Monthly Archives: January 2012

Thonburi

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Thonburi is an area in Bangkok, Thailand. Located on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, it is an area that has its place in the Thai history. From 1767 to 1782, it was the capital of the Thailand under King Taksin, after the previous capital Ayutthaya was destroyed by the Burmese. In 1782, King Rama I took over power and moved the capital across the river to the present day Bangkok. Thonburi remained as an independent town and province until 1972, when it was merged into Bangkok metropolitan area.

During the night bike tour when we’re visiting Bangkok, we rode through Thonburi after crossing the river in a ferry. It was quite a contrast comparing the section of Thonburi that we visited to the Banglamphu area across the river. The Thonburi area was a quiet residential neighborhood that’s nothing close to the busy Khao San Road. The area that we passed reminded me to some residential area in Jakarta, Indonesia — small homes lining up on the sides of very narrow streets and alleys, some were not even wide enough to be accessible by cars. It was mostly quiet, in some homes we could see and hear residents watching TV, cooking dinners, or simply just enjoying the company of others — just a quiet night in a residential neighborhood.

I thought it was interesting to think about this place as the center of power at one point in Thailand history. I wonder if the present residents knew about that fact, and even if they did, if that really mattered much to them. Most of the neighborhoods we rode through seemed to be of a lower class economically, so I’m guessing thinking about the history was the last thing in their minds.

The photo below was taken when we stopped outside a temple in Thonburi. It was very quiet and somewhat dark in the area. Our guide Tami gave us a little history and culture lesson there.

Temple in Thonburi

Bangkok Night Bike Tour

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One of the unique ways to explore Bangkok is by participating in a bike tour at night. When my cousin Kristi and I visited Bangkok, Thailand during our Southeast Asia trip in 2010, we found out about this activity, offered by an outfitter called the Grasshopper Adventures, on TripAdvisor. It was listed as the top thing to do in Bangkok.

The Grasshopper Adventures is an outfitter that offers bicycle and unicycle tours in several countries in Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, India, Japan, etc.). Most of their tours span multiple days (for example, they have a multi-day tour traveling on bicycle from North to South Vietnam). The Bangkok Night Bike was one of the shortest ones; it’s a 4-5 hour ride around downtown Bangkok and Thonburi area, visiting some landmarks and neighborhoods.

We started the tour at the Grasshopper Adventures office, located near Khao San Road. Our tour group was led by our guide, Tami, and there were eight participants: Kristi and I, a mother and daughter from Australia, a couple from India, and another couple from Malaysia. Once we were fitted with the right size bike and helmet, Tami provided a short instruction on the hand signals she would give as she rides in front of all of us. We were supposed to follow with the same hand signal so other riders behind us see that as well.

I wasn’t sure what to expect before we started the trip, as the Grasshopper Adventures office was located at a major road near a very busy area around Khao San Road. I didn’t see any bicycle lane anywhere. After we started our ride, it became clear that we pretty much would ride on sidewalks, on the side of the street, through alley ways, etc. — anywhere we can squeeze in with our bicycles safely.

The trip started with a ride through the busy Banglamphu area near Khao San Road. We rode through some busy roads, small alleys near guest houses, restaurants, and clubs, until we reached the ferry pier on the bank of the Chao Phraya River. We embarked on a short ferry ride to cross the river to the Thonburi area across the river. We went through quiet residential neighborhood to visit Wat Arun, a majestic temple that looks beautiful especially at dawn and night time. Then we continued on through narrow alley ways in the neighborhood near the river bank, before crossing the bridge back to Bangkok area. We visited a busy flower market and then stopped at Wat Pho for a private tour at night when the temple was officially closed for the public. We finished with a ride back to the Khao San Road area, passing a night market on the street sidewalk between near the Khao San Road area. The trip took almost five hours.

It was another memorable part of our visit to Bangkok. The ride was not too strenuous — you can participate as long as you’re moderately fit. You do need to be careful if you’re not used to bicycling, as you need to be able to keep up with the group. Tami our tour guide was really good and keeping a reasonable pace for the group and ensuring we’re not leaving anyone behind, but with some crowded areas that we went through, I could see possibility that someone fell behind and got lost. Overall, it’s a highly recommended activity and I would love to do it again the next time I visit Bangkok.

The photo below was taken when we’re about to cross a busy intersection near Khao San Road at the beginning of our ride. You can see the crowded area; we just have to slowly inch forward across the busy intersection and follow the other bikes in front of us. I had my DSLR camera hanging on my neck while riding the bike, though in many places I used my little point-and-shoot camera instead. Since we were riding at night, it was a bit difficult to take photos with my Elph in low light. The DSLR with fast lens was definitely helpful in being able to take some photos.

Night bike tour

McCafe in Bangkok

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McDonald’s is one of the most well-known American fast food chain restaurants in the world, with more than 33,000 locations in 119 countries. In the United States, in the recent years McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants are getting bad rap because of the nutritious value of the items of their menu, and the tendency to promote large portion of the food (there was a documentary called Super Size Me few years ago following a person doing an experiment of eating nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 straight days and then observing the negative impact that had on his health). Along with that, as obesity is also becoming a big problem in the American society, there is more and more emphasis on eating healthier and, for many this means avoiding eating fast food altogether. I myself generally don’t eat at McDonald’s, except once in a while when I’m on the road, needing a break, and having local McDonald’s conveniently available somewhere as a rest stop.

One thing interesting is to see how different people in other countries view McDonald’s restaurant. Rather than being a common place restaurant that in many cases are being avoided, in other countries (at least I observed this in Indonesia and Thailand), McDonald’s is actually viewed as a foreign restaurant that is actually a cool and trendy place to visit. It’s an American thing — and for many, that’s different and actually valued (I guess it’s similar to Americans looking at ethnic restaurants as a cool thing because it’s a rarity — even though in the country of origin the food served there might be common place).

