To be fair, one cannot exactly be ON Rangiora. It is not a singular thing, but a small city just north of Christchurch. Additionally, we were more specifically in West Eyreton - which is less of a town and more of a series of intersections, thus the terrible pun of a reference to the nearest populated area with a substantial Centre and collection of local and chain businesses. Regardless, this is the area that we spent three weeks of work exchange with a generous local family.
Read MoreThree Characters
Above is the sunset sky over some barley fields next to the workstay we've been at since arriving in New Zealand at the end of January. We had a day long layover in Auckland before continuing on south - time enough to realize that we are well and truly out of Southeast Asia. The roads here are wider and don't carry a quarter of the motorbikes, street food relatively just doesn't exist, and there's a quiet stillness that I think we only found a few times in Asia*.
Read MoreHighlights: Thailand
Bangkok
Thai Creative & Design Center: Bangkok, in all of its crazy Major Worldly City offerings, has a surprisingly large amount of lifestyle shopping centers (read: fancy malls), many of which have their own surprising offerings tucked inside. We found the TC&DC, via an ad in the paper, on the sixth floor of one such center, hidden away with three great design exhibits (Swiss products, Spanish experimental cuisine, and the permanent exhibit featuring worldwide design achievements from the last 150 years), one cafe/performance space, and one amazing looking members-only library and resource center. Excellent presentation and exciting to find in a city that otherwise proved a little difficult for us to sneak a peek behind the shiny exterior.
Red Sky: We haven't paid $12USD for a drink at any other time this year. Heck, even our bottles of wine came in below that. However, if you consider the cost a surcharge for the view with the added bonus of a well-made cocktail, then you can quickly come to terms with the arrangement. This upscale, perfectly Bangkok, multiple-tiered lounge and restaurant makes it's home on the 56th floor of the Central World complex. It is 360° around on the top tier, encased in tall, double-paned glass walls that make it simultaneously thrilling and slightly terrifying. Thus, the drink takes the edge off and laying on a pillow above all of Bangkok feels just as swanky as it sounds.
Thai Iced Tea: Specifically, the tea from the stand in the heart of the night market next to the On Nut Skytrain station. We'd had the regular, orange colored version in the past and it was excellent here, but by the time we left we'd almost fully switched to the green tea version. So. Good.
Bangkok Art & Culture Center: It was a little wild the day we visited, thanks to National Children's Day, but we give this places props for existing. Particularly funny is the location - sandwiched, as much else, amidst mega-malls in Bangkok, it is an eight story combination of galleries, studios, pop-up shops (like an ice cream meets design store - good looking yum) and generally creative, cultural goings on. The little dude we watched play classical guitar probably isn't there all of the time, but maybe you'd be lucky and catch him on the next day of honoring the wee ones.
Massages: We suppose massages could go wrong (or dicey), but we were lucky to not have that happen. In hindsight, we also should have gotten more. We were able to be spirited back just for a day, we would return to this little place on a corner in Bangkok, up the street from Casey's cousin's apartment. A foot massage that includes some full leg Thai massage and manipulation will shift your alignment, tension and consciousness.
Chiang Mai
PunPun: We covered the awesomeness that is PunPun HERE but we're still thinking of it longingly two months later. *sigh...
Grace Food Store: Oh, the simplicity of this little store which is actually more often a restaurant/cafe that sells other things. We ended up as short-term regulars here while in Chiang Mai. The reasonable price, the smoothies and the sweetest woman (Grace, herself, of course) at the helm made it comforting. Always a highlight to find a place like this.
Baan Thai: When you don a bandana karate-kid style with a group of six others, a bond is formed. At least for the day. There were no top-chef revelations in this class, but the way they made complex Thai dishes accessible was the real magic. Even thou we were in food comas by the end of it, they were delicious, self-cooked food comas.
Yi Peng: This festival was well documented HERE, but it is worth (re)mentioning given all of the dreamy thoughts we have about it and the little lift of excitement we feel when seeing a picture of anything similar. We made it!
Cafe Compassion: Another Chiang Mai find - hidden down a back street and nestled in a green little nook - both literally and ethically speaking. They are are wonderful amalgam of ecologically sound practices, good personalities, delicious food and coffee, community/creative/bicycle events and a relaxing, well-designed space. We wish them success with their first full year of business!
Food cart Roti: These street carts were a little harder to find during the daytime but popped up at night with their tantalizing smells. Roti is a sort of fried thin pancake, folded over into a pocket with any number of fillings and toppings either savory or sweet. My (eli) personal favorite was bananas inside and honey on top.
In General
Transportation options: Different from western culture, Thailand has a ton of options for getting around. Buses and minibuses and cars, to be sure as well as the Skytrain and subway in Bangkok. More interestingly, though, were the motos, tuk-tuks, rickshaws, and songthaews - covered pickup trucks that act as sort of shared taxis with a hop on/hop off mentality.
Perfectly clear and beautiful water: That would be Ko Samet, not Bangkok.
Fresh Produce: Mango, papaya, pineapple, small (real and fresh) bananas, coconut, mangosteen, star fruit, passionfruit, jackfruit, dragon fruit, rose apples (a sort of apple pear combo), tangerines...is your mouth watering as much as mine, yet?
Smooth paved roads: This one likely wouldn't be on this list if we hadn't arrived to Thailand from Nepal, but we did. Casey likened it to feeling your teeth again for the first time after getting your braces off. The novelty wears off pretty quickly but the initial sensation is a beautiful thing.
