Lisa Niver's Blog: We Said Go Travel, page 288
November 6, 2015
Beltane: Excerpt from Dublin Street
May Queen. Credit to Beltane Fire Society [Stuart Barrett (2008)]
The following is an excerpt from my book: Dublin Street, about my university experiences in Edinburgh and London.I picked this particular section on Beltane because it evokes the unique character of Edinburgh and how a city adapts it’s historical traditions into the modern city fabric.
Other city celebrations scattered throughout the year include Burn’s Night (traditionally celebrated with a haggis dinner and readings of the famed Scottish poet Robert Burns), Samhain (from which we derive our Halloween), Guy Fawkes Day, and Hogmanay (New Years shindig, believed to be Viking in its origin). Most of them involve gunpowder…a lot of gunpowder.
Dublin Street
What’s a university without a good pagan festival? Every spring the Edinburgh would celebrate Beltane, it was meant to signal the transition between seasons and had something to do with fertility. For students it generally meant the end of our exam period just a good a reason as any to assemble atop Calton Hill.
The rituals began at sunset but being in such northern climbs it pretty much coincided with what otherwise would have been a pre-game. We would make the climb slightly before the sunset to scope out a great piece of grass to swig whiskey and picnic before the Red Men arrived with the May Queen and her handmaidens. The Red Men would storm atop the hill in total clamoring unscripted chaos, jumping amongst the crowds waving torches and flaming batons. They set aside their humanness for the night and became something entirely different, the court of Titania.
Relics. Photo Credit Ariadne (2015)
We would jump on benches with them and chase them around the Monuments. They would steal our whiskey. We would steal it back. They would pull our hair and clothes as if they’d never seen the likes of us before and we would laugh taking it all in. The Red Men were tasked with clearing the way for the court. The Queen’s court all wore simple white dresses and their expressions and makeup had the opacity and composure of Noh-masks. The Queen always the most graceful with the most elaborate feather and flower headdresses would preside serenely at the head of the procession. The procession took ages and ages to reach the summit. There an effigy of a Phoenix at the top would be burnt to welcome the transition between seasons. And there was even a haggis food truck, in case you ever actually needed a haggis food truck.
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November 5, 2015
A Little Taste of Bogota, Colombia
Lisa, Janeen and Cyd at Andres Carne De Res, Bogota
When Lisa Niver, Creator of We Said Go Travel, headed down to Bogota, Colombia, she may have been expecting some quality coffee and unique food, but she had no idea what deliciousness was in store for her!
Paloquemao Market– The Paloquemao Market is more colorful than any grocery store could be. Rows and rows of colorful, fresh fruits and vegetables line painted walls, on top of brightly colored stands. You can find corn and limes that you will recognize, but you will also see the Lulo fruit and many others that may not be familiar to you. A Lulo looks like a small orange on the outside, but when you cut it open, it looks more like a green tomato. The juice is a sweet, Colombian delicacy that you cannot miss! Lisa’s trip to the market was not without purpose, however. She picked out the ingredients that she would need to learn to cook Colombian food! Potatoes were high on the list, and she had to select the correct ones out of the 50 types of potatoes that are found in Colombia. Lisa headed over to Casa de Citas for her cooking class, where she learned to make Empanadas, Ajiaco and Patacones.
A photo posted by Lisa Niver (@wesaidgotravel) on Aug 17, 2015 at 6:26pm PDT
VIDEO: Paloquemao Market Lunch at El Portico– For lunch, Lisa tried El Portico, a classic Colombian restaurant with several of the dishes she had just learned to make! The portions were large and the food was delicious! It is “an entertainment venue, restaurant and space to develop all kinds of events with more than 40 years of experience.” They were founded in 1968 and even have horses!
Good #friends and fantastic #lunch #farm #fresh #food #elportico #colombiaismagicalrealism #aviancateconecta #Bogota A photo posted by Lisa Niver (@wesaidgotravel) on Aug 14, 2015 at 11:56am PDT
VIDEO: Lunch at El Portico Bogota Aug 13, 2015
Dinner at Andres Carne de Res– For a party vibe and plenty of fun, Andres Carne de Res is the perfect spot. With elaborate drinks, music and plenty of food, Andres Carne de Res is a party that doesn’t stop on one floor. The building has multiple levels of drinks, dancing and music! Lisa loved the black pepper filet and the local Colombian rum.
