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.)

Food in Bangkok: Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin

Posted on 4 July 2011 by christao408

Before we headed to Los Angeles last month, Tawn and I were invited to a special foodie dinner held at Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin restaurant. Sra Bua is known for its molecular gastronomy take on Thai food. Organized by CatAndNat.com, a Thai lifestyle website, and WorldFoods, I was invited to attend because of the writing I do for CatAndNat.

Dinner was held at the beautiful Siam Kempinski Hotel, tucked away right behind the Siam Paragon mall.

Opened less than a year ago, the Siam Kempinski is a beautiful 5-star hotel. Their fresh flower arrangements in the lobby make it worth a visit just to “stop and smell the roses”.

The building also features gorgeous architecture and decorations throughout. I enjoy visiting nice hotels like this just for the ambiance.

P1130163

By coincidence, fellow blogger Angel and his partner were on holiday in Bangkok, staying at the same hotel. We were able to meet them for a late afternoon tea before proceeding across the hall to our dinner.

Our host didn’t have Tawn’s full name handy so used my surname for his place card. Tawn was very excited as this is the first (and only) time after our wedding that he’s had my surname!

P1130175

Each dish was made with a WorldFoods sauce and was paired with a wine from Monsoon Valley Wines, a local Thai winery.

WorldFoods is a Malaysian based maker of high quality Asian-inspired sauces, marinades, chutneys, and pastes that previously has given me samples of their products and invited me to try and, if I like, to write about them. While I’ve been given no compensation, Tawn and I were invited to this very nice complimentary dinner.

The restaurant,Sra Bua, is the sister restaurant of Henrik Yde-Andersen’s Kiin Kiin in Copenhagen, the second Thai restaurant in the world to receive a Michelin star (which I understand has since been lost).

Appetizer – Yum Som O, which is a traditional salad made with pomelo. Pomelo is basically a large, less sour grapefruit. Here, the chef added frisée and fish roe, which was meant to have a similar texture to the individuals pulp sacs of the pomelo.

Close up of the pomelo salad. This wasn’t much of a success, in my opinion, with too little pomelo and too much roe, which overpowered the flavor of the salad. The pairing wine was a Monsoon Valley Colombard, a fruity white.

Next dish was a Laksa Soup, which used the Singaporean Nyonya Laksa Paste. This was a very pleasant, curry-type soup that was flavorful but not too spicy. It was paired with a Monsoon Valley Cuvee de Siam, another white wine from grapes grown in the hills above Hua Hin, a beach town about three hours south of Bangkok.

The fish course was a pan-seared white fish (bass, I believe) with fish mousse and red curry. This used the Red Curry Sauce and is actually based on a classic Thai dish called haw mok, in which fish is pureed, mixed with a red curry paste, and steamed in banana leaves. I really enjoyed this course. It was paired with a Monsoon Valley Shiraz that was pleasant, although not very complex.

The highlight of the meal was this beef with basil curry sauce. The chunks of beef couldn’t have been more tender and it was served in a lightly fried pastry shell that is balance (although you can’t see it) on a small mound of jasmine rice. This dish was so good that Tawn, who rarely eats beef, had the whole thing. It was paired with a Monsoon Valley Cuvee de Siam Rouge, which was also the highlight wine of the evening. It is a blend of 70% Shiraz and 30% Sangiovese grapes and has nice fruity flavors without too many tannins.

Dessert was a jasmine ice cream served wrapped in phyllo dough and a jasmine rice panna cotta served with mixed tropical fruits, wrapped in a banana leaf. These were really nice as the flavors were very delicate and refreshing. The wine was a Monsoon Valley Muscat Dessert, which was sweet and syrupy.

After dessert a variety of hand-rolled truffles were set out. If you like chocolate, you’d like these!

What the room felt like after the dinner. Ha ha…

Me and Tawn with our friend Linda, who was able to join us at the last minute for dinner. Conclusion: the menu, which was specially prepared for the event, worked very well in some areas and less well in others. Attention to detail in the preparation was very high, though, as was the quality. Service was also very attentive, which of course can be a challenge when you have some 30-40 diners. Kudos to the chef and staff of Sra Bua for pulling this off.

Thailand Election Fun – 2011 Update

Posted on 3 July 2011 by christao408

(Updated Monday am) Sunday afternoon, the polls closed in Thailand’s second general election since the 2006 coup that saw Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ousted by factions of the country’s military. The results, announced last night by the Election Commission, are that Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra will be the kingdom’s next Prime Minister, and also the first female PM in its history.

