Yum Yum or is it Tom Yum Gung

Our days in Bangkok are going quickly, but they are also giving me plenty of opportunity to try out some Thai cooking. We have some good shops nearby, not to mention a TESCO, which was a complete surprise!! They call their stores Tesco Lotus. As well as some familiar products, there are, of course, the amazing fish counters with every kind of fish and sea food - some smelling very strong (we avoid those), but we love to get squid, octopus, prawns and Basa, along with a good selection of vegetables and a variety of gorgeous mushrooms.

The prickly things are Rambutan, a bit like a large lychee.

Experimenting a bit with Thai pastes and lots of coconut cream/milk, I've managed to create Tom Yum Gung, a Thai green chicken curry, and a Gang Massaman!! It's all much easier than I thought and with some glass noodles, very delicious!

Whilst we are talking about food, Ken found a rather interesting restaurant in his (very thick and heavy) guide book to Thailand - the name made us feel it was worth a visit - "Cabbages and Condoms" - intriguing to say the least!!

Speaks for itself

What an interesting place - quite unusual. The founder is obviously a strong supporter of  the anti-abortion campaign.  At the end of your meal, instead of a mint crisp choc, you are given (wrapped, thankfully) a condom to take home!! Interesting. Even the menu has a comforting slogan!!

There were other things to photo but you get the gist

His outfit is made of condoms

It was a lovely meal - we sat in a garden with others eating there too and with pretty trailing plants.

Bangkok is full of surprising places as we discovered when we went out yesterday - suddenly we were looking at Big Ben!! More investigation made us feel very homesick - had to have a quick photo shoot there!  Turns out it is all for Japanese tourists as it’s also full of Japanese restaurants.

Bangkok's Big Ben

Here's Morden!

Heather waiting for the tube to Morden

No, she's decided to go by bus instead.  

ECB, the Evangelical Church of Bangkok, is the church through which we are doing some English teaching.  We went to the service on Sunday morning. It was lovely to meet Marcia and Roger (two of the teachers) and also Emma and Jane, the Chinese girls (our students) there.  A lovely service - we were made to feel very welcome.

We are really enjoying having a small swimming pool on the complex where we are living - the temperatures are in the high 30's so it's a real joy to be able to get cool at the end of day! We did hear that there has been rain in Delhi!! Hallelujah, at last!!

Talking of Delhi. Please have a look at my Facebook page 'news feed' as there are pictures and some news about the books they have been collecting. We are still hoping to get ALL the books sent to Delhi that the children at St.Mary's and St.Peter's School in Teddington donated. It's taking a while to sort a courier - poor Simon has now the job of weighing them all, but we are hoping to make progress soon. If you would like to contribute to the cost of transporting the books as well as provide bookcases for them in the slum centres, please send me an email, and I will give you details of how you can help. 

Back to Bangkok!

We went to the National Museum this week. We have never seen so many Buddhas in one place - all different too. (Well, Heather, hasn’t, but Ken has! Yes, in the Angkor National Museum in Siem Reap. Ken went to the museum one afternoon, while Heather stayed by the pool with others from the tour. The museum has a gallery called, ‘The Gallery of a Thousand Buddhas’. Sorry about that Thailand.) Our lovely guide Joyce, (she regularly gives English guided tours free!!!) was able to explain clearly the history and evolution of the different Buddhas over centuries - Ken and I are now able to date and place a Buddha (you never know when that might come in useful). It is an amazing museum housed in beautiful buildings. The air conditioning made it even more delightful!

The Buddhist Chapel. 

The walls of the Buddhist Chapel are covered in murals depicting the life of Buddha. For it to be a temple it would have to have resident monks.

The Buddha in the Chapel

One of the Royal funerary chariots

Perhaps my new towel folding class will be able to help me fold one as a buddha

Buddhas everywhere, but mixed in are statues of the Hindu gods: the two big ones in the photo are Shiva (on the left), standing on a yoni and Vishnu (on the right).

It's always so nice to find a lovely  park in the middle of big, hot, noisy, busy cities - we discovered Lumphini Park this afternoon and in spite of a quick down pour (not refreshing at all sadly, just added to the humidity), we had a picnic and made a couple of new friends!!

Our two new friends - mr and mrs monitor lizard

Tonight we had our English lesson with our Chinese students. We were helping them with interview techniques, and after they helped us choose some delicious Chinese food - good to share our strengths!! And a lovely way to end our day.

Supper - Chinese style!