Ladies Night

Forget La Traviata, Swan Lake or the Royal Shakespeare Company, how about a lady-boy cabaret. This was a fanscinating evening in Chaweng town which is situated on the east coast of Koh Samui - a widely accepted culture in Thailand, the lady-boys (a male who identifies themselves and lives as a female) provided a 2 hour show comprising of dance routines and miming. It was very convincing - some were even better than the real artist,Tina Turner was absolutely amazing. The girls are fantastic to look at and I think it left alot of the male audience feeling a little bit 'confused'!

Watch Out Delia.....

These are a few recipes from my cooking class in Malaysia if you want to try them for yourselves - or you can wait for me to cook them for you!





Pajri nenes

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cm x 2 cm cube of fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 pineapples, eyes removed, halved and cut into 1 cm slices
3 tablespoons (tbsp) of roasted coconut (kensak)
4 tbsp of curry powder (greatest first: coriander, chilli, cumin, fennel, turmeric, dhal, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamon, star anise, cloves)
3 star anise
1 piece of cinnamon bark
4 tbsp of coconut cream
Oil for cooking
Water
1 teaspoon (tsp) of salt
3 tbsp of sugar

Combine curry powder, kensak and 1/2 cup of water and mix to a thick paste. Heat approx 6 tbsp of oil in wok, add garlic, shallots and ginger and fry until golden brown then add star anise and cinnamon bark. Continue cooking for a couple of minutes and then add curry paste. Add sugar and salt. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Add pineapple, 1/2 cup of water and coconut cream. Stir and cook for a further 15 minutes until pineapple is tender.

Alternative: substitute pineapple with aubergine.

Rendang (Chicken or Braised Tofu)

4 x lemongrass sticks (approx 6 cm in length), chopped in 1/2 cm pieces
10 shallots, finely chopped
3 cm x 3 cm cube of fresh ginger, finely chopped
13 red chillies, pre-soaked, finely chopped
1 tsp of turmeric
1/2 tsp of sugar
5 tbsp of coconut cream
1 turmeric leaf, finely chopped.
Oil for cooking
Water
1 tsp Salt

Grind salt, chillies, shallots, ginger and lemongrass together to form a rough paste and add to wok. Add chicken or tofu. Cook for 5 minutes. Add turmeric powder, sugar, coconut cream and turmeric leaf (if available). Add water if required. Cook until chicken or tofu is tender.

Samba Tumis (Aubergine or Prawn)

2 small red onions, finely chopped
6 fresh green / red chillies
1 tbsp of sugar
5 tbsp of coconut cream
Juice of 2 fresh limes
2 tbsp of Tamarind paste
Oil for cooking
Water
1 tsp Salt

Heat approx 6 tbsp oil in wok. Grind salt, chillies, onions together to form a rough paste and add to wok. Fry for 10 mins, Add coconut, fry for 5 mins.Combine tamarind / lime juice and add to wok. Add sugar. Continue cooking for 15 mins - do not allow chilli to stick to wok, add water if necessary. Add prawn or fried aubergine. Cook until prawn or fried aubergine is tender.

Sambal (to accompany the dishes -hot! )

13 red chillies, pre-soaked, finely chopped
1 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of belachan (dried shrimp paste)
Juice of 2 fresh limes
Tamarind paste, 2 tbsp

Grind salt, chillies together. Add belachan, lime juice and tamarind and mix.


Serve dishes with boiled white rice and no alcohol.

Ferry...'cross the...?

After the bustle of Penang, we braved the ferry to Ko Samui.. not quite as modern as your average P&O, but it got us here. We're at one of the less busy beach resorts, in what I must say is a rather smart hotel, by Intepid standards that is - pool, balcony, sea view.. Ok, we paid an extra £4 a night for the balcony and view, reckless spending I know.

Had a day out and about yesterday, a few Buddha's, temples, waterfalls and even a mummified monk complete with his raybans. He's the one on the right of this picture.
I was of course kidding about the ferry... the pictured one was out of our price range.

Hotel views - part 1

After about 7 hours in 2 different minibuses with a border crossing thrown in, we arrived in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, otherwise known as Nothingville in the small Thai state of Nowhere. But after a long day, at least we were greeted with the view from our bedroom window that you see to the left. Actually, I'm being a bit harsh, the people were friendly, food was good and beer was cheap. What more does a weary traveller need :-)

Penang part 2

So, still in Penang and we have a day free to ourselves. After the initial panic of being without a leader, we manage to flag down a local bus to get to the huge Kek Lok Csi Chinese Temple just out of town.
Quite impressive collection of buildings...although Mike disappointed that no actual Crime Scene Investigation was going on. Learnt about a few local aid projects that they were involved in, one being the construction of a childrens hospital, destined to start sometime in the future. Current project is to build a pagoda over a huge 165ft bronze Buddha. Priorities eh?
Did see this rather smart bench as well.. we are thinking of importing them into the UK as a new venture?!??