Tensions have been high because this election is seen, more than anything, as a litmus test on how the political situation will go forward. First, let me make clear that I have no particular interest in any of the parties involved in this election. Here’s the long and short of it:

Thaksin was removed from office by a coup in September 2006 despite his party having won majority votes in two prior elections.
After a new post-coup constitution was ratified, a subsequent election saw the reincarnation of Thaksin’s political party (dissolved because of charges of breaking election law) again winning a majority.
The next two PMs, both from Thaksin’s party, were removed from office upon being found guilty of minor offenses and after a minority coalition party switched sides, the military-backed Democrats were able to form a government with Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva as Prime Minister.

Now, it looks like we’ll be back where we started, pre-coup. Or, at least, something close to it since Yingluck and her Phuea Thai (“For Thais”) party have run on the slogan, “Thaksin thinks, Phuea Thai acts” and a proposed amnesty for Thaksin has been openly discussed as a leading policy position.

Election campaigns in Thailand are every bit as much of a circus as they are in the United States, although they take place in a much more compressed period of time – less than 60 days elapsed between the dissolution of the previous Parliament and these elections. Yesterday, while waiting on the Skytrain platform at the Asoke station, Prime Minister and Democratic Party candidate Abhisit and his supporters were waiting for a train on the opposite platform, shaking hands and taking pictures with people.

Here’s a closeup of the man, described in one US Embassy cable that was leaked during the Wikileaks scandal as handsome and ineffectual.

Something that I will be glad are gone now that the election is over, are the large campaign signs that are tied to trees and poles along the streets, blocking the sidewalks. In some areas they are so thick that the footpath is entirely hidden from the street, which I suppose is not necessarily a bad thing!

These posters by the Phumjaithai (“Proud Thailand”) party showed male and female athletes with the face cut out, encouraging you to see yourself as one of the winners. I couldn’t resist.

Driving around the city after the polls closed at 3pm, I noticed many people in small motorcycle driven push-carts, collecting these election posters. “So quick to clean up!” I thought, until Tawn explained that these people were collecting the posters to use as building material. The heavy corrugated plastic sheets can be used as roofs and ceilings in the slums. Sadly, this may be the most any of these candidates actual do to improve the lives of the kingdom’s poor.

A Year After the Protests

Posted on 18 May 2011 by christao408

A year ago today, mobs set fire to various parts of Bangkok in the wake of the breakup by the military of a 40-day long anti-government protest. Those events, along with a related confrontation in April 2010, resulted in the death of 92 people (13 of those deaths have been attributed to “action by government forces” and if I recall correctly, four journalists were killed including two foreigners.)

The fires, set in at least a dozen locations around the city, resulted in an estimated 24 billion baht in damage (about US$ 950 million) and destroyed several structures including shopping centers, a department store, and one of the city’s oldest cinemas.

As of today, there are more than 130 people identified as participants in the protests who remain jailed, charged but not tried for their crimes. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission was unable to draw conclusions on many of the points it was asked to examine, including what role the military had in the deaths of protesters. The commission complained of the military not being forthcoming in providing requested evidence.

About a week ago, the Prime Minister dissolved Parliament and elections will be held 45 days from today. The only thing that seems certain is that, regardless of the outcome of this election, there will be further unrest from one side or another of the political spectrum. Whether the unrest is expressed in the same way is unclear. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail.

In my coverage of the protests last spring, I received comments from various people passing by my blog, accusing me of being blatantly pro-government or blatantly pro-protesters. Of course, I have no horse in the proverbial race. I’m a foreigner living here over the long run, a person who loves Thailand and the Thai people and who wants them to be able to continue to develop as a country and not end up getting caught in the middle income trap.

I leave you with some before and after pictures borrowed from this Bangkok Post story.

The Central World shopping center at the Ratchaprasong intersection, where the protests had been centered.

The burnt-out remains of the Siam Theatre, one of the oldest single-screen cinemas in Bangkok. Today, the property sits empty, awaiting a redevelopment plan by its land-owners, Chulalongkorn University.

Along Rama IV Road, barricades of tires were set aflame and buildings were looted and burned.

Also along Rama IV Road near the Lumpini Boxing Stadium.

Brunch and Garlands

Posted on 16 May 2011 by christao408

This weekend we enjoyed a return visit by David and Chor Pharn, a Singaporean couple who make frequent visits to Bangkok and whose presence at our dining room table made for a very pleasant Sunday brunch and garland making exercise.

