Ancient Kingdoms: Thailand, Laos,
Vietnam, Cambodia
Overseas Adventure Travel trip
January 1-22, 2014
With Ted & Dianne Reed
A bit of preface and a lesson or two we learned.
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| Steak and Sangria t Adega Grill in Newark, NJ |
Actually, the
OAT itinerary began on January 4, but we decided
because of the long initial flights and the possibility of jet lag slowing us
down the first day or so, that we would depart a couple of days early. The OAT travel department was happy to help
us, but could not get us flights on our preferred day, January 2, as it is such
a heavy travel day right after the holiday.
We were fine with a January 1 departure, so had the tickets booked. Then we discovered our flights were scheduled
to depart at 6:45 am from
Newark,
NJ Liberty International Airport! So much for celebrating New
Year’s Eve.
But we did celebrate indeed!
We drove up to
Newark
in the afternoon of December 31, checked in to our airport hotel, then headed
to the
Adega Grill, a traditional Portuguese restaurant in the
Ironbound District of Newark. (The district is so-named because it is bound by several
railroad tracks, and is a long-time Portuguese working-class neighborhood.) We savored steaks and traditional paella
along with pitchers of Sangria in a cozy wine cellar setting, then headed back
to the hotel for a short sleep.
We did not set our alarm properly, so were awakened by Ted
& Dianne a few minutes before we were to have been in the lobby for the 3
am shuttle bus to the airport. We’ve never
dressed and packed so quickly-luckily we hadn’t unpacked much the night before. (Lesson #1:
double check your alarm setting, or set two alarms, or both.)
Groggy with too little sleep and shaken by the experience of
awaking and dressing quickly, we shivered in the cold of the hotel shuttle as
we looked forward to leaving winter behind for the warmth of Southeast
Asia. Then Dane whispered
to Joan “I don’t know where my passport is.”
Oh oh!
When we got to the airport at 3:30 am, he found a quiet corner
(at 3:30 on New Years Day, there are many quiet corners of Newark’s airport!) and unpacked his backpack
filled with electronic gear and cords, then his whole suitcase. Twice.
No passport. So Joan had a go at
it, but couldn’t find it either. Double
oh oh!
Meanwhile, we arrived at the head of the check-in line, so
Ted, Dianne and Joan went ahead and checked in for the first leg of several
that would get us to Bangkok. Again, luckily because it was a relatively
quiet time at the airport, our ticket agent took Dane aside and was able to
book him on the identical flight two days later. That was all we could think to do, hoping he’d
remember where the passport was. Joan
remembered having the passport two days beforehand when she was filling out the
forms for the visas on arrival we needed
for Cambodia and Laos, but she didn’t remember where she put it afterwards, so
worried she had done something with it.
Ted gave Dane his keys, so he could look in their car parked
at the airport hotel, in case it had fallen out somehow on our drive to Newark. Shaken, we said goodby to Dane and headed off
for our flight to San Francisco.
Dane took the hotel shuttle back to the hotel, searched our
hotel room, in the unlikely event the passport had been lost in our abrupt
packing earlier that morning. No luck
there or in Ted’s car, so Dane caught the train back to Philadelphia.
To make a long, painful story short, on the train ride home, when he had
a chance to calm down and reflect, Dane remembered copying the passport and his
bank ATM card as a security measure (after his wallet was stolen in the Rome
subway last fall) and sure enough, when he got home that morning, found the
passport and card safely in the copy machine!
Whew. (Lesson #2. Be sure
you have your passport with you before you leave for the airport. Hint: Check the copy machine!)
Might as well finish Dane’s part of our story. It was a cold and snowy early January, 2014. While Ted, Dianne and Joan had escaped the
winter weather, Dane’s re-scheduled flight on January 3 was cancelled because
of a storm. Luckily, he had checked with the airline when he learned of the incoming storm, which is when he found out the flight had been cancelled. Otherwise he might have schlepped back up to Newark only to find out the bad news. (Lesson #3. Always be proactive and check your flight status. Don't depend on the airline to notify you!) He called the airline and was able to work with them and got another
flight-out of Dulles in Washington
DC! Not taking any chances, he took the train to
DC the evening of January 2, so he would not miss the flight due to more
weather complications.
The flight departure was only delayed an hour, but that was
enough for him to miss his connecting flight in
Tokyo.
