What better way to spend our last morning in Thailand than at a cooking class?
But first, these little piggies went to market, and what a market it was!
The vegetables were so fresh, the bees think they are still growing.
Thai “fast food” – all the necessary vegetables for soup, packaged together.
No wonder Thai food is so amazing–the ingredients are incredibly fresh!
Check out these master chefs.
Could that be Mike wearing a “do” rag??? Yes, it could, and it was.
The spring rolls were so delicious, I didn’t stop to photograph them–I think I might have inhaled them…but I DID capture our other glorious creations for your viewing pleasure.
Pad Thai
Green curry–we all were coughing as we were stir frying this dish. Not sure what ingredient caused that reaction.
And the grand finale–sticky rice with mango. I have never, ever tasted such scrumptious mangoes. They were perfectly ripened, sweet and juicy.
Our group: 4 Lindas, 2 Barbaras,2 Marys, Shelley, Sue, Sandy, Caroline, Karen, Kitty
2 Gregs, Alex, Al, Hal, Mike, Owen, and Rod, obviously not in any particular order.
Good news, folks back home. When I return, I won’t be empty handed. There will be a cookbook in my chubby fist!
After class, we were loaded into vehicles that resembled army trucks. Caroline pointed out this comforting sign. Good to know our driver was trained!
Learning was never this much fun during my school years! Why couldn’t all of my lecturers be like those on Road Scholar trips? Or could it be that I have changed?
Our first two lecturers, Jim Lehman and Tony Zola, were both peace corp volunteers, who stayed in Southeast Asia. Jim was a Buddhist Monk for three months, because he didn’t want to be “unripe”, or as our guide Tippy says, “uncooked rice”. Those are the terms for Thai men that do not spend at least a little time as a monk. If you marry someone who is “uncooked” or “unripe” the Thais believe the marriage will not work out, so it was off to the temple for Jim, so that his Thai wife’s family would approve of the union.
Jim explained that Theravada Buddhists don’t believe in god, however anyone visiting a Wat cant help but notice the Buddhists are deep into Hindu mythology.
Ganesha, son of Shiva and Parvati, at Wat Prathap Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai
In fact, they believe Buddha was the last incarnation of Vishnu. When I asked how Theravada Buddhists reconcile “no god” with their belief in Hindu gods, Jim gave me the answer he got from his Buddhist teacher. “When you have an arrow in your chest, you don’t ask how it got there.” In other words, Buddhism teaches us the way forward. It is not concerned with how we got to where we are. I, on the other hand, would DEFINITELY want to know who shot that damn arrow!
In addition to blending Hinduism with Buddhism, Thais throw animism into the mix. Spirit houses are everywhere, and have varying degrees of grandeur. We saw this one on our daily walk to the SkyTrain from the Loft Hotel. I think my dad might have one just like this in his back yard. (Right, Sue and San?)
This fancier spirit house is far more typical.
Our second lecturer, Tony Zola, talked about the socio-economic-political climate of the countries along the Mekong River, which flows from Tibet to the South China Sea. Sixty million people depend on it for food. They receive 80% of their protein from fish, so the “health” of the river directly impacts the health of the people.
Two of the countries we are visiting are constitutional monarchies (Thailand and Cambodia); Laos and Vietnam are People’s Republics. Per capita income ranges from a high of $8,700 in Thailand to $2,100 to $3,100 in the three other countries. One last demographic fact: half of the population of Southeast Asia is under the age of 25.
Tony didn’t just give us facts and figures; he also told us interesting stories. Thailand’s former Prime Minister received a degree in criminology from the USA. He had a creative way of solving Thailand’s rising drug problem. Somehow, the word got out to rival gangs that each was encroaching on the other’s turf. The resulting murders remain unsolved, which triggered a protest at the United Nations. Again, the Thais had a novel solution. The Thai ambassador’s wife utilized her staff’s cooking abilities to prepare delicious Thai food, which was set up on tables in of the demonstrators. It’s hard to be angry with a stomach full of Thai food. Problem solved…demonstration over. We can learn a lot from the Thais.
