This is it. The end of my two week adventure to tropical Thailand. Today has just been about whiling away the hours until my flight back to London. It's Saturday and this means the big weekend market in Bangkok. And big is truly an understatement - it is easily the biggest market I have ever seen in my life. You can buy everything here, from religious knicknacks to fighting cockerels. All manner of junk. Used clothes, new clothes, plastic fruit, works of art, stuffed insects, herbs and spices, everything has it's own section and it's a nightmare to try and work out where you are and where you need to go. Amidst the crowd and the heat, I did the cowardly thing and opted to escape to the air-conditioned haven of the shopping malls instead.
I have to be honest and say that there isn't much about Bangkok that I really nice. It's loud and busy and noisy. The traffic is horrendous and if you want to explore the west side of the river - good luck to you. On the east there is some semblance of decent transportation but the traffic is just as bad. I'm actually glad to be leaving.
So it's goodbye to the warm weather and cheap food. But on a plus note it's also goodbye to mosquitoes, overly hot weather (3 showers a day), overcrowding and being constantly mistaken for being a native. Oh yes, and not forgetting the most important thing - real milk. The first thing I want to do when I get home is to put the kettle on and make a decent cup of tea. Thailand has awful milk. I have no idea what it is, but it smells like that awful carton UHT stuff and it makes a bloody disgusting cup of tea. Bring out those Tetley teabags...
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Thursday, November 17, 2005
beach bunny
It's been a long old week so far. Since Monday I have trekked for some 4 hours up a mountain, scaled rocks and waded through streams, crawled around in caves and spent the night in a north tribe village somewhere up a mountain. It was the most intense and gruelling experience I have ever had - and it was amazing. Exhausting but amazing.
Today I am in beautiful Koh Samui. I flew in last night to the only airport I have ever seen that is, simply a glorified hut. It's a constant 30 degrees here, and very relaxing. All I have to worry about is topping up the suntan lotion, and where to eat. The water is clear and blue and the sand is soft as it should be. Today we hired a moped and explored some of the island - not the most successful trip ever - I nearly hurt myself trying to get to a waterfall (accessing the tourist attractions here is almost an extreme sport in itself) and fed a couple of mosquitoes for my trouble. Oh well.
Tomorrow I return to Bangkok. Hopefully I will see more of it this time. My adventure is almost over :( It's a shame but I'm happy to leave Thailand on a high. It's been the most amazing experience for me in all sorts of ways. But more on that when I get home :) Off to sample a little nightlife now - koh samui style...
Today I am in beautiful Koh Samui. I flew in last night to the only airport I have ever seen that is, simply a glorified hut. It's a constant 30 degrees here, and very relaxing. All I have to worry about is topping up the suntan lotion, and where to eat. The water is clear and blue and the sand is soft as it should be. Today we hired a moped and explored some of the island - not the most successful trip ever - I nearly hurt myself trying to get to a waterfall (accessing the tourist attractions here is almost an extreme sport in itself) and fed a couple of mosquitoes for my trouble. Oh well.
Tomorrow I return to Bangkok. Hopefully I will see more of it this time. My adventure is almost over :( It's a shame but I'm happy to leave Thailand on a high. It's been the most amazing experience for me in all sorts of ways. But more on that when I get home :) Off to sample a little nightlife now - koh samui style...
Friday, November 11, 2005
ken hom eat your heart out!
I can't believe that it's Friday already! For me, it's just under an hour until Saturday now. I have had 2 thai cooking classes and now an expert at making:
- phad thai
- thai green chicken curry
- roast duck red curry
- chicken in pandan leaves
The cooking classes have been really good fun. Yesterday was a little bit intimidating, mainly because I didn't really know what to expect. I got picked up, taken to the city office for registration and then we were all driven to Sompon's school which is 25 minutes drive outside the city. We all strapped on our beautiful aprons and got started on some vegetable carving. It's much harder than it looks :)
The general format of the day is as follows:
- sit in classroom
- watch chef explain ingredients and cook dish
- go to workstation and cook dish
- eat own dish
For some reason, the last couple of days I have suffered from severely poor short term memory and as soon as I got back to my workstation couldn't quite remember the order of action. Which veg to chop first, which ones to finely chop and then what order they went into the pan. Luckily, Sompon's lovely ladies and slightly camp guy were on hand to shout out instructions and give us all a helping hand. No one set themselves on fire and no one really messed up :) Well, no one would know anyway as everyone ate their own food...
