The Noodle Curtain

When does plain omelette cost 120 baht? Only in Bangkok

If you want an indication of how expensive it is to eat in Bangkok, try my egg test. 

 I love Thai omelettes. They’re also cheap. Street stands sell kai thiao (omelette) moo saap (with minced pork) for about 35 baht. Or you can have a plain one, with white and green onions and “stuff”, plus chillis for 30 baht. Rice is included. The rice won’t be great but it’s still quite a tasty, quick meal.

 Problem is, they don’t seem to be around much anymore on my soi. Or they come and go too early.

 I decided to skip breakfast this morning and get some important stuff done. After dealing with my embassy and the Department of Land Transportation (driver licensing), I trudged to my soi after getting off the BTS Skytrain at Phrom Pong. The DLT is conveniently located at  Bang Chak station, unlike the Thailand Department of Immigration, which I visited yesterday in Myanmar. OK, maybe it was Laos. Took hours anyway. 

 I was famished at 2 p.m. and ready to try somewhere else down my soi, where there is a very decent restaurant about 20 metres from my apartment building. But that’s way down the soi from Sukhumvit Road, the spine of the BTS system.

 A Thai omelette is what I use to test menu prices. After checking four restaurant menus on the way down the soi, omelette prices were 120, 130 and 150 baht. The 150 baht one had shrimp, which is expensive. The others were either plain or with minced pork. For the baht-inexperienced, that’s $4, $4.25 and $5 for a bloody egg. By the way, the wholesale egg price, if you buy 30 small ones, is about 4 baht each. Smallest ones too.

 The menu pictures did not show rice with them! Without asking, I’m sure rice is an extra 20 to 25 baht. So a so-called cheap restaurant breakfast in Bangkok is 140 baht or $4.60 -- at 30.5 baht to the Canadian dollar. That’s complete nonsense. And I thought another place I went to early on in my stay here at 115 baht for a Thai omelette and rice was was outrageous. By the way, three of the four restaurants were non-air-con places. 

 My soi is not what you’d call high end, what with its 20 or so massage shops and couple of dozen beer bars,  although being on the Sukhumvit Road tourist strip lends some cachet.

 My regular eatery near my building charges 70 baht plus 15 for rice. However, it’s not so nice. Most of their Thai food is not so nice, in fact, although their western food is very good. Thai staff too. As they all are, by the way.

 Maybe the expensive egg meals have better ingredients and use fresh frying oil for the price, but I wouldn’t bet on it in very case. 

 Two hours south of here in cheaper Pattaya where I lived for one year, I could get a full English breakfast for 100 to 139 baht. Yep, bacon, sausages, beans, three eggs, fried potatoes, whole wheat toast, orange juice and coffee for the same price as a couple of fried eggs and rice in Bangkok. 

 I ended up back in my local eatery. Eggs, bacon, home fries, whole wheat toast and jam, and coffee for 145 baht. 

PS Looking back on a two-year old post,  I see the current price of street omelettes has gone up, although that "foreigner-owned" restaurant, the same one I'm talking about above, has not raised the price. 

 

Thailand fades, life moves on to Vietnam

I miss writing my blog. It’s been eight months and in all that time I could have written many more pieces. But I lost interest in my host country, Thailand.

I wrote 290 posts in exactly three years.  It was good for me because it kept up the writing urge, helped me keep my skills polished and gave me a sharper eye for what’s going on in Thailand and in several nearby countries. But I quit posting on Behind the Noodle Curtain in July 2011. 

Even in the one or two months previous, I knew my days in Bangkok were numbered despite only arriving to live full-time in the autumn  of 2010. I’d started travelling even more, to other parts of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. I found satisfaction in Phnom Penh. But it took four or five visits over a very short period of a few months to consider living here, where I’m writing my last post for Behind the Noodle Curtain.

At the end of August 2011, a second trip of the year to the Cambodian capital opened my eyes. I liked the serene pace of the low-profile city, the wide boulevards, no doubt remnants of the French colonial period, and the trees and the colourful buildings, the boulevard medians ornamented by trees, bushes and flowers. Then there’s the easy-going people and the genuine smiles.

I also enjoyed the western restaurants and bars, with cheap, plentiful food and drinks. You could get good bread and croissants, too! Rent and electricity were about on par with Thailand. And, to be honest, it’s not too far from Bangkok if I wanted to hook up with my great friends there.

The tipping points last fall -- the two were almost simultaneous -- were the fast dwindling water and food supplies in flood-threatened Bangkok where nothing seemed to be done about it and the lure of the best girl I’ve ever met in eight years of travelling and living in Southeast Asia.

Yes, there’s a lot more to my disaffection with Thailand but I really can’t write it here, mostly because Behind the Noodle Curtain stays away from politics, which most farang writers of any kind and level are well advised to do due to oversensitive authorities.

This post also marks my last few days in Cambodia. I am moving to the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. From Toronto to Bangkok, to Phnom Penh. Now to a tiny village in the rice basket of Vietnam. Big change is in the air. I am seriously considering marriage for the first time in my life. And I’m also starting a business career. Two biggies!

More important though is that I will be able to finally pursue my fascination with Vietnam, its people, its culture and its language by living in their midst. Somehow, some way, years ago I thought I’d always end up in Vietnam. I have visited several times,  Hanoi and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), plus several visits to my girlfriend’s Mekong Delta village, near Chau Doc, An Giang province.

