Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The cat spirit


You see a lot of spirit houses around town - better to have the spirits living there than in, say, your living room.  And they provide an easy way to make offerings and reward them for their help.

It would probably be a breach of protocol for a human to sleep on a spirit house, but this cat likes to make this one its bed (on a regular basis, I'm told).  Perhaps it worked out a deal with the spirits?

The cat would like everyone to know that the spirits are feeling like offerings of milk and tuna today.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Old school fish vendor


This lady was selling fish that had been freshly chopped.  You could buy heads without the bodies, bodies without the heads, and fillets.  My guess is this method of selling fish has been around in this town for quite some time.  Old school.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Breakfast in a leaf



Grabbed some roasted sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf the other day from a street vendor - an excellent breakfast!  It was flavored with something sweet - taro, I think.  Delicious!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Vietnamese gum and happy hands



Just 7000 dong - dare I take the plunge?  I did - it's excellent gum!  I should stock up.

I guess 'happy' sells - who wouldn't want happy teeth, and happy hands?

Friday, June 26, 2009

Ho Chi Minh food and drink





A few shots of food and drink of various sorts in Ho Chi Minh City.

Bird's Nest canned drink (economical!), pork (like spam but flavored with citrus and other tasty seasonings) wrapped in banana leaves at the grocery store, some food choices at the grocery store food court, La Rue beer at a restaurant.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Saigon at night





Ho Chi Minh City is quite beautiful at night when it's all lit up, and you can see the boats flashing their way up and down the river. Flying into Ho Chi Minh after dark is breathtaking.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Street food exhibit in Bangkok




I swear, there was actually a street food exhibit at one of the local malls in Bangkok. If someone had described my final resting place, it would have perhaps been this exhibit.

It had movies of street food around Thailand (while watching which, I was, alas, extremely hungry). It had lots of displays set up about the machinery around the delivery of street food (it was sponsored by a design organization). And it also made my mouth water.

Here you see part of the exhibit, part of the movies of food you wish you were eating at that moment, and part of the squid machinery to press the squid into something you would buy on the street. Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Love bread


Taken in a Japanese part of town - the cows love the bread sold there?

I won't pretend to understand, but the receiving cow looks pretty happy about the whole experience.

Monday, June 22, 2009

And the cars go marching on


Being fervent public transit riders, it's somewhat hard to relate. Many Bangkokians use taxis or cars on a regular basis, but we really don't. So scenes like this are more eye candy than reality. But note the stop-and-go traffic, and the concrete elevated SkyTrain rising above. The cars you see are mostly stopped.

You couldn't pay me to own a car in Bangkok.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Bite that cheese


An ad for a new Pizza Hut pizza to do with deep fried cheese edges to pizzas.

I must say - there are no cheese curds (deep fried or fresh) in the world outside of the midwest United States. Finding this out was like finding out that there was no spoken or written language outside of the midwest US. I guess I just always assume that civilized peoples had cheese curds and their derivatives.

So it's good to see Pizza Hut pioneering this concept around the world - melted cheese must be brought to the rest of humanity!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Losing at Frogger


This frog tried to cross the street, but did not make it. Game over.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Mango Tango


A Japanese mango vendor in a fancy local mall. Their mango smoothies are the bomb. And I must say the saying about having a smell 'like sunshine is coming here' is terribly poetic.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Snacks - with an approval number


There wasn't actually a whole fish in this pack, but close; at least, much closer than the snacks I've eaten before.

I just like that there's an approval number for the snack. I suppose if you have a complaint about your snack, you then have a number with which to get - satisfaction?

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Just one more



Here's Sam trying her hand at the darts-to-pop-balloons game at the local fair.  The rules are the same as in the States - you purchase x number of darts, and you must pop x balloons for a large prize, but you always seem to pop x-1 balloons or less.  And if you pop x darts, then maybe the carney (are they called that in Thailand?  they certainly have more teeth than US carnies I've dealt with - is there a different name for them here?  perhaps the Thai word for 'tooth' combined with 'carney'?) didn't quite see it all.  Or maybe a previously-unseen bag suddenly appears, and it turns out that you just won one small toy, and must now win 3 small toys which can be traded in for 3 medium toys which can then be traded for 3 large toys that you can then trade for 1 of the jumbo toys that you have your eye on.

Anyhow, Sam popped x-1 balloons, and won a previously unseen small toy.  I believe she let the nice tooth-endowed carnie keep the small toy.  I think that puts him one closer to the medium toy, but he looked surprisingly nonplussed.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

An ice-cream-eatin'-grin


Here is Sam with an ice-cream-eatin'-grin getting ready to... eat some Swensen's ice cream.

I'm not sure who's happier - Sam who's about to eat the ice cream, or all of us, who get to see Sam so happy to be about to eat the ice cream. 

kudos once more to 'Chelle for a perfectly posed picture

Monday, June 15, 2009

Love milk


You know, milk flavored with various fruits, served with love:  love milk.

Kudos to 'Chelle for taking this excellent picture while her and Matt were here - it would have been wholly inappropriate for just one of us to pose in front of the love milk sign, or for us to ask a perfect stranger to take a picture of us in front of the love milk sign.  Because who asks a stranger to take a picture of a married couple posing in front of a love milk sign?

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Prices at the fancy beer garden


So here I am playing Vanna White to one of the local beer gardens' price list.  This is a fancy beer garden, next to a BTS stop, in a crowded night market, with a regular expatriate and professional class crowd, and the beer is brought to you by folks dressed in logo wear for the beer brands (lots of official signage in this place).    Everything considered, those are some very reasonable prices.

