Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Commenting on the blog
We're getting the sense the folks are unable to comment on the blog any more...we don't know why that is. Anyone have any ideas? Please email.
Noise
Saigon, like many cities we've been in on this trip, is very noisy. There are gazillions of motorbikes with minimal mufflers, and all cars and motorbikes use their horns nearly continuously. (It's helpful for us tourists, trying to cross the street, because the bikes seem to appear out of nowhere.) Conversation while walking is nearly impossible.
Unlike in other cities, our hotel is not a quiet oasis. We chose rooms on the top floor, because they had better windows and were further away from the road noise. What we didn't know was two-fold. First, there is major construction going on just on the other side of the wall, so the rooms are full of the sound of banging and power tools. And second, the top floor was a not-well-thought-out addition to the building, and is clad in corrugated metal, not concrete. The afternoon thunderstorms, with heavy driving rain, are nearly deafening up here.
We're off to Dalat tomorrow. We probably should spend more time in Saigon, but Dalat is in the mountains and we can't resist the lure of temperatures only in the 80s.
Unlike in other cities, our hotel is not a quiet oasis. We chose rooms on the top floor, because they had better windows and were further away from the road noise. What we didn't know was two-fold. First, there is major construction going on just on the other side of the wall, so the rooms are full of the sound of banging and power tools. And second, the top floor was a not-well-thought-out addition to the building, and is clad in corrugated metal, not concrete. The afternoon thunderstorms, with heavy driving rain, are nearly deafening up here.
We're off to Dalat tomorrow. We probably should spend more time in Saigon, but Dalat is in the mountains and we can't resist the lure of temperatures only in the 80s.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saigon
We just got back to the hotel after a serious day's tourism in Saigon. Just in time: torrential thunderstorm now.
Last night we had a great first meal just around the corner in a place where there were no other non-Vietnamese. I got really adventurous and ordered a spiced baby clam salad - they were delicious, and I'm not sick, yet.... We also ordered "fig" salad, which tasted more like artichoke, Pho (beef noodle soup), Ban Something-or-Other (noodles with roast pork), shrimp rolls, and mustard rolls (not mustard, just rolls made from big leaves of mustard greens). All delicious and not a single thing tasted remotely like Thai food. Oh, and including sodas and Sai-Gon beer it cost $12. Afterwards we wandered the market and impulse-bought a "Tintin in Vietnam" T-shirt for me ($3) and a new watch for Declan ($5).
Today we did a walking tour, taking in some main sights very briefly, including a market where the smell of really FRESH fish reminded us of Pike Place. The traffic here is incredible, even after Delhi and Bangkok, and terrifyinng at first: THOUSANDS of 120cc Honda Wave step-through motorbikes, all beeping at once. None stops for pedestrians: you have to take a deep breath, walk directly into six or eight lanes of them, and hope they avoid you. Miraculously they do. There is simply no other way to cross a street.
We stopped to get Aidan a haircut (very professional, very friendly, $4). Then a hike past the old colonial Hotel du Ville and similar highlights included a long stop at Fanny's, allegedly Saigon's best ice cream place. (After three scoops each, A+D in no way dispute this. However, being a bit lactose intolerant, I decided to martyr myself by making do with a gorgeous fruit-stuffed crepe covered in a warm creme anglaise, plus iced Vietnamese coffee. Tough life.)
Thence to the excellent Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, which includes standard historical displays downstairs and history of the "Glorious Victory of the Revolutionary Cadres over the Imperialist Running Dogs and the Puppet Government" upstairs. It was truly interesting, here and at the Palace (below) to see how the other half sees, so to speak. And to find some elements of it, if not others, quite persuasive: the word 'communism' did so completely prevent the west from getting it about the underlying motivation - Vietnamese national pride.
We spent the afternoon at that historic 1960s landmark, Reunification Palace - which was the Presidential Palace until the North Vietnnamese tanks came right through the fence in April 1975. It's strange to think of a 19600s building as "historic" but it has all been perfectly kept, cleaned and preserved, right down to the ugly wet bar in the games room, the naugahyde-padded doors and the pale pink telephones. Even Presidet Thieu's Huey helecopter (or one just like it) is on the roof, and the tank that broke through the railings (or one just like it) is in the grounds. The whole experience is eerie: are you on a movie set, or are you in a time-warp? You feel that you might bump into Thieu and Robert MacNamara in one of the polished corridors.
Well it has stopped raining and is almost time to go hunt for dinnner.
Last night we had a great first meal just around the corner in a place where there were no other non-Vietnamese. I got really adventurous and ordered a spiced baby clam salad - they were delicious, and I'm not sick, yet.... We also ordered "fig" salad, which tasted more like artichoke, Pho (beef noodle soup), Ban Something-or-Other (noodles with roast pork), shrimp rolls, and mustard rolls (not mustard, just rolls made from big leaves of mustard greens). All delicious and not a single thing tasted remotely like Thai food. Oh, and including sodas and Sai-Gon beer it cost $12. Afterwards we wandered the market and impulse-bought a "Tintin in Vietnam" T-shirt for me ($3) and a new watch for Declan ($5).
Today we did a walking tour, taking in some main sights very briefly, including a market where the smell of really FRESH fish reminded us of Pike Place. The traffic here is incredible, even after Delhi and Bangkok, and terrifyinng at first: THOUSANDS of 120cc Honda Wave step-through motorbikes, all beeping at once. None stops for pedestrians: you have to take a deep breath, walk directly into six or eight lanes of them, and hope they avoid you. Miraculously they do. There is simply no other way to cross a street.
We stopped to get Aidan a haircut (very professional, very friendly, $4). Then a hike past the old colonial Hotel du Ville and similar highlights included a long stop at Fanny's, allegedly Saigon's best ice cream place. (After three scoops each, A+D in no way dispute this. However, being a bit lactose intolerant, I decided to martyr myself by making do with a gorgeous fruit-stuffed crepe covered in a warm creme anglaise, plus iced Vietnamese coffee. Tough life.)
Thence to the excellent Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, which includes standard historical displays downstairs and history of the "Glorious Victory of the Revolutionary Cadres over the Imperialist Running Dogs and the Puppet Government" upstairs. It was truly interesting, here and at the Palace (below) to see how the other half sees, so to speak. And to find some elements of it, if not others, quite persuasive: the word 'communism' did so completely prevent the west from getting it about the underlying motivation - Vietnamese national pride.
We spent the afternoon at that historic 1960s landmark, Reunification Palace - which was the Presidential Palace until the North Vietnnamese tanks came right through the fence in April 1975. It's strange to think of a 19600s building as "historic" but it has all been perfectly kept, cleaned and preserved, right down to the ugly wet bar in the games room, the naugahyde-padded doors and the pale pink telephones. Even Presidet Thieu's Huey helecopter (or one just like it) is on the roof, and the tank that broke through the railings (or one just like it) is in the grounds. The whole experience is eerie: are you on a movie set, or are you in a time-warp? You feel that you might bump into Thieu and Robert MacNamara in one of the polished corridors.
Well it has stopped raining and is almost time to go hunt for dinnner.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Welcome to Vietnam
After an uneventful Air France flight from Bangkok, we are now in Ho Chi Minh City, known to all but the officials as Saigon. We have found a nice hotel, and have rooms on the 7th floor. When we were in NY we regularly walked up to our rooms on the 5th floor--I walked up to our rooms today, and it was sure a lot harder than it was in December. Too much eating and not enough exercise!
Speaking of eating, we're on our way out to see what cheap Vietnamese food offers. We'll let you know.
Speaking of eating, we're on our way out to see what cheap Vietnamese food offers. We'll let you know.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Reading
Greg left Aidan with a copy of David Halberstam's The Coldest Winter, about America and the Korean War. It sat in one of our bags for a while, being a bit intimidating at 700+ pages, but I finally decided I "ought" to read it and was immediately hooked. A brilliant talent for weaving very particular stories (what happened to Platoon X on Hill Y on the night of Z) with larger scale (McArthur) and much larger scale (Truman / Mao / Stalin) themes.
Like many people, Halberstam is a big fan of Truman. My own view is that Truman was a good man in many ways but fatally weak (don't get me started on the Hiroshima decision, the published defenses of which are completely laughable special pleading), and that he has (having been underrated as a President at the time) been much overrated since. I also think the standard line on McArthur (great general, great flaws) is harder to sustain than Halberstam admits, both because his indisputably bad calls were SO numerous and SO bad, and because a case can be made that the great 'victories' (especially Inchon) were themselves examples of objectively terrible decision-making combined with incredible luck. As Halberstam says, Truman was right about one thing: democracies need to work very very hard to protect themselves from 'patriots' of this stamp - but a lot of dead men in Korea might say Truman did too little of that and far too late. It seems to me that Marshall was a far, far greater American than either of them.
