5 Days in Bangkok - Some Random Thoughts
Feb 6th, 2010, 09:35 PM
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5 Days in Bangkok - Some Random Thoughts
Spent 5 days in Bangkok late January 2010. These are a few random musings from that trip, rather than a comprehensive and detailed trip report.
Hotel: I stayed at the Holiday Inn Silom. I got a great deal on Priceline - $52 per night. For a hotel of this quality, the price was excellent, even in Bangkok. Traffic on Silom was bad during rush hour but manageable for most of the day. The hotel staff were friendly and professional. The room was in very good shape and lacked little. I was allowed to check in at 8:00 am and check out at 2:00 pm with no additional charges. The Indian restaurant in the hotel is average and a bit pricey. “Extras” in the hotel such as hi-speed internet connection, room service, etc are a bit expensive. Excellent location with many restaurants in the area. I liked the food at the Silom Village and Taling Ping. Most taxi drivers know the hotel, so returning at the end of the day was no problem. I had breakfast at the hotel the day I was leaving. The spread was great – Thai, Chinese, Indian, Continental, and American. I will probably stay at this hotel again on future trips, and need to explore this area of the city more.
Ratt Services: I hooked up with Kantapiyo Vimonrat (Ratt for short – pronounced as “raat” not “rat”) for a couple of days. I also asked her to pick me up at the airport and drop me off. She drives a regular Bangkok taxi as well as a private car. I understand that she also has a van. She is a good driver – fast and safe, and did not weave in and out of traffic on the expressways. Her English is good. She is very good as a tour guide and I appreciated her tips and advice during the trip. I understand that she also runs a bed-n-breakfast, but I did not stay there. She is very knowledgeable, not at all expensive, and highly recommended. I will likely use her services again during my next trip. Quick tip – if you are inclined to discuss Thai politics with her (I was!) make sure that you support the Yellow Shirts, or are at least neutral!
Floating Market: Spent a couple of hours at the floating market in Damneong Saduak Sunday morning. The tourist crowds had not yet arrived and the weather was pleasant. The market is largely for tourists. You can get some interesting food there. I tried the grilled bananas, kaeng som, and a couple of other items that I cannot recall at this time. The food was cheap and it tasted great. I had no qualms about eating the food – that was one of the main goals on this trip – but stuck to bottled water. The legions of tourists started to arrive mid to late morning, at which time we decided to move on. I will not repeat this on future trips. I might try the night floating market instead.
Train Market: Spent an hour or so at the famous train market near Maeklong Station. This is the one where the hawkers have their stands and stalls encroaching on the rail tracks. Several times a day, when the train passes by, the hawkers have to move their wares out of the way, before re-setting after the train passes. While there were a few camera-totting tourists (your’s truly included!), the market appeared to cater mainly to local Thais. The food items for sale were interesting and I enjoyed picking Ratt’s brains about how Thais cooked the various meats and vegetables. I wouldn’t mind doing this trip again at a future time.
Street Food: One of my goals on this trip was to try the street food in Bangkok. After reading some of the postings on this board, I headed out to the Sao Ching Cha area and tried out a couple of places. There is a Thai grocery website (importfood.com, I think) that as a good map and some nice write-ups. I enjoyed the food, but again, I only consumed bottled water. I definitely need to spend more time enjoying the street food of Bangkok. This will be a regular activity on future trips.
Thai Cooking Class: I wanted to brush up on my Thai cooking skills. So I did some research and identified the half-day cooking classes in Bangkok. I ended up selecting Mai Kaidee’s class in Banglamphu. It was unusual in that it was a vegetarian cooking class. I figured if I learnt the basics in vegetarian, I could always throw in an animal or two if I chose to do so in the future. Our class was very small – just four of us. We paired up and the class began. We made our own curry paste and then made 10 dishes. They all turned out quite good which came as a bit of a surprise to me. The class was fun and it was a great way to spend a morning. After the class, I stopped over at Nittaya Curry shop almost across the street from the cooking class, and picked up a bunch of curry pastes and other spices. I understand that there is a cooking class where you can spend the entire day with the chef one-on-one for about 150 USD. I may splurge and try that the next time – maybe in Chiang Mai.
