My dear Aunt Kim recently pointed out to me that not everyone magically knows that i came back to the great US of A in early January and that I should post it on my blog. So...I'm BACK!!!! I'm currently living in Burlington, VT again. I got a job 3 days after setting foot in Burlington working at an amazing restaurant called Duino/Duende in the kitchen. I'm loving being home, but am also plotting for more adventures in the future. Grad school is on the horizon somewhere as well, but for now I'm learning a ton about working in a kitchen and am playing a ton of music. Josh and I have even learned a couple duets on my bari ukelele :) I will be updating this blog to keep better in touch with those who aren't in burlington. I love you all! Happy Superbowl! GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!
Below is a link to my favorite superbowl (really anytime) treat! They are super easy and all my friends beg for them every year :)
http://www.bakerella.com/super-bowl-funday/
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Friday, December 23, 2011
Santa Claus is coming to...vang vieng???
Happy holidays everyone!
Since my previous post was so long I will keep this update short and sweet. Laos is awesome! I mean really and truly awesome! It is the Vermont of Asia I'm pretty sure. We thought china was interesting and the countryside gorgeous, but Laos has stolen my heart. I'm bummed we only have two weeks here but am already scheming to come back.
The country is an interesting mix of traditional and French cultures due to the days of French rule. You can get traditional Laos BBQ at a stand next to one selling delicious baguette sandwiches! The countryside is incredible. Green mountains and small villages. The people are great as well.
It doesn't quite feel like Christmas here what with it being predominantly Buddhist and usually around 85 degrees during the day, but we are doing our best to get in the Christmas spirit! Tomorrow we leave to go to vang vieng. It is a pretty touristy town so hopefully will be decking the halls plus we have several new friends there to celebrate with.if you look up the town don't worry. I know that it has a bad wrap for being the party town of Laos, but I'm well aware to stay away from things or places described as magical. We will be on a search to find some egg nog and mulled wine though:) I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy hannukah and will be sending you all my love!
Since my previous post was so long I will keep this update short and sweet. Laos is awesome! I mean really and truly awesome! It is the Vermont of Asia I'm pretty sure. We thought china was interesting and the countryside gorgeous, but Laos has stolen my heart. I'm bummed we only have two weeks here but am already scheming to come back.
The country is an interesting mix of traditional and French cultures due to the days of French rule. You can get traditional Laos BBQ at a stand next to one selling delicious baguette sandwiches! The countryside is incredible. Green mountains and small villages. The people are great as well.
It doesn't quite feel like Christmas here what with it being predominantly Buddhist and usually around 85 degrees during the day, but we are doing our best to get in the Christmas spirit! Tomorrow we leave to go to vang vieng. It is a pretty touristy town so hopefully will be decking the halls plus we have several new friends there to celebrate with.if you look up the town don't worry. I know that it has a bad wrap for being the party town of Laos, but I'm well aware to stay away from things or places described as magical. We will be on a search to find some egg nog and mulled wine though:) I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy hannukah and will be sending you all my love!
Where did I go???
You might be asking yourself this question since I havent written in close to a month. The answer is main land china. They have blocks on certain Internet sites like Facebook and blogger, so until recently I was unable to access them. We are currently in Laos and have been for a little over a week, hence me posting a blog. Below is a post I wrote while still in china but was unable to post till now:
Yuangshuo is an amazing town with a similar small mountain town tourist feel to it as breckenridge Colorado. It was a small backpacker's paradise that has turned into more of a tourist destination for the Chinese people. There's still many backpacker's as well. The town is a pretty decent size with lots of activity but is surrounded by the coolest mountains and traditional rural china, if you go just a little ways off the beaten path.
To get to yuagshuo from hong kong was an adventure in and of itself. We took an early morning bus to Shenzhen airport then a plane to Guilin then another bus from the airport to the train station and finally a bus to yuangshuo. With the help of our hosts in hong kong and the people at the tourism desk in Guilin we made it here without issue. It was totally worth the craziness to get here. Google photos of yuangshuo and you will understand immediately. It looks like something out of a kungfu movie where the apprentice is in the countryside training.
We've had about three days and nights here before we head out tomorrow for 40 hours of travel to jinghong via 2 buses and a train.
