Cooking with Poo

I went to a cooking class run by a woman whose nickname is Poo.  This nickname is a shortening of the word for the color pink in Thai and comes from the word for rose apple, a sweet fruit.  It's kind of like calling someone honey or pumpkin, but the translation is unfortunate.  Poo has a sense of humor about it though, and has decided to use it to her advantage.  She explains all this at the beginning of the cooking class.

While you're cooking, you get to wear an apron that says, "I cooked with Poo, and I liked it!"  You can buy the apron as well.  The classes run Monday through Saturday, and each day has a different menu.  The poster for the classes keeps the joke going.

You have to have a sense of humor to do this class, and you can't be easily grossed out.  They weed out the weak with a trip to a huge market before the class.  I went with two friends and we were part of a total group of twelve people.  They broke us into two smaller groups of six and each group got a guide to take us through and explain everything to us.

It was fascinating, and I learned important stuff like how to tell the difference between a pink dragon fruit and a white dragon fruit from the outside skin (the pink is bumpier).

But they didn't start us off with the fruits and veggies, oh no.  We walked into the area with birds in cages and fish writhing around in shallow water which they splashed towards us.

I stepped away from them to the other side where there were frogs in mesh bags.

It took me a second to realize they were still alive.  I'm not going to lie, I was a bit freaked out, but I pressed on, only to be confronted by the bug section.

Luckily, we got through it, and then we were had flora rather than fauna to look at.  

We learned that you can buy your soup seasonings pre-bundled.

As soon as we relaxed though, they took us over to the seafood section.

Our guides understood that we were a bit shaken, so they ended the tour by showing us different kinds of whiskey.

Then we all piled back in the van and headed to the school.  Poo greeted us warmly.  She told us her story which was inspiring, and then she got right down to the cooking.  She really broke it down and made it simple.  We started with pad see ew with chicken.  We got a plate with most of our ingredients.

We chopped and stirred stuff in, and Poo and her helpers brought us the sauces and chicken as we needed them.

I was quite proud of my end product :-)

It was yummy too.  I ate it all up.  Next we made beef with cashews.

I saved most of that for Jeff.  The last dish to cook was green curry, but Poo didn't want us to use the paste you can buy in the stores.  She wanted us to make it from scratch with the mortar and pestle.  She gave us a really pretty one to use though.

I mixed it in with coconut milk, chicken, sliced Thai eggplant, a kaffir lime leaf, and basil leaves.

The end product was yummy, but spicy, so I saved most of that for Jeff too.

I was glad I saved space though when I saw what was for dessert.

Poo gave us directions on the order in which to eat the fruits, since they were arranged from least sweet to sweetest, with the mango and sticky rice as the grande finale.  I discovered a new fruit that I liked, rambutan.  It looks like it came from an alien planet,

but it tastes delicious.  They're in season for the next couple months, so I'll eat as many as I can while I'm here.  My friends and I were wiped out on the ride home, but we all agreed that it had been a great adventure.

Ocean World and a Memorial Day Staycation

Since Jeff has Monday off for Memorial Day, we decided that this weekend should be a combination of family fun and grown ups only fun.  Saturday was just a lazy stay at home kind of a day.  We did do a family trip to Villa in the golf cart, but that was about it.  Elena loves riding in the golf cart.  The other day, Jeff went somewhere without her, and she cried and screamed when the golf cart pulled away and she wasn't on it.  Elena also gets so excited about car rides that, unlike most babies, she doesn't usually fall asleep in the car because she's busy looking out the window.  Knowing this, we planned our Sunday downtown trip for the afternoon to make sure she got a good nap at home in the morning.

