Starpower

sambal buah keluak

The Dome and Beyond

Singapore.  We landed in Singapore at 1am and headed to meet Yen's family-  Dale and Shannon. For the next three years they'll live in an expats universe that reminded me of Logan's Run dome city in so many ways. From the swimming pools to the architectural design, the Singaporean Domed universe was something like this image:

http://www.willhines.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/logans.jpg . It's truly an ideal locale for visitors on an extended tour.

Dale and Shannon... brilliant and down to earth.  Warm and welcoming. There aren't enough kind words in any language to aptly describe these two very special people. Any who... that's for another blog, for some other day. 

I started the next day a little ahead of the rest of the team by visiting Aikido Shinju-Kai and taking a 9am class.  One word- FUN!  A welcoming group of Aikidoka that made me feel like I was at the home dojo throwing in Carroll Gardens with the rest of the gang. After class I headed back to the dome where I met a hungry trio that were ready for some legendary Singaporean street hawking bites. 

BIG D's was the first stop.  And in all honesty our finest stop culinary stop in all of Singapore.   The food lab of the intense and impassioned Mr. Damien D'Silva a former aeronautical engineer who shifted careers to what else, chef.  Studying technique in the molecular food capital, San Sebastian, Damien now runs Big D's @ 46 Holland Drive.  Big D's serves up one of the best fish and chips I've ever tasted, a surprisingly tasty anchovy pasta, and one of my top three favorite dishes of the entire journey- sambal buah keluak  -a Perankan plate of minced pork and ground buah keluak.  Buah Keluak, a potentially lethal indonesian nut,  must be buried for 40 days in layers of ash and banana leaves. This burial process extracts the prussic acid that would otherwise be rather poisonous to ingest.  Worth the burial wait-  indescribable and DELICIOUS.  

Big D's = 1 Michelin Star.  And goes into the hall of eats as one of the top three plates in the trips entirety.  

From there we roamed.  Roamed and roamed.  

  

60cm Per Day

The Fried Chicken Fox

Black Friday continued... That morning there was a little bit of gastronomic hanky panky on one particular travelers part.  You'll see in this photo the suspect, Yen, is scouting the parameter to make sure that our original Chiang Mai fried chicken couple doesn't apprehend  her sampling the local competition.  Thankfully she wasn't nabbed.  However, later that same day, before we left for Singapore we did stop by to see the originals and ask for forgiveness, and snatch a couple inflight leg and breast to gnaw on.

Gridlock (Alt Take)

Gridlock

Black Friday in Chiang Mai

Black Friday in Chiang Mai.  We rose as early as humanly possible to get the best deals at the markets.  We found great holiday savings on the the latest sticky rices, fried chickens, fresh cut pineapples, and fried asian bananas. If every Black Friday were like this I'd beg for more than one a year.

Company Merger (Alt Take II)

Company Merger (Alt Take)

Company Merger

Thaiducken

Curbside Service (alt take)

(-) Tryptophan (+/-) MSG

Thanksgiving Dinner.  Chiang Mai's Chinatown.  On the sidewalks of Chiang Mai's Chinatown are a slew of food slingers cookin' up wholesome goodness. Behind a porous wall of bungee chorded cardboard boxes and thin wood paneling we dined at a makeshift curb only restaurant. Set up with tiny plastic stools and wobbly weather dinged up and down foldable metal tables we feasted on sausages, noodles, curries, and a lone can of Beer Chang (with straw). 

5,000 kg

Asian Elephants on Parade (Reprise)

The next day, Thanksgiving Day, we decided to be tourist.  Genuine tourist... so we jumped into a van with other tourist in Chiang Mai and headed to an Elephant Camp.  A motley crew of French Arabs, UKs with their new young Thai brides, saucy Aussies, boring Germans, and another endless chatter box New Yorker were packed into the van with us.  Then we rode elephants through the jungle, watched one elephant named suda paint an elephant, and fed several of the mammoths for the duration of our time at the Camp.  Fed them whole bananas and logs of sugar cane.  The crunch an elephant makes when they bite into a log of the sugar cane is an audio mind blitz-  like a bulldozer treading over freshly fallen forrest tree limbs.   I couldn't help but post the last photo in this grouping.  How many times in my life can I say I mounted and rode an elephant through the jungle?  

The answer to date = 1.

The Luck Boat

A Path

Hands Free Zatoichi

A bit more on our visit to the Thai Massage Conservation Club of Chiang Mai (Branch 2).  This is a club that provides services by experienced blind masseurs.  Traditional Thai Massage for one hour-  100 Baht if memory serves correctly. 


