What has Mocha the Travelling Bear been up to?

This was originally posted back in 2017. Scroll past the grey box to see what Mocha has been to up to!

Mocha kayaks at Lake Skadar, Montenegro

Mocha is so lucky to have traveled more than we have. She got to go to Montenegro last year with Vikki (Journey Through the Trees).

Death by Kayak paddle

To begin the day we all met down by the river in our village of Virpazar all ready and rearing to go. I can’t remember the last time I had a go at kayaking, if ever, so this was a pretty new experience for me. Our tour organiser, Ben, was keen to to ensure we were all paddling correctly and gave us some advice and tips before we hopped into our tandem kayaks. We were kitted out with buoyancy aids which looked like child sized crop tops and tied up our electrical belongings in a water tight bag. Me and the mountain snob (aka Kat, Aka my twin sister) would be sharing a boat. He suggested that anyone who had experience kayaking should sit at the back so we decided that the mountain snob, with her kayaking expertise, would sit behind me and I would go up front. This meant that Kat had one job…to synchronise with my paddling. For twins you would think that synchronising came naturally to us but this couldn’t have been further from the truth… (read the rest on “Journey Through the Trees“!)

Interestd in hosting Mocha in your hometown or on your vacation? Let me know!

 

Meet Mocha in Rome

It’s Travel Tuesday. Since the end of the the Weekly Travel Blog Challenge, I came up with a few travel-themed ideas for Tuesday and one of them is to share a bit on the Travelling Bear Project. Yup, Mocha went somewhere in world. She went to England to meet with Vikki and off she went to Montenegro…and they stopped by Rome on the way home.

This is Mocha’s second time in Rome. The last time she was in Rome was 2 years ago when my husband and I went. We only spend 3 days there and we told Rome, “we’ll be back.” We were thinking 5 years, 7 years from now. But lucky Mocha gets to go to Rome a second time 2 years later.

Below is an excerpt from Vikki’s post. To read the rest of the post, go on her blog, Journey Through the Trees.

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“Rome wasn’t built in a day but it sure can be explored in one“

Rome is my favourite city in Europe! It’s like walking through an open air museum with something to see at every turn. Rome was never a city on my travel hit list, I just always had other places in mind that were higher up on the list. However, it was always somewhere that my boyfriend wanted to visit so I agreed to go with him earlier this year. I was not disappointed!! We booked a long weekend and was there for a good 4 days however the most recent pit stop was for less than 24 hours! Me and the mountain snob had booked a layover flight on the way back from Montenegro.

The Mountain snob (aka Kat, aka my sister) had never visited Rome before so I concocted an itinerary that would allow her to see the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps all in one afternoon. I am such a good sister.

One of the great things about incorporating a layover flight into a trip is that you can see more than one country, even if it is just for a short period of time. We landed in Rome around 12/1pm and was due to fly back to London the following morning. The great thing about Rome is that a lot of the attractions are within walking distance of each other or a short hop on the metro. The prices in general and not too high unless you are sat on the Piazza Novona square where a cocktail will set you back 11 or 12 Euros.

(read the rest of the post on “Journey Through the Trees.”)

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I have to say, I am kind of jealous, that when in Europe having a layover flight means you can see more than one country. These layovers must be long. Usually layovers within the US means dining in the food court. We don’t explore any layover cities.

Stay tuned for more of Mocha’s adventures in hiking, kayaking, and of course, wine-ing.

Interested in hosting Mocha? Let me know and comment below!

Week 9: Gross/disgusting travel stories

Thankfully I do not have the photo of the aftermath of this action but I do have a photo of the mall in Bangkok where it happened. Look Mocha even makes a cameo.

If anyone has been to Southeast Asia, you get the advisory everywhere you go to not drink the tap water. Even if you are rinsing your mouth with water, use bottled water not the water from your hotel sink — I just did not want to try it out.

I was wandering around a mall in Thailand and there was a man in front of me who appeared to be a tourist, he stopped walking and threw up. I concluded maybe he drank the water… or maybe he had spoiled fruit. That was enough for me to NOT entertain the idea of drinking the water for the remainder of my trip.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Week 1: Your Favorite Travel Photo of You and Intro
Week 2: Little Known Travel Tips
Week 3: Funny Travel Story
Week 4: Travel Misadventures
Week 5: Top three cultural foods
Week 6: Unusual Travel Activities and Photos
Week 7: Inspiration for traveling
Week 8: 5 Favorite Blogs

Who else is doing the challenge?

• Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
• Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
• Trouvaille, Mon Cher – Aly
• Simply Emily – Emily
• Benjamin Lessard – Benjamin

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 6: Meet Mocha

Week 6: Unusual Travel Activities and Photos

Meet Mocha everyone! Mocha is a travelling teddy bear and I’ve had her since my early twenties. At the time, I thought it would be a cute idea to pass around a travelling teddy bear around with my college friends who dispersed back to their hometowns or wherever opportunities took them as a way to keep in touch.

Also at the time, I was working my first professional job, I was not making a lot of money that allowed me to travel and visit my friends. I did not even have any funds to afford myself to own a car! The same also applied to a lot of my friends. To give this period more context: we graduated from college in 2009 around the time of the Great Recession. A lot of my friends were either unemployed, under-employed, or about to apply to school.

I thought sending Mocha around was like an extension of myself. My friends would take her around their hometown or their vacations and send me back pictures.

I would like to shout-out to my boyfriend at the time (now husband) for sparking this idea. He told me a story about how his 3rd class did a project where they would send their teddy bears to their pen friends. Their pen friends would write and send pictures of all the things the teddy bear did. Unfortunately, my husband did not participate in the project because he did not have a teddy bear. His parents were not able to buy him one. This story actually made me want to go out and buy a teddy bear and start this project.

Mocha likes to, of course, travel. I also learned Mocha likes to drink fine wine and beer.

Mocha also like the drive. Not pictured here is Mocha driving in a race car in Willow Springs (Rosamond, CA).

I had a scare when I almost lost Mocha a few years back. I was trying to send her to China only to have her return three months later. My friend from China never received her and I did not want to attempt to re-send Mocha to China.

We’ve taken Mocha around ourselves…

That was a missed opportunity when my husband forgot to bring her to Istanbul a couple of months back for work. Maybe taking the teddy bear around would have motivated him to do some sightseeing rather than work, work, work.

Our miniature schnauzer, Teddy, one time took Mocha and placed her in the yard. Now Mocha lives in a higher part of the shelf where Teddy can’t get her.

I confess, we haven’t actively sent Mocha around to people in a while. The last few years, we’ve been moving from place to place. Would I like to do another travelling bear project? It would be nice. We bought a house and set roots, I think we should have some bandwidth for the travelling bear project.

A few years ago when I was in Ho Chi Minh City, my travel mate brought her stuffed lion with her and took pictures of landmarks. She said the stuffed lion and pictures were going to be gifts for her friend’s baby since she won’t be home in time for the baby’s arrival. That’s a nice idea. I would love to pass down Mocha to my future kid. Behind the bear are stories and places she’s been.

If you’re interested in hosting Mocha, please let me know via the comments or the Contact Page. I’ll offer to feature your post in my “Travel Tuesday” series!

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Week 1: Your Favorite Travel Photo of You and Intro
Week 2: Little Known Travel Tips
Week 3: Funny Travel Story
Week 4: Travel Misadventures
Week 5: Top three cultural foodss

Who else is doing the challenge?

• Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
• Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
• Trouvaille, Mon Cher – Aly
• Simply Emily – Emily

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!