For me Bangkok is kind of like a backyard. I have probably spent about a year and a half in the number of days staying here and wandering around not only as a tourist but also for business so it’s a very familiar place. The reason I decided to spend about a week here was for food. There are different varieties of food. I like to try out, especially the IISAN (NORTHEASTERN) and Chinese food in the old Chinatown area. This time I found a couple new interesting places. Near the Chulalongkon university area. There are quite a few restaurants that serve the student population so are very inexpensive and the food is so far very good. That’s where some former student students took me for IISAN food. in the Chinatown area. There was a restaurant I went to several times which was pretty good, but the restaurant has become fairly dirty and a number of rats running around. But then again that’s the very old area with old buildings and there is a lot of grease and maybe not well managed leftovers which provide good nourishment for the rats. But being an old part of the city it’s an animal you just kind of hope isn’t caught. He could very well wind up on somebody’s dinner plate somewhere.
This is an old cute phrase used in Thailand, Thai English, mostly on T-shirts years ago. This sign was in one of the large shopping malls in the Siloam areaActually, once I landed, I wanted to have something really simple so I went to a nearby shopping center and found a Korean restaurant which surprisingly had really excellent kimchi, Real Korean style. anyway I ordered just that and some rice. The waitress was very kind for some unknown reason, maybe because I was using very polite Thai language, and she brought me extra kimchi for free. But I couldn’t eat it all so she put it in a little box for me to take back to the hotel. This was the Korean restaurant. As you can see, it has a very catchy marketing phrase.Walking through the university restaurant area I took a photo for a friend of the MOO GROP ( deep fried pork), his favorite, and the lady posed for me.OK it’s very early in this post, but I’m taking a little break by showing you a dog certificate which is required in one area of Spain, Valencia, to take the pet dogs on the local transport. Evidently it is not easy to take pets around Spain on public transport. They are not as welcome as they are in France.This was our meal there at the IISAN restaurant comprising a lot of pork but done in a way which is very delicious along with the sticky rice which is really a Lao food. But this area called IISAN is made up of Lao people, not Thai. And many of the people there still speak a variation of Lao which is slightly different than Thai. This is what the area looks likeSome local artwork The name of a local shopping building I just like the architectural and lighting style on this building. It kind of reminds me of the French Quarter in New OrleansWhen you visit Thailand, you will find the very interesting and often cute uses of the English language in shops and businesses. This was a very nice coffee shop where I stopped a couple times. I really like the sign. It’s cute. This roast duck was tasty but not the best I’ve had. I would rank it seven out of 10, definitely not Michelin star quality. But they promote they are a Michelin star restaurant but if you check it out, it’s for their restaurant in Hong Kong not this one. Anyway I love Hong Kong style food so this place is acceptable.ScreenshotAnd guess who showed up near the hotel I prefer this Lao beer to Thai beerThis I guess is another break. This stain remover I found in Japan is in a very tiny bottle, which is good for traveling. You just dab it on the spot, they give you a number of dabbing pads to soak up the stain which you can use or not use and then you put it in the wash. It works extremely well. And, it’s small and good for packing. I think this is the mustard leaf they’re using here and this pickling is just a little bit sweet for me, but I like the mustard leaf, especially if it’s the sour pickling sauceAt the Chinese restaurant, the eggrolls were pretty good. This is a huge contrast to traveling in the UK and the isles Next to The UK. look at the varieties of sauces. This is the kind of place I like to eat. Brown sauce is not sufficient for much of anything. And in fact, I had forgotten what it tasted like so I used it once over four months and never used it again, bringing my own sauces with me which I bought in the store.OK, well in the MBK complex they had this restaurant sign which is cute.And this is a very imaginative twist of a phrase which I hope you can get I think this all started out about 60 years ago, but it has a vault into a kind of popular drink. It seems. I don’t drink it because it has way too much sugarI went to visit friends in Prachuap kirikan and this is their dog TANGMOO (watermelon) who slept outside my door every night and greeted me in the morning. She was my good buddyThey can Bangkok you can see this fellow doing some welding without proper protection. Where there are no inspectors around, in Small projects and local fixes you will see this kind of safety. Walking around the supermarket. This pet food is doing what? Is it suggesting this dog is a carnivore? Nowadays spicy chicken seems to be a big popular Korean offering outside of Korea. 50 years ago I never saw anything like this and probably was not even available in Korea or Japan in Korean restaurants. But it’s now a big thing so I stopped in and for a very reasonable price I ordered some chicken, hoping it would be a small but reasonable portion. It turned out to be a huge portion and the sauce was a little bit too sweet for me. I should’ve ordered something more spicy. You see the kimchi on the side, which is something I used to eat every day in Japan to keep my stomach in good shape After the chicken I tried Swensens ain’t got this, which was very deliciousThis was the bike model I had in Koh Chang during the Covid lockdown. But I had Red instead of this colorat the ATM I got some brand new ฿100 Notes with the image of the current King when he was very young
it was a great idea visiting this temple and I hope that you get a chance to also spend a few hours to enjoy all of the images, but you have to travel to Bangkok
a new addition under constructionwhen you sit down quietly in front of these images I don’t see how you can be described as doing anything else except meditating.
