Today’s photo comes thanks to my brother in Thailand. It’s been a cold spring here in Colorado, and this photo makes me look forward to summer even more. We spent a few weeks hanging out on the beach loungers in front of Maya Beach Club on Koh Tao, and I have to say, they get some of the best sunsets nearly every night.
Mmmm….fried bugs. You can find carts full of fried bugs all over SE Asia. Apparently they are not only filling, but can be really healthy for you. Some seem like they’d be more horrible to eat than others (see the giant cockroach?) whereas others are so crispy that they just taste like a very well done french fry. One thing I didn’t know about eating bugs is that in Thailand, most of these critters are raised in captivity for the sole purpose of being sold as snacks. Yum!
Today’s photo comes to you courtesy of Justin. He snapped this awesome temple-top and prayer flag photo somewhere just outside of Kathmandu. While I was busy burning up in the hospital, I insisted Justin head out for some sightseeing with a friend we made while trekking the Annapurna Circuit. I really wish I would have been able to go with him, but we at least have some photos of the places he visited. Unfortunately, he didn’t bother to write down where they were going…so we don’t know exactly where this was. Do you know? If you do, let us know in the comments!
Have I mentioned we LOVED Tasmania? I think I might have. We spent some time camping up near the Bay of Fires on the east coast, and found these huge rocks all along one stretch of shore. The lichen (I’m assuming that’s what it is) makes an awesome red color, that really stood out against the blue sky.
A few months ago I posted one of our Uluru sunrise photos. Today we have a more traditional view, the sunset and a clear blue sky. I really expected the rock to turn a very bright red, as per all the postcards…but clearly those have been super photoshopped. Still, it was really lovely.
We could not find a decent cup of drip coffee to save our lives in Australia or New Zealand. Down under, they are all about the ‘long black’ or the ‘flat white’ or any other variety of fancy espresso based coffee, non of which really satisfied my need for a basic morning cup of black sludge. That said, they really have perfected the art of the fancy coffee, as evidenced by the multitude of patterns you are sure to discover in your milk foam at any decent coffee shop. We particularly liked this one, the New Zealand silver fern.
Graffiti is not what it used to be in San Francisco. We spent some time there earlier in the week and stumbled on this colorful alleyway down near Mission St. It reminded me so much of Valparaiso, which, totally reminded me of San Francisco…it’s a cyclical thing.
When Justin and I were living in NYC we spent many a Saturday afternoon sucking down gin martinis and eating mussels at a little restaurant just around the corner from our apartment. Unfortunately, mussels aren’t usually in our backpacker budget, so we were thrilled to be passing through Havelock, New Zealand (the green lipped mussel capital of the world!) where mussels are a dime a dozen. Ok, so not really a dime a dozen, but about $3.50 per kilo. That’s $3.5 for more than two pounds of mussels. Big ones. Fresh ones. Delicious ones.
We wasted no time hitting up the local vendors and were steaming up a massive batch for dinner at our campsite. We may have done this for three nights in a row. It was amazing.
The Abel Tasman trek is one of the easiest ‘Great Walks’ in New Zealand. Most people take 3-5 days to hike the whole thing and camp, or sleep in Dept. of Conservation huts along the way. We didn’t have the time, or the gear for an overnight trek, but we really wanted to spend some time walking in the park. It’s possible to take a water taxi to many points along the track, and walk in either direction. We opted to head to Bark Bay, which is halfway out. We walked the whole way back to town, normally a two day walk if you are camping, but without the gear it’s totally possible in one day. We saw some spectacular coast, and it was well worth the absurd cost of the water taxi, even though we did get rained on for the last 12 kilometers.
We spent a few nights before the New Year camping at different sites along the road to Milford Sound on the South Island of New Zealand. It was stunning. I think we got supremely lucky with the weather because this area is one of the wettest places in the world and our first three days were full of nothing but summer sun, gorgeous blue skies and sunsets like this.
The Parallel Life 