A Chronicle of Amy and Sean's World Travels

News from N Zed.

– Did you know that the rest of the world calls the letter “Z” zed?  I didn’t, but it’s true.

– I’m sorry to report that we are not any better at mastering the New Zealand accent.  Although it is in the same general family as the British/Irish/South African/Australian ones, the Kiwi one is definitely unique.  I met an Australian woman doing laundry the other day and we got to chatting about accents and language.  I mentioned that we’re learning that some of the words we use are American English (like apparently the letter z!)  She replied, Honey, American English ain’t English.  I refrained from replying, Honey, ain’t ain’t a word in any language.

– Speaking of laundry, doing laundry (in a machine!) every four days (coinciding with the number of underwear and socks we own) is pure decadence.

– Speaking of accents, on the radio the other day, the Kiwi radio host was making fun of quote, ridiculous British accents, end quote.

– Speaking of Britain, talk of the Royal Wedding was EVERYWHERE in New Zealand on Friday.  (Yes, I watched.  Yes, I loved her dress!)

– You knew it was coming, but I am over this campervan.  Being hemmed in by the rain doesn’t help and we find ourselves venturing out to eat more and more despite the crazy prices.  I swear the campervan is getting smaller.  As I write this, winds and rain howl at our campground outside our campervan shaking it from side to side.  We didn’t have power at the campground when we arrived but it came back on a few hours ago.  Driving here today, the winds whipped everything sideways.  Luckily, not our campervan, although it seemed like a distinct possibility at times.  The tall roof is like a sail.  Everywhere we go, we hear how the weather just took a turn for the worse or that it’s going to be an early winter.  Except for two glorious days in Rotorua, it’s been nothing but buckets of rain since we got to the North Island.

– It’s May 1: twelve days until home and less than two days until we re-enter the United States.  Insane.

– Except, really, it’s twelve or two plus one.  In the most exciting news around these parts, we discovered that we’ll be time travelling on Tuesday and experiencing May 3 twice.  Yesterday, we finally took a closer look at the crazy flight we booked back in January.  At the time, it seemed like a good idea to add a Hawaii stopover in for super cheap prices.  What we forgot about was the many legs of flying required to get those cheap prices.  Going by the local time at each stop, we fly from Auckland to Fiji at around 1:00 on May 3.  We then have an 8 hour layover, and take off again at 11:59 on May 3.  We then land for an hour at Christmas Island (which apparently is somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and luckily is not the Christmas Island over in the Indian Ocean) around 6:30 a.m. on May 4.  Then, in the really mind blowing part, we fly for a couple of hours more to Hawaii, and land around 10:30 a.m.  Except, it won’t be May 4 like we thought.  Because we cross the international date line, it will be 10:30 a.m. on May 3.  So that means we have 8 nights in Hawaii, not 7.  An extra day in Hawaii?  Awesome.  Too bad we booked our interisland flight from Oahu to Kauai and rental car on Hotwire starting on May 4.  Oops.

 

 


Bangkok, Redux.

Going back to Bangkok after Hanoi was like going to see an old friend. We found we loved Bangkok as much as we did the first time three months prior, save for the muggier weather.  We contemplated staying elsewhere but you just can’t beat the fabulous Roof View Place.  We wasted no time visiting old favorites.  We were happy to see our Pad Thai Lady again; we missed her so. And just when you thought a good thing couldn’t get better, a couple opened a coffee shop with chocolately cupcakes several doors away from the Pad Thai Lady.  There was another round of visits to the Peanut Butter and Banana Pancake Lady, the Mango and Sticky Rice Man, the Orange Juice Lady, the movies, the malls, and Ethos Vegetarian Restaurant. Sadly, there was no time for $6 massages, a decision I would come to regret when I realized massages on the islands are at least $8. Outrageous.

We also mixed it up a bit this time, with visits to the Jim Thompson House and a whirlwind ride in a river taxi down one of Bangkok’s side canals. The craziest thing we did was turn left outside Roof View Place instead of staying straight to walk to the bus; it was a whole new world. On your way to work or the grocery store today, take a new way home…you never know what you’ll see.

This isn't no ordinary OJ.

 

Thoroughly vetted as the best pad thai in Thailand.

And now with handy dessert.

This time, we did it right and went to the fancy movies at Siam Paragon.

Flying down the side canals in a water taxi is hands down one of the coolest experiences in Bangkok. You hop on before the boat comes to a full stop and whip down the murky brown water past residential homes displaying lush plants and laundry. The money collectors hanging on outside the boat duck at the underpasses and pull down the retractable roof just in time. It is WILD.

Jim Thompson is a former American CIA agent living in Bangkok who mysteriously disappeared in the 70s. His traditional teak Thai houses and extensive displays of Asian art are on display.

Jim Thompson's House

Jim Thompson's House

Don't forget to take a new path every once in a while...

...you never know what you'll discover.


