Friday, June 11, 2010
A Trip to Tesco
The trip to Tesco last night was too much fun not to share. So, come with me on a photo journey of a Thai Wal-Mart!
First off, the item that caused me to finally whip out my camera:
A completely different set of advertising priorities at work!
Next, a trip down the snack aisle. I always enjoy seeing what different chip flavors there are in other countries...
...but these sound really strange! Fruity Pringles?!
Gum flavors can sound strange, too:
Now this aisle's contents might seem strange:
But it's just referring to these:
which you can buy to donate to a monk in exchange for blessings.
You can also pick up some incense in bulk, since you're going to the wat anyway:
Nearby, in the beauty aisle, you'll notice that the main adjectival promise on all of the products is "Whitening"
But they do have some favorites from my childhood:
Jellies!
On to produce!
You've got your lychees and rambutans
Whatever this fruit is...
(Rachel? Miranda? Do you know?)
And Mangosteens!
Which are also available in juice form:
There's some pre-packaged meals for your convenience,
but I'm not sure what those contents are.
More types of soy sauce than we have types of ketchup in America:
Peanut Butter, for those with Western tastes:
And more Pocky flavors than I've ever seen!
Want something sweet for a treat?
Or maybe something savory from this aisle:
That's where I found out what they do with the parts my parakeets didn't eat:
After seeing all of this, you may be surprised to hear that I didn't purchase any of those things. I did, however, buy one of these:
so I can try Thai cooking at home using a tool I got in Thailand.
I'll be going back to Tesco next Thursday, though, so if you want any of the things you see up above, place your orders now!
First off, the item that caused me to finally whip out my camera:
A completely different set of advertising priorities at work!
Next, a trip down the snack aisle. I always enjoy seeing what different chip flavors there are in other countries...
...but these sound really strange! Fruity Pringles?!
Gum flavors can sound strange, too:
Now this aisle's contents might seem strange:
But it's just referring to these:
which you can buy to donate to a monk in exchange for blessings.
You can also pick up some incense in bulk, since you're going to the wat anyway:
Nearby, in the beauty aisle, you'll notice that the main adjectival promise on all of the products is "Whitening"
But they do have some favorites from my childhood:
Jellies!
On to produce!
You've got your lychees and rambutans
Whatever this fruit is...
(Rachel? Miranda? Do you know?)
And Mangosteens!
Which are also available in juice form:
There's some pre-packaged meals for your convenience,
but I'm not sure what those contents are.
More types of soy sauce than we have types of ketchup in America:
Peanut Butter, for those with Western tastes:
And more Pocky flavors than I've ever seen!
Want something sweet for a treat?
Or maybe something savory from this aisle:
That's where I found out what they do with the parts my parakeets didn't eat:
After seeing all of this, you may be surprised to hear that I didn't purchase any of those things. I did, however, buy one of these:
so I can try Thai cooking at home using a tool I got in Thailand.
I'll be going back to Tesco next Thursday, though, so if you want any of the things you see up above, place your orders now!
In Which I Get Slapped By a Monkey and My Umbrella Saves the Day
We went to Lop Buri today. Here's the run-down:
1. We went to another temple, but this one was probably my favorite yet. It's very famous because it was built around two footprints made by Buddha (supposedly). They also have a snake (Naga) staircase with three sections - one for happiness, one for love, and one for wealth. To get that objective, you have to walk all the way up while holding your breath. We also rang bells there.
2. We had lunch at a restaurant where they sit you on the floor around a table in a pavilion. They served us chicken sandwiches, potato chips, and Vietnamese-style spring rolls (which apparently means they come with a plate full of herbs like mint, sweet basil, and parsley. You pluck off the leaves and eat them in between bites of the spring rolls).
3. We went to a palace built for one of the Ayutthaya king's summer home. It was built when Thailand started trading with France, so it had European influences in the architecture.
(A side note about the sites: they're mostly these old-looking, tumbled-down brick structures. They remind me a lot of the look of Ephesus - not marble, but about the same level of ruin-ness. What I have to keep reminding myself, though, is that the Thai ruins are about 400-200 years old. Which makes them a lot less impressive than the ones in Greece and Turkey.)
