Coco for Coconuts

At many restaurants around here you can get coconuts that a guy with a cleaver will chop open, insert a straw, and serve up ready to drink/eat.  Today Craig asked about that innocently enough and when it was learned he hadn't tried one "No," was not an answer to be taken.

So home he came with four delicious, sliced and ready to open coconuts.  Absent a machete or cleaver in our house, we tried a big butcher knife.  Which is not quite adequate.

We did get it open, though.  Here is a look at the tasty interior.  This stuff will keep you alive on an island, just ask Tom Hanks and his volleyball.
Here is Caleb faking a sip.  He wouldn't try it but Bethany did.  She votes thumbs down.
Dad had to take a few good swigs.  The thing about these is after you drink them you can take the chopped off lid and shave off the meat inside and eat it.  Pretty interesting and it has almost nothing in common with the dried, shredded variety you buy at the grocery store.

Truth in Advertising

Seriously, its gonna take us a long time.  Just stand there and wait patiently....

On another fast food note: where we live a LARGE coke comes in a 20 oz cup (now this is a medium in the US).  Recently I was in another, richer country nearby and I ordered a large Diet Coke.  Guess what I got?  A 32 oz cup.  I was transported back to age 16 and my days working at Arby's when we first introduced the HUGE 32 oz cup as a large and people would look at the cup then at me and say, "What am I supposed to do with that big thing?  Drink it or swim in it?"  Now its normal ... well, normal for the richer parts of the world.  Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Kite Festival

There is an international kite festival going on about a quarter mile from our house.  Its a pretty huge thing that we have been waiting for all year.  Then Angie, Caleb and Bethany had to be out of town :-( with sadness, Hudson and Dad went for a few minutes anyway.  They were flying some huge kites out there.

After a few minutes in the hot sun you need a cool drink.  These kind of drink stations can be seen everyday but especially at events like these.  They are the kind of things visitors look at and just know--deep in the hearts--if they drink something like that they will die but no one else ever does...   Try one of the pink ones.  I think they have milk mixed in.  There is nothing as delicious as milk that has been sitting in the heat for a while when you are really thirsty!
Just to prove its international, here are a bunch flags.  
This is very Asian.  You see more umbrellas on sunny days than rainy ones.  It makes it harder to see things in the sky but since its "hotteren a firecracker" out there today the umbrella people were much smarter than me.  (When we got home it was 87 degrees inside our house if that gives you any idea how how it feels out in the sun.  Hot enough to make my head hurt!)
What else do you need at the end besides a kite for yourself to carry home?  They were "flying off the shelves" if you will.  Sorry about that one.
Sorry you missed going with us!  Start making your plans to be here next year.  It won't really be international with you.

While the Cat is Away...

As of right now Hudson's amazing Mommy has been gone from us for less than 36 hours and in that time he has had three happy meals and been to Burger King once.  

He has eaten his Happy Meals in three cities in two different countries.  Add in the fact that he skipped one meal (breakfast) and another was a bag of Cheetos and a Coke eaten in the car and you know how he is dealing with being separated from his Momma.

One interesting note:  McDonald's says, "A healthy meal is a happy meal."  But they never say, "A Happy Meal is a healthy meal."  When Angie gets back Hudson will be oozing grease from his pores and his fingers will be a nice shade of orange.  You might want to be praying for him...

Wes Missed It...

Previously I wrote about my misidentifying a fruit and then us having to eat it since I said, "Hey, thats jackfruit.  I like that fruit."  But it wasn't jackfruit.  It was a bit stinky, not as bad as durian I kept telling them but enough to make us roll down the windows a few times on the way home.  Later a man told us it was something in between jackfruit and durian.  So I wasn't completely off base.  Its exact name still eludes me (well ... really I heard the name three times today alone, I just can't remember it).  It reminded me of those sticky hedge apples I used to pick up in Hiseville.  I hated those things and one tree could produce 1,000 it seemed.

