The Too Huge World

On The Train From Bangkok to Chiang Mai

megankobrien — Tue, 14 May 2013 01:34:29 +0000

On the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.

Good Bye Street

Train Station

Waiting

Travelers

All Aboard

Hall

Cabin

Watch Your Step

Country

Old Woman

Zoom

Train Breakfast

On the Lost Palm Oasis/Mastadon Peak and Ryan Mountain

megankobrien — Sun, 05 May 2013 17:04:25 +0000

In the beginning of the summer I went camping in Joshua Tree National Park. I had a friend in town from Northern California back in Fall and we headed back out there for a long weekend. Last time I was out there I don’t feel that I took enough photos of the hikes we did, so I took this opportunity of revisiting to take photos and share my two favorite hikes in Joshua Tree.

Joshua Tree

This time we camped at the Cottonwood campground, which is located close to the north entrance.

Tent

Proper Camping Meal

Desert Coffee

On Friday we hiked the Lost Palm Oasis trail and Mastodon Peak.

Trail Marker

Scenery

Indigo Bush

Cholla

Collecting Chia

Pinacate Beetle

Creosote

Gambel’s Quail

Boulders

A. Bouldering

Atop the Boulder

Sandy Trail

Mastodon Mine

Mine

Mine Stuff

Makgeolli At The Top

The View

The Wildness

Heading Back

Ryan Mountain

Proof

Making Noodles on the Mountain

The Range

Blue Sky

Desert Beauty

Cache Found

On the way back we stopped for gas in a small town off of the 10. Tired, dirty and hungry we filled the tank, my buddy got an ice cream and we had a giant bag of chile and limon Lay’s to share. We sat there for a minute stuffing our faces with the convenience store goods and a British man in a bright yellow Lexus pulls up next to us. The man said, “Are you done? Mind if I use the pump. I’m in a bit of a hurry. I have got to get to Mexico.” – my buddy, who is stunned at this point, takes the ice cream out of his mouth, says something to the effect of “sure” and drives to the entrance of the station. He announces to me that it is Jeremy Clarkson of the Top Gear and they are filming. Watch for it on the BBC.

On El Yogurt Place

megankobrien — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:51:22 +0000

On El Yogurt Place. I have a favorite 2 favorite breakfast place in Baja California. The first one and the one I visit more frequently is in Tijuana; Playas De Tijuana to be more specific. El Yogurt Place is a healthy breakfast spot located smack on the border/by the beach. It’s delicious, healthy and kid friendly.

El Yogurt Place

Shade

Diner Style Side

Ordens Para Llevar

Huevos a la Toña

Pancakes with Yogurt

Panqueques y Fresas (off the kids menu)

Grapefruit Juice

Design

A View of the US/Tijuana Border

Happy Girl and Fountain

This place gets pretty busy, so there is a chance that you will have to wait for a good 30 minutes before you are seated. One cool aspect of this place is that it has a health food store attached, so you can browse for soaps, teas and herbs while you wait.

To get there cross at San Ysidro, follow the signs along Tijuana Ensenada Rd it will change to Paseo Playas de Tijuana then make a right on Cantera drive down until you parking spaces and (most likely) an attendant or two. You could choose to park there, the restaurant is about 2 minutes walking from there.

After enjoying breakfast I often work off breakfast by walking down at the beach. As opposed to the beach on the U.S. side, the Mexico side is lively and used for recreation and appreciation.

On North Park Alleys

megankobrien — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:12:02 +0000

On North Park alleys. I have back living in San Diego for almost a year now. While I have plans to go abroad again at the end of summer, I have enjoyed being back in the neighborhood that I have called home for most of my adult life. Back in the winter of 2010 I took a bunch of pictures of a characteristic and unchanged aspect of the rapidly changing neighborhood; the alleys. I hadn’t thought to put them up on my blog for some reason, but I’ve recently decided that it’s appropriate, so – here it is.

#10

#11

On Food in Bangkok

megankobrien — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:57:03 +0000

On food in Bangkok. I recognize that this subject is over done, Thai food is good and it generally photographs well, you would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t think so. Below is a photo essay of the food and drink I consumed in Bangkok.

