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Philippines Water Refills

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. Tagged

When travelling in far-flung places we will not buy water in plastic bottles. NO its just wrong.

First…
Check if the tap water is actually safe to drink. To find out, visit this super cool website to find out can I drink the water. Just pick the country you want and read the result.

If yes, hooray – all you need to take is your refillable bottle.

If no consider buying a Steripento sterilize you own water.

Refill Stations
Many countries offer a waterbottle refill service. This is for the locals not tourists but you can also use it. We do but still sterilise the water with our pen.

Cebu City  to Moalboal

Theres no need to buy bottled water  in Cebu as far as I can tell. Everywhere you look there are large refillable water bottles, encased in wooden boxes, where you can refill your  bottle for pesos. They look homemade  to me – the boxes not the bottles I mean. Of course there is no way of knowing that the bottles simply haven’t been refilled from the tap but the water is clear so can be further treated with your Steripen.

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For other water refill points the world over check our big list
More plastic-free travel posts? Try the index
And of course….. how to back pack plastic free

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Iran – modify breakfast

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. 5 Comments

I love Iranian breakfasts – fresh bread, eggs, goats or sheep cheese, creamy butter, village jam and honey with black tea. Nice.

Sadly, in hotels at least, they have gone for per-packed portion controlled servings in plastic with a boiled egg. The whole lot is cling-filmed to the plate for the purposes of hygiene apparently. I know…I know…

For the purpose of consumer research I tried one. The butter was weird and slick, the cheese was like dairy lee, the honey was just syrup water and the jam a bright red blob of jelly that tasted of no fruit at all. Grim, worse than tasteless and resulting in a plateful of everlasting trash.

What to do for breakfast instead?

Ask to have the bread and egg separate and unattached to the plate.Explain that clingfilm and plastic are carcinogens. Ask for some cucumber or fruit instead of poison wrapped spreads. You are missing nothing by refusing this rubbish and helping to endorse the use of local products which are far superior

For more posts on plastic in Iran read up here

Find lots more pictures of Iranian plastic pollution here at
Planet Trash and Flickr  Plastic Is Rubbish

Want to travel plastic free – check out the plastic free backpack

 

 

 

Iran – Take a towel….

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. 5 Comments

And don’t dress like that. When backpacking we don’t usually stay in the kind of hotels that provide luxurious extras like towels. Our hotels are basic. The kind where you see something brown on your pillow its not a chocolate. Which  means we have to bring our own towels .

As backpackers we try to keep our bags small so rather than carry towels we use multi-purpose wraps (sarongs). These double (triple?) as towels, beachwear and dressing gowns. While they make excellent dressing gowns they lack the absorbency of proper fleecy bath sheets. Basically you use them to wipe off the excess water but not much more. This is fine in warmer climates where the hot air can finish the job but in colder places they tend to leave you clammy in your clefts and moist between your toes. Not how you want to be.

P1240087Another consideration is drying them after use. Again not a problem when its warm, infinitely harder when its cold. Traveling with wet towels is unpleasant. After a couple of days everything in your pack smells horribly of damp and there is mildew on your knickers. Our immediate solution to cold weather drying problems is not to shower.

Being British, and Northern, I can go for days on one quick wipe round with a flannel. Village Boy has higher standards and soon starts winging. Eventually we have to book a couple of days in a reasonably nice hotel that supplies hot water, towels and ideally a laundry service.

The North of Iran has been wet and cold so shivering and whiffy we have been searching out decent places to clean up. For reasons I cannot begin to imagine some hotels in Iran have started heat sealing their towels in plastic bags. Yes plastic wrapped towels. We asked for unwrapped towels but apparently they return from the laundry like that.

2012-19.3 hotel Darab (7)

We opened them and used the towels but it quite spoilt our shower.

We have taken the plastic bags with us to reuse.

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the plastic- free backpack 

S.E. Asia – Water Refills

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. Tagged 1 Comment

When travelling in far flung places we will not buy water in plastic bottles. NO its just wrong. Instead we sterilize our own using a Steripen …. but when a bottle refill service is offered we will use that instead. We want to support and encourage such  fine ventures.

Clean water machines?

One great scheme is these water machines that are popping up in Thailand, Malaysia and maybe other places.

You put your money in, hold your bottle under the tap, fill it up with nice clean water.

 

It’s safe – and cheaper than bottled water.

Malaysia

The Islands

Perhentians

Coral Bay
In Amelia’s restaurant (next to Mamas place – first restaurant on the right of the pier) is a water machine. Put your money in, position your reusable water bottle, press the button and out comes the clean water.

