A Long Return To Thailand – Part 3 is a post from: Bangkok Diaries

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I awoke at nearly midnight with Jeab in my arms. I felt totally worn out which I guess was a result of the excitement of the past few days, jet-lag and making love with Jeab. I lay there for a few moments my nostrils filled with the scent of Jeab’s hair, listening to the distant sound of traffic from Second Road. I was ravenously hungry and gently let go of Jeab as I went to the shower. Jeab stirred slightly but remained asleep. The air conditioning had made the room cool and I switched on a bedside lamp. I stood under the shower trying to decide whether I would go out and take Jeab with me, go out and send Jeab home, stay in my room with Jeab or stay in my room without Jeab. Such are the decisions to be made in Thailand.

I decided to leave Jeab sleeping while I went downstairs to have a drink in the hotel bar. Half expecting to meet green stripe polo shirt I entered the lift and descended to the ground floor. I could hear the music from the bar opposite as I ordered a Heineken and sat down with my thoughts. The bar was virtually empty with only a couple of guys accompanied by Thai ladies. They spoke in hushed tones as I stood up to collect a copy of the Bangkok Post from the newspaper rack. As I did this I heard a voice behind me.

“Mind if I join you mate?”

The accent was unmistakably Australian and belonged to a guy who looked to be in his mid-thirties, about my height with a short military type haircut wearing light blue jeans, a white shirt and suede desert boots.

“Yes, no problem, sit down here, fancy a beer? I’m Gerry from England”. We shook hands.

“My name’s Jim I’m from Sydney”.

I got Jim a bottle of Singha and I got a bottle of Heineken, we sat down at a table with a view through the window of the soi. Jim was in Pattaya on holiday and this was his first night. He had arranged to meet some friends in Pattaya but their flight was delayed and they’d decided to spend the night in Bangkok.

“Great place mate” said Jim taking a hearty glug from his beer.

“My first time here Jim, got here this morning and things are going fine so far”. My mind wandering briefly to wonder what Jeab was doing upstairs. I’d locked all my valuables in the room safe and hated doing it because I wanted to trust everyone but better to be safe than sorry.

“What you got planned tonight?” said Jim as his eyes followed a couple of young ladies walking up the soi towards Second Road.

“Nothing at the moment mate, any ideas?”

Of course Jim had ideas. We discussed our plans and I quickly made the decision to relieve Jeab of her duties and hit the town with Jim. I caught the lift upstairs and knocked on the room door. Jeab opened the door almost immediately, smiling wrapped in a white towel and wearing a shower cap. I explained I was going out with my friend from the bar and would she give me her telephone number. I didn’t know exactly how to say I wanted her to go but she got the message but not before peeling off her towel and standing naked in front of me saying, “I horny tilac”. My return to the hotel bar and my new friend Jim took slightly longer than I anticipated. I introduced Jeab to Jim before she went on her merry way laden with baht.

It was getting towards one o’clock in the morning as Jim and myself jumped into a baht bus and headed towards Soi 8. Jim had been to Soi 8 earlier in the evening and recommended we revisit. We paid the baht bus driver his fare and entered Soi 8. Soi 8 runs parallel to Soi 13 between Second Road and Beach Road further north along the coast. It is lined by bars on both sides and is about 150 metres in length. As we arrived the bars were closing but it was still possible to have a drink outside the bars and the place was buzzing with people. The lights in the bars had been turned off and the volume of the music was reduced but there was still a fun atmosphere with hundreds of people still partying. Girls, and ladyboys, were in abundance all around us as we drank our beers and took in the scenery. We were soon joined by a couple of girls, Bom and Art. Bom latched onto Jim and Art seemed to take a liking to me. We bought them drinks which looked more like works of art than a beverage and settled down to talk away and watch the activities on Soi 8. Art spoke excellent English and we were soon deep in conversation about nothing in particular. I endured the now familiar interrogation – name, duration of stay, name of hotel, how old, wife? Girlfriend? Where you go? etc. The answers I gave seemed to satisfy both Art and myself as the crowds on Soi 8 thinned slightly. Bom got up to go and get some food for her and Jim so I asked Art if she wanted anything. Art smiled and said yes so she joined Bom on the food run. I was looking forward to something to eat as I hadn’t eaten since the chicken and fruit earlier in the day. I asked Jim how he was getting on and I got the response, “Bonzer” which I took to mean things were going great with him and Bom. We got another couple of beers from a very tall ladyboy who had now assumed waitress duties for us. Bom and Art returned clutching a veritable feast which included a doner kebab, a couple of burgers, some som tam, a fish with what looked like garlic, lime and chilli, a few bags of sticky rice and some noodles and we all tucked in although I noticed the girls gave the burgers and kebab a wide berth.

