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

Crooning for Kowloon

For more pictures, see the album of the trip.

The last stop on our trip: another day long layover in Hong Kong. Our flight got in around 9am, so we were hungry and decided to have breakfast at the airport before hopping on the train into town. We went to Crystal Jade. I had a soup of hand-pulled noodles made on premises and Xiao Long Bao (dumplings filled with soup)while Catherine had some congee. It was a very impressive meal for being in the airport and a great start to the day.

For this layover, we took the opportunity to explore Kowloon, across the bay from Hong Kong Central. It's a much more down to Earth area of the city: filled with open air markets instead of the high end shopping malls of Hong Kong Central. Most of our day was spent exploring those markets. We started with the jade market. It's a city block filled with all things jade from figurines, to earings, to necklaces. You can get everything from fake, plastic jade for a couple of dollars all the way up to high quality natural jade for thousands. There's also a multitude of colors including purple, orange, black and of course, green jade. Catherine found herself some pretty earrings and had fun negotiating with the vendors to get them for a very reasonable price.

After the jade market, we found a BBQ place on the main street for lunch.  We had a plate full of goose, chicken, BBQ pork, crackling pork and sausage. It delicious, but was way more than we could eat, so some had to go to waste.

Our afternoon was spent working our way north through the markets. The first one was mostly a food market. It started with produce where there were a lot of fresh options including jackfruit and this little red fruit that was the size of a pear, but looked like a trumpet flower that had curled in at the end right before it falls of its stem. On a side street from the produce area is the seafood market and it is not for the squeamish. In order to show that everything is fresh, most of it is alive, or just recently killed. For example, we saw fish heads that were still breathing. We also saw an eel, where somebody only wanted part of it, so it was chopped in half and the front half was just thrown in a bucket, bleeding and alive, ready for the next customer who wanted it. On the less gruesome side, there was an amazing variety of mollusks and shellfish from prawns, to razor clams that are skinny and long like a straw, to $80US geoducks, the largest clam species in the world and comes from North America.

Moving on from the food section, we found the pet fish market. You can buy little fish for a dollar or two, all the way up to large, deformed goldfish that sell for hundreds of dollars. Beside the pet market, there is a flower market, which contained a plethora of flower shops. Some of them were very specialized, like one which only sells a specific subtype of orchid. Catherine found a shallow dish for forcing bulbs that we decided bring back with us.

By this time, the sun was starting to set and so we walked up to the pet bird market. Unfortunately, it was mostly closed by this time, so there wasn't much to see except for a very talkative parrot in the one open shop. From there, we started to head back to the southern edge of Kowloon. On the way, we walked through the famous night market. It only opens at night and is full of random, cheap things. It's mostly useless crap, but it was very colorful and fun to walk through.

For dinner, Catherine's parents treated us to an experience at Spoon, Alain Ducasse's restaurant in the Intercontinental. It's right on the water, so it has an incredible view of the Hong Kong skyline to complement some exceptional food. We started with two appetizers. Catherine had a jaw dropping baked egg with a rich, creamy, crayfish broth. The white of the egg was whipped, so that it was almost a meringue consistency. I had a solid dish of marinated and smoked mackerel belly served with quinoa. Then, we shared a scallop dish with pork belly and a pumpkin sauce. It was ok, but the scallops weren't seared hard enough and they were missing some of that delicious scallop caramelization you get if they are done properly.  For our next course, we had a beef tournedos served with a celeriac raisin sauce and for me, a tortellini and parmesan crisp. We paired that course with our first glass of good red wine for three weeks. It was very satisfying. For desert, Catherine had a chestnut-pear vacherin, which is a meringue crust filled with chantilly creme. The chestnut, pear combination, made it an epic dish. I had the baba, which is a sweet, chewy cake doused with fresh armagnac and topped with rich vanilla creme. Overall, it was a very special meal to put an exclamation point on the end of our fantastic trip. 

Mysore. It's not an Eye Sore

For more pictures, see the album.

Actually, it's the most beautiful city we've seen in India. It's known as the "garden city" because of its tree lined streets. We arrived around noon in Mysore at Ranjani's family homestead. There, we had an impromptu lunch and met her family in the midst of the chaos of party preparations. The meal finished with our introduction to Mysore Pak, which is a sweet made of chickpea flour, sugar and lots of ghee. Hunting down the best would become one of our goals in Mysore.

After lunch we dropped our stuff off at the university guesthouse, where Ranjani's family were graciously putting us up, and then went shopping. Catherine wanted Ranjani's help so we went kurta shopping. Kurtas are a kind of Indian tunic and Catherine wanted a nice one that she could wear to the birthday party on Sunday and then wear as a dress back in the US. After examining many pre made kurtas, and finding them all having too much embroidery, or crazy styling or too loose, she was directed upstairs to the fabric department. There, after much discussion with a tailor, Catherine decided to custom tailor two dresses, one a simple peacock green affair and the other a more complicated red and gold one. All for less than $100.

We then visited the government run memorabilia shop called the Cavery where we picked up some Mysore silk scarves and ties to use as gifts. Then it was dinner at Nalpak, a local chain where we had our first taste of Mysore masala dosa, which was fluffier than previous dosas we had had and filled with a tasty potato filling.

