03.18.06
Posted in Travels at 6:38 pm by Leopoldo
3/18/06, Koh Samui
The morning was spent going to the airport and waiting for my flight. At the airport I realized that the web site that told me to buy my tickets to Surat Thani airport was not entirely accurate. Suart Thani is the inland airport from which you can ferry to Samui, what I wanted was to go direcly to the island. The blunder saved me about 2,000 baht but cost me about five extra hours of travel time in the form of a bus from the airport to the ferry terminal and then a boat to the island.
On the island the transportation guide took me to a couple of places. I ended up at a joint called the Chaweng Pearl Cabana which is a bit run down but my cabana has a partial ocean view and there is a pretty decently restaurant and bar right on the beach. I am in North Chaweng, literally less than a five minute walk from central Chaweng and all the restaurants and stores. After checking in I went for a walk into town where I did a quick email check then sat down at the Qarterdeck restaurant for food, a beer and a whole lot of people watching. Power kept failing only to come back a few second later. It was actually pretty amusing to see all the lit up signs and neon come to life.
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03.17.06
Posted in Travels at 9:37 pm by Leopoldo
3/17/06, Later that night, Bangkok
Being my last day in this town I figured I would want to see parts of the town I had not seen before and decided to go on walkabout. I started the afternoon by walking East on Sukhumvit road figuring I might stop to eat at the Indian neighborhood near Soi 3. I quickly found that I was not that hungry and that the heat was too oppressive for long walks along a busy road, so after a few blocks I went up the Nana Sky Train station and took a train northwest to Victory Monument. The monument itself was rather unimpressive but the mass of school girls and boys walking along the pedestrian bridges was a sight. I proceeded west on Thanon Ratchawithi, a characterless road with lots of buses until I got to Dusit Zoo. I had been hoping to get a feel for the green area surrounding the Royal Palace or the zoo but found them both surrounded with high walls. Heading South I was attracted by the sound of a loudspeaker south of the King Chulalongkorn Monument but was dissuaded from going any further when lines of police in riot gear began pouring into the area. I assume there was an anti-government demonstration in process, I have been hearing about them on Western Speaking news but so far have not seen any. I was interested to take a picture of the police but not knowing how they would take it decided it was safer to head off. At this point something happened to me that I did not think possible: I was in need of and could not find either a 7-11 or a Tuk Tuk. Those of you who have visited Bangkok probably think I must be lying as you know it is nearly impossible to walk a quarter block in a tourist area without running into either, but if you get off the beaten path they suddenly become scarce.
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03.16.06
Posted in Travels at 10:08 pm by Leopoldo
3/17/06 12:38 PM, Bangkok
I am sitting at the dining room of the Atlanta Hotel eating Banana pancakes with lime and honey and drinking a delicious honey lime iced tea. To my left are two curious old British fellows sharing a bottle of red wine while to my right a US couple argues over whether to travel together or split up as they want to do different things in Bangkok. An old guitar record is playing soothing tunes while big old fans keep the warm air moving around. I am simply in love with this location, to get a feeling of why I recommend you check out their web page, specially the page with the pictures (which just crashed my browser inside the hotel, so caveat browser). There are lazy cats that live in the lobby, the staff is the friendliest I have met yet and the hotel is covered with signs and helpful guides written with a wry and straightforward sense of humor that I adore. I totally want to film a movie at this location.
Nick took off for Tokyo this morning. We did not get back until after 1AM and he had to leave for the airport at 3AM so he did not sleep but instead wrote emails and travel log. I yesterday booked a (rather expensive) flight to Ko Samui and need to find a place to stay while there. My morning has been spent catching up on the travel log (I got a number of emails asking if I was ok) and sorting through photos to attach. Next I will find accommodations at Ko Samui and then hopefully head out for one last day in Bangkok. My flight back to the island returns to Bangkok Airport two hours before I fly out to Hong Kong so today truly is my last day in the city. I also need to find a place to spend the night in Hong Kong (the flights from Bangkok to Hong Kong on the 23rd were all full, so I am flying there on the 22nd and spending one night in HK before heading back to the US).
