Food | World Elixir

I wake up in Urban Light’s center to the white noise that plays on an 11 hour Youtube video loop—if I was waking up at 5AM, the mosque’s call to prayer, the temple bells ringing, and dogs howling on top of it all would be a sufficient alarm for me. Currently, I’m keen on sleeping through this early hour of the morning. I throw my blanket towards the wall uncovering my drowsy self. It took a while getting used to not sleeping with a top sheet on my bed. When I purchased my linen set, there was none included, and I have learned to do without, as most Thais do. My feet hit the wooden floor and I’m up. The fund-raiser show I played last night at the Colour Bar went great and it will take a bit of coffee to shake the later-than-should-have-been night.

I carry my computer down two flights of stairs turn the gas stove on and make my first pot of coffee of the day in my not so conventional Moka Pot that I purchased secondhand in my first weeks while in Thailand. Making my coffee saves me a considerable amount of money— nearly 100 baht per day (even at local coffee shops, a cup-o-joe will cost 30-50 baht). I’m happy heading over to the local grocery store to pick up a month supply of hill-tribe coffee ( one kilo) for 200 baht (`$7).

Moka Pot— my Italian Coffee Maker.

Eggs, always eggs— I pay the extra twenty baht for the organic ones— not as cheap as the eggs I was used to buying at my local Aldi’s store in Baltimore, but a few of my friends here are really into the vegan, organic and permaculture movements. Sometimes I feel they are ALWAYS whispering in my ear as I buy ANY unnatural or processed food products from the local markets and grocery stores. Hearing these voices doesn’t help me resist making the short walk down the road to the Warorot Market at night to pick up some delicious muu ping gap khaw niaw (marinated grilled pork on a stick with sticky rice). One bite and I am in dollar-dinner heaven— I’ll eat raw, organic, vegan food another night— I really will. We are what we eat, after all—right?

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I can’t believe over a month has passed since I last posted on here. Time seems to have been an illusion the past couple of weeks— I traveled to Vietnam, my brother and sister visited, and Urban Light is busier than ever as our new staff and team took charge of some awesome projects and events. The rain has been consistent every day and I am amazed at the force it comes down at times. A foot of water in the streets is a common site these days. It’s raining right now and the sun is shining brightly over the mosque that sits on my soi— there’s a rainbow out there somewhere!

Vietnam was my first solo traveling experience and I was nervous about how it would all pan out. My nine-hour overnight bus ride to Bangkok to reach the airport (it’s much cheaper to fly out of Bangkok) could have been more comfortable, but I got lots of writing and reading in. Sleep was impossible; the uncomfortable seats weren’t entirely what was keeping me awake though. My twin brother, Darryl, had just arrived in Africa a week and a half prior and as a twin, the separation does get the best of me. We had our last hoorah in Thailand at the beginning of my journey and I was off on my first trip without accompaniment.