Although it doesn’t feel like home. But little man is here and to have them back in my arms feels wonderful. My laptop is still comatose. It refuses to go beyond the initial Thinkpad screen since Buenos Aires. I regret having titled the previous post “morbid”. My beloved laptop may have been still be alive, if I had given that post a more upbeat title.
From Buenos Aires I flew to Istanbul. God, I love that city. Alive, colorful, and full of warm, cheeky people. Not to mention the mountain of fried sardines, salad, coke, and Turkish tea for 10 Lira (US$6.50) with a view of Galata bridge.
“Come in! I won’t sell you an overpriced carpet. I am selling handbags!”
“Beautiful lady! Come loose your money in my shop!”
“You are 36? No way! You look like 25. I love European and American ladies!”
“Are you married? I only want to practice my English.”
“Come to my house! You can stroke my white horses” (?!?)
“You want to come have tea in my house? My wife is in Anatolia. She is crazy!”
Yes APJ, I recommend going to Istanbul!
And if you tell someone to get lost, they will retreat. Like the guy who interrupted my nap in Gulhane Park. Never… I mean NEVER wake a German tourist from her well deserved afternoon nap! NEVER!!!
PS: Is it just me or is there a huge gap between the first and second row of the picture gallery? I have to pick up little man now, but will try to change it later. All suggestions on how to do it are most welcome.
Let’s start with the end, because there is great hope to be found. Why do people build such elaborate graves, if they would not have hope that their life is meaningful?
I don’t make plans for death. And given the way people drive here in Buenos Aires it could happen any minute. I have told my parents that they should burn me (cheap) and have me shucked into the ocean (no rental fees), and I be in my favorite element. Though there is something to be said of having a little house in the city of the dead.
How could I forget Anthony Bourdain’s love declaration to Hong Kong yesterday? It’s the best travel show about Hong Kong I have seen so far. If you do a travel guide for this city you better show it’s obsession, culture, and love… FOOD.
It takes about 45 minutes to watch all 5 parts, but if you have a bit of time now or later, I promise you it’s worth it.
Part 1: The body builder restaurateurs and the angry hawker granny
Part 2: Handmade noodles, a ball-crushing art Part 3: Bliss in a North Point food court “I am so happy here” Part 4: Spicy typhoon shelter crab Part 5: Fighting for Dim Sum
I have a sweet tooth for cooking shows. Is there anything better than arm chair traveling around the world with a little salivating on the side?
APPETIZER
I can’t watch Food Safari without munching something myself. Maeve O’Meara, the presenter, has the best job there is. In every show, she eats herself through one of the “immigrant” cuisines of Australia, and in the process has eaten herself around the world. Thailand, Lebanon, Spain, Malaysia, Pakistan, Hungary…
I also love that she goes shopping and learns about essential ingredients before digging in.
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MAIN
Food is love, and Rick Stein shows how delicious it is. He travels around Great Britain and Continental Europe in search of simple, good, local food, and because his restaurant is located in a sea side town his show often features seafood. Mmmmmm!
DESSERT
It needs to be sweet, sticky, gooey, and full of chocolate.
“Who wouldn’t want this? Look at this ravishing… pool… of chocolate. It’s quite mesmeric.”
Oh yes, it is. Are there language courses that teach Nigella’s accent?
Listen to something jazzy and Brazilian while you view the slide show, will you? Not because this is Rio, no – far from it. But while I was trying not to breathe to get half decent night shots, a very lovely Brazilian singer and cello player were playing jazzy things in a nearby restaurant.
This is Hvar, one of the many lovely islands off the Croatian coasts. The funny thing was that it was full of Italian, French, and Spanish tourists. Don’t they have beaches a little closer to home?
For 999 Dirham (USD 272) per night you can stay at the Al Qasr, at the moment the premier hotel in Dubai. That’s a lot of money, but compared to other hotels in the same category in other places around the world it is a very good deal. The caveat is that the price above is the summer price, when Dubai truly is a desert and the temperature outside becomes unbearable.
We didn’t stay there, but we had lunch, looked around, and marveled at the architecture and interior design. It’s a perfect illusion of Arabian dreams.
With wind towers and exquisite stone masonry work…
marble and chandeliers…
a dining hall held up by palm columns…
more delicately carved stone masonry…
water channels with boats that ferry guests around the extensive grounds…
a sumptuous lounge with views to the ocean (they serve wonderful lemon-mint mocktails and mezze platters)…
and views to the next seven star hotel down the beach, the Burj Al Arab, managed by the same hotel group …
The first thing we noticed after leaving the airport terminal in Dubai was the heat. Fortunately you don’t sweat. Any moisture your body develops to cool itself immediately evaporates. It’s like stepping into a very hot oven. The scale inside our car read 52 degrees Celsius (126 Fahrenheit)… it stood in the shade.
The second thing I noticed was the “Ladies Greeters Area”, which was a bit of a disappointment because although I walked through very slowly I didn’t get one hello.
