these are a few of my favorite things

All right. I'll just be honest with the 2 of you who read this thing. Life has slowed down a loooooot since I returned home, not necessarily in a bad way, but definitely in a less-than-constantly-blogworthy sort of way. (Although come to think of it, don't I get to dictate what happens here, and can't skilled writers spin the mundane into the fabulous? How do I get to this point? Oh yes, of course. Practice. Write some more. And some more. And then again.)

(In case you're wondering, my mind does go there (there meaning this vein of internal conversation) pretty regularly. I think it has a lot to do with this transitory period of being a twentysomething and questioning myself daily about where I want to be in life and what I want to do in life and what are my life goals anyway? As Joy the Baker would say, holy heck! It's enough to make a girl crazy.)

The other day I was reminiscing about all the crazy things I ate in Asia. (Remembering is a good way to bring my mind back to the way things were.) I started out tame with duck brain and mooncake the size of my head.

By November I was tackling scorpions.

Winter break brought the fish eye episode in Kuala Lumpur (ps I know Kathryn has a photo of me mid-fish eye chew...where is it?!)

East Asia then got too boring, food wise (totally kidding) but we moved on to the wild lands of Central Asia, which brought the sickest thing I've consumed to date. I do not joke or overexaggerate. Fermented horse milk. I know. You're sitting there, completely stunned and kind of sick to your stomach just thinking about it. I'll create you a word picture, since Blogger and I are still at odds with each other and posting pictures is just too much work for it right now (seriously, someone please help me with the tech part).

As I was saying. Our Central Asian friends are cheering us on as we all sat around this large table high in the mountains. All the foreigners got a bowl full of something creamy, white, and intensely sour scented. All the way down the hatch it was pungent, sour, bitter, and still creamy, and I wanted to gag as I considered how long it had been fermenting outside. At the end, a smoky aftertaste, but not like pleasant gouda/sausage smoky. Nasty smoky. Why would this drink even taste smoky? Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to mention this is the national, and probably regional drink of Central Asia. Why would the national drink taste smoky? Why would aforementioned drink have such widespread appeal? Why on a chilly August mountain night would we be subjected to such torture by our Central Asian hosts?!

This, like all the things mentioned above (minus the fish eye, that was for my BC point), was eaten/drunk in the name of love/being polite guests in new cultures. I don't get that experience anymore, and sadly enough, I miss it. I miss it much more than these Georgia font blog words can express.

a summation

The photo above is the synopsis of everything I love about Vietnam.

jungle janes and sandy shoes

Combining two adventures into one. We left KL and headed off into the jungle for a little alone time with nature. Those who know me are chuckling right now because I rarely desire said kind of time, but I enjoyed it, surprisingly?

Taken from our boat on our way to our morning hike. Notice the trees in the background; I bet one could find gorillas in the mist over there...

In the midst of the jungle canopy, a clearing...and a beautiful lake underneath.

(from near to far): Kristin, Jena, and Aubrey walk the line.

We hiked up a hill and got to this vista point. Trees! Mountains! Overall it was a grand time, but the last night I found a huge leaf bug in my bed...it was time to head to the beach.

Footprints, ocean. Not too sure why the sand part is level but the ocean is crooked.

Be happy dont' crazy, my friends.

Once again, I am a huge sucker for sugar donuts.

Sunset on the beach...perfectly romantic for me and my four besties for the year.

Also, I apologize for the writing being less than scintillating this entry. Something about not being able to describe the beauty of aforepictured places...spell check is telling me that aforepictured is not a word? Get a life, spell check!

getting my feet wet

How to even begin describing this monster of a place, of a genre, really? If it wasn't apparent, I did a fair amount of research before our trip on basically everything food-related in Southeast Asia. And a huge aspect of the SE is the wet market, a place where a local can buy not only produce but also meat, poultry, fish, clothes and toys? The list goes on. Its name is derived from the water that vendors use to wash off their stands/goods. And many argue that they encapsulate the heart and soul of the SE. I love hearts and souls, so I made it a must-see on our list. (For comparison purposes, Jena's must-see was the Petronas Towers, and Aubrey's was Batu (aka full of monkeys) caves. We are such different people, and yet we love each other so very very much.)

We went to the Chow Kit wet market our last day in Kuala Lumpur. It was kind of a transcendent experience.


Green bean man poses with his produce!

Huge bonus for being a tourist here: the market rarely gets them (something about how the ground is dirty...? Pansies!) and so vendors are totally down for talking with you, letting you take pictures of their stuff/themselves, and even giving you a little sample of their many varied fruits! Freebies!!


This was something crunchy and red. I liked it a lot.


This is a mangosteen...less fond of this. (And I'm sorry to all the people this offends.) Ok, it's kind of slimy, and it looks like a garlic clove, for heaven's sake, how was I supposed to like it?




The rows and rows of peppers were extremely photogenic.


Chickens?


This was a happy surprise outside: sugar donuts and other fried things! How many ways are there to say I love wet markets?!

