ATW – Yummy Thai food

My first big meal in Bangkok was at the Thai restaurant at the Shangri-La Hotel. I normally don't like eating at the hotel, but I was worn out and this place looked good. I wasn't disappointed. The spices in every dish were top-notch. I got the 6 course chef's sampler and each item was a new dish to me, or at least they tasted so different from any Thai dishes that I had had before that they effectively were new. The standouts were Yam Woon Sen, a very spicy noodle salad with pork and shrimp, Tom Kha Koong, a spicy coconut soup with shrimp, and then there was a spicy dipping sauce with the Pla Thod Kratiem Prik, a piece of fried fish. I almost exploded from all the food. The next day I made the mistake of buying a sausage from a little street market. It was all gristle and god-only-knows what kind of meat. One bite and I realized that if I ate the whole thing I'd fall in the river dead. So I did the smart thing for once...I tossed it.
The last major meal was supposed to be at a highly recommended Thai restraint in a slightly seedy part of town. I couldn't find the place, or anything that seemed close, so I stopped into a British Pub and had some of their food. The Thai shrimp soup that I ordered was quite good, Tom Yam Kung. Breakfasts (at the hotel) overall were nothing special, but the very fresh fruits, and especially the orange juice, were great.

ATW – It’s getting a bit humid

I was somewhat accustomed to seeing sand, sand-colored buildings, and
dust–covered plants in Egypt, so flying into Bangkok totally shocked the
system. Green, blue, red, yellow – everywhere. But there was a dark
side. To get all those plants and flowers takes massive amounts of heat
and humidity. It took me a half-day to adjust and revert back to Houston
mode, and a few showers and changes of clothes definitely helped me make
it through. I was staying along the river, and so it was easy to pass my
time riding up and down the river and hopping off at various stops and
wandering the streets. The time spent being harassed to buy something,
ride in a tok-tok, or receiving some 'friendly' advice on finding grate
deals was greatly diminished as long as I stayed on the river.

One side-note about the hotel: the fact that every vehicle had to have
it's undercarriage inspected by a neat little mirror on wheels and armed
guards means that I was staying a one super-cool place.

Day 5 Yellowstone to Casper; WY

We decide to split the Yellowstone - Denver trip in two and stay a half day longer in Yellowstone. Thanks to the Road trip USA book that Ginny and Dave so kindly gave us, we took the recommended Uncle Tom's Trail. The trail was more of a staircase, as the book tells us, and went straight down into the Yellowstone Canyon for a view of the falls. I discovered that Marc is afraid of heights but the Canyon was pretty majestic. The falls were very pretty with rainbows all over the place. On our way out of the park we saw several bison along side the roads, at one point there was a group of people gathered by the side of the road but we couldn't see any animals. We get out of the car telling only to be yelled at by a crazy dude on a motorcycle who is like the hells angels version of a hippie. He yells to us that we can't stay just a few minutes because that's no way to see the park, that we need to take the time to appreciate it. Any way, as it turned out the group had gathered to see a bald eagle sitting on a tree down near the river. Woo! We get back in the car and leave Yellowstone through the east, "the most beautiful" exit. It was neat, we passed by the Yellowstone lake which was huge and we saw a wolf in a field! Very exciting. According to the trusty Road Trip USA the best ice cream in all of Wyoming was to be had at yellowstone drug, in a town called Shoshoni. With that goal in mind we wound through the breathtaking scenery that Wyoming had to offer, in all seriousness, it's a lot prettier than I would have imagined, in order to end up in Shoshoni. We arrived in Shoshoni at 7:30 only to be told by the employees of Yellowstone Drug that they were closed, regardless of the fact that there sign said they closed at 8. We begged and pleaded, but to no avail, none of Wyoming's best for us. As Shoshoni seemed to have little else we asked if there was a restaurant that would still be open. The restaurant we were directed to was, um, very authentic. I was offered a salad with "I Talian dressing" in the dialect of the locals. As a main course we had the option between fried fish and fried chicken, I got the fish, Marc the chicken.

