What's over there?
HANOI, VIETNAM – OK, I admit it, I was not prepared. There are over 7 million people in Hanoi, and well, goods have to come from somewhere and people have to be able to buy them. We hit the jackpot in the Dong Xuan Market in the Old Quarter. The words ‘huge’ and ‘expansive’ don’t even do it justice. Three floors, even an escalator, and many stairways.
Continue reading “Prepare to be overwhelmed by the Hanoi market experience”
HANOI, VIETNAM – I’ll write about more flight adventures later, but I thought I would share with you (especially Dr. Flanagan) about travel and the “American” way of life. What do I mean? Let me tell you my tale:
We get on the plane for Taipei at midnight in Seattle. Getting to the airport, checking in for our flight, boarding the plane – that part was uneventful. But the Northwest has a terrible windstorm that night and we get the resulting ‘rock and roll’ for a few hours at the start of the flight.
They want to serve me food soon. I’m almost sick, but I am saying to myself, “I AM NOT ON A BOAT AND I WILL NOT BE SICK.” This means I have nothing in my stomach for hours.
Continue reading “What’s this headache?”
As Melanie and I traveled around the U.K. over the last two and a half months, many people, after we tell them we’ve sold everything and are traveling the world, have said things like:
“That is so cool!”
“I wish I could do that.”
Most people have had quite positive reactions.
But occasionally someone will ask, “Don’t you miss your home?”
Continue reading “Don’t you miss your home?”
UNITED KINGDOM – We’ve been traveling around the United Kingdom for just over two months now, and I have to say…
And thank God for decimal-denominated money.
Luckily for us, we haven’t had to deal with guineas, crowns, shillings, farthings or any other extinct denominations of British money. Continue reading “Pounds, pence, meaty money and more”
SCOTLAND – One of my most curious first impressions of Scotland was the so-called “Full Scottish Breakfast.”
The ‘full Scottish’ includes such typical morning fare as smoked bacon (mostly meat, unlike American bacon where it’s mostly fat), a savory link sausage, a fried egg (just one) and toast (white or brown).
Uniquely Scottish additions to the menu include a wedge of potato scone (more like a potato pancake than the scone I’m familiar with in the States), a slice of black pudding (another type of sausage – very salty – made from pork fat or beef suet, pork blood and oatmeal or barley), sautéed mushrooms, a couple of grilled tomato halves, and finally…
Continue reading “Baked beans for breakfast… and other quirks of Scottish cuisine”