Cycling to Chateaux de Chenonceaux

Today was our first real day in France. It was also our first trial of biking. We started the day by picking up our bikes from the bike rental place. We had concluded that if it was possible to do day of baggage transfers, that would have made our lives easier because both of our bags would not fit in the one trailer we rented. However, they are only willing to do that if you have it pre-booked and know all your locations along the way. So, we left our bags in the hotel and headed off on a day trip to Chenonceaux.

The official bike trail to get there requires going out of the way to Amboise and then going south, whereas the direct way is straight east of Tours. That would add about 10km to the ride. So, we followed Google Maps and took a more direct route. This started great as it was a bike bath following the river out of town. However, after a while, it turned into a very bumpy tractor route. We were also paralleling a semi-major road, so we gave up on the river path and cut over to the road, only to find a real bike path. The rest of the way alternated between a paved side road and proper bike paths. I wish these things were marked properly either on the tourist maps or in Google Maps as we were really just guessing.

We were hoping to make it to Chenonceaux in time for lunch, but it didn't look like it would happen, so we stopped in Blere for lunch. In France, you have to stop for lunch between 12 and 1:30 since that's the only times that restaurants are open. I had a delicious confit duck sheppards pie while Catherine had some fried ham steaks and a salad. It was a nice stop.

After lunch, we went to the castle, which was really neat. It's listed as THE castle to see if you come to the Loire Valley and for good reason. It is built over the river Cher with the main gallery being a long narrow room that straddles the river itself. Apparently they had balls and other big events in there, which would be interesting because of the space. Great for line dancing, that's for sure. It was also used as an infirmary during WWI and the soldiers would fish out the windows to entertain themselves. The chateaux was primarily built by Catherine de Medici and Diane Poitiers, who was Catherine's husband's mistress. There were three stories of your typical French royal bedrooms and studies. I found the kitchen area most interesting. They still had all the old tools from a well worn butcher's block, to dozens of copper cake pans to a rotisserie device that worked by having a weight out the window over the river. It would slowly lower, keeping the meats turning for hours before needing to be rewound.

After visiting the castle, we hopped on a train back to Tours and went to dinner at a wine & cheese restaurant. I bet you can guess what we ate! A large selection of cheeses and an appetizer of escarcot baked with cream and cheese. For desert, we shared a glass of desert Vouvray from 1989 that was delicious.

F-ups in France

Today was mostly a travel day. We got up early and made our way to the Oslo Airport where we grabbed a flight to Paris. Once in Paris, it was lunch time so we tried looking for a restaurant in the airport. No luck for anything that Catherine could eat. Apparently CDG terminal 1 hasn't gotten with the trend of more & better restaurants in airports.

Getting out of CDG proved a challenge. We had to wait for half an hour to buy a train ticket into town as our train to Tours left from Gare Montparnasse. The machines kept breaking and there were only a couple of them. It was a zoo.

We finally got on a train into the city and connected over to the train station via the metro. For some reason, there are a tone of small staircases in the metro, which was hard for Catherine. I have no idea what disabled people will do.

We arrived at the train station about an hour before our train (even though we had over 3 hours to make the transfer) and found a place where we could at least get something edible even if it wasn't very good. Canned tuna salad Nicoise and a reheated Croque-Monsieu.

The train was a high speed TGV that blasted us to Tours very efficiently. Once in Tours, we checked in to our hotel and walked around the old town of Tours a little bit. It was busy because the university just started so all the students were at the bars, but the town was really beautiful. There were a ton of old houses made of brick and big, exposed, wooden beams.

After exploring, we went for dinner. It was a little unfortunate for Catherine because all of their sauces were thickened with flour so she could only get a basic piece of steak as a main course. She did get a broiled local cheese with maple syrup as an appetizer and a creme brulee for desert, both of which were excellent. I had a piece of duck with chanterelles, which was great, and for desert, some peaches floating in a verbena syrup, which was terrible. The peaches were hard and tasteless. The house wine was great though, especially the red Anjou, which was delicious even though it was made with Cabernet Franc.

Navigating Norway

We arrived in Oslo around 8pm local time after a stopover in London. In our more recent travels, in places like Vietnam & India, it would be a no-brainer to just take a cab from the airport, but Catherine's friend Ryan had recommended we take a train downtown and then a bus to their place. A quick search showed that yep, that's the obvious, best thing to do. The airport is 60km outside of Oslo and so would have cost over $100 and taken over an hour, whereas the train was $20 and took 45min. We haven't been to Europe in a while.

We arrived at Ryan and Bente's place where they had graciously made a dinner for us of cod and mashed sweet potatoes with a chile, ginger, soy sauce. It was some of the best cod I've eaten because it was very tender and not tough the way cod can get. It was also great to see Ryan and Bente again since the last time was in San Francisco when they visited for AGU.

The next morning, we slept in until 9:30 and had a slow breakfast on the deck of the apartment. Their appartment is very close to downtown, but it's right on a little river & path of greenery which was georgeous in the morning sun. You can even hear the waterfall loudly from the apartment, which was great for sleeping, and quite unique in such an uban setting.

