BKK Day 4 - It's All About the Food

So we ended up in our hotel in BKK after ages and ages in traffic. 

Thankfully it wasn't during the time of the shooting. 

And also, we were planning to check out a new mall on the other side of the river from where Siam Paragon Mall was.  Which is what we did. Having read about SOOKSIAM we decided that we should just spend the day there and eat our way through the indoor market. It's in a mall called ICONSIAM and this is how TripAdvisor describes it:

"An inspirational city located on the ground floor of ICONSIAM, mega-project, with a new concept of ‘co-creation’ between retail experience and cultural attraction that represents Thailand in a Day. Witness a million untold stories at SOOKSIAM and the charming DNA of Thai culture including Thai authentic foods, arts, handcrafts, and performances from all 77 provinces of Thailand in one destination."

I can't say there were a lot of performances. I saw maybe ONE. 99% of it was food. The rest of it was arts and crafts and other things you'd find at a night market. Only this one was indoors - aircon and clean toilets anyone? 

So here are the food pics. Cos that's most of what we saw. We also ate a shit ton of not-so-healthy food but who cares! 

Pretty cakes - we didn't have any

Skewered offerings, dumplings and noodles with gravies from all over Thailand - every style you could think of. We had a Northern Thailand noodle soup dish with our skewered meats.

Top left -fried pork knuckle, right - our dinner (noodle bowl on the right)

Bottom left - cheesy sausage on a skewer, right - more fried pork bits which we had later on

Remember that egg strand / egg dessert thing? This is a thin pancake with sticky coconut cream (the white bit) and that egg floss thing (Foi Thong) on top. It was meh. But I mean, at least we tried it. 

Bottom right - nutella + banana in a butter toasted bun. I was hoping it would be as good as the one we had at One Nimman, but it wasn't. Still, chocolate and banana are always a good combo.

 Top left - the beverage stand where we got our mango slush and fresh coconut. 

Top right - Food stalls -As we made our way farther inward we realised what we saw earlier was a "special" event and the actual SookSiam food stalls were yet to be discovered! 

Bottom - "Floating market" scene with decor, the entryway to the actual Sooksiam area.

 

Top right - ALL THE SOOKSIAM FOOD STALLS

Top left - lobster and prawns and other seafood on beds of ice

Bottom right - HALF a pig at a store that was selling fried / grilled / skewered pork

Bottom left - coloured balls of glutinous rice with mango - we had some later on after we walked around the rest of the mall

Top - very expensive crab dishes, some featuring roe

Middle - random meats and squid on skewers

Bottom - more fried pork knuckle

Left and top right - half carved out crocodile, and crocodile meat on a stick which I was trying for the first time in my life. I can't say I'm a huge fan. 

Bottom right - fish "cakes" or rolls - fish paste added to some flour and spices and rolled up and fried.

So you know how I said aircon and clean toilets? I wasn't kiddng. 

Top left - IconSiam's toilets - Gold fittings, jasmine oil in the diffuser, and polished floors. 

Those were some classy loos. 

Top right - decor hanging overhead

Bottom left - one of the displays of an event that was happening on the upper levels of the mall, featuring furniture and home furnishings designed by local art students.

Bottom right - a random big elephant display

The most notable things we bought for ourselves besides the shirt and dresses to beat the heat back in Chiang Mai were these bracelets. BIKSS got himself a silver one cos he's decided in his old age that he wants to be a rebel. (Never entertained the idea of wearing a bracelet before this trip... so it was a bit of a shock to me. Still, didn't stop me from gifting him this one.) 

While I picked up a Cartier dupe for myself (yes, I'm still all about the dupes) in 'rose gold' from the same shop. 

The beaded one on the right is just a trinket that I kept for myself after having given a few of them away as gifts. I picked up 5 at one of the street markets in Chiang Mai, and after the intended recipients had chosen their preferred colours, this is the one I was left with. No biggie tho as I like the colour and little silver elephant.

Right at the top of the mall in one of their event spaces they were having a Monet & Friends exhibition. We didn't go in to see it as I didn't want to spend that kind of moolah on tickets for something that I'm not super crazy about, and BIKSS isn't exactly an art fan either, but the display area and souvenir shop were free for all so we took a look at some of the stuff there. One thing that was interesting to me was they actually had 'blank' canvases with outlines of some famous pieces, which you could buy and take home with you to paint as you wished (middle left). 

