View of Oslofjord from HouseSunday, August 26, 2007
Everyone here in Norway says that the weather has been terrible this summer, but we've seen nothing of it. Sunny, comfortable: no more 36C/90% humidity. (Apparently athletes in Osaka have been collapsing at 33C/78%, so no wonder the running was hard!) We ran five times this week, which may be overdoing it a little but it's so tempting. As I write, I'm looking out at the sails on Oslo fjord. Maybe B will post a picture later, but the truth is that we haven't been anywhere on this trip that is more beautiful than Norway.
1. Most beautiful landscape: in Vietnam, between Sapa and Dien Bien Phu.
2. Noisiest: Hanoi.
3. Friendliest: Nong Kiow, Lao.
4. Furthest from anywhere: Gobi desert, staying with nomad families.
5. Most awesome city: Hong Kong. Not sure most other places are really cities.
6. Most peaceful escape from city: Beijing parks. The city is noisy and busy, but the parks, while full of people, are amazingly relaxing.
7. Worst (and only) sunburn: kayaking in Halong Bay, Vietnam.
8. Places we most want to return to: Laos, Beijing, and Mongolia, in that order.
9. Place we least want to return to: Izmaylovskaya park, Moscow. Or Russia, in general. At least not until we speak Russian.
10. Next major trip: probably the Black Sea.
11. Favorite hotel: Beijing Lotus hostel west of the Forbidden City. It had soft beds, a beautiful courtyard, was outside the main tourist areas, and we had our own shower and A/C. It was just such a blessing after Russia! And after days on the train and in Mongolia with no shower. Second place: the Madison Hotel and Sportclub in Düsseldorf, which also had wonderfully comfortable beds and friendly staff. Third: the five-star Langham Place hotel in Hong Kong with the most excellent views from Mong Kok.
12. Least favorite hotel: Lane Xang, Vientiane, although we didn't end up staying there. Second place: so-called "Old Quarters" hotel in Hanoi, which didn't even exist and had the rudest staff I have ever encountered at a hotel.
13. Least paid for a night's lodging: $5 for a room with own bathroom and scoop shower in Muang Khua (most expensive room in the guesthouse).
14. Cheapest meal (sit-down restaurant): Indian food in Vientiane, where ordering far more food than we could eat and drinks galore left us with a bill of $3 each.
15. Cheapest meal: fried skewers on the street in Beijing. Delicious! I came back from the trip determined to eat less pasta and bread, but am already falling back into wonted habits. I'm making delicious som tam almost every day, but green papaya costs 10EUR/kg in Norway so we've tried to develop a cabbage version which is actually quite good. We also were able to get hold of mangosteen, but they're even more expensive.
16. Most pleasant flight: Air China from Beijing to Guangzhou. Close second was the flight from Bangkok to Tehran, although we were nervous. Very friendly flight attendants on Mahan, although not perhaps the most experienced.
17. Least pleasant segment of the trip: overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa; let it be forgotten and sink into deserved obscurity.
18. Biggest difference everywhere we went from home: the proximity of animals. We've both meant to post on this, and we still might (we'll continue blogging at least until settled in Germany). Even behind my house, you don't have far to go before you encounter horses and cows grazing outside in the summer. But I could easily live much of my life without coming into contact with any animals, especially if I avoided the pasture on the way to the lake. But for most of our trip, that was not an option no matter where we were or what conditions we were staying in. In Russia, wild/stray dogs and cats are everywhere, and you don't have to get far into the countryside before cows are wandering close to houses that may also keep chickens, depending on the area. In Mongolia, the goats were impossible to avoid. My
19. Favorite animal of the trip: the goat that climbed into B's bed after having cleverly gotten through the barrier B had erected. Even in the center of Beijing, it was clear that animals were being raised for food, and we were never very far after that from chickens, goats, water buffaloes, and other animals that live side by side with people. It certainly made it very easy to see how people get bird flu, whether that ever turns into a pandemic or not. I'm also not used to animals just being allowed to graze where they wish, but it makes sense in less-trafficked areas that there is little reason to keep the animals from finding their own sustenance. And drivers are usually prepared for the water buffalo around the corner--it's probably one of the reasons there's so much honking in Vietnam, but maybe people just like noise too...
