There are many things to do in Siem Reap but i needed to give my knee a break and many other activities required biking or more walking. I was happy to find a cooking class on Trip featuring two dishes i have ordered frequently in Cambodia: Fish Amok and green mango salad. A tuktuk picked me up at my hotel (a guarantee people arrive on time….) And a quick stop down the alley.
Tuk tuks are the way to travel. They zip in and out, are not expensive, and use less fuel.
Narong is my chef and she works for a restaurant owned by a French gentleman who has been here for 13 years.
With our finished dishes.
He owns the restaurant and the cooking school which also sells many of the ingredients. Helpful since I want to make it when I return home.
We started with a tour of the old market. Many items i already know from China wet markets. But we discussed different things useful to cook here differences in produce.
I have seen these peppercorns in many places.Fish, fish paste, dried meats.Lots of vegetables including baby corn and tamarind. These are two different types of eggplant.Bottom dwelling lake fish.
We started by chopping all of the ingredients. The cooking takes little time but the preparation is much longer as all of the ingredients are fresh. The recipes can be found at www.khmergourmetcookingclass.com
All of our ingredients.Chopping and more chopping.The ingredients used for the sauce of the Fish Amok are minced small and then pounded in a mortar until it becomes a paste.The paste made in the mortar is in the bottom left.
And now it is time to cook. I even made dessert. Glutinous rice balls with a palm sugar filling. They are boiled in hot water then cooled in cook water.
Cooking the shrimp for the green mango salad.Fish amok.Boiling the glutinous rice balls.
And then it was time to eat. Lots of food so some leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Asking with a great Angkor beer, a wonderful lunch.
It didn’t want to leave Flores and the Komodo Islands. I love nature and can find plenty to do in small cities. But we needed to spend a few days in Jakarta to get COVID PCR test to return to China. The hotel had a great pool and I only wanted to go a few places to tour.
The pool is in the bottom of the picture and is like an oasis here in this part of Jakarta.
We took a half day tour to see old Batavia. This was the capital of the Dutch East Indies along the northeast coat of Java. They took over surrounding kingdoms in these islands in benefit of their trade. It was a European colony for hundreds of years until invasion by Japan. Indonesia gained their independence in 1945. This statue commemorates their independence.
Old style boats that are still being used. Some are designed for cargo and use holds as well as putting cargo on the deck. Others carry passengers.
This man is taking large jugs of water to sell to people who do not have access to water. Original building for markets that is now a museum.We rode in this three wheel car called a Bajaj.This is an old draw bridge for boats to pass under. Jembotan kotan intan.
We stopped for refreshments of Indonesian herbal health drinks. The drinks are very tasty and make from fresh spices.
Kunyit asam has tumeric and tamarind.Brewed for exactly one minute.Crispy tape rolls
We visited a puppet maker to learn how he makes these thin puppets from goat skin that are so beautiful and take such time to make. He shared a short example of a puppet play that tells stories of past events in Indonesian history.
These are pictures of the shadow puppet presentation.
At first the dutch recognized the Chinese immigrants as good traders. But at one point the economy could not support more Chinese coming in. They told the Chinese they were going to be taken to an island but instead they were massacred. The red house which was a governor mansion was much later purchased by a Chinese woman and kept as a remembrance.
The end of this cannon is actually a lewd gesture in Indonesian. Much like the middle finger! Today many believe it can help with fertility to give offering and prayer here.
We also went to Chinatown.
Near the hotel was an antique market. I love to look at many of these old things in different countries.
This camera was pretty spectacular.
Random walks let us easily see different foods and people on the street.
Not sure what these are for but we had a lot of fun making many guesses as to their uses.Sunset over a golf course.
Breakfast one morning was lontong sayur. Tofu, egg, steamed rice cake, and vegetables in s spicy broth.
While at breakfast could not help but laugh at this guy out the window who danced and mimed. Of course then we gave him money.
