Rules of conduct

The other week, I stopped at our local coffee/tea lady on the way home from work. As I was waiting for my bag of cocoa yen (iced chocolate), I noticed that her cart was decorated with some beautiful mobiles made from...beer cans.

I admired them for another couple weeks, until I finally got up the courage to ask her where she had bought them.

Her response (after some failed verbal communication) was to take them down and give them to me. She insisted I take them for free, and when I protested and offered to pay she got more than a little pissed.

I returned home and hung them up on the balcony. They are awesome, and they smell like Thai tea.

Today, I stopped by her cart to say thank you with some Ferrero Rocher. She was not pleased, but I couldn't tell if she was seriously unpleased or secretly-pleased unpleased.

I'm going with the latter because really, how can you go wrong with hazelnuts and chocolate?

Whistler's Mother

If you've ever walked down a busy street in Bangkok, chances are you've had your eardrums partially blown out by one of these guys:

Traffic cops are ubiquitous in the city, and 9 out of 10 are permanently poised and ready to direct the flow (or lack thereof) of traffic, signal the all-clear to a reversing car or permanently damage the hearing of unlucky passersby with their frantic whistling.

On the left, please note the special brocaded band to which the whistle is attached, worn around the left
shoulder--this is no casual whistler.

Apparently, there are actually schools for whistlers where they learn their mysterious whistler-language. My question is, does anyone other than the whistlers know what they are trying to communicate?

One thing is clear, if you find yourself the victim of a whistling at the BTS, then you are standing too close for comfort to the yellow line, and it is thus your own fault. Safety first, people.


Thanks to BangkokRecorder.com and A.J.C. for the photos

Domicile

In August, I moved into a new apartment.

After trudging for hours up and down every soi (small roads off the main roads) and sub-soi (even smaller roads off the sois) in the neighborhoods of the Ari & Saphan Kwai BTS stops, I was almost ready to give up my apartment hunt. But then I turned down a busy market soi, and as I passed baskets of headless fish reeking in the afternoon sun, bins full of fiery chillis, arrangements of eggplants in every size and color (yellow, white, green, purple), and a couple spotty kittens, I immediately fell in love. A couple meters down the soi, I stumbled upon the oasis that is Mansion Sarasinee.

The building itself is designed to look like a boat because, according to the brochure, it is "the symbol of wealthy and prosperity for the residents." But that questionable theory and the door numbers are the only evidence of the nautical theme, thank god.

Here's my actual apartment...

My balcony/make-shift kitchen/flower-cutting station...

My view from the 8th floor...

unless there's a torrential downpour...

What is a kaffir lime anyway?

<< These are kaffir limes: a bumpy, almost diseased-looking version of the citrus fruits we're familiar with. The difference is that the leaves and rind of the kaffir limes are more commonly used than the juice, which is typically reserved for medicinal and hair-softening purposes.

The double leaves (shown in the header) are a rich dark green and carry an amazingly complex and potent scent. They are found in Thai soups like Tom Yum (spicy & sour soup) and Tom Kha (spicy & sweet coconut milk soup) and in many curries and are also used extensively in Indonesian, Burmese, Lao & Cambodian cuisines.

Thais also take advantage of the strong-smelling limes to freshen up less than fresh places, e.g. the men's bathroom at Bangkok restaurant Cabbages & Condoms (thanks Fulbriters M & R!). >>

A little kaffir lime tree is growing on my balcony (thanks to my dad, gardener extraordinaire). Despite a complete lack of direct sunlight, it seems to be thriving, and last month it sprouted two white flowers, which promptly produced two tiny limes. The leaves have made a great addition to a number of standard Western dishes, from eggs to pasta. I recently found this most impressive recipe on the great blog Vanilla Garlic. Yum, too bad I am ovenless.

I'm also waging a fierce battle with the tiniest ants in the world, who are dead set on setting up a colony in the soil. So far, I am winning. Never underestimate the deadliness of Thai household products.

Thanks to Wikipedia.org for kaffir limes photo

First

Well, 5 months after creating this blog, I'm finally getting around to writing the first post.

One of the many things I've discovered in the past 10 months of living in Thailand is that I am a piss-poor long-distance communicator. You know how it goes--you've been meaning to contact someone for so long but haven't, and now there's way too much back-story to fit into one casual email. That's especially true when you're living abroad, and so many new things happen everyday (well, almost everyday).

So instead of beginning each email by apologizing for being out of touch, I've decided to revive this blog* so that emails can be reserved for more personal communication.

This blog will be my attempt to give you guys an idea of Thailand in general and my day to day life here. I hope you read and enjoy and maybe even learn a thing or two.

Chok dee na ka! (Good luck!)


*Much credit must be given to my sister for many months of serious blog-pressure