Street food

I have eaten quite a bit of street food since I have been here so how would you like a street tour? Just down the lane is an outdoor market. I have passed it almost everyday. These guys have a tank of live fish which are taken out and whacked on the head with a mallet, I think, skewered, then cooked whole on the grill to the right. You can ride up on your bike and select your dinner. Pretty simple operation. Not sure if the man there is the one who catches the fish. I have not been tempted to try this particular delicacy.


I have, however, bought fruit from the vendors next door.


To go food involves just pulling your scooter up and it's grab and go from there!


Here's a new fruit I tried called dragon fruit. I liked it just fine!



Kind of like a kiwi fruit inside.


Most of the fruits I do not recognize. I had no idea there were so many fruits I was unfamiliar with. Everything you see here is a fruit. The only ones I know are the grapes and coconuts. I have learned that the red ones are lychees.



This spiny brown fruit below is called a durian. See those yellow lumps in the picture above on the left? That is the flesh of the durian which, though it is known as the "king of fruits" and very popular, has a revolting smell and is banned from hotel rooms and public transportation. Sorry, I have not tried this either.





Why are some eggs brown, tan, and even pink? I think the tan ones are duck eggs and the brown ones from chickens. Now the pink ones seem to have their own story! I had to look this up on the internet, but it appears the pink ones are specially preserved by being packed in clay, ash, salt and quicklime. It think they are called century eggs and can be preserved for up to three months. But watch out! They are black on the inside! Yet another thing I did not eat. Andrew Zimmerman I am not.



Another interesting egg treatment I saw is called tea eggs. There are boiled eggs which have been gently cracked after boiling but not peeled, then boiled again in different types of tea. Then the egg is peeled it reveals a marbled surface with a spicy flavor, depending on the kind of tea. Interesting, huh?



Now if you don't have time for a fresh fish, there is a huge assortment of dried and salted fish and other critters available. See below.


Now you may be wondering, is this the stall where they sold the recycled poo? It sure looks like it. Our companion, who is from Chaing Mai, said it was tea (left) and hash (right). Really? Sorry! Not sure what they were selling here.


This particular market was huge and had lots more than just food.


Three stories tall!


After a hard day shopping we stopped in a little hole in the wall restaurant street side. All these little places use toilet tissue for napkins. They just set it on the table and everybody just pulls off what they need. Don't expect any TP in the restroom though.



This is an omelet stuffed with pad Thai. It was pretty good and was cheap to boot! In case you are wondering, I have not gotten sick yet. I just knocked on wood, FYI.


A lovely view as we ate. Monastery and temple across the street. There are over 300 temples in Chaing Mai. A church on every corner as we used to say in Abilene!


Boys spend time in monasteries as monk trainees as it is sometimes the only way to get an education. This kid looks like he is doing some studying.


They even had supplies for the temples at the market. Sorry so fuzzy!


Walking home we always pass people's laundry hanging out to dry by the street. They say you can get somebody to do your laundry for just a dollar but I would rather not have my underwear on display on the street. Backpackers are not so picky.



So, now you know about the streets around here!

Location:Chiang Mai

Thai times

In Chiang Mai they have a club for all the expats who reside here, of which there are many. One person told me there were ten thousand expats living here, but even for a city with a quarter million people, that seems high to me. The club has about 600 members according to the guy I was talking to. A new friend we met here at our guesthouse invited us to come to their meeting which is held once a month(? I think) at a nice hotel not too far from our place. So we went of course! It was held at this beautiful hotel.



It was very interesting to meet people who have made the decision to live here long term. They have lots of interest groups, charity benefits, and meet ups so the expats here seem to have lots to do. I think many people come here because the cost of living is very inexpensive and because the quality of the health care is supposed to be so good. That's all fine and good, but I did not meet too many grandmothers. It would be hard to be so far from your kids. The downside is that you don't see much of your family because it isn't cheap or convenient to fly here. Also, some of the expats don't have the funds to travel to see their family. That would be a huge negative to me. I would not retire here for that reason. Also the heat and the air pollution are awful. Just not worth it to live here long term.
Another problem is that there are mosquitos here which carry dengue fever. Overall however, aside from the random cockroach, there doesn't seem to be an excessive bug problem. I did spot this cool green moth that had a head resembling a snake and was about 3 to 4 inches long. I wish I had gotten a better photo as he was cool!


Here is an interesting succulent I saw on the street.


Now back to the expats! We met a German woman staying at our guest house who has been coming here for the winters for a few years. She invited us to meet for dinner with another expat lady who has been here three years and is a retired school librarian from Minnesota ? We had a lovely time with Christa and Jennifer at the Thai food buffet pictured below. The first pot is rice and all the rest are different Thai mixtures you put over the rice. It was so good and cheap ($3) we came here twice! The restaurant was in a quaint wooden building that had lots of character too.


I spotted this sign which gives you an idea about the prices for dental work here. The prices are in Thai baht. It takes about 30 baht to equal one dollar so $3,000 baht is about $100 USD. So, a root canal is $200 or less and a gold crown can be had for $500. Our friend has had some fairly intensive dental work done here and was very happy with it. I would have to work up my nerve and have a good recommendation before letting someone drill on me I think.


One last picture of a lovely ginger (?) I saw along side the road.


Just like anywhere, Thailand has the good and the not so good. The people are really, really nice, though, and that makes a lot of difference!

Location:Chiang Mai

Zingiberaceae

Just outside of Chiang Mai, a ways on up the mountain past the elephant camps, up where things are misty and cool, that's where I met up and fell in love with the zingiberaceae. Today was a rainy monsoon kind of day so we decided to explore the greenhouses of Queen Sirikit's Botanic Garden. We treated ourselves to a private driver in an air conditioned van,for a change. Leaving town the scenery is lovely, dense green forest with the occasional mountain stream cascading alongside the road.
The grand entrance to the gardens soon gives way to quiet winding roads, trails leading off into the woods to some hidden jewel of a view. Since it was so misty we did not get to explore all we would have liked and we were certainly longing to see what was just around the bend.




There's Barb with her umbrella not being stopped by a little rain!











This plant seemed to be hosting a colony of spiders judging from the number of webs!


Cup shaped webs catching the mists looked like little baskets of jewels (oh my! I'm waxing poetic today aren't I?). That could be a haiku!


Next we proceeded to the several glass houses featuring specialties like water lily



Orchids


Ferns





Just all kinds of plants arranged with water features and other decorative elements.


We cruised through several different houses. The variety was astounding.



Mom, this Dutchman's pipe reminded me of the ones you grew!





Bromeliads galore including this stump covered with Spanish moss.







The Zingiberaceae plants were varieties of ginger! Wow! They were amazing!


















This one is my favorite, the beehive ginger. You can't tell from the picture but the flowers are about a foot long and at least as big around as a cob of corn.






I got the picture below from google. It shows how the flower interacts with the butterflies. So cool!


If you can believe it, they even had two desert plant rooms.












A nice girl from Thailand took our picture.


Then it really started raining so we hightailed it up to the open air restaurant for some stir fry with a view.



We were so reluctant to leave because we had yet to see the glass house full of carnivorous plants (how could I have missed that! Argh!) and the museum and the trail to the waterfall, but alas, it was pouring rain by this time and we were getting soaked, even with our umbrellas. We may have to go back because it is a fantastic, stunning, beautiful place. Loved it!
By the way, bonus points to anybody who can pronounce Zingiberaceae!

Location:Chiang Mai