Chiang Mai

Thai Cooking School

Posted on by Laughingnomad

At the Smile Guesthouse I attend cooking school. A Dutch couple and a German girl and I each have our own “station” with a wok sitting on a gas burner. O (pronounced O?…the voice rising up at the end) teaches us “New Thai” cooking style that is an attempt to limit the amount of calories and fat in the food. Coconut milk, common to all curries and many other dishes, is normally high in fat but in new style it is diluted by half with water flavored with dried mushrooms. Girls now limit the amount of rice and noodles in their diets…not eaten every day but considered a treat. No wonder the Thai girls have such flat tummies!
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For curries a little coconut milk is mixed with water in a wok. Prepared curry paste bought at the market is mixed with the water and milk and “fried” until it becomes dry. I make a “mistake” and try to mash the curry with my wok utensil…ending up with it all stuck on the back of the spatula instead of in the liquid! Everything is done precisely…the spatula is turned upside down and the paste is “chopped” and stirred into the water. More water is added until you have the right amount and consistency for a sauce. Then the chopped chicken, pork or beef or tofu is added (never fried ahead of time) along with strong tiny unpeeled garlic cloves, onions, a couple teaspoons of fish sauce, a little lime juice and half a teaspoon of sugar. Holy basil leaves are added last. For Tom Kha Gai soup, the coconut milk is never boiled because boiling separates from the fat from the “milk” and makes the soup look and taste greasy.

In the all-day class, we prepared six dishes…three curries, fish steamed in a banana leaf, (not my favorite) Tom Kha Gai (chicken in coconut milk soup and papaya salad. If green papya cannot be found you can fix it with shredded carrots…carrots and papaya taste the same we are told. We were supposed to eat it all afterward but of course it was much too much food for one meal. My left-overs are in my refrigerator in my room waiting for me to figure out how to reheat it for dinner tonight.

I leave for Lao soon.

Tha Ton Thailand

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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Supuat drove me to Tha Tan…right on the Thai-Burma border directly north of Chiang Mai to see several minority groups, Lisu, Lahu, Akha and Longnecks, that live there.

Last year in southern Yunnan China, I visited Lahu, Lisu and Mien mountain people many of whom had migrated into Thailand years ago. The Karen and Shan and Longneck people in and near Tha Ton have been forced out of Burma by the junta who took over the Burmese government in the early 90’s. They do not speak Thai and they have their own languages, but Supoat, my guide, being from the area, speaks the local Chiang Rai dialect that is common to all the people.

About seven years ago Thailand launched a program to pave the roads into the mountains, so instead of trekking dirt trails we are able to drive into the villages. We visit the Lahu first.

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Akha Woman

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The Longnecks are refugees from Burma and do not have Thai citizenship so they are confined to small areas where the women weave items in small thatched shelters to sell to the tourists and the men grow rice on the mountainsides. The Longnecks wear gold-colored metal coils around their necks that actually does not elongate the neck but they look long because over time the shoulders slope down. I buy some lovely woven scarves for $1 each.

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My driver with two smiling Longneck girls.

The last village is Lisu. We park in the schoolyard. Supoat knows the family we visit. The yard, with children, pigs and chicken running free is well-swept.

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I notice a chubby woman sitting in a nearby chair…looking miserable. Questioning her we decide she is passing a gallstone. Her husband is out looking for their pig he can butcher to sell to their neighbors so he can have money to take her to the doctor in Chiang Mai. I commiserate with her…I know how painful gallstones are. She kindly invites me to stay and eat with the family but Supoat carefully refuses…we don’t want to trouble the family at this time and we need to be on our way back to Chiang Mai.

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Slicing Palm for cooking

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Leaving the village we pass under a colorful arch…past small piles of old clothing that used to belong to villagers who have passed on. The clothes are there for spirits who might need them when they come back, I ask. Yes, he says. In the background you can see smoke from “slash & burn” fires that take place this time of year when the locals burn harvested fields.

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Breakfast at Smile Guesthouse

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I have changed hotels. I am now at the brand new Bau-Tong Lodge with free WiFi that is down little soi 3 off Loi Kroh…for half the cost of the Galare Guesthouse where I was for the last three weeks.

The Smile Guesthouse, a few yards up the street from my hotel offers an all-you-can-eat American breakfast each morning for $2. Most of the diners are older male westerners who live here…except for “Sharkie,” a long-haired 22 year old from South Carolina that fights fires near Eugene Oregon. He has lived in Mexico and gives me good information. Some of them tell me their personal stories. Yesterday I had a long conversation with a nuclear physicist from California who is retired from a career with GE.

