Update from Khemmarat

We have now been back in Khemmarat for almost two weeks.  It's great to be here in January.  It's "winter" now and, after the heat in November and December, it's wonderful to have cool mornings and evenings.  The sky is blue everyday and the sun bright and intense, but it's terrific in the shade all day.  We thought we'd report on some things we don't see in the U.S. and some wonderful things we've experienced in Khemmarat.

It's the dry season and we've noticed lots of tree trimming and weed-whacking.  We hope that the lush green foliage grows back in the rainy season.  For better or worse, we have a much better view of the field next door and we're seeing cows grazing there.  It seems like we see more cows than we used to but maybe it's just the better view.  Anyway, here are some of our neighbor cows as viewed from our balcony.

We've also seen cows grazing on the hillside above the beautiful Mekong River:

and near the town's concert stage:

There is a shady park about a block and a half from our apartment and we often walk through there on the way to town to avoid the hot sun.  Recently we saw a man walking a water buffalo through the park:

Ants are a favored food item in Isaan.  Ant eggs are popular.  Big red weaver ants live in nests in mango trees and "ant farmers" (our term) carry a long pole with a basket near the end and poke them into the ant nests in the tops of mango trees to get ants and ant eggs.  We've been told that ant egg season ended last fall, but folks still look for red ants, especially in the dry season, which is a hard time for Thai farmers.  Whole ants are cooked into a tomato-based soup (Gaeng Kai Mot Daeng) or into an omelet (Kai Jiow Kai Mot), or deep fried and eaten as a snack (Kai Mot Daeng Op).  We saw a woman walking through the park collecting ants, and she showed us her catch:

Update (January 24, 2013):  So maybe that wasn't right about ant eggs being out of season -- today, Wachinee brought us an ant egg dish for lunch at school.  The ant eggs were mixed into an omelet with some chili peppers (except for the portion for Mary, who can't eat spicy food) and other vegetables and herbs.  George had to get over a mental barrier, but Mary observed that we eat chicken eggs so why not ant eggs.  And the dish tasted pretty good.  George thought the ant eggs were sort of chewy; Mary thought they "popped" (maybe George didn't make it all the way over that mental barrier).  Here's a picture:

The Khemmarat Market has lots of interesting foods and George plans to do a special report one of these days, but we saw small, live frogs for sale the other day:

Frog meat is used in soups and served with Thai chili paste and bamboo, but we were told that these small frogs would likely be mixed with rice and cooked in a wrap of banana leaves.  The woman selling these let us take pictures and then asked us if we wanted  to buy a bag -- we passed on that offer.

Speaking of food, we have several favorite restaurants in Khemmarat; here are three.

This is a street-side restaurant directly in front of a 7-11 on the main street through town (there are two 7-11s on that street about two blocks apart).  Like at least some other street restaurants, this one sells only one dish, in this case, Khao Mun Gai.  It's a very simple dish: rice topped with boiled chicken served with sliced cucumber, a bowl of plain chicken broth, and a sweet, spicy sauce.  It is heavenly -- "Thai comfort food," we heard it called.  The "restaurant" is run by the couple in the picture; she is slicing chicken meat for the next plate, and he seems to do everything else.  Those are cooked chickens hanging in front of her ready for slicing.  The cost: 30 Baht per plate, about $1 US.






Next door to our apartment is the "Male Cooker Restaurant" (we were told -- we can't read the Thai sign out front).  It's owned by the owner of our apartment building and seems to serve many of us residents (we don't have kitchens).  The male cooker is Yodchai and he makes us a very healthy meal on our very frequent visits: rice with pad pak (mixed vegetables) and fish or chicken.

 

Overlooking the Mekong River is the popular Baan Kong Pa Neang Restaurant.  It has a deck looking down at the river as well as a restaurant set back a little. Its extensive menu has English as well as Thai.  And it has a singer named Rahn, who plays very pleasant songs in Thai, accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica.

We walk to the Kan Ang Cafe (our local "Starbucks") everyday and see some interesting things on our walk:

 

and beautiful plants and flowers:

and interesting bugs (these seen right on our balcony):

Our neighbors in the apartment next to our "office" apartment moved away, and we moved our "bedroom" apartment to that end apartment on Monday.  That means our two apartments are next door to each other and at the end of the hall (in the first picture above of the Male Cooker Restaurant, that's our building in the background and our apartments are the last two on the second floor on the right -- the door of our new apartment is open).  We figure that will let us use the hallway in front of the units as our balcony and sit out there in the shade.  This is the view of houses across the field from our balcony:

 The pictures below are the view to the side of the balcony.