Dubai is a big construction site. Wherever you go, wherever you look, buildings are being built by a huge army of workers shipped in from Pakistan. These guys work day (120s Fahrenheit) and night (100s Fahrenheit), and if they don’t work, they sleep in container barracks at the edge of town.
The raised concrete rail in the middle of the street is for a Monorail line. Traffic is a bit of a nightmare here. There are frequent traffic jams and not much public transport, so the Monorail will make a difference.
Dubai’s population consists of more than 80% expatriates, and whether you live in barracks, ugly concrete blocks, or big villas depends on which country you were born in and what kind of education you received. Americans, Europeans, Middle Eastern people and the odd Asian live in landscaped areas with swimming pools. People from the Philippines, Thailand, Africa, and India live somewhere else. The former are here to sell their education to the highest bidder, the later are here to serve the former. All are here to make money.
If you were born in North America or Western Europe, never forget that you were merely fortunate to be born in the right place.
The picture below doesn’t show it very clearly, but half of the skyscrapers in the distance are in a state of construction too. The only industry that makes stuff in Dubai is the building industry. And if you are wondering who is paying for all this construction… you are, with every fill of your car’s gas tank.
Dubai itself doesn’t have any oil. The investment money is mainly coming from neighboring gulf states, and people from Europe and America hopping on the bandwagon.
Yesterday, we drove into the mountains. It was wonderful to see the desert, camels grazing, and the mountain ranges in the distance. On the way back into the city, we drove by huge industrial areas with factories producing building supplies and passed literally thousand of trucks transporting the stuff into Dubai City. It’s mind-boggling, it really is.
Wine, tasty tit-bits, cigars… and suddenly we get the inspiration to do a Clint Eastwood / Don’t mess with us – shot!
Lecram, Rachel, Joy, and me got a Taste of the Tower District on the last day of my visit to Fresno. For fifteen bucks you can nibble and drink around the Tower District. If you ask me, it’s an ingenious way to get people to come, see, and come again. But boy, it was hot! I thought my body was used to heat, having lived in tropical heat for more than ten years and all, but I was melting. Please, dear Taste of the Tower Organizers, let it start one hour later next year.
The last stop was the “backyard” of Veni Vidi Vici, where we met with APJ. (Dr. Jones, invite her soon to one of your adventures, because chances like her only come once in a life time!)
Rachel agreed with me that men who know how to cook are keepers, and she loves Marlene Dietrich too. She is my soul mate!!!
Clint Eastwood look-a-like… enjoying it all…
Afterwards, we went further down the road, and Joy exclaimed “Look, the nerds are giving away freebies too!!!” So, we went inside and got an extra helping of glow sticks. To this day, I am not exactly sure what kind of shop it was (big LCD screens and very nice 17 year old boy behind the desk).
I have to admit that by that time the seven glasses of wine and one Mojito had done their magic. Luckily, the Tower District’s Velo-Cab-Driver came by and drove us through theTower District. He was faaaaaaast…
I switched the camera mode to night shot and got this lovely shot of the Tower Theatre…
He is the best driver in town!!!
The next day, Lecram drove me back to San Francisco, and I thought “F*beep*!!! This visit was much too short!!!”
I was telling the Fresnian princesses that Fresno (and especially the Tower District) reminded me of a friendly village, where you constantly bump into people you know. Joy replied that not Fresno is the village but Lecram, who knows so many people around town.
It was wonderful to tag along the Malay pirate. To be well fed, entertained, and generally spoiled rotten by him. Thank you very much, Lecram :)
And it was wonderful to meet you all in Fresno and spent time with you. A big thank you!
The highlight was the big “meat burning feast”, which not only had ample food and drink but also a special performance by Suicide Lounge. Two thirds of Suicide Lounge arrived early to help set everything up, and Nate even brought his new love, a shiny five-string bass guitar. Have you checked out Nate’s MySpace Page yet, and his website? He is a man of many talents. He plays the bass guitar and piano, acts, and draws. Tarkus of Darkness became a favorite of little man and me, and all sorts of stories roam through my head that involve a cute little dragon desperately trying to look scary.
Fresnian princesses, court jesters, knights and other merry folk were arriving in the late afternoon. Throughout the evening it became evident to me that I was the only one without any special artistic talents. I remember that RP (sitting next to me) asked me if I play any instruments. My lame reply was that I know how to operate my stereo… yawn.
One of the first bottles to be opened was the great Costco find “Gnarly Head”. It was very nice, strong flavored, not gnarly at all, with a hint of… je ne sais quoi… lol, oh boy.
Then we all went inside the pirate’s garage theater to listen to Suicide Lounge. Joy, Nate, and RP called it a rehearsal. The rehearsal blew me away. It was a wonderful experience to listen to them up and close. The mix of songs was perfect and very entertaining, and the three of them – each of them very talented – play so well together. They make it look very easy, and you can see and hear the fun they are having making music together.
