Live On Arrival

BERLIN

2012-01-03T12:49:00.002-06:00

BERLIN TIPS

(April 2011)

Upon arrival at airport buy a transportation pass for the days you need.

We never went beyond Zone A, but if you plan to travel nearby (Potsdam, Charlottenberg Palace, e.g.) a Zone B ticket might be better. It works for all forms of public transport, including busy to/from airport. The public transport system is excellent. Pick up one of their good maps at the ticket booth.

The no. 100 bus does a good touristic route around the city. We often just hopped on a bus when we got tired of walking.

Check out the museum pass good for most museums. Aside from the obvious biggies, we liked the Bauhaus museum.

We loved the Hotel Funk, ask for room 12, old apartment, former home of silent movie actress Asta Nielsen, http://www.hotel-pensionfunk.de/. It’s one of the only old-time hotels left in Berlin.

We also stayed in a lovely shared apartment in Kreuzberg with an engaging couple from Madrid. Lots of good ones on http://www.airbnb.com

FOOD:

Borchardt, fancy restaurant (we didn’t eat here, but it looks amazing and $$$ if you want to splurge)

Augustiner, Charlottenstrasse 55, Mitte, old-style beer hall, good food & ambience.

Marjellchen, (our favorite) Mommsenstrasse 9, tel. 030-883-2676 in Charlottenberg—be sure to have the beet soup

Markthalle, Pucklerstrasse 34, Kreuzberg (www.weltrestaurant-markthalle.de),

homey place, good schnitzel, half-portions available…and recommended.

Rogacki, Wilmerdorferstrasse 145, Metro Bismarck

Deli with amazing array of German specialties

Food hall at the KaDeWe department store, 6^th floor (Wittenbergplatz)—a must!

BEST NEIGHBORHOODS FOR WALKING:

Schöneberg, a lovely walk: from the U train stop Nollendorfplatz walk south along

Gleditschstrasse for a mile or so. Barbarossastraße was particularly pretty.

Charlottenberg is the fancy part of town (Ulandstrasse station)

walk around Savignyplatz. Kurfurstendam is the main drag, with pretty side streets.

Kruezberg is hip and young, full of international restaurants. Oranienstrasse is a main drag, so wander from there.

Mitte, central Berlin, Unter der Linden, not the loveliest part but has themuseums, opera house, big tourist spots. The music store Dussmann (Friedrichstrasse 90) has a huge selection of classical CDs.

TURKEY May 2011

2011-09-19T12:09:00.006-05:00

We were just in Istanbul for 3 days this time, so not a lot to report beyond high prices.

But I did find a few things I'd check out next time.

Magnaura Tours. Unusual tours: neighborhoods, schools, markets

www.magnauratours.com Didn't use them, but it sounds interesting.

HOTELS:

Galata looked like the most interesting area to stay, but there are not a lot of options.

I saw 2 new ones--I'd stay in one of these next time.

World House www.worldhouseistanbul.com

and Galata Life www.galatalifeistanbul.com

FOOD:

Great old interior: Neoclassic, Istiklal Cad. 251, upstairs

Sirit Seref, www.serefburyan.com You'll need help finding this--it's near the Bozdogan aqueduct and the Fire Brigade Museum. The pilaf thing in a crust is great. Wander around this area after lunch, very interesting Kurdish neighborhood, no tourists.

I loved the old pudding houses you see all over.

MISC:

Lale Plak, CD store with great selection of classical music--right at the top of the hill where the train stops

ECUADOR (and Bogotá, Colombia)

2011-02-24T17:34:00.005-06:00

ECUADOR (and Bogotá, Colombia) -- December 2010

BOGOTÁ

We flew Avianca from DF to Quito. They allowed a free stopover, so we spent 3 nights there.

Bogotá seems to have overcome its reptuation as drug crime ridden capital of Latin America. There are lots of cops in the more touristy areas, but in between are miles of dreary low-rise concrete buildings. Although it was rainy and gray for our entire 3-day visit, I doubt this is a city that qualifies as beautiful even in full sun.

But is has a lively feel, spiced with Caribbean influences like cumbia music wafting out of storefronts, or the waitress who asks, “¿Que quieres, mi cielo?”

The centro histórico is La Calendaria which has an appealing mix of colonial and art deco architecure, and some top-class museums (don’t miss the Museo de Oro and and Botero Museum—even if you think you don’t like Botero). The whole zone was given a facelift in June 2011, with facades of many older buildings freshly painted in pastel colors.

Bolón de Verde, jazz club/restaurant. Totally hip little place up the hill in La Calendaria. Just off the Plazoleta de El Chorro de Quevedo. The area all around here is fun at night. There’s a great pastry shop on the plaza.

‘Septimazo’is a bustling Friday night street fair in the centro. Fun for people watching.

QUITO

Hostal Quito Cultural, (Calle Flores N4-160 y Chile, tel. 2288-084). Be sure to talk to the owner Alicia Vega, who is friendly and helpful. We loved this place. A bargain at $30 a night, with breakfast.

A bit more upscale, Hotel Quito, http://www.hotelquito.com/ is a remodelled 60’s hotel/spa on a hill with great views. The rooftop restaurant was surprisingly good and a bargain as well. It's in a residential neighborhood--you'll need to take taxis or the excellent public transport to get to most things.

Café Mosaico (Manuel Samaniego N8-95 y Antepara, Itchimbía, tel. 2542-871), has great views of the city, excellent coffee and Greek food which we did not try, but looked promising.

La Compania Church—don’t miss this baroque extravaganza.

Fuente de Vida Spa (Vizcaya E 13-40 y Pontevedra, Esquina 9-1/2, Barrio La Floresta) offers all sorts of ‘detoxification’ therapies. We stumbled upon this place and I sat for a half hour with my feet in warm water as a little plugged-in device sucked the impurities in my body out through my toes. Worth the $15.

CUENCA

Cuenca is a delightful town for just walking around and enjoying the architecure—a mix of everything from the last few centuries. It’s a quiet place without major tourist highlights. Friday seems to be the ‘big night out’, but otherwise the town square is fairly lifeless at night. The churches are lit up at night (and often full—it’s a very Catholic town). Check out the corner of Bolivar & Borrero at night, too—lovely architecure.

River walk—the river is clean and the grassy banks are great for hanging out or a picnic lunch.

Museums—If you like old pottery, the Museo de Culturas Aborigenes is worth a visit.

We found the old Convento de las Conceptas a bit dull—too many saints and virgins.

Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, Benigno Malo 6-40—go inside to see the murals in back.

Azogues, This town was a day trip mentioned in our guidebook (Footprint) for its Saturday market, which wasn’t so different from the one in Cuenca. The town is a big concrete pile, but the Bar El Che (Bolivar & Tenemaza) was worth a visit—a temple to Che Guevara.

Parque Nacional Cajas, www.etapa.com.ec is not far from Cuenca. We only saw it on the bus ride to Guayaquil, but it looked lovely. Some tourists got off the bus there, so I imagine any of the buses going to Guayaquil can drop you off for a day of hiking. The scenery is gorgeous.

Baños, a town with hot springs was a 30-minute local bus ride away. We were disappointed with the big motel-like setting and the not-so-hot water.

FOOD AND LODGING

Tiesto’s, Juan Jaramillo 7-34— this very popular restaurant serves local cuisine with flair. The giant shrimp were fantastic. http://www.tiestosrestaurante.com/

Al Toque (at the corner of Benigno Malo & Simon Bolivar on the main plaza). Pastries and gelato. We went back three times for the chocolate/caramel/banana tart!

Café Eucalyptus, (Gran Colombia 9-41) is a cozy place for a drink. It seems to be popular with the ex-pat crowd.

Café Austria, (Benigno Malo 5-99 at Juan Jaramillo) excellent coffee.

Local markets—there are 3 in town, worth visiting to see local produce and to eat at the food stalls. Roast pig and something called ‘encebollada’ (a fish dish) are the highlights here.

Chinese restaurant, 11-26 Borrero near Lamar. You'll be ready for this after a week of Ecuadoran food. The Cantonese food here was surprisingly good, although we did not try the combination that the couple at the next table seemed to be enjoying—mayonaise and ketchup over fried rice, accompanied with orange soda.

Hostal Majestic, Luis Cordero 11-29 (between Lamar & Sangurima, tel. (07) 284-3502) has old world charm and huge rooms for $42. After checking out about a dozen places in this price range, it was definitely the best. http://www.cuencacultural.com/h_majestic.htm

MISC.

Calvin Trillin article on Cuenca http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/503109

I found this on some blog, but not in time to try it--”Toward the end of my Spanish language school visit in 2005, I'd had the good fortune to meet Berta Vintimilla, who, along with her sister Patricia, runs what is considered the premier upmarket restaurant in Cuenca, Villa Rosa”

Cuenca ex-pat website:
http://www.cuencahighlife.com/default.aspx

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GUAYAQUIL

The bus ride from Cuenca to Guayaquil (4-5 hours) takes you through some spectacular mountains before you reach the steamy jungle. It's not the most charming place on earth, but has a few things worth seeing--the malecón (waterfront promenade) and the old quarter up the hill, which has been spruced up nicely.

Hotel Doral, http://www.hdoral.com/ is centrally located and perfectly fine, if no bargain at $65 compared with prices in Quito and Cuenca.

TRAVEL TIPS

2011-02-14T11:54:00.006-06:00

Here are some useful travel websites--

http://www.contrariantraveler.com/messageboards.html various message boards

http://www.seat61.com/ great site for trains all over the world

http://www.hostelz.com hostels, etc.

http://www.airbnb.com hostels, rooms, etc.

http://www.whichbudget.com/ listing of budget airlines worldwide

http://www.seatguru.com/ seating plans of airplanes

MALAYSIA (Part 3)--PENANG & MALACCA

2011-01-11T15:53:00.008-06:00

PENANG

Penang was the highlight of Malaysia, gritty, complex, and steamy (like all of Malaysia, all the time). It has a vibrant Little India, enough colonial era architecture to warrant its selection as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s a center for Nyonya cuisine, a mix of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian flavors. Hawker stalls and night markets are an important feature of life here. Once the sun sets and the city cools down a bit, it’s time to go out and eat. (Click xxx for a video of a night market food scene.)

The city has a run-down, soggy feel, but with its recent UNESCO designation, signs of economic uplift abound. Old Chinese shophouses are being restored, their fantastic 3-D ceramic decorations being made anew. The Khoo Kongsi Chinese clan temple (18 Cannon Square) is hidden within the streets of a charming area of the city, much of its colonial architecture still intact. The temple is the most extravagant of the many clan temples in Penang, evidence of the strong Chinese influence that defines Malaysian society.

The Pinang Peranakan Mansion (29 Lebuh Gereja) and the Cheong Fatt Tze House (14 Lebuh Leith) are two sumptuous houses of wealthy 19^th century Chinese merchants. Their romantic link to the past was not lost on filmmaker Régis Wargnier who took advantage of Penang’s architectural bounty as background for the film Indochine with Catherine Deneuve. These homes offer an interesting look into Penang’s sumptuous past.

Preparations for Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, were in full swing in Penang’s Little India neighborhood when we arrived. The streets were lined with stalls piled high with silk scarves, copper bangles, sequined robes, incense, and lots of fried things to eat. A pulsing beat of Hindi pop music wafted through the damp air. Candy stalls, with rows of pastel colored coconut confections, tempted us on each block.

The Komtar Building, Penang’s tallest, provides an eerie landmark in the city. Walking through it’s bleak shopping mall was a curious, dark thrill. The empty hallways and non-functioning escalators felt like a set for a post-nuclear disaster movie. It was the only place we could find internet, and you can catch buses to everywhere (including the airport) from its cave-like belly, so we ended up there frequently, drawn into its eerie black-hole space by necessity.

Penang Hill attracts tourists for the views and cooler air, but the highlight was the ride—a long, steep funicular, a wonder of engineering, enjoyable and just a little bit scary, like a ferris wheel. On the ride up we chatted with a group from Bahrain. Abdul, a college student studying in Malacca, was visiting with his family. After explaining that we were from Mexico, Abdul’s mother, aunt, and two sisters all started singing a jolly song in Arabic. “Mexico! Mexico!” they repeated after each verse, as they clapped and sang.

Getting around town in the tropical heat is a challenge. Taxis can be hard to find. Bicycle-taxis abound, their seats clearly not designed for two wide-hipped westerners. Haggling for a reasonable price is an essential, if tiresome, part of dealing with private transport here. A free city bus does a circuit, stopping at many of the best tourist areas.

I’m a sucker for revolving bars anywhere, so I was happy to have a farewell drink at the top of the Bayview Hotel. It’s not one of those 360-degree places. I’d say it reaches about 295—the rest is blocked by nearby rooftops filled with exhaust pipes and service equipment. It seemed the perfect spot to view this intriguing, slightly flawed city.

FOOD: Whenever I’m stuck for tips about where to go in a city, I ask advice at the most expensive hotel, as they are used to the most demanding customers. The folks at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel had the right answers when we asked about the best nyonya restaurants (listed below). We especially liked the loh bak, a cinnamon-scented pork roll wrapped in tofu skin, and the kerabu sayur rumi, similar to Thai salad with sweet red chilies and rumi, a local green.

Penang is famous for its night markets, but we discovered that they are not all in fixed locations. There was one right outside our hotel that disappeared one night. The largest we saw was on Jalan Macalister near Lorong Abu Siti (click xxx to see video of this night market).

Tips from another blogger HERE.

http://www.houseofannie.com/penang-on-a-budget-part-1/

http://www.houseofannie.com/category/travels/penang/

MALACCA

Malacca is a charming town, and it knows it. Like Penang, it was recently chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Old buildings are being spruced up, but you can sense the developers ready to pounce. It’s a good time to visit.

Malacca’s a welcoming place, easy to get around on foot. There are enough ‘things to do’ here to pass a few pleasant days. We rode up in the Menara Tamingsari, a ride like a horizontal ferris wheel that provides a spinning view of the city and its recent growth. There’s a canal boat ride, a lively night market in the old town (weekends only), well preserved colonial architecture, and richly decorated Chinese temples, and the last remaining store where you can buy shoes for your bound feet. And how could you resist a place that has a funky ethnographic museum called ‘The Museum of Enduring Beauty’?

