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On of my popular posts is Defense Against Gropers, about my lovely interesting experiences riding the buses and trains in Mexico City. Everyone who has asked me what it’s like to live there has heard my horror stories, so it was no surprise when I got emailed this:
Mexico City has started a women-only bus service to protect female passengers from groping and verbal abuse common on the city’s packed public transportation system.
I was happily chatting on Skype to one of my favourite people C the other day. We used to spend quite a bit of time together in Mexico City, talking about books and food while our nerd husbands debate computer games. It was fantastic to catch up, and this post is the result of that conversation.
Knowing me (being Singaporean and a congenital food nut) we raved about our best meals in Mexico, and she said she used to have the best time eating with us. Some of those restaurants were friend’s recommendations, but we found very reliable advice for Mexico City in DF magazine (not Chilango magazine – restaurant reviews there are about what’s hip and fashionable, places to see and be seen, rather than eat).
I have to admit I am more fussy about food and less so about atmosphere, so here is my absolutely partial list of my favourite places to eat and drink in Mexico. Most of these places are off the beaten track, and I hope if you are visiting or living in Mexico you will hunt these down and end up loving them like I do.
However, if you are looking for Chinese food recommendations, there is NO good Chinese food in Mexico. Not REAL Chinese food, anyway. Save your money for one of these restaurants instead.
Karen Cheng is a younger, prettier (?), motherlier, hipper version of me. Who wrote this priceless post about eating worms that had me laughing and cringeing at the same time.
Wish I could blog like that.
It’s enough to make a girl sigh.
BUT not enough to make a girl eat insects! I never tried the gusanos(worms) or chapulines in Mexico, but I did eat a bug-squash taco!
Jumiles are a small stink bugs native to the Taxco region of the state of Guerrero in Mexico. Jumiles are collected for making of sauce and for use as taco filling. They may be eaten alive and almost always are because jumiles can live up to one week after the cooking process wich includes beheadedment and toasting.
And yes, we did squash them while they were alive, with their grey guts spilling out everywhere.
Yum.
After a very long and busy silence in which we:
- packed for a 2 week trip around the south of Mexico
- drove a rental car around Mexico for 2 weeks – dealing with Mexican roads, traffic, drivers and corrupt cops along the way
- had a stressful but excellent trip
- bought souvenirs, visited some “unmissable” destinations and endured 33degree days with 100% (not kidding) humidity
- drove back to Mexico City (14hr trip that ended at 5am)
- ran around frantically trying to tie all the loose ends before we left for good – and dealing with Mexican beauraucracy/ inefficiency
- got the cat ready for quarantine – vet visits, de-parasiting, shots and more shots, too much paperwork
- packed again
- flew to LA, where I was detained at LAX for not having the cat’s paperwork in my hand – I slept at the airport like a homeless person and was at the airport for a grand total of about 30 hours!! I cried, slept (very little), hugged Oscar the cat, sobbed in public at the Singapore airlines check-in counter, made some friends and somehow survived without any (visible) scarring
- flew home to Singapore – to shop, eat, catch up with friends, fight with my family, congratulate my brother and sister-in-law on her first pregnancy and eat some more (we also bought a waterproof/ shockproof digicam)
- flew to Oz after being very nearly bumped off our flight: that meant an extra 4 hours of travelling on a non-direct flight. But I was politely persistent and irritating, so we got put back on the flight, much to our relief!
- and finally arrived in Australia – where we have spent the last weeks finding 1) a home to rent 2) a car to drive 3) all the bits and pieces to keep ourselves clean, fed and happy
- and Peter started work.
Whew.
Anyhow, we now have a new address (no phone yet, but we’re working on it), a new used car: Ford Fiesta Ghia 06 manual (woohoo!!!) and salvos/eBay/new furniture. Along with the house we’ve rented, we’ve inherited a very persistent and fast-growing morning glory plant that threatens to take the roof off the house. It has climbed as high as the TV antenna, and is growing a vine in the bathroom, as well as blocking up both the bathroom and kitchen fans. From Wikipedia:
In some places such as Australian bushland morning glories develop thick roots and tend to grow in dense thickets. They can quickly spread by way of long creeping stems. By crowding out, blanketing and smothering other plants, morning glory has turned into a serious invasive weed problem.
Then of course there are the cockroaches. Peter has killed one every other day (there are probably 20 more hiding), and yesterday night we bought insect spray and bait and there have been 3 casualties since. YUCK.
I have had a phobic fear of them since I was a teen and I found a black one that was as long as my index finger and as wide as my thumb on my blanket. I tried to shake it off and it flew around me in large circles before landing on my head. My frantic screeching brought my father who somehow disposed of it in a blur of tears (I don’t remember how). Anyway, I hate them. So now before I enter the kitchen and bathroom I look around and if I see one I run out and grab my heroic husband who smacks them, picks them up and disposes of them while I hide behind him.
THEN today morning we found someone had filched our brand-spanking new, very nice door mat!! The cheek of it!! Argh. Why would anyone want to steal a door mat anyhow?? Anyway, we are either going to buy a nice one and chain it to the door or stick a ratty old one up the front.
The other significant piece of news is that Peter now has a shaved head! (and I cut my hair, but that was ages ago!)
Here’s a family photo, with Oscar, who I miss very very much:
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| From Us |
What do you think?
Anyway, that’s all for now. Hope everyone is well, and let us know what you’re up to!
This month has been an absolute madness. We’ve done our last bit of travelling around Mexico and had a great time, moved our stuff, and today we said our last farewells. Paperwork and beauraucracy for our cat Oscar is finalised after alot of work and teeth pulling, and we’re mostly packed.
There are so many things I’m going to miss about Mexico, and others which I’m very glad I’ve left behind. We fly out tomorrow, and arrive at our next destination on Monday (yurk!!) jet lagged and relieved that all the stress is finally over. Poor Oscar… he’s going to be in a cargo hold for a very loooonnnnng time. We reach our final destination in early October.
Anyone who want flight information can email me (if you know my address) but we’ll be out of communication until Monday, when most of our flying will be over. I’ll slowly crawl back into the world after I get over jet lag and taking things easy, but I’m sure it will be soon-ish. My internet addiction won’t let me stay away for too long.
Will post about our travels and my thoughts on Mexico when life is more sane.
Those in our direction of travels, see you really soon! Those we’re leaving, hasta luego!
Creeps seem to exist in abundance in this part of the world. A previous post of mine talks about being harrassed, but I have been rubbed against with legs, arms, hands, butts (etc..) countless times here. Not to mention being blatantly stared at, whistled at, whispered-sweet-nothings at, the list goes on.
Today was the worst grope session yet. The bus was horrendously crowded due to the stupid protests (news | photos) and I had to wait for the 3rd bus before I was forcibly shoved on by the crowd behind me.
Here I am trying out a new blog service. My old blog is here if you’re curious. Anyhow, am finding this a very interesting experience, playing with how the site looks and feels. There are better controls than on Blogger, and I love the idea of the Categories, Calendar (which I’ve always wanted on my blog). I’m sure I’ll put to good use.. the look and feel might change, but I think I’m happiest with this theme. Seeing as I’ve had eye surgery and all, I’m a big believer in a large readable font and this is the only theme with a large readable font.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens..
