A Man and his Sri Lankan Dog.

Me in the botanical gardens in Kandy, Sri Lanka

That orange dot in the middle is me.  The botanical gardens in Kandy are pretty nice.  The whole country is a botanical garden, so I'm not sure why they decided to make this one specifically.  Seriously, it was worth visiting.  By the way, if you're a local, the price for admission is free.  If you're like me, you have to pay to get in.

Chilling in Sri Lanka

It's actually not as hot as I thought it would be here in Sri Lanka.  Now don't get me wrong, it's still pretty muggy out, as it is a tropical climate.  While you get the immediate skin stickiness outside, I'm not dripping in sweat walking around as I was in Thailand.  Though, I don't think I've been as active as I have in Bangkok.

Since my last posting, I haven’t really been up to much.  I have left the resort town and am now at my cousin’s husband’s family’s house.  They own a huge plantation outside of the capital of Colombo.  It’s really not that far off distance wise, but it takes about an hour and a half drive time.  The streets here are pretty crazy, even by the international standards that I have become used to.  They are congested, but only because they are two lane deals.

For some reason, there is only one main roads leading into towns, and every piece of traffic has to flow through these streets.  Along the streets are tons of small shops and throngs of people scurrying around like ants.  Passing lanes here are used frequently.  When I say passing lanes, they aren’t like the ones back in the States, where one lane is used solely for that reason.  No, passing lanes here are the lanes used by oncoming traffic.  In other words, you could be driving on your side of the road, which is the left here, and see a bus trucking along in your lane, only to veer off back onto its side at the last second before taking off one side of your car.  Everyone honks their horn to warn others that they are passing.  At nights, they flash their highlights.  It’s an odd symphony of sounds and sights really.  And smells if you add in the load I drop each time I come inches from oncoming traffic. 

I am currently writing from an indescribable setting.  When I say plantation, don’t conjure up the image of a Southern plantation with large open fields.  This is essentially a jungle setting.  Well, that’s not really the most appropriate term to use, but rather the setting here is tropical.  The plantation here grows a number of crops, but according to my cousin’s husband, the main exports are king coconuts and pineapples.  But they have many other tropical type fruits here, too.  There are rambutan, banana, jackfruit, rose apples, mangoes are some of the other stuff grown here.  As I have said before, the place looks like a jungle, complete with the occasional animal noises in the surroundings.  During the nights, it’s completely dark and the stirrings from the animals can be disconcerting to my city boy senses. 

My cousin and her husband never usually come during the summer time, which is the only time I can get away myself.  The reason why they are here in Sri Lanka is because my cousin’s husband’s brother is getting married.  The wedding ceremony happened while I was gone, but they did have a “homecoming” ceremony, and I got to attend that.   It was a small gathering of around 700.  I think literally the entire village and their extended families were there.  The buffet arrangement was crazy.  There were two separate lines and probably a ton of food.   Seriously, if you weighed all of the food and drink, it would probably equal to 2000 pounds, which is a ton.  It was standard Sri Lankan fare with curries, lentils, chickpeas, and fruit available.  Oh, alcohol was freely available as well.  And just like anywhere else in the world where there’s free booze involved, there were some drunken people stumbling and babbling around.  My cousin and I were the only foreigners in the whole shindig, and we naturally got some looks.  I always get looks for my handsome, rugged face, but never like this. 

The other day I took a walk around the area.  As I was walking up the road just outside the plantation, within seconds some dude on a motorcycle slows, gets a good look and me, says something in Singhalese, and motions to the back of his cycle.   Mamma raised me to never take rides from strangers, especially half way across the world.  With the said, I knew this guy wasn’t trying to kidnap me and sell me on the market.  I don’t think I would fetch much on the black market:  I’m skinny, complain a lot about manual labor, and can barely eat with my hands.  It turns out the guy lives in the close by and new I was staying there.  He thought I needed a lift into town or somewhere.  The family’s driver also drove by and offered a ride as well later on.  People are super friendly here, and they do offer rides to strangers.  On one last note before I do sign off, I’ve never seen a country of people laugh and smile so easily as Sri Lankans.  It’s something I actually noticed standing in the immigration line at the airport.  I noticed several of the officers actually smiling to the incoming tourists.  Mine actually said to me to have a good vacation.  So far, most Sri Lankans have been more than hospitable to me.  It might have to do with the fact that they never see foreigners around here, but because it’s just who they are.  

