South Africa: 5 pictures, 5 stories

The Vuvuzela

Chachee was the undisputed king of the infamous vuvuzela. He carried his with him almost all the time, and did his best to abide by the rules set forth by his fellow travelers: no vuvuzela in the van; no vuvuzela before noon; and no vuvuzela at World Heritage sites (namely Robben Island). The vuvuzela is not just your run of the mill noise maker, however. It was also used for drinking champagne (as seen above), as a make-shift beer bong, and to smoke out of a hookah.

Braai

Braai is basically South African barbeque. Only it's way better. Pictured above is the braai we had in a township outside of Durban. This establishment featured an array of uncooked meats that in the US you could never find outside of a butcher. You pay for any and all meats that you want, which are piled on a cutting board which you take out back to a giant grill, where it's cooked for you and then brought to your table. Then you just hang out, drink, and eat meat (sorry Beth!). The platter above featured sausage, pork, lamb, and kidneys, and ran us about $20.

Wild Animals

Hopefully you at least sort of tell what's happening in the picture above. In case you can't, allow me to set the stage. We went on a sunrise safari drive (after already going on a sunset/night drive the evening before and seeing tons of animals) and didn't see a single animal for the entire first hour. Just when I was starting to give up hope, we pulled along side two other jeeps on the side of the road who clearly had something interesting going on. Lo and behold, three female lions have caught something and are having a nice little breakfast for themselves. Turns out breakfast was a baby rhinoceros (Sorry again Beth)! One lion was off to the side gnawing on big gray leg. Another was pulling entrails out of the rhino (which I'm pretty sure is basically just showing off). All in all, pretty spectacular.

Korea DPR

Better known to most Americans as North Korea, Korea DPR played Portugal in the last match we attended in South Africa. Since the Ronaldos, err, I mean, Portugal, had no shortage of people rooting for them at the World Cup three brave souls (Chachee, myself, and another traveler who wishes to remain anonymous, I guess to preserve his future in politics) decided to support the underdogs. So we bought flags, we painted our faces, and we made up cheers ("Hana, dhool, seht. We're not done yet!"). We got other people in our section rooting for the Koreans. And I have to tell you -- I may get the CIA knocking on my door, but it was a blast.

Just Because...

...this is maybe the most amazing picture ever. This was after the Spain-Switzerland match, and I have no idea what was said to get the policemen to offer up their vests. But the looks on both of their faces cannot be taken lightly.

I have grand desires for a part two to this post (5 more pictures, 5 more stories). I'm only telling you that so that I feel guilty about not posting another.

SHAME!!!!!

If this virtual shaming doesn't guilt people into posting, I don't know what will. Oh yes I do! Dun, Dun, Dun! You have two weeks, or embarrassing pictures of the following people might begin to surface on this blog....
Erin
Raman
Danielle
Jami

Things About Things

(In case you forgot what I looked like)

I don't have a ton to say, and this blog post is being written more out of guilt of not posting than out of actual, interesting news... but here it goes, a top ten list of things about things (or "potpourri", as Jeopardy would call it).

10. I am on my way to turning into my fantasy; a thick skinned, hard scrabblin', ole country boy from Texas. The person that I want to be when I grow up has invited to mentor me, and I am getting my first lesson on Saturday. He has already gifted me with a corncob pipe, and will provide sipping Wild Turkey and a garage. I need to provide a dog, and we'll sit in his garage with our dogs, and the aforementioned whiskey and tobacco. I hope I can live up to his expectations.

9. The Bay Area will be graced by the presence of a one Chachee Ramos over the weekend. Our South Africa encounters went swimmingly, so I am optimistic that this weekend will be great. I just hope that he has weaned himself from his biltong (South African beef jerky) dependency by Saturday, I really don't want to find him sleeping on a couch covered in jerky with one hand in a biltong bag and the rest of his body twitching occasionally.

8. My father got married on Saturday. It was a fun, mellow, casual affair filled with family, friends and good food. I raided the bar at the end (at the bartender's suggestion), which made the event that much better. For all of those with questions: no, I'm not going to call her mom, and; who knows, maybe we'll paint our toes and braid each others hair someday, I'm not ruling it out.

