The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

The Cu Chi tunnels were certainly eye opening. Due to horrific traffic in Saigon it took about  1 1/2 hrs to get out of town and to a crafts shop for the famous laquerware. It is run totally by peoples who were adversly affected by agent orange and they do amazing work! I had no idea it was so labor intensive and what was really eye opening is that most laquerware designs are done using sand and broken egg shells. They are painstakingly applied to the design and then 11 coats of laquer go on top. Just amazing. I bought a bracelet and we got a small picture of a fisherman throwing a net.

Then on to the caves. It is always interesting to us to hear the “other side of the story” and, of course, in the states we generally only hear about how horrific the VC soldiers were, Americans in POW camps, etc. And, that is all true. However, being here and seeing the evidence of the horrors WE inflicted upon the Vietnamese makes you realize that no matter whos side you’re on that war is, indeed, hell and a horror to all involved.

So, we took the video they showed with a grain of salt and then headed out to see what we’d really come to see which was the tunnels. It’s an amazing system which runs for 250 km!!! The tunnels basically completely encircled US headquarters in south Vietnam. A small area of tunnels were originally done during the war with the French and then during the Vietnam/American war they increased them to what they are today. A few areas were bombed but amazingly enough most are still passable today (if you’re about 5’2 and 98lbs!!!)

After viewing some of the ways they used to trap the enemy and seeing the start of the tunnels you could pay to shoot some weapons so Jim did take a few shots with an M-16. Then, time to actually go in the tunnels. I declined because I’m slightly claustrophobic to begin with. I would have gone in if I could have gone in alone but with loads of tourists crowding in even Jim came right back out and only did 30m of the 90m tunnel you could climb through. They had cooking , sleeping, and storage rooms built underground throughout the system as well. Really, very ingenious.

We got back to Saigon/HCMC around 3pm and had a relaxing last evening in town just people watching and wandering around.

Our bus to Mui Ne left at 7am the next day. As usual, the 4 1/2 hr trip took around 6hrs but we’re getting used to that. Little Mui Ne Cottages was just fantastic. Mui Ne is tiny and quiet (no horns honking 24hrs a day!!!!) and the beach and scenery is beautiful. We had a garden view bungalow with the first comfortable bed we’d had in over 3 weeks. Heaven! One night we wandered next door for dinner and, being the only 2 people there had the owners undivided attention. When we complimented him on the rose he’d carved for our plates he insisted on getting another tomato and showing us how he’d done it. He was just so happy to see us..it’s been so wonderful throughout the trip to have people truly thrilled and interested to see you.

We spent 3 days just lazing between the lovely pool and the beach chairs and then 1 day took the 1/2 day sand dune tour. We got up at 4:30am to be at the sand dunes by sunrise. It is an amazing thing to suddenly turn a corner and find huge sand dunes! We did some sledding down the dunes, which hurts when you crash, and then headed to some “yellow” dunes, did a walk through a river to a very interesting canyon called Red Canyon and visited a fishing village. It was fantastic to watch all the women bartering over the fish and watching the give and take. Lots of great photos of the fishing boats and some shopping for bracelets from the kids on the beach. Certainly a fun morning and we still got the afternoon by the pool!

On 12Dec we took the afternoon train from Mui Ne to Nha Trang. It was supposed to be 4 hrs but, you guessed it, took around 6 1/2 or so. After about 1 hr on the road we had to stop for 1 hr as the bus had a flat tire. 3 hrs back on the road and the guide announced it was 1 1/2 hrs to town but we’d stop in 30minutes for toilet. Well, we’d passed about 4000 gas stations and restaurants at this point but they instead pulled down a side street so the MEN could get off and pee by the side of the bus. Lovely!!! I was fine or would have been out there with them but some women on board were not too thrilled!

We ended up staying at the hotel the bus dropped us at. We hadn’t had a place in mind and it’s fine. $15/night for a big room, aircon, hot water and a HUGE balcony. Pretty comfy beds too thank goodness! We went to the Cham Towers ruins today by bike tuk tuk. They were built in around 784AD or so and were in ok shape. However, I fear after seeing Angkor that most smaller sights won’t be so impressive anymore!