There was also a museum next to the palace ruins that held artifacts and explanatory placards. The placards were in English, which really helped me figure out a lot of what J.J. has been trying to explain to us. In the upstairs part they had a bunch of personal items of King Mongkut - his bed, a few photographs and statues, some of his room's decorations, etc. One of the placards there mentioned how much he championed education. He even hired an English governess, Mrs. Anna Lenowens, to teach his kids. "It's the King and I!" I exclaimed. None of the Dutch knew what I was talking about. I looked around to find Jenna, just so I could tell someone who would know. "This stuff - it's the king from The King and I!" J.J. overheard and I tried to explain about that. She was very impressed that there are three American movies about Mrs. Anna and King Mongtut, but she had never heard of that before. And so, once again I encounter a musical theater reference that no one around me cared about. But I was excited.
He does not look at all like Yul Brenner, by the way.
4. We went to the monkey temple!
The monkeys are all over a shrine and a set of ruins in the middle of a busy intersection in the main city in Lop Buri. We bought vegetables from a vendor and, with our hired bodyguard (who was armed with a slingshot that the monkeys were terrified of), we offered the food to the monkeys. They would take it directly from our hands, sometimes hopping on our legs to try to get more. I was feeding one, but when I didn't hand the chunk of cucumber over fast enough, the little monkey slapped my hand and screeched at me! Later, another one snuck up behind me and pulled on my skirt to try to get some more food.
They are indeed cheeky monkeys!
Speaking of which, let me tell you about my other wildlife adventures in the last 24 hours:
A. I was walking along the path to the canteen for breakfast this morning, when a bird startled and flew very quickly out of the flower bush next to me. I turned to see, and there was a long green-and-white striped snake slithering around the branches at shoulder level, flickering its tongue out in my direction.
B. While showering last night, I found two geckos, a one-foot-long lizard, a frog, and several dozen ants in the bathroom. They all watched me get undressed. I was not at all phased by this, which I think is a sign of my adapting.
C. I'm also getting used to brushing little turds off my bed.
D. There is a species of bird here that calls "Pew, pew!"
E. I have been using my travel umbrella as a sun parasol. It found a new function today when, as I was walking to the bathroom at the palace, I passed under a tree and heard a sudden "Thunk!" and then a louder "THUNK!" I looked down and there, right at my feet, was a big green snake. It had fallen (jumped?) right onto my umbrella! Inge and Sabrina, two of the Dutch, were just ahead of me, and they turned back when they heard me shriek. "Slang! Slang!" they cried, pointing at the snake as it slithered very quickly off into the bushes.
Thank you, Mom, for suggesting I bring the umbrella! It is keeping both the sun and the reptiles off of my head, and for that I am truly grateful.
P.S. Tomorrow we're going here and also to the river Kwai. I hear there's a bridge there? :)
1. We went to another temple, but this one was probably my favorite yet. It's very famous because it was built around two footprints made by Buddha (supposedly). They also have a snake (Naga) staircase with three sections - one for happiness, one for love, and one for wealth. To get that objective, you have to walk all the way up while holding your breath. We also rang bells there.
2. We had lunch at a restaurant where they sit you on the floor around a table in a pavilion. They served us chicken sandwiches, potato chips, and Vietnamese-style spring rolls (which apparently means they come with a plate full of herbs like mint, sweet basil, and parsley. You pluck off the leaves and eat them in between bites of the spring rolls).
3. We went to a palace built for one of the Ayutthaya king's summer home. It was built when Thailand started trading with France, so it had European influences in the architecture.
(A side note about the sites: they're mostly these old-looking, tumbled-down brick structures. They remind me a lot of the look of Ephesus - not marble, but about the same level of ruin-ness. What I have to keep reminding myself, though, is that the Thai ruins are about 400-200 years old. Which makes them a lot less impressive than the ones in Greece and Turkey.)
There was also a museum next to the palace ruins that held artifacts and explanatory placards. The placards were in English, which really helped me figure out a lot of what J.J. has been trying to explain to us. In the upstairs part they had a bunch of personal items of King Mongkut - his bed, a few photographs and statues, some of his room's decorations, etc. One of the placards there mentioned how much he championed education. He even hired an English governess, Mrs. Anna Lenowens, to teach his kids. "It's the King and I!" I exclaimed. None of the Dutch knew what I was talking about. I looked around to find Jenna, just so I could tell someone who would know. "This stuff - it's the king from The King and I!" J.J. overheard and I tried to explain about that. She was very impressed that there are three American movies about Mrs. Anna and King Mongtut, but she had never heard of that before. And so, once again I encounter a musical theater reference that no one around me cared about. But I was excited.
