Thailand

Leaving Almaty airport on a cold morning. 

 Above Almaty with the western end of the Tien Shan Mtns out the window. 

 Lovely mountains somewhere in Asia.

 We stayed along a touristy stretch in Bangkok for our first night in Thailand. Bangkok is a busy city with 20 million residents in the vicinity, almost half of Thailand lives there. From the street this lot is blocked by the fence, but out our window we could see squatters inhabiting this rubbish lot. 

Across the street is a large night food market. Food in Thailand is (generally) safe for the Western digestive tract, bountiful (it seems like there is no block in Thailand that doesn't have a street food vendor on it), varied (two weeks of meals out we had few repeats), fresh and flavorful and best of all, cheap (a noodle dish with meat was around $1.50). As such, our first night we happily surrendered to the street food and ate our way through the market.  

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The next morning we made our way to the local bus station and boarded a bus bound for Trat, the capital city of the Trat Province in SE Thailand, almost to Cambodia. We stayed one night in this small city with 20,000 residents and really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. 

 A walkway along the river gives us a view of nature but also of some local backyards. 

 Along the river walkway. 

 A plaza in downtown Trat. Mini temples like these are everywhere in Thailand. 

 With ambitious appetites like the ones Nic and I carried through our trip, the trick is to share dishes and space them out. In Trat, we started a lovely evening of street eats at the day market with some noodles. 

 Next we made our way to the night market, advertised as "Trat Food Safety Street". For us, however, it was dangerously delicious. 

 The street opened into a big plaza, and carts like this one were in rows surrounded by tables and stools. The menu was endless, beer was cold (fetched on order from the local minimart) and we had all night to sample. 

 Veggies line the back (a half dozen varieties of greens, including morning glory) and meats and seafoods up front. A hot wok awaits your pickings behind. 

 The next morning we were up early and out for breakfast at the market again. We had read about a breakfast dish called "jok", with a hard "o" and were determined to find it. We wandered and wandered until we began to run out of time. We asked one place and they pointed the other direction. We asked there and they pointed back the direction we had just come. Finally, a helpful man with his baby daughter in his arms walked us through the market and led us directly to the jok stall. Well worth the effort. It is a rice porridge, made with tender pork and ginger and served with green onion and crispy friend garlic on top, only after cracking an egg into the hot mush. Once at our table, we can add dried hot pepper, fish sauce, sugar or hot pepper vinegar. Breakfast of champions. 

 After breakfast we caught a ferry to the large island of Koh Chang. 

 We stayed in one of the small communities that line the island's shore. Heading back to our hotel after a morning walk on the beach, this baby elephant was being led back to it's home near the main road. The next morning on our way to breakfast, walking past his home, we heard this elephant playing the harmonica. 

 A tropical sunset. 

 While days were for laying on the beach, nights were for eating. There was a surprising amount of roast chicken on the island. We never sampled it but it looked great. 

 This pancake lady set up shop in front of the 7/11 in the evenings. Banana pancakes covered in chocolate syrup and sweetened condensed milk became a nightly delicacy. 

 One morning we hiked out to this small waterfall inside one of the island's national parks. 

 Soft sand, warm sun and cool water. 

 Some kind of paradise. 

 A bar on the beach. 

 When jok couldn't be found, we would head to a roadside breakfast stand. These places have around a dozen dishes (which appeared to be standard Thai breakfast dishes) for you to point at through the glass and eat with rice. Some good ones were chicken or pork sauteed with basil, spicy bamboo shoots, eggs hardboiled with pork and sweet gravy, and fatty bacon with greens among others. Notice the two plates stacked on the table. With the price of food (and smallish portions), it was easy to try many dishes. 

 Local fisherman out for the catch. 

 Nic relaxes in the calm sea. 

 One evening we headed for the southern end of the island for a change of scenery. The island roads were steep and windy, but what a view!

 This little community was based around the docks. The markets, restaurants, houses and hotels were all built on stilts around one long and narrow dock. This is an branch of the dock leading to some local houses. 

 There were lots and lots of colorful boats roped in for the night. 

 Sunset with a lonely house on stilts in the middle of the bay. 

 The end of the dock. 

 The captain's room on our ferry going back to the mainland, colorful with scarves and plastic flowers.

 Thailand loves its king. There are pictures of the king almost everywhere you look. The national anthem is played twice daily, 9 am and 6 pm. We had the strange experience of being out at a night market when it played over the town's loudspeakers. A loud and bustling crowd went still and silent in a moment, blenders and gas stoves turned off, kids hushed and at the end, locals bowed to no one in particular. In the next moment, the market was back to business. This yellow flag is the flag of the king. It was almost always next to the Thai flag. We were told there is a purple flag for the queen, but I never saw it. 

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Another bus ride from Trat took us to the Bangkok airport, where we had our Christmas Eve dinner at Popeye's Chicken; a rice bowl with chicken bits and gravy. Not ideal, no, but when stuck at an airport and on a budget, Popeye's does the job. A short flight north (with Christmas carols playing)  and we arrived in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand (pushing 3 million). At its heart stands the Old City, surrounded by a moat and remnants of a brick wall. Inside the Old City, it doesn't feel so big. 

 We had 7 lazy days to spend in Chiang Mai. We spent most of them wandering the city, reading in cafes and of course, seeking out new markets. Our first full day was a Sunday, and as such, hosted the Sunday Walking Street, just a block from our guest house. The nearby temple lot filled with street food vendors early in the afternoon so we sampled our way through it for lunch. 

 Wats, or temples, were abundant in Chiang Mai. It seemed that every block had a wat behind the street food vendor.

