Can you eat this? A typical day of eats in the South of Thailand...

First off, I must apologize for the use of shutter-stock images for this blog post....I have lost my camera charger!  Until I have enough time to get to the city, these stock photos will have to do.

 Food in Thailand is a very serious cultural affair.  I mean, some Thais would rather starve than eat sub-par foods.  I have seen this first hand, case in point, with my best friend Queen.  When she travels abroad she carries her own supply of chili sauces and when those run out, subsists entirely on chips and salads.  I find it hilarious, that while I manage to gain no less than 15 pounds in one month when visiting my homeland in the USA, she loses 20! (Maybe not that hilarious after all.) 

I am 'farang': the not so endearing term Thais use for 'foreigners' over here.  However lately I have earned some clout in the small community I currently live in, because I have married a Southern Thai man. I am constantly being tested however, with odd questions about behavior, sex and money (both of these topics strangely open to discussion no matter who you are over here), and mostly with foods. "Can you eat this?" is the favorite pastime for all the fellow shopkeepers around our small business, second only to a friendly game of badminton on the beach. 

I have also married a Muslim Thai man. When this news was announced to my friends and family back home, the typical response were questions like "will you have to cover your hair?"  Well, for my Thai friends (those predominant Buddhists) the first question was of course "will you have to stop eating pork?" Like I said, food always comes first.

So allow me to run you through a typical day of eats in the South of Thailand!  Breakfast is usually a hurried affair on the go. Tik and I have to leave our home by 7:30 and catch our boat to Railay at 8 am every morning. Our neighbors just happen to run a cafe and restaurant, which allows us 15 minutes to devour coffee and doughnuts.  The Thai doughnuts are thick, but hollow and fluffy inside, with a very chewy dough. They can be eaten plain, or dipped in sweetened soy milk , or even more sinfully and deliciously consumed when dipped in sweet and creamy condensed milk. We take them plain since we eat them with our coffee. Coffee can be black, black with sugar, black with milk, or local style: black with a thick layer of condensed milk on the bottom. We take the layer on the bottom, and stir feverishly for about 40 seconds before we drink our coffee deserts each morning.  One coffee usually does the trick, and its thick flavor can stay on your tongue for hours!

Other sweets occasionally accompany our breakfasts. Today I munched on Daifuku, traditionally a Japanese dessert with little surprises in the middle. They are colorful, with a gel like texture, spongy to the touch. They are very chewy inside, and my sweets were stuffed with blueberry jam and chocolates this morning. They are coated with a fine layer of sugar powder and can be quite addictive.

Another local treat often enjoyed in these parts is the appropriately named 'stinky bean.' Not really eaten raw, these beans are cooked into soups and curries and launch a strong bitter taste....I usually pick around these little green buds, but I can eat them, in small doses of course!

Another favorite treat of mine is 'kanom jeen' an assembly of plain rice noodles drowned in curries like yellow fish curry, sweet northern tomato style chili, isaan spicy, green curry and then covered with greens such as: green beans, onions, cucumbers, bean sprouts, herbs and chili powder. 

 Thai styled BBQ fish, includes all the parts: tail, eyes, and everything in between. Don't worry about the bones, most of them are soft enough to eat. Like river prawns (shrimp) the tails and heads are also consumed as delicacies. 

 Blue crab is consumed by the kilo in these parts of Thailand. During a particularly rainy day, a few eager fisherman will shore up behind our shop displaying large overfilled baskets of blue crabs, and it's a race to grab the best bits! The women from all the shops and restaurants and mini marts run up to get the first pickings: the females are tastier, but avoid the ones with the blossoming egg sack....the energy spent on the eggs apparently makes the meat tougher. As usual in the animal world, the males are least desirable. 

 Ok this is one I can not eat! Fish maw, or fish stomach soup. It is a unseemly dark brown color, it smells and the textures alarm me....sorry, but no. Unfortunately my husband loves the stuff. Sorry hon, that won't be on a dinner menu in my kitchen any time soon!

 This one I can, do and enjoy to eat: spicy seafood and squid salad. Blasted with dynamite hot Thai chilies and fresh lime juice, this salad is a treat for the senses. It looks beautiful, with bright vibrant colors, smells of the fresh sea, and tastes like a sweet and spicy bomb in your mouth! 

Speaking of foods...it's way past my lunch time and posting these photos has made me very hungry indeed! 

What's on the menu this afternoon???  Tuna sandwich...I am an American girl after all, and sometimes a good ole' fashioned 'wich just hits the spot!

If our world were a coral reef....

Every day I take a boat to work and settle down for an 8-10 hour working day sitting in the office working the finance, accounting and marketing aspects of a rock climbing shop my husband owns.

Because I live on an island, because I traverse the deep blue ocean seas day in and day out, because I live on a tropical island, and because I have way too much time on my hands....I wondered today what it would be like to describe our working environment, as it would be under the sea.