Quiver Divers, Coral Bay

If you diving with these guys you can fill your reusable water bottle with their filtered water.

Mainland

Georgetown (Penang)

There are 3 on Lebuh Chulia (off Love Lane) one next the Reggae Bar another further up on the right, just near the Crystal Guest house and a third opposite the Air Asia Office.

Tanah Rata Cameron Highlands

There is one on the main road which is called the Main Road next to the KFC style fried chicken outlet opposite the bus station.

There is another one at the other end of the street near the clothes shops.

Thailand

Bangkok

Khosan Road – hidden away behind the t shirts and hair braiders there is a clean water machine – its roughly opposite MacDonald’s (catering for the teenage crowd)

There is another near Khosan on a road I don’t know the name of but next to SEX Tattoo (no, I don’t know who that is catering for).

Chang Mai

One machine on a street I don’t know the name of – can anyone help here – but it is down from the pub that does Guinness, pies and football (guessing they are catering for the ex pat crowd), kind of opposite the book shop.

Chang Rai

There are clean water machines in the night market close to the stalls – sorry I cant be more specific but you might be able to tell from the picture.

Jetyod road – look out for the launderette.

If you stay at Jansom House see tripadvisor for more–  you can fill your bottle for free from their machine.

Nan

There is a water machine on Pha Kong Road on the right hand side just  after you cross Mahawong Road – with the Shell Garage behind you  walking towards the night market.

At Nan Guest house you can fill your water bottle for free- if you are staying there and you could do worse.

More

For other water refill points the world over check our big list
More plastic-free travel posts? Try the index
And of course….. how to back pack plastic free

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India Water Refills

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. 3 Comments

Plastic rubbish in India is a real problem. Plastic lasts for centuries, doesn’t rot and is inedible. Burning it at best smells bad and adds to the green house effect, at worst is lethal. In short plastic cannot be easily disposed of. Plastic waste requires special disposal facilities which much of India does not have. A lot of plastic trash ends up dumped.

Steralised Water Machines

So it is really good to see water bottle refill kiosks appearing at train and bus stations. As they sound, they refill your bottle with cool, safe water for a few rupees.

Water Refill Places

Here is some specific information for towns I have visited. Some of it is rather old now and may be out of date.

Please add any refill schemes you know of in the comments below.

 Arambol

Go to Double Dutch Restaurant and get your water bottle refilled with safe, clean filtered water for a fraction of the cost –  saving money and the environment.

Kaza

The good folk atecosphere Kaza will  refill your water bottle with steralised water for free though they would like you to leave a donation.

Leh

Boiled, filtered water refills can be got from the Woman’s Alliance, Ladakh Ecological Development Group LEDeG, Dzomsa and some other places. You can pick up a map from LEDeG showing all of them or download it here.

Dzomsa. This shop refills your water bottle with boiled filtered water. They have shops on Old Fort Road and Main Street and maybe one more (though they are not all open out of season).

Rajasthan Jhodpur

Refill your water bottle from the water cooler in the square by the clock tower. It tastes good, is indeed cool and there is no charge. We treated ours with our steripen water treatment system – see the end of the post for details.

Udaipur

Has refill kiosks at the train and bus station.

Varanasi 

There is a water refill kiosk at the Train station. In the streets, shops will refill your bottle from water dispensers. Tastes fine but those of you with suspicious natures might want to steripen it too.

MORE

No refill place? Sterilise your own water.

When travelling in far flung places we will not buy water in plastic bottles. NO its just wrong. Instead we sterilize our own using a Steripen. The easiest way to make safe pleasant tasting water.

EVEN More

For other water refill points the world over check our big list
More plastic-free travel posts? Try the index
And of course….. how to back pack plastic free

 

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Transiberian Express

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K.

For those of you planning to go overland through Russia this year, here are some plastic free tips. If you are going by train you will of course be travelling on what is known as  the trans Siberian. This is not, as I first thought, the name of  a particular type of train like the Orient Express. It refers to a net work of railway lines traversed by a multitude of trains. These trains are of differing ages, standards and facilities which is reflected in the price of the journey. We traveled on a number of different trains but always the cheapest which means grottiest and always  top bunk Koupe class.

Koupe class means there are four bunks  to a cabin. They are fixed in place so you can lie on your bunk at any time. The top bunk is cheaper than the bottom because the views out are limited. And you might find yourself perched up there quite a lot of the time. In most of our trains the bottom folk wanted to stretch out most of the time which meant we were pretty much consigned to sitting on our bed or spending time in the restaurant car.