My first homecooked Sri Lankan meal

This meal, as all subsequent meals for almost a week, was cooked by the mother of the family.  She apologized that the food wasn't as good as it usually is because she was busy with the homecoming party.  It still tasted good to me.  The spinach looking dish was very good and had a different taste to it.

Hands on in Sri Lanka

I’m sure this is the same way for any person, but I first arrive in a country and am being driven away from the airport, I am always transfixed by the sights, sounds, and smells of those new locations.  This was particularly true with Colombo, Sri Lanka.  I’m basically tagging along with my cousin’s husband and his family here.  He is a native of an area near Colombo, so I am very fortunate to be offered this unique experience of staying with a Sri Lankan family, rather than in a hotel in a touristy area.  As of this writing, I have spent two days lounging in a beach down near a historic town near Galle. 

I was picked up at the airport in Colombo and drove several hours through the capital and other areas to this location.  This is one of those situations where try as I might, words just won’t describe what I’ve seen so far.  In many respects, Bangkok and Colombo are total opposites.  They do both share the fact that they are Asian capitals and teeming with a mass of humanity.  The easiest way of putting it, though perhaps not the most accurate, is to say that Colombo is simply not as developed as Bangkok.  Signs like a skytrain or other form of imposing mode of transportation, the numerous Western chains dotting the landscape, and the wide mix of people in terms of racial origin are lacking in Colombo and in the whole of Sri Lanka. 

The one other interpretation I have so far is that things here are much less frenetic and intense.  Well except for the traffic.  The traffic here, like in many other countries, can certainly get your adrenaline pumping.   Aside from that, however, life in Sri Lanka is much more casual and laid-back.  This is obviously true staying in a beach town.  In all of my trips, I have always been constantly on the go.  In fact, I got a lack of sleep in Bangkok because I’d try to get up at the crack of dawn to maximize the things I can do.  This is one of the only times during my travels where I have chilled out like this. 

On the way here, I witnessed many signs of the tsunami that hit Asia several years ago.  Remains of destroyed buildings were left standing.  Numerous small plots of graveyards, some with just a few headstones, littered the roadside.  The amount of beach space looked very school.  The craziest part was when my cousin’s husband talked to a maintenance guy at the hotel who survived the tsunami.  He was retelling the stories of the event.  Unfortunately he was talking in Singhalese the whole time.  In one of the limited translations provided, he explained the eeriness of the ocean waters receding and then seeing a huge black wall of water engulfing him.  The hotel I stayed at was three stories tall, and the water went up to the second story.  The guy also told of how he saw a woman clinging to a try with no clothes on and high enough where she could safely climb down.   The waves both tore her clothes off and brought her up high off the ground.  The area is apparently being rebuilt, which is a good thing since the area obviously is still trying to recover economically. 

For those of you who wonder what Sri Lankan food is like, the only thing I can really compare it to is South Indian food.  Like many other Asian countries, rice is the staple food.  People here eat mounds of it, as it is naturally cheaper than any other food.  There are also traditionally other dishes such as curries eaten as well.  There curries are cooked in a sauce for hours and have a lot spices in it.  Curries will have some meat in it, chicken, fish, or beef.  Vegetables are more common, but also cooked similarly, slowly and with a great deal of spices.   On the whole, Sri Lankan food is the spiciest I’ve had.   When I say that, I mean both hotness and the amount of seasonings added.  The result of slow cooking with lots of spices equals food that brims with flavors and aromas. 

