Entries Tagged 'Travel' ↓

I felt a little guilty about my last blog post. I feel bad that I may have been too critical of a city that I don’t know particularly well – even though the reflection was a good thing with a great answer. Either way, when I finally got the chance to record some video, I extended on the post a little.

In this video I also show a few awesome products that I found in NY health food stores…

I wanted my first blog post in the US to be a video post and I apologize that it’s not. Staying in a hostel means not a lot of space or privacy for filming and it’s been raining out but I promise I’ll get the camera out as soon as I can.

Two weeks before I embarked on this journey I knew it was going to be a soul searching trip for me, and I’m happy to say I’ve already been answering some questions and getting some clarity on the direction I want to be heading in life.

When I first landed in New York and settled into my hostel, I spent a couple of hours wandering around my new neighborhood, checking out the cafes, bars and restaurants and was ecstatic to find three vegan restaurants, a handful of health food stores and two yoga schools all within a ten minute walk from my hostel.

The city of New York is amazing. There is always a very good health store within a short walking distance. I’m sitting in a cafe writing this and my macbook is picking up 30 wireless Internet connections. I don’t know if I’m going to have enough time to visit all of the raw vegan restaurants in the city during my stay and I walked into a clothing store the other day and bought the best ever organic cotton underwear that you won’t even find online in Australia let alone in a store.

In Australia I can list every health stores in my city on one hand. If my macbook picks up 5 wifi connections that’s a lot, and I have to drive over an hour to get to the one and only raw vegan restaurant in my state, and even then it’s on the border. Continue reading →

The unfortunate thing about flying to a new destination is the air travel. Over the next couple of months I’m going to be on a few air flights which is great because I get to visit some cool places, but it also means I have to endure an often uncomfortable time on the flights.

But there are some things we can do to make flight time a little easier on our physical health. In this blog post I thought I’d give you one of my tips, which is what I carry with me in the clear plastic bag full of miniature products that we’re allowed to take on board.

1. Essential oils

I’m new to essential oils but have no idea how I used to live without them. The great thing about flying with oils is they already come in tiny bottles so you don’t need to worry about putting them into smaller containers. You can also get many different types of oils that will help with a whole range of travel related “issues”. Here are the three I’ve been experimenting with on this flight-

Wintergreen essential oil dabbed just under your nose is great for keeping your sinuses clear and healthy during a flight. It’s a natural anti-bacterial so helps to keep those nasties away. It also has a strong smell of a mix between peppermint and eucalyptus which absolutely keeps the sinuses nice and clear.

Lavender essential oil is one of my all time favorites because it’s so versatile and a necessity to take while I’m traveling. During flight time lavender is great at calming and relaxing your whole system so you have a more peaceful flight. It also just smells super nice. One of the first things I did when I got onto this flight is dab some lavender oil on my wrists and temples. The man sitting beside me asked what I had just put on because he said it smelt so good! So in a way I guess you can relax a few people sitting around you with your use of aromatherapy. Cool huh.

Rosemary essential oil is great for waking up a foggy mind. I love rosemary essential oil, I’ve used it in the past in a facial steam to help dislodge stubborn blackheads. But on long flights it’s awesome for getting that mind clarity back after the haze sets in. For this flight that haze time was around the three hour mark.

2. Lip balm

We all know that flying really dries out the skin, and this includes our lips. I always carry a chap stick or lip balm with me while I’m traveling to prevent my lips from drying out and peeling. There are many natural lip balms so if you’re buying one, please buy at your local organic market or health store.

3. Hand cream

During winter and on flights I get “old lady hands”. My hands seem to be the first place that dries up. My favorite is the Hand Salve from Burt’s Bees. It’s natural, comes in a tiny jar and is thick and rich enough to hydrate even the most dried up oldest looking skin. The creamier hand lotions from Burt’s Bees are good too, but I don’t find them quite as effective.

4. Rescue remedy

I’m not scared of flying but I can find the whole ordeal a little overwhelming sometimes, especially when traveling alone or with someone else who’s scared of flying. I love Rescue Remedy or Emergency Essence by Australian Bush Flower Essences because it works quickly and effectively at calming down any anxiety or overwhelm that I’m feeling.

I have a little spray bottle which is the right size for air travel and simple to use. On the drive to the airport this morning I was feeling very overwhelmed so I pumped a couple of sprays under my tongue. Within minutes I was feeling a lot calmer.

That’s it! That’s what I’ve been carrying in my products bag this flight. If you have a completely different set up products that you love taking with you, let us all know about it…

I was totally blown away by Las Vegas when I first flew in. I had a night flight and just happened to be on the good side of the plane. I was trying to spot “The Strip” from looking out the window and figured it must be the strongest little groups of lights, until it just appeared literacy right outside my window. Las Vegas international airport is only three miles from the strip, so it’s an amazing sight when you fly in. As soon as we landed I wanted to go again, it totally felt like a ride at a theme park.

Every single hotel is completely lit up with neon lights and just about every hotel has a crazy theme to it. There is a pyramid hotel here. It’s a hotel that is a an actual pyramid. It’s massive and has a huge light beaming up from the tip of the pyramid into the sky. There’s another hotel that looks like a castle straight out of Disney Land, another that’s a replica of Paris, and another that’s a mini New York complete with a full sized roller coaster that wraps around the hotel, upside down loops and all.

We stayed at the MGM Grand, so it was movie themed and had a huge gold lion out the front. There’s a real lion den inside the hotel too, which I was very upset about until I found out there are actually 30 or so lions that live on a ranch miles away from the strip, and they just come to the hotel in shifts to hang out for a couple of hours at a time during the day. They’re very pampered and very loved by the staff and the den is massive with little caves and waterfalls, and they just play with their trainers while they’re there. I guess that was okay.

Standing in front of millions of m&ms

Vegas is really only good for a day trip for people like me who don’t gamble, don’t smoke and don’t drink. Every single hotel has a massive casino on the lower floor, and it’s very loud and very smokey. It’s worth it to come here just to see how strange the buildings look (sometimes a wander into the hotels is worth it), and how ridiculously elaborate vegas is, but there’s not much more too it than that. It’s difficult to find good restaurants that don’t cost a fortune (you need to look for places outside of the hotels) and there’s not much else to do except see shows. We saw Cirque De Sole Mystere, and I was going to see David Copperfield but strangely ran out of time. Continue reading →