More than a taste for Thai

Green Papaya Salad is my new favorite food! We went out for dinner last night at a little restaurant in a bamboo hut along the main road in Ko Lanta and had yet another amazing thai feast. Green Papaya salad is a little slice of heaven: Shredded green papaya with a little shredded carrot, roasted peanut and sometimes string beans or cucumber with some kind of sweet citrusy sauce made of lime juice and possibly a little papaya juice or sugar and maybe a dash of fish sauce. It is incredible. We've decided to take a half day thai cooking class while we're here so hopefully I'll be able to find out exactly what's in it and replicate it back home cuz I don't think I can live without it.

So far, Thailand has been the only country (outside of Italy of course) where I can happily eat the local food every day for every meal and be completely happy about it. It's so light and so full of all my favorite things, fresh veggies, noodles, rice, fresh chilis, lime, lemongrass and basil and seafood of all varieties. In the nearly two weeks, I've been here, I have only had one bad meal (the saltiest pad thai ever in a beachside place now known to us only as the MSG Hut... haha.) Last night, Tommy boy and my lady friends took a long walk on the beach at sunset. It's great to be able to follow the light and tide so closely and watch how they interact and change. Sure beats looking at a computer screen all day. Anyway, the fisherman come up on the beaches at sunset and fill their longtail boats with fish and other seafood: giant crabs, and red and white snapper and giant prawns and barracuda and they build these roaring fires to cook them on. The diners pick their fish where it gets weighed and tossed onto the barbecue to join the already cooking whole potatoes wrapped in foil roasting on the grills. They also set up tables with fresh salads and pots of sticky rice. God, did I say I love thai food yet!

The best thing about it, is that unlike France where I ate cheese by the truckload or Spain where I lived on Pico e Pane (bread and crackers), you can eat thai food all day and still look halfway decent in a bikini. Good stuff.

Creature Comforts

I was walking on the beach last night around midnight with Tom and we were looking up at all the stars. Now, I don't know much about astronomy but it really looked to us like we saw the big dipper... except that it was upside down and in a corner of the sky. If that's really the case and we're not astronomical idiots, it is my first glimpse into a completely foreign sky, a truly different perspective on the earth. It was quite something... The beach was almost entirely empty at that point except for a few lanterns lighting up a few bars and some roving wild dogs exploring the beach who kept running up between Tom and I, appearing in the dark. Thailand is a place lived much nearer to the creatures of the world than my sanitised apartment in Dublin. You are hardly ever without company of some sort, whether it be insect or amphibian. At first, it's a little disconcerting, being used to a creature-free life but after a while, it becomes kind of great. There are geckos large and small absolutely everywhere and in every colour and size. The biggest ones, hide in the rafters and croak like throaty frogs and happily, they all eat bugs. There are frogs and toads, albino and spotted, hiding behind the bathroom mirror and in the grass. There are birds making all sorts of sounds in the trees that seem to big and impressive for bird-song. There are (unfortunately) cockroaches the size of my palm skittering about at sunset and (yikes) crawling up the bathroom pipes in our first bungalow. There are cats and dogs everywhere (looking decrepit and half-dead in Bangkok but vibrant and playful on the islands.) Roosters and geese appear where you least expect them, on city streets and inside doorways of houses. There are butterflies that seem to glide and then fall and then glide again in a least graceful manner. And then there's the beach... Hermit crabs of all sizes in all types of Crab accomodation. Giant Squid, Puffer-fish, sand crabs and shellfish. It's Life with a capital L and it surrounds you and envelops you. Geckos eating ants and ants eating geckos, Crabs eating squid and birds eating crabs. At first it makes you a little squeamish, even as you try to pretend that it's perfectly grand but after a few days, it's wonderful because everywhere you go, you discover something new (or it discovers you.) I could definitely get used to this (cockroaches excepted of course!)

Well my time has run out once again. I apologize if these blog entries read like a diary. It's hard to organise my thoughts and coherently spit back out all of my experiences here while I'm racing the clock and the slow internet connections (and roosters and thai babies and sunstroke...haha.)

Back to the beach!

Snorkel heaven, Tuk-Tuks and Thai Babies

Snorkelling is my new favorite thing. :) Tommy-boy and I have gone twice on this trip and both times, it was like swimming in a tropical fish tank. The first trip left from Khao Lak and was a day trip to the Ko Similan islands. The boat takes you out to various reefs and just dumps you in the water for about 45 minutes at a time and what you see is incredible. Coral in all colours waving in the water, fish of all sizes, with black and yellow stripes and aqua blue with shimmering pink scales, schools of fish which swim all around you, sea anemone and clownfish, parrotfish and zebra fish, and the water is a crystal green-blue. It's actually heaven. The Ko Similans are the epitome of a tropical paradise... white sand, palms and clear water and they're a national park so they're protected from development. The other snorkeling trip we took left from Ko Lanta and took us to another national park island called Ko Rok. Both trips offered spectacular trips and by the second trip, Tommy-boy (who was nervous about snorkeling at first) was the first one off of the boat and the last one one and was dragging me around the reef to point out fish and coral. It was great to see.