He does not look at all like Yul Brenner, by the way.
4. We went to the monkey temple!
The monkeys are all over a shrine and a set of ruins in the middle of a busy intersection in the main city in Lop Buri. We bought vegetables from a vendor and, with our hired bodyguard (who was armed with a slingshot that the monkeys were terrified of), we offered the food to the monkeys. They would take it directly from our hands, sometimes hopping on our legs to try to get more. I was feeding one, but when I didn't hand the chunk of cucumber over fast enough, the little monkey slapped my hand and screeched at me! Later, another one snuck up behind me and pulled on my skirt to try to get some more food.
They are indeed cheeky monkeys!
Speaking of which, let me tell you about my other wildlife adventures in the last 24 hours:
A. I was walking along the path to the canteen for breakfast this morning, when a bird startled and flew very quickly out of the flower bush next to me. I turned to see, and there was a long green-and-white striped snake slithering around the branches at shoulder level, flickering its tongue out in my direction.
B. While showering last night, I found two geckos, a one-foot-long lizard, a frog, and several dozen ants in the bathroom. They all watched me get undressed. I was not at all phased by this, which I think is a sign of my adapting.
C. I'm also getting used to brushing little turds off my bed.
D. There is a species of bird here that calls "Pew, pew!"
E. I have been using my travel umbrella as a sun parasol. It found a new function today when, as I was walking to the bathroom at the palace, I passed under a tree and heard a sudden "Thunk!" and then a louder "THUNK!" I looked down and there, right at my feet, was a big green snake. It had fallen (jumped?) right onto my umbrella! Inge and Sabrina, two of the Dutch, were just ahead of me, and they turned back when they heard me shriek. "Slang! Slang!" they cried, pointing at the snake as it slithered very quickly off into the bushes.
Thank you, Mom, for suggesting I bring the umbrella! It is keeping both the sun and the reptiles off of my head, and for that I am truly grateful.
P.S. Tomorrow we're going here and also to the river Kwai. I hear there's a bridge there? :)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
A Better Day
I think I needed to get some of my travel woes off my chest yesterday, because today's much better!
After breakfast, we drove to one of the local "government" (i.e. public) schools in Sing Buri. J.J. showed us around, and we got to observe some of the primary classes (ages 3-6). We watched them learning their letters, playing at recess, listening to the teacher read, and I spent some quality time making animals out of clay with a couple of 4-year-old girls. I took a ton of pictures and some video, which will do a much better job of showing you what it's like. When they went to lunch, we met the principal, who was excited that we had decided to come to Thailand to visit ("Why you didn't come to Thailand before now?").
I loved seeing how similar things are to American schools, how very much the same kids are everywhere, and yet how small things are different - everyone takes off their shoes and line them up outside the door of the room, the kids and the teachers all wear uniforms (dress shirts and skirts/shorts for the kids, black pants and colored button-up shirts for the teachers. The teachers even have certain colors to wear each day - Thursday is orange, apparently!), each student has a tin cup that they use to get drinks from the water jug outside the room, and so on. At one point, some of the boys in the 4-5-year-old class were getting too rowdy and misbehaved. Things suddenly got very quiet, and I looked up from the clay dog I was making with a little girl named "Ew" to see the boys sitting with their eyes closed (well, mostly. One kept stealing furtive glances around), breathing deeply under the teacher's coaching. J.J. explained that they had been naughty so the teacher was making them meditate. Very interesting!
We bade farewell to the kids and got back on the truck to go back to the canteen for cooking lessons.
We made green papaya salad, fried noodles with Chinese broccoli, and bananas in coconut milk. I took a ton of pictures and, to the delight of all of my foodie friends, I'm sure, we also got copies of those recipes and others besides. I will be both cooking and sharing when I get back, I promise!
I asked J.J. if I could learn some other recipes while I was here. She asked the cook/housekeeper at the EcoHouse, who was hovering over our entire lesson, tasting and adjusting and making sure we put in the right ingredients at the right time. They said that I could help her make dinner anytime to learn more Thai cooking. Excellent!
After the long lunch, we continued our language lessons. I have now memorized 1-10 and a smattering of other words. Oddly, I find that Russian keeps coming back to me here - I kept wanting to ask the children "Shto eta?" since I don't know Thai for "What is this?" It's strange how my foreign language instincts manifest themselves.