I also ordered pete goreng which is fried stink beans. It has a slightly pungent taste but not stinky by any standards. I also ordered tempe. Ordering sambal or spicy sauce on the side makes everything tastier. I really love Asian food especially Indonesian.
East Nusa Tenggara, the pink beach, gets is pink color from the brilliant red coral that degrades when the coral itself dies and the skeleton of calcium carbonate breaks apart. From a distance it is hard to see the pink but at the waters edge of is pretty spectacular.
Next we went to snorkel to look for turtles. Here is where I made my biggest mistakes. It was pretty deep water and I’m not a very strong swimmer. With the current, I could not really pay attention to the camera I had and as a result I did not get the actual footage of the large turtle in front of me which was spectacular. Next time a life vest would give me more peace of mind to attend to the camera. I did get some pictures but the turtle was actually much closer to me after I took them. Though heartbroken I can’t share what I saw when it was literally right in front of me, maybe it was just meant for me to enjoy.
We took a speed boat in to the island. The top of the island is a great panorama viewpoint. The snorkeling was okay but there were incredible large schools of fish. The fish that close to shore are very aggressive and would nip at your legs. It did not hurt but was surprising and over and over became very annoying.
The plan is to climb to the top and take pictures.Our guide and owner of Filan Travel. He worked so hard to make a great trip by adjusting what was our most important things we wanted to see.During low tide is a good time to work on the boat.These boys were fishing for crabs.
Afterwards we went back to the boat to clean up and have lunch. We had a little time to walk around Labuan Bajo.
The mosqueThe seafood market
We had a flight to Jakarta in mid afternoon. If I were to do it again I would stay another day. A proper shower with warm water would have been appreciated. But we had a lot to plan around and chose the flight back to China earlier based upon the current 8 day quarantine which ended up being changed to no quarantine. We also should not have booked our flight out so early but we were not sure what was going to happen and all indication at the time showed not a loosening of restrictions.
Komodo national park is composed of a few islands. The largest is komodo island and the second largest is Pusua Rinca. We visited both over the live aboard boat tour.
I have wanted to see Komodo dragons for a long time. This boat tour is one of the better ways to pack in a lot of things in one trip. Plus there is only two of us. Things are more customized that way. As the weather had been bad, no one could get to the Islands for about a week. We lucked out that it was open the day we started. But with impending rain we decided to do it the first day instead of the second, just in case.
Komodo dragons
Led by two rangers we toured a very small part of the island and learned about the dragons.
Males are larger than females and can be as long as 10 feet and about 330 pounds.
They can liver up to 30 years
They are endangered and this is the only place you can see them in nature in the world.
They have lived in these Lesser Sunda Islands for millions of years.
They lay 30 eggs in deep diagonal holes in mounds used by a kiwi bird for the same purpose. Many animals will try to eat the eggs so the female guards the nest for the first three months until the rainy season comes. Then the holes are undiscoverable.
They mate once a year. If males not present, females have both chromosomes so can actually create eggs by parthenogenesis. Unfortunately, in this manner there are only males hatched.
Juveniles run to the trees after hatching as they can be eaten by just about everything including other dragons. They live in small lizards, insects, etc and only come down once in awhile. Add use the law of nature only about 10% make it to adulthood.
The dragons have venom glands with toxins that stop clotting and lower blood pressure. There is also 500 species of bacteria that provide fast infection. Their serrated teeth leave large wounds. They can even take down a water buffalo. Many will feed on one animal and may fight for the food.
They can eat 80% of their weight but only eat every month or so.
Komodo Island
Timor deer and wild boar are some of the prey here. There are some amazing species here at it is a protected park.
The dragons were amazing. I was able to get within a few meters of them. They are incredible. If they want to move they can do it very quickly.
This is an optical illusion. I’m not that close.
Rinca Island
This has an actual information center and elevated paths but it is not a zoo. They don’t keep the dragons in the area as they come and go as they please.
