hazy kl and peter hoe and monsters.

last week was a rough one. KL, and all of peninsular malaysia and singapore, experienced the effects of crop-burning from indonesia. this is a yearly occurrence. there are a number of politics surrounding the issue, but basically, crops are burned in indonesia to clear the fields, the smoke makes its way across the strait to malaysia and singapore, we're stuck with haze. the air quality that comes with the haze is very close to everyday life in places like china or hong kong, and people live just fine up there. i believe they live just fine because their bodies adjust to it. it's not healthy, but they adjust. here, when we get it for a week or so, our bodies have no time to adjust and we're stuck with scratchy throats and watery eyes. it's just no good. this is what it looked on one of the worst days, last sunday:



there was a fear that since the haze came so soon this year, and in such a worse manner than previously (supposedly it hasn't been this bad since 2005), that this was going to linger on through the summer. fortunately, things cleared up toward the end of the week. on friday, it looked like this again. beautiful KL.



last sunday i went out in search of something for my friend that she had wanted when she was here, but wasn't settled on. unfortunately, it was out of stock by the time i made my way out there. still, i want to highlight the store, because everything in it is adorable. it's more expensive than what you'll find for some of the goods inside on average in KL, but the products are all unique to the store. and what store is it?


peter hoe!

peter hoe has two locations. the above is located between central market (you can see its blue exterior on the left of the photo) and the train station. it's smaller than the other location, but has more clothing and less housewares. it also only takes cards. how backwards is that? i learned this the hard way, as i only carry cash here, and so they had to write me up a receipt, which i then had to take the the other location, pay there, then take the confirmed payment receipt back to the original store to pick up my items. what a hassle! i'm sure they have their reasons for not accepting cash. i just don't know what they are. fortunately, the other location is just a block away. from the position the photo above was taken, you'll go to the right, turn right at the first intersection, and then stop at the chinese temple.




the chinese temple is on your left, and the old rubber building (a five-story building) is on your right. the second peter hoe store is located on the second floor of the building. the first time i went to it, i got really lost, because there are no indicators on the outside of the building for what's inside. i remembered it was five stories though, and just looked until i found a building that tall. luckily it was the only one!


excuse the photo quality, i only had my phone

inside it's filled with every kind of houseware you can think of: tablecloths, placemats, tablerunners, pot holders, pillowcases, votives, napkin rings, and on and on. the tablecloths/placemats get me the most: they change out the styles every so often, so if you see one you like, you shouldn't wait to get it. they've also got bags, jewelry, a minimal selection of clothing (at this store, as i said the other one has more), etc. the fabric is almost all done in batik style. there's also a cafe in this location, although i've never eaten at it. i love almost everything in the store, and it almost has an anthropologie vibe to it. if you're running around chinatown, i'd definitely recommend just stopping in to see what's available.



on a final note, monsters u opened up last weekend. along with it came tons of merchandise around the malls, my favorite of which are the t-shirts/pants/dresses found in giordano. i picked up a sulley shirt for my baby's brother's birthday in august. he's definitely monster-material! this is something else i love about living here: you'll get standard merchandise to go along with movies/tv-shows/whatever in america. here, we can find a little extra - like the disney line at uniqlo - and it's all great quality. it's just fun.

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laguna/bang tao

so, as previously mentioned, we moved from patong up to bang tao/laguna for the weekend, since that's where my race was. up there, we stayed at the amora phuket beach resort. it was interesting, to say the least. the room was clean, except for some mold in the bathroom. the wifi was only free in the lobby. it cost 600 baht/$20 for three days of wifi, but even then, the password was only good for one device. kind of annoying. the receptionists were okay, the tour lady and the taxi lady were extremely friendly (the taxi lady was our favorite), but the guest relations lady we dealt with was not great. there's a sign with different activities, and we asked if we could sign up for the market tour, and she kind of tried to convince us to not do it. it was very strange. we did it anyway. we also went during the off-season, so it was very quiet. just us and a bunch of russians. here's what we did there!



for a late lunch, i had some pineapple fried rice, and she had some pad thai (i think). i made the mistake i always make with pineapple fried rice. i always secretly hope if the title is JUST "pineapple fried rice" there will be no shrimp. but there is always. always. shrimp. and there was shrimp in that pineapple. the rice was delicious still. we had this at the hotel's restaurant on the beach after laying out for a while.


surprise!! we went to pick up my race packet and while walking to a taxi stand after doing so, we ran into a VERY baby elephant and her mahout. her name is candy. she kissed us and was adorable. the mahout didn't even want a tip, he just continued walking on his way. amazing.





we ate dinner at sugar cane, which was right next to the hotel. she had ginger cashew chicken, i had pad thai with chicken, we both had chicken satay, and for dessert we had fried bananas! it was all good. all of it.





the next day, we did a cooking class. we signed up for this one at the hotel, but i believe you can find it online too (it's on trip advisor). it started with a trip to the local market, just like the wet market! our guide/later cooking instructor went through and described all the unique spices/herbs/etc. he also showed us the eels and some turtles, which aren't for eating but rather for buddhists. to do what, i don't know. but they're not for eating.




