Discover the ULTIMATE

Don’t miss SAWADEE THAILAND SERIES – KAREN Long-Neck Tribe- Inside the bamboo hut, Meet the AKHA Tribe, ancient customs, Luxury in Thailand’s exotic region, Ancient world of Siam, making an offering to a Monk, Dine in a restaurant owned by royalty, visit an elephant camp, ancient Ayutthaya, ride a bamboo raft down a jungle river, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, meet the Thai people, off- the- beaten-path experiences, invitations to events, and more!

Watch Sandy’s television program’s celebrity interviews along the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards, Oscar Night-Las Vegas-Style.

Also behind- the-scenes celebrity interviews, Show Reviews, invitations to events, openings, Las Vegas;

http://www.discovertheultimate.com/?page=entertainment

You will enjoy dining reviews, interviews, top chefs, openings, invitations to events, wine and food pairings, wine tastings, settings for weddings, romantic restaurants, unique theme parties, Las Vegas, Thai cuisine, dining around the world.       www.discovertheultimatedining.com

Discover the Ultimate Health features the latest news from doctors and health professionals from the minimally invasive hip replacement operation to fitness and spas. Discover ancient spa treatments, one-stop pain medical center, “Bleacher of the stars” Kim Vo, when you look for a spa think of your health first, and more!

www.discovertheultimatehealth.com

If you have any Suggestions, Comments, or Questions, please contact Sandy: sandyzimm2003@yahoo.com

The first TRIPup Hong Kong was held on March 28 at The Den on Wyndham Street right above Hong Kong’s famous Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district.

However, this TRIPup didn’t start like any other TRIPup.. the organizers, Anne Gillman and Anna Chan, were all set and ready to go, when The Den started filling with smoke.  Turns out there was a fire in the restaurant next door!

Immediately they evacuated the premises.  But did this stop the TRIPup? Of course not! The organizers stood on the street corner as the TRIPup attendees started to arrive and were signing up Hong Kong travelers for the service using an iPad on the sidewalk as the firetrucks arrived to put out the fire.

Luckily it was a small fire, and Hong Kong’s fire department is well equipped to quickly respond to fires, especially in the densest areas, and so it was quickly extinguished and no one was hurt.  The smoke cleared and the TRIPup continued, attracting attendees from Couchsurfers, the USC alumni association, the American Chamber of Commerce, AIESEC, and universities in Hong Kong.

 It just goes to shows that Triptrotters can be “too hot to handle.”  Perhaps the next TripUp in Hong Kong should be held at Balalika, the Russian Ice Bar, as a precaution…

While Denisha seems to change her mind daily about her passions and career goals, there is one thing she will never change her mind about: she loves traveling! Born and raised just north of San Francisco, CA, she has competed in every sport from softball to surfing, celebrated her last four New Year’s on four different continents, and recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in international business.

During the fall semester of my senior year at the University of Southern California, I chose to take a break from Los Angeles and study down under for an exchange semester. So realistically, it was their spring semester, but for Melbourne you might as well call it winter. For six months I lived in Melbourne, Australia, where I surfed, learned the rules of footy, attended a lifetime of barbecues, and partied with Aussies wearing neon body suits or something else ridiculous, on countless nights. Am I forgetting something? Oh yeah… I also attended my classes at the University of Melbourne, of course.

Unfortunately I was gone from Oz by the time Australia Day came around, which is celebrated on January 26. As far as the large events and other holidays that did happen while I was still in Melbourne, I learned that Aussies are the champions of capitalizing on an excuse to celebrate. Melbourne Cup? Let’s party! Grand final? Let’s party! A person you’ve never met before is getting a new parrot next Tuesday? Let’s party!! And again, it often cannot go without implementing a costume rule, passing around the face paint, or if you forget the above, get naked. Aussie rules.

So, Australia Day… what actually is this holiday? Australia Day is a holiday to overall celebrate the national pride of the country, of course. It says it in the name. But the historical significance of the date goes back to 1788, when the British First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove, initiating a colony founded on convicts. It is essentially a pseudo-independence day, as, according to many, Australia does not actually have a proper independence day. Celebrations have gone on for over the past centuries, while the country actually became politically independent in 1901. But alas, January 26^th is Australia’s Day, and they love it.