After breakfast, we went for a walk slowly downtown following the river. Catherine was having a hard time, so we just took it very slow. Eventually, we got to the central train station and the Opera house, which is a beautiful while marble building made of slopes going back and forth for the roof which you can walk up. At least in the summer. In the winter, apparently a little bit of snow fills in all the divots and turns it into an ice rink. Pretty dangerous, especially for toursits who aren't used to walking on ice & snow.

Downtown is largely under construction. There are a ton of unique, modern, architectural buildings going up to try and give the city some character. Apparently, the city center is traditionally very boring and utilitarian because for the longest time, Oslo wasn't really a major city as Norway was just a poor province of Denmark or Sweden. However, with independence, and with a lot of oil riches, they are now trying to make more of a name for themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the equivlant of Chicago in the 1920's and 1930's.

After seeing downtown, we took a tram up to Vigeland sculpture park to meet Anne Kristine and her daughter Ingrid. The park itself is quite large, with lots of open space where people were just relaxing outside in the great weather (sunny and low 20's), grilling on little portable barbecues, or just seeing the sculptures. Most of the sculptures were done by Gustav Vigeland and were either in bronze or stone. Many of them were just a little crazy, like a guy holding two kids on his shoulders and a third like a hacky-sack on his foot.

We met Anne Kristine and Ingrid while having a coffee and snack at the cafe. Ingrid is a doll. She's only two and speaks a combination of Norweigian and Spanish because her father, Pedro, is from Gran Canaria. She spent the whole time eating, talking up a storm (which of course I couldn't understand) and enjoying herself.

After the sculpture park, we headed back to the apartment to change and then went to dinner at a tapas-like fusion place. It was quite expensive (but so is everything in Norway, except maybe fish), but was interesting and quite good. We had a fixed price menu with a number of entres, like roasted corn with lime & chiles cut in half lengthwise weirdly, some truffle quesedillas, some tuna tacos with a passion fruit vinegrette. The meal was finished off with a strawberry shortcake in a pot where the cream was made of this very tangy goat cheese/milk. After dinner, we went for another drink at an old firehouse, which really just had bottled beer for way too much. It turns out that many American microbrews have taken over Norway so we didn't really see any local craft beer scene. Just the same one we see at home, complete with lots of IPAs (or ee-pa-s as they call them).

The next day, once again we slept in. Jet lag really hadn't hit us much for being 9 hours off but getting lots of sleep was refreshing. After another leisurely breakfast, we hopped on the metro out to the outskirts of town to meet Ola, Hong and their son Ludvig to forage for mushrooms and blueberries. Yes, we took the metro to the forest. People are used to their public transit and so it is super reliable and goes out to places of low density. Well actually, I guess the forest wasn't that low a density when we were there. It was swarming with Norweigians with the white wicker mushrooming baskets looking for chantrelles and porchinis. In the winter, it becomes a cross country ski area with hundreds of km of trails through the woods that people will pop out to at the end of the day for their daily workout. Norweigians definitely love being outside!

The afternoon was a lot of fun, even if we virtually struck out finding edible mushrooms. Some of it was that they were picked out and some of it was just that it had dried up a bit and so it was apparently a little thin. That being said, there were still more mushrooms of a wider variety than I have every seen. Everything from bright purple and white ones to red ones with red spots, to white balls that poof with a spoor cloud when you touch them. Of course, some were definitely poisonous, but both Ryan and Ola knew what to look for.

After getting back from the forest, we ordered some takeout sushi and fried up what mushrooms we did find. Both were delicious. The salmon sushi was, not surprisingly, specacular, while the fresh mushrooms had such a clean flavour. I think I'm going to try one of those mushrooming classes in San Francisco. I know that at the right time of year, you can go into the forest and find a ton of morels, chantrelle's and others.

The next morning, we bad Norway and friends farewell and hopped on a plane to Paris. It was definitely a weekend of nostalgia for Catherine seeing all her friends from Trondheim, while providing a view at a different life if she had decided to stick around (and not meet me of course). It was definitely worth the stopover!

Galloping Through the Galapagos

The famous Galapagos giant tortoises

This entry is just going to be for the whole trip as I’m writing this all at once. All the pictures are available in this album and for the most part, I’ll let them speak for themselves.

We started out with a long travel to get to the islands. It was a 5 hour flight from San Francisco to Miami, where we met up with Catherine’s family. Then, we had a 4.5 hour hop down to Guayaquil, Ecuador where we stayed overnight in the hotel. There was surprisingly few Ecuadorians on the flight. Instead, it was mostly filled with people doing exactly what we were doing: going to the Galapagos. It was also the oldest plane I’ve been on in a while. Straight out of the 70’s.

The caldera of Sierra Negra

In the morning, we had a leisurely 1.5 hour flight to Baltra that left at a relaxing 11:30. Upon arriving on the islands, the first thing that was striking was the lack of vegetation. One thinks of the Galapagos as being like a rain forest due to it’s tropical location and a reputation as being home to tons of animals. In reality, we were met by a barren landscape with cacti trees and scrub. As the saying goes: water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. It doesn’t actually rain most of the year, so the only moisture available to grow with is that which can be squeezed out of the humid air. Cacti are good at that.