Video: Dinner at Andres Carne De Res
San Alberto Coffee Tasting– Lisa was prepared for some good Colombian coffee, even though she doesn’t drink coffee! Juan Pablo, part of the third generation of specialty coffee growers, educated Lisa and her group on the tradition of making coffee, including learning to smell for different flavors and aromas. Then Juan Pablo demonstrated how to use a vacuum siphon to brew the perfect cup of coffee. Lisa enjoyed her coffee tasting, but had to rely on Janeen Christoff from LA Travel Mom to educate her on the differences between coffees. Janeen was thrilled to see the major differences between the same coffee being brewed normally versus in a vacuum siphon. The siphon won, hands down!
A photo posted by Lisa Niver (@wesaidgotravel) on Aug 13, 2015 at 4:29pm PDT
Read more of Lisa’s adventures in Bogota, a truly unique destination. Check out the Unexpected Gems of Bogota and Art Destinations. Thank you to Avianca and Procolombia for a wonderful visit.
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November 4, 2015
Korean BBQ in Culver City? YES! @HanjipBBQ
Do you love Korean BBQ and travel to K-Town to find it? Now located in Culver City at 3829 Main street; find happening Hanjip from Chef Chris Oh and Restaurateur Stephane Bombet.
Call your friends, fill a banquet table and get a reservation right away so you do not miss out! I ate there on Monday night and at every packed table, there were many happy eaters!
The 30 day aged Tomahawk steak was amazing but honestly everything I tried was fantastic. All the servers were knowledgeable and helped us discover the special tastes on the menu. We loved the prime rib and the brisket. The table next to us loved their shrimp and marinated pork. Meatatarians, raise your scissors and your glass of Soju: this place is waiting for you!
Artist, Tommii Lim, Sara, Lisa, Trish, Mike, Angela, Camellia at Hanjip
The walls of art are by Tommii Lim and our table even had a drink and a photo with him! Enjoy more of his creative designs at Ugly Fresh.
My dinner companion, Sara Guarnieri shared her experience: “I’ve been telling many people about Hanjip today, and I seriously can’t wait to go back after Monday’s dinner experience. I keep thinking about the foie gras butter on the Tomahawk steak! I described it to someone today as “upscale Korean BBQ.” It felt like a different experience than the other Korean bbqs I’ve been to. It is great for a group or a date for an interactive one of a kind dining experience. I felt like it was more than just dinner.”
The ambiance, food, flavors and team are all a home run at Hanjip!
Discover Hanjip from 11:30 a.m. to midnight every day.
3829 Main Street
Culver City, CA 90232
VIDEO: Hanjip BBQ on Main Street in Culver City is open!
A photo posted by Lisa Niver (@wesaidgotravel) on Nov 2, 2015 at 8:55pm PST
Thank you @chrisoh_ @seoulsausage amazing creations @hanjipbbq uni steamed egg, seafood pancake and amazing steak! A photo posted by Lisa Niver (@wesaidgotravel) on Nov 2, 2015 at 7:24pm PST
Prime rib eye #steak @hanjipbbq
A photo posted by Lisa Niver (@wesaidgotravel) on Nov 2, 2015 at 7:10pm PST
#Korean #bbq in #culvercity? YES @hanjipbbq #Hanjip tasty and delicious A photo posted by Lisa Niver (@wesaidgotravel) on Nov 2, 2015 at 7:04pm PST
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November 3, 2015
Alaska — Land of Bears, Eagles and Leaping Whales
The humpback whale shot into the air a few feet off the side of the boat, so close I could see the barnacles on his nose, drops of water roll off his skin, and the hint of a smile on his face.
The breaching whale marked the end of our recent ten-day visit to Alaska, a trip that began with three grizzly sightings, plus caribou and moose, in Denali NP. 
All of the wildlife sightings in Denali were from the relative comfort and absolute safety of a shuttle bus, the only way to get deep into the park. We could have gotten off the bus at almost any point and hiked, but we didn’t have a lot of time to spare and most important, we didn’t have bear spray — or “people seasoning,” as it is known in some quarters. If you don’t get it directly into their eyes and spray it by mistake on your clothes, it makes you even tastier to hungry bears.
After Denali we headed south to Homer to catch a water taxi across Katchemak Bay to Tutka Bay Lodge, our hosts for the next segment of our trip. This all-inclusive, luxury, wilderness retreat is the kind of place that even if it had rained the entire three days we were there, it wouldn’t have mattered. The setting had a lot to do with it – mountain ridges across the bay and old growth forest just a few feet away. But Tutka Bay Lodge offers a lot more – tastefully decorated cottages with views of the bay, a huge deck large enough to land a helicopter (actually three, for visiting dignitaries with large security details), a spa and sauna, an unpretentious but attractive main lodge, and a world famous cooking school.