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Posted in Travels at 10:02 pm by Leopoldo
3/16/06, Bangkok
Last night Nick washed dirty clothes in the hotel bathtub. We could have sent it out to be washed but prices around Pattaya are calibrated for European tourists traveling in packaged deals and sending out a few shirts and underwear could have ended up costing as much as the hotel for the night. This morning we found our clothes were not dry, I am sure in this heat they would have dried in an hour outside but in the air-conditioned hotel room they stayed nice and wet. We walked around a bit and finally found someone who was willing to dry our clothes and charge by the Kilogram rather than by the item. It was still a bit expensive but with only a few hours left until checkout we did not have many options.
Neither of us ate anything this morning as we were both still suffering from the previous night indulgence in spicy curries. The good news is that I finally managed to get my outgoing tickets changed. You would not believe how hard it is to make phone calls to 1-800 numbers from overseas and how difficult it was dealing with Alaska Airlines and Cathay Pacific (different time zones, disconnecting calls, operating procedures that assume a lot of things that are not true, etc…) but thanks to some helpful people at Alaska I am now staying in Thailand for the remainder of the trip. In many ways I am sad about this because I have for many years wanted to visit Japan, but having been recently unemployed it is simply not a good idea for me to be spending a week in what was until this year rated THE most expensive city in the world (it just got knocked down two number two by Amsterdam). The change of flights was confirmed just a couple of minutes before boarding a bus back to Bangkok, if I had known about it earlier (even an hour earlier) I would probably have headed south instead of north, but as it was I decided to stay on the bus and figure out my next destination. En route and on the bus I decided the island of Ko Samui is the place for me. According to the descriptions in the books it should offer the tropical beaches, relaxation and hopefully scuba diving I have been longing for without the disturbing and omnipresent sex tourism of Pattaya.
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Posted in Travels at 9:06 pm by Leopoldo
3/15/06, Pattaya
We did not get to bed until 2AM and decided to sleep in for a bit. I began the morning with an unsuccessful search for banana rotee near the hotel. We got some yummy corn cakes and then stopped at one of the eateries for locals to get curry and rice. I got a chicken pananeg curry that was tasty but a bit upsetting.
After a visit to an Internet Café I tried (again) to change by return ticket and managed to get close to a confirmed change. On the way back along the beach we got some coconut ice cream and with ice cram I mean a cup with sweet sticky rice, jellied palm nuts, coconut ice cream, candied milk ice cream, two types of nuts and condensed milk on top. Not bad for less than 10 baht. Sitting along the beach we were petitioned for all kinds of activities and I decided to pay the 400 baht for a parasail ride. A boat took me out to one of the many platforms where they strapped me in and took me for a quick run around the platforms then landed me back on the platform.
We sat under beach umbrellas for a while enjoying the view then stopped at a local smoothie shop for a banana smoothie (they were all out of mango) before heading back to the hotel. We then walked along Pattaya 2 and up Middle Road looking for a laundry that could wash our clothes and got a coconut and rice cake from a sweets vendor. After spending some time walking around a local supermarket we stopped at an off road restaurant and got fried pork with garlic and a sweet and sour pork salad. The latter had a spicy sauce that burned Nick’s mouth and upset my gut so much that I had to hop on a pickup truck taxi back to the Hotel to use the restroom. We have dubbed this effect the ‘Ring of Fire’. If you have experienced it, you know what I mean.
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Posted in Travels at 9:04 pm by Leopoldo
3/14/06, Pattaya
This morning we hailed down a Tuk-Tuk and asked the driver to take us to Lamdum, the restaurant where locals go for Khal Soi. When we got there we asked the driver to join us for lunch, but ever after we made it clear (or at least we think we got the message across) that we were willing to pay for it, he turned us down. We both wonder if he might have been uncomfortable because of a perceived class difference. The place was definitely for the locals. I ordered a pork Khal Soi and Nick ordered a Chicken one. The soup turned out to be the same for both with very tasty noodles. The chillies in vinegar sauce were a perfect compliment. I also had a couple of delicious Iced Teas.
