Thai Tiao

Yesterday was beautiful. After taking a bus into the city on Saturday to kick it with my fellow PiAers, I decided to go with the flow on Sunday and see what my new Thai family had in store for me.

We went to the market in Doi Saket. Ma Noi sells produce there, usually between 2 and 6am, but apparently her weekend hours are different. Or maybe she sells cooked food during the week, and fresh veggies on the weekends... the jury is still out on that one. Anyway, I wandered around, got pampered by Ma Noi (there was a never-ending supply of sweet things for my enjoyment. Deep-friend bananas come highly recommended) and stared at by everybody else. When things got slow we watched Thai Kickboxing on TV.

Then I slept. Sleeping is how people without air conditioning make it through the hottest parts of the day.

I awoke to much excitement. We were going on a tiao, which translates roughly to “field trip.” And by “we,” I mean 8 or 9 of my favorite Thai family members. Where, you ask? According to my handy Thai-English dictionary, to “a retaining wall.” You can imagine my excitement at the prospect of staring at a large concrete slab; I am sure it must be the pinnacle of modern Thai engineering.

If there is one thing that watching subtitled TV on Saturday should have taught me, it is that there are no good Thai-English dictionaries. After 8 of us piled into the back of the family truck, we were taken to the Mae Kuang Dam, behind which is a beautiful lake that is part Norwegian Fjord and part Hawaiian Island (some pictures posted below, the rest are available in my Picasa album: Mae Kuang Tio)

There is a restaurant/bar on the side of the valley that serves delicious fresh seafood and ice-cold whiskey sodas, which are two things that Paw Teet can't live without. See how happy he is?

After heavy appetizers and more than a few drinks (for Paw Teet, anyway) in front of a breathtaking sunset (yay pollution!), we piled back in the truck, and headed into Doi Saket for some real Pad Thai. Apparently the best Pad Thai in town is sold in front of the 7-Eleven. Scores of teenage boys on motorbikes and one monk wearing an all-white robe seemed to agree.

We returned home, sat on the front porch, and had another drink, and then it's off to bed. Monday means resuming life as normal(?!?) and reporting to Thai class at 8:30am.