My Malaysia: Thailand - August 1-6, 2006

The month of August began a serious bout of travelling for us which continues on as I write this
(two months later), thus the reason why there have not been any updates to this blog recently! My apologies...they will come eventually!

Pat and I flew to Bangkok on August 1st as he had meetings with all the Asian P&G plant managers. We spent one night at the lovely and newly renovated Marriott Hotel downtown and went straight away to the famous Jim Thompson store to buy some silk. Prices ranged from 500 Baht/metre and up (about $15 CAD) and we nearly filled a suitcase with various colours and prints. Pat has had four short-sleeved shirts made up already (dark colours with tiny elephant prints on them) while my dressmaker is working on a beige linen jacket and a burgundy two-piece suit to wear to Steph's graduation in December in Auburn!

I had a free morning while Pat visited the Bangkok P&G plant so I checked out the new and very elegant Siam Paragon Mall downtown. We had seen it under construction during our first visit to Bangkok with the girls in May 2004. This is a view of the ground floor which houses mainly restaurants, cafes and gourmet grocery shops. I had a lovely Italian lunch before returning to the hotel for my drive to Pattaya with another P&G spouse and her daughter.

Our driver took us in a van 2 1/2 hours south of Bangkok to the resort town of Pattaya on the Gulf of Thailand. We stayed in the Marriott Hotel there for one night with this view of the pool below. Pattaya is a busy town, full of tourists and a rather seedy-looking downtown core. To get to the beach, you walk through the hotel garden and cross a busy street (not easily done!). Until a severe thunderstorm sent folks scattering, I spent most of the late afternoon poolside, joining Pat and the other managers for an al fresco Thai-style dinner.

View of the pool area from our balcony

The next morning, while Pat was in a meeting, I took a private Thai cooking course with two delightful young chefs in the poolside kitchen. Below you will see the fresh ingredients all ready for the three dishes we made and which I later enjoyed for my lunch! The first dish was Tom Kha Gai, a chicken soup with coconut milk and galanga, a type of root not unlike ginger. Typically Thai food can be quite spicy and this is due to the combination of some or all of the following flavours: dried chillies, coriander seeds, lemon grass, kaffir lime peel, garlic, shallots, peanuts, shrimp paste, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamon seeds, star anise, cumin and peppercorns. All pounded together in a large mortar, these make the curry paste needed for the Panaeng Nuae (Beef in Panaeng Curry).

Panaeng Nuae

Finally we made the famous Phad Thai Talay (Fried Noodles Thai Style with seafood), using rice noodles, pickled turnip, peanuts, dried shrimp, bean curd, chives, bean sprouts. This version is set inside a thin omelet, note how the corners are turned back for presentation!

Orchids anyone? These are the “common” variety that I often buy from Noor, who runs Eeva Florist in the wet market here in Kuantan. She sells 10 stalks for a paltry RM15 (about $4.00CAD), and since they last for about three weeks, it is indeed a good investment! This picture is taken in the lobby of a hotel on Phuket Island on Karon Beach (south end), which we believe was booked for us in error…at least it sure didn’t look like the one we thought we had booked! Anyway, it was far too big and impersonal for our liking, so after one night, we set off down the beach to check out a different spot. We found The Beachhouse nearby and the desk clerk offered to show us to their sister hotel on Kata Noi Beach down the road. We fell in love with the small and very peaceful surroundings of Mom Tri’s Villa Royale and there we spent a lovely weekend. Check out their website: http://www.villaroyalephuket.com/ Our room looked just like the one portrayed in these pictures! The food was wonderful and the restaurant highly rated. Service was superb and we splurged twice on massages (I also enjoyed a facial) in their lovely spa!

Surf’s up at Kata Noi Beach! It was monsoon season in August so the surf was quite high and the water dangerous for swimming. If you look closely at the right hand side of the picture, you might make out some tiny specks, which are actually surfers waiting for the next big one!