TRAVELLERS CLUB

Country : Thailand
Thailand is not known for its vegetarian fare, but getting meatless foods there is much easier than you might think. Amid the ubiquitous chicken, fish and tiger prawn entrees is a host of vegetarian opportunities waiting to be discovered. In addition, the food in Thailand is very adaptable for different tastes, flavors and dietary needs.

Truth be told, most of Thailand is a relatively easy stepping stone into vegetarian Asia. The Thai beaches, countryside and of course its cities are frequently visited by Westerners who bring their diets with them. Bangkok especially is a very cosmopolitan city, and while it is not anything exactly like a Western city, many of the amenities cross the cultural barrier.

Lots of people assume that since Thailand is mostly Buddhist that vegetarianism is common among the people. However, Theravada Buddhism does not prohibit or even discourage the eating of meat except as a voluntary ascetic practice. Chicken, fish and eggs are all very common main ingredients in many dishes.

While it is possible to keep a vegetarian diet almost anywhere in Thailand, some restaurants are more accommodating than others. Safe bets for vegetarian fare include Indian and Chinese restaurants and noodle shops. The Indian places have to keep veggie options for their Hindu clientele, just as Chinese restaurants have to satisfy their Chinese Buddhist customers. Noodle shops are especially good because everything is made fresh, so you can specify which ingredients to include or omit from a dish. These restaurants typically have condiments on the table, including fish sauce. This leads me to believe that fish sauce is not part of the recipe for most noodle dishes.

Fish and oyster sauce are common ingredients and condiments in Thailand and may be difficult to avoid completely. To be sure that you do not eat these products you can request that they not be used. The food section of a translation book should have words for many of the foods you will encounter.

Venues to avoid include street vendors. These portable restaurants, many setting up as the sun goes down in night markets, are not known for their cleanliness and rarely make custom dishes to the diners? requests. Most street vendors actually cook food at a different location and simply keep it warm in their pushcarts or on their portable grills.

While travelers can get by in most situations with broken Thai and creative pantomime, these communication tactics leave something to be desired when discussing more complicated things such as dietary restrictions. Having a good knowledge ahead of time about how to ask for what you need is key to keeping your diet. Most phrasebooks worth their salt will have a section dedicated to food and list some way to ask for food without meat.

One phrase that works well is pom kin tae pak, which means literally, ?I eat only vegetables.? Women say dee chan instead of pom. Usually this phrase works fine. While in Thailand recently I was able to use this phrase very successfully. The few times I got confused looks, resorting to the listing method of saying no beef, no shrimp, no chicken, etc. conveyed the message adequately to the wait staff. The confusion comes from Thai not having a single word that means vegetarian. Thus, different guidebooks will offer different translations and different people will understand the phrases in different ways. Almost all ways of saying that you are a vegetarian will need some explanation. In addition, Thai has five tones, making it a difficult language for novices to use and understand.

Another phrase that works well is to use the word tae, meaning vegetable, after a dish name. You might ask for Pad Thai tae or Radna tae. This is similar to requesting vegetable fried noodles as opposed to chicken or shrimp fried noodles in the West. The assumption is that the vegetables and sometimes tofu will take the place of any meat.

For vegans to keep their diets should not be much more difficult than for lacto-ovo vegetarians. Most Thai cooking does not make use of dairy products. On top of this, it is as easy to request no eggs as it is to request no meat.

Where to Find Vegetarian Food in Some Main Tourist Areas

Chiang Mai While most restaurants are very accommodating, some especially good areas for vegetarians include the Tha Phae Gate area of Chiang Mai. Here you can find, on Tha Phae road outside the walled city and stretching all the way east to Santiwong Road and south to Sri Donchai Road, an excellent selection of restaurants specifically catering to vegetarians. Inside the wall near Tha Phae is a great location as well. Most guesthouses in Chiang Mai also are good places to try, as many of them survive by hosting Westerners and selling them package tours, trekking tours, day trips and the like. Thus they have pretty good contact with all types of diets and know how to cater to almost all tastes.

