04.11.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:58 am by fowlers
We are in Beijing alive and well-enough, all things considered. Compared to places like Bangkok, Hanoi, or the floating villages deep within Halong Bay, Beijing seems a lot less Asian. This comes as a surprise to me. As the capital of China, the country that immediately calls to mind Asia and the Far East, one would think that it would reflect similar ideas and lifestyles. That is, I suppose, just another stereotype. Beijing is in the midsts of modernization which has led to a great many cars, buses, and other automobiles crowding the streets, but it is by no means complete. Bicycles are still widely used and so are motorized-cyclos that would be illegal several times over on any U.S. road, but if it moves from point A to point B, no one here is too picky.
Of course, not being able to read or even begin to decipher a character based language (a different topic entirely), ordering food has become my largest adventure. About half the menus in the city have pictures that accompany them which is of great help. None of the pictures are all that large or detailed, but I can usually tell if I’m pointing at a plate of food or a bowl of noodles, sometimes if it’s a meat or a vegetable. Whatever group of people I’m with will huddle around the menu and point to various orange or brown colored dishes, deciding what to eat. Most Chinese cuisine is served from a large, communal dish and taken in small portions with chopsticks or moved onto very small personal plates the size of a tea saucer. Hotpots are my favorite kind of dishes to order. The food comes out, literally, on a hot pot with some oil-based flame keeping it warm for the duration.
A lot of the food is very good, all of it interesting. Lamb is popular here, especially within ethnic restaurants. A much more authentic version of sweet and sour pork is to be found almost everywhere, pan fried mushrooms, broiled fish, other assorted meats. For the most part, this all goes down without complaint, but more than once I have totally failed at dinner. There are all sorts of hotpots, but I invariably manage to order the wrong each time. Instead of some sauteed vegetables, spices, and meat, I’m presented with a thick, bubbling broth adorned with a boiled, vaguely gray, chicken head staring back at me. The dish is made, I think, by simply chopping up a whole chicken and putting it in the dish. What you get is a lot of bone, legs, some meat, but most importantly, a large chicken head with puckered skin on top of what you thought was going to be a good meal.
Maybe I’m just coming at this with my own epicurial prejudices, but I’ve had some strange foods in my day. I simply don’t want to add chicken brains and eyeballs to the mix. Were I in a country with less scary hype about bad bird-borne diseases, perhaps I would. The dog I had in Vietnam didn’t give me (m)any qualms and wasn’t that bad in the end. But how do I even begin to eat this? How much of it is edible? I can’t imagine the bones get that soft after being boiled, or am I supposed to suck on the head in the same manner as crawdads and shrimp? I dunno, but whatever the case, I don’t buy it. After getting a few to many of these for dinner and needing to find substitutes, I haven’t ordered any hotpots in almost a week. Having realized this, I’ll change that soon, but please… wish me luck.
This post and more can also be found at puddle-wonderful.
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03.23.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:46 pm by Michael Moore
I’ve been keeping track of the trip with photos and blog posts over on introspectacles.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 9:30 pm by mclainc
Our group left from Carleton at 9 am on Thursday amid temperatures in the low 20’s and snow rapidly covering us, our luggage, our bus, and the rest of campus. After a hellacious 36 hours of travel, we arrived in Bangkok at 1:15 Saturday morning.
In the late night drive to our hotel Bangkok seemed an ugly city. By which I mean it looked like an American city: full of highways, more billboards per square foot than I would have though possible, and a whole lot of sprawl. But after a wonderful 3 hours of sleep I awoke to what can only be described as paradise.
The climate leaves isn’t exactly perfect. Who knew paradise would h ave the same sticky sweetness of a Cape Girardeau July? Everything else is exquisite. The Thai are a wonderful people from the taxi driver who pushed his cab into another car to be out of the way of our bus to the street children in front of the Internet cafe who greatly enjoyed losing to me in arm wrestling. Lush vegetation abounds, and I am particularly enthralled by the numerous markets which make any farmer’s market back home look like a kindergarten play.
The first days’ activities consisted of touring the Grand Palace and a test to see how well we could make it through Bangkok on our own. The Grand Palace I did not enjoy. The place may be the center of Buddhism in Thailand and the former home of the king but I saw it as a beautiful piece of Thai culture turned into a tourist destination. The other activity, in which we had to find a certain place in Bangkok made for a great time. The test itself wasn’t too difficult (all you had to do was follow some directions and Bangkok public transportation equals Chicago’s and beats St. Louis) but we had the opportunity to see most of the city. Many in the group had stories of cutting through backyards and being invited to dinner by the occupants. At the end of the day everyone succeeded in the test and thus earned our reward of a dinner cruise on the river.
Next day was a bit slower. In the morning we toured the home of Jim Thompson an American member of the OSS who basically started the Thai silk trade. Unfortunately I don’t have interests in either the houses of dead people or silk. It was a nice house, that’s really all I can say. Later that afternoon I wandered the city with other members of our group. We saw quite a few of the contrasts which seem to define Bangkok, for example the 7-11 (there are the Wal mart of Thailand) a block from the open air market (I have never seen so many pieces of meat I did not recognize nor do I ever want to again).
That night we assembled our luggage for the night train to Changmai which couldn’t have been more fun. Some members of the group made the mistake of buying beer and then asking the train staff to join them for cards. The beer disappeared quickly. I slept well unlike mostly everyone else and in the morning we arrived at Chaing Mai ( in the north of Thailand). We made our way to the hotel and oh my god…
The only way to describe the hotel is that I feel like I won the Price is Right Showcase showdown. Lush vegetation everywhere, the rooms are arranged in about 5 small buildings around a pool/courtyard, and the staff makes you feel like royalty. Although I still haven’t gotten used to the fact that I’m waited on hand and foot while a group of homeless people sleep in a bus behind the hotel.
We spent the afternoon touring Chaing Mai. The city used to be the capital of Siam and has many temples and is currently world famous for its open air night market with over 3000 stalls. For dinner that night I and a few others sought out a truly Thai restaurant. I’m not sure but I think we found the Chaing Mai equivalent of The Tavern. The food filled us body and soul and with a total cost for of five dollars, I think we made out ok. Except for the one girl who freaked out a bit when a gecko flew onto the table and scurried across. I just laughed (the name of the restaurant was Gekko) while another trip member spent a quarter of an hour bargaining with a street child to buy some flowers for 10 baht instead of 20 baht ( exchange rate is 40 ba ht to a dollar).
The next day we left for our treks which you will hear about soon from either me or one of the other trip members.
Colin
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03.18.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:29 am by mclainc
Our group left from Carleton’s campus amid freezing temperatures and falling snow and after a strenuous twenty hours in the air we have arrived in the lush and wonderfully warm city of Bangkok.
For now everyone remains jetlagged but we are all slowly recovering. This morning consisted of a bus tour of Bangkok and a walking tour of the magestic royal palace.
Check back for a more detailed run down of events in a day or so.
Colin
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03.16.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:18 am by mclainc
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02.23.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:00 am by Administrator
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