Saturday, November 5, 2011
Paradise Found!
A few more lovely knick-knacks
Well, I have just a few more knick-knacks to finish my first batch of shopping. Make sure to check back to my first post-- I still have just a few strands of pearls and earrings left. As always, email me at karamartha@gmail.com to reserve anything you like, and I will mail them to you. All prices are plus shipping:)These bangle style bracelets are mother-of-pearl-- I am in love with them! I usually wear them three or so at a time, and receive tons of compliments! They have a lovely lustre, and I have never seen them anywhere else. I am asking five dollars apiece, or twelve dollars for three.
I envision these as part of a buffet, or hors d'oeuvres service, or even a tea party! They are also one hundred percent mother of pearl. I am selling them in sets of three of a kind for ten dollars.
My family loves making cheese balls for our parties, and the knife would be excellent for that, or perhaps spreading cream on scones?;)
You know, I would really appreciate some feedback about what kinds of items y'all would enjoy on the blog... Of course some things I only have one opportunity to snatch, but as far as pearls go, I live right by the pearl market. Long strands that you can loop around twice or knot? Pearl brooches? Small pearls for little girls? Teachers' gifts? Let me know, and I will see what I can do:)
Ciao for now,
Kara
Again that is karamartha@gmail.com!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Rials, Rupees and Ringgit
Oh, and a few euros just to ruin my alliteration;)
To save y'all from googling where these currencies are used, that would be Oman, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. (And the euros would be the Azores and Malta.)
Image credit goes to Amanda Jo Leach, my sweet sister in law:)
Wow. Where do I begin? I looooooved our stay in Maine... but I was really ready to commence our onward journey.
Our itineraries go something like: wait, wait, wait... BE READY TO LEAVE IN 5 MINUTES!!!
So when Captain Phillip finally snapped us out of our New England routine, we were all happy. Skipping a brief stop in Canada, because nothing happened that was interesting enough to write about, we were finally off the continent!
I could hardly contain my glee to hear something other than English when we landed in Santa Maria, in the Azores Islands! Technically part of Portugal, the Azores lie roughly mid-Atlantic and enjoy a lovely temperate climate.
Someday, I will be able to stop for more than just 12 hours, and really explore this place. I experienced what I could from our wrought iron balcony, and on a brief walk-about in the morning.
Until then, the Azores were exactly the melange of narrow cobblestone streets, volcanic terrain, and the general lack of traffic guidelines that I expected; a place of old-world charm, forgotten by the rest of sophisticated Europe, dropped in the middle of the Atlantic, where they speak musical, cadenced Portuguese.
I loved watching our descent into Gibraltar. Out the opposite windows of our jet, I could see two of the countries I want to visit most-- Spain and Morocco. It was almost torture to be this close! Gibraltar itself doesn't look too bad either...
Malta:) Now that is a place I will revisit! The different lightings on Malta were gorgeous: the moonlight on the ink-black Mediterranean, the soft morning light on the the golden stone arches above the road.
Mom and Samantha and I established a nice rapport with our taxi driver, Carl. Mom asked him why his country had never been gobbled up by a nearby nation. (Cheers to asking locals tough questions!)
"Maltese are too hardheaded and have short temperatures!"
Malta to Oman was an interesting day... by far the highlight was getting stuck in Jordan. And no, I don't mean simply a protracted fuel stop. I mean, we were stuck. Due to poor signaling from the ground-crew, we accidentally left the taxiway for a road, and then ran one tire off the narrow road into the sand. What fun. Getting that tire unstuck was quite entertaining. At first, only one Jordani was visible. By the end, roughly 20 men were part of the "please get these pesky Americans gone" effort.
How many people go to Oman? I love that about my family. I would definitely stay longer in Oman sometime, though a few downsides are immediately apparent: especially being thoroughly scrutinized by every Omani man within 100 yards! Dressing modestly to the extreme helps a bit.
Our hotel in Oman was one of the two most luxurious hotels I have ever stayed in. The balcony was like something out of Aladdin:) Surprisingly, the weather was quite pleasant, both that evening and when my roomie and I took a morning stroll on the beach.
I love the architecture! E.g. this mosque we passed...
We had a hilarious time watching Omani music videos; half a dozen men in long robes dancing something like a can-can is quite amusing to two jet-lagged girls!:P
India is always so anti-climactic! I want to see the Taj Mahal, and work with kids there etc, but our fuel stops are fairly horrendous: inefficient and inhospitable. I remind myself to never judge a country by its airports.
Sri Lanka was a bit better:) We at least could stay overnight, but we weren't able to really leave the hotel. I felt like quite the little British imperialist, sitting in the elegant and manicured garden, sipping tea. I almost expected the waiter to say "yes, sahib." I don't like that feeling.
Honestly, I didn't feel quite at ease in Sri Lanka. Of course, I would try it again, but between the voracious eyed men and the uneasy feeling that many locals felt intrinsically inferior, I could not quite feel at home.
The hotel gym was across the road, with tight, spiraling stairs and a bridge leading to it. When I was halfway down the last staircase, I heard two guy's footsteps behind me; I felt a bit skittish, and tried to hurry my steps. I darted a rather suspicious glance over my shoulder, only to be met with a friendly smile and a cheery "good morning!"
I realized that this was the first time in two days and three countries that a man had looked at me with respect. I wish that I had had the presence of mind to ask his name or something. (Guys reading this, it really does mean a lot... and, no mater how subtle you think you are, girls know when you look at us with questionable intentions!)
I really enjoyed Malaysia this time:) And, it was such a nice change to stay any place for more than one night! A highlight for me was the batik factory... Samantha and I both made our own piece of batik... we chose a stencil, and traced it with melted wax on fabric...
