The Venice of the East

Posted on 23 August 2011 by christao408

Riding my bike a few weekends ago past the new Skytrain Sukhumvit Line extension (more about that later), I crossed this khlong, or canal, near the Third Stage Expressway. Bangkok has long been referred to as the Venice of the East, although most of the canals have either been filled in to make roads or are stagnant dumping grounds. This canal, though, flows unimpeded to the Chao Phraya River and seems to benefit from a twice-daily flushing by the tides.

The arrow on this map illustrates the location and direction of the first photo. It is charming that there are still communities that live on the edge of the water, whose land has not been expropriated for development into condos, hotels, and office buildings. Of course, in some areas, those are the poorest communities and homes are little more than corrugated tin shacks. In other areas, such as the Phra Khanong community in the first picture, residents are of modest means but their community is long-established with solidly-built homes and shops.

Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi – Chiang Mai

Posted on 23 August 2011 by christao408

This is the final entry on our trip to Chiang Mai. Since I entered a cropped version of one of these pictures to a contest at the MyWinningPhoto site (I came in second, thank you for your votes), I had to hold off on posting this entry until after voting ended.

After enjoying a Lamphun style lunch at Huen Jai Yong on the eastern outskirts of Chiang Mai, Tawn and I decided to drive to the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi resort. With only 123 rooms on its 60-acre grounds, this Rachen Intawong-designed property is quite the vision of overblown opulence, although the company more modestly describes it as “a place where traditional Lanna culture and Asian colonial splendour have been carefully brought together in masterful harmony.”

We arrived just as an afternoon thunderstorm was dissipating. Our initial objective was to have tea but we discovered that the Oriental Tea Shoppe is located in a complex next to the public parking lot on the outer edge of the resort, which effectively insulates the guests within from the bus loads of tourists who visit. The shopping area looks like some sort of movie set from a Chinese western, but with plenty of bamboo.

Props to the Oriental Tea Shoppe which, just like its branches in Bangkok, serves beautiful cakes and other pastries to go with their Mariage Freres teas and coffees.

Afterwards, we decided to enter the resort. This is the imposing gate the separates the flagstone-paved public parking lot with the rest of the resort. Follow the Mercedes limousine!

From there, a long tree-shaded driveway leads to the main lobby. The name “Dhara Dhevi” is a poor anglicization of the name of Queen Chama Thevi (alternately, Jamadevi), founder around 750 CE of the Hariphunchai kingdom, the capital of which was in nearby Lamphun.

Looking back towards the entrance gate, these buildings on the left contain function rooms for events, conferences, meetings, etc. Way down near the gate is a horse-drawn carriage that ferries guests. Bored, the driver offered to give Tawn a lift into the resort and subsequently gave us a 20-minute tour of the grounds.

Near the main lobby, walls obscure shops and parts of the grounds, looking more like a Mon fortress than a resort.

The sweeping main lobby building. Driveways just to out of the frame of the picture lead to the reception area. The lower floor is a shopping arcade. The overall design of the complex is a mish-mash of Lao, Burmese, Lanna, Mon, and Thai architecture, with some Thais criticizing the resort as looking too much like a temple.

From the back side of the reception area, you can see two of the larger buildings that contain guest units. Many of the units, though, are stand-alone villas that are spread throughout the grounds. The swimming pool has some gorgeous tile work.

Another two buildings with guest rooms. Granted, this was about twenty minutes after a heavy storm had passed, but the place looked deserted. We saw two couples (presumably guests) in the lobby area and passed one family of four while touring the grounds. Other than that, the place was empty. The impression I got from talking with employees was that occupancy was in the low twenty percent range. Rates, though, were still about $400 a night.

Looking down the steps from the entrance to the spa, which was also deserted – no guests but no employees, either. The statues on either side of the walkway are supposed to shoot arcs of water over the path, landing on the other side. The resort has been open a bit more than five years and there were many areas where significant maintenance was being performed.

Unfortunately, the video that I shot while on our horse-drawn tour is on the Mac, which is in for repairs at the authorized Apple retailer. If I get a chance I will post it later as it shows the exteriors of some of the villas, which look like village houses in the midst of rice paddies.