That ends my narrative of this trip to Bangkok. I enjoyed myself immensely and will likely do this again next year – maybe go up north for a couple of days. Feel free to contact me or post any specific questions you may have.
Hotel: I stayed at the Holiday Inn Silom. I got a great deal on Priceline - $52 per night. For a hotel of this quality, the price was excellent, even in Bangkok. Traffic on Silom was bad during rush hour but manageable for most of the day. The hotel staff were friendly and professional. The room was in very good shape and lacked little. I was allowed to check in at 8:00 am and check out at 2:00 pm with no additional charges. The Indian restaurant in the hotel is average and a bit pricey. “Extras” in the hotel such as hi-speed internet connection, room service, etc are a bit expensive. Excellent location with many restaurants in the area. I liked the food at the Silom Village and Taling Ping. Most taxi drivers know the hotel, so returning at the end of the day was no problem. I had breakfast at the hotel the day I was leaving. The spread was great – Thai, Chinese, Indian, Continental, and American. I will probably stay at this hotel again on future trips, and need to explore this area of the city more.
Ratt Services: I hooked up with Kantapiyo Vimonrat (Ratt for short – pronounced as “raat” not “rat”) for a couple of days. I also asked her to pick me up at the airport and drop me off. She drives a regular Bangkok taxi as well as a private car. I understand that she also has a van. She is a good driver – fast and safe, and did not weave in and out of traffic on the expressways. Her English is good. She is very good as a tour guide and I appreciated her tips and advice during the trip. I understand that she also runs a bed-n-breakfast, but I did not stay there. She is very knowledgeable, not at all expensive, and highly recommended. I will likely use her services again during my next trip. Quick tip – if you are inclined to discuss Thai politics with her (I was!) make sure that you support the Yellow Shirts, or are at least neutral!
Floating Market: Spent a couple of hours at the floating market in Damneong Saduak Sunday morning. The tourist crowds had not yet arrived and the weather was pleasant. The market is largely for tourists. You can get some interesting food there. I tried the grilled bananas, kaeng som, and a couple of other items that I cannot recall at this time. The food was cheap and it tasted great. I had no qualms about eating the food – that was one of the main goals on this trip – but stuck to bottled water. The legions of tourists started to arrive mid to late morning, at which time we decided to move on. I will not repeat this on future trips. I might try the night floating market instead.
Train Market: Spent an hour or so at the famous train market near Maeklong Station. This is the one where the hawkers have their stands and stalls encroaching on the rail tracks. Several times a day, when the train passes by, the hawkers have to move their wares out of the way, before re-setting after the train passes. While there were a few camera-totting tourists (your’s truly included!), the market appeared to cater mainly to local Thais. The food items for sale were interesting and I enjoyed picking Ratt’s brains about how Thais cooked the various meats and vegetables. I wouldn’t mind doing this trip again at a future time.
Street Food: One of my goals on this trip was to try the street food in Bangkok. After reading some of the postings on this board, I headed out to the Sao Ching Cha area and tried out a couple of places. There is a Thai grocery website (importfood.com, I think) that as a good map and some nice write-ups. I enjoyed the food, but again, I only consumed bottled water. I definitely need to spend more time enjoying the street food of Bangkok. This will be a regular activity on future trips.
Thai Cooking Class: I wanted to brush up on my Thai cooking skills. So I did some research and identified the half-day cooking classes in Bangkok. I ended up selecting Mai Kaidee’s class in Banglamphu. It was unusual in that it was a vegetarian cooking class. I figured if I learnt the basics in vegetarian, I could always throw in an animal or two if I chose to do so in the future. Our class was very small – just four of us. We paired up and the class began. We made our own curry paste and then made 10 dishes. They all turned out quite good which came as a bit of a surprise to me. The class was fun and it was a great way to spend a morning. After the class, I stopped over at Nittaya Curry shop almost across the street from the cooking class, and picked up a bunch of curry pastes and other spices. I understand that there is a cooking class where you can spend the entire day with the chef one-on-one for about 150 USD. I may splurge and try that the next time – maybe in Chiang Mai.
That ends my narrative of this trip to Bangkok. I enjoyed myself immensely and will likely do this again next year – maybe go up north for a couple of days. Feel free to contact me or post any specific questions you may have.
