WANDERLUST & WONTONS
Follow your favorite multicultural couple, Andrew and Sabrina, on their real-life adventures wherever they happen to be! Imagine, you are at party and have just met us for the first time. We are having a chat…a banter of whatever comes to mind that is sexy & cool, hilarious, controversial or just plain entertaining! “Wanderlust and Wontons” serves up spontaneous laughter, friendship & love and curious insights guaranteed to perk up your day!
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WANDERLUST & WONTONS
Our Machu Picchu Adventure With Little Keane
Can parenthood and wanderlust harmonize when embarking on a dream journey to Machu Picchu? Join us, Andrew and Sabrina, as we recount how our newfound life as parents didn't deter our adventurous spirits, but instead added a fresh layer of joy and wonder to our travels. With our little explorer, Keane, in tow, we ventured through the historical streets of Cusco and felt the pulse of its vibrant culture, guided by friends in Lima who helped craft an itinerary that highlighted Peru's undeniable charm. From the cobblestones of Cusco to the culinary masterpieces of Lima, we rediscovered the magic of exploring through the eyes of a child and the warmth of the Peruvian people who welcomed us with open arms.
Our journey didn't stop there. Imagine the thrill of the Hiram Bingham train whisking us through breathtaking Andean landscapes to the mystical ruins of Machu Picchu. We shared these moments with Keane, watching his eyes fill with awe as ancient history unfolded before us. In Lima, the blossoming culinary scene offered a feast for the senses, highlighted by an unforgettable 14-course degustation menu that celebrated Peru's natural wonders. This episode is not just a celebration of travel, but a testament to the memories and bonds it forges. As we reflect on these cherished experiences, we invite you to stay tuned for more stories from the road as our family adventure continues.
Welcome to Wanderlust and Wontons, the real-life adventures of Andrew and Sabrina.
Speaker 2:Imagine you're at a party and you've just met us for the first time and we're having a chat, a banter or whatever comes to mind. That is cool and interesting.
Speaker 1:We've both lived in many countries for good lengths of time. I'm Asian and overall I've lived a third of my life in North America, a third in Europe, a third in Asia-Australia. I've enjoyed my boarding school years in Dublin, ireland. I enjoyed my single and party life in New York City and there isn't a more amazing city beach than Bondi Beach. Australia. And of course, we love Hong Kong and dim sum.
Speaker 2:I was born and raised in Munich, germany, till the age of 21, when I decided it was time to explore the world, and have since been on a crazy adventure all over the world, from South America to New York and Asia.
Speaker 1:You will learn more about us over many podcast episodes, but for now, come along and let's dive straight in while we were living in new york and just had one child, kian, who was probably one and a half all the time, and we thought we would do continue to do some adventure travel. So even with kian, just one child, I think our lives didn't really change that much, probably because Kian was such a great kid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think Kian was a dream first child. I think that's probably how nature coaxes you into having more kids.
Speaker 1:That's right. He slept through the night after the first month. He drank well, he would just bring him along.
Speaker 2:He would be just happy being by our side. It was easy to hop on a plane with him. He would sleep upon takeoff.
Speaker 1:Be in a restaurant. You'd pop him in a stroller and the louder the restaurant was, the white noise was, he would just fall asleep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was a good travel companion.
Speaker 1:So we figured let's continue with our adventure travel, and while we were in New York we wanted to visit more of South America, because it's a lot closer from New York than when we were in Hong Kong we had been to Brazil for our honeymoon for a month and we loved it. I had traveled through Argentina and Chile after my business school for two months and I loved it as well, so we thought we would go and see Machu Picchu. Yay.
Speaker 2:In Peru. Yeah, why not right?
Speaker 1:Exactly One of my business school friends. Actually, they met in business school. A Belgian from Venezuela married an Italian from Venezuela. They used to live in Venezuela. I went to their wedding there, which was awesome, and then they moved to Peru. They were living in Lima. We reached out to them and they helped us craft our itinerary over the two to three week period and we stayed with them when we first landed in Lima and they had three kids and we just had a great time with them for sure yeah and then off we went on our adventure together, me Sabrina and little baby Kian.
Speaker 1:We flew out to Cusco, which is the spot you would fly into if you go to visit Machu Picchu, and what were your impressions of Cusco?
Speaker 2:yeah, I love the quaint little town. I mean we're like just stro, strolling over the cobblestone line streets and ventured into this chocolate museum with absolutely delicious hot chocolate, which I still remember.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the great little cafes, great food. We actually stayed very close to the main plaza, plaza de Zaramas, and there was a good sight around there. But I tell you, the kind of first impressions for me of Cusco was wow, really, really authentic, ancient city in the Andes Mountains, a great first introduction to the whole region of Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was so impressed by the locals as well. They're so polite and friendly.
