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Published: August 8th 2007
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Thai Green Curry
As cooked by Jason at thai Cookery School, May Kaidee A sort of Homecoming It was very fitting that Bangkok was the last stop of our 4 1/2 month adventure; this place felt like a second home to us after our previous visits (blog:
Melting in Bangkok). After the often unwelcoming Vietnamese (blog:
Halong Bay and a likeable nutter on Cat Ba Island), it was like coming home to an old friend. And despite our previous visits, there was still plenty more we wanted to see and do in Bangkok. Enjoying the last of our backpacker's budget with plenty of shopping was high on the agenda, as was a Thai Cookery course and catching those last rays of holiday sun before returning to a washout summer at home. This is an incredible city with so much to offer, so there was still plenty left for us to experience - and yet we still wouldn't manage to find out for ourselves just how amazing a visit to the Cinema can (reputedly) be.
We decided to treat ourselves to a decent room in a half decent hotel, the Bossotel Inn. Apart from it's superb location, being within a short walk of both the skytrain and a water taxi stop, its small but functional (so long as no one else wanted to use it
Making rice paper
For Spring rolls. Buying the ingredients for Thai Cookery School, May Kaidee. too!) sun terrace and pool, our deluxe room was lovely for the money in this medium-sized, slightly boutiquey hotel. This did the job nicely. We did look into using the neighbouring, much larger Shangri-La's pool, but they wanted a lot of Baht for the privelage!
The weekend market There was no stopping Sally's shopping quest. Not long after checking in we were heading out to Zen, with shoes in her sight at this large and trendy department store in Central World. The Loft at Zen was then all too convenient for dinner, doing the job again very nicely. However, along with a shopping visit to Siam Paragon (complete with showcase Lamborghinis and various other supercars for the super rich) and MBK, all this was just the warm up act for what was to follow.
Stepping off the BTS Skytrain at the last stop on the northern end of the Sukkhumvit line, even seeing the swelling crowds heading towards Chatuchak Weekend market does little to prepare you for the enormity of this market. Now I'm quite cynical about markets in South East Asia - they tend to be full of tat and ultimately disappointing. We both have a very
Sticky rice pudding
Thai Cookery School, Maykaidee instinctive sense of direction, but quickly felt the need to find the man with the free maps of the market. Unless you literally have the whole day to browse, you will need a map to be sure of looking for anything in particular. This market is amazingly gigantic! It sells everything you can imagine from more clothes stores than you'll ever get around in one visit, to home furnishings, arts and crafts and pets! Yes, live animals aplenty here (which all looked very well looked after)! This all made our purchases of some hand made steel cutlery and some clothes for friends and family back home seem rather dull, compared to those leaving with cute puppies.
So, allow a whole day for all that Chatuchak has to offer and be prepared for the intense humidity that the heat a Bangkok day in May inflicts upon you!
We had a few drinks in a bar in Patpong whilst watching the Monaco grand prix. This certainly provided the most unusual backdrop for watching sport, as various lady boys minced by.
Thai cookery: May Kaidee During our last stay in Bangkok, staying at the New World Lodge hotel prior to
Sally making fresh spring rolls
Thai Cookery School, May Kaidee our trip into Cambodia (blog:
A fascinating journey through Cambodia begins : Angkor), we'd discovered the May Kaidee Vegetarian restaurant in Banglampoo, a short walk from Khao San Road (
http://www.maykaidee.com/). This was one of those chance finds; the food here is amazing and had us returning for more and more. One of the dishes that sets it apart is the accompanying rice - there's no typically Thai sticky white rice here, it's red rice all round and it is gorgeous! Apparently this did alienate most of the Thais, so most of the diners here are fellow travellers or ex-pats - the locals, obviously like the staunch meat and 2 veg people we all know, don't know what they're missing out on!
We'd noticed May Kaidee did cookery classes, so made sure to book ourselves in for a morning session prior to returning from Vietnam. It really doesn't get much better than this: we knew the food was stunning from eating here, but 1,200 Baht each for 10 scrumptious Thai dishes, all of which were vegetarian (so suited Sally perfectly). Meat eaters need not worry either though as plenty advice is provided on what you'd do if you wanted to add meat. Also, western substitutes for Thai
ingredients that some may struggle to find back home are suggested. Apart from being hands on, informative and (above all) great fun is ensured for all, we got to cook so many famous Thai dishes in half a day...and got to eat them! This is incredibly good value for money and we cannot recommend this highly enough.
After a couple more hours whiled away on the internet near Khao San Road, it was time to head back to the hotel to check out. As we headed back along the river, we took in the views of the sun setting over our 4 1/2 months away. This was it, it was time to go back to reality and find a job.
As the taxi driver dropped us off at the airport, we were quickly reminded why we love Bangkok (and Thailand as a whole) so much. Before I even had a chance to reach into my pocket for the last of the Baht, he'd sprinted over to get us a trolley, loaded them up with our Thai man sized rucksacks and opened the door for us. There was no quibble about the price or the toll he paid (agreed
Ready, Steady, Cook!
Thai Cookery School, May Kaidee upfront). This was a world away from the Taxi drivers in Hanoi (or, closer to our current location, the Tuk Tuk drivers!) and for this he deserved a tip. He was so grateful that he zoomed around to the driver's side and pulled out his own garland of flowers for Sally and a commemorative coin of HM King of Thailand for me. Wandering around Bangkok, seeing so many of the locals in the royal yellow t-shirts, you soon appreciate how highly the King is thought of here, so for the taxi driver to give me this was touching.
Bangkok, we'll be back many more times yet...
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