"Is there a hole in my bill?!"

A super close up of a Marabou Stork at Lake Albert, Uganda.  This handsome devil was engulfing our Bream braai from the night before. 

The Narcissist Hyena

I'd like to see what people think the caption to this photo should be...

(Spotted Hyena in Liuwa National Park, Zambia)

Pork with sticky Asian glaze (Lusaka, Zambia)

The whole idea of any thing pork with Asian flavors, just sounds delicious.  I stumbled across this recipe and had to give it a whirl – not because I thought it was overly interesting, but rather I had never even considered cooking a pig’s neck.  I bought the chunk of neck from Zoran’s Majoru outlet in Crossroads Shopping Center.  Incidentally the rice noodles I had brought to Zambia from Thailand in January, along with the star anise and dark soy sauce. 

Total time: 2 hours.  Serves 6.

Ingredients:

1 T sunflower oil
1.5 kg pork neck
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 cm ginger, peeled and finely grated
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
2 star anise
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
8 dried whole mushrooms (e.g. shitake or brown)
1 kg rice noodles
350 g chopped buk choy
3 green onions, thinly sliced

Steps:

1. Heat oil on medium in large sauce pan.  Sauté pork until brown on all sides. Add onion, garlic and ginger and sauté 1 minute. Add soy sauce, sugar, stock and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours turning pork.
2. Meanwhile soak mushrooms in warm water for 30 min, slice and then add to pork about 60 minutes into cooking the pork.
3. Remove pork from pan.  Reserve sauce.
4. Boil sauce uncovered for about 10 minutes, or until about 2 cups is reduced to 1 cup.
5. Meanwhile place rice noodle in bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand until tender, then drain.
6. Slice the pork thinly.
7. Steam or sauté buk choy until soft.
8. Prepare plates by placing noodles down, then a layer of buk choy, a layer of pork, topped with a drizzle of sauce and chopped spring onions.

Hippy-Hater Hotels (Bangkok, Thailand)

I’ve never really encountered true “Hippy-Hating” in any Hotel. (perhaps that speaks to the quailty of hotels I’ve been in.)  Hippy-hating is Cartmen’s (South Park) whole raison d'être (insert his voice here), “I HATE hippies…hippies piss me off.”  The Banyam Hotel announces its disdain for yogurt weaving tree-huggering backpackers with a big sign near the foyer. 

(Sign posted outside the Banyam Hotel – “No shorts/no sleeveless tops, No back packing, and no slippers/sandals.”

Being a former backbacker, I took a bit of offence.  The saving grace of the hippy attack was the stupendolorific (yes that is a neologism) view of Bangkok from the Vertigo Bar – over 50 stories up.  If one can set aside the $12 tag of their signature fru fru drinks, the atmosphere is awesome.

 (The nocturnal view from the Vertigo Bar on top of Banyam Hotel.)

(The barman busting a move from atop 50 stories of hotel.)

Thai transport (Bangkok, Thailand)

Bangkok is blessed with the BTS (Bangkok Transit System).  Cleaner than a German operating room and more efficient than a Japanese train, the BTS is a city traveler’s wet dream.  BTS is chock-a-block with flat screen TVs and graffiti-free walls.

Of course there’s alternatives to the BTS.  For the intrepid, there’s are scooters and motorcycles, which are quick (zip through traffic jams) and prevalent, often carrying more than two pax.

Here are a few pictures from the streets of Bangkok.