This morning as I was waking through the grocery store in the kind of daze that shelf after shelf of Asian food I don't understand and packaging I can't read puts me in, I absent-mindedly turned a corner and came face-to-face with possibly the last thing I ever thought I'd see in a Thai grocery store: a Republic of Newfoundland t-shirt.
My first reaction to this miracle involved jumping up and down and saying "OH MY GOD" very loudly while smiling like a maniac and possibly hugging the girl. In the end I settled for a simple, "wow, are you from Newfoundland?" (I still don't think this hid my excitement...)
In the end I found out that the girl and her mother are actually from New Brunswick but her father lives in Paradise. She'd picked up the shirt during a visit. Wild! We discussed the difficulty of buying groceries in Asia, our respective travels and "why we're here" stories. Turns out they've traveled and lived all over! I laughed when she asked if this was my first Asian experience and then went on to tell me how this was "seriously Asian" whereas a place like Hong Kong is only "light Asia"...perhaps we should have started there!
We had a great chat and they gave me their contact details so I could get in touch anytime. We may get together for coffee (or something) soon :) Maybe she'll know of a secret grocery store where I can buy Tetley Tea...Hmmmmmm
Monday, February 18, 2008
Patravadi Theatre
On Saturday I randomly came across a write-up for a local theatre in the the paper called Patravadi. The article was about an international dance performance that was on that evening so I logged onto their website to check out the details. I was really excited when I saw that it was an entire arts complex with performing arts school, restaurant with evening performances, and a number of different performance spaces. The website was also in English. This is a good thing. It means the locals want us there ;)
I was so intrigued that I convinced Sean that we should head over there for dinner. I made a reservation for dinner during the evening show and we hopped in a cab to find the place.
We weren't that surprised when the cab driver turned down a very small Soi (side street) and made his way around several corners before we saw lights and people. By the time we found the restaurant and were seated at our table I knew this was the kind of place I'd like! The restaurant had really great modern, minimalist decor and a relaxed atmosphere. When we walked in there was a cellist playing in the center of the room, in the center of all the diners. We were seated at a table practically on top of the Chao Praya river (the window spaces on the back wall were all open-air and the building was built out over the river). The whole place had kind of an LSPU Hall vibe...very much a community theatre group.
The rest of the night was fantastic. We were entertained by Thai drummers, dancers, singers and even an acrobat! All were students of the school. The food was fantastic and half-way through we found out that the proceeds from the meals go towards student scholarships (that's when I ordered my second glass of wine...it was for a good cause!). We also discovered that they have a student who is currently in Canada training with Cirque Du Soleil! He or she will be back next month and will be performing a new show at the theatre. Clearly we'll be back again.
Of all the great things we've seen in Bangkok this was really one of my favorites. It was the kind of local place where tourists are accepted but not harassed and where you get a glimpse of the fact that this gigantic, cosmopolitan, metropolis is actually just a community of regular ol' people! Truly fantastic evening! And just to make it a little bit better, as we were leaving later in the night Sean observed that this little, tiny Soi was perhaps the quietest place we've ever been in Bangkok! We relished those few minutes of near-silence before we emerged on the main road and were jerked back to reality.
Here's the website if you'd like to check it out: http://www.patravaditheatre.com/ Stay tuned for my report of the upcoming Cirque-trained acrobat! And now for a few pics since we haven't posted any in a while :)
I was so intrigued that I convinced Sean that we should head over there for dinner. I made a reservation for dinner during the evening show and we hopped in a cab to find the place.
We weren't that surprised when the cab driver turned down a very small Soi (side street) and made his way around several corners before we saw lights and people. By the time we found the restaurant and were seated at our table I knew this was the kind of place I'd like! The restaurant had really great modern, minimalist decor and a relaxed atmosphere. When we walked in there was a cellist playing in the center of the room, in the center of all the diners. We were seated at a table practically on top of the Chao Praya river (the window spaces on the back wall were all open-air and the building was built out over the river). The whole place had kind of an LSPU Hall vibe...very much a community theatre group.
