Saschas World

It’s amazing. I don’t shy away from really spicy food. In fact I love it. After few weeks in Thailand I have to adjust my definitions of hot and spicy though.

HOT I would call a dish if it has a bit of a punch to it, e.g. some added chili powder or similar. Instant Spicy Soup Noodels from the Chinese Supermarket I would call “hot” and some are indeed HOT and will definitely require a drink with the meal and maybe a napkin or a tissue to fight that running nose 😉

SPICY in capital letters is the next level up. You will take little breaks to breath and think breathing with an open mouth will calm the burning sensation on your tongue. You will have used up several tissues before you have finished your meal and have most likely ordered a second drink.

THAI STYLE HOT is a new experience for me.
First you admire the look of the food and the delicous smell. You take the first Spoon and it takes a second for the spicyness information to travel up to your brain so at first it seems “ok”, probably because you have sensory overload on your tongue and the nerve cells relaying the spicyness information and momentarily numbed 😉
Then, still before you brain recognises the amount of hot chilli in the food you start to “cry”! Seriously, your eyes don’t just get a bit watery, you actually have to wipe the running tears off your face! It’s fab! Then the brain wakes up and informs you that this is some seriously hot stuff and that your tongue is BURNING. You nose runs like a waterfall and some people might even break a sweat. If you choose to continue eating soon enough your lips will start burning too and the used tissues will pile up on the table.

Lastly if your stomach is still only used to European food you might find yourself visiting the Restroom more frequently the next day just because your stomach does not yet know how to cope with this Massive Chilli attack. It’s nothing to worry about though and will pass very soon. (In the almost 4 weeks I have been in Thailand now I have not had an upset stomach despite easting spicy and thai style hot dishes and also fresh, peeled & cut fruits including and mostly sold by street vendors or cheap roadside restaurants.

So eating Thai Style Spicy Food is an excellent experience if you can cope with this level of spicyness and I absolutely love it. I don’t understand how Thais can eat this without showing any of the above symptoms but I do envie them for it.

PS:
The first time Thai Style Spicy happened to me was at Big Wave Restaurant when I ordered Tom Yum Kung Soup (Spicy Clear Soup with Spring Onions, Mushrooms, Ginger, Lemongrass and Lime Juice plus Prawns or other Seafood) and asked for thai style hot version. (I was quite friendly with the owner by then and he knew that I was keen to try genuinely spiced food rather than the European toned down dishes that are often served. So he served me the real thing and yes it was self inflicted but delicious 🙂

I’m at the Airport heading off to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand in a few minutes (making use of the free internet access:-)

I was planning to get the overnight train up ti Chiang Mai and went to the train station two days ago but the night train was fuly booked for the next few days. I didn’t want to stay any longer in Bangkok so decided to book a flight with Bangkok Airways instead. Got a special web offer which cost me around 30 pounds. That’s expensive compared to the tran which is only about 12 pounds. It’s still cheap compared to European standards but I’m getting used to the low prices here in Thailand and feel a bit bad about wasting so “much” money on the trip up north. Apart from that the train journey would have been quite nice since I would have seen some of teh country side.. (it’s a 14h trip arriving around lunch time the next day)

Anyway not going by train now so never mind 😉
Talk soon from Chiang Mai..

Another reminder for later..
Tok a boat trip to Nonthabury with the idea to go over to o Krep Island. It’s about 25km north of Bangok but the I arrived too late to catch a boat. (The only run in the morning)

Instead I went to the Market in Nonthabury which was quite interesting. Rather similar to the market I have seen in China.

Pictures to follow..

Wat Day:
(Pictures Links come later)

I walked around the old part of Bangkok all day visiting some Wats (Temples).
I had seen many of them a year before when I was in Bangkok but I didn’t mind seeing them again since they were rather impressive buildings and although I had seen many of them before I was still (or again) amazed by those Wats.

So I started off very early (6:30am) hoping to catch the feeding of the monks at Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn on the west bank of the Chaop Phraya River

Someone PLEASE remind me to SAVE my blog-in-progress REGULARLY!

Thai Computers like to often
a) Crash with Blue Screen
b) Reboot due to Power Cuts or
c) simply stop working for no reason

Today I had two blue screen crashes that took my almost complete blogs with them.
Of course I had not saved them so two hours lost *grrr*

Right, I might try again tomorrow.. Need some food now..

I left Koh Samui yesterday by plane and arrived back in Bangkok in the evening.

It had rained quite a bit for the last few days and I got a little bored and restless (I wouldn’t have had problems lying on the beach if the sun would have been out more) so glad I’m in Bangkok now.