Gwaytio Nuea Nam

Rice with Green Curry and Fried Eggs

Chok (โจ๊ก)

Phanaeng Curry (พะแนง)

Rat Na(ราดหน้า)

Pat Thai (ผัดไทย)

Fried Egg, Rice, Breaded Chicken

Noodle Soup with Chicken

Khao Phat (ข้าวผัด)

Khao Mok Kai (ข้าวหมกไก่)

Kuai-Tiao Nam (ก๋วยเตี๋ยวน้ำ)

Khao Mok Kai (ข้าวหมกไก่) – Again

Khao Kra Pao Gai

Pathongko (ปาท่องโก๋)

Pat Thai (ผัดไทย)

Nam ngiao (น้ำเงี้ยว)

Rice, Green Curry, Egg Roll

Kuai-tiao nam (ก๋วยเตี๋ยวน้ำ)

Tom Yum Haeng

White Curry and Rice

Yellow Curry Noodles (not Khao Soi)

Oliang(โอเลี้ยง) with Milk

Beer Chang (เบียร์ช้าง)

Leo Beer

Bangkok Cocktail

Papaya Smoothie

Strawberry Juice

Coca Cola

Pepsi

Civet Coffee

On First My Week and a Half in Thailand

megankobrien — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:25:30 +0000

On my first week and a half in Thailand. I didn’t do too much posting in Thailand, whereas I had expected to jump in full force on arrival. In a way I did…my WordPress Dashboard is full of unpublished/unfinished blog entries, but the fact is that Thailand wasn’t the inspiring and exciting experience that I thought it was going to be. I recognize that this is in part to external factors and rushing my goal of one day visiting Thailand. I was rereading this incredibly detailed account of my first week and a half in Bangkok and it’s worth sharing. My time in Thailand did certainly have entertaining, lucky and interesting moments that should be put out there.

Getting to Thailand:

I flew for 12 hours from LAX to Beijing on Air China, the most budget of budget airlines. The flight itself was quite an adventure. At the check in counter I asked if they had a window seat available, they didn’t, but they had an seat in the emergency exit row, which always means extra leg room, so I was happy. Extra leg room was an understatement, you could have fit my entire bathroom in Seoul in the space between me and the seat in front of me. I’m not exaggerating. As far as the other parts of the flight go however – the plane was super old, the food was white rice and questionable fried meat in airplane food form and the flight attendants spoke limited English (my problem, not theirs). There was free beer on the flight, although the older woman stewardess shamed me for asking for one and then on my second (5 hours later) she took it away when I was only half finished.

Beer

There was no beginning of the flight instructions and most of the movies were in Chinese. I spent most of the flight listening to my list of backlogged podcasts including the highly recommended episode of This American Life called Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory. It was a really unsettling to be sitting on a flight to China, listening to this podcast on my iPod while the Chinese man to my right was playing with his iPad and the Chinese man to my left was listening to something on his iPhone 4s and reading the biography of Steve Jobs in Chinese (no joke).

After we landed I had two hours to get through the transit customs (which included a red stamp in my passport) and find my terminal. This process took about 45 minutes which meant that I had time to kill. Naturally, I was inclined to use this time to check various social networking sites. This of course was a problem as I was in China and they were blocked. Eventually we loaded the plane and arrived in Bangkok 5 hours later – at 2:00am.

Arrival in Thailand:

The customs line was full of Koreans escaping winter. It didn’t take long to get through. I was mildly worried because although I had a 60-day tourist visa, I had no return ticket. From what I had read [online] an onward ticket is required, but it wasn’t a problem (also read [online]).

Thailand really had been the smoothest travel experience I have ever had.

After getting through customs I arrived at the luggage conveyer just in time to grab my bag and head out to the taxi line outside. While waiting in line I asked the Swiss kid in front of my if he was going to Khao San Rd. He was super friendly, but said that he was going to a different part of town. After being approached by a French man (going to Khao San) he agreed to share a cab with us. This is the best way it could have worked out. We split the 300 baht cab ride (plus two 45 baht tolls) among three people.

After getting to the infamous Khao San Rd. at about 3:00am, I quickly found a room, dropped my bag and went out for a beer. This is when everything hit me. Within seconds of walking out onto the street I watched a ladyboy push a very drunk Westerner so hard that he tumbled down and the hit the concrete hard and tried not to watch a very drunk Thai woman strip down to nothing before the cops got her to cover herself. I saw a group of Americans dance together in the street to some cheesy mix of one of those songs that are played everywhere at that point, “Move like Jagger” or “Sexy and I Know It”. This is when I had my first “WTF?!” moment.