We noticed a juvenile moving quickly away. He was sensing the air with his tongue that all the other dragons were moving into the area. Smart guy to get away. You can see him here: https://youtu.be/tud0SWFHbjk
As we walked along we noticed a deer laying under the walkway. There was one komodo dragon about 20 meters away. After visiting the information center, we saw that more dragons came near the other one. We are pretty sure the deer had been bitten and the scent drew in the other dragons. They can smell blood 4 km away. Now they just wait for the deer to be near death.
Both islands have a few villages on them. Life is pretty tough for the residents who are mostly fishermen. Their houses are mostly on stilts due to tides but also as komodo dragons roam the islands freely. Of course they can climb stairs so keeping doors closed is important. I’m sure they house there goats, chickens, and cats that we saw.
Each village has a soccer field.
The villagers also make the komodo dragon carvings that you can buy. They have statues and also small ones that are magnets.
From Denpasar, the flight to Labuan Bajo is a little over an hour. It is further east from Bali on a large island called East Nusa Tenggara. From here I will stay one night at the Sylvia Resort komodo and will be picked up by the tour operator to travel to the boat in the morning.
There is not much around except for resorts scattered at the end of winding mountain roads. Sometimes it is better just to relax and enjoy the quiet which was made easier with its own beach and pools.
The next morning, after breakfast (and feeding the pussy gato friends I made by giving fish to just one of them the night before), we were picked up for our live aboard tour.
Call this light glamping. A bed, places to hang out…. We paid for a boat with air conditioning. You are on a boat so the bathroom is minimal with a toilet you use scoops of water to flush and a shower with little pressure. It is a typical Asian bathroom you might see in a smaller hotel (usually they have more water pressure for good reason).
They fed us so much food. All typically the same: rice, noodles, fried eggplant, vegetables, tempeh/tofu, fried fish, eggs and pancake for breakfast, fried bananas for a snack, and always fresh fruit.
Not much of an inconvenience as it is only two nights and the only way to see some really incredible things! The scenery through the area was amazing and we made several stops along the way which are in the next posts. Walking up on the water, having a whole crew just wanting you to be safe and happy was all part of the experience.
Birds diving for fish.
This is the ring of fire where the islands have been created by volcanoes. Many small villages exist for fishing but not every island is inhabited. Komodo national park has three large islands. Some villages are on them but no tourists can stay.
Sunrise saw the flying foxes which are actually megabats that feed on fruit coming back to where they nest for the day.
Sunset was amazing as well and you could see the flying foxes leaving their nests to feed on the fruit. These are the largest bats in the world and incredible to watch thousands fly over head.
After touring Singapore and Manila, it was a welcome few days off staying in a remote resort without an agenda. Especially perfect for a holiday: my Christmas Eve birthday and Christmas day.
The flight there was uneventful until we landed at 11pm. For some reason, there were lots shuttle buses available for the planes landing/taking off and we had to wait 2 hours to deplane. Another hour in immigration and another hour traveling to the resort in Klungkung put us there at 3 am. I felt sorry for the driver we hired who had to wait at the airport and the resort employee who also waited.
Bali is the western most island in the Lesser Sunda islands, part of the Indonesia archipelago (there are 130 islands here). The majority of people are Hindu and no matter where we were greeted in their language and in English. So friendly and always a smile on their face. This is our first stop and will go to three other places on the island before heading to Komodo Island and then Jakarta.
But we arrived and the place was beautiful. The secret spot resort is right on the beach and peaceful. Not much around it which is amazing. Anything you need they can get for you when they go to the market. This was great as I did not have the adapter plug for this country.
The bathroom is outside in a courtyard. The tub is full size and I can lay down in it.
After a few hours sleep I needed coffee and something to eat. They have a free breakfast and a choice of 3 different menu: Indonesian (fried noodles or rice), pancake, or continental. Looking at their menu for the other meals, they have an amazing variety and cook everything from scratch.