7. The UCSB crew is heading to our annual Vegas trip in a couple weeks. Madness will surely ensue. There are 17 Gauchos (or those that love Gauchos) making the trip, and to up the ante, the other Bible sister is bringing along another 20 or so friends, including 11 boys who have decided to treat this weekend as a bachelor party for one of his friends. I'm assuming that we'll find deuce deuce with them at the Crazy Horse II at 3:00 am on Sunday.

6. I've been thinking about instituting a "jello shot Friday" tradition. I think it will be something to look forward to.

5. Our book club is tonight. I chose the book Lowboy, and I'm interested in seeing how it went over. I'm afraid the bar was set too high by the author and Zach Galifianakis, who had a pretty funny interview/short video on amazon.com. I've somehow conned Zach (my Zach, not Zach the one man wolf pack) into making dinner, so our readers can look forward to oxtails and polenta. Yum.

4. I'm beginning a slow transition to a different unit over the summer. Sort of a "helping out" probationary period type of thing. I'm optimistic that it is a good move, and it should allow me to travel (although not to South America). If anyone wants to be my traveling buddy to Asia, let me know.

3. Zach and I ran the tables at darts in SB over the weekend. It was the closest thing I've felt (and will probably ever feel) to glory. And, I hit three bulls eyes during out reign of terror, which, I'm pretty sure, is a personal best. Autograph requests and personal appearances are currently being considered.

2. I recently got Mandy and Z to watch Grownups with me. This is an official warning, don't.make.the.same.mistake.I.did. On a vaguely related note, I know the guy that made the poster. He is an amazing designer who gets stuck with shitty movies. The last one I remember him telling me he made was "don't mess with the zohan," maybe he is cursed?

1. With SA under our belts, I'm beggining to feel a little restless. I think Z and I are going to plan to visit the sister (overrated) in June and do a little Italy, Slovenia, Croatia trifecta. It sounds like fun, but I'm also willing to hear other suggestions in case something better pops up! Either way, any ideas of which region of Italy to go to is highly appreciated.

0. (Bonus!) Although I am thrilled that my star-eyed wandering buddies are having the time of their lives abroad, I am really beginning to miss them pretty badly, and as I am a selfish person, I would really appreciate it if they got their wandering out of their system so they could just come home already, okay?

N.O.L.A.

My girlfriend and I went to a wedding in Lafayette, Louisiana for my buddy Mark. I also, stayed in New Orleans for a few days beforehand. In keeping with the top 10 lists here we go...

10. Plantation - So after spending a couple nights in New Orleans hanging w/ the guys, we drove over to Lafayette, LA (more technically New Iberia) for the wedding. We obviously took the less traveled highway 90 with a whole day to kill before we needed to arrive in New Iberia. Along the way Jen (our navigator and factologist) found a historic plantation that did daily tours, however, by the time we got there it was closed. From the fence that read, "Beware watch dog on premises." we could see the main house and it was pretty impressive.

9. FOOD - While in New Orleans I got to eat at several good restaurants. On the first night we went to Dickie Brennen's Steakhouse (http://www.dickiebrennanssteakhouse.com/) because Travis owes me 3 (now 2) steak dinners. The other reason we decided on this place is that in the if you eat in the bar the only restrictions was that you had to have sleeves on your shirt. I didn't pack the cut offs so I was good to go. Had the house filet w/ fried oysters for good measure. the following day we ate at Acme Oyster House and this small divey soul food joint called Mother's. Had a shrimp po boy and some red beans and rice. It was probably the best po boy I've ever had.

8. La Quinta & Chilis - New Iberia, despite the great name, is not the most happening place in Louisiana. All the guests of the wedding were pretty much staying at the La Quinta Inn (newly remodeled and very nice). The only place that had a bar was Chili's. Don't get me wrong, I do like Chili's, but there is only so much chain food atmosphere I can handle. This Chili's did have an amazing deal as all draft beers were 2 for 1. This deal was taken advantage of over and over again throughout the weekend.

7. Omni Pool - After a night of long dirnking there is nothing more this pasty white guy likes to do than hang by the pool and by pool I mean covered area by a pool that has a bar. A few people were staying at the Omni in the French Quarter so we decided to take advantage of the rooftop pool w/ bar. Nothing like getting rid of a hangover by drinking Corona cans all day ;)

6. Beignets and Cafe Ole - I have never had a beignet before and apparently Cafe Du Monde is the most touristy place to go for them but they sure are good. Not a big sweets guy but something about the outdoor seating, the street musicians, and the cafe ole made this a great experience. In the outdoor seating area they have ceiling fans to help you cool off which reminded me of Hong Kong.