Google Maps link to Chau Doc town, An Giang province

But years before, I developed this unnatural interest in Vietnam. In my home city in Canada, I hung out in Vietnamese (Chinatown) enclaves, enjoyed Vietnamese food, bought videos in Viet stores, had haircuts there, watched many Viet movies or Hollywood movies set in Vietnam, dabbled in Vietnamese language studies, read books on the history, researched online sites both independent and government approved. Somehow, based partly on the people’s history of throwing off aggressors, I grew to respect their culture.

The Vietnamese are also very industrious, hard working, smart, numerous -- about 90 million now on Viet soil with 150,000 (2001 census) to 200,000 (just my guess) in my home country of Canada. And it’s one of the last “communist” nations on earth.

Who knows where these strange notions come from.  Maybe it’s a sympathetic side of me, trying to symbolically apologize for our allies nearly destroying their country.  Maybe it’s because I noticed Vietnam-made clothing and shoes are well made.  Or maybe it was the mind-stopping  beauty of Vietnamese girls in their traditional multi-layered pant/dress outfits (ao dai).

In the end, I will keep this Thailand blog open for some time because it does seem to attract 100 to 200 readers a day. Also, I will begin a new blog on my Vietnam experiences, Nine Dragons Village [Link de-activated]. And, the business aspect comes about via opening the one and only western bar in Chau Doc, a crossroads town for travelling foreigners between the Phnom Penh and Saigon.  [Welcome Bar closed permanently]

Good luck to all travellers in Southeast Asia. It’s bound to unlock the mind.

Update Sept. 8, 2013: The links to Nine Dragons Village and Welcome Bar have been de-activated since the blogs and restaurant business were discontinued in early 2012. My apologies.

Hot weekend forecast for Toronto Taste of Thailand

 

The annual Taste of Thailand festival this year marks 50 years of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Canada.

And you can experience it all starting today in Toronto. The festival opens Saturday, July 16 at 1100 hours (11 a.m.), and closes at 2000 (8 p.m.). It will resume tomorrow (Sunday, 17th) at 11 and closes one hour earlier at 7 p.m. It's at Nathan Phillips Square, as always.

There appears to be some new features in the 2011 edition of the festival: Wat Prah Kaew (Emerald Buddha), Walking Street Chiang Mai and Siam String Ensemble. A popular feature is back, namely a selection of Thai fruits brought in by the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, free for the tasting!

I'm not sure how Wat Phra Kaew and Walking Street Chiang Mai will be presented but it may be worth checking out.

As always too, temperatures will be appropriate for a festival from a tropical country. The forecast high today is 30 and 33 Sunday. And clear and sunny!

Canada and Thailand inaugurated formal relations on Nov. 8, 1961. For a good summary of Canada-Thailand relations, which have been growing healthily more recently, go to a message from the Canadian Ambassador to Thailand, Ron Hoffmann. As well, here is a message from the Thai Ambassador to Canada, Udomphol Ninnad.

 PHOTO NOTES: Two scenes from 2009 festival at Toronto City Hall.

 

 

Breakfast in Bangkok: Why so bloody expensive?

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in cities other than Bangkok over the last five months and breakfast became a bit of an obsession. The day’s first meal became important to, uh, orient myself after “the night before.”

Call me delighted. I found breakfast -- English or American or Continental or Thai -- to be quite cheap. In my world, that’s a good way to start the day, cf., “the night before” and expenses incurred therein.

The following statement is not based on exhaustive research, otherwise I’d have reclaimed those 15 kilos I’ve lost over the last four years. It appears to be that the best value for expat money in Thailand or Cambodia is to be found in Pattaya.

Pattaya must have the best collection of farang breakfast offerings, in quality, portion and price.

First though let me say I’m not a big fan of English breakfast. Too much food! And too many beans, which is to say one bean is one too many when they taste like the can they came in. You just can’t warm up some beans and slop them on the plate.  And the sausages, at least those to be found in Thailand, are more herbal pate than meaty.

A sausage exception that leaps to mind can be found at the Pig & Whistle in Pattaya. Outstanding pork sausages! Outstanding breakfast! Two sizes, by the way.

Some foreigner-owned restaurants offer American breakfast (stay away from Thai American breakfast: see below). That would pretty much be the simple combo of eggs, bacon, home fried potatoes (sometimes optional) and toast. Just my style (I’m not American).

And of course, you can always grab a bowl of 20-30 baht Thai noodle soup, which is not a bad alternative to spark the day. Thing is, not all noodle soups are made equal so I found this a bit of a dice roller when sizing up my morning/afternoon choices.

I searched for “good,” “breakfast,” “bangkok” recently. Got some recommendations in the lower Sukhumvit area of BKK, where many expats and tourists gravitate either because of brand name hotels or bars and their special companionship services.

I popped up soi 4 to the huge Hanrahan’s restaurant. Gulp! 300 baht. The most expensive I had seen on a menu price list was 280 baht at the Robin Hood. I have not sampled the food at either place. If I wanted to spend $8 to $9 plus, plus, I’d have stayed in Canada. (Frankly, I can get a fantastic full-on breakfast in Toronto for the same or much less!)

I'd already spotted the Dynasty Inn on the way up soi 4, a place I had specifically gone to eat at in the past because it's inexpensive and good -- though not until recently. It was to be my fallback. Well, the fallback won since Hanrahan's was so pricy. Good breakfast, good price (Canadian bacon, eggs, toast, plus fruit for 110 plus 70 for the potatoes), good service. The 10% service charge on the check led me to ask if staff get the cash. Nope, the hotel company does! Tip money does go to staff.

