April 29, 2024

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: New York City, New York: Turning 32 On West 35th Street!

April 29, 2024

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Prologue

Well, well, well. I bet we all didn’t anticipate being back here so soon did we?! Another travel blog?! Why yes indeed dear reader, another travel blog! This time, however, we’re staying stateside & visiting a city that I love but hadn’t been to in almost half a decade, which just typing that is blowing my mind. As per usual, you are currently looking at the “prologue” portion of this blog which will be a one off. No multipart series this time around I’m afraid. With that in mind let’s get into the details shall we?!

Evan & I had literally just gotten back from the Philippines, We’re talking arrived home the day before on a Sunday & woke up the Monday after to an email from Southwest Airlines with an offer that they extend our way every few months, & which we usually do our best to take advantage of. The offer was that if we booked a round trip flight within the next three days, to be taken in completion by mid-May, that we would earn a companion pass for two months at the end of summer/beginning of fall. I am someone who unfortunately spoils himself rotten & likes nothing more than to travel for my birthday, surprise, surprise. Having not been to New York City in five years & desperately wanting to see Sweeney Todd before it closed, New York City was the winner & for about $200 round trip we got our flights as well as earned our companion passes which allow us to fly free with a companion during the months in which it is active.

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

Day One

Typically Evan & I are early fliers, this time we went with an evening flight which was really nice because it allowed us the freedom to go about our day, pack & prepare at an acceptable pace, & get an adequate amount of sleep the morning of. It does definitely negate the ability to have “another day” in the place you’re visiting but Ev also had to work half the day leading up to our flight so it worked out.

We ended up being delayed an hour or so for our flight to Laguardia, but once we were up & away I spent the duration of our two hour flight editing dive videos from Bohol & Evan did a bit more work for his other job. Other than the small British child whaling & kicking the ever loving hell out of my seat, the flight was fairly painless.

We arrived in New York around 9:30 PM. We made our way through the terminal, gathered our baggage, & hopped aboard the Q70+ bus, a free transfer, headed into Astoria. From Astoria we popped onto the Manhattan Bound E train. Once we were at 34th, in the Garment District, we got off & walked the remaining distance to our friend Anne’s apartment. I met Anne through a start-up she began years ago called “Steereo” & though that business fell through Anne has continued chugging along in the start-up space with her current venture Dose.fm. During the Steereo days Anne & I ended up getting fairly close & I used to see her often when she was living in LA. We were greeted with an infectious smile, a glass of wine, puppies, & an ushering to the room we’d be sleeping in. After a brief life catch up Anne informed us that she’d ordered a few slices of pizza from Artichoke Basille’s Pizza for delivery & we set about to grab a few bottles of wine before the shops closed at 11.

Barely making it into the store before they closed I snagged two of my go to basic bottles of red wine that seem to be crowd pleasers at a decent value; A to Z Pinot Noir & Louis Jadot Beaujolais. Both are lighter reds that aren’t too tannic & still are somewhat fruit forward.

The pizza came right after we returned & we all three split the three massive slices she had ordered; the Artichoke, Margarita, & Staten Island.

After about an hour of wining & conversing we decided it was time to call it a day & off we went to bed.

End Of Day One

Day Two

I awoke to it being my birthday! No longer was I in my 31st year, now we were on to 32! Be sure to wish me happy belated in the comments & share your most prized picture of me to your social media feeds…Please don’t do that haha.

We slept in a bit. After showering & dressing we bid Anne goodbye for the day & out the door we went to some birthday day exploring of the city.

Our first stop had to be coffee. As someone who was born in Portland, Oregon, my need to venture into any Stumptown Coffee overrides any trendy or top rated coffee shop simply out of familiarity. Call me basic if you’d like, I will forever be a Stumptown loyalist. The closest one to us was in-between Koreatown & Flatiron & is located inside the Ace Hotel. I got some sort of Iced Strawberry Espresso drink & Evan went basic with his Iced Vanilla Latte which honestly is hard to beat. With caffeine acquired & the day turning into something truly lovely we went off in search of some sustenance.

I’m going to make another choice here that I think a lot of New Yorkers would probably find basic &/or a little touristy but it’s been a staple of mine for a while in the city & I desperately miss having them available in LA when I visit. We stopped off at the Dominique Ansel Workshop just down the street in Flatiron for some pastries. I got a Pistachio Passionfruit Roll; croissant with passionfruit filling & pistachio icing, & Evan got another of his standard orders, a Pan Au Chocolate. We munched down our pastries & finished off our coffee at their standing tables that overlook their bakery before we hopped the train to go uptown.

I don’t know if this is something that I often broadcast. I definitely know it isn’t something I share often here, but just after COVID I got very into Mineral & Crystal collecting. Apparently it’s something I’ve done since I was a kid as a few times ago when I was home I discovered a box of affects from my childhood filled with different stones I’d found, naturally most of them being a variant of quartz. However, since I’d rekindled this fascination & developed a deeper appreciation for the formations of the earth, I hadn’t had the chance to revisit the American Museum of Natural History & explore their mineralogical exhibit otherwise known as the Mignone Halls of Gems & Minerals.

Main Hall of the American Museum of Natural History

While we were in line to get tickets for the museum I began looking at matinee seats for Sweeney Todd the following day. I had them pulled up, was debating which ones with Evan, picked a set, had them in my cart to check out when I got an airdrop notification from Evan. It was a picture of the tickets that he had bought once we’d been confirmed to come for my birthday & they were almost the exact seats I was looking at; Dead center of the Orchestra section, Row N. I was overjoyed!

With added excitement to a trip I was already excited to be on, we bought our admission & made our way downstairs to where the gem exhibit lives.

In addition to the gem exhibit I also like to stop into the Hall of Ocean Life on not just to glimpse the sheer size of their big ole Blue Whale that they have suspended above the exhibit hall. It’s truly astounding.

After walking through the ocean exhibit we headed towards the minerals, stopping on our way through the Hall of Human Origins where there was a fascinating interactive display showing what specific environmental conditions caused what specific genetic mutations in humans, where those mutations originated on the planet, & where they can be found on the human genome.

After that came the Hall of Meteorites where I was shocked to find a large quantity of meteorites from my home state of Kansas. Additionally, they also had a massive Moldavite, about the size of a small fist. I added it to my mental list of things I would pillage from the museum if ever given the ethical chance…we all have the mental list, don’t act like you don’t!

We finally arrived at the main event, the Gem & Mineral Halls. The halls feature gems & mineral specimens from around the world & when you walk in you’re greeted by two massive back to back Amethyst Geodes. I think Evan & I spent around two hours wandering the halls. We went to each & every case appreciating & remarking at the different crystals & rocks there within. What was interesting to me, & what will be a bit of a ‘hair toss’ here, is that some of the pieces in the museum I felt I may have better specimens of at home. That’s not to say the vast majority didn’t blow anything I own out of the water.

Another two items that I added to my mental personal collection were the two Chrysoberyls. One was the traditional yellow-green & was the size of a clementine, the other was an Alexandrite. As one of the rarest gemstones in the world & a personal favorite of mine, Alexandrite possesses the unique ability to change colors based on the type of light it is being exposed to. It either appears anywhere from blue-green to reddish-purple. This is because the crystal lattice structure refracts different wavelengths of light differently within the stone. There are several at the museum, but my favorite was one of the smaller ones that happened to have an almost complete cyclic trilling, which gives the stone almost like a snowflake appearance.

While we were in the exhibit my dear old friend, Morgan Turner PhD, send me a message asking if her exhibit was on display. Not knowing she had a potential exhibit in the museum I asked her to expound more. She informed me that she’d done a video installation for the museum a few years prior using her discoveries around dinosaur footprints & their walking patterns though she wasn’t sure the video had ever actually been installed. When I tell you Evan & I spent an hour walking around the different halls of dinosaurs on the fifth floor, I mean it. Morgan even went as far as emailing the director of the museum to see where the installation was. Unfortunately she didn’t get a response til after we’d left. Oh darn, guess I’m going to have to go back again just to see it.

Our next stop was more caffeine. Our coffee obsessed friend Dan had tipped us off to the fact that WatchHouse, a UK based coffee shop that you can find previously mentioned in one of my London blogs, had opened their first location in the US in Midtown. We took a lovely midday stroll through Central Park to get there. The walk took us around 30 minutes but the weather was so perfect that is was entirely worth it!

Upon arrival at WatchHouse I ordered a Flat White with an Asparagus & Leek Danish & Evan got their Cold Brew which was served in the coolest Kinto glass that looked like it was a plastic cup.

Feeling renewed & with evening approaching, we decided to head back to Anne’s to lounge about for a bit, shower, & prepare for our dinner reservation.

For my birthday dinner I had booked us a spot at Hav & Mar. A James Beard Award finalist this year, Hav & Mar is an Ethiopian inspired Seafood restaurant from restauranteur & chef Marcus Samuelsson located in Chelsea. The menu isn’t overly Ethiopian, though its presence is definitely still felt! Evan & I tend to go family style at most meals we venture off to & this one was no different.

We started our evening with a celebratory cocktail, the Seashore Spritz which featured Mallorca Melon, Black Tea, Apple, & Celery along with Prosecco, it was a lovely light imbibement. We kind of then played the rest of the menu by ear having asked several different staff members what to get upon arrival. The first thing we ordered was the Hav Bread Basket which came with Injera Crisps, Teff Biscuits, Blue Cornbread, Shiro Hummus, Honey Butter, & Tomato Jam. We picked our way through them, trying each combination of bread with each of the spreads.

Next up came small plates.

We ordered Hamachi with Black Ceviche, Cippolini Onions, Grammy Smith Apples, & Fennel. the Spring Salad with Baby Romaine, Red Endive, Fava Beans, Ayib, & Spiced Pepitas, & probably some of the best Brown Butter Scallops with Spring Vegetables, Turmeric, & Pumpkin Coffee Crumble that I’ve ever had!

We were honestly starting to get a bit full but that didn’t stop us from splitting an entree & two sides of which we ordered the Havatini which was a Bucatini with Crab, Uni Butter, Shrimp, & Ramps. It slapped! Our sides were the Hav Fries which were a combination of Yucca & Sweet Potato with Shiro Hummus & Awaze & the Farroto, a Couscous & Farro dish prepared like Risotto served with Confit Mushrooms & Ramps which was sinfully good.

And since there’s always room in the dessert stomach it too was brought to the table in the form of a Spring Tart made with Guava & Calamansi both of which are two of my favorite tropical flavors!

All & all Hav & Mar was a smash! We didn’t have anything there that was anything less than stellar & I’m truly just upset that we weren’t able to try more of the menu as it does contain quite a few items, all of which that shift seasonally.

Following dinner I made the executive decision that I wanted to go clear across town to the Lower East Side & visit a bar called ‘Double Chicken Please.’

Double Chicken Please is a front bar with a backroom speakeasy that is currently sitting pretty at the #2 slot on the World’s 50 Best Bars list! The front room bar features draft cocktails & the back bar, or ‘The Coop’s’ menu is more made to order. Both share a food menu of mostly chicken sandwiches.

When we arrived they were on a bit of a wait, but my superpower always prevails & we were told “well, we have a reservation arriving in 30 minutes, but if you’d like their table for just a drink or two we can arrange that.” So that’s exactly what we did.

All of the drinks in The Coop are modeled after food. I got the Mango Sticky Rice with was Bacardi Reserva Ocho Rum, Mango, Sticky Rice Pu’er Tea (I actually have this at home), Wakame, Cold Brew, & Coconut. Evan, on the other hand, went the savory route & got the Japanese Cold Noodles which was Bacardi Superior Rum, Pineapple, Cucumber, Coconut, Lime, & Sesame Oil & it definitely was more on the savory side which was really interesting to have in a drink. Both drinks were immaculate, though I’m glad that I ordered what I did.

We finished up right around the time our friends Holden & Erina finished up the movie they had gone to. They reached out to see if we wanted to grab a drink somewhere. With us in the Lower East Side & them up by Midtown I suggested we meet in the middle around Flatiron at a bar that was recommended to me by Joshua Gleave called Patent Pending.

Patent Pending is a speakeasy located at the base of the building where Nikola Tesla conducted many of his experiments on radio waves & there-in lies the theme. The whole bar is themed around early electricity & the life & journals of the late, great Nikola Tesla. The drinks are also served with a bit of flare! All in all we ended up staying way longer than we were supposed to & each ended up with about three to four drinks over the span of two plus hours. So in all honesty, even looking at the menu, I can’t really remember what I ordered though I know I stuck to rum most of the night.

What I do remember is that the drinks were very well crafted & balanced. One of mine even came with bananas that were brûléed tableside! I would recommend it for the experience alone!

At around midnight we said goodbye to our friends & headed back west towards the Garment District.

We tried to be quiet getting back into Anne’s but I think we didn’t do so great of a job as Evan broke the blinds for our room trying to close them for the night. He literally twisted the pitch knob on them & they completely disconnected from the top of the sill & just hung slack, still attached on one side.

All in all, it was an excellent birthday & a very fun day filled with amazing people & places!

Ceiling of the American Museum of Natural History

End Of Day Two

Day Three

Another day of lightly sleeping in. I’m not going to lie to you all, I woke up hungover as sin. Ever since around the age of 29, hangovers have really hit me like a tone of bricks & just tend to get worse & worse as the years go on & as my body becomes less suited to my BS & the poison I occasionally in take.

Evan & I had a late morning coffee date set up with a friend in Brooklyn, so after climbing the morning mountain that was getting out of bed, we headed off across the East River with electrolyte drinks in hand.

Coffee in Brooklyn was at a Columbian shop called Devoción. When I say it was a Columbian coffee shop, I mean it, that’s what they specialize in, all things Columbian Coffee!! Evan & I waited, not too long, for our friend to arrive at which point we each got a Pistachio Milk Cortado & our respective morning pastries. I went with the Guava Croissant, Evan his staple of Pain Au Chocolate.

We sat there for a good hour & a half/two hours talking about the past, photography, musical theater, the macabre, parents, trauma, dreams, life, & relationships. It was a lovely rekindling as well as a much needed venting session for the three of us regarding shared experiences & people. Nothing was said that wouldn’t be said to anyone in questions face, nor was any of it things that hadn’t been said or happened. It was a healthy & honest dive into a shared commonality.

Feeling a bit famished & having the void remain despite coffee & pastries, Evan & I bid our friend a loving & fond ‘adieu’ & made our way back to the island.

Lunch was at a restaurant in NoHo called Fish Cheeks. We had met the owners of the establishment, Jenn Saesue & Jesse Morav, back in 2021 at a dinner with music industry friends in Nashville & had been meaning to make the trek out to their establishment. We finally did!

Fish Cheeks is an awesome Thai restaurant located right off of Bond Street. Their menu isn’t necessarily what I would call familiar to those who divulge in their local Thai restaurants, but the items on the list still very much maintain their Thai authenticity while naturally having their own twists & turns. As per usual, Evan & I ordered a bunch of things to split & made our way through them as they came.

The first two things that we ordered were the Zabb Wings & the Somtum Corn Salad. Somtum is typically a Papaya salad, though this one had Cweet Corn as its replacement. The dish was very savory with a slight sweetness from the Corn & a prick of heat from the Birdeye Chilis as well as a very nice mouth feel & a springy crunch from the Green Beans. The wings had outstanding flavor with a dry rub of Chili & Makrut Lime Leaf. I’m typically not one to go in for dry rub wings as they can get a little ‘dusty’ but the flavor made up for any potential hesitancies ten fold.

Between courses I ordered a cocktail they had as a special for Songkran (Thai New Year) in hopes for a little hair of the dog, but I found myself, at no fault to the cocktail itself, incapable of drinking it without feeling queasy. The drink, called the Little Cha, was a Thai Spiced Rum, Thai Tea, Plum Sugar, Makrut Leaf, & Lime twist on an Old Fashioned & I truly wish my pesky handover had let me enjoy it.

For our main course we ordered the Coconut Crab Curry & the 30 Day Dry Aged Beef Kaprow both of which were outstanding! We had been warned that the crab curry was spicy, though we were also informed that the rice would help balance it out. She was warm to say the least but the flavors there in made me keep coming back, despite my mouth being aflame. I’m typically someone who does fine with spice as well, but this was a whole new level. If your tolerance is high & you have the chance I can’t recommend it enough, it’s just not for the faint of heart. The Kaprow was also a delight! The Aging, the Duck, the Veggies all made just a perfectly rounded dish!

With mouths still lit, we decided that Ice Cream was needed, fortunately they had some on their menu! Dessert was a Pandan Jackfruit Ice Cream served atop Sticky Rice. I am a huge fan of both of those flavors, both of which I also feel are criminally underrated in the US palette. (See last week’s blog from the Philippines where I scoured a market for a fresh Jackfruit.) Pandan almost has a bright peanut-y flavor to it that leans a little more on the ‘green’ side than the legume itself & Jackfruit tastes like a combination of all the popular tropical fruits: pineapple, banana, mango, & coconut.

After lunch we popped around a few of the shops in the NoHo area, doing our best to avoid the scattered drizzle that was falling here & there, before we decided to make our way back to Anne’s.

We sat around conversing with her for a bit before it was time to get ready for the main event!

Sweeney Todd was at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, which was just a short walk from where we were staying. The revival of the show originally had Josh Groban in the titular role with Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett, & Gaten Matarazzo as Tobias Ragg but had since switched to having Aaron Tveit, Sutton Foster, & Joe Locke in each of those respective roles. Having been one of my favorite shows for a very long time, I have seen many a production of Sweeney Todd but truly this one blew all of the others I had seen out of the water!

Aaron, despite being mostly a Tenor in a Baritone role, actually nailed the part. Each of the actors brought their own unique takes to the roles in question, he was no exception. Aaron’s Sweeney was charismatic, often almost bipolar, but definitely personified the ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ motif perfectly.

Sutton stole the show in every scene she was in giving a portrayal of Mrs Lovett that I can only describe as fangirl-ish. She let her character’s obsession with Todd take main stage & her willingness to do anything, as long as it got her closer to him, became all the more believable because of it. Prone to body humor, Sutton was often draped over Aaron going so far at one point during “A Little Priest” as to have a one sided sloppy make out with the side of Aaron’s cheek.

Joe Locke surprised me! I’d only known him from the Netflix’s adaptation of Heartstopper, the boy has got pipes!

The two other stand out cast members were John Rapson’s Beadle Bamford & Nicholas Christopher’s Adolfo Pirelli. Both of whom played their respective roles with different levels & styles of flamboyance & arrogance that made two characters, especially in the sense of the Beadle, bounce off the stage.

Truly the revival & the choices made by both cast & crew were masterful & really gave the almost 50 year old musical a fresh coat of paint & a new & interesting edge. I’ve done my best to try & get all of my friends who I think would like it or could possibly have the opportunity to, to go & see it before it closes next week.

After the show we went in search of food. Unfortunately, since it was a week day, a lot of the places we tried were closed. Alternately, a lot of the other places we tried were full to the gills with people who had just done the same as us & gotten out of the various shows dotting Midtown Manhattan. We eventually settled on a random 99 Cent Corner Pizza shop where we each got three slices which we took back to the place to eat.

End Of Day Three

Day Four

Out last day in New York was a bit of a light one. Truly I was still a touch hungover from two nights prior, yes that’s how bad it gets, & we had decided we kinda just wanted to putz around the city for the day.

We did wake up fairly late & were planning to return to WatchHouse for a coffee. However, we decided that food needed to come first.

Wanting to land somewhere around WatchHouse, which is in Midtown, I pulled a restaurant from my handy dandy ‘travel list’ in my notes app which landed us at Jōji Box by Grand Central Terminal.

Jōji Box is the light version of the sushi restaurant Jōji. Jōji is an Omakase (a Japanese phrase essentially meaning “I leave it up to you”) with a Michelin star, where a seating ranges from $300-450. The Box is their more casual friendly take away option.

We had some trouble finding the restaurant that actually turned out to be more of a kiosk tucked in the basement level under the One Vanderbilt building, across from the underground entrance to Grand Central.

I ordered the Omakase box & Evan got the Jōji Box 1. Upon ordering we were informed they had opened only 15 minutes prior & were already almost out of boxes, but that the boxes were restocked every two hours until closing.

We took our boxed lunches down to the dining pavilion of Grand Central where we stood & munched down of the chef’s selection for the day.

To be honest, there were several things in my box that I had no idea of. Lots of different varietals of Tuna, two cuts of Salmon, a Toro Roll, a Snowcrab Roll, Bream, & Scallop but there were two items in the box that I had never actually had before in Nigiri form; Uni (Sea Urchin) & Salmon Roe.

The Uni & Roe were both sweeter than expected with the former having more of a briny finish. The Roe had a fun texture to it & I genuinely enjoyed them both, though I think I’ll stick to Uni as a mix in for other dishes for now.

Post sushi we wrapped around the corner of the concourse & got a staple of a New York City dessert, Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding.

Post sushi & pudding it was coffee time. We walked our way from Grand Central over to WatchHouse where the cafe was actually fairly busy. Managing to snag a table Evan ordered a Flat White & I got one of their rarities, of which they were out of the last time we were there. WatchHouse has a collection of “rare” single origin beans from all over the world. The coffee is chemex brewed & served in a carafe with an empty glass & a glass of cold juniper tea that you are to use as a palette cleanser before you begin to drink the coffee. Each coffee also comes with a QR code which when scanned takes you to a page with all of the information surrounding the specific coffee that you’ve chosen. Mine was Deiro Garcia, also known as Finca Lord Voldamort. I’ll link its page here.

Post coffee we did a little bit of bobbing around. Our evening flight wasn’t until around 9 PM so we had plenty of time to kill. We ended up at several different shops before heading down to Flatiron to grab a LeVain Cookie.

LeVain Bakery is a stable of the New York dessert world offering not only their famous cookies, but also breads & other baked goods. The also ship their dough nationwide if that’s something you’re interested in!

When we got there there was a line of about 20 people but with three registers open & people filling orders seperate of the cashiers it moved quickly. I think it took 5 minutes tops for us to get in & leave cookies in hand. I got a Black & White Cookie which is exclusive to the Flatiron store or online. It was Chocolate Dough with White Chocolate & Dark Chocolate Chips, & it smacked! Evan got a traditional Chocolate Chip, which was amazing & blew some other famous one named cookie store’s Chocolate Chip out of the water…not naming names here.

While at LeVain we noticed that we weren’t too far from the World of Harry Potter Store & since we had time to burn, we walked on over to check it out.

We perused all of the character wands, looked at uniforms & cloaks, picked through the interesting memorabilia, & finally ended our visit to the rather impressively large shop with a glass of Butterbeer, which comes in a collectable cup they let you wash & keep with you.

Feeling satisfied with the trip & our accomplishments this time around in New York we headed back to the Garment District to begin packing & preparing to depart that evening. We had another few glasses of wine with Anne & chatted about before we grabbed all of our belongings & made the reversed trip to the airport as that listed above.

End Of Day Four

End Of Blog!!!

April 13, 2024

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: Bohol, Philippines- Part Three: Let's Play It By Ear...

April 13, 2024

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

BOHOL, PHILIPPINES

Hiya folks, welcome back to the blog!

This will unfortunately be the last segment of blog from my trip to Bohol. I know, I know, we’re all sad about that. As we should be. Fear not though, we still have several days work of content, as well as a previously heavily hinted at & foreshadowed ailment to discuss in this blog. If you’re joining us here & looking at that big ole ‘Part Three’ at the top in confusion & bewilderment, worry not, the links for the previous two parts of this globetrotting romp will be posted below for your reading & visual pleasure! With all of those pieces of business out of the way I say let us continue along!

Part One

Part Two

PART THREE:

Day Six

We started off our day in the usual way. 6-something AM wake up, pancake with fruit, black coffee, & fresh mango/pinapple juice with ice. Next step; preparing gear/cameras for the day, loading up, & briefing & off we went to our first dive site.

You’ll only get a single photo from me on this dive site. The day prior Cari, Darin, & I had requested a change of pace & asked the guides if it was possible to do a muck dive (silt/sandy bottom, easily stirred up if you’re not careful) to which they obliged with a site just off of Anda town called J. Eden’s Place. No clue where that name came from apparently.

The trip out to J Eden’s was a bit tumultuous with larger waves than we’d experience the entirety of the days before. Evan found himself getting a bit sea sick. Despite the larger surge, we suited up & into the water we went.

I have a set of earplugs that are designed specifically for diving, they have a tiny hole in the middle so that the air inside the concha & external auditory canal creates a seal while still allowing the possibility for equalization. Since my left ear was feeling a little off the day before, I put in the large sized one & attempted the dive.

The large wasn’t big enough apparently & by the time we had gotten down to depth, past the Chocolate Chip Starfish & were starting to sink further to around 35 feet my left ear was screaming at me. I signaled to the group that something was wrong with my ear & that I was headed back to the boat only a short bit aways at this point.

The whole way back to the boat I was clinching my teeth, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, & I felt a burning sensation in the left side of my throat. I got back to the boat, threw off my gear & began to clear the water from my ear while sitting in the sun awaiting the return of everyone else.

Of course when everyone returned they raved about the dive. My group had worked at one point to free a bunch of fish & a Mantis Shrimp from a dropped fishing net which they brought back on board with them. Additionally they’d seen Seahorses, Bluespotted Stingrays, & all of the other fun things that you find living in the substrate on a muck dive.

We weren’t entirely sure the diagnosis of my ear but as we continued on to the next site it began to feel better so I thought, you know, I’m going to give the larger earplug a try & see if that keeps me from feeling like this. I promise you, I am more intelligent than I seem at times.

The next site was a wall dive ironically named Wonderwall. With my larger earplug installed & a fresh tank we set about trying again.

I went down slower than everyone else, adjusting incrementally as the depth increased. The larger plug worked like a charm, I had no pain, no issue equalizing, I thought I was in the clear & that maybe I was just sporting the beginnings of an ear infection. I also had the team on deck prepared to help in the case that I had trouble equalizing on my way back up from depth. Neither ended up being an issue.

The wall really was a wonder! There were tons & tons of varietals of Nudibranchs, Commensal Shrimp, Arrow Crabs, the largest school of Engineer Gobies I have ever seen (talking like several feet in diameter), & a Marine Betta (Comet)! Additionally the wall house schools of Anthias, Scribbled Boxfish, Porcupine Pufferfish, & even a Stonefish which when JR gave me the signal for, I thought he was indicating that he was low on air. (The indication of stonefish & low on air are both a closed fist, only low on air is a closed at the chest.) Funny enough the signal for stonefish is also the signal for danger as stonefish are highly venomous if stepped on.

I made it back to the boat completely unscathed. The ear plug had worked & I’d had no issues with my ear at all during the dive so I was clearly not dealing with an equalization issue.

For lunch Cari & I had also made a request the night prior. I had raved to Evelyn, the resort manager, about the Filipino stew I’d had at lunch while we were all on our sunset cruise. A few of us, Cari & myself included, then had used that as an opportunity to request more Filipino dishes be served during our stay because why would you fly halfway across the world just to eat the same things you do at home? She had gladly obliged our request & in the morning had given us the option between a saucy beef & peanut dish or a mung bean soup. I chose the beef, as did most people. The thing that I knew, that I refrained from telling the rest of our party, was that the beef dish wasn’t just beef, but was in fact beef skin that had been cooking for almost a day & a half. The dish in question is called Balbacua & was absolutely delicious!

After lunch it was once again time for our afternoon dives. The site in question was called Dapdap & was in fact just off the coast of Magic Oceans to the west. The dive was actually projected to end at the resort itself. JR & I ended up being the only two from our group to go so he & I had a nice little private dive. With my extra large ear plug in place & kit assembled & accounted for we began our decent into the blue.

Dapdap is a site where, yes, you drop in on a wall, but around the last fifteen feet of the wall, from the bottom, is a dome carved out of the rock face. We started our dive in that little alcove. Here I found yet another Marine Betta, another Ornate Ghost Piperfish, & a rather curious little Flatworm cruising along the substrate.

Farther along & out a ways from the wall we found more interesting critters. We found a little grouping of Sexy Shrimp (yes, that’s literally what they’re called & no, I don’t know why), more Eels, two separate types of Mantis Shrimp; one peacock & one the name of which I’m not sure, & yet another Sea Turtle.

Everything was right as rain & business as normal until we came upon it; the largest Sea Turtle I have ever seen! No joke, this thing had to have a shell that was 4-5 feet from top to tail. It was enormous & was doing its best to wedge itself under a rock to sleep away the late afternoon. There was enough room on its back for two full grown Remoras which hung on snug while still leaving ample room for a good 3-4 more of them to nestle in.

We rounded off the dive & made our way back to shore. Along the way we stumbled upon a pair of Banded Pipefish, a big ole Coral Catfish, & a couple of Leopard Wrasse.

The ascent out of the water was an interesting one. We’d come up on the short & were in only about five feet of water when all of the sudden, there in front of us was the boat with its steps extended down into the water. JR de-finned first & climbed up & I followed only to find us at the resort’s dock, parked. We’d gotten out of the water, into the boat, to walk up onto the dock, & into the dive shop. It was a bit of a disorienting feeling.

After I got all of my gear taken care of for the evening I was met by Jamie who told me that he thought I may have a perforated ear drum. He recommended that I do an easy test to check & had me gather Evan & my ear plug & head to the resort pool. In the resort pool I had been told to go underwater, plug my nose, & blow out like I was trying to equalize. Evan had been asked to go in with me & with his mask on look to see if there were bubble evacuating from my ear. Sure enough there were.

With the ear mystery mostly solved we all agreed that is was probably for the best that I be done diving for the week even though there was another day’s worth of dives to go on. It was also recommended from both Jamie & my dive insurance that I go to a local doctor to get checked out & have them confirm our findings. Additionally it was advised that I start a preventative antibiotic as perforated drums often get inner ear infections from the water that has gotten in.

So off I went about the rest of my evening, to dinner & the like, with the newly acquired knowledge & field diagnosis of a perforated ear drum, knowing the following day I would need to find an official, proper diagnosis, & some medication.

End Of Day Six

Day Seven

I changed up my breakfast. With no risk of sea sickness or motion sickness from diving I opted out of my normal Pancake with fruit & instead went for a Ham & Cheese Omelet. It was lovely as well!

After breakfast I walked down to join everyone else while they were preparing to depart. I joined in their briefing, helped people to suit up, etc. etc. & once they were on their way I went & got dressed for my day on the town.

Jamie had already informed the main office that I needed a ride to the clinic. I went in to check on the status of all of that & they informed me that a tuk-tuk had been called & asked me to wait in my room until it arrived. They would send someone to fetch me once it showed. They also informed me that the tuk-tuk would be about 500 NFP (8.84 USD) each way & apologized profusely that I’d have to walk to the top of the hill to get into it, as it couldn’t make the drive down the steep driveway into the resort. I told them it was truly no problem & went back to my room to await my transit.

They had originally quoted me something like 30 minutes to an hour but it ended up only being about 10 I believe. I was retrieved & returned to the head office where I was greeted by Marj, one of the resort staff. She informed me that she would be accompanying me to the clinic, if that was alright, along with Shakka, one of the resort dogs.

We walked up the hill to where the tuk-tuk waited & filed in the back. I’m assuming he already knew the purpose of our trip because no words were exchanged other than ‘hellos’ & off he went.

I had never ridden in a tuk-tuk before. I’m assuming they’re similar world wide, but this one was essentially a motorcycle with a hard shell covering mounted to it.

Our trip took us back the way in which we’d previously gone for the Whale Shark dive. We turned from the peninsula where Anda sits & ended up in Guindulman. After weaving through the side streets a bit we arrived at the clinic.

Liao’s Clinic is a two room operation sat on the end of a strip. When we arrived there were around 10-15 people already sat waiting. The doctor didn’t arrive until 9 AM & I think we were around 20 minutes early so naturally we had to wait. The driver’s booking included him waiting so Marj, Shakka, & I waited outside the clinic in the back of the tuk-tuk.

The time went by quickly. Marj & I struck up conversation. We talked all about each of our separate curiosities about how the other lived & what life was like respectively & I introduced her to the scientific fact that white people can’t do ‘the Asian squat.’ At one point I remarked at the two roosters who were leashed up outside of the store down the street from the clinic. They each had a leash tied to one of their ankles & each time they would reach the end of their cord they would behave as though its existence was entirely unbeknownst to them up until that exact moment. There came a point in which one of the children waiting at the clinic released the CO2 filled balloon he’d been holding & it got picked up by the wind. Unfortunately for one of the roosters, but fortunately for me, the wind eddied & swirled right where the rooster had taken up residence at the end of its leash. I watched for a good 10 seconds as the balloon whirled around & around, smacking into this poor rooster over & over. All the while the rooster did its best to escape, exclusively doing so in the direction opposite of where he was tied. I hate to say I cackled at the poor beast, but nevertheless, I did.

When it was time for me to be checked out Marj accompanied me into the room where the doctor worked. He sat me in a white lawn chair & heard me out. Marj translated any words that were lost in the language divide, he looked in my ear, & sure enough confirmed that I had a lightly perforated ear drum with a hole only about the size of a pin. He prescribed me a preventative weeks worth of antibiotics & steroid drops which I was to do twice a day for two weeks. My total at the clinic with medications included was 2700 NFP or $48 USD. #CriesInAmerican

After I’d paid & acquired my drugs we asked the driver if he wouldn’t mind stopping at the market down the street for us to check on something. I am a lover of Jackfruit, I love it dearly. If you read any of my Indonesian blogs you’ll know that to be true, but anytime I’m in the islands or in Southeast Asia I do my utmost to find out. We went to the market to peruse for one but unfortunately came up empty. Though I’m grateful for the attempt!

We had a quick turn over when we returned to the Oceans of Magic, well relative to the turn overs of the rest of the trip. We were to meet those who had gone out diving on a beach between the resort & Anda for a barbecue. Evan & I departed with the staff & a few other resort guests as the others would arrive by boat.

When we got to Bituon Beach we found the kitchen staff already hard at work. They were grilling marinated meats (Chicken & Pork) & had a whole line of cloth covered tables set up with table settings all along. Ev & I sat & waited for the boats with our party members to arrive which only took about ten minuted before they appeared. Once they were sat we were served the Meats with Soya Sauce, two kinds of Salad (Potato & Garden), & beverages we’d ordered ahead previously in the week.

After a wonderful lunch on a perfect day at the beach we were treated to Ube ‘Dirty Ice Cream’ as the dive staff serenaded us via the Karaoke booth on the other side of the beach.

Don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging, I’m going to address dirty ice cream & where the moniker originated, or at least what I was told the name came from. Dirty ice cream is so called because it typically comes from a street vendor. That’s not the dirty part. The dirty part stems from the vendors walking around selling their goods with a bell. When kids would ask their parents if they could get ice cream their parents would always say “nah, that’s dirty ice cream” as a way of deterring their children from wanting the vendor’s product. The ice cream & the vendors are perfectly clean, the name just stuck as a way to make children not want it.

At a certain point during Evan dipped from lunch to go hunt down a bathroom, as he is one to do. (He’s going to beat me for saying that.) Upon asking to be shown the restroom he was brought over to someone’s home near the beach where he was ushered inside & shown to their personal bathroom. After going about his going abouts he turned around to leave the bathroom & there, on the back of the door, is a 8X10 cut out picture of none other than early 2000s Disney icon Hilary Duff.

With full tummies & sunburnt skin we boarded back on the dive boat & were taken to the resort from there.

Knowing I would be forced to spend my day landlocked I had booked a massage. The resort had a built in spa where you could request services up to an hour before you would like them. I booked a 90 minute Hilot massage.

Hilot is a Filipino type of massage. It is a mix of deep tissue massage & energy healing where the practitioners use their hands to find areas of blocked energy & knead them out. The massage itself, while being deep tissue in nature, is very gentle & is less like the Swedish variety where pressure is applied in long strokes to the muscle fiber & more like the kneading of a cat along the fibers. It was absolutely lovely.

About an hour into my hour & a half of relaxation the Tokay Gecko that I was unaware lives in the room decided to start chirping right above my head. The gecko’s call is loud, very loud & it scared the ever loving hell out of me. Imagine being in a state of total relaxation & having energy work done & out of nowhere you’re ripped from your tranquility by the “EHT EER” of the gecko. Click on the sound files in the wiki link attached to the name if you want to hear what they sound like.

After my massage I found Evan sat at the bar, gossiping it up with Ester. He had let it leak to her that I am a Singer/Songwriter & she had gone through the trouble of pulling up my entire Spotify catalog which she then proceeded to wait to play until I showed up. We made it through all of the songs several times.

Around 7 PM we were all called to dinner where I got to sit & hear the rounding out of everyone else’s week of dive. To be entirely honest though, I had had a fantastic day. Inspire of the injury, inspire of the inability to dive, I got to travel around & do one of my favorite aspects of travel which is connecting with people around the world & submerging myself not in their waters, but in their lives. To once again be entirely honest, this is one of the days of the trip that I remember the most fondly & with the utmost joy in my heart.

End Of Day Seven

Day Eight

Wake up was the normal 6-ish AM natural occurrence. With our last day of activities ahead of us breakfast was again starting a little earlier than the previous day & with no more diving, boat rides, or current in my near future, I opted for what I thought was a Breakfast Sandwich for breakfast. It turned out to just be a sandwich with assorted veggies & no egg. It was my fault for misreading the menu.

After breakfast we all loaded up into the vans with a day bag & a potential change of clothes & off we went to see what the day held. Some of the dive & resort staff joined us, including JR & Lee Ann & after about an hour to an hour & a half we landed at our first stop, the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary is, as their name suggests, dedicated to protecting the Philippine Tarsier, one of the smallest primates in the world, inhabiting the southeastern most islands in the Philippine Archipelago. The primates are nocturnal & only measure around 3-6 inches in size with an adult weight of between 2.5 & 6 ounces.

The facility itself consists of a parking lot, a placard arched entrance, a set of facilities, & an informational museum which serves as the entrance to the sanctuary as well as an educational center. Once you pass through the museum you find yourself in a chainlink fenced in forest scribbled with meandering trails. Posted all over are signs telling you to please be quiet & refrain from flash photography as the Tarsiers are trying to sleep during visiting hours.

The first of them we encountered was amongst a cluster of short palms. It was tucked up in the foliage about seven or eight feet from the ground. It looked to be clinging to the palm for dear life, hoping to blend in from us, which I would assume it took as predatory. The next couple were in similar predicaments with the farthest we found only being about nine feet off of the ground. Some were more active than others, peaking up from their slumber to watch us, all had ears that reminded me of Yoda.

After we’d pestered the tarsiers enough we all went about our separate activities. Some wandered the museum, watched the informational videos, & asked questions to those who worked there. Evan & I on the other hand went out to the entrance patio where one of the area dogs had brought out her puppy. As I approached she gave me a bit of a snarl but I sat & waited for her approach & approval before giving her a pet & continuing on to see her puppy.

When the others had exhausted their fill of the primates & the dogs had their fill of me we all loaded back up into the vans & headed down the road to what would be lunch.

Lunch was an interesting one. We were only in the van about fifteen minutes before we were dropped in Loboc at the Loboc River Tourist Complex. Once we were checked in we were all shown down the outdoor corridor to the river itself where we were directed down a flight of stairs & onto a series of floating barges each with restaurant seating set up. We were all asked to be seated & were brought Cucumber Lemonade before the boats swiftly departed from shore.

Once we were moving we were then directed to line up at the end of the barge where a table strewn with all sorts of Filipino foods had been set up. We each grabbed ourselves a plate & made our way through selecting the items that looked appealing to each of us. As we began to dine a singer & guitar player took up a mic in the corner & began to serenade us with mostly 80s love songs. It was charming.

A couple of minutes up river the duo stopped & instead we docked right up to a stage that jutted out into the water. There about twenty people were dancing & singing their way through a catalog of assorted traditional Filipino & Spanish songs & dances (the Spanish occupied the Philippines for over 300 years.) After they were done they waved goodbye & we continued up river.

Farther up stream we found ourselves privy to all sorts of activities both in the river & above. There were zipliners darting back & forth from bank to bank in the hills above, there were kids swinging into the river doing the latest trick they dared, & even a few fishermen hauling in their daily catch. All while the duo continued their cantations. We doubled back at a certain point & enjoy the drift downstream before we reconnected with the complex we’d began our journey at & shown through to the gift shop. I’m not going to lie, I purchased a shirt. It’s blue tied dye with the Bohol insignia on it.

Once we’d finished our shopping we were loaded up & back on down the road we went.

I was severely undersold the Chocolate Hills. Severely. When I asked what they were & if they contained chocolate I was told that they’re simply some hills & that no, the do not in fact contain chocolate. While that is somewhat true, calling them “just some hills” is the understatement of the century.

The Chocolate Hills are haystack shaped karst hills. They formed from eroding limestone in the region as well as tectonic activity that thrust them up into the air. Not only are they a geographical monument in the Philippines, they are also a staple of the island of Bohol. There are around 1,200 of these hills in the center of the island & they vary in size from 100 feet tall to the tallest at 390 feet tall. They are referred to as the chocolate hills not because cacao grows there, but because during the dry season the vegetation covering them turns a rich chocolate brown.

They are nothing short of stunning.

We arrived in the region after about an hour drive inland. Turning into the visitor center, we rounded one of the larger hills to a lot where we were once again dropped. Meeting the lot was a set of around 200 steep steps which led to the top of the hill we’d just circumnavigated. It was a bit of a climb but the view from the top was spectacular! Not just the hills, but the valley in which they sit. You could see for miles!

Once we’d all had our fill of the tops of the hills we descended where we drove just around the corner to Graham ATV & Bugcar Rental.

When you arrive at Graham ATV & Bugcar Rental you are handed a helmet, a waiver, & asked to choose between a two person buggy or an ATV. Then, following a briefing, you are shown to your respective vehicle & away you go.

The tour is about an hour long & takes you along muddy trails in-between several of the Chocolate Hills. You dip in & out of forest & meadows going over hills & through streams before looping around to return the basecamp. Evan had a hard time getting into it initially, but once he felt comfortable he was all in. I, on the other hand, was gung ho from the beginning!

After an hour of zipping around the hills we rinsed off our mud soaked selves, changed our clothes, got some ice cream & started to make our way back towards the coast.

Along the way Lee Ann abruptly asked our driver to pull over. She’d caught a Tempura Street Stand as we’d passed through Carmen on our way back. She & one of the other resort staff who’d come along for the day hopped out & immediately started ordering from the stand. Never one to not dive headlong into my curiosities, I joined them. Lee Ann ordered for me & gave me a bag with several tempura items in it. I think one of them was just strips of fried dough, the other was a fried egg. There were also a series of sauces which you dumped directly into the bag. I went for what was warned would be the spiciest, but it was actually a very pleasant sweet chili vibe.

We loaded back into the van & off down the road we went.

The evening was a planned party. They had pulled the tables out from the restaurant & assembled them along the grounds near the dive shop. There was also a band from Manila who had come in to play.

As everything was being set up we were instructed to start emptying our designated spots in the dive shop & change into something a little nicer. I went back to our room, packed up all of my gear, showered, & got my other luggage together.

The party was so nice. They’d pit roasted a Lichon for us & set up long tables filled with food under the sky & the hung ropes of lights above. The whole of the resort staff was there & were able to let loose & celebrate with us. Apparently we were the first large group of the busy season & the resort & its faculty were excited about it!

During dinner the band played 80s covers, clearly a favorite decade of music, as we ate. After we’d finish Ester stepped into the role of MC & started calling up people to sing along with the band…….

The first to sing was the chef! Yes, the resort chef. He had a lovely voice & sang two or three songs. During his set I got a grip on the shoulder & turned to find Ester who looked me dead in the eye & told me “I hope you know I’m not letting you run off for the night without singing something.” To which I laughed & obliged. Next up was Lee Ann, the karaoke queen struck again & did two songs as well as a song with Ester! Then came my moment of doom haha.

Me Doing The Thing
Photo Credit: Evan Michael

Ester, still holding the mic, called me up on stage. I got up & walked on but asked what I should sing. I was told an original. I asked if I could borrow a guitar to which the lead guitar player handed me his. After adjusting the height of the mic stand (I’m a good head or two taller than most of the filipinos I encountered) I went in on “When He Was Me” I was shocked when I got to the pre-chorus & the rest of the band join in with me! They followed the chord changes as best they could & when I finished I was greeted with a standing ovation & a call for more songs. I agreed & decided to play “Just Another Late Night” since the chords were the same throughout & it would allow the band an easier time following along. They crushed it!

After finishing up “Just Another Late Night” I once again got the request for another song, even the band was now requesting more music. So I did the same thing as before, I played “Insomniac” since the chords are the same throughout.

Still the group wanted more songs, but I turned down their request, it wasn’t my show to take over, it was the group who had come in to play, so I passed the microphone & the guitar back to their owners & descended from the stage.

They made me feel like a rock star, I’m not going to lie. I got off stage & JR immediately wanted a picture, then so did Lee Ann, then so did a few others. I thanked them all profusely for their kindness & hospitality & sat to watch the band sing through a few more songs.

When the toll of the day finally came to tax me of my energy I headed off to the bar to pay my tab for the evening. There Ester met me with a hug & a request for a photo to which I happily agreed & we said our good-byes until next time.

End Of Day Eight

END OF PART THREE & END OF BLOG SERIES!!!

April 6, 2024

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Bohol, Philippines- Part Two: It's A Shark, It May Have The Word 'Whale' In Its Name, But It Is A Shark!