I decided to try a different transport from the Airport to the Center. Last time I took the taxi, easy enough since there is a taxi queue outside the Airport in Bangkok, organised by a Taxi booth which makes it easy and safe to use the taxis which participate in this system. (There are many taxi drivers who don’t and try to catch passengers before the queue. They usually refuse to switch on the taxi meter and ask for ridiculous fixed fares, some go even further by driving you to another hotel than what you asked for or even asking for additional money before letting you out so the organised taxi rank is good for those who don’t know their way around). Anyway not that I know my way around Bangkok much but at least I’m not completely new to this place so I tried to catch a taxi that drops off departing passangers from the arrival area and get to the nearest Sky Train Station. This would be one of the fastest ways to get into town. Well I didn’t bother with this option in the end because there were too many people trying to get those taxis so I decided for the other alternative, the Airport Bus. It’s cheap (100Baht, e.g. 1.50GBP) no matter where you go and there are four routes to serve the different areas of Bangkok. I took the A3 Airport Bus towards Sukhumvit since I am staying in the Sawadee Sukhumvit Inn Hotel again. It’s not that close to what I consider the center of Bangkok but the Sky Train does stop nearby as I mentioned before and the Hotel is clean, friendly and rooms are descent size with a good bed and clean bathroom. Breakfast is also included and the place costs only about 100 Baht more than Big John’s Hostel nearby (if you include the extra cost for breakfast at the Hostel) which I also tried last time I was here. So this Hotel is a real bargain (OK the street it’s on is a little dark and rundown and not a place a female would want to walk at night but it doesn’t bother me..)

So I took the Airport Bus, they asked where I wanted to get off before the bus drive off so I mentioned the name of the Sky Train Station (Thong Lo) near my hotel. The conductor nodded. Excellent! So the bus actually drops you off where you want to get off (if on route) rather than sticking to specific bus stops, great! The trip was a bit longer than with the Taxi but not much and the bus was air conditioned. Overall a very good deal (Taxi would have been around 300 Baht inc Expressway Toll Fee). The trip was quite funny too because the bus had absolutely NO suspension, though.. I could hear the suspention spring underneith my seat since the metal kept bumping against the casing all the time, it was completely loose and didn’t dampen the tinies ripple in the road let alone the big holes.. Nevermind the seats were cushioned and I got to my place safely 🙂 BTW Luggage is kept inside the bus rather than underneith in luggage comparments, good because I could keep an eye on my bag during the trip..

So.. back in Bangkok. I’m quite happy to be back here, starts to feel like second home now and the fact that I know how to get to places is quite nice 🙂 There are still a lot of things I want to do here so i won’t be bored but I try to stay no longer than 4 days as I need to get up to Chiang Mai. I have already taken so much “time off” doing very little that I can see how easy it would be to just waste month after month without actually doing much.. A strange thought but I actually need to get my act together and plan my days and weeks more carefully. Sofar it has taken quite a bit of my time planning activities, to move one to a new place, change hostels/hotels etc. In a way I guess I’m not yet in the true backpacker mode where I just get up, pack my bag, head to the train/bus station or airport and hope for a spare seat on the next transport to whereever and when I get there to seek out a place to stay.

Because the internet is so readily available it’s almost too easy too plan a trip ahead properly, book that onward travel ticket and the hostel/hotel/bungalow in the next town before you get there…

Well, I will get there.. eventually 🙂

And then there are the other kind, those linger mainly on the main road in Chaweng 😉

There are a few bars with “bar girls” or hostesses for using a kinder word and you have to change road sides or swiftly pass them or be prepared to literally be dragged into their bar.
Another type are Ladyboys. I didn’t notice any Ladyboys in Bangkok (maybe I’m blind or didn’t go to the right places) but here in Chaweng are plenty of them. Scary Creature I would call them without meaning to insult those people. I wonder why there are so many here in Thailand, I know they are “famous” but what’s the reason for there being so many in Thailand in general? On thing that comes to mind is what I read in a Do’s and Dont’s In Thailand Book that I bought a few weeks ago. Aparently Thailand is very open minded with regards to sexual orientation. There is no right or wrong, good or bad. AparentlyThais simply accept whatever sexual orientation someone has without a second thought. What that means I guess is that it’s much easier for people such as Ladyboys to follow they preference openly.

Interestigly however, despite this openmindedness Thais strongly refrain from showing any affection in public. You will never find couples kissing in public, going arm in arm or maybe hold hands. These affections are not supposed to be suitable for public display. If you were to see a good friend on the street after may years for the first time, a hand shake is the most you can do according to the proper thai ways, a hug or tap on the shoulder is apparently too much already.