At the airport, we met our guide for the trip Daniel, who would prove to be an incredible guide. He was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna and was a bundle of enthusiasm with an infectious laugh. 

Yep, that's a new lava flow

After meeting Daniel, we boarded a bus and made a stop for lunch up in the highlands at a private facility right beside the national park where the giant tortoises wander through. Because it is private, we didn’t have to stay on the trails, so after a great lunch of tuna steak, we meandered around the grounds. This was our first introduction with the Galapagos wildlife, which doesn’t give a damn that you’re around because they don’t have any predators and thus aren’t scared. It’s rather kind of amazing. There were a couple of dozen tortoises lounging around the field munching vegetation or wallowing in the mud. Walking right up to them didn’t faze them one bit so pictures we easy to come by.

After lunch, we hopped back in the bus and made our way down to the port Ayora where we had some time to poke through the souvenir shops before boarding the boat. The shops are exactly what you would expect, but it was our only chance to buy X-mas gifts so we tried to take advantage.

As the sun set, we took a panga (inflatable dingy with outboard motor) to the boat, the Cormorant. It’s a 3 deck catamaran that can fit 16 people. It was very spacious. I definitely recommend a catamaran over a single hulled vessel. It’s more stable and you inherently get more space. The first floor had the dining room and half of the cabins. The second floor had the other half of the cabins, including Catherine's and mine, and the bridge. The upper deck was open with lounge chairs and a jacuzzi. Below the main deck in the pontoons was the kitchen and most of the crew’s space, which of course we didn’t see. Our group was half the people on the boat. The other guests were an Australian couple currently living in Chile who were on their honeymoon, a family from Calgary, and two hilarious old British ladies.

The divas of the Galapagos animals

On the boat, we settled in, met the crew and had dinner before heading off to bed. The food overall was very good, but it did have it’s consistent structure, so I’ll just summarize it here. Breakfast every day consistent of eggs to order, fresh fruit, juice, yogurt and some kind of carb and meat, like bacon and corn cakes. Lunch consisted of 2 or 3 salads, two choices of meat (usually small pieces) and some carbs (especially after a disaster on the first day where they didn’t serve any and we had to ask them to bring up some rice from the crew meal). The meal was finished with a small desert, which was often a mousse or small cake, with fruit for the gluten free folks. Dinner was mostly just a bigger version of lunch except that there was often a big piece of meat, usually super fresh seafood. The one exception was the two days of BBQ, where we at on the upper deck and they grilled up a variety of meat. The first one was seafood with octopus, fish and shrimp, while the second was chicken, sausage, steak and ribs. Meatover.

On our first day on the boat, we explored the area around Port Villamil. Upon arriving at the dock, we were greeted by sea lions lounging on the benches and marine iguanas basking on the sidewalk. After much jaw dropping and picture snapping, we boarded an open air bus to the caldera of the biggest volcano in the galapagos: Sierra Negra. We had a short little hike up to the rim and were rewarded with a spending view of the sprawling caldera that was dark black with recent lava flows being encroached by bright green vegetation. On our way back down the mountain, we stopped quickly to get a picture of the vermillion fly catcher. It’s a harder to find bird that is bright red and small. 

A pelican and his/her nest

After lunch back on the boat, we veered off on a different road (probably the only other one in town) and had a quick trip to the tortoise breeding center. In order to help the tortoise population thrive, the national park has setup a couple of breeding facilities. Tortoises are bred, hatched and when ready, released back into their natural range. It’s been a big success so far, stabilizing many of the populations. It’s important to put them back in the right spot, because each species (and there are many), have distinct adaptations for the environment. For example, the tortoises that live the in the lowland mostly eat the prickly pear cactus and so their saddle at the neck is high to allow them to reach up. Whereas those tortoises in the highlands have more vegetation to chew on the ground as the mountain wrings out more water from the clouds. So, those tortoises don’t have much of a saddle. Contrary to popular belief, it’s the tortoises that actually triggered Darwin to realize about speciation, not the finches. Though the finches showed different characteristics, he didn’t label his samples and they were thus relatively useless to tie any differences to the animal’s microclimate.

A land iguana

The breeding facility itself is overrun with tortoises. There were two main highlights. First, I saw a tortoise that was having a hard time getting out of a pool of water. He eventually got there, but that’s when I noticed that he was missing a hind leg. What a drag! The other highlight was seeing two tortoises try to mate. Apparently it takes a couple of hours, but I can attest that it’s definitely loud as the male mounts the female and starts to grunt. Loudly.

After the breeding center, we stopped by a brackish pool were we saw some flamingos and then finished the excursion by stopping at a bar by the beach. We had some cocktails and some of us went swimming. I should have worn sandals as it turns out that there were some rocks hidden in the sand. Sharp volcanic rocks. The popular cocktails were the maracuya (passion fruit) margarita and the coco loco which was a whole coconut opened up with a couple of shots of rum thrown in to mix with the fresh water.

