Montage Monday: Summer Lovin'

Can you believe it's already June? JUNE! 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining that summer is upon us. I dare say summer is one of my favorite seasons, though it's in close competition with autumn, oh! and also with winter, though spring is pretty nice too... In any case, I love summer and here are some reasons why I love it so much!

The #1 reason why I love summer so much: beach days! Lazying on the sand, splashing in the cool ocean waves, playing a game of beach volleyball, what's there to NOT love about a day at the beach? In the photo, Matt's making new friends with a couple of kids on the Nai Yang Beach in Phuket, Thailand. I managed to convince the kids that it would be fun to bury Matt in the sand. We all laughed and got to work. After Matt was thoroughly buried, the kids and I ran off to hide!

Sure, you can get ice cream and delicious desserts year-round. But when, other than in the summertime, can you eat serving after serving, buckets after bucket of ice cream without having to explain yourself? Summer, that's when! And when the weather's hot and steamy, nothing else beats the heat than a cold, creamy scoop of ice cream. This inviting dessert was found (and immensely enjoyed) at Siem Reap, Cambodia's The Blue Pumpkin one hot afternoon. The chocolate cake was oh-so ooey and gooey, but the scoop of ice cream, that sure hit the spot.

Hammocks are funny things aren't they? Take them out of a place anywhere near to a beach and they just seem to serve no function. On holiday, hammocks just make sense and you wonder how you ever lived so long without one. In Costa Rica, I practically lived in mine! This little boy became my little shadow while I was staying at his family's little beach resort in Puerto Jimenez and every morning, he would be waiting for me by our hammocks. So cute!

Since the most recent places I've called home have been New York City, Istanbul and Hong Kong, biking isn't a frequent activity of mine. Put me on a bicycle however, and I'm whisked back to my California childhood where every day seemed like summer to me. My friends, Kristin and Kristina, and I went bike riding in New York City's Governor Island where we spent the days giggling and cycling as carefree as when we were eight years old.

Watermelons. They are only in season in the summer. Watermelons!!!

What do YOU love most about summer?

© Connie Hum 2011

Montage Monday: Eating Crickets in Bangkok

My FIRST official video post! How exciting! Bear with me while I learn new techniques and tricks but expect more video posts in the near future! If you have any tips to help me bring you better videos, please leave it in a comment below! And Leigh, YOU'RE WELCOME! Ha!

This Montage Monday, witness candid reactions to trying fried crickets for the first, and let's face it, last time in Bangkok!

 

Would YOU be brave enough to eat a cricket like Sam, Matt and I did? Or would you be too squeamish like Judith?
  
© Connie Hum 2011

Top 5 Dishes Most Tourists Never Eat in Thailand

**Originally posted on Kumuka Blog on October 21, 2010.

Thai cuisine is famous the world over for its spiciness and its intense flavors. Many tourists and food lovers often feast on more traditional Thai fare such as pad thai, green curry and tom yum gai but unfortunately, most usually miss out on other delicious (and sometimes hard-to-find) dishes in Thailand. Here are the top 5 dishes that you should NOT miss in Thailand!

1. Haw mok: Fish curry stirred until it reaches a mousse-like consistency then steamed in banana leaves, haw mok is a rare, Southern Thailand delicacy due to its long and tedious preparation process. You will have literally hit the culinary jackpot if you manage to find it. Haw mok is simply delicious! It's aromatic and full of flavor with lemongrass zing and chili pepper spice while managing to not be overbearingly fishy. As haw mok is something pre-cooked and sold on the street, you can't specify the level of spiciness so try eating haw mok with white rice should you need help to cool your taste buds.

2. Khao kha moo: Stewed pork leg doesn't necessarily sound like music to a foodie's ears, but just wait until you taste it! Khao kha moo is Thailand's answer to soul food. Juicy, tender pork leg over rice flavored with the stew it was cooked in and a side of mustard greens makes the perfect meal for those looking for something milder in Thai cuisine, but doesn't want to miss out on all the flavor. Luckily, khao kha moo can be found in most roadside food stalls all over Thailand.

3. Moo kata: Thailand's known for its hot weather and you would think the last thing you wanted to do was cook your own bar-b-que over a hot clay oven just inches away from your face. Oh, how wrong you'd be! Moo kata is one of the best things to eat in Thailand and it's a fun dining experience for all involved! First, you load up plates of food from the buffet that you want to cook up. Next, you choose accompanying dishes like a wide variety of noodles, vegetables and sauces. Once the cooking surface is prepared with a piece of pork fat, you start cooking your meal. Just be careful not to overload your cook space, it's easy to burn your food on the small, but hot surface if you forget to turn them over in a timely manner. Relish your own cooking skills and wipe away the sweat that's sure to be streaming down your face by now! It's a hot one!

