Saturday, March 14, 2009--Pattaya

Saturday, March 14, 2009--Pattaya

Where to begin?? Where to begin??

This was a busy day--well, maybe not **too** busy, but comparatively busy. :)

The morning was rather quiet, with Joe, Don, and Julian reading the news, catching up on e-mail, and having a light breakfast. Joe brewed some of the Thai tea that we bought in Bangkok. The flavor was exactly right, but the color was off. Normally, the Thai iced tea that you get in restaurants is orange in color, but the tea Joe brewed was more reddish brown. After doing a little research (what did we do before the internet???), we found that the orange color comes from food coloring, specifically "Sunset Yellow #6" (at least according to one website). The tea is quite refreshing and we will be bringing some back with us (since US Customs says that tea is OK to bring back).

While all of this excitement was going on, Wit went to the plant market to get more plants. Now at this point, you may be thinking to yourself "Wow! Wit and Julian must have a huge yard because Wit is constantly buying plants." You would be wrong! The yard is not terribly large, but Wit is experimenting with combinations of plants, trying to figure out what grows best in different spots, and removing some plants as he puts new ones in. The yard is really looking fantastic and we'll try to include some more pictures in tomorrow's blog posting.

By this time, the threat of rain had passed and we puzzled about what to do during the afternoon. Wit had brought us some sweet tamarind to try and it was quite tasty, but didn't really satisfy our hunger. So, around 2 p.m. Don, Joe, and Julian headed out to a place that Julian wanted to show us--The Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant at the Birds & Bees Resort!

Now before you go getting all worried about what kind of place this is, take a deep breath and read on for a brief history of the place. In the 1970's, a local businessman founded an organization to complement government efforts to introduce family planning into the Thai culture. His theory was that for such an effort to be successful, condoms had to be as readily available as cabbages were in the villages. The restaurant and resort were set up to generate funds to support this effort and still do so today. The programs have been incredibly successful, and the resort and restaurant have a very playful time with the theme. If you are interested in learning more of the history, you can check out the website here: http://www.pda.or.th/eng/ If you want to know more about the resort itself, check out this website: http://www.cabbagesandcondoms.co.th/. In the meantime, you can see some pictures of us at the restaurant enjoying a drink and snack (the purple "flowers" are tapioca wrappers around some minced chicken and peanuts--they look better than they taste, LOL). Also included are some pictures of the humorous signs and statues:

After our visit to the restaurant, the time had moved ahead to 5 p.m., so we headed to the outlet mall for Joe to check out a few things and Julian to visit an art shop across the street. Neither of them purchased anything, but Julian did find a piece of artwork that he might purchase after Wit can see it and render an opinion.

The night market is next door to the outlet mall and is quite large (although nothing like the size of the weekend market in Bangkok that we visited on our last trip here). We weren't looking for anything in particular, other than some yarn for a friend, but we strolled around and saw some interesting stuff. Here is a picture of Joe at the market, plus a picture of baby rabbit that was dressed up:

While we were there, we decided to pick up some food for dinner since we were skeptical that the "rib guy" would be around (see earlier posts for more info on the "rib guy"). We got a number of dishes and then headed home, passing by the spot where the "rib guy" shouuld have been (but wasn't). Wit had put some rice on to cook for us, so everything was ready by the time we got back to the house and we all sat down to eat dinner. Here are some pictures of dinner, all of which was quite tasty:

After dinner, Wit continued working in the yard while the rest of us watched some TV. We all turned in around 10 p.m. so we would be ready for the next day.

Tomorrow: Sunday in Pattaya, a return visit to Mignon for dinner, possibly a trip to Central Festival, and the continued quest for Thai yarn.