Remains of a marine iguana that starved to death

On day three, our morning started with a hike over a fresh lava flow. This was very similar to the terrain in volcanos national park in Hawaii, so it wasn’t as novel for me as for everybody else in the group who hadn’t been there. It is very rough terrain and desolate except for some cacti that started to take hold. The one oasis of life was a brackish pond were we changed upon some flamingos digging for sea monkeys.

After lunch, we did our first snorkeling dive where we were inundated by sea turtles. They were everywhere and it was really hard not to accidentally get thrown into one by the surf. You turn around and BAM! Say hello to an underwater friend. We also saw a big sea horse, some stars and a variety of fish.

Blue footed boobies

After swimming, our activity was a panga ride through the mangroves and around a couple of islands. Some people almost skipped the ride to just relax, but man, were they glad they didn’t. We were greeted by a sea lion posing on our way into the grove. Then in there, we saw manta rays, sea turtles, great blue herons, and even a cormorant catching a fish. Motoring around the rocks near dusk, we had our first view of pelicans, blue footed boobies, penguins and iguanas. There was even, a playful sea lion who followed us around, leaping out of the water in a dazzling display of speed and agility that outshone anything we’re going to see at the Olympics. 

The next day started with another panga ride to a different set of mangroves. We were supposed to do more snorkeling but there were very large swells so that visibility was poor and it would be too easy to be thrown into the rocks. With those swells, we almost couldn’t make it into the mangrove cove, but our amazing panga drivers worked the waves until a lull and then slipped in. Inside was probably the highlight of the trip. It started by seeing the nesting grounds for a bunch of pelicans in the trees. We were able to get really close. Then, we ended up behind a rock surf break were it was incredibly calm. Frolicking there were a group of sea lions. About six of them. Some of them started to play around the boats so we hopped out ingot he waist deep water and they swam all around us, the mangroves and had a glorious time. It was magical.

Iguana hold you tight

After lunch, we had a hairy wet beach landing for a short hike. The other tour boats in the area didn’t go, but we did and the panga drivers were amazing. Between waves, we had to hop out of the boats and get onto the beach quickly. Catherine failed getting both in and out of the boat and got wet each time. The beach has only existed since the 1950s because in 1954, the land heaved up 15 ft, creating a new shoreline. This also meant that there was now a nice sandy area above ground and the land iguanas moved in. These guys are huge, lazy, yellow monsters that were either basking in the sun or chilling below the trees. They are about 4 feet long. Once back on the boat, we had a swim to cool off and took the opportunity to jump off the boat into the water. Wheeee.

The next morning started by going ashore to see colonies of marine iguanas. They eat this green algae, which we were able to see as it washed ashore in the rough seas. There was a ton of it, enough to feed a herd, and that’s what we saw. Hundreds of black iguanas hanging out on the rocks. There was also a bull sea lion honking away to claim his stretch of beach. On the other side of the island, there was a cormorant nest where we got to see the female find a new twig, do a little dance and give it to the male, who was sitting on the eggs. Finally, we saw some blue footed boobies diving into the sea to grab anchovies, which was an incredibly display of arial acrobatics.

Great blue heron and a crab, the only skittish creature.

In the afternoon, we were supposed to do some more snorkeling, but the seas were too rough again, so instead, we just did a panga ride to see some birds (boobies, frigate birds, penguins), nesting on the side of a cliff. Then, we hopped back on the boat and started a long drive to our next stop. Along the way, we saw a pod of dolphins that put on a show. We followed them for a while, then they got bored of us following and hung a quick right and put the pedal to the medal. Zoom. It was amazing how fast they moved.

A male sea lion getting ready for a nap

The next day started with an early morning beach excisions where we got to see a hawk that let us get a few feet away. I’m used to only see hawks a long ways away up in a tree, but this guy was just hanging out beside a sea lion and didn’t care that we were there. There was also some herons, sea lions, many crabs and an egret, who caught a bug while I was watching. 

After that excisions, we did our first of two dives. We had to make up for the missed snorkeling the previous couple of days. On the first dive, we jumped into the water and couldn’t see the bottom thanks to a school of anchovies that were magical to watch. Then we saw a turtle chomping away at some seaweed, a bunch of stars, more fish and at the very end, a sea lion came to join the party and swam under us. on the second dive after lunch, there was a manta ray, a moray eel, many more fish and an underwater cave that Thomas swam through. There was also a black tipped reef shark, but I missed it.

Red footed boobie

That night, we became a long, rough sail to one of the islands a further away. It’s an older island with just the caldera above water now. In the morning, we started with a hike up on the island and wow, was it an island of the birds. There were hundreds of them nesting everywhere. No bird ever shooed us away no matter how close we got. We saw a ton of red footed bobbies in the small trees, nasca boobies on the ground, a small owl and frigate birds in both. The frigate birds were interesting. Some of the males were mating so they inflate this big, goofy red membrane on their throat to woo a mate. It makes them look very ridiculous. They are also a little sinister. They have long, crooked beaks and hang out in the leafless palo santo trees. This gives them an air of a witch’s vulture in the haunted forest. Also, they don’t hunt their own food because they can’t get wet or they will sink. So, they steal from other birds. We saw many of them harassing boobies until the boobie dropped it’s hard fought food. 

