Vietnam – Day 2

Woke up to a bright sunny morning which was great because it’s the rainy season so I expected it to be wet today given the rain we saw when we arrived last night.  The view from my hotel was fun to see and I was anxious to start the day and see the city.

The one thing you can’t escape in HCMC are the motorbikes – it is the main form of transportation and they are everywhere.  Traffic is a maze of bikes and cars weaving in and out but it keeps flowing for the most part, somehow.  I’m pretty sure I would die if I ever tried to drive here, and definitely if I was on a bike.  This is a a pretty light flow of traffic below, but look at all the red flags – there are red flags and banners hanging everywhere for National Day which is on Wednesday:

We spent the morning on a site visit, then grabbed lunch at an upscale Vietnamese spot.  I had Bun with grilled pork that was delicious.  In the afternoon we scoped out a hotel, then had some free time to wander one of the big markets.  Like most big markets, each stall was over-stuffed with products and a bored shopkeeper.  I didn’t see anything very interesting to get, but I also don’t plan on doing any shopping on this trip since it’s so short.

Next we visited the Giac Lam Pagoda, the oldest pagoda in HCMC, built in 1744.  It is a very peaceful spot and the folks with apartments that back onto it must be very lucky to have a respite from all the traffic noise.  Driving back to the hotel, the afternoon rain started to trickle down and by the time TD and I met at the roof bar for happy hour a full downpour began.

The rooftop bar at the Sheraton is renowned for it’s view, but with all the rain we couldn’t see much.  They did have happy hour going on though, so it was buy one, get one free – I had a bright green Kiwi Cooler and we shared some fried spring rolls.  For dinner we headed to Huong Lai, the Farestart of Seattle.  It was pretty good as well – we shared more spring rolls and then I had sweet & sour squid ( I had seen lots of fresh squid at the market so I was excited to see some on a menu!).  TD had beef with lemongrass and chili.  Food is pretty cheaper here, so dinner for three was easily under $40 – a very nice change after a week in Reykjavik  where dinner was easily $40/person 

Back home I hit the gym and the computer to catch up a bit.  Now off to bed!

PS – never forget to contribute to the Lonely Old and the Unhappy:

SEA-NRT-SGN – Day 1

About a month ago I found out I’d being going to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC aka Saigon) for work, and since I’ve never been to Asia I was super excited.  I will actually be going twice which is great, because this first trip is only three days on the ground.  Yep, that’s right – 20 hours of travel, 72 hours on the ground, and another 20 hours of travel.  All just two weeks after I’ve returned from Iceland – craziness!  And oh yeah, about two days before leaving we decided to spend one of the days in Cambodia…

But let me tell you, flying business class makes all the difference in the world, even if you’re on Northwest (like I was).  The ability to stretch out makes it so much more bearable.  As usual I didn’t sleep much and was happy to be nearing Tokyo until the pilot told us it was gonna be bumpy for the last 30 minutes and descent.  It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought until we got near the ground and then the plane was really rocky as we landed.  But we landed and that’s all that matters.  Tokyo Narita airport was not nearly as bustling and hectic as I envisioned it to be – it was quiet, calm and fairly empty.  Maybe because it was Sunday night?  We killed an hour in the lounge, then boarded our flight to HCMC.

Movies watched:  3 (“I Love You Man,”  “My Life in Ruins,” and parts of “Star Trek”)

Once you land in Japan, you feel like it should be just a short hop over to Vietnam, but no.  We still had another SIX hour flight to go.  Amazingly enough the Tokyo-HCMC flight is NW #1.  The aircraft we were on did not seem worthy of being flight #1 though, perhaps because teh flight was only about a third full.  There were only three of us in business class, and the seats were not nearly as nice as the trans-pacific ones.  Oh well, still better than coach class!  We also had very diverse crew – all american, white, black, asian, male, female.  It was not what I was expecting at all on that flight.

Movies watched:  1 (“Confessions of a Shopaholic”)

We landed in HCMC around 11:00pm, picked up our visas, found our driver and headed to the Sheraton.  since it was late Sunday night, there wasn’t much traffic out, but we still passed several folks on motorbikes.  I was surprised to see them wearing helmets and later found out this is a new law.  The Sheraton is really nice – definitely a step up from my usual accommodations.  It was a long day, but I’m in Vietnam!

Iceland – Day 7

One last day in Iceland.  With a bus picking us up at 10:30am, me, Kel & Jason  just got 4.5 hours of sleep after runtur.  To help our recovery, we had made plans to spend our last few hours at the Blue Lagoon, which conveniently located near the airport.  We started soaking by 11:30am for a good two hours before having to drag ourselves out.  The warm water and lazy hours were a great way to ready ourselves for the long flight home.