Well with these you pluck off a piece and the flesh kind of sticks to the seed.  Therefore you need to roll it around in your mouth and work it loose then spit out the really big seed.  Then you repeat the process as many times as you can.  Since it stinks you may not be able to eat as many as you think.  People kept telling us, "You can fry these and its really good."
So we drove home with two stinky pieces of this fruit.  Alternately rolling down the windows and getting hot and then rolling them back up.  When we got back, I gave them to a neighbor who picked it up and held it to his nose and took a long slow inhale sniffing in the tasty smell.  He said, "These are ripe."  We were thinking, "You ain't kidding buddy ... really ripe!!"  He thanked us and said he would share it with his neighbors.  Then he added, "You can fry these and they're really good."  

 Today the neighbor called and said she had something she wanted to give me.  I was a bit worried when I got there and she reminded me about the fruit.  But anything that looks this much like a hush puppie needs to be eaten.  So in they went and you know what?!?  

Here is where Wes missed it.  These things are really good when you fry them.  They lose the stinkiness and get downright tasty.  This just goes to prove the point of Southern cooking:  roll anything in flour and deep fry it and it takes on a life of its own.  Yummy!!

I broke one open for you to see the big seed.  Still a bit of rolling around but awfully nice.  Sorry, Wes.  Maybe next time!

Go Big Blue

Isn't this something?  We found it at a local department store a couple of weeks back.  They had a few others but no Louisville Cardinals, sorry.

Yesterday I went to a used clothing store and saw where all your donated t-shirts end up.  If you want a 2002 New Mexico State Police D.A.R.E.Fun Run shirt, I know where you can get one ;-)

Valentine's Day!

Generally I am a very lame husband as far as holidays go.  For me, Valentine's Day is the absolute worst.  This year was maybe my absolute worst.  All Angie got was this goofy balloon thing someone handed the kids while we were at the store.  I didn't buy it and it wasn't even for her.  Pretty lame.

The kids did get some gifts.
Books!  Who doesn't love books?  They are the perfect gift.  You can tell by the look on Caleb's face!

An Unexpected Treat

We didn't know it but we had a wedding party to attend tonight!!  After we got home from supper and a bit of last minute shopping some neighbors told us there was a Sikh wedding party a couple of streets away.  So we changed clothes and went back out for some more food.  And it turned out ... some dancing!!  You'll just have to imagine the music, sorry... :-(

Almost Done

We're down to one last restaurant and one last half-nights sleep before Wes and Kim head home.  Here is a look at our overnight stay in the country!

We didn't sleep here but we did stay two houses up in a much nicer place.  That is a really traditional house!
At some point our hosts broke open this fruit after Craig said he liked it (turns out he was mistaken and was thinking of another fruit).  This was obvious when the fruit was about 8 inches from our face.  It has a very ... um .... distinct smell.  Wes thinks the two best things to do with it are: 1) eat it and 2) drive around for hours with it in your hot car.  It made for a nice ride home.
Us chilling in our evening wear.  Craig made another fan of the man-skirt this week!
We had an awesome breakfast and the whole table ate for around $3.  The guy on the left with the hat was encouraging when he said, "Not all Americans are evil.  Just the politicians."
This is actually lunch and cost more like $20.  Pretty darn awesome!!
Finally, chillin with a friend.  Its been a good week.  If you know Wes and Kim make sure you hear their stories.  Just remember if you hear any regarding Craig's driving they are most likely not exaggerated at all.

Hari Kelima

On our second day in the historic city, we started to realize we were not a very big deal.  There were lots of whiteys out and about.  This is us at a giant mini golf course.  You play with soccer balls and yard sticks (just kidding).

I thought this was a cool action shot.
The whole fountain view.  Its dedicated to the Queen of somewhere.
What would historical stuff be without some cool souvenirs?  They had shirts, tops, baskets, and the like.  We did our part to inspire the global economy.
The night we drove all over searching for a restaurant this is what we were searching for:  satay, delicious meat on a skewer cooked over hot charcoal.  We just had to wait until we got home and could actually find a place.
Hot flames and a fan and a few minutes later 60 sticks ready to eat!  We order lots of food around here.  The night before at the Lonely Planet place the waitress finally said, "I think that is enough for now," and cut us off additional ordering.
The finished product!  Man this is good stuff.  We polished these off and one person, who shall remain nameless (OK, it was Angie), still left kind of hungry.  
Now we are off to the village and we be spending a night out in the country so we'll update again when we get back on Friday afternoon our time!!