 That Sunday in Chiang Mai was also Christmas and we found a few Christmas decorations dispersed through the Buddhist city. 

 A very tropical Christmas. 

 We joined up with our fellow teachers and friends the Harveys, who also were in Chiang Mai for Winter Break and explored the Sunday Walking Street. A friendly vendor helps me try on a sweater I bought from her. 

 I'm so glad I got this shot. 

 The Sunday Walking Street, not yet in full fury. 

 Roasted bugs! We saw these a few different times, but were never quite in the right mood to try. Until that Christmas night. 

 The biggest of them all: The Mackerel. 

 Brave Nic picked it out....

 ...and chomped it down...

 ...and all with a smile. 

 Food...

 ...food....

 ...and more food. 

 After a nice riverside Christmas dinner with the Harvey']s, we went back to their guest house veranda for some treats they had picked up from the market. Some were good. Some were not so good. 

 Going into this trip, there were many foods that we were open to trying, but some that we were determined to try. This was one of those foods for me: chinese donuts and warm soy milk. It was a jaunt over the moat and through Chiang Mai's Chinatown to find this cart among the many on a busy intersection, but well worth it. Fresh, warm soy milk to wash down crispy, dense and just a little bit sweet fried dough. Another breakfast of champions. 

 We found a great small market not far from our guesthouse that offered all the usual delights. 

 A spice vendor. 

 One of the "determined to try" foods for Nic was fish-on-a-stick. We had seen it on the island, and many places after, but never quite got around to sampling. Even after this photo was taken, we passed these guys up. 

 One evening we took a cooking class, learning to make 5 dishes each. Here, Nic's cooking with gas!

 How to make green curry paste. 

 The East Gate to the Old City with the Thai flag and the king's flag. 

 A wat cat cleans up. 

 The entrance to a wat. 

 It seemed that wat grounds doubled as stray dog sanctuaries. This lawn had about 4 or 5 old dogs napping in the afternoon. This particular had a nice sweater on. 

 Inside a wat. 

 Me with another sweater-sporting stray. 

 Offerings for purchase outside the entrance to a wat. 

 An elaborately decorated door. 

 Wat architecture. 

 A monk, covering up from the "cold" sweeps in the early morning. 

 One day we were able to escape the city on go on a small trek. Our guide, Hod, drove us about an hour and a half outside Chiang Mai to a Polong village. The people of this village are originally from Burma, but fled for political reasons. Here is the only store we saw in the small village. 

 Entering the village. See the elephant? 

 Leaving the village and heading into the forest. 

 A great big house. As we walked by, one single voice came from the darkness inside it, speaking to our guide. 

 A Spirit House. These were planted in random places throughout Thailand. The Polong people are Animistic and believe that these are where the spirits dwell. Offerings are made to the spirits, things like whiskey and chicken. As Hod pointed out the final of the many Spirit Houses we encountered on our trek, he informed us; "Spirit like chicken". 

 Green!

 Bamboo forest.

 Steep terrain. 

 Hod spotted a frog in the water, dropped his pack and spent a few frantic minutes trying to get it, but with no success.

 While we enjoyed the scenery, Hod was busy making lunch. He started a small fire, fashioned skewers, split large bamboo stalks for plates, cut bamboo for cups, and even boiled some water for tea inside green bamboo. Turns out he forgot the tea, but the water was still flavorful from the fresh bamboo. 

 Fried rice and fried chicken, carried into the jungle in a pack, reheated over an open flame, and served on a bamboo platter on a banana leaf mat. Fresh pineapple and bamboo tea for dessert. We couldn't have asked for more. 

 Cleaning up lunch. 

 A very big rubber tree. 

 This part of the hike reminded Nic and I of Quiche, Guatemala. 

 At the other end of the trek, we came into some agricultural land. This small woman was beating the dried bean stalks to loosen the beans from their pods. 

 A rural temple under a beautiful, massive tree. 

 Inside the temple. 

 After the hike, we drove a few minutes to a nearby Karen village. Hod knew some woman there we could meet. This woman was stacking firewood under her porch. Notice the tattoo on her leg and the stretched ear lobes. 

 Hod talking to her about her bad knee. 

Guatemala PCVs should observe how strangely similar the traditional clothes are to those of indigena Maya, even down to the pattern of embroidery. 

 Hod bought 3 bags of boiled peanuts from the ladies, I showed them the photos and we were off, back to modern Chiang Mai. 

 The next morning at breakfast, there were an unusual number of monks out and about. I stepped out of our restaurant and saw a glittering float coming down the street!

 Monks file through the gate to gather in a large plaza near the moat. 

 A parade! Led by a marching band, then a picture of the king, and then hundreds of monks. 

 After the monks came the Thai flag, and then the Buddism flag, a yellow flag with a red ox cart wheel. 

 After the flags came what I suspected to be monks in training; young boys carrying a long piece of orange fabric. 

 A stray taking refuge in the shade of the glitzy temple sign.

 And our last night in Chiang Mai, as we roamed the markets once again, the time came for fish-on-a-stick. Nic picked a nice catfish and we headed from the only seat we could find: a bench on a narrow sidewalk between the moat and the road. 

A bit of fish, a pinch of rice and smeared with chili sauce. We love Thailand. 

Back to Bangkok for our last night in Thailand, New Year's Eve. We decided to plant ourselves at the night market near our hotel for the evening. We sipped and sampled our way through the market once again, watching the tables slowly fill up while a local band covered The Beatles and The Eagles. We counted down and saluted the new year with full stomachs and happy hearts.