4. Beef noodle soup: A generous helping of vermicelli noodles and plenty of accompanying vegetables in a delicious broth, flavored with fish sauce, pepper and a touch of sugar, Thailand's beef noodle soup gives its nearby neighbor, Vietnam's more famous version called pho a run for its money. One bowl is plenty for a hungry traveler and Thailand's beef noodle soup can soon become your daily food fix as it became for me!

5. Khao soy: Egg noodles are perfectly complimented with a spicy, coconut-y chicken curry soup to make your taste buds sing. Literally. The first time I ate this dish, I was absolutely blown away. The hearty curry-soup is seasoned with shallots, lime, and pickled cabbage. The chicken is amazingly tender. Khao soy practically begs you to eat more of it. Unfortunately, this dish is hard to find in Thailand except in the North, a rather confounding discovery given Thailand's near-obsessive love for noodles and curry.

© Connie Hum 2010

Crossing the Thai/Cambodian Border

Crossing the Thai/Cambodian border is an ordeal. After staying up all night to wait for a 5:55 am train from Bangkok's Hualampong train station to Aranyaprathet, sleeping restlessly for a few hours on the rattling train, then arriving at the border town to be accosted by tuk tuk drivers, we groggily packed our backpacks into tuk tuks and were driven to the border patrol to get our on-arrival Cambodian visas.

Once there, the border officials informed us that they no longer accepted $20 USD for the visas and the cost was now 1200 baht, about double the price for the Cambodian tourist visa. Feeling a scam coming on, but really, what can you do when you've had almost no sleep and these are "border officials" telling you the "new" policy? The four of us reluctantly paid the 1200 baht each for the Cambodian visa and continued to Poipet, Cambodia, a little too exhausted to be disgruntled and put up a fight.

What lesson did we learn? Even though guidebooks say that it's easy and fast to get a Cambodian visa upon arrival overland, it's probably best to get the visa from the Cambodian embassy in advance if possible in order to avoid being overcharged and scammed at the border. And to take the name and even the picture of the scamming officials in order to file an official complaint with the embassy.

Thankfully, the beauty of Cambodia more than makes up for the hardship of traveling overland.

© Connie Hum 2010

Farewell Kids, Farewell Volunteering

For my last day volunteering at the GHRE Pakarang Learning Center, a farewell celebration was given to Matt and I for the time we had spent there. It was a bittersweet day as I played games with my young students and gave them tearful goodbyes. I am going to miss them tremendously!

***Permission to use the photographs below have been granted by GHRE***

Some students modeling the animal face masks I helped them make.

Matt and the "Little Big Man" on campus.

Blowing up balloons for the farewell party.


My shyest and my giggliest students.


Teaching the students how to play Jenga. They loved it!


I made the kids peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so that they could try some "American" food. It received mixed reviews.


Heartfelt speeches were made that brought tears to my eyes.

Two of my third graders demonstrating the English speaking skills they learned from me. Too bad no one caught this on video!


The sweet kids gave me goodbye gifts. One boy gave me bright neon pink nail polish!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time volunteering with GHRE and the kids truly made my time there worth-while and so rewarding. I plan to come back to GHRE and visit the children again sometime soon. I mean, how can I not? They are absolutely PRECIOUS!

© Connie Hum 2010

Old Phuket Town

Phuket has made its name with travelers in Thailand for its gorgeous beaches and ready-to-party atmosphere. Most people arrive into Phuket and head straight for the beaches, skipping the old-world charm of Old Phuket Town, just 18 miles/30 kilometers south of Phuket International Airport, almost entirely. They don't know what they're missing!

What Old Phuket Town may lack with respect to white-sand beaches and a raging party scene, it makes up for in generous amounts of charm and a bustling art and culture center, not to mention the amazingly authentic Thai food that can be found around almost every corner. Acting as Phuket's main economic hub, Old Phuket Town deserves to be discovered and explored for at least a day or two for its unique blend of old and new, traditional and modern, simplicity and style.

The first thing visitors to Old Phuket Town will notice is the unique Sino-Portuguese architecture thrown in with a significant amount of Mediterranean flare. It's a captivating blend of style and history! Streets are lined with homes and buildings in its original pastel-colored architecture, beckoning you to stroll back through time. Many of these Sino-colonial mansions have been converted into restaurants or shops, a clear example of melding the old with the new but while retaining their originality and allure.