Today I breakfasted with a soft-spoken well-traveled gentleman from New Zealand. We trade travel tips and I try to help him with the Bangkok Post crossword puzzle. Next to our table is a German and an American who have a very opinionated debate about current Thai politics…each contradicting the other…neither listening to the other. Except for the 75 year old New Zealander, these men are all here for the Thai girls of course who treat them like gods. I sense a thread of commonality among them…emotionally very shallow and insecure…defensive…incapable of deep abiding commitment. And I wonder how they feel, or if they feel anything, about depriving their grandchildren of their presence…their love.

I tell Supoat, my tuk tuk driver, about my aquaintences at The Smile. He launches into an emotional and heartfelt tirade against prostitution in Thailand. “They all want farangs with an ATM card,” he says, “to get their money.” Yesterday he kicked one of them out of his tuk tuk, he said. “The farangs give nothing back to my country,” he says…his eyes flashing in anger. “They are ruining Thailand, his voice rising! Our men are very poor and cannot offer the young girls a life. I look at all the tuk tuk drivers and feel so sorry for them…they need help. I wish I could do something to help them. I am losing my heart,” he says…his eyes watering. I tell him I am losing my heart too.

Northern Style Thai Massage

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This last week I found a very small, unassuming massage shop…very simple understated Thai Lanna-style salon with rough dark stained wood…a couple couches draped with yellow ochre and red umber raw silk cloth. Branches of pussy willow fill a huge rough dark brown ceramic vase in the corner along with various other Thai decorative pieces. I am very comfortable here. The lively and gracious salon owner, Ratchanida Bhuranabhan, brings a pan with slices of lime floating in the cool water. My feet are washed and toweled while I drink a cup of strong sweet ginger tea…good for me she says.

On my back, my masseuse pushes my legs down into the thin mat with her knees…slowly working to get my right knee to reach a full extension that has been limited for years from a car accident. Pinn, about 50, is small but strong. She is very popular around town and works freelance, including working with nerve damaged patients at the local University Hospital. Elbows between tendons and muscles, between muscles and bone. Standing, she lifts my leg straight up, and is just tall enough to push down on my toes with one hand and plant her elbow into the bottom of my foot…Oy! Oy! Then, holding my foot she pulls back on my knee and leg with her other hand. Squatting, she lifts my leg over her legs and rolls her forearms back and forth over the muscles in my tibia and femur. Oy! She squeezes muscle…thumbs pressing deeply and then sliding slowly forward…stretching the fascia covering the muscle. She finds the points of attachment of tendons, ligaments and muscles and plunges her thumbs into the crannies while I grimace and groan…she watches my face…she can tell exactly when to let up. She laughs. I laugh. Over the years, favoring my right leg and knee the muscles, ligaments and tendons have atrophied and tightened which in turn has been pulling on the muscles in my lower back causing considerable pain when I walk. She sits down at my feet, facing me, grabs ahold of my foot and pulls while she pushes her foot into the inside of my legs at short intervals all the way up to my groin. She opens my legs, pushing one leg into a bend and pushes my bent upper leg and knee into the mat with her knee…I feel like I am doing the splits. She turns me on my side and with her thumbs works her way into the inserts of my butt and hip muscles…then on my stomach she finds muscles in my back I never knew I had. Still on my stomach she sits, with her back to me, on the backs of my upper legs and pulls my legs up one at a time as far as they will go. OY! My back, my back! Then she kneels on my back and works her way up and down my back with her knees. She turns over on her back and rocks back and forth with her butt bones massaging my lower back. And on it goes for two hours, very effortless, slow, very gentle and deliberate movements…Ok? Ok? she keeps asking. Mai pen rai, I gasp! I get to endure this for about $7. I give her a hefty tip. After almost a week of this I am almost a new woman. Today she suggests I take a couple days off to heal before resuming again on Tuesday Not all Thai massage therapists work this way. Most farangs just want a nice light relaxing massage so you have to ask for “very strong.” I tell her she is my angel and she beams. I am walking on air…pain free.

Highly recommended:
Baan Sanae Chan Salon
on Charoen Prathet near the Governor’s House
(053)28092 for appointment
R_bhuranabhan@hotmail.com

Chiang Mai Felt Like Home?

