Backpacking in Bangkok | An Awkward Thai Cooking Class
It's an explosion of flavours this week, as Adam takes part in a Thai cooking class in Bangkok. Touring a local market with the chef and his classmates: a curious Californian couple, it quickly became clear this was going to be no ordinary cooking class. Tune in to hear the embarrassment. It's about to get spicy!
We also discuss the decline of backpacker hostels. Is it too much to ask for a plug socket next to your bed? If the breakfast is free, does it mean you should eat it? Support the show and access the Lost & Found section. Adam describes his flight from Queenstown to Melbourne, sitting next to a passenger he'll try to forget. Close your mouths and hold your noses, people.
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
04:48 - Hostel issues
08:58 - Motorbikes in Asia
11:53 - Free breakfasts
16:37 - An Awkward Thai Cooking Class
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Welcome to Tripology
Alun:
[0:02] Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology. It's the backpacking podcast
Hostel Politics and Hard Beds
Alun:
[0:07] where two best friends call each other up once a week and talk about all of their travels. I'm Alun and I'm here with one of the greatest travellers that exists on this sunny little globe we call Earth. It's the ever-succulent Adam.
Adam:
[0:23] Alun, you're still in Tokyo. I'm now in the north-east of Thailand. I'm sunburned. I'm hungover and i've just had the spiciest papaya salad i've ever eaten good.
Alun:
[0:33] Lighting you've got because you don't look sunburnt you look positively vampiric.
Adam:
[0:37] Vampiric do i look radiant do i uh.
Alun:
[0:40] Well like very light you don't look like you've not gone even an ounce of red there's no rouge in your complexion.
Adam:
[0:47] Well the um it is rainy season here over in thailand so i'm able to dip and dive in between the shadows when i'm walking about i'm not wearing much sun cream which is probably a bad thing for me with dodging the raindrops something like that but i have if you could see the preparation for today's episode i think you'd be proud of me because i'm on maybe the hardest bed on planet earth and i've actually taken the fridge from the opposite side of the room and propped it up against the double doors that then go onto the balcony so that i've got the natural light coming in because i was a bit worried that the light inside the room wasn't strong enough.
Alun:
[1:20] Do you like Make a hard bed because when I was in a silent meditation retreat in the south of Thailand, I slept on a concrete bed with a wooden pillow and I actually found it to be quite a joy.
Adam:
[1:34] Yeah, I do like a hard bed. I'd always prefer a firm bed to a soft one. I think it's actually better for your back as well, isn't it?
Alun:
[1:42] It's better for you in a lot of ways. Yeah. One of my very natural friends who uses sort of, yeah, I mean, you know who I'm talking about straight away. I say I've got a natural friend, we're talking barefoot shoes, we're talking no synthetic chemicals or products. We're talking about sometimes I'll wear sunglasses and he'll say, don't wear sunglasses they're bad for you that's how naturally he is even the plastic in the sunglasses shouldn't go anywhere near your face he said that in an ideal world he would just sleep on the floor okay every night i.
Adam:
[2:16] Mean what what would that world need to look like that's so different from now because there are floors.
Alun:
[2:21] There are floors yeah and actually he has slept on the floor in a room in which i was on the bed once before when we were traveling through turkey together we stayed in a room with a double bed and he said i would sooner sleep on the floor and the only reason he doesn't do that in hostels is because he feels like it'd be socially unacceptable to sleep on the floor when there's all the beds yeah.
Adam:
[2:42] Arriving in a dorm do you want the top bunk or the bottom bunk i'll actually take the floor if you don't mind.
Alun:
[2:46] Do you think that's unacceptable to.
Adam:
[2:48] Sleep on the floor.
Alun:
[2:49] Yeah no.
Adam:
[2:51] No i don't think you should even pay for a bed Come on.
Alun:
[2:54] In. If you were in a hostel and like, let's say a 10 bed dorm room.
Adam:
[2:59] Yeah.
Alun:
[2:59] And someone pitched up on the floor and, What would your reaction to them be?
Adam:
[3:06] So, but hang on, they've paid for a bed though. They are staying at the hostel. They're in the dorm.
