Phuket...it's a Shore Thing

Just a Swingin' 

Thailand: Take-Two. So after getting to experience the exciting hustle and bustle of Bangkok a few weeks ago during one of Will's work trips, we couldn't wait to slow things down a bit and take another trip to a much tamer, much more tropical side of Thailand. This time we were flying off to the sunny shores of Phuket (pronounced Pooh-ket), an island in South Thailand. Although Will has been traveling pretty much nonstop since we moved over here at the end of January, most, all, of his trips have been business-related. Having accompanied him on a couple of these work trips so far, I can vouch for the fact that in between all of his meetings, classes, and presentations, there is very little time for him to do any significant sight-seeing (or relaxing for that matter). And then along came Phuket. This was a belated anniversary trip for us that we've been trying to reschedule since March and just now found a weekend that we could squeeze it in...and I have to say that it was well worth the wait! We actually stayed in a little hotel on a little beach even further south of Phuket on the very remote island of Racha Yai. After a quick two-hour flight into Phuket and a fun 40-minute speedboat ride out to Racha Yai, we found ourselves in a perfect little paradise all our own. Well, all our "own" plus the hotel staff and a few day-trippers that came out to snorkel and scuba in these crystal clear waters. Being that it was the "off-season," come to find out, the hotel was quieter than usual, and we took full advantage of the situation. We had the beach to ourselves, which meant having full control over the beach chairs and the bartender. The great staff there did a great job of catering to our every need. We learned early on to make fast friends with the restaurant crew, and so every meal and drink came served with personalized touches, compliments of our new friends! They showered us with undivided attention and made great suggestions on what to see and do around the island. Thanks to their advice, we rented a scooter to scoot around in for a couple of days whenever we felt like venturing out for a fun little island adventure. One of these little adventures of ours consisted of pulling over at one of the scenic look-out points, where we thought we would just take a couple quick pictures of the sea and shore below. One of the locals, however, had a completely different idea in mind. When he spotted us taking pictures of everything but each other, he stepped in an offered to take a picture of the two of us together.  We've never been great at getting other people to take pictures of the both of us, so we jumped at the chance to have him snap some picture proof that we were actually there! Little did we know that a quick picture would turn into a 30-minute photo shoot though, in which he insisted on making us pose in every gimmicky, prom-like pose imaginable. Will and I were laughing so hard through the entire "shoot" that we could hardly hold ourselves together enough to maintain the carefully choreographed poses he'd meticulously placed us in. He was obviously taking his self-appointed photographer job very seriously so we went along with it as long as we could possibly stand it before our cheeks starting to twitch from smiling and laughing so hard. Back at the hotel, our nice manager friend offered to take us snorkeling for our very first time ever, which we thoroughly enjoyed despite a somewhat leaky mask. The combination of crystal clear waters and bright, colorful fish made for some very successful snorkeling. I also got to enjoy my very own private fishing trip after shamelessly begging and pleading with one of the staff members that I just had to go! When asked if I should rent any equipment for the fishing trip, he smiled and said that everything we needed was already on the boat. This "equipment" that he had for us, was simply a spool of fishing line, a hook, and a plastic bag of squid to use for bait that he'd caught by hand earlier that morning. Apparently that's all we needed because just a few seconds after casting the reel out (I mean dropping the line in the water), the fish started biting! I reeled in, ahem, spooled in my first catch in years! After a couple more little catches, we decided to turn back with the tide and head for the hotel where Will and I enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing on the beach, playing cards while the afternoon shower passed through, and ordering specialty drinks and eats from our restaurant buddies. There's just something to be said for getting an authentic Thai massage on an authentic Thai beach and  then eating authentic Pad Thai from an authentic Thai Chef. It was definitely an amazing experience for us both, and if any of you ever find yourself on this side of the world, we highly recommend making a pit stop in Phuket while you're here! 

A Room with a View

 

Taking it all in 

Our Snorkeling Spot

You get a line, I get a....spool???

Catch of the Day

Our Ship's Come In

The Photo Shoot

That's Right

Our Photographer

All Thai'd Up...

