Bali - Day 6 - Spare Ribs, Martini, Suckling Pig...The Food Issue

Most of the stuff I did today I have already described, so I will now catch up with a topic dear to us all...FOOD!

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Nearly all the meals we have eaten here in Bali have either been at our Villa, or in the local town of Ubud. Ubud is renowned for it's very fine cuisine, and besides the local Indonesian offerings, nearly all the great cuisines of the world can be found here not just as a token option, but in some of it's best forms. If you want French, Italian, Chinese, Mediterranian, American, California, even a Philly Cheese steak, you can find it here and it will more than please your pallate. I haven't seen a Bratwurst on the menu yet, but then again, I don't really consider German food to rank highly in the world of foodies. I personally don't care too much about deserts, and nothing sweet here has wowed anyone so much that I need to write home about it, so I will limit my discussion to the big 3 meals.

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Breakfast:

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I can't comment on breakfast in Ubud because breakfast was included as part of our stay at the Villa Agung Khalia and we never ate it anywhere else. The meal always was started with a bowl of fresh mixed fruit that varied slightly day to day. The fruit could be topped by yogurt if desired, but after the first day I chose to enjoy it plain as it need no company. The options included a few of the standard American options like 2 eggs any style with bacon, or cereal, or a cheese omelet (or w/ veggies) and were about what you'd expect. A few of the American options came with a certain flair like the French toast which had a sliver of strawberry jam in the middle of it and was topped not with syrup, but rather a smattering of honey and was quite enjoyable.

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On certain days the Balinese breakfast was available and it consisted of an upside down dish full of rice semi-circled with fried tofu and an unknown relative of tofu as well as a side plate of delicious water spinach. The spinach was available at almost all meals we had in Bali and was always delicious. To be honest, I stuck with the other breakfasts, though it it is available tomorrow, I will order it. Coffee, tea, milk and water were the only liquids, but for us adults it was all we wanted anyway. Yet it was surprising that OJ or papaya juice or some other juice was not offered because it is so prevalent at every meal we had elsewhere.

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Lunch:

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While dinners would normally be my favorite meal of the day, lunch offered an abundant variety and never fell below 9 stars out of 10. Oddly, it seemed that the cheaper a meal was the better it tasted. When we splurged and payed about $12 US per person the meal was only 9 stars, but if we dipped below the $5 mark, it was 10 stars. Yesterday's pig was a prime example.

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We went to Ibu Oka where the only thing on the menu was the suckling pig. The restaurant opens around 11AM and serves plates of either Special for $2.60 or Different for $4.oo until they run out of pig which is usually around 3PM. From what we could tell, the only difference between special and different was that different the rice on a separate plate, and special came as a glorious mess piled high. We all went cheap and ordered the pile of Special which had pork from various parts of the pig, some savory blood sausage, spinach and another spicy vegetable, a slab of the delectable skin and of course some rice. (Nearly every meal here comes with rice...hey, we're surrounded by infinite rice paddies.) The slab of skin was the star of the meal. For $3.00 you can order just a plate of the skin, and we tried to order it, but it was sold out. The skin shatters like glass under the fork and is a hedonistic pleasure I hope to enjoy again and as often as possible.

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Another example of superb lunch came today when we supped at Naughty Nuri's. Since it was a Saturday, the 9 or so table were full and we had to stand out front by the sidewalk grill where they were making slabs of BBQ ribs and chicken that wafted smoke on us during the wait for a table. When we saw a table near finishing we hovered around until we could usurp their table before they even finished eating or paying. Most all of us ordered the famous ribs and we added a couple of orders of garlic bread that came quickly and were devoured.

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The ribs took a while longer because some Frenchies at the table next to the grill distracted our server and procured our slabs of ribs. We didn't mind because this gave us a chance to order a couple of martinis. A sign near our table noted that this hole-in-the-wall eatery had won the award for the best martini in Indonesia, and a T-shirt they were proudly selling with the slogan, "Eat, Pay, Leave," had a subtext that referred to a NY Times article about the best martinis in the world of which this was one. I must say it was superb, and the shaken not stirred flair of the server added to the quality. On my second martini, the fall off the bone ribs were at last delivered and I would have to say they rank as some of the best I have ever had...BTW, the ribs cost $6.50.

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Other lunches included a Mediterranean small plate at Cafe Luna, extraordinary beef and chicken sate with peanut sauce at a place whose name I can't remember, and at another place some perfectly cooked tempura vegetable. My only regret is that I did not get to try something from one of the street cart vendors that the locals eat at.

