Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Photos...
Here's a link to the photos I have so far of the kids. I can't seem to get them uploaded to the Pledgie site (and my computer charger is not working again, so I can't keep trying until it's fixed)... but this way you can see some of the kids!
http://pledgie.com/campaigns/9698
http://pledgie.com/campaigns/9698
Saturday, March 27, 2010
ACODO
http://pledgie.com/campaigns/9698
I started volunteering at an orphanage yesterday. It’s ACODO (Assisting Cambodia Orphans and the Disabled Organization) yesterday… The kids are amazing. There are 64 children here, ages 3-19 (most of them are 13 and under). They sleep on the floor or the ground with mosquito nets around them. Most days they get enough food, though they’re often a bit short on protein and vegetables.
In general, the kids seem happy; they dance and play and goof around… yesterday, a couple volunteers brought in empty water bottles, and set up a makeshift bowling alley in the sand with an old basketball and using the bottles as pins. They had a blast!!
When I arrived, I was given a tour and introduced to the other volunteers (last week there were six, which is unheard of! Normally there are one or two, tops), then helped teach a small group of children. Suddenly I had a little head on my back and two tiny arms around my waist, wrapped in a huge hug. If I wasn’t already hooked, I certainly was in that moment.
The kids are trained in traditional Khmer dance, and they do performances to try to raise money. Right now, it’s getting to be the slow season for tourists, so the older kids are staying in nearby villages, doing performances there at night. The villagers often don’t have much, but they’ll donate a small amount if they can. The younger kids will go out, dance, and then come back to sleep in the orphanage. The staff took the kids out in two vehicles: a van with more kids than seats, plus a few kids sitting on the roof of the van, holding on to the handles; and a cattle truck, where all the kids sit in the back. (It’s not terribly uncommon here, but it certainly startled me!) At the performance, some of the kids were sitting in the grass, cheering on their friends, and during a break, they saw me with my camera and started posing together. They would ham it up for the camera, then look at the picture and crack up laughing, then pose again. At the end of the night, the kids who are staying there would sleep on the stage or on the ground, and the president of the organization sleeps right alongside them. (The fact that he and his wife stay where the children stay made a big impression on me… It helps me feel more confident that money and food are going to the kids, and not lining someone’s pockets.)
This morning, we worked on English numbers and letters with the little ones, and then helped teach them to ride bikes. They were using adult-sized bikes, and the kids were all about four to six years old, but that didn’t phase them. They would tell us whether they wanted us to hold on, or sit on the bike with them, or just stand guard… and then they were off!
http://www.acodo.org/
The website has information about the costs associated with keeping ACODO up and running. It costs about $73 a day to feed everyone, and there are significant additional costs for rent, clothes, supplies, etc. If anyone is interested in making a donation, you can do so through this link. At the end of the week, I will take the money to the market for food supplies, shampoo, etc., and to help the organization with expenses. The donation can be anonymous if you prefer.
Time for me to get back for lunch and the next lesson. I’ll post some photos and videos tonight if I can. :)
http://pledgie.com/campaigns/9698
I started volunteering at an orphanage yesterday. It’s ACODO (Assisting Cambodia Orphans and the Disabled Organization) yesterday… The kids are amazing. There are 64 children here, ages 3-19 (most of them are 13 and under). They sleep on the floor or the ground with mosquito nets around them. Most days they get enough food, though they’re often a bit short on protein and vegetables.
In general, the kids seem happy; they dance and play and goof around… yesterday, a couple volunteers brought in empty water bottles, and set up a makeshift bowling alley in the sand with an old basketball and using the bottles as pins. They had a blast!!
When I arrived, I was given a tour and introduced to the other volunteers (last week there were six, which is unheard of! Normally there are one or two, tops), then helped teach a small group of children. Suddenly I had a little head on my back and two tiny arms around my waist, wrapped in a huge hug. If I wasn’t already hooked, I certainly was in that moment.