Excellent book, anyway. Coincidentally, I had just finished Neal Stephenson's big, brilliant, baggy, broken-backed Cryptonomicon, a chunk of which is about McArthur and WWII. Very strange reading experience: I loved the several different WWII strands, and hated to the point of unreadability the twentieth century part, with its talkative cardboard techies based in Seattle in the 1990s and trying to make a killing in the data cable business in the Philippines. Some of the WWII writing is brilliant, including a long section relating the experiences of a Japanese character who is shipwrecked, nearly burned alive, nearly drowned, nearly eaten by sharks, and finally enslaved by New Guinea cannibals. It’s actually funny, in a way that perfectly expresses the surreal yet completely believable horror of his experiences. The book seemed to me self-indulgent and too long, yet Stevenson’s ear for that place between horror and humor (and between reality and fantasy) is remarkable.
I just bought (for one of our e-books) a couple of suspense classics from my teenage reading, Erskine Childers’ The Riddle of the Sands and John Buchan’s The Thirty Nine Steps. It will be interesting to see how they hold up.
Like many people, Halberstam is a big fan of Truman. My own view is that Truman was a good man in many ways but fatally weak (don't get me started on the Hiroshima decision, the published defenses of which are completely laughable special pleading), and that he has (having been underrated as a President at the time) been much overrated since. I also think the standard line on McArthur (great general, great flaws) is harder to sustain than Halberstam admits, both because his indisputably bad calls were SO numerous and SO bad, and because a case can be made that the great 'victories' (especially Inchon) were themselves examples of objectively terrible decision-making combined with incredible luck. As Halberstam says, Truman was right about one thing: democracies need to work very very hard to protect themselves from 'patriots' of this stamp - but a lot of dead men in Korea might say Truman did too little of that and far too late. It seems to me that Marshall was a far, far greater American than either of them.
Excellent book, anyway. Coincidentally, I had just finished Neal Stephenson's big, brilliant, baggy, broken-backed Cryptonomicon, a chunk of which is about McArthur and WWII. Very strange reading experience: I loved the several different WWII strands, and hated to the point of unreadability the twentieth century part, with its talkative cardboard techies based in Seattle in the 1990s and trying to make a killing in the data cable business in the Philippines. Some of the WWII writing is brilliant, including a long section relating the experiences of a Japanese character who is shipwrecked, nearly burned alive, nearly drowned, nearly eaten by sharks, and finally enslaved by New Guinea cannibals. It’s actually funny, in a way that perfectly expresses the surreal yet completely believable horror of his experiences. The book seemed to me self-indulgent and too long, yet Stevenson’s ear for that place between horror and humor (and between reality and fantasy) is remarkable.
I just bought (for one of our e-books) a couple of suspense classics from my teenage reading, Erskine Childers’ The Riddle of the Sands and John Buchan’s The Thirty Nine Steps. It will be interesting to see how they hold up.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Ayuthaya
We visited Ayuthaya last week. Ayuthaya was the first capitol of Thailand, from 1350 to 1767. The capitol was moved to Sukhothai after the Burmese sacked the city of Ayuthaya in 1767. Now there is a modern city and a big ruin complex.
We went to Ayuthaya the expensive way, tour group. Instead of going straight to Ayuthaya, which we would have done if we'd gone by train, our bus stopped at the Royal Summer Palace first. The Royal Summer Palace only has two asian style buildings, the rest are western style. It was built by King Chula in the early 1900s, after he went on a trip to Europe. The King who built it had 70 some odd wives, and roughly the same number of kids. Because he had so many kids and wives, there are a lot of houses on the grounds. Also at the palace, there is a memorial to all his children who died when they were still young, and to a wife who died because of his own law. The law was that the royal family was untouchable. So, when the barge carrying the queen to the summer palace sank, nobody dared touch her to save her from drowning, so she died. Later the king changed the law.
After seeing the palace, we drove to the main Ayuthaya ruin complex. At the main ruin complex, you can ride an elephant if you want to (we didn't). There are a lot of ruins and decapitated buddhas. The buddhas are decapitated because when the Burmese sacked the city, they cut off all the heads of the buddhas to find the gold ones.
It's not all ruins though. There is a working wat too. The wat was destroyed when the Burmese sacked Ayuthaya, eventually one of the Thai queens restored it. A while after restoring it, the queen decided the buddha inside should be covered in gold leaf. Nowadays the wat has many people, farang and locals, praying to or looking at the magnificent, if dusty, buddha.
After the main ruin complex, we drove to the ruins which are famous for the buddha head in the bodhi tree roots. We slipped away from the guide to look at the ruins on our own. Mom tried to take a picture of the rest of us on a grassy patch on one of the ruins, but a tour guide who probably didn't have any authority at all told us to get down. We discovered the sign saying "don't climb" on the other side. After those ruins, we went for a very short stop at a reclining buddha who was covered in so much cloth you could probably clothe about 1,433 people if you use one square yard of cloth per person.
After the ruins we drove through a lightening storm (with lots of rain), to a boat which had a buffet lunch. We went down the river to Bangkok on the boat. Being on the river was fun, especially since after lunch I went up and sat on the deck right above the driver. The river was quite crowded, and there were a lot of really small boats towing very large almost overfilled barges.
We went to Ayuthaya the expensive way, tour group. Instead of going straight to Ayuthaya, which we would have done if we'd gone by train, our bus stopped at the Royal Summer Palace first. The Royal Summer Palace only has two asian style buildings, the rest are western style. It was built by King Chula in the early 1900s, after he went on a trip to Europe. The King who built it had 70 some odd wives, and roughly the same number of kids. Because he had so many kids and wives, there are a lot of houses on the grounds. Also at the palace, there is a memorial to all his children who died when they were still young, and to a wife who died because of his own law. The law was that the royal family was untouchable. So, when the barge carrying the queen to the summer palace sank, nobody dared touch her to save her from drowning, so she died. Later the king changed the law.
After seeing the palace, we drove to the main Ayuthaya ruin complex. At the main ruin complex, you can ride an elephant if you want to (we didn't). There are a lot of ruins and decapitated buddhas. The buddhas are decapitated because when the Burmese sacked the city, they cut off all the heads of the buddhas to find the gold ones.
It's not all ruins though. There is a working wat too. The wat was destroyed when the Burmese sacked Ayuthaya, eventually one of the Thai queens restored it. A while after restoring it, the queen decided the buddha inside should be covered in gold leaf. Nowadays the wat has many people, farang and locals, praying to or looking at the magnificent, if dusty, buddha.
After the main ruin complex, we drove to the ruins which are famous for the buddha head in the bodhi tree roots. We slipped away from the guide to look at the ruins on our own. Mom tried to take a picture of the rest of us on a grassy patch on one of the ruins, but a tour guide who probably didn't have any authority at all told us to get down. We discovered the sign saying "don't climb" on the other side. After those ruins, we went for a very short stop at a reclining buddha who was covered in so much cloth you could probably clothe about 1,433 people if you use one square yard of cloth per person.
After the ruins we drove through a lightening storm (with lots of rain), to a boat which had a buffet lunch. We went down the river to Bangkok on the boat. Being on the river was fun, especially since after lunch I went up and sat on the deck right above the driver. The river was quite crowded, and there were a lot of really small boats towing very large almost overfilled barges.
Food
We have all had very mixed feelings about Thai food. We came here thinking (especially R+K) that of course we LOVED Thai food. But travel broadens the mind... or changes it anyway. I remember when K and I were in Andalucia 17 (!) years ago, and had the revelation that the "Spanish food" we loved was in fact mainly a creation of cookbook writers, and had almost nothing to do with what Spanish people in fact ate. So with Thailand: in a chi-chi restaurant here you can get food not unlike what you would get in a Thai restaurant in the US - with some local additions, variations and authenticities. But what Thai people mostly eat is very different, and it can be quite hard for the farang palate to take. It's not the spiciness. On the contrary: the much-vaunted BK street food, routinely touted as the best in the world, is certainly cheap and certainly everywhere, but often it seems to be a bland and monotonous choice of greasy fried chicken, or greasy fried-chicken-flavored rice, or chicken fried noodles, or the ubiquitous very bony small grilled fish on a stick.
Perhaps we are just getting jaded. Annyway, today we completely blew the budget and the culture by eating at a (relatively) cheap sushi restaurant for lunch and then an excellent Italian restaurant for dinner. There seem to be a lot of the latter in BK for some reason. K had a porcini and truffle risotto; I had spaghettini with arugula and sausage; the boys, of course, had pizza. (And Tiramisu.)