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Dinner:

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Thrice we ate at the Villa, and the first meal everyone ordered something different and all the meals were good, but one was great. The second time we ate at the Villa, the sweet and sour whole red snapper meal was ordered by most all as it was perfectly cooked and covered in a sauce that I could have spooned into my mouth unaccompanied.

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Outside of the Villa, we ate at restaurants like the Dirty Duck and Terazzo, where we filled the table with a variety of entrees and appetizers with hardly a single dish failing to please and some that we forced everyone to try because the could not be missed.

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Our final night here in Bali, tonight, we ate for the third time here at the Villa and we splurged. For $100 US ($12.50 per person), we got ourselves a pig. A suckling pig that perhaps came from the same restaurant we had lunch at the prior day. Accompanied by vegetables, rice, sausage and more, we probably ate less than a 10th of the suckling pig, and it was as succulent as can be. We took home a bit of the leftovers, but I think we supplied many a meal to our gracious hosts for days to come.

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Tomorrow we fly back to Hong Kong and the following morning back to the snowed in east coast of the good old USA. Food here has been nothing short of superb, we've eaten like kings and queens, and if that were all that Bali had to offer it would be enough. But couple that with adventures of a lifetime, and this has been unquestionably my greatest road trip ever!

Bali - Day 5 - Paddy Walk, Ubud Market and Suckling Pig

Perhaps I am getting a bit lazier, or as buz calls it, "going native"; thus, this will be another post on the shorter side. My enthusiasm for Bali isn't waning, just my desire or need to do intensive blogging.

The day started (as it has every day here) with breakfast at the Villa. Actually we go down past the other 3 villas and have it at their dining area which consists of 3 large teak picnic tables outdoors on a covered veranda. There are a few other things we have done repeatedly and they include: massages, swimming for pleasure, playing cards, happy hour, swimming to cool off, being driven into central Ubud and sweating.

After the breakfast, massages and swimming, sis, dad, max and I went on a hike through the local rice paddies with max leading the way most of the time. It's still pretty awesome to be able to just go out in the paddies and follow the paths the farmers use to get around their plots. But the heat was a bit much and we had to return for a cool down swim.

For lunch it was into Ubud to go to a famous stall for suckling pig, the only thing on the menu. (I'm really going to need to get to the food blog before I start mish-mashing in my mind all these restaurants.) It was superb, but at $2.50 for a couple of pounds of perfectly cooked pork, I would say this might be the best Road Food I have ever had. (Tomorrow night, our final night in Ubud, we have ordered the Villa hosts to get our clan an entire suckling pig...you should all be jealous.)

Lunch was followed by shopping at the big market in Ubud where I picked up a few presents for my nieces back in the states and a Bintang beer T-shirt for myself ($2). Since arriving in Bali, Bintang is the only beer we've had, and it is cheap enough and tasty enough that we won't need to try another.

Then it was back to the Villa for more swimming and whiling away the rest of the day. BTW, for the first night here it was mostly cloud free, and the stars were brilliant. I'll be sleeping out on the porch for the 4th straight night.

Bali - Day 4 - Monkey Forest

Today's main adventure was to see the monkeys. Monkey Forest, not far from the center of Ubud was quite a surprise. Even as we were driving up, a few stray monkeys were wandering the road. And once we payed the $1.50 entrance fee, we were all but swarmed by them. The preserve is home to 3 types of long tail monkeys, though they all looked about the same to me. Just a few paces into the park we had to drop all our bananas because we were being hounded by the aggressive monkeys...they could smell the bananas and they could smell the fear on us.

Even after giving up the food, Max got into a couple of teasing matches with the monkeys and Buz had a water bottle swiped from his hand. But for the most part, we just wandered among the thousands of monkeys amazed by their playfulness, closeness and quantity. If you're ever in Ubud, this should be a must see experience.

Another interesting thing happened while we were at the preserve when meme was swarmed not by monkeys, but by a class of 14 year old students who were wanted to practice their English with her. With their teacher's prodding, the shy students began asking questions in English like, "Where are you from?" or "What is you favorite Bali souvenir?" Meme was glad to oblige and spoke with them for 20 minutes and seemed to get a kick out of it, though the smiles on the students faces seemed to show that they probably got even more pleasure out of it.

Besides two more excellent meals in Ubud, most of the rest of the day was spent back at the Villa, swimming, reading and relaxing. However we were interrupted by planned rolling blackouts and spent a short time in the peaceful dark listening to the frogs in the rice paddies with their noisy, nightly cacophony.