April 6, 2024

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

BOHOL, PHILIPPINES

Welcome back, welcome back! How’re we feeling today? Ready to embark on another adventure into the deep blue? I sure hope so! If you are coming into this post & seeing that big ole ‘part two’ across the title & scratching your head, fear not, I’ll link Part One of this here trilogy below this here paragraph. If you’re coming from the previous post, welcome to it! Glad you stuck around! Sorry we didn’t get into any diving with that one, I promise this one will be different in that regard. Now, if we don’t have any more points of business to get out of the way, I’d be happy to continue this ongoing story. Strap on your BCD, bite down on your reg, & let’s dive on in!

Part One

PART TWO:

Day Three

One of the only times that you will catch me being a morning person is on the days in which there is diving or some sort of other adventure involved. I tend to be more of a late morning riser & a night owl than an early bird but when you dive, a lot of times your dives will start sometime around or before 8 AM. That was no different here.

We awoke around 6:15/6:30 AM. Having made our way to the resort in the dark I wanted to a brief bit of exploring. I revisited the path I’d gone down the night prior; a pair of jet black honey bees were zipping around, pollenating a papaya tree that had cropped up near the trail. Continuing along it I sat & watched the newly minted day from the overlook above the rocks, listening to the waves dash against them.

Breakfast at Magic Oceans begins around that time & is custom, made to order, from the menu provided at the table. Along with your freshly made breakfast options you also have the ability to order coffee, tea, water, or an assortment of fresh juices such as apple, mango, orange, & pineapple. I tend to lean something a little more carb leaning, less greasy or dense, for days I plan to dive, especially if we’re going out on a boat. It was a tip that Elaine taught me back in Fiji that helps mitigate the potential of “feeding the fish” should the boat ride out, or the currents under the waves, prove to be rocky. With that in mind I ordered the Pancake with Fresh Fruit.

The plate sized pancake was less your traditional southern/midwestern American dense dark golden brown disk & more akin to a thick crepe or a dutch baby. Whatever it was, it was delicious. It came covered in fresh pineapple, some of the best mango I've ever had, & bananas. It felt sacrilegious of me to put syrup on it, so instead I asked for honey, which I drizzled gingerly atop.

With breakfast also came the remainder of our briefing from the night before that had been cut short by the exhaustion we all shared. Evelyn filled us in on the remainder of the resort proceedings while Jamie, the Dive Master, began briefing us on what our days of dive would consist of. We were to be at the ‘dive shop’ each morning at 8 AM for check-in & briefing where we’d pack up & depart for two morning dives before returning back for lunch, refueling, & going out for our afternoon dive.

As we all began finishing our respective breakfasts & departing for our rooms to gather our belonging for our dives we were once again greeted by the dining staff who were taking out lunch orders.

With lunch you had the option for whatever you wanted from the even broader lunch menu. However, each day the kitchen staff would pick two items from the menu that they would then offer to guests as a way of making the load on the kitchen for lunch easier. If neither of those two options suited you then you were more than welcome to order from the menu.

Once we’d all retreated & reconvened down at the dive shop we set about setting up out tanks for the week. Each of us was given a polished wood station with room to hang your BCD (buoyancy control device), your wetsuit, & a milk crate in which to put things whenever you needed them. As I was getting situated, JR, who would be my guide for the week, came over & metered the nitrox from my tank for me. You meter with each tank so that you know what percentage O2 your tank has which then is inputted into your dive computer which uses the exact measurements to calculate a dive requiring no decompression time. We finish measuring my tank, attached it to the BCD, & screwed on my regulator, then it was Evan’s turn.

This is where I think we ran into the trouble of the week, the trouble that we probably won’t include in this part of the blog, but will probably occupy the majority of part three. We got Evan’s tank measurements, signed off on them on the sheet saying we’d measured & crosschecked the tank, & went to assemble his dive kit. We screw the BCD in place & I go to attend to something in my milk crate. The next thing I know there’s a loud pop from my left & a whooshing. Those of us who are experience divers have already called it; it was a popped o-ring. An o-ring, for anyone not familiar with plumbing or any type of activity involving the sealing of two connecting points, is a little rubber ring that sits in the connection fro the tank to the regulator. It prevents air from leaking out the connection. Evan’s had just blown. Totally normal occurrence, nothing to be frightened by or upset about. They pull his reg off the tank & inspect the issue. I immediately see the problem, there’s not one, but two o-rings in the slot. I call that out & turn my head back to my kit or whatever I was fidgeting with on my kit. Another pop right next to my left ear. The blown o’ring had been discarded & another one had replaced it, which then also blew.

I want to be very clear that I’m not tacking blame on this for anyone, especially since I was basically the only one who could see the second o-ring from where I was positioned & the way the tank was facing. I understand having taken the regulator off, seeing the o-ring attached to said regulator connection, & replacing it there assuming that it was the only one present. I also speak at a pitch that tends to blend in to the background noise of the world around you, so I may not have been heard. I made sure to point the mistake out before the same thing happened a second time though.

With gear finally assembled & loaded on board the boat, we gathered around for our briefing & to be divided into our dive groups.

At this point I suppose it’s worth noting the following. Anytime I write stories or blogs I do my best to not include the names of persons under the age of 18, unless I am personally related to them. I am not their parents/guardians, the extent in which their personage being spread across the world wide web is not my choice to make. There will be several mentions of underage party members throughout this blog series, but I shan’t be naming them. They will simply be referred to as in relation, i.e. so & so’s daughter, such & such’s friend, you get it? If you’re one of the aforementioned reading this, I promise I know your names & don’t mean to diminish you to who you are to someone else! Continuing on…

Evan & I naturally got placed together, along with Deb (whom I adore & dove with previously in Fiji & Indonesia), & Darin & Cari’s Daughter (whom I also adore & dove with in Fiji), as she was rooming with Deb. Cari departed from her assigned group & joined ours under JR as the group she was assigned to with Darin, their son, & his friend, would be busy certifying their son’s friend as a diver. So we became a group of six, JR included, & they became a group of four.

Our boat held three groups, which meant that our last group from our party would be on another boat for the week, but they didn’t seem to mind! At least as far as none of them voiced.

Our first dive of the trip was a site called Birhen Sanctuary. A lot of the diving that we did around the peninsula that Anda sits on were wall dives as the shore went out a ways before dropping off drastically at a depth of around fifteen to twenty feet to around eighty to one hundred. Birhen was no exception. With our max depth for the site set around eighty-five feet we all suited up & into the water we went. I was eager as always to resubmerge & was actually planning on trying out a new bit of tech that I’d acquired, the Oceanic+ Dive Housing which uses the already solid camera output from my iPhone 15 Pro Max as its camera!

The Philippines did not come to play. In terms of an “introductory dive” for the location, it put all of the cards on the table. We got down to depth, immediately a massive field of Garden Eels (if you follow me on any of my socials you know how much love I have for garden eels.) Slight turn back towards the wall, boom, Sea Krait. This was all within the first minute or two of the dive. We saw Regal Angelfish, Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Scorpionfish, Frogfish, & even some Pygmy Seahorses (only about the size of a fingernail) camouflaged & tucked into a Gorgonian Coral. The site was splendid! If offered Greyfaced Moray Eels, harems of Anthias galore, & tons & tons of different varietals of Nudibranchs.

At the top of the wall sat an additional reef where we ran into a Peacock Grouper, a school of Durgon Triggerfish, & a Powder Brown Tang in addition to all the Anemones with Clownfish & a plethora of Long-Spined Sea Urchins.

Returning to the boat we were met with coffee, tea, bananas, & a container full of fresh cut mango. The crew was put in charge of changing out our empty tanks for the next dive & we set about burning through our hour long surface interval.

Any time I do these blogs, specifically the ones involving large amounts of diving, I never know exactly how much or how little you, as the reader, know about the activity of diving. Typically, I feel like most people sit in the realm of knowing very little about dive other than what they’re seen in tv or movies, often which promote very unsafe practices in their frames. BUT with the feeling that most people don’t know much about Scuba & its practices, I tend to overshare about the items or activities in which I am referencing. *See entire paragraph about ‘o-rings’ above.

Surface intervals, for those that don’t know, is the time designated for you as a diver to sit in our natural environment, the surface, & breathe out some of the nitrogen that has accumulated in your system at depth. The deeper you go, the longer you stay, the more pressure forces nitrogen into your body, the longer your surface interval needs to be. One of the goals of recreational diving is to stay within the threshold of what we call “no-deco time” or no decompression time, meaning you don’t require decompression to get back to normal above water stasis. All of these are fun things you learn if you ever take a dive course. During the surface interval is also typically the time in which you move from one dive site to the next, as we did.

Our next dive site was called Seahorse Point, another wall with a bit more sandy & sloped of a bottom. We still had a bit of time left before we could go diving so we sat & watched an outrigger pull up a fish trap full of fish. I swung around the back of the boat to use the bathroom & found Lee Ann, one of the other dive guides, eat something that I’m still not sure of its name with rice. I asked her what it was, which she gave me the name of, which I swiftly forgot, & then she offered me some. I took a pinch of it & it was exquisite! To describe it, it was a savory, salty reddish mush that I could not for the life of me tell you what was in it or what it was called. All I know was that it was very good & I am grateful she allowed me to try her lunch!

It was once again time to suit up & get in the water. The six of us jumped in, descended as a group, & started to make our way over the wall. The current at Seahorse Point was a little stronger than that of the previous dive, but was still manageable. We started this dive headed East, away from our boat. On our first pass, near the base of the wall we found lots more Nudibranchs, Feather Duster & Christmas Tree Worms, & an anemone full of Sarasvati Anemone Shrimp. We’d just made it to the halfway point of our dive & gotten the ‘turn around’ signal from JR when I spotted it. Nestled in the wall, doing its utmost to hide from us, was a rather large Common Octopus. I would have missed it entirely if I hadn’t been waiting for the rest of the group to start their return back the way we came. I only noticed it because of the white flash of its respiratory siphon.

We all gathered around the octopus as it did its best to blend into the reef wall & the cavity that it had claimed to hide in. It’s always an exciting find when you stumble across an octopus or any other type of cephalopod as their alien like appearance never ceases to amaze.

Going back the way we came we stumbled upon another fun find, an Electric Flame Scallop, tucked back in a slight cave, flashing its mantle to attract plankton which it filter feeds out. The scallop isn’t really electric, but it gives the appearance of such as it tucks & untucks the white edge of tissue around the edge of the opening of its mantle. Additionally we ran into more scorpionfish, more frogfish, & even more schools of anthias.

With the morning dives completed, it was time to head back to the resort for lunch.

For lunch Evan & I had chosen the burger option. It was definitely an interesting take on one, a far departure from the American style, but it was still very good. The patty came with your usual lettuce, onion, tomato, mayo, but additionally had fresh cucumbers on it, I’m assuming in place of the pickle. It made for a much “fresher” take on the classic dish.

After lunch it was back to the boat for our afternoon wall dive at Snapper’s Cove.

Snapper’s Cove is aptly name. There is a cove, in the wall, that typically is host to a school of Snapper. Imagine that. Evan skipped out on the afternoon dive & opted to relax by the pool, as did Deb, so our group of six was down to four.

In my experience afternoon dives can be hit or miss. A lot of the stuff that is active in the morning has started to hide away for the approaching night & a lot of the things that are active at night haven’t started to come out to hunt in the darkness yet. This one turned out to be a solid one!

The wall was chockablock with different kinds of nudibranchs as well as soft corals such as Pulsing Xenia & Waving Hand Anthelia. Additionally we didn’t find any snapper, but we did find a whole school of large Cardinalfish. I tried & failed to fulfill my endless pursuit of getting two Yellow Capped Cleaner Wrasse to clean my mouth & we found a massive white Giant Frogfish perched on some sponges awaiting whatever unlucky fish swims too close to it. We stumbled upon a school of juvenile Engineer Gobies, a duo of Zanzibar Whip Coral Shrimp, & some Orangutan Crab nestled in a Bubble Coral.

On top of the reef we ran into another Sea Krait, a few rather large hermit crabs, tons of Leather Corals, another frogfish, & our first Sea Turtle! Evan really missed out.

Back on land Evan & I made our way to the bar. I typically edit & post dive videos while on my trips & it usually takes me the entirety of the evening to do so, but I found myself having technical difficulties. You see, I am used to shooting on my GoPro, which has phenomenal stabilizers but can’t do macro (anything closer than a foot) to save its life. My iPhone, on the other hand, can shoot macro & wide but lacks the stabilizers. So I spend the good part of an hour or so editing footage, trying to figure out how to stabilize it on my iPad, which simply wasn't' happening. I decided that I’d wait til I returned stateside to compile my videos this time around since the stabilizing tech on my computer is absolutely astounding at times! I resigned myself to enjoying my time & not putting the pressure of content creation on myself this trip.

Here we meet more key players for the week; Ester & Ian, both of whom run the bar at the resort. Ester is by far who Evan & I spent the majority of our week conversing with & I would say we left the week decent enough friends! Ester was also in charge of the daily specials, her ‘cocktails of the day’ were always innovative & fun & we all sat at the bar most nights talking about life, movies, & joking around. This was to be the first of those evenings.

Dinner was called at almost exactly 7 PM & was served family style, just as it was the night prior. We were sat with water & a lovely sweet fruit tea along with an appetizer, a soup, or a salad. We ate dinner at a leisurely pace & once we were done it seems we’d all been taken by sleep, as every one in our party immediately went off to bed for the night.

End Of Day Three

Day Four

I woke up Tuesday with the biggest pep in my step, not that I don’t normally when it comes to diving, but today was the day that we were crossing off one of my bucket list dives. We were going to be diving with Whale Sharks!!!

Along with Manta Rays, Whale Sharks have always been a big “I wanna” for my dive bucket list & with over 60 dives under my belt, I had yet to have gotten a chance run in with either of the gentle giants. That was due to change!

Also, quick interjection here. THE ARE SHARKS, NOT WHALES! They may have ‘whale’ in the name, but it is used here as an adjective, like Goliath, it is meant to denote their size. They are not mammals, they are fish. They do not lactate, grow hair, have lungs, or have warm blood. I don’t know how many people I’ve talk to about this who have said something along the lines of “omg, I’m so jealous, I’d love to swim with whales” or “weren’t you afraid to be that close to whales.” They’re not whales. At all.

END OF SOAP BOX RANT.

Breakfast was served a little earlier than normal as we needed to be on the road headed to the dive site around 7:30. I had my usual pancakes with fruit & before I knew it, we were off on the one & a half hour ride to the site.

The staff had asked that we gather & group our dive gear the night prior so that they could load it into the truck that would go ahead & meet us there with everything already previously prepared so that when we arrived & it was our turn to go, we could just find & collect our things from our milk crate, dress, & get right into the water.

We arrived at Taug Whaleshark Watching just before 9:30. Upon arrival we were ushered through a series of vendor stalls before being sat under a covered patio where we received our safety briefing about the sharks & filled our or consent forms & waivers. One of the main rules that was being hammered in was that of distance & touch. Naturally they asked that you not touch the sharks & that doing so would accrue a 15,000 NFP fine. Additionally they asked that you not get within 10 meters of the sharks or 12 meters from their tail as it has a rather large swing radius. They also explained that this morning, when the crews got to work, there were about eight whale sharks out off the shore & now there were three as they show up each morning to be fed by the organization.

I want to pause here to talk a little about the morality of this, of feeding wild animals essentially as a tourist attraction & where I fall on this spectrum as I know certain other members of the dive community at large fall on very opposite ends of what they believe to be right.

I, in the past, have done very similar experiences where the animals are incentivized by the prospect of food to show up & be spectacle for divers or other tourists, that’s essentially what happens in Beja during their shark dive as well. (Read about it here.) Each time that I participate in such a program I always end up with the same grey area feeling around it but, I think that Jamie, the dive master at Magic Oceans, actually had very good insight into the practice, especially in Bohol.

One night at the bar Darin asked Jamie his feelings on the feeding of the whale sharks. His response came in the form of a story. Jamie said that it used to be that whale sharks were free game. Free game for fishermen, for butchers, etc. There were no protection for the sharks & they would often be caught, butchered, & sold at markets for their meat. Then something shifted. Someone along the way picked up on the fact that a very large percentage of the world would love nothing more than to see a live whale shark up close, so they started a business & began feeding the sharks planktonic organisms in the same spot each day. This naturally got the sharks accustomed to being fed & not having to search the oceans for their rapidly dwindling food source. Then they started hiring staff, then they started allowing vendors around their business, & quickly the other locals picked up on the fact that people would pay for the experience which then would enrich their chances of also getting a slice of the pie. Turn back to the local markets, people started to get run out for selling the shark because it became an active representation of the destruction of the livelihood of those in the community & almost all at once the fishing & sale of whale shark meat diminished & disappeared.

I’m not here to say it’s objectively right or wrong, what I will say will err on the side of the former though. Whale sharks are an endangered species, climate change is decimating their populations as their food source continues to lessen & lessen in availability. We take in rhinos for protection, we take in big cats in the hopes of rehabilitating & reintroducing them at later dates, what’s the harm in doing so with massive sharks while still keeping them in their natural habitat? Do we not sell safaris in nature preserves to pay to protect the animals there within?

After sitting, waiting our turn for around 30 minutes to an hour we were called to dress.

The dive was a shore dive with a max depth around 45 feet. We were asked to suit up quickly & get into the water to finish off our kit so that the boats coming in with those who had gone out to feed & observe from the surface could get in & start unloading/loading their groups. All in all there were probably just short of a hundred people mingling about either beginning or ending their trip with the sharks. We were apparently the last dive group of the day, so we weren't given a time limit for our excursion.

Long Spined Sea Urchins w/ Threadfin Cardinalfish

Once we were all in & kitted, we began the kick out to the site. The shoreline was rather rocky & full of urchins so they had us submerge as soon as we could in part so we weren’t stepping on anyone of their homes but also so that we could get lower in the water, giving the sharks ample space to swim above us just below the surface.

We were at about 35 feet when I saw my first wild whale shark. I was just kicking along, out into the Bohol Sea when I heard the clicks of JR’s carabiner. I found him in the water & he pointed up & there, about twenty feet above me, swam three whale sharks.

The group of three featured two sharks that were about 15-20 feet in length, the third was massive probably anywhere from 30-40 feet in length with a tail around 9 feet in height. They were easily the largest animals I had ever seen much less been in close proximity to. I was beaming!

Over the next hour we floated, suspended almost entirely in the middle of the bottom & the surface staring in awe & amazement as the sharks crossed back & forth collecting the food that had been thrown out for them. The largest shark, however, seemed to have the whole “feeding game” figured out & was situated at the surface the entirely of the time at around a 45º angle between the two boats that were throwing out the food. It didn’t move from its spot as its tail swooshed back & forth behind it, keeping its head elevated to the surface where it funneled in a constant flow of water & food.

At one point we all got a little sick of being reserved to the bottom/middle of the water column as we watched the groups of snorkelers go right up next to the shark & we decided to raise ourself up to a depth of about 15 feet instead. As soon as we did this I almost got bulled over by one of the smaller sharks who swam in from behind me. Luckily I saw it coming & was able to drop back down underneath it, which ultimately resulted is an amazing shot!

After we got out we dried off & dressed. There were refreshments waiting for us & our ride back. We repacked all of our gear into our milk crates & boarded the vans back to Magic Oceans.

Since the dive site was a ways away it ate the time slot for both of the morning dives, meaning that following lunch there would only be the afternoon dive to round out the day.

Our afternoon dive was a wall dive called Coco North. A sloping wall dive, this one featured deep fissures where schools of fish would gather & take refuge. During out time here I actually encountered another nautical first for me, which is a swimming Feather Starfish!

Feather stars get their name from the frilled appearance of their appendages of which there are anywhere from 10-200, though they always appear in groups of five. They dust these super sticky limbs through the water collecting food but also use them to maneuver through the water appearing almost like a dancing spider as they do. To see them stationary is fairly common place, but occasionally you’ll manage to see one fluttering about, which is a rather surreal experience!

In addition to the starfish we also stumbled upon a multitude of clams, some Yellow Boxfish, a few Orange-lined Triggerfish ( I prefer the aquarists term of “Undulate Triggerfish), & even happened upon a Fimbriated Moray Eel! The eel was tucked behind a crusting coral & didn’t want to say hi, despite our best efforts to get the beautiful creature to come out of its lair for a few photos.

In addition to all that the wall hosted a number of clownfish with anemones, Banded Coral Shrimp, Nudibranchs aplenty, Cleaner Wrasse, & more.

When we rounded the top of the wall there was a large school of Sergeant Majors waiting to greet us in addition to all of the soft corals & even a Banana Wrasse.

Post dives we made our nightly trip to the bar to await dinner & chat with Ester whom we got into a lovely heartfelt conversation about the differences in life between The US & The Philippines. As per usual, we also talked about movies & TV shows & which she was watching in the evenings when work was slow or when she got home after getting off. We made our recommendations & she made hers.

Dinner was served in the usual way & after some much need sustenance we once again retired for the night. Though before my head hit the pillow & drifted my off to dreamland I snuck down to the end of the dock for a bit of star gazing.

One of my favorite parts about being in a more remote part of the world with not as much light pollution, especially around the water, is the ability to see the stars. They’re the only times that I’ve managed to catch glimpses of The Milky Way.

All in all, it was one for the books, a day I will remember forever!

End Of Day Four

Day Five

Another morning, another Filipino Pancake with Fruit.

Our morning dive was a site called Island View. Yes, it did contain a view of an island, that island being Bohol. So I guess technically all of the dives we had should’ve been called “Island View.” It was also a wall dive.

While diving the view we encounter a multitude of lovely fish & other oceanic critters. There were a few types of Puffers: Porcupine, Dogfaced, & Valnetin’s Sharpnose, an Ornate Ghost Pipefish, loads of Anemones with Clowns, more Garibaldi Shrimp, Marbled Tile Starfish, a Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish, the clusterf- of Nudies we’ve come to expect, Frogfish, & even a little Snowflake Eel.

The morning dive was followed by a second at a site called “Coral Garden.”

Coral Garden was aptly named as the top reef was a vibrant myriad of corals & fish swimming about. Most of the top side crew were Damsels in variety: Sergeant Majors, Black Damsels, Staghorns, & Yellowtail Blue Damsels. Once we descended over the side of the wall, down the drop off, the reef traffic definitely got a bit quieter, & a lot less territorial.

You know, now that I think about it, this may be the first & only dive trip in which I wasn’t attacked by some sort of Damsel while diving…huh.

Off the wall we found Big Eye Soldierfish, a few Dwarf Hawkfish perched in the Barrel Sponges, more schools of Juvenile Engineer Gobies, Rabbitfish, a Soft Coral Crab, some spaghetti looking Nudibranchs, a school of Drummerfish, another two Sea Turtles, & a colony of Coral Catfish! It also ended up including one of my favorite dive happenings; diving in the rain!

Cari asked me when I explained that I love diving in the rain if I’d even noticed that it was until we’d hit the surface & while I don’t think I outright knew it was raining from depth, I definitely could hear & feel it around 20 feet. It also does something interesting to the animals below water where I feel it makes them a touch more active, though that could just be a wildly skewed observation that has no actual scientific merit to it in any regard. Either way, I love coming up out of the water into the rain, there’s something otherworldly about it.

When we got back to the resort it was lunch time. I can’t entirely recall what the option was for the day but I’m pretty sure it was like a chicken sandwich or something. As we were sat waiting I noticed JR & some of the other dive guides going up to the kitchen with a bowl & a plate & leaving with something entirely different than the options that we had been presented. I called over one of the kitchen staff & asked her about it, she told me it was the staff lunch, a Filipino stew of some sort. Naturally, I ask her if I could try it. She disappeared back to the kitchen for a second & returned to ask me if I was sure & when I said that I was she asked if I wanted it with rice. I told her to bring it however they would eat it, but only if there was still plenty for the staff. She brought me back a massive bowl of the stew & a side of rice.

I’m not entirely sure what was in the stew other than a varietal of Bok Choy & maybe some Pork with Potatoes. Looking through Filipino stews online I’m not sure it wasn’t Nilaga/Nilagang, either way it was salty & savory & really hit the spot on what had turned out to be a rainy afternoon.

I can’t recall if I skipped out on the afternoon dive or if there wasn’t one because of the events planned for the evening. I think it was the former as at this point I think my ear was being a bit wonky…we’ll get to that in part three… At any rate I think I may have napped & then gone & sat at the bar for a bit before our scheduled evening activities.

The Duffins are rather huge fans of a sunset cruise. They like to book the dive boat out with drinks & snacks & go out on the waves for a bit & just spend a little bit of time socializing & relaxing in the sea air & I’m not mad at that. We did one in Indonesia (you can read about it here) & I think attempted one in Fiji as well, but the tides wouldn’t allow for it. So as the sun began to sank we all filed onto one of the cleaned off dive boats & away we went.

The staff had thought ahead & taken our two drink order days prior to the expedition. They prepared plates of chips & other snacky bits & also had a partial service bar set up to bring us our preordered beverages. Evan & I both ordered Rum & Cokes because they’re an easy staple, especially in the tropics, & we sat atop the cabin sipping them & talking with Deb & some of the other members of our party.

At a certain point someone spotted a pod of, what we thought were dolphins. The boat maneuvered in the direction it looked like they were headed & when we got closer we found, what I believe to have been, a pod of Melon-Headed Whales. They were breaching the waves, skimming along the surface & every time a new one would crop up we’d head in their direction. Previously Ester had mentioned that right after the pandemic their had been a Sperm Whale sighting off the coast of the resort & that when they had shared about it to their socials they’d had a person later come looking for it. Some guest had flown halfway across the world to the resort & requested to be taken to the whale…a migratory species that swims up & down the globe.

After about an hour cruising around on the waves we headed back to the resort for dinner. A lot of us we a little toasty from the drink both before & during the sunset cruise so dinner was a bit of a ruckus. After dinner the staff brought out a congratulatory cake for Evan & the Duffin’s Son’s Friend who had completely a Nitrox Class & an Open Water Certification respectively. The cake was adorable, it featured who little fondant divers over a reef with their names inscribed in icing.

We all enjoyed a slice of the cake & with the alcohol starting to leave our bloodstreams & the exhaustion setting in, went off to sleep.

End Of Day Five

End Of Part Two

March 23, 2024

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Bohol, Philippines- Part One: I Flew To The Other Side Of The World To Go Diving & All You're Getting Is One Singular Mention Of The Ocean In This First Blog

March 23, 2024

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

BOHOL, PHILIPPINES

Prologue

Hello Fellow Travelers,

Welcome back to one of my absolute favorite blog series that I do here at my beloved site; travel blogs! I know, for a large handful of you all, this is also your favorite series of mine & I think for good reason. This is often the blog that I get to share major passion of mine, travel, as well as a few subsequent others such as food, beverage, dive, & storytelling. Fortunately for all of us, this series will contain all of these aspects & more! So, if you’re along for the ride, buckle in, as the full scope of this trip & its embedded tales will take up a good three weeks worth of space on this blog! With all of that being said & everything else out of the way, let’s dive on in shall we?!

PART ONE:

Day One

Los Angeles, California

Evan & I landed in Los Angeles around 10 AM on March 7th. Our direct flight options for our arrival with Southwest Airlines were either the flight we chose or one that got in around 9:15 PM, which would have cut us far too close to our 10:35 PM departure with EVA Air for Taipei. This naturally left us with around 9 hours worth of time to burn before we had to check-in for the aforementioned flight. Initially our plan was to have our friend Jenna pick us up from LAX & drop us back later but upon looking into the amount of time it would force her into in commutes on our behalf we opted to rent a car for the day instead. Popping on over to Avis we snagged the rental I had booked the evening prior, a Tesla Model 3, of which Avis has an exclusive deal for the rental of. The really nice part about it was that we weren’t responsible for charging it upon its return which really helps save you a bit of cash, especially with LA gas prices being around $5 a gallon.

Jenna had planned to head over to Pasadena to catch our other friend Rory’s Barry’s Ass & Abs class. She’d suggested dropping our luggage with her in North Hollywood, then carpooling around together, but unfortunately the time it would have taken for such a measure would have forced us to miss Rory’s class. So we opted just to meet there instead. We made it to Pas with about ten minutes to spare & loaded our luggage into the locked trunk & loathsomely named “frunk” (front trunk) of the Tesla.

I think Evan has cursed us, either that or it’s all to do with the timing of when we travel seeing as he is off Wednesdays & Thursdays so we usually end up flying those days. Either way we seem to always do a “leg day” the day prior to large amounts of travel, I guess this time would be no different.

Barry’s has a lower focus class on Tuesdays & an ass & abs class on Thursdays, that usually ends up being the cause of his post-leg day flight woes. Even if we don’t end up at Barry’s we typically end up adhering to their schedule so that we don’t get thrown into a wonky “I’m too sore for this” situation should we decide to hit another of their classes during the week.

After class we were all desperately craving a coffee. Evan & I had wanted to venture into The Burlington Arcade in Pasadena for a while & the Pas Barry’s location just happened to be right within the same block or two, so that’s where our search began & ultimately ended.

The Mandarin Coffee Stand is nestled right in the middle of The Arcade. It is a teeny, tiny coffee shop that has a customer occupancy limit of four guests at a time. The are a local, Asian women owned & operated shop that specializes in Chinese style coffee. I got a latte known as the “Toasty” which consists of Rooibos, Cinnamon, Espresso, Brown Sugar, & Oat Milk. Not typically a fan of the milk of the oat, I tried it anyway at the recommendation of the barista & it was nothing short of bangin’! As we stood around the strip sipping our respective coffees we all decided the next necessary & logical step would be to find food.

If you were to dig into the notes app on either Evan or my phone you’d discover a shared note simply titled “Travel Visits.” In said note you will find lists upon lists of mostly restaurants & bars that we’ve written down over the years to try should we ever find ourselves in any of the locations listed therein. Despite our many years in LA the list for it seems to continue to grow & grow & so we both began to pilfer through in search of what would inevitably be that day’s lunch.

Many of the locations that we found were either evening only, too far from Pasadena, North Hollywood, or LAX, weren’t open that day, or weren’t a type of food we were all feeling, but at the end of our extensive filtering we ended up deciding on a deli in Westlake called Langer’s.

Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant was founded in 1947 & has been in the Langer family ever since. They are a member of the LA Times 101 Hall of Fame & have been a staple on the Michelin guide for many years. They are famous for their #19 Pastrami Sandwich which has been voted amongst the world’s best which is exactly what Evan & both ordered. The sandwich was excellent, sporting Pastrami on Rye with Coleslaw, Swiss Cheese & Russian Dressing. Jenna ordered a simple sliced Salami on a Hoagie it Provolone which was simple & delightful in its own way. After lunch we ended LA’s early afternoon traffic & made our way towards Jenna’s place in North Hollywood. Once we’d gotten to North Hollywood we pulled off into the CVS to grab a few provisions.

Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles
Photo Credit: Evan Michael

Anytime I fly overseas or on a flight that is longer than 4-5 hours I bring the cabin crew a sack of goodies just to say “thank you” & help ease their time on the job in even the slightest of ways. I typically pick up some family sized packs of chocolates, candies, & snacky things to give out. In addition to our care package we also picked up some Zzzquil for the flight, since it was an over nighter. After acquiring our items we continued onto Jenna’s to recharge for a bit; both for ourselves & our devices which had already made it through a morning of travel & a day of light exploration.

With our time in LA coming to an end & our need to head off to the airport approaching, we popped into a quick shower, refreshed deodorants & the like, & swapped over into our travel clothes before packing everything back up, bidding Jenna a fond farewell, & beginning the hour+ commute to the airport.

Once we’d dropped the car back at Avis we headed into LAX to check-in for our EVA Air flight to Taipei with continued service to Manilla. Once we got to Manilla we’d have to go through immigration & customs before rechecking our bags & continuing on. We met the rest of our group from Midwest Aquatics that were headed to Bohol at the check-in gate & after greetings & hugs we all headed through security.

The process was lighter than usual so we found ourselves incredibly early for our flight, so much so that the British Airways flight occupying our gate hadn’t even received their plane. We wandered around the international terminal before settling in on something to eat. After some truly mid fish tacos, I found a secluded corner in which to write two weeks ago’s blog & awaited the boarding process.

We boarded right on time & once we’d taken off, & eaten our in-flight meal, we took the Zzzquils & attempted to get some sleep.

End Of Day One

Day Two

Taipei, Taiwan

We arrived in Taipei around 5:15 AM, local time. I managed to sleep for about a half or so of the duration of the fourteen & a half hour flight, Evan managed about two thirds. That was when he wasn’t attempting to shut off our sleeping neighbor’s over head light.

We had booked ahead online & gotten ourselves the exit row. I’m a rather tall gent at 6’4” & definitely need the extra leg room that the exit row or premium economy provide, especially on airlines based out of parts of the world where people tend to be on the shorter side. I had the “window” (there was no window) & Evan had the middle. At the time of our booking the aisle seat was already occupied, we actually assumed that it was Deb, a member of our group. It wasn’t, it was a gentlemen we had no relation to. When you’re in the exit row all of the buttons for your seat are located on the arm rest to your left about thigh high. Strangely enough, in EVA Air Economy Class, the reading light for the aisle seat illuminates the middle seat. No joke. Like each of the other buttons illuminate each of their respective seats, except for the aisle which basically doubles up on the middle. Additionally, the man on the end’s button for his over head light seemed to be a little on the sensitive side & every time he shifted in his seat it lit up the light over Evan’s head. I legitimately thought it was his own light until I noticed him slyly reaching over, across the man’s lap, trying to tap his light button. In his words “I had no issue with the light itself, it was the heat that it generated that was keeping me awake.” When he finally got around to turning off the light the man shifted in his seat thirty seconds later, immediately reigniting Evan’s personal warming bulb. Later when he got up to use the restroom, Evan positioned the man’s blanked so as to block any accidental bumping of the button from occurring.

We had about a three-ish hour layover in Taipei & we’d arrived before any of the shops & restaurants had opened. So, we as a group, decided to stretch out collective legs & walk the length of the terminal. By the time we’d made it all the way down shops had begun to open. Several members of our group took special interest in the Sanrio shop but I had my eyes set on a bakery that was beginning their prep as we initially walked by. The bakery in question is called Mazu Village, it’s half wheel pies & half boba stand. The boba & wheels pies are presented in a combo format so Evan & I opted for the one that would let us each have one of each of the two flavors; Salted Custard & Salted Custard with Peanut Butter, & also gave us each a Taro Boba Tea. The rest of the group ended up with something similar & while the two of us had decided that we favored just the custard pie over the one with peanut butter, as we found it too rich, the others disagreed.

After our saccharine breakfast we sat around making calls for a bit. Evan called his family & I called my sister, whose birthday it still was in the states. At this point we’d crossed the international date line & were a half a day ahead of everyone back home. We waited around a bit longer before I went to a booth to buy some Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup which Evan & I split. I actually think one of the best parts of the soup was the Sauced Cabbage that came with it & the hyper sweet Cold Assam Tea. We wandered around the airport for a bit after we finished our food, flitting in & out of the assorted duty free shops before we descended to our gate to wait to board.

In the Taoyuan International Airport all of the gates are situated a level below the main parts of the concourse so you have to ascend a flight of stairs/take an elevator up when you arrive & descend the stairs/elevator when you plan to depart. It’s nice because it keeps the waiting areas separate from the hustle & bustle of the main terminal. The EVA Air Gods saw fit to grace us with the Sanrio plane for our trip from Taipei to Manila. I was actually surprised to see how many of us in the group were excited about that, but the plane was cute! Even once we’d boarded the plane was full of little Sanrio easter eggs such as the Hello Kitty air freshener holder in the lavatories.

We departed Taipei at around 9:10 AM local time & began our two hours & thirty minute flight across the Luzon Strait to the Philippines & Manila.

Manila

Our flight landed in Manila at 11:45 & we were immediately ushered off the plane to immigration. Evan somehow made it through the passport check without filling out the online application for a visa, the rest of us weren’t so lucky. We were all handed a QR code to scan & fill out a digital form before we could get our stamp. Pretty standard procedure, just thought it was odd Evan got through without it, he must just have one of those faces.

He did fill out his visa application retroactively as we sat waiting for our baggage to come through. Figured it was better to have it done & entered in, especially if it ended up being needed upon our departure. Once we all had our luggage collected we headed out to the transfer area where we booked the transfer shuttle to the local departures terminal & exchange USD for Filipino Peso.

The man running the shuttle kiosk at the international terminal told us that it would be about a forty-five minute wait before we would have a transfer & it wasn’t guaranteed that we would all fit, in which case they would have us wait an additional 30-45 minutes for the next shuttle. I’m not really sure how or why the transfer times on the shuttles are so long, especially since the walk time between the two terminals was only about 5-10 minutes. We all opted for that.

The walk was a bit of a system shock. Most of us changed into lighter clothing before hand, but coming from LA & then Taipei where the weather was sitting in the mid to upper 50s, the shift into the 80s felt like much more drastic a change. By the end of our walk to the other terminal we were all sweating. Each of us reapplied deodorant & proceeded to the Philippine Airlines ticketing counter where we were met with one of the more common annoyances when it comes to checking baggage internationally across different carriers; entirely different baggage rules. We made it work & got everything figured out without the need for any extra dollars being exchanged.

By the time we made it through security we only had about an hour to an hour & a half left over in what was our four hour layover. We camped the bags & we went out exploring in waves to see what the airport terminal had to offer. Two party members came back with some rather tantalizing looking Boba Tea & Evan & me, & two others set out to find & claim our own.

Once the teas were acquired we returned to our gate & waited to board. Around 3 PM we all started lining up to board & before long we were off on our way to the island of Bohol.

Bohol

Bohol-Panglao International Airport is a bit on the smaller size, boasting around five or six gates in total. We arrived after our brief hour & a half flight just before 5 PM where we descended the escalator to the single baggage carousel, collected our belongings, & were greeted by the Magic Oceans transfer crew with water bottled & some bomb ass banana chips. We all climbed into the two vans they’d provided, with out luggage occupying a third vehicle, & off we went towards Anda.

The drive to the dive resort was a long one, not going to lie. We’re talking like two & a half to three hours long. After being in planes for a total of 22 hours off & on & laying over, I think all of us were ready to be done & there. The benefit of these far out locations & trips is that once you’re there, you’re there for a while! They also certainly drive different in the Philippines than we do here in the states. For starters there’s no speed limits, at least not in Bohol, unless designated by a work or school zone. They also don’t necessarily abide by the lanes. Evan & I got sat on the front bench of the van & I think we both regretted it as there were many times that each of us was slamming down our foot on the imaginary brake that we each wish we had. At the end of the day though the driver DID deliver us safely to Magic Oceans, even though I though we were going to hit dogs or those going out on the then Saturday evening who were walking along the side of the road.

I did manage to sleep the last hour & some change in the car, mostly because I had to pee & it seemed the only solution to avoiding that issue. We arrived in the darkness to Magic Ocean where we were all guided to the dining area for dinner, which was in full swing. Dinner at Magic Oceans is served family style with an exquisite chef preparing an appetizer course, a main course with around five dishes, & a dessert. I made it about halfway through the trip before I realized that I’d forgotten to write down the nightly menus so unfortunately they will be absent from this series despite their amazing quality in nature & the chef who prepared them’s lovely singing voice (we’ll get to that in later installments).

Once we were all situated with food, Evelyn, the resort manager gave us a quick briefing regarding our rooms & the plan for the morning in which we planned to start our diving. Once she had finished we were each escorted privately to our rooms where our luggage awaited us & promptly showered & went to bed so as to be ready & refreshed for the adventures that awaited us the following day!…but not before I went out the door of our room to the sandy overlook where I sat listening to the rush of the ocean for a few minutes.

…see, I mentioned it, once…& yes, that did happen, seriously. There were Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crabs in the sand fighting over a scrap of food. Evan even took a picture of me headed there! (See Below)

Path Outside Our Room At Magic Oceans
Photo Credit: Evan Michael

End Of Day Two

END OF PART ONE

Part Two

June 30, 2023

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Bonaire: Part Two- You Are Now Free To Dive About The Island.

June 30, 2023

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

BONAIRE

Hiya! Welcome back! You’ve stumbled upon the second part of my blog regarding my dad & my trip to Bonaire! If you haven’t read Part One you can find it linked below! I would advise reading the original before venturing into this here sequel, simply for continuity’s sake. Once you’re done you’re more than welcome to join the rest of us here on our second & final part!

Part One

PART TWO:

Day Three

We were officially free to roam about to cabin, or in this case, the island. No longer were we contained to Calabas Reef or training dives, it was time to go out & have some leisurely fun. I’d planned out our dive sites the evening prior & basically gave my dad the “trust me” when it came to choosing them, which he did.

One of the main reasons that divers flock to Bonaire is the sheer freedom of it. The vast majority of Bonaire is shore diving, boat dives are few & far between & if they are involved it’s usually at Klein Bonaire or the National Park, both of which are currently closed because of the spreading coral disease. Resorts rent out tanks & vehicles & people load them up to go off to one of the many sites around the island & walk right into the ocean.

I’d planned four dives for us on the Friday in question, loading up the truck with three tanks each before heading off. The first dive site in question was to be at the Southern tip of the island at a spot called Red Slave.

Not a great name, I know, & it detoured me from buying a few shirts later on that has the dive sites all listed on them, but the site gets its name from the historical site adjacent to it. Red Slave is so named because it features a red obelisk & a number of red huts which were former slave dwellings during the days of the slave driven salt trade in Bonaire. There are several obelisks along the west coast of the island, each bearing a color of the dutch flag (including one for the monarchy), & each representing a different grade of salt that was sold at that specific site.

History aside, Red Slave is a well sought after dive site that is typically skipped over because of the swells & the current, but we’d been tipped off by Jack the night before that the current forecast was calling for lower than normal currents at the site in the morning. So we set our sights on Red Slave & made it the site of our first dive of the day. After parking & suiting up we made our way into the water.

The site at Red Slave has a long expanse of sand before the reef drop off. The sloped is rather aggressive, though no where near a sheer wall like the dives up north are. The majority of the coral life here are different varieties of whips & gorgonians, things that like to flow in the current. Apparently this site is also an almost guaranteed turtle sighting, of which we saw none. What we did see were lots of little Pederson Shrimp, a Flamingo Tongue, & as is common in the Caribbean, a plethora of Royal Grammas.

Once we were out of the water it was time to lightly dry & head up the road to our next site, The Lake.

The Lake is so named because of its double reef structure, a common trait among many of the dive sites on the southwestern side of the island. A double reef structure means that you have your normal shore reef, then you have a sand flat, & then you have yet another reef farther off into the ocean. Another thing worth noting about diving is that you always want to start your dive at the maximum depth that you plan to go in your dive. With all of that in mind we made a beeline for the outer reef once we entered the water.

The top of the outer reef at the lakes sits just above the 60 foot mark, which for a new diver like my father, is as deep as he is certified to go. My max depth is double that & some change at 130 feet or 40 meters but being the stand in guide for the two of us, I limited our dives to his max depth. As we were crossing the sand bed, which sits at around 80-90 feet in depth I noticed a massive Queen Conch scooting across the sea floor. It had to be at least a foot across.

On top of the reef we were greeted by the usual suspects; Parrotfish, Trumpetfish, more Grammas, but as we were cruising along we began to hear a faint grinding sound, indicative of a motor boat. Sure enough, right above us on the surface rocketed a motorboat. It always surprises me just how load boats are underwater, it makes me feel bad for anything down there with ears.

We doubled back across “the lake” & investigated the coral colonies along the shoreline reef. My father made the joke at some point to someone that I’m really good at finding the little things in the ocean; the tiny crustaceans, the interesting mollusks, the tiny fish. I think that Lembeh trained me on that front, but on this dive I managed to find a little group of Neon Gobies who had set up a cleaning station amongst the stony corals. They were cleaning the dead skin & parasites off of a couple of Bicolor Angelfish when we rolled up.

When we got back to shore we were met by two Pelicans who were fishing for baitfish in the shallows. We also met a couple from Southern California who had moved to Bonaire when they retired to dive every day. We asked them where we should grab lunch, as we were both damn near starving, & hadn’t eaten breakfast. Despite being a leisurely sport, diving can really take it out of you. They recommended the Ocean Oasis Beach Club just down the road, so that’s where we went!

The Ocean Oasis Beach Club is exactly what the name says, a beach club! It has a rather large restaurant with a full service bar & an assortment of different cabanas all along the beach front. The cabanas can be rented for different time periods throughout the day & are full service with cabana attendants. As I stated, we were starving as well as parched so I got an Awa Di Lamunchi (Curaçao Limeade) & a Salted Caramel Espresso Frappé. Both were to die for, my dad also ended up ordering the limeade after trying mine & the frapp was nothing short of a milkshake. For lunch I got the Ocean Club Sandwich which was a mix between an egg salad sandwich & a grilled chicken sandwich with a side of Yucca Fries. The fries were topped with Sambal which is an Indonesian sweet chili sauce that I hadn’t seen since my time in the South Pacific! My dad got the Crab Roll which was served Maine Style with a Japanese twist! It smacked too!

After lunch we made our way back to the resort to trade out the four empty tanks & add another two to our truck bed. The garage at the shop that serves as a self serve tank depot closes at 5 PM so you have to have all of the tanks that you wanted out before then. Once they’re closed they have a separate bin with a lock to drop your empties after your evening/night dives. With one tank left a piece from the morning & a newly acquired one for the night we headed back down south.

The salt trade in Bonaire is still very much alive, in fact, the majority of the south end of the island is devoted to the harvesting of sea salt. There’s a spot about halfway through the salt flats that Cargill uses to process & load the salt onto ships to send out all over the world, it also features one of the most famous dive sites in Bonaire, the aptly named Salt Pier. I was advised by Rob at Island Hopper here in Nashville to hit Salt Pier in the evening one, because there are far less people diving there, & two, because there are occasionally dolphins there in the late afternoon/early evening.