We operate our business in a world where perceptions deceive. Where we work, is a hot bed of politics and cut throat business....a coral reef if you would, full of creatures that are beautiful and deadly.

Imagine a coral reef, and all the beautiful colors. You've got brain corals, hammer corals, sea urchins, beautiful giant clams and schools of fish passing by constantly.  The tourists who weave in and between our shops every day are the schools of fish. Most tourists are calm, friendly and polite: parrot fish, they come in hundreds of shapes, sizes and colors. Parrot fish are an essential part of any coral reef, the munch here and there and deposit sand in exchange. They swim slowly, lingering here and there, and take little bites everywhere they turn. Parrot fish, we love them.

Some tourists are not so desired. Some tourists resemble this guy: yellow headed jawfish. Known for their big ugly mouths and for literally stirring up a mess everywhere they go, these guys also frequent our reefs unwelcome, but tolerated.

The reefs around us, to the front and left if you're drawing a map, well these reefs are full of holes and shadows. They're actually part of a larger coral reef system that spans an entire football field in length. They're the arm and leg extensions if you will, and they are expanding and choking out the smaller corals, like us, everyday. Like giant clams, they take up a lot of space and once they settle in, they stay there permanently.

In front of us, well they are a family of sharks. They live off of the giant clams' territory, produce nothing, but take large chunks out from the little fish like us every day. To my left is a little shop that produces a cacophony each night. This is where the cuttlefish dwell, fish who change their colors as their mood sets. One minute blue with sadness; but mostly green with envy, red with anger, black with vengeance,and purple in the face from jealousy. These cuttlefish are exceptionally loud and give me headaches every afternoon from their gossip.

Who are we? My husband and I are the small clown fish. My husband was the solo male clown fish for a long time, until I came along to stand by him. We live in a cocoon, an anemone that surrounds and stings us all day every day. The stinging is provoked by the clams, sharks and cuttlefish in our little make-believe world, but I choose to see it as a good sting. It keeps us focused and humble. We're very protective of our home, and on a good day we feast, and we feast well in spite of the efforts of those around us.

Well, looking back on what I've written so far...I now see that this is the strangest post I have every written. I have thought about this way too much, and while it's been a fun diversion relating my infuriating real life experiences to a fictional coral reef....I think I'll quit while I"m ahead.    

Cheers,
Stef

A Good Day for Home Improvements; the latest installations!

 Yesterday was a good day....we had a group of climbers, who managed in two days to give us enough business to allow us some breathing room and luxury spending!  Thanks to you kids and hope you come back....real soon! :)

So what exactly did we spend our money on? Our home of course! That's where all our cash goes, into the shop or into our home. It's a piece meal effort, but eventually our home will get there...at this rate we're buying one essential per month: bed, cabinet, pillows, chairs....next will be the electricity, installing a kitchen and building a garden. Maybe another 2 years before our home will be anything to show off, but who the hell cares. It's fun building from the ground up!

So what did we spend it on this time? We bought ourselves some kick ass bar stools for the guests we hope to one day entertain, at a kitchen/coffee corner we hope to one day install. This MIGHT have been a premature purchase, but the chairs were beautiful and the deal was awesome....so OK.

 Decorative furniture pieces: locking lounge cabinet (for all the books my Aunts send me!); clothing cabinet for our room; hand crafted wooden jewelry box from a local market; and outdoor patio & chairs for guests who need to smoke, outside of my house please :)


Side note: here in the South of Thailand, roughly 99.9 % of men smoke. I don't know why, and I'm not sure if this is a 'machismo' appeal or a cultural preference....but I was shocked to learn, that unless otherwise told, men felt right at home smoking up inside a friend's place of residence....no no no no no!  The patio furniture is my attempt at politely encouraging a 'farang-friendly' residence!

I think that will be it for our home improvements for a while...at least until we get another luxury cushion from an exceptionally good business day.

Know any friends? Why not send them this way?!

Cheers,
Stef

Bad-Mannered Backpacker Bargaining! When NOT to bargain prices in Thailand....

I've got a bone to pick with backpackers right now...Day in and day out, tourists come asking for information regarding our rock climbing courses, and without fail most of them immediately start to bargain the price down.

I understand that in Asia, bargaining is a way of life. And it's usually a fun and entertaining exchange if done the right way: politely and with smiles from BOTH parties. But the logical rule is, if it's an outdoor market or second hand material purchase go on and bargain fairly; however if it's an established shop with amenities like rent, electricity, and staff....well then keep into consideration that the cost is set to cover overhead and daily expenses in order to keep a small business running.

(Also, I would like to point out one small fact. Here in Railay Beach, we charge just $27 USD for a 4 hour introductory sport climbing course in one of the top 5 world destinations for rock climbing, which is nearly 1/3rd the price you would pay for the same service in your home country...give us a break, it's cheap enough already!)

