Palccoyo mountain is the alternative to the overcrowded Rainbow Mountain (Vinicunca) hike. Altitude wise, it’s 4,900m above sea level, only 300m lower than Vinicunca and promises an easier hike but with equally beautiful views. I made the right decision to cancel my original Vinicunca hiking plan bc yes while Palccoyo was easier, hiking in such altitude was not, especially for me. Got teased by the guide for being slow but that was fine. He had this spray for altitude sickness that he would spray on our palms and we would then breathe it in. One lady was turning blue I thought she was gonna pass out. It was empty when we went so that was nice.

Rest day. I went to check out this vegan restaurant in Cusco. The food was good but the temperature could’ve been better. I tried their (room temperature) ravioli and at first I wasn’t sure if that would be enough (but it was). They also served Pad Thai but as a Thai food lover, one look from the pics and I could tell it’s not authentic so I didn’t get that. The green lemonade was nice. The restaurant’s atmosphere came across to me as pretentious (so many buddha statues and there was even one right behind a seat. I wasn’t sure if it would be appropriate to sit there and for your back to be facing the statue).

It’s Machu Picchu day!

Can’t recall the exact time my transport came to pick me up from the hotel but it was super early, I think I got picked up before 6am. The driver drove me and the rest of the group to Ollantaytambo train station to catch the train to Agua Calientes. From there, it was a 20-min bus ride to the entrance of Machu Picchu.

Struck a conversation with a traveller from the US who mistook me for an Indonesian/Malaysian. You know, I used to get offended by that previously but not anymore bc who can blame them? I’m a brown Southeast Asian woman who wears the hijab and bc I’m a minority in my country, it just won’t immediately occur to a lot of people which country I am from. Anw, I thought the person that I spoke to had an interesting character. She’s also travelled solo a lot, she spoke with a strong Vietnamese accent, and refused to even take a sip of water bc she didn’t want to ruin her lipstick (what happened to reapplying makeup? But ok who am I to judge).

The train came, I got into my cabin and it was a 2 x 2 seating. I sat with a Colombian family of 3 lol. I got the window seat and was blessed with the beautiful views I got from my side of the window. The only downside was that just next to us were a group of my fellow citizens who were talking quite loudly and kept sprouting out vulgarities as they spoke. We were on the same bus and tour group later on too. They were nice young people (saying this makes me feel very old) who were on a grad trip.

Anw, our guide was entertaining but the hike was no fun for me omg. The altitude at Machu Picchu was lower than Cusco but it must be bc of my terrible fitness level that made it physically challenging for me. Oh the guide also helped us take so many cool photos and I was blessed that the weather was good on day.

So the tour took about 2 hours and then we took the bus back to the train station. And for the first time since I arrived in Peru, I saw so many other hijabis lol. And since it was still too early to catch the train back to Ollantaytambo, I decided to get lunch. The food was terrible but I got to use the time at the restaurant to reevaluate whether I should do the Rainbow Mountain hike after my experience at Machu Picchu. I finally made the decision to cancel the booking (I received a refund) and made a new booking for the other less crowded and less taxing rainbow mountain. Of course, after reading a lot of reviews from different sources.

Well, that’s the end of Day 4 in Peru.

Did the Sacred Valley tour. My transport came to pick me up at 6.30am from the hotel. Had a brief chat with the hotel staff. Told him where I was going and he gave me a concerned look bc of the amount of walking that I’d be doing.

Started the tour by visiting this place where they showed us a demo of how they turn alpaca’s wool into yarn using all natural/organic ingredients.

Loved that they served us muña tea, which is their mint tea, good for altitude sickness.

Covered 5 places in total: Chinchero - Maras Salt Mines - Moray - Ollantaytambo - Pisac.

A lot of walking uphill in high altitudes, climbing 400 steps in Ollantaytambo was the highlight.

Having a great time thus far. And my guide helped to take pics for me so that was a bonus!

No activity bc I wanted to acclimatise to the altitude. From my hotel, it was a good 16-min walk up the slope to the main plaza. My low fitness level didn’t help lol. Took some pics there, was approached by streets sellers selling souvenirs, sunglasses, etc. It was nice to just soak in the atmosphere, then I got some food before heading back to the hotel and call it a day. Day 2 in Cusco and no altitude sickness.

Survived the 33 hours flight to Peru, with a quick stopover in Amsterdam. My first time flying KLM and I thought they could’ve fed their passengers better, especially those with special diets (like me).

