Theravada (3) Laos, Cambodia & Thailand: Buddhist Temples, Monasteries and Buddha Images Part 6

A Collection of Temples and Statues: the Classical, the Folksy and the Quirky

Theravada Buddhism

Dharmachakra

Theravada (lit. "School of the Elders") is the oldest existing branch of Buddhism. Theravadins have preserved their version of the Buddha’s teaching in the ‘Pali Canon’ for over two millennia.

The classical Indian language of Pali is Theravada's sacred language and the canon was probably written down in the 1st century BCE in Sri Lanka from where it spread throughout South East Asia.

Monasticism is an important component of Theravada, most boys spend some time in a monastery – usually during the school holidays – learning about the monastic life, though no commitment is made before adulthood.

This post covers Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Sri Lanka and Myanmar were featured in Theravada (1) and (2).

Laos

Laos

Laos within the former Indo-China

Buddhism seeped into the area from the 7th century onwards, firmly establishing itself in the 11th and 12th centuries as the Lao and Thai people migrated south from southern China. With Laos often split into three kingdoms or partly ruled by invaders, Theravada Buddhism became an important unifying features of Lao culture. Indigenous non-Lao ethnic minorities (some large, some only a few hundred strong) make up 30% of the population and generally follow folk religions.

The North

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang was the capital of its own kingdom from medieval times, and the royal capital of the Kingdom of Laos after independence from France in in 1953. After a long civil war the kingdom became the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Laos in 1975.

At 6 o’clock every morning the monks of Luang Prabang process through the streets soliciting alms for their daily food.

Begging Monks, Luang Prabang

It is, of course, a tourist attraction, and the modern world has provided more efficient ways of supporting religious institutions, but the procession remains symbolically important, both to the monks and the kneeling citizens who place donations of sticky rice into the monk’s begging bowls.

Wat Xieng Thong

Wat Xieng Thong’s Sim was built in 1560 and is the original; unlike the city’s other older temples it has never been razed by Chinese marauders nor over-enthusiastically restored. Considered a masterpiece of Lao architecture, the eves sweep almost to the ground, like a mother hen protecting her chickens. Though of great importance, the sim is modest in size; understatement is the Lao way.

The Sim, Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang

Inside is the usual collection of Buddha images....

Inside the Sim, Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang

… but not the most important statue. The Sitting Buddha, locked in a pavilion behind the Sim, prefers to remain in darkness and is taken out only to be washed. There is, however, a keyhole through which the Buddha can be viewed, and even photographed.

The Sitting Buddha through the keyhole, Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang

The Pra Bang Buddha

But even the sitting Buddha is not the most important statue in Luang Prabang. The Pra Bang Buddha, the Palladium of Laos (the image on which the nation’s safety depends) is housed in his own pavilion outside the former royal palace. We were allowed to approach the Buddha, shoeless, hatless and camera-less, so I have no a picture but can a report that it is a standing Buddha almost a metre high with his arms stretched forward. palms outward.

The hall of the Pra Bang Buddha, Luang Prabang

See Luang Prabang (1) The Old Town (Feb 2014)

Muang Khoun

Once the royal capital of Xieng Khaung, Muang Khoun is now little more than a village 30 km south of Phonsavan, the modern provincial capital (see map above).

As the stronghold of the communist Pathet Lao (now the government) and straddling the Ho Chi Minh trail Xieng Khoun was heavily bombed; eastern Laos receiving the equivalent of one planeload of American bombs every eight minutes for eight years (1964-73). Unexploded ordinance still blights the lives of local farmers.

Wat Phi Wat

After bombs destroyed Wat Phi Wat the main Buddha image was painstakingly reassembled, though his face now has an appropriately pained expression.

The Wat Phi Wat Buddha statue, Muang Khoun

 see Phonsavan, the Plain of Jars and Unexploded Ordinance (Feb 2014)

Vientiane

Vientiane, a small, low rise, low stress city has been the capital, off and on, of all or part of Laos since 1573. The Kingdom of Vientiane became a vassal of Siam in 1779 and after a rebellion in 1827 the city was looted and razed. It was rebuilt by the French in 1899.

