11-16-10: Chillin' Out, Maxin', Relaxin' All Cool

Not much to report on this day. We hung out in New Sukhothai, saving
further exploration of the Old City for the weekend festival. We found
a great place for noodle soup along the main road, heading away from
town. Then we got a farang (guava) chopped with sugar/chili dip for a
blast of vitamin C. Then...wandering more, to the post office for
Robert, to our favorite indoor A/C cooled coffee shop and some cards.
There we made our first travel friend - a lone guy from Oregon, but
originally from Humble, TX. We chatted for a while, enjoying
interacting with some fresh meat. He moved on and so did we, I think
we went back to our guesthouse for a while.

Then we went out to brave getting a massage. We haven't tried it yet
because they like to heckle you from the street, which is off-putting.
We decided on a place that didn't heckle and I went in, Robert wanted
to watch before taking the plunge. It was a little awkward at first
because I didn't know what I was supposed to do or what my masseuse
was going to do. There was strange Thai discovery channel playing in
the background, something about big cats and their hunting skills, but
it wasn't distracting to be because as soon as I closed my eyes, it
just turned into a stream of sounds. The massage was nice, nothing
revolutionary, but nice. She used her body to manipulate mine, which
was cool. For example, she held my foot and then pushed her feet
against the underside of my thigh and leaned back so she got a lot of
leverage as she walked her feet up and down my leg. I want the words
for, "you can massage harder," but I don't know if my Thai will ever
be that good. Sometimes it just felt like she was touching me, not
actually doing anything, but it was still an enjoyable new experience.

Next we went to the market for food and food we found. We hit up the
donut lady again, making sure to get extra to save for an after dinner
snack and trying all the different kinds of fillings. We got all the
regular things too : sausage balls served with raw cabbage, fresh
squeezed oj, farang, fried chicken with spicy chili sauce. And
then...branching out, we went up to this woman who was deep-frying
tofu and these other bits. I watched her from a vantage point behind
her for a while, she was crazy busy which is always a good sign, but I
couldn't figure out her ingredients. She scooped up something from a
big pot, dropped the entire long-handled spoon into the hot oil and
then turned it out of the spoon to rest near the pan, where it would
stay warm. When someone ordered one, she would chop them into fourths,
bag them and then make up a sauce from a spoon of this and that and a
ladle full of liquid brown sauce. We took the plunge in a break in the
crowd. I asked her what it was and lots of Thai later, some flipping
through my mini phrase book and we discovered it was: man farang!!!
(potato)!!! We enjoyed it and the tasty sauce immensely. I would love
to be as skilled as many Thai cooks are at whipping up a sauce from
six or seven open containers of spices.

Next we meandered back to the main road where the more sit-down type
street food is and we revisited a place from the other day, I got pad
see ewe and Robert got a fried rice pork dish again. Interestingly
enough, they don't usually serve "fried rice," as you might think of
it or how Robert would like it. What is marked on the menu in English
as "fried rice," usually is just white rice with stir-fried meat and
veggies. Not sure why or how to correctly order Chinese-style fried
rice, but maybe Robert will be motivated to figure it out since it is
always his dish of choice.

Also at this dinner spot, we met out friend again. We ordered another
glass and shared our Chang (very cheap at this spot) and had some more
good conversation. Then we split our desert donuts, which we had raved
about to him earlier. The Bavarian creme ones are by far the best, but
Robert likes the creme puffs better, claiming to like the higher
filling to donut ratio. He is crazy, but it works out so that neither
of us will have to share our tasty treats! We carried the mini-party
over to Chopper Bar for one more beer (and a hawng nam to relieve
Robert's too-full bladder). Some how we carried ourselves home -
normally we stick to one, maybe two beers, tonight we had six? Too
much.

Now that I'm thinking about timing, I'm realizing my days are a little
off. All the stories accounted are true, they just might be a little
jumbled - sorry!