We met the two (Chor Pharn is on the left, above, and David is on the right) through another couple we know from Singapore. In fact, since I met my first Singaporean while in university I’ve learned that once you know one, you soon seem to know nearly all of them. Sure enough, once I met Yuen Ping, I met Otto, then Han, then David and Chor Pharn, and the list cascades from there. Not to mention another two strings’ worth of Singaporeans, most of whom seem to know each other or, at the very least, know of each other. It’s a small island, after all.

Having them over for brunch gave me a chance to try some new recipes, continuing to refine an easy-to-prepare brunch menu that doesn’t require me to slave away in the kitchen while guests are here. Above, a beautiful loaf of homemade bread.

As an amuse bouche, I prepared some homemade muesli, served with unsweetened Greek style yoghurt with a slice of canned peach and drizzled with some peach syrup.

Tawn insisted on using his ice cream goblets that he hand-carried back from Paris. The coffee was some of the 100% Kona beans I brought back from our March trip to Hawaii. Perfect for a French press.

From there, we enjoyed plates with a trio of room temperature tastes: a couscous salad with mixed vegetables, pine nuts, raisins, and homemade preserved lemon rind; over roasted Japanese pumpkin glazed with Canadian maple syrup and a sprinkle of black truffle sea salt; and a mixed salad of rocket (arugula) served with a rice wine vinaigrette, shaved Parmesan cheese, and cherry tomatoes.

The warm dish was individual baked egg souffles with sliced pork loin, onions, and jack cheese.

For dessert, we had khao niaw mamuang – sticky rice and mango. Mangoes are very much at the peak of their season right now. The garnish is na gung – a shredded coconut that is flavored with shrimp, palm sugar, and kaffir lime leaves. This may not sound so good, but once it is cooked it becomes the perfect, slightly savory counterpoint to the rich, starchy sticky rice and sweet mango.

After lunch, Tawn and Chor Pharn set up the table to try their hands at an activity that has caught CP’s curiosity: making floral garlands, called puang malai in Thai. (Literally, “bunched together jasmine”.) Used as objects of decoration as well as veneration and welcome – left at shrines or statues, given to teachers, parents, respected elders, and visitors – the puang malai are made of small, fragrant flowers threaded onto a string using a long and very sharp needle. The above image is taken from Sakul Intakul’s book Dok Mai Thai: The Flower Culture of Thailand. Khun Sakul is one of the masters of the Thai floral arts, an engineer turned floral arranger, and his book illustrates the beautiful designs he creates.

Tawn and Chor Pharn get ready to start, while David and I try to document the occasion and stay far away from the long needles.

A quartet of blossoms: in addition to roses there are, from the left, dok rak (love flower) which is a very sculptural form of jasmine, dok malik (the highly fragrant Arabic jasmine), and dok put (talk flower) also known as gardenia.

Tawn starts arranging the jasmine blossoms in a rotating pattern. After you get a group done, you thread it onto cotton string. Traditionally, though, you would use a thread made of banana leaf.

A close-up of the progress, with rose petals folded in half, speared by the needle, then trimmed into shape with scissors.

The work ended up being quite a bit more tedious that expected. When you watch the vendors at the side of the street you mistake their speed and dexterity for the task of making a phuang malai being easy. It turns out their speed and dexterity is a result of their skill and experience and they make an intricate art look deceptively simple.

Where to Buy Stickers in Bangkok

Posted on 12 May 2011 by christao408

From the innocuous “men” and “women” signs on restroom doors to the urinating cartoon Calvin on the back of many a vehicle, stickers and decals play a much larger role in the life of Bangkok residents than one may realize.

Two years ago I wrote about a taxi I was in that had the following information conveyed on its passenger door window through a series of stickers: No smoking, weapons, drinking, sex, durian, dogs, or water buffaloes allowed.

But where do these stickers come from? I don’t see sticker stores in the malls nor do I see sticker aisles at the local Big C hypermart. The answer turns out to be unsurprising: like most things of universal importance in this city of nearly ten million people, the stickers can be bought from a street vendor.

Up and down the streets, waiting at filling stations and stopping by the street food stalls where taxi drivers like to congregate, the sticker vendors drive these wagons powered by modified motorcycles, the panels of decals hanging like blinders, blocking their peripheral vision.