Nom Nom.
A pacific green sea turtle chowing down on the seaweed.

After the walk, we went for one last snorkeling session. This time, the main attraction was the hammerhead sharks. Normally they stick to deeper waters, but in this particular spot, they come up very shallow. We saw at least two of them cruising around between all the fish on the reef. Very spectacular.

After lunch, we went kayaking and then went for another very short hike on a beach near some mangroves and not-so-prickly pear cacti. There are no reptiles on this island to eat their pears, so the cacti didn’t evolve spikes. They just have hair for leaves, which are better at catching moisture from the air. Around this vegetation, there were more sea lions and birds hanging out. On the beach, I went for a quick swim with the snorkeling gear and saw some more fish. The most interesting thing was an eel hanging out at the base of a brain coral who was cleaning a big parrot fish. I don’t know why it would do that, but it looked hilarious. The fish looked like a dog whose ear is being scratched.

Male frigate bird looking for a mate.

On our very last day, we had an 11:30 flight to catch, but there was one stop first. Bright and early at dawn, we went for a hike on another bird filled island. This one was full of frigate birds and blue footed boobies nesting. We got to see some dances, a bunch of chicks and some baby sea lions waking up and going out to sea. A fantastic end to an amazing trip.

The Magical Fruits of Southeast Asia

While in Vietnam and Cambodia, we ran into some amazing fruit. Many were familiar, but with extra pizzazz, while others were completely new to us. So, this blog post is about the fruits we encountered at the dawn of summer.

Dragon Fruit

Ubiquitous in Vietnam. It was available at every breakfast buffet and in every fruit plate. It grows on a vine and has a gorgeous fuchsia exterior and a foamy white interior with small black, kiwi-like seeds. Our previous experience with dragon fruit was the imported variety in the US and was definitely lacking. The taste and texture was more akin to styrofoam than a tropical fruit. In Vietnam, we had the pleasure to try "excellent" examples of dragon fruit. They were much better than the US version, with a certain vibrancy and their own flavor. Unfortunately, it wasn't all that different from a light squirt of meyer lemon on a near-sugarless meringue filled with poppy seeds. In other words, not much different than a bland and slightly acidic kiwi. So it was different, but still, not worth searching out unless you are really into different textures.

Mango

So many varieties. So many choices. We tried about half a dozen different varieties (of the dozens that actually grow where we traveled). Some green ones, you eat the rind too, while others you just scoop out the deliciousness. The best one actually dropped from the sky. I was swimming in the pool at the hotel in Siem Reap, when plop. Right in front of me is a small green mango about two inches long. It came from the tree overhanging the pool and since it just dropped, we figured it was ripe, so we ate it. It had a vibrancy that made you want to belt a trill.

Durian

The love it or hate it fruit. Some say it smells like hell and tastes like heaven. We thought it was just pure hell when we tried it in Hoi An. The smell is so strong and gag inducing that you're not allowed to eat it indoors. Really people should know better that something the size and and weight of your head, covered in spikes, that falls from a tree, shouldn't be trifled with. No more durian for me.

Chocolate Pudding Fruit

This was an interesting fruit. On the outside, it looked like a brown, soft mango, but you open it up and inside is a gushy pulp that does actually taste kind of like chocolate pudding. We saw it in the markets both in Hoi An and Siem Reap.

Watermelon

The third leg of the fruit triumvirate while we were there that included mango and dragon fruit. It was on every fruit plate and available by the mound in every market. Basically the same as the north american red version.

Bananas

Available everywhere. Many different varieties. Some long. Some short. Some green. Some yellow. Most of them very tasty ranging from a hint of apple blossoms all the way to the cavendish bannaishness that we are used to. There were also a lot of banana flower salads to eat.

Pineapple

We saw a lot of pineapple and pretty much all of it was a just more delicious example of the dole variety found in supermarkets and bodegas throughout the US.

Jackfruit

Definitely one of the gems of the trip. We tried it cooked, freeze dried and fresh. Cooked and freeze dried, it takes on a consistent flavour that's enjoyable, but it's nothing like fresh. You usually buy fresh in little, plastic wrapped packages because a jackfruit is an extra large, non-spiky version of Durian that nobody could eat before it went bad. The taste is like a party in your mouth. It starts vibrant and acidic and then moves towards sweetness, only to taper off into a tropical, floral medley. This flavour symphony takes a good 30 seconds to progress, so savour every bite. 

Custard Apple

A fist-sized green fruit made of scalloped wedges. You pull apart the wedges with your hands and inside each wedge is a big black seen surrounded by a white, custardy pulp that sort of tastes like apples, but it's a stretch. I enjoyed it, but Catherine wasn't a fan.

Green Orange

Some of the oranges have green rinds. They are ripe, but the pulp is orange and can look very alien to our eyes. Still tastes like an orange though, although the extra sweet, mandarin-like flavours were fairly common.

