Tag Archives: bangkok

Bangkok Street Food

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Part of experiencing a culture is in trying the local food. When visiting Bangkok, Thailand, you can find good representation of the Thai cuisine in restaurants that serve Royal Thai cuisine like Thanying, but if you ask the locals, they would likely say that the best Thai food is found at the street stalls or small local shops. But if you ask for recommendations, you would likely hear varying opinions on favorite places to eat — each person likely has his or her own favorite place to go.

If you’re in Bangkok, and you want to try the street food, you can search around on the Internet to find out what the locals have to say about areas or places to go to find their favorite food stalls if there is a particular dish that you want to try out. But another way to go about it is simply to just ‘play it by ear’ (or, by nose) — plan your day to visit the places you want to see, and then around lunch or dinner time (or even along the way when you like to eat snacks), just look around and go to places that have food that looks or smells delicious, and where there are others eating. You may have to be creative in communicating with the vendor if he or she only speaks Thai and you don’t understand what they have written at their stalls (most are likely written in Thai, though the price would be written using the same numeric scripts). You should also have an open mind and be adventurous in trying out the food, as some of the ingredients may not be what you are used to eat at home. Also, be ready with some medication in the event that your stomach can’t handle the food that you eat — it’s a risk that you have to take, but in my opinion it’s worth it.

The photo below was taken when we stopped outside the pier near the Grand Palace where we disembarked after riding the Chao Phraya Express Boat. The pier exit was lined with stalls selling variety of food and fresh fruits and vegetables. It was quite a shock to the senses with the sights, smells and sounds of the food being prepared and served. My cousin Kristi decided to stop at one vendor that sells coconut-based snacks. It was freshly made to order and the price was quite cheap. And more importantly, it was delicious.

Street food

Chao Phraya Express Boat

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The Chao Phraya Express Boat is a good alternative means of transportation to try out and experience when visiting Bangkok, Thailand. The Chao Phraya Express provides transportation along the Chao Phraya River that goes through downtown Bangkok. When you want to visit the area near Wat Pho and the Grand Palace, you can’t take the Skytrain or the MRT there, but there are piers nearby where the Chao Phraya Express Boats stop. The locals use the boat as well for commuting, especially those who live on one side of the river and work at the other side.

Our experience to take the boat was when we traveled from our hotel Bangkok Loft Inn in Thonburi to the Grand Palace area. The hotel manager suggested that we took the Skytrain and then connected to the Chao Phraya Express Boat as an economic way to go (the alternative would be to take a cab). We thought that would be an adventure in itself to learn about the public transportation in the city.

When we arrived at the Sathorn Central Ferry Pier, we were unsure about where to go and what to do, as most signs were written in Thai. I did remember our hotel manager mentioning about the boat having a flag to indicate its route (more like which one stops at the destination you’re going to), and we generally knew the direction that we’re going (northbound on the river). So when a boat came with the flag color that we’re looking for, we just followed other passengers on board. We had not bought any ticket, and didn’t see any place to purchase tickets, and no one around seemed to speak English. So we just went on board, and we thought we just figure it out then. It turned out that it was the right thing to do. There was a lady on the board walking around collecting the fee and giving each passenger a little paper ticket. We just gave her the money, and she gave us the ticket and change in return.

The photo below was taken on the boat. You can see it’s a wooden boat, and it’s quite orderly and quite clean on board. Most people were commuters, mixed with some western tourists (they stood out with their more casual attires and cameras). The boat ride itself was quite nice, it provided a different vantage point to observe the daily life in the city of Bangkok.


Chao Phraya Express Boat

Skytrain

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The Skytrain is an elevated rapid transit system in Bangkok, Thailand. It’s part of Bangkok’s metro system that also includes the underground MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) and the Suvarnabhumi Airport Link (SARL) that connects downtown Bangkok to the Suvarnabhumi Airport. This metro system is a great alternative means of transportation when you’re in Bangkok considering the city’s notorious traffic congestion problem.

My cousin Kristi and I used the Skytrain during our stay in Bangkok as part of our Southeast Asia trip in 2010. Our hotel, Bangkok Loft Inn, was located in Taksin region of Thonburi (southwestern side of Bangkok metro), and it was within walking distance to the Wongwian Yai station. We used the train on our way back from dinner in our first night in Bangkok, and then on the second day to get to the river pier to continue on the river ferry, and on the third day to go to the Jim Thompson House near the National Stadium and back. Initially we also considered of taking the train to get to the airport, but our hotel staff graciously offered to take us there on their car.

The photo below was taken at the Surasak station on the Silom line of the Skytrain. This was our first ride on the train system, and we were quite impressed with how orderly, clean, and efficient is the Skytrain system. It’s comparable to some other mass transit systems I’ve used elsewhere (Washington DC’s Metro, New York Subway, Montreal Metro). It was pretty easy to figure out our way around; signs and public announcements were available in both Thai and English.