Bali - Day 3 - Trekking

Today was a shopping day. In the center of Ubud, in a multi-leveled shopping "mall", sarongs were bought, spices were haggled for, precocious small baskets were accrued. But I am only relaying what I was told, because I went trekking.
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After breakfast, I decided I had to have another massage so I again broke my frugal ways and forfeited the 100,000 Rupiah for the hour long massage. Fortunately, 100K Rupiah is only 10 bucks US. I'd say the Balinese massage is just a bit lighter than a deep tissue massage one would get in Las Vegas or Hot Springs NP. Apparently this massage is what the rice paddy toilers get after a hard day of turning the soil, or planting or reaping the crop. And it is worth every Rupiah and then some.

After that, we had a new driver/guide for the day, but we were leaving our paddies just for a short trip and drop off at the market place of Ubud. While 5 of the clan were heading for shopping, I was following the advice of one of our Bali travel books and taking a trek off the beaten path.

The trek started out from Cafe Lotus in the center of the city. It was diagrammed as a 4 or 5 mile hike North on one side of the river and returning south on the other side. I wasn't exactly able to follow it as planned, but it was thrilling none the less.

The "trail" started out on a small street probably only used by the locals. After a few football fields in distance, the road bent left and disappeared. I wove through a few "back yards" and eventually found a semi-well trod path that actually turned out to be the trail. For a long stretch the trail followed a narrow tree line that divided the rice paddies. Constantly sloping upward, I dipped in and out of the large paddies and the jungle that surrounded the river and water source that nourished them.

Blazing humidity caused sweat to drench the upper portion of my T-shirt and wiping the sweat out of my eyes with the lower portion quickly turned me into a puddle. While I had passed many farmers toiling along the way, about a mile into the hike I was startled to have one of them propose retrieving and opening a coconut for me. Perhaps he saw me excreting so much liquid from my pores that he wanted to help or save me, or perhaps he was hoping for a tip...I can't be sure because I declined. I should have accepted, and told myself if I got another coconut offer I would accept.

The trail was not clear. I followed a few aqueducts, I walked along some farms, I crossed a "bridge". I popped back out of the jungle and for a while I was on a path that skirted the connection of the paddies and the jungle. I wasn't sure if I was lost. There certainly weren't any other trekkers, but there were plenty of friendly locals. Nearly every interaction with these locals (farmers) went the same way. I would startle them with both my white face and dripping sweat; they would burst forth with an ear to ear grin and a hearty "Hallo!"; I would replicate the grin and respond with "Hello!"; we'd pass each other and I'd continue on, chewing up the beautiful scenery that makes up their every day lives.

And then, on this path that could only be walked or perhaps biked, I came to a gallery. And then another and another. And at the next gallery, I could take it no more and had to connect with the owner/artist who I awoke as I passed his shop. "Hallo!" And I responded, "Hello!". My conversations at the 3 previous galleries had proceeded as follows:

The owner, or the owner and his wife, said, "My name is undecipherable, what is yours?"

I would respond, "Hi! (smiling broadly) I am Scott."

They would say, "Where are you from?"

This question has been puzzling me since I got here. I don't know if in their broken English they want to know what country I am from or where I had come from today. Invariably I reply either with either America, New Jersey or to make it simpler I say New York City. The reason I don't know if this is the reply they are looking for is that after some pleasantries about America, they ask more specifically the following questions:

1. Your first trip to Bali?

2. How long you here?

3. Where you staying?

My responses are: "Yes, it is beautiful here.", "I am here 8 days. Today is day 3.", and "Villa You won't understand what I say (Villa Agung Khali)."

These rural artists are soft sellers and I found it easy to say that I was just trekking through and move on. Though until I produced one of my water bottles, I think they wanted to save me from withering away and offered me shade.

At the 4th gallery I met Wayeng, who I had woken up from behind his "counter" in his shack/gallery. Wayeng popped to life and while I was downing another bottle of water, we went into detail about his process for creating the art. He showed me the charcoal he burnt. He scraped some of it into a little dish, he added some water and pulled out his sketching tool which was a sharp metal point at the end of some wood. Before entering his "gallery", I pulled out my camera to take a picture of this desk and his implements, and he pulled out an unfinished sketch he had been working on and posed for a picture pretending to be at work.

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I then entered his gallery. I took one step to the left and looked at his pictures there. Then I retraced that step and took one to the right to complete the tour. In the process I saw about 50 pieces of art he had produced and was really tempted to shell out the $11 for one of them, but I had no way of carrying it with me without either damaging it or sweating on it. (The picture of the white shack to the right I took after exiting the "gallery" and walking a few paces down the trail...the pic should make you understand why I have used the quotes around gallery each time.)

