The Temper Trap, buoyed by an increasing well-received international touring schedule, rocked the socks off the Concert Hall at Sydney’s Opera House on two successive nights with a performance equal in rock bravado and humble stylings. The momentous nature of the occasion was evident in the cheers from the crowd but also the giddy smiles from the band themselves. Another Vivid Sydney highlight.
Oh squiggly line in my eye fluid
I see you there lurking on the periphery of my vision
but when I try to look at you, you scurry away
Are you shy squiggly line?
Why only when I ignore you do you return to the center of my eye?
Oh squiggly line.
It’s alright, you are forgiven…
—Thank you, Stewie
A more reflective moment
2006
What makes us the way we are?
People say that science explains the way the world works and that it is science that separates us from our more primitive ancestors. Science equals civilisation. But this strikes me as an oxymoron.
I mean surely what separates us from our animal cousins is the fact that we are self aware, the fact that we can love, share emotions and doubt. Yes, animals can feel fear and arguably love. But these are only the extreme emotions - the nuances are lost. It is all the feelings in between the extremes that make us human. Especially the way we feel fear and love and a plethora of other emotions at the same time. But do babies feel such confusion? I think not, it is something we learn. Or rather it is a by-product of learning. That is to say, the more we learn about the world, the more problems come into our life.
A baby crocodile can fend for itself as soon as it hatches from the egg. Crocodiles have been around for millions of years, they rely on instinct. Humans no longer rely on instinct. Humans use logic and reason instead. But it makes me wonder whether logic and reasoning are in fact the “natural” thought processes that we now commonly view as our instinct. This bring up the idea that logic and reasoning are in fact man-made concepts. They are a survival skill indeed, but also a means of self-destruction. With these concepts comes self-doubt, jealousy, betrayal, greed and the list goes on. These concepts also promote communal activities, a growth in population and the need for more sophisticated methods to cope with these new changes. This creates a snow-ball effect and the world that was once just hunting and gathering in a natural environment produces steam, electricity, antiseptics, aircraft, supermarkets, economies and computers. This saturation of information and technology does not make us better people.
Have you heard of any animals committing suicide? Do animals kill for anything other than survival? The fact that these questions are rhetorical in nature is the answer in itself. A larger capacity to think results from the extra time that technology affords us. Greed is the ultimate result. Greed is the creator and the destroyer. It brings us up and it is eventually what will bring our civilisation down. Our overly active intelligent minds have brought us to a great level, it only seems fitting they will tear us apart. Our lives have become statistics: numbers rule our lives in so powerful a way that tragedies become bearable.
Stalin once said “one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic”. Humans have learnt to block out our very instincts. How many people shed a tear on September 11, but switch the channel when you see the advertisement stating that 30 African children would die by the end of the commercial. What beasts have we become? Unfortunately there is no turning back now. The human race will continue to attack itself from the inside out until our own destruction. It is suitable to conclude with a cliche, something we use so we no longer have to make use of our emotions: every beginning must have an end.
Flash back to non-existence
2006
I was on the tube the other day and I got a strange flashback to my teenage fears of non-existence.
I was looking out the window as the train was leaving the bright and white, flourescent station when it suddenly entered the tunnel and I was consumed by an engrossing black and dense darkness. It was at this point that it hit me. For a few seconds I felt completely insignificant, that my life was pointless because I was going to die anyway, that with death there was nothing, nothing but an unescapable emptiness, a lack of being - a total non-existence.
In a way it was refreshing. I think I sometimes need these reminders to motivate me to do things with my life, to make the most of it. I used to be so afraid of thinking about there being nothing out there. The complete lack of hope struck me deep inside my very essence and my ability to see myself and others as never returning, not having a happy ending, just an ending, has more than once in the past dampened my eyes and more significantly, my spirit.
Then I came to control this fear and use it to do interesting things in my life that I would not otherwise have done. I’m a firm believer now that death can be the ultimate motivation and can be used to make the most of your life, whether you believe in an afterlife or not. I had almost forgotten about this after 6 months of travel around Europe and living in London for a while, but that brief moment on the tube reminded me. And I’m glad.
