"Reverse Culture Shock"

Both Eric and I are pretty much a "go with the flow" type of people, so it was little surprise to me that we didn't really experience any culture shock when moving to Thailand just over one year ago. I haven't had any moments that have made me throw up my hands and say "I'm done" or any fits of uncontrollable crying. I am not saying that I won't experience some sort of freak out in the future, but so far I would say I've adjusted fairly well.


So it came as a huge surprise during my recent month long trip back to the United States that I experienced a little bit of reverse culture shock. There were many things that shocked and confused me, but there were also things that I found joy and delight in rediscovering. 


Efficient Bureaucracy
The first time reverse culture shock hit me was when I was waiting in the Immigration and Customs line at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. There was an Immigration officer actually directing people into the correct lines! This was so confusing, especially after dealing with the huge lines and mass confusion at immigration in the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. It was a nice change of pace, but confusing none the less.


Driving a car
One of things that I really missed about being in the United States was the ability to just hop in a car and drive to the grocery store or to visit friends across the state. While I went through the long process of getting my Thai Driver's license, I have yet to actually drive a car in the Land of Smiles. The thought of actually having to navigate a vehicle through traffic composed of taxis lane diving to find the fastest route and motorcycles weaving through the smallest gaps between cars makes me break out in to a nervous sweat. 


So, needless to say, I was very excited about being able to drive again during our visit to the United States. I spent much of the flight worrying that I had forgotten how to drive or that I would accidentally drive on the wrong side of the road. In the end, my fears were unfounded and I enjoyed many hours of driving through Wisconsin and Oregon with my windows down and my favorite music on the radio. It was a great break from my usual car rides in the back seat of an over air conditioned taxi blaring the latest Thai pop songs. 


Sensory Overload
I think this form of reverse culture shock was the most surprising for me, especially since I've been living for the past year in a city of 8 million people. The city constantly assults all of your senses -smell, sound, touch, taste. It is a chaotic mess, but one I've grown accustomed to and have even started to enjoy.


So it came as a huge shock when I wandered into the local Target store and immediately got a headache. The store was so bright and clean and all the signs were in English and there was a buzz of conversation around me and I could understand it ALL!


Living in a country where I don't speak or read the language, I've grown accustomed to blocking out most conversations and ignoring most signs because they are in Thai and obviously don't pertain to me. So it was really overwhelming when I came back to the US and my filters no longer functioned and my brain had to cope with all of this new information.


Plus, I think I was also overwhelmed with happiness at being in a Target store. They really should open one in Bangkok- especially one that carries Western sized clothing and shoes. I would NEVER leave! 


So Many Choices!
Awesome micro-brewed Beer and affordable cheese- need I say more??

Sand Creek + Campfire = Match made in WI heaven 

So many choices....

New Foods!
While shopping for supplies to bring back to Bangkok, I played a fun game of "Find the new food items". The goal was to find as many new types and flavors of snack foods as I could. I think I did pretty well!

Too bad I don't like coconut

Cherry Dr. Pepper desert topping sounds so awful 

Monster marshmallows!!!

Best thing EVER! Should have brought a case back with me.

All in all it was a great trip to see family and friends, enjoy cool weather and eat awesome food. And now that I know about the reverse culture shock, I will be better prepared on our next trip back.

Iron Craft- Secret Ingredient: "Green"

In January I joined a craft-a-long on a website called Iron Craft. Each week we are given a new secret ingredient and we have a week to create something using that ingredient. This was the first week that I actually had enough time and materials to create something.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, this week's secret ingredient was the color green. After pondering this for a few minutes, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to spin up some fiber I've had in my stash for a while and create some thing useful- a Thai sized beer bottle cozy. 

In Thailand, most of the local beer like Chang, Leo, and Singha is sold in 640 ml bottles. These bottles are much larger than the 12 oz bottles that are used in the United States, and by the time you get to the end of the bottle the beer can be pretty warm in this hot weather. Therefore a bottle cozy is a necessary item!

Wool roving I bought eons ago

Singles on a bobbin

Finished 3 ply yarn (Navajo plyed)

Finished cozy on a GIANT BOTTLE OF BEER!

