Exploring Asia My Way

Diary of a Finnish guy cutting off from the 9-to-5 life, spending a year with his family in Thailand (and a few other countries...). All images taken by me.

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 330, Sun 10 July

That’s all folks. I’m sad to announce that our fantastic 11-month long trip is over, we’re flying today back home to Finland. We fulfilled our big dream by spending a special “almost-year” in Thailand (sadly it needed a tragic “push”, as explained in my first ever post from day #1). We saw and experienced things we could never have imagined, we learned so much about this beautiful country and it’s culture and the people. We calmed down, lived without a calendar or a watch. We did everything as a family and it really deepened our “team spirit”. I’m more than happy to recommend such a “temporary exit” from the 9 to 5 life to anybody out there, it’s all about fulfilling your dreams, go for it!

Thank you to all my 182 followers, I’m honored that someone has considered my blog interesting, especially as it was created with it’s sole purpose being my own diary.

Take care buddies, gotta run now, the gate is closing. See ya’ll !!👋👋👋😎😎

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 329, Sat 9 July Summary part 10: THE BEST THINGS... I've heard the question so many times during our trip: What has been the nicest thing, what have you liked the most, what has been the best experience? Impossible to answer in one sentence or even in one paragraph, so I've just skipped answering these questions by saying "mission impossible to answer"...😜😜 Until now. The best things on such a long trip must be made into a TOP-7 list, here you go: #7: WEATHER. I really love the weather, I absolutely love it. I'm "allergic" to the cold and darkness, hence the minimum +30 degrees centigrade coupled with the strong sunshine every single day all year round has been super nice, definitely one of the best things! #6: FOOD. I really love the food here. I'm not a particularly big culinarist, but I love good food and here you'll find plenty of it, coupled with fruits that are always fresh! #5: NATURE. I'm not that big a fan of biology and nature things, but this year has taught me so many new things about the abundant and exotic nature! All the exotic birds, snakes, spiders, butterflies, elephants, monkeys etc have made me value nature much more. Let alone all the absolutely beautiful fish found in the sea while snorkeling, the sea creatures are my top pick from nature things! #4: BEACH AND SEA. Talking about snorkeling, this activity (and beach life in general, living by the turquoise sea) has been one of the most positive things during the whole year! If given the chance I could go snorkeling many times every week, you always find something new and interesting under the sea surface!! #3: TRAVELLING. We have seen unbelievably beautiful places during our 330-day long trip. Many many beautiful things in Thailand and the neighboring countries, from stunning caves to waterfalls to paradise islands to nature parks. Many many interesting cities like Bangkok, Singapore, Ho Chi Ming City, Hoi An, Ubud, to name only a few. Just an overload of beautiful places in our brains, takes time to digest... #2: PEOPLE. Getting to know the local people and their culture (bluntly said, I know) takes the #2 position on my list. During the first months you see the surface, then you start seeing deeper shades of the people and their culture, and finally after almost a year you know so much that you can explain almost every type of human behavior by some twists of their culture or habits! Really really interesting to dig yourself deep into another culture and learn as much of it as possible! #1: FAMILY. Our family has grown to be one hell of a team! In Finland the days go at work or in school and the evenings taking the kids to their hobbies. The time spent together as a family is limited to a maximum of a few hours per day (except the weekends of course). During this trip we have done everyhing together as a family. From waking up in the morning till late in the evening everything was done together, and this has been really bonding! Of course there have been bad days and days when you really long for time alone, but these have been surprisingly few! Also, as the time spent with children is normally very limited, I have been very very happy to spend so much more time with them during this trip, definitely the #1 thing on this list!!