If you haven’t done it yet, go to their MySpace page and listen to their rendition of Lush Life.
Meanwhile, at the back of the room, a cuddly seal was looking for company. I think Dr. Jones will get very envious, APJ ;D.
Nate and RP also gave a very funny version of Creep.
When the “official” program was finished, Joy sat down at the keyboard, playing and singing, and I managed to shoot the picture below. Doesn’t she look fabulous? I wish there would have been more light on her face, but instead of photoshopping, I thought I post it as is.
And of course, we had to do a group “Zonthar” shot… lol
Sorry to keep you waiting for so long for the third part of the fairytale. Life caught up with me, and the photos have not magically reappeared… real life can be sooooo frustrating.
Luckily, I found copies of them in the recesses of my computer. Of course they had to be resized and uploaded once more.
So where were we? Aah yes, beautiful Fresnian princesses and other magical people…
The first princess the beanstalk met in Fresno was the wonderful Rachel, who had kept watch at the pirate’s den while he was away. She reminded me more of a faerie though. Beautiful, kind hearted, and with just the right amount of quirkiness. No photos of her yet, they will follow later.
Obviously, we had to shoot the next installment. With the washing in the background, which movie could it be? A gritty adaption of one of Brecht’s plays… Low-dive Jenny and Mack the Knife?
You may know this already, but let me point out the obvious, Fresno is hot in summer and this year it was already very hot in May. Perfect excuse to go to the neighborhood’s watering hole for rehydration. Where we interrupted Solitaire’s studies for her new role as the male (?!?) lead. She showed us her newly short-cut hair and very convincing machismo. Which is no small feat for a beautiful Fresnian princess.
They pour very stiff drinks at the watering hole. Which didn’t stop us from wandering on to the newly opened “English pub” to meet even more Fresnian princesses.
Well, it was an American version of an English pub, much bigger and with ample parking spaces right in front of the entrance. Which is ok with me. Who wants to drive around for hours to find parking? That would be much too much realism. I only have to nitpick a little. A “real” English pub always has a beer-soaked carpet, gone brown and musty. And that they had run out of the locally brewed “Cluster Fuggle Cream Ale” was a big disappointment too (But yes, APJ, it was great to say it!).
I got to meet two wonderful ladies, Joy and APJ, and they graciously oversaw that jet lag was beginning to hit me, and I was speaking in monosyllables. We were trying to do the Zonthar-look, and they are so much better at it than me.
The next day, the pirate got the Bonnie-and-Clyde car ready for a foray into the country-side.
The pirate wanted to show me enchanted nature, I was more interested in golden booty. Along the way, I was pointing out fruit-laden orange trees, ripe for the picking. The straight-laced pirate did not stop the car. Then came a post office, alone in the middle of nowhere. Dismissed as too small.
The river bed was full of gold… all sparkly. “Hooray!” I shouted. “We are rich!”
“Do you know how cold the water is?”
“Well, let me test it.”
Dismissed as too icy. Great spot to sell woolen socks to stupid tourists though.
On the way back we picked up groceries at the “Super Oriental” and the little shop across from it. “Super Oriental” puts any supermarket in Hong Kong to shame. They have a great selection of Asian foodstuffs, and because it is run by people from Laos or Vietnam, you find lots of things for Indochina dishes that are not commonly available in a Chinese supermarket. It was great fun to look around.
In the evening, the pirate spoiled me by taking me out for dinner to Veni Vidi Vici, where we met by chance Mustang and his sister-in-law. Mustang was sharing stories of his European travels, and they sounded a bit like Gulliver’s tales… lol.
We were also discussing if people in normal life are anything like their blog persona. Mustang thought that the woman in front of him was like Cosima. I think it’s also nice that people can share sides of them in their blogs that are not always obvious in daily life. Mustang does that with his blog, and I enjoy his posts very much.
Then my giant pork chop arrived, and I felt like a dwarf.
Not to be outdone, the Malay pirate had ordered half a cow.
After the beanstalk ate half of the giant pork chop and the pirate half of the steak, they looked at each other and had the same thought “No more!” … such loosers. They came, they saw, but they didn’t conquer.
The next day, Joy came and took us for a “Costco run” in preparation for the party later in the evening at the pirate’s den. Yes, Costco gave me culture shock… lol. I don’t think it would work in Hong Kong though. Where do you store “packs of twenty” in a tiny kitchen?
Then the pirate took us to his favorite Indian restaurant, which turned out to be inside an Indian convenience store. It’s a winning combination. While you wait for your meal, you can browse around the aisles for Indian spice mixes, sweets and snacks, and natural cosmetics and toiletries. We did that for a while, but then sat down and were captivated by Bollywood music videos that were playing on two TV screens. Our favorite was a very, very long music video by a girl group in skimpy Britney Spear’s school uniform outfits. They sang and danced around St. Petersburg for half an hour. Why they were in Russia remained a mystery.
In the next episode: A gnarly head, a cuddly seal, and other strange creatures.
