My Road to Steemfest – The Thai Life
To be totally honest… before sitting down to write this post, I hadn’t given much thought to what local delicacies or experiences I wanted to have in Thailand. I think that’s the beauty of these weekly free-write challenges. Not only does it help Steemfest goer’s to connect and get to know each other better… but it helps me prepare for my own travels by prompting such interesting questions.
At the risk of sounding like a totally ignorant white girl – I did a little research so my response was more compelling than just, “I want to eat pad-thai.” Nothing wrong with that, in fact I love pad thai and am very much looking forward to it, but I figured there’s a lot more than that. Alternatively, I probably could have asked @waybeyondpadthai to elaborate on her username and give me some good ideas. Maybe I still will! I’ll have to hit up a few of my more well-travelled friends such as @daveonarrival and @o07 for some tips on traveling in Thailand.
One thing I’d be curious to look into… is what are the best low carb thai option? Seems like most foods have a strong presence of noodles or rice. I eat pretty low carb in my daily routine now and usually throw that out the window when I’m traveling…but am thinking about trying to be a little better this trip. I gorged myself so fully on pierogis in Poland last year that it took two months of solid effort to get the weight I gained off. I’m all about living large and enjoying local foods…but maybe I don’t have to go big every meal… :)
When I think of Thailand another picture that comes to mind is people riding elephants on the beach. Not sure that’s an activity I want to participate in though as it makes me sad to think about the elephants being in captivity for the sake of tourists enjoyment.
I also want to say that it will be my first time traveling in Asia, and if anything, I’m more nervous than I was about going to Poland. Bangkok is such a big city and I would be worried about getting lost – so I’ll probably stay pretty close to the pack. I’m planning to get a room at the hotel where the event is happening and will try to setup some buddies that I travel around with so I’m never out by myself. I’m still hoping my sister @maryjaney will come with me this year… but we’ll see what happens! She’s my favorite travel buddy and it would be fun to have the @steemsistershow in action at Steemfest!
PS… we are open to collaborations/partnerships for anyone who might want to help fund our trip to have us support your brand/project in some way at Steemfest. DM me in Discord if that sounds interesting to you and we can talk.
Can I be honest for a second and say I’m a little worried about Steemfest attendance this year considering that we are at the bottom of the bear and the price of steem is so low? The amount of active/engaged users is pretty dang low and with the price of steem being around or under the $.20 mark – people will probably need to fund their trip with fiat – which will put more strain on even some that want to go. I promise I’m not trying to get a negative Nancy here – but it’s something I’ve wondered about.
I’ve just decided that I’m going to view this as more of a vacation and less of a “working” trip. I mean, how often do you get to travel to Asia with such an amazing group of people and having someone as talented as @roeldandp crafting cool experiences for you? No matter what attendance looks like… I have no doubt that it will be worth every penny.
Okay… back to the thai life!! I’m excited to experience some tropical fruits that I don’t usually encounter at home. From what I can tell, there seems to be an abundance of beautiful fruits and vegetables. I also really enjoy curries and look forward to tasting various types while I’m there. One thing I’m NOT planning to try is the famous blood soup! Ugh!
I’d also love to try a variety of different sweet, chilled beverages. (would be an occasional treat because of the aforementioned low carb party-pooper) But I would love to try thai iced tea and see how it differs over there versus what we get in thai restaurants here.
OH! And one more thing that I’m planning to avoid at all costs… is Durian Fruit. A co-worker of mine recently went to Thailand and brought back some candies for the office. Even though dozens of people ate candies and were fine – my friend tried one and immediately swelled up, broke out into hives and had to be rushed to the emergency room. After some testing – they found that she was allergic to the durian fruit in the candy. Yikes! Although the chance of that also happening to me is slim… being rushed to a Thai hospital is an experience I’d rather avoid.
Well… there are all my thoughts on the Thai Life! Tons more research is needed on my part still – especially when it comes to avoiding getting sick from water or food… but I’m feeling pretty excited to experience it all. Knowing that Roelandp is organizing cool events makes this trip pretty low pressure because I know I’m going to see a lot of the city and experience different things… just by attending. :)
Ps… you still have until Sunday, September 8th to get your own free-write challenge in for #roadtosteemfest. You can check out the announcement post HERE. @anomadsoul mentioned that anyone who participates in 75% of the weekly free-writes will have a special surprise waiting for them at Steemfest! Who wouldn’t want that?
Love you guys and I look forward to reading other “Thai Life” posts in this week’s entries! If anyone has resources/thoughts for things I should think about in my Thai travels – I’m always open to hearing them!
XO, Lea
carbs are tough to avoid here since as you said, almost everything involves rice or noodles. However, there are a ton of "snacks on a stick" available all over the place where it is basically just meat prepared a number of delicious ways.
