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Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok, it took us nearly 3 days of traveling, 12 flights with one canceled at the last minute, 4 city’s and 90 miles on foot to get to and around you but you were worth it.

Where to start?  The food!  I highlight all the meals we enjoyed in the video as well as the cuisine unique to northern Thailand in my Chiang Mai post but here are a few more.

The incredible spread for a “simple” stir-fry.  

Speaking of, this one from a nondescript stand was probably one of my favorites.  Flash stir-fried shrimp with veggies and holy basil {one of my current obsessions} in a mélange of spices.  I love how even a humble rice dish like this can be spicy, subtly sweet, sour/tart, salty, bold and vibrant all at once.  That’s what Thai food is all about.  Even the contrast of the fluffy jasmine rice sang against the still crisp vegetables and succulent shrimp.

This was another one of those dishes that spoke of simplicity at its best.  It’s a plate of garlicky spiced morning glory yet something about it gave me life after hours of roaming the streets of Bangkok.  It reminded me of a spicier version of my mother’s Korean spinach side dish which was nice to find all the way across the world.

This was a place that came highly recommended but as I’ve found in my travels, it’s often hype.  Don’t get me wrong.  It was delicious but not worth the long wait as there was a line that extended past 5 neighboring businesses when we arrived.  If you have your heart set on trying this place that’s known for having some of the best pad thai around, don’t fret since the line goes fairly quickly to its relative size.

This is another plate I happily devoured, also from a nondescript stand.  It wasn’t trying too hard and that’s what I liked about it.  I actually walked passed it the first time, completely enamored by all the flurry of activity in front of me as I often do and turned right back around when my nose caught a whiff.  Each tender strand, soaked in gorgeous tamarind, laced with yolky goodness and fresh veggies with a serve-yourself topping bar made my tummy very happy.  Did it pale in comparison to Thip Samai?  No.  I’ll learn my lesson one day.

We accidentally stumbled upon this place but J was so pleased with our seafood spread that we came back again the next night.  You pick from 3 different “sets” of seafood that they then toss into a wok, saucing it into fiery oblivion {you can adjust the heat but we go big or go home}!  They recommend you use plastic gloves for the affair but with all the kimchi I make, I think my fingers are immune to peppers.  What they didn’t have was any sort of rice so we just popped over to the next stand and purchased a bundle of sticky rice for 10 baht.

Thailand is the land of coconut dreams.  I figured I’d be so spoiled from all the fresh coconuts in St. Croix but my love for all things coconut trumped any such notion.  I began most days with fresh, icy cold coconut that I watched each vendor so expertly hack, then happily nosh on the coconut jelly before hunting down more coconut-y edibles.  Pictured here is fresh coconut ice cream in a coconut bowl with its young meat scooped out topped with lychee jellies.

Fresh passionfruit juice was another daily stop for me but when I saw this Gac fruit, it immediately held my attention as I’d read all about its innumerable health benefits and its intriguing likeness to sweet tomato juice when researching my trip {and yes, there were 6 out of the 8 pages of my itinerary dedicated to food}.  I have to say I was disappointed.  It literally tasted like nothing.  I guess I’m glad it’s so healthy because it really tasted like a bunch of nothing.

The view from our Bangkok condo.

Towards the end of our Bangkok stay, we decided to make a day trip out to Ayutthaya.

There’s lot more from Ayutthaya in my video with a upcoming post on Chiang Mai.  I hope you enjoy!

 

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