Thursday, January 17, 2008
Chiang Mai, Day 3
We spent today walking Chiang Mai and taking pictures of all the temples within the city core which is surrounded by a moat! One temple we went to had "Monk Chat" where you can speak with a buddhist monk and ask them questions and they can ask you questions and practice their english--that was very neat. Every night there is a night market for all your shopping pleasures, this has been the case of all the cities we have visited. In fact, shopping is a major tourist draw in Thailand, in the larger cities. Bangkok is amazing for shopping, all kinds of major department stores in mega-malls that make our large malls look like tiny. Tomorrow will be our last day in Chiang Mai, we are going to try and make a trip to the nearby jungle for some nature experience. We leave for Bangkok late tomorrow, we will spend one last full day in Bangkok. That's it for now, be sure and look at all our pictures we recently posted, for Kuala Lampur, Malaysia too.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Chiang Mai
We took a cooking class today (www.thaifarmcooking.net) and made Green and Red curry paste from scratch. We used the curries to make Green Curry with Chicken and Red Curry with Chicken. We made soups, Tom Kha Gai and Tom Yam with Shrimps. We both made Chicken Cashew Nut-Yum! We also made noodles, I made Phad Thai and Cathy made Stir-Fried Big Noodles. More YUMMY! For dessert, I made Pumkin in Coconut Milk and Cathy made Mango with Sticky Rice. DAIIIIIIEEEE---so good!Sunday, January 13, 2008
Malaysia Part II
We're still enjoying Malaysia; much more so now that we're a little more used to the city and its culture. The first night was a bit awkward because the country has a lot of different customs and we didn't quite blend in but now we're on to how to act and dress so it's much more pleasant.
As always, we must report on the food, which for the most part has been excellent. I did finally get an opportunity to try durian, also known as the king of fruits. It's a large spikey green fruit that has four divided chambers inside. The chambers contain a creamy, slightly fiberous (somewhat doughy) pulp that stinks to high heaven and is highly prized by many Indonesians. I had read about it in some of my favorite books and had always been interested to try it. Well, yuk, it was barely tolerable at the moment of ingestion and gradually tasted worse all evening. By that I mean that the few bites I took (and then promptly threw the rest away) stayed with me all night. I can't imagine what a person would smell like if they ate that all the time! They say it smells like ammonia but I didn't quite think so; Michael thinks it does, anyway it doesn't smell pleasant. Oh well, I've been wanting to try it for ages. Maybe someday I'll give it another go, who knows?!
Other than the durian the food has been yummy. Lots of different cultures influence the cuisine of this region - local Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, a little Thai, and others so there is quite a mix of things to chose from.
What else....we visited the bird sanctuary and the orchid gardens, the Batu Caves (a Hindu shrine north of the city), the Petronas Twin Towers, the Central Market, Chinatown, Little India, and walked around many city districts. Tomorrow we're planning to go to the Forestry Reserve outside the city and check out some local forests. We watched a monkey get territorial at the Hindu shrine and terrorize many tourists (chasing and biting and jumping on them) until one Chinese guy stood up to it with some fancy karate moves. The monkey finally backed down and gave the guy some respect and a bunch of people started clapping. I kind of felt sorry for the monkey but then it was being a twerp. There aren't any stray dogs around here (unlike Thailand where they're everywhere); instead there are bunches of monkeys, rats, and cats. Weird.
Bird Park
Botanical Gardens
Batu Caves
On Tuesday we are flying to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We're looking forward to some jungle hiking and mountains and maybe hang out with a few elephants.
As always, we must report on the food, which for the most part has been excellent. I did finally get an opportunity to try durian, also known as the king of fruits. It's a large spikey green fruit that has four divided chambers inside. The chambers contain a creamy, slightly fiberous (somewhat doughy) pulp that stinks to high heaven and is highly prized by many Indonesians. I had read about it in some of my favorite books and had always been interested to try it. Well, yuk, it was barely tolerable at the moment of ingestion and gradually tasted worse all evening. By that I mean that the few bites I took (and then promptly threw the rest away) stayed with me all night. I can't imagine what a person would smell like if they ate that all the time! They say it smells like ammonia but I didn't quite think so; Michael thinks it does, anyway it doesn't smell pleasant. Oh well, I've been wanting to try it for ages. Maybe someday I'll give it another go, who knows?!
