Meatless Mondays and Milk

If you have known me for any amount of time, you know food is really important to me. Being in Hong Kong has made me look at what I eat more than ever. What I mean when I say this is that I am now more aware of the origin of the food that I eat. For example, tropical fruits such as bananas, pineapples, and coconuts are significantly less expensive here than in the United States. Why is that? Because they are grown in this region so the transportation costs are much lower. Another example of this is the inflated prices on foods grown in the U.S. and elsewhere.

One of the implications of this is the lack of dairy in my diet now. Because approximately 90% of the Asian population is lactose intolerant, it simply isn't practical to have a strong dairy industry here. As such, cheese and milk is imported, meaning a higher cost, which in turn means I am not buying it because I enjoy saving money.

I have read many articles about how cutting dairy out of your diet can make you feel more alert and lively as it contains a considerable amount of tryptophan, but never believed that I would be able to give it up. But here I have almost entirely done just that. This isn't to say that I don't miss it, I would love to sink my teeth into a cheese pizza or some cheese enchiladas. But I certainly do notice that I have more energy and am more alert than usual. I must say, although I may not swear off dairy entirely just yet, I will be taking this dairy restricted diet back home with me.

P.S. Stumbled upon this article. Interesting idea with meatless Mondays. Obviously I think any step in that direction is a good thing. What do you think?

Cambodia and Thailand

I've now been back over a day from Thailand and Cambodia. Sort of strange to settle back into one place after being mobile for 8 days constantly. The photos above all have captions, so I'll just talk about a few things that stick out in my mind about the trip.

Cambodia:
The food was amazing, honestly some of the best that I have ever had. Amok seems to be a popular dish available at all restaurants. It's a sort of thick curry with vegetables and egg in it. The hospitality was also some of the best I have seen. Either people are genuinely friendly or they're really good at scamming. I like to think it's the former.

Phnom Penh was not at all what I was expecting in a capitol city. No tall buildings, and poverty everywhere. The ground was littered with trash wherever you went, people just threw things away on the ground when they were finished with them. It was really a stark contrast to any other cities I had seen. Siem Reap was somewhat dirty, but nothing compared to Phnom Penh. It's really hard to imagine living in such a place. Are people there happy living like that I found myself wondering? I can't imagine myself being happy living in such filth all the time.

Driving in Cambodia is also an experience. They drive on the right side of the road like in America, but there are literally no traffic laws. People commonly drive in the wrong lane. Honking is constant, and isn't used angrily as it is in the US, but rather as an alert to other drivers that you are there. The taxi ride from the border town of Poipet was my first taste of this, and my taxi was a British style one (driver on the right side) so he couldn't even see when he was passing the other drivers. Not that he cared too much, as autos frequently pass with just feet to spare before a collision would happen.

Overall though, Cambodia was worth if if only for Siem Reap, the food, and learning about the Khmer Rouge and a side of history seldom seen in the US.

Thailand:
We tended to stick to touristy areas of Thailand, though we did venture off a few times to see a bit more, and we walked around most places our last day rather than taking taxi or tuktuk. Speaking of which, the system of taxis/tuktuks is quite frankly the most corrupt thing I have ever seen. You're never sure if you're going to be scammed. Our first day we wanted to see a couple sights. We ended up getting dragged all over Bangkok going to the Tuktuk driver's sponsors so he could get free gasoline. If you are unfamiliar with what a sponsor is, it's a business that pays tuktuks to bring tourists there to try to sell them things. We went to three tailors where we were barraged by them trying to sell us custom tailored suits for 100USD. As a group we tolerated it because we had extra time anyways, the aircon felt good, and it made everything significantly cheaper (especially when combined with the fact that it was Buddhist holiday). The overall cost of the tuktuk was 20Baht, which split three ways meant that we spent 0.22USD for a whole day of driving. Not a bad deal.

Red Shirts. The media portrays them as a violent mob, but that is not at all what I saw of them in my time in Bangkok. On the contrary, they seemed to be friendly people who just wanted a more democratic system of government for Thailand. When you spoke to them they seemed happy that a foreigner wasn't afraid to speak to them considering how they have been portrayed. That being said, I cannot speak for all of them. As with any group, there are some radicals, such as those that broke into the government building. This did put things in perspective a bit, making me realize that these people are indeed pushing for a revolution, and as such can sometimes get out of hand. Nonetheless, I think that they have gotten a bad rap from the media. I am glad that I met redshirts during my time in Thailand. Not many people get to be somewhere in a time of potential revolution.

Architecturally, Bangkok was phenomenal. With Thailand being 95% Theravada Buddhist, you can see a lot of this style in the temples throughout the city. Incredibly elaborate details contrast sharply with simple floor plans. Seeing Wat Phra Kaew was a sensory overload with dozens of such buildings all gathered together.

Animal Cruelty. I'm a stickler on this, obviously. The first I saw of this was near the River Kwai with the jaguars. Later on, my group wanted to go see the Tiger Temple, which is operated by Buddhist monks. I did a bit of research and was appalled to see some of the violence displayed by monks and other caretakers towards the tigers. I had settled beforehand on not going in when it came to that part of our day tour, and my friend Bryan also decided that he would stay outside and wait. I am glad I did stay out, as some of the others who went saw the abuse firsthand.

We met a lot of interesting characters everywhere we went. One of the more interesting was a girl from Hamburg who had taken off 6 months after graduating with an English teaching degree to backpack the world. She had seen central and south America and a plethora of other places. She said she seldom stayed more than a few days in one location before feeling restless and bored. Bangkok was her last stop before returning home and she seemed curious as to how living in one place was going to be after that long on the road. Talking to her made me even more excited about this summer.

Overall I'm glad to be back in Hong Kong, where it's not obnoxiously hot, I don't get harassed all the time to buy things (except massages), and where I can trust a taxi driver not to scam me.