20. Scariest moment of the trip: dogs in Izmaylovskaya park in Moscow. (How does this keep coming up again?)
1. Most beautiful landscape: in Vietnam, between Sapa and Dien Bien Phu.
2. Noisiest: Hanoi.
3. Friendliest: Nong Kiow, Lao.
4. Furthest from anywhere: Gobi desert, staying with nomad families.
5. Most awesome city: Hong Kong. Not sure most other places are really cities.
6. Most peaceful escape from city: Beijing parks. The city is noisy and busy, but the parks, while full of people, are amazingly relaxing.
7. Worst (and only) sunburn: kayaking in Halong Bay, Vietnam.
8. Places we most want to return to: Laos, Beijing, and Mongolia, in that order.
9. Place we least want to return to: Izmaylovskaya park, Moscow. Or Russia, in general. At least not until we speak Russian.
10. Next major trip: probably the Black Sea.
11. Favorite hotel: Beijing Lotus hostel west of the Forbidden City. It had soft beds, a beautiful courtyard, was outside the main tourist areas, and we had our own shower and A/C. It was just such a blessing after Russia! And after days on the train and in Mongolia with no shower. Second place: the Madison Hotel and Sportclub in Düsseldorf, which also had wonderfully comfortable beds and friendly staff. Third: the five-star Langham Place hotel in Hong Kong with the most excellent views from Mong Kok.
12. Least favorite hotel: Lane Xang, Vientiane, although we didn't end up staying there. Second place: so-called "Old Quarters" hotel in Hanoi, which didn't even exist and had the rudest staff I have ever encountered at a hotel.
13. Least paid for a night's lodging: $5 for a room with own bathroom and scoop shower in Muang Khua (most expensive room in the guesthouse).
14. Cheapest meal (sit-down restaurant): Indian food in Vientiane, where ordering far more food than we could eat and drinks galore left us with a bill of $3 each.
15. Cheapest meal: fried skewers on the street in Beijing. Delicious! I came back from the trip determined to eat less pasta and bread, but am already falling back into wonted habits. I'm making delicious som tam almost every day, but green papaya costs 10EUR/kg in Norway so we've tried to develop a cabbage version which is actually quite good. We also were able to get hold of mangosteen, but they're even more expensive.
16. Most pleasant flight: Air China from Beijing to Guangzhou. Close second was the flight from Bangkok to Tehran, although we were nervous. Very friendly flight attendants on Mahan, although not perhaps the most experienced.
17. Least pleasant segment of the trip: overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa; let it be forgotten and sink into deserved obscurity.
18. Biggest difference everywhere we went from home: the proximity of animals. We've both meant to post on this, and we still might (we'll continue blogging at least until settled in Germany). Even behind my house, you don't have far to go before you encounter horses and cows grazing outside in the summer. But I could easily live much of my life without coming into contact with any animals, especially if I avoided the pasture on the way to the lake. But for most of our trip, that was not an option no matter where we were or what conditions we were staying in. In Russia, wild/stray dogs and cats are everywhere, and you don't have to get far into the countryside before cows are wandering close to houses that may also keep chickens, depending on the area. In Mongolia, the goats were impossible to avoid. My
19. Favorite animal of the trip: the goat that climbed into B's bed after having cleverly gotten through the barrier B had erected. Even in the center of Beijing, it was clear that animals were being raised for food, and we were never very far after that from chickens, goats, water buffaloes, and other animals that live side by side with people. It certainly made it very easy to see how people get bird flu, whether that ever turns into a pandemic or not. I'm also not used to animals just being allowed to graze where they wish, but it makes sense in less-trafficked areas that there is little reason to keep the animals from finding their own sustenance. And drivers are usually prepared for the water buffalo around the corner--it's probably one of the reasons there's so much honking in Vietnam, but maybe people just like noise too...