Black sand beach.We went for a walk near the edge of the water and was surprised at bring pulled in when a wave came much further than we expected. Despite our phones being submerged, they survived. Bali is known for surfing and now we know the strength of the waves.We noticed a memorial service near the water before ashes were scattered.This dog liked to slide down the dune.Before I left the Philippines I purchased this coconut liquor to bring as there are not many options here. Perfect for my birthday paired with fresh fruit juice.Our agent who arranged our driver from earlier in the night came by as we needed to arrange transport to Nusa penida island, our next stop. He also created a tour of Ubud for us. We toasted my birthday and his which is on the 25th.Coconuts.
There are only 6 huts at the resort and my friends and I occupied 4 of them. Perfect to exist without masks. Such freedom! Our only excursion was to walk around the tiny village.
Winds and rain came up suddenly.A local school.This little guy acted like a tough watch dog.The owner decorated with lights and a tree. Everyone on staff wore a Santa hat.For my birthday dinner they made Gado Gado which was delicious. A peanut sauce with tempeh and tofu.My friends had the owner found a cake for me with a candle. So thoughtful and yes some singing.
This is the rainy season and it did rain off and on the two days. I did manage to swim a few times and lounge around outside under covered lounge areas. Perfect for relaxation.
Even in the rain this place is beautiful. The sound of the waves is perfect to just relax and read a book.Balinese fish called Mujair nyat nyat
Mujair nyat nyat is one of the traditional food in Bali. It is a tilapia fish that is fried or baked with Balinese herbs and spices such as ginger, galangal, kencur, black pepper, white pepper, nutmeg, tabia bun, candlenut, jangu, bangle, and also turmeric on top of the fish. It is rich in flavor and just a little spicy. You can easily taste spicy and sour from the herbs with the savory flavor of the fish.
Dessert of black rice pudding. This is made with coconut milk and is delicious.The lizards are tokay geckos. They provided amusement as we watched them hunt insects.
I would come back here again. The people are wonderful. They are amazing cooks and the menu has traditional Balinese food to western food.
This is my second trip to Singapore, the first when COVID had first hit the world and I had made the choice to go back to China rather than the US. I revisited some places I had already been as I was traveling with someone who had never been here but also did more street wandering.
I love Singapore. It is not just a green city with the number of gardens but also with their electric vehicles. There are large buildings but it is very open. There is a lot of history here.
I stayed in Little India which is one historic area here. Off of Serangoon Road, it has colorful buildings and shops with amazing restaurants. The street art is fabulous. As we walked to various places we also found different routes to find new places.
Of course the most iconic places are the esplanade and the marina sands/gardens but the bay area. We visited during the day and at night.
The esplanade boasts the Merlion statue of a mythical creature.
Across the bay is the famous marina sands hotel.
On the way are many historic buildings.
These buildings recreate Durian, the smelly fruit you either love but many hate.
Gardens by the Bay are giant structures that have plants growing up them. They are iconic in the skyline and a beautiful park along the way across from the esplanade and under the shadow of the Marina Sands.
From the gardens you can walk through the center of the Marina Sands on an elevated walkway.
On our last night we bought tickets for winter wonderland festival at the gardens. Music, lights, food, but a lot of people….. Add still a pandemic. It is tough coming from China to freedom. Actually a little scary for us.
We also visited another park with different views of places we had been. I loved the food but most importantly the ability to walk around in a beautiful environment!
I thought during last school year that I would finish one more year here in China. I had applied to four jobs before that summer but did not get any interviews. Given the start of COVID infections around the world, I thought it was also better to stay. The bonus the school gave did not hurt either.
So this year I actually gave up teaching biology and taught the senior environmental class instead. As the IB classes are two years long, starting a new class as juniors would mean I would leave the biology students in between their two years. I wanted to avoid that disruption. It was also an opportunity to have another colleague experience teaching International Baccalaureate.