Other places checked and rejected because of the price (for English breakfast equivalents) were Queen Victoria (310 bt) on soi 23, Londoner (320 baht) on Sukhumvit at soi 33, Robin Hood (280) on Sukhumvit at soi 33/1 and Dubliner at soi 22 (400 baht for full Irish brekkie). All these places are huge operations on prime locations with big staff. I imagine the costs must be much higher, especially if some foods are specially imported, so prices reflect some of that.

My two favourite breakfast spots are Silver Dollar on Washington Square (130 baht for nicely done American breakfast meal) and Soi 8 Pub (185 baht for a substantial plate of greasy glory).

For pricing contrast, take Pattaya. Best full breakfast price I saw was 85 baht. Buffets are common, where you’ll get English, American and Thai delights for 105 baht (Diana Dragon), as much as you can eat.

I wish I could remember the small breakfast price at the Pig & Whistle (soi 7) but I think it was 130 baht. Price a bit high for Pattaya but well worth it for the quality of all the items on the plate.

As for why Pattaya is inexpensive, eateries are definitely situated in cheaper shophouses but some of them are no less big than BKK leading names. I doubt the Thai staff salaries are much different between the two cities. The cost of doing business (deliveries, sourcing foods and repair works) may be cheaper in Pattaya. Certainly there’s more competition in the more compact area of Pattaya that keeps prices down. I also think the tourists who throng the beach city fit in a lower average income level, which would tend to restrict restaurateurs to non-gouging practices.

But it seems to me that little of this explains the 100-300 baht differential between pricier Bangkok and reasonable Pattaya -- double to four times Pattaya menu prices. Maybe the real reason is that BKK businesses are largely dealing with the kind of Bangkok expats and business visitors who work at a higher income point and therefore can handily pay the freight. So those of us not boasting a surplus of money will just have to deal with it -- by shopping carefully. Which is exactly what Thai folks do.

This devine Thai omlette on rice is only 20 baht on the street.

And this "nutritious" breakfast on a train trip is far more preferable to this below . . .

Here's the kind of  "American breakfast" (in Roi-Et, in this case) you will find in many a Thai rural city.  What is described as "sausage" looks and tastes like weiners, and sandwich ham is as tasteless as it looks, not to mention the mass production egg. And then there's the cloying, sweet salad dressing common on salads that  almost makes me, uh, you know . . .

Air Canada and Cathay Pacific: roses and brickbats

Cathay Pacific has saved Air Canada’s ass. And mine. I’m ever so thankful.

The miracle is that I still managed to make it to Bangkok at the appointed time -- after missing two flights!

I know that sounds weird, but you’re forgetting some people (rumoured to be this author) can really screw things up and still come out at the right place and time.

I left Toronto’s Pearson Airport Monday, May 16 and arrived in Hong Kong early afternoon of Tuesday, May 17. Then plunked down at Suvarnabhumi late the same afternoon. Exactly as planned.

Now, back to the scene of the criminally stupid act of my travel planning. I arrived at Pearson around 7 a.m. before my 10 o’clock flight to Hong Kong thanks to (wonderful Toronto) agent (at Tour East) and separately booked my connecting flight to Bangkok because I wanted to use up Cathay  travel points.

Only I booked the HK connection for the same day I left Toronto. Well, if you’re following this and knowing HK is 12 hours ahead of Toronto, you’ll understand the problem. Simplified: you cannot fly out of Hong Kong before you’ve even left Toronto.

Yep, while I was sleeping in Toronto, my HK to BKK flight CX751 had left at 2:25 p.m. on Monday, May 16. How many times have I gone through HK on this very same itinerary? More than enough to make this act of planning stupidity dumbfounding.

It was the patient and kindly Air Canada agent who pointed this anomaly out about 7:30 a.m. when I asked AC to forward my luggage through to BKK.

Well, time to get on the phone! I got through security after several cigarettes outside (Pearson does NOT have any smoking rooms, damn them! How uncivilized!)

Who do I call? Asia Miles, which booked the flight, or Cathay. Last time I called Asia Miles (which is like Cathay’s Aeroplan), I gave up after 20 minutes of waiting on my mobile phone. I had resorted to a landline for the original booking. Took 55 minutes for someone in Hong Kong to answer the line. Couldn’t book online, as tried, because the Asia Miles/Cathay booking completion always failed at the last step.

Okay, to prepare, I added more top-up minutes. Just in case. But inside I found a convenient land line, called Asia Miles and waited, and waited, and waited. Half an hour and it became 9 a.m. Soon, AC will call for boarding. Yikes!

I had called Cathay earlier but they only open up their lines at 9 a.m. Eastern time. Since Asia Miles wasn’t answering, I called Cathay. They explained they couldn’t touch the booking because it was through Asia Miles.

Side rant: what is so hard to do when an Asia Miles booking is solely for Cathay and its subsidiaries? Same same Aeroplan for Air Canada. Why make any customer call a third party for a flight issue when it’s the airline’s planes carrying you. Argh!!!

