Travel Fashion

These cute little face masks are all the rage here in Mae Sai for when you go out on your bike or motorcycle. They not only keep the smog and dust out of your nose, but the little teddies enhance your approachability. Perhaps what I'm missing is a camo bandanna.

The regular white medical mask tends to get dirty fast and doesn't go through the wash, whereas, these can be used over and over. Probably by using the right smelling laundry soap, I can give myself an aroma therapy treatment while I'm peddling down the jammed highway.

What makes me crazy on the road around here is when you're going one-way on a one-way road and bikes and motorcycles start coming AT you where you are peddling along the side of the road. I'm like,

"What? You wanna play chicken?"

Of course, I realize it's because they're too lazy or in too big a hurry to go all the way around the island to turn around. But still, there are just TOO many of them and they are going way too fast. One of these days... Well, I hope not, but there should be tickets handed out for going the wrong way on a one-way! Why take the time to put the big cement island there if the city's not going to enforce the law it was built to enforce? It's just dumb. At least to me. Either allow U-turns, take down the islands or else give out fines to offenders. Right?

Otherwise, this is a cute little, friendly town. Boring. But cute. I mean, when everyone disappears on the week-ends, all that's left to do here is Karaoke! And, if you ask me, all the half-decent singers are usually gone. The ones left behind are loud, I'll say that for them.

Then there's the pork man. I call him that because he sells pork every day with his sticky rice. His wife brings the sticky rice over all wrapped up in cloths inside of a thermos pot. But, last time I got it, it tasted like bleach. Not to complain, but there was a strong flavour of bleach involved. So, I figure she was very concerned about cleaning the cooking cloths but inadvertently cooked the taste of the bleach right into the rice. Still, no doubt I'll go back because... they're the only restaurant so handy that's not swarming with flies.

The weather these days has warmed up to the point that I'm using my air con. I'm keeping it on low at the "eco" setting because I hear that the price of electricity is really steep in Thailand.

 

How to Eat a Tamarind

Here's how I overcame my fear of eating tamarinds. It wasn't a big fear, more like a small hesitation because of the rugged appearance of this marvel of a delicacy. It does look a little like a short, fat snake or a crusty critter. But, that's just a disguise.

Several times on my way by bike to the Tesco, I'd pass by the Tamarind Seller's roadside stand. His stand is just a box with bunches of the harvested tamarinds in piles everywhere. They look a little dusty. And they are a dusty brown colour. Nothing special to look at. But, I speculated,

"Are they tamarinds?" Not quite sure because they do look different with their shells on. "Is that the same delectable fruit you can buy with their shells off and all packaged up?"

Then, one day a friend and I were walking past the stand and I asked the vendor, "Tao rai, mai cah?" He said they were forty baht per kilo. So, thinking my friend would take half, I bought a whole kilo. Turned out she wasn't a tamarind fan so I had enough of them to last a week. They even kept fresh outside of the fridge.

 

These are the shorter ones left over from my feast. The big ones were a foot long with ten or twelve bumps. And every bumpy bite is a bit of bliss!




Breaking into a tamarind is an adventure. First you crack their dusky brown shell and it crumbles all over everywhere. Then, as you enter, there are four strings that run down the length of its bumpy body and tie in a bow at the top. Pull that off.

Now you have a funny, bumpy little fruit that looks like a piece of chocolate that's been poured over a row of bumpy nuts. But the bumps inside are shiny brown seeds that are as hard as a rock.

So, you can bite off three or four bumps in a row or just put the whole thing in your mouth at once. There's an art to chewing around the seed in the middle of each bump and getting all the meat off of it before spitting it out.

 A pealed tamarind wearing its strings. laying beside its shiny, brown seeds. "The Tamarind Seed" was a movie, wasn't it?



The taste? Like squashed dates or raisins with a teensy, tiny touch of citric acid to it? But, really there's nothing you can compare it with, because the tamarind is a unique specimen all of its own flavour and texture. Which is why you should try it.

It's something I think holds many nutrients my body had been craving. Which is why I'll continue to eat them when they're available. By the way, when IS durian season? That's my other craving...

Aekthaweewit School (Great Thais Academy)

 This is my desk. It's situated so that I catch the wind tunnel air that freezes my feet. And every student that attends the classes to my left passes by my desk, greeting me with, "Good morning/afternoon, Teacher." The kids are so darn cute, it's hard to get mad at them even when they bump into my desk while I'm writing. And they do that constantly. It's all part of the fun.

