Top 10s...

The last few weeks I've been trying to catch up... and I'm sure no one has been able to catch up with my Usain-ish blogging speed. And as it's the end of our blog, I figured I'd put a Top 10 list for fun while editing my pics from this year... some are more or less than 10, alas it's fuzzy math... (for our sake as well, as my memory isn't all that great... that's why I take a lot of pics)

Top 10 foods - the iffy ones first...

• Prepackaged horse stew (japan)
  
• Various street foods (Thailand/Cambodia/Laos)
• Noname Poo (Thailand) literally translated (Noname = deep fried, Poo = Crab)... was an obvious choice when I saw it on the menu
• Deep Fried Snickers/Twix/Mars Bars on the Annapurna Circuit (Nepal) ... quite delicious actually...
• Giant Red Ant with Herb (Cambodia)
• The Lao Lao with Scorpion, Centipede, and a Cobra biting it's own tail... (Thailand, Ko Lanta) on the day I met Me and Him!
• Rat Tail? - Anyway, peer pressuring Jasper to eat this with the locals was fun... pretty gross but well worth seeing Jasper suffer.

Good Foods...

• Grilled Turbo at Ayano-san's BBQ. Had a blast at the BBQ playing with kids and being introduced to the Japanese style BBQ... although Moses kept making the baby cry.
• Grilled Fish at the night market in Luang Prabang... oh my... get there right when the market starts kicking off (around 5 pm)... and they have it grilled perfectly. We ate 4 I think...
• The Fruit Shakes in Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal.
• The Indian Restaurant (Nazim's) in Vang Vieng... I think we ate there 5 times.
• The Cheesus Burger - though it might not be the healthiest...
• Lopez's Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima
• Sushi in Japan....
• The Enchilada at Chhomrong - the most satisfying meal of 2009 for sure.
• Oysters in NZ...

Memorable moments

• Sailing in the Sydney Harbor on my birthday with our Warmshowers host.
• Cycling the Great Ocean Road
• Having lunch with Amy, an Aborigine lady in Tasmania.
• Running up a new peak everyday on the Overland Track.
• The 8 of us reaching our kayaks on the Abel Tasman Track stashed with beer...
• Learning to fly...I can still feel the air in my face from that day.
• Catching a Crab in the Whitsunday Islands and eating it on the beach 10 min. later
• Diving the Great Barrier Reef...
• Spending Peace Memorial Day (Aug 6) with Moses guided by Victor in Hiroshima.
• The entire Annapurna Circuit, it was a priviledge for us to share our time hiking with Sean, our Canadian buddy that we traveled with everyday.
• Fire jump roping double dutch in Phi Phi.
• Meeting Me and Him... for obvious reasons.
• "Tubing" in Vang Vieng with Jasper and Funk...
• The first few click son our newly purchased scooters in Lao...
• Deep water soloing in Raileh (and jumping from the top)
• Kayaking back in the states.


• Canyoneering back in Cali...

Things we missed

• Friends and Family
• Mingus! (of course)
• Racer 5 (or any west coast ipa)
• A good Burrito
• My gear (bikes, skis, climbing gear, kite, kayak, etc.)
  
• the Sierras - although we visited the Himalayas, the NZ Alps, the Sierras are different... and very special.
  

Recommendations...

• Take a trip. Short, long, exotic, or just to your local wilderness... I recommend taking more trips.
  
• Go light... especially if you are headed to cheaper countries like Thailand or Nepal... everything is pretty much cheaper over there anyway if you think you forgot something essential.
• Try the food... well maybe not the giant fried cochroach... but my dad always told me to be an adventurous eater and look at me.
• Go volunteer at Lek's Elephant Nature Camp... or at the Organic Farm in Pai... or WWOOF, or just hop on your bike and ride...

Finally... we'll leave you with 2 quotes...

• “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
• "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover" - Mark Twain