The Keflavik airport is pretty nice and modern.  We hung out in teh main atrium area in plush black seats, eating lunch and shopping at the duty free with the last of our kronur.  Eventually we board and were on our way home.  The good news was that me & Kel’s lucky streak continued as we once again had our row to ourselves…

Iceland was great – the people are friendly and all speak English so it’s easy to survive and get around.  Icelandair offers free stopovers, so if you’re headed to Europe, consider the option (though I will say food and drink is outlandishly pricey). 

Final thoughts:

• 20 hours of daylight is a little crazy.  It’s light outside so late it throws off your internal clock until all of sudden you realize how late it really is.
• There are only three McDonalds in the country, but lots of KFC
• Our shower smell was tinged with sulfur since everything is run/supplied from geothermal
• There aren’t many drinking fountains around, despite the seemingly endless supply of fresh glacial water.
• Cool Ranch Doritos are called “Cool American”.

 

Next stop, Vietnam!

Iceland – Day 6

It was a real treat to sleep in on Friday – we didn’t have to be anywhere until 9:45am at which point me, Kel, Jason & Frank were taking a bike tour while Ambrose and his mom headed out on a daylong boat trip.   The tour was great and well organized.  We saw lots of little neighborhood spots we wouldn’t have seen on our own, and even biked by Bjork’s house (which is pretty modest, though painted black.)  If in Reykjavik, check it out:  http://www.icelandbike.com/

Afterwards, we got dropped off at the famous hotdog stand where Bill Clinton once ate.  I’m not sure if this place was as popular before that incident, but there is always a long line now.  They make the dogs with pork, lamb and beef and toppings include ketchup, mustard, a special sauce, raw onions and/or fried onions.  They were good, but nothing amazing.

Our afternoon plan was to do a walking tour at 1:00pm which we started on, but the guide was kind of annoying, so 30 minutes in we broke off.  (it was free tour, so no money lost).  Instead we all hit the streets for end of trip shopping and then relaxing back at home.  Relaxing time was important, because we had big plans for an all-nighter later on.

Weekend nights in Reykjavik mean “runtur” – essentially a big pub crawl.  Bars pretty much stay open from Friday morning to Monday morning and everyone hits the streets starting at midnight and bar hopping past dawn.  We managed to hit 12 bars in 5 hours – with no cover charges its easy to pop in and out as you wish.  Around 4:15am we got some yummy belgian waffles out of a mobile truck and then stumbled into bed (with the sun already up) at 5:00am for a short sleep.

Iceland – Day 5

Today we didn’t leave until 8:30am since we knew we weren’t going as far.  Today was focused on “The Golden Circle,” a collection of Iceland’s biggest tourist spots conveniently located near each other (but not located in a circle, so we’re still trying to figure that out).

First up was Thingvellir, where the first parliament of Iceland was held in 930.  This is also where the Prime Minister gets a summer home and where the North American and Eur-Asian tectonic plates meet.  Or rather rip apart at this location, currently about 1 millimeter a year.  This whole attraction sits in eth fissures and rift valley which is pretty crazy to see and walk around.  Here is the end of the North American plate:

Next we visited Geysir, as in THE geyser, the one all other geysers are named after.  Geysir only blows 2-3 times a day currently because some tourists messed it up in the 1950’s by throwing rocks down it.  It was just a big steam plume while we there.  But another geyser, Strokkur, kept spouting every few minutes which was cool.  It’s really hard to take pictures of geysers though because they are so unpredictable and because they are white and tall.

Last major stop of the day was Gullfoss, Iceland’s biggest waterfall.  It’s actually two-tiered and amazingly powerful. 

Ambrose and Jason are big beer drinkers so they had searched and found a small craft brewery on the way to Selfoss we wanted to check out.  Without much guidance on where it was we amazingly found it when I spotted a small sign for the farm it sits on.  We pulled up to a small barn and soon realized this was not a normal brewer tour stop.  The brewer was there and very nice.  He invited us in despite our having descended upon him in the middle of his work day, showed us around their small operation, answered all our questions, and even poured us each a glass.  It turned out to be really great – keep an eye out for them on beer shelves and menus near you:  www.brugghus.is

