Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Bangkok Art and Culture Center

We went to the brand new art museum at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center today. The building is brand new and the museum was free = score! We saw some pretty weird stuff as well as some neat stuff. Here are some favorites (sorry for the blurriness):


Chinese Pepsi baby


Yummy in my Tummy

I was feeling a little down last night. Yesterday we were in our old backpacker-friendly area, getting Thai massages, and I decided that a banana roti would be the perfect thing to top off my feeling of health and well-being. But, lo and behold, banana roti man was not there! No roti?? I was crushed. Later on, I was looking forward to trying the Pad Thai from a vendor on the street by our apartment, but Pad Thai guy wasn't there either! I had visions of Banana Roti man and Pad Thai guy suffering some horrible accident together, colliding their carts and slipping on a mushy banana-noodle mess.

This evening, I was feeling pessimistic as we headed out of our apartment for dinner. "Enough of this Thai food," I was thinking, "what I really want is a garden salad and some fresh pasta." We headed out of our building in a new direction and I was amazed and delighted to find....New Banana Roti Man! This guy made some great ones in the traditional style (with eggs) and oh man...I am not allowed to go back there every night. Just when I was thinking things couldn't get any better, Pad Thai guy was back in action. His pad thai was without question the best we've had on this trip. See, we've been on a pad thai hunt. Those of you who know us well know that, in our eyes, the gold standard of pad thais comes from the now defunct Plearn Restaurant in Berkeley. So far, we've had bland dishes that just couldn't compete. Tonight's pad thai tasted just like Plearn's. We plan to be on a first-name basis with Pad Thai guy by the end of the week.

Product Engrish: Candy

Today on Product Engrish, things from the candy aisle.

You'll find this candy more or less disturbing depending on your mastery of contemporary English slang.

Crunky, the preferred chocolate bar of Lil' Jon

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Stop Speciesism - Support Elepehant Suffrage

Today we went to Bangkok's Chinatown. With the sole exception of seeing a vendor selling shots of Johnnie Walker Red next to fancy crossbows, it was a total bust. Save yourself the airfare and go to San Francisco.

Instead of spending more time on Chinatown, I'd like to do my part to raise awareness of a cause close to my heart. You may not be aware that in Thailand it is illegal for elephants to vote. These backwards practices are reminiscent of our country's own dark history of disenfranchisement. I'd like to ask that each and every one of you take five minutes out of your day to write your local congressman a letter explaining the importance of elephant suffrage in Thailand. Lets end this thing, together.

Translation: No taxation without representation and/or peanuts.

No standing triumphatly on wall.

This is actually an old picture, we took it about a week ago at the place with all the temples. I forget the name, you can look it up in our blog. Anyhow, here's the picture:

While the sign is very clear about the appropriateness of standing and/or sitting triumphantly on walls, it does not explicitly cover the giant stone chicken case. I ferreted out this loophole and used it to bring you the following photo:

Observe the proud stance, the perfect angles of the arms against hips, the knock-off Ray Bans. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Apartment Photos

Here are the photos of our little studio, as promised. They're not great pictures as there aren't many good angles in a tiny apartment, but you'll get the general idea:

We had been looking at two-person studios with queen-sized beds, but this one-person studio was much quieter and better sealed than the doubles we saw. So, the management put two twin mattresses side by side for us.

This is a dark photo, but look....

...pretty, carved cabinets!

Clean bathroom with hot water.

The apartment also has a fridge and a TV with some basic channels (we are able to watch US presidential debate coverage - yay!). We were thrilled when we found this place. We were ready to jump as soon as we saw it, but decided to take a walk in the park across the street from the building before signing, just to make sure we were on the same page about it. The park was lovely, and featured nice grassy areas, a playground, exercise equipment, and a lagoon. When we approached the lagoon, it erupted into a fountain, which misted and shot synchronized blasts of many differing heights and intensities, all choreographed to music. This was a sign, we knew. It was like the Bellagio, only way more awesome. So, now we're settled in and our very happy in our new place.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Product Engrish: Dog Products

The pet section at the supermarket proved particularly ripe for Engrish:

I think this could catch on as new "street" slang. e.g. "Fresh up your lovely dog yo, 'fore I pop a cap in ya'"

When I hear "bursting with meatiness" the first thing that comes to my mind is Chuck Norris. Maybe that's just me.

