We got on the local bus to Liberia at 9am which meanders in and out of each town on the way to it’s destination; picking up and dropping off school children, workers, and food and drink vendors as it goes. Liberia is approximately an hour away from Tamarindo by car, but the local bus takes anywhere from 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours to get there. We got off the bus before Liberia at the turn off to Playas del Coco (shortly after Filadelfia) and switched buses. Our next bus came along within 45 minutes and we continued on through Sardinal. Within a half hour, we had completed our 3.5 hour journey arriving at Coco.

First off, we stopped in at Deep Blue Diving and arranged for 2 local dives the next morning to check out the area. They quickly took care of the paperwork and fitted us with gear. At $100 USD per person for two local dives and gear rental, it’s more expensive than most of the Asia dive rates we’re familiar with, but seems to be the norm in Costa Rica. Though they did arrange a discount rate for us with the hotel where they do their pool training (La Puerta del Sol) and were kind enough to drive us and our bags there in the shop truck.

After a brain wracking check-in; due to us forgetting our passports at the house in Tamarindo, we wandered into town searching for lunch. Kelly and I have pretty much figured out our go-to dishes for a typical local menu. Kelly will opt for a chicken burrito, while I lean towards a casado con pollo (A typical Costa Rican meal with rice, black or red beans, salad, a chicken fillet, and a fried plantain or banana). Accompanied with a couple Pilsen beers, we quickly recovered from the earlier trek, but headed back to the hotel to beat the 36°C midday heat.

La Puerta del Sol has a large salt water pool where we worked on our sunburns for a while, after which we scoped out the sports bar for the upcoming Super Bowl game. Chatting with a few expats and tourists, we found the scene was quite different from Tamarindo. While Tamarindo is a laid back little surf town and most of the people there are backpackers and surfers traveling on the cheap, Playas del Coco has an older expat and family vacation feel with larger resorts, souvenir tables and shops leading to the beach, and golf carts roaming the streets. Kelly and I stuck around for another round, then sat down at a local pizzeria for dinner before an early turn in to prepare for out set of dives the next day.

Waking up the next morning, we prepped, had a bite to eat, and headed to the beach for our 8AM departure. Upon arrival, we found that we were the only divers going out that day which is a bit of a blessing and a curse. We hate diving in large groups because of the underwater traffic. All those fins can kick up a lot of sand into Kelly’s photos, but at the same time we view diving as one of the few social activities that gets us out of the house and we’ve been home bound a lot with work lately. Deep Blue ferried us out to the dive boat, which had a great dive setup with lots of room and a rear jump deck. Our gear was already assembled and waiting; another thing I’m slightly torn about. I like the service, but I prefer to set up my own gear just to give it a once over and make sure everything is working and done right.

Fifteen minutes later we were at our first site called ‘Punta Argentina’. We geared up, did a safety check and jumped in, where I found that my regulator had a slow leak. I’ve found it’s a pretty common occurrence with rental gear and not a big deal, but as we descended I found it kept a steady stream of bubbles in-front of my mask. I fiddled with it for five minutes or so before switching to my secondary regulator. Bubbles gone, I could finally take advantage of the 20m visibility.

The dive sites we’ve visited in Costa Rica’s north Pacific region are volcanic and lacking in any real reef structure from what I’ve seen. Our DM pointed out 2 clown shrimp, but that was pretty much the only macro life we saw on any of our 4 Playas del Coco dives. What was in abundance was porcupine fish and rays. I’ve never seen so many porcupine fish crawling the rocks and every few minutes you’d see spotted eagle rays and stingrays approaching from the blue. Sitting atop the sand, there was plenty of skate and we sniffed out a couple of moray eels among the rocks.

About 30 minutes into the dive, we came across a large stingray with 2 spears protruding straight up from it’s back. Kelly didn’t want to take a picture of a dead stingray and we were going to move on before realizing it was still alive! The spears were two different types so my thinking is that someone shot it, failed to kill it and at a later date someone else attempted to put it out of its misery after seeing the first spear, but also failed. The resilient ray swam off, leaving us saddened about the whole situation.