Malacca vies with Penang as the Nyonya cuisine capital of Malaysia. We saw one place offering an‘Elvis Presley Banana Peanut Sandwich’, so we know the culinary sepctrum goes beyond the traditional. Local treats included fish head curry, chicken and rice balls (Malaysian comfort food) and cendol, (pronounced “CHEN-dahl) a shaved ice dessert sweetened with Malaysia’s famed palm sugar (“the best in Asia,” insisted Annie, our food maven from Kuching)

Another favorite Malaysian food discovery was dodol, a taffy-like candy made from palm sugar. I loved the name, which sounds like a prescription narcotic. The texture is one of those things that makes you think about texture—unlike any you’ve had before, melty, chewy, creamy, sticky, and sweet. Malacca is famous for it.

SLEEP / EAT

Penang

We enjoyed our stay at the Sunway Hotel near the Komtar bldg. There was a great night market just outside the door.

www.broadwaybudgethotel.com

is a simple, clean, inexpensive place, in a great location near to Little India, and some of the most charming streets in Penang.

Eastern & Oriental Hotel-- Take a look, have a drink at the bar, or check out

their buffet dinner. Rooms $$$

Mama’s Nyonya Restaurant (31 Lorong Abu Siti)

Nyonya Breeze (50 Lorong Abu Siti) had an extensive menuof fresh, delicious local cuisine in a casual setting. Closed Tuesdays.

Malacca

We stayed at the Hotel Puri, which has a lovely ground floor. The rooms are OK, if small. The staff was not very friendly (rare in SE Asia). Good location.

Next time I’ll check out the Heereen House (www.heereenhouse.com)

The Ole Sayang restaurant is in a part of town called Melaka Raya (198-199 Taman Melaka Raya, tel. 283-1966, closed Wed.). There’s a huge shopping mall, and just beyond, lots of restaurants. This one came recommended by several locals, and did not disappoint.

I also recommend Nancy’s Kitchen (15 Jin Hang Lekir) for its homey Nyona food and atmosphere.

MISC. TRAVEL INFORMATION

Air Asia has flights all over the region.

www.fireflyz.com.my has flights between points in Malaysia.

http://my.countrysearch.tradekey.com/palm-oil.htm

for economic information about Malaysia

‘House of Annie’ food blog: http://chezannies.blogspot.com/

Malaysia travel guide http://www.kuching-hotels.com/travel-guide.htm

ECUADOR (December 2010)

2011-01-05T12:02:00.005-06:00

ECUADOR (and Bogotá) -- December 2010

BOGOTÁ

Bogotá seems to have overcome its reptuation as drug crime ridden

capital of Latin America. There are lots of cops in the more touristy areas, but in between are miles of dreary low-rise concrete buildings. Although it was rainy and gray for our entire 3-day visit, I doubt this is a city that qualifies as beautiful even in full sun.

But is has a lively feel, spiced with Caribbean influences like cumbia music wafting out of storefronts, or the waitress who asks, “¿Que quieres, mi cielo?”

Bolón de Verde, jazz club/restaurant. Totally hip little place up the hill in La Calendaria. Just off the Plazoleta de El Chorro de Quevedo. The area all around

here is fun at night. There’s a great pastry shop on the plaza.

‘Septimazo’is a bustling Friday night street fair in the centro. Fun for people watching.

QUITO

A bit more upscale, Hotel Quito, http://www.hotelquito.com/ is a remodelled 60’s hotel/spa on a hill with great views. The rooftop restaurant was surprisingly good and a bargain as well.

Café Mosaico (Manuel Samaniego N8-95 y Antepara, Itchimbía, tel. 2542-871), has great views of the city, excellent coffee and Greek food which we did not try, but looked promising.

La Compania Church—don’t miss this baroque extravaganza.

CUENCA

River walk—the river is clean and the grassy banks are great for hanging out or a picnic lunch.

Museums—If you like old pottery, the Museo de Culturas Aborigenes is worth a visit.

We found the old Convento de las Conceptas a bit dull—too many saints and virgins.

Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, Benigno Malo 6-40—go inside to see the murals in back.

Baños, a town with hot springs was a 30-minute local bus ride away. We were disappointed with the big motel-like setting and the not-so-hot water.

FOOD AND LODGING

Tiesto’s, Juan Jaramillo 7-34— this very popular restaurant serves local cuisine with flair. The giant shrimp were fantastic. http://www.tiestosrestaurante.com/

Al Toque (at the corner of Benigno Malo & Simon Bolivar on the main plaza). Pastries and gelato. We went back three times for the chocolate/caramel/banana tart!

Café Eucalyptus, (Gran Colombia 9-41) is a cozy place for a drink. It seems to be popular with the ex-pat crowd.

Café Austria, (Benigno Malo 5-99 at Juan Jaramillo) excellent coffee.

Local markets—there are 3 in town, worth visiting to see local produce and to eat at the food stalls. Roast pig and something called ‘encebollada’ (a fish dish) are the highlights here. Don’t miss the chocolate, sold in blocks or flat blobs, for cooking—it’s incredible.

Chinese restaurant, 11-26 Borrero near Lamar. The Cantonese food here was surprisingly good, although we did not try the combination that the couple at the next table seemed to be enjoying—mayonaise and ketchup over fried rice, accompanied with orange soda.

MISC.

http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/503109 Calvin Trillin article on Cuenca

I found this on some blog, but not in time to try it--”Toward the end of my Spanish language school visit in 2005, I'd had the good fortune to meet Berta Vintimilla, who, along with her sister Patricia, runs what is considered the premier upmarket restaurant in Cuenca, Villa Rosa”

http://www.cuencahighlife.com/default.aspx Cuenca ex-pat website

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GUAYAQUIL

The bus ride from Cuenca to Guayaquil (4-5 hours) takes you through some spectacular mountains before you reach the steamy jungle.

Hotel Doral, http://www.hdoral.com/ is centrally located and perfectly fine, if no bargain at $65 compared with prices in Quito and Cuenca.Cuenca

BOGOTA'S MUSEUM OF GOLD

2010-12-21T16:37:00.004-06:00

Here are some photos from Bogota's magnificent Museo do Oro:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9067845@N06/sets/72157625699099092/

QUOTE FOR TODAY

2010-09-23T10:55:00.001-05:00

"Travel is good for many things, not the least of which is testing your national values against those of other countries."

(from Timothy Egan's editorial in the NYTimes)

MALAYSIA (Part 2): KUCHING, BORNEO

2010-06-28T17:41:00.018-05:00

I had a toothache on the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching, the capital of Malaysian Borneo, and by the time we landedI needed a dentist. We sped off in a cab to Dr. Roki’s clinic which was about to close for the weekend. Any thoughts of cannibals and wild jungle animals were quickly dispelled by the drab new strip malls and walled residential compounds that spread far out for miles from the old center of town. You can still find Indian spice traders and vendors of local handicrafts in the old part of town by the riverfront, but the new world has elbowed its way in, as KFC franchises and bulky new hotels along the riverside promenade attest.

The area around Carpenter Street is the most attractive part of the old town, best for exploring on foot. Old shop houses line the streets, providing shaded arcades for passing shoppers, who are buying everything from food and spices to dishes, gowns and tires. We snacked on dim sum, curried meat patties, and rich Sarawak coffee as we rambled through the neighborhood.

After exploring the downtown streets we crossed the river in a small wooden commuter boat, and found an old area of colorful wooden houses built on stilts, gardens lush with banana and palm trees, and surprised, but welcoming residents. It seems that few tourists cross to the far side of the river.

The city has enough sights to keep you busy for a few days (long enough to add a few extra meals).The Sarawak Museum has a small but excellent collection of tribal arts, featuring flamboyant carved doorways, finely woven baskets and mats and replicas of traditional houses. The Textile Museum has an collection of native textile arts, and also explains some of the culutral contexts (like weddings) for which these elaborate textiles were made. Air conditioning enhances the art in both places.

A row of colonial-era buildings facing the river is filled with shops selling local handicrafts and trinkets. Baskets, bronzes, bamboo furniture, t-shirts and key chains all glorify the indigenous tribes of Borneo. But the most beautiful handmade item I saw was the sarawak cake, a colorful, mosaic-like loaf, whose densely layered designs suggest embroidery or inlaid wood. A free sample test of the dense, sugary cake was enough for me—I just wanted to buy one and wear it.

Kuching is noted for its food, and it lived up to its reputation. Spices are everywhere: cinnamon, coriander,cardamom, anise, saffron, turmeric, ginger, cumin, nutmeg, poppyseeds and peppercorns are easily found among the myriad other exoticofferings. There isn’t a lot of street food here (ice cream served in a hamburger bun was the most unusual). Instead vendors have been gathered into hawker stalls, where we ate great local cuisine at reasonable prices. This is where you’ll find a traditional bowl of laksa, a coconut-rich noodle soup with tamarind, shrimp paste and fresh herbs, that is one of the local specialties.

While doing research for this trip, we met Annie and Nate through their great food blog. They’d just moved to Kuching a few weeks before our arrival. Annie was born in Malaysia, but for the past 15 years has lived in California, where she married Nate and had two beautiful children. They took us on a jaunt to the weekend market, a street sprawling with vendors of vegetables, meat, candies, sneakers, plants, and of course, the exotic fruits common to Borneo.

Annie knew her stuff, pointing out local produce, and haggling with the merchants in Malay (one of 5 languages she speaks). With her guidance, I had my first real taste of fresh durian, that spiky orb of forbidden fruit (it is not allowed on airplanes and some hotels and public buildings) whose pulpy pellets emit a creamy, flowery, cheesey taste unlike anything I’d eaten before. It has a short season and is highly prized by locals. When she saw them, Annie’s eyes grew wide with a delight that could only have been learned in childhood.

I had experienced the flavor of durian in ice cream and cakes in Thailand, but the real fruit is another thing altogether. I didn’t notice the strong, repellent odor I’d heard so much about, but the sensation in my mouth--taste, texture, delayed overtones of flavor—was one of the strangest culinary experiences I’ve had. I popped a thumb-sized node of durian into my mouth and felt a brief electric jolt go through my body. It was at once intoxicatingly aromatic and shockingly repugnant. The texture was a big surprise, at once familiar and completely new, very creamy, like warm fois gras, melted marshmallows, a sticky, fruity pudding quivering between pleasure and regret. I can’t wait to try it again.

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TRAVEL INFORMATION

Air Asia has flights all over the region.

www.fireflyz.com.my has flights between points in Malaysia.

http://my.countrysearch.tradekey.com/palm-oil.htm
for economic information about Malaysia

‘House of Annie’ food blog: http://chezannies.blogspot.com/

Malaysia travel guide http://www.kuching-hotels.com/travel-guide.htm

KUCHING TIPS

The Riverfront Hotel is in an old converted house—simple and inexpensive, good location. Look on google for information (no website at time of writing).

The Top Spot Food Court is a casual open-air place offering a vast array of fresh seafood, cooked to order.

CAIRO: GUT REACTIONS

2010-06-14T23:09:00.009-05:00

We’d been out in the glaring sun for hours, exploring the back streets of Cairo, when we reached the remnants of the old city walls. In the shadow of the massive mud-brick fortifications an animal market was winding down. Men in desert-colored robes tended a few tired looking donkeys and horses. Cabbage leaves and bruised tomatoes lay on the ground nearby, the last traces of a morning vegetable market. Passing through a wide gap where the old gates once stood, we found ourselves in the abattoir, Cairo’s meat slaughtering district.

Dark skinned workers with blood stained aprons lifted entire cows from open trucks. Row of sheeps' heads, impaled on sharp metal spikes, decorated wooden tables laden with lamb shanks, recently shorn. Glistening strands of something white—like skeins of wool dipped in rubber--hung in clumps everywhere. Tendons? Cartilege? Intestines? I was never quite sure, but it was nothing I'd seen at the markets back home. A donkey cart passed, piled high with a cargo of fresh viscera. The sharp mid-day sun glinted off the shiny surface of the mound of organs, creating an impression they were still pulsing. Chopping blocks made from huge tree trunks, along with hundreds of knives, cleavers, scrapers and saws were on sale nearby. The sound of metal whacking against wood provided a background rhythm, its beat irregular.

Revolted but fascinated, I felt far away from the plastic wrapped beefsteaks of an American supermarket. We’d seen lots of animals in Cairo—a flock of sheep around the corner from the Nile Hilton, a few scraggly goats passing by the mosque of Ibn Tulun, a lone camel tethered near the busy Nasser metro stop. The bloody, raw images of slaughtered meat seemed a natural part of this teeming metropolis, where the line between rural village and cosmopolitan city is blurred.

Far from our hotel--totally lost in fact--we finally waved down a cab. Exhausted by our long walk and the confrontation with so many carcasses, we exchanged salaams with our driver and settled into the back seat of the taxi to relax. Suddenly a familiar voice rang out from the radio. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me” It was Aretha, the Queen of Soul, in Cairo! As surprising as it was welcome, it made the ache in my legs disappear. “Whip it to me!” The voice soared higher, but reached deeper, down into the gut, the viscera, where the true meaning of the song exists. As we sped by the last of the slaughtered animals, Aretha's raw gospel sound wafted out the window, like a farewell paean. “Sock it to me, sock it to me!”

--Jim Johnston, May 2010

Aretha Franklin at Obama's inauguration
Click HERE for more Aretha

GREECE: ANCIENT CERAMICS AND A BOWL OF SALAD

2010-06-03T20:09:00.006-05:00

We landed in Athens just as Greece was making international headlines for its financial debacle.

The Plaka area was filled with young, sun-glass clad Athenians sipping five-euro iced coffees--What, me worry? was all I could feel there. A group of placard-toting protesters in Omonia square seemed tired and ready to go home. I kept trying to find the Greek-ness in Greece. Athens sports a euro-genic facade, a blurring around the edges, a striving eastward that feels like the country's on the edge of its seat.

But the Greek salads, and the ceramics at the Archeology Museum were knockouts! Take a look:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jimjohnstonart/GreekCeramics#

MALAYSIA (Part 1): KUALA LUMPUR

2010-06-03T16:36:00.012-05:00

We ended up in

Malaysia

by chance. The offer from AirAsia.com to fly their new route from London to Kuala Lumpur for under $400 round-trip was too good to pass up. We bought the tickets and organized our trip backwards. The little I’d heard about

Malaysia

had not engaged my enthusiam, but once arrived in KL we decided to stay and check out Kuching, Penang and Melacca as well as KL.