I have heard the better class of trains have showers – none of ours did. On our trains there were two toilets per coach (and this goes for first class too), which were extremely old, battered and ugly but clean enough. That’s on a not- too- picky scale. In the toilet cubicle was a small sink with no plug.

The food in the restaurant car looked and smelt appalling. It was served wherever possible using disposable plastic products,  and all the condiments came in plastic sachets. Even the first class tour group got their prison slop doled out in plastic bowls. They were not best pleased. Some tickets include food which means your meals are sent out to you from the restaurant car in polystyrene boxes. From what we saw going out in those clam shells I would not recommend this option.

All drinks came in plastic bottles except beer which came in glass and  juice in tetra paks. Hot water was available in unlimited quantities from the boiler at the end of each carriage. Glass cups with handles were available from the stewardess for making drinks in. They may also  sell you tea bags and  sachets of coffee and powdered milk. everything

The amount of waste each train produced was frightening. At certain stops they would empty the train of sackfulls of garbage and guess what? Yup all plastic. They had to have a mini tractor to tow it off down the platform.

So what can be done to make this train ride as plastic free as possible.

Plastic Free Journey

Firstly, and I would recommend this for all train users not just the plastic free kind, don’t eat in the restaurant. Thankfully the train does stop some times for as long as 45 minutes and at each stop there are opportunities for stocking up. Often, though not always, there will be an army of women waiting to sell you home cooked things ranging from the humble boiled egg to the extremely strange deep-fried, meat-filled doughnut. For these you will need some kind of moisture proof bag so come prepared with your own supply of bio bags (corn starch bags – made from vegetables they are fully compostable.

Most station do have shops but the food they sell is pretty much all plastic packed. You can buy the spreadable cheese triangles wrapped in foil and packed in cardboard  boxes.  Occasionally there will be unwrapped bread and there is usually a poor selection of expensive fruit.

For drinks we mainly made do with green tea made with hot water from the boiler or cold water made with cooled down hot water from the boiler.

We bought some food on board with us though not nearly enough. Next time I do this I will load up with fruit.

Plastic we used on board

Several large Coks.

To sit in the restaurant car we had to buy something. Though it would have been culturally acceptable, it was physically impossible for us to start drinking beer in the early morning, so  we bought juice. It came in a plastic lined cardboard carton and was called Cok. How my fellow travellers laughed.

“Give me  large Cok” they would ask smothering giggles.

“Do you want some Cok?” they would offer chortling away.

“I love Cok”, was a side splitter every time.

Yes they were boys.

When we tired of Cok (fenur fenur)  we would occasionally have beer with plastic lined caps

3 tins of olives.

Two paper wrapped packets of crackers though almost certainly plastic lined paper.

One packet of green tea with plastic wrapper.

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

Stay at home type? Check out my range of Uk based plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index
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Estonia Tallin 2011

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K.

Being plastic free in central Tallinn is hard work because unlike other European towns there are no small shops selling tasty food stuff. In amongst the endless amber emporiums, (big in the Baltic is amber), we found one very expensive deli and one bakery. Everything else comes from the supermarkets.

As we were self catering we spent some time in them and they can be categorized s follows:

A normal one called Rimi in the town center

The posh Viru Keokus Supermarket in the basement of this very plush shopping arcade built by the bus station

Eastern block throwback – a strange smelling, grubby place near the No 4 tram stop – I would not recommend it.

All of the supermarkets were far too fond of plastic but even so there were some good things to be found.

In Rimi in central Tallin Estonia you can buy biodegradable corn starch bags essentail for plastic free shopping. You can also buy quite a good range of loose fruit and veg but you need to use your own bags. They do have some loose meat and fish but you will find better unwrapped selection over at Viru Keokus Supermarket.

Viru Keokus Supermarket also did unwrapped smoked salmon, fish and meat, loose cakes and buns, nuts and dried fruit. The apricots were a rather raddled and chewy but they kept us going through the long bus journey to Moscow.

The best place to shop plastic free is the market opposite the Tallin school of services which doubles as a hostel in Summer. Catch the No. 4 tram to Tallinn School of Service Hostel Lastekodu Street 13, Tallinn, Estonia . It’s a short journey – a few stops -5 to 10 minutes max. Here you wil find a rather institutional hostel and the central market which sells everything your greedy little heart could desire, mostly unwrapped and much cheaper then the superstores.