Dane was impressed with the service of the United ground crew at Narita
airport. As his flight disembarked,
passengers were met by tables full of new tickets for all the passengers who
had missed their connections. Dane had
the experience of having to take a 1 ½ hour bus ride to Haneda airport, where
he caught a flight to
Bangkok,
arriving only 6 hours later than Joan expected.
And he was still a day early for the official start of our OAT
tour!
(Lesson #4: If you can, it isn’t a bad idea to plan to
arrive a day or two before your actual trip starts.)
Wednesday, January 1
So, now to the story of our trip.
EWR:SFO:NAR:BKK.
Departed at 6:45 a.m. on January 1, 2014, arrived at 11:20 p.m. on January 2, crossing the International Date
Line. Just plain confusing. We found it best not to really pay attention
to time and date, but just rest and relax as much as possible. Of course we were jammed in the middle seats
of economy class of an older 747 without seatback screens, so we didn’t even
try to watch the movies, but read, ate and slept as much as we could. Stops in
San Francisco
and
Tokyo
didn’t make the trip any shorter, but we did get to try out the cool toilets at
the Narita airport-spray, bidet and dry options!
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| Orchids and seasonal poinsettias welcomed us to the Bangkok baggage claim. |
Thursday, January 2
It was nearly midnight when we arrived in
Bangkok, but we were impressed with the
beautiful airport.
Suvarnabhumi International Airport, designed by
Helmut Jahn and the fourth largest single-building airport terminal in the
world. The banks of orchids decorating
the baggage claim area told us we weren’t in the bleak US any longer! We were happy to see the familiar OAT logo
held by smiling faces as we exited the hall, and met our tour leader, Panya
Tharaphant, who we had hired privately to guide us for the days before our
official tour began.
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| Our guide Panya Tharaphant at Wat Arun |
Panya was so
helpful. He told us he had checked with
our hotel, telling us the hotel had no record of our early arrival. When Dianne pulled the printed voucher she
had received from the hotel from her file, Panya called the hotel immediately
and lo and behold, we had reservations after all.
(Lesson #5: Be sure you have all the documentation for
your reservations. Reconfirming hotel
reservations a day or two before arrival isn’t a bad idea either.)
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| The view of Bangkok and the Asiatique ferris wheel at night. |
Panya put us in a taxi to the hotel and we agreed to meet at
11 am the next morning to begin our tour.
The midnight taxi ride from the airport on the outskirts of
Bangkok to our hotel in
the center of town was our first introduction to this new part of the world. Skyscrapers everywhere lit the sky, and once
we got off the motorway and onto local streets, we were surprised at the street
life so late at night-sidewalk food stalls were filled with diners and many
shops were still open and busy.
The Tongtara Riverview Hotel is a medium-size modern hotel
well-located on one of the oldest streets in Bangkok at 9/99 Charoen Krung Road in the Bangkoleam
district of Bangkok. We didn’t know it at
the time, but we had “Panorama” rooms on a high floor with sweeping views of
the Chao Phraya River.
After a quick look out at the huge Ferris wheel outlined in lights at
the nearby Asiatique Night Market and the forest of skyscrapers, we finally
were able to sleep in a real bed after too many hours awake.
Friday, January 3
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| Streetside food for sale in Bangkok |
Morning came too soon, but we met for breakfast at the hotel
dining room and surveyed the wide variety of breakfast options, from
traditional omelets and pancakes to fruits,
salads, vegetables and soups and rice congee.
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| A Buddhist chapel near our hotel. |
We had time before we were to meet Panya, so
we walked down interesting and historic
Charoen Krung Road
a short distance, passing loads of fascinating street food vendors and streetside Buddhist chapels, to the Asiatique Night Market, which we had seen glowing the
night before from our rooms. The concept
of a night market was new to us, and sure enough, at 10 am nothing was open at
the market, but we were able to get a general idea of the stalls, restaurants
and activities. The area is an upscale
“shopping and lifestyle complex” adapted from the old warehouses of the East
Asiatic Company, reflecting
Bangkok’s
riverside history as a trading post at the end of the 19
th century,
piers where teak wood was traded.
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| Asiatique Night Market in Bangkok |
Asiatique was a sharp contrast from the small shops and
street food vendors we had passed on our walk from the hotel, all upscale, new
and glitzy, as opposed to small, crowded and poor. A perfect example of the contrasts we saw
throughout our trip in
Southeast Asia.