We left Khao Lak on Friday morning and had to flag down a bus on the side of the road to make the two-hour journey to Phuket (for 90 baht per person - the equivalent of 2 euro!). It was a local bus with piped in Thai elevator music...haha... but it was air-conditioned and we made it to Phuket in good time. After that we had to find a taxi. The drivers get kick backs for delivering farangs to various tourist industries and bartering for fare is standard so getting a taxi can be a bit more complicated than it seems... As soon as we arrive in any given place, we're swarmed with people yelling, "taxi!" "tuk-tuk!" etc... and you have to wade through and try to figure out who looks reputable and who will take you where you want to go for a reasonable price. After walking around Phuket for a while, we got ourselves a reasonably priced taxi and made it to the pier. Unfortunately, the ferry operators decided to jack the price up by a few hundred baht and since the ferry route goes through Ko Phi-Phi which is tourist central, we had no choice but to pay. The ride was thankfully smooth and airconditioned and we ate pineapple on a stick and settled in for a few hours until we literally had to jump from one boat to the next to get from the Phi-Phi boat to the smaller boat which would take us to Ko Lanta.

We took the Ko Lanta version of a tuk-tuk to our bungalows when we arrived at the pier which is a motorbike fitted with a roof and side car with a long bench. You can get five people into these things! The transport has been creative to say the least! It was such a relief to arrive in Ko Lanta after an entire day on buses and boats and when we arrived, our friends, Jess and Melinda were sitting by the ocean waiting for us. Loveliness.

We've decided to base ourselves from Ko Lanta for the rest of our trip. This island is beautiful and there are so many things to do. There are small thai children who want to get onto this computer and a rooster keeps crowing from somewhere behind me so I'm off. More later.

Cheers.
D.

More bang for your Baht

Hi All,

Sorry for the long silence but I've been away from the internet for the past couple days, and god knows that can be a good thing sometimes. I am having such a blast here, I don't know where to even start. We've done so much over the past week.

The rest of our stay in Bangkok involved a trip to an incredible temple Wat Po which has an enormous, gilded reclining buddha inside an equally bejeweled temple. Even the buddha's feet are inlaid with mother of pearl. We took a ferry up river to get there which gave us a great view of a bunch of other riverside temples and then we took it back down to chinatown where we wandered through the flower and vegetable market and ate a tasty indian dinner in the tiny restaurant hidden down an alley. The kitchen was next to the restaurant down this alley and we could see the cook making kebabs. The Rough guide reccommended it or we never would have found it and given the cleanliness... or lack there of, of chinatown, we were a bit skeptical but the food was delicious, light nan breads, and indian curries and cool lime soda...mmmm. We also hit up the Bangkok aquariam which featured an enormous coral reef and shark tank. Strangely, it also had corporate sponsorship which manifested itself in brand name washing machines and cars converted into tropical fish aquariams... cool but wierd. The next day we got up early and went to tour "Jim Thompson's House" which was put together by this American who was born in 1907 in Delaware and fell in love with Thailand after being stationed there for some reason. He brought together six traditional thai houses from various parts of thailand and had the disassembled and brought to Bangkok where he had them put back together again and interconnected to make one large compound. Thai architecture is very minimal looking on the inside and very much to my taste, lots of dark wood and clean lines and open air. There was also a glorious garden with lush tropical vegetation and flowers and sculpture.

We learned the value of bartering at the Patpong night markets where all the vendors quote ridiculous prices just to see if anyone is dumb enough to take the bait. I still probably got stroked but picked up a great pair of beach shorts and handbag for under a tenner. The Patpong market is also home to the Thai sex industry so while trying to buy cheap asian goods, the farangs are accosted by people trying to sell you the ping-pong show... while beautiful thai prostitutes lean out of doorways in black bikinis. I'll leave the mechanics of the ping-pong show to your imagination but the ping-pong is not the only feature of these thai sex shows... the touts hand you a list of other things that these women do with their "lady gardens". Yikes.

Tuesday was a traveling day and we flew to phuket and took a taxi up to Khao Lak. The taxi driver was a boy-racer who overtook motor-bikes, tuk-tuks and songthaews with ease and none of the taxis have seatbelts! Luckily we arrived in one piece to Poseidon Bungalows down a dusty, dirt road onto a beautful ocean front outcropping. Our wooden bungalow was on the end of the path and had a little porch looking out onto a wide blue sea with pink hibiscus flowers blooming all around it. We spent the first day moving from the beach to the open air restaurant and just tried to adjust to the fact that we were truly and properly on our holidays!

Well, I haven't caught you up yet, but I've been sitting here for too long already and it's time to get back into the sun. More on the Ko Similian and Ko Lanta islands soon.

Lots of Love from tropical climes.

