And now you've buttered your bread

I'm still learning how to use the camera on my mobile phone (yes, I now have a mobile phone, the first one I've ever had), so I apologize for the picture quality - I think I didn't focus correctly.

The English says "Do NOT Put Butter Before Baking".  Now, I don't read Thai, but my best guess is it says "The English on this label tells silly foreigners to not butter their bread before putting it in the toaster.  Thank you for your time".

Silly foreigners.  I wish I could say I've never buttered bread before putting it into the toaster, but if the shoe fits...

The doctor is: IN

Do you need more spicy snack foods in your life?  Do you require the maximum crunch that your baht can buy, do you crave the most extreme flavor sensation that can be experienced?  Well you're in luck - 'cause the doctor is in the house!

Dr. Taco, that is.

I have no idea if the Thai display next to this guy actually says all that, but I imagine that it does.  I will say, though, that Dr. Taco is a fabulous name for a snack food.  Also I like the fact that Dr. Taco advertises at SkyTrain stops - because Dr. Taco has places to go, and he doesn't want to wait in traffic.

Richard Simmons eat your heart out

Saw folks doing aerobics in the Tesco parking lot the other night on the way back from work.  More power to them - and in this heat, I had to say, better them than me.  

And the winner is...

Took this picture from a BTS stop - it was overlooking a beer garden in a local market.  You can see from the tables, that Heineken is the choice of people who drink pricey brews in Thailand and want to be served their beer by women dressed in beer logos, followed by Singha beer, and then some German beer that no one has ever heard of and that I've never tried (which is why obviously no one has ever heard of it).

I wonder if as the market share changes, so change the tablecloths?  

Wat Benchamabophit

This temple is famous for being made of marble, but the main building was undergoing renovation, so we took pictures of part of the Chinese-style garden on the temple grounds.  It was a hot day, so it was pleasant to sit by the little canal and watch the world go by.

Thai street food

I may have just found my calling in life.  I got the book "Thai Hawker Food", which outlines in fine detail (and with beautiful illustrations) all the different foods one can get on the streets of Bangkok.  Noodles?  Check.  Various meats of various parts of various animals?  Check.  Spicy deep fried grasshoppers?  Check.

One could spend a while trying to track down every single food in the book.  In fact, I just might.  My stomach feels like it just won the lottery.

This sign may cause a trouble

I absolutely adore the idea that jumping may cause a trouble.  There is no better advice, period.  Also, it's good advice when you're riding in an elevator in Bangkok.

Stinky fish and fresh veggies

More market pictures - one stand had some wonderful vegetables, but it was hard to concentrate, because the stall across the way was selling fish.  Not sure what the idea was, but each tray held a couple fish, and they were very - fragrant.  Perhaps they were drying the fish?  We've seen some stalls doing that, but they didn't seem to be selling the fish that weren't dry.  This stall did.  They were doing good business, but we weren't buying.

A helpful sign

Strictly!  That's very helpful - if that's not what you're looking for (we never are), then you know it's ok to go here.  Most signs aren't so specific.  

We want to feel 'glowy', but not that 'glowy', you know?

A puzzling sign

This sign had me thinking for a moment.  I don't think it's technically incorrect to cut up cleaning at that point, but you'd never see it done like this in the States.  Why is that?  

Dehydrated squid

We went to a noodle shop the other day that had a jar of squid on the table in front of it. Sam clarified that it was dehydrated squid that they were rehydrating. It looked like a science experiment, but tasted quite good - a consistency sort of like beef tendon (spongy).

Train station

We saw the train station the other day - it looked pretty much the same as it did 12 years ago when we were last in Bangkok.  They've added a subway stop at the corner of the station, but walking through it felt the same, and brought back memories of preparing for our train to Surat Thani.  It was so romantic taking a train through the Thai countryside - we took an evening train, so we slept in our compartment as the train gently rocked back and forth and clacked rhymically.  I remember waking up in the middle of the night when we had stopped for a time, and looking out the window at the stars in the sky.  I had never seen so many stars - there was no light pollution from any neighboring towns.  I also remember eating breakfast on the train the next morning as we went past rice paddies - beautiful.  

We might have to take a train to somewhere in Thailand at some point.

Wat Traimit

There's a temple near the entrance to Chinatown in Bangkok called Wat Traimit.  We hunted it down 12 years ago, and it looked like this.

Nowadays, it looks a bit fancier - here's what it looks like now.

Since it houses a 5.5 ton solid 18 carat gold Buddha, it probably makes sense that it has a fancier temple to hold it these days.  I didn't recognize the new temple this time around until I looked it up.

Cactus

Saw these cactus, and a whole lot of other houseplants, in a plant market on the way to Wat Benchamabophit.  A lot of the plants we saw are quite hard to come by (and rather expensive) in the States - here they're not only easy to obtain and cheap, but they are much easier to grow as well.  Plants grow really well with all the sun and humidity in Bangkok.

