Journey Home to Canada

We had a horrendous trip Thursday but all is well now. We arrived at the Shantou airport at 7:30 a.m. and left for Hong Kong on schedule at 9:20 a.m. But then we had to hold over HK cause of "adverse weather conditions", a Typhoon Warning 1 and finally had to turn back to Shantou. Then we had to wait in the airport with one delay after another. Then at 2 p.m. they tell us that the flight will take off at 10 !!!!! Almost everyone left to find other ways to get to where they were headed. This did not look good for the rest of us since the airline couldn't guarantee the 10 o'clock flight would actually take off.

Unbelievably, Don and I went through a similar thing last year around this time. We were heading for Beijing but ended up waiting 12 hours at the airport. It makes things ten times worse when the airline can't or won't tell people what's going on AND we don't understand the announcements. Thankfully, this time we met some very nice fellow passengers who speak Mandarin and English! Thanks to our angel Amy, we found out that the airline was arranging to take us to a hotel to rest and feed us dinner. With a few more misadventures and more delays along the way, we finally left Shantou for good at 9 p.m. - ahead of schedule :)

We eventually arrived at the hotel here in HK at 11 p.m. The flight to HK was only supposed to be 40 minutes but after a 12 hour delay, we arrived exhausted and relieved.

We have been enjoying lazy days here at the hotel. There is a great East / West buffet here that we are thoroughly enjoying for breakfast. There is lots of napping and a bit of shopping for me since the hotel is attached to an outlet mall. Lucky for Don, the stores are mostly high end so I'm only window shopping. Besides, we have no room in our luggage for anything big or heavy. We are almost at the weight limit now but I could always make a few of Don's things disappear :)

We are leaving tomorrow to head back to Ottawa. We have decided to return for the short term. Don't know what's in the future yet but will definitely be job hunting. Back to "real" life???

C u soon!

J xoxo

Bye For Now Thailand

After a wonderful month in Thailand, we have to say goodbye... for now. We have had a tremendous time there and have great memories of our first visit to "The Land of Smiles". The Thai people we have met along the way have lived up to the name. They were kind and welcoming. Since we live to eat, we are happy to report another cuisine to our fav list. We loved learning about the curries and popular dishes but most of all, we loved eating them! I sampled Pad Thai everywhere I went and love it even more than I did before I got to Thailand. Don is now a big fan of the curries.

Our home away from home, Villa Thongbura, was a delight. We had the best room with the best view and the staff were wonderful. They helped make us feel at home and very comfortable. In fact, as you have read, it was hard to leave our little paradise.

A big thanks to our new friend Nid who made it easy to go to Thailand and have the experience of a lifetime!

We are back in Shantou now. It is rainy and cold and we have had to trade in our warm weather clothes and sandals :( Back to work on Monday when a new term begins.

Here is a selection of pics from our vacation:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22798130@N07/sets/72157625947060221/

That's it for now. Take care everyone!

J&D xo

Bread and Bananas

Well I finally did it. I have been planning to do it since we were in Mexico, but it took our trip to Thailand to finally do it. No I am not talking about feeding an elephant. I went fishing. I have always loved fishing, but I haven’t gone fishing for more than five years. When I am travelling I always stare at every body of water and wonder what is swimming there. Well, on our second last day in Thailand we went to the Jomtien Fishing Park. But before we did that we went to one of our new favourite restaurants, Simple Simon. There we ate a traditional British Sunday Lunch of Roast Beef or Pork, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and gravey. Filled to the bursting point we left to go fishing.

We walked up to the man at the counter and after paying 440 baht (about 15 dollars) the guide took us to the water’s edge. Along one side of the lake was a long covered area with picnic tables. My guide mixed up all of the bait in the bucket. The bait was breadcrumbs with two types of fruit flavoured attractants. The final mix smelled like bananas. He rigged up my rod and even cast it out into the water for me. After loosening the drag on the reel I went to sit on the bench to wait. I was wondering how long it would take when the reel started to sing. It had been less than a minute. Now normally you wonder what could be on the other end of the line but here at the park I knew it was a Mekong Catfish. It took me maybe 5-7 minutes to land the fish.

