Only a half hour drive and a one hour hike uphill and we are in another world. In the village of clouds. They call it Sarangkot here, but Mark and I call it cloud city. A beautiful place set in the mountains with a viewpoint that looks toward the Himalayas. A couple of stores, a couple of family owned diners, guesthouses scattered about, all surrounded by chickens, goats, cats and dogs, and little grass/mud huts that the villagers live in. We can't see much the first day because of the humidity in the air. The clouds are below us, above us and well basically all around us. We can see the next building over, a second later it disappears! The feeling of emptiness never arises due to the fact of the sweet serenity of the moist pillow-like clouds. We wake up the next morning to see the epic sunrise at 5am. We it seems to be yet another cloudy day in the village. So back to bed we go. Later that night, after spending the whole day walking around this magic place, we retired to our room. (I should mention it was $4.60 CAD, a pretty cheap room)We turn off the lights to pitch black and go to sleep, only to waken to tap tap taping noise. We turn on the lights and Mark says he seen a mouse run across, so we chase it out of our room, but when we get a good glimpse of it, it turns out to be a rat. We took our pillow cases off and plugged the bottom of the door and put all our shoes on it so there would be no chance of THAT happening again. We turn the lights off and lay awake with a twinkle of terror in our eyes, until the alarm goes off to see the next mornings sunrise.
Cloudy again. There was a glimpse of pink then it faded away. However, we did get to see some of the great Himalayan mountain tops, which are quite beautiful. But again back to bed we go. We make the final decent down the mountain that afternoon, not because we wanted to but because we ran out of money, there are no ATMs in cloud city.
That night, Mark and I went to one of our favorite places to eat dinner,(they give you free popcorn when you order a beer!) We enjoy our delicious and yet very garlicky soups and order another beer. Mark starts talking all sappy, sometimes he gets that way after a beer or three. So I just think it's cute and fluff it off. Then he says he wants to travel forever together and grow old together, and gets on one knee and proposes to me! (I'm tearing up writing this) All I could say was "what are you doing!! Are you for serious, no...really!!! I mean YES, I will marry you, of course!" With delicious garlic breath and fast beating hearts we kiss and hug and can't let go of each other. WOW (I know sappy).
Anyway, Mark tells me that this is the reason he has been spending all that time in the garage. For pretty much the whole summer, Mark was in the garage fiddling around, and every time I went to the garage door to open it, he would always stand up and be right at the door asking what I am doing. I thought he was really excited to see me or hiding something on his computer.But no, he was busy making me an engagement ring. He had bought a bunch of new tools, I thought it was for his job, but they were for making a ring to put on my finger. It is made from red oak, and is super shiny. The perfect ring. He made 2, so he could wear one around his neck too. So after over six and a half years of dating and falling deeper and deeper in love we are engaged! It seems surreal, but wonderful and even though we had a long night of drinks and laughter, I now feel exhausted but still can't get this fiancee smile off my face. Later Mark says he wanted to do it at sunrise, but it never happened, but I think it was perfect. I am happy to say I am engaged to my best friend, Mark.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Burning ring of fire.....
Well some of you may know what I am about to say. Some of you may need to turn away, and not want to read this due to the fact that you cannot stand the talk of disturbing bodily functions. Well, if you know me, and know me well, you know my digestive system is not...lets say...up to par. I eat and it goes right through me. not fun for anyone. Especially me!!! I cannot eat dairy, and I just found out I am not supposed to eat wheat products. I'm not a celiac not allergic to gluten, just wheat. But, well as most of you know I am a chef, I love food, and I love, more than cooking food, I LOVE TO EAT IT!! I feel like a dancer that has lost a leg, or maybe a big toe.
I was crossing my fingers that the yak milk in Nepal would overcome the lactose intolerance, hoping with all my heart that maybe it was only our gross over stimulated, over hormoned cows milk. But no, I feel it, I feel it deep inside my large intestine, kicking the crap outta the lactose, without enough of a build up pf the lactase enzyme to eat up the pain. Well, dammit anyhow. I like my milk tea, I love my frothy Nepalese Masala in the morning, and if you could only taste the simple Paneer Chili!! They call it that here... It's paneer ( unripened indian cheese, from yak milk) mixed with garlic and ginger tomato, and green chili, but they make it so delicately with their little nepalese hands and it tastes sooo damn good. OHHH I LOVE FOOD!!
Anyway, that was the easy part. The hard part is having to look out for a toilet on every street, every nick and cranny, maybe there will be a place we go, hoping I have remembered to bring toilet paper with me in my pocket or in my backpack that day. But, well I should confess.... I get the need to go, even if there is no cheese involved, it might be the awesome spices, and herbs they use in the cooking.
