khaaw nieaw ma muang

i like to call it heaven on earth, the english language would prefer if i used the words “mango and sticky rice.” whatever it is, it’s finally in season and popping up in vendors all around walking street this sunday evening.

it’s funny really, but i believe i have finally found a place where i enjoy shopping and will do it for more than an hour. it’s simple- all you have to do is put it in a foreign country, make it incredibly cheap, and give me a list of lots of people to buy for in addition to myself. too bad things couldn’t be that simple in santa barbara….

so this weekend rocked and i wanted to inform everyone of that. i was incredibly exhausted from my family’s day treck on thursday to this huge temple for Magha Puja day, which i will inform everyone about via pictures in another blog. so i slept in until 8:30 on saturday, i think i could have gone longer, but khun mae came thinking i was sick or something, because what other reason would there be for me to be in bed. i’m not quite sure if that’s a thai thing or simply the lack of having youth in a house for a very long time….

saturday afternoon i was able to talk to my dad via skype for two hours, which was pretty sweet because i hadn’t actually vocally talked with him or my mom since the first few days i landed and hadn’t seen him, even if it was over a camera, for over a month. so in typical davis fashion, we talked for two hours, but hey, with skype, it’s all free. now i know the main reason why i left my laptop at home: my parents are able to use it to skype me since it has a built-in camera and microphone. so sometime this week i’m sure i’ll get a hold of my mom since she was off having fun on my terf in sb.

sunday, today, was equally exciting and thanks once again to the wonders of skype. i got to talk to have three different conversations on skype with different people and got to even get to see what my lovely room looks like now that christa is all alone there in armington. like every skype conversation i have had with anyone at westmont, it completely made my day. but what could possibly enhance it?

answer: walking street. yes i was working on an oral that is being planned the day before, but for some reason i’m not stressing out about it, and once we got everything organized, i headed off on walking street. dinner consisted of me finding pat thai and pouring all sorts of spices and sweets on top of it and then completing it with khaaw nieaw ma muang- holy crap, that stuff is amazing.

i decided to walk all the side roads of walking street today, which took about two and half hours and i actually skipped one lane that i have been on every time i visit the street. i made so many purchases, but it was a blast and i had lots of fun bartering my way down. my favorite was when one seller and i barted a price by punching in different numbers into his calculator until we both settled on the price. my second favorite was when i was trying to bring something down from 100 baht (in thai) and the seller told me he would bring down to 99 baht and we both laughed. i eventually got it down to 90 for the record.

for some reason i am not bothered by the faraang that litter walking street, probably because most of them are from europe and i only have to endure the emberressment of american tourists about 1/3 of the time, the rest i just get to say “oh those europeans” or “oh those hippies,” which definetely fall into a category all of their own. i have found, after exploring today, that my regular route on walking street is not the normal path for the majority of the tourists, but they are still there, and i make an effort to only speak thai when they are around….

it’s weird to think that i have less than three weeks left in this city and still so much to do, academically and absorbing the city until then. i’ll write more about Magha Puja day when i have completed my orals for thai class on tuesday- almost done with that class!

until then,

sarah

~ by sarah davis on February 24, 2008.