Following that, and being reassured by Wayleng that I was on the trekker's trail, I rounded the bend at the northern most point of the trail and got totally lost. I thought I was on the right path until the trail went from somewhat paved to dirt to grass to dead end. I heard cars for the first time since entering rice paddies, and made my way to the road. I tried again after a half mile on the road to cross paddies and find the elusive trail but was stymied at every turn. I gave up and popped out of the paddies to return to the road. A local saw me sloppily come out of jungle and into his paddy. I was embarrassed as he directed me toward the larger paths that would take me back to the road. From across the paddy he yelled "Coconut?! You want?!". Though my face could get no redder than what the sun had already done, I blushed and stupidly declined. This time I believe the offer was to save my life. I followed his kind signals to the road, finished what water I had left, and made my way back to my starting point of Cafe Lotus.

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Cascading off my body were all the rivulets of liquid sweat that remained in my body; I entered Cafe Lotus and requested a large Bintang. Bintang is the local beer we have been drinking since we arrived in Bali. It is a pretty tasty beer that I would compare to a heavy Miller Lite or a light Sam Adams. It went excellent with the lunch I ordered and in little over an hour I had stopped sweating. I hired a cab back to the Villa and after an intentionally icy cold shower I felt a full 25% better.

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We had an excellent early dinner at the Dirty Duck restaurant, but again, I really need to go into detail about the food here and I have written far too much already. I can't wait to see what day 4 here in Bali brings!

Bali - Day 2

Perhaps I was a bit overly enthralled yesterday in my blog. Perhaps not...I still love it here.
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We decided to hire a guide for the day who would take us wherever we wanted to go and also recommend some sights to experience around Bali. Our guide, Made (pronounce ma-day) picked us up after breakfast and first took us into Ubud to see a short program/play of Balinesian dancing that told one of the two Hindu epic religious stories. Even with a sheet of paper that described what was going on, we still had to use our imagination to guess at what was happening. The show featured perhaps 25 actors/dancers and was accompanied by a fantastic 22 piece orchestra. It was quite entertaining, and the performers seemed to do a lot of detailed hand wriggling and finger splaying while decked out in highly ornate costumes and face paints. But I still had no idea what the story was all about. Afterwards, Made told us what it was about, but I still didn't get it.

Following the show we set out on a road trip to the volcano. Normally, I'd say the name of the volcano, I'd say the city it was near, I might mention the road we travelled and perhaps use a bunch of other proper nouns. But the sparse road signage, the unusual combination of letters, and the somewhat cryptic "English" that Made used made it difficult to pinpoint where we were. So I can only say stuff like: we went on a two lane road through a bunch of villages toward a volcano near a big lake.

Yesterday, From the airport in Denpasar we came North to Ubud, and the entire terrain was predominantly flat. But as we struck out further North after the show, we began a 2 hour journey that had us rising in elevation nearly the whole way. About half way to the volcano, we pulled to the side of the road to view some of the beautiful tiered rice paddies that are seen in many of the postcards of Bali. They were quite striking, but it is difficult to conceive of the hard lifestyle the farmers have to raise their crops and eek out a living.

During this stop, we encountered for the first time the small crowds of villagers that surround you trying desperately to sell tourists their handmade wares. As soon as we stepped out of the car, small boys to elderly women confront you with items the most common of which were sarongs (delicate woven dyed fabrics), wooden teak baskets that could hold fruits, carved teak masks of their gods, and brilliant white carved things that we weren't sure what they were, but perhaps they were supposed to be made of elephant tusks. The sellers only words were the prices in dollars or rupiahs they wanted for them. We were in need of some sarongs for our next destination at a temple, so we picked up 8 of them for an average price around $5 (50,000 rupiah) each. After enjoying the scenery, and as we were opening the car doors to resume the trip, the prices plummeted and the vendors were offering the same objects for about 90% less than their first stated price. We would run into many of these hordes for the rest of the day and it becomes quickly tiresome to repeatedly turn them down...though I might pick up a teak fruit basket for a buck or two next time we are approached, and just before closing the car door.

Before we got to the temple, we stopped for a buffet lunch where the food was good, but the view was what we were paying for. The tourist trap eatery was perched on a mountain rim with an inspiring view of the volcano. The volcano is an active volcano (any volcano is deemed active if it erupted withing the last 15,000 years) and it had large eruption in 1918 and 1923, and most recently blew off steam in 1997. While I've spent some time around volcano calderas like Yellowstone and the one in Big Bend, this volcano has the shape that most would imagine a volcano to look like such as the one in Joe Verses the Volcano. In fact, we were told that Julia Roberts was recently here filming for an upcoming movie release.

