Walk the Walk

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people talk about all the great ideas they have or the things that they want to do, without any action behind their words. The old "talk the talk, and walk the walk." Well, I have to admit I've been a bit guilty of the talking without the walking as of late, in regards to my freelance portfolio. So, after some new additions, bio writing, multiple issues with the domain, and moments of self-doubt, here is my (work-in-progress) portfolio!

Studio 0202

Menu Planning

In my new life of “freelancer and housewife,” I am attempting to get myself on some sort of schedule in order to balance time on the computer with the cooking, cleaning and errands. The cleaning schedule is a little rockier and I’m still getting into the swing of that (no, we don’t have a maid despite my best attempts to get the dogs to hold a broom and dustpan), but I am getting back to planning our menu. To quote my brother (my housewife role model) “plan your menu, so you know exactly what you need to buy and when. Instead of doing the wander-around-Whole-Foods-blowing-$200, you’ll be in and out like a SEAL Team strike." I also find it makes daily cooking a whole lot more enjoyable, since I can spend time perusing recipes and knowing when dinner time roles around that I’ve got everything I need instead of scrounging around the fridge at 5:30 going “what the heck am I going to make?”

Alas, I choose the week D is headed out of town for business to start back up again…Anyway, here’s what I planned:

Sunday:
Mom’s Black Pepper Chicken (this is not my mom’s recipe, but a friend’s mom’s recipe. Thanks FZQ!)
Crepes & Co. Summer Salad (my version of a salad we had at a restaurant here)
Bread

Monday:
Stir-fried Beef with Chinese Celery

Tuesday:
Phat Kraphrao

Wednesday:
Chicken Drumettes with Spicy Hoisin-Garlic Sauce
Mixed Salad

Thursday/Friday:
Not sure just yet, probably some leftovers or pizza (thanks mom!)

Groundhog Day

Ekamai, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

Today D had surprised me by taking the day off (and making up for a lost holiday day), and we decided to explore one of the neighboring streets in our new neighborhood. We’d been hearing a lot about cool shops along the street and decided it was worth a look.

First we headed off to Playground! (yes, the exclamation point is part of the name) to look for fun items for the house. D had also mentioned that there was a KuppA there as well. KuppA (a coffeehouse/café), had intrigued us after reading about it in our various guidebooks, so we decided to check it out and perhaps have lunch there. Playground! is a pretty neat store, sort of a cross between Urban Outfitters and Ikea. We picked up some little condiment jars and an oil bottle from one of my favorites, Eva Solo. KuppA turned out to be a nice, chill place and we ended up having lunch. D ordered a chicken sandwich with this delicious coffee drink and I had a panang pot pie with a refreshing lychee and mint icy/shake. The food was decent and the atmosphere was one where you could easily kick back and sip on coffee and read. Very nice.

We continued walking with our next destination of H1, a modern mini-mall designed by Thai architect Duangrit Bunnag. I had been curious to see it after reading about it in our Wallpaper* City Guide. I have to say I was under whelmed. The buildings were ok, nothing too crazy, but I guess different for Thailand. The outdoor spaces were small and did pull you away from the hustle and bustle of the street, but it was empty and there were no obvious places to sit and enjoy the place. We spent a little time at the art & design bookstore there and then headed back down the other side of the street in search of cake!

For being in a country that seems to enjoy its sweet treats, we discovered a serious lack of cake options. At that point, I had gotten lemon meringue pie in my head and the only piece we had managed to find was completely unappetizing. We decided to head back to the house and order from the wonderful Food By Phone. I would have my lemon meringue!

The Challenges of Living Abroad

We have been slowly settling in to our new digs. It has been a roller coaster ride of emotions lately. I don’t think either D or I thought that this would be an easy transition, but I don’t think either one of us was really prepared for how challenging things could be. We are both trying to adjust to the Thai way of things, which is proving a little difficult for our American brains. Things just happen differently here, and that is one of the great things about living in another country and also one of its challenges. I’ve definitely had some low points of frustration and exhaustion, which isn’t particularly motivating to write about. We are learning to navigate the waters and life is taking on a sense of normalcy. We also equipped the kitchen with some items, and I am starting to cook again (which if you know me, is an important part of life). It has been a long time! Recipes and misadventures will be coming!