For the first leg of the flight, I got the middle seat (for some reason they didn’t give me the option to either book a window or aisle seat) but I agreed to swap seats with a couple. So yay, got my fav window seat. For the second leg, I was able to choose the aisle seat but oh boy didn’t I regret it. The aisle was so narrow that people who walked past (including the cabin crew) kept hitting me. So yeah, sleep wasn’t easy.

Spent one night at the hotel right next to the Lima airport bc I had to catch a flight to Cusco the next day. For a 4-star hotel, I was expecting more but maybe that’s the norm here. I mean, there’s no electric kettle so I can’t boil water and eat my instant noodles (this is the first time I encountered this) and no shower cap. The room was quite spacious, though and I easily had a 12hr sleep. Oh yeah, bc I couldn’t eat my instant noodles and was too lazy to go back to the airport to find food, energy bars were my dinner that night.

Day 1 (8 May):

Looked forward to the buffet breakfast. Went down before 7am bc I was starving! Decent spread, happy with the food especially the thinly sliced fried potatoes with chillies and onions. I just love potatoes, man.

Check-in was seamless and so was the immigration clearance. Unfortunately, my flight got delayed. Also, haven’t seen another hijabi thus far here. When it was finally time to fly, a German passenger almost caused a scene bc the cabin crew asked her to swap seats with another passenger. She got the seat next to the emergency exit, and she doesn’t speak Spanish and they need someone who can bc it’s just better that way. She tried to argue that she could refer to the safety booklet and complained that she paid for the window seat (she should choose better next time).

Arrived at the airport, saw my driver holding up my name and reached the hotel half an hour later.

Again, no electric kettle to boil water but I could take some hot water from the lobby where they serve coca and other types of tea. Still not sure about coca tea and will try to avoid drinking it if possible bc not sure what’s the coccaine content and if it’s traceable. If my immigration back home decides to do a random test, I could be jailed. 🤡

Sang a Thai song too. And yes again, that’s not the actual song title. It’s Confess by DidixDada.

I didn’t have an itinerary for this trip, and bc of the horrible weather (the highest was close to 40 degrees celsius), my initial plan was maybe just to go to cafés and read a book or something like that. Anyway, it was only a 5D4N trip. The trip was almost ruined by the stupid flu bug that I got the night before the trip. Don’t want to assume but I think I got it from a coworker who admitted to having a sore throat but still turned up for work. 🤡

So what did I do? Had the butter toast from a Korean café recommended by someone, and watched a free concert on Day 2. Not planned, just happened to be in the area and although I ended up standing for hours, it was fun. Got to watch Ally perform. She was so cute, and to think that just a few weeks ago I was just watching her on YouTube. Oh and Lipta, the Thai duo band performed too. My back pain from standing too long almost killed me but I couldn’t say no to live music. Plus, I have them on my Spotify playlist, and not every day I get to see Thai artists perform.

Then of course, first important highlight was this photo of FreenBecky on the billboard that I got to take. 🙈

Then on Day 3, went to Chatuchak Weekend Market. Not a fan of crowds and honestly I don’t really shop, but it’s the biggest weekend market in the world, I think, so I had to check it out. The coconut ice cream was nice, so was the milk tea. I bought some snacks like my fav dried mangoes to bring back home.

And then Day 4, went to sing karaoke. I wish I knew Thai, but because I don’t, I had difficulty looking for Thai songs to sing but, it’s okay. They had English songs too and old Taylor Swift songs are fun to sing. 🤡 After that was lunch and dinner combined, and then went to get a massage. The massage place was interesting. No rooms, just separated by curtains. And if I knew that earlier, I wouldn’t have chosen the package that required me to get undressed. But the massage itself was good. So I am not complaining.

Day 5, time to go home but that morning I opened Twitter and saw that there would be ads of FreenBecky at CentralWorld Mall so I decided to pop by to take vids and pics (I’m such a fangirl) before checking out at noon. Good thing my flight was at 3pm and my hotel’s location was 10/10. I was able to get there in less than half an hour by train.

So yeah, just me living my fangirl life in BKK. Need to time my visit better next time so I could meet FreenBecky live. 🤡

Also, I bought these Pride Adidas shoes bc they’re so pretty altho not sure how and when I get to wear them lol. Thanks BKK for being amazing. Can’t wait to come back!