Dinner should be starting soon, and then the big excitement of the evening is a free taxi ride to Tesco tonight. (Tesco's a big supermarket/Target-type place. It's British, right? That's where I've heard of it before?) Woot!
As I said, things just seemed easier today. I hope it'll stick.
I was mistaken on the schedule before - we go to Lop Buri tomorrow to visit, as J.J. called it, the monkey temple. That has the same kind of thrill as the phrase "elephant village," doesn't it? Just to add to the excitement, J.J. also mentioned that we would have a bodyguard tomorrow. I wondered if Lop Buri province was one of the dangerous ones from the uprising a few weeks ago. Turns out, it's because the monkeys are, as J.J. put it, "very naughty."
Should be interesting!
After breakfast, we drove to one of the local "government" (i.e. public) schools in Sing Buri. J.J. showed us around, and we got to observe some of the primary classes (ages 3-6). We watched them learning their letters, playing at recess, listening to the teacher read, and I spent some quality time making animals out of clay with a couple of 4-year-old girls. I took a ton of pictures and some video, which will do a much better job of showing you what it's like. When they went to lunch, we met the principal, who was excited that we had decided to come to Thailand to visit ("Why you didn't come to Thailand before now?").
I loved seeing how similar things are to American schools, how very much the same kids are everywhere, and yet how small things are different - everyone takes off their shoes and line them up outside the door of the room, the kids and the teachers all wear uniforms (dress shirts and skirts/shorts for the kids, black pants and colored button-up shirts for the teachers. The teachers even have certain colors to wear each day - Thursday is orange, apparently!), each student has a tin cup that they use to get drinks from the water jug outside the room, and so on. At one point, some of the boys in the 4-5-year-old class were getting too rowdy and misbehaved. Things suddenly got very quiet, and I looked up from the clay dog I was making with a little girl named "Ew" to see the boys sitting with their eyes closed (well, mostly. One kept stealing furtive glances around), breathing deeply under the teacher's coaching. J.J. explained that they had been naughty so the teacher was making them meditate. Very interesting!
We bade farewell to the kids and got back on the truck to go back to the canteen for cooking lessons.
We made green papaya salad, fried noodles with Chinese broccoli, and bananas in coconut milk. I took a ton of pictures and, to the delight of all of my foodie friends, I'm sure, we also got copies of those recipes and others besides. I will be both cooking and sharing when I get back, I promise!
I asked J.J. if I could learn some other recipes while I was here. She asked the cook/housekeeper at the EcoHouse, who was hovering over our entire lesson, tasting and adjusting and making sure we put in the right ingredients at the right time. They said that I could help her make dinner anytime to learn more Thai cooking. Excellent!
After the long lunch, we continued our language lessons. I have now memorized 1-10 and a smattering of other words. Oddly, I find that Russian keeps coming back to me here - I kept wanting to ask the children "Shto eta?" since I don't know Thai for "What is this?" It's strange how my foreign language instincts manifest themselves.
Dinner should be starting soon, and then the big excitement of the evening is a free taxi ride to Tesco tonight. (Tesco's a big supermarket/Target-type place. It's British, right? That's where I've heard of it before?) Woot!
As I said, things just seemed easier today. I hope it'll stick.
I was mistaken on the schedule before - we go to Lop Buri tomorrow to visit, as J.J. called it, the monkey temple. That has the same kind of thrill as the phrase "elephant village," doesn't it? Just to add to the excitement, J.J. also mentioned that we would have a bodyguard tomorrow. I wondered if Lop Buri province was one of the dangerous ones from the uprising a few weeks ago. Turns out, it's because the monkeys are, as J.J. put it, "very naughty."
Should be interesting!
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Singburi Town
This morning we began with Thai lessons. Oh, it was strange! There are some sounds I just can't seem to get my mouth to make, and some that I just can't hear the difference between. Even J.J. pointed out the difficulty between, for instance, these words (which I'll write here with the phonetic spelling she gave):
"khai" - We
"khai" - sell
"khai" - eggs
"gai" - chicken
Oy!
The lesson was really a barrage of new words and phrases - we wrote down our best phonetic recreations of some fifty words. It was way too many at once to retain, but I've gotten down "Hello" and "Thank you," although that one took a few tries. When we were leaving a museum in the afternoon, I turned back and told the ladies "Korp kan kaa!" They just blinked back at me. I turned to J.J., "Right?"