*And big hugs for the pictures I’ve received (you know who you are!). They have helped me more than I could ever say.

Breakthrough

Finally a break through! We met with the townhouse owner, our agent and the building manager today to go check out furniture, and clarify the things that we wanted changed. The owner was very nice, and it turns out that she lives in the same compound. Our hearts sank at the news that the move in date wouldn’t be until the 23rd. We explained to the owner that we were hoping for an earlier date, since we had been without the dogs for almost a month and how much we were missing them. She immediately understood and sympathized with us! Apparently she is a dog owner too! She said it would take a week to get the mattresses, but that we could maybe move in as early as the 17th! Both D and I were thrilled since we are off to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow and will be getting back on the 16th. Hooray!

Laying Low

I’m not sure where all the time has gone, and it is amazing to me that we have been in Thailand almost a month now. D has gone back to work, and we’ve been hoping for progress on a potential move-in date on the townhouse. At the prodding of several of D’s co-workers we went out with another real estate agent and saw two more houses. They were both nice, one was way too far from Skytrain for us, and the other was nice and about 5 minutes from where the boys are! (and 10 minutes from Skytrain) We decided that it was a good ‘Plan B’ if the townhouse fell through. I’ve been keeping closer to the hotel the past week, since there has been no breakthrough on who is responsible for the bombings. Mainly, there is a lot of finger pointing and denials on all sides. Kind of feels like the US, between the Republicans and the Democrats (except the whole bombing thing)!

A new year

lettuce, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

After our day exploring Chinatown and Khao San Road, we managed to stay up until midnight and watched some of the fireworks through our window. On a total whim, I checked my email to see if anyone had sent a New Year’s message. There was one message from my brother asking if we were ok, that he had been reading about bombings in Bangkok. I was shocked! I quickly pulled up Google News to see what was going on. We hadn’t seen or heard anything while we were out, or anything on our way back to the hotel. I wrote an email to our families to let them know we were fine and safe at the hotel. The initial reports told us that the bombs weren’t anywhere near where we had been or near our hotel.

We woke up to find the bombings all over the newspapers. At first it was only 6 bombs nowhere near us, and then found out later that the police had disarmed a bomb at Khao San Road a few blocks from where we had dinner (although, we had been gone for a few hours at that point). In the papers was a lot of speculation on who was responsible. The main parties seemed to be supporters of the government that was ousted by the coup or the group in the southern portion of Thailand (where things like this happen on a daily basis).

We decided it was best to lay low and stay at the hotel. Both D and I were glued to our computers reading the news trying to find out more. We did some laundry and went to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

New Year's Eve

Signs, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

Today we decided to go explore Chinatown. On our bus ride to the floating market, our tour guide had told us that Bangkok’s Chinatown is the largest in the world. Coming from the Bay Area, we scoffed since we have heard that San Francisco’s is the largest (Were we in for a surprise!) D plotted our route out, starting at the China Gate and heading down one of the major (and picturesque according to our map) Sois. We walked a few blocks to the MRT, Bangkok’s underground subway. The MRT is just as nice as the Skytrain, clean and efficient! (Muni and BART could learn a few things from them!) We exited the train, climbed the stairs and were immediately approached by a woman who said she works with the Tourist Bureau, and could she help us and asked where we were going. We just smiled and said we were headed to Chinatown, and we were happy to walk. Now, she could have actually been with the Tourist Bureau and genuinely trying to help us. The unfortunate thing is that there are tons of scams with these sorts of things (especially being in a more tourist area) where people offer to help or tell you that the attraction you are going to is closed, and they would be happy to take you around the city stopping at places where they receive a kick-back. It happens with tuk tuks and taxis too. They will slow down or stop and ask if you need a ride. I’ve never been sharked by taxis so much in my life! Usually if they are doing it, you will pay dearly for it. (We had this happen on our way home from one of the malls recently. We climbed into a taxi, and didn’t notice that the driver didn’t turn on his meter. We were on our way before he started saying “ 150 baht.” At that point we were stuck and ended up paying 150 baht for a ride that should have been around 60 baht including tip.)

