Sunday, December 1st, Krabi Town, Thailand

Sleeping in today felt wonderful.  Deciding on breakfast at a coffee shop around the corner from the hotel, we sat and people watched for a while.  Our waitress was younger than normal…

Our very young waitress

Actually this little princess was the daughter of our waitress.  She carried an order pad around the restaurant imitating what her mommy was doing.  Priceless!

After eating we walked down to the river where we ran across Mr. Ann, our long-boat driver from earlier this week.

Mr. Ann’s boat

He let us know that a group was gathered just ahead of where we were walking.  The protests have heated up in Bangkok and groups are spreading to the smaller cities including here in Krabi Town.

It is the red shirts vs the yellow shirts.  I had dressed in a bright red shirt this morning without thinking.  Wishing to remain neutral of any political situations, I returned to the hotel and changed into a black and white top.

The protesters are carrying flags and have whistles around their necks.  For the past several days we have heard whistles blowing frequently throughout the day.  They intensified and became much more numerous today.

Group was gathering

For the first time we see worry and stress on the faces of the local Thai people.  Normally such easy-going, friendly individuals with a ready smile, the average person now has a look of concern.

Tim and I had booked a class this afternoon at the Siam Cuisine Thai Cooking School.  The price was 1100 Baht ($34) per person which was supposed to be for a four-hour event where we chose six items to prepare.  That included the pick-up and return to our hotel.

I was disappointed that this class did not include a trip to the market to pick out our ingredients which I would have greatly enjoyed.  They already had a large woven basket filled with fresh ingredients.  Each was identified and explained to us.

Fresh ingredients

The items that we chose to make were Fried Noodles Thai style (Pad Thai), Chicken in coconut milk soup, Green curry, Minced chicken with holy basil, Papaya salad and Sweet sticky rice with Mangoes.

Two chefs in training

Bananas in coconut milk got substituted for the mango dish with no explanation.  Here are my finished products:

It was way too much food for me to eat.  I felt rushed through the preparation of each dish, and there were a few ingredients that Tim and I chose not to use that had artificial additives.  Our results were therefore not excellent…

Still it was an experience and we are thankful for what we learned.

Settled in to our room for the evening, we are relaxing and listening to whistles in the background.  Our TV is not working and we are not sure if the service has been cut off.  We are able to keep up to date through our computers by going to the local news outlet.  If you want to follow the news from here you can click here for Bangkok Post.

The Prime Minister has been relocated to an unidentified location and the opposite faction has called for a work stoppage tomorrow.

We want to reassure our friends and family that we are safe and doing fine where we are staying.