Alun:
[3:10] Yeah, they've checked in. They're using their bed as a sort of luggage area.
Adam:
[3:16] Some sort of in-dorm storage facility for their belongings. I would, I'd ask them why, definitely. I'd question it.
Alun:
[3:24] Do you think it's inconveniencing you? Because you have to step around them and you'd be like, just get on your bed, you annoying.
Adam:
[3:32] You're dying or you're gonna say a nationality way um natural person um i would uh it depends on the layout of the room doesn't it i mean if they were sleeping maybe i'll say why don't you sleep under your bed you can have the bottom bunk and then you can just roll yourself under that's confusing we.
Alun:
[3:48] All know that in the space underneath a 10-bed dorm room bed there's never any condom wrappers.
Adam:
[3:55] Dust hair.
Alun:
[3:57] Empty bottles it's always clean as a whistle under there in it.
Bangkok Hostels Under Fire
Adam:
[4:02] Actually just as we're talking about this this wasn't going to be what we started with but you have just um you've touched on something so i may as well bring it up because i do think it makes for quite interesting discussion i recently transited through melbourne and i stayed in a very large hostel in the city center it was well on the floor.
Alun:
[4:19] In one of the beds.
Adam:
[4:20] I was in one of beds i was on the top bunk right next to the door not the bed i would have chosen if i had first choice um it's actually the last bed i would have chosen yeah you had last choice didn't you what i would say about this hostel and i'm not going to name them because i'm not sure i'd recommend staying there out of all the hostels in melbourne is that it made me realize a couple of things and i made some observations and i thought as we've got a travel show listened to by people who travel a lot and backpack and live in hostels may as well talk about it in this day and, Do you think it's unacceptable to charge people a lot of money for a dorm and then have absolutely no plug sockets or electricity anywhere near their bed?
Alun:
[4:59] I think it's unacceptable to charge people a lot of money for a dorm. I think hostels have got it right. They're living in a dream world.
Adam:
[5:07] They're taking the F&P.
Alun:
[5:09] They are taking the F&P at the moment, hostels. I really just think it's crazy
Travel Then and Now
Alun:
[5:14] how much they're charging. um no i'd say that good wi-fi and charging points are like really ubiquitous like they have to be a feature they should be ubiquitous for every bunk i think i think there should i think it's pretty crazy when you all have to like put your phones on a table across the room but i've been talking to some older backpackers recently about be like people who've been traveling in the early noughties before the internet became such a part of travel yeah and it sounds divine yeah yeah yeah they're like traveling and they're no one's on their phone no one's on the smartphones they're going into like a hostel and everyone's reading like sharing ripped pages of the lonely planet and like just discussing oh have you been here have you been to this place but there isn't like a set list of things that you have to have done because no no one's going like top five things to do in Bolivia on a shoestring budget it's all just like lonely planet and word of mouth word of mouth and people are missing things all the time but talking and sharing and communicating and going off in groups and all that sort of stuff it sounds amazing I'm gonna have to design an app that helps you do exactly that.
Adam:
[6:26] I uh I had it out with a friend actually uh she doesn't listen to the show as often as, That would make me worry that she's going to hear this. But we were sending a few voice notes backwards and forwards. And we ended up talking about travel and what it's like these days. Because I was, you know, Wat Arun, I think it's called. It's a big temple in Bangkok. I was there. And I will post this on Instagram. I deliberately took a long video to post on Instagram. All Thailand and all temples are nowadays in tourist attractions. It's just people taking photos. That's all it is.
Alun:
[6:57] Yeah. It looks insane. People who aren't that interested in the temples. But they just know that they're supposed to go to the temples. so they go.
Adam:
[7:03] Totally and this was exactly the nature of my voice note i said you know i'm i'm not saying that i'm traveling better than anyone else or that i'm superior in any way or travel means more to me or whatever i just think that in 10 or 20 years time these people will look back on their time in thailand or their trip wherever they went and think i don't know if i was really engaging with my environment i don't know if i got as much out of that trip as i wanted to i think that's probably how they're gonna feel.
Alun:
[7:27] Yeah they're like what aaron i've been there and that washed an elephant for.
