Ugly Mugs & Traveling Fuel (Beer)

                   For every traveler, there needs to be a reward at the end of a long day. For an Alaskan, when the days are long, a cool beverage is in order and to try what the locals sip (local travelers, sometimes the locals can't afford beer) is a necessity. The bonus is the pretty labels, the correct pronunciation and sometimes goofy t-shirts. 

Brass fish & Kingfisher
Mcleod Ganj, India

Beer in the jungle (Nepal Ice)
Bardia National Park, Nepal

Almost Kaladi
Coffee @ Bodnath
Kathmandu, Nepal

Buddha & Jameson
This Sherpa carries everything
Namche Bazaar, Nepal

Nepal had many beers, Nepal Ice, Star, Gorka, Tubourg & Carlsburg. All brewed by Gorka Breweries and all tasting just about the same. Trekking at altitude doesn't really favor beer drinking, so Kathmandu was the center for most of our tasting.

Tongba...fermented millet
Hot water and a straw
Good taste, strong kick,
Kathmandu, Nepal

Margarita  Kathmandu style
The Mayan Pub
Who would of thunk?

Only saw this within view of Everest
Gorak Shep is at 16,942' (5164m)
At that altitude, just looking at it was enough.

Varanasi, India 

Many sacred towns in India were prohibited to sell alcohol and meat. Most travelers can go Veggie (especially in India) but for the Hotels, there is money to be made in Special Tea (Beer brought to you in a tea pot). Everybody is happy.

Pokemon, insulated & deceptive
Kingfisher in Udaipur, India.

Carlsburg on the beach in Columbo Sri Lanka

Stout was a rarity and since it is my fav we tried to sample when we had the chance....

Queen's Pub, Kandy Sri Lanka   Lion Stout - nice

In Sri Lanka, the 2 popular
 bottled waters were
 Speed & Smack....
 interesting choice of names 

Sometimes lunch got in the way of Thailand's Chang Beer

The best beer is always on the beach...
Marisa, Sri Lanka....Lion Beer

1st BeerLao in Huay Xai Lao.

On the Mekong...
Starting to feel like Dr. Seuss; I would have one on a boat,
 have one with a goat...have one on a train & on a plane,
I do like the beer Beer Lao, I will drink it Mr. Lao 

Nam Khong beer Lao name for the Mekong
@ 4000 Islands Don Det.

Beer on the rocks
Better than it sounds

BeerLao

Lao was very hot and temps were in the 90's most of the time (mornings before 9am were cooler) Keeping beer cold was a trick while you were drinking it. Ice cube = Lao style.

This Aussie bar in Vang Vieng advertised a
a big burger....They weren't fooln'...needed
 a big BeerLao

Ho Chi Minh City was hot..31C (88F) and a
Saigon  helped..... 

cute little iced coffees also helped in
the heat of the afternoon

Vietnam was big on local beers instead of big national beers.
Da Nang's was Biere Larue....on the rocks

Sea side, Saigon on the rocks in Nha Trang

On the Perfume River (Hue) with Huda Beer

A treat at the farmstay in Phong Nha...good Cab from Dalat
Vietnam....Who knew they had vineyards....

Lunch after caving, Ca phe & Huda

Remember the 70's...pop-tops are still alive.

Sorry about all the ugly mug shots (exception of Becky shots), but there must be a theme here.....but don't believe that I was sampling alone.......

Of course in Hanoi, it's bia Ha Noi

                    So much for "fun with beer photos".  You can rest assured that we toasted all our friends and wished you were all here with us. See you all soon.....Cheers! 

North to Chiang Mai

All roads lead to Bangkok from anywhere in Thailand especially the railroad. After barely squeezing a couple of sleepers into Bangkok, we found that we were trapped for a few days till we could head north to Chang Mai (bus or train). Trapped of course isn't a bad thing, it gives you time to go and explore.

We took a river boat ride to a floating market. This lady was selling
 something wrapped in banana leaves. Love the smile and hat combo.