The kids are trained in traditional Khmer dance, and they do performances to try to raise money. Right now, it’s getting to be the slow season for tourists, so the older kids are staying in nearby villages, doing performances there at night. The villagers often don’t have much, but they’ll donate a small amount if they can. The younger kids will go out, dance, and then come back to sleep in the orphanage. The staff took the kids out in two vehicles: a van with more kids than seats, plus a few kids sitting on the roof of the van, holding on to the handles; and a cattle truck, where all the kids sit in the back. (It’s not terribly uncommon here, but it certainly startled me!) At the performance, some of the kids were sitting in the grass, cheering on their friends, and during a break, they saw me with my camera and started posing together. They would ham it up for the camera, then look at the picture and crack up laughing, then pose again. At the end of the night, the kids who are staying there would sleep on the stage or on the ground, and the president of the organization sleeps right alongside them. (The fact that he and his wife stay where the children stay made a big impression on me… It helps me feel more confident that money and food are going to the kids, and not lining someone’s pockets.)
This morning, we worked on English numbers and letters with the little ones, and then helped teach them to ride bikes. They were using adult-sized bikes, and the kids were all about four to six years old, but that didn’t phase them. They would tell us whether they wanted us to hold on, or sit on the bike with them, or just stand guard… and then they were off!
http://www.acodo.org/
The website has information about the costs associated with keeping ACODO up and running. It costs about $73 a day to feed everyone, and there are significant additional costs for rent, clothes, supplies, etc. If anyone is interested in making a donation, you can do so through this link. At the end of the week, I will take the money to the market for food supplies, shampoo, etc., and to help the organization with expenses. The donation can be anonymous if you prefer.
Time for me to get back for lunch and the next lesson. I’ll post some photos and videos tonight if I can. :)
http://pledgie.com/campaigns/9698
Friday, March 12, 2010
It's not all paradise
Disclaimer: this is not a "happy, the-world-is-glorious" blog. It's not really meant to be negative, either, but sometimes it's so easy to just see how great and wonderful it all is, and that's not the whole picture. Also, take this with a grain of salt, as I'm sure some of my commentary is influenced by a lack of cultural understanding...
Any of the big cities out here are unbelievably polluted - some guy threw his empty beer bottle out the window of the bus and no one batted an eye; littering is commonplace. Trash lines the streets, sometimes several feet deep. There also don't seem to be any laws regarding emissions, and a painfully high percentage of the vehicles on the road are spitting out black smoke, sometimes so bad you can hardly see through it. Trash is burned and so are crops, so the smoke from that can be pretty rough, too. Apparently during the burning season, the air pollution in Chiang Mai is so bad that you couldn't see a huge red building from a few blocks away, yet during more clear times, you could see the entire city (and then some!) from the top of a nearby mountain. Also, in Jakarta, it seems that EVERYONE smokes, and I'm convinced that Indonesian cigarettes are more dangerous than the ones available in the States; just one person smoking anywhere near me is enough to send me running outside to the exhaust fumes.
I know this probably sounds terribly ironic, but it's hard not to get frustrated with the people who make a living off of the money of tourists. It seems like every few seconds, someone is yelling, "where you go?" (which means "do you need a taxi?"), or "you need moto?", or advertisements for whatever else is being sold. I don't even mind this so much when people only ask once, but there are many (MANY!) people who will actually follow you down the street or block your path. People "give" you things and then tell you that you owe them money: one woman dumped corn kernels (for the pigeons) into my hands and onto the ground after I said "no, thank you" and then told me I owed her money for them; another woman started to peel a banana that I said I didn't want - she kept grabbing my arm and trying to shove the banana into my hands; and little kids came up behind me as I was leaving the beach and dumped bottled water on my feet to clean off the sand, then wanted money - they even got into my taxi when they felt like I hadn't given them enough. I can't help being sympathetic, though... the poverty I've seen is astounding. People sleeping on piles of trash on the sidewalk, run-down iron shacks, women - barefoot, in tattered clothing, holding sooty babies on their hips - asking for change... I'm sad to say that I've seen it so much I've almost stopped noticing.