Here tourists are pushing so hard to lower the cost, and I would like to point out that here we have a contract. All the climbing schools have set the same prices for every course offered, and for this very reason as it prevents competition from getting too ugly on the bay we live in, which is roughly the size of a large shopping mall in Bangkok. We also believe quality should matter and corners should not be cut when it comes to sport climbing, where there is always a risk of injury and accident if unsuspecting tourists are left in incompetent hands.

Can you imagine this scenario? You cut the cost of your tour, which means the operator has to find a guide who is willing to work for less than the usual going rate of work. No self-respecting qualified guide would work for less than what he deserves for his hard work, which leaves only the 'troubled' and 'undesirable' (usually self-trained and un-certified) ones available for work. When it comes to sport climbing there are a lot of safety risks to assess and check before you 'climb on' and I can't imagine why anyone would want to cut corners when it comes to hiring someone directly responsible for protecting your life and limb on the crag!

More troubling, I have seen tourists offering to pay foreigners (amateur to seasoned climbers themselves) to take them climbing. Who in their right mind would be silly enough to take on that risk? Nearly all of the climbing accidents and injuries we see on Railay are from self-professed pro-climbers not clipping in correctly. Sometimes they get too cocky, or cut corners and don't clip in at every bolt, and then that's when things get sloppy and accidents happen.  Most times the accidents are more commonly due to misuse of gear, i.e. when the quick draw fails because the rope or carabiner gets tangled incorrectly.

Check out this safety video for details on how to prevent such accidents: The Dangers of Using an Open Quickdraw

Safety and quality should matter to every tourist planning on traveling through foreign countries; especially in countries where safety standards might not be as strict and regulated as your home country's standards....think twice before you bargain for your adventure tour, because the end result may cost you a whole lot more than you bargained for!

Signing Out,
Stefanie
Real Rocks Railay

Building a home, Thai style!

 We are definitely starting from scratch....Tik's home, well I don't even want to go into his living conditions online pre-moi but I can say I would have preferred a tent in the forest compared to his diggs.

After days of cleaning and scrubbing, it turns out Tik had the foundations in place for what could be a beautiful home. With the right amount of time (of which we have little), money (of which we have none) and optimism (of which we turn to a lot lately) we are slowly tearing down old walls and building new ones, literally, roofs too!

Pictured left: Tik's traditional Thai toilet, a perfect example of a perfect fixer-uper. The flooring is nice; a thick marble tint slab and a foundation made of local stones and fossil shells. The new wood peeking out behind the decaying walls has already been installed, and the old 'blue' wood will be recycled into shoe shelves outside our front door. The shower head is easily replaced and while low on our list of priorities currently, we do one day plan on switching out that squat toilet for something more western-friendly....who knows when.

 We've started at the very beginning, building new walls and repairing a roof that suffered heavy damage after years of monsoon seasons. I'm currently hiding the uglier parts of our temporary roof with some of Tik's old sports team flags; this too will be taken down once the wood is painted and shiny! Our walls are bare, but they'll fill up before we know it!

Our home will also become the main office of our climbing shop, Tik is currently submitting the documents for a name and address change. Once our home/office front is set up we will have a presence on the mainland as well as Railay, which opens up possibilities for more marketing opportunities and clientele.

Pictured below left, is the view from the front door. Tik is busying himself being handyman and carpenter. In his words: "I'll do anything, but the electric." Tik had a bad, unspeakable bad, experience being electrocuted before (this explains his frizzy hair!) We have a pretty dodgy electric wiring system that needs to be replaced asap, but as it's the end of Ramadan holy week it's been a waiting game until the electrician is available for work.

I have always dreamed of having a Thai style sitting room/ lounge area...and while Tik and I made our first purchases on pillow sets and back rests, we're still a little ways off until I get my dream set, below right!  Tik and I dine like KINGS on the mainland, where we are saving 40% on food and up to 45% on rent since we moved off of Railay.  The menu last night: stir fried rice with tuna, spicy tuna salad chili dip, squid curry with red curry basil, some deep fried chicken on a stick with sweet plum sauce, and 'gow lao' a plain soup with beef broth, mushrooms, greens and boiled tomatoes....noodle soup minus the noodles.

 Here are the office pictures: our brand new beautiful sign and logo on the front door as well as its Thai version which will be installed on the shop walls in Railay.  The office space will moonlight as our kitchen in the evenings after work and a coffee corner for business meetings and clients. We have absolutely nothing installed for a kitchen yet, but hopefully in the next few months we'll be able to save up for some gas burner stoves and a sink!  (Since this photo, the metal monstrosity on the right corner has been removed and its items sit nicely on new wooden 'polished' shelves Tik installed last night.