The next stop was the aforementioned temple, the volcano's temple, which is the second largest temple in Bali. After donning our sarongs, pushing through the vendors, and paying our donation fee, we entered the temple. It was ok. A temple here consists of 3 concentric courtyards, separated by low walls with some worshiping altars in the innermost courtyard. It's primarily an outdoor place and we never had a roof over our heads. We took our photos, strolled around the grounds and exited into the same throng of vendors we had repeatedly rejected on the way in.

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Then we drove down to the base of the volcano. An hour and a half uphill hike would have had us peering into the volcano, and I surely would have done this if I were alone. But the younguns (ReMax) were a bit testy and we decided to begin the return journey back to Ubud.

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Besides enjoying the scenery, and it is all enjoyable because it is so different than anything in the U.S., we made only one stop at a Bali coffee plantation and shop. After sampling various strongly caffeinated beverages, the tastiest of which was the ginseng coffee, Dix pick up a stash of the Bali coffee that is now prized by the celebs in L.A. What makes this coffee unique and expensive is that the coffee beans have been ingested by a ferocious ferret like animal and pooped out whole. They are then washed and packaged for sale. I really can't think of another consumable product that has been pooped...though I'm not sure how the honey from bees is created.

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The day's road trip ended around 4PM, we sent our hosts at the Villa into town to pick us up some to go food and we all lazily swam around in the pool for a while to counter the heat and humidity of the afternoon.

A surreal day of pleasure, though I am not sure whether we will be venturing out for another road trip. There seems to be quite enough around the Ubud area to entertain us. Tomorrow I may venture out for a hike, they call it a trek here, though as yet none in our entourage has signaled an interest in accompanying me. They want to go shopping, so I may be trekking solo again.

Agung Villa, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia - Has It Only Been One Day

5 hours due South of Hong Kong as the plane flies is Indonesia. It is a country of many islands, and the massive island we are on is Bali. We landed in the city of Denpasar, and even as the plane was descending, it was clear to me that I was entering a realm of only-in-the-movies or fairytale land or detached reality...words can not describe it. I couldn't have wished for anything more.

After debarking the plane, I began to sweat. The sign that said "Smuggling illegal drugs into the country carries a penalty of death!" was not the reason, it was the humidity. 120 degrees of Phoenix summer heat is a breath of fresh air compared to the overbearing dense tropical moisture. I love it!

Exiting the terminal, after buz let slip and broke 1/3 of our duty free liquor allotment, we were greeted by our driver/house assistant and began the drive north to the city of Ubud. I've jumped out of an airplane. I've stood inches from a 6,000 foot drop into the Grand Canyon. I was less than 30 feet from a 300 pound wild black bear. I would try near any adrenaline rising adventure I could think of, but I know I would never try to drive from Denpasar to Ubud. The drive took a little over an hour, and probably only covered 40 miles into the center of the island, but it seemed an act of magic that we made it with no accident or fatality. The straight narrow roads had our car driving on all sides of the lane markers as swarms of small motorcycles passed us and were surpassed by us. The rhythm of the road and traffic was hard to comprehend yet our driver deftly maneuvered around all obstacles. Well, not all, on the final dirt "road" to out villa, he was out maneuvered by a duck herder and his ducks. For nearly the final mile, we had to go at a ducks pace as the 40 or so ducks in the roadway had no intention to let us pass. It was frustrating to be so close and have to move at a web footed pace. Let's just say that I was feeling quite smug when I had crispy duck for dinner last night.

We arrived at Agung Villa, a few kilometers outside of Ubud, around 5PM and my euphoria had me often sying things like, "This is awesome." And, "I love it here." And, "I can't believe how great this is." And, "Look at that, look at this, hey there's a frog on the sofa." I even proffered that I don't want to leave and perhaps I'll find a wife and live here forever. And this after just being in Bali for 2 hours. It is a day later, and I am tempering my words to others, but the euphoria has not abated. This is awesome!

In a future post I will probably go on at length about the Balinese cuisine, so I'll save the details for then, but we went out to dinner around 7PM and had a meal that tantalized. After returning to the Villa, I was impatient to get out last nights Hong Kong blog to clear the slate for this. So on to today...