Did i mention that my posts are not necessarily in chronological order? Random…that’s the way my brain works. After Tony’s lecture, we headed off to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai. And what an airport it is! Comfortable lounge open to all ticket holders,. With free wifi, drinks and food. No need to belong to a president’s club here.
At Wat Suan Dok, we had a “monk chat”, a discussion of Buddhism from a monk that was not just passing through, doing time so he could become “ripe”. He was a wonderful speaker, who explained that the goal of Buddhism is to be happy right here and now, to relieve suffering by learning detachment. To a Buddhist, the test of a religion should be whether it helps us to be able to live together peacefully. (I’m thinking there are a whole lot of religions that are scoring big red F’s on that particular test. After showing us how to wrap yourself in an orange robe (or as my cousin Kristy would say “rock his robe”)’ we received a crash course in meditation, and I left with an increased fondness for Buddhism.
Wat Suan Dok
Wat Prathap Doi Suthep is located about 40 minutes from Chiang Mai, atop a mountain. This wat is renown because the pagoda contains ashes of the Buddha.
A couple more photos for your viewing pleasure.
Another Naga, a multithreaded snakeI love the animal statues!
We had a free hour and a half before we left for the airport, so I flagged down a man driving his truck in front of our hotel. He agreed to drive us around Luang Prabang for an hour for $15.00. But first, we had to stop off to deliver eggs and vegetables to a local store.
Here I am with our friendly driver.
Mike wasn’t feeling adventurous but my new friend Caroline was rarin to go. (Nancy, meet your new friend).
Check out the boards on the walkway, not the most secure…but the view of the Mekong was so worth it!
We climbed Phusi Hill, but didn’t have time to make it up to the top (all 350+steps) because we were running out of time. We got about 3/4 of the way up and figured we’d better not miss the bus to the airport.
We DID catch some unusual sights along the way. Any future Road Scholars travelers reading this, a quick spin around the city in the back of a truck in the early morning is a great way to travel!
I always wanted to mount a Naga, and this one looked agreeable.
This is a Chinese Buddha. How can I tell? He is fat and smiling. The Thai and Lao Buddhas a thin and serious.
And now some views from the hill.
Those orange dots in the distance are monks that have just crossed the bamboo bridge.
The last image of the day…our bathroom, with the huge tub and no shower curtain. It made showering an adventure. I was glad I brought my bath oil!
I’m so glad we arrived in Bangkok a few days before the Road Scholar tour started. Doing so gave us an opportunity to adjust to the time difference (although if truth be told, I STILL haven’t completely switched over to Asia time) and to slowly savor this magnificent city. Bangkok is amazingly affordable, so the extra days didn’t increase the cost of the trip by much. Four nights at the Bangkok Loft Hotel, for example, cost $175 TOTAL, and that included airport pick up, plus great breakfasts. The Loft was an excellent choice–within walking distance of the SkyTrain, just two stops from the river. It was quiet, clean, very comfortable, with all the amenities that are important to us: firm mattress, good water pressure, plenty of hot water, free wi-fi, perfect temperature control, excellent free breakfast, and helpful, friendly English speaking staff. Thank you, Trip Advisor!
Before leaving home, I had gotten $250 worth of Bhat from our bank. Had we steered clear of the resort hotels (lunch at the Mandarin Oriental, drinks at the SkyBar, dinner at the Shangra-La), that amount would have been more than enough for our transportation, entrance fees to attractions and food during our stay.
Rama IX’s portrait is on Thai money. He looks pretty good for an 86 year old man. But why does one denomination have a different portrait?
The hotel chosen by Road Scholar, the Majestic Grande was also quite lovely, in the business section of town.
Thursday night, we met our fellow travelers. The group is composed of 5 Canadians, 8 from Washington state, 2 from California, 2 from NY, 3 from PA, and the two of us from NJ. As with other Road Scholar Trips we’ve taken, the women outnumber the men, 14 to 8. I love making new female friends! In fact, one of the reasons we keep choosing Road Scholar is it seems to attract interesting, friendly, curious travelers who are fun to be with. Mike and I are looking forward to getting to know everyone better over the next few days.