We headed out of the subway station, and began walking to the China Gate. The helpful “tour guide” and pointed in the general direction of where we wanted to go, and thanks to D’s excellent sense of direction we found it. It is a beautiful, ornate entry and an excellent portal to the lively chaos of Chinatown. We headed down Yaowarat into the heart of Chinatown. D had armed us with the extremely informative Nancy Chandler Map, were we had seen a street full of print shops for cards, calendars, etc… We zigzagged down the various sois and finally found the one we were looking for. All closed! Of course, we should have realized this seeing as how it was Sunday and New Years Eve to boot. It was interesting anyway. We weaved our way to one of the “picturesque” alleyways (called Troks). It was an experience! The trok was narrow, lined with shops (many were closed unfortunately) and rather empty. That is until we hit the area with the food. Tons of people crowded into this small little alley, stalls everywhere selling all kinds of stuff, and the odd motorcycle weaving through. We hit one of the major sois, and decided that we needed something to drink and a place to cool off. Chinatown was much bigger than we had expected! The crowds mixed with the heat can start to make a person a little grouchy. We found a 7-11 and grabbed some water. We kept wandering around until we found the Grand Princess hotel. We decided to check out their “rotating restaurant” atop the hotel. Everything was pretty pricy, so we settled on a few appetizers and a soda. The food was mediocre, but the view was spectacular. We could see most of Bangkok and the Chao Phraya River. Gorgeous!

During our lunch we discussed what our next move should be. We had talked about heading to Khao San Road (a popular backpacker area) for dinner and walking around, or heading back to the hotel to relax and then trying to find a place to go to celebrate the New Year. We had read about lots of high-end activities along the River, but not a lot of free or cheap things. We decided that Khao San Road sounded more fun, and we had been reading about an awesome and cheap vegetarian restaurant in the area. We headed towards the River, deciding to take a river taxi up to the Khao San area. Somehow we ended up on the tourist boat. I was like “of course, we’re on the tourist boat!” D just laughed. It was a very nice ride up the River, cool and a nice change from the hectic BKK traffic. The tourist boat has a guide talking about all the various sites along the River. She was talking so fast and so close to the microphone; I couldn’t understand most of it.
D had described Khao San Road to me as the “Haight of Bangkok.” This is a pretty fair approximation. The street was filled with lots of younger backpackers and travelers, some vaguely hippyish, with lots of bars and Pad Thai vendors along the street. We walked around, stopping a having a beer a one of the pubs to cool off. We found the vegetarian place, and decided that we were going to have dinner there a little later after checking out the menu. We visited one of the Wats nearby, and found another bar that had seating out on the sidewalk. D and I shared a jug of beer and watched all the colorful characters walk by. It was a lovely way to spend the early evening. We went and had a delicious meal at the vegetarian restaurant. We shared panang curry, a pumpkin dish, banana flower salad, and homemade tofu skewers (we were planning on leftovers). The restaurant isn’t much more than tables in an alley, and is very laid back. So much so that paying the bill was a little puzzling to us. Our server came over and said “60, 60, 60, 60” (for our 4 dishes) plus our 2 waters. Grand total was 270 baht. After dinner, we found a taxi and headed back to the hotel to watch episodes of ‘Lost’ and try to stay up to midnight.

The Adventure Weekend - Part I

spotted dog, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

*Posting will be slow for a little while. The earthquake that hit Taiwan this week, damaged some of the regions communication lines (mainly internet). The internet has slowed to a crawl. It's like we're back in the days of dial-up.