Tomorrow we’re doing a trip to the mineral mud baths and hot springs in the morning and just packing up for our night train to Danang. From there our hotel in Hoi An will transfer us back there for 3-4 nights. The entire city is a UNESCO world heritage site so we’re looking forward to some great sight seeing.

Vietnam has been great so far. It’s unfortunate that an entire generation of Americans have such negative feelings towards the country. I hope that it will fade in time, just has it has in Germany and other WWII sites in Europe. The coastline and beaches are gorgeous, the people are friendly and the food is good. I’m sure more great things ahead.

Cheers for now! J&R

Or afternoon anyway!

We finished up our time in Cambodia by visiting the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda and seeing a film on land mines around the world.

Our Mekong Express Limousine Bus (yep, that was the name) to Ho Chi Minh City was due to leave at 8:30am and we left at 8:40..amazing! Due to it being an express bus we only stopped once for a lunch break of about 15minutes and then, of course, at the border.

The entire border crossing was probably about 1 1/2 hrs. At the Cambodian departure point we had to get off the bus so they could check it, then they called us up by our passports so we could reboard. We drove approx. 200ft and had to get off the bus and collect our luggage at the Vietnam border. There we waited for quite some time while our guide on the bus got our immigration cards stamped. Then, we waited some more while he got our passports stamped, then we had to go through a scan and back on the bus to continue on to Ho Chi Minh City. The entire trip took about 7 hrs and we’re seriously considering flying next time!

HCMC is crazy… I didn’t think anywhere could have more chaotic traffic than Bangkok but I was wrong! We’ve been trying to take photos so we’ll be able to show everyone but are simply following the advice in lonely planet which is to walk slowly across the road and letting the moto drivers steer around us as we go. It’s scary as hell crossing 4-6 lanes of traffic this way but we’re surviving it so far!

We had prebooked Kim Hotel on mini-hotel alley which was a nice change from having to go from one hotel to another to check the rooms. Unfortunately, we got scammed by our rat bastard taxi driver right off the bat. He was using the meter and Jim & I had JUST noted it was 81,000dong when we turned the corner onto a street and suddenly it jumped to 170,000! He said our hotel was just up the block and we got our luggage out and argued with him over the rate and he just kept babbling about the meter rate but we KNOW he did something to that meter because it didn’t more than double in 1/2 block. Then, to add insult to injury he had dropped us BLOCKS from our hotel so we had to put on our packs and hike to our hotel.

Luckily, the young ladies that run Kim Hotel are just lovely. However, they have a tiny elevator, a novelty in itself and when Ms Kim was going up to floor 4 with Jim it got stuck. The other girl working and I had to get them out of the elevator and we walked up the floors to our room. Too funny!

For $20 /night we have a balcony, tv, aircon and the first true hot water shower we’ve had since leaving Bali. Very nice. The beds as with everywhere here seem to be made of cement, but it’s still a lovely room. And, mini hotel alley is much quieter than being right on the main street so no earplugs for sleeping here! After checking in we headed to the Go Go bar for a couple of much needed beers.

Today, Thu. 6 Dec. we took the walking tour of the city that is in lonely planet. We first had breakfast and I tried Pho, the national food for breakfast of noodles and beef in broth with bean sprouts and chilies added. The indoor market was loads of fun for bargaining for tee shirts and then we strolled through an outdoor market. We took pics of some of the great colonial buildings in downtown and had german, of all things, for lunch.. homemade bratwurst and red cabbage and a schneider weisse beer..possibly my favorite beer in the world..it was SOOOOOOOOO wonderful. Not to dis the local beers of SE Asia but nothing comes close!

After lunch we went to the reunification palace where Saigon fell in 1975 and saw all of the former meet & greet rooms as well as the tunnel/war rooms in the basement. Then, to the War Remnants museum. This used to be called the American War Crimes museum but they changed the name because visitors didn’t like it. Imagine that. Anyway, while the museum is quite one sided it is a horrific example of what war does to everyone involved, the soldiers, the countries, and most especially the innocents who are caught in the middle.

We took the cyclo taxi’s back to our hotel area and paid a bit too much but it was a ball having the bicyle drivers wheel us through that crazy traffic! Tomorrow we’re off to the Cu Chi tunnels outside of town to see how the viet cong lived and fought during the war. We’re planning on leaving HCMC on 8Dec and heading up the coast to Mui Ne to take a mini vacation and chill out at a beach resort for a couple of days.

