Thailand 2015 Part 3: Koh Mak

And then it was off to the island. The third vacation within a vacation, and I have to say that Cathy just nailed the sequence. Starting off in the city, really digging into the changed rhythm of daily life. Then moving to the mountains and jungle, more adventure and less comfort, a greater level of known for all of us, since we'd had a week to adjust.











And ending this trip with a week on the beach was a stroke of genius, and I'm so glad it worked out the way it did.



We relaxed in a way we haven't in a long, long time. We hung out and got to know each other and just enjoyed the moments.







Koh Mak is not your typical Thai party island. It's small, lush, quiet, and pretty sleepy, with very little traffic at all and no nightlife to speak of.







But there's beach and seafood and curry and sun, and we partook of all of those with gusto.

I took a cooking class with Smile Koh Mak Thai Cooking School and it was absolutely a highlight of the trip. I learned to make the staples--phad Thai, green curry, tom kha gai, and sticky rice with mango.








Leng was an amazing teacher and I learned a TON.












We did some snorkeling. We took a day trip to Kho Kham, a small uninhabited island a very short boat ride from Koh Mak. The abandoned resort makes the place a little weird, but the quiet and smooth water and the ease of everything made it worth it.






Koh Mak was a great success.

Thailand was a great success. Theo is a great traveler, Cathy is a great planner, and we do well as a team. Really looking forward to the next trip. Might be New Zealand. Could be Thailand/Cambodia/Laos. Maybe even Sri Lanka. Wherever it is, I can't wait.

Thailand 2015 Part 2: Spicy Villa

Leaving the city behind was both hard and a relief. Ditching the comforts and friendliness of Tamarind Village just as we were getting acclimated to Thailand was a bit daunting, especially not knowing exactly what we were in for, but we were game.



Heading into the mountains was an exciting proposition. And they did not disappoint.

The highest point in Thailand was only about 30km from where we were, as the crow flies.

These mountains were lush with banana trees and banyan trees and all manner of bush and bamboo, rivers and creeks flowing through villages and rice fields and jungles, steep and winding roads used by foot and scooter and pickup alike.

Spicy Villa was quite an amazing place, a set of bungalows perched on a steep hillside overlooking a waterfall and an organic farm, with forested mountains rising on all sides. Rice fields, cattle, water buffalo, so many types of birds and small mammals that the silence of nighttime was cacophonous.




And elephants! It took me a couple days just to get used to them being there, in plain site, hanging out and eating and bathing and trumpeting as if they just belong on this earth. Crazy.





Our first day we spent just hanging around. Most other people were off on day trips, so that meant we had the lodge largely to ourselves, which was great.






Our guides, Pan and Chang, took great care of us. We had a few outings--trekking to a waterfall, visiting a local village and school, eating lunch with a local family, elephant riding, bamboo rafting--but the pace was never rushed, the schedule never too full.

Theo got to feed the pigs and gather eggs a few times, thanks to Ploy, one of the wonderful ladies who worked there. 

And the food at this place was remarkable. All meals were prepared in teh common area, with all guests encouraged to pitch in, so I did. Chopping herbs and pumpkins and chilis, pounding curry pastes, all of it was really fun and I learned a good bit.

We were in Spicy Villa for the big festival of lanterns, so we got to participate and set lanterns loose into the sky from our jungle hut, which was fantastic.

Our huts were modest and comfortable with solar light and mosquito nets.

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Theo's visit to a local school was pretty interesting. On the way in, he said "This school is more boring than mine." But on the way out, after playing with the kids and sitting through lunch and seeing the roosters and dogs roaming the grounds he said "My school is more boring than this school."

We took a few great day trips with Pan and Chang. Visiting waterfalls, stopping in at local schools, having lunch in a village home of a friend of Pan's.

During one of our day trips, to a waterfall, we lucked into the after school ceremony where all the kids let lanterns go. Talk about the right place at the right time. Theo got in there and did one, too. What a cool thing to see.



To Theo, riding in the back of the pickup trucks was definitely a highlight again and again.










