Travels with V

Bangkok

Food, market and train rails

Bangkok part 2

One reason to visit Bangkok is for the famous food. It appeals to us too, but our first choice falls flat. The 80-year-old street food icon Jay Fai, with one star in the Michelin Guide, always keeps her simple restaurant closed on certain days of the week, and typically just when we are there. Her iconic dish, crab omelette, is said to be irresistible.

On our first night there, however, we find an alternative that also turns out to be a hole in the wall; Fai Ta Lu. The restaurant is also mentioned in the exclusive guide. It is simple and delicious, served on banana leaves. Creative pad thai simply.

TOTALLY ANONYMOUS FRONT FOR A REALLY GOOD RESTAURANT.
SERVING THEIR PAD THAI ON BANANA LEAVES.

Dinner number two is by the river opposite the beautifully lit Wat Arun Pagoda. Now we almost start to like Bangkok.

VAT ARUN

The floating market of Damnoen Saduak, 10 kilometres outside Bangkok, dates back to the 19th century, when a canal was dug between two rivers. Locals dug smaller canals around the larger one and a market grew up there. Today, it’s mostly a tourist destination, with lots of boats ferrying foreign and domestic visitors around the tangle of canals.

And in smaller boats, people dart back and forth to sell fruits, souvenirs and food. Sometimes food is cooked on the small, rickety boats. A lot of selling takes place on land, in the larger restaurants. It’s colourful and very touristy, but also classic. The James Bond film ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ was filmed here.

SHINING BUT DANGEROUS - THE BOAT'S MOTORS

Another market in the Samut Songkhram neighbourhood is also classic. It’s the so-called train market, which stretches along both sides of a railway track. As the train approaches, honking eagerly and slowly, all the awnings and clothes racks are taken down in moments. People are asked to move to the edges and the train goes straight through. In just a few seconds, everything is put back up and the traffic resumes as if nothing had happened.

And that is a kind of conclusion about Bangkok. “Business as if nothing had happened”. 

Resebloggar finns det gott om men vi har en lite annan tanke med våra berättelser. Vi vill främst beskriva våra upplevelser av udda platser, människorna vi möter och miljöer som är rätt annorlunda mot vad vi möter hemma.

Därför hamnar vi ibland i avlägsna indianbyar i Guatemalas berg eller bland andetroende bybor på en ö i Indonesien. Men också på mer kända platser som Machu Picchu i Peru eller sandstränderna i Goa. Allt sett genom våra ögon och kameror.

Den som vill ha restips får också sitt - varje resmål har en avdelning med sånt vi kan rekommendera. Eller undvika. Vårt fokus är framför allt att sporra er läsare att göra som vi - resa rätt ut i den vida världen.