It’s steamy hot here in southern Vietnam and looking forward to the cooler weather further north!

Hope this finds everyone well. Cheers J&R

We are now in our last day in Cambodia in the capital of Phnom Penh. From Battambang we took the bus down and, in typical fashion, we’d been told it would leave at 9am, our ticket said 9:30am and we actually left at 10:30am. Oh well, we had nothing better to do!

We were the only westerners on the bus and so garnered lots of attention from the others on the bus, especially the children who were very curious of us.

The bus was comfortable with nice seats and aircon and took about 5 1/2 hrs. We stopped twice for bathroom breaks, a couple of times to drop off/pick up people and then once for about 1/2 hr so the drivers could eat lunch and everyone could get snacks. The final potty break was interesting in that they also washed the bus!

Soon after we headed out they started the ëntertainment”which was the VERY popular dance / music programs that seem to be on every tv ALL OF THE TIME. The men sit around the lobby’s of hotels watching it, every time we get back to our hotel room the maids have put it on, it’s just everywhere. So, thank goodness Jim had gotten a splitter for the ipod before we left home so we can each have our earplugs in and listening at the same time!

Upon arrival in Phnom Penh we took a tuk tuk to our first hotel choice Bright Lotus 1, unfortunately, it was full. So, off to Indochine II, our second choice and luckily, after much discussion from the staff, they determined that they could allow us to stay for 4 nights, not just 1 as they originally stated was available. It’s a nice corner room for $25 with 2 huge bright windows, hot water, fan, aircon, and 2 double beds which could be cement blocks…they are VERY firm! The staff is lovely and also do tours, bus tickets, and vietnamese visas. We got the last 2 seats on the 8:30a bus to Vietnam on Wed, 5 Dec. and right now our passports are off getting our Vietnamese visas put in.

Our first full day here was on Sunday and we decided to take it easy. After a full week of heavy duty touring and 2 long travel days we just strolled around getting the lay of the land, spent some time in cafes, etc. There is quite a lot of French style architecture here left over from the French occupation and some lovely buildings. The city has a very worn feel overall though with the last 30 years of war and neglect and , as usual, is pretty filthy. There are more foreigners, especially Americans, here than we have seen at any other time on our trip and a bit odd to hear american accents again! One thing I had forgotten to mention previously is that Cambodian currency is in such bad shape is is literally unexchangable anywhere else in the world. So, they operate almost completely with the US dollar. So, ATM machines give you US dollars, prices are quoted as such, etc. It only becomes confusing when you get part of your change back in US and part in riel! (which is currently $1usd = 4100 riel)

Day 2, Monday, was yesterday and we had a day of touring that really is essential but tough to take. We took a tuk tuk and first went to the Genocide prison that used to be a high school and during Pol Pots reign of terror became the interrogation prison. When Vietnam invaded in 1979, ending the khmer rouge reign, they arrived quicker than expected and the khmer rouge only had time to kill the final prisoners and leave. Like the nazi’s they had been immaculate record keepers, taking photos of each prisoner after they arrived, after they died during interrogation, and had records of all things-including the thousands of pages of forced confessions. The first few rooms still have the metal beds and shackles where the prisoners were tortured as well as a large photo on the wall of the occupant that was found dead there on the day of the takeover. Other buildings on site have every single photo of the new arrivals as well as some of the dead and was simply haunting. Young, old, men, women, children…no one was spared from the khmer rouge kiling spree. Lots of other memorabilia and a short film featuring one of the survivors (out of 20,000 held in the prison only 7 survived) and some of the former guards, who had often been there by force as well.

Next out to the killing fields where they took everyone who didn’t die in interrogation to be killed. They had mainly cleared out the entire city of Phnom Penh for almost 3 years but some workers were still on the outskirts so they actually had speakers set up so they could play music so workers in the area couldn’t hear the moaning of the people as they were executed. Pretty horrifying.