Jeff and I had a room booked at the Centara Grand at Central World.  The mall is my favorite mall and the Red Sky is my favorite roof top bar, so staying there seemed like something we should do.  For extra fun, I got a deal on a club room through Agoda, and wow, the club part totally made the experience.  Our plan was to drop off the car at the hotel, go to Ocean World at Siam Paragon, come back to Central World for some shopping, and then check into the hotel and put Young and the girls in a taxi to go back home,

The best way to get from Central World to Siam Paragon is on the sky walk, but getting from the hotel, to the mall, to the sky walk, is a bit of a challenge.  The hotel only connects to the mall on floors 3,5, and 7, and in all three cases you have to walk through the parking garage to get from one to the other.  To make it extra fun and interesting, the sky walk is on the 2nd floor.  It's a very typical Thailand set up.  We're used to this way of doing things by now though, so we just took it in stride and maneuvered to where we wanted to be.  We had Elena in the stroller, but it was the quick collapse umbrella one, so we could easily hop on escalators when necessary.

We enjoyed the sky walk and when we got to Ocean World it was busy, but not so crowded that you couldn't get to what you wanted to see.

Vivian is always up for a fun a photo pose.

(Those crabs really are pretty freaky!)

The extra fun part this time though, was Elena being old enough to really get into what we were doing.  She still hasn't caught on to actually posing for the camera, but that's okay.  She and Vivi had a lot of fun with this little tunnel.

Elena was having so much fun, in fact, that she didn't want to get out, but there were other kids waiting for a turn, so out she had to come.  She got upset with us pretty much every time we took her away from an exhibit, but then she recovered as soon as she saw the next one.

There's even a little play ground inside, very conveniently located next to the bathrooms, so it was perfect for a pit stop.

Then it was into the underwater tunnel for a spectacular finish.

This one shark area is especially cool.

You'd think we would have maxed out on fun by then, but we couldn't resist going back to Central World for pretzels, ice cream, and a quick stop at our favorite book store.

Each girl got a new book, and then it was time to put them in a taxi with Young and send them home.  Elena had hit her limit, so she pitched a bit of a fit on the walk to the taxi.  Luckily, we had brought her back up car seat, and once she was strapped in she calmed down.  We waved good bye, and Young told us later that both girls fell asleep in the taxi.

Jeff and I freshened up and headed to Red Sky for happy hour.

We figured we would play dinner by ear, but we also wanted to check out the cocktails and canapes in the club lounge on the 51st floor.  The view was great,

the alcohol was complimentary, and there were lots of fairly substantial food choices, so we decided to just stay there.  There were only a few other people in the lounge, and there were several staff people there who very helpfully brought us more wine whenever our glasses got low.  We may have gotten a bit tipsy.

After an hour of that fun, we decided we should explore the mall, which was still hopping well into the night.  I took Jeff to the Jim Thompson store, and we found a perfect tie, which I made the executive decision to buy for him.  We definitely got turned around and lost a bit in the mall, but it was a fun adventure, and we eventually found our way back to the hotel.

In the morning we went back to the club lounge for a delicious breakfast, and then got home with minimal traffic.  It was a great outing, and the club option paid for itself and added some extra indulgence to the staycation.  

Safari World Trip Two

We have a crazy summer schedule ahead of us where we're going to be apart from Jeff for over a month, so we're trying to cram in as much family fun as possible while we're all still here together.  Given Elena's new interest in animals, a family trip to Safari World seemed like the perfect fit.  We invited some friends to come along and rented a van for the day.

The last time we went, we didn't do the drive through part, so we were determined to do it this time.  The morning started off rainy, but we figured it would clear, and that, ultimately, it would make for a slightly less hot day.  Given the weather, it made sense to do the driving part first, so we went through double chain linked fences into the park.  The first part you drive through is what you see from the giraffe feeding station, so there were lots of herbivores going about their business.

Some of them came right up to the van to check us out.

The birds on the lake were also really cool, especially in flight, but the flying was too hard to capture in pictures.

Elena was intrigued, but, because of the weather, both her window and Jeff's camera lens started to fog up.  Jeff took fewer pictures, and I passed Elena up to Young in the front since she was sitting up with the driver and had the best view.  Luckily, I did it right before we went through another set of gates into the tiger enclosure.  Elena was up there roaring with all her little might.

There were lots of tigers lounging, but some of them (cubs I think) were chasing each other around and playing, so that was fun to watch.

After the tigers, we went into a bear area.

We were hoping for some lions, so that we could have lions and tigers and bears, but the weather is really not good for lions here, so there aren't any out in the park.

