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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 7, 2010 16:57:51 GMT
I was wondering the same thing about the helmet crabs, but forgot to ask. Maybe HW or Curt will know, and could also help with identifying the various interesting and very tempting-looking food items. Is there a way to show the pictures to the Thais where you live? It might bring on a cruel attack of homesickness, though!
This thread just keeps getting more fascinating. Also, I doubt I'm alone in being reminded of a certain song here. Because of your poor treatment at the hands of your erstwhile hostess, you wound up being taken under the wing of Aoy and seeing and experiencing things you might not have otherwise.
"You can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes, you might find You get what you need"
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Post by spindrift on Jan 7, 2010 17:14:32 GMT
Bixa! how true. My friend was not interested in things Thai..she couldn't be persuaded to buy or eat local delicacies and only sat at the swimming pools of 5 star hotels. I was so fortunate to meet Aoy....I wish to send her a little present from england and I'm having difficulty in choosing a gift/s....any suggestions? Of course I paid her well but that has nothing to do with her extreme kindness.... I shall apply your little ditty to my life as well as my Phuket holiday! ........now.......here are some colourful back-ends of buses~ The 2004 tsunami devastated the west coast of Phuket. The road from Rawai leading to Ya-Nui sported these signs I climbed some rocks at the far end of the beach and I found this plaque. At least 2 people died. One was the aforementioned Heather and the other was her friend. Apparently Heather was swamped by the tsunami waves, called her friend on her mobile who came to help her and died with her. Well that's the story I heard. I do know that the beach restaurant and rooms where I stayed were all washed away.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 7, 2010 17:44:22 GMT
Oh ~~ such fun bus back-ends! I posted some pictures of Mexican carnival rides and Kerouac said it looked like the same sort of thing in SE Asia. Now I see why.
The tsunami pictures are sobering, especially considering that the first warning graphic is far from an exaggeration. Heather's stone is so touching, and a reminder that victim statistics are made up from many, many individuals dear to others.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2010 17:53:49 GMT
Going back to the photos of the wonderful and mysterious food, I think in pity of the multitude of people who refuse to eat things if they are not told exactly what they are.
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Post by spindrift on Jan 7, 2010 19:17:38 GMT
I shall return to other places in Thailand - if only for the food.
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Post by spindrift on Jan 7, 2010 21:06:17 GMT
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Post by spindrift on Jan 7, 2010 21:18:10 GMT
It was here and it was everywhere But by 5pm most people had gone away. At dusk, fishermen got their nets ready and the dogs had the beach to themselves the last instalment is tomorrow
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 7, 2010 21:33:00 GMT
That is wonderful, Spindrift. You have done us all proud.
I look forward to tomorrow.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 7, 2010 23:14:30 GMT
This really adds another dimension to the last installment. For instance, it raised the big question of what you did during the day after the beach got so crowded. It got downright claustrophobic, didn't it? How wonderful that you had the mornings and evenings to enjoy it as a peaceful place. That photo of the fish dish really sums up my impression of Thailand -- exquisite taste and sensibility combined with gusto.
I look forward to the next installment, but am already sad that it will be the end.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 8, 2010 3:23:26 GMT
More good stuff! Where to begin? Spirit houses, yes, I quite like them. Every people in the region actually has little spirit houses in their own architectural style. In Cambodia you get them in the Khmer style or even in an Angkor style. The hilltribes I've visited in the northeast had them made of wood and styled like their houses. The little breakfast place I go to at my market has no place for anything so they just stick a couple of joss sticks into a fruit and place a glass of Fanta in front of it. At home I've steadfastly refused to get one so my girlfriend has appropriated the top of our fridge and made that into the abode of our house spirit. I'll see if she allows me to take a pic of it. No idea what meaning those spheres might have that get covered in gold leaf, SD. The four fish pics show a barracuda, what I think are a kind of tuna or mackerel, squid and groupers. The horseshoe crabs are only caught and cooked for their eggs, the females are full of them, nothing like caviar but a satisfying eat because they have huge amounts and one doesn't have the feeling one needs to eat in tiny bites... The white buns are actually bread and are called bao zhi in Chinese or sala bao in Thai. They're made of wheat flour, usually has a filling of 'red roasted' pork and is steamed, that's why it looks different from western or Indian breads. Below that in the huge pot seems to be what looks like a mixture of tid bits ( , Bixa, I've learnt the correct spelling) and little popular snacks. I think I distinguish the yellow siew mai on top, green dumplings, some kind of pre fried meat/fish balls, yam, faux crab (surimi), mushrooms (not sure), sweet potato with fried tofu in the middle. Then two pics with fried noodles and those intriguing egg shaped things on a skewer that I've never seen before and have no idea of. What did they taste like? The pic with the trays of vegetables has dry bamboo curry and pork fried with young kailan (broccoli) stems in front and shrimp salad and curry fried long beans at the back. Then a pic of curries, with green curry very prominent in the foreground and yellow or panaeng curries in the background. Note they're sold in those little plastic bags on the left of the tray. Then desserts and sweets, mostly made of powdered sticky rice and coconut. We have those in Malaysia and Cambodia as well but I'm not a huge fan of them. The colouring comes from food colouring. Now for those brownish/ greenish bean- shaped things. They aren't water chestnuts. I'd say they're fresh broadbeans (the brown being a thin skin). So many more pics, SD, I'll let those fantastic sunsets speak for themselves! And where's Curt? He should be able to shed more light onthe pics!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 8, 2010 5:42:06 GMT
Whoa, HW ~~ you just made an enthralling thread even more interesting! I want to try every thing you mentioned, even the fried stuff and the sweets. It's funny about the horseshoe crabs -- stupid to say, but I always felt there were too many of them. It's great to know they can be used for something.
