Return to the peak and beach

Went to the beach for the first time in a long time and boogie boarded. Thankfully, the water is not yet cold!



I've fully recovered from my second trek up Jade Mountain. I was definitely less fit this time around, which probably explains my small bout with altitude sickness. But, we had great weather, and the peak was so much more pleasant with windproof gear!



It's beautiful up there, but I think that will be my last time to the peak - been there, done that (and my knees will thank me).

Back from Paris and London

I just got back from my holiday to London and Paris. A big thank you to Eve, Tom, Nicky, Caroline, Camil, and Candice for their hospitality - 'twas a lovely trip! Some thoughts:

• We walked a lot - we averaged about 20,000 steps a day. Note that the health professionals recommend 10,000 steps a day, so we really went above and beyond.
  
• Great weather in London, too chilly for my acclimated sub-tropical self in Paris. Gloves and a hat would've made my visit so much more pleasant.
• Favorite London museum: National Portrait Gallery (thanks Tom, for taking us there!)
• Pret a Manger is to London like 7-11 is to Taiwan. Unlike 7-11 in Taiwan, it is not open 24/7, you cannot buy everything from socks to piping hot fish balls on a stick, and you cannot pay your utility bills and send DHL packages. But they are all over the place. And they offer tasty food.
  

Wall of cheese at Neal's Yard Dairy. Borough Market was great, but incredibly crowded on Saturdays. No offense to the Brits, but I didn't take to the meat pies. I did like the cheddar's at Neal's Yard Dairy (there was a really fabulous floral one, the Isle of Mull?).

I prefer the macarons at Pierre Hermé (pictured above) to Ladureé's. If you are a filling person, go to Ladureé, but the appeal of the macaron is the texture of the cookie. We had an amazing passionfruit and chocolate macaron at Pierre Hermé.

Amazing yogurt and peach gelato at Pozetto. Neil had nocciola (hazelnut) and fior di latte (literally, milk's flower - pure fresh milk) - also very good:

Fresh figs!

We spent much more than budgeted at Denise Acabo's chocolaterie. She is a hoot - very engaging and an excellent salewoman.

More impressions later.

La Dolce Vita

It's almost February, and we leave for Sri Lanka on Friday for an early start to the Lunar New Year holiday. Meanwhile, here is a photo of Malapascua, a small island off of Cebu in the Philippines, where we spent the western New Year's.



While there, we ate at the best restaurant on the island, La Dolce Vita. We were so busy enjoying the food, I forgot to take photos. Thankfully, this blogger did.

Clearly we're bullocks!

We've strung together video clips of our little adventure and added some music so that you can experience river boarding itself from the comfort of your armchair.



While in New Zealand, we went river boarding on the Kawarau River with Mad Dog River Boarding. It was fun, but not as scary as we were led to believe. Maybe it's terribly thrilling for some, but as surfers, we thought the rapids were...tame.

But, we did enjoy the scenery and the super-clear and clean water. Neil enjoyed the +20m rock jump at the end, and Berta enjoyed the hot showers (the glacier-fed river is really cold!). The staff were professional, and the activity well-run. We might some nice people doing the activity as well.

Overall, we'd recommend the activity. Of course, you must be able to swim and be comfortable in the water.

...and we're back!

We finally came back from our (slightly delayed) extended honeymoon. Yup, over the course of 25 days we traveled to New Zealand, Fiji, and Bangkok. We did things from attending New Zealand's largest wine and food festival to river surfing to visiting museums to seeing seals, penguins, and dolphins. We caught up with some old friends, and made new ones. We SCUBA-dived (and saw a few sharks!), river rafted, and lounged around. We saw the sun rise and the sun set. We read books and got mosquito bites. We ate good food and learned to cook some Thai dishes. A great vacation!

Pictures, details, and reviews to come later...

to Hong Kong Sevens and back

These last few weeks have been a cyclone:

Got sick.

Got better just in time to go to the Hong Kong Sevens for a weekend of craziness:





Came back to crazy work deadlines and got sick again.

The worst of the deadlines have passed and now feeling better after two relaxing weekends at the beach house:

Grey socks

I think I will forever be able to distinguish the socks I brought to India: the grey ones versus the white ones.

Taj Mahal & the City of Lakes

Our fourth day of India. We've now seen the Taj Mahal, the ancient city of Fatehpur Sikri, ate at a dhaba (traditional roadside restaurant) in New Delhi, and today arrived in Udaipur, the city of lakes.

It's been fun imagining oneself living as royalty back in the glamour days of Fatehpur Sikri (Neil and I agreed that being the king there was probably more fun than being the emperor of China and stuck in the Forbidden City) or as a queen in the Garden of the Maidens in Udaipur. The garden was built for just the queen and her ladies-in-waiting back in the 19th century, but of course the king and his buddies would sneak in. Men.

