The land of pho.

Long time no write, and for that I am sorry. I could make up excuses as to why I've neglected this blog but I shan't try to excuse my lazyness though I have to admit I take some pride in that.
Since my last (rather cheerful) update, I've bid India goodbye, and though I had my lows, I left feeling overwhelmingly in love with the country. Almost twelve weeks we spent together, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. The diversity the country posses, the people, the food... I could go on for a long time but I shan't bore you. I will tell you that the state of Kerala is one of th most beautiful places I've ever been to. And that I had goat I mean great Christmas and New Year's on Goa. And yes, I did behave. For the most part.

After virtually no sleep from New Year's shenanigans and early morning flights with layovers, I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand where I ony spent a mere 3 days gorging on delicious street food and sleeping on the loudest beds in the history of the world. I witnessed a Danish elder having a self pleasuring moment on the computer of the hostel's lobby (he was looking at girls photos on FB. WTF?) and was then hit on by a lady boy. Pretty standard.

After the whistlestop visit to the kingdom I jetted off to Vietnam to meet Ofira, a friend whom I'd met 4 years ago in Peru and Argentina when we were volunteering there together. Luckily if one is in possesion of a Finnish passport, one doesn't need to apply for a Vietnamese visa nor does one have to pay for it. After gleefully smiling at all the other folk at Hanoi airport who had to wait in line to have their visa approved and pay for it, I rushed to fetch my bag which has managed to reach mammoth proportions and met Ofira. We finally made into Hanoi City after spending a good hour in a crammed minibus stuck in a traffic jam. We found a cheap hostel with free beer (I was sold the moment I aw the free beer sign, though sadly the beer turned out be watery swill) and a decent dorm, and then left to fil our starving stomachs. And the moment I got that hot, almost bucket sized bowl of pho infront of me, I just sighed and went to heaven for a moment. And omnomnom.

After spending a day exploring what Hanoi offers, we jumped onto a snazzy night bus and headed up to the North of the country, to a small town called Sa Pa with stunning views, ride paddies and terrace farming. Arriving there at 6am was so cold. I was glad I don't have gonads as I don't where they would've been. After showers we rented a motorbike and headed for the hills to see some waterfalls and a high pass. I even taught Ofira how to ride the bike, and it was a success. Well, apart from when she dropped the bike twice. But Sa Pa was absolutely beatiful and breathtaking, and very different to the Vietnam that is advertised. A place well worth visiting if you're planning to go.

From Sa Pa we headed back down to Ha Long bay on another night bus. This bus was less nice than the bus from the night before but we made it to Ha Long none the less in one piece. We booked a boat tour as well as bus ticket for our third consecutive night bus. There really isn't that much to see in Ha Long City itself, most of the happenings are on an island on the bay, but we settled for ambling on the sea front and then headed for the tour. The boat took us around the bay, and even on a misty day the scenery was beautiful. Included in the tour was also a visit to some caves, an the were very stunning with striking stalagtites and stalagmites lit with different coloured lights.  We finished our tour with good spirits, and went in search of pho, tea and a bakery. After finding all three, we were mentally preparing for the bus ride ahead, due to take us all the way down to Hue. And no amount of preparedness could have prepared us for what was ahead of us.

Vietnam has sleeper buses for tourists, and then ones for locals. Unfortunately, the idiot in Ha Long charged us a tourist bus ticket, but we were plonked on a local bus. The journey that was supposed to take a reasonable 13 hours ended up lasting 23,5 hours. At least we weren't the only other foreigners on the bus, but unfortunately they were a cretinous, drunk swedish couple and his Mum who didn't speak English. I don't even want to think about what her bus journey was like. Anyhoo, Ofira and I got beds at the very end of the bus on the upper level (luckily the beds were horizontal so I actually slept) and squeezed ourselves and our backpacks up there, cozied into our silk sleeping bags and attempted to drown out the sound of the drunk swedes. At 1am Ofira woke me up and we then discovered that the bus had driven to a petrol statio in Hanoi to fill up and in the process had got caught up in some low-hanging electrical wiring. This had resulted in one of the emergency exits on the roof to be flung off completely, and the other one (which was conviniently directly above me) to open quite a bit. The lost exit was retrieved, the other one shut a bit so that it still remained open for the remainder of the trip, and after some playing around with string the loose door was tied to the interior of the bus so we could continue our journey.