A few of the masseuse were sleeping on the beds as they waited for customers.  Eight empty massage tables in an open and unlit room . My masseuse was a stout and tough looking Thai woman and ready to crush bone to powder with her bare hands.  


As bone crusher began her massage I watched her move her hands up and down my arms searching for points of relief and at that moment I began to realize how special this experience was. This woman, she was using her sense of touch and reacting to the way my body felt to apply the appropriate pressures at exact points to relieve pains.  My eyes welled up.  I had tears running down my cheeks. I was so overwhelmed with pure awe.  And then...  AND THEN... 
her mobile rang.  Her mobile phone ... which she answered.  Stunned, I looked over to Yen who was receiving a massage on the table next to me and she's looking right at me with a surprised and giggle-filled smile on her face.  The masseuse has me twisted at the hips while she worked my legs with her knees and is massaging me hands free so she can hold her mobile and chat away about from what I could tell... nothing in particular.  No emergency, no bad news. Just a Chatty Cathy call.  I lied there listening to her five minute phone prattle and Yen smirking at me the entire time.  Stripped a bit of it's moment for me, it was still all-in-all, a good massage.  I never thought I'd recommend someone to get a Bluetooth, but in this case I think if bone crusher is going to continue taking calls during her sessions it would be beneficial to both parties.  

Rise Thugee! RISE!

Liberation

At a random temple on our customized WSJ walk we passed a temple under renovations.  With buckets and buckets of white paint several painted splattered Buddhist Monk students were painting the exterior walls of the grounds.  


One student smiling broadly approached us and the following conversation took place:


Student:  Hello.
Me:  Hello.
Student: (Smiling excitedly)  Where are you from?
Me:  USA.  New York City.
Student:  USA. New York City (Much more smiling as he strolled away looking at us over his shoulder)  
Me to Yen: I wanted to talk to him more. 
Yen to me:  He's practicing english.   
Me to Yen:  We could had practiced more. 
Yen to me:  That's all he knows. 

Roots

Chariot

The Giving Tree

Beggars, Buddhas, and the Blind

The following morning we woke to the aforementioned in-concert monks (at least I did) and the cuckooing of what I believed to be a very time zoned challenged rooster. Some mornings he sounded off. And others he was either sound asleep or off to a slaughterhouse.  Any who... We started off early and did our best to track the suggested trail of Wall Street Journal travel writer, Robyn Eckhardt.  Here's a brief on the walk and a link to Eckhardt's Chiang Mai article. 

Out of the gate:  A curried breakfast of fish and chickens at Somphet Market located at the Thanon Moon Muang Soi 6.  There we met THE Chiang Mai beggar of 2009 and I'm sure 2010 unless she continues to lie in the paths of oncoming vehicles the way she does.  A dirty golden mutt who could con you out of your shorts if she wanted to.  She ate a third of our meal and demanded spicier curry with her portions. 











After we jammed enough sticky rice into our greedy little gullets we breezed by the suggested Wat Umong Mahathen down a what I remember to be unpaved path to Wat Duang Di Monastery. Translated it means Good Luck Monastery.





From there we visited Wat Phan Tao and the epic Indiana Jones-esque Wat Chedi Luang temples.  Aaaannnnnd... we're hungry...  onto 112 Thanon Ratchamanka to snack at northern Thailand cuisine specialist Huen Phen.  Laab Khua, Jaw Pakkat, Saa Makhya and more sticky rice.

The next location was lost to wrong turns and a blinding sun.  We searched for Tai-Lue Princess at Samlam Soi 1 where they sell multicolored cottonpatoong.  We searched for 40 minutes and then stumbled onto the Thai Massage Conservation Club of Chiang Mai providing services by experienced blind masseurs!  Zatoichi!  And in we walked.  

end walk.  

Life's Powerball

We ate at a diner on our first night in Chiang Mai. The people's diner.  This place had the vibe of a midwest diner serving up Thailand's comfort food.  In walked a kind and gentle soul selling Thailand's lottery ... We bought tickets from him.  He smiled so true and warm. Though he'd been born with a severe birth defect that is unnecessary to go into detail about on this log, his smile was radiant.  Due to the lack of access to prescreening throughout Thailand we'd see people who were birthed with serious defects.  The welling up this would cause in me... overwhelming. 

That night, watching this man hawking lottery tickets...  the way he smiled... oh that smile...  this put things into a monumental perspective for me. From the joy of life to the disgust for people with self-entitlement.  His daily trials unfathomable to so many.  I wanted to thank him for this realization, but it was ten minutes later I realized this.  I kept our tickets as a reminder of that night.  