And one other thing is that (although probably not quite like that anymore these days), no man should touch a woman in public. Story goes a few hundred years ago a princess was on a boat down the Chao Praya I think) to meet the King. Her boat capsized but no man dared rescuing the princess from the river because they did not dare to touch a woman in public and so she drowned….

It sounds far fetched to a westerner but it shows how strong Thai Traditions were and still are these days…

Anyway back to the scary creatures (of any kind), I can live with/around them (as long as they leave me alone and don’t bother me *haha* ;-))

Scary Creatures one can find on this Island and I don’t only mean the ones that belong to the animal world though lets stick to that category first 🙂

Not really scary scary but it was a bit of a “spider” exerience if you know what I mean.
The other night I was walking along the beach and noticed fishermen walking through the shallow sea with torches/headlamps lighting up the sea around them. They seemed to look out for some potential seafood they could sell to the local restaurants. I got interested and decided to grab my torch and walk out into the water myself looking for whatever marine life I could find.

At first there was not much, but I guess I was stomping through the water like an elephant scaring every living creature in the water away before I could even get close enough for my torch to find them.
I slowed down a but and walked further out and eventualy I found small, half see-through blueish shimmery fish. To small to get excited about them but soon I found some about other interestig fish in the water. Now fish are not scary so what am I on about. Well soon I found some crabs, first small ones then about hand sized and half hiding under small rocks. They were moving rather sowly but once I must have come too close and one of the bigger ones moved quickly away. It occured to me that I should keep my distance so not to get them pinch my bare toes if they feel like I’m to close 😉 Of course in that moment, relatively close to the crabs I noticed in the corner of my eye something bigger moving in the water. Remember it was pitch black around me apart from my headlamp.. I moved my head to look at whatever it was but as soon as I moved the light the hand sized something suddenly shot towards me ,*meantal scream*. I had not properly seen what it was but it shot right through my legs. Of course I moved (jumped rather) away, trying not to step on the crabs, whirling up enough sand to completely spoil the view through the water. From what I saw I reckon it was a squid. Certainly had the right shape, size and propulsion.. nothing to be scared of and I had to laugh after I jumped but if you are standing in the sea at night and something is quickly moving towards you in the water you are bound to have something of a “large spider running towards you” effect.

Later on I saw a bunch of other nicely colored fish, no chance to identify them of course. I’m useless at that. Also at night it’s not easy to make out the colours properly despite torch. Also saw a skate of some sorts.

I have not been up to much for the last few days. Still on Koh Samui mostly hanging out on the beach, reading a bit at Starbucks (yip there is one on Koh Samui:-) or walking around town. It has been raining quite a bit (on and off) during the last few days. Usually we get maybe half a day of sun and the rest cloudy or rain.

Talking of rain:
When I say rain I mean RAIN!!! Torrential downpours that easily challenge the shower in my bungalow in terms of water flow! It’s still very warm though so humidity is quite high especially in the evening when there is less wind going. Now what do you recon happens when one is on a Scooter driving around when it pours down? One gets SOAKING WET 😉 Even my rain jacket didnt help since it’s a jacket so below waist it’s wet, wet,wet.

The other day I had to change my fight ticket to leave oh Samui a bit later and decided to drive to the Airline Office outside of town. Naturally it started raining half way but by the time I reached the place I was soaking wet. BTW when it rains here the roads a FLOODED. Typically water stands up to 5cm high with the added bonus of sand washed out onthe road. Being on a scooter it means wet if not muddy feet but hey, I was wearing sandals so no problem, a quick rinse and all is back to normal. Sadly when I reached the ocation where the Airline Office was suposed to be there was a building site but no Airline Office. I walked in a nearby shop and asked and the said the Office was being rebuilt, should drive to the airport (which was the completely opposite way) *bother*;-)
Wet like a fish I got back on my scooter and drove back into town. Decided to check one of the travel agents if they could change my flight for me rather than me having to drive to the airport (not that I could get any wetter). The guy must have had pitty with mey dripping on his floor as he agreed to call the Airline and change the flight as required.

So what do we learn from that? Don’t drive a scooter when it rains unless you have a poncho to cover your entire body 😉 BTW – some (few) locals ave very thin plastic ponchos but many use umbrellas on their scooters… should see it, one hand steering, the other holding an umbrella :-O.

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Originally uploaded by saschas.

I have added a few more pictures to my flickr space and added comments.

In future I try to send pictures directly to my blog space but this will do for now.