Day 30 Last Day in Bangkok

Phil and Anne were leaving today and we were meeting Noah Severs and his family at 1 so we didn’t really have much time after breakfast to do much sightseeing, so we decided to do a little walk about around the hotel. 

Nancie Severs had given Jeri some suggestions for shopping so we headed toward the Si Lom Road, one of the major shopping streets in this part of Bangkok.  It was still pretty early Sunday morning, so there wasn’t a lot opened, but the shopkeepers in Si Lom Village, one of Nancie’s recommendations, are apparently early risers. 

We had been searching for some Thai silk bags that we wanted to get, and one of the silk stores had just opened its doors.  The shopkeeper was thrilled to have us as her first marks, I mean customers, of the day. After some really hard bargaining, she finally gave us a “good price” because we were good luck, being the 1^st of the day, and spending a fair amount of Baht. 

I’m not sure if we got any bargains, but at least the proprietor made us feel like we did. 

It was getting late, and Phil and Anne needed to finish packing, so we walked back toward the hotel.  Nancie had also recommended a street vendor she knew for hand made stainless steel bowls (that Simon Pearce sell here for an arm and a leg).  We had looked for her yesterday, but just missed her. Sri Tong was thrilled to here that Nancie had sent us, and wanted to send a present home for her with us.  She had bowls, plates, salt and peppershakers, and flatware, all of hand pounded stainless steel.  We started accumulating pieces, and she gave us a ”good price” because we were Nancie’s friend.  She was so sweet and the prices so low that we didn’t want to haggle with her, and paid what she asked.  We asked her to hold our purchases until later when we were getting ready to leave so we wouldn’t have to schlepp it all around.  She was happy to do this for us, and we agreed to stop back later. 

We also asked her where we might be able to find the basket type of rice cooker used for sticky rice.  Instead of just giving us directions, she closed her shop and brought us by the hand to a shop of one of her friends about ¼ mi away.  She then took care of telling this other woman what we wanted and also bargained on our behalf. She is a real gem.

We went back to the hotel to check out and leave our bags in storage until later.  We then said our goodbyes to Phil and Anne, and walked back to Si Lom Rd. to find the British Club where we were to meet Noah (Nancie and Mark Severs’ son) his wife, Sumalia, and 3 year old son, Terran.  We thought the British Club would be pretty stuffy, so Jeri decided to get dressed nicely (as best she could given that we had been traveling for a month) even though the temperatures were heading above 90.  

When we finally got there (after a couple of near misses), we found Noah and his family poolside.  The British Club is a country club for expats, not at all “stuffy” as we had feared.  Unfortunately, Jeri was stuck in long pants (I had zip-offs, good choice).  We sat at poolside and had a wonderful lunch that Noah and Sumalai had ordered for us. Noah’s ability to speak Thai was very impressive.  

Noah and Sumalai’s son, Terran, is cute as a button.

  We had brought him some books (including Danny and the Dinosaur), and he wanted me to read to him.  He has an amazing attention span for a 3 year old, and sat transfixed, listening to the story and interjecting names for pictures in the book. 

After lunch, Noah and Sumalai drove us back to Sri Tong’s stall to pick up our  cache, 

and then to the Shangri-La to retrieve our bags.  

They graciously offered to take us to the airport hotel where we were staying tonight (6:30 am flight home tomorrow).  We really wanted to see Noah and Sumalai’s factory (Noah owns a jewelry making company) as well as their new home, so Sumalai acted as our chauffer. 

The factory was pretty amazing. 

5 stories, and 65 (soon to be 100 with  his planned expansion) employees.  Next, we stopped at their new house.  They live in a gated community not far from their factory.  The community has about 200 homes and is very quiet. 

Of course, Terran showed us his room with required well-loved bear. 

 I also taught him how to take pictures with a Canon D5 Mark III, and he quickly learned how to rapid fire off 7 frames per second.  I think I’m going to have to do some deleting!

It was starting to get late, so we all piled back into the car for the trip to the airport.  At the airport hotel, we said our goodbyes to Noah, Sumalai, and Terran, and settled in for a very short night.  Up at 4 tomorrow morning for the 30 or so hour trip home.

Day 29- Return to Bangkok

We said goodbye to Baa 

and our resident gecko

after breakfast, checked out,

and hopped back in the van that brought us here for the trip back to the Trat Airport. 

The return trip was much quicker than coming in.  The driver drove faster, and we didn’t have to wait an hour for the ferry. 

This got us to the airport about 2 hours before the flight.  The return flight was uneventful.

We were able to get the same rooms at the Shangri-La that we had had when we stayed here a week ago, agin with great views.

