A Week in my Life II: Saturday

Saturday II

On Saturday, I had a few hours off between my morning and evening classes, and decided to take a camera out for a walk (hopefully I can get a new Photo Gallery post up soon!). I took the MRT just two stops away from home to an area just outside of Chatuchak Park. There's a sort of makeshift amulet market set up along the road between Mo Chit and Saphan Kwai stations, and I took a stroll along the covered sidewalk looking at all of the mysterious wares on offer.

Even though it was hot, I ended up walking all the way to a nearby temple, which I had always seen from the Skytrain but had never been to.

I also saw a few spirit houses and shrines leading the way to the Vishnu Temple, what I assume is a small neighborhood Hindu Temple, but I couldn't find exactly where it was.

Even though Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, there is a very deeply-ingrained Hindu influence which runs through the spirituality of the country. That's something else that I hope to write about soon, and I've been thinking about paying a visit to a few of the city's Hindu temples at some point in the near future!

It is well and truly the rainy season, and it storms nearly every day, with the sky darkening almost without warning from a bright, sunny, clear blue to an angry, stormy grey. 

After my walk, I barely made it home in time before the rain began falling!

I apologize that these "Week in my Life" posts were less than exciting. It ended up being a more boring week than usual with more chores, studying, and working to do. In fact, I was so busy that I didn't even end up doing a lot of my regular weekly activities. In a few months, perhaps I will write a third series! Until then, this blog will return to its regular format.

A Week in My Life II: Friday

Friday II

As I started writing these posts, I realize that I may not have chosen the best week to do so. I've been a bit under the weather, fairly exhausted, and mostly just busy working. I don't have any tours or exciting activities planned at all. In fact, most of my week was spent working or doing chores.

On Friday evening, however, my fiancee and I went out for a Thai barbecue at a semi-outdoors place near the local metro station. Thai barbecue is a really unique experience... and an experience it is! ... and very much deserving of its own post, which I hope to write sometime soon.

Basically, you get a bucket full of hot coals with a cast iron skillet on top, then you can just visit the buffet where you can pick out your own mushrooms, bacon, pork, chicken, and other delicious stuff to grill up yourself right at your own table.

I wish I had more interesting things to share, but lately I've just been really exhausted. I guess I need a vacation. If everything goes well, I should be able to get out of the city again sometime in August for a real vacation! Pinky and I have been planning a trip to the south, and I just can't wait!

A Week in My Life II: Thursday

Thursday II

It hasn't been an overly exciting week, but isn't that the point of these posts?

Thursday morning was spent working. I had several classes booked throughout the afternoon as well. My fiancee had worked the night shift at her hospital the night before, so she took a long nap on Thursday. In the evening, we decided to go out for a nice dinner.

We went to a nearby mall for some northern Thai food, a type of cuisine which is a bit rare in Bangkok. It's quite different from what you might think of as Thai food (which tends to be Bangkok/Central cuisine).

We ordered three dishes:

A slightly sour herbal soup made with pork and lots of veggies.

Another soup with tiny little mushrooms called hed pop (pop mushrooms) which have a thick textural outside and a very soft mushy inside. The mushrooms can be a little bit expensive, so the soup is hard to find sometimes.

And finally a type of spicy mixed salad made from jackfruit topped with crispy fried onions. That third dish was my favorite!

We also had some ice cream at a gelato place in the local mall.

I've been wanting to start back up with photography lately, so I picked up a few rolls of film at the local photo shop. 

Bangkok is kind of a hip city, and film photography is still popular. It's easy to find and cheap to develop! 

As I said, not the most exciting day, but a nice one.

A Week in My Life II: Wednesday

Wednesday II

I started this morning with a good, long workout at my gym. I bought a membership at the fitness center at a nearby hotel. It's a little expensive, but it's hard to find a good gym in Bangkok that isn't. The fitness center is excellent, and there's also a beautiful pool that I can use!

The gym is on the 6th floor, and I can watch the traffic below and the Skytrain zipping across the city as I jog on the treadmill.

I left the gym and headed back home, grabbing a toasty sandwich from 7-11 on the way. My fiancee had to go out to do some errands for her work, but we had plans to meet for lunch.
Lunch was another local favorite of mine, Khao Mun Gai (Hainanese Chicken Rice), which also happens to be the national dish of Singapore.

