Back to Thailand

Ah yes, back to Thailand. Back to where we know how to barter. Back to delicious spicy food. Back to a place where we somewhat know what to expect, which provides a modicum of peace.  

We spent the last week of this leg of our trip in Bangkok and Hua Hin, a little beach resort town down the coast where we could put our feet up and relax. We splurged and got ourselves a room at the Novotel and spent our days in the pool, by the pool, and at the swim-in pool bar for happy hour. We read, we computered, and let ourselves stop for a few days.

 

 

 

Well, mostly. Marcus spent most of that last week in Thailand online filling out his application for the Washington State Bar Exam and trying to organize his supporting documents from overseas. Not the easiest task, but he got it done one bit at a time. 

Aside from the utter joy from floating in and near the pool, my favorite part was going to the night market in Cha Am. It wasn’t only a food market, but the food stalls were fantastic and we partook big time. There were more locals than tourists which was fantastic and we got far better prices than we would have back in Bangkok (though still got ripped off a time or two—it’s inevitable).  

Delicious, sweet, salty, sour salad with fried rice ball pieces.

 

 Black rice with caramelized coconut on top.

 

 Squishy spinach-vegetable squares.

Ice coffee (closer to the Vietnamese style!). And a weirdly-balled corndog type food.

 

There was also a bag of popcorn, pork skewers and two doughnuts that got eaten before a picture could be taken. We figure we ate all of that for under $4. Bargain. The market also sold huge fried maggots, cockroaches and other insects. Never stops being gross. 

I also intended to have a mango with coconut sticky rice, but my stomach had had enough. I looked longingly at the deep fried potato balls and sweet potato wedges. The fried chicken smelled heavenly. The foreign patties made from rice or tofu or some squishy white substance seemed to call out my name. There were the little white things puffing out of a green leaf wrapping that Marcus thinks is sticky rice and I contend is some sort of rice or corn bread. There were so many wonderful-looking dishes and Marcus and I couldn’t help but be impressed at these food carts. Food carts are all the rage in the US and Australia right now, but these carts, the street food we’ve tried—these are the original food carts. And they do so much more with so much less. A hot plate, a wok and a cooler are the tools of the trade and these cooks work wonders.  

Otherwise, our last days in Thailand were spent in Bangkok doing some last minute shopping including trying our hand at getting tailored clothes for the first time. Thailand is famed for its silk and cheap tailoring and although we skipped the silk, we thought it only right to see how tailored clothes would turn out. We looked online for recommended tailors and ended up at Crown Tailors (where Marcus got a business shirt that had a great fabric, but he wasn’t sold on the tailoring) and Savile Row (where Marcus got three business shirts and I got a pencil skirt, which I wasn’t sold on). It was a good first tailoring experience, and we’d definitely try it again. Though I would bring in pictures of what I want next time!

We also went to the Chatuchak weekend market, picked up a few items and went hunting for some kind of cool statue we could send home. After hours of searching, we ended up at the first stall we stopped at, bargained, chatted with the shipping company, then sent our prize on its way. (It’s since been denied passage through Thai customs since it has “graven Indian images” on it, which is bullshit, but we’ll try to figure out—from Nepal). We were pretty excited about our purchase, though, and hopefully it’ll make its way back to the US with us. 

We had our last som tam. We had our last mango sticky rice. We had our last coconut ice cream. A last iced Thai lemon tea. And turned our minds to Nepal.