Green Around the Globe » Thailand

Out from Chinese Censorship

Keith — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:00:40 +0000

The land of the rising sun has provided us with many things over the last two days. Delicious sushi and beer, orderly street crossings and clean air to name just a few. But one of the most exciting things for flashpackers like us has to be the uncensored and incredibly high-speed internet we have at our hostel. We have had our Mainland Southeast Asia highlight video finished for weeks but despite having a VPN we were unable to get it past the Chinese censors and uploaded to Vimeo. Check it out below, and if you have not yet seen the first two episodes you can check them out here.

Also be sure to to check out our guest post on the Art of Backpacking here. The post details our experiences and features some of our best pictures from Expo 2010 in Shanghai. We will soon have a post here highlighting the different sustainability efforts we saw at the Expo, but this post gives our overview and recommendations if you are planning a visit to Shanghai and the Expo. Be sure to leave a comment on Art of Backpacking with your thoughts.

Songkran 2010

Amy — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:00:19 +0000

A rainbow of shiny plastic guns erupts, spewing icy-cold water on laughing strangers passing by. Buckets of water warmed by the sun float out above the crowds, tipped just so to drench from head to toe. Hands covered in talc-paste come at your face, your hair, your sunglasses from every direction. Within minutes everyone is a wet, pasty mess, and it is impossible not to smile.

Welcome to Songkran, the celebration of the Thai New Year. Keith and I had been looking forward to our first Songkran since the beginning of our trip planning. We had heard from other travelers that this was one festival not to be missed and planned the Southeast Asian leg of our trip to ensure that we’d be back in Thailand for the celebration. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

Keith and I made our way around the Khao San Road area and within minutes were soaked through to the skin and laughing amidst the arcs of water flying all around us. When it’s over 100 degrees, being doused with ice water every few minutes is definitely the most comfortable approach to being outside. We followed the joyful crowds and slowly moved through the center of the celebrations on jam packed Khao San Road. Never before had we experienced such a carefree mass of humanity, everyone grinning from ear to ear and joining in the goodhearted fun.

The Thai people are famously laid back and peaceful, and we were both struck with the thought that such a public celebration in any city in the United States would easily devolve into a dangerous or even tragic situation. Yet here, hot and crowded as it was, we were engulfed by smiles and the spirit of fun.

Then we reached the end of Khao San Road. The crowd thinned out. The laughter was suddenly muted. Instead of plastic toy water guns, the shops were lined with bullet holes. Instead of streams of water and talc, the asphalt was stained with blood. A makeshift memorial arose in the middle of the street with pictures of the dead, flags and twisted metal debris replacing the colorful buckets and beer cans of the party taking place just meters away. Just four days earlier, this was the site of a violent clash between the Red Shirt protesters and government troops that left 24 people dead.

The juxtaposition of such a peaceful celebration and such violence was surreal. How could such sadness have occurred just four days before such joy? It was a gruesome reminder of how quickly a peaceful crowd can turn dangerous and of the three days we spent mostly holed up in our Bangkok hotel watching the news and trying to rearrange our travel plans.

A few days later we were safely out of Bangkok and watching the headlines of increasing tension, police raids and more violent clashes. We will try to remember Songkran for the friendly, easygoing people, the beauty of the throngs of humanity letting loose in the world’s biggest and most entertaining public water fight. But I don’t think we’ll forget the shock of suddenly swallowing our joy and being confronted with the reality of the price that those fighting for a political voice have paid.

In other news, Greenbiz.com recently published an article we wrote about a renewable energy company that we met with in Cambodia. Be sure to check it out here.

Northern Thailand Pictures

Amy — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:58:38 +0000

Below are our favorite pictures from our 2 weeks in Northern Thailand, including Chiang Mai and Sukhothai, before heading back to Bangkok and flying out to Bhutan, enjoy!

As always you can find all of our other photos and videos from the trip here.

Dinner in Bangkok

Amy — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:00:34 +0000

Because it’s hot in Bangkok. Because we’re adults. Because we can.

Buddha’s Wisdom

Keith — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:00:31 +0000

While sitting in the shade near Wat Tra Phang Thong, in Sukhothai, Thailand a sign about 5 feet up in a nearby tree caught my eye. Walking over I found that it was a bit of Buddhist wisdom on a hand-painted sign. The advice struck a cord with me, “Old Age is no cause for regret, regret that one is old, having lived in vain.” As we walked the rest of the grounds surrounding the Wat we saw that there were over 15 of these sayings on nine different signs.

In an effort to share them, as well as pictures of the many beautiful Buddha images and statues in Sukhothai, below is a two minute video slide show of the Buddha’s Wisdom and Images. Enjoy!

Hanging Out (Literally) in Chiang Mai

Amy — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:01:57 +0000

The carabineer is clipped to my harness as I stand at the edge of a wooden platform. Our guide triple checks my straps, giving them a solid tug to make sure my harness is secure.

Ready?

Umm, not really, but for some reason I silently nod yes.

