Final Post

The night train in Chiang Mai arrived in Bangkok around 8:00 a.m. on December 19.  We took a taxi and checked back into the Lub'd Hostel before going back to one of my favorite places in the world, Bangkok's Chinatown.  Anna and I were on a mission to find Thai iced tea bubble slushies.  Before traveling to Thailand, I had never had Thai iced tea, but I quickly became addicted to it.  Thai iced tea is bright orange and is typically made with a combination of star anise, black tea, ground tamarind, cardamon, cream, sugar, and condensed milk.  Chinatown was much less crowded, probably because it was a Wednesday morning, and we searched all over before we finally found this drink.  The combination of the creamy Thai iced tea in a slushy form with tapioca pearls = the perfect drink for a hot day in Bangkok.  After buying another steamed egg custard bun, we went back to our hostel to move into our rooms and rest.  It was Sarah's 21st Birthday so that night we had a great dinner and went to an Asian saloon, after which occurred an unexpected turn of events that resulted in a very memorable night, to say the least.

The next morning, December 20, Anna and I said goodbye to Sarah and Jenny and we left Bangkok for Ho Chi Minh City.  I was going to leave Bangkok on the 21nd, but Eliza and Molly were leaving a day earlier from Vietnam and I wanted to see them before they left.  Anna and I were craving mango sticky rice and luckily the Bangkok airport anticipated this as it was sold in almost every store.  Full of pad thai, carrying Thai iced tea and mango sticky rice, bags bursting at the seams with scarves, lanterns, and embroidered cloth from Chiang Mai and jewelry and clothes from Khao San Road, I was ready to go back to Vietnam. 

Once Anna and I landed, we went back to the SIT office and had coffee with our professor, Co Thanh.  We told her about our travels and she discussed her plans for the program this coming spring.  It is strange to think that she does everything again with an entirely different group of students each semester.  Anna and I wandered downtown into District 1 and looked at all the Christmas decorations on the fancy stores.  We went up to the bar of the Caravelle Hotel because I knew they had an outdoor terrace where we could watch the sunset over Ho Chi Minh City.  Both of us were ready to go home and see our families, but now that we were at the end of our trip, we could not believe it was actually over.  We walked to get sticky rice for dinner and then went back to the guest house (where we had first stayed) to get our luggage that we had stored there for the afternoon.  

Walking back, I was exclaiming how good I was at crossing the street in the insane traffic.  It was especially crazy because it seemed like every single person in Vietnam was driving around to take pictures with every single holiday light display.  "I'm not even afraid anymore.  See I've finally gotten the hang of just walking straight through traffic and I'm not even worrying!"  Literally, two minutes later I was hit for the first time by a motorbike as a woman was stopping.  I was completely fine and just walked away (after saying "xin loi" (pronounced sin loy), sorry in Vietnamese, to the driver), which shows #1 that I did absorb the standard Vietnamese calm reaction to traumatic events and #2 it is still difficult to cross the road in HCMC.  You just have to hold your breath and hope for the best.  Looking both ways might also be a good idea.  

Anna and I said goodbye as she got into a taxi to take her to a relative's house and I got in a taxi to go to my host family's apartment.  My host family was kind enough to let me stay with them for my last two nights in Vietnam.  I had tried to keep my host sister updated throughout my travels and was excited to see her again and hear about her new job.  On Dec. 21, I reconnected with Eliza and Molly and we spent the day at Saigon Square buying gifts and catching up.  We parted ways that evening and I spent the next day riding motorbike and baking cookies with my host sister for her English club's holiday party. 

My two backpacks and one rolling suitcase were stuffed to the max as I arrived at the HCMC airport for the last time.  With promises to stay in touch, I said goodbye to my host mother and sister.  Sarah was on my flight to Tokyo so we said our goodbyes in Japan.  16 hours of flying later, I was greeted by my Dad and brother in the JFK airport.  And after sleeping for almost fifteen hours straight, once I arrived home, I was ready to celebrate the holidays.  Winter break flew by and before I knew it, I was back at Barnard.  I have loved reconnecting with all of my friends, starting a new internship, and taking new classes, but there are always moments in the day where I will stop and think about what the new SIT group is doing in Vietnam and reminisce about my time there.  

