The King of Fruits OOPS!! Jackfruit- ready to eat. Thanks for the correction Ekvara
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Traditional Thai Puppet Theater
Last week, my friend Ekvara and I went to the Traditional Thai Puppet Theater at the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. I met Ekvara a few years ago when she worked at JD Edwards. She since moved back to Thailand and now works for Datapro. We have stayed in contact and she has again graciously offered to play tour guide! This time she suggested the Puppet Theater. The performance was taken from the Ramakian (Ramayana). The Hindu tale of Prince Rama has been portrayed in movies, plays and so on all over the world for centuries. Thai Puppet Theater has it's own unique take on this timeless tale.
Each puppet requires three humans to manipulate. The human movements are very intricate and stylized. It takes years and years to perfect the skills. Included below somewhere are a number of pictures from the theater. Both male and females may 'operate' the puppets. To me it is somewhat reminiscent of Japanese Bunraku.
This particular performance was a small part of the Ramakian
On Bamboo Worms and other delights
I'll start this installment with a short vignette from Khun Awn:
A Special Delicacy In my country, we have a special dish that is delicious to eat. That's the bamboo worm. The bamboo worm grows in the bamboo. Before they become caterpillars, they eat bamboo shoots and bamboo fiber until the bamboo is very tall. When the bamboo is tall and the caterpillars mature they will bore a hole in the bamboo. The become butterflies and fly out. You can buy bamboo worms in the market in during the winter from December to February. We make a special dish from bamboo worms. We fry them in oil with salt and pepper. We eat them for snack anytime. Bamboo worms are very expensive and difficult to find because we must wait for their season. They are very clean and very delicious. So bamboo worms are special snacks in my country. End Other than a bit of difficulty explaining the maturation process of the bamboo worm, that's another small insight into the life of the people from the countrys
On being sick in Muang Thai
Sawatdii Khrap!
My posting slowed down this week. Nothing like a major sore throat to drain energy. Those of us that have traveled extensively have no doubt experienced the pleasure of being sick far away from home. After a few weeks of going in and out of air conditioned buildings, having the air conditioner in my apartment working overtime and breathing the not so clean air of Krung Theep, I came down with a massive sore throat. You know the kind. The kind that keeps you awake at night and keeps you aware of it 24/7. The kind that's not so terrible that it's easy to justify just lying in bed all day. That's what I've had for the past week.
Interestingly, one can get antibiotics over the counter here. So at first I went to the local pharmacy and stocked up on something called rovamycin which is supposed to be for sore throats. After 3 days and no improvement, I finally gave in and decided to go to the hospital to see a doctor. Bangkok has one great hospit
Sunday Post
It's been another interesting week here in Thailand. Last night my primary instructor, Khun Awn took me to a restaurant specializing in Lao and Isaan food. Besides the food, there was a band from Laos that played music from Laos and Isaan and dancers that performed traditional Isaan dances. The restaurant was semi open air. Parts of it were enclosed and parts were open to the air. Fortunately by 8pm when we went to the restaurant the temperature had cooled to the high 70's. Below I've included a few pictures from the evening. Perhaps you noticed that I did NOT use the word traditional with the music. The music was mostly contemporary, but with a very definite Isaan flavor. There were two percussion players, one drummer and one guy that played miscellaneous unfamiliar percussion instruments. One musician played the "pin", which is an Isaan style guitar. It is long and thin and very definitely electric. There was an electric bass player and another guy that played a
About Baan Phaasaa Thai - my school
Sawatdii Khrap!
Hello again from the City of Angels. It's 95 beautiful degrees and the sun is strong! Believe it or not, it is fall here too and the weather is "cooling off". I am constantly amazed when seeing Thai people wearing jackets and shawls at night when the temperature drops to a chilly 76 degrees. Today is a day off from my language studies and I will take this opportunity to tell you about my studies and my school. When I arrived, I interviewed several schools. I had previously done quite a bit of research on the internet to narrow my choices down to three. One of the schools I did NOT choose was quite intriguing. The program involved a very long term learning situation in which the student does not speak any Thai for many classes. The student just listens and absorbs patterns of speech and tonality. The director of the program explained to me that it is modeled on how one learns to speak as a baby and young child. While it was intriguing, this approach does n
Daily life in Krung Theep
For this round I decided to tell you a little about my everyday life here in Krung Theep. Let's start with stocking the apartment with food and sundry items. I have two 'grocery' type stores within walking distance. You'll notice I said walking distance. It's not like the states where you can easily drag home 4 or 5 big bags of groceries loaded up in the back of the SUV. I can only buy what I can lug home at any given time. With that limitation, it's not too tempting to buy unneeded stuff. So I can walk about 15 minutes to get to either one. Both are accessible to farang in so far as one can figure out what most things are. Drinking water is the bane of my existence. Every couple of days I lug home a couple or three big bottles. At least it isn't too expensive. In a few trips over the course of a few days I have pretty well stocked up on necessities. Some things are cheap, some cost pretty much exactly the same as in the states. Cereal is one example. A box
Hello again from the City of Angels,
I have just had my fourth Thai lesson. I can already speak like a native! NOT!! Actually I am progressing well. The tonality in the Thai language is much like that in the Chinese language. I am surprising myself with my ability to both hear and speak with the correct tones. It must be the excellent teachers that I have. My school is called Baan Phaasa Thai which translates to Thai Language House. I am in a somewhat accelerated learning situation. I am taking 4 hours per day and studying as much as I can stand to after class. I have been studying from 1-2 hours at home besides taking the class. For my homework due today I had to read a short story and answer questions about it in Thai. Usually 1-2 hours of my class time is spent with virtually no english spoken. I have become expert in saying, "pardon", "please say it again" and "speak more slowly please".
My teachers have also been very good about helping me with cu