For all the above you need to take your own bio bags which you will have bought in Rima.

You can find more foreign plastic free places here…..

India, Leh

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. 2 Comments

 

Plastic rubbish in and around Leh is a real problem. Plastic lasts for centuries, doesn’t rot and is inedible. Burning it at best smells bad and adds to the green house effect, at worst is lethal. In short plastic cannot be easily disposed of. Plastic waste requires special disposal facilities which Leh does not have. Most plastic trash ends up dumped in the mountains despoiling this beautiful and fragile environment. Every bit of plastic rubbish you create becomes part of that problem.

If you don’t want to leave a pile of everlasting trash behind you, here are some ways to reduce your rubbish

Water – don’t buy water in plastic bottles get your bottle refilled. Boiled, filtered water refills can be got from the Woman’s Alliance, Ladakh Ecological Development Group LEDeG, Dzomsa and some other places. You can pick up a map from LEDeG showing all of them or download it here.

Dzomsa. This shop refills your water bottle with boiled filtered water there by cutting out the plastic nasties. And if ever a place was cursed with plastic rubbish its Leh.
They have shops on Old Fort Road and Main Street and maybe one more (though they are not all open out of season). Refills cost 7 rupees so its a bargain.They also do dried apricots in paper bags.Image by Ajay Tallam

Biscuits – don’t buy bickies in plastic wrappers, the bakery on Main Bazaar Road sells a wide variety sweet and savory loose and they use paper bags.
Hair conditioner – try this vinegar rinse. Organic apple vinegar can be bought from Dzomsa. It comes in a glass bottle BUT it does have a plastic lid. Maybe you could ask about returning the bottles and lids to be reused? Let me know how you get on.

Toothpaste – those damn tubes get everywhere so you could try salt – can be bought in a paper bag from Dzomsa ( though it is reinforced with plastic sellotape). Or you could bring your own home made tooth powder.

Landry soap – unwrapped from Dzomsa – can according to the blurb be used to wash people as well. I am pretty sure you cold find this in the market if you looked.

Shampoo – using solid soap to wash your hair works and this handmade soap from the Organic Store comes plastic free.

Loo roll – it’s hard to find toilet paper that doesn’t come wrapped in plastic but Dzomsasell paper wrapped rolls.

You can down load an eco map of Leh showing the above locations here. It is part of Leh eco guide which you might find useful. It lists such things as green hotels and discusses the environmental issues facing Leh.

For info on a plastic free trek try here and if you need some plastic free treking snack these are good and ways to BACPACK plastic free here

 

 

 

 



India Plastic Free Trekking Ladakh

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K.

Organized by the Snow leopard Conservancy, these treks allow you access to some of the amazing scenery around Leh. You stay in villagers homes – I say village but sometimes it is a single farmstead and have to walk from place to place. There are no roads. Everything that goes into the mountains has to be carried there on the backs of donkeys. Needless to say there is no rubbish collection everything that goes into the mountains stays in the mountains.

For hundreds of years the ecological balance has been maintained. Rubbish is composted or burnt or eaten by other less fussy animals. Even now this landscape is wonderfully clean and rubbish free. But all that is changing with the advent of plastic. Plastic is of course difficult to burn, doesn’t biodegrade, and kills those animals who eat it. Once it is in the landscape it is there for decades looking horrible and causing trouble.

Thankfully there are people like the Snow leopard Conservancy who are trying to preserve snow leopards and the environment in which they and the farmers live. They have several amazing projects including the home stay treks. As well as board and bed, your host will provide you with boiled filtered water. All you have to do is take your own refillable water bottle for plastic free hydration.

What a great scheme.

NB  Don’t rely on there being bottled water for sale – there isn’t any. Ha!

For more details go to

hymalayan homestays
markha-valley

Snacks

Though the food at the home stays does the job it is sometimes basic and often repetitive. Though they will make you a packed lunch the less said about them the better. You may feel the need to take some additional provisions with you.

The purchase of plastic free, light weight snacks is difficult I know but here are a couple of options.

Dried fruit can be bought loose in the market on the main street of Leh or in paper bags from Dzosmos. (where you can also refill your water bottle with filtered water while you are in Leh)

If you or the trekking party you are with do buy plastic wrapped snacks please do ensure that they are disposed of properly even if that means taking your plastic wrappers back to Leh with you. There is no guarantee that they will be properly disposed of there but at least it will keep the hills cleaner for longer.