The rest of the night was fantastic. We were entertained by Thai drummers, dancers, singers and even an acrobat! All were students of the school. The food was fantastic and half-way through we found out that the proceeds from the meals go towards student scholarships (that's when I ordered my second glass of wine...it was for a good cause!). We also discovered that they have a student who is currently in Canada training with Cirque Du Soleil! He or she will be back next month and will be performing a new show at the theatre. Clearly we'll be back again.
Of all the great things we've seen in Bangkok this was really one of my favorites. It was the kind of local place where tourists are accepted but not harassed and where you get a glimpse of the fact that this gigantic, cosmopolitan, metropolis is actually just a community of regular ol' people! Truly fantastic evening! And just to make it a little bit better, as we were leaving later in the night Sean observed that this little, tiny Soi was perhaps the quietest place we've ever been in Bangkok! We relished those few minutes of near-silence before we emerged on the main road and were jerked back to reality.
Here's the website if you'd like to check it out: http://www.patravaditheatre.com/ Stay tuned for my report of the upcoming Cirque-trained acrobat! And now for a few pics since we haven't posted any in a while :)
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Waterside Restaurant b-day celebration
Despite Sean being quite sick with the flu (again!) we peeled ourselves off the couch last night to attend his co-worker's birthday celebration at Waterside Restaurant. It was an eventful night from the start! I knew the evening wasn't going to go smoothly when we jumped in a cab and saw the clock: 5:45...dinner was at 6. In St. John's this is ample time to get to your chosen restaurant, but in Bangkok, at rush hour, on a Friday, it's not enough time to get to the end of the block let alone a restaurant that's "very, very far", according to the hotel staff.
35 minutes later we had finally completed the circle around the block that put us in the correct lane to get up onto the expressway. I'm not kidding. 35 minutes to turn around. With traffic like this you'd think the Thais would be quite an up-tight bunch. How they stay calm and patient (and avoid road rage), I'll never understand.
Once we hit the highway we were doing ok. Traffic was still heavy but at least we were moving. Regular cell phone updates with the group of co-workers put us at ease - they were stuck in traffic as well.
Fast forward 1 hour, 15 mins (making our total travel time 1 hour 50 mins and costing us a fat sum of $9 including a good tip) and here we are...or so we thought. The cab driver dropped us off at a restaurant that had absolutely no sign of Sean's co-workers or the name "Waterside". Great. Into another taxi, further down the road again, finally, Waterside! Off we go to find the group of people that are no doubt waiting on us, hungry and impatient. Wrong! The co-workers are STILL not here. Whew! 1 hour and 30 mins late, we're sure we've lost our table...but then again, they must have provisions for this (Sean has been told that wedding invites always state that dinner is an hour earlier than it's actually scheduled for since people are so often late).
A few minutes later the rest of the group showed up and we were quickly seated without a problem. Time to start the party! And this is my favorite part...the part where all the Thais eagerly flip through the menus and start ordering dish after dish after dish! The frantic speaking in that tonal, Asian drawl and all the hand-motions get me really pumped! And I love not having to decide what to eat (although they always offer to let us pick). No matter what shows up, it's always tasty.
So a few minutes later the delicious food starts to arrive along with a gigantic "tower" of beer (a compromise between a pitcher and a keg). I think we're all in need of refreshment after the looooooong drive. Chung Gao! (cheers!) They are all amazed at our advanced grasp of the Thai language ;)
The rest of our dinner is a mix of Sean and I learning some Thai and helping the group practice their English. I made a surprise discovery when one of the guys offered me a beer refill and I happily replied "sure!". The group kind of gasped and giggled while he looked a little taken aback. Apparently "sure" in Thai means something entirely different! (The most modest of the group described it as meaning "evil" but I'm pretty sure it was a little more harsh) LOL! I'll have to keep that in mind - I have no idea how many people I've offended in the last 4 months!
Sean's Thai practice came in the form of karaoke later in the evening. His co-worker S caught him trying to sing along with the Thai words (the Roman script was on screen along with the Thai script) and so quickly passed the mic over. He took it without fear and continued with his garbled Thai pronunciation! They loved it! Great entertainment :)
All in all the great food and company more than made up for the long trek to get there. Sean's co-worker Gwyn dropped us off in a central area so we could get home easily. Total travel time home: 20 minutes.
