#because when I do shop drops historically everything has sold out within a few days

[robinsceramics]

got asked if I take commissions a couple times since I posted the last werewolf! As of now, unfortunately, I don't do commissions, because finishing a sculpture can take up to two years (my dad and I only fire our kiln once or twice a year). I don't want to be thinking about an Obligation for that long, it would stress me out.

however!! I do plan to make more werewolves for the next kiln firing, and I'm open to suggestions about what kinds! :]

[canbrake8-blog]

Vietnam, Part 2

Hitting the road again, or the skies I should say (although we did one bus ride during our trip – more about that later…), we touched down in Da Nang, specifically to visit The Museum of Cham Sculpture, a museum that is not to be missed if you’re in Vietnam.

I forgot all my deities since I stopped doing yoga (such as Ganesha and Shiva, and how one guy got that elephant head, and why Shiva is wearing that snake around their neck – and smiling about it), so it’s good to do a little reading about them before you go to help you understand more about the artifacts in this museum. We took an 8am flight out of Ho Chi Minh airport, landing about an hour later, and taking a taxi right from the airport to the museum, which is only 3km away (I’ve given some tips at the end of the post about using taxis in Vietnam, that are worth noting), so it was easy to get there and spend the morning looking at the remarkable sculptures and friezes, many dating back to the 4th century.

I have the lowest museum attention span in the world, and two hours in this museum was just the right about of time to take it all in. Then I grabbed a Grab to take us to Hoi An, where we spent the next two nights. The old town of Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and its traditional architecture is well-preserved, although not overly so. It still has a bit of funk, in spite of quite a few tourists (including us) roaming the streets.

Someone told me Hoi An is the most touristed town in Vietnam and it’d be hard to disagree. At night, the historic old town is jumping with people strolling by, and shops selling stuff, as well as locals offering everything from boat rides and fruit, to silk scarves (the town is known for its silk) and leather sandals. People also come to Hoi An to have suits and clothing made for them, and you’ll find several streets lined with custom tailor shops. Someone told me that if you bring a picture of what you like; a suit, a dress, or a shirt, they’ll make it for you, and have it ready in a day or two. I grew up wearing ties and jackets to school every day, so it takes a pretty compelling reason (or event) to get me into a suit, so I passed, but could have used a few more linen shirts since the ones I brought were splattered with Pho and dragon fruit stains.

Outside of the old town, we found more interesting things than in the old town, like the jumble of housewares being sold on a sidewalk, below, and spa treatments at White Rose Spa. We learned back in Ho Chi Minh City that massages and facials are very inexpensive in Vietnam, and mostly very good, so we’d indulged with our friends there, and now, here. (Note that it’s customary to tip if you had a good treatment.)

In Hoi An, we had a very good meal at Vy’s Market (the lime leaf chicken skewers were particularly good, as was the tofu skin salad), which someone online wrote was “sanitized” street food. It may have been, but we liked it all the same. Very fresh ingredients, nice servers, and tasty. Cao Lau Bale Well (45/3 Train Hung Dao) was recommended by several people (not locals) and while we found the place interesting, the Cao Lau noodles weren’t all that compelling. It was, however, charming, located off a side street in what was probably part of their home. They were also really nice, which made it…fine.

Another meal was at Nu. A sweet little place where the steamed pork buns were good, as was the chili ice cream we had for dessert. You won’t be the only English-speaking people dining there, but we liked it. There’s also a night market with an indoor eating area for street food, which I’d check out if I went back. If you want a taste of Egg Coffee, I had one at Passion Fruit coffee that even my skeptical partner liked. (I tried to compare it to sabayon, but he wasn’t having any of that.)

We stayed at the Vinh Hung Riverside hotel located on the river, not far from the old town, but far enough away so you were a decent distance from the fray. The staff was unfailingly polite and helpful and we had a nice room on the river, although I’d recommend perhaps staying in a room that’s not on the ground floor. I didn’t want to sleep with the door open so we shut everything and turned on the AC. The button on the machine was so bright that it was like a spotlight over us, in the room, which made it a bit difficult to sleep. It wasn’t really hot enough to warrant the AC, but we used it instead of keeping the door open. (Unfortunately, the unit was high on the wall and there wasn’t anything to block the light with, but I just discovered these, and am thinking of traveling with them because so many hotels have appliances and switches with really bright lights. Can people really sleep with all those lights flickering and glowing in the dark?) But we liked the hotel, which had a nice pool, and the breakfast offered a variety of Vietnamese foods and fruits. I gorged on rambutans, mangoes, and passion fruits.

We then took the 2-hour bus to Hue, which ended up taking a little more than 4 1/2 hours. The bus had funny, sort-of lie back seats, which looked appealing when I first saw them, but anyone taller than 5 feet (or who has never done yoga) might feel a bit squished after a while. (Another spoiler: You couldn’t sit upright in the seat, even if you wanted to.) While the bus had pillows, which Romain and some others grabbed for propping themselves up, the driver bellowed at anyone who took one, so they sheepishly put them back. I was okay lying halfway down for an afternoon, although some people were going all the way to Hanoi, and I’m sure they will need a few massage treatments to uncoil them once they arrive.

I hate to post the obligatory “I’m in paradise” shot, especially when so many of you (or us, which now includes me) are back in the cold. But this was a pretty beautiful spot in Hue.

It was our hotel, the Pilgrimage Village. It was located a little out-of-town, but the hotel had a shuttle and cabs were inexpensive (about $3 -4) to take you anywhere you wanted to go. So it wasn’t a problem going back and forth.

