Wat Arun - the prang

Here are photos of the prang. The prang is the central tower of the wat and was decorated by bits of porcelain. The porcelain came from China which the Chinese used as ballast in their ships that sailed to Bangkok.

 


 


 


 


 


 

Buddha images of Wat Arun

This one is pretty self explanatory. Just a few of the Buddha images around Wat Arun.


 


 


 

The trip to Wat Arun and a few statues

Thanks to the day off yesterday, I had a chance to start posting some of my photos. These are from my trip to Wat Arun. I wound up taking a longtail boat (an obviously long boat with a auto engine driving the propeller) over to the wat instead of trying to figure out the water taxi system. The round trip cost me about $10-$12 from my best recollection. I know that I did have to negotiate a bit, but in the end just wanted to get there and make sure that I had a way back.

One additional item that I neglected to realize was the docking fee at the Wat. I'm sure there are other ways to get there by auto, but arriving by the river was neat and I got a few good photos out of it.

This first set of photos is the trip on the river to the wat and some of the statues around the grounds. Enjoy.

 


 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

Dancing Shrimp and other food oddities

Bangkok, Thailand

One food item that I wanted to give a second try to was dancing shrimp. The trick to it is actually finding a vendor selling them. The vendor pushes around a plexiglass fishtank on wheels. The tank is lit up, I don't remember if it was aerated or not, but when I saw the tank being wheeled past, I was not about to miss this Issan (area of Northeastern Thailand) dish.

So where does the dish get its name from? If you haven't guessed already, the shrimp are dancing because they are alive. Coated in spices sure to melt your insides, the shrimp are tossed in the spices and put in a styrafoam container. The shrimp are then served with glutinous (sticky) rice or as I had it that night cucumber slices.

The first time I saw this I really wanted nothing to do with it. This time, I was out and decided to just try it. The real trick is to keep the little buggers on your spoon as you take a bite. There's honestly no taste and the spice mixture that the shrimp are tossed in are real, real hot.

I'm finally at the point where there aren't a lot of dishes that I'm afraid of. I guess the only thing that I'm never terribly jazzed up about eating is some of the fish dishes. I'll eat them, but just never a big fan of fish (even though I know it is supposed to be god for me).

Fruits in Thailand:

There are two fruits that I love to eat in Thailand and order whenever I get a chance and a third I wanted to give another chance.

Rambutans -  

They look like giant hairy strawberries.
 


You break open the shell and the translucent fruit lies within.
 


Other than having to work around a seed in the middle, rambutan is one of my favorite tropical fruits. Sadly, other than canned in syrup, I think the only place that you can get rumbutan is in Hawaii.

Jackfruit - Sadly, I didn't take any photos of the jackfruit, but did get to eat a fair share when I was in Thailand. The fruit itself can be just gigantic. Inside, the fruit is yellow and tastes a bit of pineapple and bananna.

Durian - Have you ever walked by a trashcan of rotting garbage? If so, this will give you an accurate description as to how durian smells. The fruit itself comes out of a large spiny protective outer shell. If you had to protect yourself with one piece of fruit, durian would do it. I'm not sure whether the spikes on the outside covering would do it or the smell. I've only tried it a couple times and I've had it when its kind of firm and had no problem with it. I've also tried it when the flesh was real ripe and soft like custard (I know I'm really selling it, smells like garbage and can be soft like custard.) and wasn't too big of a fan.

Updates

I've just put up the second day in HCMC below. I've got photos and will be updating my posts when I get the time. The weekend is full of Redskin playoff football and laundry for me (lots of laundry).

I just picked up a new guidebook, Laos. I've wanted to go to Laos and northern Thailand for a while. There only two Southeast Asian countries that I haven't visited are Lao and Myanmar (Burma).

Myanmar is supposed to be very beautiful, but has a very restrictive and oppressive military government.

I'm on the fence about it, but most travel decisions that I have now are based on avoiding the McDonaldization of the world. There are fewer places on the planet where you won't find the McDonald's and designer coffe houses of the world. I'm not saying that these companies don't have their place in the world, I just want to see the world before they get there and that's pretty tough to do.