Most of the places I've been feel fairly safe, but Jakarta has seemed a bit less so. I've heard that there are more muggings and pickpockets here than in many other cities (not that that's uncommon for a huge city), and several locals (including a police officer who later asked to take my picture and for my phone number) have asked me if I feel afraid to be here (which doesn't really make me any more comfortable). I was nervous when I tried to go to the Freedom Plaza; hundreds of people were demonstrating - with one person yelling orders/instructions into a megaphone - and there were probably 300-400 police officers in riot gear waiting to react if anything got out of hand. I was told later that they're just extra cautious because of the plaza's proximity to the President's home and the American Embassy, but I'm not sure how much safer that made me feel. I left without doing any of what I had come to do. It was also here in Jakarta that a guy who was giving me a massage started licking/kissing my feet. I realize that probably sounds funny, but it was creepy - blatantly sexual (and unwanted!), and realizing that reporting him would do no good (probably even if something worse had happened) was a reminder that as a tourist and as a woman, my rights here are minimal. It's an awkward and uncomfortable feeling. Which leads to the worst of what I've seen, which is the sex trade. Argue what you will about a woman's right to sell her body if she chooses; I'm not even going to address that here. I'm talking about the women who have pimps, the ones who have been drugged or beaten into submission... and the kids. The little girls (and boys, though I haven't witnessed that) who are sold to slimy old men for a few dollars a night. It's common and is mostly ignored by the locals (and tourists, frankly). When I was in Bali, a woman was coming around with a petition to try to get the court to look into accusations that a German ex-pat was paying for oral sex from 10-year-old girls. The man employs a lot of locals, so many people's incomes are dependent upon his business and no one is willing to do anything to stop him. Apparently, the Balinese system isn't going to do anything, so the petitioners are trying to get the German courts involved. And this is certainly not a unique story.
As much as this trip has been amazing and wonderful, and certain places seem like paradise, it has also been eye-opening. There are a lot of things here that work beautifully, and things that seem to be much better than the way stuff happens at home, but this region is certainly not without its issues (some of them monumental).
I will return home more aware of the inequities in the world, and will grapple with the awareness that so many people - many of whom are far more intelligent and ambitious than I am - would kill for the opportunities granted to me simply because I was born and raised in America. I will return less myopic, more curious, and far more appreciative.
Any of the big cities out here are unbelievably polluted - some guy threw his empty beer bottle out the window of the bus and no one batted an eye; littering is commonplace. Trash lines the streets, sometimes several feet deep. There also don't seem to be any laws regarding emissions, and a painfully high percentage of the vehicles on the road are spitting out black smoke, sometimes so bad you can hardly see through it. Trash is burned and so are crops, so the smoke from that can be pretty rough, too. Apparently during the burning season, the air pollution in Chiang Mai is so bad that you couldn't see a huge red building from a few blocks away, yet during more clear times, you could see the entire city (and then some!) from the top of a nearby mountain. Also, in Jakarta, it seems that EVERYONE smokes, and I'm convinced that Indonesian cigarettes are more dangerous than the ones available in the States; just one person smoking anywhere near me is enough to send me running outside to the exhaust fumes.
I know this probably sounds terribly ironic, but it's hard not to get frustrated with the people who make a living off of the money of tourists. It seems like every few seconds, someone is yelling, "where you go?" (which means "do you need a taxi?"), or "you need moto?", or advertisements for whatever else is being sold. I don't even mind this so much when people only ask once, but there are many (MANY!) people who will actually follow you down the street or block your path. People "give" you things and then tell you that you owe them money: one woman dumped corn kernels (for the pigeons) into my hands and onto the ground after I said "no, thank you" and then told me I owed her money for them; another woman started to peel a banana that I said I didn't want - she kept grabbing my arm and trying to shove the banana into my hands; and little kids came up behind me as I was leaving the beach and dumped bottled water on my feet to clean off the sand, then wanted money - they even got into my taxi when they felt like I hadn't given them enough. I can't help being sympathetic, though... the poverty I've seen is astounding. People sleeping on piles of trash on the sidewalk, run-down iron shacks, women - barefoot, in tattered clothing, holding sooty babies on their hips - asking for change... I'm sad to say that I've seen it so much I've almost stopped noticing.