Friday was an action packed day, with visits to Wat Po and the Grand Palace, followed by lunch at the Supatra River House. After a lecture on Buddhism by Jim Lehman, we returned to the hotel. By then, all we wanted was some cold water and some cold air on our sweaty bodies!
Here are some visual highlights from Wat Po.
The Reclining Buddha is enormous–150 feet long by 50 feet high.
It’s hard to get all of him into one shot.
This gives you an idea of the size of both the Buddha and the crowd at Wat Po. The place was mobbed!
Do you think these qualify as “Happy Feet”? The bottom of the Buddha’s feet are covered with mother of pearl. Talk about having big shoes to fill!
The Wat Po grounds are filled with gold Buddhas, temple guards, and interesting statues. This temple guard is clearly Chinese.
But what about him? To me, he looks like a cross between Charlie Chaplin and John Wayne.
Our return to the Grand Palace was a different experience. We traveled by bus, which gave us a chance to get a different glimpse of the city. Road Scholar provides ear pieces, so that we can easily hear the guide. What a godsend in these crowded sites! Mike and I were glad that we had been able to spend time on our own, and leisurely wander the grounds; having a second go-round with a guide allowed us to see things a little more deeply, and catch some of what was missed the first time. For example, the gallery surrounding the religious section of the Grand Palace is painted with scenes from the Ramayama, and the yellow “paint” in the scenes is liquid gold.
My blog is lagging behind our activities, but I need to end this so I can get myself together for the start of our day. More to come!
Many years ago, Mike and I saw the musical “Chess”, which was memorable for two reasons:
1. it is the only musical that Mike and I disliked enough to leave at intermission, BUT
2. it had a really catchy theme song by Tim Rice, whose lyrics I remember to this day.
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble,
Not much between despair and ecstasy,
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble,
Can’t be too careful with your company,
I can feel the devil walking next to me.
Well, now…MY man has been here for THREE nights and he hasn’t tumbled yet. Let’s see what night number four has in store for him.
First decision–what to wear? While at Wat Arun, I saw some possibilities.
Had one of my female traveling buddies (you know who you are…) been by my side, this next photo might have been us in our evening attire. (These sweet young girls were also touring Wat Arun, decided to purchase the full outfit, fingernails and all, and allowed me to photograph them).
But I digress. Back to last night. Our first stop was Distil Bar on the 64th floor at the Lebua Hotel, where for the equivalent of about $40, I had a rose apple martini and Mike had a beer.
That might sound a bit pricy, but the olives and pistachio nuts were free, and we were able to relocate to the SkyBar when it opened. I’ve been told that this place was prominently featured in the movie Hangover Two. Since we saw neither that nor Hangover One, that wasn’t our reason for going there–it was, what else, the amazing view.
It would have been wonderful to have dinner at the restaurant, but it is booked months in advance, so we needed to go elsewhere.
That gold blur in the center of the next photo is indeed McDonald’s Golden Arches; Kentucky Fried Chicken is a few yards further down.
As tempting as those options were, we decided to walk on by, and headed for “Flow”, a restaurant on the river.
Last stop, the 360 bar atop the Millennium Hilton, from which you can see the Dome at the Lebua Hotel. A great way to end our time “on our own”. We join the Road Scholar tour on Thursday evening, moving from the Loft Hotel to the Majestic Grande.
And now, as promised, the answer to yesterday’s question. There may actually be SEVERAL correct answers, but here’s the one I had in mind when I posed the question.
Thais, like the Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, Japanese, Indians and South Africans, drive on the left side of the road. If you think that wouldn’t make a difference to non-drivers, you would be wrong. We kept heading for the escalators, doors, and turnstiles on the right, not the left. So, wouldn’t you think walkers should bear left? Sometimes…but most of the time it didn’t matter what side of the sidewalk you chose, it was guaranteed to be wrong. And if you think motor scooters should only be ridden on the road, you’d be wrong again! We have been wrong a lot.
