Working Holiday

Following in the great McLain tradition, Rowan has been put to work by Gramma and Daddy Mac.  Ah, I remember the days of yardwork and pond digging growing up.  I have decided not to turn them in for child labor, although the below images may be disturbing for some viewers because he is so cute.

Interesting marketing

From my Thai cooking lesson, I determined that I need to buy some Kaffir lime leaves.  I found them as I was waiting on a plane, browsing the stalls in the airport.  Below is a picture of the back label; I'm not sure why you would select a recipe where the very ingredient you are trying to sell is optional...

Tom Yum Soup is very famous in Southeast Asia.

Airport Art - Take Two

Last time I was in Thailand, I wrote about the large demons outside of the gates.  Well this time, I walked in and faced a huge scene from mythology.  Here is the transcript of the plaque, also a few pictures and comments:

This scene depicts the Vishnu Kurmavatara and the churning of the Milk Ocean.  The naga (king of the serpents), Vasuki, is curled around the mountain Manadara.  Visnu, incarnated in the form of a great turtle, supports the mountain on his back.  Deva (demigods) and Asuras (demons) pull on the naga’s body to churn the water of the ocean for thousands of years in order to produce the nectar of immortality, Amrita.  From the churning, numerous opulent items are produced, including Dhanvantari carrying the pot of Amrita.  In the end, the cooperation between the Devas and Asuras is shattered.  The Devas fulfill their plan of acquiring all Amrita, disperse the Asuras out of Heavan to the Underworld.

The demons.

I don't know who this guy is - he's on top of the mountain.

The demigods.

Vishnu

This is more than just art, it is actively maintained by having the offerings changed as this lady is doing out to keep them fresh.

The bar has been raised

I'm in Thailand again this week and while I put my thoughts together on the trip for a later blog or two, I must first share that tonight the standard on Japanese food (Sashimi in particular) was raised to new heights for me tonight.  As with most great meals, it is often a combination of outstanding food and even better company.  One other thing to note that came clear to me tonight is that when you travel (and if you're adventurous enough), never order the food yourself, always let someone familiar with the cuisine or the restaurant pick the food for the evening.  Trust me in this.

Also, I got some great pointers on how to make the broth for noodle soup and where to go on vacation (Laos).  The dinner was way more than I expected from a week of business meetings and I'm sure I will look back fondly on the evening for some time to come!

Below are a few pictures.

The group posing with the sashimi boat.

A tomato, yes really it was the perfect tomato.

Fish jaw, char grilled to perfection.  A perfect follow up to the sashimi boat.

Salmon rice soup, which was a nice finish.

This was actually one of the starters - fried fish skin, kind of like the potato chips of the sea...

Scooter Burn

For your protection and sanity, there will be no pictures of the burn itself!  Before I go into more details on what scooter burn is, first I must explain how things came about:

This weekend, in my ongoing quest to figure out the local bus system, I decided to ride around town to all of the places we typically find ourselves, all the while writing down bus numbers at the closest stops.  Figuring that since all things can be solved through spreadsheets, I will then put all of the numbers on a matrix enabling me to get where I need to go.  I have to do this because everything is in Chinese and there are no route maps available until you step onto the bus.

Well, I picked the most beautiful, sunny, clear, hot, smog free weekend to ride around for about 4 hours on a combination of the bike and scooter.  When I got home and peeled off the sweaty clothes, I realized that I’ve never had a sun burn like this before.  My face, forearms and feet (flip-flop pattern of course) were all pink in a way that happened to me every year growing up in Virginia Beach, so no big deal there.  What was different about this burn was the lobster red five inch strip extending from halfway up my knee caps to my shorts line.  The great thing about it is that when I walk, my shorts (or pants) rub against it with every step reminding me of what an air head I was.  Also, when forget and cross my legs (like a man - triangle style, one ankle on the opposite knee) I of course hit directly on the burn.

Being the ever conscientious individual, I did take some pictures of how to prevent scooter burn below for those of you who are scooter novices like myself…

Nice to see she's protected, I guess she doesn't mind if her man looks like a farm hand as long as her complexion is preserved.

Keep in mind it was about 90 deg. F out, ahh the price that must be paid to avoid the deadly tan.

Thai Cooking Class

As I mentioned, one of the things I wanted to begin doing was learning how to cook some Asian food.  A hotel down the street from us offered a Thai cooking class last Saturday, so I signed right up for it!  It was actually kind of funny because I ended up being the only one there so it was just me, the chef, and about 5 or 6 interested staff members.  The chef was from Thailand, so I got a course in the real deal. 

Any way, we prepared three courses:  Papaya Salad (I think it wasn’t really papaya because it was crisp, so I’m going to look up the Chinese word myself), Thai fried rice (really good – had pineapple, chicken, raisins, and then other typical fried rice ingredients, but no soy sauce), and then a Green Curried Chicken.  Below are a few pictures.  Also, the last thing to note is that when I said that I had three kids, the manager invited us to use their pool “free of charge” so I’m starting to build guanxi (influence / connections).  Either that, or they were just super nice.

Yum!

Did anyone expect me to wear anything other than my Thai shirt!?!?!?

I saw them run off to add the "lasting contribution" comment just for me...

Safe, Sound and Sleepy

The kids are doing well over all with their jet lag.  Friday was comical...I told my sister I'd be back over at 5pm to help make dinner, but while Ro was asleep and boys were watching Phineas & Ferb I curled up in chair to take a little nap.  I finally woke up at 5pm to find Ro still sleeping, as well as Reid & Riley passed out on the couch.  

I had to wake Reid up, but he kept falling back asleep, then yelling at me "I'm awake, my eyes are just closed!" when I re-woke him up.  Tried to wake up Riley, to no avail.  Got Ro up and completely awake.  Tried to wake up Riley, to no avail.  Loaded Reid and Ro.  Tried to wake up Riley, to no avail.  Finally loaded him in the car still asleep.  

Drove jerkily the entire way (about 2 miles) to keep the boys awake and thrash Riley around in hopes of waking him up.  Then we we got there yelled "OK.  WE'RE HERE" and he woke up enough to get inside.  Reid and Ro stayed awake, but Riley followed me around whining and crying until he finally woke up enough to eat a bit of dinner.  Poor kid.  Rowan is definitely the best with the jet lag, but could be because he's been sick with strep again!