The food finished we ordered more beers and spectacular beverages for the girls and talked about moving on. Bom suggested we went to a disco she knew was open until the morning. Jim and myself didn’t take much persuading as we quickly finished our drinks and hopped into a passing baht bus. I sat next to Art on one side of the baht bus and opposite Bom and Jim held each other as we commenced our breakneck speed journey to the mystery destination. We turned inland away from the sea. I recognised the road we were on from my journey into Pattaya the previous morning as we passed some very large hotels. The street lights became more sparse and darkness seemed to envelope us as we travelled to our mystery destination. Suddenly the baht bus slowed and in front of us stood a huge warehouse type structure adorned with flashing neon lights. It was like an oasis in the middle of darkness with what seemed like hundreds of Thai men and women along with farangs accompanied by Thai girls. Art and Bom seemed very excited to have arrived as we alighted the baht bus and paid the driver.

Outside the queue to enter the venue snaked around the side of the building. There were dozens of food carts sprinkled around the place along with small stalls selling beer and soft drinks to those in the queue. Bom and Art disappeared for a couple of minutes and reappeared clutching bags of what I thought were chocolate chip cookies although on closer inspection they were deep fried baby frogs which both Art and Bom nibbled on voraciously. They offered Jim and myself a frog each but we both politely declined causing the girls to giggle furiously no doubt revelling in the awkwardness of the two farangs.

The girls entered the venue free of charge and both Jim and myself were charged an admission fee which included a free drink. Inside, the place was jumping. Literally hundreds of Thai’s and farangs dancing and having fun. The venue was enormous and was adorned with flashing lights, huge sheets hanging from the ceiling and a stage where I presumed a band would play at some point. Everybody seemed to be having a great time. Suddenly the music stopped and everybody started chanting something in Thai, the noise got louder as the chanting became louder and louder. Me and Jim looked at each other laughing and at the same time feeling slightly excluded. Bom and Art were jumping up and down laughing hysterically and shouting, it seemed the whole place was going to explode when the lights flashed even faster, the noise built to a crescendo and there were three enormous loud bangs. This was when I noticed what looked like foam being shot out of what seemed to be huge drainpipes at the side of the stage. The foam shot up into the air seemingly covering everything. The girls were now besides themselves jumping up and down screaming as they were progressively covered with the foam. We all became unrecognisable as the music started up again and people danced, jumped around and melted into a huge mass of foam and humanity. It was mind-blowingly hysterically funny.

Eventually the hysteria subsided and Jim and myself located Art and Bom who had by now de-foamed themselves. They were still in the vicinity but appeared to be shell-shocked after the excitement of the foam. It obviously wasn’t the first time Bom and Art had attended the foam night and judging by how much they had enjoyed it, it wouldn’t be the last.

We left at around five o’clock and wearily made our way towards a queue of baht buses parked on the road that passed the foam warehouse. Art and Bom by now had stopped talking and entered the Thai girl mode of tiredness where nothing short of a firework up the arse would rouse them. We all returned to the hotel in the baht bus tired, happy and looking forward to a good nights sleep. We caught the lift up to our respective floors, me with Art and Jim with Bom and said our goodnights.

Art and myself slept like the proverbial logs, naked and entwined.

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A Long Return To Thailand – Part 1 is a post from: Bangkok Diaries

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The time passed quickly as I sat in the taxi heading for Pattaya. This was a journey I had wanted to make for many years and now the time had come. I had a whole month to discover the delights of Pattaya and that month was starting today.

Since leaving Bangkok 3 months before I had experienced the full gamut of emotions. Leaving Bangkok had been painful. I had discovered a side of life that left me feeling exhilarated. I had enjoyed the company of and made love with some beautiful ladies, I had met some lovely people and made some good friendships. The lifestyle of balmy evenings sipping beer, eating delicious cheap food and watching the world go by agreed with me most favourably. I had discovered a heady cocktail and under no circumstances was I going to let it go. It seemed I had discovered my own private heaven.