We stopped in Selfoss at the liquor store to buy some of our new friend’s brew, then continued south to Stokkseyri for dinner at Fjorubordid, a spot I had read about in Conde Nast a few years ago.  It’s no longer the secret it once was when that article first came out, but we had arrived early enough that we got a table no problem.  Their specialty here is Icelandic Lobster, which are smaller langoustines than big Maine lobsters.  All the fish eaters got the 3-course Lobster feast which came with lobster soup, 300 grams of lobsters (how much is 300 grams?  I’m still not sure) and homemade cake.  The lobster soup was better than the Reykjavik one – creamier and the lobster chunks were more flavorful.  The boiled lobsters came out in a big bowl of buttery goodness with small potatoes.  They also brought a couple salads and cous cous.  I think I ate at least dozen of the lobsters, licking my fingers after each messy one.  Mmm, they were delicious.  Dessert brought a choice of cakes – Mine was an unusual but tasty Meringue cake with Mars bars in it (Mars Bar!).  I know – it sounds weird and it’s hard to describe.  But trust me it was good. 

After dinner, we drove home, filled up the gas tank to return and enjoyed the opportunity to rest after a 14 hour sight-seeing day!  Tomorrow will be more leisurely…

Iceland – Day 4

Wednesday was going to be our biggest day of the trip – we rented a car for two days of sight-seeing and this first day was going to be a long haul out along the south coast.  We left at 7:30am with Ambrose at the wheel and me navigating.

First stop was a drive-by of the town Hella, ‘cause Ambrose wanted a picture with their sign. 

Next was the Sejalandsfoss waterfall which was great.  It is one of the tallest in Iceland and you can walk behind it.  Coming home that night we also saw it all lit up.

 Nearby was another cool waterfall, Skogafoss, where rainbows kept popping up.

The Reynisfall peninsula featured some cool rock formations and a natural arch.

After lunch in Vik, we finally made it another two hours to the main event of the day, Jokulsarlon – the glacial lake.  You may have seen it featured in various movies and it is pretty cool.  It is literally a lake full of icebergs broken off from the glacier.

 From there we turned for home with a couple more stops:  First the Svinafellsjokull glacier.  Leaving there, I asked Ambrose if we should fill up the gas tank at the station down the road.  He said we were fine.  A little while later, he was worried and so was I.  Luckily we rolled into Kirkjubaejarklauster just in time. 

Since it was now 7:00pm we went to a local café recommended in both guide books, Systrakaffi, where they source local ingredients from the surrounding farms.  I had a pizza with local Icelandic cheese and red currant jelly that was delicious.  The big thing on the menu though was a shark bites appetizer.  Iceland’s traditional “delicacy” is preserved shark.  Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsey both said it was the worst thing they had ever eaten.  But, we knew we had to try it so we ordered one for the table.  After letting it rot for six months it has a strong ammonia smell, or as Jason said “it smells like urinal.”  I only ate a small nibble – it was tough and chewy, but tasted better than it smelled.  Kelli swallowed her whole bite and Frank downed four of them.

With a full tank we took a scenic route home but that added some unexpected time when a big chunk of it wasn’t paved.  So, we didn’t roll back into Reykjavik until 12:30am – 17 hours of sightseeing, and another big day tomorrow!

Iceland – Day 3

Had a lazy morning then all walked to the bus stop to go to Perlan, a now converted observation deck above the city.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, so it was a good time to go up and see the views.  After checking every corner, we took the bus back down and split into groups of three.  Me, Kel & Jason walked along the harbor while Ambrose and his parents went up to the big church.  The church is a pretty funky design, but right now it is complete covered in scaffolding, so from my perspective there’s not much to see.  Walking along the harbor was nice – a bit brisk, but in a cool crisp way.  I did have to put on my hat though.

Our harbor destination was Saegreiffin, aka the Sea Baron, home to what Mark Bittman and the NY Times dubbed the best lobster soup in the world.  Jason and I couldn’t wait to try it, so we each got a bowl of that and then split a kebab of lemon sole.  The soup was good but not great – it was pretty thin.  The sole kebab was tasty though – who knew you could grill sole?

After lunch we just wandered around the core before going home to grab our stuff for an afternoon at the Blue Lagoon.  The Blue Lagoon is Iceland’s super famous hot spring – I was excited to go because all of the minerals in the pool are supposed to be good for psoriasis.  It’s about 40 minutes outside of Reykjavik, so we had to book a bus trip etc to get out there which is a bummer – if it were closer I’d probably go every day! 

We got in a solid 3 hours of straight soaking.  We had planned on trying to get massages while out there but they were all booked up through the weekend.  Soaking was just fine though, and they had buckets of mud to slather yourself with (Kelli has those pics on her waterproof camera, so you’ll have to wait to see those).  There was a swim up bar, so we had a couple beers for a happy hour, visited the steam room, got pummeled by the waterfall, and just lazed around.  My fingers were super pruney by the time we got out.