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 328, Fri 8 July Summary part 9: CULTURE AND RELIGION Thai culture has lots of influences from India, China and other South-East Asian countries. Buddhism is the main religion in the majority of Thailand, however in the southern areas Islam is in many places the prevailing religion. A good example of this is Koh Lanta, where you see lots of muslims. Islam prevailing in the southern parts comes from the closeness of Malaysia, which is an Islamic country. For me, I didn't know much about Buddhism before coming here. I'm still no expert in this subject, but Buddhism has left me with an impression of it as a "friendly" and peaceful religion, one with good intentions. A religion of smiles, helping others and finding your inner peace. Even though I'm not a Buddhist, I find many of it's principles very respectable. Buddhism is seen everywhere and in everyday life in Thailand, clearest example of this being the beautiful temples that are found literally everywhere (photos above). Old traditions are carved in stone and they sit very hard in the culture. The monarchy and the royal family are respected like nothing else, and also monks are highly respected. The Thai flag is considered very valuable, and the national hymn is played on the radio every day at 8am and 6pm! There's an old and curious habit with the national hymn, as it can be played anywhere by "announcing" it, and when this happens everybody quits whatever they were up to and stands still and listens to it. We experienced this phenomenon in the Lumphini park in Bangkok one early evening, thousands of people were jogging and spending their leisure time there when all of a sudden we heard something from massive loudspeakers, everybody stopped what they were doing (the ones sitting stood up) and then the national hymn was played. Once it was over people resumed what they were doing, the joggers again continuing with the running. It was a really absurd moment, felt like everything froze for one minute, made us wonder if we were in the middle of a flash-mob or something... 😜 In Thai culture various body parts are valued differently. The head is the sacrest body part, you should not touch someone's head just like that without a reason. Also the feet are in a special position, feet are always cleaned before a massage for example and shoes are removed when entering someone's home or a pharmacy etc. As a summary, Thai culture and the Buddhist religion are both worth getting to know better, even if you are of a different religion yourself. Here the main rule is the same as I mentioned in yesterday's post: keep your mind and eyes open, this way you'll learn a lot not only about Thailand but also about yourself!

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 327, Thu 7 July

Summary part 8: THE PEOPLE AND THEIR LANGUAGE

Smiling is the first thing you’ll notice when coming to Thailand. Thai people smile very easily, makes for a warm and welcoming feeling. At the same time, it’s easy to hide behind the smile, losing their face is considered to be the worst imaginable thing (ALWAYS try to avoid conflict with them, the biggest mistake you can make is to start arguing and get angry with them) and hence they always answer your question with a “yes” and a smile, even though in reality they would have no idea of the answer. This can lead to akward situations, for example when you realise the taxi driver has no clue where he’s taking you, even if he said yes he knows the place…

Thai people are also very straight in what they say. You go into a gym and the instructor might comment on your belly being too big, something a stranger would never ever say in western countries. It takes a bit of time getting used to this, not taking situations like this as offensive, the Thai people are just being themselves and it’s a part of the culture.

Thai people are very friendly towards farangs (foreigners), genuinely willing to help you, they are happy to talk with you and want to know more of you etc. At the same time it’s really hard to get “through the shield”, getting to know someone in depth and personally and becoming a true friend takes a lot of time, you have to win their trust first.

Thai people are known for being social, doing things together (like having a dinner or preparing for a festival etc), but to my surprise they are at the same time thinking in a very self-centered way. This is seen clearly for example in traffic behavior.

Thai language has got to be one the most difficult in the world. I consider myself being good with languages, I learn the logic and structure of foreign languages quickly and I expected to learn significant amounts of thai language during our trip. But I was totally wrong. I have learned only the very basics, maybe a total of only 10-20 phrases or words… What makes thai language difficult for foreigners is the use of their own alphabets, or letters. Usually it’s a good method of learning a new language that you see the word, spell it and then you remember it when you see the word in use. In here everything is written in thai alphabets, so even after 11 months of living here I have absolutely no idea how to write “thank you” or “how are you” in thai, not the faintest idea what any street sign says etc. You only hear the language, you can’t “see” it. Literally the one and only word I have learned to understand from the written thai was “Phuket”, just because this was seen in all car/motobike license plates in Phuket every single day, and the way of writing this word resembles my wife’s name (the word looks like ‘Nina’)…

As a comparison, we spent 10 days during christmas time in Indonesia. The language (bahasa indonesia) was again a totally new thing for me, but they use “normal” (Latin, or Roman) alphabets there. So already on the first day I learned how you say and write the usual hello’s and please’s and thankyou’s, I recognised these words in street signs etc and immediately got an idea about the language. I can honestly say that I learned more indonesian in 10 days than thai in 11 months… Exatly the same happened in Vietnam, where they also have the Latin alphabets in use.