The job interview in London just a few days after returning to England had gone well, in fact it had gone so well I had got the job, the interviewer saying I had impressed enough to be offered the job there and then on the spot. I had thanked the interviewer with the correct amount of enthusiasm and surprise as I shook his hand looking him in the eye more to convince myself that I wanted the job than to convince him he had chosen the right candidate. Inside I knew I had changed. A month before the interview I would have crawled over broken glass, hot coals, man o’ war jellyfish, hungry crocodiles and the odd stinging nettle to be offered this job but now it didn’t matter. I didn’t want the job, the job where I was going to get a generous 5 weeks paid holiday a year, a non-contributory pension plan, membership of a health club and a London Underground season ticket. These things no longer mattered to me, what mattered to me now was Thailand and that was it. The day after the interview I received a formal offer of employment through the letterbox outlining the package being offered to me. The salary was reasonable, the benefits were generous and the working conditions were excellent. The words that jumped out at me from the offer letter were those written large and black and bored into my consciousness, “Five weeks paid holiday”. As I read them I felt hopelessness, that confusion and helplessness I remembered from years before when I had lost my mother in the supermarket as a small child. How would I be able to enjoy Thailand with only five weeks paid holiday each year? I called the company and lied saying I had encountered some personal problems and would have to decline the offer. They sounded disappointed and asked me to contact them once I had sorted out whatever problem I had. I wish they had been angry with me, called me a nasty name and left it at that instead of being so bloody nice about it. So bloody nice.

I needed a job where I could work and have time off, lots of time off. Those jobs aren’t easy to come by because let’s face it, everybody wants those jobs. I racked my brains for a week thinking what I could turn my hand to. Sheep shearing in the Falklands, e-Bay trading, male escort, driving instructor, oil rig worker, freelance writer and porn star were amongst the more sane ideas I had. My ideas fountain had dried up and I needed a break. I have a friend in Bristol who had also visited Thailand some years before and was now in an unhappy marriage with a lady who had morphed into a nasty overweight overbearing copy of her mother. I had met her mother at my friends wedding a few years before and commented to him that if his new wife turned into her mother then he should either consider suicide or homosexuality. He laughed at the time but he was not laughing now.

We went for a drink near Bristol Templemeads station. Bristol Parkway and Bristol Templemeads, two railway stations for Bristol, something I’ve never understood and, I guess, neither does Bristol. It was early evening and Steve had just finished work. I had phoned him earlier in the day to tell him what time I was arriving in Bristol and he seemed to be looking forward to meeting up with me. In fact the impression I got was Steve was looking forward to anything that didn’t involve having to go home and face his duplicate mother-in-law over a plate of sausage, egg and chips. It was raining outside, the nights were drawing in and there were the beginnings of the cold that signalled yet another English winter. We sat in the corner of the bar each with a pint of Heineken which, to my mind, now seemed so out of place in an English pub without a cooling condom container and a beautiful Thai lady to talk to. We chatted small talk about his work, his day, my day, the journey to Bristol Templemeads on the train and the weather. We sat silently sipping our beer thinking of something else to say listening to the rain outside, me contemplating my future, Steve contemplating his mistake sat at home. Steve was fully aware I had been to Thailand and in fact he was a major factor in me making my decision to go. I guessed he had secretly wished it was him who was going when I was making my plans, he was a good friend. Little did he know how much it had changed my view on life and I was about to tell him.

I told Steve about Nok, Pim, Geoff, Poo, and everyone I had met in Thailand, I told him about turning the job down and my fruitless quest for a job that would enable me to visit Thailand as often as possible during the year. I told him I just didn’t know what to do. One of the reasons Steve was a good friend is he is non-judgemental, he is laid back and nothing seems to bother him, that is apart from his wife.

He sat silently for a few seconds thinking. This was usual with Steve when he was thinking about something to say. I hoped he wasn’t going to be judgemental or laugh or tell me to grow up or any number of other responses I was expecting. Instead he said,

“Mate, I wish I was in your shoes”

“How do you mean?”

“You know when I visited Thailand a few years ago I felt exactly the same as you but I had just met Jane and, you know, that just seemed more important at the time.”

I figured it wasn’t really the right time to say anything about Jane even though I wanted to tell Steve he should just up sticks and come to Thailand with me. I asked him what he would do in my shoes.

