Saturday, November 17, 2012

A Phuket Life

(Pronounced “Pooket” and not “Fukit”)

It is not too bad. I mean, apart from working ten hours a day in a very stress-free job, my only concerns are what to eat, how to stay in shape, and how to have fun.

I have been eating pretty awfully - for my strict standards, perhaps. My breakfast consists of pretty much the same I had in the States for the last year: curried mung beans. Instead of olive oil, I use coconut milk to make them richer and more flavorful. I sometimes go crazy and add hard-cooked eggs that I buy in the Family Mart.

Lunches during the week are close to a nightmare. What they serve at school is the worst Thai food you could ever dream of: plain, fatty, and unpleasantly spicy hot. A lot of us end up eating just plain white rice covered with one of the sauces they put on the table (soy, fish or chili sauce). Since the school is located in a remote area and there are no restaurants or stores around (anyone would like to start a very profitable business?) we are stuck between the plain rice and the crap. Therefore, I resolved bringing my own food. In the last week I had mushrooms that I steamed in my rice cooker and tuna one day and eggs the next. My snacks are usually mangoes or dragon fruits, peanuts, or banana cake – ha!  Gluten! Am I not a lot more relaxed about food?

Dinners are the best! I usually go out to any of the restaurants in the neighborhood with my friend Sam. The restaurants we visit the most are the one we named “Green Curry” because it has the best version of it we ever had, and the other one we simply call “The Thai Place” because it is always packed with only Thai people. The food there is good and extra hot and we end up sweating profusely, especially Sam, who is addicted to the tom yum (spicy soup). The last week we even got entertained by a loud customer, a crazy lady that kept screaming and walking in and out of the kitchen because she apparently disliked the lettuce she was served – although we did not catch a word of her screaming preach, she kept pointing disapprovingly towards said lettuce. What we loved about this restaurant is that we used to be the only Western customers. Last night, however, five white people came in while we were dining. Maybe somebody reported it to Lonely Planet.

Sticking to my yoga routine has been beyond difficult. I leave my house for work at seven in the morning, for what there is no much room for practice before work. In the evenings I am first too hungry and then too tired for yoga. In the last month I had been really consistent about going for runs to Rang Hill, a lovely spot where the windy road is covered with trees and the top is blessed with a fantastic view of the island. However, I had to discontinue my beloved routine because the pain on my right hip kept increasing and driving me crazy. I am considering joining a gym, which is not that bad of an idea in a place where the temperature is still in the nineties in mid-November.

Since classes started almost a month ago I have not been in the mood for wild adventure. Life has been rather quiet and restful. In the weekends I either go to the beach or relax by my friends’ swimming pool. What turned into an almost religious rite is going to the night marked on Sunday evenings. Most of the times, I go with Sam. We first have dinner at the curry place –fish and peanut flavors- and then roam around the other food stands in bewilderment for the things we see (the fantastic sushi, the improbably colorful cakes, the sweet nachos, the grilled everything, the uncertain fried items…) as if we had been there for the first time. Sometimes, I like to visit the pet section. The fluffy rabbits, the tender puppies, the sugar gliders fill my heart with warmth.

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