She shook her head - "Khop kuhn kaa."
Whoops. (It reminded me of the time I tried to thank somebody in a store outside of Ephesus, and I substituted the middle three syllables of the phrase with the name of the city by mistake. The poor baffled clerk had no idea what I was trying to say, and Jason just stood next to me, smothering a laugh. Still, I have learned that sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet in a new language and expect that you will get it totally wrong.)
I hope to conquer "Excuse me" and the numbers 1-10 next.
After lunch at the EcoHouse, we headed out to the sights of Sing Buri town. We saw the monument to war heroes and a temple of a reclining Buddha before heading to the main street in town. There's a large department store there with a beauty parlor, food court, a KFC, clothing, shoes, housewares, a grocery store, a Dairy Queen, and air conditioning. Hurrah!
Leonie (the German girl), Jenna, and I walked out to the main street again and wandered through the market first. There were stalls of clothes, toys, shoes, and all kinds of foods - fish filleted in a variety of ways, sweet-smelling egg-battery pancake=like things, fried snacks galore, and all kinds of vegetables.
We then went back to the department store. I bought a towel there because I decided that if I was going to be showering two times a day, I didn't want to struggle drying off with my microfiber traveler's towel anymore. The prices there were outrageous by Thai standards - the towel was on sale for $9! (Totally worth it, though.)
I then pulled them into the grocery store part of the store, explaining that I enjoy wandering through foreign groceries. It was fascinating, and I'll have to make another trip before I leave for some goodies to share back home. They had canned rambutan and leechees! Pringles that were "lemon and sesame" flavored! An entire aisle of soy sauce!
I did buy a bucket of dried prunes, though, in my attempts to stay healthy. That should help, right? The tricky part will be keeping the ants from discovering it, though.
Following that excitement, I declared it to be ice cream time. We each got a treat at the Dairy Queen booth there (I had a dipped cone) and sat in the food court for a while people watching. I tried to figure out how the food court worked - it seemed that you went up to a booth first and bought "coupons", which you then exchanged for food at whichever booth you chose. I might have to give it a whirl if I'm there on a weekend.
Jenna kept mentioning how strange it felt to be stared at. Sure, we were the only white people there and I'm sure they don't get a lot of tourists out here, but I think her outfit was attracting a lot more attention than our race. My constant shock and embarrassment on their behalf at the immodesty of the clothes of Jenna and the Dutch girls most be certain signs of my dottering old age.
I'm back in the canteen area now, enjoying a breeze from a fan aimed directly at me.
I am varying in my feelings about this whole trip quite a lot each day. It feels like I've been here forever, so to think that I am only 1/10 of the way through is daunting. I'm really glad I've got the time divided up - it's much more manageable to think of it in terms of one week of orientation, one week at the orphanage, and then the three weeks of whatever it will be like at the wat but I'll think about that when I have to.
As you may have noticed (from my constant complaining :) ) the heat is getting to me. I focus on the things I look forward to for relief - the open-truck rides to and from places, night times in the canteen in front of the fan, cold showers, etc. I stick to my travel rule, too, of being allowed to buy as much water as I want whenever I want (enacted after the great dehydration incident in Scotland), which means I can treat myself to cold water whenever I come across it, even if I have a half-full bottle of tepid water in my bag. The bugs are certainly biting, but sweat actually keeps the bites from itching as much as usual. The constant smell of incense is annoying.
Still, there are also moments where I am very, very glad to be here. I chalk my low swings to that foreign-disorientation that can happen. I long for familiar travel - Pueblo Ingles, for example. Spain certainly isn't strange anymore. Things are just so very different here that it's hard for me to feel comfortable.
I lost a point of focus with those last few paragraphs. I guess the essence of what I'm rambling on about is that I'm not altogether comfortable here, at times I wish I had only booked a one-or-two week tour, but I think I'm slowly adapting and will be fine. Hot, but fine.
Thanks for putting up with my complaints, though!
"khai" - We
"khai" - sell
"khai" - eggs
"gai" - chicken
Oy!
The lesson was really a barrage of new words and phrases - we wrote down our best phonetic recreations of some fifty words. It was way too many at once to retain, but I've gotten down "Hello" and "Thank you," although that one took a few tries. When we were leaving a museum in the afternoon, I turned back and told the ladies "Korp kan kaa!" They just blinked back at me. I turned to J.J., "Right?"