The dish may be most famous in Singapore, but it originates in southern China and is popular throughout much of Southeast Asia. There is, however, a longstanding debate about whether the dish may have actually originated in either Singapore or Malaysia. Regardless, it's delicious!

https://michaeldesrosiers.blogspot.com/2018/05/lat-prao-food-adventures.html

The chicken is stewed, served over a rice cooked with chicken fat, and garnished with fresh cucumber, cilantro, and a spicy sauce. It's also served with a tasty clear broth, which I love, and a cube of chicken blood, which I don't.

In the afternoon, there was a huge storm. The rain made me sleepy, and I ended up taking a nap. My cat joined me. He's really the best little guy!

A Week in My Life II: Tuesday

Tuesday II

It's another early morning, but I've got my coffee. My fiancee's sister bought me a pack of 12 cans of my favorite coffee at Tesco Lotus, so I'm set for a few early mornings at least.

My fiancee had a meeting at her clinic today, and I tagged along to the trendy Ari neighborhood to join her for lunch beforehand. I rarely, if ever, take tuk-tuks in Thailand, but it was raining, and we just needed to go down the soi. Tuk-tuks are fun, but not worth it if you need to go any real distance.

We had lunch at a new casual Italian place called Ma Ma Pasta. It was a small hole-in-the-wall type of restaurant with just two tables and a tiny kitchen where the Italian chef cooked each dish himself. Ma Ma Pasta makes all of the pasta fresh, and is popular for its use of truffle in many of its dishes.

We started with a classic Caesar salad with homemade croutons and crispy bacon. The dressing was great, too! In fact, you could even taste the anchovies, which gave it a really rich flavor. Pinky dubbed it "the best Caesar ever", to the delight of the chef.

Pinky ordered some seafood pesto. I had a bite of squid and sun dried tomato. The pesto was very fresh, and prompted me to contact my mom for her own pesto recipe.

And I ordered a classic Italian meatball dish in red sauce. The meatballs were especially excellent! They must have been marinated in red wine; they were sweet and a tiny bit tangy. The pasta, each piece made fresh by hand, was chewy and textural. It was the best Italian meal I've ever had in Thailand!

It was almost time for Pinky's meeting, but there was still about half an hour before she needed to be at the clinic. The rain was really pouring down, so we found a tiny rooftop cafe. I ordered a cup of hot tea, and we waited out the rain listening to the drops pounding on the metal roof. It was surprisingly cool, a bit windy, and really comfortable! The cafe was quite nice, too. It was just a simple little place, but full of nice green plants. It was like being in a small rooftop garden.

While my fiancee went to have her meeting, I walked to a nearby office tower for coffee. Ari is a really cool neighborhood with a ton of great cafes, but since it was raining, I didn't feel like wandering around to look for something unique. I just sat down at S&P (a Western-style Thai diner franchise) and ordered a hot latte. I listened to an audiobook (I'm currently listening to a really great Chinese science-fiction series called "The Three-Body Problem") and watched the rain outside for a while.

In the afternoon, I received the excellent news that the Thai cabinet had officially granted an additional extension of the emergency visa amnesty that I had been waiting for. It had been a stressful few weeks dealing with the unpredictability and stress of not knowing what was going to happen with my visa, so now I can finally relax!

The new round of visa amnesty has been extended until 26 September, and hopefully by then the borders will be open and I'll be able to travel to Laos or Cambodia for a new full visa. After that great news, I took the rest of the afternoon off to relax, had a nice early night in bed, and slept soundly. 

A Week in My Life II: Monday

Monday II

It's a good day today! I woke up this morning feeling much better. Sometimes, you just need to take a day in to refresh yourself. It was another early morning - most morning my first classes begin at 5 or 6 am. I taught two classes, submitted an abstract for a research paper I am working on, and enjoyed my traditional can of morning coffee! Then, I had the rest of the day until evening for myself.

I missed breakfast because of my teaching schedule this morning, and went for an early lunch at 10:30 at a local street food place just down the road. It's a really typical Thai-style made-to-order joint where a lady stands in front of a big smoking wok and will cook more or less any Thai dish you ask for. 

I don't know the name of the shop, but it's located at the corner of Ladphrao Soi 16, so I just call it "Soi 16".

Today, I ordered one of my favorites from this place, guay tiew kua gai, a stir-fried dry noodle dish served up with lettuce, finger root, and wok-fried chicken. The dish is usually topped with a mild chili sauce.

I was planning on going for a walk. I dusted off my old 1970 Fujica camera and packed my backpack, but as I was enjoying my lunch, the sky suddenly grew dark. It is the monsoon season, after all! I decided to play it safe and walk back home instead, and boy, was I glad I did! As soon as I got back inside, the sky opened up in a rainy season deluge!

