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Destinations, Thailand

Avoiding Wat Weariness in Asia: Temple of the Reclining Buddha

December 2, 2012

Like symptoms of an overzealous Cathedral Craze in Europe, too many visits to too many Buddhist Temples in Southeast Asia soon cause Wat Weariness.

wat [wɑːt]

n(Non-Christian Religions / Buddhism) a Thai Buddhist monastery or temple

[Thai, from Sanskrit vāta enclosure]

Yes, the “seen one, seen ’em all” attitude runs the risk of missing beautiful spots, but the “must make a stop at each recommended site” leaning leads to lunacy.

Throughout Southeast Asia, we took the following approach: When feeling energetic and curious, we’d poke around places and give them our attention and appreciation. When we weren’t, we didn’t.

Hence, no visits this trip to Bangkok’s Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Saket, Wat Benchamabophit, Wat Traimit, Wat Prayoon, Wat Suthat, Wat Mahathat, or Wat Arun (well, unless you count our balcony overlook across the river at sunset).

But…we did decide to explore the temple grounds at Wat Phrachetuphon Vimon Mangkararam Ratchaworamahawihan (let’s call it Wat Pho, for short), and absolutely enjoyed the calm, unhurried visit. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Food, Thailand

Onward to Asia: Surprised In Bangkok

December 1, 2012

Hey friends, welcome to Asia! We’ve sunk completely into New Zealand life after completing a five-week tour of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. At long last, with a bit of reasonable wifi and more than a few cups of tea and toastie sandwiches to fuel the photo sorting and story gathering, we’re finally set to start sharing the new series. Hope you enjoy the tales as much as we enjoyed the adventures! Cheers, Bethany

Aspects of Asia intimidated me. Challenging alphabets, unidentifiable ingredients, eastern traditions of dress and worship and dwelling. Mayhem on the roadways. All so decidedly different from my upbringing as an English-speaking westerner living in calm-as-mashed-potatoes Oregon.

Bangkok, Thailand made sense on the map when we worked out our RTW route: an easy jump into the shallow end of Southeast Asia, a hub for accessing neighboring countries. We bought the tickets and committed, and I fully expected to do more research and trip planning while we were in Africa. Reality took a different shape: our wifi access was expensive and limited during the string of months leading to arrival, and quite unlike our preparation for beginning-of-the-trip South America, we had little on hand in terms of guidebooks, itineraries, or resources.

Thankfully, our friend Lindsay posted Love at First Sight about her summer visit, and Meg and Tony, our pals at Landing Standing, shared their (promising!) First Impressions of Bustling Bangkok. Others, like Bethaney at Flashpacker Family, wrote about Tough Times in Bangkok. After experiencing our own bouts of travel fatigue and more than a few cravings for stability and calm, we honestly didn’t know what to expect. Continue Reading…

Destinations, South America

Beautiful Ideas Help the World: SOUTH AMERICA {Knitting Peace Giveaway}

November 26, 2012

This Cyber Monday, let me introduce you to a different deal. While stores are luring spenders with sales and northern hemisphere folk are preparing for winter holidays, imprisoned women in Bolivia are crafting beautiful artisan goods to support their families and better their lives, empowered by local La Paz based social enterprise Knitting Peace.

Over the past few months, I’ve been featuring organizations I personally love in the Beautiful Ideas Help the World series. These project are impacting lives all over the globe through beauty, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Since I can’t bring back souvenirs for everyone, I’m hosting giveaways along with each post, to offer each of you a little chance at something special from overseas.

Feature Three: Knitting Peace: La Paz, Bolivia

Enter to win this gorgeous hand-knit alpaca wool throw (valued at $180.00!) by leaving a comment; read below for the full story.

The photo above features Knitting Peace’s alpaca wool throw worn as a wrap. The fiery orange was such a hit that it’s sold out already for the season! Giveaway winner to choose between available bone and heather grey colors.

I’m not a fan of gimmicky giveaways, so I’m not requiring tweets or follows, but I’m providing links to Knitting Peace, and I’d love to invite you to follow the project’s story and think about purchasing from them the next time you want your dollars and cents to go toward something beautiful.

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment below answering one of the following questions. (Leave a second comment answering the other question if you’d like to enter twice.)

A) What comes to mind when you think of Bolivia?

B) What handmade gift have you been most proud to make or most honored to receive?

Giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere. (That means you lovely international readers as well!) All you need is a mailing address. Winner will be chosen at random and notified by email. If winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be selected and notified. See here for full giveaway terms and details.

Giveaway closes at 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time (that’s Oregon!), on Thursday, December 6th. Continue Reading…

Musings, New Zealand, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: Untethered in New Zealand

November 18, 2012

Time for another semi-random Weekend Update!

Since 2004, I’ve been scheming about one particular thing.

The plan? “Some way, some how, get back to New Zealand.”

On October 31st, 2012, we touched down at Auckland International Airport, and for the past nearly-three weeks we’ve been in a wonderland of sorts, starting in the city, then disappeared into the rolling green hills….