It was only when I explained to the Cathay agent my dilemma that she volunteered to send an  email to Asia Miles in HK to call me. OK, I know I’m not going to get a call, if ever, because Asia Miles is understaffed, in my estimation. So I headed for boarding, knowing I’m going to have to rush in HK to the airlines’ transfer desk and beg to get on a Cathay flight. And hope they let me use points. Ha! The alternative was paying an exhorbitant fare. Yes, I was prepared to get on my knees.

So, into the AC boarding lineup and my mobile phone rings, 20 minutes later and two steps from entering the jet cabin. My heart leaped and I looked at 852 country code. Yes!!!! HK. The Asia Miles agent had already booked me into the 2:25 Cathay flight. Whoa! I must have sounded to others in the lineup like I won a lottery.

So my compliments  to Asia Miles/Cathay for believing my story, calling me long-distance and having it all ready to go -- and this didn't cost me a cent in rebooking fees, unlike AC and Aeroplan (read below). It’s probably happened to many others, forgetting about the change of day across the International Dateline.

I can relax on the 15.5-hour torturous flight. That is until it was clear we were going to be late when the takeoff  time came and went. It was almost 20 minutes past before the tug pushed the Boeing 777-300ER out to the taxiway. And half an hour after takeoff, the captain announces we are going to arrive in HK at 1:40 p.m., half an hour late!

What  bothered me was that no reason was given before we were going to be late unhitching from the gate. They would have known. I did overhear an attendant saying two people were coming in late. Hmmm. Suspicious. No one gets on a plane that late unless they’re VIPs. Anyway, no one showed up and when the captain said we’re going to arrive at 1:40, nothing was said and no one apologized. Hello, Air Canada! Wake up! That lateness also screwed several other passengers, as I was later to find out at the Cathay HK transfer desk, including a husband, wife, toddler and their grandma.

 As soon as the seatbelt sign went off, I got up and told a flight attendant that now I’m going to miss my connection in HK. Her response was a soothing, “we’ll probably be close” to the original arrival time Stupidly, I believed her and should have pursued this nearer the end of the flight. We arrived about 1:25 but by the time one gets out of the cabin and walks the half km to W1 transfer point, it would be way too late.

The Cathay agent was shocked Air Canada didn’t take care of my needs by calling ahead to try and find me another seat. It was their duty to do that. While I have nothing but praise for in-cabin service on the AC flight, nothing was done on the more important matter of making sure your customers can get to where they’re going.

So another flight missed.

The Cathay agent at the transfer desk must have dialed her phone 12 to 15 times, speaking with unknown persons at Cathay, the gate and the Air Canada agent on the ground. Air Canada uses generic agents at HK, not their own personnel. She consulted her colleagues several times. I was impressed how helpful Cathay was. But the agent was none too happy with AC.

I was put on standby for the 3:50 flight and told to come back to the desk at 2:55 p.m. When I did, it was then I met the Canadian couple going to the Philippines and missed their flight, too.

So at 3:10, Cathay found an empty seat on a 99% per cent booked flight. I had to rush to gate 27 and be there by 3:25 p.m. or I’d miss the connection. Fortunately, it wasn’t too far from the transfer desk.

Cathay had taken my AC luggage tags and redirected my two pieces to the correct flight. I and luggage miraculously made it to Bangkok at the originally appointed time, well a day later!

Flight service quality:

One thing I noticed was how much nicer  the Cathay aircraft interior was on their Boeing 747 400 (to BKK) than Air Canada’s 777 300ER (to HKG). The CX seat is made of a fixed shell and the passenger seating portion slides up and down within the shell, therefore not bothering the passenger behind with the yo-yoing TV screen and food table. It’s been three years since I flew with CX.

The TV screens worked, too. On the AirCan flight, staff had to reboot the information system several times to get most of the screens working. Cathay’s was fully operational right from the beginning. It was quick and responsive, unlike AC’s. Also the route information system worked on Cathay’s plane, but it was “unavailable” for the entire AC flight. On Cathay, you got thorough information; I especially liked their at-the-gate update as to where you may need to go to connect with other flights.

    

Also, the Cathay food was of a higher standard, if one meal is anything to go by. The Air Canada meals were from the same menu since 2004. I swear it’s the same food because it looked identical.

And last, I had to rebook my original AC flight. I bought a one-year ticket for Bangkok, but got a notice from Asia Miles that I was going to lose 16,000 plus travel points this summer. So I called my (wonderful) agent at Tour East to shorten the flight to HKG, and I would use points to BKK. Air Canada wanted $200 to cancel and rebook! On top of that, it would take an astounding 6 to 8 weeks for AC to credit my credit card with the original airfare! Meaning, I would also pay the same taxes twice. Aeroplan imposes a $90 fee for flight date changes, no matter how long in advance. I know from experience, Cathay does not charge for return flight changes.

I think both airlines have some work to do: for Cathay it’s easing access to their Asia Miles service and Air Canada, upgrading their food services and cutting out this greedy fee scraping.

 

UPDATE: May Air Canada be blessed because it refunded my credit-card-paid airfare within 24 hours!

 

PHOTO NOTES: Top picture of Cathay B747 at HKG Airport; rest of the images show the back of the Cathay seat with its thorough and responsive information systems setup, plus the clothes hanger retractable button and cup holder.

New Thai restaurant a Toronto blessing

There’s an address on Baldwin St. in Toronto, near Spadina Road that’s had at least four Thai restaurants. The latest one, only a few months old, is one of the best so far -- in a big field with too many low-quality Thai food restaurants.