Skytrain station

Thanying

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Thanying is a restaurant located near Silom Road in Bangkok, Thailand. The restaurant serves Royal Thai Cuisine, which is essentially Thai cooking but specifically derived from recipes of dishes served for the Thai Royal family. So it’s sort of a ‘refined’ version of Thai food.

When you come to Bangkok, you definitely need to try the authentic Thai food. The best Thai food actually is found on the street — the cheap and authentic food that the locals eat. But if you want to have a nice, fine-dining type experience, you may want to check out one of the restaurants that serve the Royal Thai cuisine. They are generally more expensive than their street food equivalents, but you may also enjoy the dining experience better.

I first learned about the Royal Thai Cuisine when watching Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Food episode on Bangkok. In that episode he went to Bo Lan, a trendy, up-and-coming fine dining restaurant in Bangkok that serves dishes based on age-old recipes. We initially considered going there for our first night in Bangkok, but then decided not to after finding out that the location is quite far away from the hotel where we were staying at, and also considering the price for the tasting menu was really high (especially for Bangkok standard). I found out about Thanying that also serves Royal Thai Cuisine. The restaurant was opened by a Thai Princess who was the head cook at the palace for her sister the Queen. The food seemed to be quite authentic, and it received good reviews from people who had been there.

We had good experience dining at Thanying. Instead of ordering the set menu, we decided to go ala carte and ordered a salad dish, soup, and a couple of select dishes. Everything we ordered was really good. My favorite dish was the salad, yam som o (pomelo — a large citrus fruit like grapefruit — salad with prawn). It was light and refreshing.

The photo below was one of the dishes we ordered, the pad cha (deep fried sea bass with red curry, green pepper corn, galangal, lime leaves, and basil leaves). It was not only a delicious dish, but also quite pretty and colorful to look at, and it’s a good example of a Thai dish with its fresh and varied ingredients.

Pad cha

Bangkok Loft Inn

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Bangkok Loft Inn is a boutique hotel in the southwest part of Bangkok (near Taksin region in Thonburi). The hotel is not part of any chain, and managed and ran by locals. It has received many good reviews from travelers on TripAdvisor, and last year it received the 2011 Traveler’s Choice Award as #5 for bargain hotel in Asia. It is not located near the typical tourist area in Bangkok (Khao San Road or Sukhumvit Road areas), but it is within 5-minute walk from a Bangkok SkyTrain station. So it’s actually pretty nice those who want to stay at a nice hotel at reasonable price and don’t mind taking the public transit to the touristy areas.

When we were looking for hotel to stay in Bangkok during our Southeast Asia trip, my cousin Kristi and I wanted to find one that is nice and clean, with reasonable price, and within public transportation reach to the destinations that we wanted to visit. During her previous visit to Bangkok, Kristi stayed at a western chain hotel (Holiday Inn I think) that was located near the shopping malls area — perfect for her previous trip with her friends that was focused on shopping. While western chain hotels like that have the benefit of likely maintaining a certain quality standards, I thought it would be more interesting to risk it a little bit and look for a local hotel that might be smaller and not as well known, but owned and managed by locals and allowing us opportunity to interact with the local staff.

We found Bangkok Loft Inn on TripAdvisor. It’s ranked pretty high on the list of hotels that include some of the more expensive or bigger ones (the other ones ranked in the top 10 were mostly five star hotels that easily cost 4-5 times per night stay). Photos on both TripAdvisor and the hotel’s websites looked nice, and more importantly, a lot of reviews on TripAdvisor mentioned not only about the nice hotel facility but also the wonderful staff they had there. Booking was quite easy; done online using a site called agoda.com.

We stayed at Bangkok Loft Inn for two nights, and the stay exceeded our expectations. We only interacted with the front desk staff during our check in, whenever we went out or back in as we passed the front desk, and when we check out. But just those short interactions were memorable, and they really served as great ambassadors for their country that reflect Thai hospitality. Upon our arrival, they helped us make reservation at a restaurant and the manager even helped us get a taxi and provided instruction to the driver in Thai to ensure we get to our destination. On the following day, on our way out for our full day to explore Bangkok, the manager stopped us, and surprised my cousin Kristi with a little birthday gift. That day was Kristi’s birthday, and the manager found out about it from looking at the passport when we checked in the night before (about 12 hrs before, already at night). So during that short time she got a little gift nicely wrapped ready to give to Kristi in the morning. She also gave us some warning/advice against scam on visiting the Wat Pho temple that ended up to be part of experience when we got there. And on the last day of our stay, when she found out that we were heading to the airport from the hotel for the next leg of our trip, she offered to have the hotel’s car (I think it’s a family car) take us to the airport at no charge.

The photo below was taken at the hotel lobby after Pat the manager gave Kristi the birthday gift. It’s one of those unexpected moments interacting with the locals that you would remember from the trip, and it’s a reason to always have a digital camera handy for capturing these moments.

Birthday gift from hotel staff