Feb 7th, 2010, 05:21 AM
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I also took a cooking class with Mai Kaidee, a really delightful person. The best part was the life that goes on in the almost open air kitchens behind her restaurant, with neighbours wandering by and deliverymen eating the food we produced.
Feb 7th, 2010, 12:00 PM
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We ate at Mai Kaidee's and met her. Great food - among my favorite in Thailand and I am not a vegetarian. Wish we could have done the cooking class. She has a restaurant in Chiang Mai but we couldn't find it.
Feb 7th, 2010, 07:26 PM
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The cooking class was located on Sam Sen Road almost directly across from Soi 2. The best way to get there was to call the school from the taxi, and let them direct the driver to the exact location.
To get to the curry shop from the cooking school - cross the street from the cooking class, turn right and walk a couple hundred ft. Best way is to look out for the smell of spices. Its called Nitayya, but no one on the street seemed to know where it was. Mai knew the shop and she wrote it down for me in Thai. However, Mai's directions are a little less straightforward than mine were! So cross the street and follow your nose.
The cooking class had four people - a couple from Israel, a guy from Hongkong, and myself. We paired up and each person in the pair took turns cooking. The vegetables were all preped(cut) before we started. We made the curry pastes from scratch. We were each given a small booklet with 10 recipes and we followed those directions to prepare our dishes. Mai was around to answer questions, provide comments, and help with fine tuning. All dishes turned out to be excellent. We at what we cooked and so that took care of lunch as well. The class lasted just over 4 hrs and cost 1200B. I also bought her book for 550B. The location is in Banglamphu. If you google Mai Kaidee Vegetatarian cooking class, her website shows up as the first hit.
Hope that helps. Feel free to ask more questions if you need to. Thanks.
To get to the curry shop from the cooking school - cross the street from the cooking class, turn right and walk a couple hundred ft. Best way is to look out for the smell of spices. Its called Nitayya, but no one on the street seemed to know where it was. Mai knew the shop and she wrote it down for me in Thai. However, Mai's directions are a little less straightforward than mine were! So cross the street and follow your nose.
The cooking class had four people - a couple from Israel, a guy from Hongkong, and myself. We paired up and each person in the pair took turns cooking. The vegetables were all preped(cut) before we started. We made the curry pastes from scratch. We were each given a small booklet with 10 recipes and we followed those directions to prepare our dishes. Mai was around to answer questions, provide comments, and help with fine tuning. All dishes turned out to be excellent. We at what we cooked and so that took care of lunch as well. The class lasted just over 4 hrs and cost 1200B. I also bought her book for 550B. The location is in Banglamphu. If you google Mai Kaidee Vegetatarian cooking class, her website shows up as the first hit.
Hope that helps. Feel free to ask more questions if you need to. Thanks.
Feb 9th, 2010, 01:00 PM
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Bangkok street vendor eating guide and English/Thai maps:
Saochingcha (most choices):
http://importfood.com/saochingcha_guide.html
Thonglor (upscale):
http://importfood.com/thonglor_guide.html
Or Tor Kor (wet market with tasty food stalls)
http://videos.importfood.com/Or_Tor_Kor_Market.html
Koh Kred Island (artisan food way off the beaten path)
http://videos.importfood.com/koh_kred_island.html
Saochingcha (most choices):
http://importfood.com/saochingcha_guide.html
Thonglor (upscale):
http://importfood.com/thonglor_guide.html
Or Tor Kor (wet market with tasty food stalls)
http://videos.importfood.com/Or_Tor_Kor_Market.html
Koh Kred Island (artisan food way off the beaten path)
http://videos.importfood.com/koh_kred_island.html
Mar 14th, 2011, 05:05 PM
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Hello Cher_Joven
Sorry for the v v late response. In case you still need it, here is a link to Raat's website.
http://www.ratservice.com/index.aspx
Sorry for the v v late response. In case you still need it, here is a link to Raat's website.
http://www.ratservice.com/index.aspx
Mar 14th, 2011, 08:34 PM
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My parents were musing about Rat, yesterday... Dad uses a walker and assumed he would just wait on the dock while Mom toured the floating market. Rat would not her of this and found a couple of wiry men to lift my Dad into the boat so he could enjoy the tour also. She seems determined to show her clients a good time.
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