That gave me an excuse to stay in, hang out with my cat, and watch another few episodes of Star Trek before my afternoon and evening classes.

A Week in My Life II: Sunday

Sunday II

It's been about six months, and I thought it might be fun for me to write another "Week in my Life" series here on my blog. While it's always good to write about my adventures around Thailand, sometimes it's nice to share my day-to-day activities with you. I realize that the mundane daily life that can seem kind of normal or even boring to me might be interesting and exciting to my readers, so I've decided to write a second series about a regular, normal week with nothing particularly special planned. Let's see where it goes!

Today began bright and early with a 5:30 alarm. I had placed two cans of Asian-style iced coffee in the fridge last night, so I cracked them open while setting up my desk for my first class. This morning I had two classes in succession. My 6-7 was a longtime student from China who now studies in America. Today was our first SAT preparation lesson. After that, I had a student from 7-8. He lives in Hong Kong, and needs to practice conversational English for work. After that, I had a gap until the evening.

I walked my fiancee to work, and on the way home passed through the station to stop in at Lawson, a convenience store from Japan. 

It's not healthy, but Lawson sells delicious ready-to-eat snacks. For breakfast, I had two pieces of spicy fried pork on a stick. There's a Starbucks in my local station as well, but since I had already had two cans of (much, much cheaper) coffee, I passed on by.

     

I'm tired today. I was feeling a little sick yesterday. Not seriously sick, but just a little bit worn out. Honestly, I think I'm exhausted! I have been working nearly every day, seven days a week. I've gone three semesters of grad school (including this summer semester) studying without a holiday or break, and I've been trying to make the most of the lock down having ended by traveling and going on day trips around Thailand. On top of all of that, I've been extremely anxious and stressed about my visa situation, and haven't been sleeping all that well for the past week because of that. Today, I needed to take half of the day off - no teaching, no studying, just hanging out with my cat, watching Star Trek, and having a nice cup of hot Typhoo Gold tea.

I did have some classes in the afternoon and evening, though. I taught a series of classes to students all over the world from 4-8pm.

Not the most exciting day, I'll be honest! But that's a part of what makes these posts unique. I'm just sharing my regular week, no matter how exciting or dull it may be!

COVID-19 Update #11 - good news, bad news, and waiting for news

It's been a few months since my last update. In that time, Thailand locked down completely and managed to eliminate the COVID-19 virus within the country's borders. There hasn't been all that much to write about regarding the pandemic lately, though in the past week there have been a few changes. I figured that it's time for an update.

https://michaeldesrosiers.blogspot.com/2020/05/covid-19-update-10-getting-under-control.html

Good News:

The government did not reopen airports in July, but instead pushed back the dates to allow international flights tentatively in August. During the past few weeks, life in Thailand has almost entirely returned to normal, and we went nearly a full two months without a single case of the COVID-19 virus. This is what happens when you wear masks! Everything has opened back up and returned to normal, and it's actually been really great. Because there are still no tourists, some really incredible things are possible, and most sights are open as usual without any crowds.

Bad News:

A returning Egyptian diplomat has tested positive for COVID, spooking the country's already weak domestic tourism just ahead of a holiday weekend.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1951212/egyptian-embassy-blamed-for-quarantine-dodgers

Waiting For News:

As emergency visa amnesty is about to expire, stranded expats are anxiously awaiting news from the Thai immigration office about our options. As the July 31st deadline approaches, I have become more and more stressed and anxious. However, there have been rumors of good news coming soon, so we are all holding our breath for the upcoming cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Until then, I will continue keeping you all informed of goings-on here in Thailand!

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/expats/more-details-on-visa-amnesty-grace-period-proposal

Waffle Croissant Pizza and Chicken Nugget Pizza - Only in Thailand: Pizza Edition II

Thailand sure has some strange pizza... and I love all of it! In fact, the pizza tradition in Thailand is amazingly creative and often downright odd! Whenever my friend James visits from the US, we have a tradition called "Weird Thai Pizza Party", where we order the strangest things off of the menu of my favorite pizza place, The Pizza Company. Well, James can't travel to Thailand this year because of the global pandemic, but that won't stop me from ordering some unique pizzas on my own!

Last year, I wrote a post called "Only in Thailand: Pizza Edition". Today, I've got a follow-up post with two brand-new pies that can be found only in Thailand!