Emails from South East Asia #4 - Vietnam
06/05/2007
I heard such terrible things about the Vietnamese from travellers leading up to coming here but have only been made to feel very welcome by the friendly and generous locals. I started in…
A late night arrival saw an airport meet-up with Willem before entering the quagmire that is Ho Chi Minh City. Always awake and awash with motorbikes, the city is rife with activities, both above and below the table. Just crossing the road is an experience - the trick is to just walk out into the traffic at an even pace, maintain eye contact with oncoming traffic and let the motorbikes move around you. Easy!
The streets are lined with the red star flag and the odd hammer and sickle with street vendors selling everything from sunnies to sugarcane juice. On our first night we sat by the roadside on baby-sized chairs sipping Saigon beer, soaking up the atmosphere and politely declining offers from moto-drivers to go “boom-boom”.
The reunification palace has great political history behind it for obvious reasons but its historical greatness is only countered by its complete lack of aesthetics and the utter boredom a walk through its grounds entails. We walked aimlessly through the city for a number of days just people watching while occasionally grabbing some fresh mung bean juice off a street vendor, some cheap DVDs off another.
We visited the Cu-chi tunnels which are a 200km system of tunnels used by the Viet Cong to defeat the Americans during the war. Our tour included an attempted crawl through the tiny tunnels, a debrief in guerrilla tactics and the option to shoot a rifle, which we declined. The trip also included a visit to the Cao Dai temple. What is Cao Dai? Well, that is what we were wondering and sort of still are - it’s a mix of Taoism, Buddhism and a few other things (we are almost certain one of the statues was of an Asian Christ) and the hour long ceremony included a lot of chanting in a very kitsch temple made up of all-seeing eyes, Buddhas and dragons. It was worth going just to know that such an abstract religion exists.
One night saw us explore 6 or 7 bars, the pick of which was Saigon Saigon bar on the rooftop of a swanky hotel - both the drinks and the view were astronomical. Another night we met up with Emily and her mates including some Vietnamese who knew their way around the city. We dined at a fantastic riverside restaurant with delicious authentic cuisine before going to an extraordinarily bizarre local club called Volcano.
Filled only with locals you had to book a table where you stood listening to thumping hardcore dance music at the highest level imaginable whilst trying to strike up a conversation. No one danced. Oh and you could only order cognac and only by the bottle - we had three bar men waiting on our table at any one time constantly refilling our glasses. Several bottles of Remy-Martin later and we went to pay only to have our new friends shush us and insist on paying! Then Willem went back to Cambodia and I headed to…
Hoi An is a cute little ancient town in the middle of Vietnam and is made up almost entirely of tailors. My flight there was delayed resulting in an expensive taxi ride from the airport and when I arrived I found out it was a week long public holiday so all transport out of Hoi An was fully booked. I eventually managed to find one early morning flight but it meant my time in Hoi An was reduced to a day, but what a day it was!
I commandeered a motorcycle driver for the day who took me to My Son - a lost ancient Hindu city deep in the jungle. The ruins were wonderful but the journey there was just as good as we rode through rice paddies, fields and jungle at speed - quite the experience!
The food is amazing in Hoi An, local delicacies like White Rose and special wonton were a treat for the taste buds and I spent my only evening by the river gorging myself and wandering through the many art galleries in what was a very sleepy village atmosphere. Travelling alone provides a very different experience - for many of my meals the waiter or chef would sit at my table and practice their English and teach me a little about themselves and the town at the same time. But my whirlwind tour of Hoi An ended too quickly and it was off to…
Halong Bay is off the coast of Vietnam and is scattered with over 3000 limestone islands. I stayed overnight on a boat and we explored the area in the daytime via kayak. A lack of kayaks meant I had to share one with a Swiss couple and their two toddlers resulting in a vicarious family vacation experience and an utterly enjoyable one at that. In fact the whole boat of 14 people became like a big family over the two days with 2 each of German, French, Australian, American, Swiss, Italian and Swedish. It was quite a mix and we exchanged life and travelling tales by moonlight on the open deck in the middle of the bay.