Things I miss about Vietnam:

50 cent bubble tea

20,000 dong to the U.S. Dollar

Passion fruits, mangos, custard apples, mangosteens

Sticky rice

My host family

The open food markets

Phở

The Lunch Lady's soups in HCMC

Bun Bo Hue

Learning about the culture

Living in a different city every week

Attempting to speak Vietnamese

Using chopsticks at every meal

Living out of a suitcase (somedays I miss that)

My host mother's Mooncakes (and all her cooking)! (Photo courtesy of Sarah)

Riding motorbike

The scenery

Vietnamese coffee

Fresh seafood

The freedom and ability to travel all around

Banana flower salad

The beaches

All the people I met

Preparing for Vietnam's Monsoons haha (Photo courtesy of Jenny)

These people

And especially these people and this place.  (Photo courtesy of Libie)

Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog!  It has been fun writing about my adventures and sharing my experiences with you.  

Until the next trip,

Helenka

Post SIT Travels: Day Two - Chiang Mai, Thailand

We were all exhausted after our elephant riding, bamboo rafting, Lady Boy watching day in Chiang Mai.  Luckily, the the next day, December 18, we already had plans to take a cooking class through Sammy's Organic Thai Cooking School.

We packed our bags, thanked our gracious hostel host Vee, and left Bunchun Hostel around 8:00 a.m. A driver greeted us outside Bunchun in a pickup truck and drove us to a local market where we met our cooking instructor and a few other people who were also in our cooking class.  The market, was in a covered pavilion and had over fifty vendors selling fruits, vegetables, flowers, snacks, rice, and much more.  Just like the Chinatown Market in Bangkok, I could have spent all day looking at and tasting the fresh ingredients.

A sleeping vendor.

 Different varieties of rice.

One person was selling over twenty different types of rice.  Another woman sat next to a table piled high with banana leaf wrapped steamed cakes.  We hadn't had breakfast yet, so we tried steamed rice with a custard topping and steamed rice with banana.  The custard was sweet and had a hint of vanilla-like flavor, but there were no visible specks of vanilla bean so it could have been made with pandanus, the Thai-version of vanilla.  Pandanus is a long and slender leaf that is commonly used to flavor Thai desserts.

Steamed rice with custard topping.

Our instructor was a very sweet Thai woman who handed us all sheets of paper and told us to pick one thing out of each category that we wanted to cook.  We had to choose between:
1. yellow, red, or green curry
2. cashew chicken, pad thai, or thai holy basil chicken
3. tom yum, spicy vegetable, or chicken coconut milk soup
4. spring rolls and green papaya salad
5. banana coconut milk dessert or sticky rice with mango

We all choose something different so we could try each other's dishes.  I chose to make green curry, cashew chicken, tom yum soup, green papaya salad and sticky rice with mango (of course).  Once again, these are Anna's pictures so they portray many of the dishes she made.  The instructor took us around the market and introduced us to new vegetables and spices.  After the market tour, we got back into the pickup truck and were driven to Sammy's Organic Farm, where the cooking class was held.  It was a beautiful location in the countryside on the outskirts of Chiang Mai.

The class was held in an open pavilion connected to a house.  There was a garden behind the buildings filled with fresh herbs like lemongrass, kaffir lime, and thai holy basil.  Next to the garden, there were about ten hammocks.  We started the class by making our own curry paste.

Mincing the shallots, garlic, chili pepper, galangal ginger, and kaffir lime. 

Ingredients for red curry: shallot, kaffir lime rind, lemongrass, galangal ginger,
garlic, fresh turmeric, and red dried chili pepper.
I'm pretty sure  cumin and coriander seeds were added as well. 

Red Curry Paste

I recently went out for Thai food in New York City and ordered red curry.  My friend asked if it even compared to what I had eaten in Thailand.  The flavors are similar, but there are differences, like the freshness of the ingredients.  Most everything we cooked with had just been picked.  There was no freezing, transporting, or storing involved.  It is also hard to find all of the ingredients like long beans, fresh tumeric, galangal ginger, and kaffir lime in many parts of the U.S.  Green beans, powdered tumeric, ginger root, and lime zest are all good substitutions, but they alter the robustness of the dish's flavor ever so slightly.  The curry pasts that we made were incredibly flavorful and balanced with just the right amount of heat to accent the dish.  Believe me when I say curry paste from a glass jar does not compare to making your own.  It is worth it to prepare your own curry paste and grind up all the herbs and spices when they are fresh.