I used the same site I did last time: Search Associates. They vet the applicants and the schools and it is much easier to shop around and compare. Many of the countries have age limits for their visas and that eliminated many. I was primarily looking for Africa and Ecuador. Seemd very narrow, but this may be my last school and there are a couple places I want to live and learn the culture. Many African countries I was already too old for. I did apply to a dozen other places in South America and Asia, but international teaching is odd in that they are looking for something specific in the candidate: part of a teaching couple, weird combinations of certifications, or looking for certain diversity or age.
I actually had interviews each with Lusaka, Zambia and Quito, Ecuador. I always wanted to live in Africa. It is a good school, more laid back than China, but the tax rate is high and more difficult to move around and go places. Flights in and out are in and out of many small airports and could take two days. They also did not have health insurance when I go back to the US. The idea of being along the Serengeti was exciting. Security and corruption is an issue but one of the better African countries to be in. I had two interviews and they wanted to offer me the job. Unfortunately, the girl leaving was not sure and the board kept extendimg the final decision they had to make.
In the meantime, I started interviewing with Ecuador. The school is not as great as Lusaka. It will be a little laid back as well. There is corruption and security issues as well but Quito has less issues than neighboring countries. I was offered a contract. I decided to accept it as there was no guarantee the Lusaka position would actually be available (it was in the end). I was put in contact with a present teacher who answered many of my questions and concerns. One concern I had were reviews of student behavior but that really depended upon how you approach a class. The thought of being in Ecuador and seeing much of the continent was exciting. I would also be closer to home and finding a retirement property in the next few years would be easier. I would be able to save approximately the same amount of money in both places though the savings is much less than in Asia. I also think Ecuador offers more for my adventurous side.
Could I have waited and found another job? Possibly. But there are many applicants for jobs right now and my age does not help me there. I also found a school possibly near a place I wanted to live. I kept my online account open just to watch what happens. Of the other dozen applications I had sent, I received no reply. I did get messages from Kuwait and Ningbo China to apply at their school, but was not interested.
Signing a contract takes the pressure off. When the school is on the other side of the world, it means late night interviews. Exhausting. And then waiting to hear back…. But after I signed I still woke up in the middle of the night wondering if I made the right decision. Buyers remorse exists here too and mostly fueled by the daunting task of starting over somewhere else. Every major life decision can lead to that. But everything always works out. It is challenging to uproot yourself and start over in foreign places. New country with its rules, new schools with its procedures, and IB Biology has new curriculum worldwide next year and not even sure the extent of those changes yet.
In the end I liked both of the directors that interviewed me and was excited about both the schools. It will be very different from China and less pay, but also a different pace of work.
And then there is China….. It is becoming difficult to even go from one place to another. They have spent so much energy on testing, identifying contacts, and quarantine that they are not even pushing vaccinations and boosters. They put themselves in a corner and now cannot let the virus spread without over running the hospitals. So now we have been online for 7 weeks. And with the final relaxing of all restrictions has created chaos. I still don’t trust China. Local areas can have their own rules that is more extreme than the national policy. We will see.
I had wanted to write this post earlier but teaching online, testing daily, and other facets of life took over. Here is to new experiences!
For a more relaxing holiday (and to save money as travel this holiday is expensive), I visited friends, Amber and Michael, in Shunde. Our holidays don’t always coincide and I have not seen them in months. We met at brunch and then I traveled to their place in Shunde.
We watched movies, walked around a local village and found great food to eat.
Okay, these are rats. We didn’t eat them but this is some of the original Cantonese food in the area.
I then went to panyu to participate in a bike tour. We started at the Shawan ancient village and visited a local artisan who carves wood.
The side of the house has oysters embedded in the concrete to help with cooling and to deter insects.
From there, we ride on Phoenix bikes reminiscent of old Chinese bikes (but safer). We traveled to Baomo gardens, approximately 16 km.
Another short ride and we ended at an old sugar processing plant that now has art installations and some artists in residence.
A great mini vacation with friends and fresh air visiting ancient towns.