In all, Spicy Villa was a fantastic experience. We relaxed, and we exercised. We sat around and we did stuff. We socialized and we spent many silent hours together.

We ate well, I drank a good amount of Chang beer, and we read and relaxed and played and walked and sat. This was the calm, mindful state I was after. A great second week.

Thailand 2015 Pt. 1: Chiang Mai

We just spent 3 weeks in Thailand and had one of the best trips and funnest adventures ever. From the food to the people to the temples and mountains and rivers, we explored and relaxed and really got close to each other. Cathy, Theo, and I have done some traveling together, but this would be the biggest trip yet.

A good part of a trip's success comes from the planning. In this respect, Cathy earned a smashing success with this trip. She planned it in 3 parts of 1 week each.

Part 1: Chiang Mai.
Part 2: Spicy Villa Ecolodge in Mae Wang, a mountainous region outside of Chiang Mai.
Part 3: Koh Mak, a sleepy island in the Gulf of Thailand, nearer to Camobia than Bangkok.

Part 1: Chiang Mai

We started off our trip in style at Tamarind Village. It's a gorgeous resport int he middle of the old city,   the  type of place that's usually beyond our means whetrn aveling. But boy are we glad we staed there.

The food was fantastic, thepool a delightful retreat from the heat, and the staff one of the biggest pleasures of the trip. To say they took good care of us and Theo is a huge understatement. They pretty much adopted Theo. The boy fell hard for these lovely Thai ladies, and who can blame him?

We explored the city from this base at a relaxed pace, save the unprecedented early morning pre-sunrise trips brought on by Theo's jetlag. But, every problem is an opportunity, and we made the most of this one, taking trips to temples or wats outside the city to watch them come alive with the sunrise. Some of our best experiences were in the predawn hours--not lease of which because it was by far the coolest time of day.

Wat Humong was our favorite, a lovely place with ponds and hills and a really humane approach to domesticated animals, especially dogs.

I got to do some meditating here, as well as in a couple wats in town, and this, pond-side, with the birds waking up and the fish feeding off the surface, was certainly the best.

Chiang Mai was where we spent time seeing temples, or wats. And we saw many many beautiful ones of all levels of grandiosity and gaud.

And we also did a zipline trip!

This was pretty incredible. I was suspect, but totally enjoyed it, as did Cathy. And needless to say Theo flipped out over it.

The food in Chiang Mai was pretty amazing. So simple and so amazingly delicious, from spicy curries to rich slippery noodles to soup and satay and sticky rice and GOD I miss the food. 

Our stay at Tamarind Village was enjoyable beyond words. The rooms and grounds were beautiful, the staff even moreso, the food was amazing, and the pool was absolutely the thing for cooling off in the Chiang Mai heat, keeping Theo happy and tired, and relaxing our butts off.

The art exhibit opening they hosted, featuring amazing tapestries by Thai artist Kachama, was both a fantastic event and an eye-opening for me on the quality and value of this sort of art. Really amazing stuff, both artisanally/artistically and as cultural comment and reference. 

We were very sad to be leaving Tamarind Village--especially Theo--but we were excited to get into the mountains and the jungle for the next part of the adventure.

On Hold

A family health emergency has me holed up in Alabama and not tending to these blogs. But please check back soon--we've got some great pics from Croatia, and a few good stories to tell. I'll update as soon as I can.

Hope all are well.

Home Today

We got home about 4:30 today after a long day of uneventful travel. Started in a tram station in Amsterdam 20 hours ago, and just like that, I'm in my recliner, falling asleep with this laptop on me.

Hey, it's after 3am there.

I've got a lot of catching up to do, with photos, so if you're interested in reading about it check back in.

Hvar, Croatia

We have been on the island Hvar for 3 days now, thoroughly enjoying our time on the Adriatic. It is really amazingly beautiful here, the sea that deep blue that you see in photos, the buildings all stone with orange clay roof tiles, the hills steep and dotted with trees bearing olives, lemons, oranges, and limes, and the food simply amazing. How will I live without grilled squid and fresh mussels after this?

We took a slow ferry from Dubrovnik to Hvar back on Sunday, an 8 hour trip that could have been 5 by bus but was so much better by sea. We laid around on deck, we ate, we napped, we stared at the deep blue water.