By the time we drove back around to the main entrance, the rain had pretty much let up.  We went into the park at the same time as a bunch of tour groups.  They went left, so we went right.We had a good time walking around, pointing, and making animal sounds.  Just as we were getting really hot, we got to Egg World, our air conditioned pit stop.  There are some benches inside right in front of an air conditioning unit, so we set up there for a while.  The other family who was with us also have a toddler, almost exactly the same age as Elena, so the little people were toddling around and all the kids got some snacks.  It was a nice break before walking to everyone's favorite part, the giraffe feeding area.

Vivian is an old pro at this point.

Elena, on the other hand, was as intrigued as we had hoped she would be.

And really, who can blame her?  When a giraffe comes right up to you and sticks out its big purple tongue, it's pretty cool.

Both girls had fun feeding the giraffes, and so did the friends who came with us.  It was their first time at Safari World.  At the end of the day, we decided it was a tough call between which part was the most fun, the drive through the park or feeding the giraffes.  Either way, we started and ended on high notes.

Everyday Fun

This is such a wonderful place for the girls to grow up, and Jeff and I talk about how grateful we are all the time.

One great thing is that our neighborhood is safe and easy to explore.  Our street dead ends one house after ours, so Elena has a nice safe area to work on her walking.

Inside the house, we have enough space for a sofa cushion obstacle course which her stuffed tiger joins her on.

At least half of her vocabulary at this point is animal names and sounds.  Jeff got her this tiger shirt on one of his trips.  She will point to the tiger on her shoulder and give a pint sized roar.

The safe neighborhood and big house is great for Vivian too.  She and her friends can bike around, and when they want to play at the house, it's big enough for them to do so without waking up Elena from her nap.  This is really saying something, since most of their games seem to involve shrieking and giggling.  

Most of Vivian's neighborhood friends are American, but through the international school she has made an international assortment of friends.  This past Tuesday was an ideal example.  The kids had the day off for Coronation Day which is a celebration of the day the current king was crowned.  He's been king since 1946, but he was crowned Rama IX on May 5, 1950, which makes him Thailand's longest reigning monarch and adds extra fun to Cinco de Mayo.  Since the holiday fell on a Tuesday, most people just stayed in town and planned play dates.  In the morning, Vivian had a play date with a friend from Israel, and in the afternoon one of her Thai friends invited over a busload of kids.  I brought Vivian to the school for the pick up.  Vivian was the only kid on the bus whose parents were both from the States.  In addition to Thai kids, there was also one from Vietnam, one from Korea, one whose parents were Indian, and one who was half British and half Swedish.  I love that these will not just be places on a map to her, but places she has a personal connection to.  I also love that she's become such a good swimmer that I can send her off to a friend's house with her swimming gear and know that she'll be fine.

Life is good for me here too.  I'm in a book club, and we just finished reading Gone Girl.  We thought it would be fun to watch the movie together and compare the two, so I invited everyone to come over for a movie night.  A couple of the women suggested getting massages while we watched the movie.  This is something I've heard of, but I've never done before, so I said sure.  My friends showed up around 8:00pm after getting their kids into bed.  Everyone got a glass of wine or beer, and then around 8:30 five masseuses showed up, one for each of us.  We had our drinks and watched the first hour of the movie while getting a massage.  The massage was great, but I was glad I had seen the movie before, since there are certain logistical issues that arise when you're trying to watch a movie and get a massage at the same time.  Despite that though, it was completely decadent, and we were all sad to see the massage ladies go after an hour.  Luckily, the movie was good, and I popped plenty of popcorn, so we enjoyed the non-massage half as well.

I feel like when we first got here, our life was on fast forward with all the new experiences.  Now, the pace has slowed down, which I appreciate, but I want to make sure I keep reminding myself that the smaller new experiences are exceptional too.

Oops :-(

Let me open by pointing out that I have been driving on the atypical side of the car and on the atypical side of the road, in a foreign country with intense traffic, illogical road systems, and minimal signage for seven months, and while I have gotten lost a few times, I have never had an accident or hit any of the hundreds of motorcycles that have tried to kill themselves on my car.  The only thing I have done is bump the curb between the Starbucks and the international school and rip a hole in the front left tire of my car.  This is the hardest one to judge, because I am now sitting on the right hand side of the car which I am not used to.  My tire incident caused us to realize that we needed new tires for the car, and, more importantly, new brake pads, so it wasn't so bad.