Most of the places I've been feel fairly safe, but Jakarta has seemed a bit less so. I've heard that there are more muggings and pickpockets here than in many other cities (not that that's uncommon for a huge city), and several locals (including a police officer who later asked to take my picture and for my phone number) have asked me if I feel afraid to be here (which doesn't really make me any more comfortable). I was nervous when I tried to go to the Freedom Plaza; hundreds of people were demonstrating - with one person yelling orders/instructions into a megaphone - and there were probably 300-400 police officers in riot gear waiting to react if anything got out of hand. I was told later that they're just extra cautious because of the plaza's proximity to the President's home and the American Embassy, but I'm not sure how much safer that made me feel. I left without doing any of what I had come to do. It was also here in Jakarta that a guy who was giving me a massage started licking/kissing my feet. I realize that probably sounds funny, but it was creepy - blatantly sexual (and unwanted!), and realizing that reporting him would do no good (probably even if something worse had happened) was a reminder that as a tourist and as a woman, my rights here are minimal. It's an awkward and uncomfortable feeling. Which leads to the worst of what I've seen, which is the sex trade. Argue what you will about a woman's right to sell her body if she chooses; I'm not even going to address that here. I'm talking about the women who have pimps, the ones who have been drugged or beaten into submission... and the kids. The little girls (and boys, though I haven't witnessed that) who are sold to slimy old men for a few dollars a night. It's common and is mostly ignored by the locals (and tourists, frankly). When I was in Bali, a woman was coming around with a petition to try to get the court to look into accusations that a German ex-pat was paying for oral sex from 10-year-old girls. The man employs a lot of locals, so many people's incomes are dependent upon his business and no one is willing to do anything to stop him. Apparently, the Balinese system isn't going to do anything, so the petitioners are trying to get the German courts involved. And this is certainly not a unique story.
As much as this trip has been amazing and wonderful, and certain places seem like paradise, it has also been eye-opening. There are a lot of things here that work beautifully, and things that seem to be much better than the way stuff happens at home, but this region is certainly not without its issues (some of them monumental).
I will return home more aware of the inequities in the world, and will grapple with the awareness that so many people - many of whom are far more intelligent and ambitious than I am - would kill for the opportunities granted to me simply because I was born and raised in America. I will return less myopic, more curious, and far more appreciative.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Ubud
Bali was a great place; I wish I'd had more time to explore! I was in Ubud, which is a really nice city known for it's yoga. When I got to town, I went for lunch at a great spot overlooking rice paddies, and had my first avocado juice. I assure you, it was the first of many. I've probably had one or two a day since then - they're SO good!! Sometimes mixed with a swirl of chocolate sauce... who knew?? (Indonesians, apparently.)
The next day I went on a tour (really I just wanted the transportation to a nearby city, but the price was about the same, so why not get to see some stuff along the way?) of a few temples. We stopped at a coffee plantation toward the end of the day, and I got to help roast some of the coffee beans.
I also saw the luwak "cat," which is the animal that eats only the best coffee beans, then poops them out. Apparently between the luwak's discerning taste and the digestion process, the (still whole) beans that come out are the world's best. The coffee made from these beans sells for about $700/kilo! I was given free tastes of pure Balinese coffee, ginseng coffee, cocoa, and ginger tea, but I had to pay for the luwak coffee. It was GOOD! A little weird to think about where it came from, but whatever, it was tasty.
Mount Batur and Gili
Well, the homesickness hit pretty hard around the time I arrived in Kuala Lumpur. I was a grumpy mess, and I just stayed in my room for most of the day. My mood was okay over the next few days, but it was Mount Batur that got me back to my happy place. I woke up at 2:30am to be on the road at 3:00 and at the base of the volcano by 4:00. At 4:00, we (my new friend Klaus and our guide, whose name means #2 in Behasa - men here are named for their birth order... he has one older brother, hence "#2") headed up the mountain, flashlights in hand. A bit before 6:00, we arrived at the spot where most people stop to enjoy the sunrise, but we weren't satisfied. We hiked another challenging 40 minutes up to the very top. We watched the sunrise, which was beautiful, and ate our breakfast that had been cooked in steam from the volcano.
After about an hour, we headed around the rim of the volcano, and then back down.
It was gorgeous: lush green plants, crops, and trees, in stark contrast to the black volcanic rock.
In some areas, you could see the path where the lava flowed so many years ago...
In others, the rocks were sharp and jagged, and there were still more areas where you had to struggle to keep your footing as the coarse sand slid under your feet.
The view from the top was of a crater formed in the 60s during an eruption (the large black circular space in the next photo), another crater (smaller, and clover-shaped) from the most recent eruption about five years ago, and of a big lake in front of Bali's largest volcano. Stunning.
