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No Me Gusta Isla De Ometepe (Nicaragua)

3/31/2015

By Caitlin

Sometimes you just don't click with a place. Your fellow travelers, the Internet, and the guide book seduce you into believing a certain place is worth the effort but when you get there it's disappointing. This is how we felt when we ventured to la Isla de Ometepe, a huge island in the vast Lago de Nicaragua (Nicaragua Lake). There were some missteps we took that could have changed our opinion and therefore this post is meant to give back what we taketh from the World Wide Web.

From the bus window, I was entranced. Isla de Ometepe is dominated by two volcanoes on either side of the island, the active La Concepcion, a perfect cone, and Maderas, which is extinct. Concepcion is nearly always ringed by clouds at the top, which looks super cool from a distance.

Problemo número uno: To get to the island requires a ferry ride on a pretty dinky ferry. It was a very windy day and as I stood on the mainland watching another boat bobbing right, left, up and down as if it were a booey, it was enough to make me queasy. Sure it's cheap, but the odds of capsizing and my ensuing nausea was reason enough to rethink the whole journey.

Problemo número Dos: The few small towns on the island are very spread out (an hour or two bus ride) and so it's important to stay in the one that's closest to the activities you want to do on the island. We weren't really sure what we wanted to do and ended up staying in Moyogalpa, the town where the ferry drops you off. There's not a lot to Moyogalpa. The only reason you should stay here is if you plan on hiking Concepcion, which is a grueling 8-10 hours, mostly in the exposed heat, and when you get to the top it's more likely than not that it's too cloudy to see beyond a few feet in front of yourself.

Problemo número tres: transportation on the island is very difficult. Only about one slow and bumpy chicken bus leaves each day to each of the other towns. The schedule isn't easy to find and isn't necessarily reliable, as we found out.

One of the many not-so-exciting petroglyphs (don't have pictures of the worse ones)

What we ended up doing: I was intrigued by the descriptions of some petroglyphs, old rock carvings, roughly in the middle of the island. It was easy enough to get there via chicken bus but it took about 2 hours. A short hike to a farm and the petroglyphs were easy to find. However, they were pretty disappointing, to say the least. Only one was remotely impressive, while the 3 others were tiny, significantly eroded and not intricate or interesting.

The one pretty good petroglyph

We stopped by the Santo Domingo beach on the northern part of the island for some snacks. After visiting the other beaches of Nicaragua, this paled in comparison. Lake beaches are usually kind of gross in my opinion anyways.

When we wanted to head back to Moyogalpa we really encountered some difficulties. The posted time for the next bus was 4. So we set off for a long walk to the bus stop. When we finally arrived, some friendly locals communicated that the 4 pm bus wouldn't be coming today and that was supposedly the last bus! In broken Spanglish a tiny old lady told us a detour, not on the map, to another major road with a 5 pm bus to Moyogalpa. So off we went, as did my imagination. What if no other buses or cars passed us?? What if we were stranded at night walking down this sparsely populated road many miles from Moyogalpa? After another long walk, we fortunately reached the main road. A pair of canoodling teens confirmed they were also waiting for a 5 pm bus. Hooray! We were saved! Just had to wait 30 min for the bus. When the teens then randomly jumped in a passing car instead of waiting for the bus, I got nervous. The sun was setting. Soon it would be dark. What if the bus never comes? Jed didn't seem too concerned, but I was very anxious. When that old American school bus finally rounded the corner, I was quite relieved. The route drove around the eastern side of the island right as the sun was going down and giving us our best view of Concepcion from the island yet. We decided to leave the next day, a day early, and go back to San Juan del Sur.

Staying somewhere different and having a vehicle would have made things easier on Ometepe. We considered renting a motorbike, but in our short time in Nicaragua had already encountered multiple people with serious wounds resulting from Ometepe motorbike crashes. Unless you are really hyped up to scale a volcano, which can be done much more easily in the northern part of Nicaragua, leave your Ometepe experience to the shores of the mainland. This was definitely the most stunning view and would save you the seasickness inducing ferry ride, among other travel pains and disappointments.

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The BEST of Southeast Asia: Beaches, Massages, Markets, Temples and Food

3/21/2015

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By Caitlin and Jed

In our last post we discussed the sad realities and the things that annoyed us about the countries we visited in Southeast Asia (Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia). Maybe it was a bit depressing, but we really did love SE Asia, and here is a list of our favorite things about the region:

Beaches

One of the most well known tourist attractions in SE Asia is its beaches, and for good reason. In Thailand, the choice of which beach or island to visit is surprisingly frustrating, because of the hundreds of possibilities. After endless research, we eventually settled on Koh Lanta, a decent sized island with about a half dozen beaches, including secluded bays in the south and long open beaches in the north. One of the most famous beaches in Thailand (if not the world) is on Koh Phi Phi island, and reachable only by long boat. Maya Bay, where the movie “the Beach” was filmed, may be hard to reach but that does not deter hundreds of people (us included!) from making the journey every day. The view of the green water and surrounding rock formations is quite breathtaking and if you squint and concentrate hard enough you can pretend you are the only one there.

