Bar 44, Cowbridge

Today, my mother and step-dad came to visit with the intention of heading to the Vale of Glamorgan to see where her Auntie Bunny used to live. Then it was off to lunch in Cowbridge. I already had Bar 44 in mind to eat, but when I saw their tweet this morning with their specials featuring razor clams it was a must. 

Pissed Patagonian

My Cardiff and Surrounds Experiences list

And my final list for now – this one is for experiences. Things to do in and around Cardiff, some may not be possible, it seems the Cardiff Barrage Skyflyer may not go ahead (boo) and spending a night in St David’s Spa could be beyond my budget and after eating a meal there I’m not sure I want to!

Again, I’ve done some already, but I wanted to show my complete list.

• Watch Cardiff City play
• Cycle along the Taff Trail to Castle Coch



Cardiff Bay Barrage

• Walk across the Cardiff Bay Barrage - in fact I've done the full circle, all around the bay, barrage, Penarth marina and back via Grangetown, a great stroll in the sunshine.
• See a live band in Clwb Ifor Bach

My Cardiff and Surrounds Places to Visit list

Adding to my dining wishlist, I also have a list of places that I’d like to visit in Cardiff and around and abouts. It won’t be my final list – I like making lists, it helps me feel more organised and also gets me out and about.

St Fagans

So this list is for places to visit the majority of which of historical or cultural sights. Though I think I’ll need to kidnap some kids to visit Techniquest. 

The ongoing search for the perfect chip shop

The National Fish and Chip Awards for 2012 were announced this week, so in my quest to find the perfect chip shop, I have three more to try out. I will say that I don't have chips that often, in fact maybe once or twice a year, but when I do, I want good chips - don't mind about the fish, as I have sausage normally. I just want good chips, is that too much to ask?

I’m not sure if it’s the case that chips just don’t taste the same anymore, or I have a rose tinted view of chips from when I was little. On the very rare occasions that we had them, it was usually when we visited my Nan in Swansea and went to her local one down the road. A proper old school chippy, blue tiled inside, with just the counter, no seating, and pickled eggs and salt and vinegar and maybe the old can of pop to add to the fish or sausage and chips. And they were lovely. The right proportion of sogginess and crispness and all of them cooked (seems that, in itself, is a challenge these days).

Anyway, the three award winners in various categories in Wales are:

• The Crispy Cod, High Street, Tonyrefail
• Frydays Fish and Chip Emporium, Old St Mellons Post Office, Newport Road, Cardiff
• Zero Plus Fish Bar, in Cowbridge Road, Canton

Does anyone have any other recommendations? 

My Cardiff and Surrounds Dining Wishlist

I've now been living in Cardiff for nearly a year and have been trying to work out the best places to eat. I have finally created a list of places I hope to visit in the future. They’re different cuisines and different styles of eateries. But all have been recommended at some point by someone. So here they are:

In Cardiff

• Purple Poppadum, Cowbridge Road East
• Vegetarian Food Studio, Grangetown
• Chapter, Canton
• Mint & Mustard, Whitchurch Road

Sponsored Zip Line from Newport Transporter Bridge for Multiple Sclerosis

It all started with reading a Tweet saying:

Who'd like to ride a zip line off the Newport transporter bridge? It'll knock your socks off. 10 July. Reply ASAP :)

It then spiralled into getting an email with some info that night and the following morning registering for the event. I’d said yes even before I knew all the details, but it can’t be as bad as previous zip lines I’d done. In fact the last one I did, we watched it break as some friends were using it. They were fine and definitely not as professional as the set up for this zip line.

India

• Where cows rate higher than women
• Or … if I get my boobs grabbed once more I’ll be stuck in jail for GBH
• Or … not sure there’s enough Immodium in the country to last me
• Or …

Well, the list is fairly endless, I will explain that a lot of my negativity is down, I think, to traveller’s fatigue. Only so much one brain can take in without saying: stop, no more! It’s got to be bad when you’re not awe inspired by the Taj Mahal or (according to a lot of other visitors) not taken in by the spirituality of the country.

The slow boat down the Mekong river - Laos to Thailand

I didn’t think I’d get the chance to do this journey, one listed as a must, as people had been going on about it not being possible as the water was too low, blah, blah, blah. Don’t listen to them, get yourself to one of the starting points and see if the boats are going. They normally are, even if it's the very dry season, which it  was when I was there.

So how to do it?

Buy your ticket at the boat docks, not at an office in town. I was going from Luang Prabang (LP) to the Thai border and visited many offices and thought I’d got the best price, ha! I paid 250 000 kip for a ticket all the way from LP to Thailand, but if you buy your ticket in LP to Pak Beng (PB) it’s 100 000 kip then PB to Huay Xai (HX) it’s another 100 000 kip and you can buy your tickets on the boat.

Tubing in Vang Vieng

First off: you don’t need a tube to go tubing, but get one at least once, otherwise it’s not tubing, is it?

To hire a tube, it was 115 000 kip, 60 000 of that is the deposit for the tube, which has to be returned by 6pm that day. Needless to say we didn’t get our deposits back, we weren’t back in time, nor did we have our tubes. The 115 000 includes the 10 000 kip tuk tuk ride to the starting point on the river. People tend to begin between 12-2pm, any later and you don’t get very far down the river and to many bars before it gets dark.

