Crispy Noodles in a Thick Vegetable Gravy (rat naa mee grob)

For our Thai lunch today, we decided to have individual meals for each person. Normally we will buy various dishes and then share. All of these meals in this series of the Friday Thai Lunch were bought on the street in Thailand and then brought home to photograph and eat. The first two are one of my favourites and can be bought almost everywhere. In Thai it is called "rat naa". In English you could call it Noodles in a Thick Vegetable Gravy.

Wide Noodles in a Thick Vegetable Gravy (rat naa sen yai)

These two dishes both have the same ingredients of pork and Chinese broccoli. However, you can choose what type of noodles you like to have. These are two of my favourites for "rat naa". The top dish has "mee grob" which is a crispy version of the egg noodle, and the one above has "sen yai" which is the wide noodle. You can also choose "sen mee" which is a thin noddle which I don't like so much. I usually alternate between "sen ya" and "mee grob". The gravy is made thick by adding corn flour to the stock. These dishes only cost 25 baht each. Actually, there is more gravy to pour on top but I kept some back so that you could see the ingredients better! This is very good value for money

Egg Noodles in Tom Yum Soup (baa mee tom yum)

Around the corner we have a noodle stall where you can order quite a few different versions of noodles that either come dry or in a soup. The price is the same so I usually always ask for the soup too! Again you can choose from a variety of different sized noodles. If you don't know the Thai then you can always point to what ingredients you want! The choice is usually, "sen yai", "sen mee", "sen lek" and "ba mee". My all time favourite is the last one which is called egg noodle in English. It is yellow in colour whereas the others are white. At this stall, I usually alternate between "ba mee kieo nam" (egg noodle soup with wonton) or "baa mee tom yum". The above is the latter version which I love. It is virtually the same but has Chinese morning glory instead and she also adds ground roasted peanuts and a spoonful of nam prik pao (otherwise known as chili jam). She never makes it spicer enough for me so when I get home I always add another spoonful of chili jam and then the dried chilis as well.

Wonton Soup with Red Pork (kieo nam moo daeng)

This is the second version with the wontons. These are pork wrapped in a pastry. However, the ingredients can vary. She also added pak choy vegetable and red pork. I like this one with egg noodles. However, this person didn't want any noodles so the noodle vendor added more wontons instead. The soup is always clear and it is up to you about adding the four flavours. These come in packets and include: chillies in fish sauce, chillies in rice vinegar, sugar and chili powder. I usually add them all though not so much of the sugar. I am not as sweet toothed as the Thais seem to be. Both of these dishes cost only 25 baht each.

Khao Tom Mad

Our dessert today is also one of my favourites. It is called "khao tom mad". It is basically a mixture of sticky rice with coconut cream and sugar. It also has a ripe banana in the middle and you can also see some black eye peas in this picture. It is wrapped in banana leaves and then left to steam for two hours. These cost only 6 baht each. So, our meal for four people was about US$4 today which wasn't bad!

Come back next Friday to thai-blogs.com to see what we are eating in the Paknam Web offices.

In theory, I like the whole idea of karma, which basically translates as cause and effect. If you do something wrong now, it will catch up with you in a later life. Many Thai Buddhists believe this, as well as people from other religions around the world. It is good as it keeps the population in check. They won't do any bad deeds because they know that they will be punished later. But, it also has it drawbacks. People in Thailand are very subservient which means that they often accept whatever is given to them without complaining. If they are poor in this life it is because of consequence of a bad deed in a previous life.

