Liquid Travels: coffee, tea or chai?

While I love lingering over some exotic local liquor at a rickety table on a sunny square somewhere, and taking 'home' those liquid travel memories to recollect later (note: they can especially come in handy on a wintery day in a dreary office when you're feeling a little down - so store them up!), I equally enjoy trying tea and coffee in other countries. Tea, generally being called chai or chay everywhere in the world except where I come from, is a favourite. While coffee can be terribly disappointing - especially when the 'premium' coffee on offer is Nescafe, as it is many simple coffee shops in South American and Middle Eastern countries - tea, at its worst, is at least interesting. This tea we tried at a small market in a tiny village near Phrao in Thailand's north was subtle in its sweetness and strength, and while it wasn't unique or unusual, it was, to me, just right - it was pretty close to being the perfect glass of tea. That's a flavour that I won't easily forget. And with that memory comes (like a series of email attachments) images of the table we sat at, the people we were with, the woman who served the tea who was lovely (albeit tired - she'd been up all night serving tea to late workers and early risers), the market stalls and their produce, the surrounding countryside (rice paddies), and the weather on that day (fortunately the rain held off until we were nearly 'home'. But the wonderful thing about liquid (and culinary) memories is the additional rememberance of 'taste'. Don't you think?

Rachel Nevada (Extraterrestrial Highway)

Nevada State Highway 375 stretches for 98 miles from US-93 in the southeast to US-6 in the northwest. It crosses three large high desert valleys in south central Nevada: Tikaboo Valley, Sand Spring Valley and Railroad Valley. Except for a couple of ranches, the town of Rachel is the only settlement along the way.

In April 1996 Nevada State Highway 375 was officially named the Extraterrestrial Highway for the many UFO sightings along this lonely stretch of road. The highway is close to the mysterious Area 51 a super-secret Air Force test facility, and in the 1980's and 1990's there have been many sightings of unidentified objects near the base. Even today visitors and locals alike often see strange lights in the night-sky while driving down the highway.

Well you may or may not of heard of Rachel Nevada before, but if your into UFO's you will know about it. And if you don't know this about myself and hubby, we love to travel in our motor home and love to park in remote places. So one of the places we stopped was here, so thought i would share some photos and a bit of information about Rachel.

In its heyday Rachel had over 500 residents, mostly working for Union Carbide in the Tempiute tungsten mine. When the mine closed in 1988 the workers moved on, and today the population is down to less than 100. Most of the people living in Rachel are retired, work at the alfalfa farms or in one of the three local businesses. A few people work at the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) or in Area 51, but of course those who really do can not talk about it.

Ever since the late 1980's Rachel has been a popular destination among UFO fans, attracted by the nearby Area 51, and by hundreds of UFO sightings in the area. Rachel has been dubbed the "UFO Capital of the World", and people from all around the world come to visit Rachel and the Little A'Le'Inn, and to get information to plan their personal expedition to that mysterious base in the desert.Well this was about all there was to the town. We didn't even stop in the store or the restaurant, we just moved on back to were we ended up spending the night in this remote area off the road. One of the joys of traveling in a Motor home with all its conveniences
And this is what we watched before going to bed, Did we see any UFO's? Nope sure was looking tho.
Have you ever seen a UFO?

Sky Watch Friday

I thought i would finish the post of Glacier National Park with this sunrise photo.I took this early in the morning .

And end it with these sunset photo, of when we were coming home from the Monster Truck Show a few weeks ago.Click on the photos for a larger view and maybe you can see the mountains better

Travelling inspirations: liquid travels

Mojitos in Havana, Caiparinhas in Rio, Pisco in Chile, Arak in Beirut, Lychee Martinis in Thailand... I find memories of exotic cocktails and local liquors, generally sipped in equally exotic locations - an atmospheric fort in old Havana, a beachside cafe on Copacabana Beach, sunset over a dramatic Atacama desert landscape, a nightclub on New Years Eve in Jounieh, and a bar overlooking Burma (in that order) - to be almost as inspiring as foreign food experiences. Admittedly the liquid memories are more hazy. For obvious reasons. Are there 'booze blogs' out there that might inspire me to travel as much as those mouthwatering food blogs I wrote about, I wonder? We recently drank shots of sweet, strong Thai whiskey with a Shaman's father in a hill tribe village in Thailand (the Shaman was at work in the fields), and the warmth that dashed through my body, and the smile that darted to my lips, after a sip of the potent brew is something I won't forget easily. Do I long to return to the Shaman's hut to share some more shots? Probably not. But it's the opportunity to have similar kinds of heady experiences that inspires me to travel. What about you?