We didn’t run into any dolphins, but that’s not to say that Salt Pier wasn’t still full of wonders. There’s something eerily awe inspiring when you find yourself forty feet below the surface, under a man made structure, surrounded by aquatic life just going about their business. It has a bizarre unnaturalness to it, almost like when you come across an abandoned building in the woods or an old car that’s just a pile of rust, enrobed in plants. Diving under the salt pier had that time of dissonance to it. The columns also emerge at you from out of the mirk & stand before you in an almost intimidating stature. It’s also entirely easy to forget how massive these structures are until you’re literally right up underneath them, from the shore they don’t seem as daunting.

At Salt Pier we found huge colonies of Sergeant Majors brooding on the discarded building structures the dotted the surroundings of the pier with their purple clutches of eggs. We found a few Purplemouth Moray Eels, tons of Fire Coral, & a school of Yellowtail Snapper.

After our dive we once again went back to Tropical Divers to retrieve all of our night dive gear (lights, locators, etc.) & ditch the wasted tank.

I’d been doing a bit of research & found that a lot of people recommended night diving at a site called Something Special, which was actually a fairly urban spot. Located at the top of Kralendijk’s downtown area, Something Special is half a muck dive, half a reef wall. The site serves as a mooring camp for a lot of smaller boats & the bottom is doted with mooring sites & just a little bit of trash such as tires & even a typewriter. The appeal of Something Special is two fold. The first perk of it is the Tarpon. Tarpon are large, prehistoric sporting fish whose whole bodies are covered in flashy silver scales. They look for the lights of divers at night & come out of the dark to use the light to help them hunt smaller fish. The second appeal is the muck species such as frogfish, seahorses, & the like.

Once again we missed out on the intended fauna of the dive with the exception of the Tarpon. We got in the water right about sundown & made our way through the dusky shallows until evening hit, that’s when the Tarpon began to show up.

The first glimpse of one that I caught was through the edge of the beam of my flashlight. The large fish cruised slowly by wary at first of us. As I continued to follow the Tarpon into the darkness with my flashlight my torch ran smack, dab, right into another one, only this one was staring straight at us, its eyes reflecting its own beams into the night. It wasn’t long until the Tarpon found their courage & were right up next to us, waiting for us to find fish in the muck for them to try & consume. When they’d spot one in the light they would head towards it, slowly turning sideways to try & get the fish in their mouths. The only one that I managed to help catch a fish gulped down a toxic Sharpnose Pufferfish, which is swiftly regurgitated.

Tarpon aside, the dive also gave us many fun saltwater critters; a Slipper Lobster, an Arrow Crab, & more Moray Eels.

As we were wrapping up our dive we ran into a school of Needlefish pressed right up against the water’s surface. If you got close to them or put your light on them they would go so far as to jump completely out of the water. As we were walking back up the bank to the car my dad said to me “I kept waiting for the Jaws music to start playing” when I asked him how he enjoyed his first ever night dive.

After we’d driven back to the resort, dropped our tanks, & dried off, the hunt for dinner began. I’d been recommended Joe’s Restaurant many times from people all over the states & in Bonaire & it just happened to be next door to Tropical Divers, so we thought we’d give it a shot.

Joe’s menu is an interesting assortment of food but the area in which it truly shines is its tasting menu. You get the option of either four or five courses of whatever the owner, Bart, has decided to make for that week. We chose to go five courses & it did not disappoint! The first course was a Goat Cheese dish complete with Langoustines, Microgreens, Mango, Brandy Poached Onions, & some form of Apricot Sauce. It was outstanding! Second was a fish course topped with a different varietal of Poached Brandy Onion, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Garlic Croutons, & an Herb Emulsion. Again, out of this world. The main course was Duck Breast served with a Carrot Puree & a Morel Mushroom Au Jus. Bangin! Then came the cheese course which was an assortment of Dutch Cheeses with different jams & preserves. The Rhubarb was exceptionally good. Finally, the dessert course, A Flourless Chocolate Cake made with Prunes, Apricot Puree, & some form of Sweet Dutch Ambrosia-esque Salad. Dinner was topped off with a house made Liquor that tasted of Vanilla & Caramel.

Perfectly full, exhausted, & a wee bit tipsy, we walked back next door, I popped into the shower to wash the day off & then it was once again off to bed.

End Of Day Three

Day Four

The rule of diving where flying is concerned is 18-24 hours, you’re not supposed to dive within 18-24 hours of a flight. With that in mind we limited our day to two tanks during the morning load-up, though in hindsight we probably could have done a third. That’s okay though.

Since we’d exclusively dove the southern sites on the island we decided to make our last two dives northern. I’d picked out two dive sites for the day: Tolo or Ole Blue & Karpata. Both sites came recommended from both folks in the states & those on Bonaire.

The dive up to Tolo took about thirty minutes. We stopped on the way at a dive shop for a couple of Cokes & a new writing pad for me as my pencil had decided that it had had enough of saltwater & was going to break away a la Kelly Clarkson. When we arrived at the site there were already about a dozen other cars parked with divers &/or snorkelers getting in &/or out of the water. We too had soon parked & were readying our gear for entry.

The shore on the north side of Kralendijk is far rockier than that to the south. It often features sheer cliffs & the dives are much more in line with a wall dive where you need to monitor your depth since the bottom isn’t always visible & your depth in the moment isn’t always as apparent. It’s very easy to find yourself sinking lower & lower without even realizing it, something that my dad didn’t believe until we were in it.

Both sites, Tolo & Karpata are wall dives, both also feature a top reef at around 15-20 feet in depth which makes for a nice, active safety stop. You can cruise around looking at things while you’re breathing off some of the nitrogen that has entered into your bloodstream.

We made our way into the water, through a large rock beach that required a bit of fancy footwork to navigate on your way down. Really fun to do while lugging a scuba tank on your back & fins the lower length of your legs in your hands. We cruised along the top before spilling over down the wall.

The northern shore had its fair share of Creole/Ruby Anthias, something I actually used to have in my tank at home until they got too big & started eating the other fish on my reef. Additionally it has a large quantity of Grammas, French Angelfish, Parrotfish, Bicolor Angelfish, & assorted corals.

When we reached the top of the reef we found a pair of Caribbean Reef Squid hovering just above the whip corals. We followed them for a few minutes but it was very clear they wanted nothing to do with us. Occasionally you’ll get squid who want to interact with humans, not today though apparently.

We finished the dive, got out, went ahead & switched over tanks while making small talk with the groups of people readying or tearing down around us then piled back into the car to head up shore to Karpata.

I mentioned Lewis in part one, the geologist who came to Bonaire with the student group & stayed longer to go out dive on his own. Well he’d been diving with a man named Mario from Rio De Janeiro whom he’d met at Tropical Divers. Lewis had departed a day earlier but Mario & his wife Bene were still going around the island to dive sites. Mario spoke minimal English & I speak little to no Portuguese but Bene spoke a bit of English & a bit of Spanish & so do I, so she & I would basically mediate the conversations between the four of us.

Anyway, as we’re pulling out of Tolo we almost ran smack into them in their car arriving. We continued up the road to Karpata & were starting to gear up when up rolls Mario & Bene.

I, up until this moment, was under the impression that Bene & Mario had been diving together but she explained to me that she doesn’t dive, just Mario, so I extended an invite to him asking if he wanted to dive with us & also wanted me to lead said dive, which he did.

The climb down to Karpata is about twenty steps. At the bottom of the steps is a bouldery beach covered in foot in diameter cobbles that shift relentlessly & are covered in algae. Needless to say, it was tricky getting into the water. Apparently a lot of people start at the previous site, cliff jump with their gear, & drift dive to Karpata. Ya boy is afraid of heights, so the jump wasn’t happening.

The drop off of Karpata is a lot more abrupt than that of Tolo. As we started down the wall my dad & I leveled out right around 60 feet, his max depth. Mario just kept going. I watched him descend further & further until I think he hit around 100-120 feet in depth. I indicated to my father to stay at his 60 foot depth & I went down to about 80 to be the middle space between the two since I was leading the dive. Mario stayed at that depth pretty much the whole time until we looped around to come back. Just before we looped around though he motioned for me to come down to around 90 feet where he’d found a massive Lionfish hiding in the reef wall.

Lionfish are invasive to the Caribbean, usually only being found in the South Pacific. They began to populate the Caribbean because fish tank owners decided to release them into the ocean instead of trying to sell them or turn them into a local fish store. Now there are many countries in the Caribbean that actually have bounties out for Lionfish, paying for people to kill them & turn them in to help to stop the spread of them as they have no natural predators in the Caribbean.

Back on the top reef of Karpata we found even more squid, this time a whole school of them, I’m talking at least 8-10! I found another Flamingo’s Tongue Snail & there was also a massive school of Atlantic Blue Tangs that swam by, picking algae off the rocks as they went.

For lunch we had planned to head inland & visit the town or Rincón. Rincón was built in a valley away from the ocean to hid it from the frequent pirate raids that used to occur around the time Bonaire was being colonized. We went to visit Posada Para Mira, a local Bonaire cuisine restaurant that, as the name suggests, has quite the view!

As I mentioned, Posada Para Mira is a restaurant that serves local cuisine. This includes everything from conch to goat or iguana stew in addition to plantains, beans, corncakes, croquettes, etc. For lunch I ordered a cup of Goat Stew, Fried Conch, & a fresh pressed Passionfruit Juice. The goat stew & the juice were bomb as were the sides, but to be honest, I was expecting the conch to be breaded & fried, not just pan fried, but I guess that’s my own error.

After lunch we decided we were going to go up to Washington Slagbaai National Park & drive around. Diving in the park is currently prohibited, but there’s still a lot of wildlife to see & the park makes up about a third of the island’s total area. Unfortunately we arrived about forty minutes too late because they stop drive arounds at a certain point. That’s not to say that we didn’t still get to enjoy parts of the park. There’s an educational center there with several different areas set up to demonstrate the former goings on of the area, which at one point was a plantation.

After exhausting the limits of what we could do at the park entrance we decided to take a loop around the island to see the East Coast.

Certain parts of the eastern side of Bonaire are mangrove forest, others are coves, at any rate the eastern side has much higher tidal activity & while people do dive it, it’s not advised as a beginner because of its often unpredictable nature. So, leading a trip with a novice diver, the eastern side of the island was off limits, at least where submersible pursuits are concerned. We did manage to stumble upon a plethora of the island’s invasive Donkeys & a large flock of Flamingos hanging out in the salt flats.

We made our way back to Tropical Divers where we returned our tanks, washed our gear, & began packing up for our flight the next day.

At around seven we started to get hungry again & decided that we wanted to go back to Joe’s, this time to try some of the items on their regular menu! We split the Goat Cheese appetizer since the goat cheese app the night before had been so bomb. It was different, but still smacked! I got a Joe’s Salad which was decadently light & refreshing & ended up with the pot roast-esque Veal Cheek for dinner. For dessert we had a Three Musketeers which was a Dark Chocolate Lava Cake with Milk Chocolate Ice Cream & White Chocolate Sauce & a Red Fruit Cobbler. Both were exquisite!

I can’t recall much of the rest of our evening other than planning for the next day, getting timings down, & showering before bed.

End Of Day Four

Day Five

We had a few things to get done on our final morning. First, we needed to check in with Prisca & make sure we had everything in order & finalized for out Stress & Rescue certification. Second, we needed to check out. Third, we needed to collect our (hopefully) dried out dive gear & pack it. Fourth, we needed to go get breakfast & Fifth, we needed to go get souvenirs.

We got everything squared away with Tropical Divers & were able to keep our key until eleven. We then set off to town in the rental truck.

We parked in the town square & went in search of a few trinkets for my dad to take home to Kansas. Most of the souvenir shops were still closed but we happened upon one t-shirt shop & loaded up. One for my dad, one for my mom, one for my sister & brother-in-law, one for my niece, one for my nephew, etc.

Shirts acquired we went back over to Rumba Cafe for breakfast. I once again got a Smoothie & I think an Egg Sandwich. To be honest, I was a little distracted by my dad’s order of Tuna Salad at 9:30 AM to remember what exactly it was that I’d ordered.

After breakfast we stopped at one more shop so that I could get a tank top, then we headed back to Tropical Divers one last time so that I could try to cram my shirts into my already overstuffed lack of luggage.

Our flight was at three-ish but our rental car had to be back at noon, so we were early. Everything from there went fairly smoothly! The flight back to the states was smooth, though Miami International makes you walk six & a half miles just to get through immigration, recheck your bags, & go through security.

All & all it was a good trip, a lot more work than I think either of us were honestly anticipating it being, but in the end I feel confident in my abilities as a Stress & Rescue diver & now as a Master Diver! I can’t wait to see where the next adventure lies & I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

-C

End Of Day Five

END OF PART TWO & END OF BLOG SERIES!!!

June 17, 2023

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Bonaire: Part One-Stress & Rescue

June 17, 2023

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

BONAIRE

PART ONE:

Prologue

My mother has been trying to get my father & I to go on a dive trip for a long while now. We both got out initially pool & school work done together when we got certified, & while I tried to get him to go with me to Hawaii to wrap his certification & Fiji just to dive, he couldn’t make it work. Back in December I started the process of beginning my stress & rescue course for SSI since it was the one thing standing between me & my master diver certification, & while my dad’s dive count resided in the single digits at the time, I asked if he wanted to join as, eventually, if he too wanted to qualify for the rank of master diver, he would need it. We breezed through the school & pool bits one weekend while I was back in Kansas for Christmas with the original plan being to wrap the rest of it in Hawaii during the month of march. Naturally, that didn't happen & as our six month deadline on the course approached we needed to find a place to go finish the open water portions of our certification before the time to do so expired. Enter Bonaire.

I had never been to Bonaire, hell, I had never been to any of the ABC islands belonging to the Caribbean Netherlands, but I had always heard divers talk about it. The group that I dive with frequently out of Kansas goes there annually, as does the local shop here in Nashville. Having only six days to work with of time available to travel we set out to make the decision on where we ended up to wrap the certification. Naturally, as you’re reading a post about Bonaire, we ended up there.

The choice came down to Maui or Bonaire, both ended up being similar amounts of travel & cost so I called Elaine, who was my dive buddy in Fiji, & she called around to get opinions on where all of her fellow diver friends would recommend that we go. They all came back with Bonaire, so Bonaire is where we decided to go!

Day One

The trip started out a complete & utter mess. I’m not going to pull punches or spare any details here, because you all know I keep it real with you. There are three flights a week to Bonaire through American Airlines; Monday, Wednesday, & Saturday, that’s it! I arrived at BNA an hour prior to my flight & immediately went to check in. I’ve grown accustomed to shorter arrival times since I now have TSA Pre-Check & Global Entry, but as soon as I got to the check-in machine it sounded an alarm at me. The lady helping the kiosks told me I needed to go stand in a line to the left where there were already about ten people waiting & only one person working. I immediately started to panic.

Thankfully the line grew & two more attendants came to help. I had just been dropped off by Evan whom I called first to tell to hang around the area in case I missed my flight. I also called my dad who had just boarded his Miami bound Kansas City flight after arriving to MCI forty-five minutes prior to departure with no issues, & he began asking whether or not he needed to get off of the plane. When I got up to the desk the attendant was no help. She exclaimed that since I was under an hour for an international flight (even though I was going to Miami first with a rather long layover) that I had to reschedule & couldn't check my bag. I asked her if I could split the flights up so that I could retrieve my bag in Miami & recheck it but she was completely unwilling to even try. So I simply asked “am I still able to make the flight with a carry-on?” To which she gave me an eye roll riddled “yes.”

With it now being about thirty-five minutes before my flight I called Evan back up & told him to meet me at the curb where he’d dropped me off so that I could give him my checked bag to take back home. I immediately went out to the curb & started emptying out my bags, throwing anything from my carry on that I didn’t deem crucial into my would have been checked back & throwing anything I could grab from my checked bag into my carry on. Evan swooped in & grabbed my bag & off I went through security not even really knowing what I had with me or didn’t have with me.

When I got onto the mostly empty flight to Miami I took inventory. All that I’d managed to grab was a jammer, two regular swim suits, two pairs of over shorts, two pairs of lined shorts, & three tank tops, for a six day trip, granted a lot of that time would be spent in or under the water, but I was still going to be scrapping by.

I got to Miami before my father but met him at his gate. Once I’d gathered him we went & got a little breakfast from a small kiosk; a cortadito & a guava & cheese empanada. After finding our Bonaire gate I left to go & find a few toiletries from the duty free shopping options. I managed to get deodorant, a toothbrush, & saline with a contact case. No where had reef safe sunscreen (which yes, you should be buying) or any of the other items I would have liked to have. Again, shout out to American Airlines…

Our flight to Bonaire was pretty full. We ended up sat next to a man who was headed to Curacao to build houses or some other mission work. Though I tried desperately to sleep, it alluded me, so the flight was filled with reading & music.

We arrived in Bonaire in the afternoon, the airport is a single strip of tarmac with a path leading to the main building on the grounds that serves as the terminal. You line up outside to complete the immigration process then head into the open building to the single baggage claim to collect your luggage, of which I had none thanks to American Airlines. My father collected his bag & we went across the lot to the rental car service we’d been linked up with by Tropical Divers. Once we had our pick-up we went around the bay to where we would be staying for the weekend.

Tropical Divers is an SSI affiliate dive resort just a few minutes from the airport. It sits along the road leading to Calabas Reef & features a number of suites & apartments along with two separate pools, the occasional bar, & a full service dive shop & school. Here we met Prisca, one of the shop owners whom I had been in contact for the weeks leading up to the trip. Prisca gave us a warm welcome before giving us the run down of the resort, how the shop at the resort worked, & when/where we’d be working on our rescue dive certification. She invited us to assemble our gear & showed us how their tank rental system worked, it was here that we ran into Lewis.

Lewis was a Welsh college professor who had been leading a group out of North Carolina over the previous week in a coral restoration effort at Calabas Reef. Though most of his students had already departed on the plane that we came in on, one remained along with himself just to do some fun diving around the island. He invited us to go along on a dive with the two of them.

It’s at this point that I’m going to thrown my father under the bus a little bit, you see, up until this point in time my dad had only ever been diving in lakes & swimming pools, never the ocean. He was also using rental gear that he’d never worn before so when it came time for us to pick weights to counteract our natural human buoyancy he was under the firm belief & impression that he would only need two pounds of extra weight. I use eight to ten. Twiggy, spindly me, uses eight to ten. I tried to tell him that two was not going to be nearly enough but it fell on deaf ears so he got to spend the whole dive fighting the surface.

The dive at Calabas was a nice easing back into the flow of things. Lewis & his student took us around to show us the many coral trees they’d planted of Staghorn Coral & we meandered our way around until it was time to return to shore. During this dive I tested out a SeaLife Underwater Smartphone Case but found that the app it required greatly diminished the quality of my phone’s camera.

Back at the resort we stowed our tanks, washed our gear, & hung it out to dry. Bonaire is currently fighting a stony coral disease that has been affecting the Caribbean at large. Bonaire was the last hold out that didn’t have the disease, but mid-last year it started cropping up around the port of Kralendijk. This has resulted in the dive sites around the national park being closed as well as the island of Klein Bonaire being closed for divers. Additionally Bonaire has adopted a traffic light system. On a map of the island you’ll find all of the dive sites, any sites in green can be hopped between freely, but once you go down the light you can’t go back up so if you dive a yellow reef which means there’s been sightings of the disease, you can’t dive a green again until you go completely sanitize & dry your gear. Red is the indicator for a reef with a lot of the disease present, which Calabas Reef is. The nice thing is that if you dive a red in the morning you can still dive any of the other reds throughout the day.

After we’d gotten dried off & changed we offered to take Lewis to dinner as a return of his hospitality to us. He recommended that we walk into town & see what our options were, so that’s exactly what we did!

The walk from the resort to downtown Kralendijk was only about fifteen minutes, but we hit it right about sunset which ended up being a beautiful capstone to a rather stressful day. For dinner we chose a place called La Cantina Ceveceria, which was giving very much Los Angeles vibes. The front half of the restaurant is a brewery with the back being an open concert dining space. Here my dad & I both got the Fish Chowder, which was incredible, the we each got an order of the Fish & Chips of the Day! Additionally I got a rather well balance hefeweizen.

After dinner we walked back to the resort, the rest of our night was short lived, however, on our way back we happened to pass by The Fat Dog, a brisket spot that the woman at the rental car site had recommended. We poked in to see if we could just pay for a sample of brisket but the owner said he was out for the evening & to come back tomorrow. We said goodnight to Lewis, showered off the day & were out around 9 or 10.

End Of Day One

Day Two

We had a morning meet-up with Jack planned, I believe we were to meet him at 9 AM. Jack was to be our instructor in the course. We met him in the conference room of the dive shop where we went over the plan for our course, reviewed the material, & broke down what the two days of our open water training would look like. Our first day was meant to cover more of the stress aspect of the stress & rescue course, with the second focusing more on the rescue. After briefing we loaded up tanks & gear & drove around the corner to Calabas Reef.

Calabas basically serves as the house reef for Tropical Divers, it’s where they do the vast majority of their open water training. Our focus on stress & identifying stress in ourselves & our fellow divers so after our on shore briefing Jack started randomly implementing different “stressed out” diver situations into our dive. He would prompt my dad or me to enact a stressed diver situation & then he would also occasionally do one at random. If was the responsibility of the other person to recognize the stressed situation & react accordingly. These ranged from out of air to ears not equalizing to water in the mask to afraid of wildlife & anything in between & outside of these parameters.

I will note here that during our dive training I did not have my camera so you shall see no images of wildlife &/or humans pantomiming stress throughout the next two days of blog.

After our morning sessions we were given a thirty to forty-five minute lunch break. I had on my agenda to go & find sunscreen during this break but time didn’t allow it. For lunch we returned to The Fat Dog for Brisket Tacos which were awesome! They were a mix of flavors that bordered traditional barbecue & tex mex. Like I said, ran out of time for the sun screen, forgot we were on island time so the food took longer than expected. I’ll live to regret that later. Returning from lunch we met back up with Jack where we once again loaded up gear & tanks to head to Calabas.

At Calabas we sat by the entry & briefed on what the following dive would look like. Here is where I think the sun got me the worst. Our dive was meant to be similar in fashion to our morning dives only this time we would cap it with the beginning stages of rescue. We would get to an area in which Jack had hidden part of his dive set on the bottom & we would each lead a sweep to find & retrieve the lost items. At the point of retrieval the person who was not the leader would become the unconscious diver & we would break down the steps of retrieval. We started with the activities that occur under the water, up to bringing the diver to the surface, then next we’d do the surface to shore portion, & finally we ended with bringing the diver up onto the shore.
To be quite frank we left the day feeling a little under accomplished & a little uncertain, not from a training stand point, Jack was doing a great job, it just felt a little like the skills weren’t entirely sticking which I feel that Jack felt as well.

We stripped down our gear, cleaned it, & made off for dinner fairly beat from the day & hella sunburnt.

Dinner was a Jamaican place that Prisca recommended called Irie. Located off the side of a park & sandwiched between two other stall style restaurants, Irie offers an extensive menu of traditional Jamaican food. I got a plate of Ribs & Chicken with Rice, Plantains, & Salad, along with a fresh Ginger Beer & a shared plate of Jerk Chicken Wings. All of it was tender & outstanding & the barbecue sauce had a lovely touch of allspice to it.

Our evening was once again short lived as we were exhausted from our training. It mostly comprised of hanging gear to dry, showering, & reviewing for the next day, of which Jack had promised would be even more physically taxing.

End Of Day Two

Day Three

Jack wasn’t lying, the second day of training was rough. I got up a little before our 10 AM call to go out in search of some long overdue sunscreen. I went down the street to Carib Inn, a PADI dive resort, their dive shop had an assortment of reef safe sunscreens. Our morning dive lasted from our call time right up to lunch. During that time we did the entirety of retrieval, hauling to shore, & onto shore swapping between who was the unconscious diver & who was the rescuer. It was a workout & a half. Once you’re up on the surface you have to swim the diver to shore all while holding onto their head in place to keep their airway open, giving rescue breaths, & removing gear all while under strict timing & order.

Lunch was a recommendation from Jack called Rumba Cafe. At Rumba I got a Mango/Peach Smoothie & an Uruguayan dish called Cheviot Al Guillermo which is essentially a bunless hamburger made with Hanger Steak, a Fried Egg, & Green Olives. After lunch we ran through a few more refreshers on the stress side of the course before briefing what the last portion of the course would look like.

The last bit was meant to simulate the entire thing; getting the call for a lost diver from the dive sight, grabbing the O2 kit, getting gear together as fast as possible, arriving at the scene to interrogate the person reporting the lost diver while suiting up, finding the lost diver, bringing them to the surface, bringing them to shore, pulling them onto shore, administering CPR & oxygen, & getting things squared away with emergency services when they arrive. My dad went first taking command of the situation, assigning roles, leading the search proceeders, & doing the diver retrieval.

After we went through what went right & wrong on my dad’s turn, Jack went back out to hide the “lost diver” & immediately started my turn as he was coming back up out of the water. We both passed, though my dad had to go back through & practice a few skills before getting fully signed off on.

My one regret in not being able to have my camera during the training dives was that we came upon a Spotted Eagle Ray feasting on something in the sand. In all of my fifty plus dives I have never had the privilege of seeing an Eagle Ray in the wild, much less on so close & with such little regard to us as divers. It was on our way out to finish my final certification dive & we literally stopped the mock rescue to take in the ray for a good minute before it swam off.

As a thank you to Jack we took him out to dinner. He suggested Rum Runners because you can sit cliffside & watch the Tarpon hunt in the lights that the resort broadcasts into the water below.

While we were waiting for our table I got a King Rincon, which is a drink on their menu that apparently won best rum drink back in 2018. It features Rincon Rum, Mango, White Chocolate, a Secret Syrup, & is topped with Merengues. It smacked, kinda giving a mango white cake vibe.

The restaurant sat us right on the edge where we could watch the fish. I got the Ceviche of the Day & a Pizza Rum Runner which caught my attention because it featured Passionfruit amongst the many other ingredients on the pie. After dinner we dropped Jack at a gig he was going to with some mates & went to get Gelato.

If you couldn't have guess by the details of the day we once again had a short lived night. We slid off to bed ready to greet the next two days of diving for fun, both of us newly certified Stress & Rescue divers & myself a newly minted Master Diver!

End Of Day Three

End Of Part One

December 3, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: Indonesia: Part Three- Another Day, Another Nat Geo Experience

December 3, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Welcome back world travelers! We’ve made it, this is the final entry in my Indonesia series revolving around the Lembeh Strait! I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey thus far & are ready to dive (see what I did there) into our final segment today! If you’re not all caught up on my escapades, no worries, I’ll link the other two installments right below this introductory paragraph! Enough of the pretext, shall we continue?

PART ONE

PART TWO

INDONESIA

PART THREE:

Day Five

Woke to another lovely day on Lembeh. The rain that rolled in over night had cooled the morning leisurely to somewhere in the low 80s. My breakfast consisted of my same morning staples; Jasmine Tea, Raspberry, Nutella Toast, Eggs, Bacon or Sausage, Fruit, & Fresh Juice. I think this is the morning I subbed one of the aforementioned items out for Granola topped in Yogurt, Honey, & Chopped Fruit, but that’s neither here nor there. No interesting creatures came out to play either while dinning or while making our way down the dock, however, that’s not to say the day wasn’t interesting. Far from it!

Remember in the last blog when I mentioned that I lost track of our dive sites at a certain point. Well folks, we’ve reached the pinnacle of it as, in my dive log, the next two days are full of sites that were already programed into the SSI app so I didn’t have to deal with the grueling entry process for each site. There are a few, especially the last couple days that I have written down, so we shall return to form when we get there!

Dive #1 of the day was a muck dive & deep one at that. Set at off the shore from Makawide, I remember descending the slope with Sam & Puri (if you don’t know who these people are at this point, you haven’t been paying attention) & feeling like we were fairly deep. The thing about muck diving is that most of the critters typically are fairly muted in their color pallet & if they aren’t, you’re usually using a flashlight to spot them anyway which restores their full color. This is much more noticeable on reefs where the many colored corals seem to all fade to shades of blues & blacks. All of that being a round about way of saying that I didn’t notice we’d dropped down to almost 107ft until I looked at my dive computer & was immediately aghast at what I saw. I even got Sam’s attention to show her & she gave me a “shocked eye” stare back at my readings. Was the depth worth it? Absolutely.

I’m going to sidebar again, sorry you’re dealing with an ADHD riddled writer here, but when I was in Fiji I got my deep water certification & remember telling my father later that I didn’t really have much of a desire to dive that deep again. It drastically cuts your dive time &, in Fiji at least, there wasn’t much to see & all the coloration was gone. Muck diving is truly a different animal I guess!

So what did we find at that depth? We found one of the rarer Lembeh creatures. Not only that, but we sat & watched it hunt.

At a depth of around 90 feet we found the highly sought after Rhinoceros Scorpionfish. The Rhinoceros is a marvelous creature that is uncharacteristically colorful compared to the rest of the Scorpion/Stonefish family. Having evolved to look like a dead leaf, they sway back & forth on modified pectoral fins as they inch across the substrate mimicking the movement of a leaf caught in the sway of the tides. Our Rhinoceros was bright orange & was in the process of hunting a cardinal fish. So, of course we had to sit & watch!

We sat, anchored to the bottom for around ten minutes just watching this fish play coy as it gained footing on its prey inchmeal. We gingerly made our way along with it, being sure to keep it in frame & in light so that we would catch the end of its successful hunt on camera, & that’s exactly what we did! Finally after coming within two inches of the cardinal the scorpion struck. It did so at a rate that my camera, running 120 frames per second, only managed to snag one or two frames of its extended jaws.

Funny enough, while we were pursuing the scorpionfish another ambush predator decided to wriggle its way between Sam & I. A massive Lionfish decided it had had enough of us scaring off any further perspective prey & made its complaints known as it grumpily swam between us.

This dive was a gold mine, in addition to the Scorpionfish we saw another Gurnard skidding across the bottom & two massive Titan Triggerfish, which we were sure to steer well clear of. They bite. Hard.

The most exciting find of the dive, especially for Puri, was the gigantic Sea Turtle we came across resting on the bottom around 40 feet. This turtle was one of the largest I’d seen in the wild & Puri was overjoyed as apparently they hadn’t seen any turtles in a good long while. We tried not to disturb it but it took off as soon as we got within 10-15 feet of it.

Farther up the slope, towards the beginning was a reef that sat just under the water line. Here we found the typical Anemones & Clowns, Damsels, Tangs, etc., but we also found another Sea Crete & several large Yellow Trumpetfish.

For the next dive we headed back towards the resort to a small archipelago of islands. Apparently their name in Indonesian roughly translated to something along the lines of “The Broken Islands” because they used to be a part of one singular mass of land, instead of their own separate entities. We loaded up on our typical rest food & drink items (tea, coffee, water, milo, cake, & fruit) & were just about to get back in the water when I was handed a guitar.

Apparently someone let it slip that I am a singer & the crew had brought a guitar to get me to perform for them. I reluctantly agreed & sat tuning the instrument for a minute before I played them one of my originals which they absolutely adored. I felt so honored & handed back the guitar before I got all of my gear on & was once again down in the blue.

Dive #2 was part reef & part rubble which meant high possibilities for octopus which we did in fact end up finding in the aptly named site, Critter Hunt! What’s our octopus count at this point? Three? Well, this was number four if that’s the case! It was also another unique species from the other three & another highly sought after Lembeh animal. We had stumbled upon a Wonderpus.

Yes, that’s its real name, the Wonderpus which happened to also be the name of our boat for the week. What makes the wonderpus so wonderful you ask? For that I want to divert to a short anecdote that Kim, the resort manager, told us. Kim is a Danish gent who has lived in the Lembeh area for well over 15-20 years. He said that the first time he saw a wonderpus he didn’t think anything of it, in fact, he thought it was a lion fish. How does one confuse an octopus with a lion fish? Well the wonderpus, similar to the mimic, another Lembeh favorite, can do exactly that. It can mimic. Only the wonderpus has the keen ability to alter the texture of its skin along with the length, shape, etc. of its arms & body. Our wonderpus presented to us as white & black striped with big arching brows.

I was, unfortunately, once again pulled away from my Garden Eels to come look at the octopus, but I think it was an acceptable replacement. They did let me sit & watch the garden eels afterwards for a few minutes, so I truly can’t be mad.

Additionally we came across some lovely clusters of Frogspawn Coral, some Snowflake Eels, Coral Gobies, Cowfish, Fingered Dragonettes, Panther Grouper, & I once again attempted to get a Cleaner Wrasse to clean my mouth. It didn’t work, sadly. One of these day, one of these days.

Back to shore we went where I grabbed another Pocari Sweat & sat editing til it was time for lunch & then until it was time to hit dive #3.

Dive #3 at Pintu Colada started at a sparse reef with some monumental mounds of coral. However, that’s not where we spent the majority of this dive. We spent the majority of this dive pestering Male Ribbon Eels.

For whatever reason Ribbon Eels seem to be very curious creatures. I noticed, as I was filming one of the electric blue males that he was very interested in my pointer that I had buried in the ground. I unmoored myself & passed the baton closer to the eel so that it could investigate. The eel would come pretty far out of its den to ‘smell’ the titanium stick I was using, I would get it close & then slowly inch it backwards to see just how far out they were wiling to chase the blue rod & the answer seemed pretty damn far!

Additionally this site had many Chocolate Chip Starfish, several rather aggressive Maroon Clownfish in their Bubbletip Anemones, & some type of buried Moray that I have scoured the internet for but come up blank on its identification.

Our afternoon, post dive, was fairly uneventful. I most likely spent the entirety of it, you guessed it, editing but that’s not to say the interesting parts of the day were over. Oh how wrong that assumption would be because folks, this was a four dive day. We still have the black water dive to talk about.

Now a black water dive comes in a variety of forms. Some where you’re out in the middle of the water attached to a line, letting the little critters come up to you, some where you are sat on the bottom around a light referred to as a “bonfire,” ours was a version of the latter. You see, typically the crew would go out before hand & plant the “bonfire” around 20-30 minutes in advance so that it has time to draw everything in. The problem with this is that it has the high tendency to lead to boredom. We hybridized our black water with just your standard night dive, deciding to plant & ignite the bonfire, the let it set for a while while we went around exploring & poking around in the dark.

We found ourselves some Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish, a Gorilla Crab or two, large quantities of Pipefish, a Blue Spotted Ray, an Orange Blotch Rabbitfish, some Porcupine Puffers, Banded Coral Shrimp, & a baby Barramundi (Sweet Lips). The real prize of the dive, however, were the squid.

We were back out at Aer Prang where we’d dove a few times before & done our previous night dive. Just off the clusters of Trumpet Coral Puri spotted them, two Squid suspended in the water. As we got closer their colors began to shift & change & each of the pigment cells along their body began to light up. One of the squid decided it best to try & gfto & inked, though it didn’t then attempt to flee. We swam around filming these two squid for a good 10-15 minutes before we decided it was best to leave them be & return to the bonfire. However, on the way we encountered a hand made fish trap teeming with captured fish. We all had the same thought in wanting to set the fish go, especially since the trap didn’t seem to have a line or anything attached to it, but we felt it best to leave it incase it was a local’s meal.

I mentioned briefly in the previous blog about night diving the tiny little plankton & organisms that you find while night diving. At one point, after returning to the bonfire, I held my flashlight straight upright & just watched the different varieties of life dancing in & out of the beam. We came across several free swimming crustaceans & Puri found some kind of mostly translucent organism that looked not dissimilar to the double helix of DNA.

We returned to the resort after another bulging day of diving, showered, scarfed down an incredible dinner, & were out before our heads hit the pillows.

End Of Day Five

Day Six

It was time to start winding down, after a full week of diving at this point our dives were starting to become a little more sparse on these our last two days. If you’re unaware, when diving, you need an 18-24 hour period between the time of your last dive & the time of your flight. This is to help prevent the bends. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I assume you know the drill at this point? Wake up, breakfast of eggs, fruit, bacon or sausage, toast, fresh juice, etc. I suppose I forgot to mention that earlier in the week the kitchen staff had found me a fresh Jackfruit, of which they continued to serve at any meal they knew I’d be at because I was one of the only few dining upon it. Most meals would end with a bowl full of jackfruit, covered in Calamansi Juice. After breakie & gathering the dive gear & camera I took with me off of the boat, it was once again time to dive. Today’s dock creature was a Spadefish, bobbing along the surface in-between the dock & the Wonderpus, our boat.

Our first dive of the day was a rubbly coral spot called Nudi Retread. It was home to many Blue-Spotted Stingrays, some beautiful Maze Corals, many Giant Clams, & even a few big ole Leopard Sea Cucumbers. It’s here where we found a pair of Tozeuma Shrimp but, you guessed it, my camera said “Tozeuma Shrimp who? I’m more interested in this plain old background behind them.”

The site also, of course, had its fair share of Bubble Coral, Anemones con Clowns, Sea Fans, & even a Miniatus Grouper with its bright blue spotted red body.

After we surfaced we headed off to dive #2, set off the island chain in the middle of Lembeh.

Dive two was a reef dive, Sarena Patah. Amongst the reef I once again tried my hand at getting Cleaner Wrasse to excavate my mouth to no avail, found many Tiger Jawfish popping their heads out of the sand, a mating pair of Singapore Angelfish, a school of Pajama Cardinal fish, some Moorish Idols & a Mosaic Pufferfish. After our time below the surface it was time to head back to NAD Lembeh for lunch & my daily ritual of editing over a Pocari Sweat.

Our third dive was at Tanjung Kusu-Kusu or Cape Kusu-Kusu as it would be in Ingles. It was another muck dive location with sparse reef near the two. Immediately upon our decent we discovered a pair of Spiny Tiger Shrimp hiding in a cup sponge. Puri was very excited at the find & wrote on his tablet “Tiger Shrimp” followed by “a very special shrimp.” The shrimp were about an inch in length & were covered in white spikes. The white body of the shrimp had orange spots on it surrounded by smaller black spots & while the resemblance to a tiger is iffy, I can understand why it was so named to a degree.

The dive was also full of many Lionfish & Scorpionfish though the coolest thing we discovered PSTS (Post Spiny Tiger Shrimp) was a rock covered in a microcosm of predator & prey.

All along this little portion of reef, about the size of a Fiat, were schools & schools of Cardinalfish. I’m talking hundreds if not thousands of them, all tucked in the rock & poking out just a tad. Below the school, patiently waiting was a Stonefish blending perfectly into the rock work where it perched, just waiting for one of the cardinals to dip a little bit too close. Just around the rock, under where the stonefish sat was a White Mouth Moray Eel, farther around on the other side of the rocks there was a Ribbon Eel, & amongst the rock there were assorted Dwarf Lionfish & Scorpions.

Though we didn’t end up doing a dive in the evening, that doesn’t mean I was done with aquatic life for the day. In fact, I got a glimpse of some aquatic wildlife on the shore during our leave. No, that’s not a typo, ‘on’ is the correct use here.

Along the beach of our little bay I started to notice little pricks of movement. My initial thought was that it was crabs or some other burrowing crustacean but I was wrong & was so excited to find what it actually was. All along the shore line, on the beach, were about ten Mudskippers. Mudskippers are a type of goby that has evolved to move, in a limited capacity, on land. They come out of the water to feed on the insects that congregate near the shoreline & can be out of water for around two days! Funny enough the Indonesian name for the mudskipper is ‘Ikan Tambio’ which means “prostitute fish” though I can’t for the life of me figure out why they are so named.

Darin, our trip guide & owner of Midwest Aquatics, the dive shop I went through for my certification, Fiji, & Indonesia, had asked previously if we could do a village excursion or something of the like on land. He & Simon came to the conclusion that it probably wasn’t for the best of the group & instead decided on a sunset cruise for the lot of us! The Wonderpus had been stripped of our gear, wiped down, dried out, & instead was packed with coolers with drinks & bowls of snacks

We went all the way up the strait to a village where the locals were farming pearls, the children rushed out into the water yelling any english phrases they could think of to get our attention & we affectionately waved back & yelled “hello” to them on the shore. Once we passed the lighthouse into the mouth of the strait it was revealed that it was Darin’s birthday & his lovely wife & incredibly talented photographer, Cari had requested a cake from the kitchen to bring aboard. We all sang “Happy Birthday” & slices of the cake were passed around before we turned back & headed towards the south end of the strait.

Along the way I was once again passed the guitar but I opted for soft covers & what I call “call to prayer” guitar just to fill the space with something atmospheric & not make it the “Charlie Rogers Show” on someone else’s day.

As we neared Bitung we began to hear & see the music festival that had been going on throughout the week. Spotlights scraped the clouds & music ricocheted across the water with thunderous bass that was soon replaced by actual thunder as a storm rolled in. We all ducked for shelter as if we hadn’t just spent the last week completely drenched & the boat made its way back to shore where showers, dinner, & beds awaited us all.

End Of Day Six

Day Seven

Well, we’re here, the last day of dives for this trip. Have we had fun? Have we enjoyed the ride? I promise you it’s not over yet! Like I said, we still have one more day of diving!

The morning started unceremoniously with the typical wake & break…fast, followed by the morning pack up, & walk down to the dock. There weren’t any dock critters of interest this morning, but we’ll get back to that in the afternoon! Our first dive was Hairy Larry, so named, apparently, because of the hairy diver guide that “discovered” & named it. One thing is for sure, Mr. Larry had found himself a gorgeous reef & wall dive.

The afternoon prior we’d been asked by the guides what we wanted our last day of diving to look like, the general consensus was something a little more reef forward but still balanced with muck & rubble, so that’s what the guides delivered!

We were dropped into the site at the top of the reef. Immediately we were greeted by Honeycomb Grouper, tons of Clowns & Anemones with Benggai Cardinalfish hovering near by, Squirrelfish, Bicolored Angelfish, & even another Day Octopus!

The wall portion of the dive was at around 60-70 feet. It was stacked corals overlooking a sandy forever with a multitude of fish, nudibranchs, & other invertebrates ducking in & out of their high rise hovels. The wall was home to hundreds of varieties of Torch Corals, a Blue Spiny Lobster, & large Granulated Seastars.

As we made our way from the wall, through the rubble downslope from the reef, Puri started picking through the dead coral in search of a very specific score. Puri was searching for Mosaic Boxer/Pompom Crabs. A boxer crab is a wee crustacean about the size of your thumb nail. Their name is derived from the itty bitty anemones they carry in their claws & use to sweep the water for microscopic food, which they then pilfer from the anemones. As Puri was scouting the rock a very interested, very large Sunset Wrasse came over to see if we kicked up anything edible for him. He didn’t seem at all afraid of us divers & in fact was very keen to hang out & remained very close to us the entirety of our search.

Puri eventually did find a boxer crab which he brought over to a large rock on the branch of deceased coral it had been occupying. We three gathered around the rock & Deb & her guide even joined us. We all sat watching the pompom swipe the water & feed. As we were watching it another of the guides cut through us & placed a second pompom crab on the rock with the one we were observing.

I’m still beyond amazed at the eyes on these Indonesian guides. All week they were able to find the smallest of creatures in often the dimmest of lighting. Each of them would point out things that it would often take my eyes thirty seconds to a minute to focus on. The crabs are a great example of this.

After we left the crustaceans to their filter feeding I ran into a Foxface, a few massive schools of Green Chromis, a Naso Tang, many more Bubbletip Anemones.

Once we were back on the reef we immediately noticed the innumerable Giant Clams that dotted the coralscape. Blues, browns, greens, any color, variety, & size you can think of, they were there. I found a Common Egg Cowry feeding on some Leather Coral, which if you remember from my Fiji blog was one of my favorite finds simply because of the striking nature of its deep, black pigment.

The reef was mostly stoney corals & leathers; Birds Nest, Antler Coral, Trumpet Coral, Maze Coral, etc. Amongst these I found a Scopas Tang, two big ole Lobsters, a brown Trumpetfish, Hawkfish, & a Triangle Butterflyfish. I had a really had time returning to the surface because I felt everywhere I turned there were new things to see.

Dive #2 took us back near the site of the previous to a site called Makawidey Pier. The other dive boat, the Mimic, joined us at the site where we sat side by side enjoying the surface interval. About halfway through it I was once again handed the guitar. This time the crew was asking that I perform a mini set for them of anywhere from 3-5 songs. It’s always funny to me how when you’re put on the spot your mind completely blanks on what songs you have available in your catalog, but I did manage to pull out a few more songs for the crew that had worked so hard on our behalf throughout the week.

Makawidey was half reef & half muck. Once we were down we immediately began to find incredible creatures!

We almost landed right on top of a Blue-Spotted Stingray when we entered. It hightailed it out of our vicinity, literally. We headed down father & found three separate Seahorses all within 100 ft of each other; one white & one a light grey, & one with red stripes. Additionally I spend a little more time pestering Ribbon Eels.

The muck eventually gave way to reef where we found a pair of Scissortail Gobies, a Golden Rabbitfish, Benggai Cardinals with babies in their mouthes, a White Mouth Moray Eel, a gigantic field of Pulsing Xenia, & Hammer Coral as far as the eye can see.

I mean that last bit literally, the hammer coral must have covered the length of a football field, it took my breath away. I kept thinking back to the aquarium hobbyists who would kill for just a single head of it. Typically a small head of hammer coral starts are $50 & that’s for something the size of a nickel.

After our second dive we were off to the resort for, what would be the rest of the time for a lot of people. There was no afternoon dive on this day but that didn’t stop me from feeding my saltwater soul a few more times before we left.

In lieu of a dive I took myself snorkeling/freediving. NAD Lembeh Resort has a lovely little house reef that I felt I needed to explore before we departed. I’d spent my week peering into the water & remarking at the wildlife from the dock so I decided to get a closer look.

