Last year, my parents informed me that they were planning on going on a cruise in the summer, something not out of the ordinary for them. What was out of the ordinary was what they said next: If I wanted, they would pay for me to come along and enjoy myself in Mexico and on the cruise for a week. It was an offer I would have been crazy to refuse.
And so, less than a week after last semester ended, I wound up driving down to Redondo Beach to spend the night before we got on our cruise. We walked the shops along the beach, ate at a Joe's Crab Shack, and went to sleep.
The next morning, something I hadn't experienced since I turned 8 years old happened: I boarded a cruise ship. Not much happened that day, mostly just wandering the ship, getting acquainted with it. We met up with people from an internet forum my mother is a part of, all of whom had kids around my age. All of them were excited to be entering college or starting their second year, babbling about which college they were going to, how much fun it was going to be, and the like. When it came to my turn, I told them I was already a senior in college. I was the oldest of them all. They all went dancing next to the pool on the main deck we were overlooking. I stood next to my parents and laughed quietly to myself, drinking the delicious alcoholic beverage none of them were allowed to order.
After another meetup with internet people, a gift exchange, more alcohol, a fairly boring day at sea, and toasting the captain with free champagne, we made it to Cabo San Lucas. Here, we took a quick boat tour around the area, wandered through the shops at the docks, and trekked a mile out to a glass factory. It was fascinating watching the glass-blowers practice their craft. We walked back to town, had some margaritas, and called it a day. Although we didn't do anything terribly exciting, Cabo would become my favorite port of call.
Our next stop was Mazatlan. An interesting note: Mazatlan is in a different time zone than Cabo. We, of course, forgot to reset our watches, and so missed our planned tour by an hour. A quick, $20 phone call later, the tour company gave us credit for another tour.
Instead, we grabbed a local tour guide, Jose, who drove us to a small village with a bakery in a house. The bread was delicious and cheap. Then, he brought us to a small furniture factory. There was little to do there, so we headed up to the mountains, where we visited a small town and saw a church that was hundreds of years old. After a near-death experience of almost hitting a bus, and having the car almost break down, we got back on the boat.
The next day, we cashed in our tour credit and went on a tour around Puerto Vallarta. We made our way to a small tequila factory, did a tasting and bought two $60 bottles that were amazing, and visited a place where Predator was filmed. Other than the tequila factory, it was a low-key day.
Another day at sea, and we were back home. Wandering around three major ports, shopping and drinking, was a perfect way to get away from home. If you have never been on a cruise, I highly suggest booking one, and take someone with you. It's relaxing and fun. While I'd love to get into more detail, this column is starting to run long, and I have to start planning for the cruise my girlfriend and I are taking to Mexico - Cabo and Puerto Vallarta - next month.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Saigon Bay, Pho, and Bubble Tea
The Saigon Bay, a Vietnamese restaurant on Sacramento State's campus, is surprisingly good, if a bit pricy. They are also one of few places in the area to sell bubble tea.
First off, the menu is fairly small, consisting of pho (prounounced more like "pha"), noodles in broth with your choice of meats or vegetables, sandwiches, and spring rolls. Being a small restaurant, the menu is on the wall behind the counter, almost like a fast food restaurant (and in thinking, who are they kidding? It is little more than such for college students.).
The pho took mere minutes (blink and the food is ready) to make, and there were plenty of tables both inside and outside to enjoy the flank steak pho at. The tables inside are fairly close together and it was difficult getting four people around the table.
The pho itself was delicious, but rather expensive. The styrene bowl of pho, useful for traveling on campus, costs a whopping $6. While the noodles and meat are delicious and filling, it feels like there should be more. It is reminiscent of a bowl of udon noodles, a fair Japanese equivalent, but udon noodles are much thicker and usually come with far more meat. For the same size bowl of udon, I'd expect to pay $6. The pho noodles are much thinner, and thus come off as cheaper.
Another point of contention was that Saigon Bay normally provides the large Chinese-style soup spoons for pho, but on this trip, only normal spoons and chopsticks. For those that like their soup spicy, Srircha sauce is provided in large quantities.