Nostalgic Journeys: part 1, the Travelling Lunchbox

There's something about a lunch box that's so endearing. As a child, I loved my lunch box and eagerly looked forward to discovering its contents each day - the greater the variety of edible goodies (a sandwich, fruit, a piece of cake, a 'Popper' - that's packaged juice Down Under) the more I relished 'little lunch' and 'big lunch'. Unlike my playmates who delighted in the days to come when our mothers got too busy to prepare our lunches and we could spend our cents at the tuck shop (a 'canteen' in Australia) on meat pies, sausage rolls, cream buns, chocolate eclairs, and Sunny Boys (I'll let you look that one up), I missed the lunch box days. As an adult I've enjoyed prepping for long journeys on the road, whether it was stashing away a bottle of Pisco and local snacks from the market for long South American bus rides as a backpacker, or more recently on road trips with my husband, making a thermos of tea in the morning and stocking up on muesli bars for the car. One of the things I most enjoyed about skiing (before my husband took up snowboarding and I dedicated myself to imbibing mulled wine by fireplaces in grand old European hotels) was prepping little bags of chocolates, nuts and dried fruit that we'd nibble on while savoring spectacular mountain vistas. And while I'm increasingly disappointed by airline food, I must admit I enjoy opening the little containers and checking everything out. So I was delighted to receive not one but two lunch boxes on our recent trek in Thailand, the first of which I showed you yesterday, and the second pictured today. While it seemed odd eating the contents of this one, cross-legged on the bamboo floor of a hut in a hill tribe village, with its white bread ham sandwich (with the crusts cut off!), chicken drumstick, fruit, and chocolate cake, for a few moments there it transported me back to my childhood and suburban Australia in the 70s. Who ever could have thought a lunch box could take me travelling?

ABC Wed Sandcastle Sculptures

History of Sand Sculptures
It is hard to believe that there was ever a time when people did not sit down near a shoreline and try to push wet sand around until it resembled something else. My fellow sand sculptor Ted Siebert writes in his book The Art of Sandcastling that the ancient Egyptians made sand models of the pyramids - though I doubt this is more than conjecture. An Orissan (India) myth dating back to the 14th century makes reference to the poet Balaram Das who built devotional sculptures from sand, but the first documented references of serious sand sculpture will not appear for another 500 years.

It is commonly believed that the first artists to actually profit from their sand sculpting abilities surfaced in Atlantic City, NJ in the late 19th century. Spectators walking along the boardwalk would throw tips to the bowler-hat wearing artists. Some credit one Philip McCord with creating the first true sand sculpture in 1897 - it featured a drowned mother and her baby. By the early 1900s, word had gotten around that there was money in sand sculpture and enterprising "artistes" could be found at nearly every block -- so much so that the town fathers began to view them as a nuisance. In 1944 a hurricane ripped up the Boardwalk and demolished the sand dunes. The city government saw the change in landscape as an opportunity to ban sand-sculpting along the boardwalk, a law that has yet to be rescinded.

It would appear that sand sculptors were earning money - as well as a reputation for dodginess - on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1901, A writer by the name of Emory James wrote a rather lengthy article published in "The Strand Magazine" about a Professor Eugen Bormel, who was creating sand sculpture on the German coast at the North Sea summer resort town of Nordeney. He assures the reader that the good professor should not be classified with "the cheapjacks of the sands, who, for a hatful of coins and his bread and butter, deigns to display his artistic skill before the multitude." (Apparently Professor Bormel was renowned for donating all of his hard-earned pennies to charity.) His preferred subject matter - mermaids and renditions of the Sphinx - are still some of the favorite subjects of modern-day sand sculptors. The writer observes that the larger sculptures drew the most interest - something that has certainly not changed - and also rather dryly notes that "hair and lace effects are two things which the unskilled should leave alone." Words to the wise.