Waffle-Croissant-Sausage Pizza

I had been seeing adds for this pizza quite a lot lately, so I knew I had to order one to try. This is the new sausage, waffle/croissant pizza from Pizza Company. It's four sausages wrapped in cheese and ham, and surrounded by a crisscrossed crust of croissant dough.

Super fattening and way too filling, this pizza was really good! To be fair, it's not exactly a pizza... at least not a traditional pizza. However, I'm not quite sure what else to call it.

Crunchy Chicken with Korean Sauce and Cheese Crust Pizza

Stuffed crust pizza is nothing new, but pizza made of melted cheese and fried chicken nuggets? I had never seen anything like that before.

The pizza toppings were fairly standard - baked chicken, green peppers, onion, tomato sauce, and melted cheese, but the cheesy-chickeny crust was something totally new. After eating the pizza, you are left with a sort of cheesy chicken stick to be dipped in a spicy and sweet Korean-style sauce.

The sauce was necessary, in my opinion. It was a little bit too dry without it. I liked this pizza for the novelty of it, but it is not necessarily something I'll order again and again.

The Heaven Dragon Park and the Museum of Dragon's Descendants

While every town in Thailand (and Laos) has a city pillar shrine, the one in Suphanburi is... a little different than most.

Instead of just a city pillar, this small town in central Thailand has an entire Chinese village, ornate temple, and massive museum of Chinese culture. As you walk through a red Chinese-style gate and cross a curved bridge over a small pond, it really does feel like being transported to a small village in rural China! The plaza is lined with shops and restaurants selling souvenirs and noodles.

There's even a convenience store, which is also built according to the Chinese theme of the little cultural village.

The Heaven Dragon Park (sometimes translated as "Celestial Dragon Village") was built in 1996 to celebrate 20 years of diplomatic relations between Thailand and China.

Standing just beyond the village is a large building designed to look like a ferocious Chinese dragon. It towers over the relatively flat surroundings looking like something out of a bizarre theme park.

The dragon is actually a museum! Officially, it's the Museum of Dragon's Descendants, a rather strange but impressive project built as a gift by the Chinese government to tell the history of China.

When you visit the museum, you have to go on a tour with a museum guide. Each room is a fantastically creative multimedia display. The story of China's history starts at the very beginning, and I do mean the VERY beginning, with the legend of Pangu and the Chinese creation myth.

The tour then progresses through various rooms, each one dedicated to telling of a particular dynasty from China's history, as well as teaching about China's developments such as tea, gunpowder, rocketry, navigation, and various philosophical traditions.

The museum is incredibly creative, a real modern take on a history museum, with exhibits that move, light up, and utilize smoke, sound, and storytelling to share the information from the exhibits.

Super cool! The only problem? The entire tour was in Thai, but I was still able to get the main idea of the exhibits just through context.

Outside of the dragon there is a colorful Chinese temple, the Chao Por Lak Muang Suphan Shrine. It's richly colorful, and a real cacophony of sense, with lots of clanging bells, incense smoke, and people praying and chanting.

I'm still not completely sure why Suphanburi was selected as the site of this Chinese-Thai cultural village. The rural province in central Thailand may have some significance, but I'm not aware of it. Maybe it was just a convenient place to build such a large and impressive monument to Chinese-Thai friendship.

The Stone Buddha - Bhunyakiri Sri Suvarnabhumi

I like big Buddhas, and I like when things are carved into mountains. The great Stone Buddha of Suphanburi Province checks both boxes!

The Bhunyakiri Sri Suvarnabhumi stands an impressive 108 meters tall. 108 is considered to be a holy number in the Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism). Buddhist prayer beads come in strands of 108, and temple bells in Japan are rung 108 times at the new year.

The statue is also 88 meters wide - a number signifying good luck in Chinese culture.

All of this is significant, as the Buddha statue is built in the spot where some Buddhist scholars believe that the earliest missionaries first brought the religion from India and began preaching to the people of ancient Siam.

The towering carving, started over twenty years ago, is still incomplete, though an active temple has been carved out in a short and wide tunnel through the granite cliffs behind the Buddha statue itself.

Within the tunnel, people prayed in front of dozens of statues, lit candles to float in a small pool of water, and received blessings from monks. One Thai monk was especially excited to talk to our little group of foreigners. He asked us where we were from, and walked us through the temple. 

"I studied in India" the monk told us. "Before that, I got degrees in economics, philosophy, and political science." He shrugged. "But I wanted to be a monk."