All I can say is wow. I loved it. I was sweating, excited and smiling as my guide re-rigged my rod and cast it out again. With hardly a chance to catch my breath the reel started screaming again and I landed another one. Five years with no fish and now two in 15 minutes. It was so easy and quick that after that I was determined to do it all myself. “This is like shooting fish in a barrel”, I thought. I was not able to match his prowess, but after many failed attempts and a lot of waiting I caught my largest fish of the day. The fish seemed to average around 8-10 Kg with my largest being maybe 12Kg. A Russian lady just down from us landed a whopper, 17-20 Kg. How big can this fish get? Well the largest Mekong Catfish caught in Thailand was 300Kg and some fishing parks near Bangkok have fish over 140Kg.

It was a blast and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again someday. I can’t tell you all how grateful I am that June volunteered to spend one of her last days in Thailand fishing with me. She never touched the rod but she did land some with the net, get the beer and take all the pictures. Thank you June for the wonderful Day.

P.S. After three or four hours and 6 or seven fish we called it a day.


Here are the pics from the day:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22798130@N07/sets/72157625946661163/

Pattaya Floating Market

So we finally made it to a tourist attraction. This is a man-made floating market and we were there with bus loads of tourists, many of them Chinese ☺ Being a tourist attraction, there were souvenirs for sell at every turn. We did our best to navigate the maze of bridges and houses on stilts and basically went round and round for a bit. There were also many little food stalls on and out of the water. The coolest thing we did here was to feed an elephant. Oh and Don was a bit of a celebrity here since there were school kids doing an interview assignment to practice their English. So, when he was spotted by group after group of kids, he got to repeat his name, nationality and email address for them. Lots of pictures for you here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22798130@N07/sets/72157626071713486/

J

Lazy Days

We know we should be doing stuff to take advantage of our time here. The weather has been perfect. There are things we could do. There’s a Floating Market to see. There’s more beach to discover. There’s elephants to ride just across the street from our hotel. There’s other tourist attractions we could check out but here’s what we’ve been doing.

Ha ha. We just love our little studio apartment so much. It’s relatively quiet. The view is relaxing. Here is our view from the balcony.

We’ve loaded our books with interesting enough novels that keep us reading. We have food in the fridge. So we wake up, have coffee on the balcony and start reading. When we get hungry, we do breakfast or brunch. Then we read some more until lunchtime. We go out to grab a bite and buy a few provisions from the 7Eleven on the way back in the blazing sun. Then we have a lazier afternoon with napping and reading until dinnertime. Go out to a handful of our “usual” restaurants where good food can be had for a good price. Comment on some interesting couples during dinner (the older European man with the Thai lady). Come home and watch some tv. Such wonderful lazy days!

Today, we actually had something we needed to do today. We went to pick up our graduation certificates from the cooking school.

Oh yeah, the other wonderful thing here. There are drug stores everywhere and we can get the medicines we need easily since the pharmacists speak English. Don has been fighting a cold so we just stopped in at one and got some very reasonably priced drugs. Coming from a place where we are afraid to buy anything, this has been an unexpected comfort. I’ll have to make sure I fill up before we go.

We have a few more days left here but funny enough we don't feel any pressure to do any touristy things. Go figure.

More later. J xo

Karon Beach, Phuket

We just got back from our week with Jackie and Gord in Phuket. They rented a 2 bedroom apartment on Karon Beach and very generously invited us down. So we headed off for a vacation within our vacation☺

We had arranged to meet at a coffee house close to their apartment and after a bit of searching, we found them waiting for us outside of the coffee house. It’s very weird to meet someone you know in a foreign country!

Our days there soon ran together. We woke up, went out to the balcony area, had our coffee and breakfast, and later would read there on and off, have a dip in the pool just a few feet away, come back out, have lunch, read till cocktail hour, have dinner, chat or go out wandering the market to the left of us, go to bed.

While we were only across a small road from the beach, we weren’t in any great need to be ON the beach. From their balcony area, we had a fantastic view of the ocean and could people watch till our heart’s content.