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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Have been here three weeks and Chiang Mai did feel like home for awhile…just long enough to get oriented and find the good places to eat. I spent all afternoon today in my room researching Mexico on the web and then decided to go out for supper. For about 10 seconds I was completely disoriented…sights, sounds, smells…all different than what was in my head…and added to that was the haze in the air that obscured the sight of anything more than 600 yards ahead. “Slash and burn,” Lonely Planet says. Reminded me of Springfield Oregon in the fall when farmers burn their seed fields.

For excellent western food go to The Duke’s on the other side of the river from Old Town. Tender and mild white fish stuffed with lump crab with mashed potatoes on the side. Well, it came with rice but I asked for mashed potatoes instead. And apple pie for dessert…a nice break from noodle soup! I am “im” (sp?) meaning “stuffed.” I said “arroy” (delicious) to the young waiter who looked at me like I was nuts. He had on a black t-shirt and really baggy pants. Oops, I thought…I had assumed he was a Thai or at least that he spoke Thai. Or maybe he just didn’t understand my Thai such as it is.

It’s interesting to travel alone. The other day I was having breakfast in a lovely outdoor garden setting and a 78 (looked 65) year old Dane joined me…spent an hour or so telling me his life story (Denmark seems to be considerably homophobic) and then recounted his many gay sexual exploits during his seven years in Thailand…more than I wanted to know.

A couple days later in the same restaurant I was approached by an older Brit…13 years here…who had walked the entire length of Thailand. Kind of dinggy but likable. http://www.youmetdennis.com They were both fluent in Thai and I got the feeling they didn’t often talk to English-speakers. Dennis asked me to post the words of His Majesty the King…which I did in my last blog entry. He loves the King. “It’ll rock the world,” he exclaimed. I just looked at him wondering how long it had been since he had been in Europe…or the States!

Diamond Jubilee Of His Majesty

Posted on by Laughingnomad

His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand will celebrate his Diamond Jubilee in Bangkok in June 2006.

The King of Thailand is one of the most highly respected spiritual leaders in the world in the last half century. In December 2000, in the Thai Airways Kinnaree Magazine, writer Khun Amporn Samasor recounted the king’s words to the U.S. Congress while on a seven month visit to 31 foreign nations.

“On June 29 1960, His Majesty addressed the Congress of the United States, saying, in part: Firstly, I have long desired to see and learn more of your country. When I hear of intolerance and oppression in so many parts of the world, I want to know how, in this country, millions of people differing in race, traditions and beliefs, can live together freely and harmoniously. How these millions, scattered over a large territory, can agree upon major issues in the complicated affairs of this world. How, in short, they can tolerate each other at all.

Secondly, I wish to bring to you, in person, the greetings and goodwill of my own people. Although Americans and Thais live on opposite sides of the globe there is one thing in common – their love of freedom. Indeed, the word �Thai� actually means free. The kind reception l am enjoying in this country enables me to take back to my people your friendship and goodwill. Friendship, of one government for another, is an important thing. But, friendship of one people for another assuredly guarantees peace and progress.

Thirdly, I have the natural, human desire to see my birthplace. I expect some of you here were also born in Boston or, like my father, were educated at Harvard, hasten to congratulate such fortunate people. I am sure they are with me in spirit. We share a sentiment of deep pride in the academic and cultural achievements of that wonderful city.�

His Majesty then touched on American aid for Thailand, saying: American assistance is to enable Thai people to achieve their objectives through their own efforts. I need hardly say that this concept has our complete endorsement. Indeed, there is a precept of the Lord Buddha that says �Thou art thine own refuge.� We are grateful for American aid, but we intend, one day, to do without it.

This leads me to a question in which some of you may be interested which is: What do we Thais think of United States cooperation? I shall try to explain my view as briefly as I can. “In my country, there is one widely accepted concept: that of family obligations.The members of a family, in the larger sense, are expected to help one another whenever there is need for assistance. Giving of aid is merit in itself: the giver does not expect to hear others singing his praises every day; nor does he expect anything in return. The receiver is nevertheless grateful. He too, in his turn, will carry out his obligations.”

In giving generous assistance to foreign countries, the United States is, through my Thai eyes, applying the old concept of family obligations on the larger scale. The nations of the world are learning that they are but members of one big family; that they have obligations to one another; that they are closely interdependent. It may take a long time to learn this lesson but, when it has been truly learnt, the prospects of world peace will become brighter.

His Majesty went on to remind U.S. Congressmen of the smooth relationships enjoyed by both Thais and Americans from the early years of the United States of America�s nationhood.