D.

Sawasdee from Thailand!

After a ridiculously long flight sandwiched between a 68 year old Christian Missionary and a snoring Tommy-boy, I have made it to Bangkok, our first stop in our uber accelerated bakcpacking holiday. Good stuff. So, far it's been fabulous, even the twelve hours of flying wasn't as bad as it could've been. Thai Airlines kicks ass. The food is quite edible, they come around periodically offering you all the booze, water, mango juice etc... that you could want to drink. They put orchids and free toothbrushes (new ones!) in the loos and then present you with a fresh pink, orchid pin on your departure. So, far we've found the thai's to be really friendly and lovely (bar a few randomers who come up pretending to be your friend and then try to sell you stuff... but you can't really blame them for trying.) We were able to check into our hotel early in the morning and get a much needed kip in before braving the city and the day.

It's hard to know where to start in describing Bangkok. It is definitely not for the faint hearted! According to our taxi driver, Bangkok is home to 11 million people and feels nearly endless in it'size. It's hot, hot, hot, like the hottest August day in Boston (not that I'm complaining!) and wherever you go you are hit with smells both horrendous and heavenly. It's got everything from the fanciest uber-modern, air-conned malls to the most derelict corners complete with mangy stray dogs, half-collapsed buildings and the occasional rooster. The whole place is an explosion in colour. The Wats (temples) are grand, gilded, palace like structures full of colourfully dressed people and delicious incense sticks burning in the bases of potted plants sprouting bright yellow flowers. The tuk-tuks are bright blues and greens and the taxi's are electric pink. There are vivid little shrines built in random corners like the edge of an open market or on a building site to bring good luck (I think.) We rode about 5 km in a tuk-tuk tonight to come up to Khao San Road (backpacker land) and it was fabulous to see Thailand whizzing by at night, with it's monuments and street vendors and the wind blowing in on all sides. We arrived in one piece despite the fact that road safety seems to be significantly less interested in safety than any other place I've ever been. Throngs of people can be seen stuffed into the back of open pick-ups and speeding down the highway. While riding in the tuk-tuk, we saw two young thai women and a baby of about 2 all riding along beside us on a motorbike (with no helmets.)

We also went to the Chatachuk market today which is an enormous, densely packed open market made up of interconnected tin shacks and open air stalls creating a maze of every possible item you could imagine. You could buy everything from knock-off adidas trainers, to strawberry smoothies, to necklaces, to fried locusts to chopsticks. It was amazing fun to browse through all of this stuff (especially as most of it costs pennies.) We ate our first street vendor food, super-spicy bowls of noodles and extra cold bottles of water.

Tonight, we've been exploring Khao San Road, an overload of neon and street stalls and tanned backpackers and thai babies all flowing en masse down a little strip of road. We had the most incredible thai dinner at an outdoor restaurant, Singha and red curry and noodles and fresh rolls and brown rice. Heaven.

Now, the lack of a proper night's sleep for the past few days is catching up and I'm almost out of internet time, so that's all for today. More soon.

Lotsa love to you all.

D.

Sat Nav in Norn Iron

That's Satellite Navigation in Northem Ireland for those of you not familiar with a) modern technology or b) the local vernacular of a contested area of the world in the North of Ireland. Check out this hilarious wind-up. Good luck even understanding the 'Jon Joe' if yer not familiar with the Norn Iron accent...

www.scrabo.co.uk/jonjoead.mp3
www.jonjoe.net

The Darndest Things...

Funerals are a bit different all over the world but I find that no matter where they are, the coming together of family and friends mean that all of the best, funniest, stories come out, some may be those family stories that everyone’s heard a million times and some come out of the blue. Here’s one for the archives:

It was the late 1970’s and Tommy-boy was only a wee thing toddling around Belfast with his mummy and daddy. They had a friend who was not only a bit clumsy but also a bit of a potty mouth and was prone to saying, “f*cking Jesus” whenever he dropped something/stubbed his toe/lost his keys etc…

Fast forward a few months and wee Tommy is in the local butcher shop with his mommy. It’s packed out with people getting their shopping in. Now I don’t know if this is actually true but I imagine the other shoppers to be mostly women, perhaps middle-aged moms and grannies getting the meat for Sunday lunch; a solidly ‘good-Catholic’ type of North Belfast lady and I imagine that the butchers was a small shop, a little local hole-in-the-wall (as it still is today.) So, Tommy and Mommy are in the queue. The lady in front of them is placing her order and asks the butcher what kind of cheeses he has today at which point wee Tommy looks up and says to his mommy (and inadvertantly the whole shop) “fucking cheeses.”

The Media Show

Check out my place of employment. The Media Show did a piece on the role of Graphic Design in Marketing and came to Dcoy (my office) for a visit. The license tender that the segment is discussing precedes me but hey, if you can tolerate all the market-speak, you can see my office and co-workers and yours truly pretending to discuss big-important matters with the sound turned off. ;)