Adam:
[7:32] Start but her point was which kind of touches on yours that i.
Alun:
[7:38] Hope so if i'm lucky.
Adam:
[7:39] People if people go traveling in five years time or 10 years time maybe they'll land on an episode of topology they'll think fucking hell where was this five years ago then yeah they're not gonna they're not gonna compare their time now to a time before because they weren't able to travel before whereas we've been traveling for 12 years so we know what it was like to travel 12 years ago. And we can say, oh, it was better then. People always say, oh, it was better before.
Alun:
[8:03] Yeah, that's true. I mean, I've always said this thing that the golden age of travel was post- really commonplace internet so you could book hostels and find out the best things to do pre the pandemic when every fucker with a laptop decided that they were the world's best traveler and they were going to go and do that for the rest of their lives but actually maybe the golden age of travel was even before my time maybe i missed it maybe i was a maybe i'm a product of the silver age of travel i'll never know because uh i simply can't travel without a phone like try honestly if you were entirely now without a phone you'd find it really challenging i think.
Adam:
[8:40] Yeah yeah i would.
Alun:
[8:42] And that's partly because of you and partly because now the infrastructure has
Motorbike Rides in Bangkok
Alun:
[8:45] evolved to the point where your life would just be really difficult not having a phone well.
Adam:
[8:50] I thought about stuck stuck i thought about sticking my thumb out earlier to to hitchhike and then it was just so much easier to get a grab and and you know grab is so amazing and it's so fun and how fucking fun by the way is just riding on the back of a motorbike around Bangkok I.
Alun:
[9:05] Love it the smile.
Adam:
[9:07] On my face, there's not been a temple in the world that has made me smile like that.
Alun:
[9:13] Mate riding on the back of honestly is only surpassed by the experience of doing the exact same same thing in an african city riding on the back of a motorcycle in kampala is the greatest experience on earth doing that same thing in vietnam and thailand and all that stuff is like it's almost as good it's pretty fucking awesome um i have vehicular somnambulism we've discussed that on the podcast a long time it's a serious medical condition that involves when i'm in a moving vehicle tires on tarmac i find it very difficult to stay awake i've fallen asleep on the back of a motorcycle several times that's crazy but i didn't.
Adam:
[9:54] Know i didn't know that but i didn't know several times.
Alun:
[9:56] Yeah a few times the thing about vehicular somnambulism feeling sleepy on vehicles is that you want to fall forward you.
Adam:
[10:06] Do you do you do want to fall forward So what are you doing then? You're wearing a helmet now. I've had both. You've done both.
Alun:
[10:11] Yeah, yeah. I've fallen forward and headbutted the driver.
Adam:
[10:15] Right.
Alun:
[10:16] Which is bad but preferable you know you smack the visa of your helmet into their back of their helmet like head bottom like yeah.
Adam:
[10:25] It's.
Alun:
[10:26] Quite um yeah so that's bad and then i've done the other as well though less frequently where you fall back and you do like neo from the matrix.
Adam:
[10:33] In bullet.
Alun:
[10:34] Time slow motion where you like lean right back like that but you're asleep.
Adam:
[10:39] Oh dear i had a um what did you stay there and you went the rest of the journey however long you wake.
Alun:
[10:44] Up you wake up when you go back that far you like wake up.
Adam:
[10:48] Getting some winks in getting at 80 barts worth god it's still so cheap but um i had a bit of an awkward moment with a grab driver earlier when he was sitting really far back on the motorbike and i didn't really have an erection i didn't get an erection but i was trying to shuffle him forward just using my because i was trying to hang on because we were i didn't have enough room and we were going quite fast down the motorway and i was just very you know carefully just trying to edge forward a little bit without it feeling like i was trying to you know you.
Alun:
[11:17] Were humping him into.
Adam:
[11:18] Into the proper position give me a bit more room yeah well.
Hostel Breakfasts Are a Scam
Alun:
[11:23] That is awkward but he didn't respond.