I was especially interested in going to the Dong Ba market in Hue. There was a lot to see there, and when our taxi driver dropped us off, he took Romain’s shoulder bag off his shoulder, and wrapped the handles around his neck, letting him know the keep his eyes on his things.

The market is pretty much an all-out assault of foods, spices, people, stuff, cookware, raw meat, kids, hats, seafood, fabric, jewelry, eyeglasses, bins of rice, tropical fruits, and more. Once you’re inside, you’ve pretty much go to go all-in. Even though the electricity seemed to be off in the market, we surged forward with everyone. If you stand still, within seconds, someone will slide past, through the narrow aisles with tables heaped with stuff on either side of you, and while it wasn’t at all dangerous, it’d be pretty easy to lose a billfold if you weren’t mindful of it.

Some people have said that the sellers were very aggressive here, although we didn’t find that to be too much of the case. Like other markets in Vietnam (except for the ones we went to in Ho Chi Minh City, if you stopped to look at anything, or even glance at it, the vendor will do their best to engage you and negotiate a price, even if you don’t really want it. It’s not my preferred way to shop, but that’s the way it’s done. Which was probably better for me anyway, as I didn’t have as so much to lug home. Although those colorful jars of pickled vegetables were certainly tempting!

We did track down the well-known Bun bo Hue (beef soup) stand, which is in the “street food” section of the market. (There’s a story about how to find it here.) We were a little underwhelmed, as the people next to us seemed to be. Maybe it was an off day, but if you look at the Bun bo Hue we had later that evening, two pics down, I’ll let you decide which soup looks better to you.

If you do go to the market in Hue, I would hire a guide, or take a tour of the market with someone who knows it well. It’s pretty overwhelming and there’s a lot of see, and taste, which isn’t so easy to do on your own. It’s definitely one of the great markets I’ve been to in the world, and worth exploring. But there was so much I wanted to know more about, it would have been nice to have someone navigate for us, and explain what things were, like these orange fruits (or vegetables?)

We ate well that night at Tai Phu where the Bun bo Hue (below) was more to my liking.

We also had some good Banh cuon (rice paper rolls) at Tai Phu, and Romain liked his Bun thit (vermicelli noodles with chicken) but the dish of the house seemed to be the pork skewers (nem lui), which came in a plentiful portion with green mango slices, noodles, and herbs, to roll in rice paper.

[A reader who lives in Hue was kind enough to chime in with some local spots for Bun bo Hue – thanks smallhue! – suggesting Bún Cam at 45 Le Loi and Bún Mụ Roi at 14 Nguyen Che Dieu, that she advised getting to before 8am for the best selection of “options,” as she called them. Our hotel had breakfast on a dock under a thatched roof, with unlimited Vietnamese coffees, so I wasn’t leaving there.]

If you eat at Tai Phu, be sure to arrive in the area early and walk around the streets, where an open-air market takes place. It’s pretty laid back, and like all the markets in Vietnam, you want to cry at how beautiful all the fruits and vegetables are, stacked, lined, and piled up. I think it’s called the Ben Ngu market.

The most beautiful meal we had in Vietnam was at a place whose name I forgot (I know…right?) It had a little open-air area within the restaurant, and from the outside, you’d never know such a charming place existed. When I remember the name, I’ll update the post.

However beautiful the meal was, it was a challenge to eat. Absolutely no offense to the restaurant, but the flavors were very, very strong, and hard to describe. I think, like Vegemite, natto, and blue cheese, some things don’t translate outside their culture. I can’t describe it but I felt bad leaving most of it behind. I also wasn’t feeling so great that day, so it was hard to power through a meal of distinctive flavors. But I will say, the others in the restaurant were eating everything and enjoying it, so it was definitely our tastes, and didn’t reflect on the quality (and the beauty) of the food.

We liked eating at HANH, in Hue, the night we arrived, which was recommended by a woman at our hotel. We started with tiny bowls holding steamed rice cakes with fresh shrimp and bits of crunchy pork rinds, which you pry from the bowls with a spoon and eat with fish sauce. I ordered a bottle of what was called “local rice wine” in English on the menu, and out came a 500ml (2 cup) bottle of “Men vodka.”

When I posted a picture on Instagram, one reader noted it was “just awful stuff” and another said, “terrible…unpleasant.” I asked the server if I could exchange it for shochu, which was so strong, I think I lost a few layers of enamel on my teeth trying to, and a couple of layers of my stomach lining, as I didn’t want to be impolite and leave a lot behind. I drank what I could, then chalked it up to a “lesson learned”! Perhaps the kitchen staff enjoyed the rest after their shift.

After returning to Ho Chi Minh City, we didn’t get to go back to Spice, which we really like the first night of our arrival, because it was Tet (New Year’s), which most of the city shuts down, including restaurants.

But we did eat at Quan Bui Garden (in District 2), where you can also buy beautiful contemporary Vietnamese pottery (I brought six plates back), and Restaurant 13, where we liked the beef and onions cooked in vinegar, which you wrap in rice paper rolls at the table, as well as the little crisp rice cakes, with shrimp and scallions, known as Banh Khot (above), which you wrap in leaves and eat.