The next morning, we decided to change accommodations. Unfortunately, the people running the university guesthouse had been getting lazy and hadn't maintained it well so it was dirty and the plumbing had some serious issues. After checking into the new hotel, we went for our cooking class at Anu's Bamboo Hut. Anu runs a lunch only restaurant that caters to the local yoga student crowd. Mysore is a big center for learning Yoga because the master of Ashtanga Yoga made his home in Mysore. Up to 2009, you could come to learn with him, but since his passing, his kids have taken up the mantle. To come and train, you need to commit to a number of months of study and come in on a student visa, not a visitor's visa. Also, if you want to be a true Ashtanga teacher you have to commit to coming back for another session with the masters ever year or two. It's a lot of dedication.

As for our cooking class, it was a packed class with about 20 other yoga students. We asked Anu for a gluten free class, which meant learning how to make Mysore masala dosa. Apparently that piqued the interest of many of the yoga students. Anu was a great teacher and we learned some great tips like finding out that Indians always put mustard seed in the oil at the beginning of a curry, or to add ginger later in the cooking process so that the flavor stays fresher. We also learned that dosas require real planning. To make the batter, you have to soak the rice, gram dal and chana dal for at least 8 hours before blending. The batter then needs to ferment for another 8 hours depending on the temperature. You basically have to commit to a 24 hour process. However, the wait is worth it, the dosas were excellent: nice crispy bottom and fluffy tops. Anyway, Anu's recipe are posted separately on the blog.

After the cooking class, we went to check out the Mysore Palace. It's probably the biggest tourist draw in Mysore and it's really easy to see why. In the 1800s, the old palace was burned in a fire and so the King at the time requisitioned a palace to be built with no expenses spared. It was designed by a British architect so it's a fascinating combination Victorian, Indian and Muslim architecture. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to bring in cameras so I don't have pictures of the inside. There are some amazing stained class roofs made in Scotland that were incredibly memorable.

40ft tall golden Buddah's anybody?

After the palace, we made a brief stop in the ancient bazaar. It's a great open market with colorful piles of festival color powders, bales of banana leaves, tons of fresh veggies and even cows roaming the aisles. After the fun time in the market, we went back to the dress store for a fitting and I did some shopping for some casual long sleeved shirts and pants. Then, we went back to our hotel for dinner and to turn in for the evening.

In the morning, we drove out to Bylakuppe, which is a Tibetan refugee camp a few hours from Mysore. The Tibetans have settled in quite well and it's an impressive little town. First, crossing the line, all of a sudden, everything is much cleaner, there is very little trash on the ground and there are monks everywhere. The highlight is definitely the temples, which include three, 40 foot tall golden Buddah statues. Along with the main statues, there are many colorful paintings of deities, teachers and other important Buddhist figures. It was definitely worth the trip.

After the temple, we had lunch at one of the random tibetan restaurants (instead of McDonalds where our driver tried to direct us), mostly to have the opportunity to try some tibetan food. There was some confusion, mostly because of the language barrier, so the meal could have been better, but we had some tasty stir fried veggies and steamed bread that were unique.

For our next stop, we went to the bird sanctuary near Mysore. It's a dinky place, but most importantly, it there are a number of islands that have been left for birds to roost on or to act as a stop on a migration. You can take a little rowboat ride around the islands or just walk along the shore and watch the plethora of birds hooting and hollering. It was worth the visit to see all the different birds, although you can't really spend more than 45 min there.

Back in town, we picked up Catherine's dress and then got dressed for the birthday party. The party itself was a charming little event for Ranjani's parents. We were touched to be a part of it. It had a great turnout. Most of her Dad's students from over the years even showed up. It's hard for some of us to imagine going to our advisor's 70th birthday party. The food at the event was also very spicy. We had been thinking that overall, we were surprised how little spiciness we had encountered on the trip, but the reception food definitely showed that the cooks along the way had done a deliberate job of toning down the heat for western palates.

In the morning, we had breakfast with Ranjani and said our goodbyes before visiting a couple of last sights in Mysore. First, we hit the silk factory. It was an awesome stop. There's no real "tour" per se, but they let you just walk through the factory. It's largely automated and they do everything from boiling the silk cocoons to folding the finished saris. As you wander through the factory the workers are really helpful. When we looked lost, they pointed us where to go and some even showed us more in detail what they were doing. One weaver even let us feel the fabric as the loom was clacking away. There was definitely no safety precautions for guests beyond your common sense.

After the silk factory, we made a quick stop at the charming little railway museum before hitting the road for the Bangalore airport. On our way out of India, we flew from Bangalore to Mumbai before connecting with our late night flight to Hong Kong. We thought that a 4 hour layover time in Mumbai would be plenty, but wow, were we wrong. The domestic terminal at the Mumbai airport is on the side of the runway from the international terminal. You have to take a shuttle bus between the terminals, but because you don't have tickets for the international flight yet, they route the bus (via a U-turn), right into the mess of taxis that are dropping people off in the front of the terminal. Then, you need to wait in line to go through security to get into the airport. All of this happens before you can check in. The process took us 2.5 hours and we had to bribe three of the porters to skip the line and get into the airport in time to have our bags checked. It was a very unfortunate and stressful last experience in India.