20. Scariest moment of the trip: dogs in Izmaylovskaya park in Moscow. (How does this keep coming up again?)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
It’s back to 20baht meals since S and B left. The food is often very good for what amounts to less than a dollar, but for some extra baht you can get great service, beautifully presented food, and fun ambiance. It’s hard to convince the locals to go all out on a regular basis, so it was great to have S and B to hop from one good place to the next—everyday! Even if in the delicious food courts in Bangkok malls! Missing the food spree already. Glad you all made it back safe.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Our safe arrival last night in Düsseldorf was accompanied by intense feelings of relief. Our last 40hrs in Bangkok proved stressful beyond belief. While we were aware that many countries in the Middle East, Iran included, deny visa requests and entry to individuals who have been to the occupied territories (the way Israel is referred to amongst those states who refuse to recognize its existence as legitimate), we did not know that Iran also denies transit to individuals who have been to the occupied territories (we flew the Tehran based Iranian airline Mahan Air). S and I have both been to Israel, but S, lucky her, was travelling on a passport that had not been. We debated everything from ripping out the page to glueing it to the adjacent page to sticking the baggage tickets over the prominent Ben Gurion visa stamps. We decided to nothing hoping that always showing the passport already opened to the picture page would deter the impulse to flip through the other pages. Plan B invovled S practicing phrases of Koranic Arabic that she would use to plead to the authorities in case of emergency. S was right to assume that the Farsi speaking Iranians would understand her basic Arabic, but we found this out by ordering vegetarian lunch at the cafe and not through an unpleasant confrontation with Iranian customs officials. The passport was checked twice and in both instances only the picture page was examined. The drama of the situation was highlighted by the lead story that headlined Iran´s english daily "Iran News" -- "Israel is Flag of Satan". It was a pleasure to read this story as the plane took off on its way to Düssedorf. It was interesting to note in Tehran´s Airport just how few interenational flights actually pass through the country daily. Only one (that we could see from the flight board) flies to Europe (the UK recently revoked Mahan´s license to fly its daily flights to Birmingham and Manchester on safety grounds). The country is isolated and it´s not helping that Condy Rice just took steps to have Iran Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization in order to further control the country.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Now that B is on the mend, I can get back to blogging about important things like food. I have to mention a couple of things we've eaten recently in case I forget. I just picked up a Thai and a Sichuan cookbook at the best English-language bookstore in Bangkok, but I'm pretty sure neither of these dishes will be in the cookbooks. My Thai favorites, som tam and tom yum, both are, but in the last couple days in Chiang Mai we ate a few unusual things that I don't know if we'll find again. One day we drove out to the national park just north of the city and ate in a bamboo hut by the reservoir there. We ordered as always the som tam (very very phet--hot papaya salad--soooo good!) and the tom yum (seafood hot and sour soup, phet as well of course) and the fried fish with garlic. Along comes a whole deep-fried fish topped with deep-fried strips of green matter (either Thai basil or kaffir lime leaves--for some reason we couldn't tell) and deep-fried pieces of garlic skin! Now, I eat about a head of garlic a day at home, and for all these years I've been tossing the garlic skin when I could have deep-fried it and had an absolute delicacy to enjoy!
Another day we ate in one of the noveau Thai restaurants which served some (reportedly) delicious mussels in a coconut and some lovely crab--these were of course eaten by my dining companions and not by me. In retaliation, I ordered the fried cashew salad which came with chilis, lime, salt, and green onions--the simplest idea ever, but absolutely the perfect thing to serve for a snack. Although we're cutting back on the spicy food for a day or two--the heartburn I had during my last session of speedwork on the treadmill was probably a sign that I should eat blander food instead of demanding everything maximally spicy at every meal. So today we had sticky rice with mango and coconut for a snack--BEST DESSERT EVER, every time.
Bangkok is supposedly one of the most exciting cities in the world, but we have reached the limit of our ability to take in newness, so today we are hanging out in malls.