Catching the 8:30 bus back, we got into town at 9:30pm and changed quick for our 10:00pm dinner reservation at Fishmarket.  Jason had seen this place and they have an up and coming chef so I was looking forward to checking it out.  Despite our reservation we didn’t get seated until 10:20pm; they never brought Frank his wine; they did not bring Jason and Frank their appetizers; AND we had to ask for napkins!  Not a great experience.  I do have to admit the food was good (I had Monkfish), but the overall experience has it teetering on my blacklist.

Iceland – Day 2

Waking up in Isafjordur we had plans to kayak at 9:00am.  However, there wasa thick layer of fog blanketing teh village, so we were questioning whether or not togo.  However, with not much to do in Isafjordur, I was all for going no matter what.  Checking in at the tour counter though, they said the trip would be postponed until the fog lifted and to check back later.  With time to kill and smelling ripe, Kelli & I headed home to shower.  Once fresh & clean we and Jason went walking around for awhile along the water.  Still foggy.  At noon we checked in again, they said maybe at 2:00pm we could go.  Hungry, we dropped into the cafe next door where the special of the day was whale with pepper sauce – I had a ham & cheese sandwich.  Next we got dessert at one of the bakeries and then stored our stuff at Gamla to go kayaking. 

It was still sort of foggy at 2:00pm but I was so bored of walking around at that point that I didn’t care – get us on teh water!  Even that took awhile as our guide was very slow and methodical.  We were a group of six:  us three, two Belgians and a Brit.  I had been in a single kayak lately so I had to get used to balancing a bit.  I was also afraid my arms would get tired and I would have no partner to trade off and on with, but luckily teh water was super flat and we took lots of little floating breaks so I never got tired.  we cruised around the harbor, over to the airport, into the marina.  Halfway through the trip the sun finally broke out and eventually we could see the tops of the mountains.  The water was cold when it dripped down off of our paddles, but with the sun out it felt good to be out there.

Once over, we had to get back to Gamla House pretty quickly to change clothes and catch our bus to the airport.  our plane back to Reykjavik was slightly bigger this time, but not much.  We got a taxi to our apartment and were met by Ambrose on teh street who had finally arrived.  Our apartment is awesome!  Check it out here:  http://www.roomwithaview.is/L-803.php  It’s huge, we each have our own room, 2 baths, a kitchen, wifi.  All decorated in black, white and lime green.

For dinner we walked down the street to Kaffi Solon (http://www.solon.is/index_en.html)  It waqs pretty good – I had fish & chips and carrot ginger soup.  Afterwards we just wandered the streets a bit and got a drink before heading home.

Iceland – Day 1

Off to Iceland!  I can’t believe the day finally arrived as this is a spot I’ve been wanting to go for a long time – one more life goal accomplished!   It’s a random group I’m traveling with:  Kelli, Jason, Ambrose and Ambrose’s parents.  But with the new direct flight on Iceland Air, it was too good of a deal for all of us to pass up.

Arriving at the airport I met up with Kel & Jason at the gate where they passed on some interesting news – Ambrose had forgotten his passport!  So, his sister would fedex it up from San Diego, and he would take the next day’s flight instead.  crazy!  The major bummer besides losing a day in Iceland is that Ambrose would now miss our trip up north to the Westfjords, the section of the trip he had planned b/c it was the one spot he really wanted to go to.

Kel & I lucked out once again and got a row of three to ourselves which was nice.  The flight is hard for sleeping though – it leaves at 4:30pm and arrives at 6:45am.  It’s 7.5 hours long and it never gets dark, so I didn’t really sleep much.  They also didn’t serve us a meal unless you purchased something which surprised me.

Arriving in Reykjavik the five of us got our luggage, got cash and boarded the FlyBus to get to the domestic airport.  To start the trip we were flying to the NW corner, a small town called Isafjordur.  Ambrose had planned a boat tour and kayaking for us, and it would be fun to see a spot few people go.  The flight was quick and luckily on a much bigger plane than I thought it was going to be (but still only held  about 36 people.)  All of us slept most of the way.  The airstrip in Isafjordur is small and runs right along teh water and a high fjord wall – it reminded me of flying into Cusco.  the baggage claim was about 10 feet long, so it was easy to spot our bags and jump in the “bus” – a small red van which took us straight to our accommodations, the Gamla Guesthouse.