Fortunately we came here during winter which is the off season so we had a bunk room all to ourselves in our hostel. For 5$ a night we have hot water, Internet, free nescafe (Hannah says you can't call it coffee), and a room to ourselves. The only downside is there isn't any heat so you can probably imagine the state of shock our bodies are in going from 80-90 degree Bali to 40 degree yuangshuo. We've been putting on all our layers everyday and have been reverting back to our elementary school days of getting dressed while still under the covers.
There is a lot to do here and with such little time I think we've managed to hit the highlights. we spent one day just checking out the city and booking our next leg of travel. I even became more adventurous with my eating since the traditional meals of this area revolve more around meat. I tried hot and sour soup (they werent kidding when they say hot, I was crying), these awesome street food filled pork, or at least I think pork, pancakes (more to come about those later), wheat steak (seitan) with xo sauce. The latter was my favorite but not special to the area. I was not brave enough to try the most famous dish of spicy snail noodles.
We hiked moon hill which all I can say was beautiful and makes you appreciate life and all it's beauty. If it wasn't so cold I could have stayed there for hours just looking at the view and taking in the wonder of it. When we got to the bottom we discovered our taxi driver ditched us so we proceeded to start a very long cold walk back to town. Suddenly a car stopped asked of we were going to yuangshuo and for 3 yuan we could get a ride. Another local on the road saw our confusion and apprehension and was able to explain that this was in fact the local bus system. So in we went into this van that proceeded to pick a zillion people up on the way to town and fit them all in like tetras pieces.
Last night we ventured into a tea shop and had the best time. A woman owns it and she invites you to sit and try teas. This is apparently standard at chinese tea shops. This isn't some stingy thimble full of pre made tea and followed by demands to buy. She kept our cups full for almost 2 hours and practiced her english while telling us about herself and this area of china. She had us try two teas and explained every time what number of times she had steeped the leaves and what differences to expect from the flavor. I love tea in china because it is beautiful and civilized and anything but clean. Not dirty as in unsanitary but they pour water everywhere. Messy might be a better word. Tea tables have a drain on them and it is tradition to clean the various pots and cups with boiling water after every drink and especially after changing types of tea. So there is pretty much water all over the table but it is all part of the regular day to day art of drinking tea. She also explained that you should only use one type of the six known types (not including herbal) of tea in a specific pot for the entirety of the pot's existence if it is a clay not china pot. She has a pot to make black tea and a different one for green teas, etc. It seems that just like cast iron you season the teapot every time you use it so in fact the reason why antique tea pots are so expensive is due to the superior flavor it produces from years of use. We are heading back tonight to make some purchases :)
Finally today Hannah and i took a cooking class. Again due to the off season we had a private lesson at the regular prices. We started by going to the local market to buy veggies. Pretty standard in terms of the Asian markets I've seen except for one thing. Dogs and cats! I have to keep it all into perceptive that here that is meat just like chicken or pigs or ducks and it has been in their culture forever. They have all the foul, rabbits, and fish alive and will slaughter it for you if you buy one, but they have the same with cats and dogs. Hannah and I avoided that part of the market but could unfortunately here the dogs crying. But anyway thus is life and sometimes you have to respect others cultures even if it upsets you. We went back to the beautiful kitchen right on the water and enjoyed a day of learning how to cook 5 traditional Chinese dishes all of which were incredible and I can't wait to make for all of you. We made pork stuffed mushrooms, stir fried eggplant, stir fried garlic greens, chicken with cashews (my personal favorite), and beer fish stew (the other famous local dish.) Our teacher was an awesome woman and also a great teacher. Hannah and I sat down and ate our feast overlooking the river and mountains. Nothing could have been better...and then disaster struck.
**I'm consciously splitting the paragraphs so you don't associate the awesome dishes I learned with what's below.**
All I will say is that I'm glad they had one of two western style toilets in all of china and that I spent a lot of time with it. Not kidding it felt like i was there for an hour. Pretty sure it was the street food from the night before and also pretty sure I scared our poor teacher. To make matters worse, she was so concerned that she came into the bathroom stall to check on me!!!! There wasn't a lock on the door but fortunately she left almost immediately. I was fortunately able to make it back to our hostel and am feeling much better though I think my adventurous food streak is done for now and it's back to crackers and cup o noodles. I'm now under two comforters lying in bed in the middle of the day praying to god that whatever it was has passed and that I'll be fine for 40 hours of travel tomorrow, but I guess that to make every adventure good you need some disaster so I can check that off my list.
Well more to come later. On a separate note china has some blocks on sites you can and can't go on. My blog and Facebook are apparently in these categories. Some places have vpns that allow you to go on but just want to let you know if I don't write for awhile. Gmail works fine so far though so you can always email! So does Skype!