And I've still never tried Federbrau.

kudos to 'Chelle for catching me in perfect display of beer prices pose.
  

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Asking nicely


This is probably the nicest anti-smoking sign I've seen.  There's a (minor) spelling mistake, but I appreciate that anyone is trying to communicate with English speakers here, so I've got no problem with a mistake here or there.  What strikes me is the 'nice' qualification to request for cooperation - I think that sort of politeness and friendliness is something particularly Thai.  

Anyhow, I've never lived anywhere before where someone asking me to obey the rules was actually this nice about it.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Som tam


Shredded papaya salad (som tam) is some great stuff.  It's also prepared somewhat differently depending on which restaurant you're at, so we enjoy trying it at different local places we go to.  

Generally, it has shredded papaya, lime, chili, sugar, and fish sauce.  Around here there are often peanuts, and sometimes there are some fermented fishy bits (e.g. crab).  The fishy version often throws me because it can taste 'off', but if you order 'som tam thai' around here you often get one that isn't quite so fishy.

You typically can choose how many chilis to put in - we like it spicy, so at least two is what we like to say.  

Som tam - good eats!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Winking monkey


I went to eat my apple and what did I see, but a winking monkey staring back at me.  I'm not sure if it's a brand name, or some anarchist prank.  He seemed friendly enough, so I still ate the apple.  What harm could possibly come from a winking monkey?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Uneasy grammar


I keep turning this phrase over in my head, and it still doesn't sit quite right.  I don't think it grammatically means what it is meant to.

I believe that it means 'donate money acting as the agent of underprivileged people that want to donate money' instead of 'donate money to help the underprivileged people'.  Am I right?  I'm not sure.  But this phrase stuck in my craw somehow, so I had to post it.

(I must say I also like the vagueness of the sign - what will the money be used for?  Why, to help people.  Underprivileged people.  Who needs more explanation than that?)

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Hello kitty!


Hello kitty is everywhere in Asia.  I always love to see what new products she's on - really, she sells just about everything.  Here she is, guarding the soap.  My goal is to find the most obscure Hello kitty branding, but I'm not even sure what that would be, since I'm having trouble thinking of something I haven't seen her on.  Maybe dump truck tires or power lines.  Or concrete.  I haven't seen Hello kitty brand concrete - yet.

I can't help but imagine that there is an organized crime ring behind the Hello kitty company.  A Hello kitty mafia.  Like if you don't buy enough Hello kitty stuff, or (god forbid) if you produce Hello kitty knock-offs, then one day you get a knock at your door, and you open it, and some guy without a neck wants to have a little chat.  

I get the same feeling when I see Mickey Mouse - go figure.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Thai iced tea


Thai iced tea is very unique - it's strong black tea, mixed with condensed milk and sugar, and sometimes some spices and colorings.  The color is unique, and the flavor strong and sweet.

Just the thing on a hot day!  And sweet goes well with spicy food, too, so you can see why it became so popular around here.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Pruning the trees


Here's a truck taking away the cuttings from trees they were pruning around town.  It struck me for a few reasons:
1. The tropical nature of the trees (still getting used to the [lush, year-round] vegetation around here)
2. It reminded me how I've seen them pruning the trees - take a rickety bamboo ladder [pieces of bamboo tied together with string], lean it against a tree, climb it with no safety equipment and chop away.  Don't put up any signs telling folks what you're doing - if they can't see trees are being pruned - they deserve a branch on their head!  Sam almost had that experience - lesson learned!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Two sights of beauty


Which is more beautiful, my lovely wife, or the hat for sale that says 'Marlboro'.  I mean, my wife is pretty darn beautiful, but a Marlboro hat - just think of how that would look on my head.  And everyone who saw me wearing it would say - man, that guy has taste.

Tough call.  

Friday, June 5, 2009

More things you can see in Bangkok toilets



So aside from strange foreigners taking pictures of who knows what, in Bangkok toilets you can also see things like:
1. Signs warning you that if you leave your bag unattended a thief might steal it.  The sweating guy is the thief, not the victim (is he sweating for fear of being caught?  or is it evil sweat?).  And even though this was the men's room, it still warns you about your purse, which is a very comprehensive warning.
2. Plants drinking Chang beer.  Is there any living thing in Bangkok that doesn't drink Beer Chang?

Thursday, June 4, 2009

More good eats





More tasty eats - some Japanese seafood bits, a chicken vendor (with some chickens hanging at ready in case you're not sure what they're selling), coconut juice in an authentic container, some 'Kiss Kiss' flavor slurpee that is both pink and strangely intimidating with the leftover pink bits at the bottom staring back at you, and some excellent, excellent grilled chicken (NE Thai style).

Even after months of this, my stomach still feels like it's died and gone to heaven.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Thomas the Tank BTS Skytrain


They sell a stuffed toy of the BTS Skytrain.  The real thing looks more or less like this, except it's bigger, and not fuzzy, and doesn't have a smiling human face on front.  

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Your friendly neighborhood temple





We went to Wat Tat Thong because we had noticed it from a BTS stop.  It was an interesting experience - it wasn't so elaborate as a lot of the more famous temples we've seen in Bangkok, but it had more of a community feel to it - it had an elderly center as part of its complex, for instance, and when we were there we saw a local enter and ask advice of the monk that was there.  It reminded me of community churches I've seen in Midwest America, and it felt more functional for that than some of the other temples we had previously seen.

Monday, June 1, 2009

All-you-can-eat BBQ



We ate at an all-you-can-eat BBQ the other day.  98 baht a head, you grabbed the goods from the buffet line, and grilled it yourself on a hot metal implement poised over coals.

Good eats.