Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Tame and wild

Sawatdee ka! That's hello in Thai to all of you English speakers out there. Bangkok continues to be a crazy juxtaposition. For instance, last night my host and I went out for dinner and a drink. I let him handle the food ordering and just said that I'd try anything he ordered. I'll have to ask Sam what exactly we ate again because the only thing I remember the name of is tom yam soup (spicy and sour, made with chillies, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf and juice, and seafood) and the coconut ice dessert. One dish I think was called a seafood paste; it had a variety of seafood in a thick, curry and basil, well, paste. :-) The other dish was a pork and noodle soup with perhaps the most unusual texture ever. The noodles and broth kind of gave it a viscous, slimy feel that wasn't particularly pleasant for me. The taste was good, but I was having a hard time getting past the texture.

The food, although strange and different for me, wasn't the wild part that I'm referring to. After dinner but before the drink, Sam and I walked around Patpong, Bangkok's famous red-light district. It's a small area, consisting only of two side streets, but it's jam packed at night. For the sake of my more gentle readers out there, I won't go into the specifics (email me if you want the deets!), but you can be sure it's not something I've ever seen before. Let me be clear, though. Yes, it's a red-light district, but it's also a night market where all kinds of things are sold (and no, I didn't actually go into any of the go-go bars).

So then the drink. Sam took me to the Banyan Tree Hotel where the Moon Bar is located on the 59th floor. The drinks are ridiculously expensive here (though not as expensive as the not-blogged-about $35 drink I had at Neos in Dubai), but the view is pretty great.

Today, by comparison, has definitely been tame. Because of some late afternoon coffee consumption, I couldn't sleep last night and didn't go to bed until almost 4am which meant that I slept in until nearly 11am. Tonight Sam invited some friends over and I'll be cooking dinner for five, so I needed to go to the supermarket. I even looked the part of a market goer :-):

The "wildest" thing I did today was order (and eat) something that I didn't know what it was. I still don't know what it was, even after eating it! It was a noodle soup that I got from a food stall and I think the ingredient I was unsure of might've been chicken livers, but I just don't know. Pretty tame, though, because the food is very different from anywhere else I've been so far and I'm kind of just easing into it.

With today's post, anyone who's told me recently that I haven't posted enough pics of myself, should be sufficiently satisfied for the time being. :-D

7 comments:

  1. Hi honey,
    It sounds as though you are having so much fun! The photos are great; I love the photo of you 'going shopping'! It looks like you're wearing the travel necklace I made you. If so, I'm honored. It was oneof the few pieces I've made thus far that was truly from the heart. Take care, be safe, love you, Cyndy

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  2. Yea, I'm sorry. I don't think I would be able to eat anything that I didn't know what it was. And even then - you know me - I probably wouldn't eat a lot of it anyway :-)

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  3. ok - i was looking at the pics of you and thinking "finally, some pictures of her!""how great is that view?" and "i like that necklace she is wearing and i know i haven't seen it before". ok so did Cyndy at the top of these comments make it? it looks nice with that dress, friend!

    AND you KNOW i want the details on the red light scandelous shit! email me please. other than bad jokes about bangkok, one of the other few things i know about thailand was from a 20/20 like 10 years ago that said gonorhea of the throat was a major issue there . . . keep that in mind.
    ;) xoxooxL

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  4. When I think of Shannon in Bangkok, I think of THIS.

    Cyndy, I love the necklace, too!

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  5. Cyndy - Yup, I'm wearing the necklace you made for me. I get a lot of comments on it, so I'm quite enjoying that little going away gift you gave to me!

    Amy - Eh, after awhile, you'd probably try stuff, like it, and call me to tell me about it, lol. Remember when you called to tell me that you'd tried rare tuna for the first time? :-)

    Laura - You weren't even one of the people I was referring to who'd been asking about pics of me, so I'm glad you liked them. Scandalous email coming your way. :-) Btw, I said I didn't go into any of the places in Patpong, but thanks for the friendly gonorrhea warning!

    ToadMama - It's so funny that you mention that song. My friend Will sent me a link (maybe the same one?) for it awhile ago because he brought up the song and I'd never heard of it before.

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  6. The soup sounds a lot like one my friend from China made for me and how embarrassing it was that I could not get it down, past the gagging.

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  7. Don't forget about me on that email to Laura too!

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