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Archive for January, 2007

Geocaching in Khonkaen

January 31, 2007 By: thenhbushman Category: Uncategorized 2 Comments →

Yesterday, Hui-chen and I went geocache hunting with our friend Banchob.

The ride to the village was pretty easy using the GPS despite not having a map to go by. We only had to backtrack once.

The actual cache is what we would call a “microcache” as there is not much room to place things inside. There is a log (no pen) and a sheet of paper explaining what it is, in case someone stumbles upon it by accident.

This shot shows just how small the cache is! But, I had a Travel Bug to place inside!

I rolled up the laminated paper tag and found that I could indeed fit Tadpole the Travel Bug into this cache! Mission accomplished!

This is the information for Tadpole from the www.geocaching.com website:

Hi, it’s Tadpole.My owner, “hkw0704″, has a dream to travel around the world. However, I think he can’t make this dream come true because he is a poor man. I wish to do this instead of him. Would you please help?

According to geocaching.com, Tadpole has now traveled 2821 km from his point of origin in Taiwan! By my placing it in this cache, Tadpole moved 2135 km to the southwest. I hope that someone picks him up and takes him to another cache far away!

This is Hui-chen pointing to the small container that is the cache. The local people were very nice and of course, very curious about what we were doing. The owner of the property knew what we were there for, and I thanked her for keeping this cache on her property and supporting the hobby of geocaching.

For more information about this fascinating sport, please visit: http://www.geocaching.com/about/

Grilled Sticky Rice

January 30, 2007 By: thenhbushman Category: Uncategorized Comments Off

The other morning, Hui-chen and I awoke to find the staff at the Sauba Resort standing by the grill. It was a rather cold morning in northeastern Thailand and they were trying to keep warm. They were also preparing a local Isan favorite: grilled sticky rice.

One begins by making a patty out of sticky rice and then lightly toasting it (as on the left).

Once toasted, the rice patty is coated with beaten egg.

Here we see Auntie placing an egg coated patty on the grill for cooking. When its done, it looks like the patty on the right shown below:

This is a simple and yet enjoyable food on a cold windy morning in the village.

Home Cooked Taiwanese Food – In Thailand

January 30, 2007 By: thenhbushman Category: Hui-chen Comments Off

Hui-chen decided to cook some Taiwanese style food, after being in
Thailand for awhile. I really do miss her excellent cooking when we
travel. So, after spending some time at the local market we brought
some items back to the Sabua Resort and she went to work!

Using the 3 burner gas stove, this is Hui-chen cooking Taiwanese style wok fried cabbage with tomatoes. On the right is some of her famous stew.

Hui-chen dishing the fried cabbage.

Now, for the stew!

Checking on the stew (yeah, I know these are not in chronological order!).

Here she is, with a smile on her face, dishing out the excellent home made stew, with local Thai beef.

Here is the complete meal (rice not shown), including some local grilled chicken purchased at the market, and Suntory Red whisky. Excellent!

Peking Duck Restaurant, Vientiane, Laos

January 27, 2007 By: thenhbushman Category: Uncategorized Comments Off

Hui-chen and I enjoyed a Peking style meal in Vientiane, Lao this past week. Here are the details:

Overview of the Peking Duck course: Left, we see the sliced cucumbers, and scallions, then the “pancakes” which are more like French crepes, the Hoisin sauce and finally, the sliced duck meat.

This is a closeup of the sliced duck meat. I must say, this was impeccibly prepared.

Next course was the fried crab. Notice the mutant claw to the far left!

Chinese kale and mushrooms – absolutely wonderful!

Pieces of the duck carcass after the meat has been carved off. It was wok fried with spices and tasted way better than it looked!

Lastly, a leg of pig, similar to some Taiwanese versions of Chinese dishes we have in Taiwan. The flavoring of this dish was not as good (quite frankly) as the Taiwanese version, and there was way too much fat on this particular cut. Rather disappointing, but I did eat a good amount of it before forming my opinion.

We rated this meal: 8 out of 10.

The Elephants of Ban Na

January 26, 2007 By: thenhbushman Category: Hui-chen 1 Comment →

Photos by MJ Klein

Hui-chen and I visited Laos for a few days. We’ve blogged on Laos before and this time we wanted to do something very different from the last couple of visits. So, we decided to go to the small village of Ban Na, about 60 KM east of Vientiane, the capital city. All of the shots in this article and many more, are available on my Flickr photo album entitled Ban Na Village, Laos. We recommend that you take a look at the photo album because we couldn’t possibly show you all the photos in this article.

Our story begins with Mr. Somboon, shown here with Hui-chen. The village of Ban Na is a very small, traditional village. One of the village leaders, and the head of the elephant ecotourist program has a mobile phone and the number is published on the internet. Normally, someone who wanted to go to Ban Na would contact a travel agent and book a tour. Hui-chen and I dislike those tours (we are travelers, not tourists) so we decided to contact and travel to the village, directly. Mr. Somboon called the published telephone number for us and speaking Lao, he arranged everything! He made it very simple. Mr. Somboon runs the Heuan Lao Guesthouse N17.95713 E102.61861 and we spent several days there, both before and after our visit to Ban Na.

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Local Thai Handicrafts

January 15, 2007 By: thenhbushman Category: Uncategorized Comments Off

Occasionally I run across people making things in these small villages where I travel. I find the talent and skill of the local craftspeople to be very impressive, and I am always amazed at the quality products you can find being made by the local craftsperson. I also like to purchase products right from the local craftspeople so the money stays in the village.

I found this elderly gentleman making a fish basket. I have a couple of similar baskets in my home, used as decorations. One of my baskets actually has pieces of long black hair that were accidently captured by the basket weaver (apparently female) and woven together with the straw into the basket. I’d never seen one being made before, so naturally I had to document it!

Notice the pan of water used to moisten and soften the individual strands of straw that he is working to form the basket.

Although advanced in age, this gentleman is quite articulate with his hands.

Skill like this takes years to cultivate. Look how uniform the construction is.

This is what making the baskets is all about – catching fish for food. Here is the family cache of fish outside the home. The wife of the basket maker is taking out a few fish to be used for their lunch. The villagers use the baskets to catch river and pond fish, and then they keep live fish in these earthen jars. As I stated previously, the baskets that I own are used in my home for decorations, but here they are used in daily life.

Back in Thailand

January 13, 2007 By: thenhbushman Category: Uncategorized Comments Off

So, you know what that means! PARTY TIME! (It also means long periods of time without any internet connectivity).

First, there’s the food:

Then, the eating of it:

Then, there’s the karaoke:

Then, there’s the drinking:

Then there’s the dancing:

And, then, there’s the after-party at a closed bar downtown:

This is More FM’s DJ Benny and the cute boss lady who runs the Devil Bar in Khonkaen. Benny has invited me back to the station to appear on his show. Video to follow!