Since arriving we have done our share of walking and exploring, as ever, and it has been wonderful. (No, I cannot find the apostrophe on this kezboard, and the z is where the y should be, so I deal.) Yesterdaz we rented scooters and took the old road up over the mountain and to the other side of the island to Stari Grad, one of the oldest cities in all of Europe, if you can imagine that. We had perhaps the best meal of the trip there, starting with a cheese from the Livgno region, then sharing a seafood platter with sea devil, sea bass, dorada (maybe the tastiest fish fillet ever), grilled squid, 2 huge prawns, and boiled potatoes and spinach. We washed it down with local white wine and a bunch of bread soaked in local olive oil. Absolutelz amaying.

The scooter ride was great fun and made me wish I had come prepared to ride a bike. The road over and back would have been about 45 km, and one of the most gorgeous roads ever, hardly used by car since the costruction of the new road and tunnel, so we had it largely to ourselves. The descent to our seaside destination would have been unreal. Next time. (I have figured out my retirement: I will buy a small emptied village on the road there and open a hotel slash training center slash ecolodge with amazing road and mountain biking plus freeclimbing just up the road and access to scuba diving and sailing facilities. That would be the life.)

So, today is laundry and internet day, we will relax and enjoy our last day on the coast, and tomorrow we head to Trogir, a UNESCO world heritage city, where we spend one night before getting on a plane to Amsterdam. This has been a wonderful and relaxing stay, and we look forward to ending our trip with 4 days in my favorite city.

Hope all reading this are doing well and enjoying the change to spring. See zou soon.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

The posts are not coming, I know. We don't have our own machine, and internet access is expensive and not so convenient here, so we've been foregoing it so far.

A quick update, though.

We're in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and we've been here since Monday. It's an amazingly beautiful city, situated on the coast of the Adriatic, a rocky coastline studded with small wooded islands.

We're spending most of our time exploring the Old City, a gorgeous network of stone buildings and alleyways surrounded by a high wall and filled with restaurants, cafes, shops, and homes. It's crazy that this is a functional living city, with no car traffic and all lanes connected by narrow stairs (always stairs!) and alleys.

The city is on a steep hillside, and our apartment is high on the hill, looking out over the sea and the old city, a gorgeous view that requires the ascending or descending of hundreds (or thousands!) of stairs to get to and from the old city. It's a beautiful walk but none too easy.

We've been eating tons of seafood, the specialties being grilled squid, mussels in wine and garlic sauce, and seafood risotto, including a famous black risotto flavored and colored with squid ink. The mixed seafood risotto is Cathy's favorite, filled with prawns and mussels and clams and squid and a lovely mild spice. Really nice. Grilled squid wins for me so far--though if truth be told, my true favorite is the meat-heavy Bosnian food we've found in an out of the way Bosnian restaurant called Taj Mahal, of all things. Great ethnic food with easily the best bread in the city. (More truth: The bread here sucks. It's dry and boring and pretty bad. The French conquered this place at one point, but apparently didn't teach them baking skills. Weird.)

We're having a wonderful time, and can't believe we've only been gone a week. Time has slowed down, surely the sign of a successful vacation.

Amsterdam!

Sitting in Gerry and Christina's apartment, looking out over the canal below, marveling at the fact that suddenly here we are. I love this city more than I can explain. So nice to be back.

They had a wonderful breakfast spread out for us when we arrived. Then we napped. Then we went out for Ethiopian food. Then we slept, and onward to Croatia.

A good start to the trip.

Saturday Departure

The time's coming. We've got our tickets, we've got lodging set in Dubrovnik, Hvar, and Trogir, and we've got a basic plan.

Man am I looking forward to this.

Croatia!

Tickets in hand. We're headed to Croatia, via Amsterdam, at the end of March.

We'll spend a night in Amsterdam on the way over, then 10 days in Croatia, mostly in Dubrovnik and Hvar, and another 3 days in Amsterdam at the end.

We'll be taking lots of pictures.