The food: This is sort of a big category, but the food overall was a major treat. We ate at a good amount of pretty solid Thai restaurants in the U.S. which prepared us for the flavors but what stood out inside the Thai borders was the freshness of a lot of the ingredients we just can't grow locally in New England (kaffir lime, Kampot pepper, galangal, etc.) mixed with ones that we probably can (chillies, basil, etc.). Even the noodles were fresh made from the market most of the time.
Snorkeling: A Ko Samet experience that affirmed how small and vulnerable we humans are and how vast and varied the ocean life on this planet is.
Highlights: Vietnam
The first cup of coffee in Pleiku: We already mentioned this one, but it was a highlight so it's here. It was our introduction to Vietnamese coffee - robusta beans brewed almost like an espresso, so strong it leaves a yellow glaze on the cup, topped with sweetened condensed milk. "Chut-Chut" is key when ordering, as it means you'll only get a thin layer of sweet on the bottom of the glass, not the standard OD amount. Cooler weather and grey skies: Call us crazy but we're both more cold weather types than warm so stepping out of the Thai and Cambodian heat for a bit was a welcome relief. By the time we reached New Year's in no-heaters-Hanoi we were well chilled (stupidly having left our jackets in Bangkok) and realized that it was actually warmer outside than in. Perhaps just because of the exhaust fumes?
The rolling hills around Pleiku: Beautiful lush countryside. Who could complain?
Kayaking around Cat Ba: Beautiful unique sea mountain terrain. Who could complain?
Walking in Hanoi: We're walking explorers to the core and Hanoi's dense center brought us back into our element. It's just impossible to get the same experience in any kind of vehicle as on foot.
20 minutes on a moto to the bus station in Hanoi: ...and similarly, it's impossible to get this particular kind of experience any other way. (Moms and Pops, stop reading) We and our baggage clinging to the back of two motos through evening rush hour: navigating either or both sides of the road, around trucks, against on-coming traffic, stuck in packs of hundreds of other motos, red lights, green lights, 40kmh, 10kmh, 60kmh, brake, accelerate, arrive. Amazing.
Ban Beo in Quy Nhon and Hoi An: Technically this is a specialty dish from Hue but our experiences not only in its presentation and taste made the Quy Nhon and Hoi An versions far more memorable. Almost more importantly than the taste, even, were our surroundings for these two - wonderful people serving and, in Hoi An at least, great company taking us to the best local haunt and sharing dinner with us.
Custom tailored clothes: Take out the awesome ladies we went to to have the clothes made and it's still a highlight. Getting measured, going back for a fitting and coming out the other side with exactly what we wanted (yes, I really DO want orange thread as a highlight in the lining of my suit) was an experience we've never had, nor are likely to have again anytime soon.
Vietnam Women's Museum & Vietnam Fine Arts Museum: We covered this in the Hanoi post, but both were certainly highlights.
All of the food in Hanoi: Covered in full.
Good humor: We heard all sorts of mixed reports (from home, from other travelers, and even from our Cambodian guesthouse owner) about the Vietnamese demeanor. Everyone (read: the overwhelming minority) that said we would find smiles, a good sense of humor, and a warm, friendly welcome was completely right on.
Our Pho friend in Dien Bien Phu: Have we mentioned the smiles and good sense of humor yet?
Cong Cafe: Vietnam started with coffee in Pleiku and ended with coffee in Hanoi. For a former tea shop and self professed "not really a coffee drinker" to be writing this with excitement is a bit of a statement in itself. The coffee at Cong was excellent though the reason it gets mention here is for its ambience - i.e. it had one AND it was excellently designed - and their version of Vietnamese coffee with slightly sweetened yogurt. We failed at acquiring the name of this strange sounding (though delicious) beverage but will be eager to recreate it in the future.
Ko Samet: Fruit Feasts, Snorkeling & Sunburns
Our slightly-earlier-than-anticipated return to Bangkok resulted, obviously, in a little extra time not only to further explore the buzzing metropolis but also to entertain the idea of a small journey to one of Thailand's famed beaches. Neither of us are really beach people, as you might have noticed by my near translucent pale, but with a Thai holiday weekend freeing up and inspiring Casey's (father's) cousin (our most excellent host for all three stops in Bangkok) and a coworker friend of hers, it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed. Enter Ko Samet. It's maybe not the most famous of the beaches, being only three hours to the southeast, but it suited our wants perfectly. A late night speedboat took us across the water to Lung Dum beach where we had a couple of beachside bungalows waiting and for two days we did something that we haven't really done at any point on this trip: totally touristic nothing. We read (a lot) and ate fruit acquired from the entrepreneurial men and women carrying baskets over their shoulders laden with mango, papaya, bananas, oranges, and sweet corn. We went swimming (and, despite our best efforts BOTH ended up with shamefully bad sunburns) and took an evening snorkeling trip that included watching the sunset from the west side of the island. When we decide to do something, we like to try to embrace it as fully as possible and nothing says Tourist Weekend like sharing a 99 baht special ($3 USD) Sex On The Beach. On the beach. At sunset.
And it was gorgeous.
Snorkeling in the crystal clear aqua blue water was an experience more engaging, eye-popping, and perplexing than just about any other I can personally think of. Maybe it was my rookie status, but the mix of awe, terror, curiosity, claustrophobia, and little-kid excitement that overtook me was a bit overwhelming; clams the size of my head, huge blobs of coral with spiky black sea anemones clinging to the sides within arms reach, schools of fish doing the undulating thing you see in nature documentaries, and the occasional deep dark abyss that just faded away into the nightmares of my imagination. It's something I always thought I might enjoy, but never guessed it would be such a complex and powerful version of enjoyment.