We also had a great stay at the beach in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. In retrospect this is almost solely due to the place we stayed on the quietest part of the beach. The main part of the beach is pretty run down and not super pretty, but we were able to find a nice little hotel, with very few tourists around...and for wicked cheap. If you are ever in the area, definitely stay at Sunset Lounge and enjoy the relaxing days doing nothing but laying on their hammocks and drinking killer margaritas.

Massages

One of the best parts about SE Asia is the abundance of extremely cheap massages. There are literally more massage places around than any other type of business. Despite their reputation, the vast majority of these places are completely legitimate businesses. In Chicago, when I was stressed at work, I would get a very cheap massage for about $60. In SE Asia, some of our massages were as cheap as $6, Yes, you can pay a person to rub your muscles for an hour for $6. Needless to say, we got a ton of massages. We were pretty relaxed throughout our six weeks in SE Asia.

Markets

Many times during our travels I have wished we were going straight home just so I could load up an extra suitcase with the beautiful arts, crafts, clothing and occasional kitsch that fill some of the most glorious markets in the world; more so than ever in Southeast Asia. Whether it was flower markets, food markets or just another tourist trinket market, we couldn't get enough of them. Luckily, there were many and they were enormous. The Saturday market in Chiang Mai probably encompassed 7 square blocks selling everything from various ready-to-eat insects to hand-carved wooden iPhone cases. All these markets have some percentage of crafts that are probably made in a factory in China, but you see those same fabrics and products so often that you develop an eye for what is unique and likely handmade. And of course, any market experience wouldn't be complete without a friendly haggling over price, which is always expected and a fun way to practice our language skills.

As a side note, because we get this question frequently, we do buy things every once in awhile and ship things home. For example, we bought a carpet in Turkey and a Buddha statue in Thailand. I often buy jewelry because its small and portable. In total, I think we've mailed 4 or 5 packages home. In fact, still waiting on one we mailed from Cambodia in December that hasn't yet arrived and may truly be at the bottom of the Pacific.

Turn down for Wat??!

The temples of Southeast Asia are really beyond description. From the ancient to the most opulent, they are nearly indescribable. Anyone who plans on spending time in SE Asia needs to have an appreciation for temples and shrines. These make the churches of Europe seem both few in number and modest in decor. Buddha statues are as plentiful as spires. Despite knowing very little about Asian architecture, the variety and beauty of the temples in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand continually awed us even as we grew weary of removing our shoes to enter every single shrine. Whether Hindu or Buddhist, literally every home, business, or property has a small shrine where daily offerings of fruit, rice or money are made. A simple, comforting reminder of the spirituality that permeates the varied cultures of Southeast Asia.

Although most temples we visited were relatively modern creations, the oldest ones we saw in Siem Reap were far and away the most magnificent. Of course we are talking about the temples of Angkor Wat. We spent 3 full days visiting the temples of Angkor Wat and didn't get sick of them. The highlights were the many carved faces of Bayon, the gigantic trees invading Ta Prohm Temple (where "Tomb Raider" was filmed) and of course the massive and most famous temple in the region: Angkor Wat. Oh and we were there the same day as Beyonce and Jay-Z!

Night Food Market

Amazing Pad Thai

Yummy bugs for sale

Whole fish at Koh Lanta, Thailand

Pornographic Cappuccino. Only in Thailand

A feast of all rice products after a "hard" day in the Luang Prabang, Laos rice fields

Cooking some delish street Pad Thai

Food! Yum, Yum, Yum.

Soups, curries, stir fries, bbq, smoothies! Just a few of the things we couldn't get enough of in the cuisine of Southeast Asia, which has to be among the most nuanced in the world. That's about as descriptive as I can get because we are not foodies, but we do seek out local and delicious food. We were not disappointed here. In an effort to learn (as we stuffed our faces), we took a street food tour in Chiang Mai, Thailand with a local food lover who walked us around the local food markets to introduce us to some things that would be hard for most tourists to spot.