Our horse and buggy driver at the end of the tour. My overall impression of the resort was that somewhere along the way it had crossed the line from “elegant” to “ostentatious,” reminding me more of a pan-Southeast Asian amusement park than anything else. But maybe this is the type of fantasy in which wealthy tourists, Asian and non-Asian alike, wish to indulge in.

Food in Chiang Mai: Huen Jai Yong

Posted on 19 August 2011 by christao408

On our final day in Chiang Mai, Tawn and I drove east of the city to search for Huen Jai Yong, a restaurant highly recommended by our hotel’s staff. Four or five people around the front desk agreed that this was the restaurant locals went to when they wanted to eat good Northern Thai food. In fact, the restaurant is known particularly for its Lamphun style cuisine. Lamphun is the province directly to the southeast of Chiang Mai.

As I learned from Wikipedia, Lamphun traces its roots to the 9th Century, when it was founded by Queen Chama Thevi as the capital of the most northern of the Mon kingdoms in the area that is now Thailand.

Located on Route 1317 some 15 kilometers west of the city, Huen Jai Yong still feels like it is out in the countryside. Its landmark is the large rain tree out by the driveway. In reality, though, civilization is fast approaching. Not a kilometer away, rice paddies have been transformed into housing developments.

The gardens behind the restaurant were in the midst of lamyai or longan season, with the trees heavily loaded with fruit. Chickens were strutting about the garden, scratching for bugs amidst the herbs and vegetables.

The restaurant itself is a charming old teak wood house, with seating upstairs, downstairs, and in a few adjacent buildings. A small gift shop is located out front where Tawn is standing.

We opted for the open-air seating under the house. This picture doesn’t show it very well, but several of the tables are made from old long boats with planks added to make the tabletops. On the sign in pink chalk you can see the restaurant’s name in Lanna, the old Northern Thai language that traces its roots to a time when this region was a kingdom independent of Siam.

We ordered a variety of foods, sampling several dishes we had eaten at Huen Phen as well as some specialties we had not tried on this trip. Sticki rice is a staple.

First, let’s answer the question, what makes Northern Thai cuisine distinct? Thailand has four major regions (North, Northeast/Issan, Central, and South) and each has its own style of cuisine although the have become increasingly merged as Thais move about the country.

Generally speaking, Northern Thai cuisine reflects the peoples who have historically lived in, passed through, and traded with the region. These include the Mon, Shan, and other Burmese groups; the Hui and Taochew people from China; as well as Indian, Northern Lao, and Malay people.

Northern Thailand is more mountainous, has better rainfall, and somewhat cooler temperatures than other parts of Thailand. The food tends to be heartier, a bit less spicy, makes more use of fresh herbs and vegetables, and makes less use of ingredients like coconut milk and fish than in other regions. Whereas fermented fish and shrimp are used as a flavoring in other regions, you see fermented soybeans (trace the roots to China) used more commonly in Northern Thai cooking.

Let’s take a look at what was served:

This dish of steamed squash and parboiled greens (similar to kale) and eggplant are served as a kind of side dish that you can go to for a break from whatever main dishes you are eating, kind of like the ban chan in Korean cuisine or pickles in many cultures.

Once again we see the ubiquitous sai oua sausage, this time served with some muu tod or fried pork, known in the Northern Thai dialect at jiin muu.

This dish, which is kind of hard to see thanks to the boiled eggs on top, looked at first to be nam prik noom, the roasted green chilli dip. In fact, though, it was tam baakeua, a salad made of roasted eggplant. Very tasty with the smoky meatiness of the eggplant enhanced with a variety of herbs and spices then served with the rich boiled eggs.

One option for eating the roasted eggplant was this dish of kaep muu or chitlins (as they are called in the southern United States), deep fried pork skin. Oh, so bad for you and yet so good, too!