At Com Nieu Sai Gon there were several families there celebrating Tet, and having a good time. We had jellied pork, crispy fish on rice (above), Caramelized clay Pot pork, and grilled prawns. (The menu had “fake dog meat” on it, which we didn’t order.) We kept hearing plates shatter, while people cheered, and weren’t sure what was happening. But the restaurant bakes rice until a crisp coating forms on the bottoms in small earthenware bowls. The rice is “presented” by smashing the bowl. It’s called Com Dap, and here’s a video of it:

I also met up with pals Marge Perry and David Bonom, who just happened to also be traveling through Vietnam at the same time, for Banh Mi sandwiches from Banh Mie Huynh Hoa, eating them at a local beer garden, whose men’s room was definitely rated R (or maybe X, depending on your sensibilities). I did take photos but worried that they would violate Instagram’s guidelines (and trust me, even after a few decades of living in San Francisco, I thought nothing would shock me), so didn’t publish them anywhere. But David and I are still recovering from it, and even Marge, who I insisted go into the men’s room for a look.

But I don’t want to leave you on that note, as Vietnam was wonderful. Some readers asked me how it was to travel through the country and I thought it was pretty great. On the whole, it was fairly easy to travel there and people were friendly and helpful. The food was very good, it’s not expensive, and the country is small enough so that you can visit several places if you’re there for ten days or so. It’s a country that’s in transition (they’ve gone through a lot), and has some challenges, but it was one of the most exciting places I’ve ever visited and next year, we’re planning to go back.

Here are some tips and suggestions for traveling in Vietnam:

1. Change money when you can. It’s not as easy to change money in Vietnam as it is elsewhere. While there are banks, locals don’t use them, instead preferring to change money elsewhere, if they can. Citibank and HSBC have ATMs which work with western credit cards; some local bank machines don’t work with U.S.-based cards. Citibank and HSBC ATMs are not everywhere, though, so use them when you find them. 

Many places take credit cards in Vietnam, but some places don’t. Taxis have credit card machines but over half the time, the driver told me they weren’t functioning. (One held up a broken wire, to show me.) So have cash available. Also be sure to call your bank before you go, to let them know you’ll be traveling in Vietnam.

2. Carry tissues or napkins. Some restaurants supply them, others have very small squares of wispy-thin paper to use, and others give you a pre-moistened towelette. The food can be saucy (and restrooms don’t always have towels or tissues) so I was glad I have little tissue packets on hand. You should also carry toilet tissue as restrooms don’t always have it.

3. Drink a lot of (bottled) water. The tap water should not be consumed and it’s easy to get dehydrated due to the heat. I was felled for a day with a mild fever, which maybe was attributed to not getting enough water. (Or perhaps something I ate.) While there are drugstores in Vietnam, they are more like counters with a pharmacist and pills are sold individually. Although we didn’t need them, some travelers find they need Immodium or a similar product, which traveling, so I recommend bringing a box along rather than trying to find a box when you’re desperate.

Similarly, you can get sunscreen in Vietnam, but it’s not as widely available as it may be at home. I recommend bringing a bottle or two, especially if you’re planning any beach time.

4. When eating out, especially at the markets or street food stalls, go to places that are crowded with locals. They won’t return to places that don’t have good hygiene. Use common sense when eating at stalls; look at how clean the surrounding area is, how the food is kept, how the food is prepared, and even the condition of the tables, chairs, and dining area. As someone who’s worked in a number of restaurant kitchens, a messy, disorganized place is not the sign of a diligent cook or owner.

At Pho places on the street, I buried the herbs in the hot soup if I thought they may have been washed with non-filtered water. If you’re unsure about the chopsticks, leave them in the boiling-hot soup a short while before using them. The Vietnamese enjoy cold drinks with ice and I drank plenty of drinks with ice, and didn’t have any issues. Most ice is purchased and made with filtered water. But if you have any doubts, skip the ice.

5. If taking a cab, always take a cab with a meter. Our friends who live there said that Vinasun and Mailinh (the green cabs) are two that have meters in them, and I always looked for one of those cabs. In our experience, it’s better to let them use the meter than agree on a fixed fare in advance. (The one time I did that, the ride was 30% more than the metered fare.) Taxis are very inexpensive and the fare from Ho Chi Minh City to or from the airport was around 150,000 VND ($7).

At places like airports, you’ll find nicely dressed guys with badges who will “guide” you from the cab line to a taxi, then tell you what the fare is. Those guys work for specific cab companies and I found it better to ignore them (in spite of their repeated, and sometimes relentless, pleadings…) and just get in a cab that has a meter. 

6. Grab is an Uber-like service that works the same way, via an app, which you can download before you go, but you’ll have to enter your credit card information while you’re in Vietnam. The service works like Uber. Note that you can order a car, or ride on the back of a scooter. (They provide a helmet for you if you choose the scooter option.) I used them a couple of times, including when we were swarmed by very aggressive cab drivers going into a museum (one even followed me around the museum), so I had a Grab driver meet me on the way out, and took his phone number down for future rides.

7. The currency conversion is a little complicated, at least to my non-mathematical brain. At the time of this writing, $1 = 23,000 Vietnamese Dong. There are no coins in Vietnam (yay!), but it’s easy to get confused. (And note that prices on menus and in shops will often be listed as just “230” when the price is 230,000.) I used AppBox Pro for currency conversions.

8. While it’s nice to learn the local language, Vietnamese is a challenge. I’m going to take some basic lessons next time I go, but Google translate was very helpful when I wanted specific information and couldn’t communicate. Some people do speak English, but most cab drivers (etc) don’t, so take a screenshot of an address or write it down (or have someone write it down for you), which helps, especially directions to the hotel. (Note that hotels that have names in English often have a different name in Vietnamese. Ask your hotel in advance to send you that information and print it out to bring with you, for the driver.) I often shared a screenshot with a cab driver of my destination on Google Maps, which they easily understood, too. Restaurants often have menus with pictures, which helps when ordering. 

