Short Guide To Street Thai Food

Streets of Thai cities resemble an endless counter of the fast-food restaurants. To thoroughly explore the local cuisine, you can never go into a cafe – just walk around the city. Thais eat on the streets, always and everywhere, and to get to know this country is simply to join them.

From the perspective of Europeans, it looks disgusting: the pavements are dozens and even hundreds of open shelves, trolleys, which are piled up with tons of food from the fat-like tapeworms noodles to fried cockroaches and scorpions. It seems that there reigns of terrible sanitary conditions, and insects are bred themselves. However, it is not so: in Thai streets are almost no more dangerous than in European cafes.

Thais have a cult of purity and they are paying much attention to personal hygiene. Traders are pretty neat, and severity of food often plays the role of antiseptic. Everything is cooked from fresh ingredients: the climate dictates the conditions – vegetables, fruits, meat and fish spoil quickly, and thus do not stay until the next day. So be sure: the street food is no worse than a restaurant one, and even fresher than it. Another advantage of such a meal: a lavish dinner is mere only a couple of dollars.

The main argument for such a “fast food” is that the Thais, regardless of age, marital status are eating on the street. Among this quick movement of the plates you can meet residents not only in modest means of clothes, but neat clerks, and even certain gentlemen dressed up fine wearing fabulously expensive watch on his hand. So let’s say that tourist are not going to be some kind of exception.

True, there is one problem – to understand what lies before you on the counter. The traders understand English only in the capital, and thus it is unlikely to have that much of free time to learn thousands of names of dishes. Therefore, the easiest way: just show the seller a finger at all that you want to try. And this is another advantage of the street in comparison with the restaurant, where, at best, you will be brought a menu with pictures. And so that at least some understand what is being sold on Thai streets. And now we are going to share our Thai cuisine knowledge with you.

Rice

What kind of Asian food without rice! If you really have plans to dive into the tasting Thai dishes, please be sure to get a bowl with simple boiled rice, which will help you to bind other dishes if they turn out to be unexpectedly sharp. On the streets you will find quite a few dishes, reminiscent of risotto. Especially popular is the rice with chicken and pork. And be sure to buy rice baked in banana leaves and filled with its fragrance. In appearance it is a bit like Asian dolma dish – having somewhat dark-green envelopes. Leaves themselves are not for eating!

Soup

What is that odd cloudy liquid pouring from the huge boilers? Those are real Thai soups: chicken, shrimp, mushrooms – all in coconut milk, with fish sauce and lemongrass. Why not to try this unique simultaneously sharp and sour soup which simply attracts with the pleasant splendor? But make sure to be able to get them through your throat: these soups are very sharp.

Noodles

In Thailand, there are countless types of noodles: large and small, egg and rice, dry and in the broth, which remind us the usual soup noodles- at least according to their appearance. The sellers usually collect the noodles and then add ingredients of your choice: slices of shrimp, pork, bamboo shoots. And then everything is being cooked with the help of a special boiling process.

Salads

Let’s say that the Thai traders are specialized in giving up a list of various salads. One of the trays must be devoted to salads. The ambience here is exotic: particularly tasty salad of papaya with fibers pomelo, shrimps and peanuts, and a salad of young bamboo.

Seafood

In addition to rice with shrimps and other marine reptiles, one can often see the whole fish carcass, which is covered with large crystals of salt and roasted on charcoal. One of the strangest food – squid, which is being passed through special rollers. Caution! These dishes are very salty.

Barbecue

Proponents of hygiene can celebrate it: the magnificent heat treatment to all kinds of barbecue on wooden skewers and kebabs is guaranteed. Usually on skewers they string up chicken, beef and mutton. However, at times to find out more detail of what is being cooked among the list of meat food, can not be done without the knowledge of Thai dialect. So it is the case when you can rely only your own eyes and surely intuition.

Fruit

Thailand is full of fruit. Counters are bursting with ripe mango, pineapple, watermelon, rambutan, mangosteens, papayas and passion fruit. You just need to poke a finger at the one you like and right before your eyes the fruit will be cleaned and then be sent into the blender or juicer. Of course, those who are terrified of contagion can buy fruit peeled and washed with boiled water, but even many tourists, relying on their own experience, do not do so.

Insects

Most Europeans are ready to eat insects, just dying of starvation or for big win in the reality show. But, in fact, this food is no different from the usual chicken or beef to us, but it has more protein and less fat. If you plan to start up with some kind of exotics you should start with the larvae of silkworms. They are soft and thus in the mouth they feel similar to oysters, and the taste is just like lentils. Did you decide to go for water cockroaches or beetles, predaceous diving beetles? And I do not fear: they pre-overdone-fried, and therefore completely tasteless and crackle in the language, like an egg shell.

