Sometimes you're just walking some place and then find yourself whisked off to a crazy land of sights and stinks.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Week 1: Bangkok Boogaloo
Heck yeah--why don't we have cocktail cars in Portland? (Note the flat screen.)
Becca was nice enough to offer her feet for the fishies' dinner.
Hey Mr. Crab! What are you doing in my salad! ("Avenging my death by making sure your lips bleed from spice explosion.")
She's not so sure about this one.
Best (and cheapest) food in Bangkok: a little spot we found that goes by the name of "Laundry Service: 1kg 25". They eliminate the confusion often associated with ordering food by having pictures of the 1000 dishes they serve, including, like, every sandwich ever--all with bacon.
I went for the squid. Becca's not so into it. I guess because it still looks like a squid when you're eating it.
Thai babies (with their creepy old man faces) don't give a shit 'bout nothin'. Another awesome thing to have staring at you when eating.
We're here for 3 days and someone is already craving pizza. We hardly ever eat pizza at home! (seafood pizza)
Washing down her pizza with a martini--a martini that has orange juice and a cherry.
We discovered a tasty (and spicy) Thai breakfast: rice soup.
However it is difficult to eat when this man is watching you.
Street food: The blue fried puffs are not blueberry flavored. (Uh, I don't actually know what flavor it is--blue? The green ones were easily discernible however: hot chili)
Honey-lime frappe and Thai iced tea...and Becca's new washcloth.
This one's for you mother! Sweet bean paste filled sesame puff--just like at Sushi Land!
Sweet and sour vegetables and papaya salad. Warning: despite it's main ingredient, papaya salad is one that will instantly melt your face off.
Thai kitties gotsta eat too!
Week 1: Bangkok or Bust!
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| In Thailand, even Burger King has a spirit house. And those spirits are well taken care of--Starbucks! |
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| I couldn't figure out why there was fruit nailed to trees. Now I see: squirrel torture. |
Pigeons gotsta eat too! (After shoving corn kernels in our hands, then knocking them out of our hands onto the ground, the three very aggressive teenage girls told us to give them 100 baht. Pff, yeah right.)
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| Why we went to the shopping mall, I don't know. However, they have $1 meals and cold beers. (Curry bean curd with rice and fried vegetables) |
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| I think this speaks for itself. |
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| "Blended Spirits" |
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Day 0: 24 Hour Plane Ride To Freedom
Thusly begins the epic adventures of Nick and Becca's food blog as it treks across foreign lands and encounters many exotic creatures, both cuddly and fierce, on a journey through the depths of the human soul and into and out of its nether regions. This is not for the faint of heart nor the weak of stomach. Only the most fierce foodie shall pass through the Kingdom of Birds Eye Chile unscathed--most shall succumb to the pain of a burning, dripping, leaky face and the equally burning, sweating, leaky cornhole. So now we begin, one EPIC bite after another...
This is not the vegetarian meal I signed up for!
Although they tried hard to make up for it.
Flight attendant meal: giant tub of rice, fruits and some sort of fermented vegetable matter served in a Dixie cup. I approve! However, it happened that my stomach did not approve--hours of vomiting the moment we landed, through the 15 minute crowded shuttle bus to the gate, through Chinese customs and security, through the stinky, crumbling, shopping-mall-of-an-airport and to the 3 hour wait for our next flight.
Ginacas make everything better.
Except cranky Chinese customs officers, who promptly confiscated the rest of our gin. Bastards.
Ginacas make finding a guesthouse at 1AM in Bangkok much better too!
First meal in Thailand!
60 cents for a giant plate of pad thai on the street!
Our first hour in Bangkok and Becca is already feeding the stray animals...
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Jiving with Jet-Lag
So here we go, a travel blog. We'll see how we do with this...
We arrived in Bangkok in the middle of the night (technically Wednesday morning, I suppose) after ages and ages of flying and found our way to the New Joe Guesthouse a block off Thanon Khao San. For B350/night (around 11USD) we settled into a sparse and pretty dingy room that was exactly what we were looking for. With our own balcony and private cold shower-over-toilet. I kind of want one of these for back home, what better way to conserve space and time than showering while pooping?
Scoot ahead a few days... it's Saturday morning, we're at the Wild Orchid Villa (a B700/night guesthouse, worth the extra baht because I (Becca) needed a little more cushy setting to combat my cold and period (awesome combo!). We're heading out tonight via overnight train (we're planning to go 2nd-class sleeper car) with a final destination of Koh Lanta. To get to this island on the Andaman Coast we need to take the 12-hour trip to Surat Thani, then catch a 3-hour bus to Krabi town, then take a ferry to Koh Lanta. We're excited to absorb the laid-back energy we've heard exists in Koh Lanta for a few weeks, and hopefully hook up with some workaway.info hosts running hostels and earthen villages on the island!
