This is by no means a timeline, just a bunch of random things I thought worthy of passing along.
First of all, a few food-related items:
At least in Pattaya and Bangkok, these rolling fruit vendors are found everywhere. It's great! you can get fresh fruit (not to mention perfectly delicious) quite easily and for just a few baht. The pineapple is the best--seriously! If you think pineapple in the US is good....
There are many vendors like this rolling around as well. This is just one variety, but as you can see there are balls of mysterious meat (sometimes fish, other times pork, chicken, or beef) and dried squids for sale here. Naturally I don't fancy the fish balls, but the others are quite good. As for what I've come to call "Squid Jerky" (for it has a "jerky" texture), it tastes surprisingly like tuna, which is to say, not bad at all. But, like eating grasshoppers, I find it difficult to mentally get over what exactly it is that I'm putting in my mouth...
I find it's easiest to try new things by not knowing what they are. I'd say that about 30% of what I eat here from street vendors I have no clue as to what they are--and as such am able to chow down happily. Very few unidentified dishes have left me disappointed.
Above is a picture featuring dried tuna squares alongside a random noodle dish. This was taken at a birthday party that I'll talk about later. The tuna squares aren't bad, but it's kinda weird eating everything including the head and bone structure.
Coconut milk ice cream. Tastes great and doesn't come from a cow! The weird part is the selections of toppings you have to choose from. They're all equally bizarre... I ended up deciding on red beans and pumpkin shreds.
Zoom in to see: Lays potato chips (but they should be ruffles!!).
Flavor: "Double Cheese Pork Burger"
Tastes like a slightly modified (by adding a porkish flavor and a cheese flavor) BBQ chip.
Zoom in to see: Lays potato chips (this time rightfully Lays).
Flavor: "Nori Seaweed"
Tastes like a slightly modified (by somehow creating a seaweed aftertaste, if you can imagine such a thing) Sour Cream and Onion chip.
This is Lek. The point of the picture above? Most Thais put Ketchup on their pizza.
I was introduced to her by a friend I made in Pattaya. She lives in Bangkok and let me stay at her place rent free for a few days while I got my visas together for Cambodia and Vietnam. Very nice girl, and like the Thais I've met so far, very trusting as well. After one meeting she somehow knew me well enough to trust that I wouldn't kill her in her sleep. Such hospitality and trust is shocking coming from America where such an invitation would never be extended towards a stranger.
She's 28 and is considered to be relatively "upper class," however all she has to show for it is nice clothing and a cell phone. I suppose her place is nice by Thai standards, but it merely a 1 room apartment whereas her bathroom sink serves as her kitchen sink and she cooks on the floor.
To afford this, she works 7 days a week, typically 10 hours a day. She works two jobs, one is transcribing sales orders from handwritten versions to typed copies (via typewriter) and the other is running a shop selling men's clothing.
Living with her for a bit was a great as she invited me to go out with her friends a few times and I got to see a bit of Thailand's nightlife from the local side.
Oh yea, and she did my laundry for me :)
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Below are a few random things:
"Gay cut Pro"
Had to get a picture of it. Need I say more?
#7. No comment necessary.
There are several buildings like this around Bangkok. This is the biggest I think. Basically, about 30 years ago the company who started building it ran out of money and just left it there to deteriorate, half-finished. A pity, really... it overlooks the river and is architecturally different than any other building I saw in Bangkok.
Similarly found in Bangkok are countless remnants of a large highway project left all over the place. They're basically the pillar chains that would have supported a highway. Like in the case above, the company backing the project ran out of money and simply left the half-completed structures as concrete eye-sores.
Just thought I'd share this because you don't see it back home. PlayStation's turned into arcade machines.
The only reason Fanta is still in business. Somehow, somehow, it was decided that Buddha likes the flavor of the Red variety of Fanta. So you see these everywhere as offerings to him. An opened red Fanta with a straw in it for him to drink. I have no idea how long they leave it there before replacing it... but the idea to me is just silly =P
These are some friends I made in Pattaya. There are a couple who aren't in this photo, but an unfortunate turn of events with a virus resulted in me losing most of what was on my thumb drive, including the better pictures from this night.
In all, probably 5 19-year-old Thai girls adopted me for a couple nights and took me around town. Being the foreigner with the sexy accent that I am, they all could not get enough pictures with me.
The strange thing about them is that, while 19, their maturity level (all of them) seems to be that of an American 12- or 13-year-olds. Yes, it felt strangely like hanging out with Kara and a bunch of her friends...
Also a member of this group of friends is Noon: the ladyboy. A really cool guy, he helped me many times get from place to place as he has a motorbike and, apparently, no life to do anything but haul a farang around =P
In Trat I was invited to this Lady's birthday party. She turned 50. She's the wife of the guy on the right, who owns the Guesthouse I stayed in.
The party ended up mostly with me and her 3 brothers (featured above) getting drunk off many bottles of whisky together watching soccer (an indoor Thai vs. Italy game) and chatting. They all got a great laugh out of my name, as they quickly turned into "Scott Whiskey." A fun night indeed, and didn't cost me a dime =D
A drunk Scott eating one of the spiciest things I've ever had. It was a deer curry, but cooked for locals... so you can imagine the spicyness... They enjoyed watching me eat it and then guzzle my drink.
I took a stroll around the city of Trat and walked by several schools, one of which featured above. I hope it was just a coincidence, but over the course of a 2-3 hour walk around the town, passing several schools, none of them sounded like there was any teaching going on! All I heard were children being loud and obnoxious.
In the picture above some in a classroom spotted me walking by and started yelling after me, so I took a picture of them waving at me :)
Well... that's all I'll go into for now. Heading to Cambodia tomorrow, so I'll see y'all on the other side!!!
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