I want to go to Vietnam for the food.

               Yeah, I know, I’m thinking with my stomach again.  But blogging about food has so many fewer calories than actually eating it, so it’s worth it.  Plus, this keeps me on my Jillian Michaels meal plan (that I’m following loosely, with emphasis on the “loose”, but that’s another blog altogether).  So anyway, back to the topic at hand: I have a craving for Vietnamese Pho, and I’m tired of settling for the yummy westernized stuff they serve in Vancouver.  I want real Vietnamese food, and the only way I can get it is to actually go to Vietnam.  There it’s just called food.  Alas, I am still in saving mode after the last trip, and am already paying off the next (California in September – stay tuned!), so my Pho craving will have to wait until next year, at least.  Big pout.  In the meantime, lets all take a moment and fantasize about that cuisine you love and can’t wait to try the authentic version of, or that plate of steaming awesomeness you once had and wish you were back there again. 

                   One of my clients told me, which is probably why this is on my mind in the first place, that he was once in Texas and had a steak so good he actually cried.  I, of course, told him he was a lunatic.  Kidding.  I just thought it.  He had a point though, global cuisine can transform a vacation into an experience.  The local delights are as much of a cultural experience as a dance performance or a museum, but they can be much easier to find and, depending on your tastes,  either way cheaper or waaaaayyy more expensive. 

                Some of the best food in much of southeast Asia can be found at street carts for next to nothing, but it’ll keep you coming back for more.  When I was in Bangkok there was this cart on the corner near my hotel that was little more than a single burner run by jumper cables hooked to a car battery, and there was this real and very dead rooster head hanging from the side, but every morning the line up was practically around the block for a container of their stir fry.  I never tried it, the combination of the line length, the rooster head, and my weenie Canadian palette made me chicken out, but I still think about it, and vow that if I’m ever back there I’m totally eating from the rooster guy’s cart.  If the locals like it, it has to be good.

                  What’s the deal with Korean Kimchi, anyway?  It’s just fermented cabbage buried in a vat underground for like six months, but every time I’ve been out for Korean food, they use it on everything.  I have not acquired the taste for it.  To me it’s like sour… something nasty… but I can’t help but wonder if the stuff you’ll get on your plate of braised short ribs in Seoul would be so much better.  Does the shipping process make it nastier?  Is it less pungent straight from the ground?

            Mmmmm… chicken tikka masala…. another of my faves.  Admittedly, the BF does cook one hell of a home version, but it blows my mind thinking of the layers of rich flavour that can only come from a spice mix hand-ground daily by the women of the village.  Yum.  Just wait until I find myself in India one day and all the spices are ground by your standard coffee grinder, but in the interim I will happily allow my mind to wander to the romantic fantasy I have created.  Besides, I’d go to Vietnam before India, the flight is shorter

              So tell me, what foods would you love to try fresh from the source?

Tags: eat, Food, interesting, kimchi, rooster, stomach, Texas, Thailand, travel, Vietnam, weird

Motivating your motivation

I’m just curious – what makes you want to get up and travel?  What is the kryptonite to your contentment that hits you upside the head and makes you check your available vacation days at work?

For me, it’s my miniscule attention span.  Well, now it’s my job (God knows, talking about all these incredible places all day every day has me in a perpetual state of “where next?” -ing), but even before I was in the industry I had an outbreak of “get me the hell outta here!” at pretty regular six-month intervals.    I just reach my quota of home and need a change of scenery to maintain my mental stability. 

Ooh, and television.  Gets me every time.  Yep, I’m the dork who finds herself in Paris trying to find the same flag on the Arc de Triumph from the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower that they searched for on the Amazing Race.  Or went to Rainmakers adventure forest in Quepos, Costa Rica, just because the family edition ran through there. 

So what spurs you into action?

Tags: action, Arc de Triumph, Costa Rica, Eiffel Tower, motivation, Paris, travel

Woo hoo Going to Costa Rica!

      Saturday night I’m taking off for a week of sun and fun in Costa Rica.  Of course I’ll keep you all posted as much as I can while I’m there.  It’s going to be awesome.  Ziplining and exploring in La Fortuna, near the base of the active volcano Arenal. Dancing with hummingbirds, butterfly watching and more ziplining in the Monteverde cloud forest.  Hiking, ATV-ing past waterfalls, kayaking through a mangrove forest, monkey spotting and touring a spice plantation in Manuel Antonio.  Sweet.  Mentally, I’m on my way there already.  And it’s going to be warm, too.  Tank top and shorts weather!  Just dreaming about it is warming me up, I am so over this Vancouver winter, all the cold and rain (naturally the sun is coming out as I write this – leave it to mother nature to bitchslap my complaining), but I can’t wait. 