Adam:
[11:25] Uh no no it was great i mean he gave me a big high five at the end and all that sort of stuff discount it's only 50 bars i gave him a five star rating um so that was one of the observations i made mate sorry just to circle back to the original point is that this hostel in melbourne had no plug sockets at all anywhere close to the top bunks so everyone was sort of using extension extension cables and that sort of stuff and everyone had to shove their stuff in the other corner by the door and i don't know it's just probably probably shit the other thing, is that if you are a hostel, if you're listening to this now and you run a hostel and you...
Alun:
[11:59] You are a hostel, just a stationary building with headphones on, housing a bunch of people. Listen, if you're a hostel listening to this, why don't you recommend it to your owner so a human can actually send us an email?
Adam:
[12:15] When we have to give for brand deals and stuff, when we have to give our analytics, our data, we say we've got a load of big audience over in Thailand. It's actually just hostels, no people.
Alun:
[12:24] A couple of hostels listening.
Adam:
[12:26] So yeah, that's one of the observations. But if you're working for a hostel or you own a hostel or whatever, and as a marketing ploy to try and attract more attention, more business, you offer a free breakfast. You promote that you offer a free breakfast. And that free breakfast that you're offering is glow-in-the-dark, highly processed white bread, And the worst peanut butter or jam or butter on earth.
Alun:
[12:52] Peanut peanut butter.
Adam:
[12:54] If that is what... Sorry, I'm just so passionate about this that I can't even speak. Nothing to do with the alcohol consumed until the early hours. If that's what you're offering...
Alun:
[13:04] If you think the bread's bad, you should look at the ingredients of that butter.
Adam:
[13:06] Yeah. Then, basically, if that's what you're offering is a free breakfast, you can go and fuck yourself, in my opinion.
Alun:
[13:12] Yeah, so you're in Southeast Asia now. it's been like a long time since i was in the philippines i was going to say it's been a long time since we've been in southeast asia and i realized i spent all of last year in southeast asia but it's been a decade since i was in thailand yeah i remember fondly you
get these are the breakfast you'll get a little filter coffee sort of in a pour or maybe even just instant yeah you'll get white bread like really white as you say glow in the dark radioactive white bread never goes off yeah shelf life of i reckon there's still some of the bread that i was served to me 10 years ago going yeah.
Adam:
[13:48] Still hanging around.
Alun:
[13:49] There's a strawberry jam yeah.
Adam:
[13:52] There's often yeah and these sometimes huge industrial size pots.
Alun:
[13:56] There's three ingredient peanut butter three.
Adam:
[13:59] Ingredient peanut butter, it's peanuts yeah it's sugar and palm oil yeah um the just the the texture the consistency of this stuff i fucking hate it i really hate the fact i'm not saying if you enjoy a breakfast like that and you're in southeast asia i do think you've got some questions to answer.
Alun:
[14:21] They've got some growing up to.
Adam:
[14:23] Do yeah if if you are offering that as a serious sort of breakfast offer where you're saying to people look you should stay at my hostel because you do get a free breakfast because you're kind of like dangling the carrot aren't you and then you get up in the morning oh the breakfast served from between seven and ten down in the main room i'll go down there and you just see a queue of backpackers trying to toast their white bread in one of those flimsy toasters and they're all just accepting that that's a break it's not it's worth nothing so don't promote your hostel by using that.
Alun:
[14:55] There are people right now watching this on instagram who are thinking i love going to thailand because of the 7-eleven sandwiches and the free shitty breakfast at the hostels go and eat a papaya salad you twat.
Adam:
[15:07] Yeah yeah do do you've got to you've got to do that that's um anyone who replaces their morning meal when there is southeast asia buy that free breakfast i feel i feel sorry for you because i'm a.
Alun:
[15:20] 7-eleven sandwich often often right a grilled cheese sandwich from 7-eleven.
Adam:
[15:23] Yeah well you bring me on to my my next anecdote don't mate because i did have a little story at the beginning maybe we'll chop that into the lost and found section the link is in the description it's quite funny maybe the funniest um plane passenger i've ever sat next to in my life was from queenstown yeah.
Alun:
[15:39] Let's hear that on patreon.
Adam:
[15:40] Yeah to melbourne my god she was she was an absolute character so if you want to hear it was a girl.
Alun:
[15:45] Patreon yeah you've got to get over to patreon for as little as the price of a 7-eleven sandwich you can hear adam tell you about a girl.