She shook her head - "Khop kuhn kaa."
Whoops. (It reminded me of the time I tried to thank somebody in a store outside of Ephesus, and I substituted the middle three syllables of the phrase with the name of the city by mistake. The poor baffled clerk had no idea what I was trying to say, and Jason just stood next to me, smothering a laugh. Still, I have learned that sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet in a new language and expect that you will get it totally wrong.)
I hope to conquer "Excuse me" and the numbers 1-10 next.
After lunch at the EcoHouse, we headed out to the sights of Sing Buri town. We saw the monument to war heroes and a temple of a reclining Buddha before heading to the main street in town. There's a large department store there with a beauty parlor, food court, a KFC, clothing, shoes, housewares, a grocery store, a Dairy Queen, and air conditioning. Hurrah!
Leonie (the German girl), Jenna, and I walked out to the main street again and wandered through the market first. There were stalls of clothes, toys, shoes, and all kinds of foods - fish filleted in a variety of ways, sweet-smelling egg-battery pancake=like things, fried snacks galore, and all kinds of vegetables.
We then went back to the department store. I bought a towel there because I decided that if I was going to be showering two times a day, I didn't want to struggle drying off with my microfiber traveler's towel anymore. The prices there were outrageous by Thai standards - the towel was on sale for $9! (Totally worth it, though.)
I then pulled them into the grocery store part of the store, explaining that I enjoy wandering through foreign groceries. It was fascinating, and I'll have to make another trip before I leave for some goodies to share back home. They had canned rambutan and leechees! Pringles that were "lemon and sesame" flavored! An entire aisle of soy sauce!
I did buy a bucket of dried prunes, though, in my attempts to stay healthy. That should help, right? The tricky part will be keeping the ants from discovering it, though.
Following that excitement, I declared it to be ice cream time. We each got a treat at the Dairy Queen booth there (I had a dipped cone) and sat in the food court for a while people watching. I tried to figure out how the food court worked - it seemed that you went up to a booth first and bought "coupons", which you then exchanged for food at whichever booth you chose. I might have to give it a whirl if I'm there on a weekend.
Jenna kept mentioning how strange it felt to be stared at. Sure, we were the only white people there and I'm sure they don't get a lot of tourists out here, but I think her outfit was attracting a lot more attention than our race. My constant shock and embarrassment on their behalf at the immodesty of the clothes of Jenna and the Dutch girls most be certain signs of my dottering old age.
I'm back in the canteen area now, enjoying a breeze from a fan aimed directly at me.
I am varying in my feelings about this whole trip quite a lot each day. It feels like I've been here forever, so to think that I am only 1/10 of the way through is daunting. I'm really glad I've got the time divided up - it's much more manageable to think of it in terms of one week of orientation, one week at the orphanage, and then the three weeks of whatever it will be like at the wat but I'll think about that when I have to.
As you may have noticed (from my constant complaining :) ) the heat is getting to me. I focus on the things I look forward to for relief - the open-truck rides to and from places, night times in the canteen in front of the fan, cold showers, etc. I stick to my travel rule, too, of being allowed to buy as much water as I want whenever I want (enacted after the great dehydration incident in Scotland), which means I can treat myself to cold water whenever I come across it, even if I have a half-full bottle of tepid water in my bag. The bugs are certainly biting, but sweat actually keeps the bites from itching as much as usual. The constant smell of incense is annoying.
Still, there are also moments where I am very, very glad to be here. I chalk my low swings to that foreign-disorientation that can happen. I long for familiar travel - Pueblo Ingles, for example. Spain certainly isn't strange anymore. Things are just so very different here that it's hard for me to feel comfortable.
I lost a point of focus with those last few paragraphs. I guess the essence of what I'm rambling on about is that I'm not altogether comfortable here, at times I wish I had only booked a one-or-two week tour, but I think I'm slowly adapting and will be fine. Hot, but fine.
Thanks for putting up with my complaints, though!
The Food
In general, the food has been tasty, but less healthy than I expected. The meat is almost all fried, as are the rice and noodles.
Breakfast the last two days has been sandwiches made from white bread, eggs (hard boiled or fried), tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, carrots, and mayonnaise.