Rambutan

Very much like a lychee but looks fuzzier. It tastes like a lychee too, but with a milder flavour. I could even eat it. Contrast that to longan, which has an extra strong flavour that I can't stand after the unfortunate mistake of buying a kilo in Hawaii and then sitting down to eat it all in one sitting.

Mangosteen

We tried mangosteen twice. The first time was a purple, unripe mangosteen in Hoi An. The lady at the market warned me not to buy it (which begs the question why it was being sold in the first place), but she was right. It took a pocket knife to saw through the hard outer shell and inside was a fruit that tastes like a raspberry, but with the acidity cranked up to 11. It was in edible. We also tried a ripe, white mangosteen at Cuisine Wat Damnak in Siem Reap. This specimen was amazing and did sort of taste like a tropical raspberry but with a more complex flavour profile.

Tang Fruit

Ok, so I don't remember the real name of this fruit. It was served to us at the end of the meal at Cusine Wat Damnak in Siem Reap. It's a two inch pod filled with about 20 seeds, each surrounded by a neon orange pulp. The pulp tasted like orange tang, except without the chemically aftertaste. It grows wild in the Cambodian rainforest.

Sunny Soon Dong Cave

Hang En Camp

The trek through Hang En and Soon Dong cave was pretty bloody mind blowing. You would think these caves, which are the work of monsoon rivers gushing through very pure limestone, were the source of inspiration for Jules Verne (minus the Molemen). However, Soon Dong was only discovered in 1990 and not officially mapped out/explored until 2009. To put the cart before the horse a little bit, the picture album is up.

We arrived in Phong Na (sp) midday via a flight on a small plane to Dong Hoi. After getting our hotel room for the night, we went over to Oxalis, the outfitter, for our trip briefing and for dinner. There, we met our fellow trekkers: Jeff and Lauren from Maryland, Alex from the UK San Francisco, Audrius from Lithuania via Belgium, Giang from Vietnam via Singapore and Dao, Vu and Hoang, all from Ho Chi Minh City. We also met our head guide Binh as well as the two British cavers who were coming along: Dick and Adam. Adam was part of the 2009 expedition to explore Soon Dong and Dick has been coming to Vietnam since the early 90s for caving expeditions. Adam gave the briefing, which included useful information like packing list, expected timelines and so on. For the record, this trip is definitely glamping as there were 20 porters for 10 guests so that all we needed to carry was some water and a camera. That’s not normally our MO, but this is the only way to get into Soon Dong right now as Oxalis is the only operator that the government lets into the cave and they just started tours last year. That being said, there were definitely places where it would have been very tricky with an extra 50lbs on my back. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Exiting Hang En Cave

The next day, we set our after breakfast into the national park. The hike started around noon. Temperature was a balmy 35 degrees Celsius with 80%+ humidity. Perfect conditions to go tromping through the jungle. The hike start with a 40min descent down a fairly steep hillside and then we stopped in the only village in the park for tea. People are very poor in the village and are basically subsistence farmers with a little bit of extra money from Oxalis for keeping the trail in shape. Oxalis also runs a foundation that helps to educate children from the village as well as other minority groups in the country.

Formation made by water dripping on the sand.
It will be erased in the wet season as the river rises.

After the village, we walked out into the open sun and walked along the river bed until we reached the entrance to Hang En cave (about 10km total walking). Approaching the cave, you can see a big entrance up the side of the mountain, but it’s easier to actually enter by walking along river off to the side and then up over some boulders to get a view of the Hang En camp. It’s a breathtaking sight with a sandy floor at the bottom of a monstrous cavern and two pools of water: one blue-green of cold water that comes from underground and the other brow water of the river flow past. Entering the cavern, we immediately heard a cacophony of chirping and you could see a few of what looked like bats. They are actually little birds called swifts that come back to the cave at night to sleep up in  the ceiling. The local people actually have strung up a number of vines up the side of the cave in order to climb up to the birds and catch them, but they don’t do that anymore because it’s too dangerous being about 100m off the ground for a half mouthful of meat.

Catherine entering Soon Dong cave.
Dick is perched on the left to help with clipping in to the ropes.

After dropping our stuff, we freshened up after the very hot walk by swimming and showering in the cave water. Dinner was probably the best camping dinner I’ve ever had (if you don’t include the other nights of the trip). The chefs prepared a smorgasbord of vietnamese dishes and a few american ones. There were about 15 different dishes including fried chicken, french fries, green mango salad, braised tofu in tomatoes and peppers, sautéed morning glory, etc. They bring in frozen meat for the whole trip in styrofoam containers to keep it fresh, which worked amazingly well. Unfortunately, due to some communication issues and a change of policy, there was no rice wine for after dinner socializing so we just chatted and got to know each other better. Some of us stayed up a little late because around 10pm, the full moon came across the opening of the cave to case moonbeams across a small portion of the camp.

Fording the river in the cave.