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| Vimanmek, the world's largest golden teakwood mansion, in Bangkok. |
We met Panya in our hotel lobby and planned our day with
him. We wanted to see some of the sights
not included on our tour itinerary, so we agreed he would take us to
Vimanmek Mansion, the world’s largest
golden-teakwood residence, built in 1901 by King Rama V. Restored in 1982 for
Bangkok’s bicentennial and opened as a
private museum, it houses a collection of the royal family’s memorabilia. With Panya as our guide, we wandered through
a series of gorgeous Victorian apartments.
We could have stayed all day, exploring the outbuildings with exhibitions
of photography, antique textiles, pottery and oil paintings.
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| No bare shoulders or short shorts! |
We did learn the protocols for visiting temples and other historic sites. Dress properly and take your shoes off!
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| Vimanmek museum outbuilding-Victoriana in Bangkok! |
It was a hot day (turns out, one of the
hottest of our trip, but then, we’d come to get away from winter weather so we
weren’t complaining.) We experienced
Bangkok’s infamous
traffic on the taxi ride to the museum and again when we went to our next
destination,
Jim Thompson’s House, which we especially wanted to see.
Because it was some time after noon and we were hungry, we
decided to have lunch at the attractive restaurant there, so said goodby to
Panya, agreeing we could find our way by taxi back to the hotel at the end of
our tour. It was a good thing we didn’t
make Panya wait around for us, because by the time we waited for our turn in
the restaurant, then waited for the tour of the house, then shopped in the gift
shop full of beautiful silks, I think we closed down the place at 5 pm!
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| Jim Thompson House in Bangkok |
But about Jim Thompson’s House: Jim Thompson was the son of a wealthy textile
designer from
Greenville,
Delaware,
who studied as an architect, served in the
OSS
(the precursor to the CIA), was stationed in
Thailand
during WWII and afterward settled in
Bangkok. He almost single-handedly revived
Thailand’s silk
industry, employing skilled Thai Muslim silk weavers and building up a thriving
industry which exists to this day. He
mysteriously disappeared in 1967 and was never found, but the foundation which
was established after his death operates as a museum the complex of six teak
buildings that he linked to create a home to display his collection of
sculpture, porcelain, carvings and scroll paintings. It was a great place to visit.
We first had a fabulous lunch at the charming
restaurant on the museum grounds. Our first taste of
Thai food was not a disappointment: lemongrass
iced tea, a selection of traditional spring roll and coconut shrimp appetizers,
and delicious yam som oo (pomelo salad), larb gai (spicy minced chicken and herb salad) and
phat thai. Afterwards, while we waited
for our turn on the guided tour of the house, we explored the beautiful
grounds. Then it was off to the gift
shop, full of beautiful silk shirts, ties, scarves and pillow covers. Who could resist? Not us.
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| Delicious Phat Thai, pomelo salad and larb salad at the Jim Thompson House restaurant, Bangkok. |
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| Singapore Sling at Asiatique in Bangkok. |
We had somewhat of an adventure getting a taxi back to our
hotel, as the museum was closing and no taxis were arriving to drop off
visitors, so we walked to the corner of the main street and eventually found a
taxi that would take us; we were proud of the negotiating skills we had learned
on our first day in Bangkok. Wanting to
stay up until our usual bedtime, we walked back to Asiatique, to find it
bustling with upscale young people beginning to make a night of it.
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| Spicy dip with vegetables at Baan Khanitha. |
We found a riverfront restaurant,
Baan Khanitha, for dinner, where we were fortified with a spicy dip with vegetables and our first Singapore
Slings. We had to try them throughout
SE Asia to find the best.
These weren’t a bad first start!
Saturday, January 4
The next morning Ted, Dianne and Joan met Panya once again
and together we walked down
Charoen
Krung Road past Asiatique to the water taxi
spot, just past another Buddhist temple. Here's a
link to an interesting blog post about Charoen Krung Road, known as the New Road or the "Road to a Prosperous City."
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| We loved the incongruity of Wat Rat Singkhon with a Ferris Wheel in the background on the way to the Water Taxi pier. |
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| Chao Phraya Express water taxis at the Wat Rat Singkon pier. |
It was so nice to have someone
show us how the
Chao Phraya Express water taxi worked; we were confident of our solo travels
afterwards.
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| Ted and Dianne at Wat Pho |
Our first stop was Wat Pho, the temple of the huge reclining golden
Buddha, the oldest and largest wat in Bangkok. It was so nice to have a knowledgeable guide like Panya give us an introduction to the layout of the wat and the tenets of Buddhism.