9. People in Vietnam were quite friendly. I only got scolded once for taking a pic and most people were fine with it. When in doubt, ask first, but most people were surprised that I even asked, a few even posing.

10. SIM cards are super cheap – and my internet was at least four times faster than it is in Paris. (I wanted to bring it back with me!) If you have an unlocked phone, you can pick up a SIM card for a pittance and have internet access while you’re traveling. I got a SIM card at Mobifone and I think I paid the equivalent of $10 for an enormous amount of data. I went to one of their offices and the clerk was super-helpful and she took care of everything, making sure it worked on my phone before I left. Be sure to have a copy of your passport when purchasing a SIM card. (If you go to a currency conversion place, they’ll want to see it, too.)

11. If you travel within the country you’ll likely take VietJet. (The other option are long-distance buses.) Airfares are reasonable but note that they have a very, very restrictive carry-on allowance of only 7kg and if you go over, the supplement is $100. You can buy tickets that have more generous luggage allowance, but our friends who bought our tickets bought the least-expensive, which are how most Vietnamese people seem to fly (carry on only). Every flight we took that left in the afternoon or early evening was delayed for a couple of hours, so don’t schedule things too tight. We also weren’t able to check in online for any of our flights, but the process at the airport isn’t too difficult and the staff at the airports were pretty efficient. 

12. As for what to wear, I recommend dark-colored clothes as the food is a bit messy to eat, especially the soups. I ended up wearing the one dark, short sleeve linen shirt I’d brought most of the time, which was perfect, and I was miffed at myself for bringing light-colored items. It’s normal to wear sandals in Vietnam so bring a pair or two that are already broken in. Many people wear simple, non-fancy rubber sandals, which you can purchase inexpensively in Vietnam. I wasn’t anywhere where I needed to wear shoes, and once I took mine off, I didn’t put them back on until we headed to the airport for the plane home.

Depending on where you’re going, and when, you might want to pack a light sweater and a rain jacket. We only needed summer-weight clothes, but other places get chillier, depending on the latitude and season. Check the local forecast and pack accordingly. Unless you’re going to a formal event, you shouldn’t need any dressy clothes. If you plan to visit religious sites, such as temples and pagodas, men are expected to wear long pants and no tank tops; women should have something to cover bare shoulders, and you may not be admitted to certain places if wearing a short skirt or wear something with a low neckline.

13. If you want to ride a scooter, technically you are supposed to have a Vietnamese driver’s license. Some say that you can use an international driver’s license, but my friends who live there (who have Vietnamese ones) said that wasn’t the case. I rode on the back of my friend’s scooter for two weeks and it was a great way to get around. Some hotel rent bikes and scooters and I would use them, as they’re more familiar with the rules.

14. If you’re interested in cooking Vietnamese food, Andrea Nguyen’s cookbooks are great sources of recipes for Vietnamese dishes. This write-up of 25 Must-Eat Dishes in Saigon is helpful for identifying certain dishes, and where to find them in Ho Chi Minh City and these articles on best Hoi An restaurants and street food have some enticing addresses, too.

15. Lastly, to go to Vietnam, if you are traveling with an American passport, you’ll need a visa. If you search online, you’ll find a lot of websites which are fake visa processing centers. We used Vietnam Visa Center, which was recommended by Lonely Planet, and it worked well. (A friend who goes to Vietnam regularly uses this company.) We paid the extra small fee to have “fast track” service, and have someone meet us upon our arrival at the airport, and take us through. (Update: Several readers noted that Vietnam does have its own website for processing visas electronically. You can also obtain one from a Vietnamese embassy, too.)

For more on my trip to Vietnam, check out my Instagram Stories from Vietnam archived Here and Here, with videos and geo-tagged addresses.

Source: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/vietnam-part-2-hue-da-nang-hoi-an-phu-quoc-travel/

[mouli-paul]

Sri Lanka Trip - November 2013

I remember not being too happy to learn from my father that my first trip out of India would be to Sri Lanka. You can very well say that I was quite ignorant and naive. My feeble attempts to change his decision were of course taken no notice of. So, with a dull face and hesitant mind, we were off to Sri Lanka in the month of November. And the year was 2013. It might be because of the doubt or the unwillingness to go that I quite vaguely remember the teeny tiny details of the whole trip. Father had booked a customizable trip through Club 7 and it had cost us around 50k each. We had intentionally avoided any group tour packages as it would rob us of our freedom to actually explore any place. But even opting for a customizable one didn’t help much either as the tour guide who had been appointed for our whole trip wanted us to hurry up in all the locations. Reason? The usual. He had to cover all the “particular spots” within a given timeframe. But regardless of all these petty issues, our trip was good. And, yes, I would love to go back to Sri Lanka again. Preferences do change over the years.