ATW - Culinary delights in Cairo

I've had quite the culinary adventure during my short stay in Cairo. Outside of the bland generic breakfast buffet, with some of the worst breakfast sausages I've ever had the misfortune of attempting to eat, the food has been rather tasty. I tried some sushi (never my favorite, but I've had much worse), Indian food (historically not one of my favorites, but it is growing on me and it has been the second most tasty meal here), and a random sandwhich in the basement of a mall while playing 'billiards' in a kiddy game room. The number one meal has been at a fish restaurant (and it served only fish). All of the fresh fish was displayed at the side of the restaurant and you just picked out what you wanted and they either grilled it or fried it for you. I had a a whole fish that looked like a giant perch, but with out all of the little bones. It was grilled with a little lemon and was very tasty. Hip hip hooray for Egyptian fish!
Tomorrow I head off to Thailand, so we'll see if I can find some good food there.

Around the World Kickoff

Leg one of the 2007 around the world journey has been a success. Just 11 hours from SFO to Frankfurt, a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt, and then another 4 hours into Cairo produced an uneventful day. Winner for the most comfortable seats of all time (for economy class) goes to the first flight aboard Luftansa. My knees were numb with pain by the end of it, but my back felt great.
I ran into a few interesting people along the way. Pop Quiz - What nationality comprises 90% of the people who decide to drink beer at 10 in the morning in Frankfurt? If you said American, then you get a gold star. You get an extra gold star if you also said that 80% of those 90% are active or former military dudes. In between all the talk of guns and crappy desert life, I did discover an excellent new term - "Barley grenade". I think that it shall replace "man soda" as my favorite term for beer.
On the completely different end of the spectrum, I shared a shuttle from the Cairo airport to the hotel with a judge for a three day chef competition going on here in Cairo. He claimed to speak 8 languages, to have lived in 15 different countries, and to be able to fly anywhere for free. He also was wearing a sweet party shirt and had one of those mustaches that's curled up on the ends like the old western movie guys had. I didn't learn any cool terms for beer from him, but maybe we just didn't talk long enough.
Cairo is smoggy and hot as heck.  That's about all to report about the firt part of the trip.

Day 4 Yellowstone National Park

We wake up to the sound of rain on the roof of our tent - good thing we put the rain cover on! Fortunately it only lasts a few minutes. After a short talk with the ranger where he tells us that there's a bear that's been hanging around our campsite for the last week, we head out to the Yellowstone General Store for some breakfast. Unfortunately we arrive after breakfast is over so we get lunch instead. We somehow manage to time it exactly right and walk up to Old Faithful a minute or two before it um.... shoots? blows? erupts? geyses? Anyway, we see it happen - pretty exciting - and then we head out to the trail that our server from the night before suggested, the mystic falls trail. The trail starts just past the midway geyser basin where we see some really pretty turquoise and deep blue sulphur pools. Before setting out on the trail we read the bear warning sign which advises "stand your ground if a bear charges most are false charges" - very comforting. It also suggest playing dead if a bear attacks - so basically you're just screwed. Undaunted we head up the trail which winds up a mountain to where you get a really great view of the park and the falls below. Afterwards we have worked up quite a sweat and decide to head over to firehole river where you can swim in a certain section. The water is surprisingly warm although the area is pretty crowded - perhaps the two are related? We have a nice leisurely swim and then head out of the park to the town of West Yellowstone for some groceries to prepare our meal for the evening. As we have absolutely no cooking utensils our options are limited - we decide on sausage and a bell pepper to cook over the campfire as well as a can of soup with a pull-top that we can cook in the can. The sky keeps threatening to rain so before starting our campfire we ask the ranger if he thinks it will rain. His response "It hasn't rained nothing to spit at in a looong time, we drier now than we were in the fire of 99" Okay then. It sprinkles a little bit but we cook our meal without too much problem - it's surprisingly good for something cooked with absolutely no utensils. Right after we finish up the thunder starts, the sky crackles every now and then with a flash of lightning. The rangers come by and let us know that there's a bear at the other end of the campsite and that if we see it we should let them know. Ten minutes go by and the storm seems to be getting closer, sleeping in he car is looking like a better and better option. More rangers drive by - the bear is now between two tents at the end of the road. We head down in the car to see if we can see anything. No luck, but it starts to rain and the lightning is getting closer, it sounds like it's right on top of us. Maybe we'll just hang out in the car for a bit. We cruise around the park for a little while in the car until the storm passes. A few minutes go by and the rain stops, we get back to our campsite and as Marc steps out of the car our neighbor asks "Deed you ear zer ees a bear een ze campground" Ahhh a Frenchie.