Scenes from Queenstown, Arrowtown & Wanaka

The Queenstown region is hard to beat any time of year, but in autumn, it is sublime. It didn’t hurt that it was our first (and practically only) sunny AND warm day in New Zealand. Well, maybe not warm to anyone but the Kiwis, who walk around in bare feet and (short) shorts all the time, but not cold. The yellow trees pop against the rugged mountains and blue skies, and who needs ocean when you’ve got long lakes in between mountains? In a country crazy about adventure, they’re craziest in Queenstown. Although we had no plans to do any adventure activities, we somehow found ourselves on a jetboat whizzing through the Shotover River canyon. It was fun, but not extreme; the thrill was equivalent to a roller coaster, which is much, much cheaper. We probably should have hurled ourselves off a bridge or out of a plane or something, but we were entertained just watching people bungy jump off the first bridge in the world where commercial bungy jumping occurred. The autumn splendor continued in Arrowtown and Wanaka; the perfect backdrop for lazy afternoons.

Our first hints of Queenstown's allure on the way into town.

The tail end of the Southern Scenic Route leading into Queenstown.

We had to ditch boring campervan food for a famous burger that weighs a ton. We declare the Fergberger worthy of its fame.

Other people on the Shotever Jetboat in the Shotover Canyon.

 

We were too cheap to spring for the photos.

The most exciting part was when the boat spun around 360 degrees. After transport in Asia, though, it takes a lot to scare us!

Karawau Bridge - the world's first commercial bungy jumping site.

 

Worth the plunge!

View from the mountain pass on the way to Wanaka

The river in historic Arrowtown

Gaining back all the weight I lost in Asia in a single afternoon. (But should you find yourself in Arrowtown, stop by Patagonia Chocolate. It's worth it.)

Wanaka's main drag (where you'll find the blackberry and chocolate muffins at Ritual Cafe).

Another beautiful lake on our way from Wanaka to the Haast Mountain Pass


Eating Vietnam Out of House and Home

If there’s one thing I could say about our month in Vietnam, it’s that it was one tasty month. While we normally grow weary of a country’s cuisine by the end of our time there, I could have kept eating Vietnamese even after we left, and mentioned to Sean I had a hankering for spring rolls after we passed a Vietnamese restaurant in a Bangkok mall.

Thanks to Tram’s Kitchen in Bloomfield at home, we’d already sampled Vietnamese food before this trip, so we were eagerly awaiting to try some tasty eats in Vietnam itself (on eight inch stools, of course). Beginning meals in the Mekong Delta were disappointing – here’s a tip; don’t order Pho All because the all is quite scary, indeed – but things improved quickly.  Each region has its specialties, so there’s more nuanced variety than you first realize.  Here’s some of our favorites (not to mention the runners up of stir-fried cactus at fresh veggie-centric and beautiful Cuc Gach Quan in Saigon; cao lau noodles and white rose dumplings in Hoi An; any of the delicious things My and Mr. Pepperman had us try in the Central Highlands; any sort of street-made dumpling or bun cha in Hanoi; and the many tastings of chicken stir-fried with chili and lemongrass countrywide):

Fresh spring rolls

Without a doubt, our favorite meals are fresh spring rolls. Surprisingly, these can be hard to find – probably because I wanted them with every meal. The pre-rolled ones were tasty – especially if they are being rolled right next to you seconds before you eat them, like ones we had at a market in Saigon – but there’s something about rolling them yourself. Our first encounter was at the market in Dalat. (Are you noticing a theme? The best food is at Vietnamese markets.) We hovered near a food stall, trying to figure out what the heck they were serving as everything was in Vietnamese. A kind woman took pity on us and come over from where she was sitting at a different restaurant. She suggested that we try the spring rolls being served at the stall in which we were standing by since they were the best in town. With that ringing endorsement, we gratefully let her run interference between us and the women behind the stall, who only spoke Vietnamese. When you’re at a make your own spring roll place, you receive rice paper for rolling, spicy peanut sauce for dipping, and lots of fixins’ for stuffing: rice noodles; pork prepared multiple ways; lettuce; mounds of fresh mint, basil, and other herbs; and raw banana, starfruit, cucumbers, and fried rice paper for crunch. Words can’t describe how fresh, how tasty, how crunchy, how tangy fresh spring rolls are in Vietnam. When our Easy Rider guides took us to a fresh spring roll restaurant on our second night at Buon Mi Thiout, I nearly died of happiness.

Ready to roll in Dalat

This Buon Mi Thiout restuarant's specialty is the hot peanut sauce accompaniment, seen in the right hand corner.

At the Ben Thanh market in Saigon, I was inches away from this women while she rolled up our order. Don't be afraid of the Spring Roll Nazi woman who patrols around you while you eat.

