Pakuranga night market

Not a great photo but you get an idea of the crowd

I was pretty excited when I first heard about the Auckland Night Market, given the lack of good late-night food options here in Auckland. But my enthusiasm cooled significantly when I found out its location - Pakuranga. Nearly 20km away from Mt Albert! Why bother? Tonight I finally found out why.

We found the entrance easily enough, and the sea of vehicles in the carpark of the otherwise closed shopping mall was the first sign of its popularity. Inside, it was another sea - of people. And a real mix too - Kiwis, Pacific Islanders, and every kind of Asian, it's almost as if someone directed the crowd to embody the quintessential multicultural Auckland.

There were plenty of toys, clothing, jewellery and other wares for sale, but I was only really interested in the food - and I wasn't disappointed. Stall upon stall of Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Sichuan, Xian, Beijing, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Indian, Thai, Mexican, Filipino, Italian, Belgian, American food, it was all there. I'd never seen so many delicious-looking and affordable food stalls at any other market or event - not even the Lantern Festival. And this happens every week?

Best of all was the atmosphere - stall owners loudly hawking their wares, visitors mulling over food choices then waiting patiently for their skewer of squid to finish grilling or their takoyaki (octopus ball) to be formed, great clouds of chili smoke permeating the air, making everyone cough, wok fire licking the metal frame of the easy-up shelters, making you nervously wonder if there are any fire extinguishers nearby. All this is a world away from the well-heeled, genteel folk nibbling on croissants and sipping on lattes at the French Market - which is still nice but in a different way.

I've always been annoyed by the fact that it always seemed like the only late night entertainment on offer for Aucklanders is the bars in the Viaduct, and all its associated bawdiness. But the large (family) crowd at the night market showed that there is clearly a demand for this sort of stuff, if only it existed.

It seems the Pakuranga night market has been so successful they've expanded to the Shore on Sunday nights. But where is the one for the CBD? Or even Mt Albert, which has one of the highest ratios of Asian residents in the city? A 20 minute drive on the motorway (in no traffic) is fine I suppose, but wouldn't this sort of thing be exactly what would liven up the central city? Wouldn't the Wynyard Quarter carpark be perfect for this?

Either way, I will definitely be back, while dragging along whoever will come with me, and I hope they continue to replicate the concept. Auckland will be a much better city for it!

Best of Auckland

Fish taco from Mexican Specialities

I tend to have a pretty strong opinion on where's the best place to go for a certain type of food in Auckland, and often disagree with what's published in the media, or wish there were a wider range of categories. So I thought I might as well put them all down in one post, for easy reference. They're also mostly on my food map.


Of course, this is all highly subjective, and it's certainly possible there are places I haven't even heard of which may be even better than those listed below. But I can only write from experience, after all. If you disagree or have an even better suggestion for any of the categories, I welcome your comments!

Best Yum Cha - Sun World
Best Taiwanese - My Kitchen
Best Indian - Little India
Best Indian Vegetarian - Ras Vatika
Best Ramen - Ramen Do
Best Sushi - Auckland Fish Market
Best Cheap Japanese - Renkon
Best Korean - Yummy Korean
Best Vietnamese - Try It Out
Best HK style cafe - Dragon's Gourmet
Best Chinese noodles - Xian Food Bar
Best Asian foodcourt - Food Alley
Best Mexican - Mexican Specialities
Best Tapas - Serafin
Best Pasta - Delicious
Best Pub Fare - Clare Inn
Best Cafe - Teed St Larder
Best Seafood - Auckland Fish Market Brasserie

I was going to write a short blurb about each one, but when I finished the list realised that would probably take the better part of a day, so will separate out any reviews into separate posts. In the meantime, please do go and try these places out, hopefully you'll enjoy them as much as I have!

Dumplings for dummies

I thought it'd be appropriate to follow up my noodle post with one about dumplings. Not all dumplings are created equal, and there are so many types available it's pretty easy to get them confused. Here's a bit of a guide, and again, some of my favourite places to sample these around town.

Yum cha dumplings

The only place we bother going for yumcha is Sun World Newmarket. Everywhere else I've tried has only been disappointing in comparison. And judging by how many non-Chinese patrons they regularly get nowadays, obviously the secret is out... Plus, free parking in the Rialto carpark for two hours if you buy something at the fruit & vege or tofu shop! Can't really beat that for convenience...

Yum cha or dim sum dumplings are really a whole category of their own, with quite a few different types. Generally they are made with a thin, slightly sticky, slightly translucent (if it's well-made) rice flour wrapper, and steamed. This is not a comprehensive listing, but just some of my favourites or most common ones.

Pork dumplings (siu mai)

This one is an exception to the rice-wrapper rule - pork mince mixed with chunks of pork fat, and encircled with a thin, bright yellow skin made of egg and flour. If poorly made it can be tough and chewy, but with the right amount of pork fat cut into the mince, it's tender and flavoursome. You shouldn't really have yum cha at all if you're adverse to pork fat, as it's an ingredient in the majority of the items sold...

Above was taken in HK, the ones in Sun World actually look & taste even better

Prawn dumplings (har gao)

Along with pork dumplings, prawn dumplings are probably the second most popular yum cha item, and used to be commonly sold together with the 'HAR-GAO-SIU-MAI!' refrain. A good prawn dumpling should only contain prawn and bamboo shoot, but more than a few restaurants cheap out by bulking this out with some pork mince, so remember to watch out for that! I can vouch for the deliciousness of the prawn dumplings at Sun World though, definitely a high-quality version.

Chive dumplings (gou choi gao)

One of my favourite dim sums, the filling is made up of Chinese chives, pork mince and a bit of prawn, which is very flavourful and fragrant, but tends to leave you with a bit of chive-breath (not unlike garlic breath). Totally worth it though!

Chive dumplings from Sun World - photo doesn't do it justice really

Peanut dumplings (chiu jau fun gwor)

Pork mince, bamboo, some other flavourings and a thicker rice flour wrapper makes this a bit different from the other dim sum dumplings. I personally am not a fan due to the strangeness of having the hard peanut amongst the rest of the soft filling, but it's always one we order for my dad and James. Apparently great dipped in chilli oil (though apparently everything is great dipped in chilli oil).

Okay, back to non-yum cha dumplings. The rest of these are typically wrapped in a round wrapper made from wheat flour, with a variety of fillings and serving methods - but usually just plain pork, or pork and chives.

Sichuan-style dumplings

The best version of this we've had of this is from 555 Dominion Rd. Even though the filling is comprised of only pork, it's perfectly seasoned and served with a spicy, tangy sauce that has so much flavour you don't really need to douse the dumpling in vinegar as per usual. Pair this with a bowl of small dandan noodles, and you've got yourself an awesome cheap dinner.