Did it take long for you to become familiar with Thai food, and how do you feel Cambodian food compares? (I won't tell GF if you give the "wrong" answer!)
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 8, 2010 8:03:32 GMT
- Thai and Vietnamese cuisine are better known. - Thai and (to a much lesser extent) Vietnamese cuisine have their roots in Khmer cooking. - when the Tai peoples (Thai, Lao, Shan and lesser known Tai speaking tribes) were still coming down the great Himalayan river valleys from Southern China the Khmers had already established an empire stretching from the South China Sea to Burma and into the Malaysian peninsula. - second huge influence came after the Siamese (as the Thais were known then) sacked Angkor in the 15th century and took the whole royal Khmer court back, still seen today in classical dance, cuisine, arts and crafts, language (the old fashioned 'royal' Thai language is a mixture of Old Khmer and Sanskrit, 'normal' Thais don't understand it, Khmers do - Thai cuisine does not remember a time when there were no chillies, tomatoes, corn or potatoes, Khmer cuisine does and relies largely on pepper for spicing things up as pepper was grown and exported from the Khmer empire (together with the pepper from what is now Indonesia) long before Columbus brought back all the goodies from South America. I have excellent Thai food nearly every evening thanks to my girlfriend, she thinks it's the best in the world of course, but I've noticed her starting to use Khmer pastes and ingredients so I guess she does see that there is merit in checking out local ingredients and condiments. To be honest I know more Thai food than Khmer food so I think if a gun were put to my head and I had to decide I'd probably say I prefer Thai food. But I'm not as sure of it as I was a year ago. And I'm not at all sure it'll still be the same in a year's time, gun or no gun. And in the end, if I had to choose a country to live in purely based on the available food, I'd easily choose Malaysia. But that's another story
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Post by tillystar on Jan 8, 2010 9:25:43 GMT
I love this thread, so much of interest. I love the "sex in exchange for money" pictures, its like an expose in a magazine, looks like they are taken by an unercover journalist!
Heather's stone brought tears to my eyes.
I really think I prefer your second holiday to the one you would have had with your friend, so much more of an adventure! I know it was not a nice experience all the unrest but you seem to ahve seen so much more and met far more interesting people than you would have done otherwise.
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Post by spindrift on Jan 8, 2010 10:35:24 GMT
Hwinpp - what a huge amount of interesting information you've given us. I shall print off these pages and spend time studying what you have said. Thank you for taking the time. It seems I need to spend a month of so living in SEA just for the delight of sampling different foods. I am seriously considering renting a little house in Luang Prabang (I visited there for 3 days recently)...would you think I'd eat well there? Yummmm.... Tilly ! my daughter couldn't believe that I took those pictures of the gross men and pretty Thai girls! Of course I used the powerful zoom lens on my camera whilst I was sitting on my sunbed I wonder about Heather and her lover. Apparently she was living in a little hut on the beach. I often thought it would be difficult to run from an approaching tsunami wave because there is only a small flat area behind the beach and then the hills rise steeply and vegetation is thick. Without shoes - how could one run up such hills?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2010 10:38:44 GMT
The main thing is to recognize the tsunami before it appears -- when the water suddenly drains away from the shore like an emptying bathtub, it is time to start running before you see the wave on the horizon.
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Post by spindrift on Jan 8, 2010 13:52:07 GMT
Yes, but I might be in bed in my little hut and I wouldn't know!
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Post by spindrift on Jan 8, 2010 14:34:11 GMT
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Post by spindrift on Jan 8, 2010 15:07:20 GMT
Thai friends had told me about a temple in which was an ancient Buddha that has always been half-buried in the earth. By happy chance the temple is close to Phuket airport so Aoy decided we should visit it on our way to catch my flight to Bangkok. She picked me up from Ya-Nui at 7am and by 8am we were outside the temple and waiting for it to be opened. The temple is known as Wat Phra Thong. The name "Phra Thong" means The Golden Buddha. The image is also called "Phra Phut" which means a Buddha image emerging from the ground. The temple is in the Thalang district. I have C and P'd an explanation of the story: The legend of the ancient Buddha image at Wat Phra Thong stretches back centuries — and is as intriguing today as it ever was. Protected by an ancient spell, the half-buried Buddha image has withstood man’s every attempt to remove it from the ground. According to legend, those who try to dig it up will die. It all started when a young boy tied his water buffalo to a hard muddy object sticking up from a field. Suddenly the boy died but appeared to his father in a dream and told him about the object, which turned out to be a huge statue of Buddha. The father dug but the Buddha could not, however, be completely excavated. Advancing Burmese armies also tried to dig up the statue but they were attacked by swarms of hornets. Some historical accounts describe the Buddha as being cast in pure gold, whilst others say that the visible part of the statue was covered with gold by the villagers and has remained as such until today. The temple was built on the site in 1785. The temple grounds ~ There were several of these trees around the temple. Aoy did not know what they were called. Does anyone know? She thought they might have originated in China (there is a large Chinese population on Phuket). A breakfast of rice ~ It was time to go.