That was certainly enough for the day! We had lunch and lazed around a bit, did some computer work, etc. Jim had a bit of an upset stomach all day so we headed out for a couple of drinks along the waterfront for the evening and then watched a movie on Pol Pot and the regime. One interesting note there is all of the video footage of the US soldiers in Cambodia both before and during the Vietnam war when according to the US we weren’t even there! We just got room service from the hotel restaurant and hit the sack. It was one of those travel days that is a bit hard to take, who can ever understand the atrocities human beings are wiling to do to eachother. Too bad we don’t seem to learn from our mistakes as basically the same type of thing is happening right now in the Sudan as well as other countries.

Today, we slept in and are going to the central market as well as the royal palace and silver pagoda. Our last day in Cambodia and then Vietnam here we come.

We got to call (and see on webcam) our sister/brother in law Ken & Wendy as well as Jim’s parents today which was great fun! Wendy and our friends Ron/Dario had also just sent photos via email and got to say, as much fun as we’re having on this trip we certainly enjoyed a taste of home!

Love to everyone and next post from Ho Chi Minh City!

Cheers – J&R 

The only reason we decided to go to Battambang, originally, was because we’d heard about the very scenic boat trip on the Mekong. We were a little apprehensive because all reports said the trip was from 3-8 hours. But, we wanted adventures so ok, off we go!

We were picked up in our minivan to transport to the boat with 10 other passengers. Now, Cambodians, are small people and regularly pile seemingly dozens of people on any given vehicle. (although 5 on one moto is our highest count so far). So, they seemed to think even with a minivan for 8 already filled with 10 westerners we could CERTAINLY fit in more! Two more people stuffed in and we were all laughing, saying surely this was it. Oh no, we had one more stop! A funny start to the day.

We arrived at the boat dock and found all of the “1st class”seats to be full. Meaning, reclining on the roof or hard wooden benches were left. No worries, we chose a bench inside hoping the water level was high enough to get us there in 4-5 hours.

The beginning of the trip was a wide part of the river, from one bank we could not even see the opposite bank. However, our path quickly got smaller due to the huge number of vines, trees, bushes growing up in the river. Wet season ended in Oct. and so the water level had already gone down quite a lot. It was a one way path winding through this, unfortunately, boats come from the other way as well so we had more than a few hairy moments where we had to turn the engines to idle and the passengers and crew literally PULL the boats past eachother hand over hand.

Then, we got stuck. Due to low water levels the boats had to really stick to a particular course and we got off it and after being mirred in floating debris, etc and having to have the crew get all the crap off the rudders we were off once again.

We just took one stop along the way to stretch our legs and get something to eat or drink. It’s amazing that many people truly live on the river on houses built of stilts or some living on their boats. A very remote existance for sure! All the children, as usual, would wave and scream hello.

The scenery got better the closer we got to Battambang with the sides of the river getting closer and more and more houses, towns, and people along the shores. We finally arrived in Battambang 7 hours after we departed Siem Reap, a long day to be sure.

Loads of touts from the hotels were eagerly awaiting our arrival and we went with the Chhaya Hotel, one we had already looked at online. It was an ok room, 2 double beds, decent bathroom, fan, aircon and a large window. It was $10 /night and very comparable to our hotel in Siem Reap that we had to pay $20/night for!

Battambang is definitely the backwaters. In our 2 days there we ended up with all of our fellow boat arrival passengers simply because there are only about 5 regular restaurants in town and everything pretty much shuts down at 9pm. First night was at Riverplace Balcony and Bar. $1.50 rum and cokes and good pasta for dinner. Then, since it was quite far from the town center Jim & I both piled on one moto with the driver for the trip back. Thankfully it wasn’t far to go!

Our only full day in Battambang we hired 2 moto drivers to take us out to the killing caves and an angkor era temple and then to ride the bamboo train. I’ve got to say it was one of our favorite days of the trip so far even though our bums were REALLY sore at the end! We headed out to the killing caves first, stopping along the way to get the flat tire fixed on Jim’s drivers moto. The killing caves were used by the khmer rouge to throw entire familes into the caves. Approx. 10,000 people were killed in these caves during the regime. Now there is a stupa on the hill and it’s used partly as a buddhist monastery.

Next about another 30min on the bike to the temple. 259 steps to the top with some fantastic views over the countryside. After being at Angkor itself, however, the ruins weren’t too exciting in themselves.