Street Performer at Chatuchak

It's been a while since the last post, but I have a good excuse. Well, kind of. Will and I have been lucky enough to take a couple of trips to Thailand recently....one for business one for pleasure. Oh who am I kidding? They've both been for pleasure (well, for me anyway). On the first trip, Will spent 12 hard-working days conducting a training class in Bangkok, and I got to fly up over the weekend to help make sure he got his fill of sight-seeing and souvenir shopping on his days off. Because really, when all you've been doing is working nonstop for two weeks in a row all you want to do is hit the town and brave the Bangkok battlegrounds of cross-dressers, street peddlers, and tuk tuk drivers, right?!? It was definitely quite an experience to say the least. I dragged him to the famous Chatachak Weekend Market first thing Saturday morning where we did our best to navigate the thousands of stalls looking for some kind of Bangkok bargain to bring home with us. After roaming around aimlessly for a bit and feeling completely overwhelmed by all of the sights, sounds and smells of this fabulous and frightening display of market madness, we decided the best thing to do was to just belly up to the nearest hawker stall (outdoor street food station) and order the best local dish that Bangkok has to offer...pad thai. After all, no person should try to tackle this place on an empty stomach. It's dangerous. Bangkok Dangerous. So after fueling up and devising some sort of a game plan, we hit the outdoor outlets once again with reckless abandon and finally ended up haggling our way to some seriously discounted prices on an elephant t-shirt and chopsticks. That's right. We are master negotiators. Ok, ok, so you have to start somewhere. We figured we'd start with the little things (like chopsticks) and then see what other kind of bargaining skills we could "pick up" after a little more practice. After the market, we took a much needed trip to the cleverly named "Pickled Liver Pub" to pickle our livers a bit and gear up for a big night out on the town. Having been to Bangkok on a previous work trip, Will had already been informed by all of the other American, or more specifically, Cajun, expats over here, that there was an incredible Cajun restaurant named Bourbon Street (appropriately enough). We couldn't wait to sink our teeth into a bowl of spicy gumbo, a piled-high po-boy and some of the other Louisiana favorites served up by their native Louisianan chef. What's even better is that this place sells to-go boxes of Andouille Sausage and Boudin (something NOT found in KL with it being a Muslim country and all). We had him load us up with a cooler of Andouille to tote back on the plane with us so we could freeze it for future batches of gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans 'n rice whenever the mood strikes, and I have a feeling the mood is going to be striking again very soon now that football season  is here! We finished up the weekend by taking a fun little tour of the Jim Thompson House on Sunday, buying some of his famous silk napkins and placemats, and then making one last lunch run back to Bourbon Street before flying back "home." It was a perfect trip that combined the best of Asian Culture, Cajun Cuisine, and Souvenir Success Stories. Bangkok, we'll be back!

One of Chatuchak's Many Food Stalls

Bourbon Street, Thailand Style

Our very animated "Tuk Tuk" Driver 

Pulling Teh Tarik....This Guy Has Nothing on Me

Bangkok's Got Talent

Because Who Doesn't Need a Set of Elephant Napkins???

What's Cookin'...

The scalloped edge curry puff

So last week I decided to up the ante on Adventure Day a bit and join forces with 10 other expat wives for an all day cooking class at a local Malaysian bungalow led by local Malaysian chefs. It was, dare I say, very "local." On the menu for the day was Beef Rendang, Curry Puffs, and Teh Tarik (which I suppose with enough imagination and wishful thinking is the Malaysian equivalent of beef stew, pot pies, and sweet tea.). A far cry from my beloved Luby's LuAnn Platter from yesteryear, but as they say, when in Malaysia....

