So, You Want to Travel?

This post is to maybe calm some nerves about how to travel as a vegan. Everything from day trips out, to flying across the world, can cause some issues when you live on a vegan diet. However, I survived this summer, and it's surprisingly easy.

My first stop was Rome. My best mate and I jumped on a plane after finishing our A-Levels and had the best few days away. I, sadly, cannot speak any other language apart from English, and was very fortunate that the vast majority of people we came across spoke English fluently, so I could simply explain that I was a vegan to them. I expected to live off tomato pasta for the duration, however I was a bit taken aback to find that the Romans freshly make their pasta and use it making milk. Bugger, I thought to myself, time for plan B. After a quick google, my friend found a vegan restaurant within walking distance of our hostel and we ate there twice during out stay - once for dinner after finding out about the pasta situation, and once for breakfast on our last day. It was absolutely incredible, a bit pricy, but a girls got to eat! My non-vegan friend enjoyed the food too, and the staff were lovely too - the restaurant was called 'Ops' and was seriously incredible - definitely worth a google maps if you ever find yourself in Rome

After a few days back home, another mate and I embarked on a two week volunteering adventure in Bangkok, Thailand. The airline we used (Thai Airways) was really good, and provided two vegan meals (but also supplied a croissant and some butter, which I left, just in case!). But apart from that, the food was good and filled me up for the 12 hour flight.
The volunteer house we stayed in 'provided breakfast' which was, to say the least, a bit of false advertising! each day, the 10 of us sharing got a loaf of bread (the slices were tiny, about half the size of what we get over here!), some cereal, milk and orange juice. I took my own tiny jar of peanut butter, as I knew you couldn't buy it over there easily, and also took 10 holland and barrat strawberry jam flapjacks (which i now can't eat as I got so bored of them!).
The good thing about Thailand, is that they don't cook with dairy products, and soya milk was readily available - but careful, they fortify it with regular cows milk to improve the taste! Be sure to check the package, but the 7/11's on every street corner (literally) sell straight up soya milk. oh, be warned, its grey and doesn't taste as nice as the Alpro I'm acclimatised to! Most dinners were a bowl of cereal with soya milk.
Lunches at the school were my saviour. I explained to the school team that I was vegan, and it wasn't an issue, they made me really lovely rice and vegetables every day and it was lovely.
Me and my friend came across a vegan restaurant in Bangkok, called "May Veggie Home" which was a 30 second walk from the nearest sky train station - Asoke. I had a burger followed by chocolate ice cream, which remains to this day, the nicest (and cheapest) vegan food I've ever eaten. We ate their twice and I couldn't recommend it enough.

My final stop was Paris and I ate a lot of french bread! Again, because the Parisians speak English so well, I did not encounter any problems in the normal resturants we visited, and we stumbled upon a vegan resturant completely by chance when wondering through the Latin Quarter. It was called the 'Le Grenier De Notre Dame and it was good! A little pricy (but what isn't in Paris) and a real good find - worth a trip if you find yourself in the area. 

So there you go, I spent a good deal of time away this summer and survived! Where have you been traveling to? How did you get by on a vegan diet? I'd love to know!