Ok. One. Two. Three…

I am flying feet first high above the forest floor, through the lush canopy of leaves and branches that a family of gibbons calls home. Or so I’m told. Honestly, my eyes were pretty much closed on that first zip line. Have I mentioned that I have a serious fear of heights?

After a few more runs across the zip lines, I was getting the hang of it and slowly but surely loosened my death-grip on the harness and began having fun. A lot of fun. I happily zipped along bouncy lines, crossed suspension bridges and abseiled down between platforms. I even dove off a platform head first with nothing but a short bungee cord connected between the back of my harness and the zip line as I flew across the tree canopy like a less than graceful superwoman into a cargo net.

Never in a million years would I have ever imagined not only zip lining through a forest canopy, but also really enjoying it. As we’ve mentioned before, much of the purpose of this trip is to push ourselves beyond our comfort zones and try new things. With Flight of the Gibbon, I was able to face my fear of heights and have a blast in the treetops. Who knows, maybe next I’ll try canyon swinging in New Zealand…

Happy Birthday!

Keith — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:01:56 +0000

Today is Amy’s birthday and while we will be celebrating in Sukhothai, midway between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, we took the opportunity while we were in Chiang Mai a couple of days ago to celebrate with three days at the Le Meridien. Using Starwood points we were able to really relax and enjoy three days in luxurious comfort for free. Below is a picture of the great chocolate brownie cake that the manager sent to our room.

Southeast Asia Highlights

Keith — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:31:40 +0000

After a 4 hour upload to YouTube (and still less than stellar resolution) our highlight video from our two months in the southern region of Southeast Asia including; Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia is finally up. With this being our second regional highlights video it warrants a new page under the Pictures & Video page, introducing the Regional Travel Video page. As we complete each regional highlight video (one about every two months) we will post it there. Don’t worry though, for the amount of work these take (6-8 hours each), we will also be doing a post about each one as it is completed. So if you are a facebook fan or subscriber to our email updates you will find out as soon as it goes up. And if you are are not, what is stopping you?

Enjoy the video and the snow if you are in on the East Coast in the States.

Southern Thailand Highlights and Recommendations

Keith — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:00:56 +0000

We wanted to publish a quick list of the key highlights and some recommendations on places to skip while in Southern Thailand. We have grouped by each location we stayed at in our 3 weeks starting in Bangkok and leaving from Phuket.

Bangkok

Lodging: Wendy House was an excellent guest house only a few hundred meters from the National Stadium SkyTrain stop and the huge MBK shopping center. A double ensuite with A/C ran us just over 1,000 baht per night and that price includes a great breakfast every morning. The staff is incredibly helpful and the rooms are clean and bright.
Food: As we have written about before here, the best food we had in Bangkok was at the Pad Thai ladies near the Grand Palace who can whip you up a delicious lunch of Pad Thai or Pad See Eew for a whopping 40 baht.
Getting Around: The first recommendation is the SkyTrain. It is fast, cheap and goes near most of the major sites in the city. When you are forced to negotiate Bangkok traffic for the cheapest fare always take a metered cab. Tuk-tuks are fun for short rides but you will not be able to beat the price of the metered cab. Also beware that if a tuk-tuk driver offers you a really low fare they are taking you to a friend’s shop along the way.

Koh Samui

Lodging: if you don’t mind being away from the action right on the beach the Samui Reef View Resort is a great value. The pool is really nice to cool off while having a relaxing morning at the resort. While it is 3K or so from town, Angus, the owner, is very helpful and willing to drive you down to and pick up from the beach anytime from 7:30am till 10pm.
Food: The night market in Lamai Beach is the best value for your money. Be sure to get a Nutella & banana pancake from the guy right near the street, they are amazingly decadent.

Koh Tao

Diving: If you are a beginner I would recommend staying away from Simple Life Divers. I finished my Advanced Open Water Certification by doing three adventure dives with them and can honestly say I did not learn a thing. Also the equipment is in dire need of replacement. Wetsuits with huge holes, cracked depth meters and broken masks were just what I saw. I heard much better things about Ban’s Dive Shop.

Ao Nang

Lodging: The Aonang Goodwill is possibly the best place we stayed in Thailand. Sun, who works the front desk in the evenings is super helpful at arranging transport and tours. The prices he quoted were very competitive with prices from other operators we found.
Food: Right across the street from the Goodwill is #1 Thai Food. We had our Christmas dinner there and it was excellent. The food was fresh, flavorful and very affordable.

Koh Lanta

Activities: As we mentioned here the Thai cooking class we did was a highlight of our time in Thailand.
Happy Hour: Blue Moon on Klong Nin Beach has a great happy hour from 3pm till sunset with two for one large beers. And with the view below, free wifi and good food what more could you ask for?

That is about it. We were only in Phuket for a night and while Phuket Backpacker Hostel was cheap, it is pretty far from the beach and there is no AC. Call us wimps but in the heat and humidity of the city, with no ocean breeze, a fan is not enough to get a good night’s sleep.