Day 3, drive to Yellowstone, WY

We aim to leave at 6am from the Reed's house but end up sticking around until 7am. On recommendation we hit up the Sisters Coffee Company for some lattes. While my loyalties will always lie with Blue Bottle - this coffee was pretty damn tasty! We take the 20 East, the historical Oregon trail for the majority of the 15 hours of driving we do today. As it turns out everywhere we drive there seems to be road work going on. We cross all of Oregon and Idaho, on our way to Yellowstone National Park. As it turns out Marc has made reservations at the Old Faithful Inn restaurant for 9:30 that night. Aiming to get there with a little bit of daylight in order to set up our tent before dinner, we fail. Fortunately, after cruising through the entrance of Yellowstone and through the park at a cautious but eager 65 mph we bypass Madison, our campground, and manage to make it to Old Faithful Inn just after 9:30. The Old Faithful Inn is a pretty majestic place, a huge log cabin style hotel with cool lighting. We head on in to the restaurant, where someone immediately complements Marc on his Amoeba shirt. Our server, though very friendly seems to be a bit of a tool who can't recommend a wine and tells us that the salad comes pre-made from another company (mmm fresh!). I order a zinfandel with my elk medallions and marc the pinot gris with his trout. The result? I have come to learn that elk is delicious - tastes like steak but super tender, but my wine is really warm. The trout was so-so. Though our server was unable to suggest a wine he was able to suggest a hike and a place to go swimming in Yellowstone - we'll see how that goes! A little worried about finding our campsite and setting up our tent in the dark we head back towards Madison. After a couple of wrong turns we find the entrance and are greeted by an envelope taped to the ranger's station with our name on it - inside we find a carefully marked map and warnings about being attacked by bears and gored by bison. With help of our map, we have no trouble finding the campsite and set up our tent without a hitch.

Day 2 Sisters, Oregon

After a slow start - 10 hours of driving the day before had us pretty beat - we finally got moving and had a late brunch at the Black Butte Lodge. A pretty log-cabin style restaurant overlooking a man-made lake - they seem to be the thing in Sisters, everyone has one. Took the car into Les Schwab tires where they fixed us up for free! The Reeds took us to their hotel, the ponderosa village Best Western where we checked out their brand new suites, really fancy rooms with in room jacuzzi's and pretty awesome looking showers, and I was given a stuffed llama named Tori Amos. Later in the day, Marc and I went up to Suttle lake for a swim and a walk around the area. The water was not icy cold and there were a bunch of cute duckies and various drunkards with their kids swimming.

Day 1 of the Grand Voyage: Cross-country San Francisco to Boston

Marc and I manage to leave Los Altos with no fights and a well packed car - with room to spare even! Marc's French flag draped across the backseat and my senegalese one waving in the AC vent up front. We set out on the road at about 7am for about 9 hours of driving to Sisters, Oregon. I slept for probably the first two hours while Marc drove. Not a whole lot of excitement on the first half of this trip. We stopped and ate lunch in a town called Dunsmuir at the river cafe. The first of many burgers to come. Passed through Shasta which was really pretty but we didn't have time to stop and look around. Upon crossing the Oregon border Marc gets a $242 speeding ticket. Woo! off to a good start. As we get off the freeway and are arriving at our destination of Sisters we hear a thumping - we get out of the car to discover a giant screw in our tire. Awesome - fortunately we're a block away from a tire repair shop, and within spitting distance of marc's family's house. We arrive at the home of the Reed's and are greeted with tasty gin and tonic's (Marc has family that drinks!) and step outside to greet the llamas. Afterwards we head down to the nearest restaurant for some fish tacos and Twilight beer - from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend. While I don't have the refined beer palate that Dave does, I would say it rated tasty!