The other part of the meal - the drink - is where Saigon Bay shines brightly. They are the only restaurant near campus that sells boba or bubble tea. The name is a misnomer - there are no bubbles, and it's a smoothie, not tea. The "bubbles" are orbs of black tapioca that sit at the bottom of the smoothie. A much-larger-than-normal straw is provided to drink the smoothie and suck up the orbs. While a bit pricy at $3 for a single bubble tea, it's worth it. The tapioca balls are mostly tasteless, and are there for texture more than anything, so the only requirement to like the drink is enjoying fruit-flavored smoothies.
For the starving college student looking to have something other than Panda Express or Burger King, the Saigon Bay is an excellent choice. The food is good and the drinks are better, but the price is a higher than expected. It is more of a treat than a replacement for the student who normally eats at the Hive, something to splurge on and feel more refined than getting another Whopper or bowl of orange chicken and rice.
First off, the menu is fairly small, consisting of pho (prounounced more like "pha"), noodles in broth with your choice of meats or vegetables, sandwiches, and spring rolls. Being a small restaurant, the menu is on the wall behind the counter, almost like a fast food restaurant (and in thinking, who are they kidding? It is little more than such for college students.).
The pho took mere minutes (blink and the food is ready) to make, and there were plenty of tables both inside and outside to enjoy the flank steak pho at. The tables inside are fairly close together and it was difficult getting four people around the table.
The pho itself was delicious, but rather expensive. The styrene bowl of pho, useful for traveling on campus, costs a whopping $6. While the noodles and meat are delicious and filling, it feels like there should be more. It is reminiscent of a bowl of udon noodles, a fair Japanese equivalent, but udon noodles are much thicker and usually come with far more meat. For the same size bowl of udon, I'd expect to pay $6. The pho noodles are much thinner, and thus come off as cheaper.
Another point of contention was that Saigon Bay normally provides the large Chinese-style soup spoons for pho, but on this trip, only normal spoons and chopsticks. For those that like their soup spicy, Srircha sauce is provided in large quantities.
The other part of the meal - the drink - is where Saigon Bay shines brightly. They are the only restaurant near campus that sells boba or bubble tea. The name is a misnomer - there are no bubbles, and it's a smoothie, not tea. The "bubbles" are orbs of black tapioca that sit at the bottom of the smoothie. A much-larger-than-normal straw is provided to drink the smoothie and suck up the orbs. While a bit pricy at $3 for a single bubble tea, it's worth it. The tapioca balls are mostly tasteless, and are there for texture more than anything, so the only requirement to like the drink is enjoying fruit-flavored smoothies.
For the starving college student looking to have something other than Panda Express or Burger King, the Saigon Bay is an excellent choice. The food is good and the drinks are better, but the price is a higher than expected. It is more of a treat than a replacement for the student who normally eats at the Hive, something to splurge on and feel more refined than getting another Whopper or bowl of orange chicken and rice.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Top Gear is Top Notch
I'm not exactly what you would call a car person, having driven a 1997 purple Plymouth Voyager the past six years. Bear this in mind when I say that Top Gear is one of the best shows that has graced TV in some time.
Top Gear, a British show centered on cars that originally started in 1977 and ran through 2001, and was picked up with a new format the next year, is currently hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. While these names may not sound familiar to Americans, they are fairly well-known columnists and personalities across the pond.
But why in the wide world of motor vehicles would someone who is not a car enthusiast watch this show? Because it is far more hilarious than the majority of sitcoms clogging the airwaves. While there are the segments where the hosts, or professional driver "The Stig," test-drive cars, usually ones that I would never be able to afford, there are also guest segments, featuring celebrities from both America and England, as well as segments that challenge the hosts to complete tasks.
For instance, one episode had them building RVs out of normal cars. Clarkson created a three-story "apartment" that was not built with wind resistance in mind. May used a luggage-carrier on top of his car for sleeping. Hammond packing siding onto the sides of his car, and unfolded it all to create a mobile motel. The challenge ended with Clarkson being interview during breakfast, while his car/RV fell off the side of a cliff into the bay in the background.