The feeling....oh.....DAMN.....The FEELING.....
Sweat pours from the pores, I feel like puking like I might even faint. What a terrible feeling. I'm never going to make it, I start looking for alleys small places maybe no one will see!!! But...alas....Thank GAWD I have Mark who also knows what I am like. When I have to go, I have to go NOW!! I feel like I am the only one out there that feels this but I know that I am not. I might be the only one crazy enough to be travelling the world with a digestive system like mine, or eating how I want to eat, not how my intestine wants me to eat. But the passion I have for eating, is the same passion you have for your favorite thing, and you know I'm not fat, I'm not a greedy eater, I just love to eat GOOD FREAKIN' FOOD! I feel like my passion for life revolves around food and where and how it comes to be the way it is, that's always unknown..
The flavors and smells of the food on your first date, the smells on Christmas with your family, the thing you were eating when you found out almost anything important in your life, (the birth of your child, the time the oilers won the cup, the day you lost someone important etc). There was always the smells, tastes, sounds of food. They always bring you back to grandmas house in the country when she was baking buns, when mom was pickling cucumbers to make pickles, when you peel so much garlic at cooking school, the only people that want to hang out with you are the people that go to culinary!! Food is my interest, my love, my life. This is why I travel. I find it is worth to eat what I want, then feel like complete crap! Especially when I get to eat the meal of a lifetime!
P.S. I was not feeling well before we ate the live octopus, I threw up just before in the local fish market toilet, but the live octopus HOLY SHIT was worth eating...for the taste, the experience....the memory!
P.S.S. I ate soo much when we were in Montreal I was (to say it easy) excavating out of both ends, not cause I was sick, but because, well, my body can't handle certain foods and onforth, I was on a gluten and lactose free diet for a couple months before I went.
Food is my life, I know my body is teaching me a lesson, but I also look at everyone I know in Kung Fu how many bones and sprains they go through, as well as yoga how many hurting body parts you go through to know your body is talking to you; I feel these are my brakes and sprains. This is how I learn, and well learning sometimes hurts.
I was crossing my fingers that the yak milk in Nepal would overcome the lactose intolerance, hoping with all my heart that maybe it was only our gross over stimulated, over hormoned cows milk. But no, I feel it, I feel it deep inside my large intestine, kicking the crap outta the lactose, without enough of a build up pf the lactase enzyme to eat up the pain. Well, dammit anyhow. I like my milk tea, I love my frothy Nepalese Masala in the morning, and if you could only taste the simple Paneer Chili!! They call it that here... It's paneer ( unripened indian cheese, from yak milk) mixed with garlic and ginger tomato, and green chili, but they make it so delicately with their little nepalese hands and it tastes sooo damn good. OHHH I LOVE FOOD!!
Anyway, that was the easy part. The hard part is having to look out for a toilet on every street, every nick and cranny, maybe there will be a place we go, hoping I have remembered to bring toilet paper with me in my pocket or in my backpack that day. But, well I should confess.... I get the need to go, even if there is no cheese involved, it might be the awesome spices, and herbs they use in the cooking.
The feeling....oh.....DAMN.....The FEELING.....
Sweat pours from the pores, I feel like puking like I might even faint. What a terrible feeling. I'm never going to make it, I start looking for alleys small places maybe no one will see!!! But...alas....Thank GAWD I have Mark who also knows what I am like. When I have to go, I have to go NOW!! I feel like I am the only one out there that feels this but I know that I am not. I might be the only one crazy enough to be travelling the world with a digestive system like mine, or eating how I want to eat, not how my intestine wants me to eat. But the passion I have for eating, is the same passion you have for your favorite thing, and you know I'm not fat, I'm not a greedy eater, I just love to eat GOOD FREAKIN' FOOD! I feel like my passion for life revolves around food and where and how it comes to be the way it is, that's always unknown..
The flavors and smells of the food on your first date, the smells on Christmas with your family, the thing you were eating when you found out almost anything important in your life, (the birth of your child, the time the oilers won the cup, the day you lost someone important etc). There was always the smells, tastes, sounds of food. They always bring you back to grandmas house in the country when she was baking buns, when mom was pickling cucumbers to make pickles, when you peel so much garlic at cooking school, the only people that want to hang out with you are the people that go to culinary!! Food is my interest, my love, my life. This is why I travel. I find it is worth to eat what I want, then feel like complete crap! Especially when I get to eat the meal of a lifetime!