And I'm happy to report that we braved it with flip flops! When we returned to our hostel, we excitedly recounted to our hostel's owner our morning activities. He looked alternately at our faces and our feet and with an air of incredulous disgust asked, "You did not wear rainboots? You wore those?" Yes, sir. And we have the remnants of fish guts on our toes to prove it!

take a big bite

Due to extremely popular demand (okay, only Jena actually voiced this but I try to believe that more of you want it as well), here comes a hearty take on Southeast Asia...food and other things that were worth photographing. Ready?

Kuala Lumpur--I'm a big fan. On our first day, after some monkey business (thanks Jena for writing about it so I don't have to), we were famished and ready for some real Malaysian food. We made a beeline for a place that said "banana leaf" on it. I mean, if ever in your life you have a choice between banana leaf or no banana leaf, please for the love of your stomach choose the banana leaf!

(top, left to right: some unidentified pink thing, cucumber, radish, carrot. And the fattest hunk of rice you ever did see with curry on top.) We also ordered some small plates of chicken curry and fish (the infamous fish eye was consumed here). So my former roommate T-face really enjoys eating with her hands, thus she would have enjoyed this meal, but I used a fork and spoon..sorry T!

The second day...on to KL's finest kopitiam, or the original kind of coffeeshop, a place to gather and meet with friends, a place that far preceded Starbucks. Just saying. Okay, so this place we went to is a solid part of KL history. It's been around for 80 years, which is really quite remarkable. Jena really hit the nail on the head with the roti babi, which is fried bread stuffed with pork, onions, etc. Amazing. Aubrey also hit the nail on the head by smothering her pork chop in kaya (coconut jam). The owner was rightfully confused when she asked for a side of kaya with her pork chop, but hey...you can't deny the combination of two very good things.

half of the pictures I took on the trip look like this. It is because there is no standard of decent coffee that anyone cares to live up to in East Asia.

Chicken rice! Rice cooked in chicken stock, accompanied by deeeeelish chicken and cucumbers to balance it out. Oh, that's not a worthy description because it's one of those must-taste-to-understand sorts of dishes.

That night, we went firefly watching outside of the city. On the way was a pit stop to feed some monkeys because really, what is Malaysia without monkeys?

He's a cutie, is he not?!

Anyway, it is becoming very obvious that southeast Asia will go on for a few more posts--too many pictures, and there is this little rule that blog posts should not go on for forever. Fair enough. Stay tuned!

home sweet east asia

7 hotels/hostels, 1 night on a sleeper bus, 1 night in an airport, 2 nights in a sleeper train, and 72 showerless hours later, we're home!!! 3 countries in 3 weeks. More, as always, to come.

(credit to Aubrey for the stats)

too much coffee?

HA, of course there's no such thing with me. So yesterday, I had 5, yes 5, cups of coffee. To clarify, I have totally downed multiple cups of coffee in one sitting, but never 5 all in different locations in the course of a day. To document this momentous occasion, I present Stephanie's coffee log for February 1, 2009.

3:30 am: kopi o from kopitiam in Singapore airport. So we spent the night in the airport since we had an early flight the next morning, and it was so COLD inside I couldn't fall asleep for the life of me. I decided to stop trying and embarked on my first coffee of the day, Malaysian style with a side of toast with kaya (coconut jam) & butter.

6:30 am: cappuccino from western-style coffee stand in the terminal. Amazing foam, and they sprinkled it with cocoa powder...bonus points! Lisa, I wish you were there.

12 pm: ca phe sua da (which translates to iced coffee with condensed milk) at restaurant in Saigon...a little weak.

4 pm: ca phe da (no milk) at a little place on our street. People watched with Jena and Aubrey. Pondered why Vietnamese women wear pajamas in the daytime.

9 pm: ca phe sua da with PHO for dinner. I can't believe I ate pho in Vietnam. It was so BOMB. And they brought it with the drip filter thing on top of the cup and it was like a dream. As I ordered it, I realized that it was the 5th coffee of the day, and I promise, reader, I hesitated a little, but then I realized that this stay in Vietnam is all too short, and I am returning to a land where the coffee is frightfully bad...to sum up, I needed that coffee. And it was the best one of the day.

I then slept like a baby in our amazing $11/night guesthouse.

I am so excited for tomorrow; we are going to eat the reportedly "best sandwich" in Saigon. Somebody pinch me!

i wish for a fish

Today has been a fishy day! First, let me say that it has been so painful for me to not be able to upload pictures here. Second, I earned my BC point* by eating a FISH EYE at lunch today. Yes!! Third, my feet were massaged by skin-eating fish today. All for the low low price of a little over $1.

*One may be initiated into the Balls Club if another member challenges said person to do something, well, ballsy. Once you are in the club, you then have the power to challenge others into it. You are not allowed to make up BC initiation challenges for others if you yourself are not in the BC. Once a BC member, always a BC member.

selamat datang!

I think (hope?) that means "welcome" in Bahasa Malay...? Just a quick update to let everyone know that southeast Asia is warm, beautiful, and full of mosquitos: bite count at 16 and rising...

Nevertheless, it is DELICIOUS, and I am trying to eat as much as I can! We spent a half day in Singapore before hopping over to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. INDIAN FOOD! Chicken biriyani and roti prata abound here. My life is so full of happy.