In the tourist areas (Phuket, Samui, parts of Bangkok, Pattaya) people tend to speak a little english, but elsewhere the english language skills are really poor. The children don’t study english at school and the tv-programs and movies are all dubbed, so nobody hears english from tv either. It’s surprisingly often that you find yourself in a situation where a Thai person (for example a fruit seller at the market) speaks a lot of thai to you, clearly has something important to say, but even if you say that you don’t understand they still continue. I’ve had this situation countless times, you just have to smile and say “thank you bye bye” and get the hell out of there…😜😜

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 326, Wed 6 July

Summary part 7: TRAVELLING.

When you come to Thailand (or basically anywhere in South-East Asia) and you have enough time on you it would be foolish not to travel around a bit. It’s very affordable to fly with budget airlines (like AirAsia etc), they operate to and from many many locations and there are plenty of interesting destinations to choose from. Another good alternative to travel is using trains, but this usually requires a bit more time. For example north to south through the whole Thailand or in Vietnam from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (ex-Saigon). Trips like these take a few days, but if your gluteus muscles tolerate the sitting then you’ll see A LOT of the original living!! Third alternative to travel is by bus, but these I would only use as a means of moving from one place to another when there’s not a flight connection available, bus travelling is a lot less interesting as you mainly see the road sides…

We have travelled quite much during our trip. Inside the Thai borders we’ve seen Phuket, Lanta, Samui, Hua Hin and Bangkok, plus some shorter “countryside” travelling in places like Prachuap Khiri Khan and Sam Roi Yod for example. Besides Thailand we’ve been to Malaysia, Singapore, Bali and Vietnam. The visa type being always the so called “single entry” visa limits the travelling quite much though, and you have to plan a bit more.

Phuket was a really good place to live in, we absolutely loved the 5 months spent there, this I have talked about in many previous posts.

Koh Lanta we visited in April and it was really quiet there. The clock ticks slower in Lanta, the people walk at a slower pace and the traffic is much slower also, you really wind down there. We experienced the greatest party on the planet Song Kran there, that was super fun!

Koh Samui is like a mixture of Lanta and Phuket, pretty much tourists and with it a functioning infrastructure, but still a relatively small island with this “island-attitude”. The sea has this special turquoise color in Samui, like nowhere else.

Hua Hin was our “home base” also for 5 months and this I have also spoken about many times before.

Bangkok is a mega-city with it’s own special feeling. 15 million people crammed in one city brings with it huge traffic jams, and there are hundreds of small sightseeing details to be seen there. Even though Bangkok is to my liking quite “normal” (unlike Singapore or New York for example), it still has that magnetism which draws you back there again and again.

Singapore was our first “visa related exit”. The city/country is a highly developed center of world commerce and as such differs completely from the other destinations around here. A very modern and clean city with a stunning infrastructure, even the tap water is drinkable there! And remarkably, all this is achieved in only 50 years!!! It was very nice to get to know the city, but life’s just that bit too much controlled there to my liking…😃

Bali is Bali, what more needs to be said? Our very good friends live in Ubud and this was our second visit there, spent an “almost-Finnish” christmas there!😃 If you travel there do yourself a favour and skip the ultra-touristic Kuta and Seminyak and head off instead to the countryside, Ubud being one great alternative, you’ll get much more out of your vacation!!

Our Malaysian trip was a pure visa-run and hence only a short lived visit to Georgetown, Penang. A notable difference is that you see the islam religion everywhere with it’s implications to the people, their clothing, the food etc. Would be really nice to get to know Malaysia in more detail some day in the future!

Vietnam stole my heart. The country is beautiful as are the people. Vietnam has a violent history from only a few decades ago, and this has undoubtedly had an impact on how friendly and welcoming the people are today. Really an utterly positive trip there, I’m 100% sure we’ll go back there in the future!!

Besides the above mentioned destinations, I would love to get to know Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos more closely. During this trip it was not possible to pay a visit there, maybe next time.

As a summary, the whole South-East Asia is full of fascinating and charming countries. It seems to be a general rule that the people are genuine, friendly and polite no matter which country you find yourself in. And the food is exceptionally good! There are tons of historical sites to be seen and all the various cultures and countries have something special in their background which has turned them into what they are today. The Vietnam war, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the strong monarchy in Thailand, the slowly opening society of Myanmar etc etc, full of superb and enticing stories! So arrange yourself enough time, get a one-way ticket to Bangkok (perfect starting point), open your mind and your eyes, look at the fascinating world around you and meet the local people with a genuine interest from your behalf, this guarantees you’ll never be the same anymore, it has such a deep impact on your soul!!