I finally had pad thai yesterday, and it was indeed tasty. There's also been a lot of rice, as you'd expect, stewed vegetables (cabbage, "morning glory" ((some spinach relative?)), onions, etc.), and food of Chinese origins - sweet and sour chicken or cashew chicken, for example.
There's been pineapple at every meal and usually watermelon as well.
I predict that
Pineapple/Rice:my trip to Thailand :: Potatoes:my trip to Russia :: Lamb/Pistachios: my trip to Turkey
This afternoon we capped off our trip to Singburi town with dinner at a Thai BBQ restaurant. Which, as J.J. explained, they stole from the Koreans. There were metal plates on the table with two metal bricks in them. A cement cauldron filled with burning coals is placed on top of that, and then a metal pan with a dome raised in the middle.
We ladled chicken broth into the well around the dome and filled that with a variety of vegetables (cabbage, mushrooms, bean sprouts, morning glory, and seaweed). Then we took a piece of pork fat and rubbed the dome with it before putting raw chicken strips that were coated with egg on the dome to cook.
We also had fried rice, tempura vegetables, and some sort of savory chip you dip in sweet chili sauce.
There's been no sign of dairy products at all, which makes me wonder where they get calcium from. Rachel? Dad? Do you know what veggies supply it?
Breakfast the last two days has been sandwiches made from white bread, eggs (hard boiled or fried), tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, carrots, and mayonnaise.
I finally had pad thai yesterday, and it was indeed tasty. There's also been a lot of rice, as you'd expect, stewed vegetables (cabbage, "morning glory" ((some spinach relative?)), onions, etc.), and food of Chinese origins - sweet and sour chicken or cashew chicken, for example.
There's been pineapple at every meal and usually watermelon as well.
I predict that
Pineapple/Rice:my trip to Thailand :: Potatoes:my trip to Russia :: Lamb/Pistachios: my trip to Turkey
This afternoon we capped off our trip to Singburi town with dinner at a Thai BBQ restaurant. Which, as J.J. explained, they stole from the Koreans. There were metal plates on the table with two metal bricks in them. A cement cauldron filled with burning coals is placed on top of that, and then a metal pan with a dome raised in the middle.
We ladled chicken broth into the well around the dome and filled that with a variety of vegetables (cabbage, mushrooms, bean sprouts, morning glory, and seaweed). Then we took a piece of pork fat and rubbed the dome with it before putting raw chicken strips that were coated with egg on the dome to cook.
We also had fried rice, tempura vegetables, and some sort of savory chip you dip in sweet chili sauce.
There's been no sign of dairy products at all, which makes me wonder where they get calcium from. Rachel? Dad? Do you know what veggies supply it?
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Ayutthaya, and I Cross Another Life-Goal Off My List
Orientation week got into full swing yesterday with a day trip to the old capital, Ayutthaya.
I, of course, was very much into the history of the different wats, the architecture influences of Cambodia, the way the different monuments illustrate the Thai's ongoing conflicts with the Burmese, the differences in tourists and tourist establishments in Thailand verses Europe/America.
That, or I spent the whole time thinking about the elephants we were going to go see.
And see them we did! After three wats (Wat-syndrome, the Eastern counterpart to Cathedral-syndrome in Europe, struck quickly), a monument, and some other ruins, we finally went to Elephant Town.
(Now, before you get depressed about them being chained up and decked out with seats and tassels, hold that thought. It gets better.)
We paid the 500 baht fee and took a 30-minute ride on the elephants. My camera, of course, died while doing so. Fortunately, Jenna's kept working, and she's promised to share.
The ride was... lurchy. I can't imagine riding like that for thousands of miles.
After disembarking and the requisite visit to the souvenir shop, we walked through a recreation of a an old Thai house, visited three more wats, and then went to the Elephant Village at sunset.
That was much more like it. The elephants are taken here at night, and they have tons of free space to wander in and many volunteers and Thai workers to care for them. There were three baby elephants nuzzling against their moms who were getting drinks and soaking themselves with a garden hose. So cute! We also followed a train of them down to the river where they went for a swim with their herders. After their swim, the rider of the bull elephant showed off a little, having him rear up, trumpet, and kneel down. When he kneeled, J.J. (our guide), took Jenna's camera (which I was shooting with because I had paid the camera fee to be able to take pictures, and it's a long story) and told me to go stand near the elephant for a picture. I started to do so, and the rider scrambled down and pulled me over to the elephant's side and had me sit on the elephant's knee.