After WWII, when Americans started taking beach vacations, family sand castle contests started popping up in beachside resort towns all along the east coast. But modern day sand sculpture really started in California in the early '70's with the teaming up of Gerry Kirk and Todd VanderPluym, collectively known as Sand Sculptors International (SSI). This team set the standard for the art form by organizing teams of sculptors to create incredibly huge and detailed replicas of famous castles and fantasy architecture.

Today every beachside resort town worth its salt hosts at least one sand castle contest - I try to keep a list of the largest ones updated on this site - and western Europe turns into a virtual sand box every summer with multiple huge projects employing hundreds of sand sculptors trying to outdo each other in hugeness and special effects. Big sand is big business these days and it all seems to be getting bigger still by the year.

Glacier National Park Part 2

Click on Glacier National Park
Everything you ever wanted to know will be there.
Driving up the Sun Road we saw this doe and her 2 babies drinking in the creek, i wish i had a better camera to get a closer shot of them.

For visitors who wish to drive through the park, the Going-to-the-Sun Road is an experience to remember. Bisecting the heart of Glacier, this 50 mile long road follows the shores of the park's two largest lakes and hugs the cliffs below the Continental Divide as it traverses Logan Pass. Numerous scenic turnouts and wayside exhibits allow travelers to stop and enjoy the park at their own pace.

Glacier National Park Part 1

I love waterfalls and if you have never been to Glacier National Park, its a great place to visit. The sun road has many wonderful sites to see.

Travelling Inspirations: food blogs, part 2

If yesterday's post didn't have you packing your bags, here are some more mouth- watering food blogs that inspire me to travel to the destinations these globe-trotting gourmets are blogging about: Traveller’s Lunchbox is the delicious work of an American living in Scotland (and married to a Spaniard) who blogs about her global dining experiences; this is another one of those scrumptious blogs with appetizing imagery, along with a fantastic list of food blogs around the world. Read her posts on Morocco, including my favorite cities, Essaouira and Marrakesh, and see if they don’t have you researching flights straight after. On Have Fork Will Travel, a fabulously fanatic foodie blogs about eating well and eating out (primarily) in the UK. After dipping into this blog I feel as if I’ve spent a week in London dining at all the best restaurants – without having spent a pound! A few things I love about this blog: its author believes mashed potato to be the best food in the world and has a ‘Mash Hall of Fame’; its sub-title is “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well” (how true, only I'd add 'travel well' too); and this blogger will hop on a plane and fly to New York for one night for a meal. I also love Desert Candy, a Middle East-driven cooking blog by an American who writes from Damascus, New York and Baltimore, and generously shares her scrummy recipes; and the delectable Italian-focused Lucullian, by a Swede living in a village in Tuscany. Do food blogs inspire you to travel too? I'd love to hear about your favorites! Pictured is a Thai lunchbox provided by our guide on a recent four day trek in Thailand - opening the little rattan boxes was a delight and the the contents were as delicious as you can imagine!

Joy Joy Joy, as the sweet season is Coming! Christmas in the Tuscan land!

The beauty of Christmas and New Year in Tuscany lays on the way streets in cities are dressed up, the way windows are adorned, the way people smile. In the countryside you will find that an evening dark sky that promises nothing but snow contrasts with the homelike feeling of snuggling up in front of a warm fireplace, and that is a wonderful feeling.
We have already rented a villa in Tuscany during the holiday season twice so far, and that is why I am telling you it is a wonderful experience. The first time when we arrived at the villa we found that the owners had gifted us with a Christmas tree, all adorned and lighten up, the fireplace was crackling nicely, and we immediately felt like we owned this villa and it had been our home for some time!

Having dinners around the table while outside it occasionally snowed (it is rare for snow to fall in Tuscany, and when it does it lasts a couple of days), enjoying nice discussions on the comfortable sofas, and coming home from a lovely daytour in Florence or San Gimignano to prepare our favourite dishes filled us with a sensation of relaxation and peace that is hard to find enywhere else.
Here below is a short version of the Cristmas Eve's dinner at our friens' house. The gravy on the mashed potatoes could not be missing! Lovely! We will be in Tuscany again this year, let us know if you wish to have a hint on how to choose the right place! And even though it might be too soon...Merry Christmas!