Phuket The island of Phuket, its economy largely dependent on fishing, is rife with seafood restaurants, so it may seem like slim pickings there at first glance. However, almost any restaurant can make special meals for you without including any of our friends from the deep. Every year in late September and early October Phuket has a vegetarian festival, during which Chinese Buddhists abstain from taking meat. Other area towns such as Pong Nga and Krabi also participate. Southern Thailand has been part of major trading routes for centuries because of its proximity to the islands of Malaysia and Indonesia. Thus, Chinese and Indian vegetarianism are not new to the people and the restaurants.

Bangkok Bangkok, one of the largest and most traveled-through cities in Southeast Asia, is a truly cross-cultural experience where you can eat almost any type of food and can even have pizza every day of your stay and not visit the same restaurant twice. Almost every block has some option for vegetarians. The signs will not be as targeted to the vegetarian market as in Chiang Mai, but simply going in and requesting the food be made tae or otherwise without meat can do wonders.

Important food-related terms

I eat only vegetables Pom (dee chan) kin tae pak
No chicken Mai chai gai
...fish Mai chai pla
...pork Mai chai muu
...shrimp Mai chai kung
...beef Mai chai neua
...fish sauce Mai chai nam pla
...oyster sauce Mai chai nam man hoi
...eggs Mai chai kai

 

A Day in the Life - Taxicab Drama - China
by Tara Russell | Country : China
While moving down the narrow street, the traffic continues to flow somewhat fluidly until our taxicab is brought to an abrupt stop. The unexpected pause is not unusual in this city full of disruptions; however, as usual, I curiously poke my head forward hoping to get a glimpse of the latest obstruction. Seemingly conducted horns blaring from all directions pollute the air. My taxicab driver begins to impatiently squirm in his seat, at first quietly muttering frustrations from under his breath. I notice that his left leg begins to bounce up and down as his disapproval builds. He soon joins the masses and begins cursing those ahead along with the other disgruntled drivers who have also been temporarily halted.

Catching a glimpse from ahead, I notice that what began as a small cluster of people in front of the stopped vehicles has quickly grown to a rather substantial crowd gathered in the middle of the street. In fact, people kept coming from every direction.

I asked my taxi driver if he had seen what had occurred. He disgustedly recounted the event. "The stupid driver hit the man on the bicycle. The policeman is here to end the argument."

Interesting. My taxicab driver had obviously sided with the bicyclist, despite the fact that he too was a driver. One of many unique things about China: the rights of the bicycler seem to outweigh those of the vehicle operator.

The driver continued to explain, "All the people are coming to give their opinion of what happened." As quickly as he had finished these words, he too was shouting at the top of his lungs, poking his head from the window in order to vocalize his thoughts on the situation.

Another interesting comment. A vast array of observers was gathering at the scene. Some appeared to be passing bicyclers, others wandering to the dispute seemed to be pedestrians, but the most intriguing participating bunch was those emerging from the shops and small residences lining the streets. None of these people, however, seemed to have first handedly witnessed the accident.

What surprised me about the ongoing drama was the intent participation of each additional spectator. It was nearly impossible that these people had all seen the collision; yet, they all seemed to take personal interest in the "justice" of the aftermath. Almost as shocking was the fact that the police officer that had attended the accident seemed interested in the spectators? input! However, the initial concern, a continual progression of traffic, had somewhere been lost in the commotion of the accident. What began as an momentary pause was beginning to look like a long afternoon drama.

Instances like these occur daily in China. Patience and flexibility are essential if you?re planning to visit. Each time something like this happened to me, I immediately fell into the ?impatient American? state of frustration. With time, however, I have learned to sit back and watch the show. Free entertainment surrounds you when you visit the Far East!
 

A Tale of Two Islands

The shaman inhaled the incense smoke and flicked flower petals into the tropical air. My husband and I were sitting on a patch of earth on the Indonesian island of Bali as the local priest, Ida Bagus Putu Wija, communed with the resident spirits about our vague plans to build a holiday home there. Eventually, the Balinese wise man gave us the news that would literally determine the shape of our future villa. In the parallel spirit world of this devoutly Hindu island, our peaceful stretch of riverbank was actually a bustling spirit town, far bigger than the nearby human village.