Sweets

That’s really where to relax and not to fear the severity of chili, so this is a tray of sweets. Usually, Thai desserts are very nice and have delicate taste. You will meet biscuits, and candied fruit, and tiny, delicate pink, light green, lemon cakes from the bean mass with coconut milk and cooked in the same coconut milk and bananas.

If you are still afraid of germs, you will have to come to the aid of thermal treatment: buy only what is cooked over a fire in your eyes.

The Most Unusual Churches in the World

Many churches of different styles and denominations were built in the world, but the forms of some temples are so unusual that they deserve special attention.

Crystal Cathedral, the United States
The Protestant church in the Californian town Garden-Grove is made almost entirely of glass and its shape resembles a four-point crystal. In the process of construction about 12 thousand glasses have been used, and inside is the world’s largest organ, with 16 thousand pipes.

Hallgrímskirkja, Iceland
This unusual church, located in the center of Reykjavík, is the fourth highest building in Iceland, and at the same time the largest. Its height is 74.5 meters and on the top of the tower there is an observation deck with a panoramic view of city located. The church got its strange name in memory of the Icelandic clergy and poet Hallagrum Patterson, and its appearance, according to the creators, should resemble geysers, which are so many in Iceland. The construction of the temple lasted for a long time, from 1945 to 1986.

Jubilee, Italy
Another church, which does not fit any canon, is in Rome. Its creator, Richard Meier, did not hesitate to call it “the pride of Rome” and the “project of millennium”. The form of the building has religious overtones. Three parallel arcs symbolize the Holy Trinity, and the smooth mirror surface before the church should remind of water, which is an important part of the ceremony of baptism.

St. Basil’s Cathedral
The church, which has long been, along with the Kremlin, the symbol of Moscow and Russia, was built in the years 1555-1561 by the order of Ivan Grozny in honour of the capture of Kazan and the victory over the Kazan Khanate. The author of the temple is unknown. According to one version, it was Yakovlev Postnikov a master from Pskov, according to the others it was a Western- European (probably, Italian), architect. The legend has it that the Russian tsar ordered to blind the creator of the cathedral so that he would never be able to build anything even more beautiful.

Sagrada Familia, Spain
Antonio Gaudi’s creation is perhaps one of the most famous unfinished, long-in-construction buildings in the world. Started in 1882, the construction is scheduled for completion in 2026, on the 100th anniversary of the death of the great architect. However, the dates have changed so many times that no one particularly believes in the newly appointed date. Gaudi himself in answer to the question why it takes so long to erect the temple(and he supervised the construction for over forty years) -said: “My customer is not in a hurry”.

The Cathedral, Brazil
The construction of the unusual church in the capital of Brazil, was completed in 1970. The author, Oscar Neymer, created a structure consisting of asymmetric hyperbolic columns, each weighing 90 tons. The form of the church symbolizes hands raised to heaven, to God. They say that the Liverpool Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral served as a prototype for the temple.

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, United Kingdom
The cathedral was originally conceived as the second largest in the world, as opposed to the already existing in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. However, because of problems with financing the project of the construction changed four times and eventually has almost nothing in common with the original plan.

Duomo, Italy
The Cathedral of Milan is one of the largest in the world and the second in spaciousness after the Cathedral of St. Peter’s in Rome. The construction of the temple, which was begun in 1386, lasted 600 years and was completed only at the beginning of the XIX century, when by the order of Napoleon the design of the façade was eventually finished.

Paraportiani, Greece
Located on the island of Mykonos, the church was built in 1425, at the site of a lateral exit from the medieval fortress. The word “exit” in Greek sounds like “paraporti”, therefore, the church was named Paraportiani. The temple consists of 4 chapels on the lower level and one upstairs. A part of the building was erected in 1425, and the rest was completed in XVI-XVII centuries.

Kostnice, Czech Republic
The decoration of this Czech church, located on the outskirts of the small town of Kutna Gora, is made entirely of bones, and for this reason the church was called “Church on the bones” or Kostnice. The temple was built on the territory of an ancient cemetery, closed in 1870, and its interior is made from the remains of about 40 thousand people who were once buried here. The author of the creation, the half-blind monk Frantisek Rint, was appointed with the task to “sort” the territory of the cemetery. For that very end, he sorted the bones by size and shape, washed and whitened them, and then used them in the decoration of the temple.

Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew, Thailand
The Buddhist temple in the Thai province of Sisaket is built entirely of glass bottles, mainly after beer, left behind by tourists. The monks began to collect glass back in the eighties of the last century. The collected half a million bottles were enough not only for the construction of the temple, but also for the monastic dwellings and even a few houses for tourists. Tin lids were also put to use – they have served for creating several panels depicting the Buddha.

Daily Travel Photo – Coober Peady, South Australia

Changed plans!!

We will be leaving Barcelona one day earlier than planned. There is rough weather on it's way and we do not want to get stuck here more than neccesary. We're ready to go and will so do tonight. Champagne and farewell hugs at 8 in the harbor tonight. Come by if you're around! 

As you can see, we did not have the time to repaint in the cockpit. Just like we didn't have the time to finish the teak, the toe rails and millions of other smaller things, but it doesn't matter... Now we just want to leave!

More updates coming soon.

T&A

I don't know how, but we've survived this week..

Paint is on!

Bathing platform is on!

The new dinghy and the engine to it have arrived!

The portholes are (almost) on!
The Internet antenna is here!

The watermaker is here!

The books have arrived!

The headache from all the stress is still here, but I'm sure we can solve it with some fine wine/rum/vodka and a delicious dinner with family and friends tonight. It's the last night out in real Barcelonian style...

Hasta Mañana amigos.

Internet

The Satellite unit arrived last night. I think I forgot some important information last time I wrote about it. It is a Thrane&Thrane hardware and nothing else. We're connecting to the Inmarsat Satellites and airtime is delivered by KVH. We don't have the time to install it before departure, but we'll let you know later on how it works. /T

Last night

Last night we were invited to our new friend's Adam and Camilla's wonderful Hallberg Rassy 312 for dinner. So incredibly stupid of us to bring the camera and still forget to take any pictures - for their boat was beautiful! In fact one of the most interesting boats we've seen, as they've done so much qualitative renovations on it. Their galley, for example, was - hands down - the best one I've seen so far, in a sailing boat. Such an incredible way to use limited space and also making it feel like a real home and not only a boat - with a nice Scandinavian touch to it all. That was an inspiring visit, for sure. Go in and have a look at their well made blog, and say hi from us (their blog is in Swedish but they do speak perfect English).

Thanks guys for a perfect night, and Camilla the food was amazing!! /T&A

Photo from their blog.

Shiny

We got some very good help by a blog reader, who also recently re-sprayed his Hallberg Rassy 352, to find out which colors to choose from Awlgrip, for our Caos. Thans a lot for your help, Mark! 

The hull is now painted in Oyster White, and the Royal Blue tone will be added tomorrow. Unfortunately we will not have the time to paint the blue lower line, close to the water line, as we need to put the boat back into the water on Saturday, and this line would not be able to dry before the boat gets back into the sea. Will have to sort it out one day later on when we have left Barcelona. Because we're leaving on Sunday and nothing can stop that plan, remember!?

Can you tell how shiny and beautiful the hull is now? You can mirror yourself in it! /T

Lunch time

Luscious macaronis with mustard chicken

This is probably the easiest thing to put together and suits us fine when life is upside down like it is on this boat right now. A little bit of pasta, a little bit of marinated chicken and some rucola to that and you're all set. This is how I do it:

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions. I've used large macaronis for this dish, as I love the texture of them and the fact that the creamy sauce gets stuck inside of em'. Very wonderful and juicy, from the inside and out. While the pasta is cooking, swirl together a little chicken marinade into a bowl. You'll need more or less:

1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of mayonnaise
salt
pepper
ground chili powder
also you could toss in some garlic if you'd like..

As soon as this is done and mixed up, bring some sliced pieces of chicken into it. Leave it to absorb for ten minutes or so. The longer the better but if you have not much time, five-ten min should be OK.

In olive oil: panfry some chopped onion, why not shallots. When they're golden brown, bring in the marinated chicken. With all of the marinade, obviously. Let it all simmer around and leave it to get a brownish, golden tone. You'll see when it's ready. When pasta's done, remove the water and dump in the pasta into the pan with the chicken. Mix it all together softly and add some fresh rucola to it.

This. Is. So. Damn. Delicious. You have to try. Now!

/Taru

Sitesucker

A little tips for you all out there. There are some websites that we simply can't live without (sorry I'm dramatic but that's almost true) and as we cannot access the Internet whenever we need to no longer, what if we had the websites saved on our laptops to be able to view them in offline mode? This is possible of course. What I am using to download full websites is a software called Sitesucker and it does exactly what the name hint of, sucking up every single information from a website and saving it on your hard drive. This is excellent as we now, for example, can be able to view important information about harbors, clearances and specific country informations on Noonsite, wether we have Internet connection or not. The good thing is that this little piece of code actually saves the whole thing in the mode it is showed online with permalinks, images where they should be and all set up for you to view, exactly as it would be on the net.