 So anyway, we all met up at one of the girl's houses and then caravaned our way up to this cute little cooking bungalow outside of town where we were met with the most gracious of Malaysian hostesses who seemed to be just as entertained by all of us "expats" as we were by them! Cooking with all local ingredients very common to these parts, we found ourselves drowning in a combination of our own sweat and the buckets of palm oil used for frying up all of these local "delicacies," but we had a blast diving in to all of these Asian flavors. The beef rendang is simply beef  that's been slow cooked/fried in oil with a tasty spice mixture of fresh ginger, galangal, turmeric, lemon grass, Thai chilies, and a few other ingredients I've either forgotten, can't pronounce, or decided to omit from my own personal pot of rendang. As fare as the curry puffs go, well you can just get as creative with them as you want to be. They're a lot of fun to play with. To form the "puff" part of the dish, you basically just start with a mound of butter, a couple handfuls of flour and then form the dough into nice, thin little circles. Next you saute whatever you're stuffing your puff with (we used diced onions and potatoes seasoned with....well...curry...in our class, but the puff possibilities are endless). Then you pile a spoonful of the stuffing onto the middle of the pastry rounds, flap it over, seal up the sides, and then make a lovely little scalloped edge using the part of your thumb and forefinger that I apparently have absolutely no control over because my "scalloped" edges looked more like, well, the exact opposite of scalloped edges whatever that's called. The very sweet, very patient chefs at the school noticed that I was in obvious need of some professional puff pointers because they came to my rescue and worked with me until I got it right....well, as close to right as they decided I was going to get it anyway. After shaping them into "perfect" little puffs, we dunked those little guys into the sauce pans and just let the palm oil work their magic until they were nice and crispy. Finally, it was teh tarik time....my favorite part of the glass. "Teh tarik" literally means pulled tea (and pulling tea around here is a serious art form). Workers in coffee stands all over town actually compete for bragging rights (and tarik trophies) over who can pull the best tea. It works like this: You have to pour piping hot tea from one jug into the other. The higher the pour, the thicker (and better) the froth. And tea here isn't just tea. It's 1 part tea, 1 part boiling water, and 10 parts sugar and condensed milk. Pulling the tea this way helps to bring out all the flavors in the milk and also helps cool the beverage at the same time, making it ready to drink as soon as it's served (how silly of me for serving mine over ice all this time when I could have been pulling it to cool it off instead)! I feel a competition coming on at the next family reunion!!

Beef Rendang - Before 

Beef Rendang - After

My not-so-perfect puffs 

Pulling Teh Tarik...an accident just waiting to happen

BUSting Through...

Battle of the Buses

So Malaysia isn't exactly known for their strict traffic laws....or for strictly enforcing their traffic laws at least. I can't wait to hit the roads every day and see what kind of wild stunts these crazy drivers (myself included) are trying to pull behind the wheel of their locally made and manufactured Proton (the pride of Malaysia), their scooter, or most shockingly, their city bus. The buses here are absolutely out of control! I can't tell you the number of times we've seen one of them taking a left hand turn from the far right lane, cutting off 4 lanes of traffic along the way or the number of times they'll just pull over randomly without a bus stop anywhere in sight to either drop off a passenger or pick one up. My all time favorite bus story so far though, came from a friend of mine who said she just recently witnessed a city bus speeding down the highway and then all of a sudden came to a screeching halt, threw the bus in reverse, backed up at full speed (still on the highway, mind you), and then cut across the road to take the exit he apparently had flown passed just moments earlier. A city bus did this! Ooh, and just a couple of weeks ago, I was driving Will home from work, minding my own business in my own "lane" (and I use that term very loosely because lanes don't really mean anything to anyone around here), when all of a sudden we found ourselves literally in the middle of a bus vs. bus showdown right in front of us. One of the buses had just pulled out from a bus stop on the left-hand side of the street, the other bus was trying to make his way from the right-hand lane across traffic to make a left-hand turn, and neither one of them wanted to let the other one in front (and neither one of them cared anything at all about the fact that they were about to sandwich us in between them both)! We didn't know what to do so I just sat there laughing nervously and then managed to at least get my phone out and try to capture a photo of us trying to bust through the buses and not let either one of them in!! I'm not sure if the picture actually does it justice or not, but we were seriously wedged right in between these two big buses as they came head to head with each other! Well, as the old saying goes, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," so I put the phone/camera away, started pounding on my horn, and honked my way right through the intersection, intent on letting them know that I/we (after all, Will was in this with me whether he liked it or not) could not be intimidated! In fact, after first seeing how people drive around here, Will and I challenged each other very early on to a friendly little competition of which one of us could pull off the most ridiculous, yet successful, driving maneuver while we're here. We'll let you know who wins!