Day Four

On our fourth day (sorry for the delay we didn't take our computer), we indulged in Uncle Todd B's favorite Davis activity: driving to a far away city with the intention of staying overnight but without any reservations or clear idea where you will be staying.  This is best done when its hot and should ultimately culminate in hungry children crying while Dad yells at people about the traffic and high hotel prices.  The Pages seemed to love it, too.

After we finally found a place to stay, we got out to do some sightseeing.  First we went to a church built in the 1600s.  It was pretty interesting and was at the top of a big hill.   We recommend climbing big hills in the afternoon sun whenever possible.  Also, we think someone should sell cold bottled water at the top of said hill since no one does right now.  These two people look good since they are still at the bottom of said hill.  Yes I did use "said hill" twice.  Sorry.  I like it.

This is the building Wes and Kim are in from just up the hill.  Historic to say the least.
Hudson and Bethany on top of the hill.  Kids have too much energy!  Not only did neither the sun nor hill bother them, they ran around the whole time while up there.  You can tell we have been in Asia a while since we neither watched over nor corrected them while they were doing so in such an historic setting.  I wanted to use "neither/nor" again in this paragraph but I could neither think of a good reason to do so nor a bad one.  Sorry.
This is St. Paul who somehow lost his right hand.  I'm going to check eBay for it later tonight.  I watched two girls taking pictures here when a white guy walked up and they tried to explain to him about two people being in a picture.  He, being new, understood them to mean he should take a picture of the two of them.  He was wrong and learnt it when he reached for the camera and Girl #1 dragged him to the statue for him to have his picture made with her.  He seemed sort of perplexed that they would want a picture of a total stranger but its quite normal here.
Hanging around in town after we went to the hill.  Chinese New Year decorations still grace the streets.  We decided to play our second favorite Davis family game ... driving around saying, "Where do you want to eat?" while having no idea where any actual restaurants are.  This went on for about an hour while people got very, very hungry and we almost ran out of gas.  Eventually we just settled for some place we found in the Lonely Planet travel book which was pretty good.
This sort of sums up how everyone felt at the end of the ordeal.  Only one person resorted to this extreme.  Or at least was photographed doing so...

Day Three Photo Highlights!

Day Two

The day started pretty normal.  With a delicious breakfast!This stuff is great.  More people should eat more curry more often.  Especially at breakfast!!
What is not to love about this breakfast?  Rice, little salted, dried fish, peanuts, fried chicken, and hot sauce.  Just like Grandma used to make.  Well, not your grandma but somebody's!
Then we went to this big Hindu festival in our town.  Everyone was happy and dressed up nice.  They had free food and drinks!  We even bumped into someone we knew.  It was nice.
Then things got a bit ... um different.  You know, in a shirtless-guy-carrying-fire sort of way.
Then it got weirder still.  Here Wes is thinking, "What in the world has Craig gotten me in to?!?"  He is not shielding himself but rather they insisted he fan the smoke up by his face.  The crazy looking guy in the back is a statue.  In the center was the chairman of the festival who was a great host to us.
Pretty soon, a thousand people showed up all in yellow.  Most of them were carrying bowls of milk on their heads.  They had some drums and chanting and things began to feel a bit foreign, if you will.
You can't see this too well.  Click on the picture to enlarge and maybe it will help.  This young lady actually has two metal skewers poking through her face.  That was about as weird as things got.  We heard sometimes people put hooks in their flesh but we didn't see anything that bizarre.

Overall it didn't take us too long to figure we should go.  But it sure was interesting.  Everybody knows they've got to do something with their sin.  We're sure glad we've found a different way than this!!