Perhaps we are just getting jaded. Annyway, today we completely blew the budget and the culture by eating at a (relatively) cheap sushi restaurant for lunch and then an excellent Italian restaurant for dinner. There seem to be a lot of the latter in BK for some reason. K had a porcini and truffle risotto; I had spaghettini with arugula and sausage; the boys, of course, had pizza. (And Tiramisu.)
Avoiding the protests
The first really big political protests since we've been in Bangkok are getting underway, and we're staying far away. From our end of town you'd never know they were happening, but the news reports suggest there could be up to 100,000 people surrounding the govt house tomorrow. We were planning on seeing Dusit palace on our last day (tomorrow), but since it's near the govt area, we'll be coming up with an alternate plan.
Kanchanaburi
We have, not for the first time, been too busy to write. We are back in Bangkok from a two-day trip to Kanchanaburi, site of the infamous "Bridge Over the River Kwai." We went there by train, an experience in itself because the only train from BK is a very slow, old, no air-con local that took nearly 4 hours (supposedly 2 1/2) to do 150 km. With the temp at 35 C and the humidity at 95%, ALL the windows were open and it was smoky, dusty, dirty, still incredibly hot, and despite all that great fun: a real chance to see the countryside and NOT be travelling like a tourist.
Kanchanaburi is a quiet, pretty town by the river in flat rice-paddy countryside, ringed by low mountains. It's very hard to get your head around the fact that 65 years ago it was a slave labor camp. We rented bikes and visited two different POW cemeteries, both beautifully maintained, containing the graves of several thousand British, Dutch and Australian POWs who worked on the Burma railway and died of malnutrition, malaria, beri-beri, abuse and sheer overwork here. There are two excellent museums - where the point out that the POWs at least got graves (mostly) and were only about 10% of those who died: a vast force of slaves from the new Japanese territories, mostly men pulled off the streets in Malaya and China, worked and died here too and have almost evaporated from history. The conditions on the railway were simply beyond belief. There is a bar graph in one of the museums illustrating how many men of each ethnicity / nationality died, done entirey in iron railroad spikes recovered from the jungle.
On our second morning we walked across the bridge itself, which was bombed by the allies in 1945 and then repaired after the war. You can still take one of the trains that run on it up the line to Hellfire Pass and the Burmese border.
Kanchanaburi is a quiet, pretty town by the river in flat rice-paddy countryside, ringed by low mountains. It's very hard to get your head around the fact that 65 years ago it was a slave labor camp. We rented bikes and visited two different POW cemeteries, both beautifully maintained, containing the graves of several thousand British, Dutch and Australian POWs who worked on the Burma railway and died of malnutrition, malaria, beri-beri, abuse and sheer overwork here. There are two excellent museums - where the point out that the POWs at least got graves (mostly) and were only about 10% of those who died: a vast force of slaves from the new Japanese territories, mostly men pulled off the streets in Malaya and China, worked and died here too and have almost evaporated from history. The conditions on the railway were simply beyond belief. There is a bar graph in one of the museums illustrating how many men of each ethnicity / nationality died, done entirey in iron railroad spikes recovered from the jungle.
On our second morning we walked across the bridge itself, which was bombed by the allies in 1945 and then repaired after the war. You can still take one of the trains that run on it up the line to Hellfire Pass and the Burmese border.
Monday, March 23, 2009
"I licked the fish"
Declan, describing how he'd tasted nearly everything we'd ordered for dinner.
We had a very nice Thai meal at an upmarket restaurant last night. Finally, the flavors we kept thinking we'd find in Thai street food.
My personal favorite was the fish, a whole (small) sea bass with a lime and garlic sauce. Unlike most of the fish we've had/seen, it was steamed, not fried, and it was boned for us, saving us the trouble of picking it over. The grilled beef and grape salad was also delicious, with a sparkling chili, lemongrass, ginger and tamarind dressing. The grilled eggplant salad was also good, even if it was the one dish Declan refused to try. The mee krob, sweetened crispy fried rice noodles, were a good contrast to the other salty flavors. We rounded things out with a light chicken and veg soup, and fried mixed veg topped with a small bit of bacon. Veg that tasted of veg, not excessive cooking oil.
Mango smoothies for the boys, beer for us. Yum. All this, and they even called a taxi for us when we were done. Nice.
We had a very nice Thai meal at an upmarket restaurant last night. Finally, the flavors we kept thinking we'd find in Thai street food.
My personal favorite was the fish, a whole (small) sea bass with a lime and garlic sauce. Unlike most of the fish we've had/seen, it was steamed, not fried, and it was boned for us, saving us the trouble of picking it over. The grilled beef and grape salad was also delicious, with a sparkling chili, lemongrass, ginger and tamarind dressing. The grilled eggplant salad was also good, even if it was the one dish Declan refused to try. The mee krob, sweetened crispy fried rice noodles, were a good contrast to the other salty flavors. We rounded things out with a light chicken and veg soup, and fried mixed veg topped with a small bit of bacon. Veg that tasted of veg, not excessive cooking oil.
Mango smoothies for the boys, beer for us. Yum. All this, and they even called a taxi for us when we were done. Nice.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Ayuthaya
A very quick post to say that today we did a very touristy, packaged day trip to the old Thai capital at Ayuthaya. Coach there, tour-guide around the highlights, boat and buffet lunch on the way back. Not the way we normally travel, or like to, but it was a very smart choice as it turns out. I have been feeling vaguely unwell for a week - off food, very tired, generally a pain in the neck to be around - and today (a) I started the day feeling even worse, and (b) it was a billion degrees and 94% humidity. We had seriously considered going to Ayuthaya by train and renting bikes....
Ayuthaya was sacked by the Burmese in 1767, and one of its key features is miles and miles of ruined brick chedi (this is a place on the scale of Angkor) littered with headless Buddhas because the Burmese wanted a quick way to see if any of them was clay covering solid gold.
We were only at the ruins for a total of about 2 hours, when they deserve 2 days, but it was enough given the heat. And the river trip back was wonderful, including great views, a slight breeze, and a buffet lunch I actually felt like eating.
Lots of new pictures just posted.
Ayuthaya was sacked by the Burmese in 1767, and one of its key features is miles and miles of ruined brick chedi (this is a place on the scale of Angkor) littered with headless Buddhas because the Burmese wanted a quick way to see if any of them was clay covering solid gold.
We were only at the ruins for a total of about 2 hours, when they deserve 2 days, but it was enough given the heat. And the river trip back was wonderful, including great views, a slight breeze, and a buffet lunch I actually felt like eating.
Lots of new pictures just posted.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
"WHOLE FOODS"
This post is titled Whole Foods because it is about a giant grocery store on the ground floor of the biggest shopping mall in Bangkok. There was a lot of really good looking fruits and vegetables, some individually packaged, that were very expensive. There was a container of cherries: the cherries were as big as golf balls, they looked extremely juicy and tasty but they were $15 for a package of 20.
There were lots of little stations selling different kinds of stuff, fancy rice, honey, stinky soap, 50 different kinds of hot dogs, and lots of imported Western crud.
Then there were the Thai special foods, like the fried bugs. Fried cicadas, baby locusts, bamboo worms, ant larvae, silk moth pupe and others, all of which you would need a very strong drink to wash down. Mom and I tried one of the bamboo worms that the guy said all the Chinese tourists bought. Personally, it was disgusting, and since we didn't have a drink, mom and I had to run to the fruit section and pick up a sample of a candied orange.
The fruit section lots of dried and candied fruit, some of which were extremely tasty and some of which were so disgusting, like bad marichino cherries dried and injected with terible tasting food coloring.The apricots however, were one of the better tasting fruits. We were thinking about getting a small package for Dad who wasn't feeling so great at the time, until we realized they were about $12 for 20. We ate a lot of the dried fruit though.
There were lots of little stations selling different kinds of stuff, fancy rice, honey, stinky soap, 50 different kinds of hot dogs, and lots of imported Western crud.
Then there were the Thai special foods, like the fried bugs. Fried cicadas, baby locusts, bamboo worms, ant larvae, silk moth pupe and others, all of which you would need a very strong drink to wash down. Mom and I tried one of the bamboo worms that the guy said all the Chinese tourists bought. Personally, it was disgusting, and since we didn't have a drink, mom and I had to run to the fruit section and pick up a sample of a candied orange.
The fruit section lots of dried and candied fruit, some of which were extremely tasty and some of which were so disgusting, like bad marichino cherries dried and injected with terible tasting food coloring.The apricots however, were one of the better tasting fruits. We were thinking about getting a small package for Dad who wasn't feeling so great at the time, until we realized they were about $12 for 20. We ate a lot of the dried fruit though.
Hunting for decent street food
Thus far, we have been fairly disappointed with the street food in Bangkok. Part of the problem is we haven't yet found a good source, and another part is that we don't speak enough Thai (the words for noodles, chicken, and not spicy only go so far). But it's also the case that most of what we've seen is practically all the same, regardless of where you are.