35 minutes later we had finally completed the circle around the block that put us in the correct lane to get up onto the expressway. I'm not kidding. 35 minutes to turn around. With traffic like this you'd think the Thais would be quite an up-tight bunch. How they stay calm and patient (and avoid road rage), I'll never understand.
Once we hit the highway we were doing ok. Traffic was still heavy but at least we were moving. Regular cell phone updates with the group of co-workers put us at ease - they were stuck in traffic as well.
Fast forward 1 hour, 15 mins (making our total travel time 1 hour 50 mins and costing us a fat sum of $9 including a good tip) and here we are...or so we thought. The cab driver dropped us off at a restaurant that had absolutely no sign of Sean's co-workers or the name "Waterside". Great. Into another taxi, further down the road again, finally, Waterside! Off we go to find the group of people that are no doubt waiting on us, hungry and impatient. Wrong! The co-workers are STILL not here. Whew! 1 hour and 30 mins late, we're sure we've lost our table...but then again, they must have provisions for this (Sean has been told that wedding invites always state that dinner is an hour earlier than it's actually scheduled for since people are so often late).
A few minutes later the rest of the group showed up and we were quickly seated without a problem. Time to start the party! And this is my favorite part...the part where all the Thais eagerly flip through the menus and start ordering dish after dish after dish! The frantic speaking in that tonal, Asian drawl and all the hand-motions get me really pumped! And I love not having to decide what to eat (although they always offer to let us pick). No matter what shows up, it's always tasty.
So a few minutes later the delicious food starts to arrive along with a gigantic "tower" of beer (a compromise between a pitcher and a keg). I think we're all in need of refreshment after the looooooong drive. Chung Gao! (cheers!) They are all amazed at our advanced grasp of the Thai language ;)
The rest of our dinner is a mix of Sean and I learning some Thai and helping the group practice their English. I made a surprise discovery when one of the guys offered me a beer refill and I happily replied "sure!". The group kind of gasped and giggled while he looked a little taken aback. Apparently "sure" in Thai means something entirely different! (The most modest of the group described it as meaning "evil" but I'm pretty sure it was a little more harsh) LOL! I'll have to keep that in mind - I have no idea how many people I've offended in the last 4 months!
Sean's Thai practice came in the form of karaoke later in the evening. His co-worker S caught him trying to sing along with the Thai words (the Roman script was on screen along with the Thai script) and so quickly passed the mic over. He took it without fear and continued with his garbled Thai pronunciation! They loved it! Great entertainment :)
All in all the great food and company more than made up for the long trek to get there. Sean's co-worker Gwyn dropped us off in a central area so we could get home easily. Total travel time home: 20 minutes.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Malaysia Itinerary
Our trip to Malaysia is only 13 days away and we're getting more and more excited! I thought I'd post our itinerary here so you could check out some of the places we'll be visiting, if interested. When we come back we'll tell you all about the experience and of course post lots of pictures! But for now, here's some info:
Day 1: Fly into Kuala Lumpur (KL) and spend the afternoon/evening exploring.
Day 2: Get up early and hit the Thai embassy in hopes of renewing my visa so that I can get back into Thailand...fingers crossed ;) Then we'll head north to the Cameron Highlands, a place that all the local SE Asianers warn us is very boring and quiet, but ok if you're "into nature". Our response to that is "EXCELLENT!" Funny how you don't notice what you have until a foreigner comes in and tells you how fabulous it is. We'll stay at The Lakehouse - a major splurge that I'm incredibly excited about.
Day 3: Today we get to explore all those "boring" tea plantations and rolling hills. There are lots of hiking paths through the hills and waterfalls to visit, not to mention fresh tea and scones that are served at the plantations themselves! In the early evening we'll travel east to get to Lamut Jetty where we'll catch a ferry over to Pangkor Island and check in at the Pangkor Island Beach Resort
Day 4: Ahhhhhhhh....beach......
Day 5: Catch the ferry back to Lamut Jetty and then cab it to a small town called Ipoh. We'll just have time to check into our hotel and have lunch before we meet up with our tour guide for our Bagan Krian Mangrove and FireFly Night Safari!!!! Cannot explain my excitement about this! The tour group is an eco-tourism, community-based group so they will be taking us off-the-beaten track and away from the ever-present touristy crap (for lack of a better word!)