The bay itself is amazing although unfortunately somewhat polluted. We got up at dawn for an early morning kayak amongst the daunting escarpments of the islands which seem to go on forever, each island providing the backdrop for the next until finally they disappear in the morning mist. We got lost in the water caves and discovered hidden coves and bays - it was great and sharing it with such a mixed bunch of people made it even better.
We worked out later on that everyone on board had paid (some more than others) for different cruises (standard, deluxe etc) yet we were all on the same boat doing the same things - a lovely bit of creative marketing - welcome to Vietnam!
The first thing I noticed about Hanoi was the apparent abundance of chiwawas. I could find no one who could explain this phenomena. I saw some traditional water puppet theatre which distracted me for a time and was quite enjoyable if not a little bewildering.
Ho Chi Minh’s remains are in Hanoi in a mausoleum. Just like Lenin and Stalin, he has been embalmed for all to see even though he specifically asked to be cremated! I checked out his well preserved body and was spoken to sternly by the armed guards for staring at it for over 3 seconds without moving on which apparently is not allowed. Then I checked out the museum of ethnics which details the many different people and cultures which exist in Vietnam.
I befriended the two guys running my hotel and they attempted to use me as a sort of foreigner lure for picking up Vietnamese woman - it was a strange time! And now it is the end of Vietnam for me. It certainly was different to Apocalypse Now and Good Morning Vietnam (!!) but I still enjoyed it, in fact I’m sure I’ll be getting flashbacks of an enjoyable variety for a time to come.
Adios amigos,
XXX
Emails from South East Asia #3 - Thailand
25/4/2007
The Thai new year is one very intense period. The whole country decides that the best thing to do for a week or so is have a water fight, and what a fight it is. Most of the period is a public holiday so everyone is out and about and most Thai’s try to head to Chiang Mai which is the epicentre of the action.
Lining the sides of the streets are thousands of people armed with hoses, buckets and water pistols. On the roads themselves are what I like to call the hit squads: six or seven people in the back of a ute with a barrel of icy cold water, water so cold that when it is thrown on your back it makes you think of all the bad things you have ever done in your life (it was quite a long flashback!) Often chunks of ice are also thrown at you which is super fun.
Every few hundred metres you get caught in a mini-war zone: 5 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic piled up with hit squads. You duck and you dive in between vehicles trying to pit them against one another only to be accosted from behind by a shop keeper brandishing a Super Soaker and a cheeky grin. Four days of this was almost too much but thankfully we had the calmness of the night to breathe some sort of sanity into our weary bodies.
In the evening we headed back into the city centre which is encircled by a moat and a large brick wall broken only by gates at each compass point around the exterior. The nightlife is interesting. Our first night I met up with Dave, an Irish mate of mine who was DJing in a local falang hangout called The Rooftop Bar. In between fending off the gropings of an aging lady boy and conversing with a Rastafarian hermaphrodite, we drank Singha beers in what was a very cool bar.
To get into the bar you walk through a clothes shop, under a 5 foot high passage and then up a brick, then a wooden and finally a metal staircase before landing on the roof of a large building. The floor is covered with mats which everyone sits on while the walls are adorned with bizarre fluorescent artwork accentuated by numerous black lights. Sipping a luminous G&T whilst watching the fire lantern balloons from the festival below rise and burn themselves out in the night sky was truly a pleasurable experience. We came back a few times.
Our second night saw an even stranger set of bars. An entire backstreet made up of dozens of reggae-themed establishments. Hearing “I Shot The Sheriff” sung in broken English by a Thai reggae band provided a musical treat that the world is yet to truly appreciate. Chiang Mai was fun, but the islands beckoned.
Perched delicately in the Andaman Sea, the Phi Phi islands are nothing short of spectacular. The inhabited Phi Phi Don island is made up of two large bays which mirror one another with the town in the middle. The rest of the island is rising jungle and limestone mountains - the trek to the top almost killed me!
You may know of Ko Phi Phi for two reasons. Firstly, it is that magical place where The Beach was filmed. Secondly, it is an area that was devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami a few years back. There are still remnants of the disaster but the place has pretty much got back on its feet and tourists outweigh the local population quite heavily. We trekked through to a few beautiful beaches and just soaked in the beautiful views of limestone cliffs, hidden bays, beaches and stunning sunsets.