Tik and I live in a nice, quiet neighborhood located just a two minute walk from the boat pier to Railay.
We are lucky to have friends with cars and motorbikes, which we borrow frequently as we do our mad sunset-runs to the wood working shops and home supply stored. Once we get off of work at 5 pm, we usually have about 2 hours of light left in the day to get anything done before we succumb to our hunger, feast, and pass out watching movies on my laptop.


I am slowly settling into a routine here. It fits. In the mornings we wake up at 7, and Tik is off first thing to the shop to open before 8:30 am.  I stay behind, run a load of clothes in the washing machine, tidy up the bed and the house, shower, hang clothes to dry, bag some meats/rice/curries and fruit in plastic bags to carry for lunch later on in Railay. I proceed to walk to the boat pier at 9:45, which allows me 15 minutes to enjoy a coffee in the pier while watching the busy morning boat traffic. On the way our neighbors are making papaya salad and pounding chilies in their massive mortar and pestles, and I shout out the local "Bang!" for greetings brother, and "Ja!" for greetings sister as it is the polite thing to do in these parts. And forget the Thai 'Sawasdees' in this part of town, I only receive and give the Muslim 'As salaam alay kum' which translates to peace be upon you. I get big nods and smiles of approval for those small gestures.

My boatman nods and smiles in hello, and I am happy to have recognized him! Tik has made special arrangements with individual boat drivers for our daily transfers to and from Railay, and I have a hard time keeping who's who straight in my head! I sip my 20 Baht Nescafe, no sugar, creamer only, and take a second to remark that I now have to take a boat to work every day.

Cheers,
from Real Rocks Railay :)

New Community, New Career, New Life in Southern Thailand

It.Is.Quiet....very quiet tonight here in Railay Beach, Thailand....Usually between the hours of 7-9 pm there are hundreds of tourists walking in and between the restaurants, bars and tourist agencies looking for their next meal and tomorrow's adventure...but tonight, there is no one.  The weather is fine, the sky is bright, the seas are calm, and yet the island is in fact, dead. I hope it's just the final remains of tourist 'low season' here in Thailand, and that we will only have a couple of weeks more to grit through before we start turning over some real profit.

The quiet might be a small blessing in disguise, because for the first time in weeks it is allowing me to sit still and reflect. The last two months of my life have been moving at super sonic speed, and I have been swept up in the momentum of its changes.  In case you didn't know already, I got married. I married a lovely Thai man, named Tik, and we are happily settling into 'a life for two' here in our little piece of paradise. We actually live in paradise. Railay Beach has some of the most photographed beaches in the world and almost every publication promoting tourism in Asia and tropical paradise will host a picture of Phra Nang beach, which is now just a 5 minute walk from my work. 

Despite the trash I've read about online (and personally seen in some red-light areas throughout Thailand), expat love with a Thai man is an exciting and fulfilling adventure so far. It's not easy, that's for sure. There's a LOT of paperwork to take into consideration and a lot of legal loops to jump through to guarantee your love is true and not 'a ticket out' one day. But, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat since I know I am the luckiest girl in the world to have the love of a good man like Tik. 

So, currently Tik and I are doing great! Another interesting change in my life has been my recent career change. From freelance, travel guide extraordinaire and long term volunteer adviser, I am suddenly in the hot seat of managing my husband's rock climbing business! And I'll be the first to admit I have absolutely no idea what I am doing! 

We're spending a lot of money we don't currently have purchasing gear and whatnot; I'm hoping there's some truth to the old saying "you gotta spend money to make it!"  We are also refurbishing a home. Tik's home has been the bachelor crash pad for years, and in need of come serious touch-ups. The past month we have spent money on new roofing  building windows, raising walls, purchasing a mattress/pillow/bed set, new fans and household supplies. It's been a slow process, but we seem to be in our last days living on Railay and ready to move to Ao Nammao soon! This will be a great move for many reasons, mostly cutting down on daily expenses such as: food, fruit, coffee, snacks, shop/office supplies, etc. Ao Nammao means easier access to markets, cinema, shopping plazas and newspaper stands (everything a modern lady needs!) 

I am also slowly adjusting to Southern Thai life. The Southern Thais are remarkably different from their northern counterparts: they're louder, faster, spicier cooks, ruder, aggressive in their hospitality (if you can imagine such a phenomenon) and constantly borrowing money from each other. The borrowing money aside (I guess a lot of Thais have false conceptions of local Thai marrying foreigner = automatic wealth!); the community here has been very welcoming and supportive of me and Tik. I hope I can make friends quickly, because right now my only friend and confidante in sight is my husband which might prove troublesome someday.  

OK...time to start perusing online resources for running a small business; 'accounting 101' and 'marketing in a new era of technology' should be the first hits!

Lots of love from Thailand! 
Stef