Sichuan-style dumplings from 555 Dom Rd

Dumplings in hot & sour soup

We've had this in a few different places in lieu of the Sichuan-style dumpling, and so far the winner is Happy Time Restaurant, 650 Dominion Rd. The sheen of bright red chilli oil may be a bit offputting at first, but you can easily scoop that aside if you prefer (as I did). Xian Food Bar actually did a pretty shoddy job of this dish, the dumplings were overcooked and falling apart while the soup was frankly quite bland. However, Happy Time delivered on both the soup flavour and dumpling texture/filling aspects, we'll definitely be back just for this dish!

Okay, you can hardly see them, but underneath that chilli oil are some delicious dumplings, from Happy Time Restaurant (not joking, that's what it's really called), 650 Dominion Rd

Shanghai style dumplings

These are a bit classier than your regular, rustic pork and chive dumplings. The filling is still (surprise, surprise) pork, but what makes a Shanghai-style dumpling special is the burst of hot soup that will go all over the table or your plate if you don't pick this up carefully enough not to break the dumpling skin before it gets into your mouth. I've been told the trick to getting the soup instead is to freeze it before wrapping along with the pork mince. Then viola, the soup reverts to liquid form when steamed - ingenious! Any decent Shanghainese restaurant should be able to do a good version of these, but the best we've had in Auckland was probably from Show Restaurant in 16 Kilham Ave, Northcote.

[UPDATE: A great place to go is Yi Ping Xiang in Dominion Rd, very cheap on the lunch menu.]

Shanghai-style dumplings, this was actually from HK Airport believe it or not

We should also give credit to the pre-made frozen dumplings, widely available at nearly all Chinese supermarkets and fruit & vege shops. I recommend the Siu Cheong ones, and I usually get the pork and chives, but really they're all pretty good - even the vegetarian one. I can't remember the exact price but I'm pretty sure you can get a massive tray for under or around $10. It's a great thing to keep in the freezer for a quick snack or meal. Make sure you get some dumpling sauce or just Chinese vinegar to go with it as well, I recommend this one:

Apologies for the crap photo... Tip: if it has that yellow starburst by the left of the image, means it's the spicy version

To cook the dumplings from frozen, simply turn the stove onto high, heat up a little bit of oil in a non-stick frypan, and make sure you have some boiling water handy (I usually just put the jug on). Place the frozen dumplings in the pan however you like but making sure they're not touching, then pour in the boiling water until it comes to maybe a third of the way up the sides of the dumplings. Slap a lid on, and just leave it until pretty much all the water's evaporated, about 5-10 mins. This steams and fries the dumplings at the same time. Once all the moisture's gone though, remove the lid and keep a close eye on it or turn the heat way down, otherwise they'll start to burn pretty quickly! Remove from pan as you prefer, or when the skin that's been on the pan turns a golden-brown. If you want to be a bit healthier you can also just chuck frozen dumplings in some salted boiling water for about 10 mins until cooked through. 

Finally, if you are feeling adventurous and want to make your own at home, here's a recipe I got from my mum, though I suspect something's missing because the last time I tried it, just didn't turn out as well... still, a good start though:

Ingredients

200g pork mince

2 small bunches Chinese chives (available from all fruit & vege shops owned by Chinese people - looks like bunches of grass)

1 packet dumpling pastry (you can find these in the fridges of pretty much all Chinese supermarkets, they come in these dual-round plastic packets)

1 egg

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp ginger powder

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp corn starch

1 tsp Chinese cooking wine

2 tsp oyster sauce

Set aside the pastry. Separate the egg, and set aside the egg white. Mix the yolk and all the other ingredients together until well combined. Put spoonfuls of the pork mixture into the middle of the round dumpling pastry. Brush some egg white (or water) around the inside edges of the pastry so they stick together, then fold in half to stick the sides together to form a crescent-shaped dumpling.

That's pretty much it. If you're not going to cook them right away, chuck them in the freezer to keep it fresh until needed. Make sure you sprinkle some corn starch in between each one so they don't stick to each other. And feel free to experiment with the recipe! I have seen some pretty crazy dumpling recipe books which include ingredients like pineapple or tomato (personally not that keen to try these), but obviously it's easy to swap the meat to beef or lamb, and use some different veges like Shanghai cabbage or even pickled ones, and tweak the seasonings to your own taste. Personally I'd stick to Asian ingredients though, otherwise why not just make pasta?

Overall, given how cheap you can buy dumplings either pre-made at the Chinese supermarket, or even totally prepared and served to you on a plate (typically something like 20 for $8), there's almost no point going to all the effort of making it yourself, except for novelty value. 

I hope that's been a good explanation or braindump (haha) of my dumpling knowledge, I haven't even had the chance to visit and review Barilla Dumpling (another Balmoral eatery) yet, nor have I mentioned Japanese-style 'gyoza', though I tend to find these not as good as actual Chinese dumplings, given they are just a derivative from the original. And let's not even get into the Eastern European 'dumplings' I sampled in Hungary and Czech Republic... no idea what Chinese word would be used to describe those, but they're definitely not anywhere in the same league as the above!

Nothing like a good noodle

When it's cold, there's nothing like a big steaming bowl of tasty noodles to warm you up. Since I love noodles so much, and there are quite a few noodle places featured on my food map, I thought I'd highlight some of my favourites.

Hand pulled braised pork noodles

Hand-pulled noodles with braised pork 

$8 from Xian Food Bar, 945 New North Rd, Mt Albert

Probably the best dish at any Xian Food Bar franchise, these noodles are uniquely 'hand pulled' and resemble long strips of dumpling pastry rather than your usual fare. They're thick, chewy (in a good way) and extremely satisfying. What's even better is when they're covered in this spicy, slowly braised pork sauce. Add a dash of vinegar and you're in carb-and-meat heaven.

Dandan noodles

Dandan noodles 

$5 from 555 Dominion Rd, Balmoral

Probably every inland Chinese cuisine joint will have a variation of this dish, but what makes 555's great is their delicious combination of mince, veges, peanuts and their special soup. You can choose to have it with either rice or wheat noodles, and the best part? A small bowl is only $5! Definitely enough for a light dinner, or you could upsize it for $3, or pair it with some dumplings. Hands down one of the best value meals you can find in Auckland.

Misodare chicken udon

Misodare chicken udon 

$11 from Renkon (Parnell, Ponsonby, Takapuna, Pitt St & Durham St)

When I was working on the shore, I'll always remember how ecstatic I was the day I discovered a Renkon was opening in Takapuna. There's a reason I put all five branches on the food map. I reckon nobody should be eating donburi or udon soup outside of Renkon, really. I've tried many of their dishes but keep going back to the misodare chicken udon. You get tender chicken, flavour-packed soup and a generous heaping of greens. I haven't really come across another udon noodle soup in Auckland that compares, really. It helps that they're so fast and friendly, too. Why pay twice the price to have a smaller bowl of something not even as good elsewhere?