The population is a mix of native Malay, Chinese, Indian, and various other immigrants. In a store in Malacca owned by Pakistanis, I met the Japanese saleswoman, Mitsuko. “I live with my American husband in a neighborhood with a Muslim mosque, a Chinese temple, and an Anglican church. Everyone gets along well here.”

Malaysia

has an inspiring ‘we-are-the-world’ feel, a rainbow coalition, although the darkest skinned people still work most menial jobs, and gays are left in the cold due to conservative religious views and prohibitive colonial era laws.

The country was unified in 1963, having been a checkerboard of English colonial governments for two hundred years. It’s rich in natural resources (palm oil and rubber are the main exports), and is listed as one of seventeen megadiverse countries by the UN. An economic boom in the late 20^th century sent

Malaysia

rocketing into modernity, and now a hefty portion of it’s income is from manufacturing of domestic electronics and cars. I saw a thriving middle class in

Malaysia

--the shopping mania that fuels much of Southeast Asia is in full force here. There’s a spic-and-span, new-money feel to some of

Malaysia

, although poverty and decay are never far out of sight. There’s little in the way of ancestral ruins like

Cambodia

’s Angkor Wat, but enough new construction to suggest a boom. The shiny new buildings of

Malaysia

cast their shadows on bamboo huts; it feels like a culture seeking to define itself, continually working out its recipe for coexistence.

KUALA LUMPUR

Kuala Lumpur (or simply ‘KL’), Malaysia’s largest city (1.7 million), is a decidedly unromantic place, a hodge-podge of a town, with a handful of English colonial buildings, a moderate sized Chinatown, and a gleaming new, hi-rise business zone, to provide sufficient brochure photos to attract the tourists.

In our hotel room, we watched soap operas in Hindi, and snacked on green pandan cakes. Our 8^th floor view encompassed schoolkids in neat blue and white uniforms, a sober Methodist church, and the Petronas Towers, KL’s signature structure, a genuine architectural marvel. It’s image put KL on the map the way the opera house did for Sidney, and the Guggenheim for Bilbao—it’s trophy architecture, today’s boar’s tooth necklace. Although in this case, the building is not raised to the arts, but to commerce. These glitzy, stainless steel phalli evoke gothic cathedrals, Hindu temples, science fiction space stations, the Chrysler Building, and a pair of corn cobs. It’s architecture that is funny, elegant, and a bit trashy—and it looks like it cost a fortune. There’s a busy food court on the 4^th floor of the stunning shopping mall in Petronas Towers, which works well as a visual dictionary of local cuisine. (Click here for a slide show of Malaysian food.)

Public transportation is limited, and taxis are expensive in KL. I recommend taking the tourist bus, which loops around the city. You can hop on and off all day for $10.

We took the efficient monorail to the Chow Kit market, a rare remnant of Malay village life in the heart of the city. At night, Bintang Walk is the liveliest part of town, but it has a dreary sleeze factor. On the nearby street Jalan Alor, however, the night food market was in full swing--the food we had here was the best in KL.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

If you’re traveling with AirAsia, you may end up in KL, their hub city. Malacca makes a more pleasant stop than KL if you’re traveling through, but bus service from the airport is erratic—check at the information desk. You can take a taxi (about $60 each way) or go to KL central station and change to Malacca bus (cheaper but longer) if the direct bus to Malacca is not running.

HOTELS, RESTAURANTS

We stayed at the Ancasa Hotel which was comfortable and near to Chinatown.

I kept looking for a more desirable neighborhood, but didn’t really find one.

Two more that I saw that looked like possibilities for the next time are:

http://www.bintangwarisan.com/

http://www.coronainn-kualalumpur.com/ppc/offer01-google-coronainn.php?gclid=COPR4LO2qZ4CFShSagod4wrklw

The best food was on Jalan Alor, mentioned above.

GAY TRAVEL IN INDIA

2010-06-01T12:13:00.000-05:00

An article in The New York Times reports new efforts on the part of the tourism industry to court gay travelers.

The website IndjaPink has more information:
http://www.indjapink.co.in/index1.html#

TRAVEL PHOTOS

2010-05-24T18:09:00.003-05:00

Just back from Athens, Cairo, Barcelona & Paris. I'll have more to say later, but meanwhile, you can click HERE to see some photos.

RANGOON

2010-05-24T18:03:00.001-05:00

YANGON (

Burma

)

(December 2008)

The first sign that something’s different here is the time—

Myanmar

(still called

Burma

by many) is 30 minutes behind its neighbor

Thailand

. But the airport and the drive into town were surprisingly unsurprising. The road was good. We passed large homes, office buildings, and schools, painted white with plants in front. A few billboards showed happy consumers using soap or shampoo like anywhere else.

When we reached downtown Yangon my first reaction was a mixture of horror and fascination, like seeing an accident on the highway—you don’t know whether to look or turn away. The pavement is broken into so many little pieces that walking down the street is like crossing a stream, hopping from rock to rock. Once-lovely colonial buildings are abandoned, grimy and crumbling. Sidewalks are clogged with vendors of cheap merchandise from

China

, bits of hardware, or fried crickets. Food stalls with smoking charcoal stoves appear at every corner, as though someone’s kitchen had just fallen onto the street. Garbage is swept into corners and tossed into airshafts of office buildings. Most electricity comes from private generators noisily whining on the sidewalk, and at night, dark side streets look ominous. Central Yangon suggests the aftermath of a war. It’s filled with reminders of former glory, but the present speaks of struggle and drudgery.

So why do I keep thinking of this place and dreaming about when I can return?

Travel to painful places follows Buddhism’s oldest parable. The young Buddha leaves his father’s luxurious palace and sets out to witness poverty, disease, old age, and death, the first step toward his Enlightenment. By that standard,

Burma

is the perfect travel destination.

In many ways

Burma

doesn’t seem to have entered the modern world. Monks in burgundy robes and glimpses of gilded shrines affirm the calming, 2500-year old presence of Buddha. But that calm is offset by a certain third-world hysteria. At times it’s like being inside a pinball machine, lights flashing and bells ringing. It’s very much alive.

Once past the ominous visuals of the place, the open warmth of the people alleviates any apprehension. Having read about the repressive military dictatorship, I expected armed soldiers at every corner, but saw none.

Myanmar

is considered the safest country in all of southeast Asia, an extremely friendly and comfortable country to visit.

The mix of people here recalls the exotic bar scene from ‘Star Wars’. I saw men in ankle-length longyis, women with towels wrapped around their heads, faces daubed with yellow thanaka paste, stern looking Muslim men in long white robes and knit caps, beards dyed Lucille Ball red, blue-black Sri Lankans with baseball caps, monks with shaved heads in autumn-toned robes, women balancing baskets of watermelon wedges on their heads, a man chopping slabs of raw beef on the street, his teeth stained red from chewing betel nuts, people wearing Chinese coolie hats selling dragon fruit, a pair of teenage nuns in baby-pink robes, a Dutch tourist in khaki shorts with a backpack and a Lonely Planet guide—it would be hard not to fit in here.

Although

Myanmar

lacks many freedoms we take for granted, complete religious tolerance is a notable feature of life in Yangon. The golden Sule Pagoda dominates the center of downtown, but soon you’re passing mosques, Hindu temples, and Anglican churches. On our first night we came across a full moon ceremony at a Hindu temple, a densely sculpted structure painted in gaudy enamels. We were invited to watch as several men scaled the temple gate, crawling over the sculpted facade, relaying an oil lamp to its peak.

Numerous Buddhist temples, covered in acres of gold leaf, provide oases of luxury and religious calm amidst the hubbub and squalor. In spite of the apparent poverty, a report in a local newspaper (published in English by the government) told of a neighborhood in Yangon which raised $15,000 to buy gold leaf for their local temple.

In the morning light, the gold of the famous Shwedagon Pagoda is blinding. The most sacred shrine in all of

Myanmar

is located a few miles north of downtown, isolated from the urban matrix by trees and parks, and illuminated at night like a golden space ship. It’s a mix of religious theme park and Buddhist Fort Knox, with a history that goes back 2500 years. Having survived years of earthquakes, fires and war, it remains one of mankind’s most powerful monuments to the soul. Dominating a vast raised terrace is a golden bell-shaped dome, 300 feet tall, said to contain strands of the Buddha’s hair. This central zedi is surrounded by dozens of smaller shrines, many completely covered in gold leaf, where people are seen praying, lighting candles and incense, offering flowers, talking and eating. All Burmese hope to get here at least once in their lifetime, and it’s one of the few places where civilians, soldiers, monks and tourists of all economic levels meet.

Beyond the Shwedagon Pagoda, outside the dense grid of old downtown, new Yangon spreads out for miles to the north, where politicians and rich Chinese businessmen live. Shopping malls, fancy hotels, the university, even a gated golf-course community are found here, but it’s hard to see without a car.

The transition from city to village happens abruptly in Yangon, and you’ll find yourself shifting from one to the other at the turn of a corner. Shortly after leaving the Shwedagon Pagoda we found ourselves on a dirt path lined with bamboo huts and little gardens with banana and palm trees. Across from the railroad station we saw goats grazing.

We took a slow commuter train on a 3-hour ride that circles greater Yangon. Thirty minutes after leaving the station the tin roofs of city housing start disappearing. Palm leaf-covered bamboo huts dot the landscape, small rice paddies and village markets seem far away from the urban tangle of downtown.

As the only non-Burmese people on the train we were put behind a rope near the conductor. We got a few stares, a few ‘mingalabas’(‘good day’) and one “Merry Christmas!” from a young man with red teeth who looked very stoned.

As food adventure travellers, we ended up visiting just about every market in Yangon. At dusk, vendors fill the streets along Anawratha Road with baskets of meats, fish, fruits and vegetables, selling into the night for as long as their candles burn.

The big, scrappy Thirimingala Zei market, a few miles north of downtown, is a multi-storied warehouse bustling with everything edible. You’ll see mountains of fresh ginger root being unloaded from trucks, tens of thousands of bananas still hanging on their stems, artfully arranged baskets of tiny eggplants and wing-beans. We passed what appeared to be an auction of boxes of oranges, lots of yelling and pointing. But the real oddity in this mammoth warehouse is upstairs. A huge amusement park, with rides and games covers the entire fourth floor. It was eerily vacant on the Sunday we went, but I couldn’t resist the ‘Tunnel of Horrors’ train ride full of kitschy paper maché monsters and skeletons.

The British ruled

Burma

for over 100 years, leaving behind a decaying architectural legacy and lots of English words. All over Asia you can sense the eagerness to have a command of English, the language of computers and business and money. Signs for hotels, railroad and police stations, and the supermarket are in English. Billboards and product labels mix Anglo words like ‘Digital Video Editing Center’, ‘Happy Cow condensed milk’, ‘VIP room’, ‘weather report’, and ‘anti-dandruff shampoo’ with cursive Burmese-style script.

The internet has increased the use of English, but finding a place to read our email was not so easy. We were directed to a place called ‘The Spider Web’, a non-air conditioned space hidden down a labyrinth of hallways in an office building, where young Burmese were busily at work at 40 computer stations. Google, Yahoo and Hotmail are not legally accessible in

Burma

, but here a young assistant typed in a few numbers, and voilá! –we were in touch with the rest of the planet. In the one fancy hotel we stayed at, they could not do this, confirming our suspicions that it was a clandestine activity at ‘The Spider Web’.

Burma

has no ATM’s, and credit cards are accepted only at a few high-end hotels, which charge up to 30% commission. Even airline tickets must be paid for in cash, which led to a few problems by the end of our trip. We’d booked our last night in Yangon on-line at the luxurious Kandawgyi Lake Hotel. On arrival, we learned that the internet reservation we’d made a week earlier had not arrived. Our credit card didn’t work. We managed to scrape together enough US dollars, along with a few Thai baht and some Hong Kong dollars to pay for the room and one last meal. So, here’s the advice: bring enough US dollars for your whole trip. Bills must be clean, no tears, no marks of any kind.

After walking 8 to 10 hours a day, the lure of night life didn’t go far beyond the mattress. We were tempted by the numerous cinemas, wildly popular in a country without much television (one night the local channels offered us a choice of a military parade, a long musical number about a hydroelectric plant, or ‘The World’s Richest People’ dubbed in Bamar).

Lots of Indian films were playing, mixed with Burmese movies that looked like silly sit-coms (funny wigs, big glasses), as well as the new James Bond thriller. Most of the large, gaudy billboards were roughly painted by hand, sporting massive images of starry-eyed lovers in jeweled tiaras.

One night we went to a club on the roof of a former department store, a massive old building from the days of British rule that seems now like a perfect location for a movie set in a post-nuclear future. A small shaky elevator took us up to ‘Zero Zone’, a pleasant plant-filled terrace with views of the city. We enjoyed the cheap beer and good Chinese/Malaysian food, and then the show started. Asians have an affinity for karaoke that I don’t understand. A heavy-set, middle aged man in a brown longyi and a baseball cap, sort of a Burmese Burl Ives, massacred a few Beatles songs, then was joined by a thin young girl, who sang like a cat in heat, for a duet of the country and western favorite, ‘ The Green Green Grass of Home’. “It sounds like the cast album for ‘Night of the Living Dead—The Musical’, Nick quipped as we ordered more beer. Then there was the fashion show, apparently a standard feature in Burmese night-club entertainment. Seven girls in Pucci-print dresses moved forward, then moved backward, then disappeared. So did we.

Burma

offers lots of culinary adventure. “Very interesting,”or “weird” were words we used frequently to described the Burmese food we ate, but “delicious” was not far behind, and, only once or twice did a “yuk!” pass our lips.

For breakfast we ate mohinga, served at street stalls everywhere. For about fifty cents, you get your choice of brothy noodles, (wide, skinny, rice, wheat) perked up with bits of herbs, nuts, spices, chicken or fish. Every one was different, and every one was delicious.

For lunch and dinner, things got more complicated. It’s hard to find ‘nice’ Burmese restaurants (the fancy ones are Chinese or European), so we ended up eating at simple hole-in-the-wall places, or sitting on tiny plastic stools on the sidewalk (for the record, my only digestive problem occurred after the 15-hour return flight from Hong Kong to New York).