One of the merchants at the floating market - bananas maybe

.

Went to the circus in Bangkok known as Khao San Road.
Always something going on, like this street bar made out of
an old VW bus....

Took the river taxi to the Palace. Once we wandered the palace and enjoyed a great meal at the ThaChang Dock, we headed back on the river to Khao San Road for the evening. Gazing out over the water, we were startled back to reality by a traveling Alaskan Mermaid (Tina Baugher). This world is pretty dang small.

Best Pad Thai and Smiles on the riverfront..
@PadThai ThaChang on FB

goofing at the Royal Palace

Incredible gold and inlay work everywhere

Immaculate Palace grounds

twins

Even scarier than the last guy!

Luxary VIP bus to Chang Mai: attendants, clean reclining 
seats, 2 levels, Thai music videos and...

...little snacks in a pink box!

Chiang Mai.................known for it's Markets, Temples & Cooking Schools

Colors

patterns

steamed bun faces

An overwhelming number of temples in Chiang Mai.
Each one out doing the other for more gold.... 

and bigger gongs.

Of course, I had to take another cooking class... here's my  Thumb Kaa Guy
 (Chicken in Coconut Milk)

Dish Decoration is part of Thai cooking...this is my tomato rose. Tomatoes are
 my least favorite vegetable to cut, mostly because I think I use dull knives
 and unripe tomatoes at home! Even though this sliced easily, making consistently
 thin cuts is a task requiring a desire for detail. That's not really me...

Here's the finished rose with cucumber leaves and a plate of Yam Woon Sen 
(Spicy Glass Noodle Salad)

Best thing about Chiang Mai is running into Girdwood friends for dinner. No, I didn't cook any of this. We went out and had some western food and beer!

Shine & Jennifer on our last night in Chiang Mai.

Andaman Sea - Beach Time

With plenty of island to choose from in Thailand, It come down to what do you want to do while you're there. For us quiet, paddle-boarding and great swimming......I found a room (2nd of Jan. everything is busy) at a resort I stayed at 17 years ago (Kaw Kwang Beach Resort on Ko Lanta). At that time it was one of the only places to stay on this beach ( one of the few on the island). So after a 15 hrs overnight train ride to Trang (southern Thailand) and a 3 hour mini-van ride ( with 2 car ferries) we arrived to a very upscale island and beach resort. The owner (Poi) remembered me from 17 years ago and gave us a deal on a basic bungalow, which was just what we were looking for.

Evening at Kaw Kwang.

Well, lots has changed in 17 years, for one, this whole side of the island was wiped out by the 2004 tsunami. Luckily this end of this 3 km beach was still quiet, but the rest of the beach was loaded with boutique hotels instead of the grass shack food stalls selling all kinds of fish.

Unfortunately we did have to deal with a very nice resort,
 right down to the infinity pool.

As far as a great place to hang out for the day between dips in the water was "Nong's" The beer was cold, the food was good and she put up with me for 10 days. After the same 20 Bob Marley & Eric Clapton songs playing over and over, I had a bunch of music loaded on a flashdrive, uptown and put it on her music system.....Yay!!

Working up the energy for a massage.....

After landing on my head in the surf in Sri Lanka, my neck and shoulders were still tight and sore. So between Thai Massage alternating with Paddle boarding, I was starting to get some relief. What a great excuse to get a massage every other day.

We rode out among the limestone islands in a wooden longtail boat to do some snorkeling - very scenic. One of the cool stops was swimming through Emerald cave to a beach in the center of an island.  The only disappointment was snorkeling among 50 other people from 5 other boats that were doing the same circuit.

Crab patterns in the sand. These crab are about the size of your little fingernail.

fishing boats waiting for the night....Love those bows

I took a cooking class through Time for Lime - who wouldn't want to create delicious Thai food dishes at home! Here I'm stirring up the classic Pad Thai. We created 3 other dishes as well. One of the class options was to sign up an additional person as a "lazy partner". They pay a small fee, then relax at the bar with drinks such as lemongrass margaritas. Then when the different meals were ready they shared them with us. Stretch signed up for this with pleasure.