Cut short. Let’s get to the actual trip. We had boarded an evening flight to Chennai from Kolkata and had to stay back there itself for the night. Our flight to Colombo was scheduled for the following morning. Chennai to Colombo takes around 1 hour 15 minutes by flight and the airline we had booked was Sri Lankan Airlines. The view as we went up high in the air and looked down was one of a kind. It was an expanse of vivid and sky blue throughout till the time we reached Colombo. It was still blue even when it was just half a minute left for landing. We reached Colombo around 11 in the morning and our tour guide was there waiting at the arrival gate. I vividly remember his face but unfortunately not the name. He looked very much Indian but he obviously was not. With the help of broken English he communicated with us and ushered us towards the parking lot. His first question as he was putting on his seat belt was, “Which country are you from?” I answered “India” and then “Kolkata”. He had heard of India but nothing about Kolkata. I was quite surprised at his ignorance as Srilanka is just a neighbouring country. How could he have just “heard” about India? But, that’s pretty much the scenario there. As we started our drive, not even for a single moment did I feel that I was anywhere out of India. And, that made me feel even more gloomy. But yes, Sri Lanka is pretty much a cleaner version of India. Clean, paved roads with shops lined on the sideways. Yes. I also remember a lot of coconut trees as well. 

Our first stop was Bentota. In fact, our 6 day trip was divided into 3 places and Colombo was not among them. The places were - Bentota, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy. So it was a combination of beach, hill station and plateau. Bentota was roughly a 2 hour drive from Colombo Airport. I also remember having Coca Cola at a small roadside stall. The sideways were lined with more trees and the roads had much less people as we were nearing Bentota. Pretty much a beach town like Goa, Pondicherry, Gokarna and so on. Our hotel was just beside the Bentota Beach which obviously gave us a lovely view for the next two days. Bentota is basically a beach town so there are no separate names for the beaches. Most of the hotels have their own private beach and the whole area is named as Bentota Beach. There are few parts of the beach where you can find hidden fisherman villages. An assortment of 10-15 huts where the locals reside. We chose to relax on the first day and we didn’t have any other option as well. Our itinerary was sketched in that manner. Our exact tour started the following morning. However the remainder of the day was not wasted at all. We went out for a walk and hunted down a few shops which were visible. Bentota is a sleepy beach town precisely. So we couldn’t see many people or too many shops in the vicinity. Almost a 20 minute walk got us to a market area where we got our regular supplies of teabags, milk powder, coffee powder and sugar. And I had also found and bought one Sensodyne toothpaste. Post returning to our hotel we had a heavy lunch and yes everything is half the price of Indian rupee. For e.g. a 500 Sri Lankan Rupee sandwich would cost you INR 250. In the evening, at around 4 we headed for the beach which was just a few steps away from the hotel. We spent a good 2-3 hours, watched the sun go down, took pictures of the waves crashing on the shore. The whole of the beach is scattered with hard rock hills here and there. Father’s expression at that time was priceless.

The following day, we started at around 9 in the morning although it was not very long ahead. Our first stop was just within a few minutes. It was the Bentota Turtle Hatchery and the fisherman’s village just beside that. I don’t clearly remember the number of turtle species but yes there were quite a few of them, different ones. The locals who were in charge there showed us newly hatched baby turtles and yes, they were of course cute. The turtle hatchery is not a very big area and therefore didn’t take much time for us to cover it. Just beside the hatchery there were few fishermen who were getting ready for the day’s catch. Sadly, we couldn’t communicate much because of the language. Our tour guide kept on giving us bits of information about the locals, the fishing technique, fishing season, types of fish and much more. The next stop post the turtle hatchery was Moragalla Beach which was again a short distance of about 15 minutes from where we started. This was again a secluded beach area but it was huge. It was a bit scorching under the afternoon sun but nevertheless a beautiful place to visit. After spending an hour or so we headed for the Bentota Buddhist Temple or the Kande Viharaya Temple in Dhargha Town. This temple has the highest Buddha statue which is 160 feet tall. Towering over the whole town, the statue can be seen from a distance even before you are anywhere nearby the temple. There’s an old Hindu temple at the back and the statue is in the front. That’s all about Bentota. Of course there are many more places in the town but those were not part of our itinerary and therefore we couldn’t visit. We returned back late afternoon and the remainder of the day was spent in the hotel itself. 

Our next destination was Nuwara Eliya, the hill station. As it was a 5 and half hour journey, we started around 8 in the morning. On the way we stopped by at the Pedro Tea Estate, the largest one in all over Sri Lanka. It had started drizzling at that time. I don’t remember the roads clearly but yes there were a couple of safety pin loops and the temperatures steadily dipped as we entered the petite hill station. Somewhere around 1 in the afternoon we reached and our hotel was there at the starting of a winding lane. We had to climb up a bit. Just like in Bentota, it was a rest day for us. So, we chose to do a bit of roaming around in the Eliya town. One thing in Srilanka or I guess any country where English is not spoken so well is the difficulty in communication. There were many occasions when we asked for a particular type of food and we were given something else. So, if you have food restrictions, it’s better to stick to the hotel food. The hotel staff there was really hospitable and gave us extra helpings of food. Father was happy as he got to have Dosa with Chicken Curry for breakfast the following day. No complaints here!

