Vive the beerhalls!

On a per capita basis, Thais are the largest consumers of alcohol in Asia. I reckon it's all that Mekong whiskey that's accounting for this statistic. The government is doing their best to reform the shall we say less 'salubrious' aspects of society (in their opinion) - for example, bars now have to close about 1.00 a.m., and you're not allowed to buy alcohol in the afternoon. Although according to a notice in my local Villa supermarket, if you buy over say 10 litres, that's okay!

Anyhow, I have great admiration for a nation that likes its tipple. In Hong Kong I can say that the notion of after work drinks just didn't catch on - everyone was far too addicted to their work. Here we have a country whose best-selling local beer has around 6% alcohol - a hell of a lot stronger than the p*ss water lager like Fosters. Last year we came to Thailand and Fatt took quite a liking to Singha Gold, little realising that it was considered a girls' drink due to it's measly 4.5% alcohol content. Now we don't see it sold anywhere - obviously a flop in the Thai market.

One fun aspect about the beer in Thailand is the prescence of enormous beer halls - akin to those only seen in Germany and perhaps eastern Europe. When we arrived in Bangkok earlier this year, we stumbled into the Suan Lum Night Bazaar and were just blown away by the ginormous beer hall there. That and the skimpily clad pop singers up on stage strutting their stuff. You'll definitely not need to look for service at here - a zillion beer girls and boys descend on you like flies around shit as soon as you sit down, all vying to take your order.

Last weekend, we ventured a little further afield to the Tawandaeng Brewery Hall. Actually, from the outside it doesn't look like much but you know the place has to be good when there's a massive floor to ceiling blackboard with all the reservations chalked up. Having no reservation, they still managed to squeeze us in onto a top tier seat where we could watch another Thai pop act. It was a really buzzing big place. Half the buzz actually came from the waiters and waitresses - the ratio was practically like having your own personal butler do everything for you. The beer was either white beer, lager or dark beer - they were all very moreish. The food was German or Thai - we had the pork knuckle which was awesome. The waiter was so sweet and told us it was enough for two. He also got us extra bones to take away and give to our soi dogs.

We decided to go home when a stage rendition of Beauty and the Beast started. It was all massive good fun and we'll definitely be back for more. Next on our list: the brewery hall near Suk Soi 40 with the massive Greek god like concrete torso sprouting from its entrance: Coliseum.

UPDATE 4 September 2005: So, you want pictures huh? OK, can't do Lumpini or Tawan Daeng yet, but last night we did hit Coliseum - get the write up of the greek god stuff now?


here's a close up:


It's like the tardis inside - I swear it's bigger than the outside! This pic below misses out the other tiers and back part of the 'Brew Arena'.


It was fun inside, but the atmosphere & service was better at Tawan Daeng. At Coliseum, the Heinekin was warm (bleurgh!) and they charged 120 baht per bottle. Still, not bad for a local 'pub' near our home!

There goes my crab curry.

The other week we had a health check up - blood, urine, weight etc. The good news for me is that most things are OK - I'm a bit underweight, blood pressure normal, no hepatitis... BUT I do have 'slightly elevated cholesterol'. Apparently the norm is between 50-200 mg/dL (whatever that means) and I have 225 mg/dL.

The advice is to have regular exercise and avoid seafood (except fish), internal organs, egg yolk, butter and cheese. Fatt on the other hand is absolutely normal in every respect. Although I call him Fatt, he isn't really. In fact, check up wise, he is the picture of health. Even though he eats sweets and cookies every day. Even though he drinks beer every night. Even though he does zero exercise.

Part of this is definitely inherited - both my parents have high cholesterol. Anyhow, I'm a bit pissed off. For the first time in my life, I have to look out for what I eat. I'll have to seriously ration my adored Thai crab curry, cut down on my prawn intake - even cakes I guess are choc a block with eggs and butter. Grrr...

On the other hand, I reckon I am pretty healthy. Fatt's the one who gets the sore throats, back aches, colds and eye infections. I've been pretty much very well since arriving in Thailand. (Not working helps...) And as some posters from the Thorn Tree have said, despite watching the diet slightly, Life is Good.

Changing of the name

For the last two years, I've managed to keep hold of my Chinese surname. It's the only part of my official name that is Chinese. Fatt though has always urged me to change my surname since we've been married. I've felt a bit strange about this as:
a) as mentioned, I'll lose all Chinese identity from my name; and
b) it defies expectations - people make assumptions according to your name. Although defying expectations isn't a bad thing! It's probably even funnier for my sister-in-law - everyone would think she was a meek, quiet Chinese girl and then meet a bubbly, curly red haired, bright blue-eyed, feisty bundle of fun; and
c) I'll have the same initials and last name as my mother-in-law.

We'd been thinking about going double-barrell, but it was beginning to sound pretentious and silly. Anyhow, my passport was getting full, so I've finally taken the plunge and changed my surname.
Maybe in the future, I'll put my surname back in to my middle name...

