We were in Siam Square yesterday, watching the teen idols rehearse for the New Years show. I don’t know where the bombings were in relation to this, but it was on the same train line. The first bombings must have happened just after we took off from the airport, and we were blissfully unaware of it until tonight when we sat down at the Bia Hoi (“fresh beer”) cafe/intersection/death trap. We met some more Aussie tourists who told us about the bombings – they had just flown in from Ho Chi Minh city.
Tonight we went to the third vegetarian restaurant that is mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide book, and I am at a loss to understand why these places had a recommendation. Either a) the places have changed a lot, or b) the Lonely Planet writers were born without tastebuds.
I fully expected that we were going to have to eat some things that weren’t utterly kosher while we were traveling. But I never expected to be wanting to tear the legs off passing cows just to get some bloody flavour in my food after 24hours in Vietnam. The bulk of my experience with Vietnamese food was pre-crazy bunnyhugging animal rights veganism, so I know a good pho when I smell one. And I’ve smelled a lot of them. I’ve also had smells of fabulous steamboats waft across my path, and dried squid (why do such tasty animals also have to be so intelligent looking? I can’t eat one of these!), and all manner of offal is starting to look strangely attractive.
Is it worse to buy silk and murder 1000 silkworms, or eat one squid ?
What about the merest shaving of cow ?
Disco Knitter 