Scooter pulling a lawn mower down the road

The Classic Malaysian Motorbike-and-Gas-Tank Side Car

I "Art" KL...

National Art Gallery, Malaysia

So after the last adventure day of getting lost in the jungle with leeches, we decided we'd head out for something a little more sophisticated and civilized this time around. Combing through our self-made list of Malaysian-musts, we immediately focused our attention on the "culture" category and all agreed that a trip to the National Art Gallery would be a perfect, climate-controlled way for us to immerse ourselves in the local art scene. I picked the girls up mid-morning (and by "girls" I mean my friends Lauren and Ela), and we headed to the gallery, conveniently located right on the edge of town. It was a quick and easy 10 minute drive for us....almost too quick and easy, in fact! So after circling the gallery a few times and driving the wrong way through the parking lot just to make our adventure seem a little more adventurous, I finally picked a place to park, and off we went to see some art. Upon entering the gallery, we learned that in conjunction with Malaysia's upcoming National Day next week (a public holiday in which the country will be celebrating 53 years of independence), the gallery is currently featuring exhibitions by local artists whose works revolve around themes of peace and patriotism. The museum was decked out with colors of the Malaysian flag (red, white, and blue appropriately enough), and paintings of the Bunga Raya, the national flower of Malaysia commonly known as the Hibiscus. We even got to paint our own Bunga Rayas after having talked our way into the children's wing of the art gallery and were able to bring our own personalized artwork home with us. I'm proud to say that my bunga raya is now on public display on the refrigerator door of our shiny LG fridge in the kitchen at 3 Persiaran Ampang (our address in Malaysia).

Malaysian Flags Hanging in the entrance of the Art Gallery

My very own Bunga Raya painting

Living in a Haze...

Life in the tropics can be great. With guaranteed warm weather, sunshine, and "seasonal" fruits that are always in season, we get to experience all the perks associated with the perpetual summer. With all of those perks, however, there is also one pesky, pesty little problem that leaves one....er...."itching" for cooler climates. Mosquitoes. These "dengue" mosquitoes here are out of control. The mosquitoes are such an issue here that instead of perfume, we pride ourselves on who wears the nicest smelling Off Spray or Skin-so-Soft (the best smelling folks here have all imported their respective sprays, by the way). Instead of ornate candlesticks, most restaurants use mosquito coil centerpieces to wow their diners. Instead of tennis or badminton rackets on game nights, our friends here all pull out their mosquito rackets for a friendly game of bug zapping. And instead of traditional mosquito repellent methods like simply lighting some citronella candles around the yard, we have a team of pest control guys that come out and fog the entire property, inside and out with their heavy duty mosquito-killing (and no telling what else kind-of-killing) chemicals. Imagine sitting at home just to look out the window and seeing a team of "Ghostbusters" swarming the property in full-fledged gas masks and uniforms spraying no-telling-what into the air around you. And you're in Malaysia. Yikes. The first time these guys came in and took the house by "storm" I was a nervous wreck. I mean, this crazy fog stuff was actually seeping in through all of the windows, doors, and various other cracks in the house until a nice, thick haze settled in all around the place. But once I made it through what I considered to be the most critical phase of fog-induced fear, and I was certain that I'd survived whatever chemicals they were spraying into the air all around me, I learned to really appreciate what they were doing for us and have even come to looking forward to their bimonthly foggings and to living a life as mosquito-free as possible until the next fog wears off!

Typical "Foggy" Morning in Malaysia

The Mosquito Racket (Zapper) - Maybe the best gift idea ever!

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls...