We were told that we should be arriving in Hue at around 10am, and so when I woke up around 9am I was getting prepared to arrive in Hue. Well, that arrival time of 10am was dead wrong as we discovered. We stopped for lunch at around midday and this Vietnamese lady was feeding me all this food that we were given. We were then asking the others if they knew where we were, and we discovered we weren't even halfway between Hanoi and Hue. Oh. My. God. Thus we spent an entire day on that bus, and one point a local guy joined our upper level dwellings, played cards with us and fed us snacks. After a dinner (with the same lady feeding me again) we finally arrived in Hue. At 8.30pm. Boom. Shower and quite lot of beer, and I slept well.

Hue is nothing to go on about, but Hoi An is. More beautiful at night, the town gets covered in colourful lanterns, and has a nice atmosphere. We also took a trip to My Son, some old Hindu temple ruins near Hoi An, which were beautiful nesteled in a msty mountain scenery. Two delightful nights in an actual bed in hotels, and we were back on a bus for the night, this time to Da Lat where we rented motorbikes and rode around taking in the beauty that Vietnam has to offer, and I had my very Long Way Round moments cruising around on the bikes. After a slightly cold and wet day, Ofira and I were gearing up for our last night together, to be spent on, you guessed it, another bus. We were headed for Ho Chi Minch City, or Saigon as it used be known as where I'd stay for a few days to recuperate from our manic travelling and Ofira would be travelling home.

Arriving at any place at 4am with no where to go is the least fun I can think of. But atleast this bus station had a cafe wih comfy sofas so I napped and we felt that at half six we could go and drop our bags off my hostel (18 bed dorm, booyah!) and then headed to the War Remnance museum (via a bakery! Delish custard tarts!). The museum was thorough, and had striking photos of the effects of the Vietnam War (known as the American War in Vietnam) and Agent Orange. Being in Vietnam and now in Camboda, it's made me realize how humand are far too developed for their own good, and we use all this knowledge and ability to create weapons to hurt others and kill each other. Kind of sickening.

After bidding Ofira goodbye, I spent three days in HCMC doing nothing. I ate, I drank, I walked. That's it. I then went to Can Tho, the biggest town in the Mekong Delta for the floating market they had there (lots of pineapple nd watermelon!) and for a foodie tour recommended on Trip Advisor. I tried to do a cooking class in Vietnam, but they were incredibly expensive so I opted to do this tour with Phuoc instead. Phuoc is a 19-year old guy who is studying Can Tho, and also organises food tours in Can Tho for $5 dollars (you also pay for your own food, my grub totalled at around $3,5) in the evenings for willing tourists. I lucked out by being the only person on the tour! Phuoc's level of english is phenomenal, and for the 3 hours we spent together he kept up with my fast jibber jabber and not once did our conversation falter. He was very good about answering all my questions on Vietnamese culture, and is incredibly knowledgeable. Anyway back to the food: first he took me to a place where I had vietnamese spring rolls (you made the rolls yourself!) with pork, herbs, salad, lotus root, carrot, pineabble, cucumber and rice noodles with a thick soya dipping sauce. AND OH MY IT WAS SO GOOOOOOOOOD and then Phuoc complimented me on my chop stick skills! The epic spring rolls were followed by little deep fried mince pork and bean buns at another place, wrapped in herbs and lettuce. OMNOMNOM. Then we had Vietnamese  hot dogs, YUM and then a drink at a local cafe. A perfect evening *u*


After Can Tho, I went to Chau Doc also in the Mekong Delta to get a boat to the border of Vietnam and Cmabodia, and then proceeded to Phnom Penh. SO far I am in love with Cambodia, but I'll tel you all about that in the next post because I am sure by this point you can't be arsed to read anymore, and to be frank, I'm too lazy to write more. Toodles, lovelies!

Ps. My Cambodian visa says Maria Charrington (Y)

Pps. Enjoy the muzak I enjoyed whilst typing this:

Foodporn

One of the main reasons for me travelling to the countries I'm visiting is their food. Indian has always been an absolute favourite of mine, and I can't wait to take baths in pho in Vietnam or to eat tubs of thai curry and pad thai... So far I've gorged on yak in Tibet, momos (dumplings) in Tibet, Nepal and India, eaten tonnes of dhal bhat in Nepal and devoured endless bowls of curry here in India.