Siam Paragon: Impressions

We went to the Siam Paragon mall today, a 300,000 square meter monstrosity (~ 50 football fields). Since I forgot the camera, our good readers will need content themselves with the following observations:
  • Threadless shirts were on the rack at several different stores. It's officially over hipsters, time to find a new rag vendor. I suggest shirt.woot.com
  • BMWs look frumpy when they are being sold next door to Lamborghinis.
  • Thai people really know how to watch a movie.
  • Remember in the 80s when everyone said the Japanese were going to take over? This time it's for real - they've invented the scratch and sniff stuffed doll. Words fail me on this one - try to picture cute anthropomorphized ice cream cones in chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry and you'll get an approximation.
We've already resolved on a return trip to gather pictures, until then you'll just have to imagine what an adorable ice cream cone might look and smell like.

Friday, September 26, 2008

New Apartment!

We have an apartment in Bangkok! After seeing some real doozies, we found a great, clean, cute studio in a great part of the city. The best part: free wifi. We'll be here until October 25, so come visit!

Pictures to follow soon.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Things you can get for 10 Baht #2: Pad Thai

There are a lot of neat things you can get for 10 baht (~US $0.30). I've retroactively inaugurated this blog feature with the corn waffle (also 10 baht), but todays post is Pad Thai:



Also included (not pictured) mixed packet of sugar and chili flakes, chili oil.

For a Homely Time, Call 66-02-618-6777

From a guest house we're looking at:

L.K.N INN offers you with a warm and homely atmosphere with our fish pond and fountain at the entrance.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Moving

Today we left our backpacker-friendly ghetto of Banglamphu in favor of the outskirts of Bangkok, where there are fewer tourists and fewer English translations. The major reason for our move was to be closer to a metro line, so we could more easily visit different neighborhoods in the city. Tonight we'll probably be taking the metro to the night bazaar in the financial center.

Banglamphu was a great place to spend our first week. It was a pleasant mix of familiar and exotic, and we were able to gorge on banana roti and tangerine juice while we recovered from jet lag. Our new digs are actually classier than our last place - free wi-fi and a pool. When we had lunch in our new neighborhood today, we realized that for the last week we've been eating farang food. We were actually starting to believe that Thai food in Thailand was not as spicy as we had been told it would be. Now we know better, and now our mouths are burning.

The smells here are a lot more pungent, too. There's an awesome outdoor market by our guest house (which, buy the way, is called the K.T. Guest House - I hoped it stood for Katie, but I'm pretty sure it's Krung Thep, aka Bangkok). The market had fresh fruits, octopus, squid, and curries in plastic baggies, but it also had lungs, intestines, frog hearts, and plenty of other offal meats. I know that any self-respecting foodie should learn to embrace the innards, but my feeling has always been offal = awful.

Then there's durian. I was excited about durian long before this trip. I've already seen lots of durian in markets here and, aside from looking like a medieval weapon, it didn't seem to harmful. Today, I smelled it. At least, I think that's what I smelled, and, if it was, it didn't seem that bad. I'll have to go back soon to investigate and take that much-anticipated first taste. Stay tuned and see if my verdict is Durian-Delicious or Durian-Disgusting.

Dusit Zoo

Went to the zoo yesterday. The huge benefit of this zoo, like any non-American zoo, is that you can get much closer to the animals. You can even interact with them. I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to feed the animals, but when I saw a monkey reach through a fence to grab a peanut out of a man's hand, I sure wished I had some peanuts of my own to share. We saw some pretty frightening crocodiles and snakes, as well as some birds and a very sad elephant. He must have done something bad - his front feet were chained together. One elephant, however, seemed happy enough to do a little dance for us. Right foot, step. Trunk, sway. Head, lift. Left food, kick. Now repeat. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the Dusit Zoo: baby goats run free! (Also, it appears, so do monitor lizards.)



Sad elephant.


Happy, dancing elephant.