Tropics, here I come!

Tags: Arenal, beaches, cloud forest, Costa Rica, fun, La Fortuna, Manuel Antonio, Monteverde, travel, vacation, volcano, warm weather, zipline

The Amazing Race – Travel Lovers’ Porn

        Yep, I said porn.  Because that’s essentially what the Amazing Race is – Travel Porn.  It’s exciting.   It temporarily allows you to live vicariously through someone else, doing things so out there you might not have even fantasized about them.  It teaches you new tricks to try in real life.  And it satisfies that travel craving, while leaving you wanting more.  The best part is that, instead of having to go back into the special part of the video store, you can get it for free Sunday nights on CBS.

          For you uninitiated (shame on you), the premise is simple: race around the world with no advance knowledge of where you’re going next and very limited funds, completing various tasks as fast as possible, and if you finish first you get a cool million dollars.  If you finish last at certain checkpoints (called pit stops) you’re eliminated.  That’s it.  This is proof positive that the journey is the attraction more than the final destination, as the ending is usually one of the most  anticlimactic parts of the whole race.   But on the way you got to see just how cool the world is.

            I’m insanely jealous of the challenges they’ve gotten to do over the years.  I won’t lie, I would totally blow off my job/friends/whatever to be able to do what the racers get to do.  After seeing it on the race, I tried ziplining and, as you’ve probably noticed from my past posts, I’m hooked.  Now I just want to push my boundaries farther.  Over the years they have rappelled down Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janiero, climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, navigated the chaotic train system in Mumbai, herded llamas in Peru, made noodles in  Macau  and shopped at street markets in South Africa.   According to the previews, next week they’re climbing the Singapore Flyer giant ferris wheel in Singapore.  It’s nuts.  The general public may  not  have access to all of the incredible things that the racers get to  do, but for the most part the places are acessable, and with a little bit of research  you too can  enact  your own Amazing Race.  They show some off the beaten path  locations/attractions that you might have missed otherwise  and  I  have to admit that occasionally at work when someone will ask  me what there  is to see in Coober Pedy, Australia (amongst other random destinations that I  don’t know anything about and have definately  never been to) I draw on what I’ve  seen on TAR and  answer that there are opal mines and houses built underground to escape the heat.   It’s helped me finalize more than one sale, let me tell you. 

             Despite the fact that it’s essentially a game show on a global stage, The Amazing Race is at it’s heart a travelogue, and, just like Globe Trekker or Rick Steve’s Europe, it gives you a glimpse at the conditions, attractions, and people of places all over the world.  India is always a good example, as so many of the racers go there expecting nothing but  poverty and crowds, but leave surprised at the resilliance of the people and the beauty of the countryside. Through their eyes we see it, too, and gain a greater appreciation.  I had never heard of Wat Po, the temple of the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok until I saw it on Season 1, but it blew my mind and that one episode gave birth to a fascination with Thailand that I still have to this day.    You can bet your ass I made sure to go to that temple and take craploads of pictures when I finally made it  to Bangkok.   

            The  racers might be doing everything at warp speed, they’re still traveling and facing the same trials and tribulations that we all do on our vacations.  They have to fight with the same flight cancellations and lost cabbies we all do, and watching them deal with these we can learn  – both from their mistakes and  their successes.  Case in point: never be rude to an airport ticket agent. They have  your vacation in their hands, and with one  little keystroke they can  sentence you to a fifteen hour flight in the middle seat in the back that doesn’t  recline and is right beside the squirming kid.  In season 2 when everyone was jockeying for flights from Iguassu Falls, Brazil to Cape Town, South Africa, team after  irate team was told there was no space on the  earliest and most convenient  one-connection flight via Frankfurt.  That is, until Danny and Oswald, the fabulous, suave and super polite guys from Miami asked.  Suddenly seats miraculously appeared and they cruised to a happy first place, all because they were the lone rational team.