Adam:
[15:54] A woman on a plane let's say girl on a plane.
Alun:
[16:00] I'm not saying it gets all crazy and wild, but the air hostesses do have beds on those planes.
Adam:
[16:08] Yeah, I wonder, right, what can I say to dangle the carrot now?
Alun:
[16:12] Just that. Say that there was carrot dangling going on. People will be there.
Adam:
[16:15] Yeah, I wish it smelled like there were. But anyway, I'll leave that to the Patreon section. Yeah, it was awful, mate. It was funny because I was making light of the situation, but it was an awful position to be in.
Alun:
[16:26] I don't know what's going on. I'm glad that I get Patreon for free.
Adam:
[16:31] The tussle for the window seat is worth hearing alone um but what you'll be pleased to know mate because this is going to be a bit of a food heavy episode now i think we're already about 20 minutes in and there's still about 20 minutes of content so let's start ripping through it shall we speaking of.
Alun:
[16:44] Food heavy i'm starting a career as a sumo wrestler.
Adam:
[16:46] Here in japan that'll.
Thai Cooking Course Begins
Alun:
[16:47] Be in next week's patreon.
Adam:
[16:49] Um i went to because we're talking about backpackers and their food choices and this sort of stuff i thought what can i do in thailand that i haven't done before that would be uh giving my trip more purpose we always talk about you know learning things when you travel i thought fucking no adam you haven't ever done a cooking course in your life yeah.
Alun:
[17:10] I've never done one either but they're very popular activity in thailand i would say washing an elephant like hank taking a picture with a heavily sedated tiger cooking course.
Adam:
[17:20] Cooking course yeah i mean order not exploiting many animals at a cooking course i don't think.
Alun:
[17:26] Yeah i've had such a busy day i fucking i washed an elephant i took a picture with a tiger and i cooked a fucking.
Adam:
[17:33] Bad type noodles um but it's a good thing to i am really really interested in thai food it is up there in my top probably five cuisines and my favorite dish of all time comes from thailand well laos technically but um who's splitting hairs. So I thought, go and do a cooking course, get online, all the websites, get your guides or some other ones that we could name, but booked it only a couple of, And it comes with a market tour. So you can actually get there at sort of 8.45, 9 in the morning at whichever train station they mention in Bangkok. You're met by the chef. And then there's a little group of you, a group of tourists, go out for the morning, half an hour, 45 minutes, walking through the market, getting all the local ingredients that you're going to use to cook these four dishes that were on that day's menu. And then you get a little tuk-tuk all the way back to the cooking school. And then you just spend the next three or four hours cooking and eating. It's absolutely magic.
Alun:
[18:27] That's cool. that's a nice touch actually that they take you to the market.
Adam:
[18:31] Yeah i deliberately did the morning tour because that includes the market now what was funny was the fact that i guess because it's low season maybe it was a last minute thing uh i was only with two other people so it's pretty private it was just three of us and the chef amazing now.
Alun:
[18:46] Describe the other two people to me.
Adam:
[18:48] I will because that's what this story is about they were in.
An Unusual Cooking Pair
Alun:
[18:52] That case cut it.
Adam:
[18:54] Cut that out, they were a curious couple he was probably 50 i would say and she was maybe in her early 20s oh they're together well they looked so different that i assumed they weren't but then they told me later on that they were they're from california although he's he was the sort of guy and i want get this right because i don't want to say anything negative but it was quite bizarre they're.
Alun:
[19:25] An age discordant couple though.
Adam:
[19:27] Yeah and she aesthetically very pretty gothic heavily gothic not wearing the sort of outfit you might expect to see in 30 degree humid rainy season bangkok, It was jet black everything, chains, you know, the lot.
Alun:
[19:46] Well, I have to say it's very lovely that you've chosen to date me, a much older man. What is it that you're into? I'm into gothic stuff, creatures of the crypt, gargoyles, vampires, things that are basically dead, that sort of thing.