Tonight we finally made it to the Indian restaurant that we had planned to eat at last time we were in Bangkok, Indian Hut (Jeri was under the weather then, and we bailed).  We took a cab that was dirt cheap, but took about 10 minutes to get to the restaurant. We were a bit skeptical about the food when we saw the restaurant’s name and logo and noted that it was vaguely reminiscent of Pizza Hut.  I’m wondering if this constitutes a trademark infringement. 

We’ll have to run this by Brendan when we get home.  The food was nothing like Pizza Hut, though.  Some of the best Indian food we’ve had short of the West End in London.  It was nice to have something other than spring rolls for a change.

After dinner, we asked the waitress to get us cab.  She told us that we should instead walk off our dinner.  The hotel was only about a 10 minute walk!  We’re still trying to figure out why it took the cab so long to get here.

Day 29 Koh Chang Blue Lagoon Cooking School

Our last day in Koh Chhang.  We were picked up after breakfast in an actual minivan with seatbelts (looking promising), though we are now getting used to bouncing in the back of a pickup.  The drive to the Blue Lagoon was only about 10 minutes and we were pleased to find the school was an actual outdoor cooking classroom, set up just for the purpose of teaching.

Our teacher, Yaa, introduced herself to us on arrival, and we were each given a blue drink (dok-un-chon, or Butterfly Pea) made with bright blue pea flowers.  

Yaa spoke impeccable English and interspersed cultural and historical tidbits with her culinary tips.  She had us give some suggestions for what we wanted to make, and finally came up with a vey ambitious menu. That included the ever popular spring rolls ( fried and raw), pad thai, chicken with cashews, ginger chicken, jungle curry, and green curry. 

In order to test our dexterity with a knife,, before cutting anything important, Yaa had us carve roses out of tomatoes.  They actually were pretty easy, and didn’t look half bad.  Now I know what I can do when I retire.

The first order of business, though, was rice.  Rice is a staple for nearly ½ of the world’s population.  Thai people eat rice at every meal and because of this, they revere rice  “as much as their mother”.  Yaa explained the differences between sticky rice, and regular rice.  This had to do with the coating left on the sticky rice that allows it to clump.  Preparation of sticky rice starts with soaking it in water for at least 5 hours (the water can be colored as with the pea flower to produce blue rice). Then steamed 20 minutes in a basket over hot water.

Coconut is the other major staple for Thai cooking.  But you don't get shredded coconut in a bag, you DIY with a handy coconut horse.  Yaa demonstrated its use, then we all had a try.  I, of course, wound up slicing my hand on the horse's sharp teeth.

Mini Phil

Ouch!

We also had primers on gingers

spices,

and the use of a granite mortar and pestle to make curry paste.

One of the more interesting side bars had to do with the dish, pad thai.  Up until the end of WW II, noodles were not a part of a Thai diet. But after the war, the British demanded reparations from Thailand for their involvement with Japanese (think, “Bridge on the River Quai”).  This came in the form of huge rice shipments to Great Britain at the expense of the people of Thailand.  Poor quality rice that was left in Thailand was converted to rice noodles and hence, the staple of American Thai restaurants was born.  The pad thai that we made was the best we’d had in Thailand (and the U.S. as well).

And the hits just kept coming.  Each of the dishes we made was fantastic.  I wish I could say it was the chefs that were responsible for the food’s quality, but it was definitely our teacher that made things look and taste great.

                                        

By around 4:30, we had finished our all day lunch with not a drop of room for dessert, fried bananas in spring roll wrappers.  Yaa packed up our desserts as a doggy bag for later consumption. 

We had been asking her questions about the royal family, which she answered by reading us a Thai children’s book about the king and all the wonderful things he’s done for the people of Thailand.  It was very moving, listening to her speak with such reverence  for their leader (I don’t think most U.S. citizens have similar feelings toward our president).We continued to talk with her until about 5 when we decided to excuse ourselves.  I think she enjoyed having a very interested group.  We decided to walk back to our hotel along the beach (about the same or shorter as the car ride over).  We said our goodbyes to Yaa and left the Blue Lagoon by way of  a floating bridge.

We passed a couple of pretty primitive “resorts” definitely sans a/c.  They were more like the standard Thai house, up on stilts.

When we reached Panviman, our friendly waiter, Baa, seated us at our usual beach side table.  We explained that dinner wasn’t going to happen tonight. 

We were stuffed.  He did convince us to have a couple of drinks (happy hour 2 for 1) and watch the sunset.  We were glad we did.  It was the most spectacular sunset so far this trip.

After drinks and the first 3 stars, we returned to our rooms to pack for our return to Bangkok.