Thai Tidbits

The Semester at Sea run through Asia is a whirlwind: five days in each of four countries with only two days on the ship in between. If I have any chance of staying caught up with the itinerary on my blog, I’m going to have to make these posts sort of quick and dirty, instead of more polished pieces. So here are the bullets on Thailand:
• This country is much healthier economically than I expected. Maybe it was coming from India where poverty and overcrowding are overwhelming, but Thailand seems to be doing okay. There appears to be a thriving middle class. I saw no beggars and only a couple of homeless people in either Bangkok or Chiang Mai. Tourists were everywhere and new cars and trucks were lined up at the dock, ready to be shipped out. Speaking of vehicles, several of us noticed that all the cars and trucks looked three years old or less, still shiny and dent-free. Our guide said that a new Japanese car made in Thailand was much cheaper than a used foreign car. In any case, this is not one of the countries I’m going to go away worrying about, financially at least. The main sour note in Bangkok was the traffic congestion and maddening traffic jams despite a skyrail and subway system, even one of those loaner bicycle programs. The air in Chiang Mai was pretty awful but we were told that was because it is the season of burning the rice fields.
• The Thais LOVE their king! His picture is everywhere, as is a special flag designed for the celebration a few years ago of his 50 years as king. The dress code to go into one of his palaces is much stricter than that for any temple and requires that even your ankles be covered. Fortunately they have loaner sarongs for ladies and baggy pants for men. He and the queen are seen as devoted to the common people and have spearheaded many reforms for their benefit.
• I had one night on my own in Bangkok and took the New York Times’ recommendation for a wonderful inn in the old part of the city, appropriately named the Old Bangkok Inn. Delightful décor, gracious innkeepers, wonderful amenities (including a flat screen TV/monitor and computer to go with the free WiFi), excellent value. You should put that name in your travel dreams file.
• I ended up alone and after dark on a deserted street on the old section of Bangkok, searching for a restaurant that turned out to be closed. Two gracious, middle-aged Thai women came to my rescue. I long ago learned to ask directions from women and luckily found one at the lone lighted store front. She called her son to draw me a map of where the restaurant was supposed to be, one street over. When I discovered it was closed, I decided to just eat at the closest place at hand since I had heard Thai street food is wonderful. As I stood on the sidewalk near a bustling street restaurant, another woman motioned me to sit at her table. In very limited English, she found out my preferences and proceeded to order my dinner for me. Four friends soon joined her and the six of us had a great meal, me eating happily and them chatting away, occasionally nodding and smiling at me. I got the distinct impression that this was a regular weekly dinner for them and I very much appreciated them making me feel like just one of the girls.
• On our SAS tour of Chiang Mai, we traveled, first by bus then in the local favorite transport of covered pick-up truck with two side benches, up a windy mountain road to a Hmong village. Even though it was quite chilly and drizzly, the faces and laughter of the children in the preschool warmed us through and through. The SAS students were uncharacteristically shy so I organized games of London Bridge Is Falling Down and Hokey Pokey which were a big hit.
• I continued to cook my way around the world with another fabulous cooking class in Chiang Mai. Our teacher was a young chef who had learned to cook during his stint in a monastery as a teenager. He was funny, talented and quite the entrepreneur. His classes are held in a large open-air room he had added to his home, with well appointed, individual work stations and spotless equipment. Two neighborhood ladies assisted us and reminded me a lot of the two Fatimas in Fez. We made a fabulous feast of hot and sour soup, paneang curry with chicken and shrimp, chicken with cashew nuts, phad thai inside of an omelet sort of wrapper, and sweet sticky rice with mango. I adore Thai food and I ate a lot of it in my five days in Thailand, but, if I do say so myself, the very best was the food I made for myself!