Educating the Palate
There’s been a bit of a gap since my last blog and this one because I am no longer a lady of leisure. Although I was managing to fill my days doing almost nothing, it couldn’t go on.
Bangkok really is the worst place to feel a bit queasy. Aside from the aroma of street vendors triple frying live chickens at all hours of the day and night, there is also the Bangkok smell. I remember someone saying to me before we came here ‘oh yes Bangkok, it just has that smell…’ and not really knowing what they meant. But there is a distinctive odour that I’ve only ever picked up in Bangkok and seems to be consistent no matter which district I find myself in. The only way I can describe it is ‘raw sewage with a kick’. I think it comes from the fact that all food waste gets secreted in every drain which, when mixed with whatever was in the drain in the first place, creates this fragrant concoction. Anyway, at 06:30 on a Friday morning when you’re thinking ‘I feel a bit sick’, Bangkok is there to make sure you feel sick.
The second thing that makes getting ill here so much worst is the inability to rehydrate effectively. A stomach bug is going to dehydrate you anywhere but coupled with the additional sweating that you inevitably experience, it’s like a double whammy. I had already gone through a similar experience during our first visit to Bangkok when I came down with the infamous ‘tequila poisoning’. Whilst a 3-day hangover sounds like hilarious self-inflicted misfortune, what I experienced was an initial hangover that developed into major dehydration that I struggled to deal with. I’m slightly wiser to this now but it’s one to watch.
Bright and early on Monday, I did something that I was yet to do since arriving in Thailand, I left Bangkok. This was surprisingly easy to do traffic-wise as at that time in the morning people are heading in not out. And when I say people, I mean every man and his dog!
The day mainly consisted of touring warehouses & transport offices, meeting colleagues and generally trying to get my head around what it is I’m here to do. I’m still quite awkward with my greetings with Thai people. Basically, it’s not customary in Thailand to shake hands when you meet people although a lot of Thai’s have adapted to this more western method. The ‘wai’ is the normal Thai greeting which entails bringing your palms together in a prayer-like fashion and slightly bowing your head. The issue I have is that I never seem to have my hands free to bring them together, I’m always clasping a notebook, phone, water bottle etc. so I just end up flailing. I’m told just making an attempt is polite enough, but I feel my colleagues will probably expect to see some progress as the weeks go on.
We ate in a traditional Thai style, like Spanish Tapas where you order a load of different dishes to share and take small amounts onto your plate and little soup bowl. The dishes all just turn up at random times, so you always want to leave room for what might be coming next! My colleagues were under strict instructions not to order anything boring and to branch out a bit. I guess that’s probably the reason I found myself eating a piece of deep-fried frog. This is somewhat ironic as on a nightly basis I spend time trying to save frogs from being eaten by Charles and Siale. That exercise hasn’t been going that well, to be honest, the other night I caught Siale munching on something that turned out to be the arm of a frog – I’m not sure where the rest of it was! And then on another night, Charles did get hold of one in his mouth which once released just lay there on the grass, legs splayed and motionless. I scooped it up and carefully placed it in the open trunk of a tree in the hope that frogs are creatures that use the tactic of playing dead when threatened to deter predators.
The deep-fried frog at lunch was a bit of a waste of time but everything else was delicious – various soups, meats, and vegetables in tasty, spicy sauces. Yummy!
It then suddenly went downhill very quickly when we stumbled across a section of Wat Pho that had things to read and the first stages of the meltdown started to show. We made a swift exit and went in search of some lunch. As the meltdown had begun, just finding food was not going to cut it, we needed beer too. We arrived at a covered market area by the river and were immediately accosted by a woman waving a menu. ‘Food AND Beer’ we explained. ‘Awwwww Food AND Beer’ she responded and took Chris by the arm to lead us through the maze of vendors. If she kept saying ‘Food and Beer’ we were happy to follow.
She delivered us to a table and we were then left to fend for ourselves. We ordered a couple of Leo’s (Thai local beer) and perused the menu. There were pictures and the type of meat was specified in English which is generally enough for me to decide. I chose a seafood soup and rice. The man who took the order said ‘Spicy?’ and having decided I was over my short-term fear of spicy food I nodded. I had also had an epiphany on how to eat Thai food. I’d realised that my usual approach of going hell for leather spooning the food into my mouth was only going to leave me gasping and sweating. If I took smaller mouthfuls and ate a bit slower then it was all good. This tactic served me well and I survived the soup.
Queasy Times
Unfortunately, the end of my first week of work was marred by a stomach bug/disagreement with something I ate episode that took hold on Thursday night. Really not wanting to take a sick day in my first week I somehow dragged myself through Friday, knowing that if I could get away with spending most of the day sitting down I’d be ok. I approached getting to work in stages, never thinking beyond the stage I was on; walking to the end of the road, getting on a motorbike taxi, getting on BTS (Skytrain). By the time I got to the MRT (underground), it was easier to keep going than turn back.Bangkok really is the worst place to feel a bit queasy. Aside from the aroma of street vendors triple frying live chickens at all hours of the day and night, there is also the Bangkok smell. I remember someone saying to me before we came here ‘oh yes Bangkok, it just has that smell…’ and not really knowing what they meant. But there is a distinctive odour that I’ve only ever picked up in Bangkok and seems to be consistent no matter which district I find myself in. The only way I can describe it is ‘raw sewage with a kick’. I think it comes from the fact that all food waste gets secreted in every drain which, when mixed with whatever was in the drain in the first place, creates this fragrant concoction. Anyway, at 06:30 on a Friday morning when you’re thinking ‘I feel a bit sick’, Bangkok is there to make sure you feel sick.