Question: What do you do with your defective porcelain?
Answer: If you are Chinese, and it is the 1800’s, you use it as ballast in your cargo ships; however if you are Siamese, you realize it makes ideal building materials for your next temple.
Although Wat Arun is called the Temple of the Dawn, supposedly it is best viewed at sunset, when the light makes all of the porcelain glow, and the temple slowly turns into a silhouette against the crimson sky. Mike and I had another location in mind for our sunset hours, so we visited in the morning. The view from across the river was spectacular enough for us, even without a dramatic sky.
If you are game enough to climb the steep steps (check out the relationship between that guy’s leg and the step behind him to get a feel for it), you are rewarded with a spectacular view.
Oh wait–those weren’t the steep steps, these are the steep steps, and someone thoughtfully left a bottle on one of them to provide scale. They are SHALLOW, steep steps, not designed for big western feet!
Going up was like climbing a ladder; coming down was a bit harder, but the view was so worth it.
On the top left, you can see the rooftops of the Grand Palace.
The view looking up was pretty great too. Erawan, the elephant that the Hindu god Indra rides, is standing on the ledge above us. (Don’t see Indra, though).
The grounds surrounding the temple, normally lovely, are even more so, because they are being decorated for Chinese New Year with red lanterns everywhere. Can you see the two Yakshas guarding the entrance? These spirit “monsters” were at the grand palace and also had green and white faces.
I’ll end this post with a question:
What do Thais have in common with the Brits, Aussies, Kiwis (New Zealanders), Indians, Japanese and South Africans? This is a hard one. The answer will be in the next post.
One of the blogs I follow, Where’s WiWi, recently posed the question “Tourist or Traveller: which are you?” I loved her conclusion–that our chosen style of travel is not what is important. She asks “isn’t what really matters is that we’re actually there: seeing, doing, interacting, contributing to local economies? Even the most sheltered of tours will teach you something of where you are.”
She got me thinking about my travel style and after pondering deeply, or drinking wine (I forget which, but then, whenever I drink wine, I always think that I am pondering deeply) I came to the profound realization that I am indeed both. In addition to places noble and noteworthy, I have been known to seek out the tackiest, cheesiest tourist traps (as proven during Greg’s and my cross-country odyssey this past summer) with unbounded enthusiasm, loving every minute of it.
Whenever I contemplate leaving any of the lower 48 however, I go into “traveler” mode. That is the essence of my Phase One: learning as much as I can about the country’s people, history, culture before I leave home. Not only does it make the experience more enjoyable, but it also makes my trips feel like they last longer.
One of the many reasons I love traveling with Road Scholar is that in addition to the trip lectures, the pre trip materials always include a suggested reading list. Additionally, their website now offers “social networking” features, such as trip blogs from prior participants. As I type this, my new virtual buddy, Nancy from Canada, is on the “Journey Into the Heart of Asia”, so traveling along with her, gives me a sneak preview!
So, in the spirit of doing likewise for those future Road Scholar Asian Adventurers, I will attempt to be as helpful in my posts.
For starters, here is my opinion of some of the books on the reading list. I didn’t buy any of them–fortunately I have access to an amazing library system here in New Jersey. (Okay, so we do have high taxes, but we also have access to fantastic services).
Mike and I will have some time in Thailand before the Road Scholar tour begins so although it was not on the list, I’m reading “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” just in case we decide to visit Kanchanaburi.
The Insight Guides (already back in the library) are a wonderful starting point, and provide a very useful overview of the countries we will be visiting.
I have finished “Culture Smart Thailand”, “The Gods Drink Whiskey”, and “A Traveller’s History of Southeast Asia”. If I only had time to read one, I’d pick The “Gods Drink Whiskey”. I won’t even attempt to do a review of the book–why bother, because I could never improve on what Mindy McAdams wrote.
While meandering through the library stacks, I discovered four books about Vietnam that were not on the Road Scholar list and are worth mentioning.
Graham Greene’s novel “The Quiet American”, set in Vietnam, in the early ’50s, during the war with the French, before American involvement. I also rented the movie, and as usual, found I much preferred the book.