Adam:
[20:00] Big, big. I see where you're going with that. Big black boots with silver buckles on. And it was a look. It was a look. It was a strong look. and he was just like a, pretty normal guy bit larger than life character pretty open and everywhere that he had been recently he was there just hanging out i couldn't get that's that was the exact words the chef said where where were you living then you were also living in california yeah i mean i was in san francisco i was just hanging out and then before that i was in mexico i was just hanging out in mexico and he just met he reeled off loads of different countries but he was just hanging out there he's just it's just a guy cool he was cool he was good fun um and they met only a couple of weeks before in san francisco in a shared living sort of arrangement and now they were both here wow so i was like okay i probably won't ask too many questions i'll just get on with it and let my imagination run wild stop.
Alun:
[20:55] It there yeah just start thinking about it in private.
Adam:
[20:58] And what was amazing was that we were sort of chatting yeah in the market to find out a little bit about each other what you're doing here where you've been all this sort of thing and she made it quite clear the the young gothic girl that she wasn't enjoying the market and that the smell repulsed her so where's.
Alun:
[21:18] She from the gothic girl sorry.
Adam:
[21:19] Also california okay.
Alun:
[21:21] Yeah she was like.
Adam:
[21:23] You can't do it we're already getting cancelled she was.
Alun:
[21:28] Like oh my god this market is like so normie.
Adam:
[21:32] What does normie make like.
Goth Girl at the Market
Alun:
[21:36] Not gothic the opposite of gothic normie like like it's just too basic she wanted like gargoyles and.
Adam:
[21:42] Well pins and needles yeah i think um i think they're gamers actually maybe that matters quite on brand but just picture picture this though we're in we're in a market on the outskirts of Bangkok it is, sweltering at 8 9 o'clock in the morning and we are with a chef from Thailand going around the market collecting ingredients to cook four local dishes and, like in a cooking school and she she looked so out of place so out of place it was hilarious everything she looked at almost made her vomit you know she was like anyone listening to this show who's been to a market in you know somewhere in asia would know the sort of things that you're going to see i wouldn't say it's confronting but it's pretty confronting if you're like a vegetarian or vegan for ethnic reasons sometimes.
Alun:
[22:33] You'll see like a tortoise with the shell removed that kind of thing.
Adam:
[22:36] Yeah i mean yeah that'd be pretty confronting but there's often lots of different seafood and and sea life you know fish and whatever still flapping around and things you haven't seen maybe i'm.
Alun:
[22:47] Prejudiced and a bigger but i'd have thought a goth would be quite into that.
Adam:
[22:50] Uh macabre and dark yeah but it was also it was also her first time out of the states, she'd never been away before and maybe just hadn't been exposed to that but um the dishes we were cooking had some of those ingredients in so we had to go and like speak to the vendors for a long time as she couldn't even look she was like covering her eyes and this sort of stuff i thought fucking hell here we go and then she didn't talk that much actually but then the american guy said to the chef oh just so you know i eat everything and i'm happy with all of the things we're cooking today but she doesn't only drinks the blood of her victim get this right just remember just Just remind yourself, guys, just remind yourselves that we are on a cooking course in Bangkok. And he said, yeah, she doesn't eat any fish or any seafood or any mushrooms. and she doesn't like spicy food but apart from that she'll eat anything and then she said do.
Alun:
[23:56] You look proud.
Adam:
[23:56] When he said that.
Alun:
[23:57] She'll eat anything.
Adam:
[23:58] I was just thinking okay well good on you good on your girl for i don't know but we had to basically change the menu as a result so we still got like substitutes and that sort of stuff and we still did things that were quite close but because of the fact she couldn't eat whatever you'd.
Alun:
[24:14] Have been livid wouldn't you.
Adam:
[24:15] Um i mean ours was still pretty close to the the same thing it was just the other things that had to be chopped in for her and and what have you which was totally fine but she was she didn't just like not like mushrooms i mean she actually it was almost like she she would have an allergic reaction i'm sure she's not allergic but do you know i mean she was like absolutely cannot weather balloon anywhere near my food um you.
Alun:
[24:38] Don't want this girl to consume a mushroom within 50 feet of you.
Adam:
[24:41] Guys it's fucking not pretty but then we um we did get on by the way i shouldn't joke about it like that because if she.
Alun:
[24:48] Eats a portobello.