Other challenges are absurd, such as transforming a Reliant Robin, a 3-wheeled car, into a rocket, with the intention of it being a spaceship. It would have worked, too, if they were able to land it properly after takeoff.
Another episode finds the hosts in the deep south of the States, with only a few hundred dollars to buy a used car and get from point A to B. They attempt to sabotage each other by writing slogans on the sides of each others' cars meant to infuriate the Bible Belt. Another trip, this time to Vietnam, saw the hosts driving scooters and motorcycles across the country, while "gifts" to each other - a small, weighty statue, a large painting, and a large wooden sailboat model - were strapped to the backs of the vehicles. None of the "gifts" - obviously meant to sabotage each other - made it through the trip unscathed.
Other episodes are races: Clarkson, in a Nissan GT-R, raced Hammond and May, on the shinkansen bullet train, across Japan.
There are few cons to the show. There are some segments, based on judging new cars, that simply won't hold interest for non-car enthusiasts. Thus is the miracle of Netflix and DVR.
Which leads to another pro - Top Gear is on Netflix On-Demand. Seasons 2-16 are available.
Be warned, however -The American version of the show is also available, and making it through a single episode of it was much less enjoyable. The humor just is not as funny as the original U.K. version.
In short, while there are some boring parts to Top Gear, namely where they test-drive new cars, the challenge segments, which sometimes comprise entire special episodes, are what makes Top Gear a hilarious show that just happens to revolve around cars.
Top Gear, a British show centered on cars that originally started in 1977 and ran through 2001, and was picked up with a new format the next year, is currently hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. While these names may not sound familiar to Americans, they are fairly well-known columnists and personalities across the pond.
But why in the wide world of motor vehicles would someone who is not a car enthusiast watch this show? Because it is far more hilarious than the majority of sitcoms clogging the airwaves. While there are the segments where the hosts, or professional driver "The Stig," test-drive cars, usually ones that I would never be able to afford, there are also guest segments, featuring celebrities from both America and England, as well as segments that challenge the hosts to complete tasks.
For instance, one episode had them building RVs out of normal cars. Clarkson created a three-story "apartment" that was not built with wind resistance in mind. May used a luggage-carrier on top of his car for sleeping. Hammond packing siding onto the sides of his car, and unfolded it all to create a mobile motel. The challenge ended with Clarkson being interview during breakfast, while his car/RV fell off the side of a cliff into the bay in the background.
Other challenges are absurd, such as transforming a Reliant Robin, a 3-wheeled car, into a rocket, with the intention of it being a spaceship. It would have worked, too, if they were able to land it properly after takeoff.
Another episode finds the hosts in the deep south of the States, with only a few hundred dollars to buy a used car and get from point A to B. They attempt to sabotage each other by writing slogans on the sides of each others' cars meant to infuriate the Bible Belt. Another trip, this time to Vietnam, saw the hosts driving scooters and motorcycles across the country, while "gifts" to each other - a small, weighty statue, a large painting, and a large wooden sailboat model - were strapped to the backs of the vehicles. None of the "gifts" - obviously meant to sabotage each other - made it through the trip unscathed.
Other episodes are races: Clarkson, in a Nissan GT-R, raced Hammond and May, on the shinkansen bullet train, across Japan.
There are few cons to the show. There are some segments, based on judging new cars, that simply won't hold interest for non-car enthusiasts. Thus is the miracle of Netflix and DVR.
Which leads to another pro - Top Gear is on Netflix On-Demand. Seasons 2-16 are available.
Be warned, however -The American version of the show is also available, and making it through a single episode of it was much less enjoyable. The humor just is not as funny as the original U.K. version.
In short, while there are some boring parts to Top Gear, namely where they test-drive new cars, the challenge segments, which sometimes comprise entire special episodes, are what makes Top Gear a hilarious show that just happens to revolve around cars.
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