We also hiked to a Hindi temple to the goddess of the mountain perched on top of a hill for a fantastic view of Udaipur. Lakes with white homes nestled in the plain, ringed by brown hills and mountains. We had a delicious vegetarian thali (Indian set meal) on the rooftop of a 180+ year-old haveli (royal residential home), enjoying the view of the Lake Palace and other structures along the shores of Lake Pichola.

to Turtle Island and back

The waters around Daxi have been flat, flat, flat this weekend. So yesterday Neil decided it was perfect weather to take the jet ski out to show me Turtle Island. Turtle Island is a few miles off the coast of I-lan County that is off-limits to regular folk as there is a military installation there. The cool thing about Turtle Island, besides just getting to see it up close instead of from afar, is that it was formed by sulfurous vents in the ocean. So many of the rocks are mustard yellow, and part of the ocean that surrounds it is a Peptol-Bismol aquamarine. Apparently there are large sea snakes that live below, but we just went around and back.

Around the Pacific and back

These past three weeks have been busy, indeed. After L.A. my brother and I went to Hawai'i to attend my friends' wedding. The day we arrived, we went surfing on the North Shore and then admired the Hawai'ian Green turtles lolling about near shore. The following three days, my brother got his PADI SCUBA Open Water certification while I went for my advanced certification. The diving is amazing: I was thrilled to see more sea turtles with nearly every dive, a few eagle rays, and a pillow starfish. Saturday morning, Galen and I got up at 5:30 for a swim with dolphins—out in the wild.



Later that afternoon, we went to the wedding at the Mandarin Oriental. The wedding was beautiful, of course, the warmth of the bride and groom extending to the guests.



Galen came back with me to Taiwan, where we had a whirlwind week catching up with relatives. In the midst of this was Bonnie, Ray, and baby Michael's farewell dinner. Sunday morning I was finally able to treat my brother to a traditional Taiwanese breakfast, complete with fan tuan (rice ball).

This past weekend a few of us celebrated Abi's birthday with another dive at Longdong (??). Diving in Taiwan is definitely not as pampering, but I did get to see some electric blue fish. Sunday started a major cleaning and organization day, which continues...

Cupcakes!

Yesterday I took a cooking class on cupcakes and mini bundt cakes. We made chocolate "peanut butter cup" cupcakes, sunflower decorated cupcakes, vanilla bean cakes with vanilla rum glaze, and banana caramel mini cakes. The teacher said I was a natural with a pastry bag!



Unfortunately, I've lost my sense of L.A. magnitude and when signing up for the class, I didn't realize that the drive from my home to the cooking school in Westlake Village would be such a trek!

V-day, Green Island, errand girl

Oh my. I may be taking a break, but my days are filled with running errands. More notable events: Taiwan's first ever production of the Vagina Monologues and a trip to Green Island for more scuba diving. I'm off to Hong Kong and Shanghai for a little weekend fun.

Southern Taiwan, Norah, cooking, and more

A re-cap of the past two or so weeks: saw Taiwan's southernmost point, near Kending.



On Monday, I saw Norah Jones in concert. She seemed to be a real sweet gal, and told a clean joke that I enjoyed, even though others thought it was cheesy. Too wholesome for them, perhaps. I'd forgotten my regular camera, thank goodness for camera cell phones.



Thursday night I made Eating Well's arugula and strawberry salad, soft polenta, and pan-seared steak from Everyday Food. Yummy!

Yesterday I hiked about 8 kilometers of the Tsaoling Historic Trail in Ilan County. Great cardio workout, sweat pouring down my face, and pretty stepped fields and a gurgling stream.

dive baby

I was in Kending this weekend, SCUBA diving again. No underwater photos, but I finally got one from Bali. Enjoy.

Bali beautiful

Bali is a very spiritual place. The temple architecture reminded me of those at Cambodia's Angkor, except that Bali feels like a living spirituality, rather than a historical relic. Everyday, people place small offerings all over the place - on the street, at shrines, in various nooks and crannies. Pre-made offerings can be bought at the market:



In Ubud, I took a Balinese cooking class at the Casa Luna Cooking School.



The cooking school was conveniently run by the same people who ran my lodgings, the Honeymoon Guesthouse. I adored my room my second night there, which overlooked the beautiful, Mediterrannean-style pool. I leisurely enjoyed my breakfast that was delivered to my balcony.



All in all, a relaxing trip in a very lush place.

Happy New Year and a happy belated birthday to both Melissa and TC!

I had the perfect vacation in Thailand and Cambodia...until I got to the airport Sunday night. Lo and behold, the flight was overbooked, and there was no way Thai Airways was letting me on my flight that night. They put me up for a night at the adjacent Amari Airport hotel, and I on my way back to Taipei the next day on the first flight out in the morning, where I got food poisoning...and spent the next two days sleeping and throwing up (thankfully, more sleeping than throwing up). On the bright side, at least I got sick after my vacation and not during, and I had felt like I had eaten too much (pants feeling snug), so not eating for two days sorta felt cleansing.