Activity

Drinkers

Cocktail Bar

Makin’ it Happen in Thailand:

Fan, Closet, Key, Water

Khao San Rd in the Day Light

The next day, Tuesday, I woke up and felt encouraged and ready again. I had come to Bangkok to get a teaching job and spend some time and I was gonna make that happen. I took my Macbook to a cafe with WiFi got some muesli and yogurt and emailed my CV to all the schools I could find via popular teaching job websites. I also walked around the neighborhood trying to get my bearings. That afternoon I went to the Amulet Market, the Grand Palace and Wat Pho.

Red Bus

Wednesday, my second day, I found a new guesthouse on Phra Athit, a quieter area across the street from the river, but still very close to Khao San.

Chao Phraya

Shelter

Boat

Underwater

I got a sim card (after seeing how easy it was I should have done this day one). I just walked into 7-Eleven and got a DTAC sim card for my unlocked iPhone and was set with minimal data, but a good amount of minutes. After spending an hour at a market near by, I spent time at a cafe sending emails and calling schools.

What Happened Here?

Intersection

Market

Business

Tangerines

Dragon Fruit and Mango

Greens

Tangerines and Greens

Longan

Mangoes and Tangerines

Mangoes and Rose Apples,

Coffee

Kung Haeng and Chili Sauce

Monks

I braved the Bangkok bus system in the afternoon and headed to Siam Square, an area of Bangkok with a high concentration of language schools and handing out my CV.

Window

Bus Seats

Bridges and Traffic

Erawan Shrine

As I sat down with a Thai Iced Tea I got a call about working at a camp for a few days starting Thursday. That night I headed out to Ramkhamhaeng, for a job interview. The interview never happened as the school was in the middle of nowhere. Although the person with whom I had scheduled the interview was very, very friendly and helpful I never did find the school and none of the people around that I asked knew of the place, so I eventually was so frustrated that I wrote it off pretty sure that I didn’t want to work in the middle of nowhere. To add to my frustration I hopped in a cab that smelled like it had been washed in whiskey, more likely sangsom. and the young greasy haired driver continued to talk about how he was new and didn’t make a lot of money as a cab driver. I decided rather quickly that I did not want to be in that cab and when he finally pulled over (after I had asked him a number of times) he quickly stated that he didn’t have any change, luckily for me I had exact change. I walked the two kilometers back to the bus stop and eventually caught the bus back to my guesthouse.

Thursday, day 4, I woke up at 5am, packed up my backpack, checked out and grabbed a cab which I took to a school/meeting point for the camp. Before getting the courage to go inside the wat at the 7:00am meeting time.

Good Morning, Bangkok

I stopped for a can of coffee at a street vendor. A very nice man immediately started asking me friendly questions about where I was from and what I was doing. As I asked how much the canned coffee would be the vendor told me 20 baht the friendly guy said something to the vendor and then turned to me and said that it was 15 baht for locals, so I paid 15 baht. It made my day.

Camp Bus

The camp was supposed to be 3 days, but they liked me so I was offered a spot for the next camp starting on Sunday. Before the end of that camp I was offered a job substitute teaching starting Wednesday. When I got back to Bangkok one of the other farang teachers from the camp helped me get a place at his guesthouse for 200 baht a night, again near Khao San and showed me the bus I would need.

Stairwell

Veranda

Cats

Canal

Altar

Wednesday, day 9, I started the subbing job.

Pre-Dawn Coffee

Parking Lot and Wat

Teacher’s Room

School

Classroom

After school I went to visit the apartment of another one of the farang teachers, so see about renting a place. It wasn’t really what I was looking for so I hopped on the BTS to the MRT to On Nut to look at places there. I walked around for about an hour before finding exactly what I was looking for. I found an inexpensive studio apartment with character not far from the On Nut MRT and the On Nut market down a road that looks like a little village in a huge concrete city. The owner speaks very limited English, but she agreed to rent to me regardless. The building was right next to a yard with about 6 roosters and a rowdy, hilarious bunch of motorcycle taxi drivers.

On Nut Market

My Soi

Cart

Motorcycle Taxi and Street Vendor

Rooster

Shrine

Thursday, day 10, I subbed again then headed to the apartment to get my key and sign the contact.