An unusual dish was larb kua plaa nin, of a salad of pan seared tilapia fish flavored with lemongrass, shallots, chilies, and other herbs. Tasty and similar to, but less spicy than, other chopped meat salads that come from the Northeast. Interestingly, I learned that tilapia was introduced to Thailand as a gift of Japanese Crown Prince Akihito in 1965 to H.M. King Bhumipol. It has adapted very well and is found in rivers all across Thailand.

Another version of gaeng hong lay, the Burmese style stewed pork with a tomato based sauce. This particular version came very close to massman curry and was sweeter than the version we had at Huen Phen restaurant. While it was tasty, it was almost too sweet for my taste. Also interesting, it was made with fresh ginger instead of fried ginger.

Northern Thai cuisine uses fresh herbs prodigiously and we were served this plate of various herbs and yard beans. While I didn’t confirm it, I get the impression that these herbs are grown on the grounds of the restaurant.

We ended our meal with gaeng pak waan, a soup of “sweet vegetable” which are the tips of a vegetable similar to spinach but much less earthy in flavor. The broth is made from dried fish.

Our bill came out to about 400 baht for the two of us, about US $13.50. The meal was a perfect conclusion to our trip to Chiang Mai. The food is tasty, fresh, healthy, and the flavors are perhaps more accessible than any other style of Thai cuisine. Now, the question is, when are you coming for a visit?

Directions: From Central Airport Plaza take Mahidol Road towards San Kamphaeng (Route 1317) . Pass the junction of the Outer Ring Road and Route 1317 intersection, the make a U-turn at km 9. The restaurant will be on your left at the large rain tree.

Food in Chiang Mai – Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham

Posted on 18 August 2011 by christao408

Back to food in Chiang Mai, after a morning spent teaching monks how to cook, err… make sandwiches, I was hungry for some Thai food. The previous day Tawn and I had tried one highly recommended place for khao soi, the northern style curried nodles that are among my favorite foods in the world. We decided to head over to another well-recommended restaurant, Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham.

On Faaham Road across the Ping River from the old city, there are two khao soi places just about 100 meters apart. Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham (Thai: เสมอใจฟ้าฮ่าม) is on the west side of the road right next to Wat Faaham. The other restaurant, Khao Soi Lamduon, is on the east side of the road just a bit south of the wat and reportedly serves a spicier version of the dish. Sadly, we did not make it to Khao Soi Lamduon on this trip.

Yet another Northern Thai restaurant sponsored by which cola company? Regretfully, they do not have an English language sign but if you can find the wat (temple), the restaurant is immediately to the right of it. The good news is, their interior signage is very English friendly with photos, names, and descriptions of each dish.

The building is more of a food court, if you will, with different vendors offering different dishes, mostly Northern Thai but with some other common dishes (somtam or green papaya salad, with is really Issan or Northeastern Thai, for example) also available. The khao soi vendor is front and center, literally, with huge pots of curried broth and coconut cream simmering away.

Our khao soi arrived with the ubiquitous plate of condiments – picked cabbage, a slice of lime, and some shallots (the chilli paste is in a container on the table) – carefully balanced on top of the bowl of noodles and meat. Artful presentation or just efficiency? You decide.

Once the condiments were moved out of the way, I got a view of the goldenrod color of the broth. Like always, I tried a slurp of it before adding the condiments, the better to appreciate the unique attributes of this dish. The broth was a little bit sweeter with a slightly more pronounced curry flavor than what we had at Grandmother’s Khao Soi.

As a point of comparison, here was Grandmother’s Khao Soi. The color correction is accurate: the broth is a little darker and has a slightly meatier flavor than at Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham. Also, despite the big vat of coconut cream bubbling away at Sameujai Faaham, Grandmother’s was a bit more liberal with its application.

Which is better? Oh, you aren’t going to lure me into the middle of an impossible dillema! Both versions were very good and both had their own unique qualities. Oh, and I’ll be going back to both on my next visit to Chiang Mai!

The other vendor located out front is preparing satay gai, or grilled chicken skewers. This treat is definitely an import from the Indonesia/Malaysia corner of the world. It is more than just simply grilled chicken, though. The key to Thai satay is that the meat is marinated in a coconut milk and curry dressing so it takes on a rich flavor and retains its moisture.