Fried spring rolls

While the fresh ones beat the fried ones by a landslide, I was a fan of the fried ones as well, especially those fried with a light touch, like the ones at Madame Foung’s place in Hoi An. Madame’s restaurant is called the Light Candle. If she’s not in the back cooking, she’ll call out to you like all of the other vendors in Hoi An. But if you come in, unlike some others, she’s be really, truly glad you came. We half-ignored Madame Fuong one afternoon as she was one of many voices calling out for us to buy something or come inside. But then when we couldn’t find the restaurant we were looking for, we turned around and decided to try the Light Candle. Madame came rushing over to us, and exclaimed, with genuine joy and enthusiasm, Oh! You came back! You came back! We would have returned just for Madame’s cheerful demeanor (even though she only speaks a few words of English), but her food matched her attitude. The Candle Light spring rolls, as she calls them, are sublime. If you go, try them; she’ll make you order them anyway. You’ll be glad you did.

Candle Light spring rolls at the Light Candle

Sean and Madame Foung

Pho

Once we recovered from the Pho All debacle, we become pho addicts. Not all phos are created equal; some are just too rich for our liking, but most have a delightful blend of meat stock (created by bubbling overnight in a giant pot), tender beef or chicken, long skinny white noodles, savory spices like cinnamon, star anise, cloves and cardamom, fresh bean sprouts, chili peppers, and lime. The best phos are served at non-descript roadside restaurants doubling as the family’s home or from big vats on sidewalks, eaten on tiny chairs while the city hustles by. Pho is typically eaten for breakfast, although you can find pho at all times of the day. I have strict notions of what is breakfast food and what is not, and soup is the last thing I thought I’d want for breakfast. But we quickly realized the $1.25 steaming bowl of soup was a much tastier alternative than the Vietnamese adaptation of plain egg omelets for Westerners, so we started eating pho whenever we could get our hands on it.

Dinner pho ga in Saigon

Bun Bo

We only got to try this heavenly dish once, in Hanoi. If we’d had it sooner, surely we would have been searching for it high and low. Bun bo (the Vietnamese words for noodles and beef) has, well, bun and bo, along with fresh lettuce, coriander, basil, beansprouts, and crushed peanuts. Then’s there’s some sort of delectable sweet sauce to top it all off. Yum.

Bun bo in Hanoi at a restaurant recommended by the Rendezvous Hotel.

Fruity Goodness

Out of all of the Southeast Asian countries, we found the tropical fruit to be the freshest and tastiest in Vietnam, especially in the Mekong Delta. There was such variety, and we tried as much as we could. Our favorites were the juicy pomelos; ordinary watermelons that taste like summer in every bite; and the exotic dragonfruit.

The dragonfruit is beautiful to admire and delicious to eat. The ones with white flesh aren't as sweet, but they're juicy with little crunchy seeds like a kiwi.

Let's get a look again. That's one beautiful fruit.

The elusive red dragon fruit. Sweeter than the white ones, they're worth the hunt and extra cost. Don't be alarmed by the toilet over the next few days.

A partially peeled pomelo. Even with a knife, they're a pain to peel; shell out for the ones that are already peeled.


Scenes from Milford Sound and Fiordlands National Park

When I decided to intersperse posts about the rest of our Southeast Asian travels with our current escapades in New Zealand, I didn’t plan to have back to back posts about Halong Bay and Milford Sound. But considering that Milford Sound reminds me of Halong Bay in many ways (minus the shoddy safety and karaoke), it is fitting.

Milford Sound is really a fiord carved out many years ago by glaciers. Fiordland National Park is widely considered the most beautiful area in New Zealand. As with Halong Bay, we experienced Milford Sound on a day that was cold and rainy and thick with fog. Considering it rains 200 days out of the year, with an annual rainfall of just shy of 300 inches, the weather we experienced was not a shock, but we were a little disappointed because we suspected the fog masked some of the area’s grandeur and scale. We made the most of it though, and ponied up for a cruise through the Sound to the Tasman Sea and back. On the 2 1/2 hour drive through Fiordlands National Park back to Te Anau from the Sound, we dragged ourselves out of the campervan into the rain at every viewpoint and short hike we could bear. It’s a beautiful area, even when it is ensconced in opaque whiteness.

We woke up early to get a head start before the crowds and got to see this sunrise over our campground. We thought the weather looked promising but the rain started falling harder the deeper we got into the Fiordlands.

The drive through the Fiordlands National Park is just as beautiful as Milford Sound itself.

Waiting for the light to change at the Homer Tunnel, we entertained ourselves by taking pictures of the keas (tropical parrots). You can see how thick the fog is; that's how the background really looked.

During our cruise, I had to retreat under the awning because the rain kept falling on my lens. At some point, we gave up and went inside to the warmth of the cabin.

One plus of being there on a rainy day is the streams of waterfalls. There were hundreds the day we visited.

Like this fantastic one.

One of the shots from a stop on the way back out of Fiordlands National Park.

Also carved by a glacier.

Towards the end of the afternoon, as we reached the edge of the park, the sun finally came out. This is the Mirror Lakes, named for obvious reasons.


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