The next day, we popped out the other side of Hang En and trekked following the river to the Soon Dong lunch camp. There, we had lunch and donned some harnesses that we would need to safely pick our way down the 80m drop in to Soon Dong. The camp is actually always manned by at least one porter because the local people kept stealing the ropes. Entering the cave took a while because we are not experienced cavers and the portions were a little technical so Dick, Adam and Binh were being very conservative moving people along so that everybody was safe and felt comfortable. 

Stalagmite that's about 80m tall.
Light from Doline 1 is in the background.

The rest of the hike for the day was walking through/across a dark wonderland of crystalline formations, razor sharp rocks and large boulders. We stopped a number of times to take pictures and once to shower up because there is no source of water to swim in at camp 1. Camp 1 is right before the first doline, which is an area where the roof of the cave has collapsed, letting in sunlight. It's created by an eddy in the river slowly swirling around and cutting up until the ceiling is too weak and it collapses. So there is a large mountain of boulders underneath the hole and we camped just to the side of that mountain.

Adam standing atop Hand of Dog formation in the distance.

The next day, went up into the first doline to stand on ginormous stalagmites and then made our way down the other side. There, we had lunch and waited for the sun to go overhead in order to capture some sunbeams streaming into the primitive green wonderland. Most of the vegetation is fairly small because the hole up top isn't that big, so it has the feeling of being near the time when life first evolved. For example, there are many square meters of this rare formation of spikes that reach towards the light. They are created by algae growing on the rock and then bacteria eating the algae and secreting acid. That acid then breaks down the rock very slowly. The doline also appears to breath as a fog with roll in and then clear out in cycles that were lasting about 10min. Apparently later in the summer, the cycles speed up.

Standing atop the formation in doline 1

After lunch, we made our way to the second doline. The light for it is actually visible from where we stopped for lunch, but this opening created a very different landscape. First, coming into the light are perfect terraces holding small ferns and other plants that are tilted in order to catch the most light. As we climbed up doline 2's rock mountain, the vegetation got denser and turned into a full fledged jungle supported by the larger opening above. Apparently there's actually species in the jungle (and elsewhere in the cave) that are new to science, but we didn't see any.

View back into doline 1.
If you look very closely, you can
see one of the guides atop the
formation to the left of the sunbeam.

Unfortunately, on the way down into camp 2, Catherine twisted her ankle so she was done for the day and had to hang out at camp while the rest of us kept going deeper into the cave. After climbing down from camp two, the cave flattened out into a sandy path, which was about the biggest contrast possible with the rest of the cave we had seen thus far. No more boulder scrambling.

In the end of the cave, we took some pictures of some interesting formations and stopped at the cave pearls. These are another very rare formation that's created one drop at a time as crystals are deposited, forming perfectly round spheres. Then, we continued on to the great wall of Vietnam. Depending on the water level, you either take an inflatable boat, or you trudge through a mud trench. It was the trench for us, with the mud up to the knee in the places. After a long 500m, we then climbed a mud hill in order to see the wall which is about 50m tall and has a waterfall formed from the river flowing over it into the mud trench. There is another opening to the cave above it, which we could see from the light when we turned off our headlamps, however we didn't go up. Instead, Binh challenged us to surf down one of the mud slopes while staying on our feet and then try to get back up. Given how slippery the mud was, hilarity ensued. After becoming thoroughly dirty, we made our way back to camp for dinner and a nice sleep. 

Formation reaching towards the light.
It's made by bacteria eating algae and secreting acid.

The next day was a long trek from camp 2 all the way back to Hang En cave. However we didn't really stop to take pictures this time since we had been on most of the terrain before. The hardest part was Catherine's ankle, which was still very painful, especially if it landed on uneven terrain. As you can image, bouldering tends not to be flat, but she trooped on like a champ with some help from me and the guides.

Terrace of ferns entering in doline 2.

Back in Hang En, there was a film crew sharing the camp setting up for a live shoot in a few days. We were actually warned this would happen 24 hrs before our trip, when we were forced to sign an all encompassing NDA or not go on our trip. A little bit of a hostage situation that set the tone unfortunately. So, the film crew was there, which wouldn't necessarily that big a deal because it's a very large campsite but we were told that they would not interfere with our trip (and vice versa I bet). However,  they were running their generators (including a 6am wakeup call) and there was only one table, so they were trying to work on it and we were trying to eat/hang out. So it was an awkward situation that got on everybody's nerves. Furthermore, hardly anybody tried to make nice with the other group, which didn't help things.

Inside doline 2.

The next day, we trekked out of Hang En in the morning. The film crew had a helicopter dropping off supplies as we were leaving. Apparently this is fairly common and it's also common for tours/Oxalis folks to hitch a ride out on the (now empty) helicopter going the other direction. So, the Oxalis people talked to the pilots and we boarded. However, the film crew was not happy about this because the chopper was contracted to them and felt that we had been rude the night before. Apparently, they were willing to let us hitch a ride if we were willing to pony up $20,000, but shy of that it wasn't going to happen. So a little bit of a sour note at the end of a truly mesmerizing trip. I didn't really mind the hike back out since it just gave me time to mediate over the amazing sights I had just seen.

Cave pearls

One of the caverns past camp 2

Here’s the GPS track for the trek (or at least the outside parts).

