Dining in the Dark, Bangkok Style

Our "guide" for our evening at Dining In the Dark was a tall, lanky, and very chatty Thai fellow named M.  M is blind, as are all the other guides or wait staff.  We entered an area that was pitch black...no light whatsoever.  Zero.  M led us down two steps then a left turn then a right...then to our seats. Dinners were chosen before we entered the restaurant...Moon had Asian....I had "the Surprise"...no idea what I was eating...still don't...except it tasted like chicken, (found out after the meal it was chicken.)  We both felt like rookies using utensils, unsure of where the food was...so I used my fingers as an advanced guide for my fork. After a while you begin to adapt, but it's a little creepy at first.  During the meal we started talking to Matt and Mena.  Mena drives for Uber in Singapore and Matt is a marketing agent for Sony, out of Hong Kong, ("my top show is "the Blacklist" he informed us....my favorite show).   We guessed each others age...we were close in identifying them...26 & 22.  They thought Terry and I were were 30 and 50-55 respectively...(bless their hearts.)  Of course, I couldn't pick them out of line up if a winning lotto ticket was on the line...luckily, sight is a luxury most of us possess...it adds much to our life...glad I was only "blind" for 2 hours.  BTW, the Sheraton donates a couple bucks from each dinner to the Thailand Foundation for the Blind.  

This Section Not For The Squeamish. You've been warned.  The next day...off to the Siriraj Hospital Forensic Museum.  Very interesting but kind of gross at the same time.  You can imagine that medical forensic science is the business of finding out how a person kicked the bucket. So we saw all manner of actual dried skulls and other bones, photographs, x-rays, etc. and all manner of body parts in formaldehyde. Gross.  There was a picture of a guy that was run over by a bus (why is it always a guy?)...complete with tire tracks...and I wondered how long did it take those guys to figure out what killed him?  There were several two headed babies....which led me to think....what if I was one half of such a person(s) and my brother was a lot smarter than me and a real dick to boot?...what a bummer having to deal with a snotty sidekick all my life...I'm glad we went, but not something I'm dying to see again...so to speak.

Bangkok's Chinatown is a cross between the Fremont Solstice parade, the Bite of Seattle only bigger,  and the largest outlet mall to ever exist.  Very lively.  Exciting.  At night it's all about the food.  Fragrances from fresh food on the grill, griddle, fryer, or steamer fills the air.  We had curried prawns cooked just right, steamed conch, and morning glories in a tasty sauce.  There are endless culinary delights here for the asking.  During the day it's about the shopping...anything you want is here somewhere.

We decided to get  away from the center of town, so we headed to Thewej at pier 15.  This is home to a local fish market.  Fish, eel, frogs, mud shrimp, and some kind of fermented fish that I would use on my garden, but never ever think about eating it. I start to gag thinking about it.  Then we moved on to the poulty and pork stalls.  I gotta tell ya...the thai are very creative and frugal when faced with what the heck to do with a whole pig...they use every part including the head, feet, intestines, ears, and toungue...besides the usual roast and pork chop and bacon areas of the pig.  The chicken are cooked whole...so the droopy head is always looking at you when you put in in the bag....

The next stop was Nonshaburi, also known as "end of the line" pier north of Bangkok.  The ferry stops here and turns around to head back south towards the center of Bangkok.  A paddling competition was in progress...the shells were, by my estimate, about 50-60 feet long with 32 paddlers and a fellow in the back who was paddling and steering.  Very exciting.  To watch all these guys  paddle at the same time, with a constnt rythm was truly amazing.  There was a circus like atmosphere in the stands and prominade, and food everywhere, along with the usual t-shirts, but...mostly food.  Delicious food,  so we ate again...what the heck.  The guy on the PA was calling the races fast and furiously in a Thai sing song kind of way....like Pat O'Day, on speed, calling the hydros at Seafair..  I don't nderstand Thai, but it seemed like I could undstand every word he was saying by the time the shells crossed the finsh line and his voice hit a cresendo.

Leaving for Mae Sot near the boarder of Myanmar.  First democratic elections for them.  Hope all goes well for the transition to a new democracy.