Our day started with a tour of the pretty town and our tour guide pointed his finger towards various buildings and named them. We saw the police headquarters at Nuwara Eliya along with a few other important buildings. Post a half an hour tour of the town we headed towards Gregory Lake. It was situated at a distance within a few minutes from the main town. The weather was perfect and it was raining, but not heavily. The tea gardens served as the perfect backdrop for the huge lake. There’s a well-paved road running parallel to the lake where you can take a walk to roam around and see the whole of the place. Houseboat and boating facilities are also there if you wish to go boating. The boats were quite interesting there - swan shaped and huge.  A zigzag wooden bridge takes you further into the lake. We spent a good amount of time there and started for our next stop. There were few small locations where we had stopped but, I vaguely remember them. Most of them were tea gardens, small and big tea estates. Some places we were allowed to enter while in some we just saw from a distance. Our next stop was Seetha Amman Kovil Temple, a place of historical importance. We had also stopped to visit the Hakgala Botanical Garden but had to drop the plan because of the huge entry fee. It was somewhere near to INR 600-700 per person, extra charges for camera and so on. We returned to our hotel late afternoon and spent the evening taking a walk through the town. Post 7 in the evening, the weather grew way too cold and hence we had to retire to our room.

The following morning we started for Kandy which would be our last destination of the trip. It was a 3 hour drive from the hills to the Kandy plateau. We reached quite early, somewhere between 10 to 11 in the morning. As there were no plans in the itinerary till evening, we independently went out and roamed in the city, had some SriLankan food, bargained with the people selling masks. Yes. There were those huge demon-ish looking masks being sold everywhere in Kandy. They cost some 500-600 per mask. At the centre of the Kandy town is the Kandy lake and you can see opposite sides of the town from either side of the lake. From a particular part of the town, you can also see the Royal Palace of Kandy. In the evening around 6 we were taken to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It is based in the Royal Palace of the kingdom of Kandy. It houses the legendary Buddha tooth. The monks there chant Malwatte and Aegerine prayers. We had to stand in a queue and go through various doors to get the final glimpse of the tooth. The pure white color architecture shone bright like gold under the evening light. Post the visit we went in for a Sri Lankan cultural performance which went on for an hour.

Next day we visited the Perandeniya Botanical Gardens which was quite huge and took us almost 2 hours to cover the whole of it. Most of it was a pretty picture with various species of plants, herbs and trees. There are almost more than 400 species of plants and the unique collection there is the Giant Bamboo of Burma. There were quite a lot of tourists in this garden. Even more than we had seen in the temple. Our tour guide then offered to show us two extra places as we were done with our sketched itinerary. First one was a wood carving factory and second, the University of Peradeniya, some 8 kms away from the town. 

When I look back now, I really miss not taking the photos which I should have taken that time. Also, I would again go back to Sri Lanka as soon as I get the opportunity. It really is a place worth visiting. We took a flight the next day from Colombo Airport. 

[libgds]

Today’s plan was Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but first some breakfast.

Betzie and Jaime are experts at finding all the cool stuff in an area. I can only think of three cool Indy spots that I have been able to show them over a lifetime, and they both can show me more than that in an afternoon. Today’s cool spot was the Traverse City State Hospital which used to be a psychiatric asylum, but the stunning campus has now been converted into shops, condos, and a retirement home. We went to a bakery where I got a wonderful lavender/raspberry tart and then to an amazing coffee shop where I got an iced coffee drink called a Mint Grasshoppa.  Crazy good. (See what I did there: crazy, former insane asylum.  I kill me.)

The coffee roasting area where the magic happens.

We walked the hallways to the shops that were in the basement of one of the buildings. It was too early for many to be open, but I could see not wanting to be in that space at night alone. There was still a bit of a creepy, this place is probably haunted vibe in some areas. Indianapolis has it’s own place called Central State. Something is being done with it (maybe that can be my fourth cool place,) but I don’t know what it is. I just know that back in 2000 when I worked for the Indiana State Museum, I helped some people get some stuff out of storage there and it totally gave me the willies. Going the Medical Museum there with its hundreds of jars of brains on display probably added to the creepy factor. It was definitely a place that had a haunted vibe even in the middle of a sunny day. Our day, however, was overcast and misty and the forecast said to expect that all day.

Sleeping Bear Dunes is stunning even when the weather is not. 

Before we could hit the dunes, we had a very important stop: Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate Shop. This place was very much an artisan chocolate shop. Almost everything was dark chocolate based. There were several speciality chocolate bars to chose from and each of us chose one for ourselves. When we got to the car, it turned out all three of us chose the same one. Great minds.

We started off with a scenic drive in the park called the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. This was named for the man who came up with and promoted it. That’s right. Some poor soul had the burden of being named Pierce Stocking. Maybe that’s why he lived in a remote area.  It was a beautiful drive and the mist gave the forest a primeval, ancient feel.  It’s always amazing to me that tall trees are able to find purchase in sand. There was a huge windstorm a few years ago, so there were areas where we saw lots of trees did lose their footing and topple. Our first trail was surprisingly crowded considering the weather and that it was mid-week. Its main feature was a huge 450ft. sheer drop-off that you cannot see the bottom and it looks like it just goes straight down into the lake. The park had this very helpful sign, that you can see many ignored.

This was much steeper than the picture suggests. Betzie and I are oldest children, so we were all about following the rules so no testing this hill out for us. Jaime was on board with that because she just has common sense.  We did find a little off-shoot trail that went up for a great view. The best part was many others did not notice it, so we had the view to ourselves for a little bit.

Our last stop in the park was the big dune called the Dune Climb. It is 110 ft. up sand. Going up sand makes it feel more like 1100ft. Betzie said that climbing the dune was a rite of passage when you come to Sleeping Bear. As oldest children, we also respect tradition (and anything that sounds like a dare) so we climbed it and were grateful for the cool, misty weather. Jaime is a youngest child, so she made it about halfway, sat down, and said she’d wait for us right there.

The parking lot is where we started and this is not even quite the halfway point. That’s Jaime enjoying the view while we keep going (and sweating.)