The food we've seen is as follows:
Grilled stuff on sticks. Mostly this is chicken and fish, but there are some things that are either sausages, or fishballs, or some combo thereof. The chicken is tasty, though you have to be careful to avoid the liver/gizzard sticks. We haven't had the courage to try one of the fish. They're pretty small, so they'll be very bony, and in most cases they've been sitting around unrefrigerated for some amount of time. The chicken we watch being taken out of an ice cooler and cooked in front of us over hot flame. This doesn't seem possible with the fish.
Noodle soup. The seller has a large vat of bubbling broth, and various bowls of edibles. Point to what you want, and it all goes into a bowl with broth. Problem is, the various edibles are mostly protein (much of it sausages or fish balls or other unidentifiable chopped up stuff), and there don't seem to be many vegetables. The broth tends to be overly greasy and not very appealing. We crave the bright lemon grass, lime leaf, cilantro flavors, but instead get msg and chinese 5 spice.
Fried noodles. We haven't seen many noodle stands that fry noodles. When we do find them, they tend to use quite a lot of oil, and after several meals of fried noodles, you realize that they all taste pretty much the same. Having more Thai would help I think, if we could ask for different sauces, or whether or not they have some vegetables hiding in the stall somewhere. I think that in the absence of our input, they make what they think farangs (white folks) would like, something approximating pad see euw.
Fruit. The fresh fruit is great. Right now it's mostly apples, pineapples, watermelons and mangos. The best stalls have cut fruit arrayed on a tray of ice. Point to the piece you want, and the seller scoops it out, chops it up, and serves it to you in a plastic bag with a long toothpick. Very good. You can also get fried bananas--which can be good--and fried sweet potatoes, which are great if you can find them. There are lots of strawberries in bags, but we have no way of washing them at the hotel. We have bought washed and chopped ones in a cup, but discovered, to our dismay, that instead of sugaring them, they salt them. It's true it brings out the juices, but...ugh.
Battered fried protein. Fried chicken is big. The stalls boil the chicken, then batter it, and fry it. When you order a plate, you get rice that's been cooked in the stock with salt (which tastes very different from the usual plain rice), a piece of the fried chicken that's been chopped into bite size pieces, and a bowl of the broth to use as gravy or soup, your choice. Can be good, can be pretty so so. Other batter fried protein includes shrimp (which are tossed by the handful into batter and fried, which sounds good until you realize that they still have heads and shells), chopped field crabs (which I'm told make even locals sick), and other shellfish (which don't seem to be refrigerated before cooking). (A field crab, in case you're wondering, is a small fresh water crab, about 1 inch from side to side, that lives in rice paddies. They are cooked and eaten whole or mashed up, shells and innards all.)
Green papaya salad. Can be very good, though it can also be so fishy as to be inedible. Shredded green papaya, salt, garlic, tomato, sugar, fish sauce and a few peanuts get pounded together in a mortar with chilies and maybe a green bean or two. You have to be careful, as some places add a field crab to it. The words for not spicy are important here, as the local taste seems to be for incendiary levels of chilies.
And that's what we've found. I have to believe that there is more, better food than we've located. The search will continue.
The food we've seen is as follows:
Grilled stuff on sticks. Mostly this is chicken and fish, but there are some things that are either sausages, or fishballs, or some combo thereof. The chicken is tasty, though you have to be careful to avoid the liver/gizzard sticks. We haven't had the courage to try one of the fish. They're pretty small, so they'll be very bony, and in most cases they've been sitting around unrefrigerated for some amount of time. The chicken we watch being taken out of an ice cooler and cooked in front of us over hot flame. This doesn't seem possible with the fish.
Noodle soup. The seller has a large vat of bubbling broth, and various bowls of edibles. Point to what you want, and it all goes into a bowl with broth. Problem is, the various edibles are mostly protein (much of it sausages or fish balls or other unidentifiable chopped up stuff), and there don't seem to be many vegetables. The broth tends to be overly greasy and not very appealing. We crave the bright lemon grass, lime leaf, cilantro flavors, but instead get msg and chinese 5 spice.
Fried noodles. We haven't seen many noodle stands that fry noodles. When we do find them, they tend to use quite a lot of oil, and after several meals of fried noodles, you realize that they all taste pretty much the same. Having more Thai would help I think, if we could ask for different sauces, or whether or not they have some vegetables hiding in the stall somewhere. I think that in the absence of our input, they make what they think farangs (white folks) would like, something approximating pad see euw.
Fruit. The fresh fruit is great. Right now it's mostly apples, pineapples, watermelons and mangos. The best stalls have cut fruit arrayed on a tray of ice. Point to the piece you want, and the seller scoops it out, chops it up, and serves it to you in a plastic bag with a long toothpick. Very good. You can also get fried bananas--which can be good--and fried sweet potatoes, which are great if you can find them. There are lots of strawberries in bags, but we have no way of washing them at the hotel. We have bought washed and chopped ones in a cup, but discovered, to our dismay, that instead of sugaring them, they salt them. It's true it brings out the juices, but...ugh.
Battered fried protein. Fried chicken is big. The stalls boil the chicken, then batter it, and fry it. When you order a plate, you get rice that's been cooked in the stock with salt (which tastes very different from the usual plain rice), a piece of the fried chicken that's been chopped into bite size pieces, and a bowl of the broth to use as gravy or soup, your choice. Can be good, can be pretty so so. Other batter fried protein includes shrimp (which are tossed by the handful into batter and fried, which sounds good until you realize that they still have heads and shells), chopped field crabs (which I'm told make even locals sick), and other shellfish (which don't seem to be refrigerated before cooking). (A field crab, in case you're wondering, is a small fresh water crab, about 1 inch from side to side, that lives in rice paddies. They are cooked and eaten whole or mashed up, shells and innards all.)
Green papaya salad. Can be very good, though it can also be so fishy as to be inedible. Shredded green papaya, salt, garlic, tomato, sugar, fish sauce and a few peanuts get pounded together in a mortar with chilies and maybe a green bean or two. You have to be careful, as some places add a field crab to it. The words for not spicy are important here, as the local taste seems to be for incendiary levels of chilies.
And that's what we've found. I have to believe that there is more, better food than we've located. The search will continue.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Toilets
I've been meaning for a while to put up a post about the local loos. On the whole, I've been very surprised at the cleanliness of what we've found. Granted, we've mostly availed ourselves of facilities in touristy areas, but even those have the potential to be nasty. Instead, everything has been surprisingly well kept, with little evidence of poor aim or backed up plumbing.
I'd expected to find quite a lot of squat toilets, but there have been fewer than I expected. The further away from any city you get, or the lower down the totem pole (bus station rather than airport), the more likely you are to find a squat toilet, but still, the toilets have been far more western than I'd expected.
Given less than clean conditions, I actually prefer squat toilets since you don't have to touch anything. That said, most of the squats we've encountered have been "modern" ones, meaning they are made of white porcelain rather than being just a hole in the ground. The problem with these is they tend to be any where from 6 o 8 inches off the surrounding floor, making it hard to keep one's balance, especially as the knees creak and groan.
Outside of the cities, most toilets don't have automatic flushing mechanisms. Rather, somewhere near the toilet (western or not) is a cistern or bucket filled with water. Floating on the top is a scoop, and you are to toss several scoops of water down the drain when done.
Outside the big cities, there isn't toilet paper. Locals use water from the cistern to clean up with, though in more sophisticated stalls, there is also a "bum gun" available (just like a spray nozzle on a kitchen sink).
Public toilet places (outside of major shopping malls) are often guarded by someone whose job it is to keep the place clean. Typically you are asked to pay a dime or so to use the facility. In some places, this entitles you to a few squares of toilet paper kept behind the desk. In other places, the toilet paper is readily accessible in the bathroom once you pay the dragon outside, but not in the individual stalls. You have to collect it from next to the sinks on your way in.
Toilet paper generally should not be flushed (the plumbing can't handle it), but should be deposited in the bin sitting next to the toilet. One of my pet peeves: the bin with a lid that operates with a foot pedal, carefully placed directly alongside the toilet. How the heck are you supposed to get a toe on the pedal when it's behind you? Especially from a squat toilet.
Most toilet places have sinks with running water, and usually a bar of soap, but nothing to dry hands. In some smaller places, there is a single sink somewhere in a more public space (like the back of the restaurant), or in even smaller places, there is a tap over the cistern (the one that you flush with) that you can use to wash hands with (thereby recycling the water for flushing). Sometimes there's a well worn towel for hand drying (germ central) but never any paper towel.
