Flash Weekend

Thai cashew nut chicken

Miss me yet? I have been keeping myself busy.  Leaving off with Friday, I finished with teaching and Thai classes and moved onward to the weekend. First stop,  Friday night karaoke - downstairs. In the lower level of the dorm, the building shares foundation with the "Margaritaville Bar."  Let me tell ya, hopping place.  I would say the main customers live above the bar.  This includes 4 retired white men with their Thai wives or mistresses.  I assume they live here, there are always in the bar area visiting.  I don't see much drinking going on.  Within five minutes of the Karaoke experience, the one white male (~65 years maybe) was 2-stepping with his younger Thai wife to... Brittney Spears. I cannot compete with that.  It was a rather chill night for me after a busy week.
 
And Saturday, the ladies and I tackled a nearby island beach.  The island is approximately 20-30 minute boat ride from mainland.  I will leave few details out. Me and several foreigners (Russians and Italians) drifting away to a magical island of foreigners and Thai employees.  I spent 100 Baht on a chair, originally being told that included a cold beverage.  Turns out just the chair. Fine, and cheap enough..not a big deal. Soaked subtle amounts of sunshine and shade.  I swam some, but the overcast weather began to chill me soul. Despite the busy beach, I enjoyed the company of my friends!

Sunday, Sunday... Let's finish this weekend off with a giant smile, shall we?. How do we do this? Let me take you for a safe and well planned adventure.  Bus to arrive at my dorm building between 1:15-2pm.  And 2pm we have a bus.  A bus of English brothers, 1 young docile Aussie and his non-talking/moving female Thai companion. We pay up for a full day of adventure at an "elephant sanctuary."  Off we go chaps.

We arrive at the "sanctuary." We are about to turn. Oh goodness, what beholds my eyes. GIANT WORDS - Tiger ZOO TIGER ZOO TIGER ZOO..nothing that says "Sanctuary,"and nothing in Thai. "Oh splendid." At that point I was so giddy that I could not stop my leprechaun toes from River Dancing my way into paved lots of GIANT MEGA BUSES. How many Mega buses?  Too many to count.  It was then that I associated the giant buses with lots of happy faces.  1/9 of China was at the zoo that day.  If you know my love of cultural immersion and bottle-necking, then you know the exceeding level of happiness that overcame me a that moment.

The van halts. I leap out of the van in my knee high tube socks, Birkenstocks, a digital watch (with three times zones) and my flannel fanny pack.  Yes, a Fanny pack, always a must - fully equipped with my Polaroid camera, Disney ears, and a lighter.  Within moments seconds a perky Thai slapped a brick-size name tag on my blouse. It MY NAME IS Holly.  Yay, I screamed in merriment, as I realized this was the heavy duty adhesive tape.  We made way to the gates and all huddled in a group with our name tags, cameras, and fanny packs. "This is going to be be swell," I say quietly to myself, looking to the eastern sky.

Without missing a beat I find an itinerary, secured in a plastic sleeve, with in my hands.  Perfect. I take a glance. Perfect. I have from 3:30-5:30 to see an entire zoo and four animal shows with a traveling zoo group before I frollic back to the bus-van. "But how will we stay together?," I think to myself. WRISTBANDS, we got matching WRISTBANDS. Lavender in color.  "It's 3:30:05 we must get going," said the Zoo Tour guide.

FLASH FLASH FLASH some Asian took my photo. 

"Now everyone look here through the freshly finger printed glass window.  These are tigers drinking milk from a pig" says the guide.  A pig. "The tiger says RARH", says the perky guide. Its now 3:30:45. We see bunnies through glass, well somewhat. "Attention group, to see the bunnies please look through the eye piece of your new Chinese friend's camera 6 rows in front of you. Perfect. I saw it all. Thank you Nikon super lens.  FLASH FLASH another Asian takes my picture.

"Anyone want a photo holding and feeding a tiger cub with fake flowers, a fake tiger, and fake logs, and zoo logo in the background?" I knew this was my calling, as my mom has for years talked about feeding and holding a tiger cubs. How great. I pay. I am taken to a booth. I sit on a perfected fiberglass log. I sit within seconds there is a magnificent red towel brilliantly draped on my legs. A cub is handed to me with a bottle already positioned in its mouth. I hold the cub. FLASH FLASH. The tiger is removed from my hold within seconds. I am not going to say it was the best moment of my life, but I would say it's the best 7.5 sec experience of my life?

