On the road

The beauty of jet lag is that 1. It lasts for a long time (13 hour difference to Perth), 2. You wake up at 5:00 am rearing to go.  At low tide you can supposedly see dinosaur tracks in the stone at Gantheaum Point.  Low tide was set for 7:00am, so we were able to get there easily. At 7:00am it was 33 Celsius with blazing sun.  It was hot, but it was beautiful.  The red dirt, the blue ocean and the heat.  Although we wandered the grounds for 30 minutes we were unable to locate anything looking like dinosaur tracks.  Still the view was worth it.  And the feeling of getting back into the car with the AC was worth it too.  At this point, we are thinking, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" We're heading inland to Karijini and we hear that the coast is "a lot" cooler than inland.  Oh boy.

What is the first thing you want to do when you are in a beautiful spot on the Indian Ocean, miles away from civilization?  You guessed it, go to Target.  Yes, they have a Target in Broome.  We had to pick up supplies for the trip.  Bec's parents had recommended a fly net, and we found some for $2 at a cheap store next to Target.  We didn't think that we would really need this...but since they recommended it, and it was only $2 we thought we'd get them.  Otherwise, we picked up some cooking stuff, a cooler, some towels and other basic necessities that we would need on our trip.  I should mention that the cooler...obviously Broome has learned the basic concepts of supply and demand...was $65!  We also bought ice for our cooler. $7.

Now we have a 5 and a half hour drive to Pardoo ahead of us and the sun sets at 6:00pm.  We have been told by almost everyone, that we SHOULD NOT DRIVE IN THE DARK.  Skippy (a kangaroo) likes to come out when it's cooler and likes to bounce out onto the road.  Ok, let's get going.  The speed limit out there is 110kph (~70mph).  We get on the road, set the cruise and go straight.  It would be relaxing if the road weren't barely big enough to fit two cars, we weren't driving on the left, and if you didn't have to pass road trains (more on road trains in the next installment).

Rest Stop.  Seriously, see the trashcan?

Our front grill.  Seriously, where are we? Jurassic Park?

Peacock at the gas station

Monbill had gotten some good advice prior to our trip.  If there is a gas station, fill up.  Even if you are a quarter tank down, fill up.  Great Advice.

Just before the pitch black of night, we roll into Pardoo Roadhouse.  Where we get a room.  For the night.  A roadhouse is like a trailer park , on the road.  The "motel room" we slept in was a 7'x7' room, with a bed, and AC, a TV with one channel, and a fridge.  The bathroom was in a separate trailer.  Pardoo Roadhouse has a restaurant, so I had some dinner, Heike had a snack and a beer and we were off to bed.  Another long day tomorrow, Supermarket in Port Hedland and off to Karijini.

Just before going to sleep I was able to talk to they guys staying next to us in the "motel rooms."  They are all miners (Iron ore) who come from all over Australia to work for 2 weeks then get 2 weeks off.  Must be a rough life.  The next morning they left at 4:45am.

EWART - Broome

To get to Broome we had to first fly to Perth (4 hours), then fly up to Broome (3 hours).  It's a big country.  On the flight up, the plane took a sharp right turn two hours outside of Perth.  The captain later informs us that there is a large sandstorm that we are trying to avoid.  An hour of turbulence ensues.

Landing into Broome is quite a view.  You can see the Great Northern Highway, a single strip of asphalt cutting in an absolute straight line paralleling the ocean.  As far as you can see is red dirt, the one road, and the ocean.  Getting off the plane (this is one of those airports where you take the stairs down to the tarmac) you feel the full power of the outback.  It was 5pm, about 95 degrees and 80+% humidity.  Phew, let's get into the airport to get out of this heat.  The "airport" is a single room with a place to collect your bags, about 150 people, and no air conditioning.  Luckily our bags came out quickly and we were able to escape the sauna.

The car rental agency that we rented from was not allowed to pick people up in the airport for some reason, so the nice man told me to simply "Walk out of the front gate of the airport and meet him outside."  When he told me this, I was picturing Logan airport, and was wondering what the front gate would be (near the tunnel?).  "It's OK, the Broome airport is fairly small," he reassured me.  Sure enough, we were able to walk out and find the cars.  Two white, Mitsubishi Outbacks parked next to each other.  But...no keys.  No agent.  Crap.  Friends say, "Oh we should just call them."  I say, "That'd be great, but I brought no numbers/directions/anything useful with me."  Luckily they had their number at the airport and we were able to contact them.