Thanks to this view, good company and a long-overdue and exerting hike, my mood improved tremendously. I finished off the day with a Popeye (spinach, apple and cucumber juice - don't knock it, it was awesome), some suckling pig (the Ubud specialty), and a swim in a pool overlooking the rice paddies.
Early the next morning, I headed for the Gilies - a trio of islands not far off the eastern coast of Bali. My morning went something like this: 45-minute shuttle bus ride, frantic dash to the fast boat, nearly two hours on the boat from Bali to Gili Tawangan, transfer to the local boat, 20 minutes on the boat to Gili Air, greeted on shore by no fewer than five very eager guys who are competing for your money; each promises you a great deal if you stay in the guesthouse where he works. "Come stay at Lucky; good rooms, good price, and I promise you will get lucky!" I opted not to clarify if he meant "get lucky" as in sex, or the magic mushrooms for which the islands are famous, or just that you'd be lucky to get a great deal on a nice room. I'm assuming he meant a combination of all three. Maybe I should have stayed at Lucky to get the full story, but I ended up staying at Nina, a place with VERY simple cottages/bungalows, located at the prime snorkeling spot on Gili Air.
As I was enjoying my Gado Gado (vegetables topped with peanut sauce) and avocado juice (WHY has America not adopted this???? It's yummy, and if you add a little chocolate sauce, it also makes a tasty dessert drink), I got my first offer for mushrooms. "Don't worry, my friend. It's not illegal! It's very legal; there are no police here!" This part was half true.
There are severe penalties (including death) in Indonesia for posessing, using or selling any kind of drugs, and it is still illegal in Gili, but there are no police on any of the three islands (you go to the village chief if you have any problems), so laws are not generally enforced. Surprisingly, though, it's a very safe place to be... Other than drug use, the islands have VERY little crime (and I suspect that most of that crime is from the tourists. Some of the locals are a bit pushy with the trinkets they're trying to sell and may try to get away with charging too much for things, but that's as bad as it gets. If someone saw you drop a wad of money on the street, they would probably chase you around the island to get it back to you.
I spent the first day lounging by the beach, desperately trying to cool off and avoid burning to the ever-attractive shade of lobster-red. Day two, I went snorkeling several times and did lots more lounging. On day three, I woke up early to see the sunrise (a total bust; it was so cloudy I didn't get to see it) and then went snorkeling again. This time I went into the water from a spot farther up the beach, which was a dreadfully bad decision. This was an area rife with coral and sharp rocks underfoot, and I ended getting slammed down onto them by a wave. After saying a few impolite words and checking the damage (a chunk out of my elbow and painful but superficial scrapes down my leg), I kept going. I thought I had passed the area I needed to be worried about and was enjoying the view for a bit, until I got to an area with almost zero visibility. I was attempting to get through this spot to clearer waters, or at least to a section of the beach where I could go back on shore without acquiring any more battle wounds, and I ended up swimming right into one of the huge ropes (about four inches in diamater) used to secure boats and bouys and such. It was covered in sharp sea-things (barnacles? Who knows... I couldn't see, remember?) and it left long slices across my right arm. At this point, I was hurting, bleeding, and seriously pissed-off, and I awkwardly made my way back to the shore and saw Klaus (the guy from the volcano), who was just about to head into the water to snorkel, and he convinced me to go back out in a better area. I'm glad I decided to go back in, because visibility was much better, and we saw sea turtles! Six of them in total... it was fantastic! We stalked the turtles until they swam off to deeper waters, and then went back to shore. We had decided to take a one-day introductory scuba diving course, and it was just about time to head to the diving school. Half of the morning was spent on basic instructions and warnings, and on how to use the gear. Then we put on our gear and headed to the water, where we spent time getting used to breathing from a tank, and practiced how to move underwater, what to do if you run out of air, how to clear your mask, etc. Then we went for a shallow dive - down to about 5 meters. We saw tons of fish, including a cuttlefish, pufferfish, and whatever those skinny ones are called that swim vertically. It was GREAT!! Then we loaded our gear onto the boat and headed off for a lunch break. When we came back, we got (wet)suited up and hopped on the boat. This time we did an open-water dive! Pretty amazing for the first day. We slowly descended to about 15 meters, and swam past an old shipwreck site. I got to see an impressive variety of coral, anemones and millions of fish. There was one kind of fish that would come to you if you rubbed your fingers together, and I also saw an extrememly poisonous lionfish (which I would have missed had it not been pointed out - when it's not moving, it almost looks like part of the coral).