One day we hopped on a boat to the nearby Phi Phi Ley island where we spent the afternoon snorkeling and cavorting amongst the coral and tropical fish. Stopping off at one bay, we swan to shore and walked through a long, skin scratchingly-narrow tunnel which was hidden in the rocks. After a while we emerged in rainforest and a short walk through the foliage found us in the beach (yes, The Beach and thus completes another tick on the “things to see before I die” list) that dreams are made of: encircled fully by dauntingly high limestone escarpments and jungle covered mountains it truly was a hidden paradise. It’s National Park and deservedly so - stunning!
I then had an interesting Thai massage where the majority of the hour my masseuse alternated between standing, walking and jumping on my back. It hurt like hell but I like to think it may have done some good although I think next time I will just pay someone $10 to beat me up and be done with it. After 3 weeks of only Asian food I jumped for joy when someone recommended a good Italian restaurant on the island. One gnocchi quattro formaggi later (it was surprisingly good) and I was ready for another 3 weeks of divine Asian, and thus the journey continues.
Thailand’s biggest island is a seedy, overdeveloped package tour hell-hole made bearable only by the scores of beautiful beaches. It’s meant to be really nice if you are staying in a resort which has it’s own beach, but we weren’t. On the plus side it is expensive. But we had one fantastic day here, mainly because we left Phuket for a nearby island and some scuba diving action.
I’ve never dived before but I may well take it up after the amazing day we had. Barracuda, moray eels and a plethora of tropical fish in what is regarded as one of the world’s top diving spots is pretty hard to beat. Our instructor took us to Lucy’s reef where he explained that it is not named after the lady who discovered it, rather it is named after the lady who was swept off in its strong undercurrent never to be seen again - what a pep talk for our first dive! Still, we soldiered on and it was an unforgettable experience.
And then there were two as Adrian hopped on a plane for Myanmar, and Gilly and myself headed to Bangkok.
After a curious day of travel involving missed flights, late buses and wrong airports, we finally arrived in Thailand’s capital. Hustling, bustling, dirty and seedy, and that was just us - the city is even crazier! Our first night found us at the night bazaar and what was meant to be a quick shop turned into a whole evening of retail therapy. We left exhausted, exhilarated and largely penniless and were forced to cancel our bar hopping plans and simply went to bed.
The next day we saw the 46 metre long, gold-plated reclining Buddha - quite awe inspiring. We were then to go to the Grand Palace but it was closed for a Buddhist holiday. We befriended a Palace guard who then planned out our entire day including bargaining a tuk-tuk driver to do the whole trip for $1. He also told us where the Armani factory was and I picked up a super cheap suit and a lifetime membership - all I need now is a job!
We saw a bunch of cool temples and then landed in the place that every backpacker must one day go to: the legendary Khao San Road. It’s as seedy and superb as I imagined and we immediately bought a vegetarian meal in an attempt to fit in. By night we visited the infamous Patpong - the market side of course! Mmm, well, we did see a few “interesting” sights and I have now rekindled my childhood interest in table tennis. And then Gilly went home and it was down to one.
The next day I managed to traverse 10 city blocks in air-conditioned comfort by cutting through the abundance of shopping centres. There is an entire centre just for electronics, just for exclusive boutiques, one for teenagers, etc etc - the list goes on. I picked up a few odds and ends and then went for a ride on a river boat - I can see why this place used to be called the Venice of the East - apparently most streets used to be water.
The city itself is visually stunning: old ladies cooking noodles in an old wooden cart against the background of a gleaming glass high rise building provides a riveting contrast. On my last day I checked out the amazing Grand Palace and Emerald Temple which puts every other palace I have ever seen to shame. Oh and I almost tipped over going round a corner in a tuk-tuk thanks to Michael Schumacher being my driver!
But this afternoon I’m off to Vietnam where I will meet Emily and her crew and also Willem - I’m already getting flashbacks.
