Postcard from Bangkok

After a few days in Singapore, we caught a flight back to Bangkok, to apply for Chinese visas (!!!) and begin the northern part of our travels. We were looking forward to visiting Chinatown and exploring parts of the city we hadn’t visited before.

Imagine being packed in shoulder to shoulder with a mess of hot, sweaty tourists and  bustling Thais, while being completely surrounded by large quantities of food, jewelry, house wares and knick knacks—that is more or less what Chinatown is like. Anything you can imagine, and in immense quantities, is within arm’s reach. For instance:

Beautiful necklaces and strands of beads

Industrial sized steamers filled with dumplings

 
Three foot tall bags filled with dried mushrooms

Plastic buckets in every size, shape, and color imaginable

But one of the most amazing things about Bangkok, is that you can be surrounded by absolute chaos, and then turn a corner and be greeted by this:

A breathtaking Wat (temple), or in this case, Wat Suthat.

Before you can go in, you must do the following:

The interior of the complex:

 

Along the corridors there were gold Buddhas, as far as you could see

 

The biggest Buddha of all, inside the central part of the Wat.

 

With visas in hand and our packs on our backs, we left Bangkok to head north by night bus to Mae Sot, a town on the Thai/Burmese border. On our way out, we passed this Buddha getting shined up on the street.

Singapore Menagerie: Mouse Deer

I never thought we would get this close to a Mouse Deer.

Singapore Menagerie: The Zoo

Having only allotted a few days for Singapore, we knew we were going to have to be quite choosy in our activities. Projected itinerary: Go to water park - check. Visit Raffles landing and other historic sites downtown - check. Eat delicious food - double check. Spend all day at the zoo - CHECK. The most difficult decision regarding the zoo: night safari or day in the park? Having already been on a night safari in Taiping, Malaysia, we decided to go with the latter, and I’m so glad we did.

Unlike American zoos where all the animals are kept safely away from visitors, there were times when we were shockingly close to the animals. This kangaroo jumped right across my path as I was walking up around the Australia section:

Morgan was greeted by this white faced Colombos monkey as he exited the bathroom:

It was incredible to be so close to these animals, but we decided we wanted to learn a little more about them. Luckily for us, we were able to follow the guides on their lunchtime feeding rounds and watch:

A polar bear snack on one of his favorite treats, frozen watermelon.

A cheetah chases after a raw chicken leg.

White rhinos eagerly await bananas and cantaloupe.

Lions on the prowl for steaks.

White tigers (some of the few left in the world) ready to feast.

We were very excited to discover that the zoo had an extensive primate/monkey collection.

Ze best:

Proboscis monkeys, who were shockingly human-like in their behavior.

White handed gibbons swinging amidst the branches.

    
A chimp playing one of the games specifically designed to test their mental acuity. In this particular game, he has to successfully push a piece of fruit to the far right, by manipulating a stick through the zigs and zags on top of the box. Can he do it?

 
Of course he can! (Minor detail: This particular chimp actually made his stick into a spear and would stab at small bits of fruit until he was able to slide them directly up and out of the openings. We weren’t sure if he was a genius or not totally with it.)

Finally, we decided to attend the marine show, “Splashin’ Safari.” Appearances were made by African penguins and manatees, but the real star of the show was Carlos the sea lion. He put on quite a performance, entering to the Hawaii 5-0 theme song, and doing a series of flips, high fives and sprints across the pool. The man of the hour:

The real highlight for me, however, was actually being a part of the show, as I was chosen to play a round of frisbee with Carlos! My reward:

A kiss from the star himself!

Pepper Lunch

In the basement of the Pavilion mall in Kuala Lumpur, we made an incredible discovery: Pepper Lunch.

It’s a Japanese fast food chain with a very special schtick.  You receive your food on a thick cast-iron plate that’s been heated to more than 500F with electromagnets.  You then cook your own food – sliced beef, salmon, hamburger, rib eye steaks – on the super heated platter.  It’s delicious and amazing.

Mere words cannot capture all that is Pepper Lunch.  That’s why we made this video:

Eating Kuala Lumpur

KL was probably one of the best food cities we’ve visited.  Here are a few highlights:

Hong Ngek

 
This is an old chinese kopitiam (coffee shop) in KL’s Chinatown.  It’s primarily a lunch place, evidenced by the hours (10 am – 7 pm), and that the tables were jammed with locals every time we walked by in the afternoon. 