Another 45 min or so on the bikes to the bamboo train. The countryside is absolutely gorgeous and we passed houses and villages, people tending the fields or moving their cattle, children playing and waving. It struck me as I rode along how lucky we are… to be on the back of a moto cruising through the Cambodian countryside looking at an amazing history.

The bamboo train itself is something of a trip. It is 2 axles /wheels that they set a bamboo platform on, everyone and the motos are piled on , and engine goes in place, and off you go. The problem with it, other than how bumpy it is, is that others come from the other direction (including real trains!!!). We met a couple of other bamboo trains along the way and then there is a discussion… who has the most people and “stuff”to unload. Whomever has the least has to unload everything, remove the bamboo platform to the side of the tracks, move the wheel-axles off and the other direction gets to go past. Pretty interesting. Anyway, the bamboo train is only about a 20min ride and then a short moto ride back to the hotel.

It was about a 6hr day and were positively filthy with road dust, dirt, etc. and really in need of a shower. What a great day though.

On the way back into town we did pass a nicer house than most surrounded by a fence with a sign saying “Maddox Jolie-Pitt”on the gate. Hmmmm, knew Angelina had adopted him from somewhere around that area and locals would make mention of her occasionally so I guess that was it!

Dinner that night was a depressing affair, however. We ate at White Rose, a streetside restaurant with fabulous fruit shakes and good food. However, this area is even more poor than Siem Reap with loads of street children, etc. They would stand on the streets around the restaurant seating and everyone would buy them food or give them whatever they had leftover. It was so horrifying and sad that Jim and I only ate about 4 bites each and just gave them the food off our plates.Truly sad. But, when you visit a country you see the good and the bad and that day was had the 2 extremes of that.

The next day the bus to the capital Phnom Penh in the next blog.

Take care and Cheers  – J&R

 When people think of Angkor they only think of Angkor Wat, as did I until we got there! The Angkor temple complexes are actually made up of thousands of temples spread over hundreds of miles. The main “angkor” people think of though is probably 40 square miles just outside of Siem Reap.

We got the 3 day pass which was $40 pp. We had arranged for a tuk tuk driver to take us around for all 3 days. Most of them know a bit of history as well so are helpful for their knowledge of the area.

We first went to Angkor Thom which is a huge complex. The wall around the city is almost 4km each direction. Inside there are many things to see but the highlight was Bayon, a partially restored temple which was originally made up of 49 towers, 37 of which are still remaining. Each has 4 huge faces, one in each direction and all of the temple is intricately carved with stories, pictures, and writing. From Bayon we walked through to Bapoun, some smaller temples, and then to the Temple of the Leper King and Elephant Terrace. All of the temples were built between about 950 and 1150 and, like the Mayan Ruins, the Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall, etc. it is absolutely astonishing how much they could accomplish that long ago with just very primative tools and means.

We saw a couple more smaller temples and then had a great lunch at a local restaurant near the Royal bath complex and then off to Bantreay Kdei. Another very large temple that is still in it’s partially ruined state. After that…the highlight of Angkor Wat. This is really the only temple in really good condition, and even that has many walls looking near collapse. We spent around 2 hrs there admiring the architecture and carvings.

Day 2 we got up at 4:30am to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Then circled around and did some of the temples further out, culminating the day with a visit to Ta Prohm. This was the temple where some of the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. The archeologists decided to leave this temple as it was “discovered” so people could see how the entire area appeared when westerners first found them. They have spent lots of money and time keeping it in a state of “maintained dëcay” . It was a fascinating site and we spent quite a bit of time there. One interesting thing amongst all of the carvings is what appears to be a dinosaeur. Since this temple was built before it was discovered that the earth was round and since no bones of any such creature have ever been found in SE Asia it’s quite a mystery where and how that carving came to be done.

Day 3 we headed 32km out of town to Bantreay Sreai, also called the temple of women because the carvings are so small and intricate they believe no man could have done them. This is a small site but incredibly beautiful. Next on to the land mine museum. It is run by a man who was forced to be a boy soldier by the khmer rouge and laid thousands of land mines. Now he has the museum, houses homeless children who have been victims of the mines, and works to find and defuse the existing mines. It is believed that 2-4 million of them still exist in the countryside and almost 1000 people are injured or killed every year. It was certainly a sad reminder of the various wars and pretty sickening that the US is one of only 13 countries in the world who refuse to stop making these destructive weapons.