One additional perk to diving with Deep Blue: They don’t have a dive time limit. Too often, we’ve been restricted to 45 minutes and have still had another 15-20 minutes or more of air remaining. If I’ve paid for the whole tank, I’d like to use it! All within safety limits of course, but I find the 45 minute rule ridiculous. At around 1000 PSI, we did our safety stop and came up after 57 minutes below. We swapped my leaky regulator with a spare, had some water, pineapple, a couple cookies, and lounged in the sun, chatting with our DM about Cocos Island where he’s had the opportunity to lead dives with the hammerheads. Unfortunately the price point is keeping us away. At $4000 per person for a week of liveaboard diving, we’ll have to pass it by this trip.

The second dive of the day was at a site called “Tortuga” (Turtle). We descended to 20m, circling a pinnacle of volcanic rock. More eagle rays and stingrays floated around us and as we came over a crest of rocks we found four 1.5m white tipped reef sharks resting on the sand below us. Circling around them, we lay on the bottom briefly then moved in for some pictures. Swimming away from the pinnacle, our DM lead us to a fairly large wreck which I poked my head into. Yup, full of puffers. Drifting the length of the ship and peering over the bow, we found ten white tip reef sharks resting in the sand below. We returned to the shallows of the pinnacle and spent the rest of the dive peering in holes for golden moray eels.

After the two great dives, we signed up for another two the following day and returned to town to get dried out and have a deco beer. That night, we went to the Papagayo steakhouse where Kelly and I both ordered the surf and turf. When our plates arrive, we each had two 6 ounce steak fillets and 4 good sized shrimp, plus sides. Kelly couldn’t even start her second steak. An impressive plate for $20 each, but perhaps a little overkill. If you’re coming to Costa Rica, be prepared for some huge portion sizes. It’s rare that we finish a meal here.

The following day, we arrived at the beach to find a group of 10 people waiting for the dive boat. Thankfully, three of them were headed to the Catalina Islands on the alternate boat and two of the others were doing courses so it was just five of us fun diving together, perfect. We drove a little farther out to sea than the previous day to a site called ‘Virador’. Jumping in, we found that the visibility had worsened considerably since the previous day to 10m at the most. Much the same as the day before, puffers, rays, moray eels, and skate. Just much harder to photograph and find.

Our final dive was at Punta Argentina again, but began a little further east at ‘La Cruz’. Again, with the limited visibility we saw much the same as the day before, just less of it. Kelly did come across an octopus wedged deep in-between two boulders, but he wasn’t interested in posing for us.

That evening, we went to La Dolce Vita for another pizza and watched the Super Bowl (and a Canadian expat at the next table losing $500). Go Saints!

The following day we checked out and walked to the bus stop for the 3 hour trip home. On our way there, we saw a sign at a tourist info center that would arrange $20 shuttle transfers to Tamarindo every hour. What sounded like a great deal and would have saved us 2 hours was too good to be true. After waiting for the owner to show up for an hour (Ah, tico time… Pura vida!) and missing the 9AM bus, we left to catch the 10AM bus back to Tamarindo via Liberia.

All in all, we had 4 very nice dives with some larger ocean life at Playas del Coco. The lack of macro life is unfortunate and with the widely varying visibility and higher costs, the diving in Costa Rica has been a little hit and miss. But I’m glad we had the opportunity to get back in the water and it’s added to my anticipation for diving in Roatan, Honduras on the Caribbean side of Central America where we’ll be moving in a few short weeks.