My Studio

The Bathroom

Under the Tents at the On Nut Market

Friday, day 11, I packed up, checked out, hopped on the 2 bus and essentially moved into my apartment before work. The school that I have been subbing at is two MRT stops away from my new apartment.

Sukhumvit

BTS

After work I went to the office of the company that runs the camps to pick up my salary and was informed that they had a contract job for me starting in May. That evening I got some apartment stuff from the Tesco across the street from my place. Places like Tesco are always such a weird experience. Just like E-Mart or Homeplus (owned by Tesco) in South Korea, once I walk into one I feel like I might as well be in a Target back home in the States. Everything is sterile and prices are markets on little printed tags. The air conditioning is always full blast, the employees wear name tags and there are familiar brands. Meanwhile, as soon as I walked outside, I was back in Bangkok, it was very hot, crowded, there was traffic, I didn’t understand the chatting around me and there were new, nonstop, overwhelming smells.

Vegetable Cart

This was my first week and a half in Thailand.

On Potato Chips in Thailand

megankobrien — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 03:48:55 +0000

On potato chips in Thailand. I’m always interested in trying snack and chips from other countries. This became prevalent when I studied abroad in Salvador da Bahia and found these:

Filet Mignon Grelhado

I tried a lot of snack foods and chips in South Korea, but never blogged about it out of shame, but the selection in Thailand was so varied that I indulged and documented.

Hot and Spicy Crab and a Canned Coffee

Butter Scallop vs. Spicy Seafood and a Singha

Hot Chili Squid

Nori Seaweed

Baked Bacon Cheese with Seaweed

Sweet Basil

Peking Duck with Sauce

Lobster Hot Plate

Snacks:

Potato Snack and Mini Can of Coke

Chili Prawn Crackers

On Coffee in NYC

megankobrien — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:05:49 +0000

On coffee in NYC. Last week I got back from a trip to the east coast. (OMG – a timely blog post!) Among many, many other things, coffee was a point of interest on this trip. While I don’t consider this a food blog, per say, I do find myself taking pictures and posting about food often. This started as I was exploring food in other countries and currently is because I am exploring on a smaller scale in my own country. Coffee is something I have commented on in the past and I am attempting to learn more about it – so it’s become a point of interest for me when I travel.

Before I had left San Diego I researched cafes and coffee shops in New York. New York doesn’t seem to have the same coffee culture as San Francisco or the Pacific Northwest, but I was very happy with some of the places I visited while out there. This time I was traveling with a companion who is also really into coffee and whose knowledge to date surpasses my own. It was a good experience.

Day 1: Café Grumpy (Chelsea)

Café Grumpy

Espresso Machine

Pour Over

La Esperanza

While this place had been on my list before arriving on the East Coast, it also came highly recommended by friends of friends immediately after we had arrived. Because of this we bumped it up to the Day 1 spot. I enjoyed this place. I got a pour over here (interestingly enough my only pour over of the trip). It felt appropriate in the space for some reason. It was quite good. My travel companion, who got an espresso, enjoyed his beverage as well. We sat there with our coffees planning our day of tourism while conversations about auditions and grad. school took place around us. How New York…

Day 2: JOE ( Upper West Side)

Inside JOE

Rosetta and Heart

Lattes

Take Away

JOE was our choice for Day 2 and JOE was great. Really good espresso. The barista chatted up about coffee and different roasters, which was fun.

Think Coffee (Greenwich Village):

Think Lattes

The barista at Think made two very fine lattes. What kills me is that they have a location in Seoul that I never made it to. It seems like a super popular spot, with good reason, the drinks were really good.

Day 3: Abraço (East Village):

Abraço

Cortado

I was excited because this seemed like more of an Italian espresso shot and I suppose for the size of the bar it was, but I wasn’t super impressed by my cortado here. Its a good spot to grab a shot when you need it, but I was underwhelmed.

Day 4: Gimme Coffee (SoHo)

Latte at Gimme! Coffee and La Marzocco Machine

This place wasn’t great. Pretty latte art, but uninteresting espresso. People on the internet seem to rave about it, I wasn’t impressed.

Day 5: Ground Support (SoHo)

Heart at Ground Support

The space was cool and I dug that the beans were from Intelligentsia (a roaster that I like), but the latte was mediocre. It’s entirely possible that this was because of the quality of the milk or something, but I don’t feel the need to revisit this place again. Especially not when there is JOE, Think and Café Grumpy.