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Posted in Travels at 9:00 pm by Leopoldo
3/13/06, Chang Mai
Today we had our second day of cooking classes. The morning began with a trip to the market where our cooking guides. They walked us through different stands and showed us what all the local fruits, vegetables and noodles were. I found out that only through smell could I tell between the different basils. The class itself was at ‘The Wok’, the local restaurant owned by Sompon Nabnian. We cooked Tom Kha Gai (Chicken in coconut milk soup), Gaeng Phad Plaa (Red Curry with fish), Phad Hed Ruam Khao Pod Om (Stirfry of mixed mushrooms with baby corn), Raad Nah Muu (Fried noodles with pork), Som Tam (Papaya Salad) and finished it out with a delicious Khanom Kluay (Steamed Banana Cake).
The Wok was close enough to the city wall that we walked back to the Top North hotel with a quick stop over at the Internet Café. I tried again to change my return flight to skip Tokyo and go directly from Bangkok home but did not get anywhere. It is rather amazing how impossible it is to dial a 1-800 number from overseas.
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Posted in Travels at 8:50 pm by Leopoldo
3/12/06, Chang Mai
Imagine a street at night with vendors set up on either side. Now imagine that the vendors keep going for the whole block. Now make the vendors go for another, and another, and another, make them go as far as your eye can see. You don’t believe it could go that long so you climb an old city wall to get a view from above, and yet it somehow keeps going. Now that you have that image in your head imagine walking four blocks into the labyrinth and realizing that it not only goes on beyond what you were able to see from the wall but continues as far as the eye can see down the side streets as well. That is what the gate night market in Chang Mai looks like.
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03.12.06
Posted in Travels at 6:39 pm by Leopoldo
3/12/06 6:19 PM, Chang Mai
Today I decided to sleep in, waking up just in time to shower and get to the Chang Mai Thai Cookery School. We were driven to a cooking school next to the house of Sompon Nabnian, the chef that owns the school and restaurant. Over the day we attended classroom sessions and then made fresh Panaeng Curry, Panaeng Mu (Pork in curry sauce), Plaa Nin Laad Prik Bai Horapa (Deep Fried Fish with Chili and Basil), Gaeng Hanglay Gai (Chang Mai Curry with Chicken), Phad Prio Wan Phak (Sweet and Sour Vegetable Stirfry), Yam Wun Sen (Spicky Glass Noodle Salad) and Khao Neow Dam Phak (Black Sticky Rice Pudding). I don’t know that I will have opportunity to make these dishes at home (I don’t own half of the equipment needed) but I at least have a better feeling for what goes into the dishes. Also, if I do say so myself, I think my dishes came out damned well. Tomorrow we head back for more.
We figured out that a couple of days in Tokyo will cost as much as more than a week in Thailand so we are trying to change our flights to skip the Tokyo leg. If that does not work out, I guess I will stay somewhere cheap (as much as that is possible in Tokyo) and make the best of it, but I do hope it will work out.
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Posted in Travels at 1:38 am by Leopoldo
3/12/06 1:30 AM, Chang Mai
After taking some time to send and receive email we headed back out and grabbed a Tuk Tuk to the night bazaar. First order of business? Banana Rotee of course! We then walked back to Soi 6, the street with the Indian food and took the time to examine the options. We concluded that the street marked on the Nancy Chandler Chang Mai map as ‘full of Indian food’ really only has three options (one of which we ate at our first day here) and they are all more Pakistani / North Muslim than Indian. We still decided to have a seat and by pointing at pots of food ordered some kind of a beef stew and a pumpkin dish. Both had great sauces but neither the meat nor the pumpking was very good. Along the way to the Anusarn food market we stopped at another Indian restaurant that advertised sweets and asked if they had Galab Jamun. The cook (he was cooking in a little ourdoor area) had some brought in from the kitchen for us to taste and we ordered a few of them to go. We ate them at Anusarn then sat down for fruit juices (Banana shake for me, coconut milk in the husk for Nick). I was wanting a massage while Nick wanted to explore more food so we split up and I got an hour long Thai body massage. I had to swing by the massage place a couple of times before I found someone to help me and managed to get my intention across with hand signs. When the masseur climbed on my back (with her knees pressing in) I got a bit worried but relaxed when I realized she could not weigh more than 90 lbs. I was not as impressed with the massage but do think it did me good.
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