Thailand

Asian people crack me up. I'm in Seoul now waiting for my transfer to Chicago. On the flight from Bangkok, the pilot clearly said in Korean and English to remain seated as we still had some taxing to do before we reached the gate. This didn't register with one man. He got up and just strolled to the restroom like he owned the place. The crew said nothing. Had this been in the US, people would have tackled him to the ground or at the very least the crew would have yelled at him.

It's going to take me a few days to get back to "Western Customs." It will be a little rude to push people out of my way when I'm walking down the street (I never do that). American's also might find that if I just cut to the front of the line to be an issue. I wonder if cars will stop for me if I just cross in the middle of the street with traffic coming both ways. Something tells me that I'd end up flat on the pavement.

As I was waiting "in line" to get my boarding card in Bangkok, I was listening in on a conversation an African guy was having with the Air France agent. This guy was on his way somewhere in Africa but he was connecting in Paris. The poor guy did not have a transit visa and Air France would not let him board the plane. Maybe the EU and/or France changed the rules, but I didn't think France required a transit visa. The agent kept saying that it didn't matter that he wasn't staying in France.

Anyway this guy argued for about 60 minutes trying to get them to let him on the plane. So now this guy has to pay for another Thai visa (his was canceled when he got in the airport), get a hotel room, pay a taxi $20 to get to downtown Bangkok, go to the French Embassy in the morning to get his transit visa, and then pay a taxi another $20 to return to the airport only to pay Air France a ticket reissuing fee. (In all I think it will cost him about $320. Fun Fun Fun. The airline was a pain because it is a $10,000 per passenger they transfer without the proper documents, and the airline has to return the passenger to the port of origin.

I never saw my little roach friend again. I wonder if someone ate him. I really mean that. Thais will fry them up for a light snack. I took a picture of a bag of them at the local market. Yummy. I did see a few relatives at the airport, on the street, at the local market, and in 7/11. While not as many as the ants, the roaches were everywhere. I guess if you can't kill'em you might as well eat them.

I saw this sign in the airport here in Seoul. I don't think I need to comment.



It's 820pm on Sunday in Chicago now. It's 1019am on Monday in Korea. I'm going to get going so I can get raped by duty free. The Wan is 1000 to the dollar. The menu in this cafe has an 8000 Wan or $8 OJ. Yikes! I miss cheap Thailand already.

Before I go let's have a poor Matt moment. I just found out that my Chicago flight is pretty full. That really sucks since I just got off a flight where I had a row of 5 seats to myself. I just hope the person next to me doesn't smell. 13hrs is a long time to be next to a smelly person.

There are ants everywhere in this country. There are so many of them that you just get use to seeing them and pay them no attention. It's crazy how many ants there are. Humm, I wonder where my little roach friend from yesterday is at the moment. I don't see him.

I just finished my last cooking class. I ate over 30 Thai dishes in 5 days. I learned a lot and can make some wonderful things. Today I was very creative with what I made but adding different things and leaving some ingredients out. I think they all turned out very well. My stomach is so full. Normally I loose about 10lbs when I travel. This trip I gained 1lb. I'm not to happy about that, but at least it was fun.

Today we went to the market and they showed us different ingredients and how to buy them. I bought some oyster sauce and fish sauce. I know I can get both at home, but it was very cheap and I liked the brand we had been using in class. I even found a bag of fried roaches for sale. I took a picture but it is hard to make out what it is. I decided not to buy the roaches.



I tried some interesting fruits today. I can't even remember their names. One was a rose apple. It had a soft apple taste. It was okay. One was a tiger or zebra (I can't remember) fruit. It was white with black seeds. I didn't care for the seeds that were everywhere in the fruit. The one I liked was like a really big orange but not very much citrus flavor. It's meat was like that of an orange and was very mild and juicy. Yummy.



I've been eating so many things that the guidebooks and CDC say that you shouldn't. I wonder what little nasty thing are going through my body. For other reasons I ended up taking my antibiotics. So I don't think anything will bother me.

Traveling these past few weeks has been a real joy. I've met some really nice people and it is nice to see people sharing ideas and tips on where and where not to go. I already have my 2007 vacations planned, but I'm thinking about trying Saudi Arabia or I may come back to Thailand if I have enough money. (I'm sure my mom is just loving the Saudi Arabia comment.)

It's my last night in Chiang Mai and then I'm off to Bangkok and then home. I may do one more post before I leave. If not, I will see you all when I return.

I was going to post something earlier but as I was checking email I noticed a little friend came to visit. A cock roach the size of my palm was saying hello to everyone. It was kind of interesting to watch people just ignore it. I'm use all the ants now but not the the roaches that big.



