Southeast Asia Tour

Southeast Asia Tour 2012

     Each year in April, our Chef heads to her home in the Philippines for a month, with her daughter.  This is the time I usually fill in as the cook.   It's really a lot of fun, experimenting with all the fresh foods of the Mediterranean ~  but that's another story.  This year Dad decided to join his brother and his daughter for a nine day cruise of Vietnam. Since I was here, I joined in.  As we discussed it, we added Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Dubai and turned a 9 day cruise into a 23 day, warm weather treat.  We discovered Emirates Airlines and can tell you that their business class is wonderful.  They even provide chauffeur service from your front door to the airport, limo's to your hotels and a limo back to airports with "fast pass" thru customs and security.  Very nice...  First stop ~ Bangkok, Thailand

 Our first stop was The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. Many feel this is The BEST Hotel in the world. 

Dining outside on the river ~

     We had a wonderful guide, named Air. She took us out of the city to visit a Railway Market, The Floating Market and a Coconut Flower milking farm. At the Rail Market, the only warning is two toots on the horn and 30 seconds later....

Before Train ~

This Market is for the locals in the area.  It's really amazing how quickly they fold up their overhead tarps and move goods in the 30 seconds before the train comes thru ~ Then 30 seconds later, it's all just like it was...   Something to see.

Then off to The Floating Market ~ simply wonderful.  This was a "local" market, 1 hour outside of Bangkok.

A short boat ride found me at a Coconut Sugar Farm. These are incredibly hard working families.  This family had 250 trees. Each one must be climbed twice a day to collect the nectar that drips from the Coconut Flower.  The son does this everyday!

He transports the nectar to his Sister, Mom and Dad who use a series of Woks to cook it down to a wonderful Coconut Sugar.  This is a very difficult way to make a living!

This is his Ladder. 500 times up and 500 downs! Sometimes the pegs break, laying him up for a few days, when HIS DAD must do the climbing. It MUST be done daily or you can loose the crop. 

Maybe your commute in traffic doesn't seem quite so bad now?

 The meals were everything I had hoped for. Thai is one of my most favorite cooking styles, years before I even studied it and learned to make many dishes.

 OK, maybe Sushi isn't of Thai origin, but it's still necessary!

  Temple and Palace Grounds....

Then ~ off by Long Tail Boat to some of the 1000 canals of Bangkok, where very rich and dirt poor coexist, sometimes next door to each other.  (Long Tail Boat, love that name, so simple, so descriptive!)

                               At this Temple, we fed the catfish - and got SOAKED in the process

After lunch and 2 X full of incredible Thai food!

After our Day Trips, Air suggested I do a Exotic Bangkok Nights tour with her on City transportation.  I'm a "never say die" kinda guy, so off we went. 

                                                                                                                These are ALL INSECTS!

 

 We went to all three of the racy neighborhoods and into several clubs. 

                                              Then a ride home in a Tuk-Tuk!