“Look, it’s not up to me but I know how hard you worked at university, how you wanted to make a new start in life and is that new start working in an office with free travel on the underground? No it isn’t, your new start is you doing what pleases you. You have found something that pleases you and now we have to find out how you achieve that aim.”

I wasn’t surprised by his response but it was the way he said it with such conviction that made an impression upon me.

We carried on drinking Heineken and said nothing more about Thailand for the rest of the evening.

The next morning after waking up I called Steve from my room in the Holiday Inn. We had both got spectacularly drunk the night before and ended up in an anonymous Indian restaurant eating chicken vindaloo, nan breads, popadums, rice and chips washed down with the best house Stella Artois. I couldn’t recall returning to the hotel but had a fleeting memory of being sick outside the kebab shop next door to the Indian restaurant.

I met Steve in the hotel bar at midday. He looked a lot happier than he had the night before in the pub near Bristol Templemeads station. In fact he had a big smile on his face which surprised me somewhat considering I guessed his hangover must be at least as painful as mine.

“Sleep well mate?” he asked as he beamed at me.

“What the fuck is up with you?”

“Fuck all, just in a good mood, that’s all”.

I asked if he wanted a beer and we went and sat down near the spiral staircase out of earshot with two pints of Heineken.

“Jane was up to her tricks again this morning when I woke up.”

I nodded in an understanding manner not wanting to make a judgement but I knew what he was going through. I asked what she had done.

“It doesn’t matter what she did but I’ve told her I’ve had enough and I’m moving into your flat.”

I know me and Steve are good mates and I’ll help him wherever I can but my flat is in London and he works in Bristol. I told him this as if he didn’t already know.

“I can work from our office in London for a few months until things are sorted out with Jane and then move back to Bristol once the divorce is finalised”, said Steve.

“Divorce?”

“Yes, I’ve been thinking about it for ages and talking to you about new beginnings last night has finally made my mind up, She can have the house, she can have the car, in fact she can have anything she wants, all I want is to get away from her. I’ve finally grown some balls”.

“Well Steve, I can’t say it’s a surprise but you certainly seem to have made up your mind, how about another beer?”

We got another beer and sat for a minute contemplating.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said last night and I’ve had an idea”. Steve said wiping the Heineken froth from his top lip. He seemed to have a sparkle in his eye, as though he was bursting to get something out.

“Ok mate, go ahead, I’m all ears”.

“You know at uni as part of your group project you built some business websites for small charities?”

I’d actually forgotten about building the sites. We’d built the sites as part of a group project for local charities in order to help locally and to expand our skills. I replied that I remembered.

“Well, my company are offering a free web design service for all new customers and I’m in charge of finding a small web design company in the local area. It’s all based on templates, all you need is a basic knowledge of Dreamweaver and HTML and there you go!”

I am no Bill Gates or Steve Jobs but I certainly had used Dreamweaver before and had a basic knowledge of HTML and this sounded good but what did it entail?

“Well you get paid for each site you build by us and that’s about it. We are expecting around 100 sites a month at £20 per site and you can do that from anywhere in the world. The offer is planned to last a year. How does that sound?”

That sounds good but ………………

“But what? It’s about two grand a month and I know you can easily live on two grand a month in Thailand. No ifs or buts, I’ve got you the gig so let’s drink up and go and book your ticket. Besides there’s no way I’m living in your gaff with you!” Steve said looking at me laughing, the happiest I’d seen him since I’d arrived in Bristol the night before.

We booked my flight to Bangkok at the Thomas Cook Flight Centre in Bristol. I was returning to Bangkok in two days.

The taxi raced along the tollway getting closer to Pattaya by the second as I clutched my laptop bag and suitcase. I felt alive.

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Photo of the Day – Midnight Snack is a post from: Bangkok Diaries

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photo by ~MVI~

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Some Thai Food Has Six Legs is a post from: Bangkok Diaries

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Many people enjoy Thai food worldwide: spicy soups and salads, flavorful rice dishes are abundant. But in Thailand, fried or roasted insects and scorpions are also popular, readily available, and inexpensive.