The local food stalls really get fired up at night, when people come out to enjoy the cooler temps and mingle or just grab some chow on the way home from work. Whether it's an area where many food carts gather, or just a solo cook on a corner, each one specializes in one or two dishes. All the ingredients are there ready to go, with the searing hot wok frying them up. After you place your order, there are typically plastic tables and chairs set up. This experience can be intimidating and tricky for a vegetarian. You can't read the signs, so you can only point to ingredients and hope for the best. It almost always ends up delicious. While there is a lot of continuity in these cuisines, there were also many distinctive dishes and ingredients, such as padek, fermented fish paste, that was especially stinky in Laos and rendered an otherwise enjoyable raw papaya salad, inedible. Even in this instance, the colors, smells, and flavors of food in SE Asia kept us excited to try new things. For lots more pictures of some of the local food we tried in SE Asia and during our other travels, be sure to check out or food photos section of the blog!

Home made Absinthe from a dude on the tiny island of Koh Ta Kiev, Cambodia

From our Street Food Tour in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Enjoying our street food tour with an American Chef

Honey-glazed street bacon in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is the best thing in the world

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The WORST of Southeast Asia

3/13/2015

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By Jed and Caitlin

The pro of long bus rides is people often come on the bus to sell you food. The negative is sitting on the bus for 10 hours after eating said food

Although we really enjoyed our two months in Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand), there were some things that definitely annoyed us as well. For our next posts, we will focus on the good, but for now here is some of the bad:

Long Bus Rides

There is a pretty well-developed airlines system in SE Asia (You may have heard of Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia), but the budget traveler can't afford frequent flights all over. Therefore, we were often forced to take very long bus and/or mini-van rides, which were often worse because you get packed into those vans. In a week stretch, we had four 10+ hour bus rides. The buses are old, grungy, crowded, hot, and take forever. Sometimes the pee breaks are just pullovers on the side of the road (which doesn't make you feel very comfortable in countries like Laos that have millions of unexploded bombs). But hey, for a ride that's only $10, sometimes you have to risk peeing in a landmine infested field.

Shirtless, Shoeless Backpacker making a scene

Backpackers and Other Tourists

We find backpackers everywhere on our travels, but they are especially abundant in SE Asia because its known to be extremely cheap. We have nothing against backpackers per se, as they are just younger and more budget-conscious versions of ourselves. But they are often disrespectful in large droves. When you are trying to unobtrusively observe a new culture or interact with locals and large groups of young, drunken, loud tourists are around asking where they can get drunk and go tubing, it interferes with your experience. One of the unfortunate consequences of travelers discovering a wonderful place is that often the place begins to change and cater to the travelers. Many times in SE Asia, this was especially apparent and instead of being able to experience Thai or Cambodian culture, it felt more like Spring Break in Cancun. It took us some time to figure out that the well-trodden path was not always the most beautiful or culturally-rich plac,e but the place with the most relaxed-drug laws.

I realize I am in this Tuk Tuk, but I didn't have any pictures of being hassled by a Tuk Tuk driver!

Being Hassled

This barely bothers Caitlin because she is so used to it that she doesn't even really notice it, but I am definitely sensitive to the constant yelling directed at our attention. The worst offenders are Tuk Tuk drivers, who pull up along side of you and shout at you or honk their horns whenever and wherever you are walking. If I needed a ride somewhere, I would be raising my arms and flagging you over. My favorite shirt I bought on this trip was the “No Tuk Tuk today” shirt I bought...it came in very handy.

Price Gouging

SE Asia is generally pretty damn cheap. In Savannahket, Laos, we paid $4 a person for our private room with private bathroom and wifi. However, as certain areas develop (e.g. the beach towns), so does the pricing. It's frustrating to pay 5X the cost of Pad Thai just because you are near the beach and there are large numbers of tourists around to take advantage of. That said, it was never “expensive” anywhere in SE Asia, just not always as cheap as we would have hoped.

Tragic Histories

Coupled with our visit to Hiroshima, traveling in SE Asia was often incredibly sad because of 20th century history and induced guilt and horror because of the US involvement (or lack thereof) in regional conflicts. We visited the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh, one of many places throughout Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge decimated the population. It was a somber experience, reminiscent of Auschwitz, where the trails walked by visitors to the site are still littered with bone and hair fragments, as erosion of the soil takes place.

In Laos, we were shocked by the number of unexploded bombs that remain in the fields of Southern Laos. 75 million (yes, MILLION) remained following the US campaign to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail, used by the North Vietnamese. Children often try to collect the scrap metal for money leading to tragic results. Farmers plowing fields accidentally explode them as well. We had trouble wrapping our brains around this devastating reality that lingers so long after the Vietnam War. Along with the fact that efforts to remove the un-detonated bombs remain grossly underfunded.

Despite this list of unfortunate realities and minor annoyances, we learned from each of them and became smarter travelers. We really did love SE Asia, and the negatives were far outweighed by all the positives, which barely fit into our next post. Check back soon!