept thinking, no, it can’t be, Elia was so alive. I imagine her sitting at her desk at her yoga studio, writing something. Or maybe reading something. I think of the black […]
Northern India
When I told people I was going to India I met with a variety of comments. My Indian friends encouraged me, my yoga friends were excited for me and some people said: ‘Buy locks’ (always good advice) and ‘Trust no one’ (as if I was going to the X-Files). I do remember thinking: ‘Indians probably […]
Vietnamese Kindness
All the time in Vietnam I kept thinking about the war. I remember the last few years of high school and our worries that boys we knew would be forced to mobilise and spend army years in Vietnam. We comforted ourselves that very few Australians were killed but went to protest marches anyway. My parents […]
Seas I Have Swum In
I sat in the pool in Vietnam and enumerated to a friend all the seas I had swum in and why there was no need to add the South China Sea to the list. But it was just there, on the other side of the pool so eventually I did. I kept thinking how somewhere […]
Cambodia and the Vietnamese
I got on with my guide in Hanoi, he was laid back and willing to exchange information more than impart it. He let me correct his English and told me about local food and customs. He told me that, because his wife was born in the year of the tiger and he in the year […]
Going to Vietnam
I used to love travel but now I find myself nervous, unwilling to leave my home, worried that something terrible will happen. I wonder if I’m just getting too old, like my aunt who went to Hawaii in her late seventies and came back swearing she would never travel again. I don’t want to be […]
Hanoi and Halong Bay
The hotel room in Hanoi is small but nice, though the deluxe city view is mostly a view of someone’s messy rooftop. There’s a laneway below with lots of activity: motor cycles coming and going, women chatting and opening and closing intriguing shops. The hotel food isn’t as good as in Hoi An or Da […]