"From the Comfort of My Couch"

INGRID THOFT
One day I was sitting with my sister and her daughter discussing books, and we started talking about autobiographies.  We mused about what we would entitle our autobiographies, and although I don't remember most of the conversation, I do remember my niece's suggestion for my sister's book.  She declared that it should be called "From the Comfort of My Couch," which cracks us up to this day.  

My sister is the most tenacious, courageous person I know—in matters of life, however, not thrill-seeking.  In fact, it has become a hobby of mine to find photos and videos that will get her feet sweating and prompt an unequivocal "heck no!" from her when I share them.  

Some of these photos and videos are from my own adventures.  My husband and I have made it our mission to take pictures while scuba diving that we're sure will get a reaction.  For instance, my encounter with a giant Potato Cod fish on the Great Barrier Reef freaks her out no matter how many times she's seen it.

On a recent scuba diving trip, we filmed a shark swimming towards us with the great deep blue sea behind him, which is another one of her favorites—sharks and the infinite creepiness of the ocean.

Photo courtesy of Video Vision 360/Natura Vive

I also like to bring travel opportunities to her attention, like the Natura Vive Skylodge in Peru.  What could go wrong, sleeping in a glass pod 1,312 feet above the floor of the Sacred Valley?  Her first question (and mine) was how do you answer the call of nature?!

And how about learning to wing walk on her next vacation?  That sounds exciting, and I'm sure it will get more than just her feet sweating!

Truth be told, I have no interest in sleeping cliff side in a glass pod or walking on an airplane wing mid-flight, but her reaction is so satisfying, I can't stop making these types of suggestions. 

I asked her if I could write about this, and she was happy to indulge me, but she insisted that I include two things that really give her the willies:

The perspective of looking up at cruise ship from below:

This is the best I could find!  Note the man in the tiny skiff.

and hot dog eating contests!

Go figure!

What do you say, Reds and Readers?  Do your feet sweat when you see a shark?  Do hot dog eating contests give you the willies?  Do you lovingly torment your siblings in a similar fashion?

Twisted Traveler

RHYS BOWEN: One of my long-time friends, Twist Phelan, lives the sort of life many of us dream of living. I can never keep up with her because she is flying off to some exotic part of the world (with adorable husband Jack in tow, often not knowing where they are heading until they board the plane!)

Twist has always been a woman of adventure, also the kind of person that things happen to. I remember stories of hanging upside down waiting to be rescued while climbing, of strange men coming into hotel rooms. Actually the strange men seem to happen less frequently these days with a six foot plus male beside her. But wherever she goes she has adventures.

(Yes, she is sand boarding down a dune in Abu Dhabi!) And she's here today to tell you about them, also about her exciting new thriller,FAKE, featuring a traveling girl rather like herself.

TWIST PHELAN: I am a traveler. Over the past three years I've visited over 50 countries and flown nearly a million miles. I'm peripatetic by nature, and being a mystery and thriller writer allows me to work wherever there's an outlet for my laptop and a decent WiFi connection. Even then, the latter is optional.

Several people have asked me how I decide what to do and see when I go to a different country. It's easy ... and hard at the same time.

When at home, I write, go to the gym, ride my bike and ski in the mountains, enjoy contemporary art/architecture/design, visit science museums and booksellers, listen to music and see plays, eat at casual healthy places, ethnic holes-in-the-wall, and "foodie" restaurants, walk or cycle through neighborhoods, shop current designers, read fiction and non-fiction, go to dinner parties ... and I do essentially the same when I travel.

When I was younger, I made a point of seeing the iconic in a foreign place. That meant a lot of trips to gigantic churches and a lot of Renaissance art. But upon embarking on this latest phase of travel three years ago, I decided I'd had enough. No more scowling men in gilded frames. No more monuments to politicians.

I'm not saying these things aren't interesting. They just aren't interesting to me. Now when I see or do the iconic when I travel, it is because it appeals or interests me, not because I'm supposed to. As Erle Stanley Gardner said, “I like what I like and not what I'm supposed to like because of mass rating.” I happily rode in a gondola in Venice because it was something I thought would be romantic, not because a guide book told me it would be. And despite four trips in two years to Florence, I have yet to make it back to the Uffizi Gallery. I might one day, but there are still many other things I want to do and places I want to explore first in that city.