The cock crowed. The frogs roared. And a multitude of animals I don't know yet pounded a steady beat in my ear drums til the sun came up. The villa served a standard fine breakfast, and the rice paddies beckoned. Villa Agung isn't much. A rich ex-pat came here and built 4 "luxurious houses" in the middle of a landscape of rice paddies. 5 feet from my bedroom window a farmer toiled over his paddy with rudimentary tools for his family's subsistence. I'm theoretically homeless and jobless right now, but a bit of guilt of our wealth creeps into my conscience with all we encounter. I could slip a twenty dollar bill to a farmer and it may be more than he earns all month. I wish I could give them all a twenty. Buz and I encounter many of them as we trod through their paddys.

We headed out of the villa, leapt over the first of many aqueducts we would encounter and proceeded along the extremely narrow paths the farmers use to access their plots. To us it was a puzzle, more a maze, where we had to determine whether we could proceed or needed to backtrack to find a solid footing around the waterlogged paddys. We passed many shanties where the farmers rest and their wives trudge to bring them their meals, simple wooden covered two person huts of existence. Perhaps we walked a mile, and all along we encountered the locals who smiled at us blatantly obvious tourists and gave us a hearty happy "Hello!". Oddly wonderful it was.

After returning to the villa, the masseuses had arrived and after they finished with sis and dix, we passed by our pool and for $10 we had an onsite hour long massage that was worth every penny and even a few thousand more pennies. Labor is cheap here and perhaps the best advantage of visiting a place like this. Yet it is a guilty pleasure, which we shall repeat every chance we can.

After some swimming in our pool and leisurely reading, our driver took us to the center of Ubud where we had another dining extravaganza before sampling the dense shopping district and checking out the wares of this artistic enclave that makes it such a popular vacation destination.

My words can only scrape at the bountiful experience that this amazing adventure. It's a gotta be here experience. And I am here! I find it hard to comprehend, and I find it amazing that I have only been here one day. And I have 7 more days of this mind blowing journey to come! I'm almost jealous of myself.

BTW, for the first time in my life I am south of the equator, and yes the toilets swirl counter clockwise.

Hong Kong - Road Trip on Steroids

So much to say. So little rest.

Today I arrived in the town of Ubud, on the island state of Bali, in the country of Indonesia. I've been here 6 hours, and I could probably write a half dozen posts on Bali already. But I need to catch up with the first part of this grand adventure, so I am self-imposing a limit of this post to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong! China. One of the only 4 remaining communist countries in the world (5 if you count Laos - thx for the info buz). To get to Hong Kong from JFK in New York, the shortest distance was right over the North Pole on a 15 hour flight. I left on Tuesday and arrived on Thursday. Out of my plane window I saw a sunset, a sunrise, a sunset and another sunrise before landing just before sunset. Wednesday evaporated without notice. I dreaded the thought of a 15 hour flight, and was really quite surprised that it didn't suck. I watched 3 movies, had two good meals, read a couple hundred pages of a very good book, and caught about 4 hours of sleep. I arrived half way around the world feeling pretty good.

After connecting with meme and buz (mom and dad), we took a half hour cab from the airport to our hotel in Hong Kong and as a group we customized ourselves to frenetic pace of the city by pointing out all the differences we initially saw from our everyday American lives, and there were many. But the differences were fewer than I expected.

To me, Hong Kong seemed a lot like New York City. Towering sky scrapers dwarfing a multitude of the masses of people scuttling block to block shopping and doing business. And there's great Chinese food!

On our first day we went to see the Big Budda on one of the neighboring islands. This entailed taking the subway to the ferry to a bus ride that was so wild that half my entourage nearly became motion sick. Unfortunately fog rolled in that was so dense that after walking up 243 steps to the base of lotus leaves, looking up we could not even see Budda's head. Even so, it was all still an exhilarating trip. But the highlight was how we got back to Hong Kong.

From the top of the Budda mountain, engulfed in fog, we opted to take to the sky for a half hour plunge back to the city. We all (by we all I mean mom, dad, sis, Dix, ReMax and me) boarded a ski gondola like contraption and floated down the hills. Had it been a clear day, I am sure that this would have provided the most wonderful panarama of views that could not be matched. Even with the fog (or was it smog), it was a mesmerizing ride. I would recommend this as a must do trip to anyone coming to Hong Kong, and if the next few days were clearer, I might have been tempted to do it again.

Day 2 centered around the trip to Victoria Peak. After a half mile stroll, meme, buz, ReMax and I boarded the cable car up to the Peak. The ride up had us all facing forward on what felt like a near vertical escalation straight up to the highest points above Hong Kong. Even at this extreme altitude, the massive city below was still impressive. A mile and a half hike around the peak nearly sapped the strength of our contingent, but it enthused me to no end and was more similar to my road tripping hikes than anything else HK had to offer.