I'm a total sucker for beautiful, decorated doors and my eyes were getting their fill of amazingly striking and colorful doors around Old Phuket Town. Street after street, door after door, I continued to see doors more intriguing and artfully crafted than the last.

I discovered a non-descript local restaurant to pop in for a Chinese-influenced Thai meal that made my taste buds jump for joy. The food was plentiful, delicious and ridiculously cheap. Half hidden by shrubbery and located just off of one of Old Phuket Town's main roundabouts, this little family-owned restaurant served up ready made fare from a glass cart. The dining area was practically the family's living room and was decorated with antiques and hand-made recycled paper products like vases, coasters and handbags. Next best thing to Mom's cooking!

More strolling around Old Phuket Town revealed a number of boutique shops, cozy cafes and bustling art centers and galleries. Interspersed between these modern additions were old printing factories and Chinese herbal clinics. It sounds like things should feel out of place with one another but they didn't! It added to the allure of Old Phuket Town.

With all its activity, Old Phuket Town still manages to exude relaxation and quaintness. Perhaps it's not a bad thing after all that so many people skip out on exploring Old Phuket Town. It certainly doesn't mean you have to. I'm glad I didn't!

© Connie Hum 2010

Teaching English: A Lesson Learned

Disclaimer: The children I teach, due to special circumstances, need their identities to remain anonymous. Therefore, I am unable to publish any photographs of them. But trust me, they are ADORABLE!

A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching Conversational English and the topic was "democracy." The students, acting as Congress, were to come up with ways to make their school better.

The students were very realistic about how they were going to improve their school. They understood that improvements meant money and they knew there wasn't any. The changes the students wanted to implement were simple and their suggestions revealed exactly how they felt about their education.

Being children of (mostly illegal) migrant Burmese workers living in Thailand, these children do not have access to education in Thailand. The only way these kids get any form of schooling is through the work of NGO's like GHRE that provide the education pro bono. Many of these students are eventually forced to drop out of school in order to work and help support their families.

The "measure" that the students unanimously passed was LONGER class periods, extending their existing 45 minute lessons to 55 minutes. Because the students all have responsibilities at home, they couldn't stay at school later in the afternoon to make up for the additional time. Every single student was willing to cut their lunch period short in order to have the longer lessons. Why? "Because we want to learn more before we have to stop to work."

It breaks my heart that these kids are such bright and eager learners, but without the necessary opportunities available to them. In a much kinder and fairer world, these children would have the same rights to education as many of the children in other countries, without fear of getting pulled out of school to work in rubber plantations, fisheries or the like.

This lesson was an eye-opener to how lucky we are in the Western world to receive education and never fear having to leave school early to help feed your family. I just hope that soon, everyone in this world will have this same opportunity.

If you would like to help support education for children in lesser circumstances, I highly suggest you make a donation to GHRE, or any other educational NGO for that matter. The work these organizations are doing are phenomenal and they can all use our support! If you cannot provide monetary assistance, consider volunteering abroad the next time you travel. It will give you a travel memory unlike any other and the incredible feeling you get from giving back is reward enough! I recently wrote a guest blog about international volunteering that you should read if you plan to volunteer abroad.

Last but not least, as I have spent three months with these children and have come to care about them very much, if you have any old children's games, toys, clothing, books, etc. that you would like to donate to them (and I know they would be absolutely OVER THE MOON about it), please send them to:

GHRE/FED
PO. Box (13) Takuapa Post Office
Takuapa, Phang Nga Province 82110
Thailand

If you want to organization a collection of items for donation, but are worried about the cost of shipping to Thailand, send me an email and we can come up with something!

Let's help make a brighter future and a more just world for these lovely children to grow up in!

© Connie Hum 2010

Road Drip

In celebration of the Buddhist holiday, Vassa (also known as the Buddhist Lent or the Rains Retreat), schools in Thailand were closed for two days, giving me essentially a four-day weekend July 23 -27.

Matt and I decided to take the opportunity to explore a bit more of Thailand. We packed a weekend bag and took off on our moped for a four-day road trip. Unfortunately, the weather was not as cooperative as we would have liked and it ended up being a road DRIP. It rained every day during the weekend and instead of making it as far as we had originally planned, we stayed all four days in Krabi.

Despite the rain, the four days in Krabi was relaxing, just the thing we needed. Matt and I enjoyed the freedom of sleeping in and doing absolutely nothing. We spent a lazy afternoon playing Scrabble, which was very fun, especially since Matt and I are so competitive with each other...in a good way! For the curious, I won (by a lot).

