La Recessionista Files

While enjoying a Balinese blues band (they were great) the other night we met an adorable couple from Norway: Annette and Martin. We chatted all evening about places we'd been, life at home and the high price of cocktails in Ubud.

We liked them so much we've been hanging out ever since. After seeing how cute their place is we decided that we should be neighbors too. We made up a white lie and arranged to check out of our hotel (which is not as charming and 3x the price) the next day. Here we are enjoying cocktails at Naughty Nuri's - a dive bar here that Anthony Bourdain is supposedly is a fan of. They are known for martinis so we ordered cosmos. They came in a huge glass with ice, but they were tasty!

       

My trip from Bangkok to Bali was 5 hours. But, if you'd like to travel from Bangkok to Bali in less than 30 minutes, just step into your kitchen. No passport needed - just a copy of the cookbook written by my Uncle Byron and Aunt Theresa featuring easy-to-make recipes from South East Asia. There are all sorts of tips for substituting common ingredients when the exotic items are not handy. For example - no need to search for kaffir lime - just use regular lime! Or use brown sugar and soy sauce to sub for tamarind sauce.

I was in college in Santa Barbara when they were writing their first cookbook; 'True Thai' (which is also fantastic and easy enough for a novice like me to master). I was living on the standard college diet of pizza, ramen and burritos. Weekends to visit them in L.A.and take part in their 'test kitchen' was a delicious treat.

I'm looking forward to cooking when I get home. If you get a craving for Thai and you are a patient and forgiving dinner guest, give me a ring. Or better yet, next time Uncle B and Aunt T come to visit perhaps we can talk them into being celebrity guest chef on Alvarado st. I hear Uncle B and Aunt T have added a great sous chef duo to their culinary team - their identities are held top-secret and they go by the name 'Las Suavacitas'.

Have you ever wondered what Balinese coffee beans look like on the branch? Or what cacao beans look like before roasted? Well.... wonder no more! Today we visited a spice farm where they grow coffee, cacao beans, ginger, cinnamon (it comes from the bark of trees - I didn't know that!) and vanilla beans. The cacao fruit (?) looks like a papaya. The seeds are found inside.

Here is our driver friend Wayan giving us the low-down on the spices. There is an expensive Balinese coffee bean that involves an interesting process. The mongoose have a taste for only the best coffee beans, leaving aside the less-tasty beans. Once the beans make their way out of the mongoose (don't make me spell this out) the beans are cleaned, roasted, ground and sold for a nifty price. Why are we humans so weird? Why pay more for coffee beans that have been in mongoose poop?

I loved the spice farm - always great to know where your spices come from (and in this case, your coffee beans too!). My mom asked for one thing on this trip - spices. So I was especially happy to pick up some Balinese specialties for my mom, the exotic cook.

               

It is high season here in Bali, which means we should have booked our lodging in advance. Ooops. But you just never know, sometimes it is better to just arrive and get the lay of the land before committing to a place solely on pics from the internet. This time flying by the seat of our pants bit us in the 'a-double-s'. We spent a few hours yesterday biking around town to find a hotel. Nearly all were entirely booked. Hours later we found a good alternative.

We finally had lunch at nearly 3pm. I was hot, hungry and weak. I had a beer! Anyway, I balanced my brewski with a glass of tumeric juice (to help cleanse my liver).

Last night we took a Tibetan bowl meditation class. Tibetan bowls are made of metal and they make really beautiful sounds that range from gongs to humms. I find absolute silence to be distracting, so the bowls are a great addition for me. Plus the instructor rubbed essential oil on our third eye and you all know how I love lovely scents. I'm inspired to now meditate on my own.

Took a fantastic yoga glass this morning. The studio is in the center of Ubud but set back in rice fields. It is open-air and just about as pretty a setting as you can get with the jungle framing the rife fields. Felt great to do yoga. I forget that yoga benefits the organs too. Nothing like stretching your muscles and at the same time squeezing toxins from your organs. I love double-tasking.

We are off to move to our new hotel. Nothing as lovely as the place we are in now, but I'm sure it will be just fine.

Last night we attended a festival at the temple in our neighborhood on Monkey Forest Road. Now doesn't that sound like fun? A party at a temple with monkeys?! The adorable staff at our hotel dressed us in traditional Balinese sarongs.

It was a big event - lots of families bringing offerings to the temple (mainly flowers and incense). My favorite part was the music and dance performances. All of the performers were kids and they were outstanding. There was a small orchestra (I didn't get a good shot of them) playing drums and xylophone-looking instruments. My absolute favorite were the dancers in glittering costumes with stage makeup that would wow even Tammy Faye Baker.

I also loved walking thru the forest hearing the faint sound of music and following the trail of incense until we finally arrived. What a beautiful way to build anticipation.

         

Last night we flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, then caught an early flight to Denpasar. We took a cab to Ubud and we are now happily lounging at our hotel.

Ubud is known for housing plenty of artists and there seems to be no shortage of health retreats and yoga studios. Excellent - right up my alley.
Here are some pics of our new home (well, at least our home for 2 days). We are surrounded by jungle (i'm tempted to use the vines to swing like tarzan) and rice paddies. Beautiful and so peaceful. In my head I sing the song 'Hello Dolly' but I insert 'Bali' instead. That's how much I like it here.

