our bangkok trip: a dictionary
we went to bangkok (our first time!) in the last week of november to celebrate g's birthday, among other things. i wanted to commemorate this with a post, but got bored writing a regular log of the places we went and stuff we did, so i figured i would try this. i also didn't want to attach pictures because i think they are for me and g and not for here.
this is loosely inspired by a book i read this year that uses this dictionary format in many of its chapters. it's called the yield, and tells the story of an aboriginal australian family and their community.
unlike a regular travel log, this will be sorted alphabetically. like a dictionary, duh. because i figured you don't need to know the detailed chronology of our trip because, uh... you weren't there, and why would you need to know?
anyway.
168 thai restaurant proper noun: this was at chatuchak market, and we were number 82 in the queue. there were a lot of other foreigners waiting to get a seat at this little restaurant in the middle of the crowded market. i remember this because i still have the whatsapp conversation of the waiter letting me know they were seating number 81 and that we were next. we had to brisk walk a bit from where we were smoking outside of chatuchak market back into the heart of it all. we had tom yum soup as the star of our table, of course, among other things.
baan phadthai proper noun: this was our first dinner in bangkok. it was only a walk away from where we stayed, and we went with g's brother and a few of his friends. the pad thai was good, but i also really liked the moo yang. incidentally, the restaurant was awarded the bib gourmand in the michelin guide bangkok some years ago. we didn't know this when we went, as we were more distracted by how cozy the place looked.
bts skytrain proper noun: i don't normally talk about the public transportation system of foreign cities or countries when i visit, but i wanted to give the bts skytrain specifically a shoutout because it was such a reliable and great change from the rail transit system we have back home. throughout our trip, we only got on a tuktuk twice, and a bolt car twice. the rest of the time, we basically studied the bts skytrain map and were able to save up so much time and money.
chao phraya proper noun: when we were looking up things to do and places to visit for this trip, we pretty quickly split the map of bangkok into two — the left side and the right side of chao phraya river. most of the stuff we were interested in were on the right side, and this is where we stayed the first two days of the trip. afterwards, we moved across to the left side, where we saw less dispensaries but a lot more street food. on our second night, we ate on a dinner cruise touring us around the river. the food was okay, but i liked the sights and enjoyed the cramped smoking area at the back of the ship.
chatuchak market proper noun: look. i know the point of this is to go here at night, but we went in the daytime because we had to rush back to our hotel and then rush back out to the airport within the day. we got some cute stickers and magnets here, as well as some bangkok-themed shirts. and the elephant pants, of course.
lumpini park proper noun: our third day in bangkok, we took the train and walked a little to lumpini park, where we saw a bunch of monitor lizards, cats, and birds. i didn't know thailand (or bangkok) had so many monitor lizards. or birds!
patonggo noun: i learned this is a thai-style chinese doughnut when we got back home. i didn't know what this was when we had it in bangkok, because we didn't have a genuine patonggo but a McPatongo at a mcdonald's. i won't elaborate or overjustify, but we were curious about any special or regional menu items fast food chains would have in foreign countries, and the mcpatongo was a revelation.
the spices proper noun: this was the first of two dispensaries we visited. not much to say, except that we were surprised by the culture of "leave us a google review and you get a free joint!" out there. this was also a walk away from where we stayed the first night, and pretty much just across the street from baan phadthai.
talat noi proper noun: or talad noi. super artsy vibe and we really enjoyed walking down the streets and alleyways of this area. unfortunately, we went a little too early in the day, so most of the places were closed. we still got a lot of cute pics though, and were way too excited about the amount of cat-related graffiti we saw in the area. we also tried a bunch of street food while walking there, but i can't recall a lot of it because communication was a little tough with the street vendors.
i'm sure there's a lot i've missed out on, but these were the ones that stood out to me. we had a great time for our first time in the city, and bangkok's weather at the time of year made it easy for us to feel cozy, comfy, and exploratory. i'm sure this won't be our last time in the city.