Texturally, everything is made in sauces and slow cooked, which lends itself to be eaten with rice by hand.   What Sri Lankans do is essentially mix everything up with their fingers.  Because everything is cooked in sauces, it all just kinds of gels together.  You then scoop up some food off the plate and shovel it into your awaiting mouth. 

For me the toughest thing to get used to was eating strictly with your hands.  Or rather hand.  The right hand.  In many Asian cultures the left hand is known to be used for sanitary purposes.   Accordingly, it is considered impolite to handle food or do other personal things with the left hand.  It’s a pretty crappy practice if you ask me. 

Here's my food sampling so far in Sri Lanka...

Sri Lankan food

 This is actually my second meal in Sri Lanka.  My first one was at a place near the airport, and I just forgot to bring my camera.  It was a buffet setup, as many restaurants are.  My favorite dish was in the upper right hand corner of the plate.  That would be eggplant in can't notice.  I think it is only found in Sri Lanka, but it is eggplant.

Goodbye Thailand.  Hello Sri Lanka.

Have you ever wondered to yourself after I announce my travel plans, “What does that little bugger do when he’s off in other countries?”  Well, here’s a chance for you to recreate an experience that I have recently had.  Please follow these steps carefully, and you will see how yours truly does it up internationally. 

Step 1:  Find a sauna or steam room of any kind and crank it up to the maximum setting.

Step 2:  Find a stationary bicycle.

Step 3:  Find some random local Thai people in your area.

Step 4:  Find some trucks, buses, cars, scooters and tuks tuks that completely disregard pedestrians or bicyclists.

Step 5:  Add all of these elements together for a day of fun bicycling through the streets of Bangkok.

This is exactly what I did the other day.  Well not exactly.  We also rode through some alleyways, along rivers, and through parks.  Despite the intense humidity that causes parts of your body you didn’t know existed to sweat and some pretty chaotic traffic, it was a great experience.  Actually let me back it up a half a day.  So I technically took two tours:  the morning one was a walking food tour and the afternoon one was the aforementioned bike tour.  The food tour was great, too, but I may be slightly biased seeing that I love anything edible. 

The food tour was great because it offered a chance for me to sample places I’d never think of ever going to.  Not just because I don’t know where these places are as a visitor, but rather because I probably would not want to sample places that I feel may not be up to hygienic par.  I like to think I’m an intrepid foodie, willing to try anything and everything.  For some reason, eating street food abroad kind of scares me.  I have no trouble eating tacos from a truck back home.  At least I know that the roach coaches there are inspected.  Seeing some the sanitary practices off the streets is pretty nasty.  Thailand is renowned for its street food, and it is literally everywhere you turn.  Some are pretty sophisticated setups with tables and stools nearby.  Access to running water is not.  Call me crazy, but I do prefer to have the dishes I’m eating off of and the hands of my food handlers to not be cleaned by the same water that has been standing there for the whole day.  With that said, we never ate street food on the tour, but we did go to more basic and rustic restaurants, which I am fine with.

Here is all of the food that was sampled on the tour:

Roasted duck in Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand

I've now spent two full days in Bangkok.  You have no idea how sleepless and tired I am.  I got a decent amount of sleep before leaving LA, but it all went downhill from there in terms of shut eye for me.  It's so bad that my head kind of spins when I'm not doing anything.  I spaced out and missed my exit on the skytrain just tonight.  I'm going to try my best to put in a full eight tonight because I have a bike tour tomorrow.  Not much has happened here so far.  I rolled into Bangkok around two in the morning.  The second I stepped outside of the airport, I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore.  Even at that hour, the humidity is so bad that you instantly start sweating out of every pour.  The next day was way worse because I was walking around midday.  I'll get to the travel stuff in a bit.  For now, here's all the food I've had since arriving. 