     Finding a local guide is another great tip that teams commonly use.  Granted, on the race teams, particularly Mirna and Charla, will do everything short of kidnapping locals to get their insider information.  Please don’t do this.  Ask nicely.  Leave a tip.  But this is still an awesome idea.   Locals know more about the destination than anyone, and they’re usually just as excited to learn about your hometown as you are to learn the ins and outs of theirs.  This can get you from point A to point B much faster and tip you off to new, out of the way places that you would not have otherwise ever known about. 

      During all of this, the teams are navigating all these stressful challenges with their friend/partner/relative.  I always say the test of any relationship is a vacation, because your communication skills tend to shut down when you’re stressed and fatigued.  The “villans” in each season are not usually the teams that are horrible to other teams, but the teams that are horrible to one another.  The classic example is Jonathan and Victoria in season 5, where he not only screamed at her the whole way, but actually physically shoved her in anger.   Just watching the way these teams melt down serves as a reminder  not to act  like that to your friend/family member/anyone, no matter how jetlagged you might be. 

         And my personal favorite tip the I’ve learned from TAR: “Rapido” does not mean fast in every language.  It’s not that teams haven’t tried, but when you’re in Windhoek, Namibia, the cabbies are just going to give you a “stupid tourist” laugh and continue moving along at whatever speed they want to.  That being said, it’s always a good idea to learn a few words in the local language.  I’m not suggesting taking the Berlitz course or anything, God knows the teams usually can only learn what they get from the other passengers on their inbound flight and they get around pretty well, but a simple ”yes”, “no”, “thank you”, “how much?” and “where’s the bathroom?” can get you a long way.  Particularly the bathroom one.

          I could go on, but really, you just have to watch it yourself.  Even if you don’t glean anything more from the show than some pretty destinations and a whole lot of fun, it’s worth it.

Tags: 108 coin ritual, Bangkok, fun, interesting, Jet lag, The Amazing Race, Tips, travel, travel porn, Wat Po

The ultimate relationship test – traveling with someone

         “We’ve been best friends since ninth grade, we’ll have the best time in Europe!” 

         “I love him!  Three weeks on the beach will give us time to connect more!”

          “You’re going to Asia?  Me too!  Let’s go together and save on the hotel costs.”

            It seems like such a good idea at the time.  You get along with/are dating/are married to/share similar interests with someone and you decide “gee, Steve, wouldn’t it be awesome if we went on vacation together?”  Picking your travel companion is usually done even before the destination is chosen, but before you begin to suggest a trip, stop and think about it.  No, I mean, really think about it.  There’s no greater test to a relationship than travelling together.

             Let your mind wander back to your childhood.  When Mom and Dad packed you, your brother and your ten thousand suitcases of crap into the van and took off for a weekend up at the lake.  By the time you reached mile eight someone had thrown something, someone had been insulted and someone was crying.   Just because you’re grown up and not necessarily with children doesn’t make a vacation any easier, as it still involves the same components:  long hours trapped together and unable to escape, tedium where you have to struggle to keep yourself occupied or come up with something to say, stressful connections or deadlines, and exhaustion.  Everybody reacts to these factors differently, and if, when she’s over tired and jet lagged, your best friend gets really weepy and needy or she gets so bitchy she’s taking shots at your family/career/significant other/fashion sense/pet, she may not be the ideal person to be with.  Unless, of course you are prepared to handle this. 

             And don’t forget, you’re going to be just as unpleasant.   We all have our triggers.  God knows, I fly all the time, but if anyone I’m traveling with wants to wait and check-in for the flight less than the recommended three hours prior, I’ll take them out.  We can relax once we’re through security, but until I know I’ve  made my flight and am not going to have to run/beg/risk having my seat given away to a standby passenger, I’m in go mode.  I don’t fucking care if you’re going to have to go sixteen hours until your next cigarette, that’s not my problem, so let’s get a move on it.  Apologies to anyone I’ve told off in this situation over the years, but I still get this way every time I step into an airport, ticket in hand, and I don’t foresee this going away any time soon.  Consider yourselves warned.

         My point is that when it comes to traveling with someone, you have to, as my boyfriend always says when he does something that mildly irritates me  (like leave his damp – they’re always damp – socks beside the hamper instead of two inches to the right in the hamper) take the “good with the bad”.  If you can work through your differences in extreme conditions, then you’re going to have a fantastic time together.  But if you have a mental picture of this person being perfect and they fail to live up to your expectations, you’re going to have issues.