And as it turns out you don’t need to be in Australia to celebrate it. For the most part Aussies are everywhere. I can’t think of a time I’ve been in a hostel somewhere in the world without meeting an Aussie or ten, and I bet you can’t either. No matter what city you are in on January 26, there will be an Aussie bar, or at least some bar celebrating the holiday, because they know it means business (minus the liability costs of broken shot glasses). This year on January 26 I was in Dublin, which was an amazing place to celebrate the holiday. What made it even better is that a dozen friends from my Uni Melb exchange semester hailed from Dublin, so it turned into a reunion where we rehashed on our good times down under, blissfully sipping on goon. Low and behold, the face paint was passed around so we could display our Aussie pride. We began the night at a house party 50 meters down under, and after cashing the boxed wine and cider, bused it to Woolshed on Parnell Street, an Aussie “baa”. It was a large sports bar, decorated in yellow and green streamers with their national flag plastered and kangaroo cutouts around the venue. The big screens featured Aussie footy and rugby. The bar was packed till late, filled with Aussies either passing through Dublin, studying, or had moved over from their motherland. Men at Work’s “I Come from a Land Down Under” was played every fifth or sixth song, before and after Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire” and several other songs that brought our Foster-ized brains back to the amazing days of life in Oz. On Australia Day in Dublin everyone was an Aussie, using Aussie slang, drinking Aussie beer, discussing Aussie sports. Then around 2am we left Woolshed to stumble back to Temple Bar, and it was raining. Indeed we were back in Australia — we were right back in Melbourne.

By Augusto

St. Patrick’s - Porteño -style

Ireland may be half a world away from Buenos Aires, but every March 17th you’ll start to doubt it. Why March 17? Because it’s St. Patrick’s Day! In Argentina, it’s a chance for porteños descended from the country’s 50,000 Irish immigrants to celebrate their heritage, and for everyone else to dress in green, enjoy some traditional music, and drink fantastic beer.

St. Patrick’s Day celebrates Ireland’s most famous patron saint, who — according to thе legend — freed the island from an infestation of snakes. You won’t find any reptiles in Buenos Aires; instead, a festive parade will slither its way across the neighborhood of Retiro from 7-8pm, beginning at Suipacha and Arroyo Str and ending in Plaza San Martin.

Downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina celebrates St. Patrick's Day 2010 (Source: http://society.ezinemark.com/)

From there, the fun moves on to Guinness-soaked Reconquista Str, home to many of the city’s traditional Irish pubs. It’s a rollicking way to pay homage to two of everyone’s favorite figures — San Patricio and Santa Cerveza!

Saint Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in some places like the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador as well as Montserrat. In other countries where there’s relatively big Irish Diaspora people also celebrate the holiday – Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand, among others. Some people even claim that St. Patrick’s Day is probably the most widely celebrated saint’s day in the world.

How do you celebrate Saint Patrick’s day at your country? Share your stories and photos on our Facebook Fan Page or on Twitter

David has lived in Catalonia for more than a decade, first in Barcelona and now in the forests of la Selva. When not enjoying the food he runs a website specialising in providing FC Barcelona tickets to visitors to Barcelona.

If you think of food in Spain you’ll probably immediately think of the ubiquitous paella, the delicious rice dish that originates from Valencia that in its best known form contains a variety of seafood; your mind may also turn to tapas, those tasty morsels traditionally served on a small plate to accompany a drink and originally used – or so the legend goes – to cover your drink and keep the flies out; “tapa” simply means “cover” in Spanish.

Paella in particular can be quite variable, partially due to the fact that many bars that serve lunchtime fixed price menus serve ready made versions of the dish that bear no resemblance at all to the flavour of one that has been well made. And while many tourist restaurants serve passable versions of the dish, the secret to finding the best paellas is simply to learn where the locals go to eat it.

Standard tapas include “patatas bravas”, which are sautéed potatoes served covered in a spicy sauce, olives, calamari and anchovies, and visitors are also sometimes surprised to find cold cubes of Spanish omelette on the menu. Many tapas bars are Galician and a popular dish you’ll see on the menu is octopus.