I'm going to do a cooking course in every country I go to. I did one in Nepal, where I made to different kinds of momos, and I did one when I was in Udaipur. The course in Udaipur was a lot more extensive than the course in Kathmandu, as I made 10 different dishes! I booked it with a guy who owns a spice shop in Udaipur, and his family has a farm outside the city where they grow all of the spices organically. So on a sunny Thursday afternoon I went Vijay's shop, and ten hopped on the back of his motorbike and after a 10 minute ride we were at his home in the suburbs. Vijay then set up a tiny little kitchen on the floor of his bedroom, and that's where I had the 3½ hour lesson with his two daughters and wife buzzing about.

First I made chai, a sweet milk tea that indians drink in abundance. There is not a single food or drink establishment in India where you can't get a cup of steaming masala chai. The aisles of trains are constantly filled with men selling chai, and as soon as bus has stopped someone will be shouting "chai! chai! chai!" and lugging a thermos with them. I love chai, though I prefer it with a lot less sugar than how the Indians like it. The Indians really love their sweets.

After making myself a tasty cup of chai, I made some vegetable pakora, which is a delicious starter of veggies (or paneer or chicken) mixed with spices, chick pea flour and water and then deep fried in small bite sized morsels. So tasty, especially when served with a chutney or a cooling raita. Pakora is widely available on the streets of India, 20 rupees will get you a eart portion and they are delicious! Though I always forgo the chilies they offer with them, as they're usually spicy enough without them.

I made three different curries: malai kofta, a potato ball that's deep fried (Indians love to deep fry their food) and served in a curry sauce with curd (yoghurt) and fresh coriander, aloo gobi, potato and cauliflower in a tomato curry sauce and then a paneer butter masala. Paneer butter masala is my favourite curry; it's cubes of paneer (an Indian cheese) in a rich, buttery tomato masala sauce. Oh my it's delicious. And all of these curries are very simple and easy to make as well fast. All you need are the staples for Indian cooking: oil, spices (the 7 basic spices found in every Indian home are turmeric, coriander, cumin seeds, anis, salt, garam masala and chilli), fresh chopped coriander and onions and garlic, onion and ginger pastes. With those in your kitchen you can pretty much make any curry you desire.

To go with the curry I made 3 different kinds of chapati (types on Indian breads often used instead of rice); plain paratha, aloo paratha (stuffed paratha with potato and spices) and a plain chapatti. All 3 use the same basic dough, made from wheat flour, and fried in similar fashion on a chapatti pan. A chapatti is fried ony using a little bit of oil and then pressed on the pan to puff it up and a paratha is folded with oil inside it and then fried in little oil.

I prepared a rice dish too, Khichdi rice, which is a dish in itself. Very similar to a biryani,  it's cooked rice with tomatoes, peas and potatoes with spices. Easy and quick to make, the veg can easily be substituted for meat. This is a dish that is served at family gatherings and parties as it's super easy to make in large batches.

I also made a pudding, gulab jamun. A basic sweet of solid milk rolled with flour into a dough ball and deep fried before being drenched and served in a sugar suryp is incredibly sweet and of the four balls I made I only ate one. This was also partly due to having gorged on the previous 9 items of food prepared... Indians have an incredibly sweet tooth, sweet shops are on almost every street corner and the variety of products is huge. Once finished I hopped back onto Vijay's bike and he gave me a ride back into town where I proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon nursing the world's largest food baby.

Indian street food is a whole new world of deliciousness. Samosas, pakoras, dhals, puri...The list goes on. At first I was wary of trying them, not due to the poor leve of hygiene that might be used, but due to the fact that most are on the sides of busy, dirty streets and cars and buses are constantly wizing past. But I've gotten over that now and am stopping for snack in the afternoon or having a meal with the local standing by the side of road plate in hand.

Tandoori dishes are also super tasty, especially tandoori chicken. Serve that with some butter garlic naan and you're drooling.

My favourite Indian dish currently is Masala Dosa. A dish that is traditionally a breakfast dish in the South, is eaten at all times of day and pretty much all of the country.  I've had it for breakfast every day for the past 2 weeks, and lot of the times for dinner too. It's a large, thin rice pancake that's stuffed with a spiced potato and onion mix and  served with sambar, a curry gravy and a coconut chutney. The combination is delicious, and it's fast and cheap. So good. Oh my. Another delight is idi vala, a rice cake and deep fried chick pea donught, served with sambar and the coconut chutney.