Here in Bangkok it's striking to me that in the big shopping malls (which we keep going to in order to get out of the heat--they're so heavily airconditioned you get goose bumps) the bathrooms are completely westernized. No bum guns, no bins, big rolls of toilet paper in the stalls, motion sensors on the water taps in the sink, soap in little squirty dispensers--but still no paper towel.
I'd expected to find quite a lot of squat toilets, but there have been fewer than I expected. The further away from any city you get, or the lower down the totem pole (bus station rather than airport), the more likely you are to find a squat toilet, but still, the toilets have been far more western than I'd expected.
Given less than clean conditions, I actually prefer squat toilets since you don't have to touch anything. That said, most of the squats we've encountered have been "modern" ones, meaning they are made of white porcelain rather than being just a hole in the ground. The problem with these is they tend to be any where from 6 o 8 inches off the surrounding floor, making it hard to keep one's balance, especially as the knees creak and groan.
Outside of the cities, most toilets don't have automatic flushing mechanisms. Rather, somewhere near the toilet (western or not) is a cistern or bucket filled with water. Floating on the top is a scoop, and you are to toss several scoops of water down the drain when done.
Outside the big cities, there isn't toilet paper. Locals use water from the cistern to clean up with, though in more sophisticated stalls, there is also a "bum gun" available (just like a spray nozzle on a kitchen sink).
Public toilet places (outside of major shopping malls) are often guarded by someone whose job it is to keep the place clean. Typically you are asked to pay a dime or so to use the facility. In some places, this entitles you to a few squares of toilet paper kept behind the desk. In other places, the toilet paper is readily accessible in the bathroom once you pay the dragon outside, but not in the individual stalls. You have to collect it from next to the sinks on your way in.
Toilet paper generally should not be flushed (the plumbing can't handle it), but should be deposited in the bin sitting next to the toilet. One of my pet peeves: the bin with a lid that operates with a foot pedal, carefully placed directly alongside the toilet. How the heck are you supposed to get a toe on the pedal when it's behind you? Especially from a squat toilet.
Most toilet places have sinks with running water, and usually a bar of soap, but nothing to dry hands. In some smaller places, there is a single sink somewhere in a more public space (like the back of the restaurant), or in even smaller places, there is a tap over the cistern (the one that you flush with) that you can use to wash hands with (thereby recycling the water for flushing). Sometimes there's a well worn towel for hand drying (germ central) but never any paper towel.
Here in Bangkok it's striking to me that in the big shopping malls (which we keep going to in order to get out of the heat--they're so heavily airconditioned you get goose bumps) the bathrooms are completely westernized. No bum guns, no bins, big rolls of toilet paper in the stalls, motion sensors on the water taps in the sink, soap in little squirty dispensers--but still no paper towel.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Paddle Boats and Aquariums
Today we utterly failed in our resolution to get up and get going before the sun got hot--it was after 10 before we managed to wake up, shower, eat and get out the door. But we stuck with our original plan, and walked to (relatively) nearby Lumphini Park. There we bought some water, then wandered around. There was a marching band holding a rehearsal near the band stand, a few farangs (white folks) riding their bikes, and an increasing number of Thai families congregating on the grass for picnics.
I noticed a surprising number of couples in which the female was performing serious grooming on the male--imagine a guy stretched out on a picnic blanket with his head in his girlfriend's lap, and her picking lice. Or popping zits. For a half hour at a time.
There are several small, artificial lakes in the park, and we rented two swan shaped paddleboats to explore. Mostly it was pretty, but then we spotted the 4 foot long lizard swimming around! Fortunately for my heart rate, just about the same time I first saw it, it stuck its tongue out, so I knew it wasn't an alligator only 10 feet from the boat. I called Declan and Richard over to see it, but a Thai guy had spotted it, and began herding it way too closely. We were trying to maintain a respectful distance (admire the wildlife, but don't harass it), while this guy seemed to think the game was to see if he could get close enough for his kids to pet the thing on the head. He chased it the entire length of the lake.
After that we got on the sky train and headed to a shopping mall. We sought out the food court for lunch. There were the rich folks restaurants (entrees for a mere 8 to 12 dollars a piece), and the working stiff/backpacker stalls (entrees for 2 to 3 dollars a piece). Guess where we ate? The system was interesting. At the entrance to the cheap eats, you bought a debit card, loading it with approximately what you thought you'd spend. After ordering, each stall would swipe your card. At the end, you could take the card back and get a refund for whatever you hadn't spent. It made service much faster at each stall, since they didn't have to count any money.
After lunch, Richard and Aidan headed back to the hotel to get some writing/homework done, while Declan and I planned to go to the aquarium (in the basement of the shopping center). We got distracted by the "gourmet market" (think Whole Foods gone Thai): I'll let him tell you about the samples.
We then explored the mall a bit (after going to the movie theater to discover whether or not the american movies were subtitled in Thai (meaning the soundtrack was still English) or dubbed (in which case we wouldn't need to consider buying a ticket). Most of the films are subtitled, so we may go to a movie soon. (As an aside, we were shown a Claude Von Dam movie on our VIP bus. I think that dubbing it into Thai actually improved it, as we didn't have to be distracted from the bad fight scenes by even worse dialogue.)
The mall contained lots of high end shops, including a BMW store and a Lamborghini store, complete with cars. The place was packed, but the impression I got was that there were lots of people window shopping, but not that many people actually buying. And the teenagers were busy hanging out, trying to impress.
We finally headed to the aquarium, and discovered that tickets for one adult and one kid would cost over $50. We did a quick rethink, and decided that a)even if it was the largest aquarium in SE Asia, maybe that was a bit much, b) if we were going to spend that kind of money, we should consult Richard and Aidan first, and c) if we were going to spend that much, we should at least come first thing in the morning and spend the whole day.
We probably won't go back, but we are still wondering just how they pull off the glass bottom boat ride under the mall.
After some gelato, we re-boarded the skytrain and headed back to the hotel.
I noticed a surprising number of couples in which the female was performing serious grooming on the male--imagine a guy stretched out on a picnic blanket with his head in his girlfriend's lap, and her picking lice. Or popping zits. For a half hour at a time.
There are several small, artificial lakes in the park, and we rented two swan shaped paddleboats to explore. Mostly it was pretty, but then we spotted the 4 foot long lizard swimming around! Fortunately for my heart rate, just about the same time I first saw it, it stuck its tongue out, so I knew it wasn't an alligator only 10 feet from the boat. I called Declan and Richard over to see it, but a Thai guy had spotted it, and began herding it way too closely. We were trying to maintain a respectful distance (admire the wildlife, but don't harass it), while this guy seemed to think the game was to see if he could get close enough for his kids to pet the thing on the head. He chased it the entire length of the lake.
After that we got on the sky train and headed to a shopping mall. We sought out the food court for lunch. There were the rich folks restaurants (entrees for a mere 8 to 12 dollars a piece), and the working stiff/backpacker stalls (entrees for 2 to 3 dollars a piece). Guess where we ate? The system was interesting. At the entrance to the cheap eats, you bought a debit card, loading it with approximately what you thought you'd spend. After ordering, each stall would swipe your card. At the end, you could take the card back and get a refund for whatever you hadn't spent. It made service much faster at each stall, since they didn't have to count any money.
After lunch, Richard and Aidan headed back to the hotel to get some writing/homework done, while Declan and I planned to go to the aquarium (in the basement of the shopping center). We got distracted by the "gourmet market" (think Whole Foods gone Thai): I'll let him tell you about the samples.
We then explored the mall a bit (after going to the movie theater to discover whether or not the american movies were subtitled in Thai (meaning the soundtrack was still English) or dubbed (in which case we wouldn't need to consider buying a ticket). Most of the films are subtitled, so we may go to a movie soon. (As an aside, we were shown a Claude Von Dam movie on our VIP bus. I think that dubbing it into Thai actually improved it, as we didn't have to be distracted from the bad fight scenes by even worse dialogue.)
The mall contained lots of high end shops, including a BMW store and a Lamborghini store, complete with cars. The place was packed, but the impression I got was that there were lots of people window shopping, but not that many people actually buying. And the teenagers were busy hanging out, trying to impress.
We finally headed to the aquarium, and discovered that tickets for one adult and one kid would cost over $50. We did a quick rethink, and decided that a)even if it was the largest aquarium in SE Asia, maybe that was a bit much, b) if we were going to spend that kind of money, we should consult Richard and Aidan first, and c) if we were going to spend that much, we should at least come first thing in the morning and spend the whole day.
We probably won't go back, but we are still wondering just how they pull off the glass bottom boat ride under the mall.
After some gelato, we re-boarded the skytrain and headed back to the hotel.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Kao Lak to Bangkok
Too many impressions, not enough time to write them down!