We ordered 3 dishes: sweet and sour pork, Hokkien Mee and Crab Balls. 

 
The sweet and sour pork was revelatory.  Lightly battered, crisp chunks of pork were tossed in a sauce that was thick and glossy without being even a little bit heavy.  The flavor – and this is going to sound stupid – was a pleasant sweetness immediately followed by a bright, citrusy sourness.  Gillie and I both looked at each other and said “Oh, so this is what sweet and sour is supposed to taste like!" 

 
Hokkien Mee (hokkien=Chinese immigrants that ended up in the Straits, mee=noodle) were a dish of fresh, toothsome egg noodles a little thicker than the thin end of a chopstick.  They were served simply - tossed in a thick, dark soy mixture and topped with chunks of pork, chicken and fish cake.  They were good, if not quite at the same level as the sweet and sour pork. 

 
Finally, the crab balls were a bit of a let down.  Think golf-ball sized crab/chicken/mystery sausages wrapped in tofu skin and deep fried to a crisp golden brown.  Honestly, I think they were just a little too real for either of us.  They had an intensely chinese flavor that I can’t quite put my finger on. We ordered them on account of an internet recommendation, and my sense is that the source had acquired a taste that I have not.

Yut Kee

Another kopitiam, this time one of the more famous restaurants in KL.  The place was hopping at 11:45 on a Friday morning when we stopped by; we snagged the last table, and there looked to be a half hour wait when we finished our meal. 

 
Gillie ordered their kaya toast – kaya being a sweet jam made out of eggs, sugar and coconut milk; it is to Malaysia what Vegemite is to Australia, except less of an acquired taste.  As you can see, Gillie is quite fond of the stuff.

I got an order of belacan (i.e. shrimp paste, a Malaysian staple) fried rice, and we split a roti babi. 

 
The fried rice was phenomenal.  Each grain distinct, the whole thing powerfully flavored, insanely spicy and remarkably ungreasy.  Shreds of sauteed pork gave the dish body, a garnish of crispy shallots lent it a little crunch. 

 
The roti babi was our least favorite; the roll was a limp, and the filling a bit vinegary.  It wasn’t terrible, just not as amazing as the other two dishes.

Malay Menagerie: Mouse Deer

Ah yes, the tender-footed, delicate, and agile mouse deer. An animal loved and admired by all Malaysians, and now also, by me. Above is a statue bearing a moderate likeness to the tiny and adorable creatures we were first introduced to on the Taiping night zoo safari.

(Small tangent about the night zoo: The only snack options for consumption on the safari were corn- sweet popped kettle corn and warm corn nibblets coated in salt and butter. A little surprised at the limited options, but certainly lovers of corn, we opted for both:
 
Both were surprisingly snackable in their own ways, but I digress…)

Looking very much like the name would imply, a mouse deer is about the size of a large guinea pig with four toothpick thin, but very strong legs.

Unfortunately, due to heavy deforestation, the little guys are running out of places to live. Thankfully the Malays have collected several of them and placed them in the Mouse Deer and Deer park near the lake gardens in Kuala Lumpur. In his safe environment:

Our hope is that Pixar will capitalize on their undeniable cuteness and make them the focus of a future feature film. But until then, we’ll have to make do with visiting them in captivity in zoos across Malaysia.

The Year of the Tiger: Kuala Lumpur

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur with two goals: eat as much delicious food as we could cram into five days and celebrate Chinese New Years like the Chinese. The city was decked out in fake cherry blossom branches and red lanterns that glowed at night:

 

Unfortunately, we found out that most Chinese celebrate New Years by LEAVING the city to be with their families and close friends in relatives’ homes. Our hopes of seeing daring acrobats and dramatic lion dances were temporarily dashed, until we saw signs in a local mall advertising otherwise. Cue spectacle and spectators, from three floors up:

 

Although the entertainment may not have met our high expectations, the food exceeded it. And ultimately, that was more important. We decided to treat ourselves to fancy dim sum, in order to properly ring in the year of the tiger. Our celebratory feast in all of its glory:

Chinese greens with oyster sauce

BBQ pork three ways (char siew, belly and ribs)

 
Shrimp dumplings

Spicy pork sausage and mushrooms wrapped in tofu skins

Green onion pies

Having entered into deep food comas by the end of our meal, we needed to head back to our hostel for a much needed mid-afternoon nap and prepare for three more days of hearty eating.