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Some of the Warm Heart Thai Staff Where to start? I had planned to do a whole entry just about food, but since I went a good 3 or 4 days with little to no internet, I'm now terribly behind and will have to just right about food, elephants, and the kitchen sink.
So eating in Thailand is a fantastic experience. Almost everything is tasty, and each meal comes with the adventure of unidentifiable ingredients and the risk of too much spice with not enough rice to save your mouth from burning. One day at lunch we were treated to something new...jumping shrimp! We found out that jumping shrimp is the literal name of the meal when a few of the shrimp jumped right out of the bowl as we opened it. We added some chili and lime and shaking to stun them, then ate the tasty shrimp while they were still alive! Poor things. Another first was pig's blood stir fried in with noodles and assorted veggies. Not my favorite, but I gave it a try, along with some grilled pig's intestines with ketchup. Better than the blood, but I'll probably pass in the future.
Cooking is an experience here too, and while I haven't
Jumping Shrimp
I am holding one down with my fork because it kept trying to make an escape. Fortunately the only trip it made was through my esophagus and into my stomach. learned any great secrets to Thai cooking yet, I've spent a good deal of time washing and cutting vegetables. The best experience so far was our Fourth of July Thai Barbecue, a staff appreciation party that centered around 3 hours of feasting. The entire evening took all 20+ of us to set up. One group set up the office, while another picked up karaoke equipment, one went to market to buy the food, and the rest of us headed to the local temple. Now, how does a visit to a temple aid in throwing a party? Turns out the monks are kind enough to collect and store all sorts of pots, pans, utensils, bowls, glasses...everything you need to throw a huge dinner party! We loaded up the pickup truck, complete with propane stove and giant tank of gas, and then headed back to the office to finish setting up. Next up was washing the dishes and cutting and washing the veggies. I found more than a few caterpillars still living in the cabbage, a sure sign that they were super fresh. After a brief stint of washing in the rain, we brought everything into the outdoor part of the office
and set up to begin barbecuing. We had a charcoal filled cement pot with a metal grilling plate on top. This had holes in the top to grill pork and beef, while the base was a giant ring used to hold soup and cook vegetables. We feasted on spinach, cabbage, pork, beef and glass noodles, complete with a tasty mustardy chili sauce for the meat. It was really amazing, and we ate until we couldn't possibly grill anything else. The boys, of course, were more than happy to finish off our leftovers.
It was also a great opportunity to bond with the Thai staff of Warm Heart. We had met them several times over the course of the week during orientation activities, but there was something about cooking and preparing and cleaning up after together that really made us feel like a cohesive unit. The night ended with floating lanterns. The lanterns have flames in the bottom and work like hot air balloons, floating high into the sky. The effect is quite beautiful, and we even had a few sparklers attached so that we could enjoy our own mini-fireworks display. A truly unique and yet homey Fourth of July!
More Warm Heart Staff
Having fun at our staff appreciation barbecue. Rose, Huyen, Andrea and I went straight from cleaning with Rose's friend Pi Nang to Chiang Mai. This journey ended with a hospital stay...Pi Nang owns a local hospital and housed us in empty rooms that were waiting to be renovated. Much cheaper than a hostel, and we even had clean linens and towels and our own private bathrooms. So my first overnight hospital stay was not scary at all.
Saturday morning we grabbed a quick breakfast and set out to explore the old abandoned part of Chiang Mai. It turned out to be a collection of ruins that were uncovered after years of being erased by floods. So it made sense that the whole city moved as the Mae Ping river drowned the old section. We saw dozens of Wats and spent a few hours composing group photos, many of which are attached here. Poor Pi Nang spent the whole day with four cameras on his arm so that we could all have slightly different versions of the same photo. We traveled through the ruins via horse and buggy, which was also a lot of fun. I think that was the first horse and buggy ride for
Andrea stole Andy's Hat
Which was a gift from a local woman we met in the weaving room at a nearby Wat. me since Maaike and I took a tour of Tombstone back in 2000. Ah, the good old days!
Our next stop was the Chiang Mai Women's Prison. I'm only just now realizing how crazy the day sounds. "Well, we spent the weekend at a hospital in Chiang Mai and went to prison..." There's a heart attack inducing sentence! We weren't there for any crimes (the local Phrao Police Chief was kind enough to meet us earlier in the week and warn us away from gambling and underage drinking). We were there for massages! One of best secrets in Chiang Mai (well, not secret if you read Lonely Planet) is that reformed female prisoners work at a local massage place to earn money. So for 180 baht (less than $6) we each enjoyed an hour long Thai massage. It was great, and the twisting and turning and pulling was not as painful as I had feared. In fact, I can't wait to go back for more! The four of us were lined up all in a row and the room was filled with giggles as we each got rocked or twisted suddenly or inadvertently tickled.
Dinner that night was
at the Riverside Restaurant, where we placed our order and then climbed onto a river boat so that we could eat while cruising up and down the Mae Ping river. We ordered an assortment of dishes and feasted. Which seems to be a theme here in Thailand.
After another night in the hospital we headed up to Mae Sa Elephant Camp. What an experience! We saw elephants playing soccer, darts, dancing, hauling logs, and even painting! I'd actually seen the painting before on the Today Show, but it was pretty amazing to watch it in person. The trainers keep their hands on the elephant's ear, and I think somehow guide it to create the artwork. But it's hard to say. I mean, these were pretty talented elephants. After killing some time we were able to go for an elephant ride. Although the Asian elephants are smaller than their African counterparts, when you're sitting on top of one they seem much, much taller. Which just meant that it was like a live action Disney ride and a lot of fun. Our elephant was very determined to eat, and stopped often to do so. This just delighted us and angered our
"driver." But the elephant didn't seem to care what anyone thought, she just kept munching away.
Lunch was a few meters away at a beautiful restaurant that was tucked into the jungle next to a river. There was even a waterfall five feet away from our table. Dining in nature doesn't get much better. The Queen's Project Botanical Gardens were next. We were especially impressed by a large collection of greenhouses, and spent a few hours taking as many pictures on macro setting as possible. After we had our fill of chasing butterflies and staring at orchids, we went back into town for some Walmart-esque shopping. It's so good to have conditioner and laundry detergent!
Our final stop of the night was the Sunday Night Walking Market. We followed the "rules" and just looked on our first pass through. Then we feasted on mango with sticky rice, friend banana, and grilled casava until we couldn't manage to eat anything else. No sooner did we get up from our table than the rain started, causing many of the vendors to pack up. So much for our shopping trip! All I managed was a t-shirt and a wedding present for
Maaike and Paul. So at least I made the most important purchase (the t-shirt - duh). We finally got a ride back to Phrao around midnight, and had to wake up poor Pi Peter to open the gate and let us in.
It was hard to get up for work on Monday, but so far we've managed to get through 2 days of the workweek without falling asleep on the job. More to come soon!
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Maaike
non-member comment
living vicariously...
Locked in the library and procrastinating reading your blog :) thanks in advance for the present!!!! Wish I was there....though the jumping shrimp made me gag a little....;)