Read the original article here: Scuba Diving at Playas del Coco

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1. Scuba Diving in Roatan, Honduras
2. Cenote Diving, Tulum, Mexico
3. Week 14: Diving, diving, and more diving

There’s been a lack of posts from us for a few weeks. I suppose that’s because not much has really changed back home since we left a year ago. The same old haunts are still there. Our friends are pretty much as we left them. Just a few of them got married, or popped out babies, or got a little heavier. ;)

We headed back to Kelowna after visiting Kelly’s family in Edmonton, and it was my turn to see my parents. My folks are based on Vancouver Island, but just bought a place in Kelowna and took possession this week. It would be really convenient for us if we ever came home. No more choosing who’s parents we spend Xmas with, but this year we’ll have to ask them to come visit us instead.

It was great to see my Mom and Dad. It’s kinda funny because I usually only saw them in person once or twice a year before we moved, but it felt like we hadn’t seen each other in a really long time. They even flew out my brother from the island to visit. We had a few good dinners together, and I also got to catch up with a couple of my aunts and uncles who follow our blog regularly. Good to know someone is reading our ramblings… In fact, just about everyone we saw mentioned that they read our posts, but there seems to be a suspicious lack of comments. I’m going to start asking you guys to check in. Anyway, since my parents and Kelly’s folks now live in the same town, it was suggested that everyone should potentially be in the same room at the same time. I don’t know why that sounded daunting at first. Probably just lingering images from the Meet the Fockers movie, but the night went off without a hitch due to Bryan and Linda’s superb hosting and an ample amount of wine. We spent a few more days in Kelowna and headed back to Vancouver after the long weekend in our little rental car which had aged 2000km in the last 2 weeks.

Back in Vancouver, we met with a few more clients and ran through the travel checklist. Travel insurance, deodorant, a new razor, a few new books. We try to travel light, but we’re still hauling 70-80kg of stuff from place to place. Beyond a few changes of clothes, the computers, backup drives, Kelly’s underwater camera gear, and a bunch of dive equipment usually ends up doubling our domestic airfares. The number of taxi drivers and porters that have severe lower back issues from our baggage is staggering.

On the 12th we had our reunion/departure get together titled the “You Know You’re Still Fucking Jealous” party. A similar theme to last year and again at our friend Raya’s restaurant, the Alibi Room in Gastown. Getting the crew together was nice, and I made up for my poor showing on my birthday, when I nearly fell asleep in my beer due to jetlag, by staying out till 3 or 4am. Needless to say, the next day was spent lying on the couch.

On one of our last nights in town, my buddy Jay had us all set up at Brix in Yaletown. Chris and Kyla, Jay, and us sat down to an amazing five course meal where the chef had paired each course to a bottle of wine Jay had selected. A few nights later, we met with Mike, Alex, Taz, and Erin at Campagnolo and had a great Italian meal. We’ve eaten amazingly well over the last month between dining out with friends and mooching off our folks, but we’re both itching to be in our own place with a kitchen again.

We’ve done a ton of moving about in the last six months, and even more since coming home trying to visit everyone. I think in general we’re due for a settling down phase again. Much like in the Philippines, we’d like to get an apartment and unpack the bags for a while. Six months in Costa Rica learning to surf sounds like heaven right now.

Things that are great about being back in Canada:

- Ants don’t swarm the food you didn’t put in the fridge.
- You can drink the tap water.
- Fast internet!
- Less people per square inch.
- You don’t have to dodge chickens when driving.

Things that suck about being back in Canada:

- $100+ hotel rooms.
- Speed limits.
- Why isn’t there free WiFi everywhere?
- Liquor laws are stupid.
- It’s fffffreezing!

Goodbye Vancouver!

Read the original article here: Week 53, 54, and 55: Another year on the road begins

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1. Week 52: Road Trippin’
2. Week 17: The last weekly report of the year
3. Week 57: Workout Week

Over the next few weeks we hope to try even more, and I’ll definitely be putting a post together on all the great things we discover!

This week we also took a trip to the Penang Butterfly Farm, and the Tropical Spice Garden, both only about 10 mins from where we’re staying in Batu Ferringhi. We weren’t really sure what to expect with either of these, but I was pleasantly surprised when we walked into the Butterfly Farm. It’s quite small so it doesn’t take a lot of time, but there are plenty of butterflies, insects, reptiles and fish to make for an enjoyable visit.

