A Lazy Monday

 

This morning we had our recently-perfected, $4 family breakfast of three Thai sausage omelettes on rice, two orders of guava, and two orders of pineapple. I am really enjoying these light, healthy breakfasts; especially because we had a feast last night. Maybe we should talk about that first.

Flashback:

From my research prior to our trip, I knew that there was a restaurant in town that was known for its excellent Issan food. It was supposed to be near a hospital 30 minutes from our hotel. So, yesterday evening we grabbed our map and headed out in search of it. In the end, we would have missed it if we hadn't gone up to buy more water from the 7-11 that happened to be next door. After walking through the open barn door that was the entrance, we were seated in the back of the restaurant on a raised platform, and provided with glasses, bottles of water, and a pitcher of ice cubes. The portions were not very large but I ordered naamtok, somtum (unripe papaya salad), charcoal grilled chicken, sticky rice, and bottles of coke, with reckless abandon.

Heather is really good at deconstructing recipes and announced that the naamtok had been made with lime leaves as well as the usual mint, cilantro, lime juice, chilis, fish sauce, etc. I'm not going to say it was the best I've ever had (mostly because she is reading over my shoulder as I type this), but it was awesome. It's been a long time since I served in the North East, but I don't remember enjoying somtum this much! It is the closest I've ever come to considering being a vegetarian. The grilled chicken was good but I mostly appreciated it for helping to fill up the kids so that there would be more naamtok for me. We were all together around a table the perfect size for our family. There was Issan music playing in the background, the night air was starting to cool, and jing-joke lizards were chasing bugs on the ceiling above us. In short, it was the best restaurant dining experience I've ever had. The bill came to an eye-watering 640Baht which is more than double our most expensive meal so far; but after exchange, that works out to only $24 Canadian.

It's really going to be hard to go home after this.

End of flashback.

After breakfast we visited the temple that was immediately next door to our hotel. It had lovely grounds and a really neat square pool in the back corner that was filled with green water and catfish.

At the front of the temple was a table of ladies selling various birds which the buyer could then release, doing boon by their good dead. Holding the container of five cute little finches and getting video of the kids releasing them was easily worth the 100Baht price tag. This reminded me of a similar industry we encountered at the Temple of the Bells in Bangkok.

Flashback again:

Between the river and the entrance to Wat Rakhan were tables with buckets full of disgusting, slimy, water creatures. The idea is that you buy something to set free in the river and thereby gain merit or as they tell us tourists, "good luck".

I chose a couple of little soft shelled turtles because they were cheaper than the adult turtles, would be fun for the kids to hold, and were the only option that I could bring myself to even halfway care about whether they were set free or spent their entire life in a bucket.

I was OK with the contradiction that seemed inherent in the idea that trapping something and then setting it free again, counted as a good deed. But when we walked down the steps I thought "you gotta be kidding me". The river in that immediate area was so thick with catfish that we could have walked out and caught a passing water taxi without getting our shoes wet. I told the lady that I didn't think this would count as a good dead because these turtles were just going to get eaten. Her response in Thai was "won't get eaten, won't get eaten", which I felt was a compelling argument. Add to that, the fact that Mason's turtle pooped on his hand and we were moments away from being overwhelmed by pigeons, and I made the decision: set 'em free boys.

End of flashback again.

Needless to say, setting the birds free was a much more enjoyable experience. After the temple, we had a nap for a couple hours, and then headed to Wararot market. This market was my favorite so far as it was indoors, was less hectic, and had fewer foreigners than the other markets. At one of the stalls I found a bag of delicious little pineapple paste cookies that I used to love as a missionary but had since forgotten about. The bottom level of the building is made up of food stalls and I was able to check off my shopping list in about two minutes. I bought a coil of spicey Northern sausage, and three pieces of thinly sliced porkchop that were breaded and deep fried.

Heather and Ella spent a bit longer but they were also able to accomplish their goal: wander through four stories' worth of merchandise... and not buy a ruddy thing.

On our way back to the hotel we checked a couple tailors and found one that I felt pretty good about. We chose some fabric, settled on a price, and then the salesman started with the measurements. Having a tailored suit cut is not an experience that any kid this age deserves; but doing it this way is a little cheaper than getting them suits at Sears back home. We put a deposit down and have an appointment to go back on Thursday for their first fitting.

I mentioned jing-joke lizards earlier in the post so I thought I would include a photo of one we caught outside our hotel room a couple nights ago. These cute little guys live in the houses and eat the insects that congregate around light sources. They have sticky feet and are super fast, but we were able to catch him by draping a towel over him. We let him go afterwards so... probably gonna get some more good luck.

- C