This weekend we were both feeling that it was time to be a bit more adventurous. Both D and I were curious about the Floating Markets that we had heard so much about. We checked out our various travel books and looked at maps, but nothing seemed to be in Bangkok. Since we are in a hotel with a very nice and very helpful staff, D suggested we ask the desk about a guided tour. Neither one of us are particularly good “tourists”, we typically shun any sort of tour or tourist activity. We had decided on Friday that we would go on Saturday morning to visit the boys, since we hadn’t seen them all week. We were both missing them terribly. Prior to our departure to the kennel, we checked with the hotel desk regarding tours and they handed us a brochure chock full of different trips. Many of them looked interesting, but we settled on one that took us to the Damnern Saduak Floating Market & Rose Garden. The Floating Market is around 110 kilometers (70 or so miles) from Bangkok. Both D and I were excited at the prospect of getting out of the city for a bit, since I have never been anywhere else in Thailand and D has only been to Phuket. The trip started early in the morning, so the hotel staff arranged for us to do the trip on Sunday, Christmas Eve. That left us with plenty of time on Saturday to visit the boys. It was so nice to see them, and they were so excited to us too. The spotted dog seems to be getting over his coolness towards me, but still was letting us know how displeased he is with the situation. We spent the afternoon dorking around and tackling our mountain of laundry. In the spirit of adventure, we decided to check out a new development not too far from our hotel. It was unfortunately not near any of the Skytrain stations, so we asked the (so helpful!) front desk if they knew where it was and if they could get us a taxi. They ended up taking us in the hotel’s van, that usually runs people to the Skytrain and Underground stations! So nice! We walked around the development (which felt very Western) for a little while and browsed the bookstore. We settled on having dinner at this combination Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant. Both D and I had thought the Vietnamese sounded good. We decided to share a banana blossom & chicken salad, D ordered lemongrass chicken with rice and I had a Ban Hoi, which is rice noodles, fresh lettuce, Thai basil (or mint) and choice of meat (I settled on beef). You get to mix up all the ingredients with a delicious sweet/vinegary sauce. So fresh and tasty, I could probably eat it every day. I ended up eating the banana blossom salad, which they had neglected to add on the menu that it had shrimp in it! After dinner, we walked around for a bit and then hopped in a taxi, and back to the hotel for an early bedtime. We had our big adventure tomorrow!

House Hunt Part 3

sundown, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

D went off to work this morning after playing hooky the day before (sort of…since we were looking at places to live and all). We had asked Nong to see if there where any places in the same area as our hotel for rent. She managed to find an additional 2 places, so we arranged to meet up with her at 1:30. I puttered around our room for the morning. I’ve been trying to draw a little everyday to get better, so I spend some time blogging and doodling. I had planned on meeting D at her office for lunch, and then walking back to our hotel to meet Nong. Our hotel was doing “pest control” that day, so I ended up leaving for D’s office early and taking the long way. I’m always fascinated with streets; the activity (or lack of), the colors and lines of signs and telephone poles, the people. Bangkok streets are filled with endless fascination for me, especially at lunchtime with all the street vendors and patrons. It is one of the things I am coming to love about this city. Nowhere else that I have been in the world has streets like this.
I had turned down the street that D’s office is on, and I was in my own little world, taking in all the vendors and people when I saw a sign “(something) Margarita Bar.” I kept walking, thinking my burrito-deprived mind was playing tricks on me. I passed by the brightly colored windows and I thought to myself “no way, there is not Mexican food in Bangkok.” When I got to D’s office and told her about what I had seen, she said “let’s check it out for lunch.” We were both excited at the prospect of burritos and tacos. Prior to our departure we had lamented the fact that the one food we would not be able to find would be Mexican, one of our “go-to” foods for busy nights. We stepped into the restaurant with high hopes. We sat down at a table and cracked our menus. Eureka! Burritos and tacos in Bangkok! I ordered a burrito and D had tacos and we shared chips and salsa. The chips weren’t bad; the salsa obviously from a bottle, and the food wasn’t half bad. Some things were slightly unorthodox to our California palettes…who puts refried beans in a taco? But it was nice to know if we ever had a real strong urge for tacos, we knew where to go.
We ended up taking half of it back to our hotel as take-away in order to meet Nong. We went with her and saw the 2 new places (which weren’t going to work, too far from any public transportation to be realistic) and she took us to our 2 favorites from the day before. Both D and I liked both places just as much, but really realized that the 15th floor apartment (no matter how cool) wasn’t practical. There is just no real place for the boys, and the Soi that it is on is really busy with no place to even walk them. The townhouse has some downsides, but it is our front-runner at this point. We decided to do some walking around after seeing the apartment. It was the first time since we’ve arrived that I’ve seen some of the “scene” that Bangkok is infamous for. Lots of guys hanging around in bars, looking for something…. I was admittedly relieved that I wouldn’t be trying to walk the boys past that everyday. We ended up walking quite a way (and seeing some mega-over-the-top Christmas decorations) searching for something for dinner, but ended up back at our hotel and enjoying our leftover lunch.