Lunch in many places is a thali, a dish with rice and lots of different curries and veggies. The best one is in Mysore, served on a banana leaf. Rice, three different kinds of curried veg, sambar, dhal and a coconut curry sauce, curd and onion curd and a papad for the grand total of 85 rupees is just the best lunch of the whole trip. That place is so good I went there every day when I was in Mysore. I also had a masala dosa at the bus stand in Mysore every morning. No shame.

Mysore also had the best market I've ever been to, and I've been to many. Rows upon rows of stalls selling fruits and vegs, spices, rices and pulses... It was glorious! Never in my life have I seen so many bananas in one place. Nor have ever seen someone carefully stack red onions into neat pyramids as they did there.

As tasty as this has all been so far, I've not had fish at all since I left Last Resort in Nepal. And boy do I miss it. On Sunday I'm going to Pondicherry and the first thing 'm going to do after my nap (I get in at 6 am on a bus from Bangalore) is go to a restaurant and splurge on a whole fish.

First post from across the universe.

Tashi Delek!

I've not been able to update due to much excitement and also not being able to access my blog as it's run by Google and Google is bad in China. As is Facebook and Twitter. But don't worry, one is alive!

Our trip started off with a flight from Helsinki to Beijing, and from there we went straight to the Great Wall of China. Which was pretty great. And hot. And I did not realize it was so steep (it was super steep where we were), and wearing back jeans does not make for good climbing on the wall. From the wall we headed for a lunch of tasty chinese dishes and then to our hotel. Our first day was completed by a Peking Duck dinner, and seeing the chef slice the duck himself.And my god it was nom, so nom.

Can't say that I enjoyed Beijing a whole lot. The Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven were special and amazing, but the actual city of Beijing was less than spectacular. The smog and the 5 million cars buzzing around causing a head ache and reason not to breathe just don't make for a pleasant experience. Also, China should look into the use of unleaded petrol. I don't think my lungs are very clean at the moment.

From Beijing we hopped onto a train that would take us all the way up to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The train ride was just shy of 42 hours, but luckily we got Super Sleeper Carriages with only 4 beds per carriage as opposed to 6. I had a wee top bunk, and Mum had a bottom bunk, and then we got two nice cabin mates, Emma and Rakel who filled the other two bunks.

How to pass 42 hours on a train:
lSleep. Lots
lEat lots of noodles.
lDrink water, tea, beer and wine.
lWatch Glee and Miranda
lRead a load of fanfics.
lAdmire the view from the train
lGet to know your cabin friends
lListen to the Book of Mormon soundtrack to keep yourself amused
lSleep some more.

The finally we got to Lhasa in dire need of a shower. My hair was beginning to look really rather delightful, but I decided to save the dry shampoo for when I really need it.

After the healing power of a shower had done it's magic, it was time for our first meal at 3500m above sea level. I indulged in a rather dry yak burger, which was actually good despite it's dryness. I have to say yak is pretty tasty! It's the main meat eaten in Tibet, though most of the yak we see is cross between yak and cow. Tibetan buddhists don't eat fish at all, because they want to avoid killing as much as possible, and for a meal they would need many a fish, where as a two yaks could feed a family for an entire year.

I have to say, I've got monasteries and temples coming out of ears by now. We went to Sera Monastery to see the monks debate, to Potala Palace to see where the Dalai Lamas woud recide during the winters, and to Jokhang, the most sacred place in all of Tibet. And to many others. The colours in all of these places is incredible. Reds, blues, yellows and gold, greens... It's amazing. And the huge statues of Buddhas are pretty mindblowing; they're almost as tall as small buildings,and there are so many of them. And then the statues of old Dalai Lamas and Kings and Princesses..... They're never ending.

After spending four days in the hustle and bustle of Lhasa, we jumped into Land Cruisers and made our way even higher than we already were! 

Our first night was spent in Gyatse. To get to this truly delightful (not) little town, we first had to climb to roughly 4500m to get to the top of a pass to admire the view of a gorgeous, turqoise lake. From there we descended again, stopped for a rather mediocre lunch in a local town, and then made our way to Gyatse. Ok hotel, not so nice town.
After a sleep on a hard mattress, we headed to the Pekhor Chode Monastery and it's HUGE stupa with 108 altars. The altars were all dark, so I used my snazzy headlamp to peek into them. And some of them were so scary, especially the protection deitys.