Tonkotsu (pork bone soup) ramen

$9 from Daikoku Ramen, Cnr Britomart Pl & Tyler St, CBD

I've been told a few times that Tanpopo is pretty awesome, but until I manage to make it there, Daikoku Ramen has set the bar for me. The shop is an unassuming little hole in the wall which feels like it could be in Tokyo, and I love how all the staff greet and thank you as you arrive/depart. Service is as speedy as any fast food chain, and the highlight is of course the signature pork bone soup. When it comes to noodles I usually prefer other types like udon, rice or even wheat, but the soup makes it very easy to polish off even a giant bowl of these - and that's the only way they serve them.

Beef noodle soup

Taiwanese beef noodle soup

$10.90 from My Kitchen, 543 Dominion Rd, Balmoral

Before today I would've recommended having this at Neighbour's Cafe in the city, however now that I've been to My Kitchen I'm definitely a convert (plus it's much more conveniently located for me). A good Taiwanese noodle should have 'al dente' (I guess?) noodles, a deep, rich beef soup base with no MSG, and of course, tender and flavourful chunks of beef brisket that's been expertly seasoned and slow cooked to perfection. I'm happy to say that My Kitchen delivered on all of these, plus it came with a cute (and superfluous?) orange wedge. That part is definitely not traditional, but I guess quite a nice touch nonetheless.

Raw beef pho noodle soup 

from Spring Vietnamese, 552 Glenfield Rd

It's been a while since I last came here so I can't recall the price, but I'm sure it didn't exceed $15. Pho is the signature Vietnamese noodle dish, and Spring does a great job with a fragrant broth that doesn't leave you thirsty - a hallmark of MSG-usage, and unfortunately my experience at Hansan (another popular Vietnamese noodle chain). The beef is sliced thinly and served raw on the noodles, but pretty much get cooked through if you leave them in the hot soup long enough. Being the raw food fan I am though, I usually fish these out quickly to retain that delicious beef tataki/carpaccio-esque quality.

Pad see eiw

$12 chicken/pork/beef or $14 prawn/seafood from Zap 4, 10 Commerce St, Auckland

Moving away from the noodle soups, I love these thick, flat rice noodles, and they taste great stir fried with most things, particularly Thai flavours. I inevitably go for seafood or prawn, which makes this probably the most expensive of my noodle picks, however it's definitely worth it. Zap manages to NOT overcook prawns which is a pet peeve of mine. With some extra fish sauce and a squeeze of lime, for me this is the ultimate fried-noodle dish.

Rice cake soup

$10.50 from Yummy Korean, 1 Mokoia Rd, Birkenhead
Okay, not strictly noodles but still a soup dish, I thought this deserved an honourary mention. On the odd occasion I don't feel like dolsot bibimbap (hot stone pot) when having Korean, I'll go for the rice cake noodle soup. They're served as oval slices of chewy, sticky rice cake in a milky egg-drop type soup. It's not the firey, kimchee-red tinged dish that most people think of when it comes to Korean, but it is definitely a very comforting dish, perfect for winter. If you've never had rice cake before and wanted to have a try, this is a great dish to go for.

Fish ball noodle soup

Hong Kong style fish ball noodle soup

Possibly one of my favourite meals of all time, unfortunately I have not found a single place in Auckland that does this justice. It's probably the fish itself - I suspect you can't get the species/breed they usually use in HK fish balls in NZ. There's a special flavour and texture which is always missing from the ones here. Plus they also never bother to serve it with the deep-fried fish slice rectangles either, unlike Hong Kong. I've been let down so many times I pretty much never order this locally anymore... Definitely one that I am hankering for next time I go back.

Finally, if you've been wondering what that picture in the background of this blog is, it's another one of my favourite HK noodle dishes, beef tripe noodle soup. Again, from the places I've tried, nothing's even come close in NZ so far. I blame the cows...

That's it for now - next time I'll feature some non-noodle dishes, but in the meantime, I urge you all to go out and try some of these dishes/places! I promise you'll enjoy it. =)

An ode to Chef John

Being Chinese, some may think I'd have a raft of traditional Cantonese recipes up my sleeve, passed down from generation to generation. Unfortunately, growing up my mum was never that keen on letting me mess up her kitchen, plus Cantonese cooking is more about technique than recipes anyway.

I actually only started properly cooking about three years ago when I got a kitchen of my own to mess up. By then, most of my inspiration came from TV chefs like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, but it wasn't always easy to follow their recipes or source their ingredients. That's when I discovered Chef John and his video recipes - and I haven't looked back since.

This post is a summary of my favourite Chef John videos, which have become staples of my cooking repertoire (as per the photos below).

No-knead ciabatta - if you've never baked bread before, but always wanted to try it, this is the way to go. Very easy, and you can only go wrong if you use old yeast, so make sure you have some fresh stuff on hand.

Garlic bread - something about using freshly-crushed garlic aioli makes this extra-delicious, much better than your run-of-the-mill stuff. I usually use a baguette from the Pyrenees deli for this one.

Sausage-stuffed cherry pepper poppers - possibly the most popular pre-dinner snacks I've ever made, it may seem a lot of effort but actually it's quite fun to stuff these. I usually find two sausages from the meat counter perfect for one jar of Peppadew peppers, which you can find quite easily even at regular supermarkets.

Roasted prosciutto-wrapped asparagus - a must-try during asparagus season, I can't think of a better combination. Once I made a whole lot of these, topped it off with a poached egg and scoffed it all myself as dinner. Yum.

No-knead pizza dough - people sometimes seem a bit shocked when I talk about making pizza from scratch, but when you have this dough recipe it really is no challenge. After making this, I could never face those hard, dimpled, pre-made bases from the supermarket again.

The 'ultimate' roast chicken - I never roast chicken any other way now. I once tried this 'chicken in milk' Jamie Oliver recipe and found it vastly inferior to this butter-under-the-skin method. You can vary the flavours a lot depending on what you put in the butter, but either way you can't really go wrong here! Best served with some crispy roast veges.

Cooking turkey for chickens - it was only because of this post that I was brave enough to volunteer to cook a turkey for the family Christmas lunch. And guess what? By all accounts it turned out brilliantly! Apparently I have booked myself turkey-duty for the next few years too, which I have no problem with, as long as these videos stay online...

Lamb moussaka burger - given that I love both lamb and eggplant, it was no surprise I loved this burger recipe. What was a surprise was the fact James loved it too, even though he's usually ambivalent towards lamb and hates eggplant. I really need to make this more often...

Angel-hair pasta with broccoli & garlic - if you've ever looked in the fridge and found a broccoli you bought ages ago when it was on special but kept forgetting to use, this is a delicious and slightly different way of dispensing with it. And feels healthy too, even though you're eating pasta.