Yuangshuo is an amazing town with a similar small mountain town tourist feel to it as breckenridge Colorado. It was a small backpacker's paradise that has turned into more of a tourist destination for the Chinese people. There's still many backpacker's as well. The town is a pretty decent size with lots of activity but is surrounded by the coolest mountains and traditional rural china, if you go just a little ways off the beaten path.
To get to yuagshuo from hong kong was an adventure in and of itself. We took an early morning bus to Shenzhen airport then a plane to Guilin then another bus from the airport to the train station and finally a bus to yuangshuo. With the help of our hosts in hong kong and the people at the tourism desk in Guilin we made it here without issue. It was totally worth the craziness to get here. Google photos of yuangshuo and you will understand immediately. It looks like something out of a kungfu movie where the apprentice is in the countryside training.
We've had about three days and nights here before we head out tomorrow for 40 hours of travel to jinghong via 2 buses and a train.
Fortunately we came here during winter which is the off season so we had a bunk room all to ourselves in our hostel. For 5$ a night we have hot water, Internet, free nescafe (Hannah says you can't call it coffee), and a room to ourselves. The only downside is there isn't any heat so you can probably imagine the state of shock our bodies are in going from 80-90 degree Bali to 40 degree yuangshuo. We've been putting on all our layers everyday and have been reverting back to our elementary school days of getting dressed while still under the covers.
There is a lot to do here and with such little time I think we've managed to hit the highlights. we spent one day just checking out the city and booking our next leg of travel. I even became more adventurous with my eating since the traditional meals of this area revolve more around meat. I tried hot and sour soup (they werent kidding when they say hot, I was crying), these awesome street food filled pork, or at least I think pork, pancakes (more to come about those later), wheat steak (seitan) with xo sauce. The latter was my favorite but not special to the area. I was not brave enough to try the most famous dish of spicy snail noodles.
We hiked moon hill which all I can say was beautiful and makes you appreciate life and all it's beauty. If it wasn't so cold I could have stayed there for hours just looking at the view and taking in the wonder of it. When we got to the bottom we discovered our taxi driver ditched us so we proceeded to start a very long cold walk back to town. Suddenly a car stopped asked of we were going to yuangshuo and for 3 yuan we could get a ride. Another local on the road saw our confusion and apprehension and was able to explain that this was in fact the local bus system. So in we went into this van that proceeded to pick a zillion people up on the way to town and fit them all in like tetras pieces.
Last night we ventured into a tea shop and had the best time. A woman owns it and she invites you to sit and try teas. This is apparently standard at chinese tea shops. This isn't some stingy thimble full of pre made tea and followed by demands to buy. She kept our cups full for almost 2 hours and practiced her english while telling us about herself and this area of china. She had us try two teas and explained every time what number of times she had steeped the leaves and what differences to expect from the flavor. I love tea in china because it is beautiful and civilized and anything but clean. Not dirty as in unsanitary but they pour water everywhere. Messy might be a better word. Tea tables have a drain on them and it is tradition to clean the various pots and cups with boiling water after every drink and especially after changing types of tea. So there is pretty much water all over the table but it is all part of the regular day to day art of drinking tea. She also explained that you should only use one type of the six known types (not including herbal) of tea in a specific pot for the entirety of the pot's existence if it is a clay not china pot. She has a pot to make black tea and a different one for green teas, etc. It seems that just like cast iron you season the teapot every time you use it so in fact the reason why antique tea pots are so expensive is due to the superior flavor it produces from years of use. We are heading back tonight to make some purchases :)
Finally today Hannah and i took a cooking class. Again due to the off season we had a private lesson at the regular prices. We started by going to the local market to buy veggies. Pretty standard in terms of the Asian markets I've seen except for one thing. Dogs and cats! I have to keep it all into perceptive that here that is meat just like chicken or pigs or ducks and it has been in their culture forever. They have all the foul, rabbits, and fish alive and will slaughter it for you if you buy one, but they have the same with cats and dogs. Hannah and I avoided that part of the market but could unfortunately here the dogs crying. But anyway thus is life and sometimes you have to respect others cultures even if it upsets you. We went back to the beautiful kitchen right on the water and enjoyed a day of learning how to cook 5 traditional Chinese dishes all of which were incredible and I can't wait to make for all of you. We made pork stuffed mushrooms, stir fried eggplant, stir fried garlic greens, chicken with cashews (my personal favorite), and beer fish stew (the other famous local dish.) Our teacher was an awesome woman and also a great teacher. Hannah and I sat down and ate our feast overlooking the river and mountains. Nothing could have been better...and then disaster struck.