Wednesday: diving at Khao Lak. A fun trip in a longtail boat to a local reef, though the diving was disappointing to me because of poor visibility exacerbated by mask problems. (I should have shaved off the beard / mustache – and stolen from K the spare prescription mask she borrowed!) We did see lionfish, small eels and many very small blue fish of an astonishingly iridescent blue. And Declan is clearly at home with scuba: he kept doing cartwheels and flips underwater. Jumping on and off the boat at lunchtime was a blast.
Thursday: a final morning idling at the beach before we had to drag ourselves reluctantly from the bath-warm Andaman Sea to check out of our bungalow. Then an afternoon idling at the open-air restaurant, reading, staring out at the sea, watching an egret patrol a school of fish in the estuary, and noticing a monstrous (at least 3-ft) lizard down by the water. At five we got a taxi into town and caught the “VIP” bus (hmmm) for Bangkok, scheduled to take 13 hours. First you cross the Isthmus of Kra to Surat Thani, through surreal, gorgeous scenery of jungle, gorge, and karst limestone mountains. By Surat Thani it’s dark, and after a short stop for an iffy pre-paid dinner (nameless curry, gristly bits of something, mugs of iced water, rice) it’s back on the bus for the night. VIP means fewer and wider seats, but they sure weren’t the right shape for me: I spent much of the night looking around in amazement at all the people who were tipped back, mouths wide open, necks not obviously broken by the bouncing and swaying, fast asleep.
(I passed a pleasant hour in the middle of the night listening to a BBC podcast of a programme about the Great Reform Act of 1832. Conservative landowners thought that giving representation to a few million middle-class male small-property owners was tantamount to abandoning the ship of civilization. It might even, they feared, lead to the enfranchisement of all males, including the lower orders. I don’t think votes for women had even entered their nightmares at that point.)
And so very blearily to Bangkok, where our first little victory over the system (or anti-system) was threatening to remove our bags from a taxi when the driver wanted 450 Baht cash-in-advance. We got him (grumpily) to switch on the meter (which is legally required), and in the end paying him only the 191 Baht the ride was supposed to cost. Bangkok is Scam Central - luckily we had heard about this one in advance.
We are now ensconced in the almost legendary Atlanta Hotel on Sukumvit. The Atlanta is very budget, and the paint job has seen better days, but it has bags of charm and history. Among other people, General William Westmorland stayed here during the Vietnam War, and it has been a big favorite with journalists and writers for decades: there’s a nostalgic piece by the famous British correspondent Duncan Campbell, reproduced in the lobby, on returning to the hotel after an initial stay as a backpacker in 1971.
Our first day was mercilessly hot and steamy, and we were grateful after the bus ride to spend most of the afternoon having an extended nap in the bliss of air-con. Then in the evening we happened upon the 2009 Bangkok Dance Festival, free in a local park, where we saw everything from an Argentinean couple doing traditional tango to an Italian group doing an improbably athletic modern dance on stilts.
But today (Saturday) was cloudy with a breeze, a mere 80 F or so, and we managed to be serious tourists again. We took in the huge Grand Palace with attached huge Wat and revered Emerald Buddha (in fact jade, discovered in Chang Rai in 1434) which sits at the center of one of the most beautiful interiors I have seen anywhere in Asia – alas no cameras allowed). Then after a streetside lunch of rather greasy Pad See Euw (fried noodles with chicken), we saw the equally huge Wat Pho which houses, among many other things, the beyond-huge (I’m not kidding: 46 meters long) golden Reclining Buddha. Both Wats have extraordinary, beautifully restored murals illustrating the Ramakien – the Thai version of the Ramayana, which is even longer and more complex than the original. Back down the river by water taxi – past the Oriental Hotel, which due to some oversight we are NOT staying in – and the sleekly efficient Skytrain back to the Atlanta.
Wednesday: diving at Khao Lak. A fun trip in a longtail boat to a local reef, though the diving was disappointing to me because of poor visibility exacerbated by mask problems. (I should have shaved off the beard / mustache – and stolen from K the spare prescription mask she borrowed!) We did see lionfish, small eels and many very small blue fish of an astonishingly iridescent blue. And Declan is clearly at home with scuba: he kept doing cartwheels and flips underwater. Jumping on and off the boat at lunchtime was a blast.
Thursday: a final morning idling at the beach before we had to drag ourselves reluctantly from the bath-warm Andaman Sea to check out of our bungalow. Then an afternoon idling at the open-air restaurant, reading, staring out at the sea, watching an egret patrol a school of fish in the estuary, and noticing a monstrous (at least 3-ft) lizard down by the water. At five we got a taxi into town and caught the “VIP” bus (hmmm) for Bangkok, scheduled to take 13 hours. First you cross the Isthmus of Kra to Surat Thani, through surreal, gorgeous scenery of jungle, gorge, and karst limestone mountains. By Surat Thani it’s dark, and after a short stop for an iffy pre-paid dinner (nameless curry, gristly bits of something, mugs of iced water, rice) it’s back on the bus for the night. VIP means fewer and wider seats, but they sure weren’t the right shape for me: I spent much of the night looking around in amazement at all the people who were tipped back, mouths wide open, necks not obviously broken by the bouncing and swaying, fast asleep.
(I passed a pleasant hour in the middle of the night listening to a BBC podcast of a programme about the Great Reform Act of 1832. Conservative landowners thought that giving representation to a few million middle-class male small-property owners was tantamount to abandoning the ship of civilization. It might even, they feared, lead to the enfranchisement of all males, including the lower orders. I don’t think votes for women had even entered their nightmares at that point.)
And so very blearily to Bangkok, where our first little victory over the system (or anti-system) was threatening to remove our bags from a taxi when the driver wanted 450 Baht cash-in-advance. We got him (grumpily) to switch on the meter (which is legally required), and in the end paying him only the 191 Baht the ride was supposed to cost. Bangkok is Scam Central - luckily we had heard about this one in advance.
We are now ensconced in the almost legendary Atlanta Hotel on Sukumvit. The Atlanta is very budget, and the paint job has seen better days, but it has bags of charm and history. Among other people, General William Westmorland stayed here during the Vietnam War, and it has been a big favorite with journalists and writers for decades: there’s a nostalgic piece by the famous British correspondent Duncan Campbell, reproduced in the lobby, on returning to the hotel after an initial stay as a backpacker in 1971.
Our first day was mercilessly hot and steamy, and we were grateful after the bus ride to spend most of the afternoon having an extended nap in the bliss of air-con. Then in the evening we happened upon the 2009 Bangkok Dance Festival, free in a local park, where we saw everything from an Argentinean couple doing traditional tango to an Italian group doing an improbably athletic modern dance on stilts.
But today (Saturday) was cloudy with a breeze, a mere 80 F or so, and we managed to be serious tourists again. We took in the huge Grand Palace with attached huge Wat and revered Emerald Buddha (in fact jade, discovered in Chang Rai in 1434) which sits at the center of one of the most beautiful interiors I have seen anywhere in Asia – alas no cameras allowed). Then after a streetside lunch of rather greasy Pad See Euw (fried noodles with chicken), we saw the equally huge Wat Pho which houses, among many other things, the beyond-huge (I’m not kidding: 46 meters long) golden Reclining Buddha. Both Wats have extraordinary, beautifully restored murals illustrating the Ramakien – the Thai version of the Ramayana, which is even longer and more complex than the original. Back down the river by water taxi – past the Oriental Hotel, which due to some oversight we are NOT staying in – and the sleekly efficient Skytrain back to the Atlanta.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Fish Spa
While we were in Kuala Lumpur, Declan and I treated ourselves to a foot treatment at a fish spa. I'd read about a fish spa that had opened in the Seattle area sometime this summer, and then read a few days later about how the Health Department had shut them down. So when Richard and I were walking one night in KL and I was handed a flyer for a new fish spa that offered a $10 treatment, and kids under 12 were free, well, I had to try it.
What, you may ask, is a fish spa? Essentially, it's a 30 minute adventure that claims to remove the dead skin from your feet "the natural way." In other words, you quickly wash the day's grime off your feet, and then stick them into a fish tank. Yup, into a tank filled with hundreds of little fish. The fish spend 30 minutes nibbling, and voila, you have nice smooth feet.
I'll be honest...I shrieked when the fish first got to my feet. It felt like, well, ... a mass of little fish chewing on my feet. Ticklish and creepy all at the same time. After a minute or so, you adjust, and you just giggle maniacally while the little monsters try to get between your toes, nibbling all the while. Declan stuck his feet firmly on the bottom of the tank to try to discourage the most ticklish ones.
After about 20 minutes of this, we were moved to the tank with the bigger fish (4 inches, rather than 2). Sorry, but these guys have alarmingly sharp teeth, and their ministrations were actually somewhat painful. I found myself holding just my heels in the water, directing the fish towards the monster callouses developed from two months wearing nothing but Tevas.