Hunting Through Hanoi for Some Delicious Eats

We arrived in Hanoi late last night after a long travel day (19 hours). We crashed almost as soon as we got to the hotel because of a) jet lag and b) we had a street food tour booked for the morning. So, we got up early enough to meet our tour guide Mark and a dutch couple to explore the street food scene. Mark is an expat Australian who's lived in Hanoi for just over 10 years and has a blog that turned into a tour business called Street Eats Hanoi.

For more pictures in Vietnam, see the album.

Street food is an institution in Hanoi, just like many Asian cities. Vendors often make only one or two dishes and keep selling until they run out. Then they pack up shop and go home for the day. They are masters of their dish, so it's one of the best places to eat. When you order, you usually sit down on a small blue plastic chairs and are expected to eat relatively quickly so that somebody else can sit down.

All the main ingredients for Vietnamese
cooking.

Our first stop was for a traditional vietnamese breakfast of noodle soup. Not the ubiquitous pho, because Mark wanted to dig a little deeper than that dish for the purposes of the tour. This was a chicken soup made with a broth so rich that your taste buds will melt and chicken so tender and juicy that it flakes apart at the first touch. The soup comes well balanced, but if you want more heat or acid, you can add some chili paste, dried chiles, garlic vinegar, or lime juice. This is a typical approach in Hanoi where people can customize to their own tastes. The vendor also served the same chicken over sticky rice with a soy-based sauce and a side of pickled carrots and papaya.

Now that we had some breakfast in our bellies, it was time for a morning coffee. In this case, Mark took us to a place that specializes in egg coffee. Egg coffee is made by first beating up a frothy cream of eggs, sugar and a touch of condensed milk. Then, you pour in lukewarm coffee like you would with a cappuccino. You use lukewarm coffee for two reasons. First, it won't cook the egg and second, it's Hanoi and it's bloody hot out! The cafe we went to is perched above a luggage shop that you reach by going into the back of the shop and climbing the stairs. The room itself was packed wall to wall with young people enjoying their coffees. It was dark, with some creaky fans and peeling paint that reminded me of an Ernest Hemingway scene.

Not squeamish

After the egg coffee, we headed north through the streets to grab a glimpse of the various street markets to our next stop: square imperial rolls. We tried both the crab and straight pork varieties, which were paired with a healthy pile of fresh herbs and some of the standard dipping sauce. That sauce is made with fish sauce, water, garlic and rice vinegar. This was one of Catherine's favorite treats.

After the crab rolls, we popped across the street to have a snack of fried rice balls. They came in either sweet (filled with coconut and bean paste) or savoury (filled with a pork mixture). They were good enough that even Catherine, who normally hates the gooey glutenous rice texture, loved them. It's probably because they were super fresh, straight out of the fryer, and thus so crispy they sounded like firecrackers in your mouth.

After fried rice balls, we tried another fried snack: shrimp fritters. They are rice fritters topped with whole shrimp so they stare out at you from the wok that they are fried in. They are fried twice to make sure that they are extra crispy and you can eat just by chomping down.

Shrimp fritters frying away

The last stop on the tour was for pho tiu, a rice noodle dish toped with slices of pork, peanuts, herbs and fried shallots, topped with a light sauce. We were totally stuffed by this point, but somehow found space to fit in just a little bit more because it tasted so good.

By this point, it's only about 1pm, so we still had the afternoon to waddle around Hanoi. We tried going to the ethnography museum but it's Monday, so they were closed. So, instead, we walked over to the Hall of Literature where students used to come to because masters of Confucian philosophy. It's a small, but pretty set of gardens with shrines.

Next, we walked back towards the turtle lake in Hanoi through the French quarter. This part of town is more wide open compared to the Old Quarter where the street food tour was. As a result, there is more traffic whizzing by. Oh, and a note on traffic. Saying it's chaotic is an understatement. You have to walk on the streets because the sidewalks are covered in parked motor bikes, street stalls, or whatever else. Also, you cross the street wherever you want. Traffic won't stop, so you just have to start walking in a predictable pace and trust that people will avoid you.

Catherine at the Hall of Literature

Around turtle lake, we had an expensive fruit drink and watched people passing by. It was quite picturesque. At the other end of the lake, there's a beautiful little temple on an island. The shrine has a 150lbs stuffed turtle that apparently used to live in the lake. Hard to believe.

For dinner, we took a recommendation from Mark and took a taxi out to Quan Kien. There we sat at a low table and had some of the house specialities after a little confusion with the waiters to get food that Catherine could eat. They make their own liquor, so we tried the plum and kumquat. We also had the sticky rice fried in chicken fat and dipped in salty peanuts. It's surprising tasty. The other dishes we tried were the pomelo salad, these little clams cooked in their shells with oil, scallions and dipped in a wasabe soy sauce and finally, some ant lavae hash served on large rice crackers. Insects are a common thing to eat in Vietnam, although they are very seasonal. The ant lavae were probably the easiest dish on the menu to get a hold of, but it's possible to get things as varied as fried grasshoppers or sautéed bees.

Ant Lavae Hash