#imsooooohappy #inlovewithasia

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 325, Tue 5 July

I’ll break the streak of summaries by telling you a bit of Prachuap Khiri Khan, a small town 60km south of Hua Hin. Besides being a nice, cozy and “lazyish” town with a beautiful beach boulevard, there’s one thing that really stands out of the crowd: the “monkey temple”, Wat Thammikaram.

There’s a steep hill in the middle of town centre, with a temple area built on top of it. To reach the summit you have to climb 396 steps uphill (and another 396 down once you’re done), literally a stairway to heaven, makes for a nice exercise on a hot day! Great views from the top!!👍

What makes this hill and the temple special is that there are hundreds and hundreds of monkeys living there. I have seen monkeys many many times during our trip, but never this close before. We were advised not to take any food with us (to avoid the monkeys getting aggressive and stealing it), but it was still pretty damn exciting to walk literally half a meter from colonies of monkeys, trying to stay cool and not to stare at them (staring at a monkey is considered hostile). I’m not a fan of monkeys as I consider them to be unpredictable wild creatures, I’ve always been pretty scared of them.

Everything went well (I was prepared to use my muay thai skills if needed, hahaha!😂) and the climb was really worth the effort!👍👍

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 324, Mon 4 July Summary, part 6: TRAINS When you come to Thailand you just have to try travelling by train. It's a very genuine and affordable way to get to know the country and the people travelling on them, especially the low cost lines are full of local Thai people. And with low cost I mean REALLY low; our whole family travelled from Hua Hin to Prachuap Khiri Khan (about an hours drive south) with 1,50€ total!! However, you should prepare yourself that the trains are almost always late. I have no idea why it's "mandatory" to be an hour late, but anyway don't count too much on getting to the destination on time... Although, the irregular schedules are an essential part of the train travelling culture here, so just adjust your mind-set, don't stress, be open-minded and enjoy the ride!!👍😎🚊🚊🚊

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 323, Sun 3 July Summary part 5: TRAFFIC Thailand has a negative reputation regarding traffic, and the statistics speak for themselves: Thailand has the second most traffic deaths in the world, only Libya is more dangerous. But, besides such high fatality rates, you get very well along when you know "the rules of the game". What rules, you might ask? You're completely right, there are very little rules in Thai traffic, however here are three points to help you survive: 1. The one coming from behind is liable for avoiding contact. No matter if you're driving a motobike, car or whatever, if you are the one coming from behind you're considered to be faulty almost by default if a collision happens. 2. Mind your own business. Literally, concentrate on keeping your own line and don't do anything stupid, there will be hundreds of people passing you anyway. 3. Be prepared and vigilant all the time. There's no such thing as a lazy sunday drive. Any second there might be someone driving against you on YOUR lane, or a car might be making an unexpected U-turn all of a sudden, there might a stray dog crossing the street etc etc, there's no such thing as logic. The motobikers drive awfully fast in Thailand, and almost as a rule without a helmet. Makes you really wonder if they have any self-protection instinct at all. They might smoke a cigarette while they are driving 120 km/h, or talking on the cell phone, a very common sight. A high percentage of the traffic deaths have to be related to these motobikers... Regarding cars, Thai people have very big cars, which are generally just too big for the traffic. This has to do with showing off, the bigger the car the more it shows your wealth. Too large a car topped with not so good driving skills makes for a not-so-desirable combination... Traffic lights are only indicative, as are pedestrian crossings. Never trust a green light or a zebra crossing by default. However, when we talk about traffic being chaotic, Thailand is nowhere near number 1 position. From the countries we've visited during our trip Indonesia and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) occupy the top spots, even the traffic in Bangkok seems mild compared to these...😜 By the way, the video above is taken from Bangkok, you get the idea of the constant traffic jams there! P.s. Just as I'm writing this there's news that in Hua Hin town centre a car hit full speed a pedestrian (a foreigner) crossing the street, adding one more figure to the deaths in traffic...😡

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 322, Sat 2 July

Summary, part 4: PHUKET

Today I was reminded again how pretty damn old I am, turned 39 today. In this age there should be a rule that you can always deduct one year from your age on your birthday, instead of adding one… I know, important is how old you FEEL you are, I consider myself being “thirty-ish”…😂😂

As I told in my previous post, we have lived 5 months both in Phuket and in Hua Hin. Now a bit more about Phuket.