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 8, 2010 15:34:20 GMT
A lovely temple. so evocative. Right, we are going to go to Thailand next year, but not Phuket.
Thank you so much for all your hard labour in posting about your visit.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 8, 2010 17:18:35 GMT
I am dumbfounded ~~ I can actually contribute a little piece of info here: I know what that tree is! It appears to be a member of the Crescentia family, five species of which are used for their "gourds". Those jícaras made from them are so common here that they've given their name to any small bowl used for washing, even if it's plastic. (Here you can see how the trees vary in appearance.)What I found intriguing was the section titled "Beautiful but Poor" in this article. You have to wonder if that particular tree was planted at the shrine to that particular manifestation of the Buddha because of the similarity of their tenaciousness in clinging to the earth. Spindrift, the depth, beauty, and intimacy of this thread is monumental. It really is "the next best thing to being there". There is so much here I want to study and absorb, including the in-depth answers from HW. This thread will surely continue to grow as more people discover and add to it. What are the gilded structures in front of the temple? Are they a type of stupa?
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Post by spindrift on Jan 8, 2010 17:38:01 GMT
Yes, Bixa, the gilded structures are small stupas. I'm so excited that you have identified the tree. I shall read your links at once! Yes, I am SURE you are right about the tenacious roots in the earth being applicable to Buddhism still going strong after 2,500 years I have read the contents of the link about the jicaro tree and how it is being managed in Nicaragua. I am fascinated by the jicaro's possibilities. I feel that much has still to be discovered about it. I am wondering whether the jicaro could be grown in Nepal. Is the Nicaraguan climate tropical? I rather think it is which would rule Nepal out.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2010 17:53:05 GMT
That was a wonderful report, Spindrift, but please don't hate Phuket, since there are still some very nice areas left. If each time you hate the ugliness of tourism you cross the place off your list, soon you won't be able to go anywhere in Thailand or most of Southeast Asia.
I have learned to turn a blind eye on many things and types of behaviour that I despise in order not to poison my own world. If I did not do that, I would probably not even be able to live in Paris.
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Post by spindrift on Jan 8, 2010 18:01:20 GMT
Those are wise words, Kerouac, and I am paying attention!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2010 20:40:21 GMT
I have learned to turn a blind eye on many things and types of behaviour that I despise in order not to poison my own world. yep, me too. I call it 'keeping myself nice' Not always an easy task, but important, at least for me.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 8, 2010 20:42:24 GMT
Damn, that was quite an experience reading through that. It's hard not to comment on all the manifestations of psychopathologies evident throughout, but there's no point- people are what they are.
Fascinating still, and beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing those.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 9, 2010 2:13:45 GMT
They look like rubber trees in a plantation to me.
Have to agree with all others, SD, must rank as one of the top pictorial threads on Anyport!
A pity it didn't work out with your friend, sometimes a visit is what it takes to discover that.
I'd agree with Jack, you can give Phuket another chance, I'm sure there are places there that are still undisturbed, it is a big island.
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Post by phuketrex on Jan 9, 2010 5:50:47 GMT
Enjoyed reading your travelogue and your photos are excellent.
Did you not visit the old monk himself Luang Pu Supha when you went to his Wat? He's the current verified Oldest Living Man in the World.
The small beach near Nai Harn past the Meridien Yacht Club is called Ao Sane.
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Post by spindrift on Jan 9, 2010 9:56:07 GMT
Phuketrex - thanks for your input. It's great to hear from someone who knows Phuket. I didn't visit the monk not knowing he was there! it would have been my greatest wish to visit him.
Please can you tell us the name of that lovely isolated hotel on Ao Sane beach? it is at the cul-de-sac past the Meridien.....
Are there other quiet and beautiful beaches on the island?
Yes, they were rubber trees...thank you. Aoy mentioned that they are 'tapped' for rubber in the early hours of the morning, like around 3am.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jan 9, 2010 10:57:36 GMT
Yes, but I might be in bed in my little hut and I wouldn't know! My SIL in American Samoa narrowly escaped the tsunami there a few months ago. But that's another story.
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Post by phuketrex on Jan 9, 2010 11:09:42 GMT
They would be Ao Sane Bungalows if you mean the ones right on the beach. They are low budget...under 1000 baht a night. I have many photos of the beaches. I had a mission to go to every one you could get to by land on Phuket. Here's a couple of Ao Sane>>> There are a few quiet ones that the tourist masses don't get to find. The others have been taken over by the resorts and hotels. Sorry you left Phuket with a bad impression. Enjoy your travels. Suits me to be based here.
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