Typical service for the satay: pickled cucumbers, chillies, and shallots and a dipping sauce made of ground peanuts, red curry paste, coconut milk, and lime juice. I know a lot of recipes tell you to use peanut butter, but trust me, it isn’t the same. Commercial peanut butters have many added ingredients, which change the taste of the sauce.

We ordered a dish of naam prik noom, the dip made of roasted green chillies. Compared with the version we ate at Huen Phen restauarnt with its fancy blanched vegetables, this version is quite modest with just some cabbage and cucumbers. This version of the naam prik, though, was spicy!

We also ordered sai oua, the herb-filled pork sausage. This is one of those foods that everyone does a little bit differently, so if someone is serving it, you should try just as a point of comparison.

We had every intention of saving room so we could stop down the street at Khao Soi Lamduon and split a bowl of khao soi just to try, but we were really full by this point. Alas, yet another reason we must get back to Chiang Mai soon.

Walking back to the temple next door where we had parked our car, we spotting this helpful bit of wisdom. Yaa puut nai sing tii mai ruu, leh yaa putt tuk yang tii ruu. “Don’t speak about things which you don’t know, and don’t speak everything that you do know.” Good advice with which to lead your life.

In my final entry about Chiang Mai food, we make a special drive out of town to try a Lamphun style restaurant, and I explain a bit about what makes Northern Thai food unique.

Nobody Listens to Warren and Me

Posted on 17 August 2011 by christao408

Loading my Yahoo mail, this headline caught my eye. Could it be? Were they finally taking seriously my plans for paying off the government debt?

Turns out it is just some other guy named Schultz. Seems he has some experience with a coffee shop or something.

Traffic Planners Battle the Left Turn

Posted on 16 August 2011 by christao408

A story on Talk of the Nation earlier this month piqued the interest of my inner urban planner and transportation geek. It was about the efforts of traffic engineers to design intersections that minimize potential points of conflict and maximize the flow of vehicles. Particularly, they talked about something called a “Diverging Diamond Interchange” or DDI.

The classic diamond interchange is very inefficient and results in nearly two dozen points of potential conflict between cars going different directions. Every left turn, whether to enter or exit the freeway, results in the rest of the traffic having to stop.

One solution known as the “Michigan Left” (because it is used mostly in Michigan, I suppose) is a relatively dangerous solution that has drivers making a u-turn about 200 meters after the intersection, then making a right-hand turn at the intersection. The disadvantage of these uncontrolled u-turns is that one thing drivers don’t do particularly well is judge the speed and distance of oncoming vehicles.

Another solution is the SPUI – Single Point Urban Interchange. This design has all traffic coming together at a single intersection controlled by a single set of lights. I’m familiar with this as it is the new design that was built near where I used to live in suburban Kansas City. It is an elegant design but still has some problems, not the least of which is that the space in the middle of the intersection is very large and people can get lost. I’ve observed this on several occasions, where cars have drifted into the wrong direction, especially at night when traffic is light and visual cues (like the headlines of oncoming cars) not so available.

If you have never had the pleasure of driving through an SPUI and are curious how they work, here’s a nice short video that shows an animation of traffic going through the intersection.

Diamond 1

The latest innovation, which so far has only been built a few places in the United States, is something called the Diverging Diamond Interchange, or DDI. Somewhat counterintuitively, the DDI involves the lanes of traffic switching sides on each end of the interchange. The result is that there are only two controlled intersections and drastically fewer potential points of conflicts. All left turns follow the natural, uninterrupted flow of traffic. (Thanks to NPR for the graphics.)

Here is how it works:

Diamond 2

As you approach the traffic signal, the lanes of traffic curve slightly to the left, passing oncoming traffic (which waits at the light) at a 25-degree angle.

As you travel through the signal, you are on the left hand side of the road.

If you are turning left onto the freeway, you simply make a left-hand turn without waiting for a light. Through traffic keeps on moving, not having to stop for cars waiting to make left-hand turns.

After passing through the second intersection, traffic crosses back over to the right-hand side of the road.

Exiting from the freeway to go left onto the arterial road, you merge and do not have to go through an intersection.

