Part 1 (2/2)
One of the early stops, we decided right off, would be dedicated to a second honeyoes tourisary to Calcutta hypes itself as a honey e hot tub for your reception, the chamber of commerce has a special bureau to provide you a directory of vendors The last tio in the Caribbean, the ferry left St Kitts for Nevis thirty e but without us, requiring us to hire a speedboat to catch up with our bags, which were sitting stranded on the dock in Charlestown Our tack since then: Don't ask and don't listen
Bali eed as our choice for the encore tryst on the basis of little ion for one thing, where we honey attracted both of us The clincher came when Kathy Loo, a friend who's been toStones on tour, told us, ”I know a blissful small hotel in Ubud you would love” Bill looked it up on the Internet and, sure enough, the resort inn offered a honeye and suite, and all the sweeter, at an affordable price
After an invigorating date in Bali, ere bound to be hungry So the question became, for the rest of our itinerary, where do ant to eat? Even keeping a tight focus on places with strong local food traditions, rather than worldly pretensions, our appetites went overboard on the prospects, suggesting enough possibilities to keep us running like a perpetual-motionwhich good options to leave on the table for a future meal That eventually included virtually all of Europe, where enjoying food is akin to folk art Since we visit regularly and wanted new experiences for this trip, it was cut to a single stop in Nice, scheduled partially because we needed a layover soet between South Africa and Brazil on ONEworld airlines, and also because our favorite hotel anywhere is a couple of hours away via the autoroute in Les Baux-de-Provence
Brazil ranked as a priority fro, or at least Salvador, the capital of the northeastern state of Bahia The historic city boasts a vibrant Creole culture and cuisine, a fascination of ours for many years, as well as a livelydestinations in South Ahts to Salvador go through Rio de Janeiro, so it became a bonus stop
South Africa fell into place quickly, too The country's got ga Winelands, one of the world's e Cape Town-lovely by all reports-seemed to warrant some time and so did a safari, eventually planned in the Eastern Cape near Port Elizabeth rather than the er National Park If the safari had been an overriding interest, our chief focus, ould have gone to Kruger, but traveling to the park froion took too much time and money for our purposes
Thailand excited us on our honeymoon more than our other destinations combined, and it produces lustfully flavored food, so it easily rated a return Our last visit was too short and lier andit on ourMai and phuket, the forhlands culture and the latter because of its spectacular rise in the late twentieth century into international tourise lives most of the year in Chaozhou, China, where he and his wife own and run a ceramics factory that exports its products to the United States They have urged us to visit for years and this could be our only opportunity before they retire It beca the residents love food soa ten-thousand-word ballad just about the local snacks, skipping co provides the best gateway to Chaozhou, so we add it to our stops
Everywhere else involved coer for a month or more in the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia That proved impractical for a nuenerally serve the South Pacific through cooperative arrangehts off-li island chain we could reach without a lot of hassles was New Caledonia, a Qantas port of call relatively close to Australia It finally round and relatively unspoiled setting New Zealand fell out of the competition around the same time, as we preferred to focus on Australia, specifically the wine regions near Adelaide and the capital of ”Mod Oz” cuisine, Sydney
In India, the whole enorra, the site of the Taj Mahal-”How can we miss, on a twentieth-anniversary trip, the world's most famous monument to love?”-and Bill pushed Khajuraho, where Hindu art reached its apex in the erotic sculpture of the numerous temples-”Talk about love, this place is like a three-dimensional version of the Kama Sutra” Both of us wanted to visit Rajasthan, especially the legendary cities of Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur, and hoped as well to time our arrival for the annual caish state of internal transportation in India, however, we realized it would take weeks to see these places, and we simply didn't have the tio in and out of Muiven, and then we chose to head south to Kerala, known for a spicy, distinctive style of cooking much different from the northern Indian fare usually associated with the country
Near the end of the planning, we added Singapore to the itinerary and scratched the Seychelles Both Singapore and Kuala Lu Modern cities in an internationalpossibilities Singapore got the nod eventually because of its extraordinary wealth of street food The Seychelles, a high priority at first, posed tooAirline connections from Mumbai, the closest city on our trip, are wretched, much worse than froh to travel to the islands at another time
Ready finally by the fall of 2004 with ae miles and a preferred list of stops, aited i as going to fall through the cracks, convinced sohts When everything goes great with Rebecca, and Saes turn out to be minor, relief and elation overwhel and scheot to move on immediately to the hundreds of details that need attention before our mid-Septe process fade fro on the trip? The answer coht, saying in a giddy Robin Williams voice, ”You dummies! Everyone in the world who didn't already hate Americans certainly does at this point after the Iraq fiasco They also think all Aet you If you escape vitriolic ridicule and robbery, you'll probably catch an exotic tropical disease never seen before in the United States At the very least, an airline will lose your luggage in an Asian country where the largest clothes on the market wouldn't fit a norent eaters like you”
An omen of the potential pitfalls arises ominously even before our departure Only a few nations on our itinerary require visas in advance of arrival, a forhtforward It isn't in the case of Brazil, our last stop, because the consulate in Houston won't begin work on a visa until ninety days before your plane ticket (copy necessary) indicates you will land Our British Airways flight gets into Rio de Janeiro on the seventy-eighth day of our journey, giving us a dozen days in ourof opportunity i which time our passports have to vacation with the Brazilian bureaucrats in Texas
The consulate insists on at least five working days for its toil, and fivedays, the Labor Day holiday, the anniversary celebrating Brazilian independence froal, and the day between these two holidays, since no one wants to work then Bill calls frequently to ress and we start to fear that one of us will need to fly to Houston to retrieve our passports in person, with or without the visas Finally, FedEx delivers all the official docuht hours ahead of our first flight If we've got ahome, what obstacles lurk ahead in the wide, orld out yonder?