“The Sorrow of War” a novel by Bao Nihn, a north Vietnamese who was one of the 10 survivors out of 500 boys that fought in the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade during the “American” war, as it is known in Vietnam. I skimmed through sections of this book, which was quite sufficient to get a feel for what it was like for the typical young Vietnamese during and after the war.
Two non-fiction books: “Seeing Vietnam” by Susan Brownmiller and “Vietnam Now” by David Lamb. Susan was on assignment for a travel magazine in 1992, which was when travel restrictions for Americans were lifted. David Lamb was first in South Vietnam as a journalist in 1968 then returned in 1997, to live for four years in Hanoi as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.
I’ll be spending two weeks in Hanoi, working as a Global Volunteer in a Vietnamese school, so I figured it would be very helpful to gain additional insight into the country by reading a few post war narratives.
So, three books and sixteen days to go. It feels like the best part of the college experience–the thrill of learning, with none of the pressures of exams! Sorry to disappoint you, if you thought I might be revealing some other college thrills. Hey, that was a long, long time ago!
Speaking of “exams”, here are the answers to the last blog’s Quiz:
Istanbul is split between the continents of Asia and Europe. Unlike the Four Corners in the USA west, however, you can’t put a body part in each continent, because the Bosphorus River divides the city.
Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country that was never ruled by a European power.
True, all males in Thailand are encouraged to become monks for at least several months so that they can gain merit for their families. King Mongkut, also known as Rama lV was a monk from the age of 20 until he became king at age 47. By the time he died at age 64, he had accumulated 32 wives and 82 kids. Talk about making up for lost time!
I’d rather have $50 US dollars. 1,000,000 dong currently equals $48, and 1,000 Bhat is worth $33
Thailand is the country formerly known as Siam, as in “The King and I ” fame, which by the way, was an unflattering and historically inaccurate portrayal of that very same King Mongkut mentioned earlier.
Today’s snowfall looks like it could actually amount to something. The trees toppled by hurricane Sandy, lying every which way on the ground, might create some interesting sculptures.
Mr. and Mrs Cardinal are wisely loading up at the bird feeder. If the flakes keep falling, it might be a while before the feeder filler (otherwise known as Mike) gets back out there.
So, what’s a girl to do as she hunkers down for some serious indoor time? Why, start looking through photos of days filled with sun and fun. And, having just seen several of my Villa Buddies over Christmas –Diane, Karen, Denise, Emily, Wayne and Sandy– (We missed you, Greg and Sally!), I decided to take a trip down Memory Lane, all the way back to July, by reliving one of our day trips.
We had heard so much about Cinque Terra, we decided to venture forth from our villa to explore a couple of the five seaside villages.
The Lucca tourist office offers a series of regularly scheduled day trips, however the Cinque Terra trip wasn’t scheduled for the day we wanted. Instead, the tourist office helped us find a far better alternative: a private tour. Our driver, Wolfgang, picked us up at our villa, drove us to the ferry in Portovenere, got us our ferry tickets and an itinerary, then met us at the end of the day in Monterrosso, to return us to the villa.
Of course, we COULD have managed this on our own, but that would have meant driving in two separate cars, figuring out parking, the ferry schedule, taking a round trip ferry ride–nothing tremendously difficult, but the driving had fallen to the one person willing to brave the Italian roads, and it was time to give Diane a break.
We drove through La Spezia, the cruise ship port for those cruisers bound for Cinque Terra, on our way to Porto Venere, a cute little seaside town. We had just enough time for a cappuccino and pastry before boarding the ferry.
Portovenere
It was the perfect ferry ride: warm, with a cool breeze, clear skies, with spectacular views along the way. We could see the cultivated fields stretching up the side of the mountains.
On the way to Manarola
I wouldn’t want to have to plant and weed THOSE gardens!
As you can see, stone was quite plentiful, and incorporated into the seaside buildings.
Why is it that even laundry looks picturesque in Italy?