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| You can get an idea of the size of the Reclining Buddha in this photograph. |
Then we took a cross-river water ferry to Wat Arun, the temple of dawn.
(Wat means temple in
Thai.)
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| Wat Arun across the Chao Phraya River, with floating water hyacinths. |
We climbed halfway up the steep steps for a great view of the
Chao
Phraya and admired the decorative motifs made of colorful ceramic
shards.
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| Colorful ceramic shards make up the decorative scheme on Wat Arun. |
While we were climbing, Panya was arranging a private
long-tail boat for us to ride through the canals of
Bangkok. Powered by an automotive engine with a long drive shaft which gives the boat it's name, it is a noisy but speedy way of travelling on Bangkok's many waterways.
Long-tail boats – we saw them everywhere in SE Asia. These are
long narrow boats but instead of using an outboard engine as we know, they have
big motors, sometimes an actual car
engine, on a swivel mount in the stern of the boat. Extending from the motor and transmission is
a very long propeller shaft that extends 6 to 10 feet beyond the boat into the
water. The boatman swivels the entire
assembly to the right or left to steer the boat, or he can raise the shaft out
of the water to slow down.
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| Colorful long-tail boat that took us on a ride through the canals of Bangkok. |
We sat back and relaxed as we were steered through the Bangkok Noi Lock and and then the backwater canals of the
Thornburi district, the original site of the city on the west side of the river, before it was moved across to the eastern side in 1782 by King Rama I.
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| Waiting for the lock to open so we could enter the canal for our long-tail boat ride. |
We admired the variety of houses and buildings lining the canals and watched the vendors on little boats as they approached the passing long-tails to sell them things.
.jpg "Canal-side vendors on boats waiting for customers in the Khlong or canal of Thornburi, Bangkok.") |
| Canal-side vendors on boats waiting for customers in the Khlong or canal of Thornburi, Bangkok. |
The long-tail boat dropped us off and we
walked past the
National Theater to the
National Museum where we said goodbye to Panya
and explored only ta bit of the huge complex, the largest museum in
SE Asia.
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| Theatrical costumes displayed at the National Museum in Bangkok. |
We were
glad we visited the sections about the history of
Thailand and theatrical costumes
and saw the Royal Chariot Garage full of elephant chairs and royal
palanquins.
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| Royal Palanquin in the Royal Chariot Garage at the National Museum in Bangkok. |
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| Tom Yum Kung soup and Singha beer. |
By then our hunger pangs
overcame our interest in history, so we followed Panya’s directions to a nearby
restaurant he recommended, but had no luck finding it until we came across a
tourist information booth, where we were told it had closed, so we took their
advice and found
Khun Kung Kitchen, a nearby restaurant where we felt very brave, being the
only tourists in the busy place along the riverfront.
Even though Dane was not yet with us, we enjoyed Thai beer, though we never found any craft beer. But the "industrial"
Singha pale lager was refreshing, especially with a spicy soup like this
Tom Yum Kung soup, the most famous of all Thai soups, with all four of the flavors, sweet, salty, sour and spicy in one delicious bowl.
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| Fried dumplings, stir fried seafood with red curry and prawns in red curry paste with coconut milk. |
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| Dianne and Ted at Sky Bar in Bangkok-G&T & Mangosteen martini |
Luckily our server spoke good English and was
patient as we ordered. We were close to
a water taxi stop, so it was easy to catch a downriver boat, feeling like old
Bangkok
hands by now. We were dissuaded from our confidence as we walked around trying to find a bar on the top floor of one of Bangkok's skyscrapers.
We finally resorted to a taxi, only to be taken about two blocks to
The Dome Sky Bar at Lebua Hotel at State Tower. So much for our prowess at getting around!
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| Hipster tourists viewing the smoggy sunset from the Sky Bar in Bangkok. |
Very fancy! Very expensive. Very not worth it. A blah margarita, blah
mangosteen martini, and decent gin and tonic for a fortune, with "sunset" views through the incredibly smoggy air, with lots of foreign young hipsters. So we can say we did it, but didn't need to do it again.
Sunday, January 5 Sawadee, Dane! (Hello in Thai)
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| The historic house that is Bussaracum Royal Thai restaurant |
The next morning, Dane arrived, at last, and after a quick
rest, he was ready to go. Luckily, as
Panya had booked a cooking class for us at
Bussaracum Royal Thai Cuisine.