Day 6: Today we hit the road back to KL. We'll have time to pick up my visa and check out a couple of sights before our flight back to BKK.
So there it is! I can't wait to write again with stories and pictures of this adventure. Until then...
Day 1: Fly into Kuala Lumpur (KL) and spend the afternoon/evening exploring.
Day 2: Get up early and hit the Thai embassy in hopes of renewing my visa so that I can get back into Thailand...fingers crossed ;) Then we'll head north to the Cameron Highlands, a place that all the local SE Asianers warn us is very boring and quiet, but ok if you're "into nature". Our response to that is "EXCELLENT!" Funny how you don't notice what you have until a foreigner comes in and tells you how fabulous it is. We'll stay at The Lakehouse - a major splurge that I'm incredibly excited about.
Day 3: Today we get to explore all those "boring" tea plantations and rolling hills. There are lots of hiking paths through the hills and waterfalls to visit, not to mention fresh tea and scones that are served at the plantations themselves! In the early evening we'll travel east to get to Lamut Jetty where we'll catch a ferry over to Pangkor Island and check in at the Pangkor Island Beach Resort
Day 4: Ahhhhhhhh....beach......
Day 5: Catch the ferry back to Lamut Jetty and then cab it to a small town called Ipoh. We'll just have time to check into our hotel and have lunch before we meet up with our tour guide for our Bagan Krian Mangrove and FireFly Night Safari!!!! Cannot explain my excitement about this! The tour group is an eco-tourism, community-based group so they will be taking us off-the-beaten track and away from the ever-present touristy crap (for lack of a better word!)
Day 6: Today we hit the road back to KL. We'll have time to pick up my visa and check out a couple of sights before our flight back to BKK.
So there it is! I can't wait to write again with stories and pictures of this adventure. Until then...
Saturday, February 9, 2008
ThaiCraft Fair
On Saturday I volunteered at a ThaiCraft fair for the first time. The ThaiCraft Organization is a fair trade group that promotes, sells and exports crafts handmade by village artisans all across Thailand (you can check out their website for more info: www.thaicraft.org). The craft fairs they hold each month are wildly popular among the ex-patriot community in Thailand and are renowned for quality products and fascinating artisan demonstrations. It is a very unique setting as the foreign shoppers get to interact directly with the Thai producers, and in many cases learn about the history of the handicrafts being sold and the villages they come from.
I met some really interesting people at the fair and saw all kinds of amazing Thai products. I was working with a jewelry designer at her booth, which I obviously loved! There were about four of us working there including girls from the US, Japan and Thailand; truly a multi-cultural bunch!
Before the fair opened I heard stories of past fairs where people lined up outside the door to get in. I wasn't sure I believed them. But sure enough, at 10:00 when the doors opened we witnessed a rush of about 30 Japanese ladies literally running into the room! They went directly to a table near ours that was selling body lotions and soaps - obviously they'd been here before - and proceeded to fill their baskets with 5, 10, 15 bottles of the stuff! They were practically fighting each other for it! We stood in awe at the jewelry booth and wondered if the lotions contained some miracle anti-aging magic (later when I went to check out the phenomenon they were completely sold out...figures).
Once that particular craziness died down, the fair was non-stop busy for a couple of hours. I happily sold jewelry all morning and secretly picked out the pieces I wanted ;) When Sean showed up in the afternoon he helped me decide on a beautiful necklace and then we browsed through the rest of the fair. We picked up some great items and left the fair quite happy. Even Sean, who is definitely not a shopper, liked the experience of reading about the artisans and where exactly the products came from. It really is a nice change from the factory-made souvenirs that you can buy from pushy touts on every street corner. We know that when we buy these products for ourselves and the people back home (yes, we've been actively buying gifts ;) our money is supporting the Thai people who operate ethical businesses and local economies in remote villages.
I'm looking forward to next month's fair and the coming weeks when I'll be doing a little marketing consulting for the organization. Stay tuned...