          Travel can test even the strongest relationship, bringing you closer than ever or tearing you apart.  The way I see it, if neither passenger comes home in a body bag or handcuffs, it was a success.  If times get occasionally testy just remember, you’re normal.  That’s just part of the experience and (unless you’re the one in the body bag) you’ll laugh about it later.

Tags: boyfriend, family, friends, girlfriend, scary, tough, travel, weird

If you won the lottery…

           So, tomorrow’s Lotto Max draw is worth CAD$50 million.  With a carrot like that dangling in front of me, I can’t help but start daydreaming.  If I had that money, what would I do with it?  I’ve been asked this question tons of times over the years, and my standard answer is “I don’t know, but I’ll send you a postcard when I get there.”  I’d be on a plane so fast my clothes wouldn’t even have had time to crease in my suitcase.  But that poses the bigger question, if you had unlimited funds, where would you go?

             For me, someone who plans her own vacations on a daily basis (I’m not sure this is healthy anymore…) it’s a tough decision.  Of course, I eventually want to go everywhere, but you have to start somewhere, so you might as well start off with the important places on your to-see list (the ones underlined and bolded with the little stars scribbled beside their names). 

              Tokyo.  Definately Tokyo.  If you’ve read my other blogs you know that I love me some Asia, and nothing looks more incredible than Tokyo.  The colours, the people, the food.  I want to get lost at the Shibua Scramble crossing.  Plus, they have a Disneyland.  With that checked off, I would only need to go to Florida and I’d have seen them all.  And since I was already in Asia, might as well hop on down to Vietnam and Cambodia, two places that not only look cool, but that I’ve heard nothing but incredible reviews about from clients.  Everyone says without fail that the people are just so unbelievably friendly.  And Angkor Wat’s there.

            And for something completely different, I’d go to Rio.  Climb Sugarloaf mountain, visit with Christ the Redeemer, learn to samba and wear feathers on my head.  Then down to Iguassu falls to see one of the most incredible waterfalls.  Another skip and I’d be in Buenos Aires, tango-ing away and eating at the restaurant where a bar code tells you exactly what cow your steak came from (that’s right, specific cow, not just farm) so you know it’s perfect.

          And Venice.  Gondola-ing along the canals and wearing amazing masks as I watch Murano glass being blown.

            And finally, topping my must-see list is Cairo.  I love Egyptian history and archaeology, hell my cat’s even named Cairo.  I want to stare in awe at the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Karnak temple, the crazy cab drivers. 

         So basically, I still can’t decide where I would go first if I win that jackpot tomorrow night, but you can bet it’s going to be fantastic! 

 Where would you go?

Tags: amazing, Angkor Wat, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Cambodia, dance, Disneyland, dreams, Egypt, Food, glass blowing, Iguassu Falls, masks, money, pyramids, Rio de Janiero, Sphinx, Tokyo, travel, Venice, Vietnam

Road snacks

                I’m thinking with my stomach again.   On my bus ride to work this morning I found myself watching a little kid eating goldfish crackers with little faces drawn on them, and started thinking about food that travels.  With airlines no longer offering free food on shorter flights, packing enough to sustain you so you’re not gnawing off your seatmate’s arm is becoming increasingly important.  So I post the question: what is the perfect road snack?  

             Personally, I can’t call it a vacation unless I’ve treated myself to a bag of wine gums.   Love those things.  Small, non-gooey, easy to stash in pockets and they don’t go bad if you don’t finish the bag in one seating (like that ever happens, really).  I love them  to the point when I discovered light wine gums in Hong Kong I stockpiled them (customs must have thought I needed to go to Wine Gums Anonymous or something) and now only break them out for travel or road trips.  They’re my ultimate treat.  And with the light ones, they’re like treats without guilt!   And slurpees.  Nothing makes a trip happier than the icy goodness sliding over your tongue…  I’m starting to think I need to reduce my sugar intake…  oh well, they’re vacation calories, they don’t count anyway.  These are reserved for road trips though, something with a cupholder and no restrictions on liquids and gels.  I somehow don’t see splitting your slurpee into little 100ml or less bottles and putting them in your airline-approved Ziploc baggie working out too well.

               On the other hand, my BF is all about cookies.  Specifically chocolate chip cookies.  Sometimes he’ll just space out, and when I ask him what he’s thinking about, it’ll be cookies.  Those little individually wrapped ones are like gold to him.  It makes his good vacation even better, though they do have a slight tendency to get crushed in carry on bags.

