Hello touristy Thailand!
Bangkok is one crazy city. I've overcome my initial daze inflicted by the noise, heat, smells, and overwhelming touristy-ness of this place and I think Thailand may become my favourite country... especially with its unfair advantage of the best food in the universe.
We've been feasting already, surprise surprise (you may have noticed the odd picture here and there of us eating during this trip... we like food...). Last night was a seafood bonanza with spicy shrimp salad, mussels, and crab curry. I'm salivating just remembering it. The spicy salad turned out to be too spicy for our inexperienced tastebuds, but the mussels in their bright green shells and the buttery crab was tasty deliciousness (as soon as I figured out how to get the crabmeat out of the shells, inelegantly but sucessfully). I really want to take a Thai cooking course!
Other impressions of Bangkok so far:
1) It has everything! Someone once told us that the best way to travel in Asia is to bring nothing, fly to Bangkok, and buy anything and everything you need there. Definitely true. We're adapting that advice into "buy lots of stuff here in December, pack it into a faux North Face bag (the biggest allowed in airplane carry-on), and open up a wholesale market when we get home." We spent 7 hours wandering around the huge weekend market here; I only got lost about four times. We spent most of the time in the clothing section (although I'm a large/extra-large here and unfortunately they don't often stock those sizes.. grr), but we plan to head back another day and visit the "pets for sale" section to see the snakes.
2) It is so touristy! We knew we'd find that here but it's still shocking and fun. Bars, restaurants, travel agents, and pushy tailors line every street in our neighbourhood of Banglamphu. The tailors are hilarious/infuriating. They sit inside their stores, peering out at the street and waiting to hunt down tourists. When you walk by, unsuspectingly, they jump out at you and start their spiel - and when you try to explain that you really, truly, just don't need a wool suit right now, they look at you incredulously and ask "why NOT?"! We went out last night for our first beers in weeks, and while pouring our $2 jug of Singha saw a woman walk by with a bunch of balloons. Just proved to us what a circus it is here.
3) All they play here is Black Eyed Peas. Day in, day out.
4) It's an interesting mix. As in many SE Asian cities, one street block will hold several local restaurants, a bunch of trendy or beautiful tourist cafes, a temple or fort or historic building, some corrugated iron houses across the street, and street vendor stalls everywhere you look. There's always so much to see, explore, and (forget to) take pictures of. (Ed note: We've been in Bangkok for a whole day and haven't taken any photos yet. What's happened to us?)
5) Have I mentioned the food is fantastic?
This is just a first taste of Thailand - we actually haven't seen enough yet to comment on much of what this country is famous for. To be continued!
-alyss.
We've been feasting already, surprise surprise (you may have noticed the odd picture here and there of us eating during this trip... we like food...). Last night was a seafood bonanza with spicy shrimp salad, mussels, and crab curry. I'm salivating just remembering it. The spicy salad turned out to be too spicy for our inexperienced tastebuds, but the mussels in their bright green shells and the buttery crab was tasty deliciousness (as soon as I figured out how to get the crabmeat out of the shells, inelegantly but sucessfully). I really want to take a Thai cooking course!
Other impressions of Bangkok so far:
1) It has everything! Someone once told us that the best way to travel in Asia is to bring nothing, fly to Bangkok, and buy anything and everything you need there. Definitely true. We're adapting that advice into "buy lots of stuff here in December, pack it into a faux North Face bag (the biggest allowed in airplane carry-on), and open up a wholesale market when we get home." We spent 7 hours wandering around the huge weekend market here; I only got lost about four times. We spent most of the time in the clothing section (although I'm a large/extra-large here and unfortunately they don't often stock those sizes.. grr), but we plan to head back another day and visit the "pets for sale" section to see the snakes.
2) It is so touristy! We knew we'd find that here but it's still shocking and fun. Bars, restaurants, travel agents, and pushy tailors line every street in our neighbourhood of Banglamphu. The tailors are hilarious/infuriating. They sit inside their stores, peering out at the street and waiting to hunt down tourists. When you walk by, unsuspectingly, they jump out at you and start their spiel - and when you try to explain that you really, truly, just don't need a wool suit right now, they look at you incredulously and ask "why NOT?"! We went out last night for our first beers in weeks, and while pouring our $2 jug of Singha saw a woman walk by with a bunch of balloons. Just proved to us what a circus it is here.
3) All they play here is Black Eyed Peas. Day in, day out.
4) It's an interesting mix. As in many SE Asian cities, one street block will hold several local restaurants, a bunch of trendy or beautiful tourist cafes, a temple or fort or historic building, some corrugated iron houses across the street, and street vendor stalls everywhere you look. There's always so much to see, explore, and (forget to) take pictures of. (Ed note: We've been in Bangkok for a whole day and haven't taken any photos yet. What's happened to us?)
5) Have I mentioned the food is fantastic?
This is just a first taste of Thailand - we actually haven't seen enough yet to comment on much of what this country is famous for. To be continued!
-alyss.
posted by alyss at 12:24 PM
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