Other than the durian the food has been yummy. Lots of different cultures influence the cuisine of this region - local Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, a little Thai, and others so there is quite a mix of things to chose from.
What else....we visited the bird sanctuary and the orchid gardens, the Batu Caves (a Hindu shrine north of the city), the Petronas Twin Towers, the Central Market, Chinatown, Little India, and walked around many city districts. Tomorrow we're planning to go to the Forestry Reserve outside the city and check out some local forests. We watched a monkey get territorial at the Hindu shrine and terrorize many tourists (chasing and biting and jumping on them) until one Chinese guy stood up to it with some fancy karate moves. The monkey finally backed down and gave the guy some respect and a bunch of people started clapping. I kind of felt sorry for the monkey but then it was being a twerp. There aren't any stray dogs around here (unlike Thailand where they're everywhere); instead there are bunches of monkeys, rats, and cats. Weird.
Bird Park
Botanical Gardens
Batu Caves
On Tuesday we are flying to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We're looking forward to some jungle hiking and mountains and maybe hang out with a few elephants.
Ok, gotta run. Hope you're all having a great day!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Kuala Lampur, Malayasia
We arrived last night and will be exploring this large and interesting city over the next few days. We have no way to post any more pictures at this time, maybe later. We are planning to stay here for at least few days before heading back to Thailand. Hope everyone is well back home. We'll try and do another post soon, once we see some sights.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Lot's of Good Eats
By far the best places to eat are the little stalls and carts along the streets. You can chow down on lots of yummy noodles, skewers, fruit shakes, sacks of fruit, and banana pancakes......mmmmm, banana pancakes! I've noticed that the bananas taste much better in other countries (Peru, Brasil, Thailand, etc) than they do back home.
Looking forward to diving in the Similans tomorrow and Wednesday.
Best of luck to Kat starting her new job and Sara starting at UW. I hope you both have great weeks!
Best of luck to Wes who has been back at school for a week - wish you were here!
Ok, I'd better get packing and ready to get up early and swim with the fishes. Talk to you soon!
Looking forward to diving in the Similans tomorrow and Wednesday.
Best of luck to Kat starting her new job and Sara starting at UW. I hope you both have great weeks!
Best of luck to Wes who has been back at school for a week - wish you were here!
Ok, I'd better get packing and ready to get up early and swim with the fishes. Talk to you soon!
Similan Islands and beyond
Similan Islands tomorrow, 4 dives, sleep over night, then 3 more dives and back in Phuket just to sleep over. Thursday we will be heading over to Kuala Lampur, the capital of Malaysia. We will be spending a few days there to see the sights. After that we are not quite sure where we will go next but it'll be in Thailand.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Phuket
We arrived in Phuket a few days ago, warmer and more humid. We are staying at Karon Beach, it's very touristry, lots of scandinavians if you can believe it. There are a lots of restaurants that have scandinavian flags or viking helmets on their advertising indicating they cater to scandi's. The menus do have scandinavian dishes, but we choose to stay with theThai cuisine.
We went diving yesterday, a boat took us out to some small islands for 2 dives (picture is one of the islands). The water was super clear and super warm!! So easy to dive in the tropics. We saw lots of stuff, you'll have to view the photos to see them. We are going to the Similan Islands in a few days for 7 more dives on a sleep-aboard.
We went diving yesterday, a boat took us out to some small islands for 2 dives (picture is one of the islands). The water was super clear and super warm!! So easy to dive in the tropics. We saw lots of stuff, you'll have to view the photos to see them. We are going to the Similan Islands in a few days for 7 more dives on a sleep-aboard.
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