Our beach

That’s the scene right outside our front door at the Rayong Condo Chain.

And that’s my roommate Simon sitting on one of the most comfortable beach chairs ever invented. I don’t know how they do it, but these chairs look like they cost about 12 cents to make and they are twice as comfortable as anything back home.

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Coffee and eel

I’ve often thought that after something like 20 hours in the air, nothing hits the spot like a big bowl of eel and a caramel Frappuccino. So I was thrilled to discover that both were available at the food court near the international connections gates at Tokyo’s Nakarita Airport.

I had almost six hours to kill before my flight into Bangkok, so I sat down to my coffee and eel when I saw something across the food court that reminded me of how small a world it really is. On the front of a little bar that apparently caters to Midwestern tourists, a small decal proudly designated the establishment a “Johnsonville Brats Grillin’ Zone.” And as I packed up my tray to head to the gate, a Japanese man in a business shirt sat down to a cup of Starbucks and what may have seemed an equally exotic snack: a nice, tasty brat.

PS: The eel was pretty good. It tasted like a tender piece of fish, and was surprisingly easy to eat with chopsticks. You should pick some up the next time you’re in Tokyo.

PPS: If you’re ever in Ban Phe, Thailand — which you won’t be unless you happen to be taking a three-week TEFL course there (we’re literally the only westerners in the entire town, which is great because there are about 60 of us and we like to hang out in ridiculous places like Ban Phe’s only Irish Pub) — try the fish soup. They take the term quite literally over here.

The entire town of Ban Phe is basically a giant fish market that spans some 15 or so city blocks, and so far we’ve found only one sit-down restaurant. It has no English sign, of course, and no English menu, but we were told by the waitress that the place specializes in fish and prawns.

So, there being five of us at the time, we ordered three fish and two prawns. The fish ended up being fish soup, which meant a whole fish (head, tale, scales and all) floating in a bowl of clear broth. The dish came out in about 12 seconds, which leads me to believe that fish soup basically requires the chef to drop a fish on the grill until it’s cooked through, place the fish in an empty bowl, and pour a bit of broth on top.

The dish, of course, was delicious. Everything is here, regardless of how ridiculous it might look on your plate.

Despite the lack of actual restaurants, Ban Phe is full of street vendors with such offerings as squid on a stick, squid and fish cakes, Thai crab cakes (that would mean whole crab with some breading on the shell), skewered barbeque chicken (for about 3 cents per skewer), etc. Whatever you order, they will cut it into little bite-size pieces, put it in a plastic bag, and give you a wooden skewer to eat it with.

All of it is absurdly cheap and tastes amazing. Just don’t make the same mistake my roommate made on our first trip to town, when he decided his bag of grilled squid could use some spicy chili sauce.

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Good News, I’m Alive

That’s pretty much the feeling here as I sit down at the Ban Phe internet cafe, having just survived a ride into town on the back of my roommate Simon’s motorbike. The streets are not actually all that perilous here (nothing like what you may have read about Bangkok), but Simon most certainly is. At any rate, Ban Phe is absolutely beautiful, particularly if you live directly on the beach in the beautiful Rayong Condo Chain. Our room is little more than two single beds and some really bad wallpaper (think 70s, and peeling off the walls a bit), but the beach is exactly as gorgeous as you’d think it would be and it starts about 12 steps from my front door. Not to worry, pictures are on the way (hopefully sometime this week).

Basically, I spend half my time on the beach and half my time at a local temple, where our TEFL classes are held. We share the temple with a few dozen monks-in-training (orange robes and all), who range from about 12 to 18 or so. At the end of the week, we’ll be teaching them English for our teaching practice. Again, pictures to follow.

I’ve already purchased some fisherman’s pants (they go for about 100 baht, or $3) and I’m now in the market for a King’s Shirt (yellow polo with the royal symbol, which is to be worn every Monday on the King’s Day) and a knock-off watch to replace the one I lost on the beach in Ko Samet (more on that later). Things are obviously going extremely well and I’m starting to understand why so many people come out here and never leave (like the current owner of the bar we frequented on Ko Samet, who came out here 19 years ago and now owns the place and spends his days training as a Muay Thai fighter).

As I said, pictures are on the way just as soon as I can remember to take my flash drive to the internet cafe when I have a ride into town. I have a few thousand more stories to tell you, but that’s it for now I think. Safe to say I’m here, doing well and having a ridiculously interesting time.

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