There was also a whole wall (top and bottom left) with art students' impressions of the original paintings, and a studio (middle right) where they could paint their Art Masters 'inspired' pieces.

I picked up a magnet for my fridge, cos that's the kind of thing I do. I enjoy looking at my freezer door and remembering all the places and events I got them from, or the stories that came along with the ones that were gifted to me. This would be a worthy addition to the collection! 

And that was the end of that. After heading back down to grab that glutinous rice + mango dessert, we headed back to the hotel. It was closing time and we had to leave! 

The next morning we ventured out to get a massage then stopped for lunch before making our way to the airport. 

We decided to eat... wait for it.... VIETNAMESE food LOL. In Thailand. Yes, I know. Strange choice. But it was supposedly one of the BEST Vietnamese restaurants in BKK. So why not right? 

I can't remember, but I think that was shrimp cakes on the left. Top right was our good ol' favourite, the mighty Bun Cha, and stir fried mixed vegetables on the bottom right. We'd had so much junk food the last few days that my body was dying for some veggies. 

After that it was just a trip back to the airport to catch our flight home. And you already know how much of a fuck up THAT was. So that's all of it then.  Trip over. And BIKSS is currently at the gate waiting to board his plane to Lisbon on a work trip. If only I could have gone with him. Alas, life - my washing machine died and needs replacing. I've paid for and ordered a new one. It comes on Monday. I cannot wait. I shall leave you with this picture of the most expensive kitchen appliance I have ever paid for. 

CNX Day 3 and 4 - Museums, One Nimman, Versailles de Flore and the North Wall

Day 3 was Culture Day. 

We went to the 3 Kings Monument, Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Center and Lanna Folklife Museum.

The second one really should have been called the history of Chiang Mai museum and the last one should have been called Religion and Buddhism in Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand. 

So I wasn't blown away by the museums, altho I think it did hold a bit more interest for BIKSS than for me. 

Left - the monument in front of the cultural centre. 

Right - one of the posters in the 'timeline' room... but what got my attention was "traditional woman cycling beauty contest". I mean, what? 

There were some stories about the kings of the region and how it eventually came to be a part of then-Siam and later Thailand. And little dioramas of processions to offer prayers to their gods and what not. But I didn't think the exhibits were particularly well done as there wasn't a flow or a story... it was just stuff put together into a collection in a building. That's what it felt like to me anyway. 

But perhaps it's because history just isn't my thing. 

The Lanna Folklife Museum was worse. The thing I enjoyed most about it was the super cold air blasting thru the rooms. Every room was a display of Buddhist things. And a few had woven fabrics that didn't explain anything about how the designs meant specific things - just that they did.

For example, the description would say :

 

"The design of this fabric shows that it is from (whatever year/ decade/centry) from the region of (insert name of town or village or whatever)."

...and it goes on like this piece after piece after piece. And to the untrained eye (aka me), they kinda all looked equally same or equally different, however you wanted to look at it. Or worse - The way this fabric was woven tells us it was from (where and when). I mean huh???

2 pieces would look different to me and be from the same time and place, but something else equally different would be from a different time and place. 

Something would be worn by the upper class families and that other thing which looked the same was worn by the peasant class. 

Um, if you don't describe the motifs or whatever it is that differentiate them how am I to know what I'm looking at / for? TBH I don't even know if it's the motif, designs, length, size, type of fabric, or even colour that distinguishes one piece from another. After a while I gave up looking at them.

I didn't take photos but here are some images of the exhibits off the web - 

 

So anyway we spent longer than we expected to in the museums and we needed to get some food in me cos up to this point we hadn't eaten any real food. It was close to 4pm. We headed to One Nimman. 

It was pretty enjoyable as far as just walking around a touristy mall / lifestyle concept space can be.

Top left and right - Meat by weight - it was pretty cheap and pretty good. You make your selection and they grill it up and slice it up and you get a dipping sauce with it.

Bottom left - Grilled things on a stick. Sausages, creabmeat sticks, fishball and meatball things. Grilled and popped into a bowl then drenched in sauce.

Bottom right - Meatball soup. It was the only non grilled no carb thing available. Delicious. Comes with a bunch of beansprouts and radish slices in there. They do know how to make tasty soups, I'll say that. 