You hear a lot of talk about Phuket, good and bad and exaggerated, stories after stories. So it was interesting to move there last November, and it turns out that Phuket is WAY better than it’s reputation!! Of course, if you only talk about Patong and Bangla Road there’s not much Thailand in there, but open your eyes a tad wider, forget the ultra-touristic Kamala, Patong and Kata and you’ll find a lovely, very welcoming island, with very positive wibes!!

Phuket is greener and more mountaineous than I thought. There are beautiful landscapes and the nature is stunning. There’s not much of anything specific going on north of Phuket Town, the whole northern part of the island is very ordinary (except for the resorts on the west coast which occupy the whole coastline all the way to the northern corner of the island). So when you come to Phuket, ditch the big resorts on the west coast and head instead to the southern coast to Nai Harn and Rawai, our absolute favourites (we lived in Rawai)! Rawai is a quiet area with many expats living there, it’s saved from the mass tourism and this is seen in the many small local restaurants, the friendly local people, the lack of english language skills etc. Nai Harn has this special laid back feeling, it’s like an Australian surfer area with lots of cafés, shops, yoga-places, restaurants etc. And the beach in Nai Harn is the best we’ve found during our whole trip!!

There are many muay thai and fitness gyms around in the south, but if you want to find for example football or gymnastics activities they are strangely all located in the northern part of the island. Beach life, snorkeling (try Ao Sane beach where I spotted a giant sea turtle!), diving and kite surfing are all super good in Phuket, a real paradise for these activities! And don’t forget to do some island excursions, from the closeby Coral Island and Koh Bon to Raya Island and the Phang Nga Bay a bit further out, definitely worth visiting!!!

We really loved living in Phuket!Liked it so much that I could even imagine myself buying a condo from either Rawai or Nai Harn and living there part time!!👍👍😎😎

#paradise

#happy

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 321, Fri 1 July

Summary part 3: HUA HIN

We have spent most of the time during our trip in Hua Hin and in Phuket, 5 months in both. That deserves a bit of information on both, I’ll start off with HH.

Hua Hin is a relatively small, cozy and “ordinary” city, very safe for foreigners. Hua Hin is known among the locals because the King’s summer palace is here, hence there are at least double the police forces compared to other cities, as well as continuous presence of the army. It’s only a 3 hours drive south from Bangkok, a very popular place for the people of Bangkok to come spend their weekends. Additional bonus is that it’s very easy to get here from Bangkok, both from town centre and from the airport, by bus or train.

The best adjective for Hua Hin in my opinion is “ordinary”. There are not so many tourists (except during high season), and you really live among the “ordinary” Thai people, which is really good! There are plenty of small local restaurants, not only McDonalds’ and KFC’s everywhere. There’s pretty good shopping in here and several lively markets. However, the sky and the sea are not as deep blue as in the south, the beach is not the best and it’s not a place for snorkeling (the water is not clear but “fuzzy”). There are several good spots around here for nature lovers, for example the Pala-U waterfalls and Sam Roi Yot national park, just to name a few. There’s nothing “über-fancy” in here, but rather quite normal living. The city is really good for families as the traffic is much more slower and calmer and it’s so safe, plus there are a few waterparks for the kids. Golf is maybe the biggest sport here.

Regarding the weather, Hua Hin benefits from its location in the northern part of the coast of the Siam Bay. Rain (monsoon) season is pretty mild compared to the rest of the country. Also, it’s not as hot as in Bangkok for example.

Would I move to Hua Hin permanently? No. Would I come here on vacation? Yes and no, depends on what you’re looking for. For beach life head south, for shopping and nature Hua Hin is good. Would I come here if I was in my twenties and wanted to party? Errr, maybe yes maybe no. Would I move here if I was retired and wanted to find a warm and sunny place to live in? Yes. Would I come here for a sports vacation? Uhm, depends on what you want to do, for muay thai and fitness and golf it’s ok, but for watersports, sailing, diving, kite surfing or yoga not good.

Anyway, Hua Hin has been a very good home for us. We’ve got to know many locals, made friends with them, made friends with other foreigners (mainly via muay thai) and learned a lot about ordinary Thai life and their culture.