On our final full day in HK, most of the morning was spent in Hong Kong Park, a compact and multi-leveled park featuring picturesque little lakes, an aviary, a playground, a tea museum, a sky tower, and one of those places where people move slowly around striking poses, waving their arms and looking funny if it were not for the fact that they took it so seriously. The afternoon consisted of a trip to a classic marketplace where haggling with the dealers helped cut down on the already cheap prices for their wares. Heady stuff all around.

As entertaining as all the above was, perhaps the food was the best part of Hong Kong. We had meals of dim sum, hot pot, and noodles that I would go on at length about had I not already exhausted my writing skills. Each was authentic and excellent. However, I must say that authentic Chinese food is an adventure not to be missed, but the version we get in the states is Americanized for a reason...it tastes better to us.

Hong Kong wow! It was great. But I am newly arrived in Bali, and I can tell that my adventure here will be much more to my style of wonderment. I'm not really a city kind of guy, and I am so not in the city now.

Racing for the Holiday

After Kings Canyon, I found out that my possible Thanksgiving in Phoenix was not possible. So the Road Trip has become a cannonball race home. It is more important to be with family for the holiday than to be meandering across the country. The end of the road trip is approaching.

Thursday night was in Las Vegas (no comment), Friday night I slept in Kingman, AZ, and by last night, I had made it to Gallup, NM. While in AZ, I sped in and out of my former home town of Phoenix stopping only long enough to cram Pre to the max with stuff from my storage space, and to drop by TreasonPal's for a brief hello.

Tonight I have made it as far as El Reno, OK having driven I 40 for nearly 10 hours, and close to 700 miles. It wasn't awful, just a bit monotonous. I expect much of the same for the remaining 1,500 miles. But this will get me home by Thanksgiving and also give me a bit of prep time before heading out on my next adventure. Unless plans change, I will be joining family and going abroad to Honk Kong, China and Bali, Indonesia.

(BTW, I stopped here in El Reno because it is the home of the Onion Burger. Of the 3 onion burger joints here described in the Road Food book, I chose Johnie's. The cook took a handful of burger meat, not a ball or patty, but a handful, and threw it on the grill. After a quick tap from the spatula, an equal sized handful of onions were dropped on top. With a few squishes of the spatula, the sliced onions were half combined with and half hanging out of the burger. When nearly cooked through, the burger was flipped in order to brown the other side and caramelize the dangling onions. As an onion fanatic, I was thrilled to experience them in an original and delicious new way...I'm going to try to do this at home.)

I may blog again before going, but if I get the chance I will blog from overseas also. Bon Voyage!

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park(s)

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks were made national parks separately in 1890 and 1940 respectively, but sharing a large common border, they began being jointly administered in 1943. I don't know whether I was in one or two national parks today, but it doesn't matter because either way it (or they) was (or were) so much better than expected.

Sequoia was the second National Park ever after Yellowstone, but it's remoteness and the fact that it is close to amazing Yosemite have perhaps left it a bit unknown. And Kings Canyon is pretty cool, but compared to Bryce or Grand Canyons, it just doesn't compare. Add to that, 99% of the two parks are not accessible without overnight hiking and camping, , heck, a backpacker can hike to a spot that is farther from a road than any other place in the lower 48. I really didn't think I would be amazed. Especially after Yosemite.

But turn after turn on the General's Highway was stunning, and multiple short hikes provided spectacular treats. Perhaps the best treat of the day was hiking up Moro Rock. The hike was only about a quarter mile, but included steep inclines and over 400 steps. It was straight up - not a rock, but a mini-mountain. The whole hike was precarious and provided above-the-clouds views of the valley before summiting with an endless panorama.

After Redwoods and Yosemite, with their immense groves of giant trees, I didn't think I could still be awed by more trees, but I was wrong. In these parks are some of the worlds largest and oldest living things. At 2,200 years old, a birth date around 110 BC, the General Sherman tree is the world largest and, depending on the way you measure, the worlds most massive living organism. (There are arguments about the great coral reef, as well as some mushroom in Oregon, but Sherman stands as an individual specimen.) Likewise, the stroll to Grant's Tree, America's Christmas Tree, proved perhaps more impressive. It's a more aesthetically pleasing tree.

Add to that a few other stunning treks and scenic viewpoints, a fair amount of deer and millions of non-human fearing squirrels, and it was a complete day of wonderful National Park excursions. Were it not for the expected sub-freezing nightly temperature, I would be camping out. Alas, I am in a Motel 6 in Portersville, CA. Having started out this morning in Fresno, I only covered 60 miles as the crow flies, but more than 200 miles were covered most of it switchbacking along beautiful mountain sides.