Ciao for now,
XXX
PS- give me an update on how things are over there, wherever there may be for you, as I’m all on my lonesome and could do with some reading :-)
Hunter Valley dining: Muse
Without wanting to be too verbose, Muse was an utterly surprising and exquisite culinary adventure that almost took my breath away. It sounds like I’m exaggerating yet the array of flavours, textures, smells and sights that I encountered at the restaurant needs to be experienced to be believed. Sometimes it even bordered on the ridiculous and I can safely say that several of my friends would dismiss it as too highbrow and pretentious, an ode to the white table cloth dining of the eighties and nineties. Yet for a treat after a three to four hour drive from Sydney on a busy Friday night, it excelled on all fronts and provided an intimate evening that won’t easily be forgotten.
The door of the premises was opened by the beaming maitre d’ (yes, yes!) and we were escorted through to a large room with high ceilings and a roaring fire place as its centrepiece. There was a gentle hubbub of banter, if that’s even possible, and we soaked in the surroundings of the Hungerford Hill cellar door, where the restaurant is located, while sipping on a 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from that very winery. You either get the degustation ($110) or choose from two ($75) or three courses ($95) but we still got the amuse-bouche and palate cleansers inbetween courses with the latter option. Nice touch!
But enough of the atmosphere, let’s get to the food, the glorious food. For starters the gorgonzola-stuffed potato gnocchisan came out looking like the Devil’s Marbles adorned with prosciutto, garden peas (or mini-marbles), baby king oyster mushrooms and a quail’s egg that exploded with yolk when bitten as the table cloth soon found out. Only one plate over, a shoulder of local suckling pig nestled against autumn brassica vegetables and drizzled with star anise jus showed why you braise things for 12 hours: so you don’t have to use your teeth. I mouthed my way through each delicious mouthful.
Before we knew it our plates were cleared and replaced with a delightful palate cleanser of blood orange sorbet that we gratefully devoured; partly because it was an unusual epicurean delight but mostly because we couldn’t wait to see the main course. Storming onto the table and looking like a most beautiful massacre of juicy pink flesh was the slow cooked Milly Hill lamb crushing a make-shift forest of garden peas, mint and cress with a river of anchovy butter. Okay, things are getting a little bit verbose on the descriptors here, but the wordiness simply echoes the sensory overload.
Pan fried duck breast served pink with a silky smooth cauliflower puree, black figs and red wine dressing was almost shown up by the accompanying zucchini flower stuffed with duck brains. That sounds disturbing and brains aren’t usually my bag, but somehow it had all the flavour of the duck with none of the regret of offal, and worked wonderfully with the fried zucchini flower. I almost forgot to mention my favourite main: the peppered Mandagery Creek venison. Never has eating santa’s little helper been such an enjoyable experience. Meat that is traditionally thought to be tough and muscly was instead soft and delicate and garnished with baby beetroots, horseradish scented yoghurt, english spinach and pedro ximénez (a type of grape). Put simply: it was a pleasure to consume.
Putting aside the wonderful cheese plate from the Smelly Cheese shop, the dessert that shone was the ‘Turkish Delight’ made up of rose ‘nitro ice cream’, pistachio, chocolate marshmallow, coconut and essence. This wasn’t, however, the first time essence or nitro came together that evening. After mains, a bubbling concoction of liquid nitrogen scented with rose water spread a low fog over our table as our waiter enchanted us with talk of cleansing our palates via one’s nostrils and patronised us by confirming that the bowl of liquid nitrogen should not be eaten.
By this stage, however, the second bottle of wine had truly taken hold and combined with the dizzying decadence of our meals had lulled us into an intoxicating bliss. We moseyed on out, our bellies full and our yearnings for something new and inspiring well and truly quenched. What a start to a weekend away!
Muse Restaurant and Cafe
Hungerford Hill Wines
Broke Road
Pokolbin NSW 2320
(02) 4998 6777
muse@musedining.com.au
http://www.musedining.com.au/
Hunter Valley dining: Cafe Enzo
Stumbling upon an establishment like Cafe Enzo while touring the Hunter Valley is akin to experiencing a small moment of clarity. We had been looking for a reasonably priced place for lunch after indulging in an expensive dinner the night before and we turned off Broke Road on a whim and a prayer. Pepper Tree quenched our desire for delicious morsels by providing a beautiful country scene with sandstone buildings, charming manicured gardens and most importantly, Cafe Enzo.