The national cuisine, which mixes influences from

India

Thailand

, and

China

among others, has a color problem. Meats, fish or vegetables are often cooked in thick sauces or curries, with a layer of oil floating on top (for flavor as well as protection against bacteria in the heat). Ox-blood reds, sludgy browns, grayish-greens, and murky yellows predominate in these concoctions, which are usually spread out buffet-style, so you can point and choose easily. Meals come with mountains of white rice, a plate of raw mixed greens (often lettuce, cabbage, string beans, okra, mint and other herbs unknown to us), stewed lentils (like Indian dal), a clear soup, often flavored with black pepper, and several dishes of chili pastes and other dips made with fermented fish sauce (these were the most pallate-challenging parts of the meal). Sometimes there were as many as 16 plates on our table. As the influences suggest, the tastes were often Indian-like, Thai-like, or Chinese-like, but the part that is un-like anything dominates—Burmese food is in a class of its own. Highly spiced (but not hot—that’s added with the side dishes of chili paste), fragrant, and occasionally sweet, the flavors were something new. And food in

Myanmar

is cheap--our meals rarely cost more than two dollars.

The night market on 19^th Street in the so-called ‘Chinatown’ of Yangon proved to be the culinary highlight. It’s a lively scene with lots of young people out for some fun and good, inexpensive food. Tables with the ubiquitous plastic stools are set up near barbeque grills all along 19th street near Mahabandoola Road. You pick from a wide variety of meat, fish, vegetables and tofu on skewers and hand them to the cook, who bathes them with a thick dark sauce and sticks them on the grill. You can also choose from lots of vegetables for a delicious stir fry, or get a whole fish stuffed with green herbs and rubbed with a black spicy mixture—Burmese meets Cajun—that was one of the most delicious things I’ve eaten in my life.

There’s a tempting variety of street food snacks in Yangon, too. We sampled Muslim noodle dishes, sweet sticky-rice cakes, deep-fried vegetable samosas, Indian milk and coconut candies, fresh squeezed sugar cane juice, and refreshing jackfruit. We skipped the frightening apples from

China

(millions of them all over town, each one suspiciously perfect in size and color). But one taste experience remains with me, calling me back to Yangon--a drink is called shwe-yin-aye (which means ‘to cool down the golden chest’), which I found on the busy corner of Mahabandoola and Pagoda Roads. Even my hair felt hot that day in the relentless mid-day sun, when I spied relief: a pretty young girl scooping a handful of crushed ice into a glass mug. A ladle-full of baby doll pink liquid, heavy with tiny green and white dots of tapioca, was poured over the ice and handed to a smiling customer. It looked like a liquid Christmas present. I squatted down on the kindergarten-size plastic stool and pointed. “One of those please.” When the cool, delicious strawberry and coconut milk concoction reached my palate, something happened. At that moment, I learned a simple Buddhist trick of coping with the chaos, the dirt, the fumes, the noise, the rats, the traffic, the vendors, the beggars, the decay, the spitting of red betel-juice laden saliva on the broken pavement of downtown Yangon. I focused on the now. I stared into the rosy mug, hunched my shoulders slightly to create a personal cave, closed my eyes, and felt perfectly alive and happy.

I come from a family of six children, which might explain why I’m compelled to understand how people manage to live together in tight spaces and end up happy. Living most of my life in New York City and Mexico City, I’ve had time to observe different urban life styles.

Burma

is a wounded civilization, and Yangon, its biggest city, has some of the biggest scars. But while the cruel politics of

Burma

might define the country, is does not define its people. Yangon is like a motherless child, sad and aching, but also attracting tenderness and love, and admiration for its survival.

**********************************************************************

IF YOU GO: Buy the Lonely Planet Guide. It’s one of their best.

There are no direct flights to

Myanmar

from the

U.S.

Air Asia (www.airasia.com) and Yangon Air ( www.yangonair.com ) both fly

from Bangkok for around $150 R/T

HOTELS: We wanted to be in the thick of things downtown. There are lots of cheap and simple guest houses. We tried one (the Okinawa) but left because the A/C didn’t work.

The Thamada Hotel is clean and attractive (teak floors) and costs about $30/night. The Central Hotel is about the same price, with a slightly better location, but had musty carpeting.

The Kandawgyi Palace Hotel is lovely and luxurious,with a nice pool and gardens, but you must take taxis to get anywhere.

We poked into the fabled Strand Hotel to use the facilities. The place was spookily empty, which didn’t help, but it was dull, the lobby decor uninspired, lacking in luxury that the $300-a-night price tag had led me to imagine. And no pool, the one real luxury you’ll want here.

Use www.asiarooms.com or www.agoda.com for booking hotels in Asia.

Excellent travel information is available through www.myanmargoodnewstravel.com, a Yangon-based travel agency. He can plan your whole trip.

Sandy’s Myanmar Cuisine is the only ‘nice’ Burmese restaurant we found. It’s right next door to the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel. We had our first and our last meal there.

We loved our first meal, but by the end it struck us both as ‘dumbed down’ for foreign palates--but worth a try for sure. The only other place we ate in that was fancy enough to have a business card was Danuphyu Daw Saw Yee Restaurant, No 15 Mahabawga Street, tel. 500159 (a taxi ride from downtown). Everything else we ate was street or market food, which we chose just by seeing what looked good, or seeing which stands had crowds. You’ll find simple Indian restaurants around when you get tired of Burmese food.

EXCHANGING MONEY: Most likely your taxi driver from the airport can supply you with anything—hotel, airline tickets, money. He took us to the main market to exchange dollars. It seemed creepy at first, but we went back several times and it’s just fine, and seemingly legal. Don’t change money on the street. I repeat this advice:

bring enough clean, unmarked U.S.dollars for your entire trip.

MOM IN MOROCCO

2010-03-06T09:22:00.003-06:00

The travel website perceptivetravel.com has just published another of my stories, this time about a recent visit with my mother in Morocco,

where she's working as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Click HERE to read the story (the link does not work from your email--you must go to my blog first).

If you're interested in following more of Mom's adventures, check out her blog at www.muriel-morocco.blogspot.com

TRAVEL TIPS

2010-02-15T12:29:00.002-06:00

When researching flights I usually try two things--www.kayak.com
which compares various search engines offering airline tickets, and I also go directly to the website of the airlines themselves, where I've often found better rates. However, budget airlines, like Easy Jet, Ryan Air, Air Asia, etc. are often not included on major search engines. Finally I found a site that includes them--keep this one for your files:

www.momondo.com

Another website I use frequently is www.tripadvisor.com to compare hotels. It contains reviews from readers with a point-rating system.

Buen viaje!

SAIGON (2009)

2010-01-07T12:43:00.019-06:00

Riding into town from the airport in Ho Chi Minh City (hereafter Saigon, as many still call it) I was struck by the modernity of it all. Glitzy stores named (in English) Love Affair, Itsy-Bitsy, Peek-a-Boo, Splash and Soho appear amidst old-fashioned Vietnamese shops and food stalls, run by village women wearing conical straw hats. Expensive condo developments entice you with names like The Lancaster, The Legend, and The Heritage. The sidewalks feel as though they’re being laid in front of you as you walk. There’s construction everywhere, a surge of economic uplift (which disappears quickly as you leave the city) along with aggressive mercantile energy. There’s little feel of Communist severity here these days. It’s a lively place, bordering on the chaotic, but the mood is upbeat and the place is colorful--many buildings are painted blue and pink, red, yellow, and green (it looks like Mexico City from the air).

When I think of Saigon, I can’t get the traffic out of my head. It’s one of the most fascinating displays of human adaptive behavior I’ve witnessed anywhere, a fusion of stock car racing and ballet. Motor bikes—thousands and thousands of them-- far outnumber cars (the few you do see are often exceedingly expensive BMWs, Mercedes and bulky sport vans). The city is filled with constantly flowing traffic, helmet-clad drivers beeping and honking ceaselessly like a flock of flatulent sheep.

The traffic moves like a school of fish heading downstream, tilting, veering, swarming, speeding up and slowing down, sliding in and out, directed by an unconcious voice of the collective. I saw a man holding his infant son with one arm as he drove, engraving the motion into the boy’s body. People hop on, side-saddle, and zip off with ease, like slipping on a pair of flip-flops and going for a stroll. I saw no accidents (except my own, when I got knicked by a bike going the wrong way), few applications of brakes, and a paucity of traffic lights to control the frenzy. It appears to control itself. The show is amazing, especially at traffic circles.

Crossing the street or riding on the back of a motorbike provided some of the thrill of being in Saigon, something akin to the mixture of fear and fun that you get in an amusement park. At many intersections, one must simply walk into a gap in the traffic and hope that the waters will part as you inch your way across the street. My technique was to stand near a sturdy local, take a deep breath and enter the fray with them.

On Saturday night along the park the kids line up their scooters, front wheels pointing toward the street, and hang out around their bikes near the Ben Than Market. As many people undoubtedly live in tightly confined spaces, one’s motorbike can become an extension of home. Even when it pours, thin plastic hooded raincoats come out, and the traffic roars on. Few people walk, and pedestrians have minority status.

The visceral thrill of the traffic make Saigon’s other attractions seem tame. Most of what’s interesting to tourists is located in District One. It’s surprisingly fancy, with designer stores, swanky high-rise hotels, and small, well-kept parks. The old Rex Hotel was fun for a drink; you can imagine Saigon in it’s colonial days. But we found a more intriguing view of Saigon outside the center. We hunted for a street market we’d noted on the map and ended up at Cho Ng Th.Trung (off Dai Lo Tran Hung Dao in District 5). Passing by an area of casket makers, their shops decorated with colorful funeral adornments, we saw a woman making paper lanterns, carefully painting their caligraphic images, and we saw enough nurseries to suggest that house plants are a popular here. We had one of the best meals of our stay at this neighborhood market—a noodle soup brightened with a pile of mixed aromatic herbs heaped on just before eating. The fact that the fresh noodle factory was just across the street guaranteed their freshness.

Although there seem to be hundreds of tour companies offering trips outside the city, we opted to visit the Cao Dai Temple, about 3 hours north, on our own (with the help of a hired car and driver). There are no expressways in Saigon, so it took almost 2 hours of driving before we reached true countryside. The blur of urban construction was fairly uniform and modern, its most distinctive feature being sheer expanse.

Cao Dai, founded only in 1926, is an eclectic mix of religion, philosophy and mysticism whose deities incude Jesus, Joan of Arc and Victor Hugo. It claims millions of adherents and at one point was so powerful that it had its own army. We arrived in time for the daily noon service, in which hundreds of white clad men and women chanted in unison amidst gaudy, Disney-goes-Hindu décor.

***************************************

The mania for learning English makes it fairly easy for western travellers in Saigon. We met Kim, a 24-year old health insurance salesman, who also runs a small guest house where he hosts a weekly English club on his rooftop terrace. He urged us to come as it was Halloween and he wanted help with decorations and make-up. I sat next to four bright eyed thirteen-year old girls with black Halloween smudges on their faces. Their English was impressive. “So what do you think of Obama?” I asked. “I like Bush better,” one of them answered. “My aunt lives in Missouri and she told me he was better because he sends out a lot of Christmas cards.” I don’t know how I missed that fact during the presidential debates, but I tried to suggest that maybe thinking about a dishonestly begun war and the deaths of thousands would provide a better standard of judgement. Her eyes opened wide and she replied, “Yes, maybe I should think about that.” While most of the English students were quite young, I sat next to one older woman who was missing a few teeth. She is a maid who cleans the house of a couple from Bulgaria. I wondered how many maids in other countries were learning English.

FOOD
At Quan Loan (at the corner of Hai Ba Trung and Ly Tu Trong) we sat on little plastic stools along with other guys drinking beer and downing snacks. The pickled vegetable fried with garlic, grilled okra and whole fish with miso dip, the beef satay, and the shrimp “sweet leaves” salad were all expertly prepared. So good, in fact, that we didn't notice the fumes of passing motorbikes.

Quan An Ngon (160 Pasteur) is an attractive and popular (with tourists and locals) upscale restaurant where you can see the food being prepared, street stall style. It's a good place to try traditional dishes in a nicer-than-market setting.

Dín Ký (137 C. Nguyen Trai) restaurant is worth a visit just to read the menu: crocodile, chicken testicles, ox penis and deer tendon were just a few of the oddities you’ll find. We ordered the 'black chicken' which came whole in its truly black broth in a little crock.

Other Saigon food highlights include the already-mentioned Ben Than Market, which has numerous food stalls with photo menus. One stand offering an amazing variety of shellfish served juicy scallops tossed with chile and herbs that was outstanding.

Ché cháp cam (“sweet soup”) was another market treat—we had a different one each day. These colorful drinks combine coconut with a wide array of small additions: tapioca pearls, sago buttons, beans, corn and more providing curious textural contrasts.

HOTELS

We first stayed at the Sophia Hotel (about $50 per bnight) which was clean and neat, rooms a bit small but well appointed, nice bathroom, free internet. Later we switched to the Duna Hotel. The top floor room 901 has great views. The free tube of toothpaste at the Duna was the smallest I've ever seen, barely one good squeeze, its color a frightening emerald green, the texture a mix of window putty and gummy bears. But how surprised I was to see it, tucked into its white cardboard carton along with a perfectly serviceable toothbrush, at a $25 dollar a night hotel. The place had charm, if not elegance. I liked the area better than that of the Sophia.

A few other highlights of Saigon are:

The Reunification Palace, designed by Paris-trained architect Ngo Viet Thu is a designer's dream-come-true of high 1960’s style.

The Museum of Fine Arts is notable for its fine colonial architecture, but the art collection itself (especially the newer stuff) is almost a joke.

Check out Nguyen Trai street at night for a glimpse of what young, trendy Saigonese are up to.

The zoo and botanical gardens offer atractive relief from the steam heat.

While Hanoi definitely trumps Saigon in terms of charms, I found the brassy energy of the place extremely seductive, the food great, and the people, as all over Vietnam, warm, welcoming, and inquisitive.

BANGKOK

2010-01-06T11:25:00.026-06:00

HOTELS

Check this website--http://www.thaizer.com/accommodation/where-to-stay-in-bangkok/ which describes the various areas of Bangkok with hotel recommendations.

Check www.asiarooms.com for all hotel bookings in Asia. www.agoda.com is another hotel site I frequently use.

Baan Dinso, in a converted house on a little lane in Old Bangkok, not far from Grand Palace. www.baandinso.com (I haven’t stayed here, but it looks great.)