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Making Penang Gai curry at the Bussaracum Cooking School
|
With Pai, the owner and Nancy the chef, we had the greatest time learning to prepare
Tom Yan Goong soup, Penang Gai curry and Bua Loy Sam Si-little tapioca balls in
coconut cream for dessert.
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| Chef Nancy making little balls of bua loi sam si. |
We learned that Royal Thai cuisine is more artful than the food of the general Tahi populace, hence the delicacy and labor intensive Bua Loy Sam Si or tiny balls of sticky rice flour in three colors in sweetened coconut milk. Of course we tried each
dish as we completed it, and were stuffed, but little did we know we had ahead
of us a four course meal at the lovely restaurant downstairs.
Joan enjoyed such appetizer delicacies as egg net-wrapped minced pork and shrimp, mee krob (sweet crispy noodles in a pastry cup, and Thai fish cakes.
Dane had flower-shaped dumplings filled with minced chicken, vegetarian spring rolls and barbequed chicken satay.
The soup/salad course included coconut milk in lemon-flavored soup with mushrooms, and Thai style papaya salad. For main course, Dane had chicken in masaman curry with potatoes and Joan stir-fried chicken with cashews. We still had room for dessert, amazingly, so Joan had coconut ice cream and Dane savored fried banana served with honey and sesame. Needless to say, we didn’t eat again that
day.
Here's the Penang Gai recipe for one serving:
1/2 cup thick coconut milk (Shake can well to mix before opening.)
1 tablespoon ground peanuts, plus more for garnish
3 kaffir lime leaves, very thinly julienned, plus more for garnish
120 grams sliced chicken (you can substitute beef, pork or shrimp)
1 1/2 tablespoons Penang curry paste
2 tablespoons palm sugar (or light brown sugar)
10 grams sweet basil leaves for garnish.
20 grams red and green Thai chilis, roughtly sliced (not spicy, just for color, substitute julienned bell pepper if not available.
Simmer thick coconut milk over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes. Add penang curry paste and mix together over medium high heat for another 3 minutes, stirring constantly so there are no remaining lumps. The sauce should thicken a bit. Cook a little bit longer if it is still runny. Add kaffir lime leaves and crushed peanuts. Add chicken to mixture and continue cooking until chicken is cooked through but still tender. Add palm sugar and fish sauce. If the mixture becomes too dry, add a little extra coconut milk, little by little. Put sweet basil leaves on the bottom of a wide bowl, then pour in chicken curry mixture Top with chili slices for garnish and more thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves and crushed peanuts, if desired.
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| The Golden Buddha-five tons of solid gold! |
Afterwards, we caught a taxi, the most harrowing of our
trip, for it was an inexperienced woman who had borrowed a friend’s taxi for
the day. We only wanted to go a few
blocks to the
Wat Traimit but she couldn't find the huge temple! The central
statue at the temple is of a golden Buddha nearly 10 feet tall and made of 5 tons of gold. It was discovered by accident in 1957 when an
old stucco-covered Buddha was being moved; it was dropped and the plaster
shell shattered, revealing the gold beneath!
It had been covered to hide it from
Thailand’s perennial enemies, the
Burmese.
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| Detail of Chinese temple rooftop sculptures. |
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| Historic buildings in Bangkok's Chinatown. |
The Wat was near Bangkok’s Chinatown was nearby, so we wandered in the
neighborhood, visiting a Chinese temple, then strolling the quiet streets
(everything was closed on Sunday) of interesting old buildings.
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| Joan and Ted at the Fish Foot Spa. |
We found
the water taxi stop to take us back downriver to Asiatique, where Joan and Ted were brave enough for a foot fish spa treatement, where little Doctor fish ( sp. garra rufa) nibbled (it tickled!) their feet while eating the old dried skin.
Our feet were as smooth as baby feet at the end of the fifteen minute session.
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| Dane enjoying a cool Thai beer at Brew. |
We rewarded ourselves with
Chang beer and Magnus cider at
BREW, a cool bar at Asiatique and then returned to the hotel early so Dane could have
an early night and catch up on his sleep.
Monday, January 6
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The “official” tour began today, and we met our twelve
travel companions for an orientation followed by a bus trip to visit the Grand
Palace of Thailand, a sprawling complex of ceremonial halls, golden spires and
ornate buildings, including the at
Phra Kaeo or Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Dane got used to the procedure we'd learned: take off your shoes before you enter a temple.