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 320, Thu 30 June

Summary of our trip, part 2: HOUSES IN THAILAND

The whole Thai culture is peculiar in a way that cars and other possession are valued more, while their home is not valued at all. In western world it’s normal to spend money in your home and make it cozy, with nice interior etc. Here, however, it’s totally contrary. Because everybody is working every day from dusk till dawn, you don’t spend so much time at home during the days. So, why spend money into something where you only spend the nights? Many many times you’ll see shacks and buildings made out of steel plates or whatever they have found, like in a real slum, but at the same time they have a relatively new SUV in the front yard (see lower photo above). Same logic goes for beds, why spend money in mattresses/beds because you are anyway asleep during the night, easier to sleep on a blanket on the floor…

However, even if they don’t spend money on making their homes nice and clean and cozy (explanation being that they don’t spend time there), everybody (and I mean everybody, even the poorest ones) still has a TV and a satellite dish… Logic like this is many times hard to understand for western people…

The Thai houses are typically built in a specific way, having only one large room (instead of several separate rooms) where all the everyday things happen, the furniture spread out along the walls. In the evening blankets are spread on the floor and the whole family sleeps there side by side, and again in the morning the blankets are picked up and the same area functions as the living room.

One more curious thing is that there’s usually only one water tap in the kitchen, where water temperature is roughly +30 degrees centigrade. So washing the dishes is done with cold water (nobody has a dishwasher, always washed by hand), and the same goes for washing clothes. Makes you wonder how much grease and bacteria is left on the plates and pans and pots when you always wash them only with cold water… Call me a snob if you like but I like to wash my sweaty training clothes in a hot water wash, to get them really clean, which is not the case when washed in cold water.

Of course there are many variations in the houses and this above mentioned setup is not common everywhere, but you see it a lot. The huge apartment blocks in Bangkok outskirts, the houses built on pillars above the sea in Koh Panyi, the super strong concrete “cots” in Raya Island (apparently built so after the 2004 tsunami), there are many variations. It’s really interesting to learn cultural things like this, the background and reasons for certain behavior, you learn a lot about yourself at the same time!!

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 319, Wed 29 June

Our trip is nearing it’s end. Sunday July 10th will be our last day on our 11-month long trip, making it a total of 330 days. For the remaining 12 days I’ll try to summarize our trip, by concentrating on some key issues.

Summary, part 1: THAI FOOD

Thailand is known for it’s extremely delicious and rich food culture, many say thai food is among the best in the world! There are many specific dishes for certain geographical areas, and thai people are really good at using herbs and spices from nature as ingredients. There are countless different soups and rice dishes, various thai salads, chicken and pork dishes, you name it. They use spices very well, many seemingly identical dishes are in reality totally different due to only a few different spices. They also eat a lot of vegetables.

Eating in restaurants is very common in Thailand. It is extremely affordable to eat in restaurants, you can buy a delicious lunch for 30-40 baht (0,7-1€), which is less than buying the ingredients from the shop and preparing the food yourself! Hence the locals eat in restaurants very often, which has resulted in there being thousands of small restaurants everywhere, serving local food. Yes, there are also restaurants serving western food, but these tend to be a lot more expensive. It is also very common that the best food is found in small local restaurants, like this tiny restaurant shown in the photos, located next to our muay thai gym. I don’t even know the name of the restaurant, but the three lovely friendly ladies running it make super good food at really affordable pricing. Our whole family eats lunch there for 6€…😜

As a summary, thai cuisine is a must to get to know when you travel to Thailand. Whether on a short vacation or a longer trip, it’s definitely worth being brave and trying local delicacies, you should give even the odd-looking alternatives a try! If you don’t like too spicy food you can always ask for a non-spicy version! You have to try the Som Tam (raw papaya salad, good with sticky rice), Tom Yum Goong (lemongrass soup with prawns) is one of my absolute favourites, chicken with cashew nuts is a legendary dish, massaman curry is really good, fried rice with chicken/pork/prawn are all very tasty, prawns in oyster sauce (or actually any other prawn dishes in any other sauce…) are a must, fried vegetable spring rolls are delicious as are all the various noodle soups, roti’s for dessert, etc etc, the list could go on and on and on… Not forgetting the fantastic fresh fruits like mango, rambutan, mangosteen, banana, water melon, lyche, passion fruit etc, fresh fruits are definitely one of the things I will miss big time when we go back to Finland…👌👌

As a summary: Thailand is a wonderful country for culinarists!!!