We passed a wedding on our way to the cafe where the staff quickly fulfilled our request for a table in the light of day to fully appreciate the stunning autumnal sun. The order of the moment was nibbles. Lots of nibbles. While we sipped on the very decent coffee, the kitchen prepared a selection of cured meats, duck liver pate, beetroot chutney and toasted bread with substantial servings that we were unable to finish. We were told the pate and the chutney were locally made and it showed as the sun cast shadows over the grass in front of us and groomsmen rushed about looking for the rings or the groom or a wine. Whatever.
Our pickings menu continued with a selection of antipasti including marinated feta, caper berries (like capers but berries - how did I not know about these?), kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, house made onion jam and air dried beef with char‐grilled ciabatta. Some may say it is hard to mess up a selection of deli foods but too often establishments fail to use fresh ingredients. You could almost taste the extra flavour contained in these locally sourced ingredients. Then again it may have been remnants of the multiple wineries we had visited that day or even the brisk country air invading my nostrils. Whatever it was, it made for an appetising if not lazy afternoon affair.
Homemade linguini with tiger prawns, fresh chilli, baby tomatoes and Spanish sausage finished with shaved parmesan came out in an enormous mound of pasta that could have fed an army. Thankfully its taste was not compromised by its size and full bellies found room for another morsel. What I had of the barramundi also impressed. This was restaurant quality food in a cafe environment and priced so you can drop on in between wineries to line your stomach. You’ll be sure to leave satisfied with enough coin in your pocket to please the next cellar door host. Worth dropping by!
Cafe Enzo
Pepper Tree
Corner Broke & Ekerts Road
Pokolbin NSW 2320
(02) 4998 7233
cafeenzo@westnet.com.au
http://www.enzohuntervalley.com.au/
The National meets Game of Thrones? Someone has been listening to my thoughts again.
(Source: pitchfork.com)
Hunter Valley dining: Emerson’s
Nothing sets you up better for the sometimes painful car ride back to Sydney after a weekend away in the Hunter Valley than a long lunch on a crisp, sunny autumn afternoon with a lovely glass of vino to boot. Easing us into the working week was the tapas menu at Emerson’s at Pokolbin, located within the Casuarina Estate winery and recently earning a well-deserved chef’s hat by the Good Food Guide.
Spectacular Harvey Bay scallops, seared and served in their shells with a light tomato balsamic salsa taste even better than they look. Chef Emerson Rodriguez ensures the scallops are tender and juicy, the salsa the perfect complement: light and zingy to enhance the seafood rather than overpower it. And then the garlic prawns: deeply rich and sizzling, their pungency as enchanting as the country garden where we lay our scene. Before we knew it, we’d also indulged in peppered crispy squid with a creamy lemon aioli in what were generous servings for a tapas menu, let alone one inside a hatted restaurant.
The standout dish was shredded beef, patatas bravas and spanish onion. For me, patatas bravas has always been a modest dish, more peasant-like than refined: a wholesome hearty filler of potato and spicy tomato sauce. The dish at Emerson’s was more of a wink than a nod to the original with the shredded beef adding refinement to potatoes fluffy and soft in the middle and super crispy on the outside. It was a tantalising and exciting dish that was a pleasant surprise to everyone who tasted it.
I could not find fault in any of the food at Emerson’s with the only glitch on the experience receiving our house cut chips with seeded mustard aioli some time after we had eaten all our other dishes. This was hardly going to put a dampener on what was an outstanding afternoon of exceptional food and attentive service. We skipped dessert to beat the traffic but shared an espresso martini, the best I’ve ever had, and left content with the knowledge that I’ll be coming back to Emerson’s the very next chance I get.
Emerson’s at Pokolbin
Casuarina Estate
1014 Hermitage Road
Pokolbin
(02) 4998 7733
http://www.emersonsatpokolbin.com/
