Bangkok Pictures are Posted!

Go to the Website and Click "Travel Pictures" to see my album on Bangkok.

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Bangkok Part I of III: Initial Impressions

I recently just arrived back from Bangkok in order to discover the nuisances of Thai dining. BGF just opened up an amazing Thai joint and we also took the head chef so that he could also learn the correct flavors in a Tom Yum and a Tom Gah Gai. Bangkok is one of the strangest places that I have ever been to on earth; it is an interesting mixture of hilarious Asian customs and a very modern city with advanced transportation systems that would rival any city in the USA. One thing that was great is that the food is dirt cheap and delicious. Thai food is so good because it is known for using the freshest ingredients and top-notch seafood and made to order. I would have to agree—the produce that was available was incredible and the prawns and seafood lying around in the markets were the cheapest and freshest that I have ever seen.

Who is to thank for all of these wonderful ingredients available to the Thai people? The answer is the King, and in Thailand, the King is the most revered and respected people on the planet to an extent where it is almost comical. One of the policies of the royal family in the 1970s was to build a vast infrastructure of rail to connect farms and fishing harbors to major cities in Thailand. Interestingly enough, Thailand was also the only country to resist the perils of Western imperialism that Hong Kong, Japan, and all of the colonies in the 19th century fell victim to, making it very unique in comparison. The Thai people must be very grateful because every store, restaurant, and corner market all have pictures of the king proudly displayed in the open. When dining with a couple of ex-pats a conversation about the king arose and they told me to be careful. They explained that they have heard stories of people lamenting about the king in public and then the next day they would be visited by royal officials and asked politely to stop.



Above is a picture of the king that resided in the 10-story shopping mall called MBK. Just to prove that I am not making this king thing up. Another really surprising thing in Bangkok is how little English that all of the people were able to speak. Even at five star resorts such as The Peninsula and The Mandarin Oriental (which have both rated the best hotel in the world at some point in the last decade) lacked English speakers. Not saying that this is a terribly bad thing, however it made for some interesting conversations and a lot of bargaining to be made by writing numbers on paper or in calculators in the markets. Bangkok is also known for its terrible traffic. The city is completely accessible by overhead trains (Sky Train) or underground subway, but taking a taxi is usually unbearable. In fact, if traffic gets too tough and you are in a cab, the taxi driver will kick you out and leave you stranded. This happened one day when the cab driver did not feel like driving us to a restaurant that we wanted to go to. We ended up having to walk to the subway.

Part II talks about our adventures in the markets and eating copious amounts of Thai food. Part III will show some of the touristy stuff we did. Stay tuned.

Getting Pulled Over in Denpasar

One of the first days that I was in Bali, hanging out at the house, a police Sergeant walked into the compound and was talking to the family. After a little while, it was obvious that he was on very good terms with everyone that was present. I went up and introduced myself, but the man did not speak a lick of English and I do not speak any Bahasa Indonesian. Even so, everyone insisted that I switched phone numbers with Made Ketut (Name Changed) and that if “I ever got into any trouble with the police” that he would take care of it for me. I put his number in my phone and thought nothing of it.

A few weeks later I was driving downtown in the busiest areas of Bali, downtown Denpesar. In most cases, if you break a traffic law and are driving a nice vehicle, you will not be pulled over because the police officer will assume that you have the proper connections to get out of the ticket and possibly get him in trouble. However, this time I was driving the maid's motor bike (purple and black in color and a top speed of 60km) because it is the only motorcycle that I am currently comfortable to drive with (I hate shifting!). I was going through the main roundabout in the city and at every corner of the square is a police kiosk. First, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept of a roundabout, they are meant to divert traffic in multiple intersections so that none of the traffic has to stop. But, thanks to the admirable sense of Indonesian road engineering, this roundabout actually has more lights that number of streets converging into the circle.

So the only 6'2" white dude in Depensar on a shitty motor bike accidentally runs a very confusing traffic light in the roundabout (Mom- it was a completely safe maneuver) and a police officer runs out of the kiosk with his whistle thinking that he just scored a Christmas ham in terms of the bribe that we was about to receive instead of issuing a ticket.

I get off my motorbike and, very confidently, ask why I was getting pulled over. He said that I ran a red light and asked for my license and for me to walk into the kiosk. I hand the man my oversized international driver's license and he is dumbfounded and asks what it is. As he is thumbing through the booklet, I grab my cell phone and look for Made Ketut's phone number. 3 seconds later I go "Made Ketut. It's Samuel. Trouble with Polisi." I then hand the phone to the police officer (who looks even more confused) and goes "Hello?"

After about a 5 minute conversation (where it seemed that jokes and laughing were exchanged) the police officer says, "Made Ketut is a great friend of mine. I also hear that you are staying with the Ida Bagus' family. Just do not run the red light again. No need for a ticket."

I laugh with the man and explain that I am working for an Ida Bagus and give him a high five. He then says, "Hey my friend, it is very hot here. Give me some money to buy a drink before you go."

I hand the man $30,000 Rupiah ($3USD, strap on my helmet, and go along my merry way.


I am going to Bangkok for 6 days to scout/learn about Thai Flavors tomorrow. It will be very fun and I will have a very good blog posting in the near future. BGF is about to land its biggest and most high profile catering contract in its history, so stay tuned.

The 36 Hour Long Ceremony

Bali has always been one of the great tourist destinations of the world for the diverse range of attractions that the island and its people have to offer. Bali is unique because it boasts some of the finest resorts and spas, five star food and dining, a great nightlife scene, tropical beauty, and the outrageous religious ceremonies. I was lucky enough (mainly through my relationship with Gusky and Karen) to be able to go and see first hand one of the largest religious ceremonies of the year.