What exactly did this spirit city possess, I inquired? The shaman replied: on the lower part of our terraced land, near a rustling stand of bamboo, the spirits had built their own pharmacy, auto-body-repair shop and even a food stall that served fried rice. No infinity-edge swimming pool would be going there, lest we flood the otherworldly denizens picking up a prescription or delivering a motorcycle for a tune-up. We also would need to leave a section of riverbank undeveloped because a local demigod traversed the land on his daily pilgrimage to a volcano up north. My husband and I eyed each other. We'd been prepared for the Bali property market to throw up a challenge or two. But a hopping spirit metropolis and a commuting demigod weren't exactly what we had expected.

Who, sitting at a computer all day, hasn't imagined owning a personal slice of paradise, lush with bougainvillea and frangipani, perhaps a sea breeze carrying the scent of exotic herbs and barbecued delights? Southeast Asia abounds with such dream locales, but two destinations trump all others: Bali and the southern Thai island of Phuket. It is on these two chunks of land, a mere 2,400 square miles (6,200 sq km) combined, that thousands of expatriates have bought tropical vacation homes. Indeed, a global real estate slump notwithstanding, Bali and Phuket's residential sectors are still booming, in part because most of the foreign-owned property on these two islands isn't bank-financed. In Bali, despite a pair of terrorist bombings in 2002 and '05, land prices have increased by at least 20% annually over the past three years, with some prime beachfront land going for double what it did a year ago. In Phuket, which suffered a devastating tsunami in 2004 followed by political jitters because of a 2006 coup, prices for sea-view property on the island's west coast jumped upward of 30%, year on year, in July.

But is there only one heaven on earth? As the holiday-home market has taken off in Asia, Phuket and Bali have nurtured a healthy rivalry with each other, trading off the honor of being listed as Asia's best island in travel magazines. Phuket aficionados talk loftily of the Thai island's superior beaches and cheap but professional hospitals, while Bali fans boast of the island's volcanoes and great surfing spots. Nevertheless, the business of vacation villas isn't a zero-sum game, largely because the members of the international jet set who dig Phuket are a breed apart from the culture vultures who flock to the Indonesian island. "People are usually either Bali people or Phuket people," says Dominique Gallmann, the Swiss-born director of Exotiq Real Estate, which has offices in both Thailand and Indonesia. "They attract different crowds, so the idea of the two islands fighting over the second-home market isn't really true."

Oceans Apart
Despite the seeming similarities — balmy islands in Southeast Asia with international airports, abundant marine life and plenty of cafés serving espresso and freshly baked croissants — Bali and Phuket offer vastly different real estate experiences. First off, Bali is much cheaper than Phuket. Because the Indonesian island is so much larger than its Thai counterpart, Bali offers a wider diversity in terms of topography: verdant rice paddies, soaring volcanoes and several distinctive urban centers. The Indonesian island cherishes its deep cultural roots, with traditions interwoven into daily life, not manufactured for some cheesy ethnic show at a beach resort. But because of these bountiful customs, Bali teems with taboos that can trip up even veteran expatriates. By contrast, Phuket's real estate market is simpler to negotiate with several top international property agencies open for business. Buying a condominium is so straightforward that an increasing number of people — particularly from Hong Kong, Singapore and the Middle East — are purchasing for investment purposes. Yet all that ease, along with better roads and telecommunications, comes at prices that are roughly 40% higher than those in Bali. And for potential buyers who are concerned about cultural authenticity, Phuket underwhelms. Much of the island's vacation-property development follows an anodyne architectural style that could just as easily be in southern California or the Costa del Sol. Phuket may be in Thailand, but large swaths of it don't feel very Thai.

My husband and I chose Bali because we like things a little messy. We're both journalists who enjoy chatting with the shaman, exploring bumpy back-country lanes and trying spicy stews at the open-air restaurant a few rice paddies away from our land. But I recognize that not everyone finds charming the idea of a spirit tax — a contribution to the village partly based on how many spirits reside on your land, and a calculation, mind you, that can only be made by the village elders. Indeed, if you're looking for a stress-free condominium with access to yacht marinas and golf courses, Phuket is the right choice — as long as you have the cash to afford it. "There's a strange situation in Phuket," says Risinee Sarikaputra, head of research for property consultant Colliers International in Thailand. "You have low-end residential units that are bought by Thais, and you have luxury units that are bought by foreigners. But there's no real middle-class level. It's either low or high."