Today, Sompon himself taught us how to make pad thai and thai green curry. He was a very good teacher and of course, there was much cameraderie in the classroom. The only problem that I have with these classes is that there is far too much eating involved. Every day there is one soup to start, some sort of appetizer, 2 main courses and a dessert. This morning I made sure not to eat any breakfast just so that I wouldn't feel quite as stuffed as I felt yesterday. It didn't really help...
After the cooking class, I arranged to meet up later with 2 of my classmates for a beer and then to check out the deep fried insects. I wasn't entirely convinced that I wanted to try any, but I wanted to be there when they did :)
I will have to post some pictures when I get back to London, it was really quite revolting watching them eat. I could see them concentrating hard not to think about what they were eating. In the end, I tried one thing - some sort of worm that looked like an oversize maggot. It didn't taste of much really, it was just really crispy. After that, I refused to try the others. This little vendor had crickets and this really really disgusting water beetle that was huge. One of the guys had this and said that apparently it was ok. Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck. He can take all the street cred for trying it. We all went on to this amazing teak house restaurant afterwards to eat some real food which was pretty fantastic. With beer and cocktails, we ended up spending 300 baht each, a small fortune by Thai standards I guess but in GBP it works out to be less than a fiver. Not exactly breaking the bank.
Tomorrow is my final cooking class. Not sure what I'll be cooking up - but I'm sure it will be good and it will be easy. Thai cooking is fantastic - all the work is in the preparation. After that, it's all just chucking all the ingredients into the pan and cooking for 5 minutes. I love it!
Sunday I will probably be going to Doi Suthep (mountain with temple on) and then it's off for a two day trek in the wilds of northern thailand.
- phad thai
- thai green chicken curry
- roast duck red curry
- chicken in pandan leaves
The cooking classes have been really good fun. Yesterday was a little bit intimidating, mainly because I didn't really know what to expect. I got picked up, taken to the city office for registration and then we were all driven to Sompon's school which is 25 minutes drive outside the city. We all strapped on our beautiful aprons and got started on some vegetable carving. It's much harder than it looks :)
The general format of the day is as follows:
- sit in classroom
- watch chef explain ingredients and cook dish
- go to workstation and cook dish
- eat own dish
For some reason, the last couple of days I have suffered from severely poor short term memory and as soon as I got back to my workstation couldn't quite remember the order of action. Which veg to chop first, which ones to finely chop and then what order they went into the pan. Luckily, Sompon's lovely ladies and slightly camp guy were on hand to shout out instructions and give us all a helping hand. No one set themselves on fire and no one really messed up :) Well, no one would know anyway as everyone ate their own food...
Today, Sompon himself taught us how to make pad thai and thai green curry. He was a very good teacher and of course, there was much cameraderie in the classroom. The only problem that I have with these classes is that there is far too much eating involved. Every day there is one soup to start, some sort of appetizer, 2 main courses and a dessert. This morning I made sure not to eat any breakfast just so that I wouldn't feel quite as stuffed as I felt yesterday. It didn't really help...
After the cooking class, I arranged to meet up later with 2 of my classmates for a beer and then to check out the deep fried insects. I wasn't entirely convinced that I wanted to try any, but I wanted to be there when they did :)
I will have to post some pictures when I get back to London, it was really quite revolting watching them eat. I could see them concentrating hard not to think about what they were eating. In the end, I tried one thing - some sort of worm that looked like an oversize maggot. It didn't taste of much really, it was just really crispy. After that, I refused to try the others. This little vendor had crickets and this really really disgusting water beetle that was huge. One of the guys had this and said that apparently it was ok. Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck. He can take all the street cred for trying it. We all went on to this amazing teak house restaurant afterwards to eat some real food which was pretty fantastic. With beer and cocktails, we ended up spending 300 baht each, a small fortune by Thai standards I guess but in GBP it works out to be less than a fiver. Not exactly breaking the bank.
Tomorrow is my final cooking class. Not sure what I'll be cooking up - but I'm sure it will be good and it will be easy. Thai cooking is fantastic - all the work is in the preparation. After that, it's all just chucking all the ingredients into the pan and cooking for 5 minutes. I love it!