That Luang

The gold painted stupa of That Luang marks the centre of the city and the focal point of Lao culture. It was built in 1930, based on French explorers’ sketches of the great stupa that stood here before 1827.

That Luang, Vientiane

Wat Pha Keo

Vientiane has many temples, as befits a major city, but Wat Pha Keo, the king’s personal temple rebuilt by the French, is now a museum whose major exhibit is elsewhere.

Wat Pha Keo, Vientiane

It once housed the Pha Keo, the ‘Emerald Buddha,’ but that it was carried off to Thailand in 1799 and now resides in Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok. It is the Palladium of Thailand, touched only by the king when he changes its robes, so there is little chance of it returning any time soon. (for more, see below and the 2015 post The Story of the Emerald Buddha.).

Wat On Teu

I should include one working temple from the capital, so I have chosen Wat On Tue, the Temple of the Heavy Buddha. Rebuilt several times since its original construction in 1560 by King Setthathirath, it is a complex of small buildings…

Wat On Teu Temple complex, Vientiane

….with a larger sim containing the eponymous image. In 1560 the nobles were summoned here to swear allegiance to King Setthathirath in front Vientiane’s largest Buddha. Two centuries later they were summoned to swear allegiance to Siam and 150 years after that they gathered here to swear allegiance to the French.

Young monk and the heavy Buddha, Wat On Teu, Vientiane

See Vientiane (1) Wats, Stupas and a Heavy Buddha (Feb 2014)

The South

Wat Phabat Phonsan

An hour from Vientiane, Wat Phabat Phonsan in the village of Dan Sa Mouc was constructed on an ancient religious site.

Wat Phabat Phonsan

Although the Buddha never visited Laos, devout Buddhists have managed to find his footprints all over the country and the Sim stands over such a footprint.

The Sim, Wat Phabat Phonsan

Physically, the Buddha was a normal man, but his footprint was, apparently, the size of bathtub. Local guide Phim said that in his grandparent’s youth there really was a ‘footprint’ of sorts, maybe a fossilised dinosaur footprint. The Lonely Planet suggests it was a depression formed by millennia of Mekong flood water.

Buddha's footprint, Wat Phabat Phonsan

Whatever the ‘footprint’ really was, the temple is redeemed by the paintings of the life of the Buddha covering the walls.

Painted interior, Wat Phabat Phonsan

Near Paksan

North of Paksan, our eye was caught by a small country temple with an outsize Naga Buddha. This popular image commemorates a time when the Buddha was meditating beneath a tree. A storm blew up and Mucalinda, the seven-headed King of the Serpents came up from the roots of the tree to shield him from the rain.

Small temple, large statue beside Route 13

See Heading South from Vientiane (Nov 2015)

Champasak

With some 100,000 inhabitants, Pakse (see map) is Laos’ third biggest city. Once capital of the Kingdom of Champasak it is now the capital of Champasak Province. Bordered by Cambodia and Thailand, the area saw many battles in medieval times and four of Champasak’s ten districts lie on the western (otherwise Thai) side of the Mekong.

One of those districts, tucked into Laos’ south-western corner includes the old town of Champasak which gave the kingdom its name, though it is now little more than a village with a line of guest houses beside the Mekong. This a rural area, every village and hamlet has its temple…

Village Temple, Champasak

The main local attraction is the UNESCO world Heritage site of Wat Phou, a 5th century Khmer Hindu temple that converted to Buddhism with the rest of the Khmer Empire in the 11th century. A single shrine remains in use but the site is largely a ruin, and though well worth a visit (or a look here!) it is not included in this post.

Cambodia

Cambodia

I have rather dwelt on Laos; Cambodia will be briefer. Buddhism, Cambodia’s official religion, is followed by 97% of the population (Pew Research Center) but temples, other than the ruins at Angkor, hardly feature on the tourist agenda.