After we minced and pounded the ingredients into a smooth paste, we were ready to make the actual curry.  All the ingredients were pre-measured so each dish was a perfect one-serving portion.

Red Curry Ingredients: red curry paste, tofu, thai basil,
long bean, baby corn, pea and baby eggplant.

Red Curry

During my time in Vietnam, many of the students on my trip bumped into people that they had known back in the U.S. Tom first saw a guy he knew from California in Hanoi.  Then we proceeded to see him in Sapa, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City.  Molly ran into someone she knew from high school at a club in HCMC.  I was just waiting to randomly run into someone I knew.  At the cooking class, there was a guy who was originally from a city just north of the tiny town where I grew up in NY.  He had gone to a high school that was my school's rival and graduated one year ahead of me.  Small world right?

Green Curry

 We cooked our curries, soups, and either chicken or pad thai dishes then sat down to have lunch together.  There was sticky and jasmine rice to go along with our delicious meal.  Everything was wonderful, but the yellow curry was my favorite dish of the meal because it had a very vibrant flavor.

Jenny proudly showing off her yellow curry.

Yellow Curry Paste Recipe (from Sammy's Organic Cookbook):

1/2 tsp. roasted coriander seeds

1/2 tsp. roasted cumin seeds
4 dried chillies

1 Tab. chopped lemongrass

1 tsp. chopped galangal

1 Tab. chopped shallot

1 tsp. chopped garlic

1/2 tsp. chopped kaffir lime rind

1/2 tsp. peppercorns

1 tsp. chopped fresh turmeric

1 tsp. yellow curry powder

1/2 tsp. shrimp paste

1/4 tsp. salt

Grind the seeds into a powder with a mortar and pestle.  Add the ingredients except for the shrimp paste and yellow curry powder.  Pound until thoroughly combined.  Add shrimp paste and yellow curry powder until the mixture becomes a smooth paste.  Use it right away or cook the paste in a skillet for a few minutes then put it in a sealed glass jar and it will keep for one month. 

Yellow Curry with Chicken Recipe (from Sammy's Organic Cookbook):

2 Tab. yellow curry paste

100 g. sliced chicken breast

1/2 cup coconut cream

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 onion, peeled and sliced

1 cup potato, peeled and diced into bite-sized pieces

1 Tab. fish sauce (Be warned that fish sauce is salty! It's better to add a little then add more to taste)

1 tsp. palm sugar (or raw or granulated sugar)
1 green onion sliced
A few thin slices of red bell pepper or chili pepper

Heat the coconut cream in a saucepan until boiling.  Add the yellow curry paste, stirring until it becomes fragrant.  Add the sliced chicken breast and cook until they are almost all cooked.  Stir in the coconut milk and bring the mixture to a boil.  Next, put in the potatoes and onion turn the heat to low and cook until tender.  Season with fish sauce and palm sugar.  A little fish sauce goes a long way so be sure to start with a little then add more if needed.  Cook for two more minutes then remove from the stove.  Garnish with the green onion and thin slices of either red bell pepper or chili pepper.  Serve with jasmine rice and enjoy. 

Holy Basil Chicken

After we were all happily full, the instructor told us to take a nap in the hammocks for two hours while they cleaned up and prepped the kitchen for the next round of cooking.  I fell asleep swinging in my hammock in the shade of the garden.  At 2 p.m. we resumed cooking and I made green papaya salad and mango sticky rice.

Green papaya salad ingredients. 

Green Papaya Salad 

At the end of the class, each person was given a cookbook filled with all the recipes we had learned. Our instructor was nice enough to package up our leftovers with some wooden chopsticks so we could eat them for dinner on the train back to Bangkok.  The pickup truck dropped us off at the train station and we boarded our night train for the fourteen hour trip back to Bangkok.  The time passed fairly quickly as we reminisced about our travels.  I could not wrap my head around the fact that in five days I would be landing in the U.S.  I finished my mango sticky rice and watched as Thailand flew by out the window of the train.

Me, Jenny, our cooking class instructor, Anna, and Sarah