Waitakere Ranges Regional Park Continue Reading…

Destinations, Food, Zanzibar

Flavor on a Dime, Luxury on a Dollar: Favorites From A Dozen Days in Zanzibar

November 16, 2012

During our dozen days in Zanzibar, we managed to find delightful meals, new friends, comfortable accommodations, and perfectly pulled espresso shots, some for the price of a few pretty pennies, others at cost of shiny gold coins. For those planning a visit to Zanzibar, enjoy our mini cheat-sheet of favorite activities in Stone Town and beyond, and for those of you reading along for armchair travel, enjoy the peek at life on this colorful island. I so wish we could’ve packed you along in our suitcase!

Colorful Street Food – Fodorhani Gardens Night Market
Favorite fare: Coconut potato soup with fry bread dumplings: 1,000Tsh ($0.62 +/-)
This outdoor market on the Stone Town waterfront crawls with visitors looking for a bite and vendors looking for a mark. Strike one on the grilled octopus (especially compared to octopus later in the trip), but absolute home run on the coconut potato soup Ted learned about from a friendly fellow named Ahmed.



Freshly-squeezed sugar cane juice; grilled octopus and seafood galore Continue Reading…

Destinations, Food, Photography, Zanzibar

Cooking Octopus Curry with A Woman Named Peace

November 10, 2012

Coconut palms, mango trees, citrus fruits, rice and spice and fish. Turmeric, vanilla beans, hot chilies, black pepper, and cinnamon curls…

Zanzibar cuisine.

When we arrived on the island, a spice tour and a cooking lesson were my two highest hopes. Rather than find a touristy cooking lesson in Stone Town, I waited to look for a teacher until we left the city and settled into our spot an hour east, on the beach near the little town of Bwejuu. I’d read about a project in a neighboring village where local women taught cooking lessons as part of a grass-roots community development project, but as it turned out, I didn’t even have to look that far to find exactly what, or rather who, I was hoping for.

Removed by sea and time from the hazy city of Dar es Salaam (a gritty place on mainland Tanzania, ironically bearing the Swahili name Haven of Peace), a woman named Peace sits inside a woven-palm-walled hut on the white sands, selling her wares, saving her earnings, and offering kindness to strangers like me. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Musings, Photography, Zanzibar

Sandy Beaches Sell Postcards and Plane Tickets

November 6, 2012

We haggle over an hour long bus ride, will it be five thousand shillings or three?

We dicker, we hand over crinkled bills, we ride.

On a daladala, normal shifts.

Boxes and bags and bodies cram together in a metal shell unfit for road use by any and all US standards. Smells of sweat and burning oil mingle. Window glass balanced in rubber seals rattles as we ride, framing views of an island changing shape before our eyes.

“Computer training center” one sign says, before we pass another mud brick house with leaky thatch roof.

Bikes and cattle share the pavement. Coconut palms and banana trees lean away from us and toward the afternoon sun.

Between shores, the heart of the island beats.

Generations long since used to alien visitors seeking spice and spice of life watch another load of tourist overtake a load of produce. Dollars and cents.

Crossing from one coast to another, I wonder.

Who pays for paradise?

Whose normal is this, anyway? Continue Reading…

Destinations, Featured Places, Food, Zanzibar

Tasting Zanzibar: Dinner in Stone Town at Emerson Spice Hotel

November 4, 2012

We found ourselves at sunset in Tanzania, making that upward, upward climb, not pursuing Kilimanjaro’s summit, mind you, but following the wooden stairways winding skyward to the rooftop restaurant at Emerson Spice Hotel in Zanzibar.

My hopes for spice revelations in Zanzibar briefly went up in smoke after our disheartening spice tour…but the flavors and atmosphere of a magical night at Emerson Spice high above Stone Town’s skyline effortlessly resurrected the romance of our East African dream. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Food, Musings, Zanzibar

Cardamom Spice Tea: Bitter and Sweet on a Spice Tour in Zanzibar

October 31, 2012

“Zany Zebras Zoom Through Zanzibar!”

Alphabet cassette tapes of the 1980s pained a wild and colorful picture of a place in my childhood mind. Twenty years later, I heard Lynn Rosetto Casper’s voice through my iPod headphones. She was chatting with a Splendid Table listener who had recently returned from Zanzibar, and my imagination again filled with scenes of spice plantations and market stalls. I could almost smell the coconut and cinnamon and cardamom spice as Lynn rattled off recipes, and I was smitten by the sounds of such an exotic trip…

I remember Ted and I sharing travel planning dates at Townshend’s Tea in NE Portland, drinking alternating pots of highland, kashmiri, and masala chai…plotting our great escape. When we pinned down our travel route and sorted flights, this Tanzanian island off the eastern coast of Africa moved from fantasy to reality, and I could barely contain my excitement at the thought of tracking my favorite spices back to their origins.

My highest hopes:

1) Seeing my kitchen pantry spices growing in fertile soil under tropical sun

2) Bringing my cookbook-world to life by learning a recipe or two from someone living on the island

Like most visions of the unknown, reality came in different shades. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Photography, Zanzibar

Arrival in Zanzibar

October 30, 2012

After passing through Tanzanian customs chaos and spending one thought provoking night in Dar es Salaam, we arrived on Zanzibar Island via ferry boat and let Stone Town overwhelm our senses.

Blue oceans and bright saris.

Loud voices calling “Jambo!” and singing “Hakuna Matata” through the streets.

Hot sunshine blazing down.

Spiced coffees, spiced teas, spice tours. (Oh, spice tours. Wait for the next post…)

Flavors and colors and moments on the east coast of Africa… Continue Reading…