Through jetlag, 100+ degree heat, and a lineup of mysterious food, we survived and thoroughly enjoyed Day 1 of the trip. We're pretty sure that we devour cities at three times the pace of average tourists, and we may have scaled back to a 2x rate yesterday. We saw two temples, a palace, an astronomically big market, and ate our way through the city like champs.
I have to tell you about the food first. Bangkok is known for the diversity of their local food options, with a strong presence of Indian, Middle Eastern, and Chinese cuisine, not to mention Thai and Western food too. My goal is to hit upon all of these before we leave, and I think we made a pretty good dent on just the first day. To share with you the wide variety and uniqueness of food that we're eating, I just have to write it down. Special shoutout to my mother for passing on her stomach of steel to me - I am definitely putting it to the test :)
(*Denotes food that was Alysa's, which I bravely finished for her)
Breakfast - American/Thai cuisine - buffet provided by hotel
Greek yogurt with dried papaya, mango, and pumpkin seeds
Toast with orange rind marmalade
Made-to-order omelet with chili sauce and veggies (including strange little mushrooms)
Dried fruit muffin
Pumpkin seed muffin*
Scrambled egg banh mi sandwich (minus the bread)
Baked beans
Wok-fried veggies
Guava juice*
Tropical fruit smoothie
Guava, raw dipped in chili salt-sugar
Jackfruit, raw
Lunch - Vegetarian Thai at Amaya Restaurant - 110 baht pp ($3.25)
Green curry with tofu, THE BEST ever
Crumbled tofu in red chili sauce with cabbage and egg
Two mysterious fried patties, made of seitan or something similar
Wilted greens of some sort
"Seaweed" (but it looked like a meat substitute, texture of jerky)
Rice (we're not sure why it's purple-ish colored)
Snack/Dessert Time at Market in Chinatown - 75 baht pp ($2.10)
Stringy, orange noodle-like dessert that was made of eggs and sugar
Red beans and corn in a sweet coconut milk
Caramel flan-type of dessert on coconut sticky rice
Red bean bun*
Dried kiwi and mango
Dinner - Indian - 340 baht pp ($10)
Papri chaat
Mixed veggie dosa
Bhaigan bharta (eggplant)
Yellow dahl masala (lentils)
Lime ginger soda water
WATER (5+ liters) - 14 baht ($0.50) for 1.5 L
I can't tell you how much water we drank, and still it wasn't enough to outpace the heat. I won't go into too much detail here, but we were absolutely sweating buckets. It will take us some time to get accustomed to 100+ degree weather, and the direct midday sunshine was brutal. I was that person who opened my handy-dandy umbrella for some relief between the puddles of shade.
Before it got to peak temps, we wandered one of the largest outdoor markets in the world. We could've bought anything from a fluffy puppy to a roasted duck. (One tempted me, the other did not.) It was tough to not completely fill our suitcases with souvenirs, which would've been back-breaking on Day 1. The way that food is sold on the street is simply amazing. Curries, noodles and stir fries are made in giant vats and sold for next to nothing to locals, all in the wide open air in the hot sun. People say to go for it, but we were a little wary. I felt adventurous enough for beginners.
The Grand Palace and its temple were our next adventure. I have never seen buildings SO glittery and gold in my life. The closest comparison that we could identify were Gaudà structures in Barcelona, but the sparkle of these religious monuments were unmatched.
Much of the day was spent admiring statues of Buddha, one in particular. This Buddha was 150 feet long and 50 feet high, and he was reclining into position to enter nirvana. The walkways surrounding the temple were filled with more Buddha statues - the most in one collection in Thailand. On the other hand, the Buddha at the Grand Palace was made of jade a mere 2 feet tall, and it still drew the same crowds and respect. We ended up asking ourselves more questions than answers when we were touring, so let us know if any of our readers out there are Buddhism experts.
We attempted to explore Chinatown, but it was mainly stalls and shops filled with off-label electronics. We did find the candy land market of Chinatown, which was as much fun to wander as it was to eat. There were no tourists or signs in English anywhere, so we knew it was the real deal. Dessert was just the midday jetlag cure that we needed.
This morning, we toured the Jim Thompson house. He was an American spy and architect turned entrepreneur. His legacy in Bangkok is manufacturing silk finery, and the tour included a detailed explanation and artifacts from the silk spinning process. We saw silk worms and their cocoons, which are each unraveled to produce a mile of silk. It was fascinating. The complex of his homes were an interesting mix of Western and traditional Thai decorum, like a bed and triangular pillow for napping in the middle of the living room. It was a beautiful retreat from the city bustle.
Thai tea made our menu today!! I've been eyeing it up because I love the Thai iced tea that is served in the U.S. - the bright orange stuff sweetened with condensed milk. We're wary of the ice cubes here because they may or may not be made of the undrinkable tap water. We found ourselves in a mall with a Thai iced tea place that looked legitimate. It took a solid ten minutes to convince myself to take the plunge, and another five minutes to get Alysa on board too. The iced tea was SO good that she now wants it every day of the trip.
Tuk tuks were a fun part of our day. They're a local traditional way to get around. It's almost like riding in a high-powered golf cart, but it's colored bright pink and zooms around the city streets. We felt like two kids on a go-kart, riding around on this thing.
We also mastered the SkyTrain as a mode of transportation, which is Bangkok's high speed tram. I commented that it was so clean that a person could eat off the floor. We learned an hour later at the Jim Thompson house that the traditional Thai way to eat is just that - on the floor. This was an "aha" moment for us because the Thai people are rigorous on keeping the floors clean wherever we go. I've been standing or sitting in a chair and had the floor area mopped around me on more than one occasion. Public areas are very, very clean and would even put Martha Stewart to shame.
Our next blog will be written on a boat in northern Vietnam!! More excitement to come :) Thanks for reading.
Love,
Melissa
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