Bangkok Food & Markets

The upside to procrastinating and not getting blog posts done right away is that you don't have to do them right away. The downside is worse, of course: When it's time to write them, I've forgotten so much. This post covers a little of the food that's unique to Bangkok as well as the crazy markets and shopping malls the city has to offer.

Food

Though we'd had a lot of excellent Thai food already, there are a couple standout dishes that we encountered in Bangkok. Not far from our hotel we passed a street vendor selling something vaguely taco shaped. We were a little hungry, so we gave it a try, and it was really delicious. I can't even remember what all the ingredients were or what it's called, but we ate these little coconut tacos several times. The outside was sweet, but the interior was mostly savory, like glass noodles and spring roll type items. The other excellent dish in Bangkok was recommended to us by the proprietor of Sukothai restaurant in Pahoa, Hawaii. She said that Thipsamai is where all the Thai people go for pad thai in Bangkok. It's open very late (we encountered crowds and long lines as late as 1:00 am) and serves nothing but pad thai. There are about eight or so options on the menu that allow you to customize the type of noodle and whether to include prawns or not. Most options come wrapped in a thin sheet of egg, which is really pretty and a great way to get a little extra egg in the pad thai. We ate there a couple times, including on the King's birthday since it's near the downtown celebration grounds. Curiously, on the King's birthday it seemed that every order was coming wrapped in egg, whether requested or not. I'm not sure if that was in celebration or just to make things easier since the crowds were thicker than usual that night.

"Thai tacos"	Pad Thai at Thipsamai
(from Thailand - Food)

Markets

As far as markets go, Bangkok is pretty much king. The weekend markets here dwarf the entire city of Chiang Mai, let alone its "Sunday Walking Street". Figuratively. At any rate, Bangkok's best market is probably Chatuchak Market which takes place every weekend. It's so large there are maps to help you find the section of goods you're looking for, although the map is only "suggestive," not guaranteed to be accurate. Ryan and I had a lot of fun wandering the hundreds of alleyways or diverse merchandises, looking for and at art, antiques, clothing, food stalls, scarves and textiles, coins, jewelry, marionettes, ceramics, Buddhist amulets and relics, etc., and such and so on. We actually spent two weekends here, since my knee forced us to stay in Bangkok longer than expected, which was just as well since the first weekend was hobbled by my slow limping (prompting me to buy my cane).

There's a night market not far from our hotel which has all sorts of hype and exaggerated reputation to attract tourists. I've heard it called a "VIP night market" and "one of Bangkok's best." That's all lies. The Suan Lum Night Market is worse than the Night Market in Chiang Mai in that it's more of the same same (all the stalls sell the same type and quality of item) and for higher prices. We went anyway, and there are probably some nice attractions there (we decided not to attend a marionette dinner theater though it looked interesting) and I suppose it's more convenient than going up to Chiang Mai, but even if you're stuck in Bangkok and can't get up north, the Chatuchak Market has better versions of what you'll find at Suam Lum for better prices.

In the Old City (near the palace and the historic Wats) there's a busy amulet market that spans several blocks. There's no real space set aside for the market, so the vendors just line up on the sidewalk and the pedestrians just crowd on through, winding around young and old amulet hunters armed with magnifying glasses and plastic trays of all their current selections. Some vendors sell hundreds or thousands of unframed clay tiles; others sell frames in varying degrees of ornateness. Select vendors have pre-paired "ancient" relics and frames. Walking through the market takes a long time, even when you're not drawn to browse the occasional display of Buddhas and mythological figurines.

In addition to awesome street markets, Bangkok also has some pretty intimidating indoor markets. Pantip Plaza is a five-story warehouse-sized building with an open interior filled with thousands of individual electronics vendors. There are large department stores, like Best Buy, surrounded by independent merchants selling the same goods for slashed discount prices. You can buy plenty of bootleg DVDs here as well as Chinese knockoffs of all the popular Japanese and Korean brands. Of course, you can get the originals, too, for a decent price.

Chatuchak Market map	Pantip Plaza, from Thailand - Bangkok

Shopping Malls

On a different scale than the markets, Bangkok has plenty of impressive shopping malls. Visiting one gives you the idea that Thai people take their fashion seriously. There are all the usual western brands plus Asian styles including independent local designers. We were in Bangkok in late November and despite being primarily a Buddhist country, Thailand apparently loves Christmas. There were massive Christmas displays everywhere, in none of the traditional red and green. We saw hot pink, clear plastic, neon, Borg-like, and other bizarre holiday trees.

Also at the malls are the best movie theater experiences you can buy for the same price as a ticket back home. For about US $15 Ryan and I went to see the disaster flick "2012" in a "Gold Class" screening at the EGV Grand Cinema, which means the theater seats about 40 people (though there were fewer than a half dozen of us in attendance), each with his own fully reclining, overstuffed, motorized arm chair, with blanket and pillow, and if we wanted it, bar service before the show. Who cares how good the movie was if the viewing experience is so incredible, right?

Christmas tree at Siam Paragon mall	Gold Class movie seats at EGV Grand Cinema
(from Thailand - Bangkok)