A group of Thai high school students stopped us for an interview. They gave us a survey which included, among the usual "who are you and where are you from" questions, inquiries about our weight and religious beliefs. They wanted their photos taken with us so we figured we should get one for ourselves. As you can see, I am still short in Thailand, but well within the normal size range :)



Baby goats!!

Banana Roti

Oh, Banana Roti, how I love thee. You can buy many varieties of pancakes from the street vendors in Banglamphu, but my favorite is most definitely the banana. The roti is a lot like a crepe, with a thin batter that is fried in deep yellow butter. The butter....so yellow...and the eggs....so orange. I love it. The bananas are chopped into the roti with great skill and speed, and the pancake is folded over and flipped to fry on the other side. Some condensed milk drizzled on top adds a sweet frosting-like effect. These are 20 baht a piece. Let's see...on my daily food budget, I could have three meals or five rotis. I'm going with five rotis.

Sizzle, banana roti, sizzle.


Does banana roti merit four photos? Yes, yes it does.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Zoo Signs

We went to the zoo. Here are some signs that caught our attention or amused us:



I wasn't sure about posting this sign, but every time I look at it I internally chuckle (in-chuckle?), so it got the nod. Apologies to mom and dad.



Lion attack: one of the lesser known health risks of smoking.



This one pretty much speaks for itself.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Proud Member: Bad Evil Culb

I bought some t-shirts. Observe:

It's a very exclusive culb

We could all use more pocket-whales.



For your consideration: Rhinocerous beetlE (RB) vs. Juicy Couture (JC). I think we all know which is taking the runway by storm this fall.

Duck Boats

Yesterday we braved the Thai bus system to visit Lumphini Park. The buses were hot (no air conditioning), but were pretty intuitive to use and very much like the micros in Santiago. We took another bus today and now feel empowered in the ways of transit.

Lumphini Park has lots of greenery and a beautiful lagoon, where we encountered DUCK BOATS!! Obviously, we needed to go for a ride. We pedaled around the lagoon and giggled the entire time. A half hour ride cost us about a dollar.

Today we visited the Chatujak Weekend Market, a collection of over 80,000 stalls that is a popular attraction for Thais and tourists. I accidentally left my memory card in our laptop at the guest house, so there will be no pictures from the market. We'll have to go again so we can document it. Among things you can buy at the weekend market:

-Adorable puppies (LOTS of adorable puppies)
-Huge bags of foam
-”Designer” sunglasses, like the “Ray Bans” Ian got for $2
-Shrimp that are so fresh we saw them jump out of their bucket onto the ground
-Chipmunks

Duck Boat Photos:



Corn Waffle

Contains Corn

Friday, September 19, 2008

Lots of Wats

Today was wat-tastic. We visited five wats and saw about 500 buddhas. We went to bed at 9pm last night and woke up at 4:45am (thank you, jet lag!). I actually worked out this morning in our room, which I think is something I'll need to do daily, as there is no resisting the tantalizing treats in this city. We had an early breakfast of yogurt, museli, and fresh fruit at a stall across the street from our guest house. Getting a jump start on the day is a good idea in Bangkok, as it gets hot quickly and the tour groups start making the rounds around 9am. Our only plan for the day was to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo, both of which are in the same walled complex.

We walked around the palace and the wat with our mouths hanging open. Everything (EVERYTHING!) is a gold or variegated mosaic with extremely intricate detailing. Everywhere we looked was a picture-perfect view of a scale too large and stunning to capture on film (some feeble attempts are below). After an hour and a half of wat gazing, we decided it was time for second breakfast, and got some great curries in an outdoor market. Then it was on to fresh-squeezed tangerine juice. Did we mention that we love this country?

We continued down the road to see the Reclining Buddha, which was immense and, well, reclining. The wat that houses this buddha figure was just as breathtaking as the first. After many exchanges of, “Is this for real?” and, “Damn, there's a lot of gold around here,” we headed down the street and consulted our map. A Thai man hurried over to us and eagerly told us what we should visit next. We know to be wary of people who approach us, and we've already avoided a couple scams, but most people we've met have been genuinely sweet and helpful. I think many people are eager to practice their English. This guy drew all over our map, circling sights we should see today, and drawing little buddhas by the wats we should visit. He hailed a tuk-tuk, essentially pushed us into it, and negotiated with the driver (“Better price! These my friends!”). This is how we got a personal driver for 40 baht (a little over a dollar).