Previously, family owned Chiang Mai provided decent food for very reasonable prices. The one after that didn’t last long at all, but I can’t remember the name. Then came Pi Tom’s, which had an Isaan cook who could do justice to laab moo, as far as I and farang friends could tell. That came off a separate menu you had to request. The food was quite good then. Sadly,  Pi Tom’s was gone after a few months for lack of customers; their Lawrence Ave. and Yonge eatery also closed  for the same reason. However, there are two other Pi Tom’s elsewhere.

Thai Noodle/Guay Thiew opened in late 2010 -- I prefer this phonetical spelling Guay Thiow. It’s way busier than any previous tenant’s restaurant -- having been there three times so far. Don’t know what’s driving the popularity,  except the food, focusing on the noodle, is very good.

One of the things I think that appeals to diners is not just the food. It has a pleasant atmosphere and provides a comfortable experience. Previous operators were not quite so skilled.
Among some things, there are  the beautiful images of the food on the menu and placemats (from the Tourism Authority of Thailand). Nice place settings and cutlery help too. They’ve done a nice job of the service counter, with beautiful fresh flowers and Thai cultural objects.

And it’s Thai owned by the way, as is the likeable Real Thailand on Bloor W. at Spadina.

The menu lists 22 noodle soups and fried noodle dishes. There are also three non-noodle  soups and only one salad, Thai mango, plus a few rice dishes on the menu back with the usual choices of chicken, beef, seafood and shrimp. That’s what I chose from, on separate occasions, chicken cashew and spicy basil chicken. I’m not a big noodle fan except sen lek (medium noodle) in Thai noodle soups.
I’ve also been impressed with the fried wontons in a past visit.

Early Friday evening I arrived in the small restaurant and there was only one couple. But in short order came another two couples and single customers in the hour I was there. When seated there under previous ownership, I rarely witnessed any new patrons arriving. Strange that the difference is so noticeable. I think the owners of Guay Thiao have a good thing going.

The spicy basil chicken (pictured) consisted of onion and red peppers (normally green ones are also used but I don’t like them), plus some basil leaves, which I thought there were too few of. The meat was not dried out from cooking and was quite moist. The sauce was pleasantly spicy (I ordered the dish made for khon Thai, not Canadian tastes) -- never got the hiccups, which is what I get when something is crazily spicy. Have a feeling the chef may have pulled his chilli punches. But I was given some fresh cut chillis in fish sauce, which is how it would be served in Thailand.

The Thai jasmine rice, placed on a separate plate in a star pattern, was maybe a bit too moist, as it came off in biggish clumps sometimes when using a fork.  Issue nit noi.

It’s the second time I wanted to order soda water and they were out. Strange that. Had green tea instead.

By the way, no liquor licence. None of the previous operators had liquor licences either. Not a big issue but sometimes you want a Singha beer to keep you in the Thailand mood.

The owner is considering participating at the annual Tastes of Thailand festival in July at Toronto City Hall. But if you don’t want to wait, take a trip to Kensington Market and take a spin through the noodle menu at Guay Thiaow.

I have not been to the current Thai food hotspots, newly opened Khao San Road (Adelaide St.) and Sukhothai (Parliament St.).  Plans are being made.

Quick note: Thai Express (with umlaut over “i” in Thai) is ever expanding, it seems. The big Canadian Thai food franchise has opened a store on King St. E., just east of Yonge on the south side. The company has 127 outlets in Canada, as well as Dubai, Bahrain and Morocco. I think I have eaten at one of the outlets in the past but don’t remember my reaction. That’s all OK though because any new Thai restaurant near me is welcome. I only noticed it recently when I spotted a subway ad at TTC’s King Station.

Isaan tour 2011: Wedding in Sakon Nakhon

 

 

We were on the road to Sakon Nakhon and had just climbed Highway 213 to a flat part, maybe 40 plus klicks to SN. We  stopped at a 7-11, loaded up with drinks and snack foods for our "isloated" resort cabin where we would stay. Four foreign guys going to an Isaan wedding the next day. My first ever.

Later that evening, we revisited the 7-11 for some strategic party essentials but, SHOCK!, this store did NOT stock booze. What's wrong with Sakon Nakhon? What were we to do? I’ve never seen that before. Nothing to do but hope the resort had stocks of beer at least. (Even in the big cities of the northeast, 7-11's are not as liberally sprinkled in the districts as they are in Bangkok.)

After we left the store, we passed by more than a dozen roadside stalls with everything. Maybe? I spotted bottles. Driver Khun Miken (and fellow celebrants K Jannik and author K Dean Barrett), ever alert for opportunity, threw out the anchors.

Indeed. Beer Leo could be had. Our little gathering of four farangs (white foreigners) suddenly became the centre of a throng of locals. About 10 local girls and three or four guys. They peppered us with smiles and questions. It can't have been because  we were  a rare commodity -- white guys in deepest Isaan. And it can't be because there's nothing on TV because most don't have a TV. Maybe the new BMW we arrived in had the eye appeal. Buddha knows we're not such handsome men anymore.  We got the usual questions:  where we come from, where we were going, what were our names, and if we had "fan" ("lady Thai" or girlfriend) or "palayaa" ("lady Thai" or wife)?

