Travel Bites - Travel Bites

Travel Bites

By

The Hungry Traveller

Wattle Publishing Ltd

Third Floor, 207 Regent Street,

London W1B 3HH

www.wattlepublishing.com

Published in Great Britain by Wattle Publishing Ltd in 2012

Copyright 2012 by The Hungry Traveller

The moral right of the author has been asserted

www.travelbitesbythehungrytraveller.com

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-908959-02-7

All rights reserved. This Work is protected by Copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieved system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Dedication

This is dedicated to the many people whom I have met along the way and who have made my travelling experiences so memorable. From the local shopkeeper or train passenger who I met and passed a few hours with, to those people who through a chance meeting, I have formed life-long friendships. All of you have contributed to the episodes that have made this book possible.

Contents

My First Day
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

My Most Memorable Burger Experience
Location: Meknes, Morocco

A Step Back in Time
Location: Singapore

La Dolce Vita
Location: Rome, Italy

The Worlds Best Kebab (well, at least in my opinion)
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Drunken Prawns
Location: Da Lat, Vietnam

Oh, I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside
Location: Brighton, England

The Spice Island
Location: Zanzibar, Tanzania

The Best Homemade Pasta
Location: La Spezia, Italy

Tea and the Art of Negotiation
Location: North Africa, Middle East, Turkey

Island of Atlantis
Location: Santorini, Greece

An Australian Classic?
Location: Sydney, Australia

Eire of the Dog
Location: Republic of Ireland

The First Time I Ate Genuine Indian Food?
Location: Little India, Singapore

A Surreal Day
Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The Highs and Lows of Bush Camping
Location: Eastern Africa

Another World
Location: Sapa, Vietnam

The Evolution of Food
Location: My kitchen

The Taverna
Location: Lesbos, Greece

A Tale of Two Cheesesteaks
Location: New York City and Philadelphia, USA

The Bridge on the River Kwai
Location: Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Cocktails, Sunset, and Key Lime Pie
Location: Florida, USA

I never set out to write a book.

And no doubt, critics will say that I still havent after they have read this.

It all started with a writing course in which we were assigned the task of writing about a memorable experience. I wrote about eating camel burgers in Meknes in Morocco. I enjoyed writing the story because the memory of my travels suddenly came alive, and this acted as a catalyst for remembering other events that I had almost forgotten. During the time I had been travelling, I had lacked the interest and self-discipline to keep a travel diary, so I jotted down all of the events that I could remember on a page. When I looked at the list that I had compiled, I found that, like the story of eating the camel burger, many of my memories and experiences were linked to food!

So that I would not completely forget these experiences, I started to write them down as a series of short stories, like a retrospective diary. What was most interesting was the importance of food, either as the centre of the story itself or as the gateway into experiencing another culture. All of the recipes are from dishes that I now cook but had mostly never even tried (let alone cooked) until my travels.

Most of my stories cover a span of over fifteen years and are reflections of my experiences from visiting different places. Reading some of these stories, you can probably tell that some of these episodes affected me on a more personal level than others. But I guess it is all of lifes experiences, both good and bad, that make us into the people who we become.

I am sure that in the intervening years, a lot of things may have changed in many of the places I have visited. It would be great if you shared your travel experiences, or perhaps how things have changed from what I have described in the book on my blog (www.travelbitesbythehungrytraveller.com) or on twitter (@travel_bites). I always like to read about other peoples travel experiences.

Finally, this book does not claim to be an academic text. Any facts or information that I have included in each travel bite is based on information that I have picked up from local tour guides, museums and hearsay. Where possible, I have researched information to ensure that my stories are materially correct, but again, all feedback is welcome.

Also, if you follow any of my recipes, please make sure that none of the ingredients will trigger an allergic reaction before attempting the recipe.

I hope you enjoy my stories.

The Hungry Traveller

My tentative smile was met by a stern expression from the immigration official who held up my passport opened at its photo page. She stared at me hard in the face and glanced from the photo to my face and back again several times. My smile quickly dropped as she went page by page through my passport, looking for my visa. Having found the correct page, she stamped my passport, handed it back to me, and nodded.

I was now on my way!

I moved past the immigration desk and started walking through the airport building. I was now buzzing. Only six weeks earlier I had made the relatively impulsive decision to buy a multi-stop plane ticket and give notice at work. Although I had been organised enough to buy myself a new backpack, I had done all of my packing at the last minute, not even thirty-six hours earlier. I had no idea when I would be back home.

More than ten years later, I still dont know.

As the plane touched down on the runway at Tan Son Nhat airport, I looked out of the window and to my surprise, saw old battle-scarred concrete bunkers along the side of the runway. It almost felt like a clich, given that I had arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. This city had formerly been known as Saigon before it was renamed in 1976, after the fall of the South Vietnamese government and the creation of the unified Vietnamese state.

After I left the terminal building, I finally felt like I was in Vietnam and that my adventure had begun! Through a lack of planning on my part, I had arrived during one of the hottest times of the year. I began to immediately perspire with the weight of the pack on my back. I sweltered under the baking hot sun, and the very high humidity caused the air to feel thick, magnifying the effect of the heat.

The airport was not that far from the centre of the city so I decided I would splash out and get a taxi, rather than spend any more time than I had to walking around with my heavy backpack in the sun. I was one of the last people to come off my flight so I felt confident of my chances of not getting ripped off by the taxi drivers (I knew from the guidebook that taxis in Ho Chi Minh City are metered and that you should refuse to get into a taxi unless the driver switches on the meter).

Rather than sitting in their cars and taking their turns in the rank, the drivers were directly approaching tourists for their business.

Taxi? Taxi? Taxi? they clamoured.

OK, but we use the taximeter. I replied.