Sourire is an alternative—it’s nearby, not as charming, but perfectly fine, and cheaper. http://www.sourirebangkok.com/

(If you stay at either of the above hotels, be sure to ask about the canal boat behind the Golden Mount to get you to the Siam Square shopping área & Jim Thompson house. It’s local transport for local people—a great ride.)

Bossotel (near the Oriental Hotel and across the river from the glamorous and very expensive Penninsula Hotel, www.bossotelinn.com) near to both a boat pier and a skytrain stop (Saphan Taksin). They have a pool. Ask for a room overlooking the temple.

If you want to stay near Khao San Road (Buglampoo area) which is full of backpackers (fun if you like that sort of thing) try the New World Lodge Hotel or the Navalai Hotel.

I also liked the Grand China Princess in the heart of Chinatown with its revolving rooftop restaurant and pool on the 22nd floor overlooking all of Bangkok.

I admired (but did not stay in) 2 places in a great location near Wat Pho—a bit pricier, but looked worth it. www.arunresidence.com and www.thaivillas.com

It’s worth seeing the Atlanta Hotel (at the end of Sukhumvit Soi 2) for the amazing and well-preserved 50’s decor, although it does not stike me as the best location.

www.yourbangkokhome.com is a website for rental apts.—a gay Canadian and his Thai boyfriend have ‘queer-eyed’ several apartments in a good area of town—great nearby street food. We spent a great week here. Their blog is http://bangkoksong.blogspot.com/

VRBO.com has apartments for rent as well.

SIGHTS

Don’t miss the Bangkokian Museum, in an old house—a slice of the past. 273 Soi Charoendrung 43, Bangrak (open Wed.-Sun. 10 to 4)—see Nancy map. If you’re lucky (and she’s still alive) you’ll meet the elderly owner. This was our favorite of the old house sights. M.R. Kukrit’s house is another good one, more elegant, as is Jim Thompson’s house.

In Siam Square area, check out Central World Shopping Mall (don’t miss food court). Maybe in L.A. there is something comparable, but I’ve never seen anything like it. Go in late afternoon and stop first at Erawan Shrine—see traditional Thai dancers in an unlikely setting. After seeing the mall go for a drink on the rooftop bar of the Centara Grand Hotel—#9 on this list (#1 is another good one--a mind boggling, sci-fi, James Bond kind of place).

Wat Pho (be sure to get a massage at the massage school there) and Wat Arun are two of the best temples to visit.

Take a longboat ride through the back canals—Bangkok Noi route (you can arrange this at many places including Wat Arun and Phra Athit boat stop—best done later afternoon when the sun is weaker). http://bangkok.sawadee.com/canals.htm had detailed information on canal trips.

Pak Klong Talaat (night flower market—after 10pm or later). Flowers, flowers and more flowers—great!

Chinatown , especially Sampeng Lane and Thanon Songwat—earlier is better as it gets crowded. There’s a revolving rooftop bar/restaurant (I’m a sucker for them) at the Grand China Princess Hotel.

The amulet market around the Pra Chan boat pier is worth a look.

FOOD:

In general, we found the fancier the restaurant, the less interesting the food. We usually follow the 'floursecent light' guide to the best food.

Great food is everywhere, on the streets, in the markets, in restaurants. We ate everything we wanted and did not get sick. There are all kinds of coconut sweets on the street, great Thai coffee (iced with sweetened condensed milk), and a million little fried things. The little alleyways in Chinatown have some especially good coconut and sticky rice treats.

Green papaya salad (som tom in Thai) vendors on many streets pounding away in wooden mortars—shredded papaya mixed with chili, peanuts, tomato, fish sauce, palm sugar—one of the world’s greatest foods, refreshing, satisfying, crisp, cool, hot, and crunchy. We rarely had it in restaurants as good as from street vendors. We ate this at least once a day.

If you see mangos with sticky rice at a food stall, get it! It's far better than you'd imagine.

The best food market (prepared to eat there, and take-away) was Or Tor Kor (OTK) –take the metro to Kamphaengphet—it’s very near the JJ Weekend Market--use exit 3. It's a great place to sample lots of things—tables and chairs available to eat there. TIP: Behind the market is a canal where you can take a tiny boat to the other side and wend your way to the skytrain (head left toward the temple)—no tourists here!

Ban Chiang, (14 Soi Sri-vieng, Surasak Road, Silom, not far from Bossotel Hotel) is in a charming old house, air conditioned.

Thanying Restaurant, www.thanying.com is also in an old house. They’ll serve chilies to farang here.

Celadon, (Sukothai Hotel, 13/3 Thanon SathornTai, South) Elegant food in a swanky modern hotel, expensive but fabulous. Food served “western-style” (without hot chilies) unless you ask.

Thip Samai, (313 Thanon Mahachai near Golden Mount), a hole-in-the-wall institution, serving only one thing—the perfect pad thai. Other great street stalls nearby to round out your meal—near to Baan Dinso and Sourire.

The pan-Asian buffet (after 6pm) at the super-elegant Peninsula Hotel looks amazing and lots of it tastes as good as it looks. Even if you don’t eat here it’s worth a look—I counted 85 differnt things toe at. You can take their private ferry from the end of the street where the Bossotel is (Soi Charoenkrung 42)

Harmonique is a charming old restaurant near the Oriental Hotel—lots of ambience, but the food is for those who cannot handle the real stuff, i.e. not much chili

We avoided the much-touted Cabbages & Condoms (which is in all the guidebooks) because of its name for several years, but finally broke down—and loved it. It’s a sex-education restaurant—you just have to go to see what that means. Sukhumvit Soi 12. Open daily 11 am to 10pm.

Another oft-touted simple place is Polo Fried Chicken (on Soi Polo just off Wireless Road)—the world’s best fried chicken smother is flakes of flash-fried garlic. Other dishes good too.

We liked Krua Rakang Thong, across the river next to the famous, fancy-pants Supatra House. An interesting part of town, near Wat Rakang (ferry crossing at Tha Chang)

In Love (right at the Thewet pier) has a wooden dining area at the river’s edge. Good food, or to stop for a drink. Don’t miss the nearby Golden Teak Museum with it’s amazing wax monks upstairs.

Kaloang Home Kitchen, 2 Sriayudhaya Road, Dusit, riverside dining, homey is also in this area (take boat to Thewet pier)

I have developed a yearning for tup tim krob (not sure if that's correct) a dessert sold by pushcarts on the street at night. You choose ingredients from bowls filled with bits of fruit, red candied water chestnut, green rice flour squiggles, corn and palm kernels, black jell-o cubes, red beans, and other colorful tidbits. You choose 3 or 4 , then over these is poured coconut cream, palm sugar syrup and a scoop of crushed ice. Notice the texture as ice crunches with gummy shapes and beans snap, and almost anything made with coconut cream ends up being delicious. Addictive!

Look for dried bananas wrapped in plastic at street stalls. The sweet, chewy, concentrated banana flavor is delicious.

Black Canyon Coffee is a chain with good coffee and great black sesame balls in ginger syrup!

We had a great food/exploration experience at the River View Guest House. Arrive via Charoen Krung 22 and wend your way down the small streets—you will see signs or just look up or ask any local—it’s the only tall building around. Go just before sunset for drinks. It’s a funky place hidden in a great Chinatown neighborhood. The 8th floor bar/restaurant has one of the best views of Bangkok. Order the cashew and lemon grass salad—great! (it was gone from the menu in 2009)

SHOPPING:

The night market near Lumpini Park is closed for good—more new high-rises coming soon.

The JJ (weekend) market is fun, at least once, but gets very crowded, so go early if you must. Lots of everything, mostly cheaper stuff, but there are treasures to be found.

The basketry store Tamnan Mingmuang, on the 3rd floor of Thaniya Plaza, just off Silom Road near the Sala Daeng Skytrain stop, has special things—great placemats.

Thai Crafts Fair, Saturdays 10 to 5 at Jasmine City Building, 3rd floor (Suklumvit Soi 23, Asok subway or Sukhumvit skytrain stops)

Pirate DVDS of opera, ballet, and classical music are sold on the 3rd floor of Fortune Tower building, near metro stop Petchaburi--various stores, locations may change.

GETTING AROUND

Taxis are cheap in Bangkok—just make sure the meter is working and starts at 35 bahts—if not, get out. The charm of tuk-tuks wore off for me after the first ride--they tend to be more expensive than taxis and not as comfortable. In weekday traffic it is often faster to take a boat, metro or the skytrain if the destination works out. The river boats are confusing, with tourist boats competing with public transport at the same piers. In general, look for boats with with a yellow or orange flag and a sign that says Chao Praya Express Boat (buy your ticket on the boat) and follow Thai people getting on the boat.

MISC.

Get Nancy Chandler’s map of Bangkok on Amazon. The graphics are a bit cutesy but it’s full of great information. Everything mentioned below can be found there.

At the airport, ignore anyone offering you taxi services and follow signs downstairs to 'public taxis'. Tell the dispatcher where you're going. You get a ticket and will be shown to a metered cab. You pay 2 tolls in addition the the meter fare if the taxi takes the freeway (say yes if he asks). Give money to the driver at the tollbooths (around 40 baht each).

Carry lots of moist towelettes, easy to find in Bangkok convenience stores. Frequent swips of face, neck and esp. ears really helps

Check www.kayak.com for flights to Asia, www.airasia.com for cheap flights within the region
also www.silkair.com and www.nokair.com—these small airlines usually do not show up on sites like Travelocity.
www.fireflyz.com.my is a Malaysia based airline serving smaller towns in SE Asia.

A good website about Bangkok—
http://www.thaizer.com

A FEW USEFUL WORDS

SOI means alley or small road. Important roads (Samsen, Charoen Krung, Silom, Sukhumvit) have lots of sois off them in numerical order--odd numbers on one side, even on the other, so an address might read ’12 Samsen soi 4’, which means building number 12 on the 4th soi off Samsen Road. Most address just have the soi number, not the building number—you just head down the soi until you see what you are lookin for.

THA means pier.

THANON is another word for road

TALAT means market

www.learningthai.com

Bumrungrad International Hospital is a stop on the 'medical tourism' route. They offer a 5-hour complete physical for about $400 that is amazing.

Dr. Lily Poncharoen, www.bangkokdentalspa.com, speaks perfect English and offers inexpensive dental services--and you can get a massage.

Food blog here. And Here.

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PHNOM PENH, January 2006

2010-01-05T13:54:00.002-06:00

A few hours after we arrived Nick was ready to leave, but Cambodia’s capital did eventually grow on us. There is no visual allure, apart from some very gorgeous temples and the royal palace, so the appeal is in trying to figure out what’s going on here. Being aware of the devastation wrought by the Khmer Rouge creates a soft spot in the heart which encourages curiosity. When the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, the entire population was forced to leave the capital, and there is a sense of recovery from that harrowing time. There are some beggars with a variety of missing limbs, or no limbs at all. The city is low and spread out. The French built wide streets and there are long walls protecting government buildings and foreign embassies, making walking in the heat and humidity no fun. Luckily you can rent a tuk-tuk (like a golf cart) with driver for $15 a day. Unlike Bangkok, where the traffic is so bad that a tuk-tuk ride is a torture, here it is a pleasure, at just the right speed. Traffic, like in Hanoi, is creative. No one (but me) seems to mind a direct turn into the oncoming lane.

We stayed at the Casa Hotel (www.casahotel.net or look on www.asiarooms.com which will probably have a better rate) which was clean, comfortable and quiet ($40). Ask for a room facing the river. There is a pool on the 4^th floor and some sort of weird casino/club/bordello (we never really figured it out) on the 3^rd floor. One day we walked in and saw a man praying at a small Buddhist shrine in the lobby.

The Silver Pagoda is the main tourist sight in Phnom Penh, very beautiful. We didn’t visit the Khmer Rouge reminders of the Killing Fields or the Torture Museum, but bought some books and DVD’s to take home. There are not a whole lot of major attractions here, but we enjoyed riding around the city in the tuk-tuk. The shopping is not bad. The Central Market is a big deco-style dome that looks like something out of a 1930’s sci-fi movie. You can find clothes with DKNY and Calvin Klein labels (they use the cheap Cambodian labor) at very low prices. The so-called Russian Market has the best shopping for tourist goods—silk, lacquer items, Buddha sculptures. (We also ate one of our favorite things at a stall there—an omelet-like thing with bean sprouts and pork) The shopping highlight for me was The Mat Shop (No.5 Street 108, Sanghat Wat Phnom, near the river) which sells beautiful straw mats, used in houses and temples, in lots of colors and designs.

Cambodian food is similar to Thai, but less spicy. We ate twice at the Khmer Kitchen

(no. 41 Rue 310, corner of Rue 57)—be sure to go upstairs in this old wooden house.

We also ate well at Goldfish River Restaurant (on the river opposite Ph 106)--order the fish amok, the national dish served in a coconut shell

We also liked the Bali Café (379 Sisowath Quay) which has good Indonesian food on a balcony overlooking the river.

In general, the riverside scene, which sounds so nice in the guidebook, consists of a lot of foreigners sitting in wicker chairs drinking beer and limbless beggars pleading for a little piece of bounty. Rarely have I felt so rich and privileged, grateful and uncomprehending, as in Cambodia.

One night along the river we encountered a large crowd paying homage at a small Buddist shrine. Lots of flower and food sellers (including crispy cockroaches and tarantulas),beggars, and bird sellers (you buy one to set it free). Further down the river was an amusement park (near the Hotel Naga) with all kinds of rides and games and dozens of small eateries with only hammocks to sit in.

The other fun thing we did was to go to the movies one hot afternoon. We were attracted by the melodramatic poster outside the theater. This Cambodian-made film seemed to be a fairy tale about a village girl possessed by the spirit of a horse who manages to marry the local prince. It was full of great location scenes in Cambodian peasant villages contrasted with luxurious fake interiors of the royal family, all to a soundtrack of traditional music.

After 3 days in Phnom Penh, we were driven to Siem Reap (almost 5 hrs. away, $45 for car and driver). The ride was fascinating, passing through small villages and seeing only wooden and reed houses along the way. We went there on New Year’s Even to meet our friends Val and John and their 4-year old daughter, Ivy. Ivy was born in Cambodia and they were planning to visit the remote village where she was born.