P.S. I was not feeling well before we ate the live octopus, I threw up just before in the local fish market toilet, but the live octopus HOLY SHIT was worth eating...for the taste, the experience....the memory!
P.S.S. I ate soo much when we were in Montreal I was (to say it easy) excavating out of both ends, not cause I was sick, but because, well, my body can't handle certain foods and onforth, I was on a gluten and lactose free diet for a couple months before I went.
Food is my life, I know my body is teaching me a lesson, but I also look at everyone I know in Kung Fu how many bones and sprains they go through, as well as yoga how many hurting body parts you go through to know your body is talking to you; I feel these are my brakes and sprains. This is how I learn, and well learning sometimes hurts.
Friday, 9 September 2011
Adventures of the Wild kind!
WOW! Well, going on from the last time I wrote the baseball game was awesome! They have cheerleaders for their baseball teams and everyone in the stands sing the songs as they move their noisemakers in the same way, Koreans are crazy!!!
Moving on.... NEPAL!!!!
Wow, what a great place, we start off at the airport which is kinda like a trailer with some extensions, there is a immigration line, and a bag pick up line and well thats pretty much it! We had booked our place to stay for the night when we were in Seoul, so they came to pick us up from the airport. Which was nice, cause there are lineups of taxis and basically just people with cars that want to take you to their hostel... "come with me... nice place...cheap, cheap!!"
We got to put our bags down in our room and take a look around the busy city of Kathmandu. Horns honking, garbage stinking the streets, and people trying to sell....well pretty much everything. It's very quite exhausting, and I should add that I am glad I'm not a smoker, cause the pollution from the purple gas they use well its going to pollute our lungs enough I'm sure!
We had booked a night at the Last Resort (http://www.thelastresort.com.np/) It is a place 3.5 hours north of Kathmandu, on a twisty turny road, with land slides and straight down cliffs...not the safest bus ride I have been on, gripping the seat with what I have for nails!!! (like that was going to save my life haha) But we get to the resort, and we have to cross this 160m high bridge over a flowing river, which we both agreed we were going to swing off of later that day. you can check it out on that web address, we are getting the video of us doing it, its a 100m/6 second free fall before the rope archs you into a swing going 150 km/hour, awesome! But i will never do it again!! It was nice after though, the mountains and waterfalls were beautiful and quite relaxing, with crazy energy!!
When we got back to Kathmandu, the next day we decided to go to the monkey temple, called: Swayambhunath. They warn you to hold onto your cameras, hide your sunglasses, and keep everything close to you because the monkeys will take it from you. So we play it safe and get everything ready to climb the 365 steps to the stupa. As we climb the monkeys play around us we take pictures and laugh at the funny things they do. Well, little did I know that they were staring down the bottle of water I had in the pocket of my backpack. Mark noticed and told me to watch out but it was too late. The monkey jumped onto my back and tried to grab the water bottle out of my pack, it scared the crap out of me!! I swung around screaming (its a good chance you can get rabies from them so it is scary) and the monkey flew off, but not two seconds later jumped back on and i took the water bottle and threw it at them, they went chasing it, and opened it and tipped it over and started drinking it!! That was scary but I guess a good store after the fact.
So it hasn't even been 2 weeks and we have eaten live octopus, jumped into a 160m canyon off a bridge, and I got attacked by a money who ended up by just being thirsty.... This is an awesome trip!!
Moving on.... NEPAL!!!!
Wow, what a great place, we start off at the airport which is kinda like a trailer with some extensions, there is a immigration line, and a bag pick up line and well thats pretty much it! We had booked our place to stay for the night when we were in Seoul, so they came to pick us up from the airport. Which was nice, cause there are lineups of taxis and basically just people with cars that want to take you to their hostel... "come with me... nice place...cheap, cheap!!"
We got to put our bags down in our room and take a look around the busy city of Kathmandu. Horns honking, garbage stinking the streets, and people trying to sell....well pretty much everything. It's very quite exhausting, and I should add that I am glad I'm not a smoker, cause the pollution from the purple gas they use well its going to pollute our lungs enough I'm sure!
We had booked a night at the Last Resort (http://www.thelastresort.com.np/) It is a place 3.5 hours north of Kathmandu, on a twisty turny road, with land slides and straight down cliffs...not the safest bus ride I have been on, gripping the seat with what I have for nails!!! (like that was going to save my life haha) But we get to the resort, and we have to cross this 160m high bridge over a flowing river, which we both agreed we were going to swing off of later that day. you can check it out on that web address, we are getting the video of us doing it, its a 100m/6 second free fall before the rope archs you into a swing going 150 km/hour, awesome! But i will never do it again!! It was nice after though, the mountains and waterfalls were beautiful and quite relaxing, with crazy energy!!