I didn’t find much on the south end of the reef, but when I got closer to the dock my luck started to change. The dock itself was covered in Long Spine Sea Urchins. As I was (cautiously) passing through the legs of the pier I saw a Triggerfish that I still have yet to identify. The reef on the north end of the resort was flourishing; Clams, schools of Pipefish, Trumpetfish, & Anthias all dotted the rock work. When I got back towards the dock I found an Angelfish upside down picking at the floatation devices, a school of Batfish, & even a few little Boxfish. All just from hopping in the water 100 feet from where I’d been sleeping the last week. Around 4:30 we loaded up the dive boat one last time & headed out.

Yes, I said there was no afternoon dive BUT there was an early evening one! This was a dive I’d been looking forward to all week long. We were going on a Mandarin Goby dive!

Mandarin Gobies, Seahorses, Garden Eels, Cleaner Wrasse, all my obsession. I hadn’t seen a single mandarin the entirety of our trip & it was really starting to bum me out because they’re one of my all time favorite fish & there we were about to do a whole dive dedicated to them.

The mandarin dive takes place in a bay called Bianca, it’s named after the boat, The Bianca, that has been anchored there for a few decades now. The dive is a stationary dive, meaning that you sit on the bottom & wait for the things to come to you. So sit & wait we did.

The dive takes place at twilight, right when the sun has sunk below the horizon. We were all kneeling around a cluster of broken coral waiting. You aren’t allowed to use the full brightness of your torch & red light is mandatory.

So there we sat, waiting on mandarin gobies. Then, almost all at once, they started to pop out of the coral debris, they seemed to come from everywhere. The larger females would come out, flare up a little bit, & the smaller males would come pouring out in an attempt to gain her affections. Once she’d found one she liked they’d do a courtship dance where they rose up in the water, hooked together side by side. Then on cue they’d both release (& release) & depart from one another. The largest female in the area did this with around six different males.

As the light faded more & more fish began to emerge from the rubble including an assortment of Clown Gobies. They perched on the rock watching us watch the mandarins. There were green ones & black ones & one very large Citron one. I went to point them out to the people to my right but their guide had motioned for them to leave & they ended up decimating the rubble bed in their wake sending the clown gobies scattering in all directions.

Upon our return we were greeted by a barbecue, the staff had taken the tables & chairs from the dinning hall & arranged them in a line between the entrance & the bar. In the middle of the table were several plates of sashimi fresh caught that day & at the end were an arrangement of grills & griddles all boasting different assortments of meats & vegetables.

We enjoyed the food in mixed company, mingling with a group of snorkelers out of England who had come to the resort on a snorkel tour, something I was unaware was a thing. We all dined & exchanged stories, us at the end of our week, them just a few days into theirs. After we supped a cake was passed around the table.

With bursting bellies & smiling faces we adjourned to bed where we drifted off to sleep before the next day’s conquest home began.

End Of Day Seven

Day Eight

I debated on whether or not I wanted to include “day eight” as if was a travel day. Then upon reflection I found myself remembering many interesting things about the day. The odd part about writing this is that it will butt up into my Singapore Blog which I actually decided to publish in advance before going back to do the dive blogs. You can find a link to it at the very end of this blog.

We slept in a little on this day. Not having to beat the clock to get breakfast in before our dive time, we enjoyed a leisurely morning. After we had our fill of breakfast we all went back to our separate abodes to pack & make sure our electronics were charged for the return trip back. I was the only member of my group separating from the rest of them & the anxiety of 20+ hours of travel was palpable amongst my compatriots.

We left the resort begrudgingly, just short of noon. The tide was out at the time of our ferry across the strait so when we reached the cement dock on the other side we had to all climb onto the roof of The Wonderpus to get back on land. We all were escorted down the dock where locals came out in droves to observe the foreigners. The children yelled “hi” over & over at us & it was explained that it was probably the only english words they knew. We returned each “hi” in kind, accompanied by a smile of appreciation.

Our convoy to the Manado Airport was a series of minivans driven rambunctiously down the roads. We passed the festival grounds, several markets, & many curious locals who waved or peered into the windows at us. My car was the first to reach the terminal by a long shot & we sat for around 15-20 minutes waiting for the others to arrive with out gear so we could tip our driver.

The waiting game then began as our ticketing agents had not yet shown up. I went out in search of food, finding a Starbucks & a convenience store to satiate me. It was well over an hour & a half before someone showed up to check us in & we were all starting to get nervous that we were going to miss our flight.

Though I was the first in, I was the last out. I had to pay an extra baggage fee for my gear which took a while to process & I ended up being the last member of our group through security which didn’t end up mattering because our flight was delayed.

Ever the curious pallet I wandered into another convenience store while waiting to board & was met by many different Durian products. For the unaware, durian is a type of custardy fruit whose aroma is so pungent it’s often outlawed from Southeast Asian public transport. I was curious, as I always am, & opted for the durian ice cream with fresh durian in it. Y’all. No shame, truly. I regretted it. I kid you not, to my westernized pallet durian tasted like a mix between smelly feet (just assuming that flavor) & gasoline (that one too) with just the slightest banana & mango taste thrown in. The worst part of it was that it then spent the next several hours fighting me & I could not, for whatever reason, clear the taste of it out of my mouth.

Our flight finally departed & we were given a sealed cup of water & a literal entire package of cookies upon boarding.

When we got to Jakarta night had fallen & we all gathered our things before boarding the shuttle that had been arranged to take us to our hotel.

The hotel was around 15 minutes away from the airport & the journey there brought up a rather large discrepancy in the life of the people of Jakarta. From the terminal we were taken on highways, beautiful highways before turning into what I can only describe as shanty towns. We maneuvered around these shanty towns until we came to what had to be a seven or eight foot wall. We traced the wall, dotted with shacks, around to a gate where armed guards let us through two separate gates where the surroundings intently went from impoverished to glistening in excess. If I’m being honest it made me feel icky. We had arranged to stay at the FM7 Resort Hotel for the evening.

The resort was stunning. Modern artwork, pristine flora, exquisite lighting & cleanliness. It was a very sharp contrast to the world just outside of its massive walls. The resort was also a complex, an entire network of buildings & roads spread over a large number of acres. We all checked in & were given our room keys where we all went our separate ways to sleep for only a few hours before our flight from Jakarta departed to Singapore.

End Of Day Eight

END OF PART THREE

END OF BLOG

Singapore Blog

November 13, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Indonesia: Part Two- Why Do All Of The Good Stories Start Next To A Carpet Anemone?

November 13, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Selamet Siang!

Welcome back curious reader! If you’re new here the class has officially moved on to part two of this specific adventure, but if you’d like to be caught up I’ll link part one just below this little bit of conversational pretext! Be sure to give that a read before continuing on here, context & establishment are important to storytelling after all!

Part One

INDONESIA

PART TWO:

Day Three

We start out this day in the usual way, rising early, grabbing brekkie, then going off to pack up for the full day of diving ahead. The only noticeable difference about this day’s breakfast was that I created my new obsession for the week; Toast with Raspberry Jam & Nutella, & I made a little Jumping Spider friend. I found her first climbing on my shoulder where I gently gathered her & set her aside on my chair, but no matter what I did she kept coming back to me in one form or another. Finally I just gave in & let her sit on my arm & watch me eat breakfast.

For all of you out there freaked out by this notion, Jumping Spiders are actually very personable creatures that have very interesting personalities about them. They will often even appear to look you in the eye & will, as witnessed above, watch people do things out of what seems like nothing more than curiosity. Though now that I’m thinking about it she may have been using me as a trap for the insects potentially drawn in by either my food or my blood. Either way, at the end of my meal, I set her on a leaf just off the dining pavilion & went about collecting my gear.

Our first dive site of the day was lovingly named “Hairball #2.” Why? Well, as it was explained to us, there are two separate explanations, the first is that the balls of netting/rope & the flora growing on the seabed resemble balls of hair, the second explanation was due to the abundance of Hairy Frogfish, of which we did see one, but apparently my camera did not. #MinimumFocalLength

This dive had an abundance, & I mean an abundance, of Mantis Shrimp of all sizes. Not only that, but you didn't really have to search for them, they were just kind of out, cruising along the sand or, in my case, attacking you. We’ll get there, we’ll get there.

I’m going to assume it was the scenery that lent itself to the plethora of decorators in the area as well, from Decorator Crabs & Hermits to Gorilla Crabs, it seemed every few feet near the top of our dive we’d find a new one. Additionally the Seahorse/Pipefish family came out to play as well.

Many of you know how much of a love for Seahorses I have, I used to raise them in my tank at home including, at one point, having an Erectus Male get pregnant & birth a clutch of fry in my tank! I’ve actually been flirting with the idea of setting up a specialty tank for them somewhere in my house as they don’t do well in big tanks with more aggressive eaters, but enough about my aquarium hobbies. All of that was a massively round about way of saying that I saw the. cutest. seahorse. I have ever seen. He had a bit of red macro algae growing just above his left pectoral fin which made it look like he had a flower in his hair. Simply adorable.

The site was truly a masterclass in what muck diving has to offer between the (in my personal opinion) horrifying Snake Eels with their heads popping out of the substrate, the pairs of Cardinal Waspfish, the numerous varieties of Shrimp Goby with their hovels in the sand, Lionfish, Trumpetfish, Carpet Anemones, & Snapper. But, let’s back up one step to one of those Carpet Anemones for a moment shall we?

Here is where I shall lay the chronicle of the viscous, subaquatic affront I received at the punchy mits of the afforementioned Peacock Mantis Shrimp:

So, I’m sitting there, filming a colony of Clownfish & Ghost Shrimp, doing my best to get the Porcelain Crabs as the current rolls up the sides of the anemone. I have my pointer buried around half a foot in the sand when all the sudden a hear a “thwack” & get a sharp pain in the hand holding onto my substrate anchor. I look over & there, puffed up in the sand, is about a three to four inch long Peacock Mantis Shrimp. It is presenting its antennal scales to me & keeps leaning in to go for another strike. What has gotten this Mantis so worked up over my presence? Well, I guess the fact that I’m a good meter+ from its burrow. It had come out a fairly long distance for an itty bitty shrimp from its defenses to smack my out of territorial spite. You can actually hear the smack, as well as my yelp, when it hit me on my GoPro footage. I was however fortunate with my Mantis encounter for two reasons. One, it was a little one, they can grown about a foot & a half in length. Two, it was a “punchy” variety, meaning that its raptorial appendages were blunted, not sharp like the alternatively “stabby” variety with their sharp appendages.

On our way back up we encountered a Male Ornate Ghost Pipefish, a Napoleon Snake Eel, several more Cardinal Wasps, & a Flamboyant Cuttlefish!

Our surface interval was once again supplemented by Tea, Coffee, Milo, Water, Papaya, Pineapple, & Cake. Dive spot number two was Jahir #1. I guess it’s worth noting at this point that a lot of the dive sites in Lembeh had numerical quantifiers as well. This is because a lot of them are the same towns, villages, islands, or locations, just different mooring sites & thus different entrance/exit points & therefore different dives.

Jahir was another muck dive that leans a little more on the sandy side. Here we found a whole host of Flamboyant Cuttlefish (including some eggs), Scorpionfish, Pillow Starfish, Blue Spotted Rays, Black Lionfish, Banded Pipefish, & the like. However there were two very distinct things that happened on this dive & I’m so excited to share them with you all!

The first made me absolutely geek out.

Maybe it’s the fish lover in me or my fascination with marine life in general, maybe you’ll also find this as cool as I did, please let me know if you do. Anyway, I was planted near yet another Carpet Anemone teeming with Clowns. Slightly above the anemone were a school of Cardinal Fish. Y’all I am literally geeking out typing this story simply because of the insinuations it carries. All of the sudden the largest of the clowns, the female, departs the anemone & makes for a piece of debris laying on the sand bed, It was just under a foot in size & looked kind of like a piece of cardboard or maybe a patch of dutch tape. Puri, our guide, immediately grabs my attention & motions to me to start filming, so I do. The clown drags the debris over to the anemone & stashes it right in the middle of it. She then proceeds to duck under it. After a few seconds she picks it up again & does the same, over & over. What was she doing? Y’all. This clownfish was fishing. It was upholding its portion of the symbiotic biological agreement between clowns & nems & trying to feed its home. It was using us, three big, scary, bubble making beings in the water next to the anemone as a tool implying she understands the basic nature of fish, specifically cardinal fish, & was trying to get them to swim under the debris & use it as “shelter” to hide from us, all the while luring them to their inevitable death. Wild. I guess it’s true what they say, the best stories happen around a carpet anemone.

The second thing that happened was actually something I’d discussed with Simon, the resort owner, the night prior. I had inquired as to what Simon’s favorite Lembeh creature was, to which he said something along the lines of “it’s always changing. However, this time of year the Fire Urchins make an appearance & I think they’re something truly spectacular.” That they are. Towards the end of our dive we came up the slope back towards the boat & were immediately met by about twenty or so massive Fire Urchins! I wish the photos & video I took did them justice but they unfortunately don’t. They’re iridescent, they genuinely look to be ablaze with their dark red spines & bright red & blue bodies so luminous they appear almost like LED strips. A breathtaking species of Urchin to say the least! The way their spines move across their bodies offsetting the view of the farther parts of their body makes them truly look aflame.

Following dive two it was time for lunch. We headed back to NAD Lembeh where we were met with a lovely spread once again provided by Tommy, the resort’s excellent chef. Following our exquisite sustenance it was time, once again, to head back out for another dive.

Dive three was Nudibranch Falls. For those of you dear readers that do not know what a Nudibranch is, they are a family or shell-less mollusks with exterior gills that often feed on corals & sponges. They are often poisonous & thus come rather brightly colored to ward off predators & blend into their lunch. As for the name of the site, Nudibranch Falls is a wall dive meaning you’re diving along side a wall, pretty self explanatory. It is named as such because the ascending bubbles from the divers often knock the Nudies from their place of munch & send them cascading to the depths below. Thus the nudibranch falls.

While exploring the first bits of this site it became extremely dark out of nowhere & I’m talking like ‘felt like we should be in a cave or passthrough’ dark, therefore a lot of the pictures that will accompany this section will probably make heavy use of my flashlight, as will the following, but we’ll get there when we get there.

Around Nudibranch Falls is primarily rubbly reef; waves, creatures, boats,…divers…, etc crash against the corals causing them to break & fall to the bottom below where they either expire or continue growing, hence the rubble. The venue had many of your typical reef fish as well as, yes, many a variety of Nudibranch & Flatworm. The coolest incision of the reef however where the Sea Fans that played host to Pygmy Seahorses.

You shan’t be seeing any picture of Pygmy Seahorses from me seeing how the are, as the name implies, Pygmy & my camera could not for the life of it figure out what the hell I was trying to film. When I say these boogers are small, I mean it. I would say the largest was no bigger than the nail of your little finger.

I’m going to throw Sam under the bus a little here just because I find the story to be a tad humorous & it comes back around later. Sorry Sam if you’re reading this.

After viewing the seahorses Sam, my dive buddy & roomie, set about exploring the rest of the reef wall. Little had we all notice but the current had started to pick up because, as we’d come to find out, it was pouring rain above us, hence the darkness. Sam, having been blown backwards by current & not entirely realizing, was mere inches away from running her fins right through the sea fan containing the entire colony of pygmy seahorses. We all motioned frantically to get her to stop moving, which she did & Gigs, another guide, & I came over & pulled her away from the coral wall manually all the while she remained posed like an astronaut freshly sucked into space. She later had to save me from a similar situation where I was blown into a bunch of coral & could not move for fear of damaging them. In either case there was no harm, no foul. No corals or sea life were harmed in the making of this blog…by us anyway.

Another cool discovery on this dive was a Lembeh Sea Dragon, which looked like a mess of hair until we got close to it. Yet another thing my camera said “Focus? Who’s she?” to, the Lembeh Sea Dragon was truly no larger than a bit of wire & about the length of the pad of your thumb. They are apparently rather rare, hadn’t been seen by Puri in a very long time, & are exclusive to the Lembeh Strait. Even Googling pictures of them they’re barely in focus in each instance.

We made our way back through the rain, which I’ve got to admit was kind of fun to dive in. I took a shower to warm up, started downloading my footage, & took a wee nap. Post nap I hit the coffee bar for what would be one of my only coffees the whole trip. I went the LA Australian Cafe route & made myself an Iced Milo Latte, basically an iced mocha sub chocolate sauce for Milo! I took my concoction back to the patio of my room & continued to edit.

While I sat there a squat little crab scuttled out of the burrow it had made under our neighbor’s steps & began picking through the dirt for food. Once it noticed me watching it immediately retreated though not all the way back into the burrow. I sat & watched it remoisten its eyes & trying to decide whether to continue its forage or hide for a good while.

This would be the first day in which we had four dives planned instead of the previous days of three. Well, our boat did anyway. I guess, I forgot to mention that our group was so large they’d split us in two, each boat containing eight people & four guides along with the captain & the deck hand. Our boat went back out to Aer Prang around 5:45 PM when the sun had begun to set. By the time we arrived a mere ten to fifteen minutes later the light was minimal at best & the sun was all but gone from our view. This was to be our first night dive.

Now I’d never been on a night dive before & if you recall from my pre-Fiji blog, in which I thought we were going to do a night dive, I was just as nervous about it as I was my shark dive. Now I’m craving both. I’m far from being a Thalassophobiak, but there’s something about the inky black of the ocean at night that I found rather off putting. My fears were misguided both in this instance & in my nervousness around sharks.

If you don’t know how a night dive works you’re basically plopped into a dive site in the pitch black. The lights on the boat are set to red as to not mess with the wild life below & each person brings along a torch to light their way. Additionally different methods of communication are used.

In normal light circumstances you give different hand signals to communicate with your fellow divers. In the blackness those signals are far from visible so they move from being off the body to being over your flashlight. Simple enough. Additionally when you want to get another diver’s attention in the light of day you make noise; bang your tank, carry a rattle, blow a whistle, click a carabiner, etc. Here when you hear a noise reverberation from the dark you have no idea what direction its coming from, who it’s coming from, or even if it’s a member of your party or another dive party. The solution? Wave your flashlight back & forth like a maniac in front of your fellow diver’s line of sight. I think this method often actually works better than the sound alternative.

So down we go, lights aglow searching for critters what dine on marine snow.

I’m once again going the throw Sam under the bus here, I promise this won’t be a trend in the remainder of this blog, nor part three to follow.

We get down to the bottom, I’m following Puri, Sam is following behind me, & I notice the light from her torch flash then disappear so naturally I think she’s trying to get our attention. I whirl around in search of her & she is no where to be found, lost to the darkened maw of the ocean.

I can hear some of you saying “check please, she got snatched” in your head, mine however didn’t go there until just now when I was typing this.

I continue searching for her, looking all around from the ocean floor to the water’s surface, no luck. Next thing I know I feel fingertips & a hand fiddling around the back of my neck trying to grasp the handle of my BCD (Buoyancy Compensator/Control Device). I look up from the arm now attached to me & there is Sam waving back at me extinguished light in hand.

So what happened? Well, Sam forgot to charge her dive light with full confidence in it & ironically it had decided to crap out at almost the exact moment we were all like “All ready? Okay, let’s go exploring.” Sam’s solution, which I’ve got to say was a smart one, was to grab ahold of my gear & basically hitch a ride with me the duration of the dive, which is the exact thing you’re supposed to do. Only I didn’t know that. So while I’m whirling around in search of her, she was whirling around trying to grab the back of my BCD to continue the dive. Fortunately the Eagle Scout in me came prepared & I had a second, smaller light, to give her so she didn’t have to play Remora with me the whole time.

Night diving is an interesting experience, it’s a completely different world. We’d dove the site during the day so I knew what to expect in terms of terrain & fauna but it truly is something to behold when the lights go out. A lot of the fish in the reef enter a form of sleep drastically reducing their metabolism while still technically staying awake to keep them alert from predators but during this state of stasis they basically go into a less reactive & mobile state. You find a lot of the fish that you would see during the day resting & they don’t stir or depart nearly as quickly at night. Sometimes you end up right up on them without them paying you much mind.

We stumbled upon many ‘sleeping’ Dwarf Lionfish, Pipefish, Crustaceans & Starfish that had come out to eat. We found our first Octopus of the trip, a long tentacle that would splay its arms out, following each divot of the sea bed, then retract them once it came up dry with nothing to grab onto & snack on. Additionally we ran into many snoozing Cuttlefish & a massive, meaty looking Blue Crab swimming about the shallows, hunting fish. You also get the microscopic critters that you miss during the day who are drawn to the light, darting in & out of the beam as you cruise along. (We’ll get more into them on the Black Water Dive in part three next week).

With our night dive concluded we made our way back to base where it was now dinner time. The groups who’d stay’d behind were already digging in by the time we returned but we were assured dinner would wait for us to return from our showering. The Tomato Soup & Indonesian Chicken Curry that were on the evening’s menu really helped to warm the bones as well & it wasn’t long before we were all sound asleep, zonked by the many adventures of the day, ready to face the next.

End Of Day Three

Day Four

Day four felt ripped right out of the archives of a nature documentary. There were so many observed happenings on this day that I don’t think for the entirety of the remainder of my days as a diver I will find another jam packed day such as this, at least where the circle of life is concerned. The day started out early, with breakfast. One thing I really appreciate about diving Lembeh is that you actually get to have the breakfast of your choosing because you’re not dealing with massive swells on the way to your dive site. I think, in this case, it was an egg sandwich day with bacon.

The first of the day’s animal encounters happened without even having to leave the shore. You see, each morning, on my way to the boat I’d stop to see which sea creatures had gathered around the dock over night. Day one it had been a Batfish just off the end of the pier, day two; schools of butterflyfish, but I think this morning took the case of coolest things spotted. Just off the main part of the dock there were a few schools of fish, that wasn’t the cool part. Amongst these shoals was a singular Cuttlefish, cool on its own, sure, only this Cuttlefish was hunting. It was pulsing dark & light colors over its body in an attempt to hypnotize the fish belonging to the schools. When it got closer it would extend out its two harpoon-like tentacles & snag one of fish. I watched it do this over & over until it had successfully snagged two or three fish & it was now time to depart from the shore to head out into the strait for the day’s dives. I promise you, this Nat Geo/Discovery Channel/Animal Plant-esque day was far from over as the remainder of this segment will surely show! Buckle up kids, it’s gonna get wild!

As the week moved on & my editing work began piling up more & more I began to get lazy with logging my dives. At least that’s the excuse I’m going to be using going forward for the fact that I lost track of some of the names of the dive sites going forward because the online log book required me to make a new entry with address (um…ocean?) & coordinates as well. So if I can’t give you the name of any of the dive sites on this here day we shall be referring to them here numerically.

Dive #1 popped off immediately & actually ended up being one of my favorite dives of the whole trip. This one, fortunately to us, dear reader, does have a name. It’s called Angel’s Window. Similar to the Cathedral of Lanai, Angel’s Window is the remnants of an old lava tube, supplying it with a number of pass throughs & caves. The “window” is a massive, 100 foot tall rock, that rests just below the surface of the water & is covered in beautiful reef. Where deep diving is concerned you always start the day off with your deepest dive & always start said dive off with the deepest depth, working your way back up.

Slowly we began our decent down the side of the rock, taking in the fish & corals before we reached the first cave. There a school of Squirrelfish had taken up residence & their reflective silver & red scales flashed the light of our torches back at us lighting up the cavern. Directly below us the rock had a vertical pass through that let out right at the entrance to the actual window of which an Angel, either by name or title, possess. I should mention, the above pass through is where Sam had to save me from bumping into the reef, so we’re square. On the other side of the window we came our to find sand bed waiting for us. Much to my joy, off in the distance I could see the ‘sway & snag’ of a colony of Garden Eels.

I love garden eels, I absolutely adore them. They burrow in the sand in clusters, popping their heads & a good portion of their bodies out, & collecting zooplankton as it drifts by. They’re very, very shy & this group of Spotted Garden Eels was no exception. I did my best to sneak up on them to no avail, but that still didn’t stop me from squealing at the glimpse of them that I had been fortunate enough to gather.

Back to the rock we went where we began to spiral our way up & around. I did glimpse another cluster of garden eels down on the other side of the rock but I ended up distracted by Octopus #2 of the trip.

This was a Day Octopus, a close relative to the GPO or Giant Pacific Octopus. You know, that octopus that comes to mind when we all think of them. Solving puzzles, squeezing through tiny spaces, tucked up by the glass in your local aquarium? Yeah, that one!

It was tucked & hiding away so we moved on quickly running into a rather large Moray Eel, several schools of Box Anthias whose colors seemed to glow neon at depth, & a rather aggressive Damselfish who came careening off the reef to attack my fins. Though after what happened next, I’m not surprised that it wasn’t a fan of divers.

On up the rock we found a rather large school of Klein’s Butterflyfish pecking at the rock. Puri pointed out that they were eating fish eggs, specifically the fish eggs of the Damsels on the reef. I was fascinated by them swarming the rocks but Puri urged me on. Noticing me watching them as we swam away he wrote on his pad “they will follow us.” A little lost I chose to trust & continued on after him. Sure enough here they came, the entirely of the school of Butterflyfish was now following us. The damsel below was just a precursor, a foreshadowing of events to come it you will because the butterflies had learned that the damsels would much rather defend their clutch from something large, more likely to wipe out the spawn, than a school of fish. They used our being there to draw the damsels off of the reef & would then swoop in & pick off the eggs left behind leaving the damsels to fight off the butterfly fish frenzy.

Don’t feel bad for the damselfish, please. The entirety of this trip I had probably a dozen or more damselfish try to pick fights with me just for swimming by. Even in my own home aquarium I had to evict my Staghorn Damsels because they were killing my corals to lay eggs in the middle of the tank & then would fight all of the other fish the came within feet of the nest. They’re a-holes.

The butterflies followed us for a good while, feeding along the way, taking the piss out of the damsels but departed from us when we swung around the north side of the rock & found the current.

I’ve always kind of enjoyed a slight current while diving, the sway back & forth reminds you just how small you are & its exhilarating to start in one spot, kick to ride the current where you want to go, & then sweep back just a little bit. I was distracted by the immaculately vivacious Sun Coral colonies to notice that Sam had completely disappeared. I signaled to Puri asking where our dive buddy was & he simply gave me the gesture of “the boat.'“ Turns out while I was reveling in the current, Sam was developing sea sickness. I scouted the reef for a few more minutes before returning to find Sam applying Dramamine patches behind her ears.

Angel’s Window sits near the top of Lembeh Strait, hence its oceanic influences. That meant we had a bit longer of a trek back south to get to our next dive site. Just off the shore from a small town, dive #2 was a full on muck dive, hard contrast to the morning dip. We sat & watched a small Indonesian girl & her father training their dog how to swim while we loaded up on warm beverages, water, fruit, & once more, cake. Once it was time to dive & Sam’s Dramamine (Samamine) had begun to kick it was time to dive once more.

We spent a good while doing simple observational tasks on this dive. We found a set of Sea Slugs ‘racing’ towards one another & sat to watch them & see what they’d do. Initially we were all taking votes on mating but it ended up being only coincidence & the slugs recoiled immediately when they finally made connection with one another.

I managed to film my second “feeding” of the day as we descended down farther when a Lionfish chased a Boxfish off the mooring line where it was perched & consumed it out in open water above me. Probably was that Lionfish’s last meal as Boxfish are poisonous.

Our dive into the muck included many Hi Hats, a massive school of Shrimpfish, Sand Divers (yes, they are as the name suggests), Porcupine Puffers, several types of Frogfish (Hairy & Painted), a Seahorse, several live Sand Dollars, & a Queen Conch. We even found another set of the same variety of Sea Slugs inching their way towards one another, only this time, they ended up mating! Post dive it was once again time to head back to the resort for lunch.

After lunch I sat editing, milking a Pacori Sweat while editing. All of the sudden I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. There, above me, pilfering through the rafters was a slender brown & grey snake. It was darting around looking for food amongst the roofing. I asked one of the staff what kind of snake it was & I was informed it was a Brown Coconut Snake, probably looking for geckos to eat up there, though normally they stick to the trees. I sat there editing & watching the snake for a good while before it was time, once again to go dive.

Our afternoon dive was at the Island just across the strait from the resort. In the water we went, ears adjusted, down through the muck where I excited discovered a large Crete, or Sea Snake below us. We all gathered around but found ourselves a bit puzzled as it wasn’t really moving. Our collective though seemed to be that maybe it was snoozing, resting, or trying to burrow after food, but upon closer inspection the snake was missing its head. 40 feet below the surface, a quarter mile off the coast of an unsettled island this discovery still perplexes me.

Abandoning the dearly departed we continued down the island’s slope til I came upon a Black Ribbon Eel. Many of you saw the moment I’m about to describe on my Instagram or TikTok but I’ll be more than happy to describe it to you all here! This Juvenile Eel was buried deep in the substrate, swaying patiently in the currents, passing the water through their specialized nostrils that act as antennae picking up the scent of any passing prey. P.S. I knew it was a juvenile because it was black. The adult males are blue, the females, yellow. In our passing we had startled a small cluster of Cardinal Fish close to the eel’s den. (Truly we are a terror to the safety & security of the cardinal fish). The eel immediately stopped its swaying & closed its mouth, looking now more like a blade of seagrass sticking out of the ground. Puri noticed this & motioned for me to lay low, stake down, & start filling, which I did. The group of cardinals, disoriented by us, had scattered a bit & were still paying much more attention to the three black clad monsters in the water with them than the seemingly innocuous blade of grass at their rear.

The fish population of Lembeh are clearly opportunists, many adapting to use human influence to their advantage, case in point. This eel used our presence to hone in one a singular cardinal that had drifted a little too far from the flock & had found itself very much in line for an easy lunch. However, the cardinal was not entirely unwise. It narrowly avoided the strike of the eel but, I guess stuck between a rock & a hard place of us or the eel it wrongly chose to stay in the proximity of the eel who creeped in for a second strike, landed it, & drug the wriggling fish back into its hovel.

Farther down the slope we encountered a pair of Chocolate Chip Starfish before Gigs, one of the other guides started banging his tank to get us to come over to see what he & his group had discovered. Enter octopus #3.

Gigs had found a Blue-Ringed Octopus, only about the size of your thumb, the Blue-Ring is one of the most venomous animals on the planet & it isn’t afraid to show you that it is not to be messed with. This blue-ring, in the typical fashion, was fairly mundane looking, that was until it decided we were a threat & it was in danger. These octopuses, as the name implies, are covered in a series of blue rings. What the name doesn’t tell you is that these blue rings aren’t always there but instead are used in mating & as a way to flash at predators, or in this case us, to back the eff off. The electric blue rings are extraordinary almost appearing to have a turquoise luminescence to them. Never one to waste its venom, the blue ring quickly slinked away to a hidey hole after it realized we weren't going to watch it & that we weren’t fooled by it pretending to be bubble algae or just another rock so we let it be & departed as well.

Farther up the slope was came across a reef with some of the most amazing Bubble-Tipped Anemones I’ve ever seen, massive mounds of Galaxia, huge Feather-Duster Worm colonies, Maze, Bird’s Nest, & Torch Corals. We found Juvenile Sweetlips squiggling around the bottom, a colony of Venomous Coral Catfish dive bombing the sand, & many a Filefish, Cleaner Wrasse, & Puffer tucked in the rock along with a Crete, only this one was alive.

The rest of the evening played out as usual; shower, editing, dinner, more editing, bed. I kept finding myself reminiscing about just how incredible the day had been & couldn’t fathom how Lembeh was going to out do herself, boy was I wrong.

See you all in part three! Have a great weekend!

Much Love Always,

-C

End Of Day Four

End Of Part Two

November 4, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Indonesia: Part One-A Plane, A Boat, A Truck, & Diving in the Muck

November 4, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

INDONESIA

PART ONE:

Prologue/Day One

Singapore

We’re starting day one off in the airport, specifically the Singapore Airport where my eighteen hour LA to Singapore leg had come to an end at 1:30 on Monday morning. Regrettable I was unable to get much sleep one the flight so I was dragging. I found an open street food stall in the airport & got a bowl of Wonton Noodle Soup with Veggies. Before finding a spot to crash I stopped at the in airport 7/11 for something to drink & some candy as well as the airport Butterfly Garden & Cactus Garden. I found a spot behind a row of seats to bunk down for a few hours before my flight to Jakarta was set to take off at 6 am. By the time I’d setting in for my nap the time was around 3 am.

It was, unfortunately, short lived. Apparently a section full of people napping is the perfect place to take a phone call & play with your toddler, as the woman who loudly sad beside me somehow discerned. Having slept only around 30-45 minutes I begrudgingly gathered my things & went in search of caffeine.

I’d switched from coffee to tea a few weeks prior so when I ordered a lemon black iced tea at what was now just short of 5 AM, the sleepy barista looked at me like I had three heads. It truly didn't cross my brain until I’d left the region entirely that I was smack in the center of part of the coffee world, literally about to board a flight to the island of Java. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say & next time I’ll be sure to scout coffee options.

The rest of my dive crew joined me just after I downed my tea & right around the time our gate & security opened to let us through to the gate waiting area. The Singapore Airport does this interesting thing where there is minimal security when simply entering the terminal, but each gate is glassed off with its own private security line that you can reserve a specific time to be in if you plan in advance. We all got through security, I paid Deb the $3 I owed her still from Fiji & we promptly boarded shortly there after.

Indonesia

I had managed to book a window seat into Jakarta though it was in the far back of the Singapore Airlines plane, the seats get more & more narrow the farther back you go. I slept majority of the hour long flight but woke in time for the in flight meal of Chicken Congee, which made me question why I don’t make Congee more often.

Once we began our decent into Jakarta I noticed something interesting, rows & rows of something out in the ocean just off shore. Later I would find out that those were pearl farms after boating by a few in Lembeh Strait.

We had a four hour layover in Jakarta & while we thought it would be a casual stroll through the airpark, we ended up needing every minute of it.

The first hurtle was immigration, we got in one line just to be told it was wrong once we got up to the front, then we went over to buy a 30-day visa for $30 USD, which then had the be taken back to the original line. Our baggage took a while to collect, coming out in spurts in ten minute intervals, though Joe & my dive partner/roomie, Sam’s, bags didn’t end up making it entirely. We waited while they filled out the missing bag reports, then we started to make our way through customs.

I don’t know why I found the immigration/customs process in Indonesia so intimidating, but it was. Everything was taken very seriously, each little form had to be filled out precisely or the officer viewing it would throw a fit, the only other similar customs experience I’ve had was entering The US at BNA from The UK.

Once we were all through customs we had to board a monorail to a different terminal, of which, the directions for use were very confusing, but we made it, though half of our group got separated trying to figure out the sky rail system.

The local terminal was overwhelming with, once again, little to no direction on where exactly you’re supposed to go. Have you ever seen the pictures of Kathmandu, Nepal where the streets are just wall to wall people, buggies, & vehicles? That’s what the local terminal at Jakarta International felt like. It was especially overwhelming trying to roll suitcases & bags through in addition to everyone basically being in the same attire from the soccer/football match the evening prior.

We finally found where we needed to be & stood in line to check in for Batik Airways. This took some time. The problem was that everyone in the group, with the exception of Sam & I were on a singular booking, so we had to assemble & check in each of those people as a group, paying the baggages fees individually as they went. The acceptable baggage weight fluctuated between 20 kg & 17 kg depending upon which ticketing agent you asked so some people ended up having to go halfway across the terminal to pay their baggage fee & others ended up getting off scot-free. Once we were all paid & bags were dropped we made our way to our gate.

The gate situation here was similar to Singapore with the gates being the security check point but had more in common with MCI where there were 5-10 gates behind each security check point. Our flight was slightly delayed so I went in search of food. I landed on a coffee stall that had Thai Tea Boba & Coconut Steam buns.

Once we were boarded I’d been resorted to a middle seat in the very back of the aircraft. For the two & a half-three hour flight I sat watching Shang-Chi & passively enjoying the Curried Chicken I’d been given.

Once we’d landed in Manado & gathered our belongings we were shown to cars where our stuff was packed in & two-three of us were shoved in & off we went.

I’ll say this about the Indonesian drivers as a whole, the lane markers seem to only be a suggestion. We cruised across the country side past Gunung Klabat to Bitung where we disembarked from the vans & we ushered through the village to a pier with a small overhead cover where we sat with our gear waiting for a boat, we’d finally made it to Lembeh Strait.

Our chariot was, ironically, one of the dive boats from the resort. We all got in, our bags were passed down & placed in the non-seated areas. The ride across the strait only took around ten minutes & we were greeted at the dock by Simon, the owner of NAD Lembeh Resort.

We were instructed to leave our bags on the boat & head into the bar area where we were meant to fill out the resort & dive paperwork. We were met there by some of the resort staff & a Calamansi beverage of the resort’s creation. While we filled out our paper work our bags were being brought to our rooms & we were briefed on the resort, its amenities, & our dives.

I retired back to my shared room with Sam & we got ourselves sorted before it was time to go back to the main part of the resort for dinner.

NAD has a resort chef named Tommy. Tommy’s job extends not only to evening meals but also includes lunch, breakfast is handled by several of the women on the resort staff. Each meal, no matter the maker, is served buffet style with dessert or fruit being brought out around twenty minutes into the designated meal time. Dinner was always a soup, a salad, several entree options & at least one veggie dish. Our first night Chicken in Yellow Curry was the main course.

Over dinner I remarked to Simon about the various species of “rare” plants scattered around the facilities; A Variegated Philodendron Burle Marks on the check-in desk, several species of rare Monstera, Hoyas, & Pothos & he explained that their gardener is world renowned for going out into the jungle of Indonesia & even discovering new species of plants! He even offered his contact info & told me to contact him about shipping some to The US!

After a delicious dinner we seemed to be reaching our individual points of expiration so we called it an early night, each of us heading off to bed by 8:30 at the latest. I took a rinse off shower in our room’s “shower room” (a literal room whose only purpose was to house the shower) & was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow.

End Of Day One

Day Two

Our boat call was 7:30 AM. Breakfast each morning began service at 6 which consisted of Toast with Jams, Cereal, Fruit, Yogurt, Eggs, Bacon or Sausage, Fresh Juice, & occasionally Nasi Goreng (Indonesia’s National Dish of Fried Rice) or Fried Noodles. I opted for Two Eggs Over Easy on Wheat Toast w/ Chicken Sausage, Fresh Papaya, & Pineapple, along with a Jasmine Tea.

After breakfast it was time to assemble the gear. The staff had come the night prior to retrieve our BCDs (Buoyancy Compensator Device), Dive Computers, Fins, Wetsuits, & Regulators, along with anything else we didn’t want to carry down ourselves the next day. That left me with my Mesh Scuba Bag filled with my Dive Socks, GoPro Kit, Bits & Bobs that I Dive with (Pointer, Torch, Etc.), & my out of suit Swimwear. I topped off my water & climbed into the boat where Sam & I were introduced to Puri, our would-be guide for the week ahead.

Now Puri is an Indonesian gent from just outside of Bitung that I’d place somewhere in his 30s. Whether through natural occurrence or corrective lenses he has dark blue eyes that sit cheerfully atop his stout, dark build. From what I gathered from Puri in the week’s time we spent together he can be a bit of a jokester which is fortunate because his laugh is both cacophonous & infectious.

NAD Lembeh has the benefit of being positioned almost smack dab in the middle of the Lembeh Strait, meaning that a lot of the dive sites were only around a 10-15 minute boat trip from the resort. Our first of which was Pantaic Parigi 1, which translates to Parigi Beach 1.

We started our week of dives off, appropriately, with a muck dive. For those unaware a muck dive differs from other dives by the substrate. A muck dive consists of a soft, muddy bottom & it requires one to have a true handle on their buoyancy because one false kick or move & you kick up the silt ruining the visibility. A lot of muck dives also take place on a slope as you’re on the banks of the strait & could easily swim all the way up on shore if you weren’t careful.

We were briefed & entered at around fifteen feet of water, we hung out there for a minute while we all got used to being submerged again then descended down the slope. I was immediately amazed that half the things Puri had begun pointing out to Sam & I were around the size of a finger nail; translucent Shrimp, little Nudibranchs, Shrimp Gobies buried in the sand. I suppose it’s worth noting, if you hadn’t picked up on it already, that we were diving in trios. Typically resort dives consist of one or two dive guides per group of eight-ish. NAD Lembeh does two per guide so that the small things aren’t missed, the commotion around the animals doesn’t stir up the bottom, & the guides aren’t fighting the visibility to keep their group together.

At one point we came upon a submerged fishing net that had long been abandoned to the bottom of the ocean. That didn’t stop the fish & corals from using it to the best of their abilities. One of the buoys for the net was still holding it aloft while the rest of it sat strewn across the sea bed. There were many corals that had taken root, clusters of Cuttlefish & Octopus eggs covered the netting, schools of Cardinal Fish hid amongst the low netting, Eels & Lionfish used the coverage & camouflage options for hunting, the net was teeming with life.

Farther down we found Medusa Worms hosting Emperor Shrimp, Anemones filled with Clowns, Pufferfish grazing in the muck, a beautifully puffed out Gurnard, & many a Filefish.

I, for once, was the air sucker of the group. I guess being at least a foot-foot & a half taller than the rest of your part will do that. I was getting low on air while Sam & Puri both still had just short of half a tank upon our resurface. This would be the trend for the rest of the trip where usually I am the one with all of their air left over.

Our surface interval was supplemented with Papaya, Pineapple, a Loaf Cake, & your choice of either Coffee, Tea, or Milo (Australian Nesquik). We rehydrated & disbursed the nitrogen from our bodies all while traveling over to Aer Prang 2 which I guess roughly translates to “Air Crash 2” though I don’t believe there’s a plane wreck below the surface, at least not that we saw. Aer Prang 2 sits right next to a water depot which really just looks like a cinderblock building with a thatched roof & a small aqueduct running down the dock to the water. Aer Prang would be a popular destination over the next week, as it is half coral reef/half muck. This was the site that really solidified it for me, this was the site that immediately made the 40+ hours of travel to Indonesia worth it for me. Allow me to explain why.

This is going to truly sound like first world diver problems & to some degree it is but I want to wind things back to Fiji for a second. When I was in Fiji, with the exception of the shark dive, all of the dives we were doing were amongst some of the most beautiful reefs I’ve ever seen. This is not to dissuade you from going to do Beqa because if you have the desire I highly recommend it. Hell, I’d love to go back myself! BUT when you’re diving 2-3 dives a day, all of them, as I mentioned, the most beautiful coral reefs you’ve ever seen, it begins to feel a tad redundant. Told ya, first world diver problems. Indonesia has the benefit of variety. You can go from wall dives to muck dives to massive sprawling reefs to giant rock cathedrals swarming with life, sometimes all within the same dive. I will say the thing that Fiji has over Indonesia is its large aquatic life, something I found myself actually missing in Indonesia from time to time.

At the start of Aer Prang you’re dropped, plop, right into a reef. Anemones, corals, fish, & life abound, then you start to head down another slope into the muck. The benefit of this miss mash is that you get kind of the in-between where the muck & the reef are concerned. You get the fish & invertebrates that live in both or are the reef outcasts. You get things like Cuttlefish & Octopuses, you get things like Seahorses (one of which was pregnant) & Frogfish, you get things like Flasher Dragonettes, Pipefish, & Sea Kraits all while experiencing amazing coral life along the way.

After our second dive we returned to home base where it was lunch time. I grabbed a Pocari Sweat which is a Japanese Sports drink & immediately went to download my footage from the day & start editing.

Lunch was usually a tad on the lighter side since most of us still planned to go out diving a third time in the afternoon & was served alongside a massive plate of fruit; mostly papaya, watermelon, & pineapple. I asked after Jackfruit seeing as it’s one of my favorites & was informed it was the end of the season for them, but they would try to find me one.

Our third dive departed at 2:30 PM each day. In this instance I’m not entirely sure the dive site we ended up at as I got lazy in my dive log & just claimed Aer Prang again instead of creating a whole new site for the SSI app like I’d done the previous two. I can tell you that this site was mostly muck but it featured fields & fields of Goniopora & by fields & fields, I mean as far as was visible in all directions. Amongst the Goniopora we found many resting Lionfish, some Blue Spotted Stingrays, Pipefish, Filefish, Clowns, Anemones, Puffers, etc. One of the coolest things we found in the somewhat faded light was a school of Shrimpfish that when you passed light through them looked like a fire blazing above a Gorgonian.

We returned to the resort & I set about editing once again. If you were unaware on my TikTok & Instagram I post clip videos of my trips as they happens, especially my dives!

The evening rolled around & it was once again time for Tommy’s delicacies & the day’s discussion of who saw what & where! I remember calling it an early night again, having rinsed off earlier & opting to finish up the day’s video in the morning I drifted off to sleep fairly easily.

End Of Day Two

END OF PART ONE

PART TWO

October 22, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Singapore-Day Drinking My Way Through A Two Day Layover

October 22, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

We’re gonna change this up a little bit. Normally I would post my blogs in chronological order of how they happened, meaning that this should technically be “Part One” of Indonesia. However, as I am currently still in the middle of editing all of my footage from Indonesia, including some things that would fit into the segment of “Part One,” we will instead begin with Singapore as I have all of my photos in order there & won’t have to rush to include them here. That means that next week will be Indonesia: Part One & we’ll return to our chronology from there. Sound good? Too bad. Let’s talk about my two day’s time spent in Singapore!