In Siem Reap (the town nearest Angkor Wat) we stayed at the Bopha Angkor Hotel (book on-line through www.asiarooms.com)--a delightful place with lush gardens, a teakwood restaurant and a crystal clear pool. To visit the ruins, get a car and driver. I also recommend visiting the nearby “floating village”, a riverside community on/in the water—very poor, but fascinating. The ruins of Angkor Wat are amazing, but I felt that I might have been just as happy with a really good episode of the Discovery Channel. I guess I’m just not a big fan of ruins. We had a much more exciting experience last year renting bikes and heading out of town in the opposite direction a few miles, following the river and crossing over a bridge to ride along the dirt road and see the village life of rural Cambodia.

We flew back to Phnom Penh for one night and then back to Bangkok (check www.airasia.com for cheap flights in the region)

PERU (Lima & Arequipa) 2007

2010-01-05T12:28:00.000-06:00

A country whose primary food is the potato, and whose economy is largely based on bird manure has an uphill battle to market itself. Everybody dreams of going to Macchu Picchu, but Lima, a 3-hour flight from Panama City, gets bad reports from just about everyone—ugly, dirty, dangerous, boring. Two Peruvian friends practically begged us not to stay in the old part of town. We spent a week there anyway and loved it. It is both ugly and beautiful, dirty and clean (no trash thrown around like in

Mexico

), dangerous (lots of warnings) and safe (nothing bad happened to us). We took the warnings seriously, however, and went out with little money, no passports (I never do) and the camera hidden in a front pocket.

Lima was the most important Spanish city in South America until the wars of Independence changed the whole ballgame. It has the feel of a place where more important things were happening in years past. Few visitors are likely to fall in love with the city. While it has beautiful things, the overall look is gray and plain. The bad air and daily fog that rolls in from the ocean allow for no gleam or glisten here. There is color, but it tends to be of earthier tones or to look duller because of the light quality—no hot pink!

Although the streets are bustling with people, there is a graphic simplicity to Lima, especially after having gotten used to the visual mayhem of Mexico City. There are few billboards, posters, store signs, not even much graffiti, no glitz, no mess, few street peddlers, and not many tall trees. I found myself looking for laundry hanging out of windows to liven up the view. But then, turning a corner, would be a colonial building with its intricately carved Moorish wooden balcony, or an old eatery with elaborate and colorful mosaic floors, worn smooth or partly eroded, or a bakery displaying a 5-tier birthday cake in the window, with frog-green icing.

But what we look for when traveling, we found here—it feels different. More than the touristic sights, what fascinates me most is what my friend Kathy calls ‘the museum of the streets’—a sense of how people live, what gives a place its sense of identity. In a taxi we heard a radio station where the announcer kept using the work ‘Peruanidad’—‘Peru-ness’ to describe the program. About half the population in Peru is indigenous Indian, the other half a mix of European, African and Asian—not so different from Mexico. The economic statistics are pretty similar, too—more than half (guess which?) lives beneath the poverty line. The Catholic church plays a major part in Peruvian society as well. In spite of these similarities, I knew I was not in Mexico. In our one-week trip, we barely scratched the surface of what that means, but I left happy with the introduction.

We stayed at the once grand Gran Hotel Bolívar, built in 1924 where I kept expecting to see Maggie Smith coming down the hall with a feathered hat and 16 suitcases. Many stars of the past stayed there: Ava Gardner, Maria Felix, Pedro Infante, and the Rolling Stones. It has been refurbished (not remodeled) and still retains its old world charm. The lobby has a stained glass dome, the rooms are huge, clean and comfortable (if you like hard mattresses as I do). Our $70 suite (there are cheaper rooms) had a big living room with sofa, 2 chairs and a writing desk, the bedroom was just as big, the bathroom tiles and tub had been re-surfaced to look new and clean. A balcony overlooked the side street (avoid the rooms facing the noisy Plaza San Martín). Staying at this hotel was one of the highlights of the trip. I was not happy with their (included) continental breakfast, and went out to El Comino for much better café con leche (it’s under the arcade to the left as you exit the hotel) a couple of mornings.

Another place we looked at, but did not stay in, was the Hostal España ((Azángaro 105), a cheap option for backpacker-types that was very charming, and retains its fabulous mosaic floors. There is a nice rooftop terrace area full of plants.

The Plaza San Martin is completely surrounded by white buildings that look a bit like 19^th-century Paris. It is connected to the Plaza Mayor by a pedestrian street that was full of people day and night. This area has the highest concentration of colonial architecture, as well as lots of 19^th-century buildings and even a few Art Deco (the best one now houses a MacDonald’s).

Within an hour of arrival in Lima we were in the Central Market so Nick could eat ceviche, practically the national dish here. Apparently very few tourists go to the market and people seemed glad to see us. In general, we found the people friendly and open—more so than Mexicans. There is a Barrio Chino behind the market area that is the biggest in Latin American (although much smaller than New York’s). We spent a lot of time wandering streets between the market and the Plaza Mayor, full of old stores and restaurants, many conserving their wonderful tile floors. Don’t miss the Palacio Torre Tagle (Ucayali 363).

Other noteworthy sights within walking distance of the hotel are the Museo Riva-Aguero (Jiron Camaná 459), a museum of popular arts in a very interesting colonial style house, The Museo de Arte (near Parque de la Exposición), with excellent pre-Hispanic ceramics and (don’t miss!) textiles. We stopped for a drink and the best fried squid ever at El Cordano (Ancash 202, just off the Plaza Mayor, facing the beautiful facade of the old Desamparrados train station), which has been around 100 years and feels like it (in a good way). Another evening we had pisco sours at Aires Peruanas (Ruffino Turrico near Emancipación), a ‘peña popular’ where people come after work to hang out, have a beer and dance to live cumbia music. We arrived at 7pm and got the last table.

On weekends at Plaza Italia (a block behind Chinatown) there is a Festival de Sabor Peruano, an outdoor food fair (see below for more food info).

The huge Metro supermarket (Emancipación at Lampa, near the hotel) was fun for people watching and learning the names of unusual fruits and vegetables. The large cubes of compacted beef lung were curious but not tempting--the inexpensive Argentine and Chilean wines were.

The round Plaza Dos de Mayo (which we only saw from a cab) was striking for its identical 19^th-century buildings—all painted blue—and the musical instrument stores that filled each one.

Be sure to get a shoe shine in the centro—bring a book to read as it takes about 20 minutes—your shoes will never be cleaner or shinier. Our neighbor Dolores who flies with Aeromexico to Peru had recommended this, and she was right.

Do not be tempted to buy one of the Lima city maps being sold all over the centro—they are useful only if you have a magnifying glass.

A double-decker tour bus that leaves from Plaza San Martín is another way to get around town and save time—there is even a night tour. The website is www.mirabusperu.com. We discovered this too late to make use of it, but it looked like a good idea, esp. if your time is limited.

A short cab ride from the centro is the Museo Larco (Bolívar 1515 in the Pueblo Libre neighborhood) with an excellent collection of pre-Hispanic art. It is famous for its display of curious erotic pottery.

Aside from the centro, the other area of Lima that we enjoyed most was Barranco, the most charming part of town, with a village feel, cafés and restaurants on the cliffs above the ocean, and at least one very good museum, El Museo Pedro de Osma (San Pedro de Osma 423) in a remarkable old private mansion with a good collection of colonial art. We spent an afternoon in Barranco, walking around the main plaza and the more residential area around Plaza San Francisco. If I lived in Lima, it would be here.

The Miraflores area of Lima is sort of a mix of Polanco and the Zona Rosa in Mexico City, but not as interesting as either in my opinion. Most of the city’s best hotels and restaurants are here, as well as several craft malls along Petit Thours where you can pick up a decent alapaca sweater or blanket. We had planned to switch hotels after a few days and stay in Miraflores, but changed our mind after visiting during the day—it all looked too familiar for me. Clean, civilized, upscale, predictable—who cares? We took a one-hour Mirabus tour (see above) of the place and that was enough. The Larcomar shopping mall is impressive, however, for it’s ocean views and good bookstores, although it feels more like Santa Monica, California--but we did eat well in this part of town (see below).

Without Macchu Picchu, I wonder if Peru would be known anywhere in the world. Tens of thousands of tourists flock to the ruins each month, so we decided to avoid them and headed to AREQUIPA, Peru’s second largest city, a 90-minute flight over the Andes from Lima, where we spent 2 nights. It has an attractive colonial center and many old buildings made from sillar, a local white volcanic stone—Arequipa is called La Ciudad Blanca. The city is strikingly situated, surrounded by three (non-active) snow-capped volcanoes, and is a pleasant place to stroll around for a few days. It is primarily a jumping-off spot for the rural Colca Canyon—next trip!

We stayed at the Casa de Melgar, (www.lared.net.pe/lacasademelgar) a converted old house with lots of charm- our huge room had its original fireplace/stove and rustic old furniture. The woman at the desk explained that mostly foreigners stay there as national tourists tend to prefer modern decor.

Highlights here included the central market (of course) where we had some of the best food at a simple stall: the papa rellena and the ceviche were winners. We skipped the jugo de rana being sold—a health drink made by boiling the skin of a frog (the frogs were live). The variety of potatoes available here is staggering, including little white stone-looking dried potatoes.

Curiously, one of our best meals here was in a Turkish-fusion restaurant (on Calle San Francisco, where you will find lots of new up-scale restaurants).

Our taxi driver from the airport ending up giving us a tour of the surrounding area, at half the price of the tour agencies which are all over town. The sights, including the hacienda of the town’s founder and an old mill, are not very interesting. Arequipa, we discovered, is the first stop for many travelers heading to Macchu Picchu, so the place was surprisingly touristy. If you are there, call the driver, Rafael Valdivia Díaz, on his cell phone 997-1906. (There were various warnings about taxi crime here, too.)

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PERUVIAN FOOD: Peru has a real food culture, lots of weird stuff to eat, some of it quite delicious. I ate my first tripe here (a stew called cau-cau), and my first grilled beef heart (anticucho).

Seafood is the real highlight of Peruvian cuisine, starting with ceviche, supposedly invented in Peru, and the best we've ever had anywhere. You will see cevicherias all over. Traditionally, it is eaten only at lunch (in pre-refrigerator days the fish wasn’t fresh after that). It is served with choclo (corn on the cob—huge kernels!), cancha (roasted kernels, like unpopped popcorn but a better texture, that are a common snack food), a chunk of cooked sweet potato, and marinated red onions. The pieces of fish tend to be larger than in the Mexican version and there isn’t as much chili or cilantro.

We ate twice at La Red (La Mar 391, Sta. Cruz, Miraflores, tel 441-1026 ) in Miraflores--open for lunch only. Perfectly grilled salmon was served on a bed of tacu-tacu, a delicious rice and bean mixture browned in a small pan. The sudado de mariscos was a rich seafood stew like their version of bouillabaisse. The mama, who founded it 25 years ago still sits at the counter counting the dough, while her son manage the kitchen. If we had more time we would have gone back to this place again.

In Chinatown, we ate well at Salon Capon (Jr. Paruro 819).

Here are some of the traditional foods we tried in various restaurants, street stalls and markets:

Causa – mashed yellow potato with various additions on top

Tacacho – a mash of platano and corn, usually served with cecina, cured pork.

Juanes - A sort of tamal

Chupe de Camarón - a hearty seafood soup

Papas a la Huancaina - potato with a yellow creamy sauce on top

Chicha Morada - a sweet drink, non-allcoholic, made from purple corn

Chicha de Jora - similar to above but thicker and fermented

Inca Cola - acid yellow soda pop, tasting of Bazooka bubble gum, but beloved by Peruanos

Suspiro Limeño - custard with dulce de leche – Nick’s favorite

Pay de Limón - pretty close to Lemon Meringue – Jim’s favorite

Gaston & Astrid are Peru’s most famous food couple, with restaurants in several Latin American countries (one just opened in Mexico City) and lots of cookbooks. Tireless promoters of Peruvian cuisine, they may rank as Peru’s number one cultural export at the moment. We ate at their main restaurant in Miraflores (Calle Cantuarias 175, Miraflores, tel. 444-1496 ) and paid a lot of money ($140 for two with a good bottle of Chilean wine—a small fortune in Peru) to be fairly underwhelmed. We had some of the same dishes at simpler, cheaper places, or in markets, and were much happier. This place does get rave reviews from most diners, however—maybe we just ordered the wrong things. I confess to being a peasant at heart when it comes to food.

T’anta (Pasaje Nicolás de Rivera el Viejo 142, just off the Plaza Mayor in the centro) is a mid-range offshoot of Gaston & Astrid in central Lima, and it made us happy that they are promoting the renaissance of the historic area. We found the food, a fusion of Peruvian, Asian, and whatever, more enjoyable than at their fancier place in Miraflores.

La Mar is another G & A production, this time an upscale cevicheria.

As mentioned above, El Cordano (Ancash 202, just off the Plaza Mayor), has excellent fried calamares, and I also had a tasty tortilla de espinacas, like a frittata with spinach.

Chifa is the name given to the Peruvian-influenced Chinese food that you see everywhere. Simple rice and noodle dishes, and stir-fries, like saltado de res (which, aside from beef, had french fries in it) are cooked to order, sometimes by a chef working frantically out front—a great show. The food is very cheap, filling, and on the couple of occasions we tried it, quite satisfying.

Note: Serving sizes everywhere were enormous, usually big enough to share (and we can eat!)

Overall, we had a successful trip but our short visit to Peru leaves us with more questions than answers; another visit is definitely in order.

LAOS (2006 & 2008)

2010-01-03T17:10:00.000-06:00

Luang Prabang and Vientiane

(Carry lots of moist towelettes--my number one tip for all SE Asia)

Perched on a leafy peninsula in the Mekong River, Luang Prabang, a former capital of Laos, is one of the best preserved of Asia's ancient cities (with less than 20,000 people, we would call it a town) and as such, was chosen by UNESCO as one of the Patrimony of Humanity sites, bringing with it all the benefits and curses of that designation. There are lots of tourists, mostly European, dozens of guest houses, restaurants serving banana
pancakes, tour guides and gift shops everywhere. But it did not take long to get over that and fall in love with the place. It's beautiful. Traditional wooden houses mix with colonial French architecture on small streets studded with palm trees, bouganvillia, datura and orchids. There is almost no traffic--a few cars, motos, and bicycles. The windows of our room in an old guest house look out on a Buddhist wat (temple). This morning at 6am we watched from our window as the monks went out with their bowls in hand to receive alms from the villagers.
This is the only food they eat. We, capitalist piggies that we are, have been chowing down on green papaya salad, spring rolls and grilled fish. I have been avoiding the meaty things, afraid they might be some of the sun-dried rats we saw being sold in the market.