Night Bazaar

cars, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

This morning D had arranged a meeting with another real estate agent. Nong met us at our hotel, we hopped into her car and we were off. Where as last time we had only looked at houses, Nong had a list of 6 places that were a mixture of townhouses, apartments and condominiums. D and I were a little wary of the apartments and condominiums because of the dogs, and if there would be space for them to be outside. All of the places were off of Sukhumwit Road, which is where the majority of ex-pats live. D and I have had mixed feelings about living there. On one hand, we don’t want to miss out on the fact that we are in Thailand and want to really experience Thai life, but we also like the fact that we wouldn’t be the total outsiders in the neighborhood. We ended up liking the first and last places we saw for very different reasons. The first place that we saw was a townhouse in a “compound” (basically a little development that is enclosed and usually has a guard at the gate). It was quite large (5 stories!) with a small backyard patio area (with a wall as tall as me) that looked out onto the neighbor’s garden, along with the (not too bad) kitchen and maid’s quarters on the first level, the second level was all living room with a mini bar and sliding glass doors that looked out onto the common area/garden and pool. The rest of the floors were the bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. The last place we saw was an apartment in a brand new building. Sleek and modern, with an awesome kitchen! It is on the 15th floor, so the view was pretty spectacular. The building has a gym and pool and the entire building has wireless internet included in the rent. It was very hard not to be wooed by how cool everything was. Nong dropped us back at our hotel, and told us to call or email her with any questions. We were both hungry for lunch, so we headed over to an Irish pub near D’s office to discuss what we had just seen. After lunch we walked around a little bit, and then headed back to the hotel to cool off for a little while.
D had been eager to take me to the Suanlum Night Bazaar Market for dinner. We were both feeling up for it and we decided to walk over and check it out. Unfortunately, the Night Bazaar is across 2 major roads from our hotel. We made it across the first on a pedestrian bridge; we were not so lucky on the second. We found some other people who were trying the same thing (power in numbers!). We waited for the light to change and scooted across. The cars aren’t the scary part of Bangkok traffic; it is the motorcycles. They will go anywhere – into the oncoming traffic lanes, between the cars, next to the curb, even up on the sidewalk! They often seem to come out of nowhere.
The Night Bazaar is broken into two areas. There is the shopping area, with row after row after row of little stalls selling everything imaginable, and then there is the food area. It’s like being at a carnival or something. Food vendors line one side, and beverage vendors the other with tables and chairs in between. At one end there is a stage, where local music groups were performing. One odd thing is you have to buy these coupons for food and drink. We weren’t quite hungry yet, so we wandered up and down the rows of stalls (I picked up 2 t-shirts). D went to turn in some baht (later discovering that she had been totally shorted and ripped off by the person at the counter, it sucked) and got some coupons. We wandered up and down the food stalls, where you could find all sorts of things to eat. We settled on a gyro with chicken. All the fixin’s and some hot sauce too, so tasty! We took our food over to one of the tables and were quickly inundated with beverage choices. Beer is the big drink here (yay!) and almost all of the major beers were represented. We turned away Asahi, Paulaner, Tiger Beer, and several fruit smoothies. D was set on getting Beer Chang, a Thai beer. Sadly, we were unable to flag down the Beer Chang waitress. I ended up getting an Asahi and sharing it with D. After dinner, we walked around the stalls a bit more looking at all the different stuff for sale. We decided that once we have a place to live, it would be fun to come back and get some stuff for the house. We started to get tired, and decided to head back to the hotel. Neither one of us was particularly excited to play ‘Frogger’ to get back across the road, so D suggested taking a tuk tuk. I agreed, excited and nervous since the tuk tuk drivers are as crazy as the motorcycles. I knew it would be an adventure for sure. It was hilarious watching D negotiate with the driver. He threw out a pretty high number, and she said “I can take an air-conditioned taxi for that much!” He came down a little, but D stuck to her guns and ended up getting the price she wanted. We climbed in the seat and zoom! off we went. Tuk tuks have a pretty distinctive sound, like an old scooter with the muffler removed. We took every turn like we were in the Indy 500 and were back at our hotel in no time.

