Bangkok:
So
we are now in Thailand, Bangkok. Our days in this country so far has
been a time to get used to many things: The heat for a start (I read
somewhere that it takes about 2 weeks to really get comfortable with
the heat, and so far we have been so grateful for the air conditioner
in our room). An then it is the Thai culture, not knowing the
language and all. But people are so friendly, to the point of
annoyance actually sometimes. As soon as we stop in a street corner
to check where we are on our map, we have a swarm of kind helpers
around wanting to know where we want to go. But they are all so nice
and I actually feel more safe here than I did in Buenos Aires,
although the size of the city is the same, 10 million people. And the
food…Oh,my God, it is wonderful! On most streets there are numerous
food stalls that even have chairs and camping tables set up along the
pavement for the guest to sit on, and they cook on simple gas stoves
and the food is just amazing. Everywhere you can buy fresh tropical
fruit and ice coffee and drinks and in the evening there are simple
provisional bars but up that sell beer and spirits etc. The
streets are such centre of commerce, it just varies in what is sold
at different times of the day.
Our
time in Bangkok was partially about doing the touristy things,
visiting the old town with its markets, taking a river boat, visiting tempels, exploring the sky train that runs above the city, and partially about
running around in the vast shopping malls and centres looking for
clothes and electronics. We bought one fancy posh music machine for
Roy to replace the one that was stolen in Argentina, and a ipod nano
for me that was a copy (we knew it was) but it turned out not to
work. When we retuned to the same place the day after, the stall was
closed because it was Sunday and then we had to fly out of the city,
so now we are hoping get it fixed elsewhere.
Another
interesting Bangkok experience was that we where told that since it
is Chinese new year and a public holiday and a lot of people are
going for holidays in different parts of Thailand, we definitely
should book our flight tickets right away. A local Thai lady put us
in a tuk tuk (a moped taxi) and sent us to a centre that was supposed
to be a governmentally run agency the would definitely not want to
rip us off, like the other agencies would (we where told). When we
arrive the lady offer us to help us plan our entire visit in Thailand
saying that she can arrange accommodation and activities to prices
lower than we could ever hope to get anywhere else, but we had to do
it quickly because thy where selling out. Without having planned what
we wanted to do beforehand, we sort of went with her suggestions and
booed a flight, a cooking curse with accommodation, a trek in the
jungle etc. As we did not have all the money with us, we where meant
to come back the day after to pay the remaining money after we had
paid the deposit. Once back in our hostel Roy went online and
compared prices and availability, and found that everything she
wanted to sell us could be found at a lower price and there was not
problem with availability at all. There was quite some anger in our
reactions to this, and the next day Roy want back and pulled out from
most of it. But he had to see the manager for that "discussion".
In our lonely planet book it says that the scams that you are most
likely to come across is to be charmed off off you money, and we
nearly where...
Chiang
Mai:
We
are in Chiang Mai, the north part of Thailand. We just finished a 3
day cooking course lead by a woman called Meow (pronounced mjau) with
a lot of knowledge and quite a sex orientated sense of humour. On one
of the days she had the entire group of cooking students all
embarrassed when we where making green curry paste and pawing it
rhythmically in a mortar, asking us to show off "our moves"
to the rest of the group.
Each
day started with a visit of a local market where fresh produce was
for sale. Things that i saw on that market i have never seen before,
like egg plans that actually looked like eggs, brown chicken eggs (I
later found out that they where cooked with soya sauce for 30 minutes
and that is why they where brown), Different herbs and vegetables,
fruit and spices that where completely new to me. Some of the things
on that market i would never ever eat, like the ant eggs (with some
ants still crawling on them). Apart form that they had tons of
chillies in of different kinds and sizes, tofu, meat, fish (that was
still moving, some where even alive)etc. Yes, it was deficiently an
experience to walk around that market.
The
little cooking school was guarded by a small white poodle that became
our friend after a few days. Each day we cooked 6 dishes and eat
them, both me and Roy where astonished by how easy (and fat) Thai
cooking is if you only have the access to the right ingredients. We
made all the curries, green, red and yellow, papaya salad, spring
rolls pad Thai noodles, and my favourite: the Thai fish cakes, and I
finally found out about the secret ingredient that made me fall in
love with them in the first place: the Kafir lime leaf cut in small
pieces that is so fresh and lemony in its flavour.
Another
thing about the Thai food is the spiciness. Of course. As a pathetic
westerner that does not even drink coffee because i my heart starts
racing, i stared off with adding one quarter of a chilli in the
dishes i cooked. By the end of the 3 days i had advanced to half a
chilli. Roy started off with one chilli and by the end he proudly
announced that he was enjoying the food with 2 chillies in. When we
asked the teacher how many chillies the locals would put in a serving
for one person she replied 10! That is serious cilliness, that!