4am Wake Up Call

A 200 year old Tamarind Tree shaded our village in Chiang Mai.  From Tokyo to Kyoto, from Tapei to Bangkok, and Chiang Mai onto Singapore... The Tamirand Village was a true standout.  Greeted with the traditional Thai greeting and a sweet warm honey tea, it was here that I  felt absolute tranquility.  Nearby was a Buddhist temple where the monks swooned the town at all hours with soothing ohms.  And by all hours, I do mean all hours-  they began at 4am.  And though occasionally it would awaken me, how could you be upset to awaken to such a holy harmony?

The Green Arrow Technique

Many, and I do mean many more pictures to post from our recent travels, but meanwhile back in NYfC...

On my little walk to work this morning I dropped off an old black suitcase at The Salvation Army on 4th Ave and 12th Street. It was filled with a snowboarding backpack, miscellaneous t-shirts with miscellaneous designs, a dated black Italian suit with vest, wool pants that are designed to make your thighs sweat the moment your eyes make contact with them, evergreen-jungle-camo shorts with Black Hole pockets, and other various non-flammable items.  There's extra storage room in my closet now. Enough for at least two dozen Mahjong sets.  

At the southern corner of Park and 19th I noted a man curled-up and all cozy inside the half way phone booth swigging a brown liquid out of a brown paper bag underneath his beaten brown fedora.  I walked a block and realized... damn that could had made a nice photo.  I continued on to Park and 21st where I decided I'd post a photo of another phone booth and tell the story of the AM boozer.  Within the booth was what I assume to be an empty and straw adorned lonesome can of Heinekin Beer.  It was then I wondered if  the 19th Street fedora fiend was responsible for this abandoned can.  Was he on a phone booth pub crawl?  I once had a friend who smoked pot in phone booths.  He referred to this open public smoking technique as The Superman. 

Welcome back.   

Kome Kwaen

Chiang Mai- Still November 23. Taken at Thapae Gate on our walk back to the Village Inn.  Hundreds of turquoise and golden hanging lanterns, also known as Kome Kwaen, were hung for a celebration taking place today in town (December 4th) for H.M. The King's 82nd birthday.  But... their may be a delay in the celebration as breaking news has happened with H.M. The King.

The lanterns remind me of scene straight out of Hero or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or  Jet Li's Fearless or House of Flying Daggers.  I asked Yen to battle me and she pointed out that I wasn't even wearing my hakama or obi (my sources of power) and she would easily defeat me. Sadly, she may have been right.

Manhunt for Willy Thai Wonka

Through the brightly lit winding roads of Chiang Mai we stumbled into yet another market with a heavy concentration on Thai Sweets.  I know there's a Thai Willy Wonka out there... somewhere- boiling sugars and other  somewhere and gelatinous Thailand treats. They range from hearty sweet sticky rice stuffed in bamboo shoots to multi colored layered jell-o bites.  As much as Thailand is know for their spicy plates, their sugars are just as noteworthy.  

Paung Din

Miniature Fruit Candies

Chiang Mai's Left Eye

Chiang Mai's left eye.

Three wheeled and ready to ride. 

There's hope in those wheels,  hope and pride. 

Hop in. Hop on. 

He'll take you to your destination and beyond. 

Chiang Mai's left eye.

Nov 23, 11:15am. Chiang Mai, Thailand. (please click image for clarity)

Discovery

After a late breakfast/early lunch, around the corner and down a bright alley,  I found a photo for my brother who asked me to find and photograph the coolest bicycle during my travels.  I found it Matt. I found it.

The Cold Season and Fried Chicken.

Early Tuesday morning, November 23, we left Bangkok and headed to Chiang Mai. Somehow through all the rush hour traffic we managed to make our flight and arrived in Chiang Mai at 9:30am.  Anytime someone in Bangkok inquired as to where we were going to next they looked a bit shocked when we said Chiang Mai. "Oh it's cold there."  "It's so cold in the north."  "I'm from Chiang Mai and it's just Brrrrrrr there now." And sure enough residents were wearing wool caps, sweaters, and we even saw a woman with a fur coat.  Retailers were selling ski mask, mittens, and other hypothermia protection.  The cold season.  The high the day we landed the temp was 92 degrees fahrenheit. With a real feel of 96.  


Frigid.  


Chiang Mai is a sleepy northern Thailand town with plenty of day and night markets, Cockfighting, nightly Muai Thai events, monks painting temples, and the best damn fried chicken I've ever tasted.

Down Ratchadamnoen Road (map) just past the Tha Pae Gate in front of a bank with green trim you'll find this happy husband and wife duo cooking up Thai Fried Chicken so good it's the only place we returned to on our entire trip for a second meal.

Woking It

For additional detail click on this photo. The child behind Yen wants her plate.  Yen said to him, "No deal."