Lunch & the Park

lunch spot, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

Ah…another sunny day in Bangkok! D had asked me if I would come meet for lunch again, which I readily agreed to, envisioning another delicious (and spicy) meal in my future. I spent the morning around the hotel. Both D and I have developed a somewhat irritating cough, so I welcomed the chance to take it a bit easy. As noon approached, I headed out for her office determined to take the shortcut again. This time I found the blue tiles and the basketball hoop! I waited outside D’s building and watched the traffic and people go by. D asked me if I wanted to try the small shop-front lunch place that she had pointed out to me yesterday (co-workers have taken her on previous visits). I was excited to try, after hearing about these 75-cent lunches. We walked up to the case to check out the day’s offerings. One of the women working there came around and gave us the run down on what the different items were. We could choose two items. Both D and I settled on a spicy chicken dish and some kind of green vegetable combo (I recognized celery and that was about it) with a scoop of rice. We sat down at one of the sidewalk tables and other woman brought us over a small bowl of soup. Everything was delicious! The chicken wasn’t too spicy and the soup was so flavorful! It was some kind of chicken broth with potato-esque pieces floating in it. We finished up and D got up to pay the check (and a group was sharking for our seats). When she came back, she told me that the total was 50 baht….for the two of us…when I plug that into the currency converter that is about $1.40…for two lunches.
After our bargain lunch, we walked around for a bit. Lunchtime in Bangkok is pretty amazing. It’s a tapestry of street vendors selling a variety of food and drink, and impromptu sidewalk cafes filled with people.
I had decided earlier that I would satisfy my inner landscape nerd and head over to Lumphini Park after lunch. I picked up some water and set off. Lumphini Park (named after the birthplace of Buddha, my guidebooks tell me) is off one of the major roads in Bangkok. I had really hoped that there was a way over the road via a pedestrian walkway or something. No such luck. I was going to have to cross the 8+ lanes of insane Bangkok traffic. I waited at one of the crosswalks, and thankfully another couple came and waited too. Power in numbers! Finally it was our turn to cross and we made it without incident. The park is what I would consider a classic big-city park, with lots of lawn and trees, formal plantings, and pavilions (with some cool Thai architecture) scattered about. There are also two lakes inside the park, with the larger having paddleboat and canoe rentals. I walked the path along the larger lake, stopping once to sit and enjoy the views. Lots of people were lounging around and having picnics. I walked the remainder of the lake, and headed back to the hotel to cool off. When D returned from work, we were both feeling like a chill evening so we headed back to the Italian restaurant for dinner.

Pictures from the park are here:
Lumphini Park