Insects have traditionally been a rich source of protein, calories, vitamins, and minerals in the Northern Thailand diet. They are also prized as delicacies. In fact, it is unusual to find an insect which is not eaten in one form or another by local people. Among the most popular are:

• cicadas, locusts, mantises, crickets, and grasshoppers which are all deep
  fried and are rather crunchy;
• bamboo worms, which are also deep fried;
• giant water bugs, which are steamed; they are also ground into a paste with
  chili and eaten with sticky rice;
• weaver ants (red ants with a painful bite) and their eggs; sticky rice is
  dipped into a mixture of ants, eggs, and chili;
• dung beetles; which add a wholesome flavor to curries; however, many people
  will not eat them because they live in and on excrement.

In addition, Thai people will eat

• the pupae of silk moths and other moths and butterflies; you must first
  remove the pupae from their cocoons, then boil them until soft with a pinch of
  salt, finally sautée them lightly;
• the larvae of wasps and bees; these are deep-fried;
  and arachnids:
• poisonous scorpions, which are grilled;
• giant tarantulas, which are also grilled.

I haven’t seen other spiders eaten, but I suspect if it moves, it’s considered
food somewhere. Also, termites (large white ants) are grilled and their eggs are a delicacy
used to make a flavorful soup.

Where I lived in Bangkok, Sukhumvit Soi 4, every night starting around 5:00 PM, there was a street vendor with half a dozen kinds of fried and grilled insects and scorpions; her customers were mainly the bar girls in the area. Every night she was quite busy as the girls consider these insects a tasty snack, and munch on them as frequently as Western people munch on potato chips. The lady vendor does not speak any English, but will pose with her wares for a photograph if you give her a 20 baht (about 60 cents) tip. And if you’re brave, you could always buy a bag of deep fried bamboo worms…

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Papaya/mango Salad Thai Style is a post from: Bangkok Diaries

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Papaya salad is almost as much a staple part of my diet as rice is. For sure if I eat out and am not given any som tam, I will soon after be found at a roadside food vendor, correcting the deficiency.

If you lived on a diet of som tam and not much else, it is highly unlikely you would ever become fat.

Some restaurants use mango instead of papaya. Generally though I find mango to be too acidic for this purpose.

Ingredients to serve 4 people

1 medium sized green papaya, 4 small plum tomatos, 1 carrot, 10ml tamarind juice, 25ml lime juice, 2 cloves garlic, 50gm prik kee noo, 10gm brown sugar, 25ml nam pla, 25gm dried shrimp, 50gm unsalted roasted peanuts.

Peel the papaya and shred the green flesh (if you don’t have a suitable implement for the purpose a coarse cheese grater may work).

Also peel and shred the carrot.

Put the shredded papaya and carrot in the fridge.

Soften the dried shrimp in a few mls of boiling water.

Pound the garlic and the prik kee noo together in a pestle and mortar.

Separately pound the peanuts together with the shrimp, but only until coarsely broken up, not reduced to dust or paste.

Mix the tamarind, juice, lime juice, fish sauce and the sugar.

Chop the tomatoes into quarters.

Mix all the ingredients together and serve in a bowl. Most restaurants would drain off some of the excess juice before serving, but I usually keep it.

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Food Courts is a post from: Bangkok Diaries

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I have been living in Bangkok for about 3 months now. I am still exploring the city and learning about all it has to offer. Of course, one of the main attractions is the excellent and economical dining that is available here. Recently, there was a thread on a Thai message board about the hygiene of the food stalls you find on the side of the road everywhere; someone recommended using food courts as an alternative. Well, I have fallen into the habit of using these food courts frequently myself. Since I have a fair bit of free time on my hands, I thought I would do a short article about them.

Food courts can be found in most shopping malls. The ones that I visit are in buildings that are connected to or near sky train stations. I am not sure if food courts are as cheap as the food carts on the street, but they can’t be much more expensive, and they are a whole lot cheaper than restaurants in the tourist ghettos. More importantly, they provide a more authentic local Thai dining experience. It seems silly to me to come thousands of miles just for a burger and fries.

All food courts basically work the same way: you go to a booth with the sign ‘Coupons’ (hopefully in English as well as Thai). Give the attendant 50 to 100 Baht, and get an equivalent amount in coupons. You check out the various booths, place your order, and wait for them to cook or prepare it for you – takes a few minutes at most. The food courts that I mention below all have at least some booths that list their selection in English as well as Thai, so there should not be much of a language problem. Most booths will serve a main course of some kind. There are also a few that will serve dessert and drinks as well. Figure on 25 to 50 Baht for a main dish, 20 to 30 Baht for dessert, 10 to 20 Baht for a drink. If you have any unspent coupons after placing you order, you can take it back to a booth to redeem them back into baht (usually but not always the same place where you bought the coupons).

