A holiday in a bottle
Every country has its drink.
Peru has Pisco Sours and Chicha, Thailand has Sang Thip and Singha.
Wherever you go in the world, there is always one or two tipples that are served in every bar that are usually cheap and locally produced (read: nasty and fermented with saliva).
What I thought might be a bit of fun is for all of you – yes, YOU – to tell me what you have gotten wobbly on overseas?
Do Jamaicans really drink loads of rum? Is all American beer completely piss-weak? Do Greek people really drink Retsina or is that just a trick they play on tourists?
Tell us your stories (and don’t leave out the good bits where you wound up pashing a tour guide!) …
Tuba. White Lightnin’ made from bamboo in the Philippines. The first time I encountered this particular poison it was still fermenting…little bubbles were forming around the base and opening at the surface. But since the container was a big shaft of bamboo, we could only see the surface anyhow.
We went on a picnic ride with friends in an outrigger canoe and found ourselves at a ‘bar’ not frequented by anyone but the locals. The ‘bar’ was a nipa hut (a bamboo room/home built on stilts, designed to survive the vagaries of the typhoons. Everything was dry now, so we were able to get out and walk to the shop, at which we purchased this product which, as I say, was still working.
Not much to report beyond that; the local folks were pleased that we sampled their product, our friends advised us that we’d already had enough–if we’d sampled more it would blown the tops of our heads off.
At the time, it was a kind of bamboo beer. Later on, when it’s finished and after they distill it, it will become export quality product. Anybody ever tasted anything like this?
Ah, Ecuadorian alcohol. They have an amazing array of moonshine flavours (alarmingly, bubble gum falvour was one), and we were offered a cleansing shot after every meal. Of course, if the restaurant had more than one flvaour, it would be rude not to try them all… they were mostly actually okay. Like drinking flavoured metho, mmm.
The burning punta was a danger, too. You drink it through a straw while it’s on fire, and this is the drink that’s also called “Cucuracha” – as in the song: “The cockroach, the cockroach/can’t walk anymore/because it doesn’t have, because it’s lacking/its two back feet.” Yes, you get so drunk you’re like a cockroach that’s lost its back feet. I only had one though, so I was still capable of walking. I blame the beer and cocktails I also had that night for the hangover 😉
Vodka in Ukraine. Yep, it is not a party without a bottle of the good stuff. My liver hated me when I lived there for 5 months, but it did help to keep me warm in the winter 😉
I love the way you sound so passionate about what you are writing. Keep up the great work!
If you ask to any Petersburger a question on what most beautiful area in a city, he, without reflecting, will give up as a bad job towards the Hermitage. Before the Hermitage Palace Square – truly a pearl of Northern Venice opens.
Certainly. So happens.