All the well-known fun activities that can be had in and around Krabi, including rock-climbing, diving, hiking and lazying on the beaches were scrapped due to the rain, leaving Matt and I with little to do in Krabi. Luckily, the beautiful mountainous scenery and the huge street markets, especially the weekend market, dotted around town kept us amazed and amused. Besides, eating is one of our favorite past times so I really can't complain.

The variety of street food on offer in Krabi's numerous street markets was truly vast and mouth-watering. There were plenty of juicy chicken satay dribbling with peanut sauce, aromatic duck noodle soup, spicy and tangy papaya salad, fresh fruit, enticing balls of meat on sticks and of course, pad thai.

I don't think there was a single food stall I walked past and thought to myself, "No way would I eat that." Well, except maybe this one!

© Connie Hum 2010

Don't Delete, I DO Eat Meat!

Oh, to think that just a mere two months ago, I was a vegetarian! Although I still like the idea of returning to vegetarianism at some point in my life (well, maybe in spurts), I have adapted well in Thailand to the full onslaught of meat appearing in my meals again.

One night, I noticed a rather busy looking, though completely non-descript, restaurant tucked away from the main road near Ban Niang as Matt and I sped by on our motorbike. Not knowing what kind of restaurant it was, but deciding the locals should know better than us, we decided to give it a try on a Sunday night.

The restaurant is a Thai version of do-it-yourself hot pot. Matt and I each pay 99 baht (barely over $3) and we literally eat meat until we make ourselves sick. It's fantastic! You get a clay pot and a kettle of soup for the table. From the buffet area, you choose all the meat and sides you want. As you can see from the picture, we (well, mostly Matt) load up with as much meat as humanly possible. And this is just the FIRST round!

Once you choose your meat and sides, you place a chunk of fat on the top to grease up the cooking area. Then you start piling on the meat to cook. It's a fun process though during our first attempt of cooking the meat, Matt and I piled too much meat on and ended up with a few burnt pieces because we couldn't turn the meat over fast enough. No fear, Matt soon mastered the art of flipping the meat. After dinner, our bellies are protruding quite rotundly but that doesn't stop us from helping ourselves to a couple scoops of ice cream. Our favorite flavor: taro. What a perfect way to end a meal!

This has become our Sunday night ritual ever since.

© Connie Hum 2010

Don't Wait, Food Stalls!

After having spent several weeks living in Khuk Khak, Thailand, I have discovered the BEST food stalls among the many in the area . The food found in these unassuming stalls literally blow you away with their deliciousness and their small price tag. They certainly have impressed me! I frequent these food stalls so much that the proprietors must think I have a tapeworm!

One of the more common food stalls that you find on the street is of the meat-on-a-stick variety. To be honest, I'm not much of a fan for anything on a stick, with the exception of popsicles and corndogs, but when you can get a big, tender honey-glazed bar-b-que chicken on a stick for 20 baht (the equivalent of 60 cents USD), how can you resist? And believe me, I don't even try! The best part? The stall is stationed in front of the 7-11 in Pakarang, right across the street from my apartment!

Thailand is hot, even in the rainy season. Most days you need a nice, cold beverage to help cool you down. Thai iced tea with milk (cha chuk) is practically a national drink and it's the perfect solution on hot days. You can find it almost everywhere. However, finding the right blend of ice, tea and condensed milk required some research that I was happy to conduct. Too much sweet, as it turns out, can be too much of a good thing for me and my pick ended up being a mildly sweet version from a road-side cafe. 20 baht later, I'm cool and ready to hit the beaches again!

When I'm in the mood for something fruity and refreshing to help cool me off, I opt for a banana smoothie. I chanced upon this little gem of a smoothie out of necessity one day. I was starving and decided to give the closest noodle soup stall to my physical body a try. The woman was making a banana smoothie as I ordered my lunch and as it was another hot day in Thailand, I ordered one as well. Oh, serendipitous day! The banana smoothie is one of the best I've EVER had and I ended up with brain freeze more than once as I couldn't get enough of it! As an added bonus, the noodle soup was pretty darn tasty too! This little market food stall, with a grand total of 45 baht (about $1.40) for a hearty bowl of noodle soup and a huge serving of banana smoothie, makes it one of my favorite go-to lunch places.