Speaker 1:We also saw the kids going in and out of school. You see the daily ondoings of the city. It was right in front of our eyes, which was really fun actually, yeah, really great. We truly enjoyed our time in Costco. We went to the artist area as well Gossan Blas, you know where we saw galleries and we took photos of little colleges and people with their pets and it was just a nice, fun experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah fun and experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely yeah. From there we went to Olantay Tambor, in the sacred valley, which is really lush and green, yeah, and we stayed at this lovely resort where there were llamas and the kian befriended a local girl, you know around his age. It was so cute to see him play with her and play with her guinea pigs actually yeah, which probably ended up being dinner for the night that's right, and guinea pigs were probably the only pets you had growing up and these are much bigger.
Speaker 2:They're pretty big guinea pigs actually, like guinea pigs, can can be quite big. Oh, can they.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, okay and, um yeah, deep kin was playing it with a little girl he didn't realize probably was on the menu that night. From there we drove to the train station, so we took what I probably remember as the cutest train ride, and it was a train called the Hiram Bingham. It's run by a company called Belmond you can check out their website, belmondcom and it's an old-style train, beautifully redecorated and renovated interiors, and it sneaks around the mountain to Machu Picchu.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it reminded me very much of Switzerland.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you know Switzerland, you would have your modern trains with your floor-to-ceiling windows and you're out looking at the Alps, right. And then, if I was in Canada, we took these trains across the Rockies, where you had the same floor-to-ceiling windows and you could see the Rockies as well. So similar concept, except this is kind of an older, renovated train and sets you back in time.
Speaker 2:More like an Orient Express.
Speaker 1:That's right, but great. You could have coffee and teas and you know cookies, and then there was a band that played for you, and it's not a long journey. So with a young child like Kian, you went there for hours and hours. It's a really nice experience to take you to Machu Picchu. And then the next day we went to Machu Picchu and did the little trek. What were your first impressions, Sabrina?
Speaker 2:I mean, I love being in these ancient ruins and just envisioning how people used to live and had their everyday lives there. That's what I like to think about, and it was very educational as well, and just the setting is like amazing, right, you're surrounded by these fountains and it's a bit like mysterious as well. There's fog around you and, yeah, it's just a really unique experience. Yeah, no same.
Speaker 1:For me, it's always amazing the ones in south america and central america how much ruins are actually pretty high altitude, like how did they get the materials up there? Why did they build there? And thankfully we had a pretty nice day and the sun came up as well, so we got some awesome photos and, you know, that's just a really mystical experience for you and I to have in our memories, you know, with our two-year-old toddling around these ancient ruins that have been there for thousands of years. So if you're thinking of doing some adventure travel, you should definitely consider Machu Picchu. Don't worry if you have young kids. You know we had. Kian was only two and I think he thoroughly enjoyed it as well, although we carried him a good amount. And I would say for me and Sabrina, we love our travel. It's a big thing for us. We probably care less about material things. Material things, whether it be handbags and shoes for women or designer clothes.
Speaker 1:Over time we've learned to realize that experiences like travel it's really more important to us so after Machu Pic, we flew back to Lima and we stayed with our friends and they were totally awesome because they looked after for Kian that one night, which allowed us, me and Sabrina, to go out for a fantastic dinner in Lima and, if you remember, the thriving culinary scene of Lima and Peru was just forming at that time and today we have a lot of restaurants from Peru and Lima that have been in the top 10 of the world's best restaurants. When we were there, that food scene was just blossoming. We had a really great time at a restaurant where the degustacion menu took.
Speaker 2:I don't know. 14 courses. Yeah, amazing Three hours. Right, we stayed there, I think.
Speaker 1:And they had different themes. All the themes.
Speaker 2:It was all around the earth. I think it was ocean, it was soil, it was water, it was air.
Speaker 1:In fact, there was one that looked like a bird's nest, where the branches were made of chocolate and the little bird's eggs were again made of something else. It was just really, really a great experience.
Speaker 2:I think, in general, the peruvian cuisine is something I had never encountered before, like just the concept of having this raw seafood and and you just cook it in in citrus, in citrus juice, basically right yeah, because before that had you had ceviche never no I don't know whether I had.
Speaker 1:Oh, clearly we had a lot of sushi. I mean, clearly we had japanese food like a lot, a lot of raw I've had ceviche until we went to lima right, which is again a nice twist on it, there's a a big japanese um influence influence in peruvian cuisine and the fusion of it, and the influence has been grateful.
Speaker 1:If you do go to peru, you have the great culinary experience that you could have in Lima Fantastic restaurants it's actually a really fun city and obviously Machu Picchu, which is an amazing, authentic sort of mystical adventure into the Asian ruins. So if you love this story, this episode, please join us for more. We will have a lot more snippets of our holidays and our adventures either ourselves, me and Sabrina, or even after we've had children is one of the things we enjoy most. Stay tuned and we'll see you again soon.
Speaker 2:Auf Wiedersehen you.