Entering the freeway with a right hand turn is also a merge and does not require you to go through an intersection. In all, the traffic flows much more smoothly.

Here’s a short animation that shows the traffic flow.

There are multiple safety benefits. Traffic keeps moving, reducing standstill time and the risk of rear-end crashes. Right-angle crashes are eliminated for drivers turning left onto the freeway, as they no longer cross oncoming traffic. Finally, fewer intersections and independent directions to cross those intersections means fewer collisions caused by people running lights.

All told, I’m sold on the Diverging Diamond Interchange. Looks like a great way to improve traffic flow and reduce the risks of accidents.

One other option that is interesting is something called the Pinavia interchange, which I guess has been built in Europe. It is an elaborate interchange that requires no intersections and is aesthetically pleasing, too. Above is a brief animation to give you an idea of how it works.

Anyhow, that’s enough urban planning/transportation geekiness for today. But isn’t it fantastic, the things you can learn on NPR?

Please vote for your favorite picture

Posted on 15 August 2011 by christao408

Are you familiar with the weekly photo contest held at the MyWinningPhoto blog on Xanga? Each week a different theme is chosen and people can submit photos they’ve taken that fit the theme. Then the following week fellow Xangans can vote for their winner.

I’ve followed the site for several month now, voting weekly. This is the first time I’ve participated in the contest and submitted my own photo. Now, I am not allowed to tell you which photo is mine, but I will encourage you to go to the site and vote. Please also recommend the contest blog entry in order to drive traffic to it.

Enjoy!

Food in Chiang Mai: Huen Phen

Posted on 15 August 2011 by christao408

When four independent sources, sources who are friends, colleagues, and other trustworthy sorts, recommend a restaurant, it’s a fair bet that the restaurant is worth visiting. For our first dinner in Chiang Mai, we wanted to eat somewhere in town that was well-known for its Northern Thai cuisine. We ended up at Huen Phen, located on Rachamankha Road in the southwestern quadrant of the old city.

There’s sort of a funny story about how we ended up here. Our first afternoon in the city, we met an American retiree friend, Vic, who has just recently moved to Chiang Mai from Bangkok. Vic is the sort of person who, shall we say, likes to stay in his comfort zone. When we met in the late afternoon, Vic suggested several restaurants we could eat at, all of which were branches of Bangkok chains, all of which were located in the city’s largest mall, and none of which featured Northern Thai cuisine.

Somewhat surprisingly, we persuaded Vic to join us at Huen Phen. We almost lost him along the way, though. We didn’t have a precise address so parked in front of a nearby temple and asked some locals. They said the restaurant was several blocks away and recommended we drive there. Once back in the car, following their directions we headed down a small, dark side street. By this point, Vic was getting a bit skeptical. Tawn saw a sign for parking, though, so we pulled to the curb, parked the car, and then walked up to the main street.

The exterior of the restaurant looked closed for business. Chairs were upturned on tables, the lights were out, and the gates were closed. Only this illuminated sign (can you guess which cola company sponsors it?) and a single gate were open.

As it turns out, there are actually two restaurants of the same name. The exterior restaurant, the one that was closed, is the lunchtime restaurant. It serves basically the same food but all prepared in large pots. The dinner restaurant is located down this narrow path that passes through a garden. Only a chalkboard sign posted on an easel pointed out the way. It was enough to make you think they didn’t want to be found all that easily.

The interior of the restaurant is packed with antiques and bric-a-brack, mostly Thai in nature. In appearance it is like a Lanna version of TGI Fridays. We had to wait only a few minutes before we were shown to our tables. As busy as the restaurant was, I’d imagine reservations are a good idea.

The crowd was mixed, although there were a lot of tourists. This is a worrying sign as restaurants that have too many tourists and not enough locals usually aren’t very good. Thankfully, though Huen Phen was every bit as good as all our friends, colleagues, and the employees of our hotel had promised.

We ordered quite a few dishes, considering there were just three of us eating. This first dish, a Northern Thai classic, is nam prik ong. It is minced pork with tomatoes and is only mildly spicy. It is served with blanched vegetables and is eaten as a dip.

