Oh, the Places We'll Go

Thailand is famous for its street food.  Food stalls and rolling carts whip up your favorite kebabs, noodle dishes, and fried goodness, hot and fresh while you wait.  It’s dirt cheap, it’s widely available, and it’s better than any Thai food I’ve ever found in the States.

Our favorite street kebabs on Khao San Rd

Every meal, every snack is exciting - hard to go wrong with Thai Food!

Many times, you have no idea what you're getting

Ok, maybe you can go wrong. Here is an assortment of fried bugs and scorpions

Late-night pad thai and spring rolls on Khao San!

Bangkok was HOT. I mean, very hot. I mean, about as uncomfortably hot as we’ve ever been. We would be sweating within minutes of leaving our air-conditioned hotel room. In fact, this was the first time we had needed an air-conditioned hotel room, and it was worth every extra penny. Our room/cool box was a welcome and needed relief and we found ourselves making forays out into the sweltering city but only for short stints at a time.

Melting on Khao San

We spent a great afternoon at Chatuchak Market – a massive market for both tourists and locals alike. They have a gigantic selection of everything from clothing, to housewares, from puppies to souvenirs, and of course delicious Thai food. It’s torture to visit a place like this and know that you don’t have enough extra room in your backpack for all the things you want to buy, especially when they are so cheap!

Chatuchak Market

Seriously, puppies at the market

We also ventured into China Town to check out more street vendors and stores selling anything and everything you could imagine, and when we were sufficiently over-heated we headed to one of Bangkok’s many state-of-the-art malls to cool off and see a movie. Bangkok’s malls are incredibly impressive – they are some of the biggest, most modern and architecturally impressive malls that we’ve ever seen. They are definitely a place to see and be seen as we saw thousands of Thais wandering the 10 or so floors, chatting and texting on their fancy smart phones. We don’t have malls this nice in the US.

Chinatown in Bangkok

Fruit

What's this?

Meat, cooked and raw

Made in Thailand

But mostly we just enjoyed the creature comforts of a developed city and looked forward to our next opportunity to eat yummy and amazingly inexpensive Thai food. Coming from India and Nepal, where everything from purchasing bus tickets, to driving 20km on a hellish road could take hours – Thailand was a dream. Air-conditioned taxis with leather seats; multi-lane highways where people followed traffic rules; customer service agents at the train station to assist travelers with their bookings; excellent English everywhere. Bangkok was a nice and easy place to spend a few days and we made sure to appreciate it!

Thai massages and spas are a necessity of any visit to Bangkok.  For a mere $5, you can have your feet, your back, or your whole body worked in the age-old tradition of Thai massage.  Some spas have expanded their offering to “fish massages”, tanks full of hundreds of little fish that will eat the dead skin right off of your feet and lower legs.  WTF?!

"Happy Feet with Dr. Fish"

The tanks

A demo

Bangkok, Thailand is one of the primary hubs of Southeast Asia, and is ground zero for most backpackers setting off (or returning from) an Asian adventure. Chalked full of Aussies and Brits in particular, mobs of people seek out S.E. Asia for the beaches, the food, the cheap and extensive travel options, and of course, the parties.

In Bangkok, the center of the mayhem is Khao San Road. Hundreds of guesthouses, restaurants, bars, spa and massage parlors, food stalls, and souvenir shops can be found in a few block radius. Within hours of landing in Bangkok, we were meeting up with our good pals Dave and Jesse for a night on the town – it had been all of 24 hours since we were hanging out in Nepal, and we were all going through a bit of separation anxiety!

Khao San Rd - where the party rages every night

Dave and Jesse had already been through Bangkok prior to meeting up with us in Nepal so we let them lead the way. The night started innocently enough with our first of many amazing Thai meals from a simple stand along the side of the road. Bangkok was HOT so it was obviously necessary that we drink a few Chang beers to cool off. The next stop was a VW van converted into a bar along the side of the road. Not sure what the deal was exactly but it was hilariously decorated, pumped loud music and served buckets of alcoholic drinks. Next up – a group foot massage. Thailand’s massage industry is as prolific as it is inexpensive. I can’t say I’ve ever enjoyed a massage over a beer – another of many firsts on this trip!

Welcome to Thailand dinner at a street stall

First Thai meal!

Sharing buckets of booze at the VW van bar

Foot massages and beer! Welcome to Thailand!

Post-massages it was back to Khao San Road to watch the chaos unfold. British folks decked out for clubbing; Australians straight off their surfboards; beautiful Thai women being escorted by unfortunate, dumpy white men; Thai teenagers breakdancing; vendors selling fried insects as snacks; more vendors selling anything from gigantic Zippo lighters, to ridiculous hats, to glow-in-the-dark bracelets; cover bands singing Van Morrison, or the Eagles, or Guns and Roses. It was loud, it was crazy and it was a lot of fun. It was our last evening with Dave and Jesse before our itineraries took us in different directions, so we made sure to go out with a bang!

Friendly vendors take advantage of drunk tourists

Dave bargains hard for a good deal on his new hat - "That price is WAY too high!"

Ok, I'll take it! Now, you take a photo with me?!

Crazy good break dancers

Pad Thai night-cap!