It's quite liberating—and a bit scary—to decide nothing in the world is a must-do. It makes you responsible for your own good time. And your own fails.

When I have no set agenda, I've happened onto some extraordinary experiences. At Lago di Garda in Italy, pausing to watch the sailboats ended with me and my traveling companion being drafted to compete in the race. Lingering in a restaurant in Jaipur, India led to an invitation to a three-day wedding celebration.

Of course even when things go wrong, it can turn into a memorable experience. Accepting an invitation to go paragliding in Cartagena, Colombia resulted in a cracked shinbone, but I will never forget the (literally) bird's-eye view of the city!

On your next trip, consider skipping at least some of the Top Ten Things to See in [insert city name], and instead make your way to a neighborhood café or an art-movie house or a golf course, or whatever it is you enjoy doing at home. Chances are, you'll enjoy doing it in the city you are visiting as well.

Thriller Award-winning author Twist Phelan is a modern nomad, telling stories as she travels the world. She is the author of FAKE, EXIT, and the soon-to-be-released DOUBT in the Finn Teller corporate spy mystery series

RHYS: Twist shares her adventures on her Facebook page, her newsletter and her blog on her website. Great reading for armchair travelers!  And the pictures are of Denmark, Abu Dhabi, Japan, Iceland, and Istanbul.

Adventure travel... or not?

HALLIE EPHRON: A little over a month ago, my daughter Molly moved to the Yucatan where she's working as marketing and fundraising coordinator for the Na'atik Language and Cultural Institute, a fabulous not-for-profit with a great concept: tourists who take classes in Spanish or Maya at Na’atik help to provide affordable English classes to local students in the Mexican Maya Zone. Speaking English is pretty much required for many of the decent jobs in this heavily touristed part of the world.

What Molly has had so far is an extraordinary adventure travel experience.

First there's the wildlife. The free-range gekkos (lots of them) that cruise her kitchen ceiling. Scorpions that come to rest on her Spanish homework.

Tending bee hives with a Maya father-and-son beekeeping team. (Yucatan honey is famous.)

Getting covered in mud, biking through the jungle at night to see snakes eat bats in a cave. 

She's swung by a rope into a remote limestone swimming hole (a "cenote" with opalescent blue water.) She and her friends traveled there by taxi, got dropped at an unmarked road on the side of the highway, and waded into the jungle to find it. Trusted that the cab would come back hours later to get them.

I'm so proud of her, because the work she's doing is so good, and because of her adventurous spirit. I know my husband and I gave her the travel bug, but we are wimps by comparison.

Just for instance, here's a picture of my husband this summer in Ireland, sizing up a rope bridge that we will have to decide whether to cross. I leave it to you to guess whether we did or not.

So what's your most adventurous travel experience (so far)? Or have you stuck to tour buses, comfy cruises, and  resorts?
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, dear. You have to count your blessings that you gave your daughter not only a good heart, but a confident one. I, on the other hand,  am confident that I can find my way to my hotel room, generally confident that I can figure out how the shower works, and confident that if the soap is too harsh, I will have brought my own.

I am okay in big cities, happy to explore and poke around. I'm not one bit afraid of heights, or depths, or language.  But um, as I once heard Sue Grafton say: "I don't do rustic."

I told you this, right? When I recently went to the doctor and they suspected Lyme disease, she asked me  "When was  the last time you went hiking, or into the woods?" And I thought about it and replied "...1979?" (I don't have Lyme.)

And I think-yes! Of course you went across the bridge! I would have, too. I think...

HALLIE: Uh, something I neglected to share: my husband is afraid of heights. If it had been up to ME we'd have crossed that bridge. Really.

RHYS BOWEN: When I was younger I was quite adventurous. Jeep over a 15,000 foot pass into Ladakh, for example. But I hate bugs. My daughter did something similar in Yucatan and El Salvador, Hallie. 13 inch scorpions on the walls. Hairy tarantulas walking past. She slept in a hammock (in the mistaken belief that the spiders wouldn't visit her there).

Not for me.  I used to love camping. Now I need a comfortable bed and hot shower. 

But John and I did the red center of Australia in 2009. We were up close and personal with crocodiles and saw enormous spider webs. But no more jungles, thank you. From now on my biggest adventure is to decide what type of pate to buy at a French market!