Every day since the day I started (January 4th), the students have been practising their performances. You'll notice they are in socks, except the boys on the back row. Students are required to remove their shoes before entering the classrooms. And, often you'll see them walking the halls in socks, mostly because they get tired of putting their shoes on and off so many times a day. The teachers, however, get to keep their shoes on. In the kindergarten, though even the teachers wear indoor slippers.

This is one of my classes. I teach 8 classes of grades 1 to 6. This is a grade 4 class, all ready and anxious for another English class with Teacher Brenda. I wish.

"Let's Go!" is the name of the English book they're studying. And the reason they're wearing jackets is because it's freezing in the classroom. Ok, not freezing per say, but it's pretty cold for Thailand and when the windows are open!

They make peace signs with their fingers but noise is in their hearts! And it's constant. School is different nowadays to what it was when I was a student. But, one way or another, they seem to learn stuff, probably mostly from each other. Although, I do hope that my lessons are contributing something to these rambunctious, energetic, sugar-hyped, young, up-and-coming learners.

Laos

I got myself to the Chiang Rai Bus Station. Now, I was actually advised (by everyone) to get on a bus to Vientiane, Laos in order to renew my visa at the Immigrations office which is not open on the week-end. That's why I left on Sunday morning. I had visions of traveling overnight all the way along the border to reach the "Friendship Bridge". But...

When I got off the bus in Chiang Rai, this lady kept waving me towards her bus which she said was going to Laos and would get there in two hours! Two hours. Less money. I think that bus only cost 65 baht. So, what the heck.

I got on the bus and called one of the teachers to get her advice. I told her I may as well get a one-month visa and save all the time and money going to Vientiane. She seemed to agree.

On the bus, I met a dear young lady from the Netherlands who had actually gone to school in Breda, a little town where I had stayed in an old farmhouse many, many years ago. We talked about the terrible things going on in Europe and I mentioned that ladies were safer traveling in Thailand and Laos these days than they were in Europe. However, she was meeting up with a friend and that was a good thing.

I don't know why border crossings need to be so complicated, but, for some reason they do. Not as complicated as they used to be, though. You used to have to take an overnight ferry to cross the border. Now you just go to the border town, where tuk-tuks pick you up and take you to the border crossing, from which we needed to take a shuttle bus to the Immigrations Office where I was required to pay $41 US just for the priviledge of staying overnight in a little town which I think was called Don Khon.

To get to the little town which was 14 kms from the Immigrations, it cost 100 baht. The skinflint that I am, I was seething. But, of course, what choice do you have? Although there were guest houses all along the way, the "song-tow" took us right into town, where the electricity was off!

He dropped me and a couple off at "Sabaidee Guest House" which was clean and had hot water (when and if the electricity ever came on). So, I left my backpack and went to look for dinner. I was told by the desk clerk that there were "lots" of restaurants down the street. There were, at most half a dozen but none of them seemed to be cooking food or even making sandwiches. It was a bit eery.

Although the sun was still up, there was a dusky, silent, sort of dazed feeling in the air. It felt like being in an Alfred Hitchcock movie or like one of those really old crime mysteries. It was quiet. I realize that when there's no electricity, there's no music, not much noise and everyone seems pensive, waiting for the electricity to come back on so life can go on as usual.

I found a restaurant with dark table cloths on dingy tables buzzing with flies where a very slow waitress finally approached me to take my order. When the food came, it was obvious the rice had been sitting in the pot for a while, getting cakey. But I was too hungry to worry about it.

The town was loaded with Westerners, some of whom seemed to be residents. The river was beautiful. The town was very old-fashioned with clap-board houses and red dirt along the roads that rose up in puffs of smoke as vehicles churned past.

I went back to my hotel, accidentally fell asleep and woke up in the dark, wondering where on earth I was. Then I set my alarm for 8 and fell asleep again. Before the sun rose, a thread of light appeared under my door telling me that the electricity had returned. Hallelujah. But, it was too cold for a tepid shower, so I just went back to sleep.

After an "American Breakfast" which is French bread, one fried egg and some cold-cuts, I caught a tuk-tuk back to Immigrations. From there, you take another Shuttle bus to the border and from there, a tuk-tuk to Thailand where you can catch a bus to your preferred destination.

I took a bus to Chiang Rai and treated myself there to a foot massage! It was lovely! In fact, it was a little taste of heaven. It made me think I should get one once a month.

Now, I'm back in Mae Sai, sitting in my fully electricity supplied room with Wifi and very hot water. So, it's time for a nice hot shower to get off some of that travel dirt!

One more month in Thailand!