When we arrived in Ella we were pleasantly surprised by how quaint the village was. We walked up a bit of a steep hill with our backpacks to arrive at the Hill Top Guesthouse where we stayed for three nights. Hill Top is run by a very friendly family, and we met up with some friends we had spent time with in Mirissa and again in Tangalle, which made the stay even better. The home cooked food and warmth of the owner and his family really made our stay here very special.

Nick and I woke up the next morning at a good hour and did the hike to Little Adam’s Peak which took about an hour stopping for pictures all along the way. Not a difficult hike, but very rewarding with workers picking leaves in tea plantations, and beautiful views at the top if you arrive before the clouds do.

We had some very lovely curries at our guesthouse but the four of us decided to take the advice from Lonely Planet and get some garlic curry at Rawana Hotel on our second evening. If you arrive 2 hours early you can sit in on the cooks and get a step by step Sri Lankan cooking lesson with an extremely enthusiastic chef, along with a recipe to bring home. We sat in amazement as we watched them cook up a mound of garlic that we were told was the equivalent of 100 grams per person! My dad would have had his eyes popping out of his head if he smelt that much garlic cooking. Other dishes served included sweet and sour aubergine, mint potatoes, dhal, beetroot, pineapple chutney, tamarind, spicy coconut sambal and an alien looking vegetable called a bitter gourd which was very tasty. The entire meal was absolutely delicious and we agreed it was our best in Sri Lanka thus far.

The following morning Nick hiked up to Ella Rock which is a much more grueling hike, taking 3-4 hours. I stayed back partly because I didn’t feel well and partly because we needed to get our train tickets at 9am. Nick returned covered in sweat and with some amazing pictures giving a panoramic view of the surrounding hills. It comes highly recommended from Nick although use of a local guide would have been useful to him as he did get turned around on some of the trails but still made it back in 3 hours.

Leaving the beach can be hard, but we knew we couldn’t go all the way to Sri Lanka and only see beach, especially knowing that our next destination will be the Philippines, home to some of Asia’s best. Saying that, we were very glad that we did leave once we reached Ella because it is a very different side of the country that would be a shame to miss. Continuing with this theme we are on our way to see more of the Sri Lankan hill country.

The staff here are really nice, and so far we have only tried one thing from their menu but it was amazing French toast. The shower leaves little to be desired (pressure) but we have a great king bed with lots of sunlight.

I seem to not be doing too well on planes lately, I got that same feeling like I was going to faint but handled it better this time, but not before getting covered in sweat, turning green and getting the chills. Looks like my potential career idea of being a flight attendant is out the window. I got a suggestion of finding Chinese smelling salts which I’m going to try to do, if anyone else has ideas I’d love to hear them.

Yesterday night we went out for our one fancy dinner and it was for Peking Duck. At Beijing Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant they bring out the whole duck for you and carve it in front of u and serve it with all little condiments (like garlic paste, cucumber, onion, and sugar) and u wrap the duck in little pancake things. To give an idea it was $40 for the whole thing along with bottles of water and it was a fancy place.

The time zones are starting to screw with us. We went to bed last night at 11 absolutely exhausted and woke up around 2 unable to fall back asleep. Sometime after 4 we did manage to get back to sleep, but we slept until 2.

Today we tackled the Beijing Subway system which is quite easy to understand. Most things in Beijing so far are very easy to understand because everything is accompanied by English. We don’t know if it was like this before the Olympics last year, but it’s good for us.

Our first stop was for Tiananmen Square to see Mao. This week is the 60th anniversary of communist China (see first picture), so all the subway stops around Tiananmen were closed, so after walking over an hour (half the time in the wrong way) we got there but couldn’t go into the square. It is very busy here!

We then had about an hour to journey to the Donghuamen Night Market. This was originally set up for tourists but we saw a larger percentage of Chinese than Westerners.

Here Nick put his ‘bugs are delicious’ theory back to the test and it passed, this time with scorpions! I could barely watch as he pulled them off the stick with a smile.

5) Caribou, Arctic Canada

Probably the most common food source for Inuit and other northern Aboriginal groups in Canada, caribou is certainly my choice when it comes to wild game. I have had caribou in multiple ways including stews,roasts, and steaks. If prepared properly there is virtually no gamey flavour like I have experienced with deer and since the animals diet is mainly wild lichens, the meat has virtually no fat or grease to it. If given the chance don’t turn Caribou down!