When we visited Bangkok, Thailand, after spending several hours walking in the hot and humid outdoors, we saw a McDonald’s with a McCafe in it near the touristy Khao San Road area. Though in most cases we would prefer going to local establishments and try something local, we couldn’t resist the thinking of going to an air-conditioned restaurant and getting nice, cold drinks from a menu that we somewhat knew already, and knowing that very likely it followed standard quality guidelines. So sometimes having something that’s of a known quantity is a good thing.

The McDonald’s and McCafe that we visited were pretty much like a standard restaurant setup I’ve seen in the United States. I didn’t pay much attention to the McDonald’s side of the restaurant to see its menu (in Indonesia the McDonald’s store has items not found in American McDonald’s and targeted towards the locals, like rice porridge or fried chicken with rice), but the McCafe side pretty much had similar menu like the American stores. As for clientele, it was pretty interesting to observe. Given its proximity to the backpacker/budget traveler area of Khao San Road, we noticed many westerners coming there — looked like folks who might’ve been homesick or craving familiar food from home. But more peculiar was to see so many teenage girls in school uniforms coming in and out; many seemed to just come in to hang out with their friends. The staff didn’t seem to mind even though many didn’t really purchase anything from the restaurant itself. Later on, when we continued our walk around the area, we found out that there was an all-girls school nearby — that’s why there were so many of them coming to this restaurant.

The photo below was taken inside the McDonald’s while we rested from our long walk and enjoyed our cold drinks. You can see that it looked like a typical McDonald’s elsewhere, though the clientele of the restaurant seen here included mostly the local schoolgirls from the nearby area.

McCafe

Khao San Road

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Khao San Road is a road in the Banglamphu area of downtown Bangkok (northeast of the Grand Palace area) that is known among travelers as the place to go for budget hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, stores, travel agents — anything that caters to travelers to Thailand and neighboring countries. It has been a popular place to stay for backpackers and budget travelers since the early 1980s. Now the area still has many low-priced guest houses that cater budget travelers, but it has also become a destination for foreigners and locals alike for night life with many restaurants, bars, and night clubs opening til late.

I learned about Khao San Road from the guidebooks that I read before going to Thailand (or really any travel guide to Bangkok these days would mention the place). Even though there are many cheap accommodations that could be found there, for us personally we would prefer staying away from this crowded place. We came to Bangkok to visit some landmarks and experience the traditional cultures, and we were not into the nightlife scene, so being close to the happening place was not really a priority. But for travelers on shoestring budget, or those who are more intrepid and like to ‘play it by ear’ and not doing advanced planning, coming to Khao San Road area might be a good idea as they would be guaranteed to find a place to stay that meets their budget, and there are many travel agencies that could help arrange travels in the region. You could also meet other travelers in similar situations there.

We visited the Khao San Road area after we finished with our culinary experience in the Sao Ching Cha area. The walk from the Sao Ching Cha area to Khao San Road was not too far. It was interesting to observe, however, that we hardly saw foreigners in the Sao Ching Cha area (which was mostly residential and local commercial), but once we crossed the last main road near Khao San Road area, we started seeing foreigners (westerners) everywhere. Once we got the actual road, walking along the road was like going to a tourist attraction for foreigners — there were more foreigners than locals around, and all the stores had signs in English (quite a contrast compared to our visit to the Sao Ching Cha area where we couldn’t even read signs and menus in restaurants because they were all written in Thai). There were also American fast food chain restaurants like McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and many restaurants would serve international fare (Italian, Japanese, etc.). I suppose this would be a good place for foreign travelers who are homesick and would like to take a break from the local cuisine and get the food that they’re used to from home.

The photo below was taken by my cousin Kristi as we walked along Khao San Road. You can see many foreigners around. The road was pretty much closed for motorized vehicle traffic (with so many pedestrians around), and street vendors lined up the side of the road selling souvenirs or snacks.

Khao San Road

Coconut Ice Cream

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If you find a small local store that has been serving only one type of food for more than 60 years, it’s very likely a place that does that one thing very, very well, and you should definitely give it a try. Such place is the Nattaporn Ice Cream Shop in the Sao Ching Cha neighborhood. We found out about this place from an article on the website covering eateries in the Sao Ching Cha neighborhood. On the hot, sunny afternoon after eating a nice lunch at the meatball noodle soup store, we thought ice cream would be great to have before we continued on with our walk to the next destination during our full day visiting Bangkok, Thailand.

It took us quite a bit of time to find the ice cream shop, as it was tucked away on a quiet neighborhood street among residential areas. When we found the place, we had to wait for a few minutes since there were only three tables with 4 seats each, and those were all occupied. Once we got seated, we ordered the ice cream. I had the coconut ice cream that seemed to be the specialty of the place. You can get toppings on the ice cream. This is where this differs from the western counterpart; it has very different kinds of toppings to select from: red bean, taro, roasted mung beans, sticky rice, sweet corn — all natural toppings, none of the things you find in western ice cream shop (candies, chocolates, etc.). I had mung beans and sweet corn as my toppings. It was a unique combination of taste. I can’t say that the ice cream was that memorable, but the experience looking for the place, sitting outside the store, and enjoying the ice cream while watching neighborhood traffic passing by was definitely one to remember.

The photo below was taken from the street after we’re done eating our ice cream. You can see the little store with the tables and stools outside, and the blue basin and bucket outside where they would wash the bowls after you’re done with the ice cream. It may not be some people’s idea of great sanitary place, but the bowls seemed clean (you can watch them washing the dishes if you like) and 60 years of history means they’re doing something right.

Nattaporn Ice Cream