We moved onward to miraculous circus-like shows, as indicated in our I-tin-ERARIES. Wow! Do you know what we saw? We saw.. crocodiles with teeth, elephants with trunks, tigers with stripes, and Asians with floral print and Nikons. And it's 5:29. Making my way out of the zoo, I see a keepsake ceramic plate with my face on it. Yep. Not time to purchase, itineraries are itineraries.  I look at my itinerary and check the last item off, "LOAD THE BUS PROMPTLY at 5:30 pm.  I look down and see that my HELLO MY NAME is Holly is still in place. Success. To home I go.

I called that handsome gentleman of my exotic adventures. Together, we reconnected our weekends over FaceTime plumbing. Another success. Leaking shower, no longer leaking.  With his skill and my encouragement, we made it though the job.  Cheers! Happy Thai weekend to all.

Walking Street

 Good news, I now have my Blog settings in English. My class yesterday went well. Tan, brought me bananas - the night before I had went to the Friendship Market to buy bananas. I know have enough bananas for me and my Monkey friend. I have minis and the regular size.  Cutting to the chase yesterday I went for a night walk.

 Friendship Market - my typical grocery stop

Shall we go for a walk? I am so in love with Thai night markets. So many beautiful fruits and vegetables.  I just wanted to spend the rest of my night there.  There are so many vendors that run up and down the streets.  I am excited to spend more time exploring other Thai markets and night markets.  These pics were taken quick because the girls were in need of food.  This happened on the way to Walking Street.

 Sushi anyone? So beautiful!

 

mango and tamarind

 Turns out MN State fair isn't the only place with things on a stick.

 

 

Thai cashew nut chicken with peppercorns - really good

 

Walking Street

Walking Street is a combination of Vegas meets, red light, meets Ripley's.  Plenty of better places to spend your time. Lots of bars and some Thai ladies. The food was good.

Walking Street

Happy Valentine

To answer the question for all, "Do they celebrate Valentine's Day in Thailand?" Yes, appears so.  Likely more of a Westernized influence. I saw flower shops on my walk last night with various chocolates, stuffed animals, but mostly fresh cut pink, white, and red roses. People were buying roses late into the night.  Hope all of you had/or are having a sweet day.


 I called my crush over my lunch break, and then around 7:30 pm in the evening (when it was Val Day for both of us). We had a date. Our first of three Val Day's that we have have had together. Well, somewhat together anyway. I stopped at the market for some wine. I chose an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon merlot. I was impressed with my selection.  I sipped the bottle in the classiest of ways. But not before I gave him his 6:30 am wake up call. Soon enough the coffee grinder was going.  He set me right in front of his coffee pot as it was brewing, romantic. Then off I went to his liquor cabinet. With full view of his kitchen as he cooked breakfast. I was there for every egg crack, slice of burnt toast, and of course the scramble of the egg. And yes the date wouldn't be right without some wine and coffee, Cheers!

I had some late night adventuring, but for now be patient. Pictures to come. I must go teach.

Khun bpen khon chaad arai, ka?

Water - CHECK. Successful shower - CHECK. One of the fastest showers I've taken in a while.  I didn't want to get caught with shampoo in my hair if the water went out.  Today was day 2 for teaching.  I had a fellow student as an observer, along with one of my Thai instructors.  The class went well, today we explored jobs and contractions. Excitement for me included birds passing in and out of the windows next to me.  During the break, Tan, one of my students brought fried taro root. The taro was sliced to the width of matchsticks, seasoned with toasted sesame seeds.  They were good.  If you have every tried vegetable chips, there is a similar taste.  Taro (a root-vegetable) is white-ish in color, with purple flecks. See picture, above.