Quite different are Basque style tapas, which are served all over the country, they are often served on bread; stuffed peppers, grilled fish and other delights are set on the counter in bars and served with a cocktail stick. Simply grab a plate, choose one of the dishes and keep the stick; your bill at the end of the night will depend on the number and sizes of the sticks left on your plate.

Living in Catalona, as I have done for the last ten years, some of my favourite dishes are local specialities. Three things spring to mind that may appear simple pleasures, but I always look forward to eating.

The first is the botifara, a pork sausage spiced with pepper that is one of the staples of Catalan cooking. While a simple sausage may not seem particularly exciting, they are exceptionally high quality and a big improvement on the standard banger found in UK supermarkets.

The second also doesn’t sound particularly exciting; pa amb tomàquet (“bread with tomato” in Catalan) is served as a side dish and simply consists of bread, often toasted, which has been rubbed with overripe tomato, salted and drizzled with olive oil. If you order a sandwich from a bar in Barcelona you’ll often find that you are served a baguette that, rather than buttered, has tomato and olive oil as well as the filling.

However, my absolute favourite dish is “calçots”, which are specially grown spring onions that are grilled. To eat them you strip off the outer, charred layers of the onion, dip it in a special sauce, and eat with your fingers. Delicious, the sweetness of the onion, the smokiness, and the sauce all combining to raise the humble onion to high cuisine.

Well, perhaps not, as diners are often given a bib to make sure they don’t get covered in charred onion and sauce, as well as sometimes provided plastic gloves as your hands get filthy. It was something I saw being eaten some 25 years ago when visiting once in February, and is in season between October and May; intrigued by something unidentifiable being served on curved roof tiles, I ordered the dish too and since then my entire family have become converts.

The dish originates from Valls, in the south of Catalonia near Tarragona. During the last weekend of January each year the town is turned over to the “calçotada” and they have demonstrations of how to make the sauce, how the calçots are grown – apparently they are planted for a period, dug up and stored in the dark, then replanted with a “boot” of soil around them so the base of the onion remains free of sunlight – and a calçot eating contest in which contestants have an hour to eat as many as they can, with the winner consuming well over 100! They also cook calçots in the town’s squares and you can buy 12 calçots, pa amb tomàquet and a half bottle of wine for around 12 euros – a bargain.

You’ll see many restaurants throughout Catalonia offer calçots on the menu, or a “calçotada”, which consists of a calçot starter and grilled meats for the main course. This is often too much even for me and so I often order the calçots as a starter with something light to follow up, such as mussels.

It’s been a while since we’ve held a TRIPup in LA… we’ve missed you!

We invite you Angelenos and travelers in Southern California to join us on Saturday, March 10th. We are going to be steps away from the beach in Santa Monica at the historic and elegant Rapp’s Saloon, located inside Hostelling International.

Come meet travelers from around the world, locals, for an evening of fun and mingling… and it continues after the TRIPup event with an exclusive Santa Monica bar crawl event!

You can RSVP to this event here to join us!

About Triptrotting:
Triptrotting is a global community of travelers and hosts (aka “Triptrotters”), who are matched to each other based on similar interests. Our goal is to create a platform which helps travelers find like minded local hosts and provide opportunities for hosts to make friends from all corners of the world. We want to give both Triptrotters an amazing cultural and personal experience.

About Hostelling International:
Located just a couple blocks from the sand of Santa Monica Beach, Hostelling International USA (HI-USA) is quickly becoming the place for local and international travelers to meet, mingle and have fun! In addition to operations of HI-Santa Monica and the one stop shop HI-Travel Store, HI-USA conducts various educational programs for youth and adults of the greater Los Angeles area. Focusing on topics ranging from intercultural understanding to environmental awareness to responsible travel, HI-USA programs strive to provide the educational experience of travel to the local community. Through each of these programs and workshops held in the HI-Travel Store in Santa Monica, Hostelling International is able to achieve its mission to help all, especially the young, gain a greater understanding of the world and its people through hostelling.

Rachel has lived in 8 different countries on 4 different continents.  Growing up in the US, she often dreamed of traveling and pursued a career in international business, specifically emerging markets.  After extensive traveling around the world and moving to many major US cities while working in the US, she moved back to South America.  Rachel loves trying new foods and wines, studying languages, sailing, water skiing, photography, running, and horseback riding.  Her goals are to be trilingual or a millionaire.  Having achieved the latter (in Colombian pesos), she is now actively pursuing the former. 