4) Giant Grasshoppers – Bangkok, Thailand

While its not the first thing that comes to mind when one wants a quick bite to eat or a salty snack, deep fried hoppers should not be overlooked. For some reason Western culture has always taught us that bugs are gross and dirty, not a good food source, but in the far east, it’s a little different. When walking the markets of Bangkok the choices are endless when it comes to exotic food. Frogs, snakes, slugs, and of course giant insects often make the menu. Westerners normally come to take pictures and point out the odd foods but I thought it was worth a try. An exchange for a few cents left me with a bag full of giants bugs and I felt as if this might have been a bad idea. After the first few, they actually became addicting having the texture similar a potato chip with long spiny legs. The taste? Since they are sprinkled with chili pepper that is all they really taste like. Needless to say the bag was gone in no time.

3) Kangaroo/Crocodile – Australia

After a bit of searching around I finally found a restaurant which serves Australia’s most well known animal, the kangaroo (with a side of Croc). The restaurant manager recommended medium-rare for the best flavour so i wasn’t going to argue.The kangaroo was very flavourful with only a slight gamey taste, it was very good and something i would order again. The crocodile on the other hand tasted of really rubbery chicken. An exotic meal to say the least.

4) Guinea Pig – Cusco, Peru

Some foods around the world are eaten out of necessity or substinence, but when a food is a local delicacy I think its pretty much a must try for any visitor to that country. While in Peru, instead of turkey for Christmas/Easter it’s cuey or as we know it, Guinea pig that is reserved for those special occasions. This is such a prized food in Peru, inside most cathedrals you can usually find a painting of the last supper with Jesus about to chow down on some guinea pig. It’s common in more traditional homes in the Andes to have a section of the house just for keeping these special little rodents. When an occasion comes along the guinea pig is cooked whole in the heated ground for quite a long time. When its all set to eat it is still pretty recognizable.(Picture at the top of page)

5) Dog – Seoul, South Korea

Now before the Animal Rights activist inside everyone begins to judge the Korean practice of eating dog it’s important to understand why this has become a food source. After the Korean war there simply was nothing much else to survive on. Most South Koreans even turn their nose up at this practice and its really only the older generation and a few traditional restaurants which keeps this practice alive. Nowadays, a certain breed of dog is bred for the specific purpose of consumption and really, is it much worse to eat a cow or pig? This was definatly the most exotic meal I have had and was something I found difficult to stomach. The meat was chewy and had an awful fatty texture which was not something that I enjoyed. Personally, I would never order this again but I at least now know, dog is not delicious.

Once we arrived at the camp Bernie and I went out to make our hunting blind which is basically a snow fort with evergreen trees on the top to camouflage you while you call the geese in towards the decoys. We tried for several hours and when we got bored we hopped out of the blind to snap some photos and of course thats when the geese came flying in. Unfortunately neither of us had a shotgun so the geese were only shot with cameras. Who knew these would be the only geese we saw in the whole trip!

The night was spent relaxing with a warm cup of tea made from Labrador Leaves which grow outside the camp through the snow, and tasted delicious. The camp was about the size of a small shed and I slept very well even though there were 6 other people sleeping in the same close quarters. I was in bed not long after dark, amazing what fresh air can do.

The next morning Bernie and myself woke up before the sun and hopped on the sled to see if we could witness the Ptarmigan doing their mating dances in a spot Bernie knew about 10 minutes from his camp. Bernie being an avid photographer really wanted to get some shots of the birds before we tried hunting, which I was all for. The landscape was absolutely stunning as there are very few trees this far north and anything that is growing was covered in a thin sheet of ice from the the morning frost. It looked like a winter wonderland! Once we finally got close I could see the Ptarmigan doing their dances. The birds call out to each other, then tip their wings down and shuffle back and forth. Over the next hour we tried to get as close as possible to photograph the birds while the sun was beginning to come up. It really felt like a scene from Planet Earth, very surreal.

Once the sun was up it was time to shoot lunch and Bernie was able to quickly shoot us four Ptarmigan for lunch. I on the other hand, would have gone hungry as I missed my bird. The Ptarmigan is a very dark lean mean but very good when panfried. I took one home and after I gutted the bird, I fried the breasts with red wine and Juniper Berries and ate it with mashed potatos. See below. Very, very delicious.

Ptarmigan with red wine, Juniper Berries and Labrador Leaves.

The rest of the day was spent in our goose blind but we were not successful as not one goose flew overhead. Bernie was a wealth of knowledge as he had pretty much grew up in the bush and used to make a living trapping, so I was able to learn all about the land and got to learn a great amount about traditional Cree culture that can, at times, be very difficult to find in the community. It’s only by spending time with people who still practice these traditional ways that you can begin to fully appreciate the beauty of living a traditional lifestyle. I am grateful to him and his family for letting me come along this weekend and find it refreshing to know that even after living in the north for almost 2 years I’m still only beginning to scratch the surface of experiences The North has to offer.

One never disappointing flavor combination is of course peanut butter and chocolate – add marshmallows for the mandatory chewiness factor, and for crispiness wrap in puff pastry – mmm perfect!