!!!
(Photo coming soon, I promise!)
The elephants stole J.J.'s shoes and played keep-away a little, tossing them about. When she finally got her flat back, we followed the elephants back to the main area and headed out to dinner.
Today we have Thai language lessons, a visit to another wat and another monument, and an evening in Singburi town. Tomorrow we're visit more historical sites, but I don't think my attention will be very good again because, dude, tomorrow we're visiting MONKEYS!
MONKEYS, MONKEYS, MONKEYS!
Later!
I, of course, was very much into the history of the different wats, the architecture influences of Cambodia, the way the different monuments illustrate the Thai's ongoing conflicts with the Burmese, the differences in tourists and tourist establishments in Thailand verses Europe/America.
That, or I spent the whole time thinking about the elephants we were going to go see.
And see them we did! After three wats (Wat-syndrome, the Eastern counterpart to Cathedral-syndrome in Europe, struck quickly), a monument, and some other ruins, we finally went to Elephant Town.
(Now, before you get depressed about them being chained up and decked out with seats and tassels, hold that thought. It gets better.)
We paid the 500 baht fee and took a 30-minute ride on the elephants. My camera, of course, died while doing so. Fortunately, Jenna's kept working, and she's promised to share.
The ride was... lurchy. I can't imagine riding like that for thousands of miles.
After disembarking and the requisite visit to the souvenir shop, we walked through a recreation of a an old Thai house, visited three more wats, and then went to the Elephant Village at sunset.
That was much more like it. The elephants are taken here at night, and they have tons of free space to wander in and many volunteers and Thai workers to care for them. There were three baby elephants nuzzling against their moms who were getting drinks and soaking themselves with a garden hose. So cute! We also followed a train of them down to the river where they went for a swim with their herders. After their swim, the rider of the bull elephant showed off a little, having him rear up, trumpet, and kneel down. When he kneeled, J.J. (our guide), took Jenna's camera (which I was shooting with because I had paid the camera fee to be able to take pictures, and it's a long story) and told me to go stand near the elephant for a picture. I started to do so, and the rider scrambled down and pulled me over to the elephant's side and had me sit on the elephant's knee.
!!!
(Photo coming soon, I promise!)
The elephants stole J.J.'s shoes and played keep-away a little, tossing them about. When she finally got her flat back, we followed the elephants back to the main area and headed out to dinner.
Today we have Thai language lessons, a visit to another wat and another monument, and an evening in Singburi town. Tomorrow we're visit more historical sites, but I don't think my attention will be very good again because, dude, tomorrow we're visiting MONKEYS!
MONKEYS, MONKEYS, MONKEYS!
Later!
My Running Inner Monologue Today
hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot ELEPHANTS! OMG! ELEPHANTS! Eeeeeee! ELEPHANTS, ELEPHANTS, ELEPHANTS! hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot ....
Monday, June 07, 2010
Ew, Ew, Ew!
I woke up to see the floor swarming with ants. The tiny black ones, not the giant red ones parading outside the window. They were on everything... including my laptop, which I had left on its cover last night so it could charge. I picked it up and opened it, and some ten or fifteen ants came scurrying out of the openings under the keys and the ports on the sides. I blew them off, and more came out.
Ew, ew, ew!
New rule: everything gets zipped up and put away always.
Also? I figured out what was making such a strange noise inside our room. I heard the noise again coming from the bunkbed above me, looked up, and saw a tiny greenish-white chin sticking out of the frame above my head. Seems I've got a gecko hanging out in my bed frame.
Dude needs to get busy eating some ants, if you ask me.
Ew, ew, ew!
New rule: everything gets zipped up and put away always.
Also? I figured out what was making such a strange noise inside our room. I heard the noise again coming from the bunkbed above me, looked up, and saw a tiny greenish-white chin sticking out of the frame above my head. Seems I've got a gecko hanging out in my bed frame.
Dude needs to get busy eating some ants, if you ask me.
A Few Random Photos
Bicycle Tour
Mangosteen
Jackfruit Vendor
"Very sweet," the vendor says
River Tour
Dinner?
The Grand Palace
Making Bracelets
Kids Demonstrate Traditional Dancing
Necklace of Jasmines and Marigolds for Luck (a gift from the kids)
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