hi tech central control next to the bed. Great idea for a hotelLove at first biteSunan buying durian. Alain and I demur and let her eat our portions as well. We are being polite? the authoritarians. of what?OK there was a saxophone but I was too busy to notice since I talking with Alain who I hadn’t seen for so many years I was wondering if these are earthquake proof“Hey! Don’t go away. We have some more food to eat.”I see fisherman’s wharf has moved to terminal 21Honey, they shrank the bridge!This reminded me of the windy day when mom was driving our Volkswagen Square back across the Golden Gate Bridge and the wind picked it up and moved it into the lane to the left. A little bit out of control we were.Support our brave bridge builders!The walkway of pretty lightsI asked about the sign and found it really means if you buy one for 1,000 baht you get three T-shirts in total so is it 21,000 to own it or to push the button?
temples are held in reverence for their religious sanctity. This temple in Bangkok, Wat Pariwat Ratchasongkram, has a little different bent on expression, enlarging it to include modern attractive icons to highlight inclusive of Buddhism. Just look at the photos and you will understand everything. I took so many photos so I’m splitting it into several PHLOGS. It would take several hours walking around this temple area to identify every icon.
You can see that people have placed gold leaf on this imageUnder constructionMoney for construction seems to be rolling inmodern architecture in contrast
In Chinatown there is a very special restaurant with some very special food, Dragon CafeI hope they don’t break down this pillarIn terminal 21 there are some very decorative lightsWarp speed to San FranciscoReminds me when I was a kid with plastic models some old buildings in ChinatownJust in case you want to know how long to boil an egg. From multiple perspectives and possibly from different universesFree breakfasts served in the roomSome motorcycles are not new, surpriseAlain comes back from Saudi so we go to see a saxophone which never appears. Notice he is making a point or maybe just pointing or maybe just joking or maybe…..Hot pot hot pot hot potEverybody loves DURIAN except for those who don’t. It seems to be love or hate a different restaurant in Chinatown serves very nice Shanghai noodles and seaweed salad, and different kinds of GYOZA as well, 168 GyozaA good suggestion, take a photo of old buildings I want a photo of and I will take a photo of but I take a photo of somebody taking a photo. It’s OK, he’s a returnee so he follows ordersCheck the photos and wait for lunch. Sunan is so hungry she is eye eating somebody else’s food
in Bangkok there is a very large open market frequented mostly on Saturdays and Sundays call Chatuchak. Normally they have all the shops open and they sell virtually everything but because of Covid most of the shops are closed or have gone out of business and on the date we went only the shops selling plants on the walk-throughs were open. Here you can see a lot of the different kinds of plants you’ll find in Thailand. Some are very interesting. Don’t ask me what any of these plans are because I don’t know anything about plants except what color they are.
Sunan buying cactusMonks looking to spruce up their quarters
Recently, I stayed in the Chinatown area, around the back streets, and found it to be a very interesting place. There are many tourist shops and restaurants open that cater to people they may never see again but you really want to go to the local shops and restaurants where you get local Bangkok and surrounding area residence to frequent. The back streets are also filled with automobile repair and motorcycle repair shops. One shop I found particularly interesting was the Vespa repair shop.
a sick Vespa. This is the special shop with very old Vespa‘s to Cannibalize for partsOutside MBK. You can worship anywhere, even outside a department store A top executive from Don Quixote in Japan came to the opening of their store in MBK which replaced TakashimayaIt’s really nice to have this sticker on the taxi window but it would really be nicer if the driver spoke English. If I didn’t speak any Thai getting where I wanted to go would’ve been a little bit difficultIn the very early morning the evening temporary shops on the sidewalk by the canal need to close up and make way for the daytime ShopsThese are the nighttime shops. Squid game seems to be a very popular kids T-shirt themeFood from a very popular and usually crowded restaurant in ChinatownThis is the name of the restaurantThe product under this cat must be the most popular. That’s just how cats like to place themselves. Right in the way!That’s a funny company name for a people networkThis GYOZA was pretty good This GYOZA with WAKAME was especially delicious Roads in Bangkok have to accommodate a lot of different vehicles at a lot of different speedsMoving inventory off the street and back to the shopStickers for my motorcycle but I gave some away
After arriving at Bangkok train station from an overnight sleeper from Surat Thani I noticed birds flying in an out of the cars. This is what it looked like.
Japan now says they will allow me to apply to get a letter letting me through immigration in Japan. I would need to test negative for Covid within 72 hours before the flight if I received “the letter”. Friends in Japan are losing faith in their government for mishandling the Covid 19 virus. Infected people are increasing. So now everyone is telling me not to return for safety reasons.
Croatia was allowing tourists in under certain screening or quarantine. I was thinking as using that as my escape route into Europe. But the last few days England put restrictions on people coming in from Croatia since Covid cases are increasing. So now will this cause problems for my escape? Actually I have no problems being in Thailand. It is safe, medical services are good. Everything is fine. But I can’t stay here much longer, maybe not past September 26 when the Covid amnesty ends. Since things change from day to day I guess I will just have to see what the next month brings.