Also, that disposable Rooster Bowl. Yes, the rooster bowl is an actual THING!! Now, I've seen the ceramic bowls with rooster design, but never disposable ones. In Where-I-Live it's something of a status symbol cos they're notoriously expensive, so if someone owns a bunch of them it really is something to crow about (pun intended). This is the first time I'd seen it on a disposable bowl tho.

Left - rooster tea cup and tea pot  / Right - rooster bowls of various sizes and depths

After eating we walked around the shops where I managed to get a few bookmarks made from elephant poop. The skylight was pretty. I'm glad it was still light out when we got there. We also came across an Elephant Parade shop. 

(Bottom right - Kirin beer crates made into seats outside a convenience store at the mall across the road.)

The upper level of One Nimman is a forced walk-through. You enter on one side and have to walk the entire floor before exiting on the other. But it wasn't too big, and honestly a lot of it was the same stuff. Artisanal candles, batik print clothing, home made soaps, organic skincare, one of a kind original crafts, you get the gist of it. I did pick up some hand cream to take home as gifts, and a couple of essential oil balms for myself. Turns out they're really fragrant and smell so good, I wish I had bought more. I've tried ordering some that look similar, but turns out they're more about the soothing nature of the balm than the aromatherapy-ness of the essential oils. ie.  I couldn't smell ANYTHING. The Burt's Bees rocky road balm is really great for dry skin tho - I use it on my feet every night now! 

So I'm currently researching home made solid perfumes using essential oils. There are a ton of recipes but they all involve beeswax, and that means I'm gonna have to go out and buy some. So I'm still looking for something that maybe uses petroleum gel instead. Saw a recipe somewhere but I'm still hoping that I can convince the makers of the ones I have to ship to me direct LOL. Let's see if I can get in touch with them via socials! 

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Day 4 was the day we left Chiang Mai for BKK. 

But we needed to get breakfast at Versaille De Flore. I'll let the videos and pictures speak for themselves. But aside from that perfectly cooked just-runny-enough yolk that came with our breakfast platter, everything else about the place was pretty random and confusing. We also got a good pic of the longest remaining stretch of wall on the Northern side of the Old City. 

clockwise from top left - Entrance of the building, Fountain with statues, Elephant totem, More statues

Art stuck on one of the walls

Art on another wall

The North Wall - or what's left of it

Today's chip pic is a packet of banana chips we picked up at the airport on the way to BKK. The ones I mention in the previous post.

See you in my next post - from BKK!

CNX Day 2 - Markets, Churches and The East Gate

Breakfast was had at Chinatown. And at the centre of Chinatown is Warorot Market. The guy at the dried fruit shop told us we'd be able to find some food downstairs... so we headed to a basement food court of sorts. 

Top left - row of stalls

Top right - pork noodles (with pig blood cubes yuck) and chicken soup (complete with feet)

Bottom left and right - the stalls in the market

Connected to Warorot are Ton Lam Yai and Nawarat Markets. We spent quite a bit of time there - according to BIKSS the public toilet in the market was cleaner than a lot of toilets he'd seen in shopping malls and other modern establishments! He was impressed. After walking around and picking up some make-up (we don't get Pond's facial powder where I live but in Thailand it's very popular with the ladies!) and snacks, we stopped for a Thai Milk Tea for me and a Honey Lime Cappucino for him. And yes it's exactly what it sounds like. A cappucino with honey and lime. It was weird! But refreshing, according to BIKSS, who drank all of it up.

The ladies who run the stand were very obliging when I asked if they would smile for a pic!

Bottom - I noticed they were using a lime press that I decided I should get for myself, but they didn't have it in the shops there. Eventually I got one online when I got back home.  

Top left is 3-coloured corn which we imagined would taste awesome but it was so yucky BIKSS (who loves corn of any type and cooked all ways) managed only 1/3 before I convinced him to chuck it out. 

Top right is a pic of one of the many many weed shops around the city (and I guess Breeding is as good as name as any). Since Thailand legalised it these shops have sprung up EVERYWHERE. You can't go 20 steps without seeing a cannabis cafe, cannabis pub or cannabis 'house' being advertised - that's where they just sell the stuff and let u sit there and smoke it without pretending to sell anything else! There are standard "Stoner inside ↩️" signs that the shops put up by the side of the road to let customers know they offer weed.

And speaking of weed...

Left - the shirt my boss DIDN'T want, weed being illegal in my country and him being a doctor 'n all, 

Right - the shirt he agreed to instead.