Speaking of food, as I often do, the meals were extraordinary, featuring such dishes as spot prawn tacos made with fresh tortillas, butternut soup with ginger oil, salmon with melted leeks and caramelized fennel and spinach, miso cod with bok choy, pumpkin seeds and sea lettuce. Every afternoon there were fresh baked cookies served warm, moist and gooey straight from the oven.
We went kayaking every morning with our own private guide. During our paddles we saw lots of bald eagles and sea otters, several seals and dolphins, and a lone black bear on a rocky beach, all embedded in a dramatic landscape of wide open water, narrow inlets, tree-covered islands and snow-capped ridges. 
Our afternoons were spent hiking through the rain forest surrounding the lodge, getting a massage, watching a cooking demonstration, sitting in the spa, or just lounging around.
In the evenings we either took a boat ride to look at otters, socialized with the other guests, or went back to our cottage to read before falling asleep, earlier than I would have back home. We could have also gone bear watching or deep-sea fishing at extra cost, but I felt like we had enough to do and took advantage of whatever downtime we had to just relax.
We would have been happy to spend more than three days there, but we had glaciers and whales to see. It’s a three-hour drive from Homer to Seward, the historic jumping off point for prospectors and explorers in the early 1900s and the beginning of the Iditarod Trail. The main reason for our visit was to take a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park and kayak in front of Aialik Glacier.
Our first morning in Seward started out sunny and bright, but it soon turned grey and moody, perfect weather for paddling. Our guide from Kayak Adventures Worldwide led us to the face of the glacier where we sat in our kayaks, well-bundled against the cold, gazing at the wall of ice almost 600 feet high about a half mile away. 
We drifted among icebergs as huge chunks of ice thundered off the glacier every few minutes and into the water. Except for the sounds of falling ice, drops of water trickling off our paddles and tiny wavelets lapping at the sides of our kayak, we heard little else.
We stared at the glacier for almost an hour, then paddled back to the pick-up point for our water taxi back to Seward. About an hour into our ride the whale show started.
At first, he was some distance off. 
I missed the first breach, but caught the second plus the 30 or so that followed over the next 45 minutes. For the final fifteen minutes of the show, he came closer and closer to our boat, finally climaxing in his heart-pounding, barnacle-encrusted leap just a few feet away. 
I’ve seen whales up close before but never one as active, athletic and photogenic.
The next day we sat in a movie theater in Anchorage killing time before our 1:30 a.m. flight to Seattle, watching the dinosaurs of Jurassic World rampage across the screen. The dinos looked realistic and were fun to watch, but I much prefer the real thing – bears, eagles, sea otters, but most of all, a smiling whale shooting into the air, pausing just long enough for a once-in-lifetime photo before crashing into the water on his back.
(for more photos and information check out Don’s website and blog)
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November 2, 2015
Are you Grateful & Interesting? #Adventure #travel
Sunrise in Jerusalem, October 2015 by Lisa Niver
I have been reading Seth Godin‘s blog for years. His recent post, Are you Interesting?, intrigued me:
“Which means that being an interesting person is a choice. We can choose to show up, to care enough to contribute our humanity to the next interaction.
It’s a choice, but a difficult one, because being interesting feels risky. People are afraid to be interesting, not unable to be interesting.
You’re not born uninteresting. But it’s entirely possible you’ve persuaded yourself to be so frightened of the consequences that you no longer have the passion, the generosity or the guts to be interesting any longer.
Without a doubt, we need your interesting.”
I hope that you will choose to be interesting and share your story of Gratitude in my Travel Writing Contest. In case you aren’t convinced yet that you are worthy of sharing your story, a bit more from Seth Godin:
“Hard work and the dangerous commitment to doing something that matters doesn’t get us a guaranteed wheelbarrow of prizes… but what it does do is help us understand our worth. That worth, over time, can become an obligation, the chance to do our best work and to contribute to communities we care about.
When the work is worth it, make more of it, because you can, and because you’re generous enough to share it.”
Decide to tell your story. Enter now.
