Remembering Amazing Thailand

Wow, yumm…I can still recall the first time I tasted meatballs in Thailand they were so damn good. Laden with vegetables and chicken or fish, luchin as they are commonly called are also a local favorite. They are added in noodles and soups or sometimes best eaten on their own and dipped in a sweet and sour sauce.

Sometimes in the morning, one of my homies would go out to the street and buy this fishballs which we eat for breakfast.

Walking along the streets or shopping on the sidewalks, I would always buy roasted meatballs but sometimes I ate them with rice. But I just love snacking on them.

Right now my mouth is watering as I recall how tasty they are.

I am actually running out of idea or just that my mind is not functioning properly today to think of what came next during my first year in Thailand. However, at this point I would like to talk about Pattaya. Oh that’s right I did say I was going to write about the first trip to the border and what else did we do.

Since we hired the van for one day, our leader, Miss Elvie, organized a trip to Pattaya after we finished in the borders. Wow, I thought to myself. I had only read about Pattaya back in the Philippines and seen beautiful photos of this rather infamous beach resort. Approximately 100 kilometers east of Bangkok, Pattaya is one of the most visited destinations in Thailand. I was amazed at how many Europeans come to this place and the most noticeable thing or rather ubiquitous is that Thai women clinging to these tourists. Nearly, every single white man is accompanied by a sun-tanned and slim Thai woman who apparently makes the visit a more enjoyable and interesting one.

My first impression of Pattaya was really not good. There was nothing special about the place if not for the man-made resorts. Palawan beaches are far, far better than this.

Because I came to Thailand with a tourist visa I had only 30 days to stay in the kingdom. When it lapses I had to go to the nearest exit border where an immigration is located to get another 30 days. This would go on for many months until I found a job that could give me a non-immigrant visa which is renewable yearly provided I stay in my job.

The first time I had to exit we went to Aranya Prathet there was a very busy exchange of trades. And there was a distinct contrast that’s very obvious on either side of the fence. I saw people from Cambodial side some without shoes pulling carts and this was their form of transportation.

It was a three-hour ride from Bangkok and the stamping on our passports took only about 30 minutes to one hour depending on how long the cue was. But during that time 20-30 minutes cue was all it would take us. At the immigrations no questions asked. The immigration people open the passport, stamp then off we go to the next–Departure (from Thailand)-Arrival (to Cambodia)-have a free lunch in the casinos-then Depart Cambodia-and arrive in Thailand. We had to get there very early in the morning before the other vans so we can go back to Bangkok in the afternoon.

Chatuchak is a favorite weekend market especially for foreigners, tourists, and locals alike. They sell a wide array specially of crafts but there are also other stuff to buy like souvenirs, plants, pets, ornaments, wedding tokens and so on and so forth. Located near the Victory Monument, Chatuchak is now accessible by MRT which is excellent because it’s a bit far from where I worked and lived.

The only thing though that puts me off is that it gets too crowded making it hard to walk freely from one stall to another.

Despite this I still found my way to Chatuchak several times especially when buying in bulks because you can buy them really bargain here. This is simply a one-stop shop especially for crafts which I am very interested in.

Somtam is one of the most common and favorite foods by Thais and I learned to love it too. It is made of grated green papaya dashed with salt or fish sauce, seasoned with monosodium glutamate which I think is a little bit too much because they put one teaspoon for just one serving. The ingredients include one or two tomatoes, a squeeze of manao , and couple of Asian string beans and of course the infamous Red hot chilli. All of them are raw and they are all pounded in a small mortar occasionally stirred to make sure all the ingredients blend.

Wow, I have never had so good a papaya salad in my entire life. Somtam is best eaten with fried fish or chicken and a portion of steamed glutinous rice.

But it was so spicy my ears and nose were literally smoking and my tongue was on fire.

One of my favorite Thai fruits is the green mango. They tasted like guava and jicama or singkamas but so much sweeter than both combined. It was rather surprising that they taste even sweeter than some yellow or ripened mangoes. They are mostly abundant between June to September. We just loved snacking on them while chatting with each other especially on Saturday afternoon or after my friends come home from work in the afternoon.