What's a little worse is that yesterday I bumped a different curb with my new, front left tire and ripped a hole in it.  This was at the gas station where I had gone to fill up before taking Elena downtown for a doctor's appointment.  Luckily, Elena was at home with Young who was getting her ready, but, yet again, Young was waiting for me and I couldn't go anywhere.

There are, however, certain advantages to flattening your tire at a gas station.  Even though I was really upset and flustered, I was at least stopped next to the gas pump, so I got a full tank while I called one of my embassy friends to see if she could help me get downtown for the appointment.  Luckily, she answered the phone even though she was at a meeting.  She was ready to come and get me, but in another stroke of luck, she was sitting with a mutual friend of ours who has a car and driver and whose husband is out of town, so both the car and the driver were just hanging out at her house.  They sent him to rescue me and get me downtown.

By the time he came, I had rolled over to a little shack in the back corner of the gas station that was surrounded by tires.  I didn't see anyone around, but I figured that was the best place to be with a flat.  My friend's driver is Thai, so he helped me find someone and get my spare tire put on.  The service cost me 50 baht, which is about $1.50.  Then I drove my car home slowly, and the driver followed in my friend's car.

I had sent Young a text with a picture of the tire so that she would understand what was going on.

She was very sympathetic.  When I called Jeff to tell him what had happened, he was less sympathetic and more incredulous.  You did it again??  He moved past it though, and met me and Elena at the medical unit for hugs.  At that point though, Elena needed them more than I did since she got a shot.

In one more we live in such a small community type twist, our next door neighbor was also at the med unit.  She was planning to find a taxi to get home.  I said, no need, I have a car and a driver today.  The car's owner is a mutual friend, so she was more than happy for me to give my neighbor a ride home.

It all ended up working out, because I live in a fabulous and supportive community.  My lesson learned is that I can't let my focus drift even at my local gas station.  Even though things are starting to feel familiar, I have to stay vigilant about my driving, especially that darn front left tire.  

Happy Birthday to Me!

As if I hadn't had enough excitement, the day after we got back from Chiang Rai was my birthday.  Jeff and I had talked about doing a night downtown, a river cruise, or at least going out to dinner, but after all the flying around, all I wanted to do was be at home.  I also figured that since it was my birthday, I would have cookies instead of cake, since I like cookies better.

Baking is one of the few things Young is not really comfortable doing in the kitchen, so she let me make the cookies, but she did all the clean up.  I realized it was the first time I've made cookies here, since my main cookie eater is my dad.  Luckily, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are pretty straightforward, and they came out great despite my lack of recent practice.

Not to be outdone, Young made winged bean salad and stir fried chicken for dinner,

with mangoes and sticky rice for dessert.

It was all delicious, and afterwards I was too full and sleepy to watch the movie Jeff had downloaded for me.  What can I say?  I'm getting old.

My favorite present was actually something I got for someone else.  Elena likes to play outside, but it's been so hot, that she can't stay out for long.  Plus, there aren't many shaded areas for her to play in.  We just added some extra pavers to our front patio area, and I decided to take advantage of the space and buy Elena a cool water table to play in.  She was excited by it before we even finished putting it together, and Vivian was intrigued enough to get suited up and join in.  They had fun, but I think I had even more fun watching them enjoy themselves.

Vivian lost interest after the first day, but Elena has splashed around daily since.  She's growing up and becoming such a little person.  She's become very attached to the hat we bought for Vivian in Siem Reap, and she also likes to wear the backpack I got her in the States.  She points and yells until Young or I put them on her, and then she walks around the house.

Another thing about Elena that cracks me up is not only is she not afraid of the vacuum cleaner, but she's actually excited about it.  Young finally caved and let Elena "help" vacuum this week.

Watching Elena turn into a person has been one of the best parts of this past year of my life.  I can't wait to see what next year holds in store.