SINGAPORE

Day One:

If you read my blog regarding the 40+ hours of travel I had on the front half of my trip you’ll know that initially my plan was to arrive in Singapore two days before Indonesia & enjoy my time then. My plans for that order of events was thrown a wrench when I couldn’t for the life of me find a hotel that wasn’t $600 minimum a night & couldn't figure out why. Turns out that weekend was the Singapore Grand Prix. So instead Singapore moved its pretty little self to the back half of my trip & I proceeded accordingly from there.

I arrived in Singapore from Jakarta at around 8:30 AM, having only gotten around three hours of sleep the night before & another thirty minutes-ish on the plane my original plan was to head towards my hotel & see if they were willing to put me in my room early. By the time I cleared customs/immigration & gathered my things it was pushing 9:30. I pulled some cash out of an ATM & went to hail a cab. I initially tried to book something through “Grab” which is Singapore’s version of Uber but I couldn’t get the app to download so a standard cab ended up being the winner.

My driver was a Malaysian gentlemen whose name I never quite caught as his excitement about having me in his vehicle made it near impossible to distinguish about 60% of the stories he was trying to convey to me. I gentlemen in question was a Muslim missionary who, on many occasions, had come to The US to speak to local Muslim communities here on what it is to represent the faith in The States & how they should spread the message of The Quran amongst their friends & neighbors. He was overjoyed to have an American in his cab & during our near thirty minute ride he went through every story from every city in The US that he could think of at near break neck speed. He dropped me at my hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn- Little India, & I handed him a fifty note for his troubles & enthusiasm.

The Hilton was more than willing to accommodate my early arrival, of which I much appreciated, & put me in a corner room overlooking the city. I didn't realize, however, when the room was booked just how far Little India was from the Downtown Core of Singapore. Leaving the room completely untouched I went back down to the receptionist to see if I could cancel my stay & move closer in town. He was only able to cancel me the following evening as I’d already checked in which was fine by me.

Initially my plan was to get a nap in before going out adventuring but anytime I’m anywhere I haven’t been or am on vacation I always hear the echos of my sister when she was in her early teens telling me “you can sleep when you’re dead.” Probably during some time in which she was trying to get me to go out with her somewhere. So I got dressed from the clothes I’d wore on the plane & went out into the city.

I was desperately craving a workout as the only one I’d gotten in the last week of travel was that which involved hauling dive gear or hauling luggage around an airport, so I headed over to Barry’s Singapore: Raffles Place. Quite the departure from taking a nap, I know. I walked through the vibrant Little India over to the subway where I took the train over to the downtown block. The Barry’s class was difficult, especially having not worked out for a week & some change, but I celebrated its completion with a shake & a “Barry’s Singapore” shirt, along with a hooded tank top that was 40% off which I changed into to get out of my sweaty, post-workout clothing.

Back downstairs I made the decision that I was going to go get some lunch instead of my initial plan of going back to my hotel to change. I wasn’t stinky I promise, plus I brought deodorant. I made my way over to the Civic District but not before passing many incredible buildings in the downtown block, Yueh Hai Ching Temple (the oldest temple in Singapore, & Boat Quay (a river front restaurant district). I was making my way over to Sing Swee Kee to try Singapore Chicken & Rice! Along the trek I stopped at the Raffles City Shopping Centre just to walk about & gather some AC before continuing on to the restaurant.

I was greeted exuberantly when I walked in, by literally everyone working the restaurant. They all wanted to make sure I was in the right place & wasn’t just some lost tourist who had wandered into a random chicken shop. I was sat right by the kitchen & brought a cup of chilled Ginger/Pandan Tea & a cup of Clear Broth Soup. I asked the first waitress what to order, she had me get traditional Boiled Chicken & Veggies with Rice Balls, the second waitress added the insistence of Fish Maw Soup with Chicken Collagen so I agreed. The food was incredible, simple as can be but bursting with flavor. I didn’t realize it at the time but the stall has been operating out of the same location since the early 1970s. I even bought a jar of their chili sauce to bring home much to the owner’s surprise who was shocked I could even make it through eating it atop my lunch.

After lunch I made my way towards the Mandarin Oriental Hotel because their bar, MO Bar, made the list of the Top 100 Bars in the World as well as the Top 10 Bars in all of Asia in addition to it being the only of the several in Singapore that made that list to be open on a Monday. Along the way I encountered the remnants of the Grand Prix that had jumbled up my trip & passed through yet another mall to take in the AC.

I arrived at the Mandarin Oriental where I asked the concierge for directions to the bar, I was instructed over to the elevator feeling far too underdressed to even be setting foot in the hotel, much less its award winning bar. I was greeted at MO Bar by a lovely hostess who sat me at an upright along the window overlooking the bay. I then received the spiel about the cocktails & the bar itself. Each of the drinks on MO’s incredible fun bar menu (even the online version is cool) is meant to pay homage to a specific country in Asia & the local ingredients found there. The physical bar menu is set up almost like a 3D constellation map with lighter drinks on one side & the more boozy on the other.

I was served some Wasabi Chips, a bowl of Chevda, & some sparkling water before I ordered a Full Moon, a drink with Rum, Wheatgrass, & Pear topped with a Sugar Film Moon based on South Korea. I will say, of the drinks I had during my time spent at MO Bar, I think this one was my least favorite. That’s not to say the drink was bad by any stretch of the imagination, in fact it was excellent, those that followed were just more so.

My next drink was a Honeybee; a Honey, Whiskey, Kumquat drink, at the bartender’s request. It was an excellent, heart warming, & frothy tribute to Penang that was served inside a black marble cup, of which I still would love a set for my home bar, along side the perfect accent of grapefruit which really brought an interesting quality to the beverage.

After I’d finished by second drink I struck up a conversation with the hostess/waitress who had sat me. We talked about everything from my travels to her life in Singapore & even delved into the Top 100 list they’re feature on, of which, I’ve been to several of the bars listed. I mentioned to her that while my first two drinks were exquisite, I really look for niche cocktails at bars, something that I wouldn’t find anywhere else that maybe imitates of food item or evokes specific feeling, as the cocktails I tend to remember in my travels & life are those that drew from very specific inspiration. Her recommendation was the Satay By The Bay, an homage to the street foods of Singapore, going so far as to include “chicken floss” in the list of ingredients for the cocktail. So I gave it a whirl.

Y’all, when I say this is one of the most fascinating cocktails I’ve ever had I’m not joking. Boasting a “nutty bitterness,” the Gin based twist on a Negroni tastes almost exactly like Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, it’s truly incredible. It even has the smokey notes from the charcoal of the grill mixed into it! Additionally I was brought a “taster” of the Afterglow, a Ginger Gin Martini variant with cotton candy (candy floss) melted into it meant to be a tribute to Java. The curious thing about the Afterglow, besides how delicious it is even to a non-martini drinker, is that it really accents the floral notes of the ginger instead of bringing out the traditionally used root, even though the root was what was used.

If I’m being entirely honest, I’m not sure how long I spent at MO. I know when I got there I was at the tail end of afternoon tea & by the time I’d left dinner service had begun to roll out. That’s not to say I didn’t knock back a few more drinks before my departure.

My final drinks of the evening came as a duo as well. I had asked about two cocktails, the Ube & the Annona, both out of my love for the ingredients involved, but since I was preparing to close out my journey down craft cocktail lane I went with the dessert cocktail, the Ube.

The Ube was explained to me as an experimental cocktail, something of a milkshake without the milkshake texture. I’d probably qualify it as some form of a milk tea served with a warm chocolate spring roll. Before the Baguio inspired drink graced my lips however I was served another taster, this time of Annona. Meant to convey Koh Samui, the Annona is a Gimlet twist made from Gin, Soursop, & Pandan. The pandan really is the star of the show here bringing a grassy nuttiness to the understated citrus of the soursop. An excellently balanced cocktail.

My Ube was also served along side a plate of cookies & chocolates from the staff whom I had gotten relatively acquainted with over my several hour stay. I’d shared conversations with the majority of them, gotten their takes & recommendations, & found out a little about their lives in the process. I even informed the bartender, who plays a hand in the crafting of the menu, that I found their menu more enjoyable & more memorable than the vast majority of bars I’d checked off on the Top Bars list, including those ranked in the Top 10 of the world. He hugged me.

I am a massive fan of Jackfruit, as the members of my dive party in Indonesia can attest to, as well as the desserty nature of Ube, a root vegetable similar to Taro or Sweet Potato. The creamy whiskey drink had a lovely lulling quality to it, I almost would have liked to try it warm surrounded by snow.

I payed my tab & departed. I was thanked repeatedly by the staff whom I also returned my gratitude to & was given the sweetest post card, signed by each of the staff whom I’d interacted with over my incredible time at the MO Bar in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Singapore.

I was advised to go & see the Supertree light show at the Gardens By The Bay, I figured that since I was within reasonable walking distance & still required sustenance that I would kill two birds with one stone; see the show & get some satay! I crossed The Helix Bridge over the bay & skirted the gardens before cutting in towards the Supertree Grove.

I could hear the music from the outskirts of the park. There were runners everywhere & I was actually under the impression that I was going to be early for the show, turns out I arrived about halfway through it. Now I’ll be the first to admit that typically I find myself underwhelmed by light shows/firework shows/etc. but this was a spectacle to behold. Partially so because of the trees themselves & the hybrid technological marvel/plant housing that they are & partially because of the sense of community it offers. There are people camped out all over the park under the trees, each gazing up to the dazzling display above in wonder. Maybe it was the quantity of drinks or the lack of sleep but it was something undeniably heart warming.

After the light show ended I made my way over to Satay By The Bay…sound familiar?… where I got a fresh pressed Thai Guava Juice & naturally, some satay! The plate I ordered came with two prawns, two pork belly, & eighteen chicken satays along with rice. It was the smallest option. It was also served with a peanuty pineapple sauce that was the bomb! I only ended up being able to eat about half of the plate as I truly wasn’t that hungry, but I knew I needed something on my stomach other than alcohol & sugar to top off the evening.

I walked through the gardens on my way back to the train station which were beyond peaceful in the growing night. There was never a point in which I felt unsafe or nervous walking by myself in the well lit pathways.

My route to the train took me through the Marina Bay Sands where I passed way too many stories up for my fear of height’s liking through the middle of it. I finished my commute back to Little Italy where people where enjoying Chaat in the streets & carrying on amiably as I passed. It kind of make me wished I’d saved what little appetite I’d had for some Roti or something of the like.

I made it back to my hotel, took a much needed shower to wash off the day, & was out before my head hit the pillow, grateful for an incredible first day in Singapore!

End Of Day One

Day Two

I was awakened at 7:30 AM by the sounds of bells emanating from the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple adjacent to the hotel. After around thirty minutes straight of tolling, I gave up on sleep & immediately set to packing my things. If you recall from the previous day I was planning to move hotels to something a little closer to the Downtown Core but that wasn’t going to stop me from exploring Little India a bit first.

I’d been advised by multiple different parties that I needed to give Toastbox or Ya Kun a try & get some Kaya Toast. The staff at MO Bar the night before had been adamant about Ya Kun being the superior of the two so I made it may breakfast stop. I found a location just a six minute walk from where I was staying & made my way through the bustling streets of Little India, adorned in decor for Diwali, towards the restaurant.

The location for Ya Kun I found was a small stall set inside a petite mall right next to the Little India Arcade. The venue only had around six or seven small tables total & it was near to full by the time I arrived. I stood at the counter where an old Singaporean woman took my order. I got the Kaya French Toast combo which came with a Milk Coffee & Two Soft Boiled Eggs for around $5. While the woman was cracking my eggs onto a plate she spotted my painted nails.

“Why are your nails painted” she probed?

“Because I enjoy them” I replied with a smile.

She was silent for a moment.

“Someone did them for you?”

"No, I did them myself.”

Without a beat she said: “I can tell.”

I just laughed & she handed me my plate of eggs instructing me on the locations of the sauces before I sat.

My Kaya French Toast & drink didn’t take long to follow, all the while I was scouring the web for a new hotel. Y’all, when I tell you Southeast Asia has been hiding Kaya Butter from us, they have been HIDING KAYA BUTTER FROM US!!!!!

What is Kaya Butter? Well, to put it simply, Kaya Butter is a Coconut Jam. Similar in taste & texture to sweetened condensed milk, I wrapped my meal & immediately went back to the country to buy me a jar for home!

After breakfast I cut through the arcade, sampling snacks & perusing the stalls many of which selling gorgeous, fragrant malas & variant sized statuettes of the many Hindu deities. After circling around Little India one more time, popping in & out of shops & enjoying the wafting incense mixing in the street, I headed back to my room to gather my things & check out.

There’s an awkward time discrepancy in the hotel world. Check out always falls somewhere between 10AM & Noon but check in is never before 3 PM. That’s a long time to wander aimlessly with your bags. Luckily I’d my checkout time wasn’t til noon & I’d thought of a solution. I would return to Barry’s & burn an hour & a half-ish there!

Back to Barry’s I went where I got my ass kicked, literally. It was leg day. After class I got me a smoothy & a few items of 70% off merch I’d missed the day prior! After I hopped back onto the train & made my way towards the Civic District once again where my new hotel awaited me.

My new accommodations were at the Grand Park City Hall, a five star hotel that I’d found a solid deal on due to the renovations undergoing the facility. I entered around an hour early but fortunately the had a room available for me as well as a complimentary upgrade! The room was stunning & while the 6’4” gentlemen that I am may have been remiss about the twin beds, I thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance & little touches that went into my stay there. After getting situated I made my way upstairs to the roof top pool for some rays & a soak before returning to my room to shower & get ready for the evening.

Truthfully I was awaiting a call from Odette notifying me that my waitlist status had been bumped to a table so my dinner plans hinged on it. I made my way over to Chinatown in the interim where I planned to stop at Jigger & Pony, another of the Top 50 Bars, to get a drink & maybe a light bite to eat.

I’d been told by the Google that Jigger & Pony opened at four, so I’d gone just after in hopes of catching a seat sans reservation. Google was wrong, it didn’t open til six, so I returned to a stand I’d passed, Yomie’s Rice X Yogurt, for a refreshing beverage to cool off the heat of the day. I got a fresh Mango & Yogurt drink & sucked it down as I began to walk around Chinatown. I knew I was close to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum so I headed off in that direction.

I guess my luck or timing was off that day because I arrived at the temple right around five, at which time it closed apparently. So I took up a seat by the Chinatown Singapore: History & Culture Center, resting my feet that were still screaming at me from the 12+ miles I’d walked on concrete the day before.

After some time spent relaxing & watching the Xiangqi players in the courtyard I came to the realization that I was next to the Chinatown street market. I got up & flitted between the shops even finding an exotic plant stall that made me desperately wish I could bring plants home through customs.

When I’d finished perusing the hour was approaching six & I decided to make my way back towards Jigger & Pony but not before stopping at september coffee for an Iced Black Sesame Latte. Ya boi was crashing. What better solution for the crash than a dim lit bar & alcohol right?!

I was the first person at Jigger & Pony where I was sat at the bar right near the entrance. That’s not to say the bar did not quickly begin to fill with people who had clearly stumbled upon the same list I had & were looking to those “Top 50 in the World” quality cocktails.

At the bartender’s behest I ordered a Madame President, a deconstructed Negroni served with the Campari in lollipop form. The drink was not nearly as dry as I was anticipated with the Campari separated & the Vermouth being a dry instead of sweet variety, I think the orchid & melon liquors really balanced it out. You were meant to sip the cocktail, then take a lick of the lollipop, or whatever other way you wished to enjoy the drink. All I know is I could have had fifty of those Campari Lollipops!

Next I ordered a bit of food, not to over shadow the excellent Wasabi Chips (I see a trend here) that had been served, but I needed something more. So I ordered Deviled Blue Crab Dip served with Smoked Leeks, Sambal Belacan, & Potato Espuma. It smacked.

With the arrival of my dip I diverted course from Gin & found my way to Rum with a Corn Colada. Yes, you read that right, a Corn Colada. I don’t know who thought of it, whose brain said ‘try this out’ but power to them because it was incredibly refreshing. Served a little more like a fizz with egg white the colada swapped out the coconut for butter creating a surprisingly complex mix.

At this point exhaustion was really starting to set in & despite the intrigue the Jigger & Pony menu presented my intuition said it was time for me to call it, so I did, making my way back toward my hotel.

In all honesty I’m kind of glad Odette never called, I don’t think I’d have made it through, I was that tired. I literally went back to my room following my time at Jigger & Pony, packed my things, & fell asleep.

In my defense I had been woken up early & I also had an early flight to catch the next morning needing to be headed to the Singapore Airport around 6 AM.

End Of Day Two

END OF BLOG

September 26, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: United Kingdom: Part Three- Pack It Up

September 26, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Hi! Welcome back! As per usual, when it comes to my multipart blog series, this is your pre-blog reminder to go back & read my previous two installments before continuing down the page below. If you’re in need of the two previous installments to this series they will be linked just below this paragraph & we will see you back here once you’re all caught up. If on the other hand, you are an avid reader of mine, thank you as always for your patronage, feel free to skip on to the title card below! Cheers!

Part One

Part Two

THE UNITED KINGDOM

PART THREE:

Day Seven

We last left off in Dumfries at the home of the Donowhos. In spite of the more than gracious hosts they always are & the loveliness that Scotland always provides, it was time to head back down to London. We loaded up the car fairly early in the desire to beat the evening London traffic. Our plan was to sweep in from the Northeast side of London, drop our bags in Covent Gardens, take the car back to Heathrow, & take the tube back into London, more on that later.

If you have read anything from my previous UK trips you’ll know that I require a stop on the road south out of Scotland. Thanks to the gents that played the original Parkfest set with me back in the day, Tebay Services, Farmshop, & Kitchen is now a must stop, of course this time it was no different. We stopped to fill-up both the car & our bellies with a buffet style Full English Breakfast before on down the road we went once again.

There’s not too much eventful that happened along the road to London other than a rather rambunctious, down to the wire change of plans. My father had been gracious enough to lend us some of the Hilton Honors points he’d accrued in his travels over the years. I’d had him book our stay the night before at what was meant to be the Doubletree in Russell Square, sat on Southampton Road. However, when I called to confirm the room they had no booking for us anywhere on their computers so I called my dad back to make sure the reservation had been set. Now, let me be very plain that this is not a dig on my father nor is it meant to come across as unappreciative, I just think it’s a rather humorous story that deserves its slot in the annals of my blog page. It’s also worth noting that my father has never been outside of North America, The United Kingdom is entirely foreign to him. He had indeed booked us a reservation, only when he had pulled up “Doubletree, Southampton” that’s exactly what he got, a Doubletree in Southampton.

If you don’t know where Southampton is it’s about a two hour drive Southwest of London, sat on the Southern coast of England. Needless to say that wasn’t going to work so we not set about frantically looking for not outlandishly priced hotels in London that weren’t booked out for the weekend & that number was rapidly dwindling. Forgoing the plan to drop bags at our hotel & instead switching to dropping off the car first we made our way to Heathrow. It was only after returning the car & dropping down into the tube that our reservation at the only available, none lavishly expensive hotel was finally booked. That’s not to say that the hotel wasn’t lavish, it was gorgeous & we ended up at The Waldorf Hilton, London. After settling in to our *toss toss* upgraded room, we slipped down to the basement gym for some quick cardio, dressed for the evening, & went down the road to drop in on our friends Victoria & Rhys.

I had spent most of the day looking scrubby in my travel clothes but what became my official OOTD was the following: a Gold J. Crew Sweater, Blue Tellis AG Jeans, & Grey Suede Calvin Klein Boots.

We rolled up to the now Jones’ flat & before we could even call to be let in, Rhys noticed us through the window. We were buzzed in, climbed the stairs, & were met at the door by the duo & an almost completely empty flat. You see Rhys & Vic had come to the decision that when they left London to fly back to the states for their wedding, they were leaving for good & starting their life together as a married couple in America & when they flew out, the same day as us, it would be their last time in London until they returned for visits at a later date. Needless to say the apartment was quite different from the last time we’d seen it in April.

We sat exchanging stories before asking to see if they wanted to join us at dinner at Seven Dials Market. They politely declined with exhaustion rapidly setting in & Ev & I departed their company for the evening to grab some much needed sustenance.

Seven Dials was moderately busy, but not over the top. We went back & forth trying to decide on dinner but ending up with the same general consensus. Dinner was to be Thai as the main course, Dumplings/Bao as a side, & frozen Israeli beverages to drink. I got Chicken Pad Kee Mao at Yaay Yaay, Evan Papaya Salad. Evan & I both got a Pork Bao & Pork Dumplings at Yum Bun, then the drinks were a Lemon/Mint Slushy & a Blue/Pomegranate Slushy from SHUK. Once dinner was completed we decided to make a night of it. We invited Victoria & Rhys once again but they were already well in bed.

Our first stop of the evening was The Alchemist. A flashy cocktail bar with locations all across The UK, we actually skipped out on the drinks there this trip, I had my eyes set on one thing, their cocktail book. Once attained we headed over to EVE for our nightcap(s).

If you read my last UK blog from April you would’ve seen me rave & rant about Frog By Adam Handling. You also would have read about their sister bar, locked in the basement, feeding off their scraps, EVE. That last sentence is not a jab, EVE literally feeds off the kitchen scraps from Frog which it uses to create new & interesting gastronomy for the bar & the cocktails they sling. We only dipped out toes into EVE last time, this time we claimed a table & sat in for a while.

As far as drinks went, we had a few. I got the Amber Fizz (Johnnie Walker Black, Maraschino, Banana, Berries, & London Essence Ginger Ale), followed by the Lazarus (Appleton 12 Year, Santiago Blanco 3 Year, La Yuzu, Verjus, & Guava), but the star of the night, tasting like a Salted Caramel Espresso Martini was the Little Rise (Santiago 8 Year, Galliano, Coffee, Caramel, & Bitters). Evan has some form of Colada that was a special of the evening & an Il Conte (Patron Reposado, Kumquat, Madeira, Smoked Cocoa Nibs, & Prosseco DOCG).

We sat in the basement bar for around an hour & a half before we decided it was time to call it a night & off we went back to our hotel just down the street.

End Of Day Seven

Day Eight

Thursday we managed to sleep in a little big. I was still desperately craving a workout so we booked something in the early afternoon at Barry’s Soho. Needing caffeination & craving a croissant we made our way over to Monmouth Coffee Company where we both had a Pour Over, I got an Almond Croissant, & Ev got a Chocolate. We sat outside in the drizzle because it was honestly tolerable & we’d actually gotten to wear the raincoats we packed for once!

After our coffees & pastries we still had a little bit of time to burn so we went & perused the shops near Covent Gardens. Starting first in Barbour, I tried on several flannels & a sweater or two before designating it a loss for the day. Across the street at Scotch & Soda, where I’d had so much luck the previous trip, we tried on a varied assortment of the store but never landed on anything that we were head over heels for so off we went towards Soho for our appointment with Barry’s Bootcamp.

The class was a Barry’s Lift class which neither of us had ever taken, the sole difference between it & a traditional Barry’s class being that there was no cardio. That didn’t mean the class was easy, in fact it was one of the hardest ones I’d done, simply because of the massive amount of core work it entailed.

After class we grabbed protein shakes from the shake bar & made our way back through the city to our hotel to shower & get ready for the rest of our day ahead.

My “last night in London” OOTD was a Green Rag & Bone Sweater, Khaki Tellis AG Jeans, & White Goodfellow Trainers, a similar outfit, yet still different, from the one I wore for my Living Room Session two nights prior.

Vic & Rhys had to be out of their flat by 3 PM so we met them just across the street at their local pub, The Round House, where they sat surrounded by luggage, still working remote while sharing a pint. We sat with them awhile until hunger set in & we swung around the corner to Old Chang Kee for one of their “world famous” Singapore Style Curry Puffs! Ev & I both got our own Chicken & Curry Puff which we enjoyed immensely, then walked over to The Espresso Room for a Flat White & another Almond Croissant but unfortunately they were out of the latter.

While Victoria wrapped work, Evan, Rhys, & I formulated a plan for the evening. The soon-to-be Jones were staying at Heathrow for the night but still wanted to kick around London with us for a bit so we decided that we would drop their luggage off at our hotel room just around the corner, go about our business, & they could return with us, grab their stuff, & hop the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow. Victoria ended up moving one last appointment we had up so that we could all go out so Evan, Rhys, & I sat enjoying The Waldorf’s Cocktail & Canapé hour while we waited sat pretty in the Executive Lounge (*adjusts monocle). Hey, free booze is free booze. When Victoria arrived we sat enjoying the hors d’œvres for a while longer before hopping a cap over to Tayēr + Elementary.

T+E might sound familiar to any of you that are return readers of mine, it’s another spot we hit back in April & just happens to be considered one of the best bars in the world. Now if your plan is to say that we weren't too adventurous with new things this trip to London I think you’d be slightly mistaken. You see, much like EVE, Tayēr + Elementary’s menu is constantly changing & evolving inviting new experimental gastronomy into the mix so no two people’s experience at either place will ever be exactly the same. We also had only sampled “Elementary’s” menu last time as the two have completely separate menus & feels.

Though residing in the same building Elementary is the front bar & Tayēr the back. Sat around a large, chef’s table/tasting menu type set up I would say Tayēr is the sophisticate while Elementary the playful lending more towards the neighborhood bar feel.

We were actually the first people to enter Tayēr that night. Sat on the corner we each began picking out cocktails as well as little finger foods to nibble on. I typically go for the recommendations of the staff & this was no exception. I got the Haucate as well as a drink that consisted of Etna, Mandarin, & Pachouli & a Makrut Lime cocktail. In addition we ordered a Piña Colada Cheesecake to split, Prawn Couchette’s, & some form of Corn Dog, of which I cannot remember its contents.

Fairly buzzed we all stumbled back into a cab & returned to Soho & The Waldorf where The Jones’s retrieved their bags & Evan & I went off in search of more food.

Really wanting Nando’s seeing as it would be good & quick we made our way that way. The site said they closed at 10:30 but for whatever reason they’d decided at 9 PM to call it early so on our search for food went. We ended up happening to pass Blacklock, a chop shop that I had had on my “travel list” from the last go round. Blacklock readily let us in & we were shown to a seat near the entrance.

We were truly looking for an abbreviated dinning experience, feeling almost entirely ready to call it a night but still rather famished so we just threw in & went with the “All In,” a pre-chopped selection of Beef, Pork, & Lamb, along with two sides & Grilled Flat Bread. We devoured it though quickly the stuffiness of the basement restaurant, the heat, & the meat began to get to us & we had to evacuate the premises.

I truly wish that I could give Blacklock more of a glowing review, I do. The food was very good & the diversity of menu options, lengthy, but I fear falling just short of having a full blown panic attack in their primacies due to the stuffiness of the place, I’d be hard pressed to feel warm & fuzzy about it.

Anyway, feeling stuffed, but still wanting to satiate the dessert stomach we went in search of ice cream/gelato. Unfortunately all of the shops were closed so we called it a night, returning to the hotel defeated.

End Of Day Eight

Day Nine

Our last day in London we pushed that “late checkout” to the limit. We awoke & packed before we decided to make one last hoorah of London & heading over to Heathrow. We had stumbled upon Abuelo the day prior & I had made some joke about the restaurant simply being called “grandpa.” It decided to pull a full on Uno Reverse & say “look who’s laughing now” as it popped up for one of the top listed brunch spots in Covent Garden, so it became the destination of where we were to break our day’s fast.

Surprisingly enough, Abuelo is an Australian coffee shop, well, Australian with South American influences, & it did not disappoint. Evan & I order to share, something savory & something sweet, of which we would each eat half of then swap plates. Evan order our savory course, The Big Bondi (Avocado, Dukkah, Goat Cheese, Pickled Jalapeños, Cress & Flowers, & Egg atop Sourdough) & I the sweet; Banana Bread w/ Caramelized Cinnamon Peaches, Dulce De Leche Marscarpone, & Ginger Biscuit Crumb, in addition to a Cappuccino & a Pour Over respectively.

After a glorious breakfast we made our way to Tesco to grab a goodie bag for our flight attendants & made our way back to The Espresso Room in hopes that the Almond Croissant had made its triumphant return, it hadn’t, they were still out. So we shuffled, defeated, back to The Waldorf to collect our things & hop the tube to Heathrow.

Normally this is where I would leave you all. I would conclude the travel with our last meal or interesting feat we accomplished but in fact the intrigue of our voyage is not yet over. About halfway between Covent Garden & Heathrow the tube operator came over the speakers & announced the the Piccadilly Line would not be making its normal stop at the terminal that feeds Heathrow Terminal 2 & 3. As we were in Terminal 5 this was of no concern to us, though the rest of the passengers seemed less pleased. After each subsequent stop the same announcement was made until it changed, subtly. I truly think it was a slip of the tongue but the announcer added “due to its evacuation for public safety” to his announcement of the lapse in stop. I immediately pulled out Twitter.

The reason the train would not be stopping at Terminal 2 & 3 was that there had been a bombing threat upon Terminal 2 & the entirety of Terminal 2 had been evacuated. There never ended up being an actual bomb, as far as we know, but when we rolled through the train station for those two stops the feeling of unease in the car was palpable. The terminal was like a ghost town, not a person in sight. It was eerie. I’m just glad that no one got hurt & the threat itself ended up being nothing, again, as far as we know.

Off to Terminal 5 we went where security was a breeze & we sat in peace munching on Smoked Salmon Sandwiches until it was once again time to depart the dear United Kingdom.

End Of Day Nine

End Of Part Three

End Of Blog

September 16, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Blog, Travel, Travel Blog

Travel Blog: United Kingdom: Part Two- Lochs & Lochs Of Loch

September 16, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Blog, Travel, Travel Blog

Welcome back! Iffin you are reading the ‘welcome back’ as well as the ‘part two’ up in the title & scratching your head, this is the second blog stemming from my latest bit of travel to the United Kingdom. If you feel so inclined & want to feel caught up the link for Part One will appear just below this paragraph! With that settled & having us all agreed that ‘yes, we did indeed read the first part of this series,” shall we move on?

Part One

THE UNITED KINGDOM

PART TWO:

Day Four

We last left off our romp around the kingdom in Stranraer, Scotland. That too is where we shall resume at the morning after the festival, Sunday. Originally the plan for this day was to do a live broadcast Living Room Session, however we ended up needing to move it to Monday night because of some scheduling conflicts. Totally fine, we’re easy breezy over here. The plan after the originally proposed Sunday show for Evan & I was to drive up to Oban & scoot around the highlands for a bit before we made our way back to London. Seeing how that would now stretch things a little thin we opted for a trip around Loch Lomond instead.

We slept through breakfast at the North West Castle where we were staying, in favor of a recommendation we’d gotten from several people to dine at Fig & Olive. Unfortunately the Fig & Olive was closed for the day due to a private event they were catering (grumble, grumble) (nah, no hard feelings, make that dough y’all!) so instead we opted to try another breakfast spot. It too was closed. Then another. Also closed. Until finally we ended up just grabbing some sandwiches from a chain cafe, of which we shall not name here. Food & coffee (finally) acquired & gassed/petroled up, we made our way up the coast.

We knew the day would be a long one filled with driving, that was a no brainer, so we’d prepared to spend long hours in the car getting lost in the scenery as it passed. We had no real plans of stopping anywhere either, just followed wherever to road decided to take us. We took the A77/78 All the way up the coast until we got to where it cut across headed towards Glasgow. From there we hopped onto the A82 & headed north to Loch Lomond. I think it’s worth stating that I’m a fairly competent driver, I’m fine navigating small, bendy roads but the ones around Loch Lomond were a bit of a different story. The issue was not the roads themselves though, the issue was the people who would fly around the bend going full speed in the complete middle of the road with little to no regard for who or what lay around the corner, but we survived it, we made it through.

Loch Lomond is truly a beautiful region. The last has been designated as national park land as well so the Loch or Lake itself looks almost entirely untouched by human hands. Around Tarbet the road forks a bit, the continuation of the A82 looking like a side road jutting right. At this point I’d abandoned my GPS thinking “oh, I’ll just stay on the A82 until we hit Crainlarich & be fine.” This naturally ended in a wrong turn right at this exact spot. I’m honestly a little glad the wrong turn was made because we ended up stumbling upon The Slanj.

The Slanj is a bar/restaurant/café set inside a former church that was built in the 18th century. It sits in the valley of a few picturesque hills & serves a full traditional UK menu. We’d arrived just to pass a moment or two & I ended up getting a sampling of a local gin before we sat around, taking pictures & enjoying the afternoon. Once some time had passed it was back on to the A82 we went & on up into the highlands.

If you were with us for the previous installment in this UK series you’ll know that Evan set out this trip to capture an OOTD or Outfit Of The Day of mine. So I decided to put some thought in their planning! The OOTD of this day was a Blush Urban Outfitters Pullover Thermal, Black Tellis AG Jeans, White Goodfellow Trainers, Keiko Glasses from Warby Parker.

We hadn’t gone very before we stumbled once again into something unexpected, The Falls Of Falloch. Set just off the east side of the A82, the falls are just a short hike from the dirt lot where you park. Once we’d walked to the falls we were met by picnickers as well as quite a few people jumping into the pools set under the falls themselves. The water here had a very dark rust color to it, due to the iron rich soil, & the water was chilly, chilly, chilly. The falls quickly started to get busy so we packed up & headed on down the road.

Our next turn was at Crianlarich where we ditched the A82 for the A85 & headed farther east before looping back down towards Glasgow again. Along the way we passed Loch Lubhair which had some of the stillest, most pristine water I’d ever seen. If was calm but without the over abundance of algae that usually forms from still bodies of water. We looped through Callander where we stopped for gas & snacks before continuing on back to Dumfries.

We arrived back at the Donowho’s around half six/seven PM. They had lovingly waited for us to arrive to have dinner which I believe ended up being Italian for us. We sat around carb loading before we adjourned to the couch to finish off the night with a cuppa & conversation.

End Of Day Four

Day Five

Now was the day of our newly adjusted plan for the Living Room Session. As aforementioned the original plan had been to do our live broadcast Living Room Session on Sunday however certain things came up that required us to move it to this, the Monday in question. The start of our professional day started with an early lunch at Mrs Howat’s Vintage Pantry where the Donowhos, Evan & I congregated with Ross, Rhonda, & James to chart out the plan for the evening.

Leaving the Pantry more than a little full, each of us having ordered a slew of rather filling items, we returned to the home of the Donowhos to prepare for the evening but not before Evan managed to snag a few photos for his OOTD collection!

The OOTD in question was a Yellow Beanie & White Trainers by Goodfellow, Kaiki Colored Tellis AG Jeans, Keiko Glasses by Warby Parker, & a Blue Knit Sweater by H&M.

We had decided at lunch that in loo of the stage setting of the Royal Theatre we were going to use Ali & Carolann’s living room for the site of the first ever actual factual Living Room Session where a few select guests would be invited in & the whole thing would be simulcast over a number of different streaming sites.

We set up the room in preparation for the broadcast, moving many items of furniture to accommodate the space. We brought in a full speaker system, lighting rig, & a streaming rig, all were set up with a curtain backdrop. Ross then came in & began setting up each of the streaming portals & adjusting the live feed audio mix. We ended up starting a little later than anticipated but the show flowed easily & with only limited hitches along the way!

I did do a wardrobe change for the LRS, of which Ali referred to it as my “Jake Owen, ‘Barefoot, Blue Jean Night’ Moment.” It was exactly that. A Light Green Rag & Bone Sweater & Light Wash Blue Tellis AG Jeans. Naturally, I also went barefoot!

After we’d wrapped up the set & finished socializing it was time to eat. It had gotten pretty late in the evening, 10 or 11-ish, so Carolann & Ali opted to skip dinner but Carolann had spent the day making her incredible sweet potato curry recipe & I was on the verge of eating my arm off so Evan & I indulged.

End Of Day Five

Day Six

There wasn’t much planned for this day, I had asked Ali what his favorite dessert was given that his birthday was a few days later in the week. His reply was cheesecake which I immediately knew I had in the bag!

My mother has had a cheesecake recipe that she’s made for as many thanksgivings as I can remember. I’ve made it myself a few times, having had the task of its construction handed over to me in the preparations for the holiday & every time it is made it ends up being the belle of the dessert table. So off to the grocery store we went.

You don’t think about the discrepancies between UK & US culture, & if you do, I promise you’re probably not doing so when it comes to the grocer. Naturally, this didn’t cross my mind either until I was in the middle of the aisles, bobbling around, lost, looking for the things I needed that don’t exist on the standard United Kingdom shelf. For example. Graham Crackers. You know, graham crackers, one of the key ingredients of a NY Style Cheesecake? Having a loose understanding for the fare of the British Isles, I was able to improvise; two parts Digestive Crackers to one part Biscoff. It ended up being a pretty solid sub out! I put Evan to work on crumbing the dry ingredients while I took care of the wets.

I was a tad nervous when I’d pulled the cheesecake out of the oven as it didn’t quite look right. In a bit of a panic I called my mother who reassured me just to let it set & it would be fine, she was right. It turned out immaculate!

After the cheesecake was complete Evan & I decided to book a last minute distillery tour just down the street from Dumfries in Annan at Annandale Distillery. We got in on literally the last distillery tour of the day & were put in with a family visiting from England. Our tour was around forty-five minutes in length & went very in-depth on the incredibly interesting history of Annandale. Another discrepancy between the US & the UK is the lax drinking & driving laws that the US has compared to the UK. In the US the legal blood alcohol limit is .08, not that its a score to aim for, Scotland that legal limit is .02, & in England it is .00. So no drinks at all. When we booked the tour I had no realization of that until it came time to do tastings along the way. Since I drove, Evan got to do the tastings & I was promised a take home tasting at the end. Totally fine by me. However, when we got to the end of the tour I was met with a dram of one singular tasting, completely missing out on five of the other tasters the group had gotten along the way. So I purchased an additional tasting set to take back to the states for my own tour.

When we got back to Ali’s I broke open the dram. I was curious after all, I’d spent the last hour surrounded by people trying different whiskies & commenting on their characteristics that my FOMO had definitely gone into over drive. I enjoyed a peated whisky called The Man Of Swords which I enjoyed thoroughly! I still have yet to break into my sample stash, maybe I will once I finish this blog!

Gathering a bit of a buzz it was time for us to go eat. Ali & Carolann decided it was time to take the Americans to an American themed restaurant in town called The Hitching Post. I’m curious to know what all my Americans out there imagine a Scottish based & operated America themed restaurant consists of. Please, form your mental image, let me know what you think & what you would expect to find on the menu before I go ahead & tell you.

For my Americans, what an American restaurant in Scotland consists of is a bit of a love letter to Texas. The theming is definitely Wild West with little cactuses adorning the table & wagon wheels & cowboy paraphernalia dressing the walls. There is of course an American flag or two, most of them are painted on barn wood, as you do. As for the menu. It did have a rather large array of American cuisines. From burgers to bbq to pizza & philly cheesesteaks, all are present & accounted for, which then prompted to the question at the table between Evan & I, if we were to design an American restaurant, what would it be like?

After a lengthy discussion we landed on the need for a BBQ section, sorted regionally, a cookout menu, a regional specific menu (Philly cheesesteaks, Maryland crab cakes, Meat & Threes, California burritos, etc), & general American (wings, mozzarella sticks, quesadillas, etc.). The theming would also be regional, carrying different influence from room to room.

Once we were stuffed full of pizza we returned once again to abode Donowho where we broke into Ali’s freshly baked birthday cheesecake & had a cuppa before sharing what would be the last of our late night conversations until we meet again!

End Of Day Six

END OF PART TWO

September 11, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: United Kingdom: Part One- York & The Festival

September 11, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

As many of you know, I have a great love for the United Kingdom & the people that live there. It has also been clear, for many years now, that the United Kingdom also shares a great love for yours truly & my music! My first trip there, back in August of 2019, was actually a trip entirely planned around a festival, Park Fest, in Stranraer. Again, that was back in 2019. Naturally, due to the global pandemic, Park Fest was put on hold for 2020 & even 2021 making its resurrection this year some what of a homecoming for a lot of those involved. I was asked fairly early on in the planning phases of this year’s Park Fest whether or not I’d be willing to make the trip to play it, I was more than happy to snag a spot in the line up.

THE UNITED KINGDOM

PART ONE:

Day One

The original plan for the trip was to arrive Thursday morning, grab the rental car, & immediately make our way to Dumfries. When planning Ali, who was gracious enough to play host to me & contract Ross to help assemble a band on my behalf, & I had originally talked about having the band rehearsal for the show on that Friday before heading to Stranraer on Saturday for the festival. However, plans change & we ended up having to push rehearsal to Saturday afternoon to accommodate all of the musicians playing, totally fine! So now having a new day free we decided to go up the East Coast of England & stay the night in one of the towns there.

We arrived around mid to late morning having barely slept a wink on the flight over. Our immediate mission on the way to the rental agency was to poll our destination. We reached out to all of our UK friends asking whether we should go to Newcastle, Nottingham, Cambridge, or York. Everyone basically unanimously gave us York, so we started up Central England towards York.

We arrived in York in the early evening beelining to our hotel where the plan was to shaft from our travel clothes to something nicer in which to explore the town & take a few choice photos here & there! Our hotel was the Hilton York Tower, set literally across the street from Clifford’s Tower, one of the largest remaining fragments of the York Castle.

Once checked in, showered, & changed we set out to explore the town of York before our evening reservation at the North African restaurant, Los Moros.

Evan had this idea to take what he referred to as my OOTD, or Outfit Of The Day. Despite having packed in a frenzy I had managed to piece together a unique outfit for each day of our trip all while maintaining a suitcase weight of around 40 lbs & compensating for the swings in weather & the varied temperatures we would be experiencing throughout our eight days spent in the United Kingdom.

We actually did a proper photoshoot too, going around the York City Centre finding cool backgrounds to fill the negative space of each of the photos. For this OOTD I had chosen a Scotch & Soda Tan Knit Button Shoulder Sweater, a pair of Light Blue AG Jeans in the Tellis fit, Brown Aston Grey Work Boots, & Keiko glasses by Warby Parker. It was a tad chilly in York so the covering was much appreciated.

After we were satisfied with the photos taken we stopped off in The Shambles, the street of shops that inspired JK Rowling’s creation of Dragon Alley for the Harry Potter books. The parallels are abundantly clear to all who have seen the street as well as partook in Potter media. After our exploratory walk it was dinner time.

Los Moros is up near York Minster on the North side of the town center. It is in a small, unassuming three story town home that you would never guess, from its exterior, is brimming with color & flavor. Upon arriving we were shown upstairs to our table over looking the street below. I swung back downstairs to wash my hands having tripped on one of the steps near the riverside & was greeted by the cutest of outdoor courtyards where people dined under lattice adorned with tiled lamps & greenery.

Dinner was exquisite. We ordered a bottle or Romanian Pinot Noir to split & order off the menu “family style.” Our dinner consisted of a bowl of Casablanca Olives, Hummus with Rose Harissa, Olive Oil, Pine Nuts, & Flat Bread, Batata Hara, a Spicy Potato dish with Coriander, Garlic, & Turkish Pepper Paste, ZFC Chicken fried in Za’atar & Sumac with a Preserved Lemon Mayonnaise, Smoked Haddock Crocketts with Rosa Harissa Aioli, Beef Tanjia; Slow Cooked Ox Tail with Saffron, Preserved Lemon, Button Creamery Cumin Gouda Mash Potatoes, Pickles, & Lamb Jus, & a Chocolate Cardamom & Coffee Mousse with Chantilly Cream & Pistachio Crumble. Need I say more?! All of it, without exception, was incredible. There isn’t a thing within that order that I would change or alter!

The original plan after dinner was to go out, to hit the town & a few cocktail bars, however, the lack of sleep caught up to us & we made our way sheepishly back to the hotel with stuffed bellies. Pretty sure we were both asleep before our heads hit the pillows.

End Of Day One

Day Two

We awoke later than we had intended, our initial plan was to get on the road early to Dumfries but we decided to roll with is & grab breakfast before our cross-country drive. I had scouted a restaurant just a short walk from the hotel called The Blue Barbakan. The Blue Barbakan is a Polish Restaurant with an “extra multi-European twist.” We, however, arrived around fifteen minutes prior to their opening & resort to initiating the daily hunt so many of us engage in for caffeine.

Coffee was found just across Foss Bridge from The Barbakan at a very quant little cafe called Kiosk. We used to queue formed out its door as a gage for the coffee being brewed inside & were not let down by the parade of patiently placed patrons. The coffee was wonderful, the venue charming. The owner had even thrown an assortment of ceramic ware specifically for his shop of which the title card for them read “Here There Be Monsteras,” something I still am in awe of each time its cleverness passes my brain.

Coffee acquired & consumed & time passed it was now time to return to The Blue Barbakan!

We stepped up into a wood paneled room adorned with framed photos & chalkboards baring the restaurant’s specials. We were instructed by a woman, who I assume was the owner, to sit anywhere we like so we chose a table sat next to a lace curtained window overlooking the bridge. I ordered another coffee & a water & when I asked the matron of the house what I should get she suggested the Full English. Not usually one to do so, I ignored her recommendation as a weeks worth of “full english breakfasts” were staring me down. I opted for the Duck Rumor with Smoked Salmon & Evan the Poached Eggs with Smoked Salmon.

I was elated with the Duck Rumor. Truthfully, I am so glad I ignored her suggestion & went with my gut. Duck Rumor is a ramequin filled with Buttered Creamed Spinach, topped with Smoked Salmon & a Duck Egg before being baked in the oven. Think of it like an Eastern European Uova In Purgatorio. It was served with fresh Brown Bread to scrape the contents of the ceramic over, I could have eaten it forever.

After we paid the bill we popped back over to our hotel where we gathered our belongings & set off again, waving York a very fond farewell.