Me, Kel & Jason shared a triple, with showers and bath down the hall.  The place was spotless and the staff very nice.  We wandered a bit looking for some lunch but because it was Sunday a few spots were closed.  We ended up just grabbing pizza at a small take-out spot before getting on our boat tour at 2:00pm. 

Our boat was headed to a small abandoned village called Hesteryi.  The ride out was about an hour and the views I saw when awake were very pretty – sleep deprivation was setting in though, so our group crashed for a bulk of it.  Arriving in Hesteryi, the tide was to low for a big boat to make it to the dock, so the group had to be shuttled in a smaller tender to get to shore.  The English speakers were taken off with Laura, who walked us around the village telling us the history:  once thriving due to whaling and herring, now abandoned except for a few summer homes of descendants.  It was fun to take a small hike – it definitely helped wake me up, and the scenery was beautiful.  At the end, we visited the old Doctor’s house, now a sleeping bag accommodation in the summer, where we got tea and cakes.

We slept most of the ride home as well, and as we landed back in Isafjordur it was POURING down rain.  Huge rain.  I figured this was normal but the next day we found out that had been exceptional even for Isafjordur.  For dinner we trudged over to Tjoruhusid, a fish house that had been highly recommended.  They didn’t open until 7:00pm though, so we had to wait about 30 minutes – no biggie, we ordered a bttle of wine   It was a buffet, so at 7:00pm, a big crock of seafood soup came out with various breads.  Then the side dishes were lined up (potatoes, potato salad, veggies, salad, rice.)  The main reason though started rolling out soon – big sizzling pans of fresh fish, several different kinds, all prepared differently.  Just a few pieces in each pan, so everything kept coming out freshly cooked.  There was a pan-fried that was amazing, and some other white fish with a sweet-sour sauce.  Catfish, cod and who knows what else, all super yummy.  We ate as much as we could along a a german guy, Tobias, we had invited to sit with us.  It was delicious.

Sufficiently stuffed, we walked home in the rain and gave in completely to the sleep deprivation.

Neah Bay

This past weekend BK, Kel, Kev & I headed out to the peninsula for a quick weekend getaway.  Kelli had found these super cute cabins near Neah Bay for her & Kevin to go surfing at, and since there was also a pull-out futon, me & BK were lucky enough to tag along.  You can check them out here:  http://www.hobuckbeachresort.com/cabins.html

We left work early and despite our best attempts to beat the traffic, it still took us a good 45 minutes to make the left turn onto the Hood Canal bridge.  But we made eventually and checked out the beach immediately upon arrival.  After the ridiculous heat for the past few days it was nice to cool down at the coast, although there was a distinct marine layer at Hobuck blocking out the sun and denying us a sunset.  K & K made us a spaghetti feast for dinner along with blueberry cobbler and then we began a marathon battle of some crazy domino game.

The next morning I made my world famous sour cream pancakes, and then the others suited up for some surfing.  While they hit the waves, I lounged on the beach with my book and music, and also wandered over to end of the beach stretch.  After a couple hours I went back to make everyone some lunch, and while feasting they decided they were done for the day.  Changed into fresh clothes we drove over to Cape Flattery, the most Western point in the lower 48 states.  It’s a short but picturesque hike out to the point.  From there we drove around the small village of Neah Bay, and then headed home for nap time and to finish our domino tourney (I won!).

The kitchen in our cabin just had two small burners so we had also brought my panini press, we served to be invaluable (thanks Mar!).  I had used it as a griddle in the morning, and now BK used it as a grill for dinner for a pork loin.  We also made some quinoa with carrot & zucchini, and then a yummy corn and sweet onion salad.  For dessert, i whipped up some Nanaimo bars.  mmm…  To cap off the night we watched Stepbrothers, which is dumb but hilarious.

In the morning, K & K griddled up some French Toast, and then they and BK hit the waves once again before check-out time.  Once the Jeep was all packed up again, we drove over to hike into Shi Shi Beach, supposedly rated one of the Top Ten “Wildest” beaches.  It’s a two mile hike to get in, and then down a short steep hill.  I was amazed by the number of folks hiking in to camp down there – it’s beautiful, but not much to do once you’re there. 

After hiking back out, we stopped in town for pizza since all the taco trucks were closed.  The pizza was good, but service was almost non-existent.  Once fed, we stopped the Makah Musueum for a quick  history lesson before beginning our long drive home.  With the reader boards touting a 2-hour wait at Kingston, we drove down to Bainbridge and hopped right on a ferry which was great, landing back at home around 9:00pm.  A fun, full weekend!