Such was the press at times, we couldn’t physically move. We found ourselves conversing for some time, with each of us at different levels of Thai and Lao, me definitely having the least  fluency and Dean, with 10  years here, taking the lead. So Khun Miken says let’s open a “pop”. We did and offered “pops” all round. But most of the girls declined.  The gathering continued for some time as girls, some in the 40-plus range, continued to keep up the light-hearted, sometimes suggestive patter. It was all in good fun and we got invited to come back for Songkran water festival next month. 

I have experienced this Isaan friendliness in many of my travels throughout the northeast of Thailand. But never with this many eager listeners.  It was just about the best experience I’ve had in Thailand.

We couldn’t let this go to our heads though. We had to get ready for the wedding of two Thai friends just off Highway 213, in a little village of dusty driveways, stilted wooden homes, ancient motor scooters, water buffaloes, raggedy children, sun-blackened faces and rice farms. And I’m saving the best adjective for last: happy! The smiles and friendliness would have been hard for even a committed curmudgeon to miss.

We made it to the resort, which did indeed have beer.

But earlier in the day, we had been invited to the family house for a warmup and what a warmup. Incredible food (laab moo or stir fried spicy minced pork with salad, grilled pork strips, and the most amazing grilled beef with the astounding naam jim jao spicy dipping sauce), store-bought beer, and homemade sticky rice cider (satoh, Lao for a cider like drink)  and rice whisky (lao khao). We were treated like honoured guests.

They had set up a picnic table for us types that have to sit to eat and drink, while a few metres away, Thai people squatted or reclined on the low wooden decks, with 60-years-plus Isaan folks embarrassing us with legs folded nimbly underneath them, watching our every move. Fortunately, several of us visitors can speak some Thai and Lao, the latter being the unofficial language of Isaan, along with the Isaan dialect. Laughing and smiles never stopped.

    The ladies and men laboured in the outdoor kitchen, with its coal-fired hot pots and grilles, pans full of chilis, cold leafy vegetables, and ice chests full of meat, beer and lao khao. No one misbehaved.  It was one of the best experiences of my life, well worth the 700 km journey from the Kingdom’s capital.

The next day would dawn early, with wedding to begin at 7 a.m. You can imagine how in a steaming hot country, you want to get anything important done as early as possible. However, there was still the matter of dressing the house for the ceremonies, the arrival of the groom’s party of 40 or more in a bus from distant Ubon Ratchathani and gradual buildup of the bride’s friends and colleagues some of whom, after getting off work at 11 at night, boarded a minibus in equally distant Bangkok for Sakon Nakhon.

I won’t describe the village or our friend’s home. Look at the pictures. I think of the joyous time everyone had during the wedding; then look at the surroundings and forget about your first thoughts. People of Isaan have a rough life but you would never guess that from the proceedings or indeed, of those of any other day of the week. A ready smile and willingness to help anyone out despite the daily burdens make you look at yourself and your life and “how rough” you had it.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give that some thought for a while. Think about what you would give up just for one day. Would you really be less happy? Doubtful. These people have far, far less; others have almost nothing.

"Less is more" is one phrase that is easy to toss onto the table of discussion.  I am not focusing on the accumulation of products and services. Much of those things really exist to distract us from conversation, companionship, loving, sharing, listening, observing and analyzing in the sense of the need to survive.  I think you will have a rich life if you observe, listen, converse, share and love. There can be time for modern conveniences but I think it's unwise to let them rule your life.

I question myself about the following thoughts. I can remember being embarrassed, as a kid, about not having this or that thing. Or my parents not being cool. Or not having a nice winter jacket. But I had food, warmth, a roof over my head. Well, some of my Thai friends and many acquaintances never had anything and I never detected any reticence among my two Thai friends in welcoming us into the humble rice farming community in which they were born. I've heard many storeis from Isaan farm girls who come from the same or worse conditions. My GF recently showed me pictures of her family’s village home. It has a thatched roof, dusty ground floor and no electricity. She was proud of her parents and would do anything for them.
 

Photo notes: top, family home on wedding morning decorated to receive the couple; four foreigners visit the night market and gain an unlikely audience;   the completed meals plus beer and satoh or Isaan country cider from sticky rice; food preparation that would never be complete in Isaan or Thailand without killer chilis; and last, below, the village on early morning wedding day.

Background note: With the wedding in our sights, we decided to make this part of a larger tour of Isaan. We drove from Bangkok to Chaiyaphum the first day. Then after one night there, went to burgeoning, lovely Khon Kaen. The wedding was held about halfway between Kalasin and Sakon Nakhon. Post wedding, on day 3, we continued. On heading south, we passed through Kalasin again, then visited Roi Et (practically every bar and restaurant is called 101 plus something, hardly surpising considering the city's name is, in Thai, 101).  Then  the roads  carried us to Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima) Tuesday and finally to Bangkok  Wednesday. More reports to come.

Don't let Thai poisoning case turn you off street food

I have only had severe food poisoning once in Thailand in nine tours of the kingdom. I've had the very rare bout of mild diarrhoea the next day. So all in all, I have had little to complain about in eating street food in Thailand.

I can only suspect that the source of  my severe case was from a foreigner owned restaurant in a northeastern city. I'd only had noodle soup in the late morning from a busy shophouse kitchen. I didn't eat again until early evening. I had a steak hamburger sandwich. I awoke the next morning at 7 when I was forced to flee to the toilet. I was stricken for the next four or five days.

I can recall having more incidents of food poisoning back home in Toronto, Canada. After a series of newspaper articles on some poor sanitary conditions found during covert investigations,  the local health department enacted a new inspection program that's been very effective.