The ride to Dumfries took us up by Newcastle, where we originally had planned to stay. We got stuck in traffic here as one of the highways is currently undergoing rather massive renovations. Passing by the Angel of the North we made our way West along the A69, a route that used to be used to patrol Hadrian’s Wall, of which many of the pieces still exist to this day. From Carlisle we went backroads all the way to Dumfries where we arrived in the mid-afternoon.

Not to miss my OOTD, Evan immediately had me go out into the neighborhood & do I brief shoot. Never have I felt more self conscious doing a photoshoot than in the middle of a residential neighborhood but that day the outfit consisted of a Blue Goodlife Pullover, Tan Tellis AG Jeans, Yardley Glasses by Warby Parker, & White Goodfellow Trainers!

The rest of our evening was pretty relaxed; we ordered Indian take away from Seimo Seito with Carolann (Tikka Masala, Assorted Naans, & Seimo Seito Masala), then Ross & Ali joined after overseeing Panto auditions for the Royal Theatre. We sat around the rest of the evening exchanging stories, talking about the plans for the day to follow, & generally having a grand ole time. It wasn’t until one or two AM that we were all off to bed.

End Of Day Two

Day Three

The Saturday started about 9 AM with a briefing on the day’s plans from the Donowhos & a cuppa. Ali had a midday set in Stranraer in addition to an evening set in Loch Raven. The plan for me on the other hand was to grab some brekkie, go to band practice, & then make my way to Stranraer where we were to stay the night after my 7 PM set & interview. So having keys in hand & having said goodbye to the Donowhos, wishing Ali lucking in my own special way, we went in search for breakfast in the Dumfries town square.

I can’t recall the place we originally planned to dine but they were closed for whatever reason, so we ended up at Elevenses. I ordered a London Fog, which was on special, & Evan had a cappuccino, both were excellent! For breakfast I had the “Flower Of Scotland” which was basically their Full Scottish Breakfast, Haggis, Tattie Scones, & All! By the time we finished our brunch it was time to head over to the rehearsal space which was a studio just south of the town center.

We arrived just before noon where we were greeted by Ross who informed us that our guitarist for the day, Finlay, had unfortunately missed his bus out of Glasgow & was now running two hours behind. So we rolled with it. I played acoustic, Ross drums, & Ruairi played bass & we just went through the set top to bottom taking the time to make changes & corrections along the way. We had a brief break before Finlay arrived & we ran through the songs once more before throwing all of the gear in the rental & beginning the hour & a half trek to Stranraer.

If any of you have read my previous travel blogs in which I have travelled to The United Kingdom, you will know that I have a great love for a little smokehouse off the route to Stranraer/Port Patrick. It used to go by Marrbury Smokehouse but has since changed hands & now boasts the name OakHill Cafe & Deli. Their smoked salmon is still equally as delightful as before & feeling a bit peckish along the way we just managed to squeeze in before closing time to snag one of their incredible Smoked Salmon Sandwiches. Don’t worry, they pre-make them daily so we didn’t put anyone to work at closing time on our behalf.

We arrived in Stranraer around 5:15 & immediately headed to Agnew Park to check in. Having received our festival wrist bands, dropped gear, & squaring everything away with the festival promotion team, who are lovely by the way, we went to drop our stuff off at the hotel & get changed for the show.

My set was at 7 PM, as aforementioned above, but I think we ended up taking the stage closer to 7:10. I had planned a forty-five minute set that actually ended up being perfectly timed on my behalf actually cutting a few songs before we even rang the first notes. I did an acoustic set in the middle of the overall full band set just to break things up & give the band a bit of a break but over all I was more than happy with how the show went & how it turned out! After we finished I helped the guys pack up their things, took my guitar back to the room, & returned to enjoy the festivities.

Of course the OOTD photoshoot had to happen, so that was also a part of the evening. For my set I had wore an Oversized Jackson Brand White T-Shirt (RIP) under a Mauve Suede Zara Jacket with Light Wash Tellis AG Jeans (noticing a trend here?), & the Goodfellow White Trainers.

After the brief shoot I was due for an interview with Jinx Sullivan of DG9 Radio. I always enjoy my interviews with Jinx because she always asks the most interesting questions! When she last interviewed me she had brought a rolodex of questions that we just kept going through because we were having so much fun with the interview, I think it ended up being at least an hour long though. This time I think we ended up talking for 30-45 minutes, recorded that is, we continued to talk after for a long while before my hunger once again set in & I needed to search the streets for sustenance.

My first time in Stranraer I was introduced to Curry, Cheese, & Chips after my set. It was love at first bite & also somewhat very familiar due to its similarity to Poutine here in the States & Maneet Chauhan having Tandoori Chicken Poutine on her Chauhan menu. It felt like something I needed to carry on as a new tradition though. So with that in mind we ended up at Istanbul Kebab & Pizza House where we both got an order of Curry, Cheese, & Chips only this time with Kebab Chicken added to it! It smacked. Truly, truly smacked.

We hung around the festival a bit longer, taking in several of the other acts, before we headed back to the hotel to tuck in for the night. I suppose its also worth noting that what had started as an afternoon in the high seventies had ended in an evening in the high 40s, so we were also a tad freezing & caught unprepared for the chill.

End Of Day Three

END OF PART ONE

August 5, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: Fiji: Part Two- Sharks, Kava, & A Leisurely Float Down A River

August 5, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Bula! Welcome back!

If you’re reading the above line & saying to yourself “welcome back?! To what?!” & if the giant “Part Two” in the title wasn’t clue enough there is a previous installment to this, my Fiji travel blog. If you haven’t given “Part One” a read I highly recommend you do so. I’ll attach the link to it below! Give that a read & swing back over here when you’re finished! Enjoy!

PART ONE

FIJI

PART TWO:

Day Five

Are we ready for it?! I know a lot of you who have been following this saga of travel were excited to get to today because today we’re talking about the SHARK DIVE!!!!!!

I did end up waking up at 6 AM to finish my vlogs as I mentioned I planned to do at the end of part one & I worked right up until 7 AM when it was time to once again descend the hill & eat breakfast. I chose to go back to Muesli that morning favoring something with a bit more variety to once again cross into the Beqa Passage seeing as my stomach had been fine the day prior. Not sure why I thought maybe it wouldn’t I’ve never been one who was prone to sea sickness. Our call time for the boat was fairly early as the dive site sat around forty-five minutes to an hour away from Waidorka.

A little background info on the shark dive site, Shark Reef Marine Reserve. Back before the site was declared a Marine Reserve by the government of Fiji it used to just be an ordinary strip of the Beqa Passage that fishermen would sure to drive from Suva or Pacific Harbor out to sea & fish. The fishermen, wanting to cut time from their required work load, would get to work gutting & cleaning their catch on the way back home for the night. During this time spent navigating the Beqa Passage the fishermen would dump the undesirable bits of fish of the boat into the water below. This naturally attracted sharks, which, over time, began to inhabit the Passage & congregate there because of the guaranteed meal. The Fijian government took notice of this & in an effort to increase tourism as well as lend a hand in shark conservation named a point in the passage as Shark Reef Marine Reserve. They sank several old boats there in an attempt to supplement the reef & give smaller, more reclusive species of sharks, spots to hide away, in addition to cutting some of the strong current so that divers wouldn’t simply be blown away while visiting. They also built what they deemed “The Arena.”

“The Arena” is a somewhat circular, sunken part of the reef. On the western edge of the arena the Fijian government has built a wall out of reef rock that sits about 2-3 feet high & goes the entire circumference of the western edge, beginning & ending on either end of the natural reef. In the middle of “The Arena” is a mooring site, however, this mooring site is not intended for boats, its intended use is to chain up a bin full of chum that will then be dumped into the arena once the day’s divers are in place, triggering a shark feeding frenzy. Some people have mixed feelings about “The Arena” & feel that it hinders the natural flow of the eco system causing the sharks to be dependent upon humans for food & allowing the fish populations to grow unchecked because the sharks don’t have to put out the energy to hunt them.

On the way out to the site Jodi informed us that unfortunately the reserve was only able to get a single bin of chum for the day. Typically they bring in two, one for each dive & you get to experience the madness twice but apparently the fishing boats came in light the night before & only had enough to fill one bin. The new plan was to dive the wrecks around the reef, then the reserve worker would bring in the one bin of food they had & essentially parade it around “The Arena” teasing the sharks into believing they’re about to get fed. Then things would go as previously planned for the second dive.

You know you’ve arrived at Shark Reef Marine Reserve because, ironically enough, the land adjacent to it looks like a shark fin jetting out of the island. We got to the site earlier than the boat from Pacific Harbor & earlier than the crew from the reserve so we had to sit around & wait a bit for them all while completely suited up because, as Jodi said, once the reserve crew roll up, it’s go time, they don’t wait on you at all.

While we were waiting the water began to become more & more active, more & more figures started to show up just below the surface. Nurse sharks. Completely harmless to humans, the nurse sharks at the reserve have begun swimming up to the surface when the dive boats moor under the impression that they’ll get fed for doing so, they never do. Dee, our captain, spotted the reserve boat coming on the horizon & it was time to get into the literal shark infested waters.

I’d be lying if I said I weren’t a bit nervous. I’d never done a shark dive before, nor had I ever been that up close & personal with such large predatory animals before. Let me be clear here, I’m not afraid of sharks, I think they’re severely demonized & misunderstood creatures, but I do hold a great deal of respect for them & understand the damage they’re capable of inflicting. All of that being said…I was the first in the water. The absolute first. I knew that the longer I waited the more the anxiety of anticipation would build so I just bit the bullet & took the plunge.

Immediately after I got into the water & grabbed ahold of the towline & looked down. The Passage was murky, probably visibility of around 40-50 feet but at the edge of that range I was a massive bull shark circling below, which much to my surprise, made me immediately excited.

Once we were all on in the water & on the line we began our decent. At around 25 feet we hit the top of the reef, sliding a little farther down the side we began to circumnavigate the outcroppings of rock & coral filled with fish. I was so preoccupied with the aquatic life to my right that I didn’t noticed the Bull Shark had returned & was passing a mere five feet to my right before carrying on around the reef.

We circled the reef ending up at the first sunken vessel in the passage. Turned upside down the hull was littered with little clusters of corals holding tight to the eroding metal. Around the side of the ship I found a massive pair of Green Filefish before turning to once again find the Bull Shark passing by. I wish I had pictures of both the Filefish & the Bull Shark passing to present to you all but I guess my camera had been off since the time of my decent til we got to the edge of “The Arena.”

We were all lined up against the wall of “The Arena,” knees planted on the sea bed. Elaine & I took up the far right end with Sam, our Fijian Dive guide behind us, & the rest of the group filled in along the row. Once we were all in place the diver from the reserve brought in the chum bin.

The chum bin was a massive yellow trash can with clips on the lid & a ten foot chain connecting it to the diver above. He carried it through the water like a marionette, rattling the chains & his dive rattle along the way to draw the fish in. He initially just hooked it to the mooring & chilled above it ringing his rattles but then went & unhooked it to carry it around the arena.

The Nurse Sharks were especially interested in the bin, diving over one another to get closest to the lid, while the Black Reef Sharks, Bull Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Black & Silver Tipped Reef Sharks, & remainder of the fish merely circled around the ring.

After being in aw of the sharks for around twenty minutes as the reserve diver maneuvered the trash can around, we began our ascend back to the boat. Elaine noticed that Sam had stopped to have an interaction with a Moray that I clearly missed because I was too entranced in a school of Spade Fish gathered by the boat mooring.

We surfaced, sat & ate through our surface interval & awaited instruction from the reserve workers on when it was feeding time.

During our surface time Elaine asked Sam about the Eel. He explained, much like the reserve does for the sharks, he feels the Eel in hopes of it sticking around & becoming less reclusive. He explained that over the span of several months he went from having the Eel hide from him to being able to hold it & feed it by hand. The Eel also comes out of the rock work exclusively for him when he comes to dive the site. He then asked if we wanted to pet it to which we both gave an exuberant “yes!”

Our second dive began with less meandering. We were in the water & guided straight down to the rock wall where we lined up in basically the same fashion, except that I got nudged further down the right side so that I was between the wall & the reef with literally about a foot of space total wiggle room. Once we were all lined up against the wall the diver from the reserve returned & began working to unlock the bin. He worked diligently at each of the clamps until at last all were free & be began to tug the chain that would overturn the garbage bin.

No sooner than he had gone to over turn the bin did a large rush of current sweep in to snatch the receptacle. The surge first carried the yellow can south before the chain went taught & began swinging it west towards us. It stopped about 20-30 feet directly in front of my & dumped the entirety of its contents. The sharks immediately went into a frenzy darting in & out of the mess of fish heads & scales. I couldn’t help but shrink a little. Here, less than thirty feet away from me were hundreds of sharks of all varying sizes, species, & temperaments fighting for food that was all blowing in my direction.

At one point a large Bull Shark got stuck in the bin & writhed around in it until it sprang free, several fish heads in its mouth. Another Bull rushed in, grabbed a collection of three large fish heads & began swimming directly at Elaine, Sam, & I closely followed by another Bull who was fighting to get one or two of the heads out of the other shark’s mouth. The picture here is the best I got of the kerfuffle, please note that my GoPro was tucked in at hip height so while it looks like they’re well above me, they were within a distance where I probably could have reached out & grabbed a fish head of my own. Sam had to bump the sharks away with a large metal hook & Elaine & I exchanged a “WTF was that” look before returning our attention to the Sharknado before us.

The feeding frenzy lasted around twenty minutes even calling in a reclusive White Tipped Reef Shark or two. There used to actually be a resident Tiger Shark as well named Princess, but she hasn’t been seen at the site since COVID kept the feeding crews away.

Once the sharks began to dissipate we were prompted to head back to our mooring for our safety stop. Sam stopped Elaine & I & prompted us to follow. He then took is to a little outcropping of the reef where a Green Moray came wiggling out of the rocks & proceeded to receive scratches from Sam. He then prompted Elaine to come over & give it a pat & a scratch before the attention was passed to me. I anchored on the rock & came in slowly being sure to stretch well over the apparent biting range of the Eel & gave it a few scratches at the back of its head.

The Eel felt completely different than I expected it to. You know how often times you think to yourself “yeah, I’m pretty sure my brain can piece together what that’ll feel like based on the things I’ve touched in my life?” Well the idea my brain had of what a Moray Eel feels like was completely off. First off it’s very mucus-y. The slimy part I’m sure a lot of you had pegged, but its skin almost has no tension to it, almost like poking the top of a jellyfish or feeling a thick plastic bag underwater except its covered in slime.

We departed from the Eel & made our way back to the mooring site, saying “hello” once again to the school Spadefish who hadn’t left their post since the last time we came through. After climbing back into the boat we headed back to the resort.

Lunch that day was a Pan-Fried Fish Salad. We planned another dive though the tide was quickly slipping out, so we chose something chill & local, “The Pond” again.

Returning to “The Pond” I had the same damn mask problems that plagued me at “Turtle Head" the day before. I made the best of it & cruised around “The Pond” with my dive buddies taking in the site.

I felt so bad because Elaine at one point motioned to me something that I thought was “Pillow Starfish.” Sleepy hands by her head & an explosion with her hands. She meant sleeping Pufferfish. So here I came, barreling over the reef, completely oblivious to the need to be sneaky & I scared it away. Thankfully we encountered another sleeping Pufferfish later on in the dive that I was wiser to not awaken.

It was Curry Night when we returned, something I & a few others in the group were beyond psyched for. Despite many grumbles from the group at large everyone seemed to at the very least remain fairly respectful & at least ate a large portion of the provided food. No one, to my knowledge, turned away the dish or asked for something else. The curry was wonderful too! Chicken Tikka Masala, Fijian Roti, Yellow Lentil Daal, & a Salted Caramel Pavlova for dessert!

I spent the rest of the evening combing through my shark dive footage, of which there was a lot, & compiling it into my vlog. It was another midnight with a 6 AM wake up call for me just to get it finished.

End Of Day Five

Day Six

Another late night of editing, another early morning to finish, Thursday we did actually get to sleep in a tad so what had become my normal 6 AM wake up & edit session was now able to be delayed an hour. After editing I went down for breakfast where I had Yaloka Niviti waiting for me. Yaloka Niviti is a Fijian breakfast dish consisting of eggs, black beans, feta, avocado, & chili sauce all wrapped in Roti, sort of like a breakfast quesadilla I suppose.

Our dive call was a little later than normal partially because of the tides for the day, partially because the sites we were hitting were all local. The first of which was “The Aquarium,” a dive the other boat did at the beginning of the week & raved about.

I understand why the other group raved about “The Aquarium” it is teeming with life both of the coral & animal variety. The site sits on the outer reef wall of Beqa Lagoon & is in the shape of a more front heavy curve. The corals there fluoresce with bold neon oranges, acid greens, highlighter yellows, & bright turquoise blues. The reef is covered in several intriguing mollusk species; Black & White Spotted Nudibranchs & even a Common Egg Cowry munching away on a leather coral.

I saw my first wild Clown Tang here as well, though I only caught a glimpse of it from the corner of my eye before it ducked under a rock. I did my best to idol by where it hid in hopes that it would come out but it only popped its head out once & the Tomato Clownfish who I’d taken up station by were getting pissed that I was so close to their beloved anemone, which was an impressive one at that.

Before I’d gotten distracted by pursuing the Clown Tang I found a little Gray Moray Eel, far less boisterous than Sam’s the day before. I had shared it with the group at that point & moved on. Farther along the curve of the reef that jutted a bit more into open water we discovered a male & female Great Pacific Octopus. I actually didn’t see the female until I was looking at video later, even though she was pointed out to me over & over again. Camouflage is dope!

Our second dive of the day was equally as spectacular, “Mata Point.” Despite going over the dive plan & agreeing that we would all start the dive going west with the reef wall on our right side we all got in the water & immediately headed east. After about ten minutes of confusion we all got straightened out & headed in the right direction which unfortunately ate into our dive time making it so we never made it all the way to “Mata Point” as originally intended. The dive was still gorgeous though!

The reef wall basically goes in a straight line until it curves into the point (I assume). The coral species here displayed the same vibrance as their “Aquarium” counterparts & there were an abundance of Halloween Flatworms! At one point Jodi found a quant little Saddlebacked Pufferfish tucked into the reef & I found a rather large Anemone Crab attached to the underside of a large anemone.

At one point during the dive a group of around five or six of us began hearing the aggressive rattle of someone’s dive rattle. We hadn’t noticed the rest of the groups disappearance but we were with Sam & each of us had our own dive buddies, so we were all a tad confused. We took it as a recall signal & all made our way back along the wall amongst the sea fans & anemones.

We found the boat with Jodi waiting next to it underwater banging her tank with her pointing rod. Some of the group had been running out of air & she was trying to locate the remainder of us, who were with Sam, to pull the dive.

While we were in our safety stop above the reef I found my second Clown Tang & this time I got quite a deal more time with it! It basically circled me over & over, both curious & cautious. It would duck into crevices, hide, the jut out & swim to the next spot. But back into the boat & back to the resort we all went.

Lunch was a “Hangover Burger” served poolside which was topped with Onion Jam, Tomato, Bacon, Lettuce, Cheese, & a Fijian BBQ Sauce made at the resort. I enjoyed it there while catching a few rays & sipping my ritualistic post dive cup of tea.

Our afternoon dive was to be the last dive of the trip. We headed back out to do an exploratory dive, that simply means the dive is uncharted & the guides don’t know it's ins & outs. We knew at some point that the current would come in so we anticipated the drift. We were dropped at one end of the reef wall & Captain Dee was meant to meet us down the line. So was the plan…

The dive was outstanding, the corals especially. I stumbled upon a bed of deep blue anemones that played host to a whole colony of assorted Clownfish, a large cluster of Alveopora (flower coral), & mountains of leathers & maze corals.

It was then that we hit the wall. Not a literal wall, but a current wall. It came in hard & fast & halted any & all progress we were making down the reef. The decision was made to turn around & head back to where we had begun our dive in hopes that Dee would see the signs & the current shift & anticipate the new plan.

On our way back I was so mesmerized by the corals that I was almost completely run over by a large Hawksbill Sea Turtle. I ducked out of its way as well as I could in the water & waves & watched it go along its merry way on the top of the reef.

When it was time to surface I got put in charge of deploying our SMB or Safety Sausage from the depth of what would be our safety stop. We swam out to see til neither the reef nor the bottom were visible & I deployed to sausage up to the surface to signal Dee of where we all were.

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE MY MOTHER OR FATHER PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH OR THREE!

We waited well past the three minutes prescribed for our safety stop all the while never hearing the ringing hum of the boat motor as it got closer, so we all cautiously surfaced. Dee hadn’t seen the bright yellow SMB, nor had he anticipated the change of plans. He still sat very far away at the other end of the reef facing the opposite direction. Our dive time was meant to be around forty-five minutes but the site ended up being deeper than we’d anticipate & we’d only been under for around thirty-five minutes or so. Naturally Dee hadn’t begun looking for us yet.

The winds & waves had picked up with the current though which easily drowned out the several whistles being blown. At around five minutes into our surface time we had all inflated SMBs & were waving them in the air in a futile effort to get his attention. Given different circumstances we honestly probably would have looked & sounded like a rave; different colored neon flashing in the air with whistles, rattles, & shouting.

It wasn’t until our allotted dive time was up that Dee began looking for us, which, after he turned around he quickly found us. By the time Dee picked us up we had drifted well away from our initial ascent spot & it had been about ten to fifteen minutes spent trying to make as much noise as we could.

Was it terrifying? Surprisingly no. We actually were having a pretty good time all things considered. I can’t speak to Jodi or Sam but I know the rest of us were rather enjoying the float. When we got on board of the dive boat again Jodi explained that a few months ago she had been the private dive guide to an elderly couple & the three of them had gotten swept out to sea. It took them around thirty to forty minutes to be found at which point Jodi had said she was starting to panic. All the while the elderly couple was laughing, taking pictures, having a blast. It must be the plight of the dive guide to fear for your clients.

I really wish I could remember the major highlights of the rest of the evening but I can’t seem to. I know we spent the time after we returned from the dive fresh water washing our gear & packing it all up from the storage spots we’d had all week, I know I sat & edited in the cabana by the pool, but I can’t for the life of me recall what was for dinner or what the rest of the evening looked like so I guess that’s all I have for you on day six. Kind of an anti-climactic ending I know.

End Of Day Six

Day Seven

With no more diving to do it was time to retrieve our gear. Well, that which we hadn’t already snagged the night before. This mostly consisted of BCDs, Regulators, & Wetsuits which had all been hung to dry over night in the dive shop. I packed up majority of my scuba gear but allowed my BCD & wetsuits more time to hang dry in the shower of my room.

Breakfast was the Full Fijian, a tropical twist on the Full British that I’m sure was a remnant of the colonizers. Yes it consisted of baked beans, cooked tomatoes, bacon, toast, eggs, etc but also came with the Fijian touch of fresh tropical fruits.

For those of you that were unaware, you aren’t supposed to dive less than 24 hours before a flight, that doesn’t mean we spent the day twiddling our thumbs or even dry for that matter.

Many of us had booked a day of River Tubing & Cultural Exploration.

Our van picked us up around 9 AM & we headed East through Pacific Harbor towards Suva. We stopped in Navua where we boarded long boats that took us up stream. Each long boat held around five people, captain & guide included & there were several times in which we had to vacate the longboat to trek along the shore because the water was too low to accommodate the weight of all of us.

About an hour up river we were escorted into a small village called Sabata. A village with around nine buildings, Sabata had joined up with the tubing company in a mutually beneficial partnership to show people how a lot of Fijians still lived. Our guide took us first to a home atop the hill where cassava was being cooked & palm was being stripped to make grass mats. He showed us the outdoor Fijian kitchen & then took us into the one room home.

The owner of the house graciously offered us some of his food, boiled cassava & then took a picture with us, showing us around his house. We then met the chief & the mayor of the town before being shown through their cassava & taro fields back to the longboat.

We ventured down the river in the long boat for about ten minutes before we pulled over & were escorted up a path, along a stream to a beautiful waterfall! The falls poured water into a dark pool below & it honestly reminded me a lot of the waterfall that Evan & I swam in back near Hona in Maui. I got into the water without hesitation, the rest of the group, not so much, even despite my reminding them “when is the next time you’re going to have a chance to swim in a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the rainforest in Fiji?”

After our guides cliff jumped into the waterfall it was time for lunch which was served in the Guava Grove back along the shore where we’d excited the river. Lunch was traditional Fijian. Kokodo (a Fijian Ceviche, Stewed Fern, Pineapple, Grilled Chicken Drumsticks, Salad, & a very spice heavy Sausage with White Bread were all on the plate.

I bothered one of the guides into picking us some fresh Guava which we joyously shared amongst the group.

After lunch it was time to tube. We got our safety briefing from Rosie, the owner, & we all clambered into our respective tubes before setting off down the river.

The guides had requested that we all try to link up, that way no one ran the risk of getting lost or left behind, & we were less likely to tip going through rapids.

Most of the river was a pleasure cruise, leisurely & calm. We hit rapids two or three times, the last of which was by far the largest. As someone who has whitewater rafter many a time in my life, I’ve got to say that going down some minor class rapids in an inner tube is a tad intimidating.

After we were through with all of the rapids the staff began singing to us. They sang traditional Fijian songs, Fijian church songs, & songs of farewell. We then climbed back into the long boats & headed back down to Navua where we got out, changed, & climbed back into the van to be taken back to Waidroka Bay.

Along the way we were all feeling snack-y, especially for ice cream, so we asked our driver to stop at a gas station or something comparable to get some treats. He took us to a newly opened Korean Supermarket. We were like kids in a damn candy store.

I have a massive sweet tooth, & candy is my weakness which, at that point, I hadn’t indulged in over a week. Poor me, I know. So I went HAM on the snack section of the grocery store. I got Sour Stripes, Gummy Colas, a Cadbury Fruit & Nut Bar, a Magnum Ice Cream Bar, a pre-mixed Bounty Rum & Cola, & a bag of Calbee Honey Butter Chips (a Korean fad food that I’d actually squeezed into a song a week or so prior)! All of this amounted to a grand total of around $12 USD. I guess it’s true, sugar is cheap.

When we returned I went back up to my room to begin packing & take a little bitty nap, being on the river all day in the sun really saps you.

Around sunset I made my evening cup of tea & went down to sit on the dock & watch the Fijian sunset one last time over the shallows. I was then brought up to the cabana by the pool for a Kava ceremony, complete with more Fijian Music!

Kava is a member of the pepper family. It is traditionally used socially as a drink to be shared. Kava actually has many beneficial medical properties & has been found to drastically reduce anxiety & stress. The Fijians say alcohol winds you up, Kava settles you down. In Fijian culture Kava is a social beverage brewed by hand in a large bowl called a Tanoa. The dried, ground Kava root is placed in a sack where it is kneaded into water before being dished out. Traditionally when handed a cup of Kava you are to say “Bula,” clap your hands once, shoot the contents of the cup, finishing it in one go, & then clap three more times.

I would describe the taste of Kava as reedy. If you ever played a woodwind instrument & had to suck on a reed before playing, it’s almost exactly that taste only a bit more peppery. The effects of Kava are interesting as well.

A lot of people in the western world equate Kava to Peyote or Ayahuasca but Kava is neither a stimulant nor is it psychoactive. It does kind of leave the roof of your mouth buzzing but it truly puts you in a state of deep calm & serene happiness. I drank four full cups of Kava that evening & probably would have loved more! It was a wonderful experience!

After the Kava ceremony & dancing around the cabana like fools we retreated for dinner. Much like lunch, dinner was also traditional Fijian, seeing as it was our last night in Fiji. Served buffet style we had Pan Seared Marlin, Taro, Cassava, Sweet Potato, Coconut Creamed Spinach, Kokodo, Topoi coated in Sweet Coconut Cream, Chicken, & Pork. After dinner the Resort staff came & sang to us before sending us off to bed.

Almost as soon as I got up the hill the power went out. We would later find out it was because a tree had fallen on a power line, but the whole bay was a deep black darkness, the moon being hidden behind clouds. The Fijians, who had never stopped singing even after we left, didn’t seem to mind the darkness & continued their deeply harmonized chorus into the winter night.

I noticed a pocket of stars poking through the clouds & sought to take advantage of probably the darkest place I’ll be in my lifetime. I turned my phone to high exposure & snapped pictures of the sky capturing stunning glimpses of the cosmos simply from an iPhone.

Power was partially restored as we switched to a generator & I drifted off to sleep not long after.

End Of Day Seven

July 29, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Fiji: Part One-Beqa Lagoon

July 29, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Prologue

I started my trip to Fiji not in my normal Nashville place but instead in Los Angeles. The group I was going with, Midwest Aquatics, had booked out a group of tickets through Fiji Airways out of LAX so I went out about a week early to acclimate to the time change & get a bit of work done. It was good I went out early as I got to catch up with friends, had a few very productive meetings, & ended up having time to finish some coursework for specialty certifications I was getting as well as acquire the necessary equipment that I hadn’t realized I was lacking in my diver’s tool box. If you read my previous two blogs you’ll know that I was beyond excited for this trip to Fiji & could barely sit still in anticipation of its arrival, which, of course, it finally did! Shall we dig into it?

FIJI

PART ONE:

Day One

It’s a rather interesting experience flying across the international date line. We departed the US on our flight to Fiji at 11:55 PM PST on Thursday, July 14th, we then missed the entirety of Friday, July the 15th as, across the international date line where Fiji lies, it was already Saturday, the 16th. A very off experience to miss a day in its entirety. We all ended up not receiving the seats we had called & requested, each of us having spent about an hour on hold with Fiji Airways listening to the same song on repeat over & over, but they had bunched our group into the same couple handfuls of rows, so the awkwardness of sleeping next to a stranger on a red eye was eased. I was placed next to Roland in a middle seat though, much to our excitement, our aisle ticket holder never showed & I happily got to shift over, leaving the middle space blank for both of us to pile on items we wanted within reach & commandeer the absentee’s leg room.

I barely slept on the ride out. Call it nerves or simply sheer lack of comfort, but for whatever reason it evaded me. I think max I got three to four hours out of our eleven hour flight, all the while fading in & out of music & movies I’d downloaded to my iPad.

We arrived in Fiji before the sun around 5:45 am. Greeted by the upside down moon & a large line at customs we slowly made our way to the transport, collecting luggage & exchanged currency along the way. I was the last to make it onto the transport van having sought out coffee & an atm while everyone else in my group had gone through the exchange.

Once we were all crammed into the van we began our two-ish hour trek from Nadi to Waidroka Bay Resort. Along the way & towards the beginning of this ride our driver drove us by the gorgeous Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple & explained that nearly one third of the Fijian population is that of Indian decent whose ancestors had been brought in by the British to farm sugar cane. Formerly going by Indo Fijians, the newest Fijian President, Wiliame Katonivere, had recently declared all “Indo Fijians” as simply Fijians in an attempt to neutralized divisive language amongst his people.

Around an hour further down the road we passed through out driver’s home town, a small fishing village on the southwest coast of the island, before making our way to Vatukarasa to stop at Baravi Handicrafts & Cafe for a stretch break & a little sustenance.

Baravi is an interesting duck of a place. Majority of the store is a gift shop specializing in goods made by Fijians most for tourists; lali, carved masks, tanoa fai’ava, apparel, jewelry, ornate paddled & clubs, etc. Then tucked opposite, in the front corner of the store with a window to walk up from the outside is the cafe portion. I ordered two hand pies, butter chicken & paneer & corn, under the presumed assumption we wouldn’t linger long in addition to an iced coffee, served blended, & a bottle of sparkling coconut/pineapple drink. The hand pies were out of this world incredible! The crust was flaky & the filling was moist & rich. I definitely think I preferred the butter chicken one but maybe that’s just the white boy in me talking.

We lingered a little longer at our stop than I think we all had anticipated. Across the street a small village had set up food stalls of their own to compete with the cafe. They sold fresh fruit & boiled corn, though I got the vibe the menu changed seasonally based on availability. We all loaded back up in the van & headed onward to Waidroka.

Waidroka Bay Resort sits on the other side of a small coastal mountain range, something a van full of twenty three people might struggle to reach from time to time & though the main highways in Fiji are paved, the singular road going in & out of the bay was not. The radio station our driver had selected was an eclectic one for sure, playing anything from southern gospel to country to modern pop & 80s hits. The irony of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” was not lost on any of us as the van struggled to crest the mountain, we truly thought at a few different points we’d need to get out & push.

Finally on our decent we bobbled our way down into the resort where we were greeted by the two Scottish managers. They informed us all that our rooms weren't quite ready & that the group before us was still yet to leave but that we should hang out, place our lunch orders, & they would take care of our baggage & seeing it o our proper rooms in due time. I ordered the “catch of the day” before making my way down to the ocean, shocker, I know.

The tide had gone out during out voyage so silty mangrove shores stretched out for hundreds of yards past the etched coast line. Tide pools & fading estuaries dotted the terrain from the dock where the dive boats where now run a ground to the edge of the reef, far out past the exposed sand bed. The pools were teeming with life & one of the first things I came upon was a lagoon triggerfish trapped in water only about two inches or so deep. I asked Darin & Elaine if I should move it to the channel about fifty feet away seeing as I have experience handling live fish having managed reef tanks most of my adult life but the consensus was that the tide was returning & the porcelain bodied, strikingly painted fish would soon be able to return to sea. So off we all went in our separate directions to explore further pools.

Despite the numerous damsels, gobies, sea cucumbers, clams, corals, & starfish I came across I couldn’t shake the trigger & intuition got the best of me, which I’m glad it did. See the clouds had dissipated & while, yes the tide was returning, so too had the sun which had begun to dry out the innumerable tidal pools. About twenty minutes or so after our initial encounter I made my way back to where I believed the triggerfish to be & found it now sideways laying the same pool, now only about an inch deep. I decided to move it. Grasping the fish firmly, but delicately, holding it so that my index finger maintained its “trigger” I lifted the fish from its rapidly evaporating refuge & took it tide pool by tide pool all the way back to the channel. The trigger lingered a little when I placed it back in open water before darting out through the channel. I then made my way back through the muck to the resort for lunch.

After washing my feet I sat down to dine. The catch was Marlin, pan seared, sat atop a bed of fresh Fries, served with Fiji Lime & Tartar. It was delicious! I was then escorted up to my room, a sixty-four step climb back up the hill where room fifteen met me at the far end of a line of motel style rooms that shared a common porch/walkway. The view from my room was outstanding & it overlooked the entirety of the bay! I sorted my baggage & put my clothes in the wardrobe before collecting my dive bag & heading down to meet Jodi, our dive guide, with it all.

We had been sorted into two separate boats, that with those requiring special access for entry & exit of the water went on the Explorer with James, Jodi’s husband & fellow resort dive guide. I was placed on the other with Jodi as the ladder was a bit wobblier & we a few of us had specific tasks to complete for our different specialty certifications we were getting on the trip. Each boat was issued a briefing time & told to bring our BCDs (Buoyancy Compensator Device) & Regulators down for the staff to have set up & ready to go in the morning when we departed on our first dives. After our check-in & getting all of my gear situated I climbed back up to my room for a little jet lag nap before dinner.

I tried to keep my nap brief as I still wanted to sleep that night & in spite of my body begging me just to succumb to the slumber I managed to get up! Not feeling entirely social & in a state of calm I returned to the shoreline, where the tide had returned, & meditated atop a large chunk of lava rock next to an overturned palm tree. I exited my meditation to the sounds of fish catching insects in the shallows & found a large colony of fiddler crabs had emerged from the sand to wave their dominant claws at one another.

The Lali for dinner was beat & I returned to the main part of the resort to be met with a dinner of Stuffed Chicken with Cassava, Veggies Samosas, & Chocolate Donuts before pushing my way into my room barely able to keep my eyes open. I think I ended up falling asleep around eight or nine that evening.

End Of Day One

Day Two

I woke up on day two fair early. My body naturally said “time to go” around 6:30 AM Fiji time which is 1:30 PM Central US, hence why my body said “enough of this, up we go!” The kitchen didn’t open until around 7 AM for breakfast so I sleepily shuffled around my room collecting things I would need for the day for that thirty minutes time. The weather was a touch on the rainy side, which I’d come to learn if often far more common than sun in Fiji, but that didn’t me from stopping to take some pictures of the local Syngonium species growing in the run off ditch at the bottom of the hill.

The breakfast I had requested was Topoi, a local Fijian dumpling. The way breakfast & lunch worked at the resort was that the night prior you’d be handed a menu & prompted to choose your breakfast the next day right after finishing your three course dinner. The same went for lunch only you were asked to put in your order after finishing up your breakfast. Back to Topoi. Served with sliced fruit & a small ramekin of peanut butter, topoi is a dumpling made of Cassava & Coconut. It is similar in taste & texture to that of the southern American varietal of drop biscuits found in Chicken & Dumplings. The reason I chose this breakfast is simple. Why go somewhere you’ve never been to eat the same things you eat every day? In addition to choosing the dumplings simply out of curiosity I also got them somewhat at the behest of Elaine, my instructor & dive buddy for the week, who chooses Banana Pancakes on the days she dives especially if the distance required to travel to the dive site is farther by boat than normal. The reason? In addition to being a great source of carbohydrates, something you need when diving, bananas taste the same going either direction…

Our call time wasn't til 9 so we all sat around the table telling stories until it was time to go. It was a late start simply because the weather was up in the air. Jodi had decided to take us to a dive site called “The Pond.” She’d chosen this site for a number of reasons.

It was inside the reef & thus offered protection from the swells & winds the storm had brought in, literally making a bowl shaped, mostly sandy, retreat on the other side.
Some of us were working on Low Visibility & Night Dive Specialty Certifications, it would be murkier with the weather & thus qualify.
It’s a nice introductory dive to get reacclimatized to diving after having spent a whole days worth of time in travel mode.

I have to admit I got a little bit of FOMO when our dive site was announced because the other group was headed deeper into Beqa Lagoon. However, the weather said otherwise & the other boat ended up diving “The Aquarium,” a dive we would hit towards the end of the week.

“The Pond,” in addition to providing a respite for us, also offered one for the aquatic life around the lagoon, typically playing host to White Tip Reef Sharks, Sea Turtles, Breeding Chromis & Damsels in addition to Dogfaced Pufferfish. The only of the three we ended up seeing that day were the latter. As I said, “The Pond” is a bowl tucked on the inside of the reef wall, its sandy slopes are covered in boulders that host colonies of Lettuce Coral & Birds Nest. These then play host to the mating fish of the reef & hide Green Chromis & Domino Damsels all throughout their overlapping structures.

We ended up diving “The Pond” twice that day as the weather prevented us from going out onto the other side of the reef. During those two dives we saw a Great Pacific Octopus, a Maculiceps Tang, a ton of Scopas Tangs, several species of Butterflyfish, the only Goniopora Coral I saw all week, a Halfmoon Triggerfish, & the sites resident Sewing Machine (mark that as the weirdest thing I’ve ever found on the bottom of the ocean).

We headed back to the resort ahead of the weather & just in time for lunch. I took my lunch poolside & got a cup of Pumpkin & Coconut Soup with a Ham Melt Sandwich. During my time by the pool in the little sunshine we had that day I managed to befriend a rather curious little female Jumping Spider. She came & sat on my knee looking up at me before I’d scoot her into my hand & set her on the ground next to me just for her to come back over & over again, so I decided to let her stay & we enjoyed our lunch in the sun together.

Naptime rolled around with the rain. Our third dive was called off & up the hill I went to crash for a bit of time & start editing the GoPro footage I had accumulated over the day.

After my nap I decided I’d be a little more social, so I returned to the main lobby/dining hall of the resort. There I was met by Elaine, Billy (one of the Fijians working there), & Kai (the owner’s daughter). Elaine & Billy were in the process of teaching Kai how to bartend as she would soon have to be the one to do it in a few of the staff’s absence in the coming months. Elaine was writing out a list of basic drinks & recipes as she’d at one point owned a bar & we all got to be the guinea pigs for Kia’s bartending experience. I got handed a blended Papaya Daiquiri which was refreshing & light before then being passed a drink Elaine & Kai had come up with called a “Safety Stop,” a fruity rum drink with a cherry floater halfway submerged. If you’re a diver you already get the joke, if not allow me to explain (divers may skip ahead to next paragraph). A safety stop is a 3-5 minute hold spent around 15 feet below the surface. The purpose of the safety stop is to allow your body to expel some of the nitrogen that has been forced into your body due to increased pressure. It helps prevent decompression sickness a.k.a the bends.

After a dinner of Veggie Tempura, Pan Fried Marlin, & assorted fruits alongside a Rum Negroni, it was time for bed. I wrapped up my editing, posted my travel vlog video, & was out before the clock struck nine.

End Of Day Two

Day Three

Now entering Monday, I was awoken around 6:30 AM once again, this time by the sound of a screeching Masked Parrot perched atop a tree just off the side of the hill. The sun had risen & the rain had cleared so I made my way down to breakfast. My meal that morning was Muesli, a dish that I had been introduced to in the past by my former manager. The Muesli at Waidroka was less of an overnight oat & more of a cereal with a plethora of topping. Yogurt, honey, bananas, raisins, papaya, etc. It was amazing & quite filling though I think I owe part of my fullness to the endless supply of tank bread (fruit bread in the shape of a tank) that came with each breakfast.

Our dives were at “Pipes,” just off shore from the reef wall. “Pipes” in addition to being a great dive site, is also a rather attractive surfing stop, in fact that’s where it received its name. To us it was appealing not only for the abundance of corals & sea life, but also because Dave, my other dive buddy, & I needed to get down below 100 ft for our deep diving certification.

Upon our initial entry into the water I became immediately overwhelmed. Not anxious or panicky, but aghast at the amount & diversity of the corals that lay below me. “Pipes” was truly a spectacle & I couldn’t help but smile for at least the first 10-20 minutes of the dive.

We pretty quickly got to work plummeting down into the deep. Elaine, Dave, & for some reason Darin, Deb, & I all made our way over the drop off & down into the deep reaching around 108 ft. before beginning our slow ascent back up to the main part of the reef. I think Deb & Darin were simply following us, not because they were after the certification, lord knows Darin most likely already has it being a dive shop owner, but because they thought we were following the rest of our group. In any case, Deb was now just lacking the coursework to check off her Deep Dive certification.

At “Pipes” I found a gorgeous bubble tip anemone in addition to the only Powder Brown Tang I saw the whole trip, which just happened to be at depth! The reef teemed with life from Moorish Idols to Regal & Lemonpeel Angelfish to Firefish & Leopard Wrasse.

We dove “Pipes” twice before heading in to shore for lunch. During our surface intervals we sat drinking coffee, eating muffins, cookies, & apples, watching the surfers take in the surface enjoyment through a light drizzly rain that made way for a magnificent rainbow.

On our second dive we crossed the 80 ft requirement for the Deep Diving cert. Deb joined once again. I contributed to my daily bit of ocean conservation when I pulled a busted size 11 flip flop from the sand that a massive sea cucumber was attempting to eat. We also found a shining example of bubble coral nestled just opposite of a huge saddle anemone.

My lunch that day was a Fish Wrap served with a side of Island Slaw, a very cucumber heavy dish. No spider accompanied my mean but there was a rather large moth outside the dive shop when we initially returned. I also began my daily practice of post dive tea time; English Breakfast with a spoonful of sugar & a splash of milk. Really warms the bones from the chilly deep.

We were given the go ahead to trek out for another dive which we decided would be a return to “Pipes” only this time we would drift dive the portion that is normally surfed & end up tucked away from the current where we originally began. This is where we spotted our first Turtle of the trip! Off swimming in the current, lazily bobbing along, a turtle! Unfortunately the afternoon churn & our distance from it kept me from getting a good video/picture but it is there if you go back & watch the day three video from my TikTok or Instagram!

In addition to the turtle the wall was covered in beautify Zoanthid polyps & teaming with larger reef fish like Grouper, Snapper, & Squirrel Fish.

Dinner was Coconut & Pumpkin Soup with a Marinated Pork Chop & Ice Cream for dessert. I sat a few long, extra hours at the table editing video for the daily vlog before I began the sixty-four step climb to my room.

The frogs were out that night, massive tree frogs that came out to bask in the warmth of the concrete all while attempting to attract a mate.

I’m pretty sure I stayed up rather late editing, going to bed around Midnight instead of 9 or 10 PM.

End Of Day Three

Day Four

Tuesday started a little groggier than the previous. With more dive footage came more required for combing through hours worth of footage to find several one to three second blurbs to fit into my vlogs. I’m not complaining though, I’m beyond happy with how my vlogs turned out!

It was a clear day that we started earlier than normal because we were off to dive Beqa Lagoon proper! I started my day once again with Topoi as we had to brave the choppiness of the Beqa Passage between the main island of Fiji & Yanuca Island on the western edge of Beqa Lagoon.

As I said, the morning was a much quicker one, the wind was due to pick up in the afternoon making the Passage more & more difficult to navigate in our small dive boats, so our call time sat just on the other side of breakfast, the staff even arriving thirty minutes earlier to accommodate us.

Our first dive in the lagoon was called “Pinnacles” so named because of the labyrinth of pinnacle rock formations jutting up from the sand below which now house millions of individual plant, fish, coral, & invertebrate species.

Upon entering the water we were immediately greeted by a curious Remora. For those of you that don’t know, a remora is a fish with a sucker on the top of its head that attaches to larger pelagic aquatic animals such as whales, turtles, sharks, & manta rays. Seeing a remora is usually a sign that something big is swimming near by unless, as this one was trying to do, they see you as the bigger aquatic life & attempt to suction onto you for a ride, something I’ve heard is far from fun.