Valentine's day burgers

An ad for Valentine's day meals at McDonald's.  What a great place to take your loved one.  Because nothing quite says I love you like french fries.

Valentine's day chicken

An ad for KFC showing some set meals for you and your loved one.  What a great Valentine's day meal!  Because nothing quite says I love you like fried chicken.

More good eats

More good eats from the market - fresh, live frogs!  And eels!

The frogs were pretty mellow, but the eels were a lot of fun - they didn't seem to be very happy with their lot in life, and were very much trying to get somewhere else.  A slithery time was had by all.

KoreaTown in Bangkok

So we went to KoreaTown the other day, and, as you might guess from the content of most of the posts on our blog, we were going there to eat.  And eat we did.  Korean food was the order of the day, and it was delicious.  We had some bim bim bap, as is our wont when we are in Korean restaurants.  And we also had their wonderful little appetizer platters, and some kim chee soup.  Someday we will get to Korea, but until then, this will do.

Very cool, and yet another way in which Bangkok is pleasantly cosmopolitan.

Some Chinese food

We went to a Chinese restaurant at a local mall - they had delicious seafood.  The first dish pictured is deep fried squid - it was juicy and had a nice crust from the deep frying.  The second dish was deep fried fish chunks in a chili pepper mix - the especially nice thing about that dish was how the chili peppers had become crispy, and they weren't too hot to eat, as their oil had already permeated the rest of the dish.  Eating those crispy chili peppers looked and felt like eating crab shells, except in an edible way, if that makes sense.

Where I work now - part III

And now... perks.

If the view wasn't enough, here are some perks of the office:

-free fruit (here, you can see some baby bananas - I once read that all bananas in the world were cloned from the same plant, but here are some small bananas, not plantains, but ripe and sweet, and still small.  go figure)

-free ice cream -- yes, believe it.  ice cream.  at any time.  sweeeet.

-maids - not a perk, really - but maids are so common here, it seemed noteworthy - here you can see the part of the office reserved for maids and messengers.  it's strange to put dishes in the kitchen for the maids to clean, for instance, instead of cleaning them yourself.  i still clean them myself - guess i haven't acclimated yet.

Where I work now - part II

In today's installment - my desk, and my view.

My desk - simple, corporate, but effective.  All I really need is an outlet to plug in my laptop, and a phone.  For an IT knowledge worker, a computer an a phone is all that's really needed to change the world.

Or so I read on a fortune cookie once.

Where I work now - part I

My office moved from the hospital offices to the sales office.  Here are the buildings I'm in now.  They're rather swanky.

Inexplicable tubes

Strange tube protrude from the sidewalk on which I walk to work.  No explanation - just plastic tubes popping right out of the concrete.  There is a large construction side next to the sidewalk, but still - what possible reason could the tubes have?

To release some sort of gas?  To use later to connect the site to the water mains?  Or... perhaps... if you pump in enough air through those tubes, will something emerge from the construction site -- perhaps.. VOLTRON?

The day that VOLTRON flies out of downtown Bangkok, there will be at least one person who is not surprised in the least.

The folks that build the buildings

We saw some folks on the back of a pickup the other day - they were on the way to work at a nearby construction site.  In less than a month, those folks have built 15 or 20 floors of a high rise across the street, working most of the day and night.  Almost exactly how it works in the US, except perhaps the ethnicity of the construction workers.

Take a good look - these are the folks that build much of the world you live in.

Sale on - massage!

Massage on sale - get it while it's hot!

Weekdays only, but massage is needed those days, too.

We might just have to take advantage.

(currently, 35 baht ~1 USD)

Walking to work

Walking from our temporary housing to work involves walking down a tight alley.  Sam took a picture of me one morning to show how it's done - basically, hug the wall and hope you don't get sideswiped by a passing vehicle.

And no, that is not a bald spot :) 

[ok, maybe it is...]

Cold is a relative thing

A week or two ago Thailand and Bangkok went through what for locals was quite a cold snap.  The temperature got down to 3 Celsius (~35 Fahrenheit) in parts of the country.  Locals put on jackets and warm clothes - you can see some folks here sitting next to a fire to ward off the cold.

From what I heard, Minnesota and Wisconsin got a bit colder than 3 Celsius recently.

Eat Like an Egyptian

We went to an Egyptian restaurant the other day with our new friends Ben and Megan.  The whole restaurant looked like it was made of mirrors - all polished metal and reflected lights.  The menu was enormous, and the food delicious.

See if you can figure out which of the meats pictured are the lamb testicles (which were also delicious).

Speaking of lamb - the two skinned animals hanging in the display case on the street - yup, those are Mary's friend too.  It was a good night for us, and a bad night to be a sheep.