The cars.  White cars are not the best choice for the outback...get a red car.  Monbill's car was pristine and had no scratches, but did not come with unlimited miles!  Um...you know we're driving to Perth.  My car however, had scratches on the doors, on the trunk, a small crack on the windshield, and a hole (!) on the underbody.  What are you going to say when you're out in the middle of no where, and there are probably no other SUVs in Broome anyway.  "Great! Car looks good.  I'm sure we'll drive it 3000km with no problems"

And we are off.  Monbill, living in Bermuda, has taught him to drive on the left.  Dan just tries to follow.  On the way to the Hotel I think I put my windshield wipers on 6 times.  The hotel, which was gorgeous, did not, however, have a sign.  No where on the Hotel Mercure, did it say so.  Brent happened to notice a sign for "Reception", where he cautiously walked in.

OK, car--check, place to sleep--check, Did I mention it is Thanksgiving Day?  Let's find some dinner.  Through the use of the Lonely Planet on a Kindle we found a place called Matso's (http://www.matsos.com.au/about-us) . Great place.  Make their own beer, have great food.  A real Broome dining experience.  Note : The further from civilization you are, the more expensive everything is.  Fish and Chips? A$35.

All right.  This has been a long day.  Let's get some sleep 'cause tomorrow we're driving to Pardoo.

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Epic Western Australia Road Trip (EWART)

After being back for about a month I have realized that there is no way that I'll be able to tell all my friends and family about all the details of our trip.  So, I'll try to write it all down as I remember it.  If you are not familiar with what we did; we drove from Broome to Perth in 14 days.  It's about 3000km and can be seen here: http://goo.gl/7JKcc .  Take a look.  Zoom in, you'll notice that there are not a whole lot of roads or cities on our journey.  We were literally off the grid.  It is a world that is hard to imagine.  Western Australia has 2.2 million people 1.9 of which live in the southwestern corner of the state.  That leaves a mere 300,000 for the rest of the state (which is about a third the size of the US).

So, Broome to Perth.  Why?  People say, "There's nothing on that side of the country."  Well that's kinda true.  And nothing is beautiful.  Really, if you live in a city, you should go out to nothingness.  It's incredible.  Kangaroos everywhere, cattle farms the size of states, 100s of miles without seeing any structures, highways the width of regular city roads, ants, 6' ant hills, flies, wild peacocks,emus and parrots at the gas station.  Just a world you cannot imagine still exists.

Do it yourself

One day I got motivated to do basic repairs myself. I remember that day well. I had just paid $22 for a terrible mechanic to put in a headlight for me. A couple days later another headlight went out. I went to Autozone that day and bought a new headlight for like $2 and installed it in like 30 minutes. Note: the first 28 minutes I was trying to replace the wrong bulb. As soon as I put it in the right hole it took like 2 minutes.

How to learn to be handy:

You tube. Seriously, type in anything into You tube and there are like 20 videos of some guy doing what you need to do.

So here is my list of things that you should not even consider paying someone to do.

Car

• Installing headlights - 2 minutes about $2 per bulb
• Break lights - a little harder, you have to get in the trunk and position yourself to be able to turn the lightbulb. Bring the bulb with you to Autozone.
• Reattaching a Rearview mirror - they sell a special glue for this. If yours ever falls off, gluing it back on takes under 5 minutes.

Home

• Light switches - I replaced all of ours with dimmers. Turn off the electricity (don't ever believe the labels on the panels). Get one of those testers at Home Depot that ensures that the power is actually off. Black=Power IN, White=Power OUT, Green=No power, ground. Note: Do this during the day so you can see what you're doing...because the power is off...
• Changing the locks - Seriously, 4 screws. You can do it. I guarantee it.
• Basic Plumbing - clogged drains etc. Gross and I'll spare you the details. Man up and just do it.
• Garbage disposal clogged? Hot water, baking soda and vinegar. Little red button under the disposal, push it to reset. When it's working, add ice cube and let them fly around in there to clean everything out. Note: any kind of skin does not belong in the disposal (avocado,potato, carrot, chicken, human).
• Dishwasher Installation - Look at a you tube video. Usually just pull the old one out, turn it on its side, disconnect it. To install, buy a Dishwasher Installation kit with flexible tubing (not copper). 2 hours, $20 for materials.
• Sanding, staining and polyurethane-ing - Sand with the grain, use glove to stain, polyurethane when it's the color you like.
• Moving - Invite 20 close friends, they'll have it done in an hour and will actually care for your stuff (depending on your friends)
• Shoveling the driveway - you choose to live in New England? Shovel your own driveway. Not like it's everyday all winter. Plus how much exercise do you actually get in the winter?
• Mow the lawn - enjoy the time outside with just you, your iPod and your lawn mower. This one is easy for me to say as my lawn is like 6'X10'.