Phnom Penh

The Cambodian capital is the other regular tourist stop – largely for the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Prison.

Wat Preah Keo

The Royal Palace complex provides some light relief and includes Wat Preah Keo, the Silver Pagoda. I failed to bag a decent picture, so borrowed one from Wikipedia for the Emerald Buddha post. I should attribute it more precisely but cannot as it no longer graces the page linked to.

Wat Preah Keo, The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh, borrowed from Wikipedia

Inside, the no-photographing policy was vigorously enforced - so another borrowed picture.

The golden Buddha, Silver Pavilion, Phnom Penh, (picture from Wikipedia)

Built in 1962, the name alludes to the 5,329 silver tiles covering the floor. Now there is a polishing job! The main treasure is a golden Buddha crafted in the royal workshops in 1906/7. Its 90Kg of gold are encrusted with 9,584 diamonds (according to Wikipedia, the Rough Guide says 2,086). There is also a crystal version of the Emerald Buddha. Cambodia has a tenuous claim to the real one, but accepts that Bangkok has it for the foreseeable future.

See Phnom Penh (1) Palaces and Museums (Feb 2014)

Phnom Penh apart, we visited the magnificent temples of the Angkor period – Angkor Wat is just the centrepiece of an extensive complex of temples – and the pre-Angkorian temples at Sambor Prei Kuk. Interesting as they were, they are all ruins and have little or no use by today’s Buddhists, so they are not really part of this post.

Thailand

Thailand

Buddhism is thought to have arrived in Thailand around 250 BCE. The Indian Emperor Ashoka the Great (ruled 268-232) sent out monks to spread Buddhism and they may well have reached Thailand.

From the start of the (still-reigning) Chakri dynasty in 1782 the king has been the Supreme Patriarch of Thai Buddhism and the religion and monarchy are deeply entangled in what it is to be Thai.

Ban Na Ton Chan, Sukhothai, Ayuthaya and Bangkok are underlined. Phitsanulok is under the 'u' of Sukhothai and Wat Pha Sorn Kaew is under the 'h'.

Siam/Thailand was never part of France’s Indo-Chinese possessions, or part of any other European empire, but the Thai people, their culture and language are closely related to the Lao and there is a similarity in their temples.

Ban Na Ton Chan – A Village Temple

Ban Na Ton Chan is a craft village in northern Thailand. We visited on the day of celebration of the end of the rainy season and everybody was out partying in the grounds of the village temple.

The Village temple, Ban Na Ton Chan

The people were extraordinarily welcoming and plied us with food…

Mushrooms and Pork in a Christmas pot, Ban Na Ton Chan

…and I found some new drinking buddies round the back of the temple.

My new drinking buddies, Ban Na Ton Chan

Phitsanulok

Once an Ankgorian provincial centre, Phitsanulok became an important city in the first Thai kingdom which established itself at Sukhothai in 1238.

Wat Phra Sri Rattana

The temple dates from 1357 the time when Phitsanulok was briefly the capital of the Kingdom of Sukhothai.

Wat Phra Sri Rattana, Phitsanulok

Its most prized possession is the Phra Phuttha Chinnarat Buddha image. According to our guide, Ake, it is solid gold (this was a gold mining area) and is 'the most beautiful Buddha in Thailand and in the whole world.' Wikipedia describes it as gold-covered, which seems more likely.

Phra Phuttha Chinnarat Buddha, Phitsanulok

Sculpted sometime between the 10th and 15th centuries, it is, after the Emerald Buddha, the country’s most revered image. Women wearing skimpy tops and short skirts may not enter its presence – though men wearing shorts are no problem. We were also instructed not to photograph the image from a standing position, but as long as we were kneeling or sitting reverently - i.e. with our feet pointing away from the image - we could snap away to our heart's content.