The Remora quickly lost interest in us & we began our dive. Wrapping around the first pinnacle we found an abundance of Sea Fans & Whips, Christmas Tree Worms Basket Starfish, & two massive Clown Triggerfish. We wove in & our of the different Pinnacles throughout the dive though I stayed around 5-8 feet above everyone else, my left ear failing to equalize the the pressure below that depth.

When it was time for the group to make our safety stop we were moved to the top of one of the largest pinnacles. The abundance of life just atop the large, looming tower was extraordinary. Hard corals abounded with damsels darting in & out of their folds, Male Lyre-tail Anthias flashing their displays, fighting over territory & harams of females, & the current swinging us all violently to & fro, now entirely unprotected by the walls below.

We took the opportunity of our surface interval to dip out of the wash & into calmer waters. We pulled over to the abandoned surf camp on Yanuca & claimed it as harbor while we sat around sun bathing & eating our carb heavy snacks. I took the time to tend to my clearly clogged sinus in preparation & hope that it would clear for the next dive ahead. My efforts were fruitful!

The original plan for dive number two of the day was to do a site called “Three Nuns” as the three massive pinnacles there resembled, you guessed it, three nuns. About halfway out the Fijians called it though & diverted to “Turtle Head” a dive site not as close to the passage where winds & waves had picked up exponentially.

“Turtle Head” is so called because one of the large pinnacle towers there jets out into the water reminiscent of a Hawks-Bill Sea Turtle. I personally didn’t see the turtle head during the dive, maybe it was because I was distracted by the incredible life found there but was definitely also partially to do with the fact that I spent the whole dive fighting my mask which had taken up the hobby of fogging during our surface interval. Well, that & the waves had kicked up quite a deal of sediment. None of that to say that the dive was a bust however, far from it.

In spite of the rather constant annoyance my mask was generating & the face I had to fill & clear it almost forty-five seconds, the dive was still incredible. We found several very large Porcupine Pufferfish, another Octopus, & a Trumpetfish, in addition to all of the coral & fish dotting the reef & its many tunnels that would have made great swim throughs if not for the fragile nature of the sea fans inhabiting them.

The top of the “Turtle Head” pinnacle was even more teeming with life though so too was the surge. It was truly a fight getting back into the boat even despite having the mooring line to hold tight too while being slung back & forth across the reef.

Lunch was Teriyaki Chicken Fried Rice served from the beach of the old surf camp. After paying a local $10 Fijian per person to a local islander we all climbed off the boat onto shore & gathered in the bar/mess hall of this now abandoned surfer camp, a location the island locals have helped to upkeep because it has since become a hot spot for dive boat lunches.

Another very popular surf spot, Frigates, is just off shore from the island, on the western edge of the Beqa Lagoon. Frigates is one of the top surf spot in the world, bringing people from all over to cruise its wave. This surf camp featured facilities for surfers to bunk in, running water, a full kitchen, etc. However, they decided at one point to stop paying rent to the locals who in turn kicked them out.

After lunch & failing to husk a coconut on the beach, I swam out to the boat for my mask. A beautiful reef say just off the shore & me being the fish I am, I had to explore it. This then gave Jodi an idea for our third dive. We would be doing a shore dive, starting just outside the little harbor & ending right before the shoreline. So I guess not technically a shore dive where you enter & exit from the shore.

This dive, which we named “Papaya Seed” because of the random swatches of papaya seeds all over the surf camp, was very reminiscent of my first ever dive in Maui with the exception that I think the water was a little more clear on this dive. The sparse reef was home to Massive Seacucumbers, Many a Cleaner Wrasse & their respective cleaning stations, Pillow Starfish, Queen Conches, Clams, Triggers, & Tangs & the dive ended up being a very relaxed, very quant one!

The journey back through the chop was a rough one & I was thrilled we ended up not being smack dab in the middle of it with “Three Nuns.” We were greeted back at the dive shop by the resort cat before I once again began the editing game for my vlogs.

The evening was meant to be a cultural night at the resort, of which I was unaware until one of the Fijian dancers, Sam Sam, came up behind me to fetch a spear from the building overlooking the harbor where I’d taken up residence with my post-dive tea & my iPad, just editing away.

The Fijians all circled up & sat by the pool bringing us all in to a group half circle to watch the festivities. They explained to us the dances & songs they’d be singing & then the party began. A group of young Fijian men rushed the “stage” they’d allotted & began their traditional dances. They ranged in age from early twenties to about eight to ten & the littlest ones constantly looked to their superiors for the next moves. After the dancing & singing we were moved to the main building of the resort where a line up of traditional Fijian foods awaited us.

I took way too much food & ate the lot of it which caused me to spend the duration of my evening editing very, very full. I ended up wrapping around midnight again but without finishing the video. I determined it would be better for me to wake up early the next day & finish which is precisely what I did.

End Of Day Four

END OF PART ONE

May 13, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: The United Kingdom-Part Three: There & Back Again

May 13, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Welcome back to my United Kingdom travel blog! If you’ve made it this far, congrats, you’re onto the last part!!! If you’re reading this like “last part?! whaaaa?!” then I invite you to go read through Part One & Two before returning to finish out this most epic of trilogies. You can find links to both here:

Part One

Part Two

All caught up? Great! Let’s move on to Part Three then!

Part Three:

There & Back Again

Day Ten

We departed Dumfries right around 8 AM, our rental was due back in Camden by 5 PM & we had a long drive down from Scotland through England to make. We unfortunately didn’t get to say goodbye to Carolann on our way out but Ali & the rest of the crew definitely gave us the royal send off.

Our first stop on the way down is a must hit if you’re traveling up or down the Northwest coast of England, Tebay. I was first introduced to Tebay by the Liverpool/Manchester gents who played RNLI Park Fest with me back in 2019 who try to make it a stop anytime they play up north. Tebay, while technically a small English town, is also a service center. For my American folks think a truck stop but way way way way way nicer. Tebay Services, Farmshop, & Kitchen has two locations; one northbound, one southbound. It is exactly as the name states, a service stop in addition to a restaurant & shop. The beautiful thing about Tebay, aside from the immaculate view it offers, is that all of the food served comes from within only a handful of miles from the stop.

We arrived around 10:30 AM & breakfast was still in full swing so we went the full on English Breakfast route! I had Scrambled Eggs, Beans, Cumberland Sausage, Roasted Tomato & Mushroom, Haggis, Bacon, A Raisin Scone w/ Orange Marmalade, & A Drip Coffee. Evan did the same sans Mushroom, Scone, & Haggis & also got a Pork Sausage. After taking in breakfast with a gorgeous view of the English countryside we walked around their Farmshop! It’s really almost three shops put into one. There’s a genuine market selling uncooked ingredients from around the area, there’s a local clothing/item section, & there’s a section dedicated to foods distinctly from The United Kingdom including small batch chocolatiers, distillers, bakers, etc.

By the time we’d finished up & were getting ready to go the hand pie stand had opened up so we grabbed a few of those for the road. I got a Chicken & Mushroom Pie, Evan got the Onion & Cheese. We grabbed gas & a few drinks & down the road we went towards London.

To be entirely frank I was quite nervous about driving in London, especially since we’d be arriving around rush hour. When I picked up the rental our drop off options were Camden, Tower Heights, Gatwick, or Heathrow & I didn’t feel like driving an hour outside of London just to spend an hour & a half on the tube with luggage felt economical, so Camden it was.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy I found driving in London rush hour, it was far easier than New York City even with the inclusion of driving on the other side of the road. We did end up dropping off the car a little late but the agency couldn’t have cared less. From there we walked to Euston Station & hopped the southbound train to Covent Gardens back to Victoria & Rhys’s.

Seeing as it was now around 6 PM the hunt for dinner began. We were presented with the idea of Seven Dials Market, a coalition of street food vendors that had come together in an old cucumber & banana storage warehouse, a theme that is still prevalent throughout. At Seven Dials Market you can order drinks from the bar to be delivered to your table but as far as food goes you need to go to the different stalls to picket what you want. I grabbed an Iced Masala Chai from Chai Guys & we began the task of picking which of the over a dozen food options we wanted.

Evan & I decided on splitting a few things. We were really craving a burger so we went downstairs to Truffle but found that we couldn’t decide between The Truffle Burger (Beef & Bacon Patty w/ Raclette Cheese, Crispy Onions, Fig Jam & Truffle Mayo) or the Cheeseburger (Aged Beef/Bacon Patty, Cheese, Pickles, Lettuce, & Truffle Sauce) so we got both in addition to some Truffle Parmesan Fries. On top of the burgers there was also a dumpling stand that was calling our names so we got an order of Pork Bao & Pork & Chive Dumplings from Yum Bun! All of the food was outstanding & for dessert Victoria got us all a Chocolate Hazelnut Finger Doughnut from Longboys to share!

Practically bursting at this point we waddled back to the flat, stopping at Tesco to grab some snacks (yes that includes Strawbs) & drinks to enjoy later on when we sat down to watch Shutter Island before calling it a night!

Day Eleven

In desperate need of a workout after almost a week without we joined Victoria at Barry’s Soho for their 8:45 Full Body class. Following my “I can’t workout in the morning rule unless I’ve had caffeine & food prior” I ended up booking double floor. I knew running wasn’t going to happen. I’d done a touch of carb loading before just to be safe though, having gone downstairs to Tesco to pick up an energy drink & some fresh baked goods from their untouched morning selection. Scarfing down a soft pretzel & a croissant along with an apple the three of us walked to Barry’s (Rhys went once again with his trainer).

The class was hard! It was a circuit set meaning it built. Four total exercises per circuit, each targeted for a minute at as many as possible before combining them for two. We ended up walking back separate from Victoria because she was in need of a shower & we had planned to wait until we got back to the flat to bathe.

Along the way we had decided that another caffeine source was necessary so we walked over to WatchHouse. The barista recommended the Iced Peruvian Pourer so that’s what we got! The coffee had a nice almost bread & jam taste, very similar to my Raisin Scone w/ Orange Marmalade the morning before. It smacked! We walked back the rest of the way before showering & dressing for the day.

We had been prompted with a text of “Borough Market tomorrow?” on our drive back to London the day prior. Victoria had a mind for a Sausage Roll from The Black Pig & I, for one, am always down for a trip to Borough Market so that is where our pre-afternoon began!

We walked the same path that Evan & I had taken the week before; past St. Paul’s, over the Millennium Bridge, by The Globe. Borough Market was a zoo! There were far more people there this Saturday than the one prior which was surprising seeing as the previous had been Easter weekend.

We made a beeline for Bread Ahead as our glowing doughnut review had left V&R wanting. I returned for the Blackcurrant Cheesecake, Evan for the Pistachio, V&R split a Blueberry Jam, thought naturally they all got passed around between the four of us.

Rhys got Cod & Chips from Fish!, Victoria went after her Sausage Roll, & Evan & I got in line for the special at Northfield Kitchen, an Aged Corned Beef Sandwich on Rye with Pickles, Spicy Mustard, Swiss, & Cole Slaw. We all sat around on a barricade munching on our lunch & sipping Prosecco Punch but heading over to hop the Uber Boat back up the river to Westminster.

V&R headed back to the flat but Evan & I decided to continue on back to Soho to hit up Carnaby, Regent, & Bond. We wafted in & out of a few shops, most of which clearly didn’t get the memo that the weather was nice out because they were blasting the heat like it was midwinter. After mostly coming up dry in our shopping escapades we ended up at Scotch & Soda where I almost bumped smack into Tom Felton & his girlfriend.

I have had an obsession with this sweater that was shown in one singular scene in one of the later seasons of a show that used to be on called “Penny Dreadful.” It’s an oversized button shoulder turtleneck sweater & while I still have yet to find something exact, I did manage to find two button shoulder sweaters at Scotch & Soda that worked for me! I was ecstatic to discover them & purchased them immediately & naturally I wore one of them to dinner later! However, if you or a loved one know where I can find my oversized button shoulder turtleneck sweater, please don’t hesitate to let me know!

Post shop we took ourselves a little nap, having woken up at 7:30 AM & walked hither & yon. It was about 6 PM by the time we’d made it back to the flat & we he had a 9:30 dinner reservation at Frog by Adam Handling to look forward to! A glass or two of red wine made that slip into a nap very, very easy.

I’d made the executive decision to try to get to Frog about thirty minutes early, not because I thought they’d squeeze us into our reservation earlier, but because I thought they’d squeeze us into Eve, their companion bar…which is exactly what they did!

Eve is a cocktail bar that makes excellent use of its upstairs neighbor, Frog. The premise behind Eve is that they push the boundaries of craft cocktail using ingredients that would otherwise be wasted from the restaurant above, going as far as having a lab present to distill & infuse certain ingredients into their drinks.

When you’re seated in the stained glass anointed underground bar you are greeted with a welcome cocktail to cleanse the palette, this night is was an Apple Daiquiri. Bright, refreshing, & full of spring! I then proceeded to order the Tiki-Ero, a Clementine & Banana Peel infused Rum drink paired with Allspice, Coconut, & Lime. It was revitalizing & forward while still being warm & comfortable. We were then ushered upstairs for dinner service.

…

You ready for it?

Dinner at Frog started off in the normal tasting menu way, with snack courses! The thing to remember here going forward is that Frog is centered around tradition ingredients found within the UK, in fact the “menu” includes a map marked with the places each of their star ingredients were gathered from. Now, back to the snack.

The first of the snacks was a twist on Eggs & Bacon served in a ceramic eggshell nestled into a bed of straw with dry ice concealed underneath. When presented water was offed to the bed causing it to “fog” the table. In addition to the breakfast staples the custardy dish also contained Maitake Mushrooms otherwise known as Hen-of-the-woods. Adorable.

The second of the snacks was reminiscent of a Cucumber Sandwich. It presented as a one-two bite Tart filled with little Jellied Cucumber Drops, Edible Flowers, Dried Oyster, & Caviar. I’m not usually one to toot the horn of cucumber but this little tart was so full of life its hard no to! Springy, salty, savory, while still maintaining its effervescence!

The following dish, if I’m being honest, was my least favorite of the snacks, that’s not to say it was bad by any means though. It was Black Cod, a staple fish of British cuisine, served as a mandala’d Cracker. The spokes of its black wheels were hollow offering a very pleasant mouth feel & crunch!

The final snack was a Beef Tartare, a dish that I feel can be rather polarizing to most. I personally am great fan of the Tartares of the world. This varietal contained a Crispy Wrapping, a crown of Edible Flowers, & Kimchi harkening back to its roots as originally a North East Asian dish followed by its rise in popularity throughout Europe in the 19th Century. The mince was soft & moist & that added crunch brought me back to my favorite setting of beef tartare, served atop bread!

Onto the main courses!

The first official course is one that I’ve been talking about for weeks now. It truly warmed my heart to the core & reaffirmed the reason I love the shared culture of food so much. Food is often the story of our lives. Fresh Bread was served along side four other plates. The first of these plates contained a Stuffed Chicken Wing. Boneless, a singular bite, juicy & supple on the inside with a crisp skin pinned in place with a barb & a rooster feather. The next to plates were spread; Fresh Butter with Chicken Cracklin’ on top & Chicken Pâté. Both were meant to be spread & enjoyed with the bread. The final plate contained a card. On this card sat a story. It said the following:

““My sister, the fussy eater that she is, would only want roast chicken every family Sunday lunch. But Mondays were my favourite-leftover roast chicken in a white, floury Scottish bun with loads of salted butter. Delish!

This dish is my take on the happy memories of that Monday morning roast chicken sandwich.””

— Adam Handling, Bread, Chicken Butter

This. This folks is why I love the culinary arts, because they are exactly that, an art. They are an expression of ones life story through the food that made them the person that they are today. It is the culmination of heritage, culture, trial & error, failures & successes, life, love, loss, & time. It speaks to us not through merely our eyes or ears but through each of our five senses. It tells a story in a single bite & expresses the unseen or unheard effortlessly.

Sorry for the rant, back to our scheduled programing.

Dish number two! I know right, how do we follow up the tangent I went on with that one? The second dish was an ode to the Tomato served in the form of a Gazpacho. The three stars of this dish were Tomato, obviously, Pepper, & Basil. The gazpacho was presented patiently waiting below a Tomato Crisp served with a Red Pepper Granache draped over. I think this may have been my least favorite of the course, not because it wasn’t an amazing expression in its own right but simply because my personage tends to have an aversion to Bell Pepper.

The third course was simply titled “All About The Sturgeon” & much like the bar hidden beneath Frog, it too sought to use different parts of the fish to great success. The common sturgeon having been a popular choice specifically for its caviar is considered a “Royal Fish” meaning that they, along with Whales, are the property of the British Monarchy when in sovereign waters, much like Swans. This dish was absolutely one of my favorites of the evening.

Sat prim upon a Heart-shaped Waffle was a dollop of Sturgeon Mousse, topped with Sturgeon Caviar, & covered, in its entirety, by Maple Syrup. This dish was so complex in its flavor profile while still being entirely familiar. It blended salty, sweet, savory, all on the most perfect of levels, allowing each to take up battlements on the pallet & wax & wane over the who had control. Each bite a new battle always resulting in the consumer’s favor.

Course four was another favorite. I feel like I keep saying that, but y’all, this meal was truly exceptional! A Scallop from the Orkney Isles up off of the northern point of Scotland swimming in a Foam Emulsion & Herb Reduction featuring prominent flavors of Za’atar & tap root, specifically an assorted shaving of Rainbow Carrots. The dish had a very nice heat to it without being overbearing. It was earthy & smokey without compromising the natural citrus notes of the scallop. Absolutely wonder!

Next came a course with yet another card attached only this time it wasn’t a note or a story. Course five was a spoon full of Duck covered in freshly shaved Black Truffle & served on a plate of beach stones with a picture of a very satisfied looking black lab named Stanley. In the photo Stanley is standing overtop a bowl filled with freshly foraged black truffles. These were Stanley’s truffles & his hard work was being recognized in glorious fashion along with I hope heaps of belly rubs at home. I’m always a sucker for fresh truffles, especially when served with water fowl & a picture of a large dog. The spoonful unfortunately didn’t last too long seeing as it was a one to two biter, but that’s my only true complaint revolving around it.

Next we were back to Cod, only this time served as a filet, not as a cracker. Lemongrass reduction formed a moat the fillet itself. I wish I could recall the what made up the remainder of the dish, from the crispy wafer on top to the puree that elevated the fish out of the reduction. My notes mention something about there being Grape in the dish but I think between the wine & still fawning over Stanley being the goodest boy it’s been lost in translation a tad.

Course seven came with two options; Wagyu Beef with Hen-of-the-woods or Lamb with Sweetbread, & Morels. We went with both each ordering one or the other then swapping not only plates halfway through but also the paired wine. I’m going to go in order of my tasting starting with the Beef.

Served Medium Rare the British Wagyu came with the aforementioned Hen-of-the-woods Mushrooms in addition to some grilled onions & an Au Jus made from Beef Tongue. The steak was incredibly tender & truly melted in your mouth with the inclusion of the Tongue Aus Jus. I also really enjoyed the little stenciled leaves that were served along the side of the plate, separating out the vegetables. It was then my turn with the Lamb.

The Lamb was definitely the more eloquent of the pair at least as far as presentation goes. It included a Morel Reduction along with a few stocks of Asparagus. The slight gaminess of the Lamb lended itself wonderfully to the earthy/springy clash the mushrooms & the asparagus brought. I think between the two I preferred the beef, though Evan preferred the Lamb. I wouldn’t have been mad to receive either though. With savory courses now wrapped we moved on to dessert!

The first of the dessert courses brought Britain’s favorite springtime veggie to the forefront. Rhubarb. Appearing in the form of a Rhubarb & Wasted Wine Sorbet served alongside a Fresh Whipped Creme. The tart bouncy rhubarb was brought well into balance by the presence of the cream & it made for a very pleasant dessert/palette cleanser!

The final course of the evening, pre-dessert snack course, was a Yoghurt Cheesecake topped with little spots of Apricot & a serving of Lemon Thyme Sorbet. Another mellow dessert it was the perfect end cap for the warm spring night. Then came the snacks.

As I’ve mentioned before in other tasting menu blogs, it appears to be customary to end the evening with another snack course, just as the evening is started with one, Frog was no exception. They served what they call their Petit Fours…though there were five. (And yes I know Petit Fours refers to bitesized desserts, not the quantity of the bite sized desserts.)

First up, served as a pair, were a simple Blackberry Jelly Gumdrop & a White Chocolate Frog Truffle filled with Yuzu. The jelly bite, as I stated above, was simple, none offensive, but carried with it a subtle charm. Their dashing little frog companions was citrusy with soft floral undertones.

Next on the list were the Chocolate & Miso Tarts. I am always a huge fan of the combinations of Miso & Chocolate. The umami of the miso really lends itself to the bold sweetness of the ganache-y chocolate. It had a nice give before finishing off with the crust.

Our final in restaurant dessert was the Strawberry & Cream Possett. Unlike the earlier egg custard dish this one was served in an actual eggshell instead of a ceramic one. It was a sweet little twist on the traditional “strawberries & cream” formula that made for a very nice introduction into the summer months coming ahead.

I regret to inform you that the last of the Petit Fours was not had by us. You see it was a take home item & in our more than now inebriated state we completely forgot that we had it on our walk home & left it in the fridge at the flat.

As I was writing all about this meal again & experiencing it vicariously through my words I had the following thought that I stand by adamantly. I would fly from Nashville to London just to dine at Frog again, turn right back around & come home. I would sit through 14+ hours of travel overseas just to spend another three house in this restaurant. That is the extent to which I recommend Frog by Adam Handling to you. If you find yourself in London or in The British Isles or hell, even in France, make the trip to London to eat here. Eat here before its well deserved two Michelin stars become three & this place is booked out for the next eternity. I promise you will not regret it or look back. The story of food that Adam & crew tell at Frog is that of many lifetimes converging to create spectacular art that fills you to your core. It is few & far between that the love gushes so freely from the likes of a tasting menu but I cannot overstate how beautiful an expression of food this place is. Run, do not walk to Frog.

I wanted to end this, our last full day in The UK with the note I wrote & sent to the Frog crew on the plane ride home.

Frog,

I wanted to pass along a thought to you. I know you neither asked for it nor is it by any means a slight or mark against you & your institution. I am also utterly aware that as someone who merely dabbles recreationally in the culinary arts I have no grounds to file suggestions based on your food. Again, not that you need it by any means, yours & your teams’ cuisine & masterful practice of the art form are up there in the highest of the upper echelons. What I can offer you is insight from one story teller to another. While I communicate with the world at large primarily through words, lyrics, music, & writing, yours is the craft of communication through food; you tell stories through experimentation, retellings of tradition, & personal connection. It’s that last bit that really struck me last night while having the pleasure of dining in your establishment. You see I have been fortunate enough to participate in many a tasting menu as life changing food is a true passion of mine. Today I find myself not so much discussing the items on your menu that I enjoyed most from a palette stand point but those which invoked a feeling of connection to you & your staff. In my many years of gallivanting the food scene I have never been presented with a story to accompany a dish, or I guess in this case a course. I’m sure at this point you realize I am talking about your “leftover” chicken dish. The subtle art of story telling is one that thrills me to the core & it was an honor to experience a slice of your life through the expression of love, admiration, & nostalgia you put into that. I applaud you on your candor & your vulnerability when openly sharing a shining glimpse into the food, events, & emotions that led you to cook the food that you do. In addition to this radiant moment, I also truly enjoyed the touch of perspective you injected into your truffle course with Stanley. You have created food that is deeply personal, not just to yourself but also to those involved in its construction & that is the true measure of great art. I am grateful for the experience & hope to have the fortune of dining with you all again very soon. These moments of passion & love are the subtle strengths that elevate you to the stars my friends, of course not discounting your impeccable preparatory skills, but I would be remiss if I did not express my hope that you continue to find places to insert them into the story that is an evening at Frog.

It is with the warmest of regards & deepest appreciation that I write you,

Your newest regular,

Charlie Rogers

Day Twelve

Even though all other COVID regulations for travel had been lifted at this point & even though both Evan & I are fully vaxxed & boosted US Citizens, we still had to get a COVID test to reenter the US no more than 24 hours before our flight.

Evan had scheduled us a 9 AM appointment to have a rapid antigen test done, we hadn’t gone to bed til at least 2 AM that same morning. In addition to lack of sleep we were hungover as all get out so crawling through Covent Garden to Soho at 8:45 was a struggle & a half.

Our tests were quick, only taking about 10 minutes total in the testing location, but once again we were in a facility with rude, entitled Americans.

I truly give Americans a bad rep in this blog series don’t I, or at least I have a knack for calling them out on their BS. I don’t mean to appear “greater than” it’s just, y’all, we have to be better.

Anyway, back to this rude American couple. They were both well in their late-60s & truthfully were not only rude to the French attendants at the clinic but also to us upon entering. They hadn’t made a reservation, an ongoing theme it seems, & were demanding to be tested asap. Luckily for them there had been a no show so they had tests available. The clinicians handled it much better than I would have too, I’d have told them to kick rocks & maybe plan ahead next time, have fun rescheduling your flight!

Now tested & still wildly hungover the daily hunt for coffee began. We decided to try a coffee shop just down the street from the flat called The Espresso Room. Ordering yet another Iced Drip I also was instructed to get an Almond Croissant, a pastry I had passed up a week prior at Monmouth. WHY DID I PASS UP THE ALMOND CROISSANT?! No one told me they were filled!!! This almond croissant was massive, like almost a foot long, & it was incredible. It has also instilled a new dopamine obsession for me, that of course being the almond croissant. Don’t sleep on her, she’s busin’.

We decided that a walk would probably help the hangover & the streets of Covent Gardens were completely deserted, so we went walkabout. On our voyage around the borough we stumbled upon a little courtyard that had a catholic church tucked in the back, St Paul’s Church. The exciting thing, to us, about St. Paul’s is that they had cats. Two absolutely stunning black cats that have been residents of the church all their lives & spend their days wandering Inigo Jones Garden. Even though we were only a day away from being home with our animals we had to stop & spend a little time with the kitties.

It had now become time to pack & prepare for our departure. Heading back to the flat we gathered our belongings, forgetting the breakfast offering from Frog, hugged V&R goodbye, & hopped the Piccadilly Line back to Heathrow.

From here the journey is pretty standard; security, snacks from duty-free for the flight attendants, one last smoked salmon sandwich for the road, a matcha latte, & finally boarding. We were sat in the same exact seats as our trip into the UK only this time the plan was stay awake at all costs. Remember folks, the rule is sleep overnight going East, stay the hell awake going West. I wrote the above note, did a bit of object writing, we caught up on Moon Knight & then proceeded to bing Heartstopper.

We arrived at JFK around 9PM EST ready to PTFO, unfortunately we still had to go through immigrations, customs, grab bags, hop into an Uber, & drive across Queens to our hotel just outside of LaGuardia, all of which turned out to be fairly painless.

We arrived at Aloft around 10:30 & were passed out, having had dinner from a vending machine, around 11.

Day Thirteen

We really only got around 5-6 hours of sleep, our flight out of New York was early, departing around 7 AM. We had to be in line for the shuttle by 4:30 AM & it was packed!

LaGuardia security was more of a pain than Heathrow & customs combined, so I’m glad we got there early.

There’s truly not that much more interesting to tell from here on out. We landed in Nashville at 8:30 CST, had to pay far too much for an Uber home, then stayed up all day to try & beat the jetlag…it didn’t work…

Afterward

If you’ve made it this far I’m grateful for you taking the time out of your day or night or whenever you’re reading this to do so!

Traveling, exchanging stories, customs, cuisine, art, music, & culture are the things that fill me with life. It is truly my honor to go one these adventures & share these experiences with you. I hope you gain something out of reading them & find them informative & or inspiring in one way or another.

I’d like to thank Victoria & Rhys for being so accommodating to us, The Donowhos for your years & years of love & support & willingness to help me & mine, the people of Dumfries for opening up your town & hearts so hospitably to me, & anyone I may have missed along the way. Shoutout to Ross for putting your sound & videography skills to use on my behalf, I can’t wait to show off the footage! Thank you to Evan for being the patient, easygoing travel companion you are! You all made this trip a joy & made my 30th one for the books.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time to give this a read!

Much love to you all,

-C

End Of Part Three

End Of Blog Series For The United Kingdom

May 6, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: The United Kingdom-Part Two: Great Scot!

May 6, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Hiya! Welcome back!

If you’re reading that above sentence going “Wha?! Welcome back?!” feel free to go give Part One a read & make your way back here!

You can find Part One HERE!

All caught up? Yes? Great! Onto Part Two!!!!

Part Two:

Great Scot!

Day Five

Day Five was a bit of a travel day. We’d booked the train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh. We’d also slept in just a tad seeing as the previous day’s events had been rather physically draining on my now certified thirty year old self. Before packing our belongings & heading to the station however we went on our daily search for coffee, naturally.

We met up with Victoria & Rhys, who had already made their way out, & stopped into a small coffee shop for an iced latte & a chocolate croissant. I can’t remember what the name of it was unfortunately. After some hugs & temporary goodbyes we boarded the tube up to King’s Cross.

We arrived at the station around noon with our train not due to depart until 12:30. We waited about, laughing a little about the snaked around line for a picture at Platform 9 3/4 & corresponding gift shop before we were eventually assigned a train at Platform 5. Our train departed promptly & we were off to Scotland.

I fell asleep for the first leg of our four & a half hour journey. I was unfortunately awoken about 30-40 minutes later by a rather rancid stench. Walker’s Prawn Cocktail Crisps. While fine on their own, believe me, the girl sitting next to us had brought a bag with her on the train that she was now leisurely snacking on. She must have spent a total of several hours on this personal sized back of crisps but the smell that permeated the air from them was death.

An hour or so in I worked up an appetite in spite of the stench. I popped over to the dining car for a chicken salad sandwich (less mayo based chicken salad (more like a salad with chicken on bread), a bag of Walker’s Onion & Cheese Crisps, & a Coke. I’m sure the Coke in The UK is just as bad for you but I couldn’t help but feel it wasn't seeing as it was lacking in the high fructose corn syrup & other “American only ingredients” department. Rhys had warned me that The UK Coke tasted “watered down” ever since the implementation of the sugar tax, but I actually quite enjoyed it.

Between snacking, taking pictures of the passing towns & scenery, & dozing off here & there, I played a few demos I’d downloaded ahead of time on my Switch. The train made many stops along the way passing through Durham, Newcastle, etc. before arriving in Scotland. We vowed to return to a few of these locales as they looked cute af.

Arriving in Edinburgh we grabbed our luggage & made our way through the station to the very busy Princes Street. The time was now 5 PM. We carted our luggage several blocks before landing at our accommodations for the evening, the Mode Aparthotel. The space was massive! We got all of our items situated, grabbed a coffee from the lounge, made a few calls, then decided to make our way to Old Town!

Once we’d passed through the mob of people taking in an Easter Sunday evening in Edinburgh & ascended the hill into Old Town we immediately made a b-line for The Devil’s Advocate. We’d been prescribed Devil’s Advocate by four separate parties at this point; Victoria & Rhys, the staff at The Clove Club, Kim Logan & crew, as well as the front desk attendants at our hotel. We were greeted by a “reservations only” sign which, if you’ve read my other blogs, you know means nothing to me. I am the king of getting a table without a reservation! I failed this time though…or did I?…

We walked into the bar/restaurant & were greeted by a very overworked hostess as well as restaurant manager I believe. She reinforced the rezys only rule but told us we were welcome to take a seat at the bar & order cocktails. Food couldn’t be delivered there with the exception of non-cooked appetizers. We were immediately gifted a seat by a duo leaving the bar & struck up a conversation with the bartender, his name was Finn.

Finn & I got to talking about cocktails, I’d taken up craft cocktail making over covid & have become a bit of proprietor of interesting drinks & alcohols. He asked me what I wanted to drink to which I let him surprise me. He crafted me a very complex botanical cocktail he’d been working on for the bar & asked my notes. I frankly had very few! After that he gave me a rum drink which he was planning to add a fat wash too & try out for the bar. Again, excellent. For Evan he made a banana drink that wasn’t overly sweet. It was definitely similar to a daiquiri but again, not as sweet. All while the cocktails were pouring we’d ordered a smoked fish plate to snack on. The platter contained Hot & Cold Smoked Salmon, Arbroath Smoke Pâté, Smoked Mussels, Fresh Caper Berries, an assortment of Pickled Veggies, Oat Cakes, Sourdough Bread, & Tartare Sauce. We ordered the small version with the intent of finding full plated dinner later!

While we were sitting enjoying our platter & drinks this group of two douchebag Americans & one Brit came to the bar & acted like they immediately owned the place. They just had an air of sleaze about them. They came to the bar demanding Scotch, or as Ali later corrected me “Whisky.” The main American asked for Oban, a brand from the West coast, because he didn’t want something too smoky. He specifically asked for Oban 12 which is “what he usually drinks” then got mad at Finn for pouring him that because it was “too smoky” & clearly not the right bottle or drink. Having pissed off & disappeared I thought we were rid of them, that was until one of the waitresses came down asking if the hostess had sat them at one of the outside tables. She said no. So up the stairs she went after theses douchebags, returning several minutes later with the lot. They’d clearly stared an argument upstairs that had now continued back to the bar where she’d asked them to settle up & leave. These men then continued trying to justify their actions claiming the table was empty, still doesn't mean it’s not being held for a reservation, then proceeded to attempt to belittle this woman when she wouldn’t budge on it. The main dude proceeded to say to here “wow, you’re so cool, you’re life is so awesome a 30 something year old who is a hostess at a restaurant, you must be sooo happy” with as much sarcasm as his tiny, ignorant brain could muster. Naturally she kicked them out. I then proceeded to apologize to her & the rest of the staff within earshot on the behalf of all Americans, I know it wasn’t our fault but I still felt it reflected poorly on us as a collective.

At this point we’d been at Devil’s Advocate for about an hour & I was just about to give up hope for a miraculous table. We paid our bar tab & were turning to leave when the hostess put a hand on my shoulder & said “we’ve actually found a table for you!” Turns out the had arranged a table just for us!

Dinner was well worth the wait! I had Evan try Haggis for the first time, it was served here with Mango & Chili Chutney! We then ordered our mains, Evan got a Tempura Battered Haddock Chickpea & Sweet Potato Toasted Coconut Curry & I got the Venison with Shallots, Peas, Purple Broccoli, & Smoked Bacon at the behest of both our waitress & the hostess/manager. And oof, the truffle fries. They may have been the best I’ve ever had! I truthfully cannot recommend this place enough, if you can get a seat or book one do so immediately! Nothing on the menu was anywhere below the level of good to great!

While we were dining more American drama ensued. The table next to us of around seven Americans on vacation had ordered a bottle of wine with dinner. Apparently the wine was not the correct wine they had asked for BUT instead of telling their waitress upon its arrival they waited til they’d finish the entirety of it to bring it up to the staff, demanding to not have to pay for it. The staff eventually gave in to them because they were throwing a fit & I’m sure they were done dealing with this BS for the day. Additionally another group of Americans came in & tried to just go sit at an empty table, throwing a fit when they were told they had to have a reservation.

The lesson here for my fellow American folks is STOP BEING DICKS IN PLACES WHERE YOU DO NOT LIVE!!!! I guess stop being dicks in general but you are not better than anyone else simply because your passport says USA. To be completely honest I’ve actually found, through my many travels, that we as Americans are truly the least of these. Put your unearned pride aside & treat people like human beings, not your servants.

We paid, apologized again for the other Americans, & thanked the staff over & over for their willingness to accommodate us before walking down Jeffery Street back to New Town.

Upon reentering New Town we decided we weren’t ready to end our night despite Edinburgh seemingly slowing down. We made our way off Leith to The Alchemist, a showy, theatrical UK based cocktail chain. I got a Rum Punch cooked & caramelized over an open flame & Evan got a true “Bubble Tea,” a bubbling cocktail with popping boba at the bottom.

Finishing our nightcaps we made our way through the misty Scottish evening back to our hotel to start laundry in our en suite laundry machines!!!! It’s the simple things haha.

Day Six

The washing machine was a bad choice. We’d started a round of laundry before departing to go into Old Town so we hadn’t heard just how loud our washer/dryer were, something we quickly found out when we tried to start a load to run over night. It kept us up. The problem with it was also that once the cloths were wet they needed spinning & drying, so it was better just to let the machine take its course.

We requested a later checkout due to our lack of sleep & were gifted an extra hour to check out at noon. I’d booked a car to rent from the Edinburgh Airport which I called an Uber to go & retrieve while I sent Evan in search of coffee & breakfast, now lunch.

My Uber driver was a gent from Tunisia who had lived in The UK for around 25-30 years & thought it comical that Americans pronounce Tunisia as “Tune-E-Juh.” “Where’s the ‘J’” he asked me on the way. Meanwhile I’d sent Evan to get coffee at one of my favorite Edinburgh spots, Lowdown as well as brunch from Urban Angel where I got a Banana Butterscotch Brioche French Toast with Hazelnut Crumble & Greek Yogurt. Ev got Hummus on Sourdough with Cherry Tomatoes, Pickled Shallots, Za’atar, Salsa Verde, Capers, & Crispy Chickpeas. In addition to our food from Urban Angel he picked up a Salted Caramel Browning from Lowdown.

Upon arriving at the airport rental car terminal I was offered an upgrade from the coup I’d ordered to a mid-sized SUV for $80 more total. We actually ended up being very glad I took it. I was very surprised at how quickly my brain acclimated to driving on the left side of the road again, the first time I’d done it back in 2019 I white knuckled it the whole time.

I drove back into town, collecting Evan, the food, & the bags & we made our way out of Edinburgh towards Dumfries.

An hour or so along the way to Dumfries, a two hour drive, we stopped at a rest stop to grab some snacks & stretch. It is here that we discovered the joy of Haribo Strabs, a gummy candy that, unfortunately, cannot be found in the states. Something else I noticed about UK candies is that none of them contain high fructose corn syrup nor red 40, what a concept.

We made it to Dumfries a tad early which was fine, we got to be a surprise for Ali & Carolann’s son! He was speechless when he walked in from school to find us on the couch. He simply went “Oh. Hi!…” Ali arrived shortly there after & we spent the day catching up. Carolann made us an incredible Sweet Potato Curry for dinner. We then finished the evening chatting over a “cuppa” tea!

Day Seven

We did manage to get a little more sleep Monday into Tuesday & slept in a tad as well. Following a breakfast of strong coffee & my antidepressants we went out into the town to check out Historic Dumfries. We walked around seeing the many places in which Robert Burns, the famous Scottish songwriter, lived his life & played as well as the place where Robert the Bruce struck down John Comyn.

We ventured around the shops, grabbed lunch & went to tour & scout the theater I had a show at Thursday evening.

The picture of the umbrellas I’ll post below also comes with a rather interesting story. The shop with the umbrellas strung out is a coffee shop. One night a bunch of drunk guys came along & started hanging from them, tearing the art display down. The owner of the shop posted about it in one of the local forums & the people who did it immediately came forward & repaired the installation, hanging it even higher so that no one else could follow in their footsteps.

That evening we met up with Ross at Bob & Bert’s, an Irish coffee chain, to discuss the plans for Thursday in addition to planning out the video & set for the evening.

For dinner that evening Carolann was gracious enough to indulge Evan’s need for Curry, Chicken, Cheese, & Chips & made us her version of them!

Day Eight

The plan on the Wednesday was to go over from Dumfries to Stranraer, Port Partick, & the Mull of Galloway. We ended up getting out a little later than we’d planned as Ali had to finish up some things for the radio show & we slept in a little again.

We ended up taking our rental as it had more amble seating. I drove on the way out, something I’m sure Ali, the ambulance driver, had to stomach. I, much like I’m sure Ali doesn’t, don’t enjoy being “chauffeured,” I prefer to drive.

We decided to head towards Port Patrick first, my only stipulation being that we stop at Marrbury Smokehouse along the way so that I could get a Smoked Salmon Sandwich. We received a lot of conflicting information regarding the state of Marrbury & whether or not it had been swept under the COVID tidal wave as well but it turns out their Google “permanently closed” sign was only due to them being bought & having a name change.

We stopped at the former Marrbury Smokehouse, now the Oakhill Cafe & Deli, got out to walk about the castle there & grab lunch. I grabbed two Smoked Salmon Sandwichs, of course, as well as a Smoked Salmon Tart & some form of dessert tray bake. Evan got the same sandwich as well as a Smoked Chicken Salad Sandwich, a Pan Au Chocolate, & a Mushroom & Leek Tart. Ali, Carolann, & their sun split a few Tarts & a Smoked Chicken Sandwich!

On down the road we went to Port Patrick where we got out & walked around. I took the time by the ocean to go shell & tide pool hunting. I mostly found snails, moss, & barnacle shells. We then proceeded to walk around the harbor, observe Ireland from a far, & do a little more searching along the oceans edge before climbing back into the car to head to the Mull.

The Mull of Galloway is the southern most point of Scotland. It is a cliff that jets out into the Irish Sea atop the North Channel. At the top of said cliff sits a large light house, fields & fields of heather, a café, & a massive fog horn. The drive up to the lighthouse is a winding, single lane, paved road often overtaken by the sheep whose shepherd’s land it cuts through.

We got out here once again, walked around, went down the southern side to see the fog horn which looks more like an old WWII bunker then did a brief tour of the lighthouse keepers grounds & garden before grabbing a coffee & a Ribena at the café. There was a golden retriever pup there that made me miss my own, but I was still more than enjoying my time in Scotland.

I let Ali drive on the way back, some pressing things came up that required us to get back to Dumfries so down the road we flew.

We did manage to hit Stranraer though just as a pass through. We made it back to Dumfries in probably 3/4ths the time it took us to get out.

On the way back to the house we stopped at Deli 56 & to grab some sandwiches, I guess it was just a day filled with them! It is here that we officially tried the Prawn Cocktail Crisps…they’re interesting to say the least.

Feeling sapped from the day in the sun we spent the rest of our evening doing one of my favorite activities, having deep conversations about life. These conversations sprang from cups of black tea & devolved into us all watching YouTube videos of magnetic ball as well as “primal” constructions. Then it was time for bed to prepare for the busy day ahead!

Day Nine

Thursday was a tad chaotic to be honest. In some ways, good, in other ways, not so much. Ali, Evan, & I took a morning walk through Castledykes Park before walking up the path along the River Nith. The day was gorgeous, as had ever other day been unseasonably so both in Scotland & England. We stopped in the Peter Pan themed Dock Park (the author of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie was from Dumfries) on our was back downstream & grabbed a Latte & some Banofee Ice Cream.

We ended up needing to help Ali & Carolann out regarding some pressing issues at home & watched their son while those things were dealt with. We ran a few errands with him before coming back to the house to get prepped for the show I had a the Theatre Royal that evening.

The concept of the show we’d come up with was a “living room session.” We wanted a casual living room environment where Ali would host, I’d play songs acoustic & answer questions, & guests were free to ask questions & just relax. I suppose it’s worth mentioning that I’ve known Ali for years now! He’s a host for Alive FM out of Dumfries & has been a massive supporter & friend to me over the years.

We weren’t entirely sure if Ali was going to make the show as about thirty minutes before showtime he was still occupied with his now pressing engagements so Evan had started to prepare questions incase he needed to step in & host himself. I also was planning just to go it alone if need be. Part of being a performer is learning to adapt. Ali did show up however & the show was a ravenous success. We play off one another from a humor standpoint quite nicely & the two hours flew by! I was even asked if I could come back & play their main stage next time as well as a few other venues in the area!

After the show wrapped & we’d gotten everything squared away with the theater we went in search of food. One of the only places open was an Indian takeaway spot called Siemo Seito where we proceeded to order the menu. Something they don’t tell you in The UK is that when you order Naan with your food you’re not getting a pita sized bit of bread but instead a full on sheet of bread covered in toppings folded all up into itself. We’d ordered three of them in addition to Chicken & Lamb Tikka, a whole ass Pizza, Rice, & Curry, Chicken, Cheese, & Chips. Evan, Ali, & I only ended up eating about half of it.

With stomachs bursting & hearts full of the love & support of the people of Dumfries we went to bed, prepared for an early morning’s departure back to London.

END OF PART TWO

April 29, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: The United Kingdom-Part One: Take Me Back To London

April 29, 2022

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

I’m fairly certain this blog is going to take the shape of three parts. Maui was three & it was seven days, Puerto Rico was two & it was three days, so we’ll see if we can fit it all into three weeks worth of blogs! This may end up changing forms mid-series but that remains to be seen. So, I suppose, without any further ado, let’s get into it shall we?

Prologue:

I’d always known I wanted to go abroad for my thirtieth, let’s face it though, I want to go abroad at any given time. The original plan for that was Australia/New Zealand but ye olde corona virus saw fit to change that plan along with so, so many others. I love the United Kingdom, I’ve had a mild obsession with it since late high school & always enjoy my time there. Seeing how the UK has reopened & Australia has the door slightly ajar in terms of current tourism, The UK became the logical destination of choice.

As I’m sure many of you know, any great trip requires preparation & planning, long twelve day trips six time zones away on the other side of an ocean, extensively so. I knew I wanted to do London for my actual birthday but I also wanted to rekindle some relationships & do a little work while in country. For those of you that didn't know I was in the process of planning a UK based radio tour when covid hit back in 2020 around the song “When He Was Me,” a song that is still yet to be released. The plan was similar this go round except it was meant to center on “Just Another Late Night,” a song that still has yet to come out….but will soon, I promise. Naturally I didn’t want to do a massive radio tour around a single that no one could stream yet so it really just became a series of small acoustic sets.

I reached out to any & all UK based or affiliated music friends of mine to try & pack my musical schedule but I fear I waited a tad too long to do so & thus only a few things ended up happening. I’m grateful for each of you reading this who offered me support, help, reached out on my behalf, etc. I am so incredibly grateful for each of you!

