Thursday, July 17, 2008

don't eat the meat



Okay, I ate the meat. At least, I think it was meat... or blood... or some kind of fish creature. I'm really not sure, but I ate it and I lived to tell about it. In general the food was really good. I just shouldn't have ordered the soup. The soup with rolled rice noodles had a sweet beefy broth, half a boiled egg, and contained four different types of what I can only guess was meat. I think I identified beef, pork, pork blood, and some kind of squid. I had no idea what the brown, gelatin-like cubes were, but decided that they were edible and shoved one in my mouth. The texture was disgusting and made my teeth squeak. It didn't really taste like anything, but after I had swallowed, a faint taste of blood was left in my mouth.

Most of the day was spent recovering from some wicked jet-lag. My stomach aches and it feels like I haven't slept in days. It's 9am here, and 7pm back home. My mind is slow: 32 baht is roughly one American dollar but it took me a about 15 minutes in my tired state to calculate the dollar equivalent of 1,000 baht.

We spent the day in Siam Square at the biggest mall I've ever seen. It was amazing. 8 or 9 floors of the biggest names in fashion, crazy-expensive cars on the 4th floor, an IMAX theater on the top floor, and an aquarium in the basement, and the most amazing assortment of food. It was like an amusement park for adults. To help ease the jet-lag pain, Sylvan and I went to see an American movie, Hancock. The previews and ads before the movie were just as entertaining as the movie itself. When the movie audience stood to hail the King of Thailand during a prerecorded video/anthem, Sylvan and I stood with them. It felt a little strange, but it was an interesting experience to say the least.

I think Sylvan and I are both feeling better today. We're going to explore Bangkok, change hotels, and talk to a travel agent about pseudo-planning the rest of our trip.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"How can you have any (blood) pudding if you don't eat your meat?!"

My dad was stationed in Germany in the late 1940s. He tried to enjoy the local fare whenever he had the chance even though some of it was a bit obscure. The one item he'd come to like - an unusual dish with it's blackened color and odd texture - was something he'd order somewhat regularly. When the person serving his meal suggested "it's unusual that Americans like our blood pudding so much" he couldn't stomach ordering the dish ever again. So just keep going forward; you can never look back.