The wind generated by our driver's freestyle driving was a great relief from the heat. If you want to maintain your sanity while in a moving vehicle in Bangkok, I think it's best to pay attention to the sights around you and not to what's happening on the road. We made several stops, saw lots of buddhas, avoided being pressured into buying custom-made suits at a store the driver took us to (commission?), and finally left our tuk-tuk behind at the Marble Wat. A long walk home left us tired and sticky, but very happy.

We've been having afternoon siestas to shower, escape the mid-afternoon heat, and use the internet cafe. This evening it'll be more street food and a walk to the evening flower market to see some orchids.

Some photos:Boats on the Chao Praya River

Wat Phra Kaeo

Gold!

The wat officials deemed my short-sleeves to be too short (and I purposefully wore sleeves instead of a tank top today), and weren't pleased with Ian's shorts, so we're wearing borrowed clothes from the dressing room.

Part of the Grand Palace.

One of Ian's favorite images from the paintings in the wat: people making out in the bushes.

Reclining Buddha. I was in a big crowd when I took this picture, and was lucky to get a shot with no heads in the way.

Isn't he pretty?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

A Day of Many Firsts

Some pictures from the day:

First meal in Bangkok. This is a curry noodle soup with chicken, eggs, green onions, ground peanuts, some spiciness, and other goodness.

Ian's having curried rice with chicken, cucumber, and a sweet dipping sauce. Our lunch was 70 baht (US $2) combined. We love Thailand already.

First Buddha sighting. Shortly followed by second, third, fourth...thirtieth Buddha sightings.
This is the Big Buddha. We were visiting another temple this morning, where a very nice Thai man informed us that today is the Big Buddha's birthday, and is the only day all year when admission is free. He also told us that 25 is a very unlucky age for the Thai people. Apparently, they all get into accidents when they're 25 – he even showed us a scar on his head from his motorcycle accident. He advised us to go to the Big Buddha immediately and pay our respects, in order to receive good luck this year. This seemed like a good idea to us, and it turns out we were able to walk there from our guest house.Big Buddha's feet. Check out the coconut by his big toe, to give you a sense of scale.

Our trip got off to a bit of a rough start. We had an excellent flight to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. We sat in an exit row and had no one sitting next to us. Would I like to partake of your complimentary ice cream? Why, yes! Yes, I will eat your shrimp cocktails. Yes, I will watch your excellent selection of movies on demand. Yes, I would love to try the passion fruit mousse. Yes, I will wear your complimentary hermetically-sealed socks. Free shrimp cocktails and socks...they knew their audience.

I was very excited to see the lights of Hong Kong from the air, and Ian and I walked off the plane feeling better than we've ever felt after a long-distance flight. Unfortunately, we soon realized that we had walked off the plane without his wallet. The cleaning crew hasn't found his wallet, and we've filed reports with the airline and the airport. Fortunately, we have all my cards so we're doing fine for money, but if the wallet doesn't turn up it'll be a hassle to cancel the cards and get new ones while overseas. Poor guy.

We were also frazzled when the first ATM we tried rejected my card. So did the second, third, and fourth ATMs. We managed to get to our hotel (this was midnight, mind you) on credit cards, and then had to suck it up and buy a long distance calling card to hassle Washington Mutual. It would have been helpful if they'd told me when I called them two days ago that there would be a waiting period for my travel advisory to be cleared. Huge thanks to Ian's mom, Debbie, for working on this stateside and getting my card cleared for use immediately. We were so thrilled to successfully withdraw baht from the ATM this morning. Now we have money and are tired but happy.

We had a great first day exploring Bangkok, and we're staying in a clean guest house with a Western toilet (yay!!) for about $19 total. Tomorrow, we are heading to the Grand Palace and drinking some more of the incredible fresh squeezed juices we sampled this afternoon. That's all the planning we're doing :)

In case you wondered, the time here is 14 hours ahead of San Francisco. So, greetings from the future!