The second thing that makes getting ill here so much worst is the inability to rehydrate effectively. A stomach bug is going to dehydrate you anywhere but coupled with the additional sweating that you inevitably experience, it’s like a double whammy. I had already gone through a similar experience during our first visit to Bangkok when I came down with the infamous ‘tequila poisoning’. Whilst a 3-day hangover sounds like hilarious self-inflicted misfortune, what I experienced was an initial hangover that developed into major dehydration that I struggled to deal with. I’m slightly wiser to this now but it’s one to watch.
Leaving Bangkok
What could have possibly caused it? On reflection, I guess I did have a bit of a different week, and I also gave my digestive system more of a workout than usual.Bright and early on Monday, I did something that I was yet to do since arriving in Thailand, I left Bangkok. This was surprisingly easy to do traffic-wise as at that time in the morning people are heading in not out. And when I say people, I mean every man and his dog!
The day mainly consisted of touring warehouses & transport offices, meeting colleagues and generally trying to get my head around what it is I’m here to do. I’m still quite awkward with my greetings with Thai people. Basically, it’s not customary in Thailand to shake hands when you meet people although a lot of Thai’s have adapted to this more western method. The ‘wai’ is the normal Thai greeting which entails bringing your palms together in a prayer-like fashion and slightly bowing your head. The issue I have is that I never seem to have my hands free to bring them together, I’m always clasping a notebook, phone, water bottle etc. so I just end up flailing. I’m told just making an attempt is polite enough, but I feel my colleagues will probably expect to see some progress as the weeks go on.
Lunching Like a Thai
For lunch, the team at one of the sites took me to a local restaurant. As Chris mentioned in his guest blog, lunch is a big deal in Thailand and I doubt I will ever find anyone quickly eating a sandwich at their desk, even if we’re in a total crisis in the warehouse. We sat outside but in a covered area which is not something the high humidity had yet permitted in Bangkok. We were less than 100km away from central Bangkok, but it felt worlds apart. One of my colleagues was even wearing a hoodie!We ate in a traditional Thai style, like Spanish Tapas where you order a load of different dishes to share and take small amounts onto your plate and little soup bowl. The dishes all just turn up at random times, so you always want to leave room for what might be coming next! My colleagues were under strict instructions not to order anything boring and to branch out a bit. I guess that’s probably the reason I found myself eating a piece of deep-fried frog. This is somewhat ironic as on a nightly basis I spend time trying to save frogs from being eaten by Charles and Siale. That exercise hasn’t been going that well, to be honest, the other night I caught Siale munching on something that turned out to be the arm of a frog – I’m not sure where the rest of it was! And then on another night, Charles did get hold of one in his mouth which once released just lay there on the grass, legs splayed and motionless. I scooped it up and carefully placed it in the open trunk of a tree in the hope that frogs are creatures that use the tactic of playing dead when threatened to deter predators.
The deep-fried frog at lunch was a bit of a waste of time but everything else was delicious – various soups, meats, and vegetables in tasty, spicy sauces. Yummy!
Spicy By Nature?
Later that evening, Chris and I headed out for an Indian curry. I’d been told by my Dad’s friend Mike that I will eat the best curry I’ve ever tasted in Bangkok and this didn’t disappoint. We stayed local and went to a restaurant called ‘’Spicy by Nature. I’d been reluctant to visit this restaurant which will come as a shock to people who know I’m normally a spicy food fan. Since arriving in Thailand, I’d been finding that most dishes are spicy to an extent. If the menu does state that the dish is spicy or contains chilli, then it will probably blow your head off! Using this same logic, I’d concluded that a restaurant that proclaims itself to be ‘spicy by nature’ would have the same effect. Having subsequently learned that it was an Indian restaurant I’d decided we would be safe. Anyway, it was all delicious, the normal level of tasty spiciness and weirdly not greasy as a lot of Indian dishes can be.The Part-Time Tourist
Tuesday was a public holiday and since I had presented such a negative view of Chris’ patience for sightseeing he was determined to prove me wrong. We visited Wat Arun, The Temple of Dawn and I made my second visit to the Reclining Buddha which I was happy to do as it’s awesome. It was all going brilliantly, Chris was enjoying looking at the temples and statues, particularly Wat Arun which is quite breath-taking. We’d been on a rickety ferry across the river, had bought some cute ‘hear/see/speak no evil’ elephants and had picked up some mango sticky rice to keep us going.It then suddenly went downhill very quickly when we stumbled across a section of Wat Pho that had things to read and the first stages of the meltdown started to show. We made a swift exit and went in search of some lunch. As the meltdown had begun, just finding food was not going to cut it, we needed beer too. We arrived at a covered market area by the river and were immediately accosted by a woman waving a menu. ‘Food AND Beer’ we explained. ‘Awwwww Food AND Beer’ she responded and took Chris by the arm to lead us through the maze of vendors. If she kept saying ‘Food and Beer’ we were happy to follow.
She delivered us to a table and we were then left to fend for ourselves. We ordered a couple of Leo’s (Thai local beer) and perused the menu. There were pictures and the type of meat was specified in English which is generally enough for me to decide. I chose a seafood soup and rice. The man who took the order said ‘Spicy?’ and having decided I was over my short-term fear of spicy food I nodded. I had also had an epiphany on how to eat Thai food. I’d realised that my usual approach of going hell for leather spooning the food into my mouth was only going to leave me gasping and sweating. If I took smaller mouthfuls and ate a bit slower then it was all good. This tactic served me well and I survived the soup.
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