Cauliflower spaghetti aglio olio - same applies for cauliflower, a delicious way to use one up that's anything but bland. Perfect for a quick dinner.

Truffled potato gratin - possibly my favourite Chef John-inspired recipe of all time, this always goes down a treat every time I make it, but then again how can anything with that much cream plus truffled cheese taste bad? Now, I have to admit that I've actually tweaked the recipe myself by using truffled mascarpone instead of sottocenere (you can usually get truffled mascarpone from Nosh), and also omitting the mushrooms altogether. Amazing. The other great thing about this recipe is it justifies my ownership of a mandolin slicer.

Jinx-proof braised lamb shanks - these turned out so well that I'm very reluctant to cook lamb shanks any other way. There's just something about all the flavours and the long slow cooking time that makes the dish meltingly delicious. If you have some lamb shanks, you can't go wrong with this recipe - it's in the name!

Chili chocolate mousse - a great prepare-ahead dessert, I've only messed this up once due to not letting the chocolate cool completely before folding in the cream, but that's pretty much the only way you can ruin this. And even then, it tasted delicious, just had the wrong texture. Usually it's very light and rich. I also like how you don't have to have gelatin on hand for this one, unlike most other chocolate mousse recipes.

There are so many more I haven't even tried yet, but it's hard not to keep going back to the same ones when I know they'll turn out so well. To anyone who's ever been iffy about cooking, I urge you to watch these videos and give it a shot, because it really makes it simple. Many thanks to Chef John for doing such an amazing job - keep up the awesome work!

LBS no longer just a delicious pie in the sky

Today, when I hear about people talk about how location is the hot new mobile/social marketing/PR 'thing', I can't help but wonder what things would be like if I was doing my thesis now, as opposed to six years ago when I struggled to explain my research topic - Location-Based Services or LBS in the context of tourism - to most people.

Back then, I spoke to a few groups of 'advanced' or independent travellers (i.e. your typical backpacker) and asked what they thought about the idea of using location-based mobile services as part of their travel experience. It seemed they were quite keen as long as the services were reliable, easy to use, had trustworthy content, didn't invade their privacy, spam them with too much info, or were too costly. Funnily enough, they are probably still the pertinent issues of today.

Of course, LBS seemed especially like a 'pie in the sky' six years ago when there were no smartphones with large touchscreen interfaces and built-in GPS. In comparison, the clunky mobile phones of old were simply incapable of delivering an intuitive and satisfying user experience when it came to location. Now, the main problem is connectivity, particularly for travellers. Mention 'data roaming' to most smartphone users and they probably have a horror story of discovering bills running into the hundreds or thousands upon their return. And if you're only going somewhere for a week or two, you're hardly going to bother buying a local SIM. Even then, will local telcos have reasonable prepay data offerings?

An alternative connectivity option is WiFi, which is going great in cities like Hong Kong, but NZ has yet to offer much on this front. There are some promising signs this may change soon, particularly in time for the Rugby World Cup, but that's hardly a solution for the non-urban or even suburban areas that visitors will ultimately end up in. Ubiquitous WiFi or even mobile network coverage is simply unfeasible for cities or countries as sprawled out as Auckland or NZ.

When travelling, the one thing that will keep working on your smartphone regardless of mobile data or WiFi coverage is the built-in GPS. Any apps reliant on this to the exclusion of network connectivity would mean having to have pre-downloaded, fully self-contained content within the device. Google already have a few of these on offer, which is a pretty good start. Of course, having your phone basically ping satellites chews through the battery rather quickly, and you wouldn't want to be stranded somewhere with no knowledge of how to get out!

All potential pitfalls and negativity aside, things are certainly looking a lot brighter for LBS than they were six years ago, and there are already some amazing applications out there. People are always talking about foursquare, but until more firms in NZ take ownership of their foursquare place, it's not going to penetrate the mass market or be able to offer real value to users. Facebook places has a huge leg up already in that regard, and it'll be interesting to see if companies are more likely to want to 'own' this. This is all very well and good for businesses like Burgerfuel, but for tourism LBS apps someone else may have to take responsibility for public or natural attractions with no business driver.

Given many small (tourism) businesses may not necessarily even be online yet, asking them to have a LBS app may be a bit of a stretch. But definitely not as much of a stretch as it would have been six years ago! Bring on better, cheaper connectivity along with longer battery lives for smartphones, and we might just get there within the next six years...

A trip down memory lane

After such a long absence from the regular blogging, I thought it was about time to pick this up again. Twitter may be a great way to force yourself down to the bare essentials, but sometimes you really do want to say more than can be contained within 140 characters. As you can see below, this used to be just a dumping ground for my travel posts, but that's all going to change...

I can't say for sure what the new posts will be comprised of, but knowing me they will probably mostly revolve around food. You might be wondering why I so titled this post, and it's because deciding to try and regularly blog again is like putting on a really old, well-worn but comfortable pair of shoes. It seems like - and was in fact - years ago when I started blogging at the tender age of 15 (!). Now 27, I feel like a bit of a grizzled veteran. Like:

Back in the day, before all these newfangled things like Twitter or FourSquare or Tumblr, we had to write our own HTML if we wanted to make a website... Most people started out on Geocities. Back in 1998 when I was 14, I had a website with a background I had made up myself using Corel Draw... I was so proud to be one of the first to use a layout with TABLES! And of course I NEVER embedded background midis without letting people turn them off! I was all about the emoticons like ^_^ O.o and >_< Then the blogging craze started and everyone was using this service called pitas.com... Of course that went under, so after that I was tossing up between xanga and LiveJournal, but LJ was so much more social, with the emoticons and Friends Only posts... And of course we were IMing each other on ICQ as well... Ah, those were the days!

Reminiscing aside, blogging hasn't really changed that much in this past decade. Basically, you write a whole bunch of text and upload it to some webpage, that people can read. You may have social media gadgets and promote your posts via Twitter and Facebook, but it's still all about the copy. The only thing that's different is probably the ability to blog on the go via smartphones, but a touchscreen or even slide-out keyboard isn't exactly conducive to typing many paragraphs of text. That's where tablets can't really trump a traditional keyboard - there's nothing more satisfying than the tactile feedback of the keys bouncing back when you type for hours on end. That's why we always take our netbook when we travel, I would hate to have to type out whole blog posts on my tiny phone keyboard!

Even though I won't be travelling around somewhere exciting like I usually would when I've been blogging these past few years, I'll still try my best to keep this interesting! Let's see how that pans out.

Singapore

I haven't been here since I was about 10 or 11 so I don't really remember much, however locals tell me things would have changed a lot since back then. The thing that hit me immediately was how HOT and humid it was outside (well, duh I guess), but of course when you walk into any building the chilling blast of air conditioning is quite uncomfortably cold - and inconvenient too, given it means you pretty much have to carry a jersey or something warm with you, a bit absurd given the temperatures outside.