The little bugger just crawled along the floor and went from place to place. At one point it was on some lady's sandals. She could have cared less. I thought it was also odd that no one noticed when I took a picture of it and my flash went off.

I noticed today that the place I do email is also a hotel and massage house. YUCK! With roaches that big in the computer area. I'd hate to see what the rooms are like.

So, I'm back and the roach motel and have some time to post.

Day 4 of the cooking class was fun but a lot of work. We made our own curry paste. It took awhile to pound the paste to a pulp. I don't know how some women still do this. I'd just go the the store or use a blender. Much easier. I have to admit that my curry today was one of the best I've made so far. This one was 100% made from scratch. :-)



Each day there are different people at the cooking school. There are a lot of men there. The ages range is from 24-60 and has been a good group. Today an American came. He's from Texas but living and working in Africa. This guy had a Thai woman with him. The American didn't speak Thai and the Thai woman only spoke broken English. Our only guess was that this guy hired her to be with him. She sure as hell was not a professional guide. With the mass amount of make up and the high heels, I'm sure she was a professional, just not at typical tourism.

I went to a bar tonight and had speed racer tuk tuk driver. He wanted to charge me 150 Baht ($4.10) for a 60 Baht ($1.65) ride. I told him no and got him to agree to my price.

For those of you who don't know a tuk tuk is a three wheeled cycle with seating for three. Driver up front and two passengers in back. My speed demon tuk tuk driver was going upwards of 50 mph. I thought we were going to flip when we made the turns. He almost ran some motorcycle in to the moat. Thai people are not crazy drivers like in Egypt or India. I think this one was just a little crazy or pissed that I wouldn't pay him 150 Baht.

It's time for dinner. After breakfast and 6 dishes at lunch each day, I don't get hungry again until about midnight. I normally just get fries or something. My tummy needs a break from the Thai food. I will have my last cooking class tomorrow.

There are some nasty floods in Bangkok and around where I am now in the north. The city of Chiang Mai is okay but the river is rising everyday. The news reported of entire areas of Bangkok under water. These are the worst floods in years according to the news. I hope I can still get in my elephant ride on Sunday. It's in the area where some flooding has started.

Things are going well with me. Day 3 of cooking was lovely. We tried more curries and other dishes. I don't think I care too much for green curry. It was okay, but I like the yellow curry the best. I loved the knife we had been using so much that I bought one today for under $8. It's big and it's hard to find a good knife.

I realized that I'm starting to smell like curry. It's kind of sick. I love eating it, but smelling like it is just nasty. I can't wait to make this stuff at home. My couch is going to smell like curry for weeks. Joy.

Not much to post today. Take care.

Okay, I had a lovely little post about my cooking class, but the computer ate it.

Anyway, I'm in day two of my cooking class. I love it. You can see more about the school on their website. http://www.thaicookeryschool.com/

If you click on the courses you will see what I'm making. I've done courses 4 and 5. Tomorrow is course 1. The mango with sticky rice was wonderful.

Yesterday they took us to the market to buy food for the class. They gave us money and a list. I only had to buy cabbage. I had to ask for it in Thai and count how many we needed.

Today we did vegetable carving. It is quite easy once someone shows you how to do it. I can now make a rose from a tomato and a leave from a carrot. Here's a pic of my carvings.



Speaking of pics, I took some of my dishes today. When I reviewed them later they are all off center. You'd think I'd been drinking. I will just have to take more tomorrow.



Okay this is my second go at this post and it is nap time. My butler is probably wondering where I am.

I'm in Chiang Mai now. It's located in the north and is the second largest city in Thailand. You'd never guess that though. It feels like a small town.

There is a never ending Night Market. I mean it goes on for days. I'd have to guess and say that it is at least 1.25 miles long with all the side streets. I bought these cute little salt and pepper shakers. They hug when put together. :-) I've also seen some table lamps that are pretty cool too. I just don't know what I would do with them. I can't think of a place in my condo to put them.

I was a little scared of my hotel. The pictures online were a little scary and made the place look dated. I tried to change it before I my trip started but they were going to charge me one night's stay. So I said screw it and I'll deal with it. I'm so glad I did! I'm on the Royal floor of this hotel (The Imperial Mae Ping Hotel.) It's on the top floor. My room comes with a butler, maid, and floor attendant. There is also a large private lounge, conference center, and bar on the floor. I missed cocktail hour because I was sleeping. I'll try tomorrow. When I go back I have to decide which pillow I want. I have a choice of 12 pillows. I think I may just need to get them all and see what works. It's going to be hard to go home from this. I wonder if I can take the staff home with me.

Tomorrow is my first day of cooking school. I can't wait. It's just cooking for 6 hours a day. I wonder if they can show me a way to make curry without making my whole place stink.