...then painted in the lines of wax...
They turned out so pretty!
We stocked up on green tea powder, then went shopping at Central Market. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not a supermarket, but a collection of handicraft vendors! I bought a beautiful silk batik kimono that I love! They were a bit too expensive for me to want to offer for sale here, but perhaps when I have more capitol built up. I will be back to Malaysia:)
I did find some really pretty hand-blown glass pendants of typical Malay flowers... more about that later:)
One night we had dinner with the prince of Malaysia and his wife at the rotating restaurant at the pinnacle of the Kuala Lumpur tower-- very fun:) They are some of the sweetest people I have ever met!
The stupendous bonding time and fabulous stops notwithstanding, our flying cylinder seemed to contract with every nautical mile. Imagine the feeling of coming home after that!
To save y'all from googling where these currencies are used, that would be Oman, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. (And the euros would be the Azores and Malta.)
Image credit goes to Amanda Jo Leach, my sweet sister in law:)
Wow. Where do I begin? I looooooved our stay in Maine... but I was really ready to commence our onward journey.
Our itineraries go something like: wait, wait, wait... BE READY TO LEAVE IN 5 MINUTES!!!
So when Captain Phillip finally snapped us out of our New England routine, we were all happy. Skipping a brief stop in Canada, because nothing happened that was interesting enough to write about, we were finally off the continent!
Someday, I will be able to stop for more than just 12 hours, and really explore this place. I experienced what I could from our wrought iron balcony, and on a brief walk-about in the morning.
Until then, the Azores were exactly the melange of narrow cobblestone streets, volcanic terrain, and the general lack of traffic guidelines that I expected; a place of old-world charm, forgotten by the rest of sophisticated Europe, dropped in the middle of the Atlantic, where they speak musical, cadenced Portuguese.I loved watching our descent into Gibraltar. Out the opposite windows of our jet, I could see two of the countries I want to visit most-- Spain and Morocco. It was almost torture to be this close! Gibraltar itself doesn't look too bad either...
Malta:) Now that is a place I will revisit! The different lightings on Malta were gorgeous: the moonlight on the ink-black Mediterranean, the soft morning light on the the golden stone arches above the road.
Mom and Samantha and I established a nice rapport with our taxi driver, Carl. Mom asked him why his country had never been gobbled up by a nearby nation. (Cheers to asking locals tough questions!)
"Maltese are too hardheaded and have short temperatures!"
Malta to Oman was an interesting day... by far the highlight was getting stuck in Jordan. And no, I don't mean simply a protracted fuel stop. I mean, we were stuck. Due to poor signaling from the ground-crew, we accidentally left the taxiway for a road, and then ran one tire off the narrow road into the sand. What fun. Getting that tire unstuck was quite entertaining. At first, only one Jordani was visible. By the end, roughly 20 men were part of the "please get these pesky Americans gone" effort.
How many people go to Oman? I love that about my family. I would definitely stay longer in Oman sometime, though a few downsides are immediately apparent: especially being thoroughly scrutinized by every Omani man within 100 yards! Dressing modestly to the extreme helps a bit.
Our hotel in Oman was one of the two most luxurious hotels I have ever stayed in. The balcony was like something out of Aladdin:) Surprisingly, the weather was quite pleasant, both that evening and when my roomie and I took a morning stroll on the beach.
I love the architecture! E.g. this mosque we passed...
We had a hilarious time watching Omani music videos; half a dozen men in long robes dancing something like a can-can is quite amusing to two jet-lagged girls!:P
India is always so anti-climactic! I want to see the Taj Mahal, and work with kids there etc, but our fuel stops are fairly horrendous: inefficient and inhospitable. I remind myself to never judge a country by its airports.
Sri Lanka was a bit better:) We at least could stay overnight, but we weren't able to really leave the hotel. I felt like quite the little British imperialist, sitting in the elegant and manicured garden, sipping tea. I almost expected the waiter to say "yes, sahib." I don't like that feeling.
Honestly, I didn't feel quite at ease in Sri Lanka. Of course, I would try it again, but between the voracious eyed men and the uneasy feeling that many locals felt intrinsically inferior, I could not quite feel at home.
The hotel gym was across the road, with tight, spiraling stairs and a bridge leading to it. When I was halfway down the last staircase, I heard two guy's footsteps behind me; I felt a bit skittish, and tried to hurry my steps. I darted a rather suspicious glance over my shoulder, only to be met with a friendly smile and a cheery "good morning!"
I realized that this was the first time in two days and three countries that a man had looked at me with respect. I wish that I had had the presence of mind to ask his name or something. (Guys reading this, it really does mean a lot... and, no mater how subtle you think you are, girls know when you look at us with questionable intentions!)
I really enjoyed Malaysia this time:) And, it was such a nice change to stay any place for more than one night! A highlight for me was the batik factory... Samantha and I both made our own piece of batik... we chose a stencil, and traced it with melted wax on fabric...
...then painted in the lines of wax...They turned out so pretty!
We stocked up on green tea powder, then went shopping at Central Market. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not a supermarket, but a collection of handicraft vendors! I bought a beautiful silk batik kimono that I love! They were a bit too expensive for me to want to offer for sale here, but perhaps when I have more capitol built up. I will be back to Malaysia:)
I did find some really pretty hand-blown glass pendants of typical Malay flowers... more about that later:)
One night we had dinner with the prince of Malaysia and his wife at the rotating restaurant at the pinnacle of the Kuala Lumpur tower-- very fun:) They are some of the sweetest people I have ever met!
The stupendous bonding time and fabulous stops notwithstanding, our flying cylinder seemed to contract with every nautical mile. Imagine the feeling of coming home after that!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)