Bangkok has been awesome, frustrating, curious, funny, dirty, smoggy, super-stimulating etc. etc.... ultimately a good place to work through our substantial jet-lag, calibrate ourselves a bit to a vastly different culture (even in touristy Bangkok) and figure out the next leg of our journey. Some highlights:
Street food! Aside from the tasty standard dishes (perhaps the tastiest thus far has been the Tom Kha at an unnamed street stall across from our current hostel... fresh coconut milk makes all the difference!!!) we've tried some kind of raw crab salad situation, multiple fried puffs of unknown origin, and perhaps most opportunistically some fried bananas purchased while stuck in a terrible traffic jam on the way to the MBK (giant mall in the heart of the city). People here capitalize on the reality of the situation-- when there's a traffic jam and it's pouring rain, dozens of fried-banana vendors wander amongst the stopped traffic selling their bags of bananas for B20. We've sampled multiple flavors of Thai Lay's potato chips-- salmon! seaweed! meatball! and enjoyed all the local brews--Leo! Chang! Singha!
Wildlife! I've never seen so many feral cats in all my life. Or dogs. Or cockroaches. Or lizards. And the locals encourage the cats and dogs to hang around, feeding them scraps from half-empty plates, so there's always a handful of cute cats and ragged-looking dogs scrounging about for snacks. I've definitely become more of a cat-person since being here. The locals are also known to nail fruits into trees along the streets so the squirrels have tasty snacks throughout the day. It's a fascinating relationship.
TukTuks! Our first ride was a bit of a scam that we only realized later after we put together the evidence... in short, our driver abandoned us in the pouring rain at the lucky Buddha shrine when he realized we would not be hanging out at the unauthorized T.A.T (tourist assistance) to spent exorbitant amounts of money on... whatever. He went from incredibly joyful when we were on our way to the T.A.T (without our knowledge, of course) and very irritable once we refused to get out of the tuktuk to go into the travel agency. So, abandoned in the downpour! A valuable lesson. Our second tuktuk ride (on the way back from the MBK) was an incredible thrill during rush-hour traffic. The drivers are experts, negotiating the streets at breakneck speeds, swerving around stopped cars, and driving on the wrong side of the road to get us to our destination in record time. There seems to be some sort of traffic hierarchy-- everyone yields to motorbikes (the most thrilling ride of all, I'm sure) as they scream around corners and cars and people, oftentimes with small children clutched in their arms; cars yield to tuktuks; privately-owned cars yield to taxis; and no one yields to pedestrians. You basically have to muscle your way across the busy streets and hope for the best.
Hostel life! Hanging out in the large lounges, sipping iced coffee, reading our books or checking our email while people-watching has been the most relaxing experience thus far. The rooms themselves are great experiences. I'm not entirely convinced I haven't been bitten by bed bugs, but there's only so much I care to do about it.
Express boats! Aside from the tuktuks, the express boats are fantastic ways of viewing the city and offer a bit of risk themselves as the river is choppy and heavily trafficked, with drivers making sudden turns and stops to avoid smashing into the massive barges that travel the waters.
Siriraj Medical Museum! A fascinating and gruesome collection of bodies and body parts as well as instruments of death (including parasites). No pictures allowed.
Here's another thing-- it is, perhaps, the biggest culture shock to come to the East and be white. Immediately targeted as having money (I guarantee you, we do not!) and thus being solicited for taxi rides, 'travel information', bogus advice (that, if taken, will most certainly lead us into a tourist trap at a gem shop or T.A.T or who knows what else), and cheap mass-produced souvenirs is a bit overwhelming for me (Becca) at times. The first couple days I had a hard time saying "no" or even ignoring the solicitors as it felt rude, but as the days go on I become more used to it and realized it's all part of the transaction. I even bargained my way into some souvenir deals, which--if you know me--know is a very uncomfortable place for me to be. Learning!
That's a lot of information. I haven't captured half of it, most certainly not the emotional components attached to each experience, but I suppose that's pretty impossible to achieve as I sit here in the lounge frantically typing so we can finish up and head off for breakfast.
Tomorrow we'll be in a new land and I'm ready for it. If only this stupid cold would go away.
Love you guys!
We arrived in Bangkok in the middle of the night (technically Wednesday morning, I suppose) after ages and ages of flying and found our way to the New Joe Guesthouse a block off Thanon Khao San. For B350/night (around 11USD) we settled into a sparse and pretty dingy room that was exactly what we were looking for. With our own balcony and private cold shower-over-toilet. I kind of want one of these for back home, what better way to conserve space and time than showering while pooping?