This was bought at Ton Lam Yai Market where the lady in charge of the store kept making a big X with her arms when she saw me put it on myself. My boss is roughly the same size as me, so if I can wear it, he can wear it. Which is why I was trying it on. She probably figured this crazy tourist can't tell the difference between a man's shirt and a lady's shirt, so she kept alternating between the X arms and pointing at a rack of ladies' dresses. I didn't know how to tell her I was just trying it on for size so I quickly did what I needed to do then took it off and paid her for it. 

After all that shopping (including a tub of worms that I was dying to try) we headed to English tea for lunch. 

While waiting for our tea set to arrive I opened up the tub of worms. I wasn't impressed. Not crispy enough, and not salty enough. They were just sorta hollow and soft. BIKSS was a good sport - he tried some but wasn't a fan either.

So anyway lunch was at a rather fancy resort where we were introduced to very good banana chips (top left in the bowl) - not the sweet hard sticky type that is commonly found in Thailand but a light crispy slightly salted version which we eventually only managed to get our hands on at the airport as we left Chiang Mai. 

Bottom left - Bael (wood apple or stone apple) cake, very refreshing

Bottom right - the richest most dense fudge brownie we'd ever tasted. 

I enjoyed it heaps but it was just too much for BIKSS. 

At the top of our tea tray was a jasmine-fragranced eggy dessert thing that we later found out was called Thong Yip (see number 2 on this page) cos we came across something else the next day that tasted similar but, this time, came in strands - see number 3 - it was written on the menu so I now knew what it was called! One of my friends (they were living vicariously through my Whatsapp fotos and food reports) was keen to try some, so when I saw a packet of it at a bakery in Bangkok I picked it up for her. She also likes the Thai worms - she'd tried them before - so I promised to pass that to her too. 

On every trip I try to visit the Catholic churches if they're reasonably nearby to somewhere else we're going. In Chiang Mai we visited the Cathedral (real bells in the tower!) and the Catholic Mission centre. My boss had given me some money to pop into their donation boxes, as had my cousin, so off we went. 

They were having some peace summit conference thing at the Cathedral so we saw some people in cultural dress pull up for the evening gala and celebrations as we were leaving.

Our next stop was the Anusarn night market. We were feeling peckish along the way so we stopped for dumplings.

I apologise if the bottom pic looks gross - but do you see that pale yellow clump inside? THAT'S CHEESE! PURE MELTY CHEESE. The other dumplings / potstickers - as my American friends might know them - had an Asian taste to them. There was pork, chicken, shrimp even I think. But there was this cheesy one that tasted like a ravioli had fallen in love with a wonton and had a baby together.

At Anusarn we managed to get our hands on some traditional spiced sausage (a Northern Thai specialty) - ok, been there, done that. Not something we would buy again. I felt it had too many bits in it. The spices and herbs are ground up and mixed with the meat but not finely enough for my liking. I didn't like having bits of ginger and galangal between my teeth.

Top right - singing bowls

Bottom right - since I don't drink alcohol anymore, Singha (manufacturer of pale lager in Thailand) soda water is as far as my "drinking" will take me.

These are the two dresses and shirt that we ended up buying in desperation, to beat the stupid heat. Wore them straightaway the next day. Who cares that they hadn't been washed! Incidentally the temperature at home was also crazy hot while we were away... and still is - tho it doesn't feel as bad as Chiang Mai did. I pulled out and wore one of the dresses today... and it felt a little bit like I was on holiday again!

Alright. By now it was night time so we decided to head back. We decided to see if the Michelin Bib Gourmand roti stand was still open - and it was! 

Was it good? NOPE. There's way better roti (aka roti prata or roti canai) where-I-live. We saw a cosy spot in front of a shop that had closed for the day, and sat there to share our supper. Romantic. I loved it. The roti, not so much. Heck. Not at all. 

If you're ever in Chiang Mai, don't bother with this one. 

Eventually we reached Tha Phae Gate (the East Gate) and headed into the Old City, where we picked up our usual supply of drinks for the night and following morning from a nearby 7-11 (chocolate milk, Vit C drinks, latte and coke zero or some other zero soda), and then walked back to our hotel. 

Remember the road works I said I was thankful I didn't have to deal with re: noise? When we walked past BIKSS said "Hey look, light sabers". And they really did look it. 