Ramen noodle soup in Teipei airport

I spent about an hour and a half in Taiwan.  Just long enough to grab a bite.  When I was walking to my connecting terminal, I passed by this place.  At first I wasn't very hungry, but I had time to kill and ventured in to at least see what they had to offer.  Originally I wanted a noodle soup, not ramen exactly, and they were out.  In fact the lady pointed out all the items they were out of, and it was like a third of the menu.  As I started digging into this ramen, I two things immediately dawned upon me:  it was very good and airline food is crappy.   The cost of this was about what I'd pay back home, around 8 dollars, I believe. Not too bad.  I paid around 18 for a sandwich, water and soda in LAX.  And except for the water and soda, it sucked.  Thanks Bruegger's for serving me a turkey sandwich with slightly soggy bread.  That cost more than 10 bucks.

My saga begins....

Okay, my intention was to post on this blog every day, but that obviously ain't gonna happen.  Today is actually Day 2 of my trip, and I am currently sitting in my hotel room with the TV set on BBC World News.  Everywhere I go, Asia or South America, BBC is offered.  I don't why I'm talking about this seeing as this is a food and travel blog.

Before I begin I need to get this out of the way:  there are some pretty damn strange people who travel.  Excluding yours truly.  I took the Amtrak train to LA, as I am usually doing now, and there were a couple of wacky people.  The second I sit down, this elderly dude next to me immediately starts up the chat.  I am a friendly enough guy, I reciprocate.  After a while, I whip out my laptop to do some work and put in headphones.  The guy continues to talk to me.  Then I try to get some shut eye, even though I can never sleep on moving vehicles, and the old timer still is talking to me.  I wasn't asleep, mind you, but my eyes were clearly shut, which would generally indicate that someone is trying to sleep, and therefore probably doesn't want to talk.  Now, I can excuse the guy because he was very nice and he served on the USS Saratoga (that was one we talked about).

In spite of this gentleman's travel transgressions, the lady behind was the one who I truly wanted to slap.  Directly behind my seat was a mother and her toddler.  After a while, I noticed how she spoke to the poor kid.  "Lie down!" still echoes in my mind since that was once phase she repeated over and over.  After like the 12th time, you would think you try a different approach.  Oh, she did say "Go to sleep!" a lot.  Now if you'll kindly notice that I indeed added exclamation points to this lady's comments.  That's not for stylistic writing effect or any such nonsense, that's how she actually spoke.  She didn't yell it, per se; rather she said it in a tone that reminds me of a cop telling a perpetrator to stop resisting.  Now here's the worst part of this sidestory:  this mother listening to hip hop the whole trip.  No, not in her headphones, but on a freaking speaking speaker so half the train car could hear it.  Let me remind you that this was a night train, so pretty much everyone was asleep or trying to sleep after the lights when out.  I could even hear her music through my Bose headphones that blocks out sounds.

Now onto the final nominee for traveler of the year award.  On my first leg to Taiwan, I was doing my usual preparations to get situated.  Then I started hearing some clicking noises, and  I think WTF is that.  I sit down finally, ready to go, and I can see the guy in front of me clipping his nails.  I could literally see his clippings drop to the floor by the window.  C'mon TSA, I thought you didn't allow nail clippers.  Oh speaking of that, I have a tender story to tell.

So to sum up:
Talking to your seatmate:  acceptable
Talking to your seatmate while he/she is busy doing sleeping, like sleeping:  unacceptabe
Taking your kid on a trip:  acceptable
Taking your kid on a trip just to yell at him the whole trip and using hip hop to lull him to sleep:  unacceptable
Clipping your nails everywhere but  on a plane:  acceptable
Clipping your nails on a plane:  unacceptable

Real quick, as I just mentioned I have a rather touching story to tell about my experience at LAX.  After going through the scanner, I was told to stand there.  I waited for a few minutes with my items sitting on the conveyer belt and still no word.  Finally I was asked where my stuff was, and I told them.  One guy collects everything and another dude asks me to follow him.  I was taken into a room and told that they were going to conduct a pat-down.  If you never had to fortune of a full out TSA pat down, it's a little different than the ones when you go into clubs or other events.  The guy was kind of enough to tell me what was going down, but it still doesn't make the whole experience any more enjoyable.  Essentially, the guy wiped his hand across my crotchal region.  I have to hand it to him (no I didn't literally hand anything to him), he was quite gentle.  But he didn't buy me dinner first.