**I'm consciously splitting the paragraphs so you don't associate the awesome dishes I learned with what's below.**
All I will say is that I'm glad they had one of two western style toilets in all of china and that I spent a lot of time with it. Not kidding it felt like i was there for an hour. Pretty sure it was the street food from the night before and also pretty sure I scared our poor teacher. To make matters worse, she was so concerned that she came into the bathroom stall to check on me!!!! There wasn't a lock on the door but fortunately she left almost immediately. I was fortunately able to make it back to our hostel and am feeling much better though I think my adventurous food streak is done for now and it's back to crackers and cup o noodles. I'm now under two comforters lying in bed in the middle of the day praying to god that whatever it was has passed and that I'll be fine for 40 hours of travel tomorrow, but I guess that to make every adventure good you need some disaster so I can check that off my list.
Well more to come later. On a separate note china has some blocks on sites you can and can't go on. My blog and Facebook are apparently in these categories. Some places have vpns that allow you to go on but just want to let you know if I don't write for awhile. Gmail works fine so far though so you can always email! So does Skype!
Monday, December 5, 2011
For those who love dumplings...
Come to china!!! Yesterday Hannah and I ate at a place called Peking dumpling Wong. It was a tiny place and we made a fool of ourselves trying to order, but the food was incredible. I ate a plate of ten boiled pork and chive dumplings and split a plate of vegetarian ones with Hannah. I must figure out how to make them. Josh and I can make some pretty awesome dumplings but not nearly as good as these.
Going to restaurants and ordering has definitely been the biggest challenge for us so far. The first day we thought for some reason it was a great idea to try our hand at Sunday dim sum. Talk about amazing chaos. We were seated at a table with two other couples. There were carts everywhere, steam everywhere, people talking loudly and pointing for various dishes. Poor Hannah is a vegetarian and the Chinese are really good about sneaking meat in things that one would think are meatless like pastry looking things and pieces of bean curd. In the end the other two couples turned out to speak english and helped her order and me choose the most delicious things. All in all I wouldn't have done our first china experience any other way.
The family we are staying with couldn't be nicer. They have fed us, given us good wine, driven us places, helped us book our next leg of travel, might be bringing my extra suitcase for me to shanghai and are letting Hannah borrow their Chinese sim card for her phone. They are so giving and also the coolest family ever. I hope that I'm as cool as them when I'm older. Their boys are totally incredible and bouncing off the walls and their energy is infectious. Their apartment also looks out over the bay and islands. We couldn't have asked for better. Someday I will pass this kindness onwards to others traveling along.
Going to restaurants and ordering has definitely been the biggest challenge for us so far. The first day we thought for some reason it was a great idea to try our hand at Sunday dim sum. Talk about amazing chaos. We were seated at a table with two other couples. There were carts everywhere, steam everywhere, people talking loudly and pointing for various dishes. Poor Hannah is a vegetarian and the Chinese are really good about sneaking meat in things that one would think are meatless like pastry looking things and pieces of bean curd. In the end the other two couples turned out to speak english and helped her order and me choose the most delicious things. All in all I wouldn't have done our first china experience any other way.
The family we are staying with couldn't be nicer. They have fed us, given us good wine, driven us places, helped us book our next leg of travel, might be bringing my extra suitcase for me to shanghai and are letting Hannah borrow their Chinese sim card for her phone. They are so giving and also the coolest family ever. I hope that I'm as cool as them when I'm older. Their boys are totally incredible and bouncing off the walls and their energy is infectious. Their apartment also looks out over the bay and islands. We couldn't have asked for better. Someday I will pass this kindness onwards to others traveling along.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Penultimate set of pics.
Sunrise over Mt. Batur on the volcano sunrise hike.
The organic "farm" that we stayed at for a week that was actually a hotel with a garden. It was breathtakingly beautiful though.
I fell in love with this artists work and ended up buying a print from him. Of course it was this print of a banyan tree because we all know I love trees. He is really phenomenal and makes his art on big canvases with only a black pen. He is also blind in one eye. I couldn't even begin to draw like him and I have 2 good eyes.
even more
MONKEY PICTURESSSSS
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