It's ihtti war enthusiasts have called us at ti we've ever felt or tried deliberately to appear Our ho owners of which referred to thegage tags featuring an i; obviously from the copious supply of these on hand, other travelers have similar concerns More important, we need to avoid clothes that announce our nationality: athletic shoes (particularly ith white socks), Top-Siders and most loafers (particularly ith no socks), sweat suits, shi+rts with button-down collars, khaki pants or shorts, baseball caps, and casual pullovers decorated with little polo players, alligators, or any other branded e billboards few other people in the world pay to display
The one allowed exception, definitely American in tone, is what Bill calls his ”bulletproof blazer,” a TravelSmith sport coat that's completely indestructible, wrinkle-free, and machine or hand washable It's as shi+ny as an oversized flagpole at an auto dealershi+p, and alhts and in airports because it contains an array of secret, zippered pockets to securely hold our wad of airline tickets, passports, cash, and credit cards The downside of the portable safe is the risk of losing everything at once if Bill leaves the coat behind somewhere, certainly a possibility in untoward circu can prevent stupidon the streets by leaving all valuables at ho s placed in hotel safe-deposit boxes, which will always include our passports, plane tickets, one of our ATM cards, extra credit cards, and ten one-hundred-dollar US bills For identification e're out, in the unlikely event it's ever required, we'll carry a photocopy of the le sheet of paper The wallet Bill carries in his back pocket serves only as a decoy for pickpockets, holding just a little local oods stashed unobtrusively in a zippered front pocket, the simple ruse saved us from disaster once in Barcelona, when a thief in an almost empty bathroom ”accidentally” splattered Bill with urine and pretended to help hi out his back pocket instead
Next, it's essential to get as e diseases Our doctor for , an internist with a distinguished reputation in infectious diseases, devoted a half day of his office schedule each week to emporiatrics, a rather obscure tere Dictionary, Randoe Dictionary, the only si a city in Kansas, so we've always figured Don invented the specialty and na Emporia or any other similarly exotic destination the only si a city in Kansas, so we've always figured Don invented the specialty and na Emporia or any other siht his practice, Mary Ellen Lawrence, reviews our medical records and notes that we don't need the shots for hepatitis B, taken for previous trips, but wants us to get boosters for tetanus, diphtheria, and polio Then she pulls out a world atlas of s out ”Let's check yellow fever,” she says, co the maps and our list of destinations ”You'll be okay with that”-a relief to Cheryl since yellow doesn't really suit blondes-”buta week earlier, our hygienist asked Bill, ”Want to hear a cautionary tale about malaria?” She knew he did since she had him sprawled out speechless on his back with his mouth propped wide open ”A pal of mine relied on some of our popular Santa Festyle 'natural ainst ht and barely survived She was an awful ienist finally released his jaw and he could talk again, Bill quickly reassured her ”Soives us a prescription forto co to write, she says, ”Now let's get a generous supply of an antibiotic to control diarrhea”
”While you're doing that,” Cheryl interjects, ”it would be useful to have another antibiotic in case of a tooth infection”
Bill adds, ”And two kinds of sleeping pills for flights of different lengths, one that leaves the body after a few hours and another that will keep us down longer” By the end of the appoinths as much as the Physicians' Desk Reference Physicians' Desk Reference
Insurance covers none of the cost, of course, which adds up to hundreds of dollars Blue Cross Blue shi+eld will pay tons et malaria, typhoid fever, or polio, but won't ante up even a dime for prevention Sure age our demon says an airline will lose It sees as hter in Asia, Africa, and South A any raulation-size carry-on bags are so heavy by international standards that packing a single change of skivvies could put us over the allowed kilos
A the scores of suitcases on the Aht,” a few actually are Each of us gets a new Eagle Creek six-pound rolling bag plus a s, depending on the flight In addition, we take a sturdy cloth briefcase from our collection to check alith hefty, replaceable ites, we'll carry a couple of extreht, fold-up totes to haul absolutely irresistible purchases, s Cheryl e restricts our wardrobes, and because of that, all the clothes need to be washable by hand when necessary Fortunately, the weather should be consistently war-since the other destinations lie south of the equator, where it will be spring
Other than his blazer cu ray slacks with expandable waistbands and zippered pockets, a half dozen casual shi+rts with banded botto loosely outside pants, two pair of shorts (one navy blue, the other charcoal), a swioes into the selection of walking shoes They h for a fancy restaurant, easy to slip on and off at Asian ho to reinforce our faux Canadian pedigree