Travelling Inspirations: food blogs, part 1

Food blogs inspire me to travel. Especially those by globetrotting foodies blogging about their eating experiences around the world, and expats who blog about their culinary discoveries in their adopted cities. As I’ve been blogging about our Thailand travels, it’s apt that I share some of my favourite Asian-focused blogs: Bangkok-born San Franciscan Pim blogs on Chez Pim about her global culinary adventures, reviewing everything from Asian street food to European Michelin star restaurants; she has scrumptious guides to eating in San Francisco, London, New York, Paris, and Spain, and her Bangkok guide includes blogs on my favorite Thai snacks, pork crackling and Kanom Krok. Singaporean ‘Chubby Hubby’ blogs equally deliciously about his gourmet globetrotting experiences with his wife, with mouth-watering photography; his recent blogs on Bhutan will have you adding that destination to your list. Asian-based blogs with food photography to make me hungry include the scrummy-looking Real Thai by Bangkok-based Austin Bush who blogs about his best eating experiences in Bangkok and other places; the appetizing Eating Asia by a Malaysian-based food writer-photographer team, which includes especially luscious photography; the ravenous-making Rambling Spoon by Karen Coates, an Asia-based correspondent for Gourmet magazine, who is ‘traveling the world by mouth’ (Karen also has a long list of food blogs I’m going to have to check out!); and Hanoi-based blog Sticky Rice about yummy eating experiences in Vietnam. Take a read and see if they don't make you want to buy a plane ticket somewhere. (This pic is mine, of our typically scrumptious, congee-like breakfasts while in Thailand.)

Travelling Inspirations: food

Food inspires me to travel. No doubt about it. Does it do that for you? Whether I’m flicking through a food and travel magazine, drooling over my husband’s food photography, or just taking a look at my own food snaps from our travels, mouthwatering images just make me want to go! Take this pic of Mieng Kham, a deliciously tangy Thai appetiser made with betel leaves, dried shrimps, limes, peanuts, palm sugar, coconut, and birds-eye chillies (hope I’ve got that right!). It’s not something you’ll typically see at your neighbourhood Thai restaurant in Dubai, London, Sydney, San Francisco, or wherever, as Betel leaves can be hard to find. Therefore it’s always the first dish we’ll order our first meal in Bangkok. It’s the dish we most reminisce about. It's the one we most look forward to. And it's the dish that inspires me to find an excuse to return to Thailand.

Mt Bachelor outing

The anticipation of heading to Mt Bachelor in the motor home very relaxed son and relaxed Princess. As you can see there is grandson 2 fingers up. Is that a good thing? wonder if that's like heads up?

And here is Mt Bachelor with very little snow on it ,usually this time of yr it has a lot more snow, with all the lifts going, i think they said they only had one lift running.





Also notice the side of the road, very little snow, the sky was sunny and beautiful which was nice to drive in.






And here is the lodge as you can see not much snow in the parking lot, they have been using the snow machines to make some of the snow for the last few weeks.








Here is Princess having a ball playing in the snow, yup that is her ball, but she was more interested in watching all the kids and the other dogs running around.













Here is son and Grandson going up the hill in the inner tube, but as you can see lots of stumps in the way.











Hudson after taking several bites of snow,what faces he made













Now here he is trying his hand on snowboarding what a great jump he had.My favorite photo of the day.
A great day was had by all, only thing would of been better if there was more snow. And the patrol guy wasn't coming around to chase the kids away from the parking area, cause they wanted to make sure that they got there money for people going on the pay area. I think that patrol guy must of come around about 3 or 4 times and chased everyone away, but that only lasted till he left.

The Joys of Travel: Food Markets, part 3 (the food - the good stuff!)

As I've been raving about the pleasures of food markets and our recent rovings around Thailand's markets, I thought I should actually show you some of the fabulous food offerings from Thanin Market (also known as Siriwattana Market) in Chiang Mai, our favourite. The best time to go is for breakfast when it's at its buzziest.

Try: Chiang Mai's famous spicy pork sausage and crunchy pork crackling with sticky rice, a popular local breakfast. (The pork crackling pictured here is famous all over Thailand).

Don't miss: Kanom Krok - deliciously sweet, little coconut puddings, topped with spring onions or corn.

Take away: delicious deep fried snacks - banana, sweet potato and pumpkin are on offer most days but there are daily specials such as fried banana blossom with sesame, oil and chili! Yum! or 'Aroi' (delicious)! as they say in Thailand.