Sunday I will probably be going to Doi Suthep (mountain with temple on) and then it's off for a two day trek in the wilds of northern thailand.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Bring on the curried fishballs
It's my second day in Thailand. I'm currently sitting in a little internet cafe outside the night market in Chiang Mai. It's nearly 10pm and pretty busy already.
It's a totally different world in Thailand, although I don't feel so much of a culture shock. Presumably this is due to the fact that in many ways, Thailand reminds me of Hong Kong.
The one thing I can't get used to is the totally incomprehensible language. It's a given that I won't understand what people are saying, but the indecipherable squiggles of the written language has me totally perplexed. I guess that's what it must be like for westerners and the chinese language. There is absolutely no guessing what anything says.
I am all templed out today. It doesn't take that much (reminds me of Kyoto). Chiang Mai supposedly has some 300 temples. I went to 3 today and that's enough for me already. They are all very similar - each with their own buddhas made from a different material or in a different pose. Besides, I don't really have time until Sunday as I now have 3 days worth of cooking class :) Ken Hom watch out!!
Need to move on and eat now. I am desperate to try some curried fishballs...
It's a totally different world in Thailand, although I don't feel so much of a culture shock. Presumably this is due to the fact that in many ways, Thailand reminds me of Hong Kong.
The one thing I can't get used to is the totally incomprehensible language. It's a given that I won't understand what people are saying, but the indecipherable squiggles of the written language has me totally perplexed. I guess that's what it must be like for westerners and the chinese language. There is absolutely no guessing what anything says.
I am all templed out today. It doesn't take that much (reminds me of Kyoto). Chiang Mai supposedly has some 300 temples. I went to 3 today and that's enough for me already. They are all very similar - each with their own buddhas made from a different material or in a different pose. Besides, I don't really have time until Sunday as I now have 3 days worth of cooking class :) Ken Hom watch out!!
Need to move on and eat now. I am desperate to try some curried fishballs...
Monday, November 07, 2005
From London with Love
Today is the day! It's just before 7.30 and I am pretty much ready to set off on my first journey across half the world by myself. It's a pretty scary thought though I am definitely looking forward to it.
It's been a pretty busy time for me as usual. A private chat with a colleague at work snowballed to what may be an important turning point in my career. Or perhaps not, but it signifies a big change in the days ahead.
My last thoughts before I go? I hope that in Thailand, I find something new. Something beautiful and everlasting memories. And if not, I hope that I at least find adventure :)
So, next stop, Bangkok. Till then, ja mata.
It's been a pretty busy time for me as usual. A private chat with a colleague at work snowballed to what may be an important turning point in my career. Or perhaps not, but it signifies a big change in the days ahead.
My last thoughts before I go? I hope that in Thailand, I find something new. Something beautiful and everlasting memories. And if not, I hope that I at least find adventure :)
So, next stop, Bangkok. Till then, ja mata.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
postscript
When I was in Budapest earlier this year, we visited (it's almost compulsory) the thermal baths. At this particular one we went to, there were some outdoor pools and one of them had a sort of river rapid merry-go-round. Once you joined it, you were swept around with the force of the water and it was hard to leave. When you finally come off, laughing from the exhilaration of it all, you stop and watch the people who are still caught in the current.
Days like this remind me of that. My life is a blur of activity, of allowing myself to be caught in the rush of living. Then finally I step back for a while, and contemplate the place where I have ended up.
Where am I now? My days seem to be an endless array of work, drinks, impromptu culture injections and holidays booked on a whim. I can barely take stock of what I'm really doing, what I really want and where I'm going with it all. I console myself that with all the stuff going on in my personal life, it's ok to take things easy for a while. To enjoy myself. A little voice tells me that it's just an excuse to not have to make any real decisions. I believe that voice.
Days like this remind me of that. My life is a blur of activity, of allowing myself to be caught in the rush of living. Then finally I step back for a while, and contemplate the place where I have ended up.
Where am I now? My days seem to be an endless array of work, drinks, impromptu culture injections and holidays booked on a whim. I can barely take stock of what I'm really doing, what I really want and where I'm going with it all. I console myself that with all the stuff going on in my personal life, it's ok to take things easy for a while. To enjoy myself. A little voice tells me that it's just an excuse to not have to make any real decisions. I believe that voice.
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