The second dish was another type of dip called nam prik noom. “Nam prik” means chilli sauce. This is made from fire-roasted green chilies and the spiciness varies depending on how many of the seeds and how much of the seed membrane are left in. In this case, it was pretty darn hot. The use of nam prik is one way Northern Thais consume a lot of vegetables and it sure beats ranch dip any day of the week.

The third dish, also served with some vegetables on the side was sai oua, the ubiquitous Northern Thai pork sausage flavored with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal root, red curry paste, and turmeric. It is usually only moderately spicy. This is a favorite dish of mine because I think the very herbal flavor of the sausage is distinct and enjoyable.

We also had gai tod, or fried chicken, seasoned with their special blend of herbs and spices. Very juicy and even finger lickin’ better than some other friend chicken recipes. It is served with the sweet chilli dipping sauce that is common with fried chicken in Thailand.

This is a version of larb muu, a minced pork salad that is actually more commonly associated with Issan, or Northeastern Thai cuisine. It is made with shallots, lemongrass, lime juice, and ground toasted rice. Very tasty. You may be noticing a theme here in the fact that meat is usually served as an accompaniment to vegetables, not as the main attraction.

A dish that I’ve never tried before and we thought would be interesting: gaeng khanoon sii khrong muu. It is a soup made with young jack fruit and pork ribs in a tamarind-flavored broth. I thought this was very tasty and something I would seek out again.

Of course, everything was eaten with this northern staple, khao niaw, or sticky rice. The traditional way is to eat with your hands, pinching off a small amount of rice, rolling it into a ball, and then dipping it into sauces, curries, etc. We used our fork and spoon as is the more contemporary Thai custom.

A final dish (although we ate a few more, I did not get photographs of them) was this Northern Thai/Burmese classic, gaeng hong lay. This is a stewed pork dish that has a broth made of tomato and curry. On one level, it bears some resemblance to massaman curry, but that is a much thicker and less tomatoey dish. This dish, which I ate a lot of while in Chiang Mai, is one of my all-time favorite dishes.

Our entire meal, which was a ton of food for three people, totaled 900 baht or 30 US dollars. From a Thai perspective, that’s a pricey meal, but by the standards of the quality and quantity of food, it was still quite inexpensive.

Now, to clear something up, while the restaurant spells its name “Huen Phen”, the pronunciation is more like huu-in pain with the “huu” pronounced through a wide smile. Because if you pronounce it as the restaurant chose to write it, you will likely not be understood. Especially if you pronounce the “ph” as “f”. The “f” sound is always transliterated with an “f” in Thailand, never with a “ph”. (Phuket is pronounced “puu get”, for example.)

Is America’s Fiscal Future Safe in These Hands?

Posted on 13 August 2011 by christao408

As part of the Budget Control Act passed this month, a twelve-member Join Committee on Deficit Reduction has been charged with recommending at least $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction over the next decade. They have until November 23 to make their recommendations.

The committee’s recommendations will then be put to a simple up-or-down vote by Congress, with no amendments, filibusters, etc. allowed. The recommendations have to be passed by December 23 otherwise a $1.2 trillion package of automatic spending cuts would come into effect.

The Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction. Top row are members of the House of Representatives: Co-chair Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Dave Camp (R-MI), Fred Upton (R-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Xavier Becerra (D-CA). Bottom row are members of the Senate: Co-chair Patty Murray (D-WA), John Kerry (D-MA), Max Baucus (D-GA), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Rob Portman (R-OH).

First question on my mind: Do these twelve congresspeople sufficiently represent America? They are overwhelmingly white (83% vs. about 66% in the general population) and male (92% vs. 50% in the general population). Now, I realize that a committee of twelve national politicians will not necessary mirror the United States population, nor do they need to. But it seems that when we talk about “sacrifices” in the budget, these sacrifices are disproportionately borne by women, children, and people of color.