Phetchabun Province

To the east of Phitsanulok is the more rural and hilly Phetchabun Province.

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew - The Temple on a Glass Cliff

Very new – indeed still under construction when we visited in November 2015 – this huge temple and monastery complex set on an 800m peak on the hills of Phetchabun seems a strange mixture of bad taste and brilliance.

Thai decoration is often fussy, but here it becomes fantastical,…

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

…the monastery is a cross between the palace of mad King Ludwig at Neuschwanstein and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle…

Monastery, Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

…but the Life of Buddha – five statues in one over a gleaming white temple is impressive, and not just for its size.

The life of the Buddha in one statue, Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Ayutthaya

Sukhothai was in decline by the 14th century and Ayutthaya, founded in 1351, became the next Thai capital.

A city of rivers and canals with many inhabitants living on boats, Ayutthaya’s population topped a million by 1700. Its wealth attracted traders from China, Persia and the European powers, each having their own ghetto and dock exporting rice, spices, timber and hides. This golden age ended abruptly in 1767 when, after centuries of incursion and counter-incursions, the Burmese finally sacked Ayutthaya, leaving it a ruin.

Bang Pa-In

The city has never recovered its pre-eminence, but it is left with many temples, most of the best in ruins and inappropriate for this post. Nearby Bang Pa-In is a royal retreat that was temporarily abandoned with the fall of Ayutthaya.

In 1782 a new Thai Kingdom emerged with its capital at Bangkok. Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok founded the Chakri dynasty and styled himself Rama I (the current monarch is Rama X).

Bang Pa-In regained its status as royal retreat in the mid-19th century when steam-powered boats put it within easy reach of Bangkok. It was favoured by King Mongkut (Rama IV) and his son King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) who was responsible for most of the building. Kong Mongkut hired the recently widowed Anna Leonowens to be governess for his many children, an event mythologised and romanticised in the King and I. King Chulalongkorn was her protégé and thus an admirer of most things western.

He particularly liked western religious architecture…

Buddhist Temple (yes, really) Pa-In

….but his enthusiasm did not extend to western religion itself. The ‘church’ in the photo above is actually a Buddhist temple. Inside there is even a triptych altar-piece, though there is no altar and the triptych’s iconography is purely Buddhist.

Inside the Buddhist Temple, Pa-In

Bangkok

For the biggest and the best of Thai temples, the capital is the obvious place to go.

Wat Pho

Wat Pho, in the heart of the old royal centre, was constructed in the 1790s on the site of an earlier temple. Within the walls are a monastery, one of the oldest schools of Thai massage, and a huge temple.

There is a central shrine...

Central Shrine, Wat Pho, Bangkok

...and four other main halls….

Wat Pho, Bangkok

…numerous courtyards…

Courtyard full of Buddhas, Wat Pho, Bangkok

….more Buddha images than you can count….

Assorted Buddhas, Wat Pho, Bangkok

….and 92 stupas. The small ones containing the ashes of members of the royal family…

Small Stupas, Wat Pho, Bangkok

… while the large ones hold ashes of the Buddha himself (allegedly).

Large Stupa, Wat Pho, Bangkok

Wat Pho’s main attraction is its Reclining Buddha. At 46m long and 15m high it is not the largest we have seen, (that is the Chaukhtatgyi Buddha in Yangon) but it is undoubtedly the most beautiful…

Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho, Bangkok

….with the most serene face.

Head of the Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho, Bangkok

And on the feet, as always, the 108 attributes of the Buddha.

The 108 attributes on the sole of Buddha's foot, Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho, Bangkok

Wat Phra Kaew

Next to Wat Pho is the Grand Palace, no longer the residence of the royal family, but used for ceremonial purposes. King Rama I started building Wat Phra Kaew next to the palace in 1782 and in 1784 installed the Emerald Buddha which he had carried off after sacking Vientiane in 1779.

Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok

Only 50 cm tall and carved from jade (‘emerald’ refers to its colour) The Emerald Buddha is the palladium of Thailand and probably the most important Buddha image in south east Asia. It is touched only by the King when he changes its robes three times a year. With a long and complicated history, the earlier parts shrouded in myth, the statue has its own post: The Story of the Emerald Buddha. Wat Preah Keo in Phnom Penh has a space should it ever return to Cambodia and it is the most important, though absent, exhibit in the temple/museum of Wat Pha Keo in Vientiane. There is, though, little chance of it leaving Bangkok in the foreseeable future.

The Emerald Buddha, Wat Phra Kaew. Bangkok

Buddhist Temples, Monasteries and Buddha Images

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Mahayana Buddhism
Part 3: Tibetan Buddhism
Part 4: Theravada (1) Sri Lanka
Part 5: Theravada (2) Myanmar
Part 6: Theravada (3) Laos, Cambodia & Thailand

A Fine Drinking Man's Country?

I have long intended to write this post but now, with a huge bloggy backlog and much else to do, I don't have the time.

But I've written it anyway.

My father retired in 1980 and bought a house beside a golf course in Portugal. 'Why Portugal?' I asked. Unlike Greece it was not a country he had visited much, or at all, and although the dust had largely settled after the 1974 Carnation Revolution the new democracy remained fragile. 'Because,' he said, 'it’s a fine drinking man's country.'

 

A younger me standing in the doorway of that house in Portugal (April 1992)

For my father was a drinking man, not an alcoholic or a habitual drunk, but a man who liked a drink, then another one and that was the evening started. I differ from him in many ways, but I share his face - I often stare into the shaving mirror and wonder what the old bugger is doing in my bathroom - and his fondness for an occasional tincture.

 

I enjoy the occasional tincture
A toast in home made mulberry vodka, Goris, Amenia, July 2003

So, staggering in my father's footsteps, here is a drinking man’s guide to a small selection of the 50 or so countries I have been lucky enough to visit. I also like eating, so I have rated them as eating men's countries, too. And when I say 'men' I only echo my father from those far off less inclusive times.

I like to eat - but I should point out that is a sharing plate
Tallinn, Estonia, July 2011

The ratings, on a scale of 0 to 5 (halves permitted), are personal, any woman or man is free to take issue with my scores, but to give a semblance of objectivity here are my criteria.

Drink: How easily available is it? How much variety is there? What is the quality of the local products? Are imported drinks available to fill gaps in variety or quality? Is the price reasonable?

Food: I am judging food from everyday rather than high-end restaurants. How easy is it to find such restaurants? Are fresh ingredients used? Is there a variety of ingredients? Is there a variety of cooking methods? Is food a cultural expression or a commodity?

So with an idiosyncratic selection of 10 countries across 3 continents here (in alphabetically order) are my scores.

1)                  China

Scoring only the Han heartland; travelling among Uighurs and Tibetans has its charms, but they do not include food and drink.

Drinking 3½

Chinese drinking culture exists but European-style cafés are unknown and bars are not obvious. Beer is widely brewed and available but the quality is poor – too much rice and too little (or no) barley. Chinese wine is best avoided - you rarely see locals drinking it. Spirits are easily available, cheap and drinkable – once you have acquired the taste. Knock-off western brands exist, too; I treasure the memory of a bottle of ‘Bushtits Irish Whiskey’, with its familiar black label.

 

A litre of sorghum based bai jiu (clear spirit) bought in Hangzhou
50% abv, it cost around £1

Eating: 4½

Restaurants of every class abound but I never cease to be amazed by the variety and quality of food that can be produced so quickly by one man and a wok working behind little more than a hole in the wall.

Even little local restaurants like these in can be relied upon for an excellent meal
Beijing September 2013

It is difficult to get a bad meal in China.

But it doesn't get much better than this - though it still costs less than a pub meal at home
Beijing duck, Quanjude roast duck, Beijing Sept 2013

Why not 5? Lack of dairy products (I do like my cheese) and their tendency to relish things....