Lima, Peru – gastronomy capital of South America, jumping off point to Machu Picchu, and where I lived for most of August.  Unlike the typical tourist which arrives in Lima, stays a day and quickly departs to Machu Picchu, I was the odd person who actually lived in Lima, watching others come and go discussing the wonder.  While others awed over breathtaking views of ruins, I spent my time searching for a job, price comparing coffee makers, negotiating phone contracts, and normal day-to-day boring stuff.  I admit, I indulged in a 12-step, 3-hour tasting menu at Astrid y Gastón as well as consuming massive amounts of choripan, camote frito, churros, and pisco in the name of experiencing culture through food.

Besides memorable eating experiences, what I’ll take away most from living in Lima is the amazing memories of hanging out with my friends Kelly & Christian.  The one thing I wanted but didn’t take though was 5 soles, the rough equivalent of $1.81.

Those who know me well know that I collect money and always have ideas on how to make money, but ironically have little of it.  The money collecting started around age 8 when I saw a feather penny and for some reason I can’t remember now, thought it was really cool.  The next step was spending hours examining rolls of pennies that my dad would bring me from the bank to go through so that I could find the shiniest 1973c penny there was.  Logically, as I grew older, I graduated in to nickels, dimes, quarters, cash, and my current specialty, foreign currency.  I had a profitable scheme going on for a while.  My sister: “Rachel, someone tipped me with this old $20 bill, you want it?”  “Sure, I’ll take that off your hands.”  A friend coming back from a trip to Italy, “I have a bunch of lira I don’t have anything to do with, you want it?”  “No problem.”

It all went well until my little brother decided that he wanted to collect money too and my supply was drastically cut in half.  Of course, I found a way around this being the third daughter who had received a lot of hand-me-down items but no one to dump them on since a boy came next.  I put all my girly crap in one large pile, threw in 2 things I knew my brother really wanted, and offered him the whole pile, all or nothing, for the buffalo head nickel he’d been given which should have been rightfully mine.  Triumphant with a cleaner room, a buffalo head nickel, and the satisfaction of outsmarting a sibling, I used this tactic to continually increase my collection.  Years later when my brother asked for his buffalo head nickel back, I wasn’t sure what he was talking about…  I guess he meant the one that’s currently in my safe deposit box.

So fast forward to Lima, Peru where I was just living for almost a month with Kelly and Christian.  A serial traveler / nomad / mover, I hadn’t even bothered to look up Peru’s currency before arriving.  I incorrectly assumed pesos, a stereotypical guess which I shouldn’t have made, only to find out my first day that everything was priced in Nuevos Soles (shown below from my collection).

I had some issues with money in Peru, not the normal issues that people have like overspending or incorrect budgeting, but there were two things that didn’t work out for me which normally work out for me elsewhere in the world when it comes to money.  The first was the ATM.  Peru allows you to withdraw USD or Nuevos Soles at the ATM.  This is the only place in the world I’ve ever seen this happen and was excited to be able to pay my rent in USD.  Kelly drove me to the ATM to get my rent money and watched me for safety’s sake since it was at night and not the best neighborhood.  Normal procedure: enter vestibule, insert card, enter PIN, take money, take receipt, take card, exit vestibule.  Simple, right?  Except I always check to make sure my wallet is safely closed with all items.  While keeping my eyes on the strangers outside the vestibule, securely gripping my wallet, I threw open the glass ATM vestibule door, looked down to check my wallet, and back up to have the glass door slam me in my forehead.  I was so busy protecting my money, I forgot to protect myself.  Misplaced priorities.  As expected, minor bruising ensued and I employed the same tactic I had used when I lived in Barcelona and walked in to a glass door.  Then, I told everyone my friend Kerry had punched me.  In Lima, I fortunately had my new friend / scapegoat conveniently named Kelly.  It worked out well as I repeated the same story and barely had to change the name.