Upon closer inspection, some of the stickers tell a lot about the people who would buy them. There’s a popular cartoon of an Issan (northeastern Thai) boy with his pants dropped, peeing. The Playboy bunny is a popular brand here, even if the magazine is not locally available. And the classic Harley Davidson logo is popular even among the drivers of Japanese brands of scooters.

The Great Bangkok Songkran Bare Breast Debacle

Posted on 24 April 2011 by christao408

Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year’s festival, a three-day holiday held each April at the height of the hot season. The meaning of Songkran has been subject to much debate and over the past many years it has evolved into something much different than it originally was. This year, however, Bangkok was caught up in a great Songkran scandal that, according to several local pundits, revealed the hypocrisy with which we choose to view “culture” and what is “appropriate”.

At its roots, Songkran is something of a harvest festival, a time of cleaning up after one year and getting ready for the next rice-planting season, which will begin when the rainy season arrives shortly after the peak of hot season. Water has always played an important part in the Songkran celebration, and traditionally the holiday was celebrated by performing the “rot naam” (pouring of water) ceremony.

In this picture I took three years ago, school children dressed in traditional Thai outfits pour water over the hands of their elders. This is a way of showing respect and blessing them.

In fact, this same ceremony is performed when a couple is married, as in this example from my Thai teacher’s wedding this past December.

Songkran 3

In addition to pouring water on the hands of elders, there is a religious aspect to the Songkran celebrations, where you pour water on the hands of monks and also over Buddha images, washing and blessing them.

So those are the traditional celebrations of Songkran. Given that Thailand is a hot, tropical country it is no surprise that along the way some amount of splashing about with the water also happened. So Songkran started to get a reputation as being “the water festival” and was thus stylized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. A little bit of playful, good natured splashing for the youngsters to engage in, if you will.

Somewhere along the way, though, it evolved into something more: a water war with roving mercenaries with pump-action water guns. This picture above is typical – families or young people fill up large tubs in the back of a pickup truck with water (usually with some blocks of ice in them) then drive around the city looking for revelers in other trucks or playing by the side of the road. An impromptu water fight ensues.

Often, though, it isn’t just the revelers who are involved. Anyone on the street – including those who are not interested in playing – are targeted with ice cold water. A favorite target is passing motorcycle drivers and as you might imagine, there are any number of accidents in which motorcyclists lose control and crash after being splashed unexpectedly.

In some sections of the city the celebrations turn into chaos, the streets shut down with people splashing each other with water and smearing each other with talcum powder. Needless to say, the partying is fueled by substantial quantities of alcohol.

Which leads us to this year’s scandal. Let me start by making clear that, while I don’t particularly enjoy the mess that Songkran has become, I also don’t have a bone to pick with it. I either get out of town during the holidays or stay indoors to avoid unwanted splashing.

The scandal began when video clips appeared showing a trio of young women – reportedly ages 13, 14, and 16 – dancing topless on a vehicle along Silom Road. Worth noting is that Silom Road is adjacent to one of the more famous red light districts in Bangkok where you can find things much more racy than this.

As you might imagine, there was a big fuss over this nudity and there were no shortage of pundits and officials tripping over themselves to proclaim what an insult to Thailand and Thai culture this was. In a statement, Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat said, “the clip has negatively affected the image of Thai culture and that all parties involved with such behaviour should be punished, while asking police to give importance to this issue, for it destroys the country’s reputation.” (emphasis mine)

The girls surrendered to the police, were made to publicly apologize, and were fined 500 baht (about US$16) each, and released.

As for the hypocrisy that was pointed out by several observers? Well, that comes in two parts. The first is the “oh, that’s too damn funny” part. Reportedly, at the time of this whole scandal, if you went to the website for the Thailand Ministry of Culture, the following art was displayed on the page banner:

The picture shows some young Thai girls dancing topless in what looks like a water festival, right? This was quickly picked up on by the denizens of the internet who hooted and hollered, posting and tweeting about how the Ministry of Culture was both promoting and punishing topless Thai teens at the same time.

In no time at all – as one observer pointed out, on a Sunday, nonetheless! – the nubile nipples were replaced with this classical Thai picture which, if you look closely, also has some bare breasts displayed in it.

Several other commentators pointed out that the impromptu redecorating of the Ministry of Culture’s website wasn’t the real hypocrisy, though. They explained that the real hypocrisy is that Thai society has long treated women and girls poorly. The sex industry here, the vast majority of which serves Thai men, not tourists, is founded on the treatment of women as sex objects. Young women and girls are sold into sexual slavery and rape is often not reported or, when reported, the women are treated as the guilty party for bringing shame on their family by not keeping quiet.