The other thing that struck me was how good and reasonably priced all the food I've seen has been. Last night we had the buffet at the Carousel restaurant at the Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel, and for only SDG$58 (weeknight dinner rate) there was an amazing spread of all sorts of different crab/shellfish/oysters, sashimi & other Japanese dishes, roast meats, other European mains, Chinese, Indian and Malaysian food, and of course the obligatory chocolate fountain. I guess a lot of buffets can boast variety, however what really impressed me was the quality of every item at the buffet. Usually when it's all-you-can-eat, why bother making it that good? But honestly, I would have happily ordered any number of those dishes a la carte. I'd highly recommend it!

Even the corporate catering we've been getting has been pretty good, usually those sorts of lunches are pretty bland, but most of the dishes have been really well seasoned with a pleasant amount of spice. I must admit, as much as I love Hong Kong, I think that Singapore might actually trump it in terms of variety, value and quality of food...

Tonight we had another great meal, this time a Japanese one on Clarke Quay - wandering around the area it was great to feel the buzz of people out at restaurants and bars all in one place even on a Tuesday night - something we really miss with the scattered clusters of dining destinations in Auckland. A quick glance at menus and it was obvious the prices were all pretty reasonable for what you get.

Anyway, tomorrow in my five hours of free time I might venture up the famous Sands observation deck, and also check out the Singapore Flyer ferris wheel. No more room for shopping though...

Hong Kong Part Two

Wow, seems like weeks ago that I was in Hong Kong but I only left two days ago! After my last post, my sister in law arrived, and as it was her first visit we did a lot of touristy stuff including Ngong Ping 360, TST (night & day), the Museum of Art, Star Ferry, The Peak, Mong Kok, Goldfish/Pet St, Flower Market St, Fa Yuen St Market, Temple St Market, Langham Place, Cat St, SoHo, the Mid Level Escalators, the tram, Repulse Bay, Stanley... pretty much most of the major sights.

We only had three days so I thought it was going to be pretty hectic, and indeed we were out pretty much all day most days and exhausted ourselves thoroughly by the end! However it seems that it's actually not too difficult to see all the major sights within just two days, thanks mainly to the highly efficient public transport system and how close everything is to each other I think...

Anyway, for those of you thinking of visiting HK as a tourist, a few tips:

The 'Symphony of Lights' from TST
One word - lame. I mean, one of my friends had already told me how unimpressive it was so I had low expectations, but I was still surprised at how feeble it all seemed... Basically, some of the lights on some of the buildings in Central will flash in time with music, and occasionally there are some spotlights and lasers active as well. Unfortunately not enough of the buildings are involved, and they really cheaped out on the soundtrack (at least the night I was there). It was like a cheesey midi from a 90s website that is blaring at full volume, and you can't switch it off even though you really want to! They really could learn a lesson or two from the Bellagio fountains in Vegas, which is by far the best public light/music display I've ever seen - they used opera, and simple white lighting. Basically, if you don't manage to get to TST at 8pm... don't worry, you didn't really miss anything.

Street Markets
As I mentioned in the previous post, please avoid Ladies Market at all costs as it's a huge rip-off! A much better value one is Fa Yuen St in Mong Kok for things like clothes, handbags and souvenirs. Or if you're looking for electronics, you can't go past Apliu St market, which is still great value for things like mobile phone accessories, torches, camera tripods, travel power adaptors, etc. Temple St was not too bad as well, though one of the hawkers was a bit aggressive when it came to flogging her wares. Good for trying a claypot rice, street style.

Museums
I was quite surprised to discover that most of my relatives didn't know the major HK museums are free on Wednesdays - this includes the Museum of Art, Heritage Museum, Science Museum, the Dr Sun Yat Sen Museum, and the Museum of Coastal Defense. I especially recommend the Museum of Art in TST, we caught a free English guided tour and it was pretty awesome, so much better to have an expert explaining stuff to you that would normally be a bit dry... A nice summary of all the museums is here.

The Peak
Half the point of this is the tram ride up to the top, and the rest is the view, but if you want to save some money either way, make sure you don't buy the admission fee for the observation deck, because guess what, you can get pretty much the same view for free if you go to the top floor of the old shopping centre called The Peak Galleria. They certainly don't make it obvious, but if you somehow manage to get of the tower complex, walk outside and go into the old pinkish/beige building (with the Starbucks on the ground floor), just keep going up the escalators until you can't get any higher, to your left there should be the childcare centre (I know, it's weird they have one up there) and the door just to the side of it will lead you to a huge (and often deserted) deck where you can get a beautiful, pretty much unobstructed view of HK. And the deck on the other side (the more obvious door) will actually give you a view of the other side of the island, though this can only be enjoyed during the day. Another way to keep it even cheaper is take the bus instead of the tram, however I wouldn't advise it for those prone to motion sickness!

That's it for now, next up will be a wee summary of my short time in Singapore.

Hong Kong - Observations

Well, I'd normally only reserve this blog for those longer trips to random new places, but I've seen so many interesting things since I've been back in Hong Kong these last few days I want to note it down. Twitter might be great for instant updates, but you can't always keep things under 140 characters!

While it's been over two years since I was last here, as soon as I landed I felt that things were still quite familiar, and almost immediately it was like I'd never been away at all - which is probably quite good for someone who hasn't lived locally for nearly twenty years. However, there were still a few things that jumped out at me, particularly this time. So, in no particular order...

Everyone's got a smartphone
Two and a half years ago nearly a quarter of people I saw on public transport had a PSP or DS to amuse themselves with. This time, there's nary a dedicated portable gaming device in sight, everyone was either watching a video or probably playing Angry Birds on their touchscreen smartphones. Mobiles were already practically fused to a Hong Konger's hand right from the get-go, so why have more than one device? Nowhere else is digital convergence into the mobile phone probably as advanced - well, I'm not sure about Japan, but HK is definitely up there.

Matching outfits
I've heard of the strange phenomenon of honeymooning couples dressed in identical matching clothing in Korea, so I guess this shouldn't be a surprise, but I've noticed a lot of couples or friends dressing exactly alike, or in a different colour variation of the same top/shoes/etc. From a NZ point of view this just seems bizarre. I mean, do you have to txt your friend before you go out to say 'Hey, I'm wearing the fluoro green Le Coq sneakers today' and they'll reply 'Cool, I'll wear my fluoro pink ones then'? I guess imitation is just another form of flattery, so it's a win-win? Doubt that this sort of thing will catch on in NZ...