My second money related issue was in exiting the country.  I always keep one coin of each kind and one piece of cash of each kind up to a value of 5 USD.  Somehow I always manage to do this perfectly.  To be honest, I think it always only works because I hoard money on the last day and spend whatever I don’t need on candy.  Yes, that’s my definition of it working out “perfectly.”  Leaving Peru, I had everything I needed but the 5 soles coin.  In excess, I had a 10 soles cash note.  Kelly was going to take me to the airport and the initial plan was to offer Kelly the 10 soles cash I didn’t need for the 5 soles coin.  Kelly is a shrewd business woman so I posed the question of the existence of a 5 soles coin cautiously for fear that she might catch on and I would pay 20 soles plus fees via Paypal for 5 soles.  Unfortunately, after searching the car, a 5 soles coin wasn’t lying around.  I was going to go on to Colombia without my coin.

Arriving at the airport, we parked next to a storm grate, and a shiny 5 soles caught my eye in the grate amidst trash.  As I watched disgustedly, Kelly lifted up the grate with her bare hands, dug through the trash, grabbed the 5 soles coin, and victoriously declared with arms outstretched, “Here’s your 5 soles coin!  I want a hug!”  “NO!” I screamed withdrawing in horror.  Kelly got about 10 sprays of Burt’s Bees Aloe & Witch Hazel hand sanitizer, the ability to keep the 5 soles coin, and the standard Peruvian kiss on the check as a reward for her efforts.

As the plane took off from Lima to Medellin, the loneliness I had evaded since arriving in South America began to take hold of my emotions.  I missed my new friend.  Before the 5 soles incident, I had thought our friendship made a lot of sense.  Kelly spoke English.  I spoke English.  Neither of us were confident when speaking Spanish.  A perfect formula for friendship for a month in Peru.  What started as a simple friendship of common interests in the beginning, evolved over a month of shared experiences exploring Lima, and I realized I had made the rare type of friend willing to dig through the trash to get me a coin worth less than 2 USD just because I wanted it.  Not to mention, she let me pretend like she had punched me in an animated story that really involved me walking in to a glass door at the ATM.  I no longer wanted the coin, all I wanted was to go back to dark, cold Lima, and give Kelly a hug, rather than moving on to the warmth and “eternal Spring” of Medellin.  While eager to experience Colombia, I was sad that once again moving means leaving friends behind.  I might have screwed my little brother out of a buffalo head nickel in my youth, but as a supposedly wiser, older version of myself, a coin seemed less important than the great friends and memories I had in Peru.  I’m in Medellin now, but I’ll be back in Lima someday to first hug Kelly and then, of course, collect a 5 soles coin which will mean something different than its value.

Did you miss our last event at Godoy Disco Bar? Do you want to meet travelers and mingle with locals with some music, sunshine, and perhaps even a frizbee?

Look out Buenos Aires! Triptrotting presents TRIPup Buenos Aires PICNIC Edition!

Sunday, February 26th, 3:00pm
At the gazebo of  Bosques de Palermo
(J.F. Kennedy & Av del Libertador, across from the US Embassy)

You can RSVP for Triptrotting’s TRIPup Buenos Aires PICNIC here.
Oh, don’t forget to bring your own towel!

14th January…. In many places around the world, January 14 may just be January 14. But every year in my part of India, this day is celebrated as ‘Uttarayan’. I live in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat, which lies in the northwestern part of my country, bordering the Indian Ocean. January 14 is the day when nearly the entire population of Ahmedabad can be found on roofs of buildings flying kites and having endless fun. A few few months back, my friends Rahul, Piyush, Palak, Amit, Nishith, and I had a small get together to hang around and chat. After being on the topic of Uttarayan for some time, we suddenly decided that this time around, we would step up to orgnize and host Ahmedabad’s first Triptrotting.com TRIPup event: kite flying at Uttarayan. 

From there we began to brainstorm every day how to make it a wonderful event for Triptrotters heading to Uttarayan to enjoy the city, the culture, and of course, the kites. Each day we collected more and more ideas for the event.  Eventually, we began to put our plan into action by sending out the invitation on Triprtrotting website — we immediately saw a positive response.  Next we scouted for a meeting spot/venue, and decided on the roof of a commerce college in the heart of old city was fixed thanks to our friend Piyush. The enthusiasm grew and our ideas materialized. Soon enough, we began to receive messages and requests from travelers excited to attend the Uttarayan fetival. Ten days before the festival we had already reached our estimated capacity, with even more requests coming in!