Motorcycle Mama!

It was great fun to get around our island on these scooters. We cruised by ponds where you paid to catch your own fish, when the owners BBQ it for you, a snake show, mangroves, an organic garden, villages and down to a National Park.

A long scooter ride brought us to the south end of the island
to the old lighthouse and a great beach for hangin'

Fish Spa..... these little guys are supposed to
clean off the dead skin. A little too much for
Becky and the Thai assistants were falling
over laughing....

Yes, well it felt like little pinches all over my feet and calves! Sensation overload.

The standard time was stay in for 15 min. I think I may have made it 1!

A great little restaurant on the far side of the island.

 This and the surrounding simple buildings were

 all build on pilings out over the water.  

It reminded me of Tenakee, Ak.

Kayaking the limestone karst islands. We wore shirts for
sun protection, not warmth!

never get enough of this ..... Yes, it was beautiful, 
calm paddling. We could just spalsh into the warm water and 
swim around. Such a contrast to kayaking in Alaska.

Just the spot to sit and think about it.

So, we thought about it and after 10 days, we figured we should get on with it and head towards Lao & Vietnam. Thanks Ko Lanta................

Bangkok

(black Stretch, blue Becky)
In Bangkok, home to about 10 million Thais and upon arrival, we felt a sense of order and it made it very calming. Our hotel was minutes from the new Skytrain that moves above the streets almost effortlessly (compared to India).  I had heard so much about Khao San road: throngs of aggressive venders, and zoned out travelers whose only interest is to party, but found it paled in comparison to Kathmandu, and parts of India.

Travel on the Chao Phraya river by long tail boats or river
ferry was also a nice change of pace...

Again despite there being lots of boats and people, everything moved along smoothly.

On the streets it was busy, but for some reason
we stayed in air conditioned malls during the
heat of the day.

With Wifi available all over Bangkok (even the Skytrain), we sought out the Pantip Mall with 5 floors of
electronics and searched for a laptop or tablet. Hoping this would cut down on searching for cybercafes after dinner. Not really much cheaper than stateside, unless you buy a knock-off.. So now we have a cute little laptop to carry around......... Ready to take a vacation from our travels and just lounge on the beach. Night train with assigned seats here we come.........
We were actually able to book train tickets online, then later at the train terminal we wanted to upgrade to 2nd class sleeper. A very pleasant, helpful railroad employee approached us and asked if she could help! We were directed to the correct window and made changes without issue.  Then to our delight, onboard the train around 8:00pm a steward came around and converted the seats to beds, fresh sheets and pillows! All so unheard of where we had just come from. Thailand was so easy!

Galle & Gone

Spent our last day of Sri Lanka & 2012 in the town of Fort Galle. The old town is inside the fort along the coast and the fort was built by the Portuguese, captured by the Dutch and taken by the English...Eventually the Tourist becomes the rightful owner and it's still a cool place to spend the day....

Lighthouse and outer wall.

Becky in between rain storms..

Locals in their Sunday best...

While walking the ocean side of the wall we came upon two young men who were hanging out. They asked if we'd like to see them dive off the wall into a deep pool between all the rocks below. It was their job they said. Only US 10$. We told them it sounded more like fun than a job, and anyway, we couldn't afford to pay their salary. They were disappointed. We never did see them working that day.

Naval Museum  

Buildings as old as the walls.

Nothing better than a great meal after a huge downpour..
Cafe Forteleza

Cute cars: Morris Minors

cute streets

Gotta love the brand of this water!

We felt there was still more to see and do in Sri Lanka, but we were also ready for a change in foods and culture. Also hoping for our clothes to dry out overnight.

So, it was off to Bangkok for us - travel by plane instead of bus or tuk-tuk. Yeah! Grabbed a bottle of this water and we were on our way.