When we got back to Kathmandu, the next day we decided to go to the monkey temple, called: Swayambhunath. They warn you to hold onto your cameras, hide your sunglasses, and keep everything close to you because the monkeys will take it from you. So we play it safe and get everything ready to climb the 365 steps to the stupa. As we climb the monkeys play around us we take pictures and laugh at the funny things they do. Well, little did I know that they were staring down the bottle of water I had in the pocket of my backpack. Mark noticed and told me to watch out but it was too late. The monkey jumped onto my back and tried to grab the water bottle out of my pack, it scared the crap out of me!! I swung around screaming (its a good chance you can get rabies from them so it is scary) and the monkey flew off, but not two seconds later jumped back on and i took the water bottle and threw it at them, they went chasing it, and opened it and tipped it over and started drinking it!! That was scary but I guess a good store after the fact.
So it hasn't even been 2 weeks and we have eaten live octopus, jumped into a 160m canyon off a bridge, and I got attacked by a money who ended up by just being thirsty.... This is an awesome trip!!
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Kylee + Food = Happy
We wake up, in a whirl of a sweaty mess. Time to eat! Walk out of our hostel, to find we woke up at 6am! (I know Dad...I know!) Nothing is open, we didn't bring a phone with us, so we had no clock.. Thank God for 24 hour noodle shops 'round town. We walk in and the lady points us to a machine which shows pictures and some korean writing of food. We get nervous...(we have done this before, and well doesn't always turn out as expected, shall I say Cambodian fish soup Mark?) The lady comes and pushes the buttons for us and sits us back down. A little later, a bowl of fine noodles with rice crispies, soup, kim chee and some water arrive at our table... It was magically delicious! Finally, I am back in love with humanity. Koreans...Always there to help a person out! We leave there bellies full and satisified, one of the main reasons we travel.
Well, moving onto bigger and better things, shall I add we have been here for 2 days and here is the list of what has made its way to out tummies:
1. Fantastic noodles soup
2. Street food pastries, dough filled with sugar paste
3. Street food noodles and red sauce
4. Street food gyozas
5. croque-monsieur- thats right i said it!
6. Live baby octopus tenticles dipped in red sauce
7. The most fantastic bulgogi I have and will ever try in my lifetime! Paired delicately with cold rice wine.
Now, I know what your thinking, well, maybe I don't, but #5 was in a coffee shop, they love coffee and pastries here, they have about 2 shops per block!
Ok, well some of you are probably asking about #6, well we saw it on t.v. a little Anthony Bourdain lovin comin your way! Well they tak the baby octopus and cut it up, and like a chicken with it's head cut off, the tentacals keep moving, and as you eat them they suction to the sides of your mouth, so you gotta chew fast! Well it was pretty good! The freshest seafood I have ever eaten, they were caught earlier that morning (around 2am-ish) and we ate them at 8am, for breakfast. ( I know I just became a hero in some of your minds... no autographs please!) Pictures and video are soon to come! I kinda acted like a baby for sure!
Anyway, day 2 in Seoul, South Korea and it has been a blast so far. We are off the the stadium to watch one of Korea's national sports. BASEBALL!
Well, moving onto bigger and better things, shall I add we have been here for 2 days and here is the list of what has made its way to out tummies:
1. Fantastic noodles soup
2. Street food pastries, dough filled with sugar paste
3. Street food noodles and red sauce
4. Street food gyozas
5. croque-monsieur- thats right i said it!
6. Live baby octopus tenticles dipped in red sauce
7. The most fantastic bulgogi I have and will ever try in my lifetime! Paired delicately with cold rice wine.
Now, I know what your thinking, well, maybe I don't, but #5 was in a coffee shop, they love coffee and pastries here, they have about 2 shops per block!
Ok, well some of you are probably asking about #6, well we saw it on t.v. a little Anthony Bourdain lovin comin your way! Well they tak the baby octopus and cut it up, and like a chicken with it's head cut off, the tentacals keep moving, and as you eat them they suction to the sides of your mouth, so you gotta chew fast! Well it was pretty good! The freshest seafood I have ever eaten, they were caught earlier that morning (around 2am-ish) and we ate them at 8am, for breakfast. ( I know I just became a hero in some of your minds... no autographs please!) Pictures and video are soon to come! I kinda acted like a baby for sure!
Anyway, day 2 in Seoul, South Korea and it has been a blast so far. We are off the the stadium to watch one of Korea's national sports. BASEBALL!
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