Declan kept patting me on the shoulder and assuring me that I didn't have to go through with this, but I told him that there was no way I could quit if he was sticking it out.
At the end, we rinsed our feet off (note to future fish spa owners, some soap might not go awry here), and paid our $10.
Much to my surprise, when we got back to our hotel (totally drenched from the evening thunderstorm), our feet were admirably smooth and polished. Much better results than could be achieved with a pumice stone for sure. One week later, our feet still look much better than Aidan's and Richard's. But I can't say that I'll ever do it again.
What, you may ask, is a fish spa? Essentially, it's a 30 minute adventure that claims to remove the dead skin from your feet "the natural way." In other words, you quickly wash the day's grime off your feet, and then stick them into a fish tank. Yup, into a tank filled with hundreds of little fish. The fish spend 30 minutes nibbling, and voila, you have nice smooth feet.
I'll be honest...I shrieked when the fish first got to my feet. It felt like, well, ... a mass of little fish chewing on my feet. Ticklish and creepy all at the same time. After a minute or so, you adjust, and you just giggle maniacally while the little monsters try to get between your toes, nibbling all the while. Declan stuck his feet firmly on the bottom of the tank to try to discourage the most ticklish ones.
After about 20 minutes of this, we were moved to the tank with the bigger fish (4 inches, rather than 2). Sorry, but these guys have alarmingly sharp teeth, and their ministrations were actually somewhat painful. I found myself holding just my heels in the water, directing the fish towards the monster callouses developed from two months wearing nothing but Tevas.
Declan kept patting me on the shoulder and assuring me that I didn't have to go through with this, but I told him that there was no way I could quit if he was sticking it out.
At the end, we rinsed our feet off (note to future fish spa owners, some soap might not go awry here), and paid our $10.
Much to my surprise, when we got back to our hotel (totally drenched from the evening thunderstorm), our feet were admirably smooth and polished. Much better results than could be achieved with a pumice stone for sure. One week later, our feet still look much better than Aidan's and Richard's. But I can't say that I'll ever do it again.
Travel update
Tomorrow we leave our haven of quiet and luxury in Phuket, where we have spent a gorgeous week doing absolutely nothing, to move on up the coast. We will be stopping for two nights in Khao Lak, where we are hoping to do our first dive since Ko Tao, then making out way either by train or bus to Bangkok, possibly stopping along the way and possibly not. (We need to be in BK long enough to sort out both Vietnam and China visas.) It is sunny and beautiful here during the day, most days, though ominously cloudy on some days and with truly spectacular storms in the evening / night: last night there was a storm right over the house, with sheets of lightning and (at a guess) an inch of rain per hour for three hours.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Reading the News
I tried to read the news in Seattle today, and got the following message when I typed in the URL for the Seattle PI:
URL นี้ได้ถูกปิดกั้นแล้ว เนื่องจาก
มีคำสั่งศาลให้ปิดกั้น
หรือ
มีลักษณะเข้าข่ายที่อาจกระทบต่อความมั่นคงแห่งราชอาณาจักร หรืออาจขัดต่อความสงบเรียบร้อยหรือศีลธรรมอันดีของประชาชน
This URL has been blocked by
a Court order
Or
it could have an affect on or be against the security of the Kingdom, public order or good morals.
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Funnily enough, I could still read the Seattle Times.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Petrosains
Petrosains,or,the science of petrol, the name of the petrol museum at the base of the Petronas twin towers. Petronas is Malaysia's big oil giant, and it sponsors the museum.
You enter the museum, and leave it, on the dark ride, a tunnel with cars going along it and a voice outlining Malaysia's natural resources. Disembarking the ride, you enter the exhibit on static electricity, with items such as a plasma tube and a wool pad for creating static electricity. It was really cool when Declan got to use the tube to light a fluorescent light. Next up is Gravity, with a construct your on marble track wall. Next was Petrojaya, an imaginary town where people don't use oil as much as we do because they value it more. After a quick tour of Petrojaya, the next exhibit is Dino's . Does anybody know of a science museum that doesn't include dinosaurs? You'd think that there was a law against not having any. After the Dino's was earthquakes and some cool stuff like a faquirrs bed, i.e., a bed of nails. Next, you board a chopper out to a model oil rig. at the oil rig, you got to see crew quarters, medical offices, and the galley and then you move on to velocity and power. At this point, we realized that we were very nearly late or our sky bridge tickets, and bypassed the remnants of the museum (about another quarter of the exhibits).
I was torn about this museum. It is incredibly well designed, and the architect should get a medal, but it's main purpose is to glorify oil, specifically, Petronas oil. As a supporter of alternate energy, I thought that it could do with some improvements. Perhaps Petrojaya could simply be a modern society but without oil? What is the future for Hybrid cars, solar cars, and biodiesel cars? On t5he other hand, Petronas lives by selling oil, and in doing so, it provides many,many jobs. Which is better: millions of jobs, of cleaner air?
You enter the museum, and leave it, on the dark ride, a tunnel with cars going along it and a voice outlining Malaysia's natural resources. Disembarking the ride, you enter the exhibit on static electricity, with items such as a plasma tube and a wool pad for creating static electricity. It was really cool when Declan got to use the tube to light a fluorescent light. Next up is Gravity, with a construct your on marble track wall. Next was Petrojaya, an imaginary town where people don't use oil as much as we do because they value it more. After a quick tour of Petrojaya, the next exhibit is Dino's . Does anybody know of a science museum that doesn't include dinosaurs? You'd think that there was a law against not having any. After the Dino's was earthquakes and some cool stuff like a faquirrs bed, i.e., a bed of nails. Next, you board a chopper out to a model oil rig. at the oil rig, you got to see crew quarters, medical offices, and the galley and then you move on to velocity and power. At this point, we realized that we were very nearly late or our sky bridge tickets, and bypassed the remnants of the museum (about another quarter of the exhibits).
I was torn about this museum. It is incredibly well designed, and the architect should get a medal, but it's main purpose is to glorify oil, specifically, Petronas oil. As a supporter of alternate energy, I thought that it could do with some improvements. Perhaps Petrojaya could simply be a modern society but without oil? What is the future for Hybrid cars, solar cars, and biodiesel cars? On t5he other hand, Petronas lives by selling oil, and in doing so, it provides many,many jobs. Which is better: millions of jobs, of cleaner air?
Visas
Did I mention that our trip to KL did the trick for our visas? We got 30 days (until April 1) upon our return. Of course, we picked the slowest immigration clerk ever. Having been about the 15-20th people off the plane, we were the last, the absolute last, people through immigration (there were about 100 people on the plane). Only 7 people in front of us in line. Sigh.
But we can stay until our flight leaves Bangkok for Vietnam on the 29th. Now we just have to decide what we want to do after we leave Phuket.
But we can stay until our flight leaves Bangkok for Vietnam on the 29th. Now we just have to decide what we want to do after we leave Phuket.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Visiting the orphanage in Luang Prubang
I never did get around to posting about our visit to the orphanage in Luang Prubang. My Dad had chosen a guest house with ties to a local orphanage, and organized a trip out to see it. Richard didn't come with us (he took the time to get some writing done).
We got on the tuk tuk, and made a quick stop at the local market. There we purchased enough notebooks and pens for each of the 400 plus kids who stay at the orphanage. Then we drove on to the campus.
It would be easy to romanticize the place. It was a large space, several acres, with open buildings, green spaces, gardens, and surrounding beautiful scenery. But.
There are 400 plus kids who live there, ranging in age from about 8 to 17. It wasn't quite clear where the kids lived prior to coming to this facility. Some of them have no parents, some only one. Most come from villages, rather than from LP itself.
The campus includes boys and girls dormitories, classrooms, a dining hall, open green space, bathing places, toilets, and gardens. In the old dormitories, there are long rows of knee high platforms lining each wall. Above the platforms at about head height runs a shelf. Each kid has the width of a twin mattress (though no mattress, only a mat on top of the platform), with the corresponding space under the mat and on the shelf for personal belongings. In the new dorms, the boys have bunk beds, again with some space under the bed and some on a shelf. Most kids kept their belongings in large reusable plastic bags.
Most of the toilets are tiled concrete structures. To a Western eye, used to indoor plumbing and hyper cleanliness, they seem much like upscale outhouses. By local standards, they are quite nice. Certainly as nice or nicer than toileting facilities we saw in smaller villages. They bathe in newly constructed concrete and tile areas, with no walls and a central reservoir of clean water (there is a tap, with a small hose for bathing). I assume that they wear sarongs to bathe in, as is done in much of the rest of the country where public bathing is common. By local standards, the bathing facility is nicely done, again, certainly as nice as any public bath we saw in the villages.