The Spice Garden on the other hand was a bit of a let down. We opted out of the guided tour as Mike and I prefer to see things at our own pace, but unfortunately this also meant we didn’t see a lot. There are a couple of trails that wind around and cross over each other making for a confusing maze of poorly marked paths, and although there are signs identifying various spices and herbs growing in the garden they all kinda looked the same. After a quick iced tea at the Spice Cafe, we wandered back to the entrance only to discover we’d missed half the garden. We decided not to bother since we weren’t that impressed with the first half. As Mike put it, for a spice garden, it’s kind of bland.

Despite the weather, we have been able to enjoy the beach in the early evening for some sundowners at some of the local beach bars. The beach of Batu Ferringhi is an interesting place and completely comes alive just as the sun is going down. This is apparently the time when everyone flocks to the beach and takes in as many of the water sports and activities as possible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many things to do on one stretch of beach before. Para-sailing, jet skis, banana boats, horseback ridding and even ATVs, it’s all condensed on this one little part of the beach, and definitely makes for some interesting people watching. Even though I’ve seen it, I still can’t imagine trying to para-sail in a full on Burka.

We’ve got a few more weeks left here in Penang, and a few work projects to wrap up in that time. We’re hoping to disconnect from the online world for our last month in Asia and go a little more remote. We’ve got plans to do lots of diving, as well as a motorcycle tour in Borneo, and don’t want to have to worry about being constantly connected. We’ll still be available of course, you just might have to wait a little longer for our response. For now though, it’s business as usual, at least for the next 3 weeks.

Read the original article here: Week 42: Penang, Malaysia

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1. Week 43: Penang continued…
2. Foto Friday: Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang
3. Week 41: From Bali to Malaysia

So what does a nerd do offline in a tropical country? He stays hydrated…

Tiger Beer
My personal favourite. Malty and a touch sweet. Originating from Malaysia, but also brewed in Thailand. More than 3 of these could be considered a meal.

Mekhong Whiskey
I actually had to go online and look at pictures of whiskey on Google to find out what this is. There’s not a word of English on the bottle. Thai whiskey is potent, guaranteed to give you a wicked hangover, and has been rumoured to have some slight hallucinogenic properties. All I know is you put it in a bucket with Coke and Red Bull. Yum.

Phuket Beer
Brewed by the Phuket Brewery, this light lager is… light. Almost flavourless in fact.

Singha Beer
The staple of Thailand. Available everywhere. Light and refreshing, it goes with everything. Like breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Leo Beer
A close runner up to Singha. Also very light and enjoyable. Probably the cheapest, good beer available almost everywhere.

SiamSato Cider
What we thought was a beer, but turned out to be a cloyingly sweet cider. Lesson learned, if it doesn’t say ‘beer’ on the bottle, don’t assume it is one. We ended up pouring this one out.

Archa Beer
Also a good light beer. We haven’t seen this one again since Phuket.

Mai Tai Guy
This little pineapple headed fellow let us drink his fruity brains. Yum. I’m a tropical zombie.

Chang Beer
The other staple beer of Thailand. Stronger than Singha, this is the backpacker’s beer of choice. You buy less liquor but it gets you drunk quicker. Famous for the ‘Changover’ the next day, it was once rumoured to have formalin added to it as a preservative.

Cheers Beer
Norm would be all over this. It’s light and good like so many of the other Thai beers. Really, in a blind taste test I would be hard pressed to tell one beer from another.

We’ve done a bit more than just drinking for the last 3 weeks. It’s currently Songkran, the Thai New Years where a ‘cleansing’ takes place in the form of a country wide water fight. It’s a little more chill here on Koh Tao than when I experienced it 6 years ago on Koh Samui. There I was barely able to get a block out of the house before being soaked from head to toe and surrounded by crowds of belligerently amusing Aussies. Here on Koh Tao, it’s a sleepy little dive town where the festivities don’t really get started till later in the evenings.