That was our time in Siem Reap. We had boat tickets for the trip to Battambang for the next day and are ready to move on but we greatly enjoyed our time here. Good food and drinks and truly amazing sightseeing.

More on Cambodia later. Cheers J&R

After our very early morning in Singapore we had a short 1hr 45min flight to Siem Reap. Cambodia is very flat so we could see quite a lot of the countryside coming in. The airport is really small but due to the way they handle things it took forever to naviagate.

First we had to fill out the forms to get our visas. There were 9 people in very fancy uniforms behind the counter and you handed your application, your passport and your $20 visa fee to the first person and they handed it down the row with each person looking at and/or stamping something and then finally the last person called you up to actually get your passport back. Pretty funny.

Next, we stood in the immigration line for over an hour. It was a small flight and 2 people working the desk but they were easily the slowest people on earth. Finally, someone came in and told them to hurry up and opened another line and we actually started moving. We got our taxi driver to take us to a couple of hotels and unfortunately our first 3 choices were sold out so we ended up at the River Star paying an exhoribant $20! The room was sort of dark and just ok but our choices were a bit limited and it was a good location so we went with it.

Our first afternoon we just wandered around the market and streets and took in the sights. Cambodia is one of the poorest nations in the world and after the very recent conflicts they are just slowly starting to recover.

A brief history for everyone unfamiliar. Cambodia was a very prosperous country in the early-mid 19th century which was when the temples of Angkor were built, etc. Even into the early 20th century Phnom Penh, the capital, was called the Paris of the East, etc. However, years of civil war culminated in 1975 with the takeover by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime. The Khmer Rouge was vicious and managed to torture and kill between 2 and 3 MILLION people during their 4 year reign of terror. Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979, ending the Khmer Rouge stronghold but then occupying the country, a few years later and a horrible famine struck killing hundreds of thousands more. Finally, in 1989 things started to turn around although it wasn’t until the early 1990’s that the UN peace treaty was signed. There have been Khmer Rouge uprisings as late as 1997 but things have been calm for a few years now.

The population is made up of mostly children. Almost 40% of the country is under 14years of age. The poverty is difficult to see and understandably, western type services are not quite up to date. However, the people try hard and are very friendly. They will certainly try and scam you in most cases but when you consider their circumstances you can understand their desperation. There appears to be no garbage service we can see and it is quite filthy but we’re really enjoying our time here. Next blog on the amazing sights of Angkor!

Signing off from Siem Reap – J&R

Singapore was a trip for us! After coming from 17 days in Bali to hit big time city that never sleeps was crazy! We arrived at 1am and got a cab to our hotel. People out everywhere, cars, lights… certainly a change. The hotel was fine for what it was but after our great rooms in Bali for $20 paying $85 for a so-so room was not great. But, for just 2 very brief nights and with a decent location all was well.

Saturday we got up and headed to Starbucks and then off to find an internet cafe to call our brother in law Ken and wish him happy birthday. Jim stayed on line while I went next door and got my hair cut. She did a pretty good job and at only $30 was a great deal!

Next off to Orchard Road. We wanted to get a very small portable speaker for the ipod, needed a couple of small things like advil, etc. It was fun to see the Christmas decorations up on the streets and in the malls and hear the music. But, that place is nutso. THOUSANDS of people shopping and the malls are unlike anything I’ve seen before. It was an entire street of malls and they were 6 and 7 stories tall!

We did find a speaker and couldn’t take the mall anymore so took the metro to Little India. I’ve just got to say that Singapore is SO easy to get around. The airport was incredibly efficient and so is their metro. Simple to use, easy to read the signs and in the trains it tells you exactly which stop is next. A lovely treat after the screwed up trains in Sydney.

Little India is a slice of India right in Singapore. We had a great lunch of butter chicke and naan and headed back to the hotel around 6pm for the evening. Our wake up call was for 3:30 to catch our flight to Siem Reap and we were tired so we never did experience the nightlife of Singapore. Maybe next time!