Toilets are clean(er)!
If SARS and the H5N1 avian flu outbreaks can be credited with anything, I guess it would be HK's new-found sense of obsession with cleanliness. From the ubiquitous hand santisier dispensers, to the signs on public building doors saying 'this handle is sanitised 8 times a day', everything seems to have undergone a bit of a scrub-up. Yet HK still hasn't lost its 'grit', so to speak. The best part is, it's now a lot more likely you'll find a clean toilet (!) with toilet paper provided (!!) when you're out and about. After lunch at a pretty old-style noodle shop, I found myself in need of some relief, and was quite dreading what I'd find when I opened the toilet door - but to my delight it was clean, and yes, had toilet paper! Something which would have been  unheard of a few years ago... A caveat for travellers though, definitely still make sure you have a pack of Tempo (or other disposable tissue pack) with you, just in case.

Soap operas are as over-dramatic as ever
Okay, so this isn't something that's changed, but I guess I'm struck by how over-dramatic all the TV series here still are. It's a bit difficult to describe if you haven't just caught one on the telly, but I guess parallels can be drawn to Hindi soaps or Hispanic 'telenovas'. For someone used to watching high production value series from the major US networks, they would find HK soaps have super-exaggerated/generally bad acting, a heavy reliance on the soundtrack to set the mood, cheap props and effects, and an overall sense of shaky, zoom-y cinematography. Of course the budget is tiny compared to most American series, but surely the acting doesn't have to be so over the top? I've been told though that audiences here wouldn't accept anything else, so each to their own I guess!

HK girls are insanely tiny
I'm usually a 10 or a 12 in New Zealand which is considered pretty average I guess, but in HK I'm an XL, or if I'm really lucky, an L. And that's just for big chain stores like Bossini & Giordano where they even make an effort - in some of the trendier shops in Mong Kok there's no way I would even find anything at all in my size! Luckily the fashion trend of with 'free size' baggy tops and leggings still seems to be plodding along, which makes it somewhat easier to find clothes that 'fit', but I still have to be careful about things like clearing the armpit hole.

Ladies Market is a big rip off
This famous street market in Mong Kok used to be a reliable place to pick up cheap shoes, handbags and souvenirs, but by all accounts the advent of mainlander tourists with bottomless wallets who don't bother to bargain has resulted in the shopkeepers taking full advantage, and opening prices at ridiculous levels. Upon asking a handbag price a few days ago I got quoted HK$1000 - what?? How can you charge that much for a fake designer thing? Wouldn't it be better to just buy a real bag from a cheaper brand? Another example - I asked for the price of a pair of black ballet flat shoes, got quoted $79. Two seconds later a Caucasian woman asked about the same pair, got quoted $129! Worst yet, the next day I saw the exact same one in the market in the Li Yuen St Market in Central for only $49. Plus, all the stalls have the same stock anyway... So, my advice? Look, but don't buy at Ladies Market.

I still love the MTR
With the HK subway system, you can get pretty much anywhere really fast, it's clean, reliable, well signposted, and they've even augmented the map boards in each station with photos of major tourist attractions. Plus, the Octopus card makes things run like a well-oiled machine. The only downside is the crowds at rush hour, but that's like pretty much any mode of public transport in HK. Actually, I love HK buses and trams too, but probably love the MTR the most. It would be a complete pipe dream to have something half as efficient in NZ, and I know it's all to do with population density, but I guess one can dream...

That's it for now, I'm sure I'll think of a few more things over the rest of the week!

Iguazu & Rio

The second day at Iguacu on the Brasilian side was amazing, the weather cleared up completely and we saw rainbows and everything - did you know that a rainbow can actually go nearly all the way around in a circle, if there's enough mist/light floating around? Anyway, it was great, and kind of a shame we didn't get a chance to have similarly nice weather the day before but one day of nice weather was better than none.

Unfortunately that turned out to be the last bit of sun we'd see on the trip, when we landed in Rio it was raining, and it... hasn't really stopped raining since. Which puts a bit of a dampener on things like going to the beach (what Rio is famous for) and up hills like Sugarloaf and where the Christ the Redeemer statue is (again, what Rio is famous for).

Yesterday we took this rickety old tram thing to the Santa Theresa area, which was quite nice but also very small... then we headed off to the main football stadium, which turned out to be a bit of a letdown because the entrance fee was more than we were willing to pay, given all the museum stuff was in Portuguese... For lunch, we went to what seemed to be a local pirated mashup of McD's/BK called 'Bob's', and met a very friendly and enthusiastic waitress who was very keen to chat to us in English (rare for the locals here from what we've come across so far), reiterated the advice about being careful with our valuables lest we get mugged, and for some reason thought NZ was a very cold country. I guess it might be compared to Rio, but it's not exactly warm here at the moment! After that we kind of gave up on activities for the day, seeing as the weather still hadn't cleared up.

Today... was much the same, we woke up to more rain and decided, well, we better at least try to go to Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer because it was our last day here, got to Sugarloaf, found that the cable car fare was BRL$44 each (about NZ$34), and also that the cables just faded into... nothing. James and I have taken a cable car through the clouds once, in HK to the Big Buddha, and as mystical and stuff as it sounds, actually, it's quite boring just looking at a big grey blob of nothing for the entire trip. So we decided to head to the famous Christ the Redeemer statue instead, figuring that even if the weather still didn't clear by then, at least we should be able to see the statue itself...

Highlight of the day was probably finding a Subway for lunch! We all got meatball as it was the Sub of the Day (yes, they have that here), and it was comfortingly familiar. Afterwards we eventually found the right bus stop and ended up in the right place. We took another tram (I don't think this one counted as a funicular) thing to the top, and as I suspected, basically all you could see was mist - at least we also caught glimpses of the statue too. Oh, I suppose another highlight of the day was Bruce getting interviewed by some guys of uncertain source, may have been for a tourism video, or 6 o'clock news, who knows! They might also have gotten some footage of me dozing off in the train, hope that doesn't air... anywhere.

You know how at viewpoints they have captioned pictures telling you what it is you're looking at? Well, it was almost agonising how they had these at the top of that hill, with blue skies and glittering beaches, all nicely numbered, while all we got to see was grey blob.

Overall, my advice to people visiting Rio would be - if the weather forecast seems to be bad, change your plans and come back another week when it's sunny, because most of its attractions can't really be enjoyed when it's cold and wet... Oh well, at least we've been here! Tomorrow we'll start back to NZ, first a flight back to BA, transfer to the other airport, and then the final leg home.

Bits and pieces of stuff

This blog isn't really turning out as well as I had hoped, mainly because by the time I get to go online here I either 1) have forgotten what I wanted to write, and/or 2) am too lazy to bother nothing it down... however, before I forget, there are still a few things I wanted to jot down...