We’ve had some really good meals. La Matta is a great little Italian place on the main strip of Mae Haad that serves wood fired oven pizzas and hand made pasta. Local Thai food is spicy, cheap, and everywhere. I had 3 dinners the other night. Seafood beach BBQ is everywhere and very fresh. We’ve become late night regulars at the local pancake stands where they’ll whip you up a chocolate nutella pancake with condensed milk in 30 seconds. Needless to say, I’m packing on the pounds.

There’s been some rioting in Bangkok lately, but looks to have been resolved without closing the airport. There were a few deaths and a multitude of injuries when protesters and the military clashed once again. The issue is the same as when the country closed the airport last December, 2 political factions are fighting for control and one is trying to oust the current PM. Thankfully, we’ve been pretty much unaffected out here on the islands.

The fact that we only have about 3 more months before we head home has started to settle in. We’ve vowed to cut back our baggage size to something a little more manageable and do more traveling in the coming few months, rather than settling into an apartment. I’m stoked about doing a motorcycle tour of Borneo and both Kelly and I are contemplating Bali or eastern Malaysia for some more diving.

We’re looking forward to coming home for a visit. We’ll be spending a week or two in Vancouver, then heading to the Island, Kelowna, etc… to see family. Funnily enough, the most expensive part of our whole trip could be the time we spend in Vancouver. Anyone have a good hookup for hotel deals near the downtown core? Following that, we’re thinking that we’ll be moving on to Central America for a while. Pending economical conditions and homesickness of course. We’re looking forward to seeing you all.

Read the original article here: Back Online and a Buck a Beer

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3. Week 21: Making Plans

Tuesday morning we were picked up from our hotel and driven half way around the island to The Phuket Thai Cookery School. Sure, there were closer ones to our hotel, but most were more expensive, shorter, or just didn’t look as good. Plus the Thai Cookery School looked like it was the most hands on, which is what I was looking for.

We arrived on a beautiful, quiet and almost secluded beach. There were only 3 others in the class, so it was nice and small, although the facility is set up to handle larger groups. After donning our dorky hats and bright blue aprons, it was time to get started. First up was making a curry paste.

Each of us was set up with our own little station, complete with cutting board, mortar and pestle, and ingredients enough for one. We began by learning about each of the ingredients, and watching as we were shown the correct way to make the paste, and then we all set to work making our own. Grinding all the ingredients into a smooth paste actually took a lot longer than I thought it would, and I can totally understand why you’d use a blender if making a bigger batch.

Once we’d all gotten our paste smooth enough, we set it aside for a dish we’d be making in the afternoon and headed over to the demonstration area. For each of the dishes, we would first watch the staff make it, and explain all of the ingredients. We’d then taste theirs to know what the correct dish should taste like, and then we’d each go about making it ourselves.

The set up of the cooking school is fantastic. There is a demonstration area with an overhead mirror, as well as at least 20 individual cooking stations. Since we were only 5 we had plenty of room, and lots of personal attention. Not to mention the spectacular view of the beach just steps away.

After the curry paste the first dish was Tom Kha Gai – Chicken in coconut milk soup. This was by far my favorite dish of the day and I can’t wait to have a kitchen again to make it.

After the soup, we made spring rolls, and a spicy seafood salad. We then took a short break to let the food digest and make room for the 3 remaining dishes. At this point I was pretty sure Mike was going to have to roll me home.

In the afternoon, we took the curry paste we’d made in the morning and made Kaeng Panaeng Moo – Panaeng Curry with Pork, a sweet but mild curry, that’s a bit thicker and dyer than other curries. It’s made with dried chillies, galangal, lemongrass, coriander root, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, salt, shallots, roasted peanuts (or peanut butter), and shrimp paste. You combined this with coconut cream, fish sauce, sugar and of course pork.