As the above paragraph would indicate we waited just a touch too long to make those moves as well as buying tickets. Plane tickets that were $650 round trip on the Saturday three weeks before were either sold out or almost double three days later but we managed & the dates of the 13th-the 25th were set.

Evan is much more the type A planner than I am & he immediately set out to make accommodations. He found an incredible house/petsitter for us, got connected with our friends Victoria & Rhys in London who graciously offered us a place to stay, & started mapping out days. I dove headfirst into food planning, as I do, & came across several Michelin Star restaurants that I then attempted to snag reservations at.

The week before our departure was pure mayhem. My 185 gallon reef tank decided to develop a plague, of which I’m still battling, the house required scrubbing, pet food required prepping, laundry needed doing, travel documents, covid regulations, all needed navigating, in addition to our normal duties of work & content creation. We also did a photo shoot in the middle of this for album artwork! We did it though, we got everything together & orderly though it truly came down to the last couple hours!

Part One:

Take Me Back To London

Day One

We made it to bed far later than we’d hoped or expected & thus only slept around four or five hours. Our pre-scheduled Lyft met us at the door at 5:30 AM CST & we departed to the Nashville airport for our 7:20 flight to Washington D.C.. The original plan upon arriving in DC around noon was to meet Evan’s brother who lives in Bethesda for lunch during our six+ hour layover but unfortunately something came up. We also made it to the ticket counter at Dulles for Virgin Atlantic far before the staff had even thought about coming into work. We waited around two hours, grabbing food & a drink or two in the interim. We finally got checked in around 2:30 or 3, had an easy trip through security, if you don’t count Evan getting searched for packing a candle in his carry-on, & made our way to our gate.

I took the opportunity of time to film an Object Writing video for Terminal, which I had already done voice over for. I edited it & had it up within an hour or so. If you’d like to give it a view you can find it here! After posting my Wednesday writing prompt I got up & went in search of snacks. I learned this nifty little thing from my friend Stephen Lovegrove. Any time he flies he gifts the flight attendants snacks; candy, chips, anything else he thinks they might like. His reasoning is that flight attendants, especially on international or cross country flights, are there waiting on you hand & foot for upwards of four to eight hours straight. They deserve a treat & definitely better pay & benefits, but then again, so do most people. We boarded our flight, economy deluxe, & passed our bag of goodies to the steward in charge of our section, he was elated. I also may have dropped my guitar on a teenager’s face as I was trying to get it into the overhead bin, it slid out on me. I felt horrible. After battering a youth we claimed our seats for the next seven plus hours & headed off to Heathrow around 7:30 PM EST.

I have this rule anytime I fly through multiple time zones. If you’re headed east, fly red eye, that way you can sleep on the flight & wake up when it’s appropriate to be awake in your new time zone. This works best if you can get a seat that lays somewhat flat. On the other hand, if you’re going west then I recommend flying in the morning or early afternoon & staying up for the duration of your flight, that way you land & are tired at a time when it’s appropriate to go to sleep in that new timezone. I haven’t figured out north to south yet, but I’ll let you all know the minute I do!

Day Two

We landed in London around 6:30 AM GMT having logged around three hours of sleep at most. We departed the plane, I snagged by guitar being sure not to assault anyone this time, & we made our way through immigration. If you’ve never been to the UK CCTV is a very popular thing there, it’s basically government surveillance that’s kept in majority of public spaces. It sounds very big brother I know, but when you enter the country they scan your passport & your face & allow you on your merry way. Evan of course got stopped again.

We grabbed our bags & popped onto the Piccadilly Line, making our way from Heathrow to Covent Gardens in what was now the morning rush into London. At the Covent Gardens tube stop we were greeted by Victoria & Rhys who graciously showed us to their flat. When we got upstairs they asked if we needed a nap, the plan of which was an hour & a half. It ended up being around two to three.

Still dreary from travel & frankly starving we decided we were going to walk from Covent Gardens to Borough Market in Southwark. I’d been to London before, Evan has not, nor had he been truly out of the North Americas. So with that in mind we did a little sight seeing along the way. We passed by St. Paul’s Cathedral, all ready for Easter, we crossed Millennium Bridge, then made our way past The Globe to the Market.

At the market I had my sights set on a Scotch Egg from Scotchtails but much to my dismay it had been closed down due to the hardship of covid. For those of you who don’t know what a scotch egg is, it’s a soft boiled egg wrapped in sausage & breadcrumbs. It’s fire. Disappointed I followed Ev’s desire for Fish & Chips & we got in line at Fish! We asked the attendant what to get & he suggested the lemon bream so that’s what we got along with curry sauce, chips, & gravy. On the way to finding a spot to sit down we found doughnuts at Bread Ahead, a pistachio & a blackcurrant cheesecake one & grabbed a cranberry lemonade from a local fruit vendor.

The lemon bream was delightful! It worked really well with the curry sauce & was a very light, flaky fish with, as the name would suggest, a light lemony-ness to it! I wanted to like the brown gravy more than I did but I was more than happy leaning heavily on the curry sauce for the chips as well. Both doughnuts were outstanding though, much to my surprise, I favored the cheesecake one, Evan leaned pistachio.

After lunch the walking tour of London continued. We continued down the bank past London City Hall til we got to Tower Bridge. After crossing Tower Bridge & walking around the Tower of London where we hopped the Circle Line to Westminster. Arriving at Westminster we saw Big Ben, Parliament, & The London Eye before walking back to Covent Gardens to meet up with Victoria & Rhys once more.

We let Victoria pick dinner, since we had already chosen the following day’s. She immediately responded with the question “do you like Batman?” to which I excitedly replied “YES!?” After chilling at their flat for a while, probably passing back out in the interim, we got dressed & were led to dinner.

Through Leicester Square we meandered until we were prompted to enter a rather plain looking office building. We entered into a room that looked like an old library adorned with books like “Alice In Wonderland,” “The Drunken Botanist,” etc., busts & portraits of the Wayne family, & a giant stuffed horned owl. We were shown through the bookshelf to a flight of stairs which descended two stories all the while playing Hans Zimmer’s score from Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. At the bottom of the stairs we were shown through two double doors into a massive 20s style room, complete with jazz band. We had entered Park Row.

If you hadn’t guessed from the above two paragraphs, Park Row is a Batman themed restaurant. The venue is themed after the Iceberg Lounge from Batman Returns & is chockablock with easter eggs & little nods to the films & comic universe at large. We started our evening with a round of drinks, of course all of them being in theme. I got the Bludhaven (Sesame Scotch Old Fashioned), Evan got Matches (Roasted Pineapple Rum Collins), & Victoria ordered The Blue Boy (Blue Caraçao Gimlet) a drink poured from the frame of a print of “The Blue Boy” by Thomas Gainsborough. For our appetizer Evan & I split the “Fit For A Knight” the menu’s Beef Tartare dish & Victoria & Rhys split an order of Fried Oysters. For our main course I got Gotham City’s Savior, an excellently prepared ribeye, Evan got the Mama Maroni, some pretty solid tortellini, & V & R split The Elite, a massive dry aged Tomahawk steak. We skipped dessert, unlike me, I know, but the Row offers a lot of very cool novelty desserts most of which use liquid nitrogen!

After using the Joker themed loo (Harley Quinn for the ladies) we ascended the stairs & walked back through the madness of Leicester Square to Covent Gardens.

Day Three

Day three started with a bit of a rush. Victoria had made lunch plans for us in the City of London & we all wanted to squeeze a workout in. Rhys went with his trainer & Ev & I tried to squeeze into Victoria’s Barrys Soho class but unfortunately it was full. We found a few spots in Barrys Central London & set out to make the class.

I’m someone who, for the most part, can’t workout in the morning & if I do I have to have been awake for over an hour & I have to have eaten something & had caffeine. I think it has something to do with my blood sugar being slow to ramp up in the mornings but if I don’t follow this rule it makes me sick for the remainder of the day. With that in mind we headed north to one of my favorite London coffee shops, Monmouth Coffee Company. Since it was a bright, sunny, warm London day (I know right?!) I grabbed an iced filter coffee & a pain au chocolate. When I asked the cashier which pastry to get her first suggestion was the almond croissant but then she said it, the phrase that permeated the rest of the trip. “The pains quite nice.” So the pain is what I got.

Onward through Russell Square we went til we made it to Barrys Central. We were around twenty minutes early & my mate Ali had just sent me a text asking for an updated bio for the show in Dumfries. Part of my accelerator had been mentored by an artist who now writes bios professionally so I sat outside Barrys crafting the following biography:

“Charlie Rogers is a Kansas-born, genre alchemizing country singer-songwriter based out of Nashville, TN. His genuine, often widely varied sound aims to bridge interpersonal gaps allowing each of us to feel seen & understood.

Rogers has opened for the likes of Brothers Osborne, Russell Dickerson, & Janelle Arthur. He has played CMA honors ceremonies from Charley Pride to Ricky Skaggs. His artist work & writing has been shared the world over & encompasses stages from all over the US to Spain & the UK as well.

Rogers has been a proponent for music his whole life & began singing & writing even at a very young age. His inspiration for his musical pursuits is & has always been to communicate the commonalities between us, especially for those groups who often feel unseen or unheard, often reaching across rigid genre lines to do so.

Rogers’ most recent release, “Obliterated (Acoustic Mix),” received over 100k stream independently & has been features on radio stations & popular playlists throughout the world. Rogers’ plans to release his next single, “Just Another Late Night,” in the next coming months which is to be shortly followed by “When He Was Me” a ballad written by Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay.”

— Charlie Rogers on April 15th, 2022 outside of Barrys Central London, crafted in around ten minutes

It’s a pretty solid bio, no?!

Seeing as it was Easter weekend Lucy, our instructor, had decided to make class a dirty thirty. For those of you that don’t know what a dirty thirty is it’s thirty minutes on a treadmill, thirty minutes on weights. The normal Barrys formula is usually broken up into several ten minute chunks alternating between tread & floor.

After being thoroughly destroyed in a basement studio just north of Russell Square I grabbed a brotein shake & a Barrys London tank & began the speed walk back to Covent Gardens. Our initial plan was to get back to the flat with around thirty minutes before we needed to depart for lunch buuuuut class had gone over & we were running rather behind. We ended up getting there, showered, changed, & manicured within the span of around fifteen minutes.

We took the Circle Line to the City of London, a pristine, shining metropolis of a city. We were once again ushered into what appeared to be a normal office building but after ascending thirty-nine floors in the matter of just short of as many seconds we found ourselves in SushiSamba! While technically a chain, SushiSamba limits its locations to the most scenic & picturesque. This location of the restaurant has a panoramic view of London & features two outdoor patios, one with an outdoor bar, along with the massive bay windows that encompass the entirety of the restaurant.

Lunch began with a round of drinks as we waited for our table; for Rhys, a lager, Victoria, a Tangerine Spritz, Evan, a Café Millionaire (a twist on an Espresso Martini), & Me, a Kiffirinha (a twist on the Brazilian Caipirinha). Though each of these drinks were incredible in their own right it was the second round that brought the fire. Everyone ordered the same as before except me who ordered a clarified Piña Colada Old Fashioned. When I say this drink was the hit of the table I mean it. The fomo from the rest of the group was real!

For lunch we split a few different things; edamame, wagyu gyoza, toro tiradito (toro, yuzu soy, wasabi pickle, black truffle, & yuzu caviar), the Samba London roll (tuna, salmon, hamachi, avocado, asparagus, onion, hishiho mayo, crispy yuba, & yuzu dressing), & the tiger maki (crab, tiger prawn tempura, beetroot yogurt, & red onion). The Samba roll was my favorite, the Tiger Maki, Evan’s.

After lunch we basically had a free day & decided to make our way up to Shoreditch. We made a quick detour through Spitalfields Market to grab a juice & peruse before heading to what has been rated the second best bar in the entire world, Tāyer + Elementary.

If you hadn’t caught on yet this Friday was definitely a day filled with drinking…sorry Mom. V&R had taken off of work to join our escapades & we were taking full advantage of it.

Tāyer + Elementary is a quant little Shoreditch craft cocktail spot. The esthetic is very modern Industrial meets Scandinavian in design & it’s laidback simplicity creates a very soothing environment. The bar is a bit of a two in one. Elementary operating weekdays & afternoons, Tāyer taking over for the late weekends. The Bergamot Margarita & the Frozen Yuzu Margarita were popular amongst the rest of the crew, on the other hand I got one of the best Nigronis I’ve ever had in addition to an off menu drink that I still have no clue what it was. I remember it being piney though! Does it live up to the title of second best bar in the world? Yes. Yes it does. The drinks are creative & endearing, the menu is constantly changing & allowing more & more room for experimentation.

Now rather decently buzzed we made our way back to the flat. As the years go by day drinking seems to get harder & harder, rest was needed.

As aforementioned dinner had been decided by Ev & I at Kricket. Kricket is one of my favorite London stops. It’s traditional British Fare mixed with Indian in a fun chic locale. We arrived a tad early for our reservation so we were escorted down to their new speakeasy SOMA Soho. Much like their upstairs neighbors SOMA Soho takes the traditional flavors of India & integrates them into craft cocktails. I got the Almond, a whiskey soda highball meant to taste like marzipan, Evan got the Coconut, a coconut/grapefruit fizz, & Rhys got the Chai, a chai sour. Victoria ended up with wine terminating her voyage on the day of liquors.

For dinner we order way too much food. Kricket is meant to be shared so you order plates for the table & pass them about. Let me see if I can get all of what we ordered here. We got Pistachio & Date Kulcha, Bhel Puri, Samphire Pakoras, Grilled Butternut Squash, Cornish Sole, Keralan Fried Chicken, Beef Boti Kebabs, Kashmiri Lamb Ribs, Burnt Garlic Tarka Dal, & Malai Tandoori Paneer. The fried chicken & butternut squash were my personal favorites! In addition to our smorgasbord we got a bottle of wine to split, while Rhys partook in the Dark Matter, a green chili rum margarita.

Quite stuffed & intoxicated we stumbled through the bustling Soho Friday night back to the flat where we slept like rocks. If you’d like to know the level to which we were intoxicated, I am entirely lacking photos from Tāyer + Elementary on…

Day Four

HAPPY THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!

If you couldn’t have guessed by the previous day’s events we woke up rather hungover. Not a great way to start a birthday I guess but I wouldn’t change a thing! After showering, dressing, contemplating the meaning of existence, it was once again time to set out.

In my Michelin search & my “Top Restaurants In The World” search one place came up consistently, The Clove Club. Having been awarded their second Michelin star back in February & being the foodie that I am I absolutely had to go celebrate my birthday there! However when I went to book the only available reservations for the 16th were at noon. Fine by me! Boujee Birthday Lunch it is!!!

We take the tube to Hackney, greeted by another glorious day in London. The only problem with the glorious nature of the day was that Evan & I had planned for UK spring, you know, dark & rainy, soooo we were a tad warm to say the least. We arrived at The Clove Club & were the first ones there, probably because we booked the opening slot but I felt a bit like an elderly couple going to get the early bird special.

We were very poshly greeted by a lovely hostess who asked if we needed anything before our seating was ready. Yes. Coffee. Lot’s of coffee. She then proceeded to bring us two excellently crafted pourover coffees.

When at little last we were sat I was greeted at the table by a birthday card from the staff in addition to a very well travelled Somm/Scuba Diver from New Zealand. He explained our tasting menu options, long or short, as well as the drink pairing options, wine, tea, or a mix of both, & off we went!

The thing with tasting menus that they don’t often advertise is the series of snacks you are presented before your “actual meal” can begin. In this case our snacks course consisted of a few things. The first thing we were brought was a Spring Herb Broth. Bright, green, herbaceous, & warm it was a very welcomed welcome gift to the two of us. Next was a crab snack, presented in the hollowed out shell it was a thin wafer like tart piped with a custard made from the crab. It was salty, creamy, & savory with that subtle crab sweetness. The third snack came on a bed of pine branches. It was a Buttermilk Fried Chicken Bite with Pine Salt. Tender, juicy, scrumptious with just the slightest alpine notes from the salt. The last snack item was a molten lava Escargot Bon Bon. I say it was molten lava because the interior cream was boiling. Encased in a delicate fried shell the escargot bon bon was an adventure for the pallet for sure! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Our first course was delectable; a nice cut of Hot Smoked Wiltshire Trout atop an almond milk & watercress cream, served with Petrossian Caviar, brown butter almonds, & a crispy bit of the trout skin. Almost like a lighter more buttery salmon the trout was perfectly smoked & the combinations the textures brought to the dish were next level!

The second dish was the star of the show, Raw Orkney Scallops with Roasted Hazelnuts, Clementine Gel, Mushrooms, & a Black Truffle Butter on top! This is the dish that they claim won them their second Michelin star! The scallops literally melted in your mouth & the bright citrus paired perfectly with mellow earth notes of the truffle & mushrooms. Truly a stand out worthy of the star it received!

Course Three, Scottish Langoustine. If you don’t know a langoustine is about halfway between a prawn & a lobster, though technically a part of the lobster family. This dish came with a squashed slice of Green Tomato & was covered with a White Beer Emulsion. On the side it also included some sort of Aioli. This dish was sweet yet acidic, the malt nature of the beer played nicely with the brighter notes of both the crustacean & the tomato.

Another fish course number four was that of a fillet of Cornish Monkfish. Delicately prepared the flakey white monkfish was then topped with a hot pot of its skin, Swiss Chard, & Sichuan Pepper really giving it a savory bitterness that ended up feeling much hardier than I’d anticipated from such a light fish.

Course five, the last of the savories. This course was a Dry Aged Middlewhite Pork. It sat upon a bed of Bagna Cauda, a traditional Italian “fondue”, & was paired with a crispy thousand layer potato & artichoke. I didn’t expect savory/sweet Italian from The Clove Club but I guess that’s my error in assumption!

Now onto my favorite courses.

I mean the above statement not because I think the dishes in question were the show stoppers of the afternoon but because my unrelenting sweet tooth demands it.

Dessert course one was a Grilled Habañero Granita, or as my bud Beau called it, flavored ice. It sat atop a Wild Plum Sorbet as well as something creamy that I’m not quite sure of. The dish was fire & ice. Spicy, yet very cool & refreshing at the same time. The plum had a slight saltiness that honestly made me want to take the ingredients & make them into a margarita.

Apparently The Clove Club is famous for their Gateau St. Honoré, a pastry so named after St. Honoré (no shit), the patron saint of pastries. Theirs has some nice bits of Rhubarb in the center that added a very nice tartness to the overall sweet, custardy pastry! I think it was my favorite dessert of the evening!

Next came more Rhubarb, a very popular British ingredient I quickly learned along with blackcurrent. Along with the Gateau came a Yorkshire Rhubarb Sorbet with Ginger Ale Gel & some form of crumble underneath. It was an excellent pallet cleanser to “end the night.” Only it wasn’t…

You see tasting menus also often like to include a dessert snack course at the end where you get little things like truffles & macarons. This menu was no different. Our tasting snacks were an Array of Chocolates; Milk Chocolate Macarons, Hard Shelled White Chocolate Truffles, & Dark Chocolate Ganache, meant to be consumed in that order. It’s hard to mess up chocolate y’all & each of these were exceptional!

Thinking we were done I went to get up but was met with a slice of Gold Foil Opera Cake & a candle with “Happy 30th Birthday” inscribed on the plate in chocolate. It was absolutely darling.

Overall I would say The Clove Club has more than earned its two Michelin stars. I wish I could remember the wine pairings to add in here but I unfortunately forgot to write them down. I will say this to the Somm team over at the club, this was truly the best pairing I’ve had with a tasting menu! Each wine was unique & interesting & enhanced the flavors of the food with expert precision & visa versa. This made for an excellent birthday lunch & I’m beyond blessed to have had the experience!

After lunch I reached out to my friend Kim Logan (+ The Silhouettes) to see if we could snag a quick hang. Kim traditionally lives in Glasgow & frequents Paris with her band but was in London for her boyfriend’s band’s show the night prior at Helgi’s in Hackney. We hopped the bus & headed the couple of stops to meet her.

She met us outside Helgi’s with a massive hug & ushered us in. The crew were packing up their gear from the previous night so while they did that we sat in the bar & chatted. It was mostly music bus & mutual friends but it was nice to connect in person!

After they left to return to Glasgow we walked through Hackney towards Bethnal Green to grab the tube back Soho way. We grabbed coffee at Mare Street Market along the way & made a mental note to come back because she was cuuuute!

Back in CG we slept off the day & the night before’s alcohol & calories before meeting V&R for dinner at Temper Soho.

Ev & I were still pretty full from lunch but we ordered a few things to get us through the night; Cheeseburger Tacos & Wood-Roasted Sea Bass.

After dinner we went to a wine bar back in Covent Gardens called Plume! I was feeling bubbly for my birthday & got Champagne, something somewhat uncharacteristic of me (I tend to drink red.) Post night cap we walked the streets of the Theater District before ending our last evening in London fulfilled & full of love, booze, & incredible food.

END OF PART ONE

November 6, 2021

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

Travel Blog: Disneyland (COVID Edition)

November 6, 2021

Charlie Rogers

Travel, Travel Blog, Blog

FORWARD

Hi friends,

Happy Friday!

As many of you know, I, on the occasion that I get to travel & do fun things, tend to write travel blogs about those experiences. The past couple of weeks I have held residency in LA primarily for work but I also managed to clear up a day just to make Disneyland happen. I wanted to share what I found there & how it differed specifically from my trips to Disneyland in the past. I also wanted to frame this in the light of my usual travel blog with pictures & stories to add a bit more fun into the mix.

I hope you enjoy!

BTW, unlike my other travel blogs that are often many parts, this will only be one. I was only there for one day.

DISNEYLAND/CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE

Allow me to start this by saying that I am not a Disney adult. I am a huge fan of a lot of the mouse’s properties specifically where things like Star Wars & Marvel are concerned, I am also a lover of animated films, but I am by no means a fanatic, nor am I a Disney Parks fanatic. I don’t have the inside scoop, as of yet, BUT I did do quite a deal of pre-planning before even setting foot in their doors, which during the current Ponderosa Steakhouse, is a requirement.

Let me first say that to even get into the parks, under the current conditions, you have to reserve your ticket & your parks ahead of time through the Disneyland App. We wanted to park hop, so we had to book our reservations & date of entry extra early. In addition to your park reservation you also have to make virtual queue reservations for two of the current rides, Rise of the Resistance in Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge & W.E.B. Slingers in California Adventure’s Avengers Campus. Reservations for which open up at 7 AM the day of.

I set my alarm the morning of our trip for 6:55 AM in order to get up & make our ride reservations. They allow you to form groups in the app, combining all party members’ tickets into one section so that you can book for the entirety of your party & not just one person at a time. We had been assigned a starting point of Disneyland with our park hopper pass which meant we couldn’t apply for a spot in the W.E.B. Slingers’ virtual queue until noon, we also weren’t allowed to enter California Adventure at all until 1 PM…with that park closing at 6 that night for Oogie Boogie Bash, a halloween party that requires a completely separate ticket & reservation…Anyway, I logged on right at 7 AM & our virtual queue spot for Rise of the Resistance was set to be around 11:45-12 PM. That should show you how quickly they fill up. Think of it like Southwest Airlines boarding group check-in.

We arrived at the park a little later than I’d have liked which ended up being around 11 AM. Disneyland is currently opening its doors at 8 AM & California Adventure does the same at 10 AM. They also are apparently not running the tram system at the moment. How that prevents the spread of COVID when you spend the day masked up with a ton of strangers all crammed together on rides, I’ll never know. So yes, you have to walk from the parking garage to the park entrances & yes, it is a walk, around a half a mile.

We entered Disneyland & immediately headed to Galaxy’s Edge. As I mentioned above I am partial to Star Wars which is probably the understatement of the century. I love Star Wars, truly, deeply. I grew up on it, I have been many a character from Star Wars for halloween, I consume all the lore & media available around Star Wars. So I was looking forward to this portion of the park to say the least. Quite frankly I was convinced that I was going to cry walking into Galaxy’s Edge but I didn’t! I definitely had the cheesiest of grins though.

Upon entering Galaxy’s Edge we immediately went looking for food & drink, we were all pretty hungry. I popped into the Milk Stand & got a Blue Milk & a Toydarian Swirl. I liked the Blue Milk a lot, the Toydarian Swirl, not so much. It was overly salty for some reason & they’d put way too much tajin on it for my taste. After a drink we walked over to Ronto Roasters for some lunch. Ev & I both got a Ronto Wrap (a sausage topped with pulled pork, peppercorn sauce, & tangy slaw all wrapped up in a pita) & Jenna got the Ronto-less Garden Wrap (a plant based sausage, kimchi, pickles, & peppercorn sauce also atop a pita). In addition to the wraps we also got an assortment of drinks; the Tatooine Sunset & Meiloorun Juice. I preferred the Meiloorun Juice but ended up swapping it out with Jenna & Evan because they couldn’t pallet the Tatooine Sunset, which I truly didn’t mind.

After lunch it was time for us to join our physical queue for Rise of the Resistance. Yes, you heard that right, after you spend several hours in a virtual queue you then have to spend around 20-30 minutes in a physical queue. While in the queue it became time for us to book our spots in the W.E.B. virtual queue. We tried & we tried to get in but the app wouldn’t let us through so we ended up missing out on a spot in the queue…more on that later. We got onto Rise of the Resistance & I immediately started geeking out. The ride operates in a fashion that makes it so you enter a landing ship in the park before being sent into space & being picked up by a star destroyer. You then exit through the same doors you entered through into the hanger of the star destroyer, it’s fantastically immersive! From there you’re shown to your “prison holding cell” where you are busted out by members of the Resistance cutting through the wall. You’re then set in a cart led by a droid & have to escape the star destroyer before returning to Batuu i.e. Galaxy’s Edge. It’s truly a superb ride with some impressive effect & animatronic work involved!

By the time we got off the ride it was almost time for us to enter California Adventure. Did I mention the park was beyond crowded the day we went?! So most waits for rides were at the bare minimum thirty to forty minutes. We got to Cali Adventure right around our entry time & made a be-line to Avengers Campus. We did this partially because much like Star Wars I’m a tad Marvel obsessed but then so is Jenna, at least where the MCU is concerned, & partially to try & fix our virtual queue issues with W.E.B.. I was given the task of talking our problem over with a park manager because, if you remember in my previous travel blogs, I have a super power of always being able to get a reservation anywhere. I explained to the parks manager what happened, may have been a tad exaggerated on the details while keeping them honest, but when he looked at our party he found no reason we shouldn’t have been able to make the reservation & added us to the last queue of the day, 5:30 PM. Bag secured.

Once we’d secured our reservation in the virtual queue we headed to Pym’s Tasting Lab for some libations. It was a hot day in Southern California & water, amongst other drinks, were a must. Evan & Jenna got the Honey Buzz, which they both agreed was way too sweet, & I got the Particle Fizz because anything P.O.G., Passionfruit, or Guava will always get my vote. We took our drinks & walked over to Pixar Pier to ride The Incredicoaster, an Incredibles themed launch coaster. Along the way we also snagged a few bottles of water & a pickle which we had downed completely by the time we boarded the ride.

I was more than pleasantly surprised by The Incredicoaster! It was truly a lot of fun. The drops were there but not too extreme, the twists & loops were also there but again, not too intense & the theming of The Incredibles trying to catch Jack-Jack fit perfectly. There’s even a part of the ride where they pump in the smell of fresh baked cookies (subliminal advertising for the cookie stand at the ride’s exit)!

After the rollarcoaster we came to the consensus of being way too hot & hopped over to Ariel’s Undersea Adventure because it was indoors & air conditioned. The ride itself is fine, a dark ride that casually takes you through animatronic events of the movie, but we had really gone in just to get cooled down seeing as it also had no wait.

We left the pier & went back to Avengers Campus to try & get on Guardians of the Galaxy-Mission: BREAKOUT! but they had just closed it for a re-theme they do during Halloween that revolved around monsters of the MCU. So instead we got food. At Pym’s Test Kitchen Ev & I split the Not So Little Chicken Sandwich & Jenna had the PB3 Superb Sandwich sans Candied Bacon. The food there was excellent with the exception of the stale bread on the chicken sandwich which we easily removed & ate like a fried chicken steak. I also got a Proton PB&J Punch here which was a fascinating drink to say the least.

We decided to go back to Disneyland because most of the rides we wanted to do were there, our reservation for W.E.B. wasn’t until 5:30, & all the ride queues were short seeing as everyone & their mother had flocked to California Adventure for that 1 PM call time.

Upon re-entry of the land we made our way to Indiana Jones Adventure, one of the best rides in the whole park if you’re asking me or Jenna! The line was relatively nonexistent so we were on & off in a breeze. We then made our way over to Pirates of the Caribbean, which, if you haven’t ridden, is 1,000X better at Disneyland than its Disney World counterpart! I said what I said & I’m sticking to it. After we had basically, again, walked onto Pirates the people were starting to return from California Adventure. We snagged a few Spicy Pickles from Bengal Barbecue & walked back on over to Cali Adventure just in time for our W.E.B. reservation.

If I’m being completely honest we weren’t exactly the most upset about not getting a W.E.B. reservation initially. You see we thought the ride was going to be very similar to Toy Story Midway Mania in the sense that both rides are “shooting gallery” style where each individual person racks up points shooting at targets. We weren’t really into the idea of that, but we went! We’d put in the effort to secure the resy so why not give it a whirl? There was no one in line when we got there & we actually walked onto this ride, that is after the ride pre-show played, shout out to Tom Holland, pleasure getting to see you as always.

I’m going to lay this out flat for you all. RIDE W.E.B. SLINGERS IF YOU GET THE CHANCE!!! The ride is a complete & utter blast! You are loaded into a cart, Toy Story style, you are given 3D glasses, Toy Story style, but unlike Toy Story there is no mounted gun. “But Charlie,” you may ask, “how do you score points then?” Well my lovelies, you score points by “webbing up” spider-bots & assisting Spider-Man through many different rooms in the ride. What do you use to web up these spider-bots you ask. YOU USE YOUR ARMS!!!! YOU LITERALLY EXTEND YOUR ARM, TOBEY MCQUIRE SPIDEY STYLE, & WEB UP SPIDER-BOTS LIKE THE WEB FLUID IS COMING OUT OF YOUR WRISTS!!!!! It’s a workout for sure but honestly was probably the most fun we had all day!

We exited the park right around the time it closed for Oogie Boogie Bash but not before I picked up a shiny set of display web shooters that I actually ended up using as part of a last minute Peter Parker Halloween costume that weekend. When we once again re-entered Disneyland we immediately went for Dole Whip by the Enchanted Tiki Room. The sun was setting, the day was starting to cool of & it was a nice. We then decided to head back over to Galaxy’s Edge.

If you haven’t caught on, yes, we did spend most of our day bouncing between Avengers Campus & Galaxy’s Edge & I couldn't have been happier about it!

Jenna’s one request when we booked our Disney trip was that we grab drinks at Oga’s Cantina, she wanted herself a Fuzzy Tauntaun (fizzy lip tingling drink). Unfortunately Oga’s is now on a reservation/waitlist system only & all reservations for it are booked out about a month in advance. So we decided to head into Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. On the way to Smuggler’s Run my reservation sense was tingling & the super power once again kicked in. I opened up my Disneyland app to check on Oga’s & it was still showing a ‘full waitlist,’ I clicked the ‘add name to waitlist’ option anyway & much to J’s surprise was immediately given a wait time of 15 minutes. So naturally Smuggler’s Run got to wait.

In Oga’s I once again start geeking the F out. It’s a Star Wars cantina through & through & it feels like it was literally ripped out of one of the films even though it’s an all new creation. I ordered an Oga’s Obsession (boba & jelly concoction served in a petri dish) & The Outer Rim (a pomegranate margarita-esque cocktail), followed by a Takodana Quencher (dragonberry rum with kiwi & pineapple) which I was not a fan of. The other two things were bomb though! J got a Fuzzy Tauntaun, naturally, & Batuu Bites, an assortment of crispy veggies. She was disappointed to find the fizz wasn’t tingly this go round & apparently it had been a problem all day. Evan got Jabba Juice, a non-alcoholic orange/pinepple boba drink.

After we’d payed our tab at Oga’s it was almost time for the thing I’d looked forward to doing all. freakin. day! It was time for me to build my lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop! Yet another thing that you have to book in advance, Savi’s allows you to build a custom lightsaber all your own. You first choose what type of hilt you want; something reminiscent of the Old Republic, or maybe the Jedi themselves, something more in line with the dark side, or maybe something more that feels like having had to had scavenged for parts. I chose “Peace & Justice” a style more inline with the Jedi.

Once you choose your hilt style you are given a pin to mark which your preference was before being shown into the “back room” of Savi’s to construct your saber amongst around 10-12 other people. I was placed dead center. Like the whole show that accompanies the build was happening right in front of me. This is the moment I expected to cry, the moment I assembled my own lightsaber. I didn’t. I was, however, visibly shaking. To quote Evan it was like an ecstatic tremble.

The first thing that happens once you’re placed is that you’re told to choose your Kyber Crystal. Your options are blue, green, violet, or red (you can buy more colors & crystals in the store next door). I chose blue, anyone surprised there? After choosing your crystal you are given the interior mechanism of your hilt & instructed to insert your Kyber Crystal. The assistants of the show then place your designated tray of parts in front of you & you are walked through the process of building your hilt around the inner mechanism. You have the options of two different pummels, two different igniters, two different emitters, & four different grips (of which you pick two). When your construction is done the cast members come around & place your hilt into an “ignition chamber” attaching it to a blade. You then all ignite your sabers at once as the room darkens & the chambers all open simultaneously. Chills. Instant full bodied chills. I got them but still, no tears much to my surprise. In addition to my blue crystal I also got a red & a white, the latter of which I lean the most towards. If you understand Star Wars lore you know what that means.

I tried desperately to get Jedi robes & a tunic while at Disney but they said they’d been sold out of them for months. I had planned to use that as my Halloween costume for the weekend but I guess some plans fall apart. I even tried to get a Resistance pilot suit but alas everything was too small.

Our last venture of the evening was Smuggler’s Run, yes we made it aboard! Another ride that I cannot recommend enough, Smuggler’s Run puts you in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. In a crew of six two people are assigned pilot (one controls vertical stick, the other horizontal), two people are gunners, & two people are engineers. It’s a lot of fun & I may have gotten a little too competitive in the midst of it.

With the park closing down & exhaustion setting in we walked (ugh) the trek back to the car & made for In-N-Out for a late night dinner. Overall I’d say it was a pretty great day at Disney, I just wish it hadn’t been so crowded so we could’ve ridden more things or maybe ridden things multiple times!

FN-2187

October 8, 2021

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Travel Blog: San Juan, Puerto Rico-Part Two: Viejo San Juan

October 8, 2021

Charlie Rogers

Travel Blog, Travel, Blog

Welcome Back!

If you haven’t read part one from my trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico, I’ll link it below! If you’ve already given it a read, thank you for coming back for this second part & of course thank you for taking the time to read my work in the first piece! Here’s that link for those of you that need a refresher:

PART ONE

All caught up? Great! Let’s head on into part two then!

PART TWO

DAY THREE

The problem with staying in an old convent is that the doors to your Juliet style balcony are often several hundred years old & made of real, non-particle board, wood. That being said, when you close them at night in order to block out the street light directly outside of your room, you end up completely blacking out your room. That’s definitely not a bad thing when it comes to getting some sleep however, when it comes to waking up it makes things a little more complicated. When you’re laying in bed in the pitch black there is no way of knowing whether or not it’s midnight, 8 am, or even potentially noon. All of this is a very round about way of saying that we didn’t wake up on this, our day three, until around 11 AM…

Our initial plan where day three was concerned, was to go either to El Yunque, Camuy Caves, or Mata La Gata. We did not realize that unfortunately, due to COVID, they were limiting the number of vehicles & patrons into each of these respective locations & were requiring reservations of which we had none. So our plans changed.

We decided, since the rainforest was off the table, to have ourselves a day in Viejo San Juan, further exploring the Spanish/Caribbean fort city we’d been staying in for the last two days. We set out from El Convento in search of café striking out rather consistently along the way. Our first attempt at caffeination was at Don Ruiz located within the Museo de las Américas which was unfortunately closed due to the Rona. Our second attempt was also closed though I’m blanking on the name at the moment. Some what defeated we continued down the hill making our way towards the more touristy parts of the city. We figured if anything would be open it would be down where the cruise ships let off.

The day we’d chosen to embark upon greeted us with 96 degree air saturated by 80% humidity. It was hot to say the least. Despite our linen layers & downhill decent we were sweating bullets around halfway down the city. We happened to pass a paleta shop rounding one of the corners & stopped in for a small respite. We had unknowingly stumbled upon Señor Paleta, one of the highest rated dessert bars in all of Puerto Rico! I got a passionfruit paleta, at the recommendation of our host, Ev got mango. We ate our paletas, juice dripping down our arms, as we wound our way down to the docks.

Upon arrival the demographic shift was more than apparent; far less locals, way more tourists running around anxiously, shoving their way into the chain restaurants that greeted them as they exited the gargantuan ships. But, amongst the hustle & bustle of blind tourism sits Cafe Cola’o, it a quant little eye in the middle of this figurative capitalist hurricane. When we entered Evan & I were the only two minus the two baristas occupying the building & even then it felt a tad claustrophobic. I ordered one of their specialty drinks, iced, & Evan had a simple iced latte. The baristas seemed taken aback by the fact I ordered our beverages in Spanish as I’m sure majority of their clientele doesn’t speak a lick of it. I basically chugged my coffee, it was so good & so refreshing. As soon as the ice was rattling around the plastic cup in my hand my hunger began to set in.

Just up the street from Cola’o is a six table top bistro called Spiga, they are famous for their sourbough bread. A sleepy little black dog had settled into their siesta beneath the table we were assigned but we didn’t mind. I had the Prosciutto Caprese Sandwich & Evan had the Prosciutto Brie. I’m glad I ordered what I order because despite normally having a palette for Brie & Fig Jam, that day I wasn’t having it. My sandwich was incredible & Evan swears by his as well, despite me not being much of a fan. I grabbed another cortado before we headed back up the hill away from the tourism.

We had decided to give the old fort a tour, Castillo San Felipe del Morro. By the time we reached the top of the city again the sweat had really begun to soak in. With clothing now cling-wrapped to our bodies we walked along the curtain wall to the stretch of green Bermuda lawn that skirts the walk up to the castle. We paid the $10 admission fee & began our exploration. Much of the castle is built atop much older parts of the castle. There were often places where you could easily distinguish the original parts of the build from those that were only a hundred years or so newer. The castle is mostly empty rooms but has a few exhibits still set up along with some pretty amazing views.

After walking around the fort for a bit we headed back to the hotel to cool off before we went to dinner. We stopped at a Piraguas vender along the way & got two Guayaba Piraguas to help aid our refrigeration process. For those that don’t know, Piraguas are a type of shaved ice taken from a massive block. The shavings are funneled into a cup & pressed down before being topped with fruit juice, in this case Guava.

After hanging out for a while in the air conditioning of our hotel room we gathered up our energy & ventured back into the heat of the early evening in search of a happy hour. We ended up at La Taberna Lúpulo, a local taproom that served an interesting twist on classic cocktails, their twist being that each cocktail contained some form of beer. I got the La Patria Colada (White Rum, Créme de Coco, Fresh Pineapple Juice, & Coconut Porter) & Ev got the La Perla Punch (Lime, Passionfruit, & Coconut Rum, Fruit Juices, Topped with a Sour Beer). Both were incredible however their take on the classic Piña Colada was most intriguing!

After drinks it was once again time to eat! Dinner was Deaverdura a Puerto Rican place I’d find via the interwebs. We once again played my favorite game at a restaurant, surprise me, & our waitress brought us these bomb ass Shrimp with Fried Plantains & Carnitas with Moros y Cristianos. The food was truly to die for & their menu, which was written on a black board in the corner, changes daily based on whatever they feel like making.

After dinner was more food. I was stuffed but my dessert stomach was calling out for sustenance. Evan had found this place on Tik Tok that had a very interesting gimmick; they made waffles in the shape of, as they referred to them, “weenies” & “flowers.” In addition to their quirky shape apparently the waffles themselves stood on their own, no pun intended.

Back down the hill we went only this time we headed diagonal, going east. We found “Mr. Weenie Waffles” tucked inside a clothing boutique. It was run by one woman who was, to put it lightly, overwhelmed. We were second in line but she was finishing up a mobile order before the couple in front of us order & then had to do another mobile order after them of around four individual waffles. Each waffle has the option of being stuffed, iced, drizzled, & topped. Evan got a Weenie stuffed with Bavarian Cream, Chocolate Iced, drizzled in Dulce De Leche, sprinkled with Coconut & I got a Guava stuffed Weenie with Vanilla Icing, Dulce De Leche drizzle, & Coconut. Did I mention my obsession with all things guava or is that apparent? The reviews weren’t wrong, it was a pretty solid dessert. The funniest part of the whole experience was the fact that after we ordered a group of about six people came in & about an hour later on the Mr. Weenie Waffles Instagram page they posted a help wanted ad. Poor woman definitely needed some help.

We got a to-go Passionfruit Mojito from a bar called Marylin’s Place, the interior of which is basically a shrine to Monroe herself, & walked back up the hill. Viejo San Juan allows you to carry drinks while exploring so we used that as an excuse to tie us over until we reach the next bar.

We went back to La Factoria from day two, partially because we wanted to see what the other two bars within the bar looked like but mostly because their cocktails were bomb! Making our way into the far back room we were greeted by a DJ spinning traditional Latinx Pop as well as a dance floor full of people. We both ordered a Campeta (Aged Rum, Pineapple & Fermented Ginger) then sat back & watched the locals let loose.

After our drinks we started walking back towards the hotel but were drawn into a bar called La Cubanita. I blame the supernatural for our sudden interest in the bar as we’d never noticed before but it ended up being the perfect night cap. The reason I blame the supernatural is because our bartenderess, Kilani, was a self proclaimed witch, La Bruja de Viejo San Juan, & she created cocktails using the innate properties of the herbs which she mixed in. She treated mixology as if casting potions or creating elixirs similar to an apothecary. I wish I could recall the drinks she prepared for us as they were all perfect, truly perfection in addition to her being the lovelies human. The only one I can recall was a Lavender Mule made with rum in place of vodka which she cleansed with a dried sprig of lavender before serving the drink.

All the bars closed promptly at midnight having last call sometime right after eleven to make sure everyone was cleared out in time. With bellies full of rum we made our way back one street over to Hotel El Convento before closing our big blackout balcony doors for the night.

DAY FOUR

This is by far going to be the shortest of the days in this blog series. Why? Well, because once again we fell victim to those damn convent doors. How those nuns ever woke up, I’ll never know.

Day four begins once again at 11 AM with foiled plans. The plan for this particular Saturday morning was to walk up the street to the Farmers Market that happens every Saturday morning at El Museo de Arte e Historia. Much like the day before, this museum & its courtyard were also closed…dammed Rona. So we went to see if the empanada place we wanted to try, Deshistoria, was open instead. Nope. The hours on their door were basically a massive “shrug” emoji as well, it basically said “we show up when we want to.”

Defeated & slightly hungover I remember a place in San Juan proper that we’d wanted to try that was also enroute to the airport. We went back to the room, packed up our stuff, pulled the car out of valet, packed it up, & headed into the newer side of town.

La Casita Blanca is as its name implies, a white house. It takes up about a blocks worth of real estate & has a massive tree rooted in the middle of its dining room. We found street parking with ease (remember that super power from the Maui blogs?) & were immediately sat by who I presume was either the owner or at least someone who had been with the restaurant for a long while.

This lovely Puerto Rican woman asked us if we'd ever been in/what brought us in to which the natural only answer is: curiosity. She swung a three foot black board with the days menu over the back of one of our table’s chairs & began explaining her way through it. Before she got too far in I told her what I’d told the waitress the day before, “I trust you.” I told her to bring us whatever & however much she wanted & with great intrigue she agreed.

She started us off with Catfish Bread & Plantain Soup. The bread was kind of like a doughy chicharron, the soup more savory than I’d expected it to be & when combined, woof, incredible. The next thing she brought us were a series of Stews & Rice. One of the stews was Beef the other Chicken, one had Moros y Cristianos the other dirty rice. I preferred the beef while Evan preferred the chicken, so I guess it worked out nicely! In addition to the stews she brought us a pot of beans & half of a massive green avocado covered in veggies. The main course was so good that we couldn't stop eating it. We just got fuller & fuller & fuller but couldn’t for the life of us put down our forks.

When finally we’d slowed to a stop she came over to us looking slightly mournful & explained that what they were in fact famous for was their Tres Leches Cake & how it’d be such a shame if we missed that due to full stomachs. I AM A SUCKER FOR TRES LECHES CAKE & this one did not disappoint! You could very distinctly taste each of the tres leches involved, each evolving perfectly into the next.

We paid & thanked her ten times over before heading off to gas the car, return it, & catch a flight to the mainland.

Puerto Rico was a beautiful experience, I’m so glad I got to have it even if my experience was limited from the pandemic we are still fighting on the daily. A lot of the locales in Puerto Rico require not only proof of vaccination but also a mask until you are seated or eating so I guess if that bothers you, good, stay away from this beautiful place & its incredibly loving people. I can’t wait to be back & see more of the island, I know next time will definitely include El Yunque, Mata La Gate island, as well as diving Black Wall & even more mouthwatering delights!

Until next time Puerto Rico, thank you for the adventure & dear lord, thank you for the food & all the rum!

Mucho amor para todos!

-C

END OF PART TWO & SERIES