I know, I know.. you are all impressed and amazed with how quick we are! We’re in Singapore and wanted to get these out of the way before we load up again in Cambodia!

Enjoy beautiful Bali!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimandrhondartw/sets/72157603267892458/detail/

Cheers _J&R

Here is the link for Australia photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimandrhondartw/sets/72157603266640543/detail/

Enjoy.

Cheers J&R

Ok, all of you that know us, me especially, know we’re big foodies. I LOVE eating, cooking, entertaining, the whole deal. I actually even spend evenings just “reading” cookbooks.So, you probably suspected there will be more than one blog about food.

So far on our trip, Bali has by far the best food. Quite honestly, I can’t remember anything much at all about the food in Fiji. It was typical resort food, good but basic international stuff.

In New Zealand since we were in the camper most of the time we rarely ate out and I cooked for the entire month. New Zealand rightly deserves it’s title of lamb capital of the world though, their lamb is simpy remarkable and that , combined with their incredible wines kept us quite happy. I didn’t mind cooking in the camper and the camp kitchens and we just ate quite simply most of the time. They have pretty good seafood as well and quite a good selection of vegies easily accesible. They also have great bread, one of my passions.

Australia was not as exciting. They do have some great seafood but other than that nothing too exciting. Not because it was bad but just because they have quite bland food and not a lot of spices are used. We had some good meals in Sydney but not much to write home about other than that.(other than that pizza.. see below!) We did have a very nice dinner for my birthday though, so there is potential.

Bali has good food. They have Indonesian dishes and then they have Balinese dishes and we’ve eaten a lot of both. My very favorite thing here is Soto Ayam, a chicken based broth soup with chicken, glass noodles, carrots, potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes and lots of spices without being too hot..just fantastic. We’ve been eating lots of curries and I do love gado-gado, a salad with tofu and vegies with a peanut sauce. Their crispy duck is incredible as are many of their salads, especially noodle and tofu salad and green papaya salad.

Here in Kuta, of course, they also have about anything you could want. On Tuesday we ate at TJ’s Mexican and were hopeful but dubious going in. However, it was really very good. We talked with our waiter for quite some time and the owners sister lives in California, guess that explains why the food actually tasted like US/Mexican food! Good margaritas too and gotta love those tequila shots:)

And then there is pizza. You all know we adore pizza and I make it myself at home often. For many reasons, we end up eating pizza a lot. Partially because we like it but it’s also just always a quick, cheap choice and the backpacker trail around the world is covered with pizza joints! We’ve had some that weren’t great, most of it has been average to pretty good, and then we’ve had 2 really great pizzas. The first was at the beer pub in Blenheim, New Zealand run by the two guys from San Diego. Along with some damn good beer they had really great, gourmet, brick oven pizzas. We had their vegie special and it certainly rivaled any pizza I”ve ever had in Portland. But, the winner was at Two Brothers cafe in Airlie Beach, Australia. We got the thai chicken pizza which had a spicy thai base, grilled chicken, chopped peanuts, a lime-cilantro drizzle over the top and a fresh lime to squeeze on top…best pizza we’ve ever had anywhere.

The fruit has been pretty great everywhere we’ve gone with all the regular choices but also rambutan, lychee, etc. We’ve been eating TONS of fruit and I’ve got to say the papayas’ here in Bali are the best we’ve had.

So, off to Singapore tomorrow and we’re told they have great street food so we’ll make sure to sample that. We’ve never had Cambodian food so that will be a whole new and exciting experience! Now if I can just get a job on the Travel channel traveling around the world sampling food when I get home!

As for today, I’ve never been a huge fan of Thanksgiving. Growing up it always meant running between 2 sets of relatives houses, stuffing myself with too much food, and eating often dried out turkey. As I’ve gotten older and actually started cooking the turkey I like it more. Last year Jim & I were also alone , although at the beach in Oregon, and because he requested it I did the entire feast, right down to a pie for desert. He is missing all that a bit this year so if we’re home by this time next year I guess I know what I’ll be making!

Our dear friends Ron & Dario are in Puerto Vallarta, one of our very favorite places, eating dinner at Felipes, one of our very favorite restaurants. For anyone who hasn’t been there you must go!

Until next time…enjoy your turkey. Cheers, Jim & Rhonda