Unfortunately this is developed for Mac-computers and iPhone's only, but I'm sure there is similar programs for PC's.

The great feeling of letting go/What will I miss

It is not so much physical things or material that I will miss, but these are the things that will be a bit hard to live without, once we've left this world for another:

Spotify - The digital music library, where you're able to instantly stream all music you wish, whenever you wish to listen to it. Although we've downloaded hundreds of CD's, I'm sure there will be a lot missing once we're out there. Music is equally important for me and Alex and luckily we have the exact same taste, when it comes to this massively important area in life.

Google Translate - When writing in English, which is not my own language (Swedish and Finish is, FYI), I need to double check spelling and grammar to the extent it's possible. This digital wonder, is definitely something I will miss like crazy, and I hope that y'all will forgive me for my (even more) incorrect spellings and grammars once we're on the seas..

Google - In general. I am a person who's dying to know everything possible about everything I encounter in life and I will miss this open source of endless information like a wise, beloved grandparent. I am a curious, knowledge nerd and want to know exactly what was that bird, what is it's behaviors, how long does it live and why does it do like that? It is heartbreaking to know that I will not be in the know of everything that is going on around me no longer. The collection of 100 books that we're bringing with us will have to be enough as guidance and information bank.

We're living in a digital world for sure, where information is sent faster than the light, and besides of missing some important people in my life, the access to the www is the thing I will miss the most. Yes we do have Satellite connection through Inmarsat, but as the price for usage is around 10$ per MB, it will only be used to what is absolutely needed. Which is to receive important weather informations and to quickly update this blog through email, a couple of times per week.

Some things that I will not miss, but what will be an exciting and a bit strange difference to the previous life, is the access to blogs. Alex, who never reads any blogs - with an exception of a few sailing blogs, have always been wondering how the hell can I have such an interest into reading about other peoples lives? Although I do not at all read blogs to the wide extent I used to when I was deeper involved in the social media industry, I still scroll through a bunch of interesting and less interesting blogs out there, just like I'm holding on to an old habit. Imagine to have been in the know of what people around you, and not around you, do and what they think - for several years, and all of a sudden this access to information will be totally gone. Looking much forward to receive additional hours to the day with this healthy, new change. And I also look much forward to being totally disconnected from it all, for an extended period of time.

I think there is a meaning to all things that happens around us and the fact that I accidentally dropped my Blackberry in the water, was a great way for me to get rid of the strong, unhealthy relation I had with it, as I think I might have had a bit harder to let go of it by myself. I believe that one always have to let go of things, habits and sometimes even people, to reach new meaningful insights in life. And as this circumnavigation may be a one time chance in life, I will try making the best out of it, in the most natural way possible and I want the normal world and the need of constantly being connected - to be as far away from the new life as possible. All the way until I have found the new insights I'm searching for. 

When I ask Alex what will he miss the most, the only thing he can think of is an excellent cup of hot coffee with milk. He is wonderfully simple like that and it will be a great challenge to see how long time it will take for me to reach to a similar level of feeling content with less. Can't wait to begin the process. /T

So close but oh so far away

It feels like we're so far away from this image, although it is only a matter of five days left till departure. It starts to get really cold here in Barcelona, 16 degrees (60F) on the days, and the nights I don't even want to think about. It is terrible. As terrible as is the tone of our skin that slowly have began to fade to a pale, dusty shade of white - after not being exposed to the sun for over two months. There is no words that can describe how much we want to get away from this all now. How much we want to trim our sails, slowly sail away with the serene and calming sound of the waves lapping against the hull, with the wind in our hair and the knowledge of that we do not have to return. At all. Ever - if we don't want to. The thought of being able to sit there on the deck of our freshly painted and newly renovated boat who will bring us from this cold place to one adventure after the other, gives me pain in my stomach - as it feels like light-years to reach to that day. It is a painful longing we have to deal with at the moment and the time seem to go so terribly slow that I almost can count the milliseconds between each breath I take. 

Picture taken 6 months ago.