Can you think of any others to share? A lot of this stuff might look hard at first but if you know it's easy, you might just try it!

How many ingredients?

I just started reading In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. And it got me thinking. Good food is simple. Jaques Pepin is quoted saying that his favorite dish is, "A good piece of bread with some good butter." How simple is that? Most of the dishes that I like are also very simple. Steak on the grill, Lobster, Roast Chicken. All of these have max 5 ingredients. For example, the steak would be 1. Steak, 2. Pepper, 3. Salt. Even more complex dishes like say Coq au Vin, still have about 10 ingredients.

Before I go on, I think I need to define ingredients. Strange that ingredients needs to be defined, but now that food has turned into "food science" (says Pollan) we need to make sure that when I say "butter" you don't understand "I can't believe it's not butter". The former has max two ingredients (milk, salt), while the latter has liquid soybean oil, canola,hydrogenated soybean, partially hydrogenated soybean oils, water, cream, salt, soy lecithin, vegetable mono- and diglycerides, Potassium sorbate, calcium disodium, citric acid, Natural and artificial flavors, vitamin A, Beta carotene. Let's give "I can't believe" the benefit of the doubt and say that they have a "Natural/artificial flavors" tree in their front yard. This is 16 ingredients in something that calls itself an ingredient. Obviously the former can be called an ingredient, while the other, I say, needs to be called a conglomerate ingredient (Clomgredient?). When cooking, if you want to cook healthy, choose ingredients over Clomgredients.

I think everything you consume should have fewer ingredients than a Twinkie. Let's see how many ingredients a Twinkie has. Looks like around 28. Hmmm...that's too many. Let's try something more "healthy". Ugh. Everything I look up has over twenty ingredients. Ok, let's try to put the cap at 18. I bet you could make the most complicated dishes in the world with 18 ingredients.

What do I want for dinner tonight? Hmmm...Let's say, Dry Vodka martini with olives, Cassoulet, Ile Flotante. No appetizers, I'm not that hungry.

Martini: Vodka, Olives -2 ingredients

Cassoulet : ~11 ingredients (depending on if you consider duck confit/sausage a Clomgredient or not)

Ile Flottante: ~8 ingredients

Ok, so the whole meal has 21 ingredients, 7 fewer than a Twinkie has by itself. You tell me which is health food. When you're at the supermarket, take a look at the ingredients list, and try to choose stuff with fewer ingredients. You will notice that it tastes better, and will be healthier. This is not "health food" that I'm talking about.

You want to eat chips and salsa? Tostitos for example: corn, salt oil. Salsa: Tomatoes, jalapeno, onion,salt, vineagar.

Fried Chicken? Chicken, flour, salt,pepper, oil.

Fish&Chips: Cod, flour, salt, oil, potato.

The more food you eat from ingredients and less from Clomgredients, the less you will eventually have to worry about your health.

What have you eaten

Came across this online here. Was forwarded there by another great website (if you like Vietnamese food...and who doesn't).

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects - I had grasshopper in an empanada, does that count?
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear - had this in a margarita
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini - You know I accidentally ordered a dirty Gin martini instead of a dirty Vodka martini. Vodka is the way to go...dirty.
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. - At Bocuse when I was 12
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

The Tongue Diagnosis

So continuing with the Asian theme, we're going to take a quick look at alternative medicine. Actually, I like to call it "complementary" medicine because I believe you can get the best of both worlds by using standard medicine (Western) and "alternative" medicine (Eastern). In the realm of alternative medicine you get herbalists, acupuncturists, Massage therapists etc. I've always been interested in Complementary and Alternative medicine (sometimes referred to as CAM as opposed to TCM- Traditional Chinese Medicine). In college a friend of mine's father was a "professional" herbalist. Currently he's a "professional" painter. Over the years I've gotten some herbs from him: a salve for my frequent dislocated shoulder, ginseng pills to help me from overtiredness, and some tinctures to curb my overactive immune system. These have all kind of worked. I think that they did do something, but either I didn't take them long enough or my condition wasn't severe enough to see a quick remedy.

The lithmus test of the CAM practitioner is the Tongue Diagnosis. Supposedly the entire body is reflected in the tongue...like how the health of your bones can be seen in your teeth. Anyway, if you have a mirror of a good friend/wife/husband, try out this tongue diagnosis. I think the results are amazing, my diagnosis was perfect. It's interesting too, because you can't tell from the pictures which one is good/bad, healthy/sick because well...we don't spend that much time looking at our tongues, but maybe we should. So woohoo! Stick your tongue out more!