The beautiful waterfalls at the "so-called" Templer's Park

Two of my friends (Lauren and Ela) and I have decided that Tuesdays should be "adventure day," so we've taken it upon ourselves to flip through all of our guide books, websites, and local magazines for touristy suggestions on what to see and do in these parts. We've compiled a big list based on what sounded like the most appealing suggestions to us and have broken it down into a few different categories, including, but not limited to the following themes: Nature/Sweaty/Outdoorsy Adventures, Cultural Adventures, Culinary Adventures, Shopping Adventures, and my personal favorite, Miscellaneous Adventures that could be a combination of any (or none) of the above. And to further complicate things, we've categorized them even more into "City Centre" adventures, outskirts of town adventures, day trip adventures, and even weekend/extended leave adventures. Some of these are pretty tame adventures, but some of them are actually adventure adventures. Last week was an adventure adventure, but we didn't know know until it was too late. We wanted to go on a simple little hike through a pretty little park with pretty little waterfalls and have a lovely little picnic afterward. We should have known something was a little off when the website described this place as the "So-Called Templer's Park" about 20 km north of town. So-called?!? What does that even mean? Is it so-called Templer's or is it a so-called Park? I really don't know. Anyway, this so-called 20 km drive to the so-called park took a little over two hours after the so-called GPS directions led us all over so-called Malaysia. But fear not, because one thing we've all learned about living and driving here is that you never, ever, ever leave home without a full tank of gas....and without going to the bathroom first! Even if you know exactly where you're going and exactly how long it should take to get somewhere, the traffic is so out of control here that a simple 5 minute or 5 kilometer journey could actually take hours!! So, with a full tank of gas and a full dose of enthusiasm on adventure week number 1, we didn't let the wrong turns or the missed exits dampen our spirits in the least. Nope, we just kept right on going until we finally found the park and then hit the trail with both feet running walking (the running didn't come until later). It started out simple enough. A nice, wide, flat trail with beautiful trees on either side and the relaxing sounds of trickling water from the falls somewhere off in the distance. Butterflies fluttering all around us, birds chirping overhead, rays of sun bursting through the canopy trees. A simple hike through the pretty park right? Uh uh. After we had been walking for a little while, the trails began to get a little more narrow, a little more overgrown, and the butterflies, birds, and rays seemed to have disappeared. Again, having already traveled so far just to get there, and for some reason convinced that this trail made a full loop, we weren't about to turn back. Yet. We were going to make sure that we were really in over our heads (as opposed to just kinda in over our heads) before having to swallow our pride and turn back around. We came to a couple of dead ends along the way, had to limbo our way under some of the branches and shrubs growing over the trail and waded our way through a stream or two before finally reaching a point where we literally couldn't have gone any further (not without a machete or chainsaw anyway). The trail had become so overgrown at this point that we were finally convinced we had somehow gotten off course.....or that the so-called course just hadn't been traveled by anyone in, well, years. So we turned back around, crossed the same streams, limboed under the same branches, and bypassed the same dead ends that all tried to stop us the first time around. Only this time, I felt a little something "poking" me in the ankle. What I originally thought hoped was just a thorn actually turned out to be......are y'all ready for this....a leech?!?!?! Wanting to remain calm, I quickly reached down and swatted it off of me and then looked up and saw one on the back of Ela's shoe in front of me. I walked up there and kicked it off of her so I wouldn't freak her out by screaming that she had a leech on her (yeah, so going up there and kicking her seemed like a much more normal thing to do). :) Anyway, we're all starting to hyperventilate a little bit at this point so after making it to the next clearing, we all stopped, kicked off our socks and shoes, pulled up our pants, and did a frantic inspection of each other to see just how many of these blood-sucking leeches had gotten a hold of us.I think I won. I had a couple of 'em on my ankles, a couple more on the back of my leg, and a couple more than are forever engraved in my nightmares memory of our "simple hike" that day. I'm not sure if it was the loss of blood from all the leeches or just the whole gross factor of knowing there were leeches on us that left us all feeling a bit light headed, but we were definitely feeling a bit queasy by this point! So we high-tailed it out of that place and made it back to the car in record time (or what I imagine to be record time for anyone trying to get out of there), and hosed off, wiped down, and did another thorough inspection of each other before finally regaining enough composure to sit down to our nice, civilized picnic lunch, complete with smoked salmon, cheese, fruits, sandwiches, juice, and even real plates and silverware (thanks to Ela's proper Picnic Bag from the UK)! All in all, not a bad adventure adventure!!

Dead End Number 1....not turning back! 

Dead End Number 2....still not turning back!

Looking for Leaches....thinking about turning back. 

LEECHES....They got me! Definitely turning back now!!!

Ahhh, a well-deserved, so-called civilized picnic at last!