Based on my experience and those of long time expats, including writer Richard Barrow in a blog report this week, I would say you have little to worry about unless you have a particularly weak tummy.

Barrow, a prolific writer on Thailand topics and a Thai speaker, writing on Thai-blogs.com, rounds up the latest Thai and English language news on the tragic death of a young New Zealand woman who died from, well, something she ate. There's nothing clearcut yet in terms of the source of the food poisoning that struck her and her two young friends, Barrow reports.

He also has some good tips about eating street food in Thailand in his article: Are Thai street food stalls really dangerous?

 

PHOTOS: Top, fried rice stand on Sukhumvit near soi 22, but no longer there recently. Above right, som tam, the only Isaan Thai street food that has defeated me because of the extreme chilli nature. Som tam is available everywhere and has been known to be a bit dodgy as a safe street food.

 

 

 

Grinch endures signs of Christmas in Thailand

The weird and crazy world of Thailand is tilted even more  by Christmas, yes, that western Judeo-Christian “celebration”.

I thought I’d escape that mass marketer’s dream but the season with all the trimmings can be found throughout Southeast Asia.

I was disabused of the notion that I could live in blissful ignorance of the season that’s so in your face in the west from October to January when I lived here in the City of Angels in 2008-09.

Sorry, but I have had enough. However, I’m standing knee deep in the Red Green Season in most un-Christmas-like temperatures hovering in the low 30s -- that's Celsius.  I couldn’t resist that crack at you who are knee deep in snow.

Below are a few photographic examples of Christmas themes in Bangkok and Pattaya, but with a Thai twist.

PICTURE DESCRIPTIONS:

Top: Already 20% discount on ladies' Christmas caps and ladies sexy seasonal wear at this shop near my apartment. Of course, you will see these clothing items mostly adorning bar girls all over town. My home which is located off Ratchadapisek Road, is in one of several areas noteworthy for having a lot of cheap apartments occupied by the many bar girls in the city.

The "next month" being November, the beginning of the high season. Since the sign is in the men's/women's/bar girls' toilet, you can't say you were not warned. Of course, this just adds to the continuing theme of rising prices in Thailand.

This sign along the MRT subway exit corridor at Pahon Yothin gave me a bit of a shiver, seeing a snowman, Thai style. But it would soon be warm as I walked toward the escalator, which leads up into the 33+ C day in Bangkok.

 

 A bakery shop on South Pattaya Road in Pattaya goes all Red Green in its attempt to catch the eye of passing foreigners.

 

 The students are out of school for the season now and ready to party, filling the entry stairs to the Londoner last Wednesday night. It was 2-for-1 night. Concidence? (Poor iPhone photo -- again! Hoping to get iPhone 4 next month!)

The Cosmos bar in Patpong 2 was swinging on a Friday night, namely Christmas Eve. One of its pleasant oddities is the lip-synch karaoke style musical entertainment that will break out at any moment. Done by bar staff. Thai-owned and run (easy-going owner is there every night and a real gentleman) is an old style bar with small square bar, surrounded by banquettes each holding about four foreigners or six to eight Thai girls. Love the place.

 

 Also love the coyote dance bar Mojo's on soi 33 Sukhumvit. It's not to some people's taste, but the dancing to OK to very good live bands and CD music is well choreographed and adds lots of visual stimulation to the evening. Kind of pricey too but hey, the dancers can dance and are hot on and off stage.

 

Went to all of these venues on Christmas week. Kind of beats the cold plunge into the car and road rage drive to Yorkdale Mall and the seasonal shopping frenzy.

Maybe Pattaya needs a second (and third) look

 
View from the sidewalk on Beach Road, Pattaya, looking almost northward.

I was visiting Pattaya this week. I cannot believe that I stayed five nights after setting a two-night limit. That’s three extra nights and four more than I stayed in 2008 when  I couldn’t wait to leave.

  There’s just too much of everything, especially the beer bars, go-go bars, restaurants, taxis, traffic, mobile and stationary hawkers, and an eye-bleeding forest of signs, many of them in English, and now Russian. There’s a small fruit market on Second Road (a north-south arterial) that has signs solely in Russian -- no English and no Thai!

  There can never be enough Thai girls but Pattaya somehow manages to get more than its share of stunners as well as the ordinarily beautiful. As for expat residents, I think there are more decidedly porky, old, misshapen, unshaven, tattooed expats than would be normal in any statistical analysis. (And before you snow me with emails, I expect some day a blogger will say the same thing about me, if they haven’t already.)

But the past notwithstanding, I wanted to go Pattaya. It happens to be where Talen, author of the very popular and entertaining Thailand, Land of Smiles blog, hangs his walking shorts. We’ve exchanged emails and comments on each others’ blogs in the past two-plus years and promised to get together some day. We did it and had a great time together. This was due in large part to Talen’s generosity in time and effort to show me what's new in the big town. He’s a sharp observer, as reflected in his blog,  energetic, outgoing and yet down-to-earth. In short, a great guide. (I had to say this because he has a picture of me!)

A frequent sight is the Englishman who dresses himself and his bicycle in the finest accessories and  conducts his daily colourful parade on the streets of Pattaya.