Some things we did when we actually got out of the apartment:

I had my first Thai massage. I now have a small idea of what it feels like to be beaten up. I am amazed that this small woman was so strong and could exert so much pressure. I’m sure that she was stronger than this big fellow that once gave me a Swedish massage (you know who I mean, E). She used her hands, knees, leg, feet to move me like a doll into yoga-like stretches. The spinal twists were the best ?! I’ve done the twists in yoga but it’s a different story when they do it for you and they take you by surprise because they don’t warn you first. After an hour of pounding and twisting and bending, I was ready for the end. I just read that a session could last 2 hours, I couldn’t have survived that! Still, not bad for $6 Cdn ☺

Facial and body massage – At the mall, there were many salons offering great deals for facials. For just $11 Cdn, Jackie and I got a facial and a quick whole body massage. It was a nice treat after an exhausting day of shopping.

Took the “bus”- From our balcony, we had seen this bus traveling back and forth with many tourists in the back so we thought we’d get on and see where it goes for an adventure. We knew that it would end up in Phuket. Little did we know that this was a bit of a tourist trap. They let you out in an area that was not touristy but some helpful taxi drivers are there to offer you tours. We were snatched up by a nice man who brought us to a gem “factory” and store. The deal was that we would spend 5 minutes in there so he could get some gas coupons. So the four of us walked in and I clearly stood out as the shopper (even though Jackie is the queen) because one sales lady zoomed in on me and away we go. I went straight to the 50% off area even though she tried to steer me to the pearls. I told her I had enough pearls. When I said I wanted to buy a cloth purse, she suggested I needed 2. Thankfully, I was in the mood to fend her off otherwise it would have been very tiresome. I drew her fire while the others wandered freely and go out of there unscathed. I paid a bit too much for my new purses but not TOO much.

Dinners – We tried out our new Thai recipes on Jackie and Gord. When we didn’t cook, we tried some of the popular restaurants. One of the best we found was The Red Onion. A very popular place with foreigners, good food, good prices and the line up was proof that we made a good choice.

But mainly we hung out at the apartment and we would often have all of our Sony book readers out, quietly enjoying our own books.

p.s.

Chinese heritage – I am surprised that many of the people we’ve come across have Chinese heritage here. They celebrated Chinese New Year with offerings, fire crackers and family dinners. When our driver picked us up at the airport, he had orchids tied to the grill of his car and Don asked him why. All he said was that he was “same same” as me. This is a favourite expression here just to mean “the same”.

I've posted a few of our pics from Phuket on Flickr because it's easier. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22798130@N07/sets/72157625985379206/

Going to Phuket

Sorry to miss a day. I was feeling under the weather so we laid low. We went back to a mall today so that I could buy another sundress. I bought a cute one the other day so I wanted to return for another and another... but that's another story. After a fortifying lunch at Sizzler's, I left Don with his book at Starbucks and shopped till I dropped.

The top photo is a view from the deck of the Starbucks at the top of the mall. The next is a photo of one of the main entrances to the mall. There is a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in the mall but we didn't feel the need to go there. The other two pics are views of the rush hour traffic on our way home. Rush hour being mainly the tourists going back to their hotels from whatever beach they were at all day.

We head out to Phuket tomorrow and will be there until next Thursday. To travel light, we'll be leaving the laptop here so will not post while we are away. So Happy Chinese New Year! See you in a bit.

J

No Cooking Class Today, What To Do? What To Do?

Go shopping at the Outlet Mall, yay! Much to Don's chagrin, I dragged him to yet another mall. He's not what I would call a willing shopper. We took the hotel bus (identical to the baht buses we've been taking to get around the city). You will see that Don is happy in the back of the pickup ... and holding on tight, Glen.

We managed to buy some things for him and he is now proudly sporting a black Speedo. Don't worry, they are trunk-styled and NOT the itsy bitsy kind :) Sorry, other than that we weren't too exciting today. Did lots of window shopping at the outlet mall though so I'll chalk it up to a walking exercise routine. We came home, took a nap, had happy hour on the balcony and then went out for dinner.

Along the way this evening I took some pics of the scenes around the hotel. There is a pic of the staff buying some groceries just outside the hotel, aren't their uniforms lovely? Oh, in case you are curious about the hotel, here is a link:

http://www.villathongbura.com/accom.htm

We are staying in the studio room.

