Take the Chance and Reap the Reward

On October 8, 2015October 9, 2015 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn India2 Comments

The old saying is true, without risk there can be no reward. Perhaps risk is too strong of a word, maybe it should be that if you don’t take the chance, you’ll miss out on a great experience. There have been several examples of this during our travels, but there was one experience that stands out for us. A few years ago, we had the pleasure to travel to Chennai, India, on business. The trip as a whole was one of our favorite trips, even though there was work involved. While we were there, a co-worker invited us to their home for dinner. We immediately accepted, not wanting to offend anyone, but to be honest, we were a little apprehensive.

The night of our dinner was one of our last nights there, so by then we had eaten quite a bit of Indian food, which we love, and had done our best to eat every meal like a local. We had a driver while we were there, not quite ready to take on the challenge of driving in India, so we gave him the address where we going and we were off. We turned off the main road and quickly found ourselves in a maze of tiny side streets filled with a mix of poverty and middle class buildings. After a few minutes, our driver informed us that the way that he thought we needed to go was not correct and he needed some directions. We gave him the number of our co-worker and after a few minutes of back and forth, we were on our way again. Then a few minutes later, we were at a stop, apparently the directions were too difficult and again he was on the phone. This time we waited until the husband arrived on motorcycle to escort us to their home.

We arrived at their apartment and walked up to the third floor where we went through a large wooden door with an image of Ganesh intricately carved into it. Typical to our experience in India, beauty can be found in surprising places. We entered into the living room, which had a couch, chair, coffee table, and large TV on an entertainment center with MTV (or something similar) playing. We were ushered to the couch as their two young children, both boys, showed us their favorite toys, much to their parents annoyance, not that we minded. We have a friend who is a cultural anthropologist, so he had prepared us for many of the things that we encountered while in India, but having dinner at someone’s house was not one of them. Our co-worker and her mother-in-law were in the kitchen, diligently wrapping up the meal that we were about to be served. There was one other room in the apartment, the bedroom, to be shared by all five members of the family. This was the life of a middle class family with a dual income from jobs working for American companies.

After a little conversation, translated by a friend of the family, TV trays were placed in front of us and our meal was about to begin. As we had been sitting on the couch, friends and neighbors had been slowly arriving and there was a small gathering outside of the door to the kitchen, not saying anything, just there to observe these strange westerners. We were given glasses of water and our first dish of fried fish was brought out to us. We needed to drink some of the water during our meal, but we didn’t drink too much, just in case. We did our best, using only our right hand, to eat while still having conversations with those that had gathered. We were their guest, so we would eat first and they were honored to serve us. It was just their way of showing us respect, but we weren’t prepared to eat while everyone watched, especially without utensils.

We wish we could describe the food in a way that would give it justice, but it was all delicious. After each course, we were offered “one more” of what we were having. When we said yes, we would get two more. We’re not big eaters, we usually share meals when we go out, so this was one of the largest meals either of us had eaten in years. After the fish came a potato curry with some flatbread (and then one more). Then for dessert, we were served a bowl of Rasmalai, which is made of sweetened condensed milk and a round dumpling in the center of it. It was wonderful, but eating that with our fingers was definitely an adventure, I’m sure many of the smiles were smirks at our clumsiness.

After the meal came the blessing. We were given gifts, a statue of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus as a symbol of respect to our God and a statue of Vishnu in honor of their religion. Flower wreaths were placed around our necks and we were given fruit. Then a small round container was opened and handed to Dona for her to put the Bindi on the center of the forehead. That moment turned out to almost big our biggest faux pas of the evening as we didn’t realize that it was powder and instead of using the thumb to apply it to the forehead, Dona started to raise the canister to her forehead. Everyone quickly came to the rescue and showed us the proper way to do it. We thanked everyone profusely and left to find all of the neighbors crowded around to watch us leave.

Our driver had waited for us, so we got into the car and started making our way back to the hotel. We didn’t get far before we got behind an ox cart with a large statue of Vishnu on it. The cart would stop every few buildings and people would come out to the street and offer prayers. Slowly but surely, we made our way back through the winding streets, past the animals and throngs of people, and back to the familiar honking, motorcycle and rickshaw filled main thoroughfare. Back at the hotel, we were full and exhausted, but we knew even then that our evening at their home for dinner would be one of our fondest travel memories ever. We wish we had more pictures to share of the evening, but we were there as their guest, not as tourists, so we did not take any other pictures of that wonderful evening. Since returning home, we’ve tried several times to replicate the potato curry that we were served, without much success. Some things can’t be duplicated.

Crab and Spinach Lasagna

On September 29, 2015September 30, 2015 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes1 Comment

Now that Autumn is here, we decided to make some comfort food that wasn’t as heavy as some of the things that we make during winter. We made this with crab claw meat, but you could easily substitute with lobster or a combination of other seafood. It is pretty simple to make and is quite delicious. Pairing it with a simple salad made it a perfect and easy weeknight meal.