Many travelers were provided with Triptrotting hosts — originally I was going to host two travelers, but ended up hosting six! And they hailed from all corners of the world: two from Serbia, three from China, and one from Norway.

The event started in the afternoon of the 13th with the old city heritage walk.  The first stop was Bhadra Fort. Fellow Triptrotter, Sanjaybhai, took the initiative to conduct this walk.  Since I met him over a year ago, he has been incredibly active as an ambassador and an amazing guide for his city. This was my first visit to Bhadra Fort and it was incredible! The view from the top looking out over the city was amazing!  We then walked through Teen Darwaaza, Manekchowk where we saw Jama Masjid, and finally ended at Sidi Saiyeed Ni Jali. Here we winded down with delicious chai and maska bun at Lucky restaurant — a favorite local snack. But Lucky is not only known for culinary excellence.  Uniquely, it is the site of graves of some Islamic saints — right inside the restaurant! Then it was time for a full meal, hopping over to Vishala restaurant, which is best for traditional gujarati food. There we concluded day one of our event, and happily filled with delicious food we went home to rest up before meeting again the next day at 10.00 hours.

January 14, the day of Uttarayan, was here! Everyone met at 10.00 hour on the roof of the commerce college. The energy was alive, our day defined by kites, string reels, finger tapes, snacks, drinks and music, everything was managed.  The wind was slight, but ready to take our kites to the sky. The first kite from our roof was up in no time.  Within the hour our roof was packed with travelers from all over the world: America, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Columbia, China, India, Israel, Norway, Serbia, Sweden as well as expats living in Ahmedabad.  The event was so successful, almost overwhelming, but amazing feeling when our attendees from everywhere congratulated us for organizing such a fantastic event. Soon enough, everyone knew who organized the event, and we were congratulated and thanked by locals and Triptrotters alike.

Well, not everything was perfect. The one and only disappointment was that there was almost no wind during the later part of the day. This made it rather difficult to send the kites flying high. I took this opportunity to take photographs, capturing the fun. As the sun began settling in the west, it was time for celebrations. By this, we released several Chinese lanterns in the sky — a tradition each year and one that makes the sky look nothing short of beautiful.

The lanterns are normally banned by the government as it created a fire hazard. Many still take them to the sky, however, and the people attending Uttarayat this year were able to enjoy the unique image of a lantern filled sky. We had also planned to fly paper lamps attached to the string of a big kite, but unfortunately the lack of wind ruined our plans. Still, the event was a success, marked by the clear enjoyment of everyone attending, the more than expected who attended, and everyone appreciated our efforts.  

Planning and organizing was one of the most important parts of the event, as it gave all six friends the chance to work as a team and get to know each other while working to spread the word of Triptrotting, promoting a concept that will help us all make friends and understand the world. We were able to dig into the lighter and darker sides of each other.  And by ‘darker side’, I mean the fun side.  Chatting everyday on Facebook, our group chat has more than 2200 messages and still it’s going on strong.  For me, it this connection with people whom I get along easily that counts a lot.  

The best reward of all? Before leaving, the Triptrotters I hosted presented me with postcards and experiences from their travels. This exchange, with great people from different places and of different cultures was very heart warming, inspiring, and exactly what Triptrotting is all about.

You can join the community too! Join at www.triptrotting.com

It’s week 4 of Triptrotting & Let’s Go Travel’s winter traveler photo contest and we are loving the submissions! Our weekly themes have been: see, touch, taste, and smell. The next and final week’s theme will be “hear”! Did you know that when you submit photos you are automatically entered to win cool prizes? The first prize is a $50 Amazon.com gift card and a Citizens of the World t-shirt. The runner-up will receive a $20 gift card and a Citizens of the World t-shirt as well. It’s a great opportunity to showcase your pictures to other travelers and inspire them to embark on new journeys. Triptrotting and Let’s Go Travel will feature the winning photos on their websites, Facebook pages, and to their Twitter followers! We’re itching to pack up our bags and travel after seeing these photos… where should we go next?

See

Touch

Taste

Smell