Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Second day in Bo Phut (July 26)


I found a very nice restaurant for breakfast (menu partially in French), and got a very tasty fruit salad with yogurt and granola, orange juice, and latte. After relaxing in the room for a bit and finding a place to stay in Bangkok for the weekend, I headed out on a run down the length of Bo Phut beach. Then I took a leisurely stroll back, taking a swim whenever I got to warm (which meant that I went for four swims). Once back at the hotel, I went for another swim at the rooftop pool. I then relaxed on my balcony and finished my mango and sticky rice from the night before, and headed out to get some lunch. I knew that there would be a night market in Bo Phut in the evening, so I decided that it was ok to eat just fruit and dessert for lunch. I got a mango smoothie at the smoothie stand, although it was not as good as the coconut one yesterday. I also got a “banana pancake.” There are a lot of guys around with mobile stands that say “banana pancake” on them, and I hadn’t tried one yet. The guy stretched a piece of dough very thin and started frying it in a wok. Then he added a sliced banana, coconut, and raisins in the middle, folded the dough around it, and added more oil to the pan and fried it until it was crispy on the outside. He then cut it into bite sized pieces and poured sweetened condensed milk over the top. It was very tasty, but probably not that healthy!
In the afternoon, I sat on my balcony and worked on editing a paper from Stanford that we are trying to get out soon. Then I went for one more rooftop swim before heading out to explore the night market. There are a huge number of stalls, and they had shut down the roads in Bo Phut to cars, in order to accommodate all of them. There were a mix of stalls selling food and other stuff like t-shirts and souvenirs. There were also a number of stalls playing loud music and selling mojitos and other drinks. Some of the bartenders would do sort of a dance while preparing the drinks, so they were fun to watch. Fortunately, after extensively exploring the market, I found that the best food area was right near my hotel, so I bought some fish cakes, kanom tien, and coconut/corn cakes wrapped in a leaf for dinner. I also saw a lady making a new dish that looked intriguing, so I bought one of those as well. She was making very thin omelettes, and then filling them with bean sprouts and a fried coconut/peanut mixture. It also came with a bag of pickled cucumbers and chiles. When I first bit into it, the coconut mixture tasted sweet, but then the spiciness hit me and I realized it also had a lot of chiles in it. In my experience the last few weeks, Thai chiles have a longer delay time than I am used to: when I first bite into a food, it doesn’t seem spicy, but after a couple seconds the chiles hit me and the spiciness lasts quite a long time before it subsides—and water doesn’t help! I think that milk is the best way to get rid of too much spiciness, but usually that is not available when I am having a meal.
Last day relaxing at the beach, tomorrow I head back to Bangkok!

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