Adam:
[24:49] Evacuate the area but it was the whole like no seafood or fish thing that is debilitating that is changing your trip around asia isn't it oh yeah fish sauce is there any fish sauce in that you fucking bet there is oh yeah you can't eat anything then um but we, ended up cooking four dishes together really really cool celiac.
Alun:
[25:13] As well couldn't eat the gluten in the noodles.
Adam:
[25:15] No no i think i think that was pretty much it otherwise uh fair game there was a lot of jokes going backwards and forwards between them actually like he wasn't really doing anything and she was doing all the chopping and jokes being made about the dynamic by the chef as well and all this kind of thing so you.
Alun:
[25:33] Guys really different ages.
Adam:
[25:35] Yeah just saying straight down the line to say what everyone's thinking is this sex must be disgusting, no no no but i didn't tell him about the show specifically so that i could talk about him is that a bad that made me a bad person maybe i.
Alun:
[25:50] Do all the time.
Adam:
[25:51] Um i've been six.
Alun:
[25:53] Months into a relationship with someone and i've not told him about the show
Spicy Soup Showdown
Alun:
[25:55] so i can talk about it on patreon.
Adam:
[25:57] Oh yeah so adam what do you do for a living not not run a travel podcast that's for sure don't google me yeah that's for sure i am uh we ended up cooking a tom yum soup you know beautiful lovely soup pretty spicy kind of defined by it's like fresh sort of acid and spice flavors uh i had a fucking amazing one the day before so i was super excited to cook it but it does have things like prawns and mushrooms in often yeah so um yeah pretty really difficult to to sort of navigate around that and we were told that if you wanted it really spicy you should use four chilies so there was a bowl of chilies being passed around five.
Alun:
[26:36] In didn't you.
Adam:
[26:36] I mean what'd you say how many how many for really spicy and.
Alun:
[26:39] Then you turned around to the guy went I just put five in did you hear he said put four if you want it really spicy I put five in.
Adam:
[26:47] No no he only put two in and one of them was green, so he left them big as well she said if you want your food ripping hot chop them nice and small if you want just a little bit that chili heat in there just keep them nice and big and then you can take them out afterwards so i put four chilies in not thinking too much of it because i'd already told her i really like spicy food i eat chili food chili all the time and then he does and then the goth the goth girl she also took four fucking massive chilies and uh i i thought i thought i thought fair fucking play almost like making me recalibrate i'm thinking do i need to maybe you take a fifth and a sixth uh but she took four really big ones and then sort of made a joke about it to me like oh i've oh you only taken four of you oh yeah oh i've taken four as well she already said she doesn't like spicy food i was like she's like trying to mug me off in front of the chef okay fair enough yeah and then uh we made this i.
Alun:
[27:38] Think that adam guy might be a bit of a wimp.
Adam:
[27:40] He's only.
Alun:
[27:41] Uh taken very small barely put a dent in the chili supply we bought at the market.
Adam:
[27:45] It oh yeah we uh we ended up making the soup and then when we got back to the table she said would you like to taste my soup and i think that's i looked at her the other guy i was like can i, yeah sorry you.
Alun:
[28:01] Guys are together.
Adam:
[28:02] Yeah what's going on and then because of the way she'd been about food and stuff i thought it was quite strange that she just openly offered that, and i said i said uh yeah go on then yeah i will and when i went to pick up a spoon she said no no no i prefer that you pour from my spoon into your spoon and then you can don't touch me with your mushroom spoon no i was just going to use her spoon i thought okay put.
Alun:
[28:29] It in your mouth.
Adam:
[28:30] Well, I think she just lured me into a false sense of security. I thought, well, it's like quite an open thing to do.
Alun:
[28:35] That's what gods do.
Adam:
[28:37] Covid's fucking years ago. No one gives a shit anymore, do they? We're all past that.
Alun:
[28:41] Vampires, they lure you, don't they? Use my spoon.
Adam:
[28:46] It was pretty nice. I think mine was better. I adjusted it with a little bit of lime, like a wanker. And then we got to the end of the soup, and I was sweating my tits off. Mine was so fucking hot, I could not believe it. And she was over the other side of the table, happy as Larry.