I was interested in taking part in a yoga/cleansing program here, but the cost is too high. Instead I will embark on my own yoga/detox program. A cheaper solution, but much easier to cheat. So if you see me drinking a beer, give me a nudge, will ya?

       

Especially when leaving a great city like Chiang Mai. I loooved it. For starters, it is a city that has some tourism, not a tourist city (catch my drift?). The city has great energy, the people are friendly, tons of vegi restaurants, loads of culture and sights to take in. In Chiang Mai there are something like 300 temples, all glittering with gold and mirrors. We happened upon my favorite temple so far with a huuuge gold buddah as the center piece and so much gold on the walls and ceilings I nearly had to wear sunglasses. Over the top.

It is especially hard to leave my animal friends; Buuhmtang the bossy elephant and the 5 tiger cubs that stole my heart.

One of our main reasons for coming to Chiang Mai was to visit the hill tribes. This left us with a dilemma; how to learn first-hand about a culture in a way that is respectful and comfortable for all involved. In short, we didn't want to feel like gawkers.

We heard of a government-run program where members from 5 tribes lived in 1 village. Being the cynical people that we are, we instantly assumed this was a way for the government to place humans on display while lining their own pockets. As a result, we nearly skipped this outing all-together. As Lisa would say "burn on us" because the project is great for both the tribes and the visitors.

The Baan Tong Luang program is described as an 'eco-agricultural hill tribes village'. Each of the 5 tribes (karen, long-neck karen, hmong, lahu shi balah and palong) have their own living space. Here they learn sustainable farming techniques they can take back to their own villages. They also have opportunities to sell their handicrafts to tourists, something I took great part in. Our driver frequently talks with the tribe people and he says they are very happy with life in this village.

There wasn't really any information posted (at least not in english) but what I gather is the tribes normally live in Burma (or close to the Thai-Burma border) and have been forced out by both the government who accused the tribes of deforestation (even though they have been living for centuries in harmony with nature) and the ongoing war in Burma.

Seeing the tribes working the land, cooking and making crafts (lots of looming and textile work, some jewelry and wood carvings) was really interesting. The kids were adorable running around, playing games and teasing.

Growing up in a household with National Geographic aplenty it was really a trip to see the karen long-neck tribe in person (they use gold rings to stretch their necks) . The teen and pre-teen karen long-neck girls seemed uneasy and not that into having the pictures taken. I can't say that I blame them. When they speak you can hear a strain in their voices, almost like they have partially lost their voice. I didn't notice this in the older women, perhaps the vocal cords adapt over time to the stretching.

I felt very lucky to have this view into the lives of these tribe people. They seemed happy to show us around - big smiles everywhere. A memorable experience AND a lesson for me in giving people (even the government) the benefit of doubt (at least until you've gathered the facts).

                                                         

We experienced a small logistics issue on our last day in Hoi An; we had to check out of the hotel by noon, yet our flight didn't leave until 9pm. Hmmm... what to do? Hop a cab to the luxurious 5-star hotel we would have loooved to stay at (The Victoria) and use their pool for the day.

We had a delicious pool-side lunch - pizza (sometimes you just need a familiar food) and fresh spring rolls. Lisa clearly has higher moral values than I because while I would have just made up a room number to get towels and bypass the pool usage fee, she did the right thing and ponied up the $20. We split our time between the beach and the pool, swimming and reading until the sun went down. Perfect.

     

Yesterday the unthinkable happened; me in a room with 5 baby tigers. In the first few seconds I experienced a wave of dizziness - I couldn't believe I had a baby tiger in my arms. Thankfully I recovered quickly, nothing like sharp baby tiger teeth to bring you back to reality.

The little guys are brothers and 2 months old. They are frisky and their teeth work very well. Their claws had been filed so that they aren't as sharp. The climbed all over me, licked me with their scratchy tongues and otherwise won me over in seconds flat. Chance is just going to have to get used to his new playmates because I'm taking home at least one.

Wouldn't you know it, my camera battery died the moment I entered the baby tiger room. Ughh. I had to hire one of the park's "professional" photographers. He took these cheesy shots.

Alas there is a semi-dark underbelly to this joyous moment. I am fairly convinced that the tiger park uses sedatives on the full-grown tigers in the enclosures where tourists roam freely. The "handlers" are armed with nothing more than a wooden baton while tourists pet the tigers, lay on them for photo opportunities and other such silly things. I'm no wild animal expert, but I can't imagine a full-grown tiger is willing to let tourists lay all over it all day without even lifting its head.

We nearly skipped the tiger park altogether based on reviews from other visitors who had the same suspicion that the adult tigers are drugged. In the end, I couldn't resist the opportunity to hold the babies. I'm glad we went. The tigers looked well-cared for and I was able to share my concern about the sedated tigers with their staff. They earnestly promised no sedatives were used. I get the sense they were telling the truth (at least the truth to their knowledge).

I'm going to miss those little rascals. I know keeping wild animals as pets is a horrible thing to do.... but I still want one!