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 318, Tue 28 June "But first, let me take a selfie", from the song from The Chainsmokers. The amount of selfies taken every day in Thailand is ridiculously big. Selfies are taken everywhere, and from all possible angles, and at least a hundred photos per person per day. This girl next to us in the airplane took at least 20 photos of herself in this position only... Besides selfies, tablets and cellphones are used to playing, watching videos and tv shows, communicating and updating your Facebook status. All very acceptable functions, but it becomes a nuisance when it happens ALL THE TIME and EVERYWHERE... It's common to see a bunch of four friends eating lunch with each of them having their own tablet/phone in front of them, all plugged into a powerbank because otherwise the battery wouldn't tolerate the ultra-heavy use. I guess the cell phone culture is still too young in this part of the world, and showing around and using your phone everywhere is considered still normal. Whereas in the western world time has already gone by this phase. Will be interesting to see how this phenomenon evolves, how long will it lasts...

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 317, Mon 27 June I'm not a particularly big fan of trains, but this one is a perfect example of the subject today, the Thai calendar. In Thailand you will get slightly confused with the calendar, more specifically the year in question. You'll see the normal gregorian year 2016 quoted in many places, but much more commonly you see the Thai year in use, 2016 being quoted as 2559 instead. The Thai calendar is based on the eastern Buddhist calendar, which is 543 years ahead of the gregorian calendar. This is not a big problem in everyday life, you get quickly used to the 2559 seen everywhere. Problem arises when you have to calculate backwards, like in the photos above. This particular train was in use between 2468-2509. Makes for some hectic calculations...😜😜 Did you already figure out the gregorian years when it was used? How long did it take you to find the answer? 😜😜 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. (the answer is between 1925-1966)

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 316, Sun 26 June I love coffee. I'm not extremely passionate about it, I usually drink "normal" coffee but I love to invest in a cup of good coffee when there's a chance. This photo sequence is taken from one of our favourite restaurants, the Yummy Corner (also highly reviewed on TripAdvisor) in the Kao Takiab area. I don't really know what this coffee is actually called, it goes with the name "Primitive coffee" at Yummy Corner, but I think a more general name would be Vietnamese coffee. The "manufacturing process" of this coffee is interesting to follow: first you put grounded coffee in the bottom of the stainless steel cup (the one with the black knobs). Then you put a thing called "gravity insert" on top of the coffee, essentially a flat thin steel plate full of small holes. Then you pour hot water on top of that and put the whole steel cup on top of your coffee cup. One important thing is the flat stainless steel plate between the steel cup and the coffee cup/glass, that's also a filter. If you want your coffee with milk, the milk is "waiting for the coffee" on the bottom of the coffee cup. If you wonder about the yellowish colour of the milk it's condensated milk, a slightly sweeter type of milk, fits well together with coffee. Then you just wait for 3-4 minutes. The first minute nothing happens but after that it starts dripping drop by drop, and eventually after the dripping is over you move the steel cup away and have a delicious cup of coffee!!!👍👍 Highly recommendable!!

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 315, Sat 25 June I'm sooo proud of my wife! She started muay thai when we came to Thailand last August, the main "idea" being not to take too much stress whether everything is done 100% by the book but rather to have fun training a few times a week and learn a new sport. As the months have gone by she has become really good at it, getting compliments on her skills from several trainers!! A big part of the progress has to be put on her exceptionally good sense of body coordination. With good brain-muscle coordination the learning looks easy! The same brain-muscle coordination seems to be herited to my son, learning new stuff is easy for him too. Something that cannot be said about myself though, really frustrating when even simple maneuvers take forever to learn...😂😂

[exploringasiamyway]

DAY 314, Fri 24 June This handsome little fella had his 7-year birthday today! Endless amounts of energy, funny and flirtatious, topped with a very good sense of humor and a blink in his eye, this little guy is sensational (the lower photo describes his nature perfectly)! Hard to imagine that it's a full 7 years since he was born, time flies... He's had a bit of a difficult time lately due to his ankle injury. He's not able to swim (infection risk), he limps, and most frustrating, he's having really trouble to consume all his energy. However, the wounds get better every day and today, as if to celebrate his birthday, he took the first normal steps with the injured ankle! When he noticed how good the walking has become he cheered up big time and immediately started to plan for some muay thai trainings for next week!!!😜😜😜 #iloveyou