I will try to explain a little of what the ceremony was about, but honestly it was a little too much for me to understand. The ceremony was for the deaths of family members of Gusky’s Girya (which is the family temple) and the village followers of the Girya. The Ida Bagus family that Gusky is part of is the largest on the island with over 1 million followers, so the ceremonies are usually huge and take place in downtown Denpesar. The bodies of the dead (approx. 300) were already cremated, but the symbolic souls still remained and were placed in Urns.

The ceremony started at Noon and the whole family (myself included) was inside the family temple and eating and praying for the souls of their family members and the souls of the follower’s family members outside the temple (which totaled over 8,000 people outside the compound). There was music and reading of Sanskrit and Balinese texts late until the night. There were offerings for the souls, which included an unbelievable amount of food, colorful sculptures made out of rice, and a sacrificed ox (see pics). Karen and I left around 4 pm, but Gusky did not leave.

The next morning Karen and I woke up at 430 am and drove back to the temple to find the same 8,000 people sitting outside the temple dressed in all white with shrines containing the family souls. The final part of the ceremony was to walk to the ocean and pour the symbolic remains into the ocean. The walk is over 5 km long and you have to take some of the busiest streets in Bali to get to the ocean in Sanur. Everyone flooded out of the temple and the procession was over 3 km long and took over 30 minutes from start to finish. The traffic jam was unbelievable! I felt terrible when we were walking by cars (we were at the end of the line) and seeing the faces of people that were in cars waiting for the ceremony to pass. It is an understandable fact of life of driving on the island, as there is usually a procession or ceremony every week that will block some form of traffic. The ceremony was beautiful and it was incredible to see the lengths that these people got to ensure that their dead relatives are able to have a proper death. I was very impressed.

Observation: There was also a 30 foot high shrine that was being carried by hand at the end of the procession by over 50 grown men. In front of the shrine was the “spotter” that carried a 30 foot high piece of bamboo with a beach towel wrapped around the top of it. What was his job? He was to run in front of the shrine and lift (manually) any powerlines that were in the way. Oh, how the world differs.

Also, go to the "pictures" tab on the website to see the full album.

Farming BGF Style

The problem: finding herbs and spices that are not available in Bali or cannot be imported in a quality suitable enough for serving. The Solution: Grow them yourself. I recently took a visit to the 7-acre plot of land deep in the hills of central Bali to find BGF’s small farming operation. After putting on clogging boots and a long sleeves we ventured deep into the jungle that also was cleared in small areas to plant herbs, spices, and various other edible plants. We were greeted by the land’s only Farmer, Ketut Sadeg, who was known as the “man cow” of the village. His job was to plant all of the plants and care for the land—he only ate leaves and plants that came from the farm and ran around the hillside planting the vegetables. Everyone else in the village said that they have never seen him sit down to eat a real meal because he lives solely off of the wild fauna. He carried a sickle and wore a traditional Balinese sarong, a grey Henley, rubber boots, and a 1980s era Santa hat (see picture, it was quite the sight).





The farm was not the typical western farm; it was more of a ménage of dense jungle and edible plants living together in flat areas of the hill slope. The primary crops were Thai Basil, yams, rice, and other assorted herbs and spices. The farmer was also working on growing cocoa trees that also had vines growing around them that happened (not coincidentally) to be vanilla beans. Right across the cocoa/vanilla forest were the cinnamon trees that were also being grown for consumption. Karen and I joked that the area was known as bakery forest. They were also growing trees (such as palm and mahogany) to be used for their future restaurants and hotels.

We continued to walk down the hillside to reach the bottom of the mountain that turned out to be a natural spring. I was very impressed the by how lush the forest was and the richness of the volcanic soil. I also liked the vision of growing your own produce in order to ensure the highest quality of ingredients available for your restaurants. See the pictures, my writing does not do the area justice for how beautiful it was.

I have now been in Bali for a whole week. Giri leaves for school in 5 days and then I am going to be scheduled in the kitchen full time to start formally training.

The Abandoned Croc Park

I took the day out of the kitchens and decided to have Giri (Karen's son) show me around Bali and take me to some of the local attractions. His first recommendation was snorkeling and some other very common touristy things that seemed pretty ordinary. He then mentioned that about a year ago there was a huge crocodile amusement park that went bankrupt and the management decided to leave the Crocodiles there because they were out of money. This immediately struck my fancy and we hopped in the car.

We drove up to the park that was out of town and it looked like a place from Disneyland or a haunted house in a movie. We paid the security guard 10,000 Rupiah ($ 1 USD) to let us in and we walked around an abandoned park. The statutes were falling, the leaves and vines were overgrown, and the entire complex was falling into complete disrepair. After walking about 100 meters to the Crocodile pit and crossing a very ramshackle bridge (see photos) that was over the Croc pit we were able to see them. The security guard explained that there was at one point over 150 crocodiles...now there were about 70. A lot of them are poached for their skins and others simply disappear. The entire Croc pit is full of collapsing rocks from their retaining wall and the loading ramp in which they could get out has been barricaded with a couple of fallen trees. When asked how the Crocs were able to stay alive and eat, the security guard explained that people throw them live chickens and that the airport food catering company comes by and throws the left over food wastes into the croc pit. Giri and I are now considering returning with a few live chickens...

All in all, I thought that his was a ridiculous example of how something like this would never fly in the USA. The abandoned Crocs are a perfect example of Bali attractions. See the pictures below.