            That’s what makes trail mix so wonderful.  You can customize your own blend, as healthy or crappy as you want, and then stuff it in assorted bags and pockets, all the little individual pieces malleable enough to be packed around other objects without breaking.  You can do almost anything to a bag of trail mix (playing catch is always a big hit) and it’s still perfectly edible.  And the action of eating all the little bits is good for you, too, as it takes more brain power than just popping one stick of gum into your mouth, and helps pass the time on what can be a mind-numbing travel day.  For my Mom, a smoker, this helps her a lot to fight off the cravings, and she’s incredibly pleasant to fly with.  Just don’t stand between her and the smoking lounge when we land   Love you, Mom.

                       Granola bars are another popular choice, as they’re healthier than Snickers bars and individually packaged and portion-controlled, though I find they have a tendancy to squish or break (depending on if you bought the chewy or crunchy versions) as I shove everything into and out of my giant purse.

             So what does it for you?  What is your ultimate road snack and why?  I’m looking for suggestions, I’m almost out of light wine gums and airfare back to Hong Kong isn’t in the budget!

Tags: BlogSherpa, carry-on luggage, cookies, Food, granola bars, slurpees, smokers, trail mix, travel, wine gums

“Travel Temperatures”?

               Right now we’re having a serious heat wave here in Vancouver, where today we set the all-time heat record, beating the previous champion, which was yesterday.  Before this week, we hadn’t had temperatures like this since the 60’s.  Granted, what we call an unbearable heat wave is what most cities call “summer”, but that’s just not how we roll here on the wet coast    Daily life has become a chore and all anyone talks about is how hot it is outside, or how you can’t sleep at night in your un-airconditoned apartment.    The thing that gets me, though, is how much the heat here flattens me, but I know I’ve recently been in weather just as hot (if not hotter) in Southeast Asia, and don’t remember it being this big a deal.   Does my body react differently to the same weather depending on what continent or time zone I’m in?  Is there such a thing as “Travel temperature” versus actual temperature?

              Last night I once again couldn’t sleep, pacing the living room at four in the morning to generate some motion in the air around me for relief.  And to avoid rolling over and accidentally touching the bf,who generates too much body heat and feels like cuddling a heated rock.  I know I’m not alone in walking around 24/7 at home in nothing but my underwear.  In Singapore, where they didn’t even bother giving weather reports on the news because it was always 32 degrees and humid as hell with a chance of thunderstorms, sure, I remember it being too hot to wear sunscreen (because you just sweat it off anyway) but I don’t remember it impacting my daily plans.  Of course I stuck to the shade as much as possible, everyone did, but standing out in the sun when you needed to, was just something you did.  Here it’s something you do and complain about it.  One day in Kuala Lumpur I even put up my umbrella to shield me from the sun (I know this is a good idea, but it just seems so… cheesy.  At home only Asians – who do have lovely skin well into their eighties for a reason- and seniors do that.  I need to get over that stigma, but that’s neither here nor there). What I mean is that it was so scorching that I had to get over myself and put up the umbrella, but that’s not what I remember about the day.

            Some of it could come down to hot countries having better air conditioning because they need to, or the fact that I knew in advance it was going to be hot and mentally prepared myself for that,  but I think the big difference is that when I’m on vacation, I have a checklist of things to do and a limited amount of time to do it in.  Nothing, particularly something as insignificant as the weather, is going to stop that.  I can collapse from heat exhaustion once, and only once, I’m at the top of the stairs at the Batu Caves.  Conversely, here at home, it’s the daily grind.  I’m doing similar things today as I do every other day, so the one really bitch-about-able standout is the freaking heat.  

        So maybe it’s not “travel temperatures” as much as it’s “travel attention span”.  I have to stay focused on the sightseeing goal, I didn’t fly fourteen hours next to that screaming baby for nothing!  Keep going!  Back in the real world, if I move too fast it means I sweat through my work clothes and have to greet clients all day with a shirt smelling like a gym sock, so the motivation to run and catch that bus is gone.  

          So the secret is to go on vacation.  Immediately.  Like leave now.  That way I can wake up tomorrow just as sweaty and uncomfortable and not notice as I’m too busy checking to make sure I have my camera in my pocket as I run out the door.

Tags: Heat, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, travel, weather