We saw some kids climbing with sledding saucers. I kinda wish I had gotten to see how it worked out for them. Apparently, this is a popular sledding hill in the winter, but I don’t know how you get stopped before the parking lot. I am proud to say we made it to the top. I am not sure that would have happened on a hot sunny day, because besides the heat factor, I think the damp sand was a little easier to climb than dry sand.  Doesn’t matter. I did it! No *!

Notice how much further away the parking lot is and how tiny the cars are? Ignore that Betzie looks fresh while I’m red-faced and have sweat soaked bangs. 

There was a cute little historic fishing village in the park that used to be where everyone got off the boats that brought tourists during the Victorian era. We spent a little time on the shore listening to the waves crashing. We did not stay long, because we were getting hungry. All National Parks have little tourist trap towns and Sleeping Bear is no different. Our next stop was lunch in Glen Arbor at Art’s Tavern. Betzie’s review for us as we went was the food’s okay, but it’s iconic so you go to say you did. So we did. We sat at the bar to avoid waiting for a table, plus since they are sans kids, I think they like to do it because we can. I had a habanero cider because it sounded badass. Actually, I ordered it because Betzie recommended it, and except for beer (no, it almost all tastes like beer), I trust her recommendations.

Badass

Betzie sold the place as okay, but they had tater tots and tater tots are life. I had my tater tots with a great grilled cheese sandwich made with apple cinnamon bread and bacon. It as all very satisfying after climbing that dune.

Now we were ready to work our way back to the condo. Betzie tried to take us to a goat farm, but they were closed. 😦 I was looking forward to new goat cheese discoveries. Then came my favorite part of the day. Betzie took us to a place called Peterson Beach. We took steps down to a very rocky beach. Rocky as in fossil-filled! Nerd paradise!

None of us looked at the time, but this had to be by far where we spent the most time. My Converse where soaked and squishy, but it was totally worth it. We walked heads down looking for Petoskey stones. We were all finding fossils, but mainly small crinoids. I already had my big crinoids from Texas, so I was very frustrated that I wasn’t finding a good Petoskey. My visual impairment usually is not too limiting, but it was for this activity. Leaning over does not get me within reading glasses range of being able to spot good fossils easily. Betzie and Jaime both found some cool ones that had the coral texture even and I declared we could not leave until I found one, too! We turned to go back toward the stairs when a woman stopped us and asked if we were looking for Petoskeys and she showed us some she had found and pointed out what to look for. She then pointed out where she had found them and gave me hers. Yay! BUT, I also wanted to find my own. We headed down to the tree stump she pointed out and I found one! But, it was small and I really liked the textured ones, so we kept looking. Jaime found a boulder that was about 2’x3’x1′ that was full of great ones. We were very disappointed not to have a way to haul away that one. We all found so many cool fossils! I didn’t know we would be fossil hunting, so I did not bring a bag so in my pockets they went. Jaime had no pockets, so when we finally tore ourselves away I had full pockets, one had filled with what wouldn’t fit in my pockets, and the other hand filled with what Jaime couldn’t carry. I had to keep using my pinkies to grab belt loops to keep my pants up on our way up the stairs to the car. When I got home, I weighted my pocket rocks. I was carrying 3.8lbs of rocks in my pockets, so no wonder I was losing my pants. We spent a lot of the trip talking about rock tumblers to shine our treasures up. Nerd Heaven.

I still wanted to find a rock shop though. To make jewelry, I’ve been starting with a slab which is where they slice the rock so that it is flat and about a 1/4″ thick. That’s what I cut my shape out of and then polish. I wanted some Petoskey slabs for future jewelry projects. So this treasure trove did not deter my mission.

We drove through a lot of little lake towns and we did a drive through of an adorable winery. Can’t see everything in one day. One of the towns we did stop in had a historic fishing village called Fishtown. Very creative, but it felt like you were in a New England fishing village. There were boats docked and a few had signs to explain that they are working fishing vessels, so don’t climb on like it’s a display. I bought the rare souvenir t-shirt.

Quaint 

Betzie then took us to a brewery in the middle of no where called Hop Lot. It was popular and had people parking out on the road because the parking lot was overflowing. Microbreweries are taking over in wine country because they discovered hops grow really well up here, too. They had a great outdoor seating area with fire pits for s’mores and live music. They even had two types of cider, so I had the rarity of having options on what to order at a brewery.

And now you know what hops look like.

Our last stop was at a distillery. They had tastings and their products were all over the map. There were vodkas, gins, limoncello, fudge liqueur, and other stuff I have forgotten (because of time, not drinking.) The tasting worked by each person got to pick 3, so we each got different ones and shared. I bought a house-warming gift there (so someone won’t think I’m a moocher because I’m going to show up for dinner a lot.) We were going to have a cocktail, but we were tired and there got to be a wait, so we bailed.

We also needed to get back because Betzie had a French cafe on the agenda for breakfast and we needed to get there in the morning before the crowds.

It was a great day with great people.

Nerd Heaven Today's plan was Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but first some breakfast. Betzie and Jaime are experts at finding all the cool stuff in an area.

[newstfionline]

Mexican tourists once flocked to the U.S. during Easter week. This year they’re elsewhere

Laura Tillman, Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2017

Rafael Sifuentes Barba normally spends Holy Week visiting the United States. It’s a tradition Barba started when he got his tourist visa four years ago, and he’s enjoyed traveling to San Antonio, New York and San Francisco for shopping and sightseeing. He says he often spends $1,000 a day on such trips.