• I've never seen as great a concentration of SuperVHS camcorders and film cameras as I have today at Iguazu. Seems there are a few laggards in the continent. The funniest thing was some people were wearing them on a lanyard around their neck - it was literally like wearing a brick around your neck, could seriously do some long term damage. 
• In Argentina they like their everything sweet. And I mean, you get a tiny cup of coffee at a bus station and they give you four packets of sugar to go in it. I reckon if you actually put it all in it would actually saturate and some of the granules wouldn't dissolve. What's even better is the pre-sugared coffee on the long distance buses, basically it's like drinking hot coffee syrup.
• I really liked how when you bought locally made handicrafts in stores around Salta, every stall basically had a fixed price which was quite reasonable, and the same around the whole area, so you didn't really have to worry about getting ripped off, shopping around or bargaining too much. And even when people come up to you trying to sell stuff, once you turn them down they give up and don't aggressively continue to pursue you, unlike in India or parts of China...
• They seemed to like wet rooms and bidets in the northern parts of Argentina. The bidet thing is still completely mystifying to me, and the wet room thing is just annoying - basically the showerhead is just in the (sometimes middle of the) room and there's no shower curtain, dip, trench or anything to stop the water going everywhere and making the room, well, wet. They give you a handy huge wiper broom thing to sweep the water back into the drain, but do you know what would be even more handy? A proper, enclosed shower...

Oh well, that's it for now, except - we'd put most of our warm clothes away thinking it would be really hot in Brazil, turns out where we are now is actually kind of freezing! Hopefully Copacabana will be a bit nicer... who knows, maybe we can even get a swim in!

Iguazu Falls

The falls were amazing! Unfortunately it was pouring with rain most of the day and our pants got pretty much soaked, also given it's high season we had to jostle with busloads and busloads of local tourists at the viewpoints, but still really worthwhile... I tried to upload a photo but gave up after ten minutes of nothing really happening. After pretty much doing all the walks in the park we went back to our hostel on the Argentine side, and then headed off to the Brazilian side. I have to say, it's a bit weird taking a taxi to another country, especially when you don't even have to get out at the border, the driver just handed our passport over in a toll-booth type thing and we got to stay in the car the entire time. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better tomorrow when we look at the falls from the Brazilian side, and probably will also go to the bird park next door as well. Tonight we're having Brazilian buffet, hope it's a bit different from the Argentine fare!

Catch-up post

Well, didn't manage to get online long enough to write an entry since the beginning of our time in Salta, so have quite a lot to catch up on... I started doing one with photos but it was taking waaay too long to upload the pictures, so have given up on that and will try to just quickly bullet-point some highlights before I forget...

• Our four day excursion around the Salta/Jujuy region was awesome, we pretty much saw all the scenery we wanted to see including the 'Las Flechas' rock formations, the coloured mountains - coloured because of the different minerals in the soil, red for iron, green for copper, etc, the cactus national park, and the salt plains. I was probably as impressed as when we went to the grand canyon.
• A non-highlight of the trip was getting altitude sickness when we arrived at the famous bridge/viaduct thing of the 'train to the clouds'. After a few painful hours in the car we stopped in a lovely little town, and I left some literal altitude sickness behind in a gutter outside a really nice church built in the 1600s. Yum. At least I felt better afterwards!
• Saw quite a few animals on our trip as well, including vicuñas, guanacos, and of course llamas. Also visited a goat dairy farm where they make goat cheese, which wasn't too bad! Unfortunately a bit difficult to transport back to NZ so we didn't buy anything in the shop.
• Speaking of our trip, our driver/guide was a guy called - believe it or not - Billy Smith. Apparently his parents were English even though he grew up in Argentina, and his English wasn't too bad at all. For some reason when we booked the trip I thought he might be a young guy around our age, but turned out he was more of a retiree-grandfather. It was amazing, all the details and numbers he knew about all the places we were seeing etc.
• By now we've found that pretty much every restaurant in Argentina has the same menu... grilled meat, bad pasta, bad pizza, and some sides (salad with tomato and lettuce, or limp fries). Of course when we landed in Buenos Aires we didn't really appreciate this, the parilla (grilled meat) was still novel and overall pretty good, but after two weeks it gets a bit old... As James said, he could walk into most restaurants and pretty much name every item there'll be on the menu by now. We've had some great meals, sure - the grilled goat I had in Cachi was really nice, and even the grilled river fish I had for dinner in San Ignacio last night was perfectly cooked, but they really don't seem that keen on variety in flavour or type of meal here.
• The most interesting habits of the locals, particularly around San Ignacio, is drinking yerba mate (pronounced mah-TAY), a herbal tea. The interesting part is that it seemed that every second person we saw in that town had a cup in their hand, and a thermos of water to refill their cup when required. I guess it's a bit like guys who go on the road with a big thermos of pre-made coffee and keep drinking it - but not something we do with cups of tea or cappucino-type coffee in NZ...
• San Ignacio in general was really nice, the main attraction were some really well-preserved Jesuit ruins, but overall the thing we liked was the fact that everyone was so friendly and it just felt so much more safe, most of the houses didn't have big gates and bars on all the windows for a change, and the guy whose hostel we stayed in was super friendly and helpful, despite the fact it was actually the cheapest place in the whole trip!
• The bus ride from Salta to San Ignacio was pretty comfortable, they seemed to have a weird-movie theme (Shutter Island, The Box) which morphed into a Cameron Diaz theme (What Happens In Vegas). After breakfast they started a movie I hadn't even ever heard of before called 'The Circuit'. Michelle Trachtenberg was the only person I recognised in it - not a good sign... Fortunately we left the bus before it had gotten too far into it. 

Anyway, have to head off to dinner now, tomorrow we're off to see the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls, then will cross over to the Brazilian side, stay the night, see that, and then fly to Rio! Can't believe we're almost finished with the trip...

Salta

Well, our 18 hour bus trip turned into 22 when the bus broke down (that always seems to happen on long journeys - i.e. India) and had to go to an impromptu service garage sometime in the middle of the night. Fortunately we didn't have to change buses or anything like that, just stayed in our comfy reclining seats and got a surprising amount of sleep overnight. Was also just as well our bus left Mendoza as the Argentina/Germany game kicked off, otherwise we probably would have been in a bar watching their humiliating 4-0 defeat...

No-one hassled us at the Salta bus station when we arrived, probably because it was Sunday morning, and after a bit of a walk we arrived at our hostel here. Owners can't seem to speak much English but are really friendly and helpful, plus there's a table tennis and foosball table, which also helps! They even had our room ready and let us have breakfast there even though we technically didn't check in till that afternoon.

After we got ourselves sorted a bit we wandered into town and got accosted by a few people offering tours around the area. We had originally planned to hire a car and drive around ourselves, but after it became quite apparent that hardly anyone speaks English around here, plus the fact we didn't really know where exactly to stop, we decided to pay the extra and do a four-day excursion. It's just the four of us and the guide though, so not as stuffed as a mini-van full or anything like that...