LUCY BURDETTE: No, no, no to the tarantulas and scorpions! I used to love camping but that's been a while (not as long as Hank.) But truth is,  I love being home and so traveling of any kind feels a little hard. So now that I'm doing more of it, I pat myself on the back for going:). Looking forward to seeing Australia next year, but not the way your adventurous daughter would do it Hallie!

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: I did a lot of cross-country camping (in a tent) in my youth, so now my idea of getting into nature is a five-star hotel and the nature channel on TV. Seriously, private bathroom, hot running water and room service. A hotel bar.

The funny thing is that my husband and I support the National Parks and Wildlife Federation. We love nature. We know it's important. But we just don't feel the need to actually go there.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I think it's an age thing, don't you? When you described Molly's adventures I thought, "How wonderful! For anyone between eighteen and twenty-nine!"

I mean, just this summer, The Boy went to an EDM (Electronic Dance Music) festival in Michigan for a week. He slept in the charter bus (which broke down two times,)  camped in a tiny single-sleeper tent, lived on hot dogs and peanut butter and never had anything dry to wear after it rained the first night. He had a grand time.

Me? No way. I'd be like those people who go to Burning man in luxury campers with flush toilets and a/c.
 
I banged all over Europe when I was twenty-one with my Eurailpass, staying in fleabag pensiones with cold and cold running showers down the hall, braving public bus and subway systems in languages I didn't know.

 I spent a romantic evening in Rome with a Finn, had to barricade my hotel door against the Irishmen I'd been drinking with in Heidelberg, saw Der Rosenkavalier at the Vienna Staatsoper wearing jeans (I got the student rush tickets for standing room stalls.) I'm with Hank here - I like my adventures urban.

Nowadays, I'd still happily go to all those cities, but I want a comfortable bed in a good hotel with an ensuite bath. And I'd probably take taxis a lot more.
HALLIE: So, dear Gentle Readers: Would you walk through the rain forest or take the zip line? Take the river cruise or the rapids raft? Order french fries or deep fried bugs?

Traveling Foodies

RHYS BOWEN: I confess. I'm a coward when it comes to food during my travels. Not having the strongest stomach in the world I have never eaten the more adventurous things like fried grasshoppers in Thailand. My husband, on the other hand, has a cast-iron stomach and will happily graze from stalls in markets wherever we are.

But it's memories of food that take me back to a place more vividly than any snapshot, so I've been trying to recall some memorable meals from my travels. I've eaten spectacular Indian curries and Chinese banquets, but what immediately came into my head was my time in Greece.

When I was a student I spent three months going around Greece with a backpack. My friend and i had no money so we ate in cheap cafes or from street vendors. In the cafes in small towns we were always the only women and the men would look up from their domino games to eye us with suspicion.
But my memories of that food are wonderful. Gyros made with lamb sliced from a carcass still turning on a spit, stuffed peppers snd tomatoes, moussaka. The convention was to go through the cafe into the kitchen, check out what was cooking and order what we liked the look of.
But my favorite meals were on the island of Aegina where we rented a tiny cabin. The cafe was just a shack on the waterfront and every day they cooked whatever fish they had caught that day. We'd eat the octopus we saw them catch earlier, banging it on the rocks like laundry to tenderize it. We'd eat whole grilled fish, or even a frito misto of stir fried whatever. All wonderful and washed down with retsina for which we developed a taste. Then strolling home through twilight olive groves, a trifle tipsy, while Greek music floated to us across the water. I'm smiling now as I think of it.

So who would like to share a travel food memory?

LUCY BURDETTE: I will never forget a roasted chicken with the most crispy skin garnished by a lentil salad in a cafe in Paris. We had a splendid cassoulet on the same trip--I think there had been an article about Parisian food in the LA Times. Did not write them down and have never been able to find them since...

HALLIE EPHRON: As you might imagine, I travel on my stomach. Oh, Rhys, your description of eating in Greece brought back memories. We ate ate a restaurant with fishing boats right outside; they beat the octupi and hung them to dry, so when you order it the chef ran across and grabbed a few.

But for favorite? SOOOO hard. I'd have to say dinner at Ristorante Miky in Monterosso al Mare -- across the street from the beach in this spectacular town in the Cinque Terra in Italy. The meal began with anchovies. Not the kind you get in the can, these are fresh caught right there. About 5 inches long by 3 inches wide, cured in a lemony brine and oil. Exquisite! Then fresh, tender homemade tagliatelle with langoustine.