We stayed at the Sayo Guest House, an old French house, a bit funky but charming and comfortable, with a view to a Buddhist temple. My friend Caren Cross had reviewed many of the guest houses a few years ago and said this is the best.

For fancier digs, check out www.satrihouse.com and a place called Aspara Hotel

Go right away and eat at Tamarind (across from Wat Nong Temple). The Australian owner loves real Lao food and will explain it all to you—it was our last meal there, but I wish it had been our first. The lemongrass and ginger drink was memorable, as was the watermelon and chili granita.

Rent a bicycle and go everywhere—check your bike carefully before setting out, esp. that all nuts and bolts are tight.

Eat in the nighttime food market, which you will see on a side street perpendicular to the main street, where you cannot miss the nighttime craft market (we hardly bought anything, even though we tried)

We had a fancy meal which we enjoyed at 3 Nagas on the main drag.

Another good meal was at the Park Houay Mixay Restaurant, near the Sayo.

We took a boat ride up-river (a bit too long) and then a shorter one down the river to the pottery village—simple, but interesting

We flew to VIENTIANE instead of the 12 hour bus ride due to time limits, but I wish we had seen a bit more of ‘real’ Laos.

We spent one night at the unpleasant Villa Manoly (which sounded good in the Lonely Planet) and then ended up at the big, glizty, communist style Lane Xang Hotel and loved it. We used the pool every day and saw a great night-club act one night (‘Limbo Rock’ played on traditional Lao instruments). If you book in advance they will meet you at the airport.

The Lani 1 Guest house was the only place with some kind of charm (funky-ish), but it was a few dollars more than the Lane Xang and no pool.

Next time I’d check out the Auberge Sala Inpeng which looked lovely (www.salalao.com)

email: salapeng@laotel.com

I picked up a brochure about an eco-lodge that looked interesting—about 50 km from Vientiane: www.banpako.com

www.chanthapanyahotel looked good, too.

FOOD (Vientiane)

Along the river at night there are lots of food stalls selling grilled fish, chicken, and sausages as well as papaya salad, etc. You can lie on blankets with pillows like the Lao people do, or sit at tables and chairs. It’s fun and the food was good.

Also along the river was a nice bar on top of one of the tallest buildings (about 4 stories—forgot the name, but just look up and you will find it). It was a pleasant place to sit and have some lao-lao, a local rice liquor.

We ate twice at the Kualao Restaurant (111 Samsentahi Rd.) in an old house.

MISC.

There is not really much in the way of sights in Vientianne, but the place has a wierd other-worldliness about it. It’s hard to believe it’s the capital of anywhere. Of course, there are wats, simpler than in Thailand. The Patuxai Monument is worth a visit to see Lao people hanging out. We liked the morning market, which is geared to tourists as well as selling everything from clothes to electronics (we bought much needed new pants and had them hemmed in one hour) but even more interesting was the Talat Khua Din, the produce market, nearby behind the bus station. It is funky and colorful.

We met long-time ex-pat Carol Cassidy at her very high-end Lao Textiles shop (in all the books) and had a good chat--the work is amazing and expensive.

Flights in and out of Vientiane can be expensive. You can take a bus (about 90 mins.) to Udon Thani over the Thai border and get a flight to Bangkok for a fraction of the price.

We did this, staying 2 nights at the border town of Nong Kai, which we enjoyed.

PANAMA CITY (2007)

2010-01-03T17:07:00.001-06:00

Both Panama and Peru are famous for their natural diversity, animal reserves, and remote jungle parks. We avoided all that and stuck to the cities—Nick likes his trees surrounded by concrete and I like my nature best on the Discovery Channel.

Our flight on Copa Airlines allowed a free stopover in PANAMA CITY, so why not?

Now we can say we have seen the Panama Canal (at least one lock of it). We arrived around noon an immediately set out for a walk—within 20 minutes the skies had opened and we were stranded in a hotel lobby until saved by a jolly cabdriver—he had worked in Mexico for years and loved it. The ride was a bit scary as he had no windshield wipers and I could see about 5 feet ahead in the downpour. We made it safely to the Central Fish Market where we had an excellent meal. Then off to the Casco Viejo, the old part of town, which reminded me of Havana—funky, run down, a few new hotels and restaurants, lots of locals selling tourist souvenirs. There were charming plazas with old churches, houses with wooden balconies overlooking the streets, and cute policemen who came up to us to chat. We loved it. The mix of funky and fancy is just right now, but there is a lot of development and re-hab of old buildings going on--I can imagine in a few years it might look like a theme park. We were severely warned not to venture down a few streets—thieves everywhere, we were told. We obeyed. There was a run-down but interesting Barrio Chino nearby (not even mentioned in our Lonely Planet guide!), complete with delicious dim-sum.

The Panama Canal Museum on the main plaza is worth visiting. We had a good lunch in an old neighborhood place that looked like the 1930’s called the Café Coca-Cola on Avenida Central.

We rode out to the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal for a look, and were glad we did. Although not that much to see, it’s a lot to think about—truly one of the man-made wonders of the world.

The other area of Panama City that was interesting was La Exposición, another funky area of shops and street stalls with a lively, Caribbean feel . The rest of the city is very Americanized and feels like Florida or California, but a bit messier—and with gambling casinos.

We stayed in the El Cangrejo district, which had been recommended as the safe, clean (read boring) place to stay at the Hotel Marbella. It sounded like the best bet in our price range ($50) but was just OK

A journalist friend recommends the DeVille Hotel (www.devillehotel.com.pa) which gets a star from Lonely Planet ($155). We ate at the restaurant, Diez Platos, a fancy-pants fusion kind of place. It made me sick.

NEW YORK CITY TIPS

2010-01-03T17:06:00.019-06:00

(updated July, 2011)

The following tips were in response to a friend from Oaxaca who was taking her 13-year old son to New York for the first time, but have been added to over time. Works just as well for adults!

To do:

- Ride the Staten Island Ferry—it’s free and fabulous.

- Museum of Natural History—my father took me for the first time when I turned 5 or 6—unforgettable!

- The High Line, the city’s newest ‘elevated park’ on the West Side—with its own website no less, http://www.thehighline.org/ Chealsea's art galleries are nearby

- Central Park, of course. There’s a great view of the park from the sculpture terrace at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (another ‘of course’—I loved the mummies as a kid).

- Chinatown, just wander the streets and go into some of the ‘department’ stores.

-The Frick Collection, 1 East 70^th Street

-The Guggenheim Museum, Fifth Avenue and 89^th Street—even if you just look from the outide.

- Lincoln Center, whatever is there

- The Noguchi Museum http://www.noguchi.org/ This is the studio of the Japanese/American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, out in Long Island City. His beautiful Japanese sculpture garden is worth a visit on a nice day.

-Empire State Building, Fifth Avenue at 34^th Street

Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Website has tips on how to do it best: http://www.nyctourist.com/bridge2.htm

- Times Square at night

For anyone with immigrant grandparents, check out the Tenement Museum

- NY EARTH ROOM http://www.diacenter.org/sites/main/earthroom

- Governer's Island My friend Rowena and her son Ollin said this was a highlight of their trip (open in spring/summer only) http://www.govisland.com/html/visit/calendar.shtml

-Metropolitan Opera tour

Shopping:

-The Strand Book Store, 18 miles of used books. Broadway and 12^th Street.

-Academy Records, Used CD’s, classical, jazz, pop. 12 West 18^th Street

-Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Tiffany’s (just to look)

-Zabar's at Broadway between 80th and 81st Sts, for the best deli, as well as kitchenware

-Daffy's Broadway at 18th St., also near Macy's - bargains on designer clothes

Eating:

-Jing Fong, Huge dim-sum palace in Chinatown (20 Elizabeth street, one block south of Canal, up the escalator)--best to go late morning

-Moaz Vegetarian, 38 Union Sq. East—the best falafel, ‘Just like Israel,’ my friend Kathy says—cheap meal. You can eat across the street in Union Square Park (they even have picnic tables now).

-Nyonya, 194 Grand Street—great Malaysian food, cheap—right across the street from Ferrara’s bakery. I loved the lady fingers (okra) with shrimp and an appetizer called achat.

-Slice of NY Pizza, there are many to choose from, but it’s a classic NYC food experience. According to KE, “In my opinion the two best are City Pie (72nd near Broadway) and Joes Pizza in the Village (Carmine near Bleeker and 6th Ave.). The one at the corner of Spring St and Thompson in Soho is good too.

- Bagels and cream cheese, my favorite is Bagels on the Square, 7 Carmine street near Sixth Avenue (near Bleeker). Scallion cream cheese and whitefish salad are my preferred bagel toppings. Snack on a bench in the middle of Broadway traffic, or stroll over to Riverside Park.

-Sabrett’s Hot Dog, sold from umbrella-topped pushcarts all over town. I have to confess that after almost 30 years in NYC I don’t think I ever ate one, but it’s a classic.

-Grey’s Papaya hot dogs (essential with mustard and sauerkruat), 72 and Broadway.

-Yonah Schimmel’s Knishes, since 1910, 137 E. Houston between 1^st and 2^nd Avenues.

-Eat a hot pretzel from a pushcart as you stroll around Rockefeller Center.

-Eataly, 200 5th Av. at 23rd St. is an enormous, glitzy Italian market with restaurants. Worth a visit

Indian food:

- Chinese Mirch 120 Lexington Av. at 28th St. (despite the name, it's Indian food)

- Curry in a Hurry across the street

- Tiffin Wallah 28th bet Lex and Park (it has a south indian buffet lunch for 7 bucks weekdays)

- Devi – high end Indian, 18th St. between 5th and Broadway, recommended by Gita Mehta

Thai Food:

- Zabb Elee 75 2nd Ave at 5th St., in the east village. It's Isan (northern Thai) and just got written up in the Times (June 2011) so go at an off hour or be prepared to wait.

- Pure Thai 766 9th Av. between 51 & 52.

Chinese (not in Chinatown):

- Grand Sichuan at the corner of 25th St and 9th Ave., 15 7th Av. South, below Sheridan Sq. in the Village, and at 21 W 39th St near Grand Central. All three are great and each has a different menu.

Queens has some of the best ethnic eating - it is worth taking the train, and easier than you think:

- Trattoria L'Incontro (a spectacular Italian restaurant, like a trip to Italy)
21-76 31 Street (easy to get to: Ditmars Blvd. on the N or Q train, it's right there) Astoria
(718) 721 3532

Jackson Heights: take the R train to 74th St./Roosevelt Ave. On 74th St itself is a whole block of Indian restaurants, shops and a giant supermarket. I like Tawa Tandoor. And, as you turn right on 74th from Roosevelt Ave, is a place where they sell a counter with Bangladeshi food and Tibetan dumplings in back . Nearby is a Tibetan/Nepali place called Himalayan Yak at 72-20 Roosevelt Av.

Up Roosevelt Av., walking under the train are a number of good Mexican, Colombian and Ecuadorian places, all good. At 79th St is Arunee Thai (38-79 79th St. )

In Flushing (Main St. Flushing on the 7 train) Are some incredible Chinese places. It's like going to Hong Kong. As you get off the train you will see a window where they sell little pork sandwiches. Across the street is a tall modern building where there is an air-conditioned Asian food court called The New World Mall. It is amazing, and on the top floor there is a huge dim sum palace. At the corner of 41st Av and Main Street is a funky food court where stalls offer all kinds of fabulous Asian delights such as hand pulled noodles, sandwiches of lamb with cumin, and cold Chinese salads. You can get an acupuncture treatment or a Chinese massage as well.

Where to watch the sun set in NYC
http://www.facebook.com/notes/julie-schwietert-collazo/5-spots-for-spectacular-sunsets-in-nyc/10150238140367882

Places to stay: Since I lived in NYC I don't know much about hotels. My friend Kathy Erteman rents out her loft on 18th street--where I used to live. Lovely space, ideal location: http://www.18.dreamhost.com/

Also, check out www.airbnb.com for apartment listings--in NYC and all over the world

NYTimes article http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/travel/36-hours-in-downtown-manhattan.html?ref=travel

NORTHERN SPAIN (2008)

2010-01-03T17:05:00.004-06:00

Recommendations for a trip across the north from San Sebastian to Santiago de Compostela. Anything that does not have an address or phone can be found on google. We found tourist offices in each place that were very helpful and had really good maps for free.

Start in SAN SEBASTIAN, a lovely seaside town that made me think of Nice, but less touristy. We stayed at the cheap, clean and simple Pension La Perla, well located next to the Cathedral (phone 34-943-428-123). We had a nice chat about food with the friendly owner Maria Jesus.

San Sebastian is a major food destination, famous for their tapas or pinxos (x is pronounced like ch here—you’re in Basque country where many people speak Euskara). There are hundreds of bars here, with tempting displays of canapes and small snacks to go with your red wine. The narrow streets in the Parte Vieja has the biggest conglomeration of bars. Most of the food is out on display and you can just pick up what you want and eat it. Keep a mental track of what you consume, although the bartenders in Spain can keep track of dozens of customers if you forget. In most places the tapas that are on display all cost the same, so you just have to say how many you ate. Many places also have a menu on the wall with tapas you can order (usually the ones served hot). This way of eating if popular day and night.

The other big area for tapas bar-hopping is the residential area of Gros, just across the river from the main part of town. This is where the truly amazing stuff is found. There is an annual competition for the best pinxos and several of them came from here. Don’t miss Aloña Berri (c/Berminghan,24) and Bergara (c/ Gral. Artetxe 8), two of the prize-winners.

Other than eating (don’t forget the pasty shops), there’s not a whole lot to do in San Sebastian, but it’s lovely to walk around. The architecure is impressive, and the curved walk along the bay is delightful place to stroll in good weather. There’s an aquarium, too, if you’re into that sort of thing. Definitely worth 2 or 3 nights stay.

Take the bus (under 2 hours, the train is much longer) to BILBAO, a charming place, made rich and famous by the Guggenheim museum designed by Frank Gehry. The museum is one site where the reality lives up to the hype—it looks like a UFO that landed in a 19^th-century Spanish city. A visit to this museum is an exciting experience.

