Busy in Bangkok

Friends -

The past few days in Bangkok have been marvelous.  Sorry to make you hate us even more, but it’s just plain true!

We have been staying in a great hotel on the Chao Praya River right by the Tha Pra Athit water taxi stop.  We are on the top floor and can see a little bit out over an older part of the city.  The breakfast buffet at this place is fabulous – Andrew loves the fried eggs and there are all kinds of toast and fruit, not to mention Thai noodles/rice/curry, to go along with the eggs.  The coffee is very strong and we eat on a great big porch right on the river.  I had been thinking we might try out new hotels when we come back to Bangkok for our layover nights between Vietnam and Indonesia and Indonesia and home, but I think we will stick to this place.  It is just too convenient to walk out of the lobby and hop into the boats that ply up and down the river.  At 13 baht per ride, who can complain? ($1 = 33 baht).  Also, the all you can eat breakfast is crucial to making it to lunchtime without getting hungry-cranky (“hangry” as some of you call it).

The sights have been a lot of fun.  So far we have seen the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Keow) and the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) as well as Jim Thompson’s house and a little bit of ultra-modern Siam Square.  The food court at Siam Paragon mall was so large and overwhelming that I think that we were both really frustrated at having to pick and decide what to eat for a snack.  You know when you are so hungry and you just want ordering to be simple?  That was not the Siam Paragon food court at all.  Andrew tried the KFC and remembered to ask for no ice.  I think the Thai french fries must be fried in some sort of animal fat because they were so tasty and crispy.

The food.  Really, eating has been our main activity.  We will walk and walk and take all sorts of public transportation to make it to our desired lunch and dinner spots.  There have been no misses so far.  Thank you New York Times for your food recommendations because they have been spot on!!

We have eaten lunch twice at a 90 year old restaurant called Chote Chitr.  I am hesitant to describe the food except to say that… you should come to Bangkok and eat at this restaurant at least once in your lifetime.  We ordered three dishes each time.  So far we have tried: crispy noodles mee krob, hot and sour soup with shrimp gaeng nam, shrimp choo chee, fried fish with mango salad, pork chops with dry yellow curry, and banana flower salad.  Andrew ate one bite of the banana flower salad and said (after enjoying a heavenly second), “Thai food has been ruined for me forever.”  Yes my friends, do not even think of inviting Mr. Andrew to Spice in Harvard Square because he will laugh an evil laugh at you.  Our goal is to eat at Chote Chitr at least one more, if not two more times before returning to North America.

We also ate at this noodle place called Raan Jay Fai, which had no English sign and which we found through the number on the storefront.  Oh, such giant tasty prawns.  And the noodles… not chewy at all but tender and toothsome at the same time?  Tom yom soup here in Thailand has a much stronger, tamarind-y flavor than what you can find in Boston.  It makes your tongue feel fuzzy.

Our most of of the way food stop was at Talad Loong Perm, a hawker market that made Food and Wine’s 2007 “go list.”  We took the water taxi to the central stop where we transferred to the skytrain and went all the way to the northernmost stop, Mo Chit.  From there we used the giant Thai Airways building to guide us as we crossed a highway and through some alleys until we got to the market.  It was so stinking hot in side – we were both sweating and sweating and I folded my pants as high as they could go.  No English of course, just pointing and relying on the fact that Thai numbers sound a lot like Korean numbers.  So we paid “sam sip” for pad thai (30 baht) and it was good.  So good we got a second plate.  There were also some fabulous chive dumplings and fresh rolls.

Andrew tried durian and liked it (“tastes like a mild melon that has been rubbed with onion”).  Sophia did not try.  I did love the mangosteen though… why don’t we have mangosteen in the US?  Or lots of dragonfruit??  Or Chote Chitr?  Or water taxis on the Charles River?  How about $11 massages in the shadow of giant reclining Buddhas?  No really, aside from mangosteen I am OK with all of these things being exclusive to Bangkok so that I am forced to practice zen thinking, live in the moment, and appreciate these beautiful things while in their physical presence and not just through memory.

Tomorrow we will make the epic overland journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia.  I’ll try to post when we arrive using the ipod, but it all depends on whether we will have wireless internet.