Now, I want to make clear that I’m not singling out Thai culture for its hypocritical treatment of women. I’m just reporting on the controversy that erupted here. Plus, hypocritcal treatment of women is something that is too common almost everywhere in the world. But as a number of cooler-headed commentators pointed out about this event, the trio of topless girls aren’t the cause of the problem. They are the symptom of larger societal attitudes that need to be discussed and addressed. I wonder if this event will provide a catalyst for that discussion to begin?

Around the City

Posted on 18 March 2011 by christao408

Saturday morning so I’ll wrap up the week with some bits from around the town:

Several of our friends here work for the UN, various non-government organizations (NGOs), or are attached to various embassies. They find themselves attending any number of conferences that seem to exist for no purpose other than to keep all these governmental and non-governmental actors busy. Here’s the title sign for a meeting one friend recently found himself in:

The International Orientation Conference on UN and ASEAN Mechanisms and Conditions for a National Plan on Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance Co-hosted by the Ministry of Defence, Kingdom of Thailand and German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG).

Whew! Pause for a deep breath after saying that. I’m just curious how the German-Southeast Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance managed to have only “CPG” for its initials. Shouldn’t it be GSCEPPGG?

Needless to say, I have great sympathy for my friends and should probably buy them Starbucks gift cards for their upcoming birthdays.

. . .

With a population of somewhere around 7 million, Bangkok has a fair number of parks and playgrounds. The city does a decent job of this, although many of them are under flyovers and in the center of cloverleafs (cloverleaves?), which exposes them to pollution from passing vehicles. This one is located at the intersection of Petchaburi (on the right) and Ekkamai (the high ground on which I’m standing) Roads, as Ekkamai flies over Petchaburi. It contains several basketball, football, and takraw courts.

This particular playground has been adopted by Muang Thai Life Assurance, what in the US we would call an “insurance” company. This is all well and good, but sadly their company color is a shade of pink that reminds me of nothing more than pepto bismol. And they painted all the walls, benches, planters, and fences in this shade.

. . .

7-11 Trivia time: The three countries with the most 7-11 stores are the Thailand, the United States, and Japan, but not in that order. What is the correct order? Scroll down to find out.

Finally, I spotted this sign while driving in the Silom-Surawongse area. The Bangrak district government (districts being a subset of the larger city of Bangkok) has partnered with the ubiquitous 7-11 stores and you can now lodge comments and complaints directly at the 7-11 stores. While the sign is unclear in both Thai and English, I would assume that the poor cashiers at 7-11 stores are only trained to handle complaints related to the civic governance of the district. They will not be dispensing relationship advice, handling landlord-tennant conflicts, or doing the work that police through be doing.

As for the 7-11s themselves, there are approximately 13,000 stores in Japan, 8,200 stores in the United States, and 5,800 in Thailand. One Thai friend recounted to us after his first trip to the US his surprise at discovering that there are 7-11s in the United States, too. We didn’t have the heart to tell him that 7-11 is not a Thai company.

Have a wonderful weekend.

747 Graveyard

Posted on 13 February 2011 by christao408

Sorry that my posting (and reading and responding to others’ entries) has been slower than usual as of late. Many of my recent entries have required a lot more leg work. Here’s the latest:

Two Saturdays ago, as Tawn and I were driving along Ramkhamhaeng Road on an errand to the northeastern outskirts of Bangkok, we were taken by surprise when we saw the front third of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet propped up alongside the street.

This is neither an industrial area nor anywhere particularly close to the airport, so for there to be a pair of airplanes being disassembled in this neighborhood is downright strange. While there is a fence along the front of the property, there is no proper gate along the entrance.

Curious, we headed back early the next morning, arriving just after 7:30. A street sweeper sat in her small rest shack, more of an open-air stand, and Tawn chatted with her while I wandered around taking pictures and video. “Sure, go on in,” she said. “The workers won’t be up and working for a while still.”

The result of the exploring is a five-minute video. I think you’ll find it very interesting. I’m happy with the results. For those of you without five minutes to spare, here are some of the pictures:

The entire site is probably four acres (16,000 sq meters), adjacent to a school, temple, and canal. Condo towers and office buildings are visible in the distance and it is really a strange place to be disassembling airplanes.