Some of my favorite past photos to whet your appetite. 

Cuy in Arequipa, Peru

In case you don't get the translation of "cuy" or can't see what's in the photo this is in fact a guinea pig.  Correction, it was a guinea pig until I ate him/her.  It really didn't taste that good.  Was it gamey?  Yeah, kind of.  It wasn't bad, but it's not something I'd do again soon.  The worst part was that it didn't have much meat to it.  Neither do I, so I guess I shouldn't complain.  Here's some interesting background to cuy.  Cuy is a traditional, pre-Columbian dish for the people in Andean Mountains.  Back before Columbus sailing the ocean blue, there were no cows or pigs in the Americas.  Guinea pigs, however, were available.  More importantly, guinea pigs were easier to raise and grow in the mountains.  Or anywhere for that matter.  Try raising a cow in your back yard.  On another side note, Peru has hundreds of different varieties of potatoes.  If I asked where potatoes came from, you would most likely reply with Ireland.  Nope.  Before the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria visited the nice folks of the Americas, potatoes did not exist in Europe or anywhere else.  So in exchange for french fries, baked potatoes and chips, Native Americans received boatloads of small pox. 

Chapter 1:  Prologue

For those of you who have the misfortune of knowing me personally, you most likely would know that there are precisely five things that I express an abiding love towards.  In descending order of priority, the list includes:  my family, my friends, my students, traveling, and eating.  Sadly, I do not have a blog devoted to the first three.  It's probably due to the fact that they can speak out after posting things about them, whereas the other ones, not so much.  This inaugural posting shall serve as an outlet for me to discuss the last two items, travel and food.  

I have written extensively in the past about my adventures abroad.  Boy there were some doozies.  Traversing UP a river on the back of a motorcycle to get to some remote village in Cambodia, again riding "b" on a bike WITH 50 pounds of luggage hanging precariously on the handlebars while evading mass street protests in Cuzco, being propositioned for a hummer by a transvestite hooker in Guadalajara,  and many other such international incidents have shaped the core of my being.  Every time I return from a trip, my perspective on life changes in some way.  This is just me waxing philosophically, but when your perspective fundamentally alters, it transcends throughout your daily actions.  When I see a group of boys in a circle laughing heartily and having unadulterated fun doing nothing more than kicking around a flip-flop, I tend to complain less at the prospect of lacking any particular material items in my life.  Now on a more base level, traveling is simply enjoyable; one that involves my palate rather than the core fibers of my being.  One of the singularly unique opportunities that traveling provides is being able to savor cuisine that can literally not be found anywhere else in the world.

That is why I am starting this blog.  My aim is to share my magical moments, open your eyes to the world outside, and to impart some bit of knowledge upon your unsuspecting mind.  If you happen to cry or laugh on the way, well that's the price of admission to this blog.  Please feel free to post any comments, even if it is to rip me a new one for something obscene that may have crossed my lips.  Trust me, you will undoubtedly come across that should you choose to continue reading.  I will attempt to warn you as to avert your eyes, but I cannot any promises or offer any refunds.  Seriously, if you have any questions about anything at all, please ask and leave a comment.  

On May 29, 2012, I will be leaving my sleepy hamlet of Tucson, Arizona, on a whirlwind tour across Asia.  My itinerary for this upcoming trip will include Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, and China.  I will be spending the majority of my two months abroad in China.  For some inexplicable reason, I have been chosen to teach English to university students in a city called Wuhan.  I have only been to Hong Kong before, so I look forward to visiting the Middle Kingdom.  More specifically, I think I will highly anticipate being able to work with international students, as I hope to gain a different insight in my approach to teaching.  I just hope I don't end up traumatizing some poor student due to something that was lost in translation. 

Stick with me here, people, you're in for a ride...