I had a brief problem with the pressure in my ears - I guess I didn't clear them quickly enough - and at the very end of the dive I had a bit of a hard time with the breathing. I'm not sure if I got nervous, or if the lack of fresh air just started to get to me, but I was glad for the dive to be over. It wasn't bad, just uncomfortable, and I'm told that this is very normal, and that it gets better with each dive. I look forward to finding out.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Grub
I have found banana roti, and it is love. A thin pastry dough twisted and flipped until it is so thin you can almost see through it, placed on a flat grill with butter and filled with sliced bananas. The sides are folded over to wrap the banana, and it cooks until the bananas are soft and gooey. It is then sliced into bite-sized squares and drizzled with sweet milk and chocolate, or honey, or whatever strikes your fancy. If you order from a street vendor, you are handed this delicious concoction and a wooden skewer for a utensil. If you are far more patient than I am, you might be able to wait long enough to avoid scalding your tongue with the tasty goodness.
Red curry with squid While roti is one of my new favorite treats (you can also get different varieties and have it as a meal instead of dessert), but it is merely one of countless sumptuous culinary delights. (That's for you, Roger.) Fried rice with pork or pad Thai (which is drier here than in the States, and often has kale or Chinese broccoli added to it) have become my default breakfasts, as they're fairly simple and not spicy unless I want them to be. Red and green curries are favorites as well, served similarly to back home, though here they're eaten more like soup, with rice as an often optional accompaniment. Hard-boiled eggs are found everywhere - both chicken and quail eggs - and may be purchased on skewers or cooked in a dark brown broth. Kee mao is always delicious, though not as easy to find as I would have expected, given how common it is on American Thai menus. Also popular are little meatballs, which are made from grinding fish, chicken or pork into a paste, and then molding the paste into little balls and boiling or grilling them. These are often served in a noodle soup somewhat similar to Vietnamese pho, or just skewered and grilled and topped with a spicy sauce.
One challenging thing is that when menus have English translations on them, they generally don't include the Thai name (in Roman text, anyway). Each restaurant will describe the same dish a little bit differently, and five drastically different noodle dishes may be described very similarly. So, you have to either already know the Thai name of what you want, or just pick something from the menu and hope that if you like it, you'll someday be able to find it again. Also, you have to hope that you can properly pronounce the dish you're requesting. I had a craving for kee mao one day, and I apparently didn't use the proper intonation, because the dish I was served was chicken with green beans and hot peppers served over rice (kee mao is a noodle dish).
There are many dishes I've tried here that (to me) shall forever remain nameless, thanks to my language barrier. Street vendors are often able to help me with knowing what kind of meat I'm eating (or if it's a vegetarian dish) and if it's spicy, but often not much more than that. Important note: if a Thai person warns you that a dish is spicy, it is generally wise to ask for clarification. Also remember that "little spicy" in Thai terms is not "little spicy" in American terms. "Medium spicy" has had my nose running and my lips burning, and the one time I was warned something was spicy (I didn't ask for clarification) and I ordered it anyway, I ended up with tears streaming down my face for the entire meal, much to the amusement of the family running the place. Thank goodness for Thai iced tea with milk - it is wonderful for putting out the flames. Sticky rice with mango is always tasty and comforting, and is one of the only times you don't have to specify whether you want ripe mango. Seems Thai people often enjoy the not-so-sweet, unripened mango as a snack.
I was talking to an ex-pat who's been living in Chiang Mai for awhile, and he had a brilliant idea: yes, cooking courses are wonderful, but someone should teach an EATING course. It would be SO helpful to have someone explain a selection of common ingredients and dishes, and be able to try samples of them. There are things I haven't tried because I have no idea what they are, and many things I've ordered for that exact same reason. Some of them have panned out wonderfully (horseshoe crab eggs mixed with spices and vegetables and served in the crab shell), some have been awful (some pickled olive thing that I hope to never experience again) and many have fallen somewhere in the middle. Some of my favorite new foods that I may not otherwise have tried (and still don't know the name of) have been discovered when I've happened to sit down with a local. (I tried a delicous broth with a vegetable that looked like a nearly clear piece of corn-on-the-cob, and when I asked what it was, I was told "vitamin.") If someone started an eating course, I can assure you I'd be the first one signed up.