P.S: Don't forget to become friends with us on Facebook, this is where you will find more info and short notes from us, when we don't have the time to update here. New pictures uploaded in our private folder today. Only visible for our friends, remember. /T

Happy Tuesday

Alex thought I should throw in a happy and joyful picture after the bad mood I (we) had to deal with last night. So here we go. A childish smile, captured this morning for breakfast. I don't have much more than this to give you, this morning, as there's too much things to check off from the never ending to-do-list. At least we've now organized for Internet connection aboard so that we will be able to receive important weather information and update this little diary of ours, from the middle of the vast oceans. We'll be connecting to the Inmarsat Satellites, with a Thrane&Thrane FB150 antenna unit and we're purchasing the airtime through KVH - which was the company we found to have the most affordable airtime plans. We'll have the antenna installed the day after tomorrow. That's all for now. /Taru

Patiently waiting

Isn't this beautiful? It's the valve for the watermaker. For the watermaker that should have left Switzerland last week but for some reason it will not hit the road before tomorrow. Will it be here on time, is the big question of today. What else are we awaiting? The book order. We ordered books from The Book Depository with the impression that the delivery would reach us no later than 3-7 days after placing the order, as they promise on the website. It has now gone 12 days and only one of 56 books have arrived. When I contacted the company to ask for the tracking number on our delivery, so that I could search for the rest of the books myself, they informed me that they do not send any packages with tracking possibilities. Excuse me, you don't do what? - Was my instant reaction and suddenly I regretted that we've placed a 600 Euro order with them in the first place - but there's not much to do now, I guess. Just wait and hope for the best. Stressed, frustrated and a bit pissed off - that's the mood of this sunny afternoon. /T

Morning view

This is the view we encounter first thing in the morning when getting out on deck, out hauled on the yard. It is a delightful and sunny day and so far we've been extremely lucky with the weather. It's like the weather gods knew that we only have a few days left and that we desperately need to finish the spraying process. Thanks for that.

The beginning

So many people have been asking us to upload videos. Here's a little thing I made today.. As soon as we'll be leaving Barcelona and finally getting out on the sea again, there will be more time to produce and upload longer videos. Looking forward to it.. /Taru

The Internet issue

So we'll hopefully be leaving very soon, and it is about time to find out which Internet solution to go for. We would be very very happy if everyone who has an insight, could give us a glance of their experience regarding this matter. Please let us know if you have answers to any of the questions below:

What we want: A stable Internet connection with which we can get online for daily necessities. We want to be able to receive emails, send emails and upload the blog. The blog will probably be updated with email (text plus image) with minimum weight on around 150-200KB per day.

What we're evaluating are these options:

Option 1: SSB Radio with Pactor modem, coupled with Sailmail software - or is there other options? Can Gmail for example work well with the Pactor? Cost for the SSB/Pactor package 4.000 Euros plus annual fee to sailmail 200 Euros. For this price we'll have 12 minutes of free connecting time. The problem, as far as we've understood, is that it is not possible to send emails with attachments. Is this correct? Is this because you can't make it in 12 minutes or is it totally impossible to send email with attachments? I mean, if we pay extra minutes, could we send emails with images or is it out of the question due to limitations in the software, hardware or the connection? If it is possible, what does the extra minutes connected, cost? Have any of you guys sent images through the SSB radio and does it work properly? How does it work on let's say, the Atlantic. We do understand that text based emails are easy to send from wherever, but to also be able to send images are very important for us. 

Option 2: Sailor 150 fleet broadband. We will be able to connect to the Internet basically from where ever in the world. Might be distortions on the big oceans? Is the connection reliable on the Atlantic, for example? Cost for this installation will be 6.500 Euros. Added to that will be the usage, 11 Euros/MB. More or less how many MB would we consume when we quickly want to connect to the email software (gmail for example), receive emails, send textbased emails, and also send one email to blogger with attachment (attachment/photo around 150 KB), send it and log out? Does anyone have a clue? 

Option 3: Which is not really an option, but more of an addition to all this. The long range wifi receiver. This will be used when we're close to the shorelines and can pick up wifi from land. Price 200-300 Euros. Which brand should we go for?

So we've figured that we want to send minimum one blog post per day coupled with one lightweight photo. This when crossing the oceans. Once we're on islands, close to shore, on land - we'll use the long range wifi, local prepaid Internet card or other free wifi connections in coffee shops etc.. We would love to be as free from coffee shops as possible and we're now looking for the most comfortable options for this world tour.

As you can see we're still a bit lost and we'll need to have made a decision no later than tomorrow, Monday. Please let us know your thoughts if you have any. How have you other cruisers done?

FYI: We'll be using our Spanish wireless Internet modem all the way to the Canaries, with some smaller exceptions when in Gibraltar and Morocco. So until end of November we're all set.

Some pics from the new camera..

We were just playing around with the new camera last night...