But this year, Barba canceled his Easter week trip, along with the jaunt he usually makes in December for Christmas shopping.

“I decided not to go until anti-Mexican sentiment decreases,” said Barba, a legal advisor for the congressional human rights committee. He said he’s also stopped buying Nike shoes and Washington state apples in favor of products made in Mexico or other countries.

As Mexicans take time off during the week leading up to Easter, some travel industry experts say they’re seeing a major drop in interest in travel to the United States. Whereas travel to the U.S. is a daily necessity for many Mexicans living on the border, for others it’s a luxury experience they’d rather enjoy elsewhere, in a place they feel more valued--perhaps other parts of Mexico, perhaps Europe or Canada.

Tourism Economics, a global research firm, estimates that lost visits from Mexico to the U.S. this year will total 1.8 million--a 7% drop from the previous year--with direct economic loss of $1.1 billion.

The firm estimates that Mexico-to-U.S. travel will diminish even further in 2018, with 2.6 million lost visits and direct economic losses totaling $1.6 billion.

Barba, for one, said he will wait until President Trump leaves office to return to the United States.

“They don’t feel welcome,” said Edgar Solis, the president of the Metropolitan Assn. of Travel Agencies in Mexico City. “In Mexico there’s a dislike of the administration and that’s created a reduction of passengers to the U.S.”

The trend isn’t bad for Mexico, Solis noted, because travelers are putting their money toward vacations in Puerto Vallarta, Baja or Chiapas instead of New Orleans, Denver or Las Vegas.

Cesar Romero, the president of GMA, a group of travel associations, said he’s been told by his colleagues that there’s been a 15% to 20% decrease in interest in travel to the U.S. since Trump took office in January. Travel experts blame the trend on Trump and his “America first” rhetoric, as well as the hostile way he spoke of Mexico along the campaign trail.

According to Jose Antonio Pinto, the salesman for Mexico and Central America for the travel company GTA, Mexicans have historically traveled to the United States more than any other foreign country. This year, in the first quarter, Pinto saw a 37% reduction in U.S. hotel room sales to his Mexican clients. Instead, they are booking in Europe, Canada and South America.

In deeply Catholic Mexico, Holy Week, or semana santa, is one of the biggest travels seasons of the year. Romero compared semana santa in Mexico to the Chinese New Year, when huge numbers of families travel to visit relatives or go on vacation.

“You’ll find that most of Mexico City is empty, if you walk around you’ll find you’re alone, and there are very few cars in the streets,” Romero said. “It’s always been customary for people to take vacations during this week within Mexico or to a foreign destination.”

But now, in the Trump era, some Mexican tourists are reluctant to travel north, their anxiety fueled by rumors about extreme screening at ports of entry.

“Stories circulate that the revisions have become more exhaustive for Mexican travelers,” Romero said. “People say that they ask for your iPad and phone, they investigate the type of messages you have sent and no one likes it. I have been to the U.S. and I haven’t seen any revisions like those, but there are people who say that yes, it’s happening.”

Not all travelers have been dissuaded by the political atmosphere. For some, like Mariana Alfarache, a chef at Lalo! in Mexico City, the problem is the cost of traveling to the United States. The peso has fallen to about 19 to the dollar, from 13 in 2014.

Normally, Alfarache travels to Chicago and Los Angeles every year to see family, but this January she opted to go to Cancun. The plane ticket to the U.S. alone would have cost her 12,000 pesos--nearly $650--about as much as she spent on her plane ticket, hotel, transportation and meals over a week in Cancun.

“Everything is double for me,” she said of visiting the United States. “It’s much, much more stressful.”

Miguel Navarro and Bernardo Lopez sat outside a cafe in Mexico City’s trendy Roma Norte neighborhood on Tuesday commiserating about the ugly turn in American politics.

“I don’t think he’ll be reelected,” Navarro said of Trump. “He’s a used car salesman, and he’s selling you a lemon.”

Navarro now lives in China, where he works in the mining industry, but he spent 16 years living in California where he attended college, and later crossed into Tijuana daily to run a medical supply business. Like many Mexicans, he’s experienced a variety of attitudes on the part of Americans, running the gamut from progressive to violently xenophobic. His overall view of Americans remains positive.

“Trump didn’t create the racism in the U.S., he’s just made it more normal,” Navarro said. “It’s like when you fumigate a house: The bugs come out so it seems like there are more of them, but really they were just hiding in the corners.”

Navarro’s ex-wife and their 7-year-old son live in Florida, and Navarro has decided to move them to Mexico to protect them from the toxic political atmosphere. He will rejoin them in a year when he moves back to Mexico from China, and doesn’t expect to return his son to the United States.

Navarro recounted this as he and Lopez sat across the street from Lopez’s clothing store, 180°, which is now selling a simple black T-shirt that says, in English and in white letters, “THE GOOD SIDE OF THE WALL.” Lopez said he’s postponed his travel to the United States, which he usually visits four times a year, for political and economic reasons. He’ll be traveling to Europe instead.

“A lot of the tourists who come here are very empathetic with Mexico,” he said. He’s sold many shirts.

Indeed, according to Solis, Mexican travel companies have not experienced a loss in terms of customers this year. If anything, they’re doing quite well with American consumers.

“Mexico is accessible because of the value of the dollar to the peso,” Solis said. “They can get better services, and Mexico is still perceived as a safe place to travel.”