There is a type of food called Isaan food (sometimes spelled Esaan) which is basically the cuisine of the north-east of the country. Almost all of this comes without rice as the rice aspect is "sticky rice" which is served on the side. I normally just skip the rice altogether if i am trying to avoid carbs. The most famous Isaan dish is papaya salad or "som-tum" and although a tiny bit of sugar is used in the process, this is only a small amount.
Virtually all of the delicious curries can be eaten without the rice or it's up to you how much of it you use. I don't think you will have as much of a problem as you might be thinking. It is just a bit more expensive (still cheap) to eat this way.
Careful of most Thai beverages as it is extremely common for a LOT of processed sugar to be added in the form of what the thais simply call "syrup" (it's just melted sugar)
Mainly i think snacks on a stick are going to be your "go to" there are lots of them and they are available pretty much everywhere, especially in BKK.
Thank you for the super helpful comment!!! I’m screenshotting this and adding it to my BKK research. The snacks on a stick sound perfect! Good point about being able to avoid rice because so many curries and other dishes have it on the side too.
Also - thanks for the warning with the iced beverages. I will proceed with caution there. 😬
oh, i should have added that there are fruit shakes available friggin everywhere. This is where they sneak in the liquid sugar, sometimes without telling you. While it does make it taste better (as sugar tends to) you are basically consuming three teaspoons of sugar in your nice healthy "fruit shake"
I'm not saying avoid fruit shakes, but just make sure they don't add sugar because at most places it is added by default.
Just reading this comment after I made mine, I second the motion on papaya salad!
papaya salad is one of those things that no matter how many times i have it, I still want to eat it again a few hours later or so. The mix of sour and spicy, in the hands of someone who really knows their stuff, is just divine.
Thanks @gooddream now I'm hungry!
It's also cool as there are many variations you can make.
I always ask my partner to add peanuts into mine as it adds some extra crunch!
I'm lucky as we have a papaya tree out the back of the house so it means we can get them fresh at 1 am in the morning when the late night hunger calls!
There is an art to cutting them up into fine pieces when she is preparing with a large knife in the kitchen I make sure the kids stay well clear.
I've added a video below for anyone wanting to see how we cut a papaya for the salad.
👍
~Smartsteem Curation Team
Oh my gosh you guys are amazing!!! Thank you so much for the support lately! ♥️♥️♥️
I had a lot of grilled Red Snapper in Bangkok and it was very inexpensive, even near Kao San Rd. where all the backpackers are. No carb issues there and its charcoal grilled so SUPER yum! There are loads of fresh sea food options (not just Red Snapper) so enjoy!
Oh yum!!! That sounds amazing! I would not be sad about eating fresh fish like that for a week. 😍
See you in Bangkok!
Yay! See you there! 🤗
I recommend pow pow salad.
Thanks for the recommendation! What’s in it?
papaya
Hehehe, Durian! I remember the first time I entered Singapore airport, I saw signs everywhere with a picture of the Durian fruit on it with a big red cross through it. I also recall thinking that it was weird that a fruit would be forbidden... Until I smelled one, that's when I understood! Its smell is quite strong and doesn't compare to anything. Most people either HATE Durian with a passion or absolutely love it. There's no in between. I always disliked the smell, but loved the taste. It's a strange fruit.
If you're on low carb diet, there will be plenty of fruit or vegetables. Fruit has carbs of course, but not the 'bad' kind. I'm someone who always had trouble to keep a good weight. Now, I was a LOT skinnier years ago, but always had issues with keeping it at the same level. But never in Asia. I lived of mangoes, bananas and other delicious fruit, left out the rice, but did eat mostly everything else.
And since it's always warm, I never really felt hungry, and drank a lot more water too.
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There are tons of great Currys
Papaya salad is popular, but if you feel like a bit of meat and still want low carbs and full of flavor... I love Thai beef salad.
Being in Bankok there will be tons of low carb options and with all the food on the streets I think you will struggle to stay low carb the entire time, the food is very fragrant and tempting... If you have never seen real durian, you will smell someone selling it before you see them sometimes. It's banned in most hotels here in Siem Reap. This year A University was exacuated in Australia... turned out to be durian, but people thought it was a gas leak 😂
and while tuktuks are a great novelty...taxis are safer(bag snatchings), have aircon and nowadays are cheaper also. As @o07 said Grab is a great app for taxis and tuktuks.
You can pick up a tourist sim from the airport or 7Eleven and it will give you free some free data for GPS and apps. Top-ups are dirt cheap also.
If you like fish though... If you cannot see the fish before they cook it (most places you will though). Make sure you ask what kind of fish, river fish is almost always catfish which can be off-putting when your not expecting it.
Thailand is amazing. Bangkok is great but if you get a chance to explore more of Thailand. Do it, the majority of the country is not like Bangkok!