I like food courts for several reasons: they are indoors, so you avoid the noise, heat and flies of a roadside food stall. It’s a cheap way to dine – save your baht for the ladies of the evening. You usually get a decent selection of local food to choose from. You get to eat with the locals themselves – nice to see a slice of authentic urban Thai culture. Also, food courts are kind of fun – you get your ‘play money’ and can spend it on all kinds of exotic looking dishes. Sure and it wears off after a while, but to me it still beats Mac’s or KFC in terms of lowbrow dining.

Review of Food Courts:

1) Ploenchit Centre:

The is my favourite place to eat lunch for a few reasons: it is close to where I am staying in Bangkok, so I go there about 2 times a week. There is a pretty good selection of food and it is cheaper than the other food courts. I think this is because it is not really a tourist area; most of the noontime clientele are office workers in the Centre or from nearby. There is lots of room, so I have never had trouble getting a free table.

Let me repeat that there are a lot of office workers who have lunch here. This includes respectable young Thai ladies in office attire that often wraps snugly around their bodies. I recall one time I was eating here: a small group of secretaries came to dine at a table beside mine. One of them was a real knockout – tall and with a nice, slim figure. She was wearing a tight-fitting skirt. She came to the table with her lunch, then bent over to put her tray on the table, and for some reason remained in this position for about a minute. So there I was, about 2 meters away from a small but perfectly well-rounded little butt, the world-famous Thai ladies’ derriere. Ay Caramba! The fabric of her skirt was stretched so tightly over it that I could clearly see the outline of her thong panties underneath. Gentlemen, it was more erotic than anything I have seen in Nana, Cowboy or The Pong.

Directions: go to Ploenchit Skytrain station, exit from the North-West, walk west about 100 meters. Food court is located on the 6th floor.

2) MBK:

This is the largest food court that I have seen in Bangkok. A very good selection of food: Thai, Chinese and a few Indian and Muslim booths. The clientele is a mix of office workers, students and tourists. It is a bit more expensive than the Ploenchit Centre, no doubt due to it being in a central shopping and touristy area. Still, there is a lot to do in MBK, so it is nice to drop by here for a snack while you are shopping, watching a movie or playing video games. One point I should mention: during the weekend, it can get quite crowded in the afternoon. It is a very large court, but I feel that half of Bangkok comes here at the weekend.

Directions: go to National Stadium Skytrain station, go along the connecting walkway to the MBK Centre. Food Court is on the 6th floor.

3) Siam Centre:

I have only been here twice, so take what I say with a grain of salt. It is a fairly small food court, not so much selection. It very much feels like a student hangout to me – reminds me of most food courts in suburban North American shopping malls. Not surprisingly, many of the students who hang out in the Siam Square area patronize it. I have never seen it crowded, so it is a good place to go if you want a semi-quiet area with some table space to read or study (you will see a lot of kids doing their homework here).

Directions: go to Siam Skytrain station. Food court is on the 3rd floor, east side of the building.

4) Robinson’s / Tops (Sukhumvit Soi 19):

This is a small food court, so the selection is mediocre. It is also somewhat more expensive than other courts, and I have found that standard meal portions seem smaller – you may need to order 2 dishes to get a satisfying, full-sized meal. I guess this is to be expected, being on lower Sukhumvit road, in the middle of sex-tourist alley. Which brings us to its main advantage, the location. It is a handy place to pop in for a quick, (relatively) cheap snack as one cruises back and forth between Nana and Cowboy, looking for sanuk.

I usually visit this place in the early evening. Every time I have been there, I have seen this middle-aged, East Indian gentleman with a beard and turban. There are always 4 large bottles of beer in front of him. He sits at the table, staring off in the distance, like he is drunk and thoroughly mellowed out. Anyone know what his story is?

Directions: go to Asoke Skytrain stations, walk 100 meters west along the north side of Sukhumvit Road. Food court in the basement level of Robinson’s Dept. Store, beside Top’s supermarket.

Other Food Courts:

- World Trade Centre: on the 6th floor, fairly roomy and quiet.

- Pantip Plaza: on the 2rd floor. Quite small – expect it to be extremely crowded on the weekend with boys and girls shopping for MP3s, movies and games.