Day 8: Café Grumpy (Greenpoint)

Instagram’ed Latte from Grumpy’s

This would probably be my regular cafe in NYC, if I ever lived there.

On Food and Coffee and Beer in the Pacific Northwest

megankobrien — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:24:17 +0000

On food and coffee and beer in the Pacific Northwest. While I was up north coffee and beer were missions in between the wedding, visiting friends, hiking and general tourism. I took tons of pictures and had opinions of everything, but alas – too much time has passed – so here are pictures and limited thoughts on what I ate and drank in Seattle and Portland.

The Food:

Salumi Artisan Cured Meats (Pioneer Square, Seattle) – amazing sandwiches!

Counter

Prosciutto, Fig and Goat Cheese

Nextdoor Gastro Pub (Port Angeles)

Dungeness Crab Salad

Green Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant (International District, Seattle)

Gỏi cuốn (Vietnamese Spring Rolls)

Phở

Pikes Place Market (Seattle)

Shrimp Cocktail

Paseo Caribbean Restaurant (Fremont, Seattle). I was excited to try this place because I hadn’t had a Cuban sandwich before, while there was a long line and seemed very popular, I didn’t care for it.

Caribbean Roast Sandwich and Ginger Beer

Onion Obsession Sandwich

Black Bottle (Belltown, Seattle). Unfortunately my pictures didn’t turn out, but this place has very good flatbread and cocktails.

Homemade Trader Joe’s Pizza (Capital Hill, Seattle)

Voodoo Doughnuts (Old Town Chinatown, Portland)

Everyone Knows What This Is

Good Taste Restaurant (Old Town Chinatown, Portland)

Dumpling Soup

The Coffee: Lots of coffee was consumed. Most didn’t make into pictures, Caffe Vita and Caffe Ladro, for example.

Chemex

Heart Roasters

Ethiopia Yukro

Stumptown Coffee Roasters (of course!!)

Stumptown Coffee Roasters

Latte

The Beer and Liquor:

Mac & Jack Two Tun IPA

Old Fashioned at Black Bottle

Elysian Brewing Company

Buckman Botanical Brewery was my favorite of all the breweries we visited.

Buckman Botanical Brewery

Flight/Helmet

New Deal Distillery

Vodkas #1

Vodkas #2

Cascade Brewing

Sours

Flight at Burnside Brewing

Rogue Sign

Flight at Rogue

Flight at Deschutes Brewery

On Mt. Rainier

megankobrien — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 19:13:12 +0000

On Mt. Rainier. While on a trip to the Pacific Northwest I had the privilege of completing a day hike on Mt. Rainier. This mountain will go down as one of my favorite mountain hikes, ever. We left Portland in our little rented Fiat 500 and arrived to the mountain pretty late in the evening and checked into the Paradise Inn, a cozy, yet large cabin on the mountain. The next morning before starting out, I had to stop by the rangers station as I had been stung by a bee in Portland and my finger had swollen to almost twice the size. It was a gnarly sting. Although, I can’t complain too much as the park rangers were awfully cute.

Paradise Inn

The View

Loft

Mountain Info

Base

Stairs

Here is the part where I admit to being a bad blogger (for going on a super long hiatus – without warning) and then I’ll admit to being a bad information sharer, because I don’t really know all the trails we hiked. It was a good day hike though. We started about 10am and finished close to sunset. So I am unable to give full details of trails, mileage and elevation gain. However, I did take a ridiculous amount of photos and have lots of those to share.

Trail and Information Center

Pink, Green, Blue and White

Trees

Hiding

Hills

Ridge

Alaska Yellow-Cedars and Engelmann Spruce

Valley

Hoary Marmot

Trees, Hills, Streams

Pacific North West

Ice

Skyline Trail

More Trees

Blue Sky

Warning

Boots on Ice

Ledge

Looking Up

Straight Ahead

Compass

Hills

Rocks

Life

Water

Stream

More Hills

Puffballs (…scientific name)

Beauty

Landscape

Path

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel

Greenery

Melted Ice

Forest

PNW

More Puff Balls

Bridge

Field

Yellow and Purple

Rogue

Walking Away

Step

Lake

Mountain Hemlock (I think)

Looking Down

Pathway

Mineral Lake

Bee

Lakes Trail Marker

Creek

Mt. Rainier

There is my Mt. Rainier day hike. Again, one of the best I have ever done.

More timely blog posts to come in the future.