Pets in Penang?

So, we've left one island behind and have just spent a day and a half in Penang, another island off the West coast of Malaysia, but with a very different feel to the last one. I caught Mike double checking his bag before getting on the ferry... according to the sign, we couldn't take our pets on the ferry. Shame. More info on our time in Penang in a later post.

More on island life...

So, you saw the view from the island 'bedroom' window on Mike's post below.. so just to put it into context, I thought I'd show you the 'bedroom'...




...tah dah....

Actually, it had all the mod cons, ie. 2 beds, a window lock made from old drill bits and a sporadic cold shower.


As you can see from this gem of a photo, I'm not the only one who can carry off a little something in pink. This was the cooking team for the 2nd evening on the island, of course that's Mike on the left, then one of our hosts, Asia, and Michael, one of our fellow travellers. The 2 of them paid hansomly for the opportunity to spend 3 hours slaving over a hot gas ring... creating a variety of Malay dishes which we then devoured in the evening. Whilst they were cooking, the rest of us lazed around... the better deal we thought.

Before the cooking, we'd been over to the mainland to visit a small village and then onto a waterfall. Sounds idyllic I hear you say... well it was, apart from getting to the waterfall involved a 30 minute hike through steaming leech infested jungle. But we survived. Me without a single leech, ahhh.... and Mike picked up just one.

Dinner was a formal affair, dressed in our sarongs, we were invited into the hosts house. Dinner was laid out on the floor, the Malay way, and cutlery was replaced by our right hands. The hosts serve the rice, you help yourself to everything else. There is a Malay saying that guests are always hungry but shy, so no sooner as we had started to eat, we were asked if we wanted more rice.. and yep, it's rude to refuse! The only way to get out of 4th, 5th or 6th helpings is to clear your plate without the host noticing! Mike S deliberately avoided doing this as you might expect.

Paradise Island

After the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur, it was nice to get back on the road again and we headed off towards Kuala Kangser in N.W.Malaysia. After the bus and taxi, we jumped onto a boat to reach our final destination - our own island for 2 days. The accomodation is in simple wooden huts beside the lake. Here's a picture from our window, as you can see, it's very similar to Ramsgate.

Food and Drink - Part 4

As we stayed in KL for about 2 days, there was plenty of opportunity to try the vast number of cuisines available, this can be from eating in basic food markets around Chinatown, eating in food courts in shopping malls in the city centre and eating 'street food'.

Breakfasts included sweetened white coffee or cham (a mixture of coffee - tea - hot chocolate), kaya toast (toast with egg jam (like lemon curd) and thick chunks of butter) and egg toast.

Lunches and dinners included plain noodles, Fish Ball TomYum Mee Hoon soup (sour and hot soup with homemade noodles), Aubergine Sambal (chillis, dried shrimp, tamarind), Fish Biriyani.










We tried various fruits from the local market including Rambutan, Dragon Fruit, Mangosteen, Dukun langsat and Durian (which has such a pungent smell that it is banned from hotels and buses) - it was actually ok but I will not be having it again however it is considered the King of Fruits here.

Pretty In Pink

We visited the National Mosque in KL and Mike's knees were showing (which is a sin in itself) so he was obliged to wear this gown which I found extremely entertaining. 30+ heat and not a single natural fibre in sight.

Space travel - episode 2

So following on from Mike's previous message, the Planetarium did lack somewhat but it was air-conditioned so we stayed for a while. My main interest focused on Malaysia's first astronaut in 2007 - Sheikh Muszaphar Shukar - a young professor - part time model who was chosen out of 10000 applicants, I'm sure winning had nothing to do with his looks! So where am I going with this? After discussions with Lynn, our tour leader, it turned out that he is gay (my radar is still working fine), so what, I hear you ask? Malaysia is a Muslim country where homosexuality is illegal and punishment is imprisonment or death (apparently they would be thrown from the tallest building in the town, not that I'm planning relocation but I would chose a small town with only bungalows if this is true).
He is still alive and well and not only deemed a National hero but also as a gay icon, I'd imagine that there are a few exceptions to the rule (if you are lucky to be in the TV /film industry) but being born Muslim and Gay must be very difficult to cope with as families would either disown you or possibly arrange for your disappearance- a real eye opener and I'm very grateful for being born in a time and place that makes me feel equal and not persecuted for whom I choose to love.