Speaking of noodle soup (and my mouth is already watering!), one of my absolute favorites in the area is a fantastic noodle soup stall on the side of the road in Khao Lak. Not only is the noodle soup there superb, but there's another dish there that's equally as delectable and mouth-wateringly enticing: a Thai rice dish called something like cow can moo. At least that's the way I remember how to say it. Cow can moo is stewed pork leg served over rice with a side of mustard greens. The sauce from the stew is then poured over the rice for added flavor. It's so good! When we want to splurge on a night of good food, Matt and I head over to Khao Lak, order up an iced roselle drink (a hibiscus concoction) and beef noodle soup each then split a plate of cow can moo between us. At the end of dinner, we're both stuffed to the brim with delicious Thai food and our combined wallets are only 110 baht lighter ($3.41).

Although I definitely have my favorite places to go for food, there are still so many stalls around and I'm certain that there are tasty delights just waiting to be discovered. I have one and a half more months left to find more hidden culinary treasures and as long as my tapeworm is up for it, I'm game to keep eating and discovering!

© Connie Hum 2010

Mai Thai Life

As of June 8th, I have been calling the village of Khuk Khak in southern Thailand my home. I will be living and volunteering here for the next three months. I am sharing a wonderfully spacious apartment (welcome, visitors!) with my boyfriend Matt, who is also here volunteering.

We are surrounded by either long stretches of beach and sky or lush, green jungles. There are even a couple of elephant camps a short distance from where we live and seeing elephants grazing in the fields is a common occurrence. It's actually pretty cool to have elephants as neighbors, those party animals!

The organization that I am volunteering with is the Grassroots Human Rights Education and Development, or GHRE for short. I work with Burmese migrant workers and teach English to 2nd, 3rd, and 5th graders every day in Pakarang, a village 5 minutes away from my house, and conversational English classes twice a week with older students at the Youth Outreach Center in Khuk Khak. Each afternoon, I am back at the main GHRE office to plan and prepare for the next day's lessons and to work on other organizational and administrative projects for GHRE, including creating an on-line store for the Women's Education and Development Association, a division of GHRE.

In the evenings, Matt and I go to the beach (weather permitting) and surf, shop at the local market for food, take rides on our motor scooter through the jungles exploring the many little nooks and crannies in the area or go home and play badminton in our living room before eating a hearty and delicious Thai dinner.

My days are long and exhausting but the rewards of volunteering and living in Thailand are more than worth it.

I guess my Thai life isn't exactly a Mai Thai life, but I'm finally doing something that I've been wanting to do for a long time so I can't complain. In fact, I'm a lot happier here than I have been for awhile and THAT'S a good thing.

© Connie Hum 2010

Phuket About It!

After all the hustle and bustle, not to mention the sweltering heat and humidity of India, Thailand has been a most welcome respite. The weather is warm and humid, but of a tolerable degree with the occasional monsoonal rainfall. Ever since Matt and I arrived into Thailand a few days ago, we've been pretty much spoiling ourselves rotten.

We stayed at a nice and rather posh hotel along one of Phuket's many gorgeous beaches, a rarity in the backpacker lifestyle. One of the many perks of this particular hotel room was that the shower was actually separate from the toilet so that whenever we had to use the commode, it didn't require that our feet be wet. Ah, what a life!

We rented a stylish moped for a day, zipping along in search for secluded beaches to snorkel in. I'm pretty sure Matt and I stopped traffic all over Phuket because we were so darn stylish (obviously it had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Matt's moped driving skills, or the fact that the headlight didn't work when we were driving home on the national highway after dark). It's always a fun day when you're on a moped.

We splurged on a side trip to the island of Ko Phi Phi, including 2 SCUBA dives in the Andaman Sea. It had rained intermittently throughout the night before so made the water visibily less than ideal, but I did still manage to see a Bamboo Shark hiding out underneath a rock and a Spotted Eel, among a myriad of other fishes like bannerfish, scorpionfish, pufferfish, clown fish and the like.

Most of all, Matt and I have been spoiling ourselves on street food each day. No doubt, the Thai know how to do street food. I ended my 4-month (mostly) vegetarian stint with a feast of juicy chicken legs, seafood pad thai and endless beef and pork curries. Even though I ask for "no spicy" most of the food is still hot enough to get me sweating. Thank goodness for the Thai iced tea to keep my taste buds in check. I'm in culinary heaven and I'm looking forward to trying more Thai food in the coming months.

The laid-back vibe and natural beauty of Phuket is enough to make us never want to leave but we're looking forward to starting our volunteer program in Khuk Khak in a few days with GHRE (Grassroots Human Rights Education and Development), working with migrant Burmese workers.

Besides the rewarding experience we're sure to get out of volunteering for the next 3 months, Matt and I are only going to be a hour and a half outside of Phuket so we'll be back. Our last days in Phuket? Phuket about it!

© Connie Hum 2010