For a decent curry (Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand)
One Saturday, I felt like eating Green Curry. I corssed the border to Malaysia from Singapore. The city on the Malaysian side had good food and I remembered one fo the shopping malls had a small thai restaurant. Once in Johore, I though I might get better green curry if I go to northern malaysia - the part near Thailand. So I flew to Penang. It is such a delightful town with so much interesting food. But I wanted green curry. So the next morning, I crossed the border to Hatyai. The city center is nice and the railway station has some old engines.
I could not find green curry in Hatyai, so I took the train to Nakhon Si Thammarat. This city used to be a big trading center. Ships, ever scared of pirates down south (around present day Singapore ) used to anchor on either side of the narrow isthmus near Nacho Is Tamara. It was ancient Thailand 's most important link to the outside world. It also served as a transit point for east-west trade. Goods from China , Japan , Khmer , India and West Asia would end up here and get re-exported. With so much exchange happening, Nachon Si Tamarat became a cultural center. The city museum exhibits goods collected from shipwrecks near the city - items like Roman coins, Chinese pottery and Indian sculpture. Even to this day the city has a couple of Hindu temples, a mosque and an old church. One of the holiest wats in Thailand - the 1000 year old Wat Mahathat is in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
More importantly for me, they had the green curry. Next morning, after a green curry breakfast, I headed to the Wat Mahathat. I saw an interesting thing. Some children were drawing the wat. They were drawing with their finger. And what was their paint? .. Sand! They would clear the dry top soil and rub their finger on the moist soil, look up at the wat and draw a stroke on the paper.