We set this aside to rest while we made Pad Paew Wan Koong – Sweat and Sour Vegetables with Prawns, and for desert Pumpkin in Coconut Milk. Once the final three dishes were finished the five of us sat down to enjoy our creations and take in the view.

Over all it was a really enjoyable day. If you’re interested in the recipes for any of the other dishes just let me know and I’d be happy to provide them. For more information about the Phuket Thai Cookery School you can visit their website for a schedule of classes. Happy Cooking!

Read the original article here: Phuket Thai Cookery School

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1. Good Eats
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3. Week 27: Phuket, Thailand

We finally arrived in KL at around 12:30am, and by the time we got to our hotel it was just after 2am. We had an early start the next morning as we wanted to make sure we were at the Thai Embassy before 9, in order to avoid the line. The whole process went pretty smoothly and we were told to come back the next afternoon to pick up our passports.

Our hotel was situated in the heart of KL’s Chinatown, which is pretty much tourist central. As a result most of our time was spent close to there, which was good, but I think if we return to KL we’ll look at other options, as after four days it was a little bit busy for us.

Our first afternoon we wandered around Chinatown a bit, and then took the LRT (light rail transit) to a nearby mall in KL. I’m not really sure what the Asian fascination with malls is, but there are a surprising number of fantastic restaurants in them, and we actually had a hard time deciding where to have lunch. We settled on Indian and a couple of Tiger beers, and were not disappointed.

Late afternoon we headed to the Reggae Bar for a couple of pre dinner drinks. Decked out with wall to wall pictures of Bob Marley this bar is one of the major expat hangouts in KL. The beer is a little more expensive than the street stalls, but if you’re looking to meet other travelers this is the place to go. For dinner we went to a very cute and absolutely fantastic restaurant called ‘The Old China Cafe’. It’s a dimly lit restaurant filled with antique furniture and feng shui mirrors. The food was great and I would absolutely recommend this to anyone visiting KL.

The next day we had a little bit of a work day. We both had a few emails to catch up on and some work to get done, so we hung out in the hotel most of the morning. Mike had a few more things to do than me, so I took the opportunity to get out and explore a little bit of Chinatown. I wandered around, scoped out a few choices for lunch and then headed to the Central Market.

The Central Market, which was built in 1888, has since been converted into a shopping center for Malaysian Arts and Handicrafts. It’s filled with beautiful shops carrying all kinds of amazing souvenirs. I had to practice a lot of restraint, and managed to get out of there without purchasing anything. I think if we had been closer to returning to Canada, I probably would have spent far too much money, but come back with some amazing finds.

That afternoon we had lunch at one of the food stalls on Madras Lane, a dark, dank walkway that cuts through the middle of Chinatown’s wet market (a traditional market selling fish, meat and other goods). There was a little bit of a language barrier when we ordered ‘Curry Laksa’ but somehow ended up with ‘Pork Ball Mee’ (similar to vietnamese pho), but it was still really good, and I was amazed at the amount of business people spending their lunch-break there.

After lunch we went to pick up our passports from the Thai Embassy and then headed back to our hotel to do a little more work before dinner. If by now you haven’t figured out that the majority of what we did while in KL was eat, well then you obviously haven’t been to KL because the options are endless. For dinner we went to one of the many open air restaurants on the streets of Chinatown where we enjoyed some yummy satay and Tiger beer while we watched the people go by.

The next day we set out to see the world famous ‘Petronas Towers’. We had been told you had to get there early to get one of the thousand free tickets, but we got there just before 11, and managed to get one of the last ones. We weren’t able to go up until 4:15 so we had a lot of time to kill. We wandered the KLCC Suria mall attached to the towers as well as the grounds surrounding them. We had lunch, a few beers, and somehow the time just slipped by.