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| Panya gathering his flock at the Grand Palace |
The ancient city’s defining landmark since
1782, the square-mile
Grand Palace area became the centerpiece of a new Thai
capital called Krung Thep, or City of
Angels,
known outside of
Thailand as
Bangkok. (King
Mongkuk, Rama IV, who ruled from this palace and expanded trade with the West,
was romanticized in the musical The King and I. LIke Rome, Dane learned that around every corner was another fabulous photo opportunity. Here are a few of his shots of the Grand Palace complex.
After a beautifully-presented but lacking-in-flavor lunch (fried spring roll, clear blah soup with an interesting cucumber, pad
thai and fresh pineapple, watermelon and mango)
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we were disappointed to be
taken to the Gems Gallery, a huge shop with a “workshop” afterthought, where
avid salespeople followed each of us to encourage us to buy “specially priced”
jewelry. Luckily this was the only overtly commercial stop on our trip, but left a bad taste in our mouths coming on the first day of our tour. We succumbed to the first of over a dozen silk scarves and Dianne
found some earrings for gifts for her family.
Our Welcome Dinner at another restaurant at Asiatique was equally
disappointing, with gin-less gin and tonics.
We soon realized that our group tour meals would include no fresh vegetables, but instead lots
of fried spring rolls and chicken, pork and fish in gloppy sauces over the
ubiquitous rice, with endless fresh fruit for dessert. Thank heaven for Singapore Slings!
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| The street food looked more interesting than some of our OAT meals |
Tuesday, January 7
We opted for an extra-charge tour of
Ayutthaya,
(pronounced ay u tee ya) since everyone but Dane had already seen much of
Bangkok. The UNESCO World Heritage site was home to 33
kings from many different dynasties and was capital of
Siam from 1353
to 1757. Our first stop in the city
described as “2,000 spires clad in gold” was
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, flanked by
rows of saffron fabric draped Buddha statues.
From there we visited
Wat Mahathat, with its romantic ruins and eerie stone heads in tree trunks.
Next was
Wat Mongkol Bophit, which had the largest seated bronze Buddha
in
Thailand.
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| Visitors bought small squares of gold leaf to apply to this Buddha. |
The walk to the “elephant camp” was hot, hot,
and the touristy camp was a disappointment.
We enjoyed the walk through the
Muslim neighborhood of
Ayutthaya, trying the
spun sugar snacks from a roadside stand.
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| Spun palm sugar or "Thai cotton candy" |
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| We ate the Thai cotton candy wrapped in a crepe, topped with a spicy chili sauce. Yum! |
After lunch at a riverside restaurant, we enjoyed
another long-tail boat ride on the upper Chao Phraya River.
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| Typical of the meals we had with OAT-plentiful but flavorless. |
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| Long-tail boat ride on the upper Chao Phraya River. |
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| Rice barge being towed on the river-we were amazed at the long long tow ropes. Rice going downriver, coal coming upriver. |
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| One of the many temples we saw along the river on our long-tail boat ride. Many different modes of transportation on this tour! |
Our destination was the
Thai Summer Palace at Bang Pa-In. Set in a manicured garden was a relaxing place to stroll,
complete with a Chinese building and ending at the Victorian (1872-1889) palace
still used by the present King and Queen of Thailand.
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| Another monument to the Thai King Rama XI at the entrance to his Summer Palace. |
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| The topiary elephants were charming. |
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| Chinese building at the Summer Palace in beautifully manicured grounds. |
With a free evening, we took a taxi across
Bangkok at rush hour, an experience in
itself, to
Supanniga Eating Room by Khunyai, a new, hip restaurant located in a
narrow shophouse, decked out with raw cement walls Ted had discovered. Fabulous food inspired by the northeast Issan
region and
Thailand’s
southeastern coast. Great gin &
tonics, Prosecco, and a wide variety of gently spicy Thai food, completed by
their version of bua loy sam si, those little rice flour balls.
Hey, we knew how to make that!
What a wonderful ending to our
Bangkok
stay.
Joan enjoyed such appetizer delicacies as egg net-wrapped minced pork and shrimp, mee krob (sweet crispy noodles in a pastry cup, and Thai fish cakes.
The soup/salad course included coconut milk in lemon-flavored soup with mushrooms, and Thai style papaya salad. For main course, Dane had chicken in masaman curry with potatoes and Joan stir-fried chicken with cashews. We still had room for dessert, amazingly, so Joan had coconut ice cream and Dane savored fried banana served with honey and sesame. Needless to say, we didn’t eat again that
day.
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