We stayed at the cheap, clean, small and well-located Pension Bilbao (www.pensionbilbao.com) and ate mostly in small places in the Casco Viejo, the old part of town where the tapas bars are clustered. Our pension was just over the river in the newer (19^th c.) part of town, which I preferred—the old part seems like it could be noisy. We enjoyed the Museo de Bellas Artes and a visit to the flashy new Sheraton Bilbao designed by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta. If your budget allows, the restaurant at the Guggenheim is reputedly the best in town.

We rented a car on line from Europcar in Bilbao and headed west along the coast. (The ride from San Sebastian to Bilbao is not that interesting, plus parking in Bilbao is a problem, which is why it’s best to start the car rental as you leave Bilbao).Good maps are provided.

CASTRO URDIALES is a fishing village with lots of bars and restaurants and a sea-wall that makes a nice stroll. We spent the night here, but the hotel options are limited—we stayed in a funky, old place overlooking the bay.

SANTILLANA DEL MAR is a lovely town that we spent about 2 hours in (enough)—one of those beautiful places that is really too preserved, but worth a look. We went early (around 11) and could tell that later in the day it would be swamped with toursits.

RECOMMENDED DRIVING TRIP:

We headed toward San Vicente de la Barquera, then headed south through the

snow-capped mountains of Cantabria, via Riano—amazing mountain scenery, small villages and goats--and we only passed one other car in 3 hours.We skirted around Leon (we’d been there already, but I do recommend it) and spent the night in Astorgas, a charming, but not exciting, small town, famed for an early building by Antoni Gaudi (not typical of his work). The hotel was great. Unfortunately I lost the card, but it was right across from the Roman Museum, and was all but invisible—marked by an H only.
The next day we stopped for lunch in Ourense, which we liked very much—a delightful old part of town–don’t miss the market if you arrive in the morning. We got a good map at the tourist office, parked the car in an underground spot and walked around for a few hours. Worth a stop.

Take the main road from Ourense toward Pontevedra. We turned off on PO 255 near

A Cañiza onto a 2-lane road that went through ravishing landscape—worth the many curves.

We enjoyed Pontevedra very much. Arriving by car, follow the signs to Centro. We stopped at the first hotel we saw which had parking, and it turned out to be a great choice—close to the old part of town, large room, good price. (Hotel Rías Bajas, Rúa de Daniel de la Soto 7, tel 986-855-100)

The old part of town is fascinating for a stroll. There were not a lot of bars and restaurants, surprising for its size, but we had great tapas at a hip place called Borona, (Travesia del Comercio , 3 bajo)—the ensalada de cecina was memorable.

We got up early to make the hour drive to Santiago de Compostela and returned the car at the train station. This is a great destination, as millions of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago have known for centuries. The old part of town is like a Spanish version of Venice, without the canals—lots of twisting streets, charming plazas, arcarded walkways, and of course, the Cathedral. We spent just two nights there, but could have stayed longer. Be sure to walk out of the old town, along the Rua de San Roque, Rua de San Pedro, and Rua de Hortas (where on the left is a small alley leading to a green field, a lovely surprise)—until you reach the really new part, where it gets generic. Most of the restaurants are along Rua de Franco, which has a lively tapas bar scene at night (we had an esp. nice lunch at Carrleña at no. 48). Our little pension (from Lonely Planet) was nothing special—and noisy (lots of carousing college students at 4am). I saw two places that looked promising for the next trip—

www.costavella.com

www.casafelisa.es

From Santiago we flew to Madrid on a cheap flight, found on www.spanair

Other good driving route in Asturias: This route can be done as a day trip from Oviedo.

Head south to Cangas del Narcea (not a lovely town) and continue south on AS-213 (best part of drive). If you want to stay overnight in this area, check out the www.hotelmiravalles.com , in the middle of nowhere--beautuful!

Head toward Villabino, through the tiny, charming village of Vega de Viejos, then head north on C-633 (numbers are not the same on all maps) toward Pola de Somiedo, then on to Oviedo.

Driving to/from Madrid, here are the best places to stop.

LEON--The Hostal Gusman el Bueno was in the middle of the nightlife area. www.hostalguzman.es

SEGOVIA-One of the prettiest places in Spain.

www.hostal-plaza.com good hotel choice near centro

The Restaurant El Fogón Sefardí looked interesting (C/Juderia Vieja 17, just off Plaza Mayor)

www.lacasamudejar.com

BURGOS--a charming small city with a famous cathedral.

Websites for Asturias:
general guide
http://www.asturiasguide.com/
good hotel / hostal listings
http://www.northofspain.com/
parador
http://www.paradores-spain.com/spain/pcangasonis.html
country hotel
http://www.posadadelvalle.com/v_portal/apartados/pl_basica.asp?te=1738
charming hotels of Asturias
http://www.casonasasturianas.com/default_en.asp
NYTimes article about cheese
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/travel/23explorer.html?pagewanted=1
cheap Asturias hotels
http://secure.directrooms.com/cgi/msp/search_results.cgi

CHRISTMAS IN HANOI (2005)

2010-01-03T16:53:00.000-06:00

Nick and I arrived in Hanoi a few days before Christmas. Nick’s old friend, Gerry, (actually his babysitter from 40 years ago) has lived there for 12 years and found us an apartment next door to his in the French Quarter near the center of town. Hanoi is a city of about 3 million, but still has the feel of an overgrown village. It's the only city in Asia I've visited that I would call charming. The long years of war and lack of money meant fewer changes in Hanoi than in many places. It has tree-lined streets with colonial architecture, well maintained parks, over 30 lakes, very few cars (although lots of motorbikes), good food and excellent ice cream. The oldest part of town (dating back a thousand years) is called the “36 streets,” representing 36 merchant groups that originally sold their wares in each street—some still do, like the bamboo vendors and sellers of items for decorating Buddhist altars. The streets are narrow and twisting, full of food stalls, ancient pagodas, women in conical straw hats balancing baskets of oranges on long poles supported on their shoulders, and lots of bicycles and motorbikes. It is the most touristy part of town with many restaurants, small hotels, shops selling local crafts (primarily silk and lacquer ware), and kids desperately trying to sell you postcards or shine your shoes. Although a communist country, Vietnam has a bustling air of commerce, dollars are accepted as readily as dong and there's a definite awareness of rich and poor.

One of the first things to strike me about Hanoi is its curious architecture. An old tax system charged by width, so there are lots of very narrow houses—10 feet at most—going upwards to 8 stories. The French ruled Vietnam from 1859 to 1954, leaving an architectural and culinary heritage. Many houses are decorated in pseudo-French style with lots of balconies, balustrades, pediments, columns, and bas-relief decorations, painted in various shades of blue, green or yellow. There is definitely a sense of “keeping up with the Jones’s,” and some of the houses end up looking like Las Vegas bordellos. Hanoi has lots of old temples and Chinese style pagodas. Our favorite was the Quan Thanh Temple on the north side of town, a tranquil and evocative place. If you go, take a taxi and walk back by way of Pho Phan Dinh Phung to see the best examples of French colonial homes, now mostly used as government offices. The restaurant Seasons of Hanoi is in this area (see below)—plan on lunch.

Another architectural highlight is the Hanoi Opera House built by the French in 1911. Gerry got us tickets to hear the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra one night. The place reeks of colonial privilege, but unfortunately you can only see the interior if there's a performance.

Other sightseeing highlights: the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, where you can see the embalmed body of the highly revered leader lit up like a display at Tiffany’s. It is a bizarre and worthwhile experience. Don’t miss the nearby street market (turn left when exiting the mausoleum grounds). Don't miss the Temple of Literature, the earliest school in Hanoi with a beautiful series of Chinese style temples and gardens. I loved the excellent Museum of Ethnology with an outdoor section of beguiling traditional wooden houses that you can walk through; the park around Hoam Kiem lake just to look at people; the performance of traditional Water Puppets with live music (the theater, right on the lake, has nightly performances). One day we engaged a car and driver ($45 for all day) and drove around to some local villages. Unfortunately, it rained all day, but it was still worth it to see a bit of life outside the city.

We go to all the markets to experience the energy of daily life. We especially liked the Cho Hang Da market in the old quarter and the whole area around it (great birdcages and street food vendors) and the Cho 19-12 on Pho Hai Ba Trung where you can see roasted dog for sale. Our Lonely Planet Guide said the Cho Mo market on the south end of town was of no interest to tourists, so of course we went. We loved it. There are rows of stalls selling rusty metal motor parts, floor-mat sellers on bicycles, and narrow residential alleyways great for exploring. We ate at a market stall there—just a few low benches around a small wooden table. The meal was a bowl of rice topped with various vegetables which we pointed to (avoiding the questionable meats). Our hostess playfully added one insect larva to Nick’s bowl which he obligingly ate. Unfortunately he smiled at the cook after eating it, so she dumped a big spoonful of the things into our rice bowls. Not bad if mixed with enough peanuts.

Food, of course, is a major focus of attention when Nick and I travel and we like to explore beyond the obvious, and to eat everything in sight. Market and street food in Vietnam is not as varied or elaborate as in Thailand—lots of noodle soups and bowls of rice. The food in general is subtler and less spicy than Thai, a bit more like Chinese. Meals are often accompanied by a bowl of fresh greens—lettuce, mint, basil, cilantro and other flavorful leaves. You pop bits of these into your mouth as you eat.

Because Hanoi has lots of tourists, it’s not hard to find menus in English, even in humble places. We were a bit confused sometimes, wondering about such menu entrées as deep-fried camel flesh with frittled flou, testicle chicken with pergularia, and pumpkin puds. The sautéed deer tendons and cuttlefish stomach made sense but we were too timid to order them.

Restaurants I recommend: The Seasons of Hanoi (95 Quan Thanh), an elegant place in an old house. Lots of good vegetable dishes, including a great banana flower salad and sautéed morning glory vines

Hanoi Gardens (36 Hang Manh in the Old Quarter)—be sure to order the spicy grilled squid and the lotus root salad. The watermelon juice in both places was great.

Quan Hué (6 Pho Ly Thuong Kiet) is a homey place with a big menu of Hué style food, including a big seafood hot-pot that Nick loved.

Cha Ca La Vong, (14 Pho Cha Ca, in the Old Quarter), this funky Hanoi institution serves one thing--a delicious fish dish, cha ca, which you cook at the table, and the more you eat, the better it gets. Be sure to check out the bathroom and kitchen in back. The Clintons ate here, so they say (hard to imagine Hillary using that toilet).

Near the south end of the big lake, look for the French Ice Cream place--ice cream with intense flavor.

Every morning we went to the Moca Café (14 Pho Nha Tho near St. Joseph’s Cathedral) where we drank some of the best coffee I’ve ever had.

Our friend Gerry runs a cinema in Hanoi, now 2 years old, which shows all kinds of great movies and is one of the few night-life activities available. It is called the Hanoi Cinemateque and is located at #22 Hai Ba Trung, not far from the Opera House. There is no sign—just walk down the long dark alley (you won’t think there is anything there, but keep going). The sign on the street is for the Hotel des Artistes which is just next to the cinema at the end of the alley. There is also a nice bar, café and restaurant connected to the cinema.

On Christmas Eve, we met up with our friend Joan from London (we met in San Miguel 10 years ago) and her friend Liz from Australia. We had dinner at the City View restaurant, at the north end of the lake just at the entrance of the Old Quarter. Its 6^th floor balcony was a great place to view the Christmas Eve chaos below—like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The streets and parks were packed that night with people walking and buzzing madly on their motos. In one park, a huge Styrofoam Santa attracted lots of family picture-taking. Red Santa hats were on sale everywhere and Christmas songs rang from loudspeakers—we heard “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus” every day of our trip—in Vietnamese. We never really figured out what it all meant to them, but everybody seemed happy. After walking around a bit, we escaped the crowds by ducking into the fancy Hotel Metropole and had dessert. There was a little nativity scene in the lobby with figures carved in butter. It looked like Confucius and 2 Chinese guys to me—definitely no baby and no Virgin Mary.

On Christmas day we went with Gerry to a friend’s house—an American lawyer and his wife. We ate turkey and cornbread stuffing with a group of visiting Americans and a few ex-pats, including one former Vietnam War veteran who now works with land mine victims. The only Vietnamese present was a woman doctor who spoke good English. The conversation got around to the war and I asked her why the Vietnamese don’t hate Americans. “That was then and now is different” she answered with a Buddha smile. After dinner we went to another party of mostly New Yorkers, artists and filmmakers living in Hanoi. It seems there is quite a sizeable community of ex-pats, many French, in Hanoi. But, most are working for NGO’s or embassies, or teaching English. Foreigners cannot own property nor have businesses in their own name, so it limits things, but it was interesting to get a hint of the lifestyle.

One noteworthy aspect of life in Hanoi is the traffic. There are surprisingly few cars, but millions of motorbikes (not motorcycles, but that may change soon as a U.S. trade agreement may force the Vietnamese to allow sales of Harley-Davidsons, which should really wreak havoc in the streets). Hanoi traffic creates a new branch of choreography, similar to the way ants move. Luckily, it moves slowly, because, aside from the few major intersections where you find traffic lights, it is a free-for-all, and crossing the street requires bravery, although eventually I began to enjoy the challenge.

We used the Lonely Planet Guide to Hanoi, which was out of print, but available through Amazon. Gerry had an Insight Guide, which was smaller, but I liked it better. I would recommend both, and anything else you can find.

Since we stayed in an apartment I don’t have a hotel to recommend (unless you want to spend $300-a-night and stay at the Metropole). I would NOT recommend staying in the Old Quarter where many small hotels are—it’s too chaotic, fun to visit but not to stay. I did see one place in the French Quarter that looked appealing from the lobby, the Church Hotel (no website, e-mail Churchhotel@vnn.vn). Look on www.asiarooms.com for good hotel deals all over Asia.

Getting around: we went on the back of motorbikes a few times (scary, no helmets) and also took taxis, which are sometimes hard to find. There are also cyclos, bikes with carts behind, which are fun. Be sure the meter is running or agree on a price with any driver BEFORE you start out—otherwise you are sure to be overcharged. Most destinations in the city will cost 1 or 2 dollars.

BURMA (Myanmar) 2008

2010-01-03T16:45:00.002-06:00

The travel website http://www.perceptivetravel.com/issues/1109/myanmar.html has published my article entitled

'On a slow boat down the Irrawaddy River'.

Click here to read it.