The actual tour up to the Skybridge takes only about 20mins. They show you a quick, and cheesy, 3D video about Petronas (Malaysia’s oli and gas company) and the towers, followed by 10 mins on the sky bridge that connects the two towers. Although not the most exciting tour around, the fact that it was free was a big plus.

From the towers we headed to Bukit Bintang, KL’s fashionable shopping district where we had planned to have dinner at the nearby Jalan Alor (KL’s most famous hawker food street), however after a couple of beers and and appy we were full and decided to head back to Chinatown to have late dinner at one of the street stalls there.

The next morning we set out for what has been undoubtedly one of the best days we’ve had of this adventure so far. The Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. Located about 2 hours from Kuala Lumpur, this place is definitely worth the trip. We spent almost the entire day there, feeding, riding and hanging out with the elephants. It was truly an amazing day. I’ll be writing a post dedicated entirely to Kuala Gandah over the next couple of days, but for now here’s a teaser photo.

Our final night we took it easy after an exhausting day with the elephants. A quick dinner, a couple beers, and early to bed. Sunday morning we were awoken bright and early by a phone call from the front desk informing us that our ride to the airport was 45 mins early.

Check back next week to see what we get up to in Thailand.

Read the original article here: Week 26: Kuala Lumpur

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1. Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary
2. Week 51: Hello Vancouver
3. Week 41: From Bali to Malaysia

…until you expose them to air. Much like people in speedos, too much exposure makes you nasty. Yet still cheesy.

Read the original article here: Random Factoid: Cheese Rings are awesome…

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Early in the week we had Patrick from Dive Society over for a lasagna dinner accompanied by a few bottles of wine. He’s given his notice at the dive shop where he works as a dive instructor and will be becoming a nomadic yogi rambling through Bali in the near future. We hope to meet up again in Thailand in a couple months. Patrick is also an illustrator. Check out his portfolio site if you’ve got a minute.

A couple days later, we invited Andrew and Chantal by for my special brined chicken dinner. Dinner was a success, but it may have been turkey in disguise because within an hour, I was unconscious and in bed. Coming back from the CR, the bed just looked too comfy and resting my eyes for 5 seconds was inevitable. Tryptophan or too much rum? I suspect too much work. Having been up since 6am for conference calls pretty much every day this week, I was pretty worn down by the evening. Sorry guys! Next time, it’s Red Bull and Jägermeister shots after dinner for everyone! ;)

Saturday we went to El Dorado for a few drinks. We met up with Raina, a photographer from Toronto who contacted us through the blog a few months back and ended up coming to vacation in Dauin. Oddly enough, we actually have some mutual friends back in Canada. It’s a small, small world. She swears she’s not stalking us, but I’m still adding her to my limited profile on Facebook, just in case. Just kidding Raina!!! I know you’re watching.

Sunday, we went for a dive at a site called Masaplod South. I’ve been there before and it’s one of my favourite sites. There are some nice coral slopes with tons of stuff to find. Some highlights were 2 frogfish, a mandarin fish, a couple pipefish, a blue ribbon eel, and a tiny cuttlefish. There’s also tons of nudibranch amongst the corals. The last time I was there I saw 4 or 5 huge cuttlefish the size of my forearm around 27m. Unfortunately the visibility wasn’t fantastic for this dive, but I still enjoyed it. Having become familiar with a few dive sites, we’re definitely spotting a lot more fishy creatures.

On Monday (Kelly will kill me for crossing over into the new week!), Patrick invited us and Raina over for dinner. We had a nice stir fry with a bottle of wine, a couple beers, and some funky gin/lime shooters. Dancing ensued. Puppies were played with. Photos were taken. I highly doubt Raina made it to the 6am Siquijor ferry the next day.

Lucky for us, there’s still 3 more weeks of saying farewell to come!