RHYS: Hallie, I've eaten there! I stayed in Monterosso with my hiking friends when we hiked the Cinque Terre trail and we had a seafood risotto for all of us, cooked under a giant pizza crust that ballooned up like a huge mushroom. Then the owner pierced it and all that lovely vapor came out. Ahhh.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, fabulous food in Mexico, Italy, France, especially traveling with my parents on Frommer's $25 a Day (remember those?) and eating in working class cafes in France and Italy. Lunch at Gordon Ramsay Claridge's. BUT--can you guess? Last fall I ate at a restaurant called Joanna's in Crystal Palace, south London. They are famous for their mussels, so we that for starters with fresh artisan bread from the next door bakery. I have seldom been so tempted to lick the bowl. Then, roast belly of Suffolk pork, with winter greens and creamy mash (potatoes) in an apple and ginger sauce. And (can you guess again?) Sticky Toffee pudding for dessert. Everything was absolute perfection.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: I think I've already relayed my Paul Bocuse and Fish A/Fish B story. I'm not particularly adventurous when it comes to food - I passed on all the the exotic offerings in the Beijing food market (I think glazed sheep testicles on a stick were there, next to the chocolate covered grasshoppers!) I remember a wonderful meal in Avignon at a restaurant around the corner from La Mirande - but don't ask me what it was! I had asked for a vegetarian meal and they whipped up someting that was fantastic.

The one I do remember? It was the day after my first book came out and I had just flown to Phoenix for a gig at Poisoned Pen. I was starving and pulled into the lot across the street from the bookstore. The door was locked but I saw a few people inside and tapped on the window. The owner was closing up but took pity on me. His employee set one table, and lit candles while the owner - who said I'd have to take pot luck made me a plate with cold chicken pesto and a small salad. It was fabulous and every time I go back to PP I try to go to Cafe Monarch in Scottsdale!

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: (RO, that's lovely--I hope to be there smeday!) For me--Pizza--in France! We were at the Michel Giraud restaurant/hotel in the town of Pau. The chef made pizza with fresh tomatoes right out of a lush garden-and it was the most intense! (In French, I think it's pissaladiere.) But you know--I had a memorable meal right here in the US..at the Four Seasons in Boston. PERFECT salad, perfect steak with blue cheese, perfect broccolini and some caulflower/potato thing with truffles. I also love when Jonathan grills out in our back yard..

JAN BROGAN _ The freshness of the tomatoes and cucumbers and the honey and yoghurt in Crete. Closer to home, but just as memorable, eating lobster bought on the docks of Cuttyhunk, cooked and eaten while on a the cockpit of a sailboat with the added pleasure of tossing the shells right back into the sea.It's really the only way you should eat lobster.

RHYS: Are you drooling yet? Do these memories evoke any of your own? Who has actually tried the fried grasshoppers? Actually I have eaten prairie oysters so I guess I'm a tad adventurous

Into Thin Air

ROSEMARY: Well, I am back from my trip to Everest Base Camp (and went straight to Crimebake where there waas more yakkking than yaks.) More than once over the course of the last few weeks I've sworn my next trip will be to Rome where I can sit in a piazza enjoying a cafe macciato and watching the handsome, long-haired boys go by instead of clinging to a mountainside waiting for the long-haired yaks to go by.

It's all S.J. Rozan's fault. I really wanted to go to Mongolia with her last summer but I flip-flopped so many times it got too late and I whined to my husband that I was never going to have any adventures anymore. (I must be careful what I say to him.) Before I knew it I had signed on for a trip to Nepal.

The gear which had served us so well when we climbed Kilimanjaro a few years back would not be good for 0 degrees and we would be limited to thirty pounds of luggage each which meant investing in some newer lightweight sleeping bags, pads, etc. The salespeople at Paragon and EMS must have salivated when they saw us coming with out three page gear lists. ("You really should go for the down booties, too.")

Like Mark Twain said "beware of all enterprises that require new clothes." And as Dorothy Gale says at the end of The Wizard of Oz "some of it wasn't very nice, but most of it was beautiful."