Black jelly with milk. Beverages are fun, too. Fruit juices, shakes and frappes are on every corner. A vendor will have a variety of fresh fruits on display, and you can point to which one(s) you want, and tell them if you want it served as juice, or mixed with ice for a slushie drink, or smoothie-style. They're delicious, healthy, and a wonderful way to beat the heat. Whole coconuts are also a nice treat. The top is hacked into and you drink from a straw; when you're done drinking, you can scrape out the coconut flesh, too. (I always thought I hated coconut; turns out I just hate fake coconut flavoring... and the shredded/dried stuff. Fresh coconut is delicious!) Cha dun yen (don't even try to pronounce it; there's an almost-"g" sound in there somewhere, for starters. I've been practicing, and asked people to demo it for me, and I still usually have to try several times before I'm understood) is sweet Thai iced tea with milk (the way it will be served if you order a Thai iced tea in a restaurant at home). You can also order it plain or with lemon. Also available is hot or cold coffee, which is generally instant but occasionally you'll find it brewed. You can also order some sort of dessert-ish drink that I still need to try which was described to me as jelly in milk. It looks like a giant chunk of black jello, which is cubed, tossed into a glass and topped with canned milk, or you can get it with little green spaghetti-shaped strands of something that also looks like jello. Honestly, I haven't tried them yet because they scare me, but they seem to be popular, so I'll check them out.
I'll keep you posted on Malay and Balinese food. Must say, I'm looking forward to doing the research! :)
One challenging thing is that when menus have English translations on them, they generally don't include the Thai name (in Roman text, anyway). Each restaurant will describe the same dish a little bit differently, and five drastically different noodle dishes may be described very similarly. So, you have to either already know the Thai name of what you want, or just pick something from the menu and hope that if you like it, you'll someday be able to find it again. Also, you have to hope that you can properly pronounce the dish you're requesting. I had a craving for kee mao one day, and I apparently didn't use the proper intonation, because the dish I was served was chicken with green beans and hot peppers served over rice (kee mao is a noodle dish).
There are many dishes I've tried here that (to me) shall forever remain nameless, thanks to my language barrier. Street vendors are often able to help me with knowing what kind of meat I'm eating (or if it's a vegetarian dish) and if it's spicy, but often not much more than that. Important note: if a Thai person warns you that a dish is spicy, it is generally wise to ask for clarification. Also remember that "little spicy" in Thai terms is not "little spicy" in American terms. "Medium spicy" has had my nose running and my lips burning, and the one time I was warned something was spicy (I didn't ask for clarification) and I ordered it anyway, I ended up with tears streaming down my face for the entire meal, much to the amusement of the family running the place. Thank goodness for Thai iced tea with milk - it is wonderful for putting out the flames. Sticky rice with mango is always tasty and comforting, and is one of the only times you don't have to specify whether you want ripe mango. Seems Thai people often enjoy the not-so-sweet, unripened mango as a snack.
I was talking to an ex-pat who's been living in Chiang Mai for awhile, and he had a brilliant idea: yes, cooking courses are wonderful, but someone should teach an EATING course. It would be SO helpful to have someone explain a selection of common ingredients and dishes, and be able to try samples of them. There are things I haven't tried because I have no idea what they are, and many things I've ordered for that exact same reason. Some of them have panned out wonderfully (horseshoe crab eggs mixed with spices and vegetables and served in the crab shell), some have been awful (some pickled olive thing that I hope to never experience again) and many have fallen somewhere in the middle. Some of my favorite new foods that I may not otherwise have tried (and still don't know the name of) have been discovered when I've happened to sit down with a local. (I tried a delicous broth with a vegetable that looked like a nearly clear piece of corn-on-the-cob, and when I asked what it was, I was told "vitamin.") If someone started an eating course, I can assure you I'd be the first one signed up.
I'll keep you posted on Malay and Balinese food. Must say, I'm looking forward to doing the research! :)
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About Me
- sumsumterp
- Interpreter. Lover of mountains who's happy to be back in CO but really misses DC. Traveler with an extra-squishy soft spot for orphaned kids.