Another day we ate in one of the noveau Thai restaurants which served some (reportedly) delicious mussels in a coconut and some lovely crab--these were of course eaten by my dining companions and not by me. In retaliation, I ordered the fried cashew salad which came with chilis, lime, salt, and green onions--the simplest idea ever, but absolutely the perfect thing to serve for a snack. Although we're cutting back on the spicy food for a day or two--the heartburn I had during my last session of speedwork on the treadmill was probably a sign that I should eat blander food instead of demanding everything maximally spicy at every meal. So today we had sticky rice with mango and coconut for a snack--BEST DESSERT EVER, every time.
Bangkok is supposedly one of the most exciting cities in the world, but we have reached the limit of our ability to take in newness, so today we are hanging out in malls.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
No posts for a few days due to anxiety and illness. B's sickness took a turn for the worse early Saturday morning in Vientiane. His fever shot up (although we couldn't find a thermometer that worked, it was clearly high), he developed a very painful headache, and the muscle aches got even worse than they had been. Fortunately, we were scheduled to fly to Chiang Mai that afternoon, but the trip was supposed to start with a tuk-tuk to the bus station, followed by a three-hour or so trip on a non-A/C public bus to Udon Thani in Thailand, then a taxi transfer to the airport. B was clearly in no condition to sustain such a trip, so (leaving aside all thoughts of budgeting as our trip resources have dwindled into almost-nothingness) we hired a private car to take us. That was pretty much the only decision that made the trip bearable for B, because our driver took care of all the immigration formalities both on the Lao and Thai sides of the border while we sat in the car. Standing in the six or so (it seemed) different windows to enter and exit each country is not what you want to do while feverish and in unbearable pain.
When we arrived in Chiang Mai, we headed straight for the hospital across the street from AD's house. We were quickly checked in, saw the doctor (who said he couldn't be sure what was wrong), took a blood test, got the results in about 15 minutes (no malaria, but otherwise inconclusive), picked up drugs, and paid (total: $30). We were told to come back tomorrow for another test, and went home to put B to bed, only to discover that his upper body was now entirely covered by a delightful red rash. Pretty sure of the dengue diagnosis, we filled him up with drugs, and put him to bed. When we went back for our doctor's appointment the next day, however, the doctor decided that it was not dengue but an upper respiratory infection. How he decided that, given that he didn't even listen to B's lungs (and he hasn't been coughing or anything like that!!!) is still a mystery to us. But this time he listened to my impassioned pleas and gave us codeine. B has been on about six different painkillers and tranquillizers until this morning, but he seems to be getting better so we're reducing his dosage (after all, three of the meds are mildly addictive!).
In other words, B has been pretty much in a haze for the last few days, but he's getting better. We're staying with AD, and it's really nice not to be in a hotel for the first time in a couple of months. Her neighborhood is pretty Thai (unlike the extremely expat-heavy areas of Chiang Mai). Right across the street is the lady who makes the best som tam (spicy papaya salad) ever! AD had her leave the crab out (ew!) and add lots of chili (convincing locals you can handle it is always the hard part), I took it home in a plastic bag, and there was a feast.
Yesterday was a holiday in honor of the queen's 75th birthday. In her birthday speech, she called for the separation between religion and politics to continue to be honored here in Thailand: she does not think that Buddhism should be included in the constitution. On Monday morning, the headline in the paper was: "Activists discontinue campaign." In order to honor the queen's wishes, the activists who have been very passionately calling for Buddhism to be in the constitution have decided to end their campaign. We will see whether this affects the constitutional referendum to be held here next weekend (another Monday holiday!).