Berta's Bangkok Index:
+ Baipai Thai Cooking School
+ Body Tune massage: ask for Jaruwan (#7) at the Silom Road branch.
+ Yoga Elements Studio: yoga - a self-administered massage!
+ Rut & Lek Seafood: the intersection of Yaowarat Road and Soi Texas in Chinatown. Frong the Ratchavongse pier on the Chao Phrya River, go north and make a right when you hit Yaowarat Road. Soi Texas is about two blocks down the road, and the "restaurant " (it's an expansive sidewalk affair) will be on your left. Highly recommended are the crab fried rice, crab curry, and shrimp with black pepper.

Today I had took a Thai cooking class at a school located in the Bangkok suburbs, in a beautiful open air teak home. I learned how to make fish cakes, chicken larb, padaman pork curry, and water chestnuts in coconut milk. I definitely want to come back to Thailand and take the whole 5-course series.

Later, I stopped by a local grocery store to pick up curry pastes and fish sauce (total, less than $2). Thailand is so liveable. There is so much good food, and the grocery store had such a nice selection of food staples. I don't understand why groceries in Hong Kong and Bangkok are so much better than those in Taiwan (although Taiwanese grocery stores are improving). Maybe it's a population issue, a minimum number of people needed in order to support demand for international foods.

Anyways, I must be jetting off to my yoga class now...!

I just had the BEST massage of my life! To all, if you ever go to Bangkok, stop by the Body Tune massage therapy place on Silom Road and ask for Jaruwan (#7), who is the nicest lady and the best masseuse I have ever had. I've had two two-hour Thai massage session in the past 2 days (for only about $15 each) and a pedicure and manicure for only $6.

I also met up with a friend who was in town for about 24 hours, and we ate at what is supposed to be one of the best seafood restaurants -- Rut & Lek Seafood, on a sidewalk in a corner of Chinatown. Fabulous prawns with black pepper, curry crab, and crab fried rice. I love Thailand!

What a change to travel with just a little bit more money! My arrival to Thailand was so much more pleasant to go to the designated arrivals area at the airport to be greeted by a friendly face from the hotel -- instead of hordes of touts pushing the hard sell. Unfortunately, I was very distressed to find that my cell phone wouldn't work; somehow Chunghwa Telecom wouldn't let me roam upon arrival, which caused me to miss a call from a dear friend that I had hoped to meet up for lunch in the four hours we would overlap in Bangkok.

I eventually overcame my disappointment. It was hard not to, the weather was perfect - not too hot, not too cold. My room number has my lucky number, which I took to be an especially auspicious sign. The hotel is located in a bustling, yuppie part of town. Exploring the environs around my hotel, I came across many chicly designed restaurants. And according to Stan Sesser, the Asian Wall Street Journal's restaurant reviewer, one of the best French cafes is just across the road from my hotel.

Saturday evening I took the Bangkok Sky Train (the Sala Daeng station is just 5 minutes from my hotel) to Sukhumvit Road, where I stopped by the legendary Atlanta hotel, which is Angela's absolute favorite. Unfortunately, rooms were unavailable when I tried to make a reservation. I was able to dine in their restaurant (having my favorite soup, thom kha gai - coconut chicken soup, and an unusual and tasty spicy fresh fruit salad) and peruse their annotated menu, which Lonely Planet's Joe Cummings describes as a crash course in Thai cuisine. Fortunately, the Atlanta staged a special performance of Thai classical dance that evening. Apparently, the three performers were among the top performers in Thailand, and a long-term resident of the hotel provided background information. All this, and for free.

My good fortune continued the next day as I trekked from one end of town to another (in the comfort of the Sky Train) in search of shopping bargains. In the morning, I headed to Chatachuk Weekend Market and navigated the 15,000 stalls. In the afternoon, I headed to the BITEC convention center for Jim Thompson's semi-annual sale. This sale happens only two days a year, and I'm extremely lucky to be in Thailand during this time (and read a tiny blurb about it in Thai Airways' in flight magazine). Fine silk products at 50-70% off! For a pittance, my day's bounty included a number of fine Thai silk and comfortable cotton products.

After I returned to my hotel with all of my shoppings, I set out for Lumphini Park, a 7 minute stroll away. Lumphini Park is like New York's Central Park, an oasis in the center of a bustling city. I passed joggers and young families to catch an hour of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra giving a free outdoor concert. The concert ended with a fireworks display, and then I headed to Saxophone club, where I listened to acoustic guitarist and and a live band playing soul while I ate fiery sliced beef and eggplant salad. All in all, a very good weekend.

I leave tomorrow morning for my one week vacation to Thailand and Cambodia, whee! In Bangkok, I'll be staying at the Swiss Lodge, and in Siem Reap, I'll stay at the Mysteres d'Angkor. Funny enough, even though I'm going alone, Southeast Asia seems to be the place to be, and I plan to meet up with a few friends and colleagues who will also be in town.