5. Acme Oyester House Balcony - If you go to New Orleans there is one thing that we all think of and the is Balcony's. Instead of doing a really expensive dinner Travis decided it would be a better idea to rent out the top of the Acme Oyster House place that has a balcony looking over Bourbon street. We ordered a ton of Oysters and had a 2 hour all you could drink deal. It was definitely a highlight of staying in New Orleans.

4. Tabasco Tour - Avery Island is really close to New Iberia and this is where Tabasco is made. If you look closely on the bottle is says "McIlhenny Co." and "Avery Island LA." McIlhenny is the founder of the company that got a patent for the recipe which goes something like this...Take Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt ground up and age it for 3 years in a bourbon oak barrel. After the mash is aged you strain it, add more vinegar, and stir for 28 days and then bottle. They have a tour and gift shop that has all kinds of Tabasco products. Overall it was pretty cool and i bought wood chips that they chop out of the oak barrels that they are done using for Zach, hopefully he smokes something good (thanks Dickers).

3. Pre-Jeans - This is traditional cajun restaurant that was recommended by Laurie (the bride and LA native) and her family. The food was really good as we tried fried crawfish, alligator, frog legs, crab legs, and oysters. For my entree I had crawfish etoufee which was ridiculously good. The funny part of this story is that the entire time at the restaurant and when a buddy was talking to Laurie's family about where we went to dinner we pronounced it Pre-Jeans which they had no idea what we were talking about. It is cajun country so obviously it is pronounced with a French inflection.

2. Air Boat Tour - You're not in the Bayou until you do a air boat swamp tour. This was really really cool. Basically a air boat is a raft with a V8 engine that powers a fan. It can go really fast and basically glide on the water or it can maneuver deep in the swamp land even jump over floating tree stumps. We saw some birds but no alligators. It was told to us later that because it was so hot and late in the day (around 2PM) that they had already called it a day. Despite wearing headphones I still can't hear.

1. Wedding - It was a very nice wedding where there was a live band, friends, booze, and tons of fun. During on part of the night they broke out a bunch of Mardi Gras masks and handed them out to everyone w/ beads. Truly a great end to a fun weekend.

PS My girlfriend, who wishes to go nameless on the blog wants to add, I ate Alligator

I can't be original...so I decided to go with the flow...here's another top 10, possibly 7.

I promised April that I would contribute at well, and 2 weeks after she sent me the email to signup, I'm finally doing it. Which, to my credit, is alot better than Christie and her 30 days apparently. I'm intrigued by these lists that people are doing; it's straight and to the point, but at the same time it's evenly spaced out so that it makes it easier on the eyes. Here are the top thoughts currently going on in my head at the moment. These are in no random order.

1) After multiple people telling me that they watch Glee and that it's a good show, i've also decided to start watching it. I have a lot of episodes to catch up on, but being the savvy Asian that I am, I will "download" them like I do all shows that I missed or aren't on hulu. Also, the show must be half decent if Raman has urges to youtube Glee songs when we were in Santa Barbara for New Year's.

2) Wang-Dang Consulting is in full force, the following positions have been filled. If you thin you can help this company, please contact one of the following people:

CEO- Janea Marking
CWO (chief weed officer) - Arlen Marking
CPO (chief porn officer) - Wang Dizzle
Muscle- Dickers
Venture Capitalist- Gordon Chang

At this current time Gordon has yet to venture any capital into our company, so if you do see him, please slap him on my behalf. What the company does is consult currently on weed, porn, and strippers. Given the recession we feel that these 3 things are recession proof, much like Pabst Blue Ribbon. CAO (chief alcohol officer) is up for grabs...anyone?!?!

3) I'm still in my tequila phase, I've had Patron Reposado, which I found out that reposado means aged between 2 months to 2 years, and anejo means more than 2 years. Very smooth. I enjoyed it.

4) In July is the Annual Vegas Trip, I am excited to look forward to Vegas just like the other 3 times already this year. Should be fun. It's not where you go...it's who you go with.

5) Happy Wife...Happy Life

...gotta run for a bday dinner!

GO COLTS!

Comments, Y'all

A certain debonair, mustachioed wandering man has informed me that the comments are not working on this blog. Heads have been scratched and settings have been changed, and I think all is now well in the commenting world, so please feel free to extol the greatness of this fine blog.