Quite often at Thai temples, I have seen notices that teach you the consequences of your actions. You may remember a temple I wrote about where they had models depicting a Buddhist Hell. It quite clearly showed what would happen to you if you did bad in this lifetime. But, have you ever wondered why not everyone is rich or very beautiful? It is all to do with their past deeds. Here are just a few of the things that Thai people believe in:

* If you build or maintain public roads in this lifetime, you will have your own car in the next.
* If you donate robes to a monk in this lifetime, you will have fashionable clothes in the next.
* If you donate food to the poor in this lifetime, you will have plenty of food in the next.
* If you are stingy with your money in this lifetime, you will be poor in the next.
* If you donate money to the temple in this lifetime, you will have a large house in the next
* If you put flowers on the shrine in this lifetime, you will be beautiful or handsome in the next.
* If you pray often in this lifetime, you will be clever in the next.
* If you release birds or fish* you will enjoy a long life in the next.
* If you kill people in this lifetime, you will die young in the next.
* If you abuse your husband in this lifetime, you will be a spinster in the next.
* If you have affairs with married women in this lifetime, you will never find a wife in the next
* If you donate oil for lamps at the temple in this lifetime, you will have bright eyes in the next
* If you are rude to your parents in this lifetime, you will be deaf and dumb in the next
* If you didn't pay your debts in this lifetime, you will be born as a cow in the next.
* If you donate medicine for sick people in this lifetime, you will be healthy in the next
* If you are cruel and cold-hearted in this lifetime, you will be all alone in the next.
* If you like to look at nude pictures in this lifetime, you will be blind in the next.
* If you gossip about people in this lifetime, you will have a harelip in the next.
* If you like cheating people in this lifetime, you will be born as an animal in the next.
* If you don't help people in danger in this lifetime, you will be in prison in the next.
* If you sneer at beggars in this lifetime, you will starve to death in the next.
* If you look down on servants in this lifetime, you will be ugly in the next.
* If you don't believe in the Buddhist teaching in this lifetime, then you will be deaf in the next.
* If you hurt animals in this lifetime, you will have leprosy in the next.
* If you are envious of other people in this lifetime, you will have body odour in the next
* If you make a false charge against a monk in this lifetime, you will be struck by lightning in the next.

There is a lot more of course but that will do for now. Hopefully, you will now understand more fully why you are in your present predicament. Although there is nothing you can do about it for this lifetime, you can take steps to give yourself a better time in the next life or the one after that. It all depends on how bad you have been!

Miss Tiffany Thailand 2008.

She's genetically a male.

It's hard enough competing with other Thai girls. The ladies of the Kingdom also have to compete to look better than the ladyboys next door.

I mean, how could we live with ourselves if we're out-prettied by boys!?!?!?

But then our boys are pretty. I mean, look at Miss Tiffany! THAT pretty.

It's REALLY hard to beat this level of pretty!

We'll never win this fight. Us Thai girls just never win.

The world's soooo unfair.

*sigh*

I'm just jealous. It's a girl thing. So I'm going away to sulk now. Don't mind me.

The rambutan is one of my favurite fruit that can be bought in Thailand. It is actually grown all over South-East Asia but here it grows in places like Chantaburi, Rayong and Trad in the East. It is a very distinctive looking fruit with its hairy outer skin. There are two varieties you can buy here: Rong Rien and Si Chompoo. The latter one is in the bottom right of this picture with the pink hairs. The taste is sweet and very succulent. It has a high sugar content as well as Vitamin C. It is also quite cheap. I bought these for 20 baht a kilogram. Or it is 45 baht for a can which also has syrup.

To prepare rambutan for eating is very easy. If I am outside, I might use my fingernail to make a small cut in the skin. Then holding each end, slightly squeeze and twist. At home you should probably use a sharp knife to make the cut. You don't need to cut all around as the skin comes off easily. For presentation, it is best to only take off one half like in this picture. However, don't cut the fruit in half like I did in the top right of this picture. I just did that to show you the seed. This is not edible and some people say it can be poisonous. Though you can apparently eat if it is roasted. It is a narcotic though. Often when I eat rambutan the seed will stick to the flesh. So I have to eat around it. However, when I buy rambutan when I go down to Rayong for a beach holiday, the seed comes out easily. This is because it is freshly picked from the tree. The ones we get in Bangkok are beginning to be too ripe. If the hairs change to black then it is starting to go off. Once it is cut open, I keep it in a container in the fridge for 3 or 4 days.