The 9th of July (9 de Julio) square was quite nice, and we took the Lonely Planet's advice to visit the child-mummy museum. Basically about 500 years ago some kids were fed some alcohol and left high in the mountains to die of cold/starvation etc as an offering to the gods... nice! We got to see one of the mummies of the children found in the mountains, they seem to change them day by day or week by week. What was probably most disturbing was a video interview with a modern-day local who said that they weren't human sacrifices or anything bad like that, she generally seemed to think it was quite acceptable...

We also did the obligatory gondola ride, unfortunately the city's quite flat with mostly low buildings so not much of a view from the top, but at least it was a bit cooler! When we got back down we bought our bus tickets towards Iguazu, actually we'll get off in a town called San Ignacio, which is famous for some Jesuit ruins (UNESCO site!). 

For dinner we went to a really nice local restaurant and had some traditional regional dishes, mostly empanadas and stews, mine was, as it said on the English translation of the menu 'veal guts', mmm... It was much like the tripe you get at yum cha, really. James had recovered enough from his Mendoza food poisoning to eat a pretty bland grilled chicken breast, while Bruce & Mark had some other stews (also quite nice). We might go back another night!

Anyway, tomorrow we're off to Cachi & Cafayate, will be back in Salta the following night, then after that another two day trip up north to the salt flats, Purmamarca, etc. Hope the weather stays nice so we can get some good photos!

18 hour bus trip... yay?

Just two more hours before our 18 hour bus trip up to Salta,  thankfully James is feeling a bit better now so hopefully he'll survive the journey... anyway, off to get some breakfast now - if only they had proper bread and a toaster, that always seems to be an issue in non-English speaking countries...

Crossing the Andes to Mendoza

The bus trip from Santiago to Mendoza probably had the most spectacular scenery we'd ever seen by bus, really glad we managed to do that - on top of that, we got to watch Man of the House, Daddy Daycare, and The Italian Job dubbed in Spanish, awesome!

After we arrived in Mendoza we found our way to the hostel pretty easily, and went out to a cheap, and as it turned out, dodgy pasta place for dinner... James and Mark had lasagne, which apparently tasted fine but James' in particular wasn't really that heated-through, while Bruce had ravioli and I had a paella. More on the dodginess later...

The next day James and I joined a winery tour from our hostel while Mark and Bruce explored the city. We visited three places with a five-course lunch at the second one, reeeally nice. Our favourite was probably the first, as the winery guide was really knowledgeable, and we ended up buying two bottles to take with us.

The view from Pulenta winery

We had the five-course lunch at Ruca Malen winery, then the last tasting was at a small boutique winery run by a French couple. This is where it all went pear-shaped for James as he started to succumb to what turned out to probably be food poisoning, probably from the ill-prepared dinner the night before. We've thought it through and I can't think of anything else it could have been... 

So at the moment things are still not that great, hopefully he recovers enough by 11am tomorrow when we have to start our 18 hour bus journey to Salta... =(

Valparaiso & 'The Fat Cow' for dinner

One more UNESCO site ticked off the list! Valparaiso was awesome, once we found out which area we were supposed to be in... After another ample breakfast at our hostel we caught the bus to Valparaiso from the Parajitos subway station in Santiago. It was really convenient, buses left frequently and connected directly pretty much.

Once we got to Valparaiso we were immediately accosted by a bunch of people trying to sell us guided tours of the city, of course if people accost you when you get off the bus alarm bells go off and you generally don't dive headfirst into their offer, at least we managed to get a free city map and some advice from a guy before we turned down his deal, and wandered toward the touristy bit.

At Plaza Arturo Plat we stopped at a cafe for a quick break and managed to ask the somewhat-English speaking waitress for some advice, which was basically that we shouldn't go past a certain point of the city area since it wasn't safe for tourists - sure enough, when we ventured past a certain square to look at the oldest church in Chile, a policeman (and his police dog) came up and, again, told us we should leave as it wasn't safe for tourists there... Given this was now the second time we'd been told, we thought we should probably listen to their advice and headed back towards the Concepcion funicular, the one that was safe for tourists.

At the top we found a fantastic view of the city and also all the colourful houses and street art Valparaiso is famous for:

This one's for you, Mel! =)

We had lunch up the top there, and again, got told by another waitress where was safe/unsafe for tourists. Fortunately the scenic road to one of Pablo Neruda's houses was safe, so we ambled along that till we got to 'La Sebastiana'. It was definitely worthwhile going in, a great audio tour, and you can definitely conclude by the end of it that the guy was an absolute nutter... 

After that we basically went back down the hill through the 'open air museum' (a bit disappointing actually after all the other street art), and back onto the bus to Santiago. The bus steward (or conductor) was incredibly attentive and nice, he automatically got blankets to tuck in passengers who were dozing off, and also turned on the reading light for someone when it was getting dark, without being asked. Better service than our Aerolineas Argentinas flight! Though that's probably  not too difficult.

Back in Santiago, we got a recommendation to go to a restaurant called 'The Fat Cow' (or in Spanish "La Vaca Gordo'). When we got there it was absolutely choca full of locals, which was probably a good sign, and decided to wait the 20-30 mins to get a table. And wasn't it worth it! Definitely the best steak (and dinner, period) we've had on the trip so far, probably helped that we had a few Pisco Sours (the local cocktail of choice) and a very friendly waiter. Would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone who visits Santiago! Best of all the prices were awesome, I had a 400g Chilean Wagyu steak for NZ$18, the cocktails were about NZ$2 each (and believe me it was much stronger than the usual stuff in NZ that costs NZ$15). Plus we got free empanadas and even a free Armaretto at the end - we probably made up for it in the generous tip we left behind but totally worthwhile!

Tomorrow we have an early start to Mendoza... if we can wake up in time! Hopefully can get some great photos of the Andes as we cross over. 

Too much walking

This morning we did an excellent walking tour of Santiago, which gave a really good overview of the city and its history, then James and I settled into an Irish pub (yes, Irish) to watch the Spain-Portugal game, where I enjoyed my first Pisco Sour, which was really nice and strong... so strong I had a bit of a nap near the end of the second half, but managed to recover to see Spain finish one-up and go through to the next round.

Next was the funicular up the San Christobal hill, where unfortunately the grand vista of the city was pretty much covered in smog - we could still make out the mountains, not that it really matters since we'll be going over them ourselves soon enough!

Unfortunately I was overruled about buying a return trip down the hill, and we ended up walking... 7.2km back the long way down the vehicle road. As I had suspected, the more direct pedestrian route was completely unsafe to use near sundown, in fact security guards were posted along the entrances to deter dumb tourists from going down, which is probably quite a good idea.

After a dinner of traditional Chilean comfort food/home-style cooking, we took the metro back to our hostel - the metro system here is noticeably cleaner and more modern than Buenos Aires, but still not as good as Hong Kong. =)

Tomorrow we're off to Valparaiso, hopefully can fit in a visit to one of Pablo Neruda's houses there too!