The monk’s dormitory (robes hanging to dry) is visible next door. I guess this view reminds them of the fundamental Buddhist teaching about all things being impermanent.

There are two planes here, both from Orient Thai Airways, a local carrier that operates limited scheduled service and also does charters. I like how the top of this plane looks like a whale surfacing from the waves.

P1090747

You could be mistaken for thinking this was the set of an airplane disaster movie. Every area that has been cut by a welding torch is scorched black and there also looks to have been a few small fires set. Pieces are still very identifiable, though, provided you know your airplane parts.

P1090765

The vertical stabilizer (tail) of the plane, being cut into smaller segments for disposal. The red and blue color scheme, which was meant to represent the Thai flag blowing in the wind, has been deconstructed.

P1090787

There were hundreds of oxygen masks on the property, most still stowed in the overhead compartments that had ben removed and stacked.

Near the front of the property, galleys and lavatories, which are modular units, were standing about, stripped of carts and other supplies, although with the ovens still intact. Recalling his days working as a regional flight attendant for United, Tawn pretended to be setting the ovens to warm a meal.

Orient Thai had a fleet of about a half-dozen older model 747s. Their only scheduled international service was to Hong Kong and Seoul, and they used their larger planes mainly for charters, especially during the Haj. Note the lavatory signage in Arabic as well as in Japanese. This plane’s original operator was Japan Air Lines.

A two-door segment of one of the planes – basically, the front third of it – was intact and propped upright. The street cleaner explained that it was destined to be sent somewhere to become an airplane-themed coffee shop. “You can climb up!” she said. The homemade ladder had very narrow and widely-spaced rungs!

Inside, the ceiling, carpet, and seats had been removed but wall panels were still intact. This picture is taken from the nose section, the front of what would have been first class, looking back. The opening in the floor is the access hatch to the avionics bay. Looking at the wallpaper, I noticed it is identical to that which was on the Orient Thai 747 that I flew as part of an inaugural test flight from the Don Meuang Airport to the new Suvarnabhumi Airport in July 2006, about two months before the new airport opened. I wonder if this was the same plane?

I climbed the stairs to the upper deck. Used as business class for most airlines, both Japan Air Lines and Orient Thai had put additional economy seats up here.

The avionics had been stripped from the cockpit but it was still relatively intact. The flight engineer’s station on the right-hand side is a clue to the airplane’s age: at least 21. The last 747 with a three-person cockpit crew was a 747-300 built in September 1990. Since then, they have been flown by just two people, with computers handling the functions that the flight engineer used to.

After working up a sweat and shooting some 250 pictures and 30 video segments, I finally decided it was time to wrap up and head home. I felt a bit of nostalgia and melancholy, sorry to see planes that had been so technically sophisticated, and that had flown hundreds of thousands of people around the world, reach the point where their only value was for their scrap.

Edit: Found this link listing the history of all of Orient Thai’s former 747s. Looks like the plane that is completely scrapped was originally delivered in March 1979 to Japan Airlines and the one with the intact front third was delivered in December 1986, also to Japan Airlines. From that website I was also able to confirm that, as of this past December at least, the plane I flew on the test flight to Suvarnabhumi is still in operation.

Great Eats in Bangkok Volume 1 – Guaytiaw

Posted on 30 January 2011 by christao408

As Andy whirled into town for a three-day side trip from visiting his parents in Taipei, I had high hopes of producing this mega-video in which we would taste all the great things to eat in Bangkok. Sure enough, during the course of two full days we ate a whole lot of things that would qualify for the “great eats” list. But as I sat down to edit the video, I realized that I didn’t have enough footage to really address that many dishes.

Since I promised a video a few days ago, I’ve gone ahead and edited a first volume of what I expect will be at least a dozen (and probably more) videos that highlight various great eats in Bangkok. Volume One focuses on guaytiaw – rice noodles – and particularly the pink-broth fish soup called yen ta fo. It doesn’t provide as much depth on the various types of guaytiaw as I’d like, so I imagine a revisit of the subject will occur one of these days.

Before editing the next video, I’m going to shoot some more footage and do better advance planning so that I can make sure that future volumes provide you with the high level of quality that you deserve. In the meantime, you can visit Andy’s blog to see some beautiful pictures of the other foods we ate and the places we went.

Please share any feedback you have, let me know if there are any particular types of Thai food you would like me to address.

Thanks to Andy for taking the time and energy to visit. We had lots of fun and look forward to seeing you again soon.

christao408

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

Tag Archives: thai