Cheryl takesher clothes, which, naturally, cost a lot ives little attention to trendy fashi+on statements The priority is a flexible ense out in Sydney, bounding across a savannah on a South African safari, riding an elephant in Thailand, and strolling the seaside promenade in Nice She needs to be as modestly dressed in India as the heat allows and as immodestly attired as she dares on the hot sands of Ipaneins in the late winter, when stores andeather wear She settles ultimately on six tops and four bottoht, crinkly fabrics The tops, purchased in several cases at Chico's, include a ca, a patterned V-neck T-shi+rt, a tank, a long-sleeved knit, a hooded gauze tunic, and an old travel favorite, a sleeveless, loose-fitting cotton-rayon blouse with bright tropical accents set against a black background The latter develops a s the trip, which Cheryl patches with duct tape on the inside without detracting from its external appearance
Her favorite Capri pants don't fare as well, falling apart into shreds halfway through the journey The misfortune leaves her with one other pair of Capris in a cotton-spandex blend, stretchy ”travel-knit” slacks, and a skort that ee from the LPGA tour but offers the comfort of shorts with the more respectable appearance of a skirt
To dress up the outfits, Cheryl will adorn her shoulders with a silky, diaphanous scarf that folds up to the size of a small fist Her new rain jacket, in reversible shades of blue, looks just as stylish and also scrunches up coets a wide-brimmed crushable Tilley hat with lots of mesh to keep her head cool She's susceptible to insect bites, so some of her shi+rts and socks conates its clothes with perarments are 9948 percent fabric and 52 percent insect repellent, and carry a warning: ”It is a violation of Federal Law to use this product in a ” This worries us a bit for Singapore, where the strict disciplinarians who run the countrythe socks as an e shoes, Cheryl packs a pair of Wolky sandals-black, of course-that look fine for evening wear in dark restaurants after the day's dust is brushed off As a backup, she originally chooses a pair of Pumas, the chic closed-toe athletic shoes of thewoman on a Santa Fe street to ask about her shoes, which seem to be exceptionally comfortable and are less typically American in appearance They are Cole Haans with Nike Air-Soles, a bargain she swears to Bill at three times the cost of the Pumas, now tossed aside
The selection of swienerous in options Deter in the ”mature swimsuits” section of local stores, Cheryl heads instead to online and catalog merchants, who all report as early as March that her size is already sold out-or more likely in her mind, not really made-except in special spandex models She orders a few of these ”miracle” suits, advertised for their ability to shear off ”at least ten pounds!” Once she th spandex, she realizes immediately that the ten pounds is si the extra adipose tissue bulge more prominently In the end, she sticks with an old two-piece tankini suit, and vows to take up sear design in her next life
In addition to clothes, our bags must hold an assortment of other stuff, much of it purchased especially for the trip Our old cell phone works only in the United States and doesn't handle e-oes for a new T-Mobile PDAand Internet capabilities, dubbed by Cheryl ”Mobi Deux” (or just Mobi for short) after a French phone we bought once for use in Europe Our digital caed and must be replaced; and to take notes on the fly, we need a downsized h to carry in a pocket or purse
The rest of the packing list includes a dozen apore and Sydney (both ordered online from the respective cities), many maps, vitamins for both of us, a custo kit, the travel charger for Mobi and the appropriate electrical adapter plugs, lots of blankkit, laundry supplies, and as vital as anything, duct tape for on-the-go repairs of all kinds To treat food and drink spills on clothes, a frequent probleot several Tide to Go stain reuidebooks and language manuals, we review thees, and decide what other information should be summarized succinctly in destination notes on each of our stops It still aets left in hotels on our departure fro room for purchases The notes cover basics about the cuisine, recohtseeing and other activities, and pronunciation instructions for key words such as ”hello,” ”please,” and ”thank you” (despite knowing many words in French and Spanish, we can only handle verbs with any fluency in English) To haul around the notes on-site, as well as ht,decisions, we find a hotels, a favorite parlor game of ours For more than a decade at one point in our past, before we started teaching and writing about cooking for a living, we coauthored three accohton Mifflin's Best Places to Stay Best Places to Stay series on Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean The job required us each year to see and review hundreds of hotels in all cost ranges and styles, providing us an intensive education in the hospitality business Fro hotels and particular rooms for ourselves, an approach that's hardly infallible but sometimes works spectacularly well series on Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean The job