I met some really interesting people at the fair and saw all kinds of amazing Thai products. I was working with a jewelry designer at her booth, which I obviously loved! There were about four of us working there including girls from the US, Japan and Thailand; truly a multi-cultural bunch!
Before the fair opened I heard stories of past fairs where people lined up outside the door to get in. I wasn't sure I believed them. But sure enough, at 10:00 when the doors opened we witnessed a rush of about 30 Japanese ladies literally running into the room! They went directly to a table near ours that was selling body lotions and soaps - obviously they'd been here before - and proceeded to fill their baskets with 5, 10, 15 bottles of the stuff! They were practically fighting each other for it! We stood in awe at the jewelry booth and wondered if the lotions contained some miracle anti-aging magic (later when I went to check out the phenomenon they were completely sold out...figures).
Once that particular craziness died down, the fair was non-stop busy for a couple of hours. I happily sold jewelry all morning and secretly picked out the pieces I wanted ;) When Sean showed up in the afternoon he helped me decide on a beautiful necklace and then we browsed through the rest of the fair. We picked up some great items and left the fair quite happy. Even Sean, who is definitely not a shopper, liked the experience of reading about the artisans and where exactly the products came from. It really is a nice change from the factory-made souvenirs that you can buy from pushy touts on every street corner. We know that when we buy these products for ourselves and the people back home (yes, we've been actively buying gifts ;) our money is supporting the Thai people who operate ethical businesses and local economies in remote villages.
I'm looking forward to next month's fair and the coming weeks when I'll be doing a little marketing consulting for the organization. Stay tuned...
Friday, February 8, 2008
SEA tour
It has been awhile since I've had a chance to write on our blog. For the last 2 weeks, I've been traveling around SEA (Southeast Asia) for work. It started with a trip to Singapore, then back to Bangkok for the weekend, followed by a trip to Jakarta (in Indonesia), back to Bangkok for the weekend, and then Singapore again. Jakarta was an interesting city. Initially, I was somewhat nervous on account of the terrorist bombings they had in Jakarta in 2003 and Bali in 2002 & 2005 but everything went smoothly. Once I got settled in, I was able to enjoy the city and its people. The food isn't quite as spicy as Thai - I loved the roasted lamb served at a roadside vendor. Delicious! The day I was to leave Jakarta, there was torrential rainfall which resulted in a lot of flooding - the highway was more of a river than a road. By the time I got to the airport, it was shutdown and my flight was delayed for 5 hours.
During the weekends when I returned to Bangkok, Meg and I tried to get out and experience more of Bangkok. We went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market for the first time. It's a ridiculously huge market full of vendors selling everything you could possibly imagine. After a couple of hours of looking around, we called it quits - the heat was just too much. We also ventured to Ko Kret ("Pottery island"), a refuge of the Mon tribes who still practice Mon Pottery - baked red clay with carvings. It was somewhat disappointing because we'd hoped to witness the process of making the pottery but instead the island was quite similar to the numerous markets throughout Bangkok. It seems we'll have to venture a little further to truly experience the Thai culture without the tourist trap element.
During the weekends when I returned to Bangkok, Meg and I tried to get out and experience more of Bangkok. We went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market for the first time. It's a ridiculously huge market full of vendors selling everything you could possibly imagine. After a couple of hours of looking around, we called it quits - the heat was just too much. We also ventured to Ko Kret ("Pottery island"), a refuge of the Mon tribes who still practice Mon Pottery - baked red clay with carvings. It was somewhat disappointing because we'd hoped to witness the process of making the pottery but instead the island was quite similar to the numerous markets throughout Bangkok. It seems we'll have to venture a little further to truly experience the Thai culture without the tourist trap element.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Weather
It's very windy here today. Makes me feel at home :)
That's the good weather news. The bad weather news is that the Jakarta airport is closed due to torrential rain, which means that Sean is stuck there. His flight was supposed to take off 2 hours ago but nothing is landing or taking off. Hopefully we'll get some news soon and he'll still get home tonight!
That's the good weather news. The bad weather news is that the Jakarta airport is closed due to torrential rain, which means that Sean is stuck there. His flight was supposed to take off 2 hours ago but nothing is landing or taking off. Hopefully we'll get some news soon and he'll still get home tonight!
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