On day 2 we clocked 14k steps.

CNX Day 1 - The South Gate

First of all, they lied when they said it was cooler in the North of Thailand, where the old Lanna Kingdom (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai etc) was. 

It was hotter than where I live, and I live about an inch above the equator. 

I was not prepared for the amount of sweating I would be doing. Eventually we ended up buying some lighter-weight clothing, but I'll show you those pics in my next post. I'm trying to do this chronologically so I don't miss anything. 

I'll add links if you wanna go look up some extra info, but this post is gonna be mostly just the pics. 

Our quaint hotel. Aka no central AC, a door key on a keychain that had to be stuck into a slot for electricity to flow, and hot as fuck. It was in an alley tho, so that was good cos there were massive roadworks going on at the main road which we didn't have to deal with. It was as quiet as it was hot. At least there was that. The walls were also solid stone, none of that pre-fab modern hotel thin-as-paper wall bullshit. So we got a couple of spanking sessions in. THAT was fun! 

It was time to get some grub. My friend's restaurant wasn't going to be open till 6 so we had to look for other forms of sustenance. We decided to head South.

The walk to the gate was filled with streetfood. Lucky for us too cos we were travelling most of the morning and missed lunch, arriving at the hotel only around 3pm. We had some chicken and corn in the morning which I had brought with me for breakfast... but all that aeroplaning had left us really hungry by the time we'd checked in.

Top left - grilled pork on a stick (aka Mu Ping) / Top right - breaded chicken on a stick

Bottom - the people responsible for our first bites in Chiang Mai - pork and lemongrass sausages

With a little bit of (delicious!) food in our bellies we continued on. 

Here's what's left of the southwest gate.... it was considered an unlucky thoroughfare because this was the gate through which the city's dead were carried out to be buried. You can read about the old city walls and some other places of interest HERE.

Across the moat along the South wall we wandered into an area known as Wua Lai Walking Street. Saw nothing there except lots of silversmiths. And then I discovered after coming home that it was only a walking street on Saturday evenings LOL. 

Still, we chanced upon the Silver Temple on the grounds of Wat Sri Suphan as we were sweating along the streets (Left, top and bottom.)

And then as we were heading back to the Old City to go for dinner we came across a little workshop where a few people were busy doing some aluminium tooling (right). It was impressive! They were really kind too, answered some of our questions and when I asked if I could take a photo they were happy to let me.

Nong Buak Haad Public Park

Along the way to dinner we went for a jaunt in the park - it was so lovely to see it being used by all the locals... and a few foreigners. Blokes playing on the court - different groups playing different games but all sharing the same space harmoniously; kids feeding the gigantic koi in the pond; and joggers and walkers taking advantage of the cool air. I swear it was like someone turned on the AC. The minute we stepped through the main entrance it felt like the temperature dropped by 2 degrees. It was weird, but a welcome change from the muggy heat. 

It made me smile, like I was genuinely happy, to see everyone enjoying this public space the way public parks are meant to be enjoyed. Where I live the restrictions are so stupid - keep off the grass (in a park!!) and no food and drink (they think we won't know how to use the bins?) and guys using the basketball court are extremely territorial so much so that in some popular courts a few of the guys get there early to "book" their spot so other groups can't get to it first. Ridiculous!

And then... DINNER TIME!

Dinner at Madame Koh - Top - Duck confit khao soi

(served with lime and preserved vegetables, fresh chopped onions, & chilli paste)

Bottom left - Buttered sambal prawns, Bottom right - stir fried kai lan with shitake

I happen to know one of the fellas behind this restaurant (I actually know his dad and brother tbh) so it was great fun chatting with him and supporting his latest venture. They had only been open for about a week when we got there, having moved their operation over from Bangkok where I had a chance to dine at a few years ago when I visited - his dad was also there at the time and we all had a lovely evening of drinks and conversation.

Khao soi is a specialty of Northern Thailand and it was the first time both of us got to try it. BIKSS likes it A LOT! We found some Khao Soi seasoning being sold in packets at the market the next day and we both bought some to take home with us. I cooked up a batch the day after I got home! (I also picked up some Mu Ping seasoning!)

At the end of all that walking my phone clocked 18k steps. That's AFTER being on two flights in the first half of the day. We were both exhausted - but that didn't stop us from getting some sexy fun time that night LOL. And it was only Day One. 

Stay tuned for more!