As one of my friends, Heidi, is leaving China soon, I wanted to go to Macau with her and Elaine and Donnie for the weekend. They since opened that border for foreigners as it had already been opened for mainland Chinese. As a special autonomous region like Hong Kong, it is leaving the country.
Despite what would be a rushed visit, I was excited and left for the metro straight from school to get to the high speed rail station. Foreigners are again asked to show more than just their green code since a Chinese man went to Germany, had sex with a man, and brought back the first case of monkeypox. Of course, before those specifics were reported the head of the CDC gave this warning:
The last four are sound advice. But the first… From a doctor…
They eventually walked back that first statement but the damage had been done and has brought some more anti-foreign sentiment. A person on the metro who could not just stand and had to sit next to me like this:
Back to the Macau story. I was able to leave school early so Heidi and I decided to move up the train booking but we did not notice that lineup had already happened and they would not let us through (totally our fault). Because of this, we took the next train. No problem except they wanted our passport information 20 minutes after we left the station which I thought was odd and then as the train slowed they locked the doors in the front and back of our car. They announced that the code of a person in our car of the train had turned to red in transit. Heidi is from Canada and speaks Cantonese. We did find someone who spoke Mandarin and Cantonese and a couple that could speak English. That helped but the information kept changing often.
He was possibly a close contact of someone who did test positive. Maybe…. We were herded to a gated area on the street where we were tested (2 nasal/1 rapid) and our passports/ID were taken. People who lived in Zhuhai were allowed to go home but isolate and get tested. The rest of us were to be sent to a hotel. When we asked questions, we were given a variety of answers but mostly a day in a hotel. The man’s test came back negative as we waited and we were told we would have to pay for the required stay now. People were upset. When I heard that noise I was just hoping the man did not test positive. No one was happy.
This is actually inside the gated area.
But it gets better. It’s not a hotel. It is a quarantine facility with cameras and sparse interior. We had to pay 1500 rmb ($210) deposit which is roughly a 6 day quarantine. That irked me along with the smell and pond of bleach sprayed everywhere on the floor. We were told the money was a deposit. We started calling it the “Ritz”.
For the record, not as bad as Shanghai. The central room here is all the space I had in Shanghai for 2 weeks. At least there are two bedrooms and I could take the mattresses (only a couple centimeters thick for each one) and put them together. With the two comforters on top as an added mattress, it made for a more comfortable bed. And there is a balcony…
Those are the two mattresses.
Food was meager (and we had to pay) but you were allowed to order food from outside. But setting up any Chinese app for delivery is difficult. I have resisted so far as I feel I should cook my own food and walk to eat out. Healthier that way. I contacted admin and HR about my predicament and they had an IT guy walk me through. HR had to buy me my first meal as my app wasn’t set up in time to make the delivery window. I do know enough words to type into the Chinese keyboard to search what I want. Will I use it back in Guangzhou? Probably not. But I was pretty happy to know how to type in salad (shala) and eggs and tomatoes (jidan he xihongshi). Oh… And coffee (kafei) but had to look up the translation of coffee powder.
I also contacted the consulate, just in case. I only have so much asthma medicine with me and worried about the lack of communication with us and staff here. My HR is actually wonderful at calling to find information for me.
We were told at one point just one day… Then two days… And at the end, two tests in three days. We were tested Friday night, and each of the next 3 days.
Usually I pack extra things just in case this happens but let my guard down, so I did not have coffee or some other things with me. Lesson learned….. But I am adaptable and so grateful to be able to order in. A few people on the train did not have anything with them. I gave one person a summer dress to wear and others loaned their clothes too. I am glad I had my computer to do some work and read.
We were released Monday afternoon. They refunded some of the money and then just let you find your own way out of the complex.
I had to take a personal day for missing a day of school. I was able to get my Macau hotel refunded. I decided to take two more days off as well. I have already missed my scheduled China trip with the 11th grade and will join a 2 day trip at the end of the week with the grade 12′ s. I also plan to call the government hotline as people are not to pay when they were found in this situation.