If I thought I'd be thin and tan by the end of the trip, not a chance. Despite walking uphill for 4-8 hours a day the way you are plied with rice, potatoes and other carbs to keep you going negates any calorie deficit, and the food is so bland I found myself fantasizing about Snickers bars and Lay's potato chips, two foods which are available even in the back of beyond. And can someone please explain the appeal of Fanta to me? It's revolting, yet it too is available everywhere. And the goggles I wore over my glasses, combined with the buff - a neckpiece that most sherpas and trekkers wear - gave me a ridiculous windburn on my face - pink and white horizontal stripes. And as for my trip mates - let's just say a fair number of them will be victims in my next book. But most of it was good and neither Bruce and I were injured nor sufered from altitude sickness. And the pictures are killer.

So what adventures or trips have you embarked on that started with certain expectations and wound up differently?

More exotic posts later this week - Are you going to eat that?, the very exotic Tim Hallinan whose Poke Rafferty series is set in Bangkok, bizarre bazaar shopping, Teamwork: How not to kill your teammates whether you are on a mountain or in a writing group (this is where visits to all those temples and monasteries helped out..) and tomorrow a tragic true ..maybe crime that happened earlier this year in Nepal.
Namaste.

ROBERTA: Well Ro, I just don't have the nerve for a trip like that. But I will love to see your pictures and hear the stories. And we did very much enjoy a trip to Rome this fall--would love to go back there. This is me sampling some local pizza...in a piazza.)

One interesting note though--we had a friend who'd been to Rome last spring and absolutely adored it. I had lunch with her and borrowed all her guidebooks and maps and she totally pumped me up. They're crazy about Paris and this was almost, almost, almost as good. So I think all her enthusiasm set us up for a fabulous experience.

JAN: Probably the most adventurous thing I do -- aside from actually having flown in my husband's old plane - which can best be described as a Volkswagen with wings - is sail. Sailing in the British Virgin islands, with my husband as the captain and me as first and only mate still isn't exactly dangerous. The islands are pretty close together. And that's as dangerous as I get these days. But once we sailed from Cuttyhunk to Newport right after a tornado and it was so rough I threw up seven times -- and I'm immune to seasickness. And once coming into Westport Harbor we hit a sandbar just as an huge wave came up and swamped us -- that means the entire boat tips completely on its side (think Titanic movie right before it drops). The boat righted itself and another wave came and it happened again. Still, I would have been a better sport about if my daughter -- then 15 months old - hadnt been strapped into a car seat on the cockpit (to this day she has nightmares about tidal waves). We survived and I made my husband sell the boat. I think the line I used was "I am not risking my child's life for leisure."

Which, Ro, can be adapted to "Hey Bruce, I'm not risking my life for leisure," if you want to get out of climbing the next mountain.....

RO: See...that's one of my worst nightmares. Ever see The Perfect Storm?

HALLIE: I'm with Roberta, Paris and Rome are much more my speed. But I so admire that you did it, Rosemary! You are the queen of adventure travel.

The most adventurous my travel has gotten is a trip to an eco-lodge in Costa Rica. My husband, who hates small planes, found a driver to take us on the 6-hour drive across the mountains from the west coast to the east and dropped us at the edge of a rickety bridge that said CARS PROHIBITED...for obvious reasons. We carried our luggage (quickly) to the other side where there was an rotting wooden dock where we waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally a white motor boat chugged by, picked us up, took us out the mouth of the river and into the ocean (VERY choppy) and around the other side of a peninsula to the beach where we climbed a steep hill in 90+ degree weather and about 90% humidity to the lodge and our tent platform -- no hot water, plenty of ants, and a wild middle-of-the-night visit from a bat. Check your shoes for scorpions in the morning.

The wildlife was spectacular.

RHYS: The most adventurous thing we ever did was to attempt to be one of the first foreigners allowed into Ladakh( I've even forgotten how to spell it). The jeep ride up the side of a 15,000 foot pass, on a narrow strip of gravel across which small torrents streamed certainly kept me awake and alert--especially as the driver thought he could save gas by switching off the engine every time we went downhil. Not wishing to plunge to my death I sat next to him and slapped his hand every time it went near the keys.

These days our adventures are tamer--although we did do the Australian Outback last fall and hiked among the crocodiles and snakes in Kakadu. But my ideal vacation these days is spending some time somewhere nice--like NICE. I loved my two weeks there this summer, going out for croissants in the morning, shopping the markets, taking local buses. Perfect. Plan to house swap in the Dordogne next summer. Any suggestions?

HANK: My riskiest trip? A blog for another day. Welcome home, Dear RO!