“Some of you may recall that my great-grandfather, King Mongkut, was in communication with President Buchanan during the years from 1859 to 1861 – 100 years ago. �President Buchanan sent him a letter dated May 10, 1859, with a consignment of books in 192 volumes. The king was very pleased with the books and, in a letter dated February 14, 1861, sent certain presents in return as gifts to the American people and an offer that became historic.
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Our two countries have had the best of relationships. They started with the coming of your missionaries who shared with our people the benefits of modern medicine and the knowledge of modern science. This soon led to official relations and to a treaty between the two nations. That treaty dates back to 1833.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit were also in New York City where they were given a traditional parade and ticker-tape welcome. On July 5, 1960 His Majesty made a private visit to the apartment of Benny Goodman and got into a jazz session with Goodman, Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson, Urbie Green, Jonah Jones and Red Norvo. These jazz legends called His Majesty a cool cat and said that he could join their bands if ever he needed a job!

Their Majesties went on to visit the King�s birthplace at Mount Auburn Hospital, and met Dr. Stewart Whittemore who delivered him into the world. His Majesty was presented with a gold-worked, leather- bound book, which contained a certified copy of his birth certificate signed by Dr. Whittemore. The King also met the four nurses who cared for him at birth.
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They arrived back home on January 18, 1961 to a tumultuous welcome from the Thai people. Their return remains a momentous event in the life of the nation.”
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Forty years ago King Bhumibol Adulyadej gave the United States much to live up to. Would he be able to give the same speech to Congress today?

Elephants Monkeys & Snakes

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A day trip north took me to an elephant training camp, monkey training school where they learn to twist off the coconuts and let them drop from the trees.

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The snake show I could have done without. “Please do me a favor,” the driver says on the way home. He stops at five different shops and factories including the Orchid Farm and Butterfly Garden so he can get a coupon for gas. The Indian shops give two coupons. But who wants to buy overpriced Indian stuff in Thailand? This has happened to before so I should have known better. Exhausted, I draw the line at the last one. Never again. At least I didn’t let them pressure me into buying anything.

Market-Going

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Tired of the Night Market for tourists, this week I walked to the Warorot Day Market…a market for the local Thais. DSC00445.JPG
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I bought delicious garlic flavored BBQ chicken for lunch with custard filled squash for dessert. Then crossing the footbridge over the Mae Ping River I walked back past upscale craft and fabric shops stopping for a mixed fruit shake at the Riverside Bar & Restaurant. There is supposed to be great live music there at night but I feel weird going by myself so I don’t.

“Letters From Thailand”

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“Letters From Thailand” is a lovely novel wrtten in 1969 by “Botan”, a pseudonym of the Chinese-born Thai female writer, Supa Sirisingh, and recently translated into English by Susan Fulop Kepner, an academic on Southeast Asian studies from UCLA.

The book is written in the form of self-revealing letters to the beloved mother of a young man who leaves rural China to make his fortune in Thailand at the close of World War II. In Tan Suang U’s starkly honest account of his daily life in Bangkok’s bustling Chinatown, deeper themes emerge: his determination to succeed at business before all else; his hopes for his children in this strange new culture that sickens him by what he sees as it’s drunkeness, laziness, gambling and sexual depravity and his resentment at how easily his children embrace urban Thai culture that is becoming increasingly Westernized at the expense of their Chinese heritage that he holds dear.

Westerners will recognize the cross-cultural themes that emerge… the desire to hold on to cultural heritage in the midst of an alien land, the stereotypes that keep groups separated one from another and the struggle of oppressed women to transcend their own culture and live life on their own terms.

“Not to eat another man’s rice but to hate him” is something to be ashamed of, Suang U learns. “I was of the opinion that a good heart was not money in the bank,” Suang U says toward the end of the book. But he learns that “two baht worth of rice with love at the supper table is a feast.” Finally, a lonely old man, after he has passed his business on to the ungrateful son that he himself mentored, he discovers that “to be alone is terrible, but it is not so terrible as to be a guest in a son’s house.”

The strongest survival instinct is self deception. After a long sorrowful road to self-discovery he is astounded to learn two things: one is that money is not the most important thing in life; the other is that what we believe does not necessarily reflect what and who we are.

“Letters From Thailand”
1969 by Supa Sirisingh
Susan F. Kepner English Translation 2002
Silkworm Books Chiang Mai
http://www.silkwormbooks.info