Alun:
[29:01] Yeah, because she's a goth, so she's got so much white face paint on, probably. It's like talcum powder. It's absorbing all the sweat.
Adam:
[29:08] The bloke was like, oh my God, you're sweating much more than she is. You can't handle your spice at all. You know, making all these jokes. And she was like, yeah, I can't believe that you even felt those chilies. I looked at my bowl, completely empty. Looked in her bowl, full of chilies. She only drank the soup, had she?
Alun:
[29:23] Not mushrooms. Goth girl.
Adam:
[29:25] Can't believe it. Absolutely.
Alun:
[29:27] Goth girl. Avoiding the chilies.
Adam:
[29:30] Um, and, and then, yeah, there is quite a funny end to that story, actually. Sorry to dangle another carrot, but I'll tell that in Patreon as well. Absolutely.
Alun:
[29:38] No, no, tell that bit now. Come on.
Adam:
[29:40] Really? Oh, but it was embarrassing, though. Okay.
Alun:
[29:43] Shall I? Okay. All right. No, tell it over in Patreon.
Adam:
[29:46] No, okay. I will tell it because it's unfair otherwise.
Alun:
[29:49] Give the fans something for free.
Toilet Disaster After Lunch
Adam:
[29:51] Yeah. The, the end of that, you, you'll know this. If you're a long time listener of the show, guys, there was an episode where we spoke about, Being in India and eating Indian food and the difference in terms of the physiological reaction you have when you eat Indian food, the fact that, and in Mexico it's the same thing, for me anyway, you can eat something and almost within a minute need to go to the toilet. It is so fast. and i guess yeah i guess oh the bum gun's back mate i'm absolutely loving the fact i've got access to a bum gun uh so anyway course finished you know everyone shook hands nice to meet you enjoy the rest of your time here blah blah blah and i said oh do you mind if i just use the loo and they were like no no no problem at all the loo unfortunately was right next to the kitchen the main kitchen where all the other chefs are like preparing food for the next class who's coming in so there's lots of lovely thai women who were just knocking about in the kitchen right outside the door and i knew what was coming i was like oh god, So, I nipped into the loo, and I'll spare you the details, but let's just say it was a rather explosive reaction.
Alun:
[31:03] But here's the picture.
Adam:
[31:05] And have you ever, this is so gross, anyone just like skip forward 15 seconds if you don't want to hear this. But have you ever been in a situation where you're trying to like temper the pressure, almost?
Alun:
[31:17] I'm very in the retentive. I never have diarrhea, apart from that one time on a Brazilian bus.
Adam:
[31:23] Never? that's the only.
Alun:
[31:25] Time i've ever done that.
Adam:
[31:27] You're not eating enough disgusted at myself it was crazy i mean i you know i was bracing myself almost like holding on to the rim of the toilet and just trying to ever so slightly manage what was coming through us to not velocity yeah because it was it was making so much noise in an otherwise really quiet sort of apartment this converted apartment where and i just thought god these people outside are going to think awful things it was so fucking embarrassing mate i was in there for probably 20 minutes and uh not succeeding at all to drown out the sound i basically started playing like uh sound yeah i'm watching reels on my phone really loud and stuff and then uh yeah quickly skedaddled out of there with my um with my head uh head down not making eye contact all right thanks bye see you later yeah cheers five stars thanks um and that was it but it was an amazing day i would highly recommend doing a cooking course honestly if you're if you're interested i can't believe it's this fucking long it's ridiculous probably do another one i'm gonna go back to bangkok next week.
Alun:
[32:24] Well we should do one together sometime.
Adam:
[32:27] Yes for.
Alun:
[32:28] Whatever reason we have a surprise for you next week maybe perhaps maybe we'll do a cooking course together.
Adam:
[32:35] It's not your birthday coming up by any chance is it you.
Alun:
[32:38] Guys have to wait and see what happens next week now though it's the patreon section if you want to hear it click a link do it i'll wait go and do it click the link is in the show notes see you there thanks for listening bye-bye.
Adam:
[32:54] Thanks ever so much for your support guys we'll see you next time loads of love bye-bye.