Singapore's Other Attractions

While we chose to travel to Singapore because of their beer selection, we were able to drag ourselves away from our riverside table at Brewerkz in order to see some of Singapore's great sights and eat some amazing food.

The first place we visited was Fort Canning Park. It was the first time we actually walked up a hill in almost 6 months. Living in flat-as-a pancake Bangkok almost made me forget what a hill looked like.

Fort Canning Park

What are those called again... Oh yeah, hills.

Former police station turned Ministry of Art and Communications

Very convincing "Keep Out" signs

Our next stop was to Singapore's Chinatown. There we wandered through a market that sold everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to women's clothing.

Entrance/Exit for the MRT subway in Chinatown

mmmm... fresh fruit

On our third day in Singapore, we really didn't have anything planned, so Eric came up with the brilliant idea of just hoping on the MRT and taking it to a random stop. We eventually decided to get off at the Harbour Front stop, because we wanted to actually see the harbor and marina. Once we arrived at that stop we spotted signs for a cable car, and continuing with the spur of the moment theme, decided to try it out. 

Waiting to exit the loading area

Boy, was that a great decision. The cable car took us up and over the harbor and to Sentosa Island, an island covered in amusement rides, resorts, and casinos. While we didn't feel like going on any amusement rides, we did enjoy people watching and exploring the island.

A unique view of Singapore

Shipping containers galore!

Monks in their beautiful orange robes fit right in this garden

Merlion- half lion, half mermaid

On our last night in Singapore we decided to check out the area further down the Singapore River, There we wandered around, soaking in the unique architecture. My favorite building was The Esplanade, an arts and cultural center also known as "The Durians" because the building looks like two durian fruit. My least favorite was the brand new Marina Sands hotel/mall/casino- to me it looks like they plopped a boat down onto three buildings, although the inner geek in me loved the double helix bridge with its a to t and c to g lights in the floor.

Luckily they don't smell like durian

Double helix bridge leading to the Marina Sands

While we were out and about in Singapore, we took the opportunity to try some awesome food and drinks at some very unique restaurants and bars including:

Da Dong Restaurant in Chinatown. This was the first time that Eric and I had tried dim sum. It was always something that I've wanted to try, but for some reason never had. I think I am hooked now- I mean steamed buns filled with meat, what could be any better??

Sooo much dim sum...

Glutton's Bay near the Esplanade. This is a collection of great hawker street food vendors, and we had a hard time choosing our dinner. In the end we decided on the satay and the roti john. Washed down with an ice cold Tiger beer of course.

Satay and beer- they were meant for each other.

Messy but delicious.

I think the weirdest place that we found though was at Clarke Quay. Located across the river from our hotel was an entertainment area filled with interesting bars and restaurants.

When the outside looks like this, I can't resist checking it out

Inside this entertainment area, we found a bar called "The Clinic". The first time we walked by the bar, we had to stop and do a double take. We then shook our heads and kept walking down the sidewalk. About 15 minutes later, our curiosity got the better of us, and we had to go back and try it out.

In this outdoor bar you sit in chairs that look like these:

Yes, that is a gold wheel chair.

And you drink your drinks out of this:

I.V. mixed drinks

The business end replaces a needle with a straw.

We had a great time, sitting in our wheel chairs, drinking IV mixed drinks and basking in the confused stares of other pedestrians. It was definitely a unique experience!

The Epic Search for IPA- The Thrilling Conclusion

As promised, here is the thrilling conclusion to our epic search for IPA beer in Bangkok. 

And the thrilling conclusion is this: IPA beer CANNOT be found in Bangkok- it just does not exsist in any bar, grocery store or back alley market. Sorry for those who read my first post in the hopes of finding a super secret source of IPA beer in Bangkok.

Our first taste of IPA beer in Bangkok was actually provided by our awesome friend Jamie, who brought us some bottles of Samuel Adams IPA on her recent visit to the Land of Smiles. This was a suprise for Eric, who almost broke down into tears of joy when presented with the bottles. Seriously, I have never seen someone so happy about two bottles of beer!