Ancient City

Daddy Kong came and went - hence no blogging. Coming over from Shanghai was a nightmare as he got stuck at Pudong airport for 10 hours - the typhoon had hit China. Apparently all 48 flights were grounded and no planes could land. Various tour groups arranged accommodation for their clients but poor dad was travelling by himself. He made a big fuss however and secured himself a nice suite at the Howard Plaza thankfully.

When he at last arrived in Bangkok, he was remarkably chipper and eager to get out and about. During the week I tried to think of various photo opportunties: the Grand Palace again, Chinatown, Jim Thompson's, Lumpini Park, Vertigo, umm, the zoo... But I can say that the best place that we went to was Ancient City - let's call it a cultural and historical theme park which gathers scale and life size models of the best and beautiful temples, sculptures and houses within Thailand. I know, it could sound awfully tacky - mini-Europe in Brussels anyone? - but was actually wonderful and very interesting. Here are a few pics:





The above buffalo was very real. I thought it was tied up so joyfully went to take a picture. As soon as it saw me, it plodded very steadily towards me. I very quickly backed off. My dad has a picture somewhere of me running away from it.

And because it was on the way, here's one of the crocodile farm.


Very interestingly, it was full of mainland Chinese tour groups. In the show, the two Thai crocodile-wrestlers incorporated Mandarin into their show. Definitely the next big market that the tourism authority should be cultivating.

Diamond Dog

Little things make the Fatt happy. As you may know, stray dogs are everywhere in Thailand. Some of them look quite fit and healthy, others are flea-bitten, hairless mutts. As they live on the street they are generally called 'soi dogs'. Usually they have a happy disposition - at least during the day in Bangkok when it's too hot to do much other than laze on the sidewalk.

Personally, I have no problem with them if they don't give me any problems. Fatt loves dogs but is very careful with those here in case they have rabies. Anyhow, for ages now we've been trying to befriend the dogs who reside on the grounds of our block. They're not strays exactly, but neither is it clear who owns them.

First there's Deng (meaning 'red' in Thai). He's about 5 years old, looks ok and was probably quite handsome when younger. He used to completely ignore us. The first time we gave him a juicy bone to chew on, the security guard had to push the poor dog towards us to accept it! Comedy! Now he will come up to us if he thinks we have food for him. He'll even tolerate being patted. Deng is the father of:

Bobby - a handsome light coloured mutt. (Actually we think Deng is the father of a lot of other dogs around the soi who all bear a remarkable family resemblance). Bobby acts like a guard dog - in a way. He'll follow strangers around the complex and if you look at him, he'll bark. If you turn away, he'll bark. If you face him and move towards him, he'll scamper off in fright. Bobby has cock-eyes which can make him look very strange. He's got good sitting posture though. He'll only let the security guards stroke him.

And then there's Diamond Dog. Diamond Dog is black and white with a white patchy diamond on her forehead. Fatt reckons she's about 7 or 8 years old. She only comes sporadically to the complex and will lie outside the gate minding her own business. But if you show any interest in her, she'll come trotting up, wagging her tail with sweet friendliness. We gather from the guard she's already been sterilised ("luuk may daay"). We've never given her any food, nor has she seen us give food to Deng or Bobby. She's just a lovely, sweet dog who enjoys being petted. So now a can of frankfurters is waiting for her.

It's the little things like being able to pet a sweet dog that makes the Fatt happy.

Phimai

Phimai is the location of an 11th Century temple built in the Angkor-Khmer style. It's about an hour's drive from Khorat, passing big plastic models of cows and ostriches on the way. There is a very old archaelogical site which we unfortunately decided not to go to. Phimai itself is a small, fairly bustling town. There were quite a few Thai tourists to the temple, possibly in connection with the Buddha day.

The temple itself has a strange, calm beauty. It was an overcast day which added a slight surrealness to the place. I love how these old temples have been restored - but never fully restored. It combines the ancientness and the majesty together.

There are some stunning reliefs on the sides of the temple and above the doors - almost reminds me of the Roman reliefs in the British Museum! There is an outerwall surrounding the compact complex.



Just behind the low walls is the village proper with its trucks, tuk tuks and temples. The large wax sculptures we saw in Khorat were also making the rounds. It was incredibly peaceful though just to sit and contemplate the temple.



We lunched with our driver - a very sweet earnest fellow called Bob. On the way back we tried to stop off at what looked like an ostrich farm. It was more like a very large but empty restaurant. At least there were some nice toucans. We also went to a pottery centre called Dan Kwian. What a disappointment! If you want to buy some nice pottery friezes or bowls for your garden, then go. I thought I'd be able to visit some nice workshops but there didn't seem to be any...

In the evening we checked out the cute little night market in Khorat and 'The Mall' (which had everything from KFC to Dunkin Donuts). Fatt challenged me to one of those games with the discs that swish from table end to table end. We get very competitive in such games. I usually lose.

We sank a beer at a small restaurant by the night market. All in all a very pleasant trip!