On Saturday evening, exhausted and emotionally drained, AD and I went out to get a snack after putting B to bed. (He, on huge doses of Valium and opiates, was knocked out!) Right around the corner from her place is one of the coolest restaurants I've ever seen. The entrance is across a small pond with assymetrically placed stepping stones. We sat in a swing in the outdoor area next to the white bunnies hopping around. (Sounds like I took some of his drugs too, but I didn't!) The service was absolutely amazing, and the food delicious. The restaurant is red-themed, filled with red and purple lampshades with the occasional modernist touches. It is interesting to note how much one appreciates good service once one has gotten used to it. It is almost impossible to get used to it in Europe, because outside wildly expensive restaurants, it pretty much does not exist. The whole culture of customer service that is so essential to the development of late capitalism is still primarily an American prerogative--except here (at this restaurant), I would put those waiters head to head against any I've encountered (even at, say, Babbo) in the US. Totally unobtrusive yet utterly attentive: when the waiter brought the mosquito coil to burn near us, I exclaimed approvingly to AD (not to him): two seconds later he was back with mosquito spray just in case I'd forgotten to put some on (which of course I had). Just an example. I can see both why the lifestyle here would be very delightful and very seductive in perhaps unfortunate ways.
When we arrived in Chiang Mai, we headed straight for the hospital across the street from AD's house. We were quickly checked in, saw the doctor (who said he couldn't be sure what was wrong), took a blood test, got the results in about 15 minutes (no malaria, but otherwise inconclusive), picked up drugs, and paid (total: $30). We were told to come back tomorrow for another test, and went home to put B to bed, only to discover that his upper body was now entirely covered by a delightful red rash. Pretty sure of the dengue diagnosis, we filled him up with drugs, and put him to bed. When we went back for our doctor's appointment the next day, however, the doctor decided that it was not dengue but an upper respiratory infection. How he decided that, given that he didn't even listen to B's lungs (and he hasn't been coughing or anything like that!!!) is still a mystery to us. But this time he listened to my impassioned pleas and gave us codeine. B has been on about six different painkillers and tranquillizers until this morning, but he seems to be getting better so we're reducing his dosage (after all, three of the meds are mildly addictive!).
In other words, B has been pretty much in a haze for the last few days, but he's getting better. We're staying with AD, and it's really nice not to be in a hotel for the first time in a couple of months. Her neighborhood is pretty Thai (unlike the extremely expat-heavy areas of Chiang Mai). Right across the street is the lady who makes the best som tam (spicy papaya salad) ever! AD had her leave the crab out (ew!) and add lots of chili (convincing locals you can handle it is always the hard part), I took it home in a plastic bag, and there was a feast.
Yesterday was a holiday in honor of the queen's 75th birthday. In her birthday speech, she called for the separation between religion and politics to continue to be honored here in Thailand: she does not think that Buddhism should be included in the constitution. On Monday morning, the headline in the paper was: "Activists discontinue campaign." In order to honor the queen's wishes, the activists who have been very passionately calling for Buddhism to be in the constitution have decided to end their campaign. We will see whether this affects the constitutional referendum to be held here next weekend (another Monday holiday!).
On Saturday evening, exhausted and emotionally drained, AD and I went out to get a snack after putting B to bed. (He, on huge doses of Valium and opiates, was knocked out!) Right around the corner from her place is one of the coolest restaurants I've ever seen. The entrance is across a small pond with assymetrically placed stepping stones. We sat in a swing in the outdoor area next to the white bunnies hopping around. (Sounds like I took some of his drugs too, but I didn't!) The service was absolutely amazing, and the food delicious. The restaurant is red-themed, filled with red and purple lampshades with the occasional modernist touches. It is interesting to note how much one appreciates good service once one has gotten used to it. It is almost impossible to get used to it in Europe, because outside wildly expensive restaurants, it pretty much does not exist. The whole culture of customer service that is so essential to the development of late capitalism is still primarily an American prerogative--except here (at this restaurant), I would put those waiters head to head against any I've encountered (even at, say, Babbo) in the US. Totally unobtrusive yet utterly attentive: when the waiter brought the mosquito coil to burn near us, I exclaimed approvingly to AD (not to him): two seconds later he was back with mosquito spray just in case I'd forgotten to put some on (which of course I had). Just an example. I can see both why the lifestyle here would be very delightful and very seductive in perhaps unfortunate ways.
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