This is the face of a very happy man

Since we couldn't find IPA in Bangkok, we had to resort to drastic measures to get our hop fix. We decided that the only solution was to plan a vacation getaway to a location nearby that had IPA beer. We decided on Singapore because it not only has IPA beer in bottles, it is also home to Brewerkz, a microbrewery that brews 13 different beers, including TWO types of IPA. We planned our entire vacation around this brewery, even picking a hotel that was within walking distance. Some may say we are crazy to plan an entire vacation around beer, but those people have obviously never had an IPA before.

Brewerkz is located on Clarke Quay along the Singapore River. It is a bustling tourist area with a huge selection of bars, restaurants, and other eateries. Despite this fact, we still went back to Brewerkz every night for the four nights we were in Singapore. Yes, we did explore the city (more on that to come) but a large portion of our time was spent sipping IPA next to the river. It was one of the best vacations ever.

It is a thing of beauty

I was really impressed with the selection of beer

Sign on the floor to direct you to the bathroom

The Epic Search for IPA

I have a confession to make- Eric and I are beer snobs. Which is funny considering that we spent many an hour during the beginning of our relationship drinking $1 pints of Coors Light and solving all of the world's problems. Now that we are older, and wiser we've come to the realization that the saying "Life's too short to drink crappy beer" is all too true.

Luckily, we lived in Wisconsin- one of the best states for great micro and craft breweries. We could go to almost any restaurant and they would have at least 10 different beers on tap, and these would be good beers not just Miller or Budweiser. The grocery stores were filled with beer not only from Wisconsin, but from all over the United States. Plus, in our city there was a home brew supply store where Eric could get supplies to brew his own beer.

* Wisconsin- Home of the World's Largest Six Pack!

 * Photo courtesy of World Largest Roadside Attractions- an awesome site!

Of course not all of the beer we liked was cheep, many a family gathering was filled with light hearted teasing from our relatives who couldn't understand why anyone would pay $12 for a six pack of beer. We in turn complemented them on their choice of beer flavored water. 

More often than not, our go-to beer would be an IPA or India Pale Ale. For those of you who haven't tried this drink of the gods, I weep for you. It has an intense hop flavor due to the extreme amount of hops used in the brewing process. It is definitely an acquired taste, but once you are hooked all other beers pale in comparison. ( Did you see what I did there?)

Flash forward to our arrival in Bangkok. During our preparations for moving overseas I spent many hours reading expat blogs and forums- so I knew that finding IPA beer in Bangkok would be difficult. I just never realized just how difficult it would be.

Our first place to look for IPA was at the usual place people go to look for beer- local bars. After some searching on the interwebs we were able to find two bars that might carry IPA. Our first stop was at "The Londoner Brew Pub", a bar on Sukhumvit Soi 23. The Londoner actually brews it's own beer at the pub and one of the beers is a Cream Bitter, which we thought might be somewhat similar to an IPA since hops have a bitter taste. Boy were we wrong. The beer itself was pretty good, but it was absolutely nothing like an IPA. So that was strike one.


Our next attempt was at a bar called "The Office" which is located off of Sukhumvit Soi 33. We read on a couple of expat blogs and forums that they carry an IPA. This interesting excursion did not lead to an IPA beer ( the forums mistakenly called a Pale Ale beer IPA- completely different beers, people) it did lead to us experiencing something that I knew existed in Bangkok, but had yet to see for myself. 

When you walk into "The Office" the first thing you see is a long bar. Instead of the usual selection of booze and beer you find behind most bars, this one had a selection of scantily clad women wearing numbers. The actual bar with all of the alcohol was shoved into the corner out of the way. So while we were drinking our Pale Ales we could watch beautiful Thai women do exciting things, like text on their phones and talk to each other. Of course, we did go at 6:00 in the evening, so I am sure it is much more exciting later at night. 


So that was strike two.

Strike three came when we attempted to find IPA in the grocery stores. Bangkok actually has quite a few grocery stores that cater to expats and carry a wide selection of imported goods we can't live without- like Doritos and salsa. We searched high and low, asking everyone we met if they knew of a place to buy IPA beer, but our search came up empty.

We did find Boone's Farm though. Notice the anti-theft devices

Stay tuned for the thrilling ( I swear it will be thrilling) conclusion to our Epic Search for an IPA...