Two weeks before my trip there was a military coup. I have to say that it was a little unnerving to hear. The news reports it made it look worse than it really was. (Gotta love the US media.) I did some research on bbc.com and this was Thailands 17th coup since the 1930's.

The people don't seem to care much. Well, they do. They hated the old Prime Minister, but they don't care much about how it happened. I find that a little odd considering that Thailand, which means Land of Freedom, is suppose to be one of the strongest democracies in Asia. Still they have a military government at the moment and the constitution has been torn up. Some how their system seems to work. I just wish someone could explain to me why the constitution needed be redone. I don't get that.

What keeps their system working is their King. King Buhmibol Adulyadej just celebrated his 60th year on the Thai thrown and is the longest serving monarch alive. To put it in perspective for you, Queen Elizabeth II ranks only 4th and has been waving that little hand of hers for 54 years. The longest serving monarch of all time served 94 years. Any guesses on where they were from???

In Thailand whatever the King says goes. So when he said the coup was okay, then it was okay and people simply went back to their pad thai. He is so well respected that his photo and 60th anniversary flag can even be found plastered all over the red light district. It is also a crime punishable by 5-years in prison to say or do anything that is disrespectful to the King or his family.

I saw a shirt that summed it up very well. "Singapore - A fine city" Below that phrase was a list of things you could do and what the fine would be. Some of the fines weren't really fines but were strokes of the cane or a date with death.

On Sunday I had a free day in Bangkok so I took the Asian form of Southwest airlines to Singapore (Air Asia). It was a cheap $120 flight. I really cant complain. The same flight on Singapore Airlines was $600. Air Asia does not give you food or drink. BUT, you can buy it. It is so cheap it's not even an issue. I got noodles and a drink for under $2. They also don't have a frequent flyer program. They boldly suggest not using them to connect to another flight as they will not help you if they are late. And it's all open seating. It's like a big bus in the sky.

On the plane they give you the little landing card to complete for immigration. Unlike all the other 25+ countries I've visited Singapore has a unique phrase written on theirs. In BOLD RED lettering was this phrase. "Warning: Death for drug traffickers under Singapore law." The last execution for drugs was last November.



I planned on hiring a taxi for my 10hrs on the island. I stopped by the information desk to ask where the taxi company was. They were quite puzzled. They had never heard of cabby tours. Humm, that could be a problem. So I showed them my brochure and they called for me. While I waited to be picked up, they explained that they were a little embarrassed that they did not know about the tour. There were information after all. It was on the Singapore tourism website so it was like I had to dig far to find it. So, I gave them my brochure and told them we all lean something new each day.

My cabby tour was lead by Rouland. A very nice and talkative 55+ year old man. He had to have been almost 60 because he remembered Singapore when it was still under British rule (1959).



Rouland took me all over the island and showed me the sights. The country is very pretty and VERY clean. I mean really clean. It's so clean that the health department even regulates the street food vendors.

We ate lunch at this little place that served chicken rice. I'd never heard of it before. It is rice that is cooked with chicken fat to give it flavor and then served with boiled chicken (served cold) on the side. It also came with duck dipping sauce. Very yummy!

I questioned Rouland about all the laws in Singapore. Come on what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Singapore.... rules/laws and canning. I pitty the poor American that sets off fireworks for the 4th of July while in Singapore. That will earn you 3-6 strokes of the cane - no questions asked. Littering will set you back SD$1000. Spitting is only SD$500.

Rouland confessed that he has a bit of a problem obeying the traffic laws. He went on to tell me about the point system Singapore has and how you loose your license at 24 points. He went over how when he once exceeded the 24 points and then went to complain to his MP (Member of parliament). His MP happened to be head of the police and got him out of it! Corruption?? You'd think that the MP would have better things to do than deal with a cabby's traffic tickets.

Here's a little quiz for you. What does a Hindu temple, fire walkers, and a German sausage food stand all have in common???? Chinatown! In Singapore's Chinatown you will find all that plus the normal Chinese stuff we all know and love. The fire walkers were really neat! They just walked over the coals time and time again. Call me whatever you'd like but I will happily walk around.



The German sausage guy was really out of place next to all the other Chinese food stalls. Still, he was one of the busiest stalls there.

Oh and for all you Chinese out there, there are no exceptions to that fireworks rule. To ring in the Chinese new year they use tape recordings of fireworks going off when the lions travel on the streets.

I have tons of pictures from Singapore that I will post when I return. It was a nice place to visit. I could not see myself spending more than 1 or 2 nights there. There really isn't much to do. It's an island so it's a little pricey.

Here are some pics of Singapore.