Scoot ahead a few days... it's Saturday morning, we're at the Wild Orchid Villa (a B700/night guesthouse, worth the extra baht because I (Becca) needed a little more cushy setting to combat my cold and period (awesome combo!). We're heading out tonight via overnight train (we're planning to go 2nd-class sleeper car) with a final destination of Koh Lanta. To get to this island on the Andaman Coast we need to take the 12-hour trip to Surat Thani, then catch a 3-hour bus to Krabi town, then take a ferry to Koh Lanta. We're excited to absorb the laid-back energy we've heard exists in Koh Lanta for a few weeks, and hopefully hook up with some workaway.info hosts running hostels and earthen villages on the island!
Bangkok has been awesome, frustrating, curious, funny, dirty, smoggy, super-stimulating etc. etc.... ultimately a good place to work through our substantial jet-lag, calibrate ourselves a bit to a vastly different culture (even in touristy Bangkok) and figure out the next leg of our journey. Some highlights:
Street food! Aside from the tasty standard dishes (perhaps the tastiest thus far has been the Tom Kha at an unnamed street stall across from our current hostel... fresh coconut milk makes all the difference!!!) we've tried some kind of raw crab salad situation, multiple fried puffs of unknown origin, and perhaps most opportunistically some fried bananas purchased while stuck in a terrible traffic jam on the way to the MBK (giant mall in the heart of the city). People here capitalize on the reality of the situation-- when there's a traffic jam and it's pouring rain, dozens of fried-banana vendors wander amongst the stopped traffic selling their bags of bananas for B20. We've sampled multiple flavors of Thai Lay's potato chips-- salmon! seaweed! meatball! and enjoyed all the local brews--Leo! Chang! Singha!
Wildlife! I've never seen so many feral cats in all my life. Or dogs. Or cockroaches. Or lizards. And the locals encourage the cats and dogs to hang around, feeding them scraps from half-empty plates, so there's always a handful of cute cats and ragged-looking dogs scrounging about for snacks. I've definitely become more of a cat-person since being here. The locals are also known to nail fruits into trees along the streets so the squirrels have tasty snacks throughout the day. It's a fascinating relationship.
TukTuks! Our first ride was a bit of a scam that we only realized later after we put together the evidence... in short, our driver abandoned us in the pouring rain at the lucky Buddha shrine when he realized we would not be hanging out at the unauthorized T.A.T (tourist assistance) to spent exorbitant amounts of money on... whatever. He went from incredibly joyful when we were on our way to the T.A.T (without our knowledge, of course) and very irritable once we refused to get out of the tuktuk to go into the travel agency. So, abandoned in the downpour! A valuable lesson. Our second tuktuk ride (on the way back from the MBK) was an incredible thrill during rush-hour traffic. The drivers are experts, negotiating the streets at breakneck speeds, swerving around stopped cars, and driving on the wrong side of the road to get us to our destination in record time. There seems to be some sort of traffic hierarchy-- everyone yields to motorbikes (the most thrilling ride of all, I'm sure) as they scream around corners and cars and people, oftentimes with small children clutched in their arms; cars yield to tuktuks; privately-owned cars yield to taxis; and no one yields to pedestrians. You basically have to muscle your way across the busy streets and hope for the best.
Hostel life! Hanging out in the large lounges, sipping iced coffee, reading our books or checking our email while people-watching has been the most relaxing experience thus far. The rooms themselves are great experiences. I'm not entirely convinced I haven't been bitten by bed bugs, but there's only so much I care to do about it.
Express boats! Aside from the tuktuks, the express boats are fantastic ways of viewing the city and offer a bit of risk themselves as the river is choppy and heavily trafficked, with drivers making sudden turns and stops to avoid smashing into the massive barges that travel the waters.
Siriraj Medical Museum! A fascinating and gruesome collection of bodies and body parts as well as instruments of death (including parasites). No pictures allowed.
Here's another thing-- it is, perhaps, the biggest culture shock to come to the East and be white. Immediately targeted as having money (I guarantee you, we do not!) and thus being solicited for taxi rides, 'travel information', bogus advice (that, if taken, will most certainly lead us into a tourist trap at a gem shop or T.A.T or who knows what else), and cheap mass-produced souvenirs is a bit overwhelming for me (Becca) at times. The first couple days I had a hard time saying "no" or even ignoring the solicitors as it felt rude, but as the days go on I become more used to it and realized it's all part of the transaction. I even bargained my way into some souvenir deals, which--if you know me--know is a very uncomfortable place for me to be. Learning!
That's a lot of information. I haven't captured half of it, most certainly not the emotional components attached to each experience, but I suppose that's pretty impossible to achieve as I sit here in the lounge frantically typing so we can finish up and head off for breakfast.
Tomorrow we'll be in a new land and I'm ready for it. If only this stupid cold would go away.
Love you guys!
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