- Emporium Shopping Centre: on the 5th floor. Also very crowded on weekends (but a very upscale crowd).

- Tokyu Department Store: on the 4th floor, just beside MBK. I would give this a pass and go to the MBK court itself, just 2 escalator rides away.

I will conclude with a small rant: Even though I am staying in the lower Sukhumvit area, I find that I don’t dine in the restaurants there very often. They seem expensive to me and the quality of food and service does not justify the price. The service is especially a sore point with me – these places stick you with a mandatory 10% service charge which I think is a small rip-off because the service is fair to poor ….. well, just another regular day in sex tourist alley. I have found one restaurant that is reasonable – “Thai Rammros”. It’s on Sukhumvit Soi 1, west side of the street about 100 meters into the soi. Decent food, fairly low prices, menus in English. Customers are a mix of farangs and local Thais. No doubt there are other restaurants around like this, probably just a matter of exploring the sois a bit.

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An Introduction To Thai Food is a post from: Bangkok Diaries

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If you mentioned Thailand to a westerner say 30 years or so ago, more than likely they would confuse the country with the Chinese Republic on Taiwan. Or, if they even knew the name at all, all it was probably through Hollywood’s slightly libelous version of Thai “history” as portrayed in Anna and the King of Siam. Nowadays, of course, Thailand is known throughout the world, and the reason is the kingdom’s fabulous cuisine. Thai restaurants can be found in almost every nation and are patronised by people who may never have set foot in Southeast Asia or possibly never even left their own.

So just what is it that makes Thai food special? Most likely it is the combination in each dish of the four basic flavours: sweet, sour, salty and spicy. Over the centuries, Thai cooking has borrowed freely from the culinary arts of China, India and Malaya, blending these different influences to create something that is truly unique. And while Thai food has a reputation for being spicy, in reality most dishes are not. The spiciness varies by region, and central Thai cuisine – the most commonly encountered variety – is probably the least spicy of all.

Recommended dishes for someone new to Thai food might be gai tawt met mamuang himapan (chicken fried with onions, cashews and mild red peppers), gai haw bai toey (seasoned chicken roasted in pandan leaves), nuea paht nam man hoi (slices of beef cooked in oyster sauce), the famous tom yam goong (a mildly spicy shrimp soup) and mee grawp (crisply fried noodles with a light coating of sugar). These favourites should be available in any proper Thai restaurant anywhere in the world.

For lunch, a light one dish meal might be preferred, say khao paht goong (fried rice with shrimp) or kweitiou paht Thai (rice noodles stir fried with an egg, tofu and dried shrimp, and garnished with ground peanuts).

A proper meal when friends gather in Thailand, however, will always include many selections. The more people present, the more the different dishes that will be ordered. Unlike a western dinner, a Thai meal will not be served in courses. There may be a light appetizer, such as baw bia tawt (fried Chinese spring rolls). But the main dishes will probably all arrive at nearly the same time. Diners help themselves by using a large serving spoon to take as much of whatever they want. There will invariably be a soup: like as not tom yang goong, possibly a mild curry made with coconut milk (not ghee as in India), and one or more chicken or fish dishes. A spicy salad may also be included, provided there are enough people to warrant it. Every effort is made to try to balance the meal, both in respect to taste and to visual appearance. (The Thais are great lovers of beauty.) At large gatherings, a common practice is to finish the meal by ordering a huge plate of fried rice to ensure that no one goes away hungry. Soft drinks or fruit juices will probably ordered for the women and children, with the men opting for the ice cold and potent Thai beer.

Sweets may follow, but desserts are not as commonly ordered in Thailand as in the west. Thai sweets are generally made from some combination of rice and coconut, but the variety is nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, Thai sweets all do tend to taste a bit alike, and a better choice is a platter of fresh fruit. With its semi-tropical climate, Thailand has some kind of fruit always in season. Oranges are available year round, and Thai pineapples are noted for being among the best in the world. Papayas, oranges and pomelos (sort of a sweet grapefruit) will also be available most of the year, along with more exotic and seasonal fruit such as rambutan, mangosteen and durian.

In the articles on http://www.foodinthai.com, that follow this one you will be introduced to the origins and types of Thai food, Thai cooking, courses and the various Cooking Schools in Thailand. We hope you will stay with us and enjoy learning more about it.

So as we say in Thailand, Sawatdee. See you next time.

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