The public schools in the wealthy suburbs seem to face fewer cutbacks than the inner city schools. The unemployed factory worker seems to run out of resources long before the unemployed hedge fund manager. And considering that you have to be at least 25 years old to run for the House of Representatives, is anyone looking out for the interests of the infants and children who will end up inheriting the results of any deficit reduction legislation?

Second question on my mind: With the committee evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, what is the likelihood that they will actually reach a compromise? The six members of the House of Representatives are up for election in just over a year, so they will be careful not to rile their base.

Of the six Senators, one of the Republicans (Kyl) has announced he will retire at the end of his term. The other two Republicans were just elected in 2010 so they have time to repair any damage with their base that comes from compromising or, from a Tea Partier’s view, selling out. Among the Democrats, Murray was just elected in 2010 and the other two Democrats do not face re-election until 2014.

Is there some hope that at least one Senator will cross over the line on the “no new revenues” position so that a balanced approach of spending cuts and revenue increases can be found? While I’d like to hope that the Senators can rise above partisanship and make some sound decisions, nothing I’ve seen recently gives me any reason for optimism.

Additional Reading: OpenCongress.org article about key budget, spending, and tax votes of the committee members.

Teaching Monks to “Cook Sandwiches”

Posted on 13 August 2011 by christao408

In the third floor classroom of Chiang Mai’s Mahachulalongkorn Rajavidyalaya University, the eyes of thirteen students registered varying degrees of confusion as I taught the first part of the English lesson: we do not “cook” sandwiches in English, we “make” them. Clad in the saffron robes of Theravada Buddhist monks, the students wrestled with this anomaly of English. “Will we make sandwiches today?” asked one of them, trying the new verb on for size.

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Chiang Mai was a morning spent helping my friends Ron and Kari teach English classes at the Chiang Mai campus of one of Thailand’s two monastic universities. Ron and Kari are a Texan couple about my age, whom I first met nearly six years ago at Union Language School in Bangkok. Most of the students at ULS are missionaries although other students are welcome. My answer to the common question I received from fellow students – “What brought you to Thailand?” – was usually met by bewildered silence.

Ron and Kari were the exception. They asked questions and were interested in meeting Tawn and over the years we have stayed in touch as their missionary work has taken them from Thailand to Kenya and back again. Now they are in Chiang Mai and one of their duties is to teach English classes to monks and novices attending Buddhist university. When they heard I was coming up, they invited me to be a guest teacher.

“The monks asked if we could cook sandwiches,” Kari explained. “You would be good at teaching them that.”

On Thursday morning, after spending an hour practicing the intricacies of telling time, Kari pulled out two loaves of bread, a half-dozen tomatoes, a jar of mayonnaise, a container of lettuce, and a container of bologna. First, we cleared up the confusion over which verb was appropriate. Since we don’t use any heat, we “make” sandwiches, not “cook” them. Next, we practiced the names of the ingredients. “Bologna” seemed too difficult, so I called it “ham.”

Finally, the fun began. Working in groups of three, the monks, who range in age from 18-44, came to the front of the room, sliced tomatoes, and assembled sandwiches. There were a few mishaps, such as the sandwiches which ended up with mayonnaise on the outside of the bread. But all in all, everyone seemed to have a good time.

An advantage of having me teach this segment was that I could work more closely with the monks than Kari can. One of the restrictions for Buddhist monks is that they may not touch, or even accept things handed directly to them from, a woman. Sometimes, like when a monk who has perhaps never sliced a tomato in his life is having problems, it is easier to get in there, grab the knife, and demonstrate. This would be complicated if a certain physical distance had to be maintained.

At the end of the class, everyone ate their sandwiches along with a banana for dessert. Who knows if they liked their food; monks are required to eat the food they are given without complaining or expressing like or dislike. But several students asked when I would come back and teach again, so maybe they enjoyed the sandwiches well enough. There were requests that we cook massaman curry next time, though.

While the class lasted only two hours, and I didn’t have much time to talk individually with the students and learn more about them, it was a fun experience. Several years ago, I volunteered as an English teacher in a small provincial primary school and teaching is something I enjoy. Maybe I need to make another trip up to Chiang Mai as a guest lecturer. At least I have the right hair style to relate to the students.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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