Oprah Winfrey tells the story of how Dr. Maya Angelou told her to “Be a Rainbow in Someone Else’s Cloud.” She said be a blessing to someone. “The rainbow is coming even if can not see it yet.” When have you needed someone and they have been your rainbow? Have you been someone else’s? Often we need the kindness of strangers while traveling through our lives.
I learned about this story from Oprah & Deepak’s 21-Day Meditation Experience, Manifesting Grace through Gratitude. I highly recommend their series. I look forward to receiving your entries about how grace can become a verb in your life. Please share your story of travel, grace, gratitude and brightening someone’s day.
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October 31, 2015
Vietnam- Lethal Relics of the Past
On arriving in Vietnam, the first thing you’re warned to do is never stray off the beaten track. This is a pretty common piece of advice for tourists of any country, and it’s usually for the same reasons- avoiding dicey backstreet situations and/or local critters. In Vietnam however, you’re asked to do so for more ominous reasons. Despite the fact that the American War (as the locals call it) ended nearly forty years ago, an estimated 15% of Vietnam’s total surface area is still heavily contaminated with unexploded ordinance.
Skull and Crossbones
In April 2015, I got the opportunity to spend two weeks travelling Vietnam with a group of friends I worked with in Abu Dhabi. A fortnight just wasn’t enough time to do everything we wanted, so it was far from a relaxing holiday. Early starts and late finishes dominated the itinerary as we raced to immerse ourselves in Vietnamese culture in record time. Mid-way through our journey from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, our Vietnamese guide, who’d christened himself Johnny in an effort to aid our awkward tongues, arranged for us to meet up with one of the volunteer teams that safely dispose of unexploded bombs found by the general public. Our initial excitement deserted us as soon as we arrived at the roadside littered with red skull and crossbones signs.
For perhaps the first time on the trip, we didn’t need Johnny to translate the local signage for us. The message was brutally obvious. The heaving humidity wasn’t nearly as oppressive as the realization of what we were about to witness. This was a bombsite. Bombs are designed to kill. Paddy fields stretched endlessly into the distance around us, separated by low bushes and strips of red earth. A faint breeze occasionally kicked up dust that mixed with our sweaty skins to form a grimy paste over our bodies. We stood awkwardly to the side of the road and tried not to get in the way of the workers rolling out spools of detonating wire. Prior to detonation, we were encouraged to approach and see what these hidden killers really looked like.
The pit looked like a hastily dug grave with sandbags for a tombstone. It contained two mortar rounds, two cluster bombs, and a grenade. All were of Russian or American production. And despite our proximity to such massively unstable firepower, the most disturbing part was the unassuming nature of the weaponry. Years of corrosion had rendered them barely recognizable from the clay that surrounded them- they were clods of dirt to those who didn’t know any better. Needless to say, we treaded carefully away. Standing in the safe zone about 300 metres away, I again became aware of the extreme heat. An eerie silence had descended as we stood in sweat-soaked anticipation.
A warning siren whistled in the distance as the rasping crickets seemed to quieten in mutual apprehension. The explosion, when it came, was brutal. The sharp crack echoed against the distant hills and left us eyeing each other in a stunned silence. It felt like I’d been punched hard in the chest and winded. It wasn’t just an auditory assault, it was a complete sensory shock. Examining the aftermath was even more sobering- A gaping scar cut through the earth surrounded by jagged edges of shrapnel designed to maim and destroy. Surprising Gratitude Sinking into our seats on the mini-bus afterwards, we were exhausted from the heat and the experience.
But my mind was racing. Our stop-off prior to this had been to a small bar in rural Phong Nha, aptly named “The Pub With Cold Beer”. And despite its obvious appeal, the two young Vietnamese children that lived here with their parents were the absolute highlight of the visit. They were so affectionate and friendly to these pasty strangers, begging us to watch them ride their bikes and hi-jacking our phones to grimace for selfies. It was now hard to forget the unspeakable danger that lay beneath the ground these children played on in their bare feet. Almost four generations of Vietnamese people are left with a gruesome legacy that still claims lives with terrifying regularity. Selfishly, I began to feel grateful that I didn’t grow up with the constant fear that my next step could result in me losing my limbs, or worse. But I also felt immense gratitude toward the people who volunteer their lives towards making this country of unimaginable beauty safe for future generations. It’s crucial for visitors to risk wandering off the beaten track in order to understand the frightening hangover that still lingers over Vietnam, but also to recognise the selfless people who overcome the past in order to make the present a little safer.
Thank you for reading and commenting. Please enter the Gratitude Travel Writing competition and tell your story.
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