Long Weekend in Portland

For Memorial Day weekend, to celebrate Cathy's graduation from graduate school, we're headed to Portland, OR, for 5 days of food and urban wandering. Check back for pictures and reports.

Guanajuato City, Guanajuato, Hotel San Diego

Yesterday, Friday, late in the afternoon, Derek, Lupita, Tomas, Cathy, and I headed out from San Miguel, me and the wife saying goodbye to the city for the time being, and headed out to Guanajuato City. It was about an hour and a half drive across the arid rolling plains and hills and over the San Rafael (??) mountains into Guanajuato City.

The skies darkened along the way, so we didn't get to see our entry into the city, but the change in terrain was dramatic as we climbed to this former (or still) mining town. The city sits in a bowl of sorts, surrounded by ridge and peak, and to enter you drive through a series of tunnels, rather than surmount a pass and descend in. A very cool drive in.

We got a room at the Hotel San Diego, right on the Plaza de Union, one of the city's main squares. That night we walked out and had dinner in a restaurant on the square, me having chicken-chipotle something and Cathy having the specialty enchiladas of the region with carrots and potatoes. Very good.

We walked around the old city's cobbled streets after dinner, looking around and taking it in. It was quite lively, apparently a hotspot for students on this night.

This morning we started with coffee and huevos at a small place called La Truca, I think. Then we hit the pavers to take in the city.

We visited the museum of the house of Diego Rivera, his old residence now preserved as a museum and gallery. Many paintings and photos lined the walls, but the highlight was surely the mural on the main room of the top floor recounting the history of Mexico. This was one of those paintings that you could stare at for hours, and not just because of its size.

We left there and went to an indoor market in the former train station. Then we had a small lunch and a couple beers, walked around some more, had some ice cream, and went to the funicular. We rode this glass elevator up to the highpoint of the city where we got a fantastic view of the town and surrounding hillsides.

From there we headed back to the Plaza de Union and hit a restaurant for some tacos and beer. We'd cap this great afternoon with a nap before dinner. And what a dinner--I had a creamy poblano soup that was perhaps the tastiest thing I'd had this whole trip.

Derek and I would go out this night for a few beers, and stay out too late as usual. My 2am bedtime didn't mesh so well with my 4:30 departure for the airport, but what else is there to do on a plane but sleep?

All in all a fantastic, relaxing, very nice vacation. Great food, wonderful people, and a pace that I could adapt to pretty easily. It'll be hard to give up taking a nap every afternoon.

San Miguel, Casita

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Once again I sit and enjoy the view of San Miguel from the rooftop patio of 59 Correo. I just can't get enough of this spot. A cold Modelo, a notebook, and the setting sun make for a fine transition to evening.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Cathy and I went to the big market, El Mercado de Martes, to wander and shop and eat. And boy did we. This place had everything, from acres of clothes and shoes to mounds of dried and fresh chiles to dubious electronics to stall after stall of fresh-made street food. That was the big attraction for me--though I did leave with a pair of black boots, a red cowboy shirt, and a couple molcajetes.

But mostly we ate. Sopes con picadillo, potatoes, and carrots; tacos de bistec in flour tortillas; tacos al pastor with cilantro, pineapple, and onion on fresh corn tortillas; aguas frescas; fresh salsas on every table; and that was only what we were able to get to.

After the market we took a cab down to the botanical garden, or the Charco, to walk among the cacti. This is an impressive place, partly for the size and array of the cacti and succulents that cover the grounds, and partly due to the fact that they were able to protect this much space. Development is rampant in the surrounding area, and the reservoir itself is apparently the recipient of much unfiltered sewage from said developments, but the hillsides are still gorgeous and the body of water still host to hundreds or even thousands of migratory water birds.


Tonight Cathy and I head out for a big fancy dinner. We intend to go to some Spanish restaurant, Gastronomica or some such, but we end up instead at a French Bistro where we have an oustanding meal. She has the fillet, which is huge and perfectly cooked, with steamed spinach and vegetables and potatoes. I have chicken crepes gratin, baked in a clay dish to cheese-crispy perfection, a French version of chicken and dumplings that I fall in love with.