Why am I nibbling the webbing from between the toes of this unfortunate water fowl?
Dinner with Mr Zhua, Huizhou 2004

.... nobody else regards as food (1.2 billion Chinese can’t be wrong – or can they?)

 

Scorpion soup, somewhere in Guangdong Province 2003/4
Picture credit Sian Morris

2)                  France

Drinking: 5

What could you want that they do not have? Good wine at any price level, fine beer (in the north, anyway), the world’s best brandy, pastis (a particular favourite of mine) and a huge range of other drinks. If you insist on scotch or gin & tonic, that is available, too.

Eating: 4

Shock horror, the home of European gastronomy and no 5! You can eat excellent regional dishes, but too many of France’s mid-range restaurants are resting on their laurels. Menus read better in French, but we don’t eat menus.

Spiny lobster - excellent local speciality
Cargèse, Corsica July 2006

3)                  India

Drinking: 2

Hindus are often tee total vegetarians, Muslims tee total meat eaters. Beer, though, is widely available at least in tourist areas, and passable local gin and rum in bars, hotels, and ‘wine shops’ - often disreputable looking places which don’t actually sell wine. Gujarat is dry, Kerala has reportedly put its ‘rolling prohibition’ into reverse.

Naughty boys at a 'wine shop'
Thomas and I, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, March 2016

Eating: 3½

Good Indian food is among the best in the world but finding it is tricky. Most restaurants catering for western tourists are clean and relatively expensive but dial back on the spices; desperate not to offend anyone they ultimately please no-one. Those aimed at the local market can be dull too, the same melange of spices in every dish regardless of the other ingredients, which you cannot taste anyway. But sometimes, and not necessarily in a smarter restaurant, each spice retains its individuality and the combination complements the ingredients instead of drowning them out. Thomas Mathew, our driver on our last two southern India trips, has a gift for spotting the right restaurant in an unknown town. Many of the best meals I have eaten have been in his company, and some cost less than £1 a head.

Thomas' choice in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, March 2016
Here the humble biryani is raised to a thing of joy

4)                  Iran

Drinking: 0

Iran is dry.



Tea house at the tomb of the poet Hafez, Shiraz 2000
It's the nearest we got to a drink!

Eating: 1½

I hate to say this about the land of my birth, but the restaurant food we encountered was too dull to photograph and numbingly repetitive; mountains of rice with a pat of butter, maybe some yoghurt to moisten it and kebabs, unseasoned chunks of beef, chicken or lamb, every day, sometimes twice a day. Home cooking, we were told, is much better, and maybe it is. My (Hampshire born) sister’s recent visit suggested variety has improved markedly, but as Iranian cuisine eschews garlic and all spices, how much better can it be? Pluses: breakfast feta-style cheese and the world’s finest pistachios.

5)                  Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of)

Drink: 4½

Mastika (better than ouzo, maybe as good as pastis) before a meal, a choice of wines with and an acceptable brandy after. Tikveš is the only wine region of note but it produces a range of interesting varietals including the dark, smoky and seriously underrated Vranac. Skopsko Beer, dominating the market, is a pleasant lager but hardly memorable.



Popova Kula winery, Demir Kapija, Tikveš region, Macedonia May 2015

Eating: 3½

The Balkans specialises in grilled meats but Macedonians have a lighter touch than most. Vegetables are rare but salads, often covered in a blizzard of grated cheese, abound. Being landlocked, fish only figures around Lake Ohrid, but trout, eel, carp and whitebait were fresh and sympathetically cooked.

Carp and eel, and a bottle of Tikveš Zupljanka beside Lake Ohrid, May 2015

 6)                  Mongolia

Drink: 2½

In Ulanbaatar there is good beer and, as a former soviet satellite, more vodka than is good for some locals. In the countryside there is airag, fermented mares’ milk. Good manners say you must taste – and it is not unpleasant – but drink more and you will discover it rifles through the European digestive system with destructive haste. Believe me.