Thai name: เงาะ​

One of the major rivers in the eastern part of Thailand is the Bang Pakong River which drains into the Gulf of Thailand. At the estuary, you can go on boat tours that take you out to see the Irrwaddy dolphins. Their visit is seasonal and you can only join these dolphin watch tours between November and February. I went to see them about three years ago and wrote a story about it for Bangkok Day Trips. I went back to Chachoengsao Province last weekend for another boat trip on the river. Though this time I started further upriver in the city of Chachoengsao. The boat trips run seven days a week. Monday to Friday there are only two rounds per day at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. At the weekend, there are seven trips leaving on the hour starting at 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Each trip lasts about two hours.

The river tour starts at the pier behind Wat Sothorn, which is a gigantic landmark in Chachoengsao and very hard not to miss. People from all over the area make a pilgrimage to this temple to pay respect to the Luang Pho Sothorn image. If you are driving there by car you will find plenty of free parking space around the temple. It is best to come early as the place gets very crowded at the weekend. I was hoping to go on the boat tour straight away, but the next round was fully booked. So I had just over an hour to wait. But, it didn't matter, there was plenty to see around the temple grounds.

The ticket price for the boat tour is only 100 baht for adults and 60 baht for children. There is no two price system. However, you will find that the commentary during the tour is only in Thai language. I asked the tour guide about this and she said by far the majority of tourists here are Thai people. Out of the handful of foreigners that come to Chachoengsao, the majority are with Thai wives or Thai friends. So, virtually no independent travellers at all. Which is not surprising as the province is no longer featured in the Lonely Planet.

The river tour itself was enjoyable. It was a hot day and the breeze created by travelling up river by boat was refreshing. On one side of the river was the city with some waterfront buildings that were more than 100 years old. I also spotted a couple of Christian churches, the oldest being St. Paul's. Near the city hall, we passed an old section of the foritified wall that used to protect the city. On the other side of the river it was mainly isolated wooden houses and a great deal of nipa palm trees. One of the famous local food is "khanom jaak" which uses products from this tree. The boat trip itself was only 30 minutes. It would have been good to have gone on for longer, but the place they brought us to turned out to be the highlight of the tour. This was the 100 year old Ban Mai Market. We basically had an hour to explore this area before boarding the boat for the return journey.

The last time I had been to Ban Mai Market was more than five years ago. And what a difference. Back then the place was deserted with only a handful of tourists. Most of the houses had their front shutters closed. Now it was difficult to move in some sections. There were so many tourists wandering around. Either browsing the shops or sitting down to eat some authentic Thai food. Nearly every house was open and having some interaction with the public. Either selling food or souvenirs. There was even an old barber shop. I enjoyed myself with some great snacks and a so-called "original recipe" for iced coffee. None of the wooden houses have changed much since the reign of King Rama V. In fact, this market is a popular location for filmmakers doing period dramas.

An hour wasn't really enough time to sit and eat. Particularly as the tour guide also took us to a nearby Chinese shrine. Well, I should say that she took me alone. There were 40 people who disembarked from the boat at the market pier. However, along the way she managed to lose them all. Maybe they were more interested in sampling the Thai snacks and desserts. But, there was time to do both. To her credit, she took me through the market to the far end to reach Wat Chin Pracha Samosorn. On the outside of the shrine it loked much the same as any other. However, inside there were a number of interesting images. One was a set of three Chinese Buddha images that were incredibly made of paper. You can see them in the above picture. Another shrine there was popular with people who wanted to make a lot of money or win the Thai lottery. I will tell you more about that another day.

Chachoengsao is to the east of Bangkok and there is plenty to keep you busy all day. Disregard the fact that not many guidebooks cover this area. If you want to go by bus, you can catch one at either Mor Chit 2 Bus Terminal or Eastern Bus Terminal (at Ekkamai). There are also regular trains leaving Hua Lamphong station throughout the day. I went there by car and it took me just over one hour. I drove along the Bang Na Trad Highway and turned left at Highway 314. You can also go by Highway 7 which is the Bangkok-Chonburi Motorway. You won't need a map as it is well sign-posted. Over at Bangkok Day Trips you will find a map of Chachoengsao and plenty of ideas on what else to see in this province.

I will be posting more of my travel blogs here at thai-blogs.com soon.