There is also a pic of the convenience store and the laundry across the road. We've bought lots of essentials from the store like beer, chips and ice. They have daily necessities and also have beer bottles of gasoline for the many scooters that people drive here. Many of the hotel guests go across the street to get their laundry done instead of sending it down at the hotel. We have been frugal and have been washing out almost all of our clothing by hand. Luckily, it is so dry and sunny here, they dry in a day on the rack that is out on the balcony. So thoughtful of the hotel.

Since we were referred to this hotel by our new friend, we have received a bit of a special treatment. We were welcomed with a beautiful fruit basket and flower arrangement when we arrived and every few days, they have been replaced by the staff. It's a wonderful treat. It's been a learning experience too since there has been one fruit in each basket that we were unfamiliar with. Today's fruit basket contained mangosteens, logans, bananas and a brown smoothed skin fruit shaped like a kiwi. We'll be researching that online later. So far, we've learned about cashew apples and jujubes.

We have no special plans till Friday so we still have a couple of days of amusing ourselves here.

Hope everyone is staying warm in Ottawa. We have been following the cold snap. I won't rub it in with the temp here today :)

See you tomorrow. J

Last Day of Cooking Class

Today, we had company. An Irish man from Dublin originally, living in Portugal joined us. He, like many of the foreigners here is retired. We made many things today: Red Curry with Roasted Chicken, Deep Fried Pork appetizers, Sticky Rice with Mango, Deep Fried Sweet Bananas and Baby Bananas Stewed in a simple syrup. We brought all the desserts home and will be having them with ice cream soon. Oh, I took a photo of the outside of the cooking school. We are going to get a graduation certificate later. Proud pics to come.

We just had dinner from the street carts: noodle salad and donairs. Quite yummy but it took us forever to get our donairs because a family of 5 in front of us ordered 10 and this one guy was trying to fill the orders.

Despite previous promises, we didn't much today either because it was 35C. I dragged Don to a new mall for a quick visit and then we headed straight home. Oh, I had to take a photo of my stall when I went to use the washroom in the mall. Those of you who have used a Western toilet in China will understand :)

Tonight, we bought our plane tickets to Phuket to visit Jackie and Gord (they teach with us in China) on Friday. They arrived in Thailand last week and are staying somewhere where there is only power for 4 hours a day. We will NOT be joining them there but when they move to a posh condo very close to the beach. Can't wait to hang out on the beach for a bit since it is impossible here as they pack them in like sardines.

Tomorrow will be the first day in 5 days that we will NOT have curry for breakfast, ha ha :) Think we'll sleep in a bit and then have a more traditional Western breakfast. For the less food obsessed of you out there, we will be doing something different tomorrow but don't know what yet. Stay tuned.

J

Day 4 Cooking Class

We had company for the class today. Things are very "go with the flow" at the school. We are supposed to start at 9 but didn't get there till 9:30. When we arrived, there were two young ladies waiting. They were expecting the Sunday menu or desserts but since they were just drop-ins, the school was not exactly prepared. They were quickly accommodated though and preparations were made to teach them 2 desserts. We went ahead as planned to cook Red Curry with Potatoes and Chicken, a Pomelo and Shrimp Salad, a Sweet and Sour Stir-fry served in an Omlette and Thai Style Fish Cakes. Made our first fish cakes today and they were tasty!

We were so full that we took the salad and stir-fry home and ended up having it for dinner (see Don with our dinner photo). We are finishing the 5 day course tomorrow so will soon have to have regular breakfasts and lunches. The big question will be whether we cook or eat out.

Since we took it way easy today, there aren't too many pics to share. Sorry. Will try to do more tomorrow.

J

Day 3 of Cooking Class

We were the only two in class again. It's great cause we get her undivided attention. We made a Green Curry with Squid Stuffed with Pork, Sweet and Sour Spareribs, Seafood Salad and Whole Fried Fish. We realized this morning that our previous days began with a spicy breakfast and ended with a spicy dinner so were thankful today for a less chili focused menu. Everything was delicious as usual and we had to take the salad home cause we couldn't eat anymore. Today was great because we did things we wouldn't normally do, like deep frying the spareribs first, frying a whole fish and stuffing squid. You will see a photo of Don with Sheri's (our teacher) grandson. He hangs out with his mom and bb brother (I think) while his grandma teaches the classes.