I also wanted to catch up with a fellow Canadian who I met through my Bangkok/Toronto pal Mike. Bill, with a long history in the Canadian bar and restaurant  industry, quickly got the measure of Pattaya and was a great help in introducing me to the cheaper part of the town, which is saying something. How about Sang Som (Thai whisky or rum) and Coke for 25 baht? Or small Leo’s for 35? Or a glass of Johnnie Walker Black for 75 baht? Compared to Bangkok (low end prices: 70/50/100 baht), Pattaya does indeed offer cheaper booze. But 95 baht cigarettes will be 95 baht cigarettes everywhere in Thailand. (I have recently heard from nearly half a dozen friends and acquaintances who are seriously considering leaving expensive Bangkok for cheaper Pattaya, if not permanently then part-time.)

  

Just some of the hundreds of beer bars in Pattaya, first photo. The Canadian flag hangs in one of the soi Diana beer bars in Pattaya.

There was a third reason for going to Pattaya, which was actually the first reason. I wanted to meet up with a girl I met online. She and her sister have been running a car rental agency in Pattaya. Seems like they have been pretty successful. The divorced 35-year-old  turned out to be a hard working businesswoman and yet was a very pleasing companion, as in a very Thai girl. Whether there’s more to report, only time will reveal.

I am coming around to liking Pattaya. But first, what I remember of the negatives last time  was: dense and chaotic traffic on all the main roads and many bar streets in Central Pattaya in particular; in full view were the poor clothing choices and bareback tattoo displays of the double-X-large expat residents who fill their days with girls, booze and grease-sodden food;  constant though low-key hawkers who ply the bar soi’s with oversize lighters, pirate DVD movies and tribal trinkets; the din of high-amp sound systems pumping out everything from 50s rock and roll to hip hop and disco electronica.

This time all of the above remains. Traffic on arterial Central Pattaya Road going from Beach Road, on the Gulf of Thailand, to Sukhumvit Road (yes, the same road out of Bangkok) is six to eight lanes of diesel buses, baht buses, trucks, moto couriers and service trucks crowding for the same privilege to get somewhere. Ugly, just as is Sukhumvit.

Expat residents for some reason or another all seem to come from the same school where everyone graduated with bulging bellies, the need for tattoos, the neckless look and an insatiable thirst for beer. I’ve seen guys walking around talking to some ghosts in their heads, some strut down the street like they own the world, some manage to break important cultural rule such that they will eventually meet a Thai who will set them straight -- into a hospital; some who have had way too many cigarettes, beer and sessions in front of the football/rugby/cricket TV superchannels. You’ll know what I mean when you’re shaken awake by the sight of a straight-backed, clean-cut, fit, casually and tastefully dressed man. Rare as a bar without hookers.

The hawkers are still there -- one night I was hit on two to three times per five-minute periods over a 1.5 hour period in a beer bar complex. And the sound systems can still knock your back teeth out.

Yet a tour of some soi’s off Second Road shows Pattaya can be quiet and the walking life unfettered. Another great thing is the availability of good western food. Now it sounds like I do not know Thailand. I enjoyed the fact I could get a Chicken Donner (50 or 60 baht) or hamburger (75) or spaghetti (don’t remember the price because I never bought  any, for reasons I might not have to explain) or pizza slice (55) or even English breakfast at 2, 3, or 5 in the morning (85 to 110 baht). I did indulge in a delicious Donner one morning and twice I raided the pizza place at soi LK Metro and Diana. It’s a nice change from the daytime diet of Thai soups, omelettes, fried rice, and som tam (spicy papaya salad). Somehow, a westerner’s palate will only be satisfied after a number of beers by a greasy Donner or slice.

Another sign of change in the Pattaya lifestyle is the growing appearance of the big European and American hotel chains, top shelf jewellers and clothing lines, massive swank Central Festival mall, expensively designed shops and even fast-food outlets. There’s also the growing appearance of shoppers from Russia, India, China as well  Korea and Japan. And families are showing up in Sin City. Plus the area is reputed to  have some outstanding golf courses. Which means price tags will start to creep up, which could be good for Thais but not so good for those of us on a budget.

I think though the key outstanding memory is the friendliness of the girls. It seems like they still have the country girl shyness, easy going nature, the ready smile that life in Bangkok seems to sand away over time. I think the Isaan girls who tend to populate the bars  in Bangkok distinctly dislike being in the big hot, steamy, crowded, noisy city, whereas Pattaya is just a big town (city, actually) and feels more like home. The girls tend to be more relaxed and undemanding. Not once in my five nights there was I ever asked to buy a lady drink.  I did of course, but I dislike the badgering you get in BKK bars. I certainly felt more relaxed there. So maybe it’s a combination of both: relaxed visitor, relaxed worker.

And too, I can never get over looking toward the palm framed and green waters of the Gulf of Thailand when walking down the soi’s toward Beach Road. It just feels so right. Maybe I need to move to the beach, although Pattaya’s beach is hardly first class. Jomtien, south and next door, is reputed to have a much nicer beach front.

I think I will need to confirm my  initial positive feelings about Pattaya. Yeah, maybe in a couple of weeks.

PHOTOS: Two favourite night time eateries (Kiss and Nongjai); fruit stalls on Second Road with Russian-only signs; expats show their colours; Thai riders prepare to rumble on their custom choppers from the back of Mike Shopping Centre; a VW booze van at The Avenue Pattaya shopping centre; a view down soi 13/x looking from Second Road; forest of signs on soi LK Metro where my hotel resides; and an actual  pedestrian crossing on Second Road  guarded by an officer and with traffic signal!