Ideally, these green mangoes can be eaten without enhancer. But sometimes we dip them in a sugar, salt and powdered red chilli mix to make them taste even more interesting and palatable. And when they do get ripened, the skin remains green but the meat turns yellow and even sweeter. But we like it better when it is still green and crunchy.

I had never liked yoghurt so much until I got to Thailand. Sometimes I could eat 2 bottles at one sitting.  Out of curiosity I read the labels and everything written in the bottle. To my amazement the expiry date said 10/44. I couldn’t believe what I had just read. How could a yoghurt last for that long? It was 2001 and it means the yoghurt was going to expire in more than 40 years!

I got everyone’s attention and told them about the expiration date which I personally thought ludicrous or rubbish. Anyway, I opened my mouth to reveal my ignorance. In Thailand the year starts with the birth of Buddha which was 543 years before Jesus Christ. So in 2001 the Thai year was 2544.

Although I came to Thailand with a tourist visa, my real objective was to work. As a south-east Asian national I can visit neighboring countries without a visa and get one at the immigration upon arrival.

A couple of weeks later I started scouting for potential employers. Only then did become aware of the many different English accents and how they matter. I used to believe it was cool to speak English in Tagalog accent. But I was surprised at what I discovered. It’s like a dog saying meow in his barking way. It just didn’t sound right at all.

Anyway, regardless of my qualification and experience in the field, I found it difficult to find a job while others who were not as qualified as me in terms of degree title got employed very easily. Then I discovered politics run just everywhere. It doesn’t matter what you know, it’s whom you know. And since I didn’t know anyone to back me up my applications were always put at the bottom.

During this time telemarketing was more lucrative than teaching and they don’t ask for your degree. But I was hesitant because I don’t like talking on the phone and chasing people blah, blah, blah. At times I was getting discouraged but I told myself to keep trying.

The first place I visited outside Bangkok was Muaklek, Saraburi. A few days after arriving in Bangkok I got acquainted with ate Mae. She took me to Muaklek to see the Mission College where my friend, Karoline, was working temporarily for the summer.

We took a bus from Morchit Bus Station which I will talk about later and I was a little bit impressed at how big and baffling the station was. Everything was written in Thai dispatchers asking where you’re bound to and try to talk you to take their bus if it happens to by passing that way.

There was no bus going to Muaklek but the ones going to Nakhon Ratchasima passes through the same way. We boarded one and I sat by the window. Not having an idea how long the trip would take, I took delight in watching the scenes outside the bus window and I saw temples with intricate designs, unreadable signs, and ohmy Buddha the biggest Buddha I have ever seen sitting by the highway. I was really amazed. Half an hour later we arrived in Muaklek. We had to take another pick-up van to take us to Mission College and we bought some chicken curry at the food stands.

It was a little after lunchtime when we got to the campus so Karoline was still not off from work. I was standing under a small tree while waiting for ate Mae who went to the library nearby when I saw a yellow hairy worm fall down from a branch. When it touches your skin you will feel itchy and you will get rashes. I hysterically ran away from that dreadful tree under a clear sky.

It was the start of the rainy season and I remember seeing so many dead earthworms on the concrete roads and the smell was awfully stinky. Well, when it rains in Thailand it lasts only half an hour and the sun would seem to shine hotter than before it poured. This is why the worms don’t have enough time to cross over the road and lots of them get scorched in the sun or ran over by passing cars.

MBK stands for Maboongkrung, a big shopping mall of everything–souvenirs, electronics, furniture, house accessories, shoes, bags, you name it they have it. When I first got there, I was overwhelmed by the crowd and the stalls which seemed endless. It was night time when we went but it seemed like day. No matter what time of the day it is always crowded.

MBK is one of my favorite hangouts. Me and my friends would go to the sixth floor where the cinemas are located but not to see a movie.  We go there to eat at Sizzler’s Restaurant.

Although prices are relatively high in MBK I sometimes fancy to shop here because of the convenience of aircon considering Thailand is almost always hot. And if it rains I don’t worry about getting wet and walk on the puddles. On top of all of these MBK is accessible by MRT, the sky train, or by river taxi (boat) which is such a good thing because of the traffic condition in Bangkok.