Food:
Doesn’t look like either of us will be losing weight on this trip. I gorged before coming here thinking I’d probably not find food I could eat for 3 weeks…but to my surprise…the food is quite good. Breakfast has usually been an egg, toast & banana. Of course if they were hot or even warm, they would be much better. And a little salt & pepper would be so nice. We looked in the local store but no luck so we have been putting soy sauce on to fulfill our salt craving. Lunch & dinner consist of a huge plate of rice, a stir fry (usually cabbage & green beans & onion & carrots & maybe fried egg or tofu) and soup (usually cabbage & green beans & onions & carrots & a bit of some meat or tofu) and fruit (either banana or papaya as both are freshly picked on the trees that surround us and we had fresh pineapple a couple times). Somehow they make each dish look a bit different but definitely there is a pattern. As we teachers would say, it’s an ABABAB pattern. But I must admit, it is very tasty .(Though it would be soooo much better with a cold diet Coke!!) Coffee & hot chocolate comes with every meal so I do get a bit of a chocolate fix in addition to my own stash of M & M’s. Roger, of course, is loving all the food. We bought some bread in town & spread a bit of the peanut butter we brought on it just as comfort food and I have been sharing that with the kids, too. They love it. The kids do not eat the same food. They eat lots of rice & vege mixture… with their fingers and you can’t imagine the portion size! Throughout the Sat & Sun, they also foraged the area for a small, green fruit, skinny stalks with hard berries & some type of root. They offer it to me but I tell them I am too full. When looking through a book, they point to insects & deer and then rub their tummies. Local men who are working here, strip leaves from the trees & add the stems to their rice.
Thai service:
When we were eating at Thai restaurants, we noticed that the service was slow & some people got their meal a lot before others. But here, they wait on us hand & foot. They run to get our dishes as soon as we start to get up from our bamboo table (with a gorgeous view of mountains). They seem so pleased to serve us. We try hard to show them how pleased we are with all they do for us!!
Animals/Insects:
As we mentioned, the only wild animal we’ve seen are birds. We are told most men carry sling shots to get the few birds left. All the other wild animals have been over hunted so the only animals you will see in Thailand are in a zoo. Even rats are considered good eating. Insects however, are a different story. This place is like a butterfly farm. One moth we saw was about 3”, a cockroach that was 2”, grasshoppers about 3”, huge bees and last night, I killed a scorpion that was crawling near my bed. He was only about 2” and I did get a picture of him first J.
Face Painting:
One of the Karen custom that often catches us off guard is face painting. They dig up some root and spread it on their face, sometimes covering it and other times just making lines on their cheeks and foreheads. Even the adults here--some college grads-- occasionally use it. Makes us think the Native Americans are attacking!! We were told it keeps the skin soft and protects it from the sun. In the book, Jewel Trader of Pegu, this custom is also mentioned. Rog & I are reading it because it is about a man living in 1598 who visited this area which was called Pegu then. So that custom goes way back!
