So I got back from Morocco last week and worked a whirlwind week of nights, but rest assured, I will be blogging about it over the next couple weeks. It was a beautiful country with amazing food, but truth be told, it’s the hardest country I’ve ever traveled in. Harder than India and Bangladesh combined.
We’re now part of the way thru Ramadan. Since I was working nights I wasn’t affected by the daytime fasting. Muslims here start fasting around 4am (Fajr prayer) and the fast isn’t broken until Maghrib prayer just before 7pm. Most of my patients stayed awake all night and had visitors into the wee hours. It’s very social and most of the families will offer the nurses food, chocolates and coffee. I’m back to day shift tomorrow which means most of my patients will be sleeping until mid-afternoon, and I’ll have to be inconspicuous while drinking water or snacking.
In August I have plans to visit Sharm El Sheikh for a few days. The situation in the Sinai peninsula has been increasingly problematic. Sharm El Sheikh sits on the southern tip of the peninsula, and while there have been no security incidents there, there has been an increased number of ISIS attacks in the peninsula and earlier this week tensions rose on the Egyptian/Israeli border as 2 rockets were fired into Israel. According to the Canadian and US travel alerts for Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh is still considered safe to travel to, so for now we’ll just wait and see. And maybe start researching a back-up plan should the situation worsen.
At the end of August I’ll be traveling to Malaysia and then on to Bali for 3 weeks on my own. I’m really excited to take part in a yoga and meditation retreat hosted by a fellow blogger Sarah Somewhere. I have been following her for years (in fact she was the inspiration for me convincing my 2 dearest friends to drive an auto rickshaw 3000km across India last year.) I’m so excited for some stillness and quietness, and to do yoga in a beautiful place. After the week retreat is over I’m planning on staying in Bali for another week for some R&R.
So those are my summer plans. My year contract here in Saudi ends the beginning of October. I’ll need to make a decision as to whether I’m going to extend until December, or re-contract until next year. My thoughts on it changes literally daily. If I have a good shift at work I think to myself I could stay another year no problem. Then, like everywhere I’ll have a bad shift and come home and be looking at plane tickets to fly home that night. Some days are great, others aren’t so much. But, there is always the ever addictive seemingly endless 54 calendar days of vacation that would be mine if I re-contracted for another year. Already in my head I’m planning future travels…….so we shall see…….
Hi – It’s always fun to read your blog! I have the travel urge ….bad! I’m dying to go back to India. I’m homesick for the place!! Long story…email later…but, while I was thinking about it I wanted to tell you about the “home stay” where I stayed for about 4 days, in Ubud, on Bali. I absolutely loved it – loved the people and the sweet place. Homestays are their equivalent of a B & B. This one is really their home. This family has built it up, room by room. The owners are husband Made (pronounced Mah-Day) and wife Ayu. He’ll pick you up at the airport in Denpassar (I think it was)…(which is over an hour from Ubud). He’s great with transport anywhere you want to go around the island. Never a rip-off, always nice. Ayu is also totally nice and makes a great breakfast, which is included. The home stay is a nice 15 minute, or so, walk from the center of downtown. If you are going to go, ask for the nicest room upstairs. The others are OK but are darker. It’s very simple, basic and clean…birds chirping, view of rice fields, total peace. I’ve already “sent” one of my friends to stay there and she was happy. Their email is [email protected]. Their website is http://www.nirwahomestay.com. If you get in touch with them, please tell them I said hi! And – strange as this sounds – when you’re on Bali, be sure to have someone take you to a funeral. In our culture, we would NEVER crash a funeral (even if we wanted to) but there, funerals are a community event and I went to 2 and was totally welcomed. It’s quite a spectacle…Have fun! Love, Marilyn
Thanks for the info Marilyn!! I haven’t finalized my Bali plans but if there’s room I’ll check out the homestay. I was with Jen in Morocco a couple weeks ago and we were reminiscing about India and your name popped up. So glad to hear from you!!
I’m thinkin that your mind is somewhat, more likely probably, oh well it is made up. Yes the time off is certainly a tease.
I’m just taking it day by day Pops!!!
Nice blog! When will you go to Indonesia?
I was actually in Bali last week- spent 2 lovely weeks there!!