Yosemite!

Here's the new Top 5 list of my favorite National Parks:

5. Carlsbad Caverns

4. Big Bend

3. Bryce Canyon

2. Yosemite

1. Yellowstone

Yosemite has bumped the Grand Canyon off the list and jumped to number 2. From the moment I entered Yosemite Valley it was immediately a place of wonder. Like Yellowstone, it is plentiful in variety, curiosity and stunning views.

The immense El Capitan and Half Dome tower over the valley, majestic waterfalls storm out of the glacier carved mountains, hikes into the wilderness are filled with ever changing dramatic scenery, and in the end, just as I was heading for the southern exit, they threw in a dizzying grove of Giant Sequoias.

I camped out last night in the Upper Pines campground with Glacier Point as my backdrop. The stars came out early and brilliantly. The milky way was clearly visible all night. And the night was capped by watching the meteors of the Leonid shower burn up on entry into the atmosphere. I'd been hoping for a night of star watching since I began this trip, and I can't imagine I will ever beat this night. Really it was a stellar evening of camping.

I could write so much more, but I am exhausted and will let the pictures do the talking.

Redwoods and SF

During this second road trip, I've averaged around 7 hours of sleep a day. But since I've arrived here in San Francisco, I have been down for 11 hours a day. I'd love to blame it on the endless energy of niece and nephew RiMax, but I think I may be a bit under the weather, and catching up on Z's while warm and cozy in the cave suite in the basement. I've even decided to stay a day more than planned, and play a bit more soccer with Max, and read a few more princess stories to Ries before heading on the slow route to Phoenix.

Getting here to this rambunctious oasis, I did pass thorough another majestic Park, Redwoods National. As far north and west as you can be in California lies a coastal redwood forest that is well deserving of National Park status. Driving along the park routes is dizzying as I nearly brushed my side mirrors from the towering monoliths of coastal redwoods. If I had a convertible, I could have seen the treetops, but even craning forward I could see just the bases of the massive trunks. But when you park and take just a few steps into the groves of redwoods you begin to swirl while looking straight up.

"THIS is the forest primeval," said both Longfellow and Looney Tunes. And Redwoods NP is a pristine example of old growth forests, and easily gives you the feeling of walking into another era, which in fact you are as some of these trees were here when that guy Jesus walked the earth. And the environs of this park may be no different from when dinosaurs roamed through them.

Besides the groves of giant redwoods, this park is also on the Pacific Ocean, providing completely separate astounding views. You get two-for-the-price-of-one stunning and solitary beauty. I wouldn't include this in my top 5 parks of all time, but it is in the top ten, and I'd love to revisit it during different seasons of the year. Just walking through the towering redwood groves and scanning the immense Pacific is both humbling and exhilarating.

Anyway, tomorrow I will be getting on the road again after a wonderful family visit, and if the weather is good, I should be camping out tomorrow night in what many consider the second best National Park in the lower 48 - Yosemite!

Crater Lake Redux

This day consisted of non-stop scenic driving. From start to finish I was following the little green dots on the map that indicate beauty and more beauty followed by beauty. But today's main event was a return to Crater Lake NP.

During Road Trip part 1, I wrote the following: "In my ranking of greatest sites I've visited based mainly on their aesthetic beauty, this (Crater Lake) is now number 2, behind only the Grand Canyon Southern Rim, and moving in front of Monument Valley." While Monument Valley has been bumped by the caldera at Big Bend, the Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns and multiple sites at Yellowstone, the top two remain as is. Besides the first breathtaking views of the Grand Canyon, nothing compares to the first peeks over the volcanic rim and into Crater Lake.

The first time I was here it was summer, and the big change to this visit is the added tranquility of the winter setting. First I was subdued by the snow capped fir trees on the approach, but the idyllic nature of the snow encircled lake nearly brought me to my knees. Sure, the Grand Canyon is better...I doubt it can be beat...but Crater Lake has a majestic halo that must be seen to be appreciated. The rim road that circuits the volcano was closed by snow, and the campground was also closed, this left me with just a short stroll around the entrance area. None the less, experiencing the tranquility in winter of this special place was well worth the diversion. Make an effort to get here...it's worth it.

Continuing my National Park-a-day routine of late, tomorrow I will be seeing some big trees. In dark I drove through a route I am sure to retrace. Following that, I'll be visiting with the Sis and family for a few days.

Click on the following links for my RT part 1 descriptions of the amazing Crater Lake:

Crater Lake Part 1
Crater Lake Part 2