After class, we wandered to another mall and I just had to take a photo with the Thai Ronald McDonald. The trip home is always by baht bus now because we are experts. I took a photo of Don in the back of one.

On our way back to the hotel, we saw a cart selling spring rolls and we couldn't pass them up. That was our snack on the balcony with some cold refreshing drinks. We spend as much time on the balcony as possible. We start our days with coffee there in the morning. Loving this outdoor living!

I got a haircut for $3 Cdn today and NO, I don't think it LOOKS like a $3 haircut :)

Dinner was cheap and cheerful again. For $7, we got a crab appetizer, a stirfry for Don and a fried noodle for me with a big beer for sharing.

Oh yeah, there is a photo of the Banana Roti from last night I forgot to post yesterday.

Second Day at Cooking School

We came out from our hotel room today and saw an elephant again. Apparently, there is an elephant trekking park right near here. We managed to get a photo this time for proof.

We were the only ones in class today so we had a great chance to ask questions and the lesson was quicker. Yesterday, we cooked Penang Curry, Pad Thai, Hot and Sour Chicken Soup and a Green Papaya Salad. Today, we cooked four more dishes: Curry Noodles, Chicken Galangal and Coconut Soup, Chicken and Vegetable stir-fry and a Spicy Seafood Salad. After the first dish, I could barely touch the others. I was so stuffed!

On our way back to the hotel, we checked out a mall on the beach front. No bargains to be had even though there was End of Season sales everywhere :( But I did find my favourite drugstore in China, Watsons, here AND a Boots so I was happy. Hope to check out the Outlet Mall soon.

When we went out for dinner tonight, there were tons of flying insects out. You can see from the photo that they put on quite a show and were terribly pesky around our heads. We tried a yummy street snack tonight, a banana roti. It's a pastry fried in butter and oil and filled with banana and topped with a sprinkle of sugar and sweetened condensed milk. We ate them before having dinner because they were fresh and warm. Nice to be adults!

We're heading back for day 3 at the cooking school tomorrow. Think we will have company because a girl stopped in to inquire about classes while we were cooking.

That's it for today. J

First Day of Cooking Classes

We woke up early so we could be ready for our pick up at 8:30 this morning. Sheri, the chef who was teaching the classes, picked us up on her way in to the school. When we got there, there were 5 women waiting. We turned right back around and headed out to a nearby market which really reminded us of Mexico. We got a quick tour of some popular vegetables and other produce, bought some ingredients and headed back to cook.

You can see that this is a real hands-on class. We all got our own stations and we stood on the outside while Sheri stood on the inside to give us instructions and organize the ingredients for us. All we had to do was cut and stir. It was awesome! We cooked 4 dishes in 3 hours and we were stuffed. I can't believe how easy it was to cook such flavourful dishes. Of course, it helps when someone has prepared all of the ingredients for us. We would cook a dish, plate it and sit down to enjoy the fruits of our labour, rest a bit and go back to make the next dish. While we are, Sheri and her helper washed the things that we had used and prepared the ingredients for the next dish. We liked it so much, we've decided to do the other 4 courses in the series so we are returning tomorrow. Here is the link to the school:

http://www.happyhome-thaicookingschool.com/

We were so full that we didn't need lunch. We came back to the hotel, had a swim then a nap and headed back out again for a foot massage for me while Don had a drink next door. Ahhhhh! Possibly the best foot massage ever. The massage included my legs, arms and shoulders too and it was the first time I've had a stick used in massaging my foot. Dinner was a bit of street food from some carts. We had donairs and fried chicken, not Thai but cheap. Enjoying some English tv now and chilling. Looking forward to our second cooking class tomorrow :)

Night all. J

p.s. Our cooking classes cost $130 Cdn. What a bargain for 5 mornings of fun! Every morning we start at 9 a.m., go to the market, then cook 4 dishes and eat till noon. Today we didn't finish till 1.

Thai Lunch and Dinner From Day 3

Most of these were from the one restaurant we found and liked very much. In the big clay pot is some bbq pork ribs that we found in the market in a food cart. That was our first appetizer for the evening.