The food is cooked over four wood fires in a small kitchen area. During the week, the kids are provided with bread and milk at breakfast time, and a simple lunch and dinner. While we were there, just before lunch, we saw 7 tables, each holding a bag of cooked sticky rice and a pot of watery vegetable and pork (mostly bone) stew. We asked how many kids each table would feed, and were told 13. It seemed like generous, albeit not particularly appetising portions. But then we asked whether the kids ate in shifts. No, we were told, this is all the food for all the kids. And then we realized that each pot served 30 kids. Not nearly enough. I noticed that outside the dining hall there was another place with food. It turns out that if the kids want, they can buy supplementary food there.
There is no food cooked for the kids on the weekends--the cooking staff only works during the week. They are given sticky rice to have, plus about 50 cents to cover buying some additional food. They can also cook some of the vegetables from the garden.
There are no adults at the orphanage on the weekends. The kids are left to fend for themselves. The older kids are matched up with younger ones. In an ideal world, this would work well for teaching responsibility and creating connection between the kids. I couldn't help but think of Lord of the Flies, and worry that what in fact happens is some system whereby the older kids boss and bully the younger kids.
All the kids were in class while we were there. Our guide said that the school there is much better than that in the villages, and it certainly looked like they were in a pretty decent place. The classrooms looked as nice, if not nicer, than those we taught in in another village (more about that in another post).
The guide also said that when the kids left the orphanage, they all had the option of a government job. No one else we talked to could verify this, but if it's true, these kids are definitely better off than kids in the American system. In the US, once a kid ages out of the system, he or she receives no more support and many (most?) wind up in jail with a year of their "independence".
I left thinking it was hard to know what to think. Certainly, no kid should be in an orphanage, the food was insufficient, and I can't imagine leaving 400 kids to self govern every weekend. But what is their alternative? Life in a village with relatives who don't want them, can't feed them, and can't educate them?
We got on the tuk tuk, and made a quick stop at the local market. There we purchased enough notebooks and pens for each of the 400 plus kids who stay at the orphanage. Then we drove on to the campus.
It would be easy to romanticize the place. It was a large space, several acres, with open buildings, green spaces, gardens, and surrounding beautiful scenery. But.
There are 400 plus kids who live there, ranging in age from about 8 to 17. It wasn't quite clear where the kids lived prior to coming to this facility. Some of them have no parents, some only one. Most come from villages, rather than from LP itself.
The campus includes boys and girls dormitories, classrooms, a dining hall, open green space, bathing places, toilets, and gardens. In the old dormitories, there are long rows of knee high platforms lining each wall. Above the platforms at about head height runs a shelf. Each kid has the width of a twin mattress (though no mattress, only a mat on top of the platform), with the corresponding space under the mat and on the shelf for personal belongings. In the new dorms, the boys have bunk beds, again with some space under the bed and some on a shelf. Most kids kept their belongings in large reusable plastic bags.
Most of the toilets are tiled concrete structures. To a Western eye, used to indoor plumbing and hyper cleanliness, they seem much like upscale outhouses. By local standards, they are quite nice. Certainly as nice or nicer than toileting facilities we saw in smaller villages. They bathe in newly constructed concrete and tile areas, with no walls and a central reservoir of clean water (there is a tap, with a small hose for bathing). I assume that they wear sarongs to bathe in, as is done in much of the rest of the country where public bathing is common. By local standards, the bathing facility is nicely done, again, certainly as nice as any public bath we saw in the villages.
The food is cooked over four wood fires in a small kitchen area. During the week, the kids are provided with bread and milk at breakfast time, and a simple lunch and dinner. While we were there, just before lunch, we saw 7 tables, each holding a bag of cooked sticky rice and a pot of watery vegetable and pork (mostly bone) stew. We asked how many kids each table would feed, and were told 13. It seemed like generous, albeit not particularly appetising portions. But then we asked whether the kids ate in shifts. No, we were told, this is all the food for all the kids. And then we realized that each pot served 30 kids. Not nearly enough. I noticed that outside the dining hall there was another place with food. It turns out that if the kids want, they can buy supplementary food there.
There is no food cooked for the kids on the weekends--the cooking staff only works during the week. They are given sticky rice to have, plus about 50 cents to cover buying some additional food. They can also cook some of the vegetables from the garden.
There are no adults at the orphanage on the weekends. The kids are left to fend for themselves. The older kids are matched up with younger ones. In an ideal world, this would work well for teaching responsibility and creating connection between the kids. I couldn't help but think of Lord of the Flies, and worry that what in fact happens is some system whereby the older kids boss and bully the younger kids.
All the kids were in class while we were there. Our guide said that the school there is much better than that in the villages, and it certainly looked like they were in a pretty decent place. The classrooms looked as nice, if not nicer, than those we taught in in another village (more about that in another post).
The guide also said that when the kids left the orphanage, they all had the option of a government job. No one else we talked to could verify this, but if it's true, these kids are definitely better off than kids in the American system. In the US, once a kid ages out of the system, he or she receives no more support and many (most?) wind up in jail with a year of their "independence".
I left thinking it was hard to know what to think. Certainly, no kid should be in an orphanage, the food was insufficient, and I can't imagine leaving 400 kids to self govern every weekend. But what is their alternative? Life in a village with relatives who don't want them, can't feed them, and can't educate them?
Phuket, aka Paradise
Many, many thanks go to my sister Lori and her friend Alex for our current stay in paradise, otherwise known as Phuket. We have been feeling, in some ways, a bit traveled out and in need of a break. Richard remembered meeting Alex and Jeremy at Lori's house, at the fabulous party she threw to help launch his book, who owned a beach house in Thailand. Well, I emailed Lori, she emailed Alex, and Alex, bless her heart, took pity on a family traveling on a backpackers' budget, and made her lovely home available to us at rates we can afford.
We have done nothing for two days, and it's been so wonderful. The boys have been delighting in having a kitchen to forage in. For all that eating in restaurants for all meals sounds heavenly, it's incredibly luxurious to be able to wander into the kitchen for a quick handful of cornflakes or a piece of bread when the munchies strike.
We are on our way to bed, after a strenuous day of doing nothing (I can't tell you how nice it is to have no "sights" nearby). First though, the kids are advocating for eating all the duty free chocolate we bought with our remaining Ringit before leaving Malaysia. (Note, I'd intended to buy a bottle of gin, but we didn't have enough Ringit left. Chocolate it was.)
We have done nothing for two days, and it's been so wonderful. The boys have been delighting in having a kitchen to forage in. For all that eating in restaurants for all meals sounds heavenly, it's incredibly luxurious to be able to wander into the kitchen for a quick handful of cornflakes or a piece of bread when the munchies strike.
We are on our way to bed, after a strenuous day of doing nothing (I can't tell you how nice it is to have no "sights" nearby). First though, the kids are advocating for eating all the duty free chocolate we bought with our remaining Ringit before leaving Malaysia. (Note, I'd intended to buy a bottle of gin, but we didn't have enough Ringit left. Chocolate it was.)
KL-Puket
On the day that we flew in to Phuket it was so rainy in KL that running five feet from a car to an awning got you soaked and dripping on the floor. Also on some of the roads there was 2 feet of standing water.
Despite it being really raining in the city, out by the air port it was totally dry. Admittedly the air port was more than75 k out of town so it had a right to be dry but still.
After arriving at the airport and having to change money again because the metered taxi charged a ridiculous price we were forced to eat Mc'Donalds everything went smoothly until we got up to exit the plane which was when i puked for the first time. When we finally got through the immagretion line and picked up our bags we were starting to wonder whether our driver would still be there because we were so late lukilly our driver was still there so we got a ride to the house were renting. When i got out of the car i barfed again and for the fial time.
Despite it being really raining in the city, out by the air port it was totally dry. Admittedly the air port was more than75 k out of town so it had a right to be dry but still.
After arriving at the airport and having to change money again because the metered taxi charged a ridiculous price we were forced to eat Mc'Donalds everything went smoothly until we got up to exit the plane which was when i puked for the first time. When we finally got through the immagretion line and picked up our bags we were starting to wonder whether our driver would still be there because we were so late lukilly our driver was still there so we got a ride to the house were renting. When i got out of the car i barfed again and for the fial time.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Quick update
I'm writing this in a Starbucks (free WiFi) directly under the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Hot, steamy and equatorial, with massive thunder and lightninng every afternoon - the first rain we have seen in 2 1/2 months.
We have been in KL for 4 days: very interesting, very different, but noisy and expensive after Thailand. We are returning to Thailand (NW Phuket, on the peninsula) tonight. More later. (New pictures just posted.)
We have been in KL for 4 days: very interesting, very different, but noisy and expensive after Thailand. We are returning to Thailand (NW Phuket, on the peninsula) tonight. More later. (New pictures just posted.)
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