Back in Action

Sorry for the hiatus in transmissions from my adventures, but I’ve just been too caught with being sociable and seeing stuff. It’s meant a lot of travelling with a great bunch of different people, which makes updating the blog second place to getting to know new friends.

Since my last post here’s a quick summation of places I’ve been to, more details later:

• Mexico City - loved it, culture, good food, learnt a tiny bit of Spanish, failed to learn to dance - though  I had many teachers and a great time. I also got a bit obsessed with the skeletons!

• Cuba - could have been better, saw some parts of Havana that tourists don’t normally get to see and I left early before I was on the streets with no money.

Grand Circle Tour of the Canyons - 4

Day Eight: Hoover Dam - Fri

As I was staying in a hotel 5 minutes drive from Hoover Dam, I decided to do the dam, properly. This meant a $30 tour, including the power plant and within the dam itself. All a bit geeky really. After driving through the security checkpoint to get onto the dam, I avoided the expensive car parks and walked across the dam to the visitor centre. After another security check to get into the centre there’s a 10 minute film about the building of the dam. It’s very American and patriotic, which made me chuckle. After the film, we were squeezed into an elevator, shoulder to shoulder and facing the front, down to the old nuclear fallout shelter and the huge water pipes, which are big enough to drive a car through.

Grand Circle Tour of the Canyons - 3

Day Five - Kingman to Kingman - Tues

Tried again to get to the Grand Canyon - via Phoenix, then Flagstaff but no luck and a horrendous, terrifying drive. Snow and ice on the roads, trucks and SUVs whizzing past far too fast with their invincibility cloaks on.

Day Six - Route 66, Oatman, London Bridge - Weds

Grand Circle Tour of the Canyons - 2

Day Three - Zion National Park, Utah - Sun

After my nightmare journey to get to Zion, with locking the keys in the car I made it to the park, paid the $25 entrance fee,and as it’s out of season people can drive through the park rather than take the normal shuttle buses. So I drove the short scenic route to the riverside walk, which was an easy stroll at the bottom of the canyon. It was very pretty, with icicles - this is the desert, it shouldn’t be so cold.

Grand Circle Tour of the Canyons

Day One - Las Vegas - Fri

I stayed at the Stratosphere Tower Hotel and Casino and had a nice room with a bath, so took advantage of the bath, then walked an hour down the strip, managed to only get so far as the Bellagio then headed back as I had to be up early to collect the car the next day. The strip was full of cowboys because Vegas is hosting some rodeo championships, so lots of cowboy hats on display.
 

Day Two - Valley of Fire, Nevada - Sat

I picked up the car, with the added disadvantage of not having a credit card they would accept and the warning that if I was heading up into the mountains I should get an upgrade from the basic compact model. In fact I was automatically upgraded as they didn’t have any compact cars and anyway I wasn’t heading into the mountains, I was going to the canyons…

San Francisco

With the cold still in full effect, I decided an open top bus tour was the only was I going to see San Francisco in two days, plus visit Alcatraz. Luckily I got a discount on my joint ticket, so it didn’t break the bank hugely.

The Bird Man of Alcatraz had no birds on Alcatraz, there, myth gone. It’s a weird island, very eerie and evocative. The audio tour is by both ex convicts and guards, so it gives both sides of the story, it seems neither liked it there. But then again I don’t suppose prisoners are meant to like jail, sort of against the point.

Portland, Oregon

My cold was in full swing by this time, again - it wasn’t going away, so I walked the local neighbourhood and pampered myself by having my hair done. I didn’t feel any better, but my hair looked good.

Washington Park is on the west side of town, same side as my hostel, so I set off on a  foggy morning to the park and apparently a good place to see the city from - though not with the fog. There were even some roses growing in the International Rose Test Garden, though not as many as there would be in the summer, of course. It was a great place to take photos, especially if I wanted spooky, tree photos.

Seattle

After 4 days on two trains I arrived at the hostel just as the Thanksgiving meal had finished. But I met Caitlin, who was also at the Austin hostel, who made me up a plate of turkey, mash and stuffing, plus a slice each of pumpkin and pecan pie. It was just what I needed after the train journey, proper hot, homemade food.

The Green Tortoise hostel is opposite the famous Pike Place Market, so that was my first stop the next day.

Austin, Texas

Austin was never going to be a proper tourist visit for me, I wasn’t so much interested in the sights of the city, as much as the music and nightlife that it’s more famous for, or at least more famous to me for. I wanted to go to Texas and it seemed as good a town as any to chose.

New Orleans

New Orleans was great, not so sure if that’s down to the town itself; which was somewhat seedy in some places and in others still suffering the effects of Hurricane Katrina, or if it was down to the great friends I made there. Plus the sun shone the whole time!

The hostel was located at the northern end of Canal Street, which allowed easy access by the street car into the centre, but I walked the street the first day, just to see what was around.

Charleston, South Carolina

It wasn’t a very good start in Charleston, the city was hit by the tail-end of a hurricane, so day one it rained, hard, day two it was windy and cold and day three it was just grey, day four there was sunshine, but I was only there for the morning, so I didn’t see the place in its best light. And on my cab ride from the train station to hostel, I was ripped off, not only overcharged, but we dropped off another passenger, stopped for the driver to get some coffee and finally made it to the hostel. I was not a happy bunny. But I was able to get into the hostel and have a shower, I was given the back door code, so I just had to wait for the person who worked there to let me check in, she did and even allocated my bed so I could go and have a nap, yay!