Hope this helps. If anyone else has anything to add please leave a comment and feel free to link to your site if you have a relevant blog entry to share.

Try Cooking Thai

Keith — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:00:37 +0000

Southern Thailand is filled with magnificent beaches, breathtaking sunsets, adventurous water sports and all that other stuff typically found in a tropical paradise – just click here to see our photos. But Southern Thailand is also filled with amazing spices like lemongrass, chili and galangal that make every meal an exciting culinary experience. So instead of just eating fabulous Thai food, we decided to spend a morning on Ko Lanta learning to use these spices and cook Thai food with the Lanta Thai Cookery School.

Chien and Aon, a local Thai husband and wife team, run the school. The class started with Chien asking the 13 students to choose 5 dishes from the list of 10 that we as a group wanted to learn to make. The list included a wide range of dishes from tom yam soup and pad thai to panang curry and poached bananas in coconut milk.

We started our cooking with the knife work. With a knife (or sometimes two) in hand we set out to chop, mince and learn about the many flavorful and local vegetables and herbs we would be using that day. One very important thing I learned was the Thai name for cilantro, pak chee. I now was armed with the knowledge to order pad thai without that awful tasting herb. I also learned that the small pale green vegetables I had previously had in curries are actually small eggplants. And I would be remiss to not mention the basket of Thai chilis. Chien suggested that we add one, two or maybe three to our tom yam soup depending on how spicy we like it. I knew from a previous experience in Bangkok that when you order a dish that Thais consider “spicy” you are likely to get a plate of hell fire that will quickly numb your face, cause you to break out into a sweat and drink 3-4 bottles of water as you struggle to finish. Or at least that was what happened to me. So I stuck to one tiny chili, thank you very much. When I asked Chien how many he would add to his own soup he answered “a handful.” The thought of that much spice made my mouth water and tongue hide in fear.

With the food chopping and cutting preparations complete and the vegetables and herbs in their respective baskets, we manned our cooking stations. With the heat on it was a rapid succession of ingredients into the wok. The pad thai we made was a quick assembly process. It started off with hot oil in the wok. After quickly adding the cubed tofu to fry until it had a crispy yellow skin, I then had to stir in a fresh egg. I managed to get only one small piece of shell in the wok while cracking the egg with one hand. With Chien looking over my shoulder I even managed to get the rice noodles cooked without turning them into one solid sticky ball. With the addition of the pad thai sauce and the fresh vegetables, both Amy and I managed to plate respectable looking and quite flavorful dishes.

After successfully completing each dish and learning to smell the aromas coming together, all the students would sit in the school’s garden to eat our creations and compare notes on what went wrong and right. By the time we finished tasting our third dish, stir fried chicken with cashew nuts, everyone was full. Chien brought out the doggie bags so that everyone could pack up their leftovers to take home. So not only did Amy and I have a tremendous lunch, we were able to eat the leftovers for dinner that night.

Cooking school was a nice change from the typical beach activities. It allowed us the chance to cook for the first time in three months and I think we will shop in Chinatown back in Philadelphia with renewed zeal when we return. We’ll be on the hunt for Kaffir lime leaves, fresh turmeric and yes, maybe even a thai chili or two.

My favorite recipe from Lanta Thai Cookery School:
Tom Yam Seafood Soup (Single Serving)

½ cup seafood (prawn, squid and slice of fish) or chicken breast (sliced)
1 long finger length lemongrass, sliced lengthwise connected at bottom
1 inch square cube galangal, peeled and sliced
2 Kaffir lime leaves, ripped with stem removed
1 shallot bulb, peeled and smashed
1-3 small Thai chilies, stem removed and sliced in half lengthwise
2 jelly mushrooms, with center removed, cut into bit-sized pieces
½ Roma tomato, cored and sliced lengthwise into 4-5 wedges
1-2 spring onions, white portion sliced in half lengthwise and then entire onion sliced into 2cm pieces
1 stalk coriander, pick off leaves whole and slice stem into 2cm pieces (optional)
1 bullion cube of chicken stock
1 TBS fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 TBS limejuice
300ml water

Boil water in a pot over medium-high heat. Add chicken stock bullion cube once water is boiling and stir. Add lemongrass, galangal, Kaffir lime leaves, shallot, mushrooms (and chili if prefer a spicier soup) to liquid. Cook approximately 1 minute or until Kaffir lime leaves begin to smell. Add chicken, or if using seafood, add fish piece. Cook chicken or fish for about 15 seconds, and then add fish sauce. Cook 10 seconds, then add sugar. If using seafood, add prawns and squid. Cook until chicken turns white or prawns turn pink. Then add tomatoes, spring onion, coriander (optional) and chili (if you like a less spicy soup). Turn off the heat and add limejuice immediately before serving.

Lanta Thai Cookery School Details: 3 classes daily: Morning 8:30-13:00, Afternoon 13:30-18:00 and Evening 18:00 until whenever the group is done. Cost is 1,000 baht per person for morning and afternoon classes, and 1,500 for the evening class.

Contact: 086-821-2755