What I've Been Doing With My Liver Lately

2010 has been a good year for beer. A sampling of my beer-ventures thus far...

Strong beer month / SF beer week

February is always a good beer month in San Francisco, and this year did not disappoint. With April in the Philippines for most of the month, I tried to make the most of it. By my count (and yes, I tried to keep a tally), I tried 37 different beers while April was gone. Not bad for 3 weeks work.

Included in that total was a Russian River tasting at the Jug Shop, in which Raman, Christie and I had the opportunity to try 13 different RR beers. The vast majority of these were their trademark barrel-aged beers, including a few that aren't even available for purchase any more. I was a little nervous that Christie would curse me for talking her into the tasting, but I dare say we might have converted her into a fan of (some) sour beers, which I consider no mean feat. The tasting was simply jaw-dropping, and naturally we capped the night off at Nob Hill Tavern (RIP).

Of course February is also Strong Beer month, and Spencer and I defied all odds to add another glass to our growing collections. 21st Amendment was conquered with relative ease, and another All-Star weekend Saturday was spent having lunch at Magnolia. But by the time April returned from the Philippines and we went back to Magnolia to knock out the last 3 beers, they had already run out of a few of their beers! The waitress informed us that they were under strict instructions not to give out any glasses unless all 12 beers were punched, and no substitutions would be made. Of course this simply wouldn't do. April worked her considerable charm on the waitress, and Spencer and I were allowed to substitute and were duly rewarded for all of our, um, hard work.

New Orleans

I went to New Orleans in March for a bachelor party. New Orleans might not be known for their microbrews, but I always like to try the local selections when in a new region. Of course, Abita is the craft brew of choice down there and the selection is a lot better than in California. Based on my somewhat hazy tasting of the Abita lineup I could get my hands on, their best beers get wide distribution. Of note were their IPA, for being pretty awful (there's a reason west coast IPAs dominate the market), and Andy Gator, which is technically a doppelbock but was described to me in one bar as a "high alcohol, malt liquor-like beer". The description alone sold me.

I also lunched at the Crescent City Brewhouse my last day in town and got their beer sampler, as I am wont to do. Basically, 4 of their 5 beers were terrible. So thanks New Orleans, for the good times, but feel free to keep your beer.

Brewventure 2010

By far my most massive beer undertaking of 2010, April, Danielle, Spencer and I embarked on Brewventure 2010 just after tax day. Taking Friday off, we started the day with some breakfast at Mama's (you know, just to get a good base). From there we drove up to Anderson Valley Brewery in Boonville, just missed the tour, and did our first tasting of the day slightly after noon. Anderson Valley has a super-impressive set up, complete with a disc golf course on the grounds and a solar-powered brewery. (Aside: I noticed that they canned some of their beers, and inquired about their reasoning, expecting a response about how it was more environmentally friendly, etc, etc. Instead, the woman manning the bar basically intimated that they were only doing it because it was the new hotness.)

Next we hopped over to Hopland, home to California's oldest brewpub, which is run by Mendocino Brewery. Another sampler and a few darts wins later and we were back on the road.

Our third stop was at Bear Republic's brewpub in Healdsburg, where we indulged in lunch and yet another sampler.

We ended the night in Santa Rosa, where we had a hotel a short walk from Russian River Brewery. We ordered, you guessed it, their sampler, which brought our total for different beers tried on the day to a staggering 52. Needless to say, it was completely over the top and completely worth it. There is already talk of an East Coast brewventure in the future...

Hawaii

I was expecting good weather, good relaxation, and good times when we shipped off to Hawaii for April's cousin's wedding. I was not, by any means, expecting good beer. But when our cabbie informed us that there was a brewpub just minutes from our hotel, I immediately started plotting how to make it happen (I mean, we had to check it out, right?). And let me tell you, Maui Brewing Company exceeded all of my expectations. The six of us split a sampler, and they make a bunch quality beers, some of which are available in cans at the local markets (perfect for beach drinking). As if I needed another reason to like Hawaii.

On The Horizon

2010 isn't even half over yet, so there's plenty of beer yet to be had. Things to look forward to include: San Francisco Giants' 1st annual Beerfest, South African beer and of course homebrews (on tap: IPA; on deck: Saison).

Cheers!