Manarola’s bathing beauties
There was only time for a quick stroll up into the town, (and I do mean UP), then it was time to board the next ferry for our last stop, Monterrosso. We were told there is a hiking trail between the villages, but given that we were now in our lazy phase of the trip, decided to take the easy method of transportation. The trip UP into town may have helped us make that decision.
This village had an actual beach, with umbrellas and chairs for rent.
I, however, was more interested in this lovely alcoholic version of iced coffee. I got all of the benefits of the beach, without sand in my seat, or sunburned shoulders.
And since today is a day for looking through photos, I decided to include a couple from a trip Mike and I had taken in 2004 to Portofino, another seaside village further up the coast. Like Cinque Terra, the houses were sherbet colored, built tightly together.
It too was lovely, and for THAT trip, we actually DID stroll along the hillside trail. Take a look.
Come a little closer…
Although it lacked a beach, there was plenty to see on that day trip.
We were fortunate enough to be in Lucca during a festival. Several nights worth of parades with costumes, music, flags, scary weaponry…who could ask for anything more?
One question: What do you think would be more difficult–tossing and catching flags, or marching with a flag covering your face? These guys were masters at both.
True confession time: i just learned that WordPress will arrange photos into a collage, so I had to give it a try. Pretty cool, huh? And very easy–at least from my home computer.
I’m still thinking about Lucca’s amazing city wall. With a perimeter of approximately 2.5 miles, the interior space isn’t very big. I’ll leave it to the mathematicians to calculate the square footage within those walls. At times, though, it felt huge, particularly during the afternoon heat, when lost and walking in circles, for example. Not that I would have ever experienced anything like that..
So, what’s the point? Well, there is an incredible number of churches packed into that rather small patch of earth! The other walled cities I visited seemed to only have one or two churches within their enclosure, but Lucca had a whole overflowing collection basket load of them!
Fortunately, I didn’t feel compelled to photograph them all–just a few that caught my eye because to me, at least, they were rather unique.
I had never heard of San Frediano, and I still have no clue who he is, but he clearly was important enough to get a church named in his honor. The exterior wasn’t all that fancy, except for the beautiful mosaic balancing on that rather nondescript body.
It was particularly beautiful when the sun was directly shining on the gold, which it wasn’t when I took this photo, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
This next church has been re-purposed as an art museum. We never got around to going inside to see the Chagall exhibit, but I sure did like those green stripes decorating the arches, and posters fit so nicely under an arch, don’t you think?
This last one, built on the site of the old Roman Forum was my very favorite–the church of St. Michael, named after my husband, I believe.
You’ve got to love a church that looks like a wedding cake is balancing on its top. Instead of a bride and groom, however, this one has angels, spreading their wings and blowing their horns.
That brown fist on the right was nota church decoration. It was part of a citywide art exhibit. If it hadn’t taken me three months to write this blog, I probably would remember the name of the art festival, how MANY sculptures there were–but all I can recall is that they were all totally made from paper. AND that tourists and the locals were invited to vote for their favorite. (There is another sculpture in the photo of the church of San Frediano. It looks like a bunch of space vehicles suspended from strings).
Anyway, back to the church. St. Michael is definitely deserving of a closer look. The sculptor must have had that century’s equivalent of ADD, because each of the wedding cake’s columns is decorated differently. (I know–my future as an art expert has just been vaporized by my clumsy description of these edifices.)
The fake front of St Michael church, with all the cool, different columns
Check out the detail on the Archangel’s robe. (Click on the photo to enlarge for a better view).
Close up of the Archangel. I’m loving my camera’s zoom lens
That was definitely a labor of love, because you’d have to have super vision to see those “jewels” from the ground level. A tour guide told us that Michael is wearing a gold ring. We couldn’t tell one way or the other until my camera’s zoom lens disproved THAT claim.
I was thinking that Lucca’s churches were old Italy’s version of Starbucks …there was one on every corner. Then I happened to take a look at one of the arches.
Detail below the arch
Look closer…recognize anything?
Do they serve Starbuck’s here?
Looks like the command to “go forth and multiply” was also heeded by a certain Seattle company!
Destination NOW 