Ingredients

3 tbsp Unsalted Butter
3 tbsp Flour
2 cups Milk
1 pinch Fresh Nutmeg
3 oz Fresh Spinach – cleaned, stemmed, and chiffonade
4 oz Parmesan Cheese – grated
1 cup Ricotta Cheese
1 Egg
1 tsp Garlic – minced
8 oz Fresh Mozzarella Cheese – sliced
1 lb Crabmeat – shells removed
Salt and Pepper to taste
Lasagna Sheets (we used the ready to bake lasagna sheets or cook to package directions)

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, whisking for 2 minutes in order to make a rue. Slowly add the milk, whisking continuously. Add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Continue cooking for 4 to 6 minutes until sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and add the spinach, crabmeat, and 1/4 cup of the parmesan cheese. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, and egg. Mix well. Spray a 7″ by 11″ casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Spread some of the sauce mixture across the bottom of the pan and then add a layer of noodles. Spread the sauce across the noodles, then add 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, and 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese. Add another layer of noodles and repeat 2 more times. Add the rest of the parmesan cheese across the final layer, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes until the cheese starts to brown. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes. Cut and serve.

Should You Buy a Timeshare?

On September 20, 2015September 21, 2015 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Travel TipsLeave a comment

First of all, we know that timeshares aren’t for everyone. The year that our youngest daughter went off to college, one of our parents gave us one of their timeshare weeks because they weren’t going to have time to use it that year. So two weeks after dropping our daughter off at her dorm, we were off to Cabo San Lucas. When we arrived at the resort, which was gorgeous, we were asked about scheduling a tour of the property and listening to their timeshare pitch. We decided to go ahead and schedule the tour, only because of the discounts, free drinks, and other offers. The morning of the tour, we both woke up repeating the mantra, “just say no”. We were determined that we weren’t going to be duped into buying a timeshare and we wouldn’t give them more than the sixty minutes that they said the tour would take us. We looked at the rooms, ate breakfast with the salesperson at a table overlooking the private beach, and eventually made our way to the sales office. Our room was spectacular, the beach was gorgeous, and we were feeling relaxed, perhaps too relaxed. Our resolve had wavered, we were no long able to “just say no”, but we were now firmly embedded into the “maybe” camp. We called our parents who had given us the timeshare week and asked their opinion, after all, they had several timeshare weeks with different companies and traveled constantly. Their response, “if you had to go there every year and you couldn’t trade it, would we go?”. We looked out at the resort, the ocean, the beautiful blue skies. Yes, we could do this every year, happily, so in the end, it was “just say yes” and we had purchased our first timeshare. There are a lot of questions that you need to ask yourself before you decide to purchase a timeshare, but we actually are big fans of timeshares after having had a couple of them for several years now.

The most obvious and important question is can you afford it? Timeshares aren’t cheap and you need to understand all of the expenses that are involved. First, unless you’re in the position to purchase outright, you will have a monthly installment payment as well as interest charges. If you decide to exchange your week (we’ll talk about that later) there is a cost for each week that you trade. If you’re not able to use your week, most timeshares allow you to “bank it” or “rescue it”, which allows you to move your week to the following year and gives you longer to use your week, but again there is a cost to do that. The biggest additional expense is for your maintenance fees, which is what they charge for cleaning and general maintenance of the property. It is a big investment, so you need to think about it carefully. One potential benefit, depending on the timeshare that you’ve bought is that it is buying property and you can write off the interest on your taxes and when you’ve paid it off, it is yours and you can will it to a child or relative.

View from Our Room at the Villa Del Arco

Resort in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic

The next question to ask yourself is how often can you travel? If you travel consistently, one week every year or at least every other year, then perhaps it might be a good choice for you. The way that we look at it is that we’re “pre-paying” for our hotel or resort in advance, which is usually the most expensive part of the trip anyway. For us, we know that we will travel at least a couple of weeks a year, with at least one of those trips being out of the country. We find that it reduces our stress when we start planning a trip, knowing that we don’t have to think about the cost of our room and our only expenses will be for food, activities, and airfare.

If you’re leaning towards purchasing a timeshare, the next question is probably which one is right for you. There are lots of them out there, Marriott, Hilton, Disney, and a variety of other hotel groups. We’re not going to make a recommendation, although we have two different timeshares at the moment and are happy with both. Find out if they are affiliated with a timeshare exchange company. One of our timeshares is associated with RCI and the other is associated with Interval International. These companies allow you to deposit your timeshare week with them and exchange it for any available timeshare property in their catalog, which provides properties all over the world, making your timeshare a passport to travelling the world. A couple of years ago, we spent two weeks in Estapona Spain simply by trading weeks that we had in our current timeshares. Also, check to see if you can convert your timeshare for points in a regular hotel rewards program, that way if you can’t travel, you can at least convert your timeshare into hotel rooms that can be used anywhere the hotel chain has a presence.

Flamenco Dancers at the Resort in Estapona Spain

In our opinion, the younger that you are when you decide to purchase a timeshare, the better it will work out for you because it is that much longer that you will own it after it has been paid off. If you do decide to go on a timeshare tour or accept an offer for a cheap hotel room if you’re willing to listen to their pitch, be prepared for a pushy sales experience. Unfortunately they are sales people and that is what they do. Only buy a timeshare if you feel that it is the right decision for you, which it may or may not be. If you do decide to buy a timeshare, hopefully our advise will help you find the one that is right for you.