There may have been a little confusion: I am actually back in Khrungthep. My vacation actually ended on the sixty. My entries are just ten days behind, that’s all.
But watch how I will now magically get caught up and condense ten days into one.
I was away from the Big Mango for something like sixteen days but am amazed how much can happen in such a short period of time:
The NY-style pizza place I like on Thong Lor has closed. Not a surprise as it was rarely busy but still a disappointment. There is now a gourmet donut place at the top of the escalators of the fifth floor at the Emporium mall. Ostensibly as good as Krispy Kreme, but haven’t tried them yet. Ben and Jason opened their cafe at the Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC) and it is very cute and Kobfa plays piano there on Friday nights. And Markus and Tam are housing a friend from China who is seeking political refugee status from the United Nations, fearing political persecution.
Proof that you just can’t stay away, otherwise this crazy town just leaves you behind.
Other news:
The governor of Khrungthep (you know that that’s the Thai name for Bangkok, right?) continues to beautify the city in advance of the upcoming gubernatorial elections, in which I think he is not running. Below, Before and after… and after.
Notice how bricks are used to form the border. They aren’t cemented together, yet another sign of how the Buddhist principles of impermanence find their way into Thai culture and governance.
There are still farang here. Including some who embody, style wise, the reason that some Thais would just as soon not have any farang here.
No sooner had I returned from San Francisco than Brad came to Thailand on a business trip. Tawn and I had the pleasure of meeting him for dinner at the very fancy Thai restaurant Basil, located at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit hotel.
We got back to eating at our favorite local places, including this small noodle shop on Sukhumvit just on the other side of Thong Lor. What a great way to eat. Watch that man move – so fast!
Tawn waits patiently for his noodles.
I like my noodles with soup (left); Tawn prefers them dry (right).
So good to be back home. I feel particularly in my element and even discovered that I hadn’t forgotten all my Thai. Whew! (Actually, Khruu Kitiya is even more relieved – she’d hate to think that two years worth of work had been lost.)
In addition to eating out, we quickly jumped back into the habit of cooking at home. I pulled my whole wheat sourdough starter out of the refrigerator and brought it back to life. Thankfully, it had done pretty well and took only two feedings before I was able to bake another loaf. Here are some things we made:
A sauce for pasta made of marinated chicken breast, onions, and tomatoes. This was really good:
Tawn, inspired by his trip to Italy, decided to try making panini with our combination waffle iron/grill/panini maker. Using my homemade bread, homemade pesto, and some mozzarella and tomatoes, he produced these tasty (if not so beautiful) sandwiches. Nice salad of mixed greens, walnuts, goat cheese and apples.
Finally, no sooner had we returned then our bedroom air conditioner crapped out. We’ve had it serviced three times in the eight months since we moved in and this time, we realized it was time to replace it. Bam! There goes $1,000. Ouch.
Old unit. The mirror has been removed to protect it. Wish I had removed the sconces, too, as we now have a cracked shade.
This man has an open flame in my bedroom. Can I borrow that to try making some torched saba?
Then he stands on the narrow metal frame that supported the old condenser unit, while installing a new one. Call me crazy, but that frame doesn’t look like it should be supporting him, especially with a four-story drop below him.
New unit, significantly narrower than the old one, by about 10 cm on each side. Resulting in some unsightly areas at the back of the cabinet that had been previously hidden. Guess we’ll have to bring someone in to address that.
So that’s it, ten days condensed into one entry. Now we’re up to date. Gosh, I hope something interesting happens today so I have something to write about tomorrow.
christao408 
fine! i am 15 then…lol
I have to try that 10 day trick Welcome “home” :=)
Thats too bad that your brand new A/C got frozen!! Excuse the pun. I am glad you are up to date now. Bangkok looks very clean; much different from the mid eighties when I had gone there with the family for a tour. I am seriously thinking about going through Bangkok on my way to India this winter; I’ll have to check about the extra cost on the ticket if I go through the Pacific.
As always love the pictures.
Uhm… there were a lot of safety regulations that went through my head while reading the repairs on your A/C. But that’s so farang of me… hee hee.Those street stalls seem to serve some really delicious food! Btw, what is that drink in the plastic pitcher with the green top?
SO MUCH going on! The panini looks fantastic. I LOVE your Obama shirt.
Hahaha… 10 days in one? I don’t suppose I could merge 10 into 1, but I have definitely been doing my version of the merger. lol
Those paninis look delicious 🙂
@ayu_motosan – Oh, yeah – much better! Ha ha…
@CareyGLY – Thanks. Good to be home.
@ZSA_MD – When will you be heading to India? Tawn and I will be back in the US from Dec 18 – Jan 2 or so. Want to make sure we’re here if you pass through.
Bangkok’s cleanliness is pretty good on most main streets. There is an extensive program of manual street cleaning that puts a lot of people to work. You don’t have to make too many turns off a main street, however, to find empty lots with abandoned trash, though. Also, I still see people litter, often those who have clearly made a lot of effort to make themselves up nicely but then seem to have no concern with the appearance of their city.
@ElusiveWords – Yeah, very farang of you. Why don’t you stop being so farang and just let the Thai workers get injured?
The plastic jug is actually a blog entry in and of itself. At smaller restaurants, especially these hole in the wall places, when we order “nam plao” (“pure water”) we can either pay for bottled water or we can drink this free water, which is basically a very weak tea. The tea leaves are added to show that the water was boiled or at least heated enough to steep some tea leaves in it. This is actually the original meaning of “nam plao”. Using it to refer to bottled water is more an adaptation of the term.
@UFFda_oyVEY – @TheCheshireGrins – The paninis were good, although I think we pressed them too much as the bread became this weird super-dense substance, much more so than the original whole grain sourdough it was before.
I’d never noticed a NY pizza place on Thong Lor but then I’d haven’t been in Bkk since Jan 2003, and there were alot of construction work going on. New Starbucks, supermarket and Vietnamese restaurant. Is Mango Tango still there?
I never realised that Bangkok now look better until I saw your entry. haha I feel so wrong everytime when I passed Asoke junction and saw the city slogan “Krungthep… Better Happier Life” or whatsoever it said. You know rite that just little part of it’s true when you consider all pollution, bad traffic, crime etc. Well..I need to stop my pessimistic side now.
@Fongster8 – The NY pizza place was a recent addition, sometime in the last twelve months or so. It is a branch of a presumably more successful location near Nana. We now have three Starbucks on Thong Lor, two supermarkets (a new Villa opened at J Avenue), and Mango Tango is still around. We also have a Le Notre in case you need fancy desserts.
@blue_beau – There is definitely a lot of propaganda being spread, especially all of the posters showing people happily riding their bicycles to work!
I got hungry just looking at your yummy pictures! It is 5 a.m. in Hong Kong. Two more hours before any food place opens. Stomach start complaining. hehe. By the way, the A/C replacement job looks real scary, esp on the balcony side! I am glad you are the one taking the pictures, and not having to do the repair.