My guest room in yellow, L side, 2nd floor

We didn't have a sit-down Thai language class today.  We were to venture out in the neighborhood and survey 5 people with 5 questions in Thai.  While I don't know Thai characters, I was able to listen to the words and tones used.  I then phonetically wrote their answers out. Curious how this went?  I started with a young high school girl, Malee.  She was talking with 3 boys (who were all sitting on their motorbikes, curbside).  She would giggle when I said some of the words in my questions, but then said them for me so that I could repeat them correctly.  She was sweet.  I asked the boys if they wanted to too.  Mali said, "they are too shy."  They just smiled and turned their heads when I looked their way.  For my other four interviews, I walked a little further down the road and saw a food vending cart. I talked with a couple young girl customers, the vendor (~40 year old woman), and the vendor's oldest son (~25 years old).  They all seemed to enjoy it and were quite friendly.  The son laughed when I would say certain words that involved deep ngggah-like sounds.  The vendor asked me to wait before I asked her the questions.  She wanted me to sit next to her.  As I sat next to her she prepared some Thai dishes, perfect! This was so neat.

She had an electric burner that sat a few feet above the ground, with a wok sitting on it.  She put a few tablespoons of oil in the walk, then two tablespoons of fresh chili pepper sauce. She let it simmer briefly, then added fresh cut chicken from her cooler.  She stirred the mix vigorously.  She then added sliced peppers, onions, and some thinly sliced, coined carrots. She then added three different sauces.  If I were to guess I would say fish sauce, fish paste, and soy sauce.  They were all dark brown/black in color.  She let this simmer for about 3 minutes.  She took about 1.5 cups of rice out of her heat cooler, placed it in a Styrofoam bowl and topped it with the small portion of spicy-chicken stir-fry mix.  It looked amazing, it's likely that I will be going there try a dish.

After I had finished with the questions, she and her son asked me their own question.  "Where you from?," where you live?" The woman said, "you beautiful" and giggled, "you very beautiful, you smile."  She also commented on my "beautiful skin.  She asked me if I cook Thai food, I said "I want to learn."  She smiled and said, "oh, very good, very good."  I told them I like spicy food and they both kinda laughed and said "ahh spicy....SPICY."  Overall, good assignment and great experience - ready to do some more of this.


Now, I have outside homework from the states.  My handsome half has asked that I find myself an exotic beverage today or tomorrow.  He clarified that it could be my today or his today or my tomorrow or his tomorrow.

I will say that I did make a trip to find a market.  As I headed down the street I hit the corner.  At the corner I noticed a Johnny Bravo-looking white man on a motorbike with two Thai gals on the back.  If that wasn't enough to stop me in my sandals his predator gaze would've without question. Within seconds he fires.. "Shah-Kst-shuTUV-ak-Muh-KOSH-gRSH  ((giant gust of vocal air))  -trush-Gz-ICH - ((spit)) - feeffen-PISH....." I follow that vulgar-filled, vowel-less display of ?words with thoughts of: "So if I wanted to not think twice about those words I would say he wanted to.. end my life,..with a little more thought I figure he just wanted directions to the nearest hair parlor.  It was odd and made me wish I knew a tiny bit of Russian.*

Onward, I make it to the "Friendship Market,"with its temple-looking architecture.  I have a tendency to spend a long time in grocery stores checking out new items and such.  It only gets worse when I see foreign items. I am seeing certain trends, globalization at its best and not-so-best. Common items include Oreos (many flavors), Kit-Kat, Pringles, pro-biotic yogurts, energy drinks, coca-cola light (only diet soda I have seen), Fanta (assorted flavors).  Interesting items include paprika or lobster flavored chips/processed snack foods, wasabe and seaweed flavored cashews, most cereals are European or American (up to $10 box, 300 baht) brands. And to my Wisconsin friends, quite a variety of cheeses.

I purchased some interesting beverages, on the right is a beverage called, Prove. "It is a natural source of phytonutrients, high in vitamin A,C,E...and best of all 13.52 mg of Lycopene - soon to have one healthy prostate.  The beverage contains: gac fruit (orange spikey fruit), grapes, pineapple, passion fruit, and berries. The two small containers are some sort of yogurt drink, the brand is Betagen. I see them all over in Asia.  There were several flavors, I couldn't choose so I decided on the ones that had pretty colors on them.

In the upstairs of the market I bought a tub to wash my laundry.  Manual agitation required Cindy.

Thoughts concluding the day
- Where is the Thai-underground passage to Russia?
- Do all Russian males fear bathing?

- I wonder if I could find a Russian yoga bar*
- Spanish Soap opera...in Russian*
* Dear twin, I am happy knowing that you follow me.
Stay tuned to see what kind of love finds me tomorrow.  Love you all.