The Joys of Travel: Food Markets, part 2 (a case for hiring guides)

We generally don't like guides - mainly, it's their bad jokes, the tedious history lessons, the time-keeping mentality, and a certain arrogance, plus we've had a few bad experiences (one of which involved our first visit to one of the world's great wonders, Petra, being ruined by the guide). However, we visited several food markets in Thailand with guides and they were all excellent - knowledgeable, enthusiastic, charming, and had excellent relationships with the stallholders. Once we made it clear to the guides that we'd been to food markets in Thailand many times before, we knew our food, and were familiar with Thai food, it took the whole experience to another level. We got to ask lots of questions, to find out what all those icky unidentifiable things actually were, to learn their Thai names, how they're cooked and eaten, and so on. And by doing so, we learnt an extraordinary amount about the Thai people, their cuisine, and their culinary habits. And we tried lots of food! Admittedly, we weren't as brave as Bourdain. We didn't need to try deep friend crickets or whitchetty grub-like worms, but we tasted a lot of food, a lot more than we'd try if we were by ourselves. We're hooked. From now on, we're going to hire a guide-translator to visit every food market in each new place we visit. And maybe some of the markets we're familiar with too. Who knows what we might discover? And who we might meet. We probably wouldn't have met this friendly fishmonger and had a lesson on Thai fish-scaling if we had have been on our own!

The Joys of Travel: Food Markets, part 1

Food markets are one of the ultimate joys of travel, aren't they? Whenever we visit a new place one of the first things we do is visit a local fresh food market. They're a microcosm of the society. Markets give you a sensoral introduction to the culture, an insight into its everyday life, a taste of the 'personality' of the place, and some local flavour - quite literally. For us one of the real pleasures is the food itself. And while we like being able to identify the familiar (Oh, they have that here?!), we love nothing more than discovering some unusual ingredient or exotic fruit - and Thailand has plenty of those. And in Thailand, there's the added delight - or horror depending on how you look at it - of seeing slimy creatures swimming around in big bowls of water, ugly frogs that give the cane toad a run for its money, big dishes of deep fried insects, and other icky unidentifiable things bouncing about in plastic bags. The more markets assault your senses the better. Colours so bold they bowl you over, sounds so raucous you're covering your ears, aromas so heady you have to hold your nose... bring it on!

Sky Watch Friday

I took this photo last Jan at Lost Dutchmen Campground AZ this is Superstitious Mountain.
If you have not been there it is very nice, a trip worth seeing.

Traffic Hazards in Thailand #4

Another food-related traffic hazard in Thailand, this time in Bangkok. But to be honest, as we were walking rather than driving, this young woman pushing her fresh fruit juice stall along a Sukhumvit Soi didn't present a problem to us. She was more of an obstacle to the passing traffic. But then they're used to it in Thailand anyway. This is part of daily life there. And isn't it fabulous? Imagine it happening in your home city of (insert city). Would it cause a riot? If not, then your city is the kind of city I want to visit. I'll dedicate this tasty little image (well, I saw what she was selling!) to our American friends who are celebrating Thanksgiving, in particular, Anne, over at Prêt à Voyager, who has posted about her own experience of road hazards in Vietnam, ironically titled Happy Travels, and has included a a wonderful birds-eye-view of rickshaw, motorcycle and bicycle madness - well, it's not so ironic, actually, as it's also a 'Happy Thanksgiving' post. Who else is celebrating Thanksgiving? And do you have any 'Thanksgiving and Travel' experiences to share?

Traffic Hazards in Thailand #3

Talk about a moveable feast! We were stuck behind traffic in the old town of Phuket this time and the 'sidecar' of the motorcycle in front of us was loaded with all the bits and pieces this couple needed to set up their food stall at the local Night Market: boxes full of fresh groceries, stacks of plastic stools, fold-up tables, and coolers ('eskies' to the Aussie readers; 'cooler bins' to the Kiwis; but what does everyone call them everywhere else?) full of the tasty food they'd probably been preparing all day to sell that night. They weren't really that much of a traffic hazard. This is just an excuse for me to write about these wonderful Thai people who work so hard to make a decent living sell delicious fresh food each night. Thailand's markets and their tasty eats are one of our favorite things about travelling in this country. Now, isn't food itself motivation enough to travel? I think that deserves a blog of its own.