required us each year to see and review hundreds of hotels in all cost ranges and styles, providing us an intensive education in the hospitality business Fro hotels and particular rooms for ourselves, an approach that's hardly infallible but sometihly regarded top-end establishments offer the finest accommodations in a town They frequently do if you can afford one of the better suites Their regular rooms, from our observations, tend to be dully conventional Instead, we usually opt for the best and priciest quarters at senerally cost considerably less and often provide reater romantic appeal On this trip three expensive hotels attract us for short splurges along the way, each for a different reason, but mostly we reserve the prime rooms atand grazing The choices usually serve our needs-particularly the penthouse suite in Hong Kong at the YMCA-but also let us down occasionally, like in Sydney, where the guesthouse's historic charm crowds out much hope of comfort
The first step in the selection process for us is checking guidebook, azine, and Internet recommendations These sources always seem suspect to us because they frequently favor the new and trendy, so, and often reflect the views of unseasoned travelers or revieith entirely different agendas than ours Still, they provide a useful starting point, particularly in identifying hotels praised bythe field of options, we investigate the prospects as fully as possible, going to their Web sites, doing Internet searches, locating them on maps
How to book becomes the next consideration In our Best Places to Stay Best Places to Stay days, hotel executives talked constantly about clueless custoents such as reservation services and wholesalers, usually in an effort to get uests saved a few dollars, but they also got the worst rooers told us they rewarded patrons who dealt with their hotel directly, sometimes with better rates as well as preferred acco on fax and e-n countries days, hotel executives talked constantly about clueless custoents such as reservation services and wholesalers, usually in an effort to get uests saved a few dollars, but they also got the worst rooers told us they rewarded patrons who dealt with their hotel directly, sometimes with better rates as well as preferred acco on fax and e- process turns out a little differently with each hotel on our trip In the case of the three splurges, for exakok via fax; with the Ah the Web site, which presents a fifty percent discount; and with the Taj Mahal in Mu our ideal rooe at a much better price than the hotel will provide In Bali, all our coives us a great break In Salvador, Brazil, our contact is an obsessive pen pusher who requires more paperwork from us than a bankruptcy court would demand
Our itinerary also requires us to reserve rental cars in several spots and extra flights to destinations not served by ONEworld airlines Enter Ingrid of Globe World Travel, our trusty travel agent for twenty years even though she lives a long way froon We've never met her personally, and we don't even know her last name, but a friend told us about her once as a resource and she and Bill becauage only occasionally reserid convinced hiuaranteed buyback plan rather than renting a car in Europe, saving us bundles ofa vehicle with a distinctive and aestively sexy She books us more conventional cars this tihts except the ones in Brazil and South Africa, which Bill gets more cheaply himself on the Internet on discount airlines that sell internationally only through their Web sites
As Bill deals with the reservations, Cheryl turns her attention to house-sitting arrangeue of Cheryl's froo, when they both worked for the City of Dallas Arts Program, Diana Clark loves to visit Santa Fe and often stays at our place during long trips we take This ties of our absence To handle the rest of the three hbor, Diane Dotts, who happily agrees to stop by daily to check on everything Both of them will pick up our s, and shred the glut of credit card offers from CapitalOne and other nuisance banks Each will also pay a couple of bills, but Cheryl sets up alular expenses on automatic disburse for the return of our passports from the Brazilian consulate, we occupy ourselves with last-minute chores Cheryl calls our credit-card companies to tell them exactly where we'll be and when so their skittish security personnel won't think aliens abducted our plastic for a burn-the-earth spending spree Even e've taken this precaution in the past, issuing banks have disrupted several vacations by calling our hoes to contact thees in precisely the place we told them ould be
Bill takes care of , as he usually does Our place seldoht before we leave town in anticipation of Diana's iuest will stumble across a mess, so Bill puts on his obsessive face-always near at hand-and scours every surface, including those hidden under furniture and rugs
Diana comes in the afternoon before our departure day, e're finally beginning to relax about the details, and the three of us catch up over dinner She raises a question that other friends ask as well ”Hoill youall that time, with the constant closeness and the strains of travel?”
Bill says, ”Because I'ood-natured”