Read the original article here: Week 22: Dinner Parties with Friends

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1. Week 8: Boracay
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3. Week 25: Things to do before leaving the Philippines

Back in Vancouver we never used to cook this much. We’d eat out quite a bit, and with so many great restaurants we rarely got bored. Here in the Philippines the restaurant options are a little bit lacking. Thats not to say we haven’t had some great meals, but on a whole, things here are kind of bland. Fast food abounds and pretty much every restaurant has the same menu. So we’ve taken to cooking at home quite a bit. It’s great cause I love to cook, but I’m starting to run out of ideas.

Much like the restaurant selection, the ingredient selections here are also lacking, thus we find we make a lot of the same things over and over again. Stir-fries with chicken or pork, lots of rice and pasta dishes, potatoes, sandwiches, and very basic salads (lettuce is hard to come by).

We’re getting a bit bored, so I’ve decided to turn to you, the internet, for some new ideas. Do you have a favorite recipe? Something that you turn to when you can’t decide what to make? Help me out by sharing a recipe or two!

To help you out, here’s a list of things we do and don’t have access to:

This is of course not an exhaustive list, there are lots of other things we have and don’t have, I just tried to give a bit of an overview on some of the more common ingredients. If you want to know about a particular ingredient not listed above just lemme know. Share your recipes in the comments section below.

Read the original article here: Stuck in a culinary rut

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1. Good Eats
2. Philippines Christmas Recap
3. Week 11: Getting settled in Dauin

On Wednesday, Andrew & Chantal (friends who we met on the Bias trip) had a birthday party for Chantal’s mother and invited us over for dinner. Chicken adobo and spareribs, with rice and salad. Yumm. Funnily enough, after showing up we pieced together where we had seen them before. When we first came to Dumaguete Kelly had gone to check out a few possible rental places while I was laid up sick in bed. She was talking to a person about seeing a place and when she walked out, Andrew had walked in the door. The next day when I was feeling better, we went to take a look at the place, but it turned out it had rented the day before to Andrew. They had just beaten us to it. It wasn’t furnished, so we likely wouldn’t have taken it, but it’s funny how small a town it is. Here we were having dinner on the front lawn, chatting with the owners who had shown us the place months ago. At Andrews party, we also ran into Greg who had been at a spontaneous party night a month or two back when I was kissing cockroaches. Again, such a small town.

We spent the next 2 days pre-cooking for our party. We invited the whole El Dorado Resort staff and Dive Society to swing by as well as a few long term foreigner friends we’ve made. So we were expecting about 30 people (those who weren’t working that evening) to show up. We hand rolled almost one hundred soft taco shells (they were supposed to be burrito wraps, but we switched flour brands at the last minute and they started to shrink as soon as I stopped rolling them… Too much gluten?), and made big batches of pulled pork, chicken, ground beef, and refried beans. Kelly made 3 different salsas, and Spanish rice.

Needless to say, the party was a big hit. All the dive shop boys came by, and while they didn’t all understand the concept of a taco (most just piled up a plate of fixins)… it was a hilarious time with plenty of dancing and jokes. Later in the evening, more of the resort staff showed up after work and “Chef” even asked me how to make taco wraps, so they must have turned out okay. We partied on until one in the morning, then leaving the damage assessment for the next morning, headed to bed.

Yesterday was cleanup and recovery. All in all, it wasn’t too bad of a scene after a little garbage detail and mopping, but we were paying the price for drinking cheap Tanduay rum the night before. I spent most of the day laying in the hammock one of the Swiss dive instructors brought us for a housewarming gift and Kelly laid in bed all day watching movies.

Since recovering we’ve vowed to do things differently next time. No cooking. Making those taco wraps by hand was excrutiatingly difficult with the heat and all the hand rolling with a wine bottle. Andrew suggested that the next time we hire one of the kebab street vendors to come by and cook all night long. 5P for each kebab. Sounds like a plan to me!

Read the original article here: Week 13: 3 Months Housewarming Party

Related posts:

1. Week 22: Dinner Parties with Friends
2. Week 11: Getting settled in Dauin
3. Week 39: 9 months in Asia and the things we (will) miss.