we made a lot of things. we started with tom yum soup, then massamun curry, ginger cashew chicken, fried rice, and steamed banana cakes. because of my nervousness with meat, i asked for vegetarian options and they were happy to accommodate - down to even ensuring i had mushroom sauce versus oyster sauce. it was all so good, but my favorites were the ginger cashew chicken/tofu and the steamed banana cakes. the banana cakes were the perfect amount of sweet/salty/sour. i could eat them all day.


oh yeah, and it was located here, on siray beach. the cooking school is directly on the water, with a balcony over the beach so you can lay in the sun while digesting your goodies. it was relaxing and nice. perfect.




after cooking school, we laid in the sun some more at the resort, then walked for dinner at bliss beach club. it was our most expensive meal, but delicious. pizza, spring rolls, and for dessert, chocolate strawberry spring rolls. so good.


and eating on the beach meant we got to watch the beautiful sunset!

the next day was my race, which i wrote about here.

after the race, we went to the beach, got thai massages and a foot scrub on the beach, then sought out some drinks. i got a pina colada-esque drink in a pineapple, while my friend got a coconutty concoction in a coconut. they were perfect.


then it was time for our market tour. we ended up going out on the truck that takes the hotel workers around. we didn't know it was a self-guided tour, but it was. maybe in tourist season they do something more structured?


i was starving, and immediately found these delicious things. little pancakes rolled up with a green tea custard inside. they were so good.


interesting to see a tsunami evacuation route versus a hurricane evacuation route!


in malaysia we have the take-away bags, in phuket, they have a little handle that goes on your cup to make it a handle. neat.


we had our last dinner in phuket at sugar cane again, where i got pad thai again and so did my friend. for dessert this time we had the mango sticky rice. it was good. everything was good!

overall, phuket was fun. it was definitely different. i felt like everything was on top of each other though. and it was so mountainous, i felt like i was in west virginia with a beach! the food was so good though. and everything is cheap. my only big big problem was our airport arrival. we arrived after the currency exchange closed, so they did an unofficial exchange in which the girl took $100. i didn't notice until i was back at our hotel and sorting everything else, but really! next time i go, i'll know to exchange enough here to cover taxi fare and that's it. and on that, i set up our transportation through the hotel, for 1000 baht. if you can, do this, as it will be much safer than getting a taxi at the airport.

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elephant day!!

this was the day we were waiting for, the day to meet the elephants!! i booked this tour through phuket.com also, and it was at siam safari. we immediately started by meeting the elephants, and then taking our elephant ride.



each elephant has a mahout, who is matched with the elephant while young and stays with it throughout its life. they are best pals.





the ride was about 30-45 minutes. the mahouts would get off and take our picture at certain spots. we could see the ocean, and the big buddha. it was kind of terrifying at first, because i felt like the basket would fall over, but we made it through. we also saw a very big spider. the very big spider was terrifying.


after our ride, we fed the elephants. our elephant stole food out of another guy's basket!



then we met some baby elephants, aged two and seven. they painted, did tricks, and then took pictures with us. the one looks like she's gonna eat my head!


then they showed us how rubber is harvested. it was crazy. you can only slice the tree once a day!


then they showed us how to pound out our own curry, and gave us some with chicken and rice and pineapples. it was really delicious.




then they showed us how to fully harvest a coconut - from cutting off the outer shell, to cutting open the inside, shaving out the meat, squeezing out the milk, and how coconut oil is made. it was neats. then we had the little white things, which i think were made out of coconut milk and eggs, topped with carrots. then we had thai coffee and thai tea. like teh tahrik, they're mixed with condensed milk instead of regular milk. they were both so so good. i don't really like coffee straight, and i loved that coffee.


then we rode a water buffalo!


after that, they showed us how to harvest rice. and then we were done.

overall, we definitely got our money's worth with this tour. i was expecting to just ride the elephants and that was it, but the extra "tours" after the ride were great. it was only about two hours total, but felt a lot longer and was definitely fun. we loved it.

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patong night!

on our one full night in patong (we arrived late the first night so we didn't explore), we walked left out of the hotel down to a market with tons of hawker stalls. luckily we went hungry!


the food was all very fresh, as they generally are in hawker stalls.


and also very full of foods i didn't really care to try!


this lady made some very delicious fresh crepes. nutella and banana inside. so good, we got two.


i was nervous of these, but they were all veggie! potato, spinach, and carrot. the sauce on them was very spicy though. i only ate half of a spinach one.


eugh.


we got some kebabs from the guy on the left (one beef, two chicken), and then fed our leftovers to the doggies on the right. phuket was full of dogs, but they all seemingly had homes despite running around! interesting to see. our whole meal (two of the nutella crepes, three kebabs, the veggie dumplings) was about $6. crazy.

we walked around a little more, then went back for bed. we were way too excited for the next day!

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