Making airag, Mongolian encampment July 2007

Eating: 1

Outside Ulaanbaatar there are no vegetables or salad – digging in God’s good earth is a rude intrusion. Goat’s milk cheese is sun dried until it has the colour and consistency of a pot sherd, though it (eventually) softens in the mouth to release a punchy goat flavour. In a week, 12 of our lunches and dinners were mutton. For the thirteenth we found chicken in a restaurant in Ulaanbaatar. The fourteenth? We were too full of chicken to eat  anything!

The first step in cheese making, Mongolian encampment, July 2007

7)                  Morocco

Drink: 1½

No Muslim country can be a drinking man’s country, but the Moroccan wine industry limped on after the French departed and has recently undergone a revival. There is a full Appellation d’Origine system, but the wine is easier to find in France than in Morocco. Flag lager used to be a contender for ‘worst lager in the world’, but I am told it has improved. The Jewish community distil a spirit from date palms for which a taste can be developed.

Food: 3

Moroccan food is excellent - tender mechoui roast lamb, tagines of lamb, beef and fish with couscous, pastilla (a savoury pastry with pounded chicken and almonds), mountains of fresh fish on the Agadir dockside - but by day four you are going round the cycle again. The quality and skill on show are impressive, the variety sadly limited.

8)                  Portugal

Drink: 4½

Portugal offers the world’s most underrated wines, plus Port and Madeira, brandy, bagaçeira, and liqueurs of varying palatability. My father was right; it is a fine drinking man’s country. Why not 5? Portuguese beer, though widely available is of modest quality and limited variety.

Modest quality, limited variety - but that won't stop me
Evora Sept 2016

 Eating: 4½

I eat more fish in two weeks in Portugal than in the whole of the rest of the year. Restaurants use fine, fresh ingredients and let them speak for themselves. Why not 5? Although the variety is impressive (unlike Morocco), too many restaurants concentrate on the same old favourites; a little innovation would be welcome.



Sardines with Mike and Alison, Portimão Oct 2016

9)                  Sri Lanka

Drink: 3

Falling like a dewdrop from the end of India’s nose it might be expected to be similar, but not so. Lion lager, overwhelming the best selling beer, is available everywhere as is arrack, the very enjoyable national spirit, distilled from toddy (see The Backwaters of Kerala) and bottled at various qualities. They also distil gin and more.

Eating: 2½

Drinking maybe better than in India, but eating is not. Rice and Curry (in that order) involving three or more bowls of vegetable and meat curries with little variation is ubiquitous. Devilled meat or fish – resembling sweet and sour with a chilli kick - or ‘Chinese’ noodles dishes are the only alternative. Beef is always tough.

Rice and curry, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

10)              Thailand

Drink: 3½

Chang Beer is the sort of light, fizzy, flavourless lager I would normally avoid like the plague but, in the Thai heat, it somehow hits a spot. There are other beers (notably the more characterful Singha), Mekhong ‘whisky’ (which is not whisky), SangSom rum and several other easily available spirits.

Chang beer works its magic, Cha Am beach, November 2015

Food: 4.5

We have eaten one or two dull Thai dishes, but generally the standard of cooking is high; a red curry in Bangkok and squid with lemon and chilli beside the Mae Klong River stand out. All tourist orientated restaurant dial back (sometimes omit) the chillis while other restaurants often clock a large lumbering frame and a pale face and do the same automatically. You sometimes have to fight for your right to a chilli.

Squid with lemon and chilli (and some fish cakes) beside the Mae Klong, November 2015

Being a mathematician I put the results on a graph.

Microsoft calculated the line of best fit and I calculated Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. It was 0.69. (The coefficient is a number between -1 and +1, 1 implies perfect positive correlation, -1 perfect negative correlation and 0 no correlation) so there is a moderately strong correlation between good eating and good drinking. Well who’d a thunk it?