FOOD!
Not gonna lie. The thought of eating something other than
rice has me excited all week long. Because there’s only so much comfort given
by Oreos. So while people around me plan temples to visit and daytrips, I
create menus in my head. Tonight I had a cocoa frappe (a week without dairy
products made the arrival of a cream-laden chocolatley drink to my table worthy
of whooping) tomato soup, fries (A CARB THAT ISN’T RICE!) and a Dragonfruit
(try it) and Kiwi smoothie. I’ve literally been walking round the town making
food plans for tomorrow “So breakfast can be pancakes and then it’ll be pizza
for dinner…”.
On weekends we volunteers tend to gorge ourselves on western
food- fries, pizza, milk, cheese, chocolate, waffles, pancakes. Obviously the
rich, oily, sugariness came as a shock after a week of rice so a lot of us
spend Saturday night feeling ill. But I have no regrets
This is half the volunteer group at Doi Chaang, the Asian
version of Starbucks. So far I’ve had around thirty bowls of rice. Rice is good.
Rice is constant. It’s the side dishes- the mushy dark green, foul looking
vegetables that I’ve taken to avoiding. Ew. Hey, I tried them. My first week I
tried every dish but I kept making this face, every meal. So I soon gave up.
PANTS!
I don't know if there's an actual name for these type of trousers but we all just call them pants. Perfect for this climate: loose fitting, pretty pattern cotton pants. We all wear pants. We all love pants. Pants! That is all.
SA WAT DE KA!
This is the standard Thai greeting (for girls, for guys it’s
Sa Wat De Krup). You cannot buy anything at the shop, ask a question or say
hello without saying SA WAT DE KA! And
wai-ing. (Smiles are also obligatory :D )
MOSQUITO NETS!
SQUAT TOILET!
Urgh. Not so glamorous. There’s not really much to say about squat toilets, except that they are everywhere and they are not my favourite thing.
MONKS!
The Monks here are just Thai men who happen to wear orange
robes. They own iPhones, have tattoos and go to cafes around town.
SHOES!
In Asian culture it’s polite to take your shoes off before
entering any temple, classroom ands some cafes.
THAI TIME!
Everything runs late. I call it “running on thai time” because if you arrange to meet up at 8.30 and show up at 9.15 you’re not considered late. Similarly, last week my first class of the day started at 9am but the school didn’t collect me until 9.15am.
Above: Chiang Rai clock tower that lights up on the hour
SKIN WHITENING!
It's funny how at home everyone wants to be more tan and here girls lather themselves in skin whitening products...
STREET VENDORS!
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