Monday, January 22, 2007

Transportation

As of today, we have taken every form of transportation that we have seen so far in Thailand: bus, train, taxi, tuk tuk, saamlor (3-wheeled pedicab), songtow (a pickup truck converted to a bus with two rows of bench), and one of these motorcycles with carts in front instead of the front wheel.

Our favorite mode of transportation is train. Trains in Thailand are very cheap, but they are also very slow (slower than buses) and are almost always late. Our first long train trip was from Bangkok to Phetchaburi. We rode 3rd class with fans all the way. The seats are benches and not very comfortable, but in third class you can open the windows (no AC) and its a great way to see the country. At every stop, different vendors get on and off. They walk down the aisles selling water, soda, beer, fresh fruit, grilled meats and sausages, sweets, little packaged meals, and comic books. Once we even saw a vendor selling watches, and another time we bought hot coffee and Chinese doughnuts. Train food is almost as exciting as street food.

On our trip to Phetchaburi, there was a little kid, probably 3 or 4 years old, who kept wandering up and down the train car. I think his dad was asleep most of the time (the conductor poked him in the nipple, then shook him, then slapped his face to wake him up to punch his ticket). The kid was clearly a handful. People had to keep sending him back and keep him from crossing between cars. At one point, he crossed paths with a corn vendor and pointed excitedly at a bag of 4 ears of corn. The vendor bent down so the kid could take what he wanted assuming his parents were near by to pay. Everyone sort of gave the vendor a look like "No! Don't give it to him!" but it was too late. The corn vendor was being comically dragged backwards by the little boy pulling on the bag of corn. Apparently either the kid won the fight, or someone paid for his corn, because he returned a while later with a piece of corn in one hand, a big grin on his face, and no pants on.


He then tried to share the remaining 3 ears of corn with some little girls on the train, and they were justifiably weirded out by drooling, pantsless corn-kid. Corn-kid entertained us for the whole ride and before we knew it, we were in Phetburi.

When Lyndsay and I were forced to travel 2nd class with air conditioning up north to Phitsanulok, we were sad.


No food vendors, just this boring meal.


Actually, it wasn't that bad, and it was complimentary. Also, no little kids and dirty windows made us realize 3rd class is the way to go. However, I did get to eat my cocoa pod on that train, which somewhat made up for the freezing cold aircon and lack of entertainment.




The seeds (cocoa beans) are surrounded by a sweet fleshy aril that has a tangy sweet taste a little like the mangosteen. The texture is not nearly as heavenly, however. There isn't much flesh on each bean, but they are nice to suck on, and a whole pod split between the two of us was enough to make us start to get sick of them by the end. In case its not clear from the description, this tastes nothing like chocolate--the beans must be roasted and processed and then sweetened to make chocolate. The beans were a pretty purple color in this state and they were quite bitter tasting.

1 comment:

pjmalia said...

Love your site Eric. From the looks of things, you are having a wonderful time exploring, sampling some very exotic-looking dishes, and perhaps even brushing up on your culinary skills. You'll have to make us a Thai dinner on your return to the East Coast some time.

Celeste & Peter