Day 11: from the East Bay to Marin

You can’t visit the East Bay and not drop by the Berkeley Thai Temple for some delicious homemade Thai food. You can easily walk there from the Ashby BART station, though you'll probably spend a few bucks first at the weekly City of Berkeley Flea Market where you can get anything from batteries to socks, jewelry and fashion, international foods to just about anything you can imagine. 

The Temple is at 1911 Russell and MLK, next door to the Berkeley Tool Lending Library (which is undergoing some sort of renovation). If you drive, get there early so you can find street parking--please don't block driveways or park illegally. Be courteous to the neighbors and don't litter as some don't enjoy having the weekly onslaught of Berkeley-ites on their streets and the Thai community had to undergo a rigorous campaign to save Sunday brunches at the Temple.

We immediately lined up to exchange our money for tokens, then joined the various lines and got made-to-order som tum (papaya salad, 5 tokens)--be careful when ordering--when you say hot you will get HOT, fried bananas and taro b(4 tokens), curry (6 tokens), and the requisite sticky rice with mango (4 tokens), fried chicken with sticky rice (6 tokens), and Thai iced tea (all drinks are 1 token each). The food and service is donated by local Thai businesses and people as their offering to the Temple. The money from the food sale is used to upgrade the Temple.

They've purchased a rear lot and added a vegetable garden with Thai plants like kafir lime, holy basil, galanga and other vegetables to be more self-sufficient. It's a nice place to meander and get away from the crowds.

I took the opportunity to step inside the smaller temple room, taking care to first take off my sandals outside the door, to offer up a prayer to Buddha and my ancestors.

Aside from the Sunday brunch (10am - 1pm weekly), Wat Mongkolratanaram also houses the Bay Area Thai Cultural Center, which offers language, dance, and classical Thai instrument lessons. If you're lucky, you can watch their students give performances during certain festival dates like the Thai New Year (April), the Queen and King's birthdays (August and December), and other celebrations.

Today we visited G’s mom in San Anselmo, where we stayed at the welcoming San Anselmo Inn, a wonderful French country style bed and breakfast.

We also were lucky to have been here during the annual San Anselmo Wine and Art Festival. There were many booths, including wine tastings from __________________  and beer from the local Marin Brewing Company.

Branch Earth Trading Company, whose owner Russell Hoselton handmakes windchimes, pendants, and other talismans.

I got a fantastic Raptor shirt for my 6-year old future paleontologist from Dave Williams at MouthMan.

There was a booth of beautiful handpainted international coin jewelry from Ann Nolen.

Wonderful crushable, shape-able, water resistant hats of many styles from the WalkAbout hat company.

I met Felicia, who created hand painted energy efficient light bulbs that throw brilliant artistic lights. Check out http://www.mood-lights.com/.

There were elegant, intricate, hand-crocheted jewelry from the Lisa Toland Collection.

Gabriel who created feminine drapey creations on a manually operated knitting machine.

There was a booth of colorful purses and clutches made from rescued candy wrappers by Eco Fashions.

There was a cool bicycle from bikergo that had a thick gel seat, with a concealed chain, smaller radius pedal, thick 3” tires, and a hub 9-gear that he claimed could climb Mt. Tamalpais with no problem. I pedaled it around the fair and it was very comfortable, it did not feel like you were sitting on a bicycle at all.

Dave Bernstein who fronted the Crazy Cajun hot sauce stand who sold me a great collection of hot sauces, barbeque sauce, as well as rubs.

I purchased a fantastic French Garlic Grater, which was a colorful painted ceramic dish with teeth that you can grate garlic, ginger, nutmeg, into a smooth paste, finer than what you can accomplish with a machine, as well as hard cheeses and citrus fruit. The set, which came with a Garlic Peeler Tube and brush, was a terrific present for my mother at $19.95.

I also met Caroline Kramer, who is from France and had brilliant selections of dichroic glass jewelry.

There were a myriad other artists and artisans but I was not able to talk personally with them in the two hours that we were there. PG&E had two stages on either end of the festival with some local music. There were also bouncers and slides and a rock climbing wall for kids. There was a cornucopia of food available, from hot dogs to roasted corn to shaved ice and cotton candy, something for everyone. It’s a really terrific festival that’s great fun for the family, dog-friendly, and free. I strongly urge you to attend the next time they hold it.

to be updated soon