From Gyatse we headed to Shigatse. This was a considerably nicer place than, Gyatse. A nice stroll through the town in schorching sunshine made better by witnessing a market stand filled with innards and other delicacies, including a massive liver with flies swarming around it. Schweet.

The next morning we visited yet another monastery; the Tas Hi Lun Po Monastery. Nothing too different than the other, except it holds the largest bronze statue in the world, one of the Buddha Maitreya (the future buddha). It's pretty high, around 28m tall.

Following our monastery visit, we drove to Sakya, a really unpleasant little town. Thevisit there was only made more pleasant by a visit to a small nunnery on the hillside. The hike up there almost killed me; I guess small hikes at around 4500m are not my friend. But then again you're at a place with around 35% less oxygen than what you're used to, so getting out of breath after two steps is pretty normal. That 15min hike was worse than when I climbed up Wayna Picchu. But the nuns living in the nunnery were the sweetest little ladies I have ever met. They were so friendly and small! One of the teeny madams insisted to be photographed with me, and in one where we're standing together infront of a few Buddhas, you can she barely comes up to my shoulders. That visit to the nunnery has definitely been one of the best experiences in Tibet.

We also visited the Sakya Monastery, which was the monastery that founded the Sakyapa
school of Tibetan buddhism. I don't think any of us were sad to leave Sakya, but once we got to our next destination, Sakya seemed like paradise. Shegar is truly the arm pit of Tibet. It took Johanna (my Tibetan travel friend and companion) and I roughly 10 minutes to walk from one end of the other, and it was dusty and filthy. The hotel there, while grubby and run down from the outside, was surprisingly nice on the inside. We even had a small altar in our shared living room.

Our time in Shegar ended with a cold, early wake up call as we were headed to the base camp of Mount Qomolungma, or Mount Everest as it's more commonly known as. The car ride there was gruelling; 3 hours on the bumpiest road known to man, followed by a bus ride to the base camp, situated at 5200m above sea level. Can't say I was so impressed by it, or if it was worth spending 6 hours in a car jiggling about like a fish on dry land, but now I can say I've been to base camp of Mount Everest. And the view of the top of the mountain was pretty cool. We really lucked out with the weather, about an hour after we left a shroud of clouds covered the top of the mountain.

After a night in Lao Tingri, it was time to bid Tibet goodbye, and head to Nepal for the next stage of my adventure. We descended more than 3000m from barren, dusty plains and passes to lush, green and warm valleys serving a vast contrast between the two.

More on my nepalese adventures next time!

New adventure, new blog

Well a hearty hello to you!

In 48 days I'm jetting across the globe as being in one spot for long periods of time seems to be a somewhat difficult feat for myself.

I'm starting my journey in China. My Mum and I are flying to Beijing with a group of other Finns to discover the wonder that Tibet holds. I'm just getting goosebumps thinking about going there! We start our journey in Beijing, where we'll be going to the Great Wall of China, and then we'll be exploring around too. I'm going to make sure we get some duck too. Nom.

From Beijing we'll embark on a train set for Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The train ride takes two days. (Glad I get on very well with my Mother!) Once in Lhasa we'll be based there for a few days, looking and exploring and going to temples and monasterys and such. After Lhasa it's off to the plains for some rural Tibet life, and from there we'll be making our way to Nepal. Nepal includes a trip to Mount Everest base camp!!

Mum and the other Finns will be leaving Kathamandu after just a day or two, and will be heading back to Finland via Delhi. I will be staying on Nepal all on my lonesome. Planning at least a trek or two.

From Nepal I'm going to India. Definitely going Udaipur because that's where they filmed most of Octopussy. :D My plans for Crimbo and New Year? Goa!!!

On January 3rd I fly to Bangkok from Mumbai via Colombo. From there I have until March 14th to make it to Singapore, most likely via Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia (Bali to be precise), and from there I FLY TO FRICKIN' NEW ZEALAND!!!!!!!!

From there on I'll be making my way to Australia at some point with a working holiday visa in order to do some cooking probably in Sydney.

The one thing I'm so excited about? THE FOOD. Indian, Nepalese, Vietnamese, Thai...........

Right it's back to Harry Potter, bye!