City of Angels? More Like City of Pork!

ben handing over huge sums of cash
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It seems like such a long time ago now that we were in bangkok even though its only been about two weeks, during which i have been unable to update my blog due to a combination of totally crap and disgustingly expensive internet cafes in Laos!

As always with us there was no rushing and we spent a lovely two weeks enjoying the delights of city living.  Bangkok is just as wonderfully fabulous as ever and to my delight ben fell in love with it too but then after years of his dad and me telling him how great the place is he didnt have much choice!

eating was pretty much all we did in bangkok

ben bbq-ing and making soup in BBQ Plaza
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It was just so wonderful to be back as i've been looking forward to it so much for the last 5 months and it didnt dissappoint at all, the thai people are still lovely, there's delicious food everywhere (oh my god roti's are better than ever!) and bangkok still has the same crazy frantic vibe that i love

Im sure it must be because we came from Delhi but it also just seems so much cleaner than before, they have people who actually pick up rubbish in this country, signs saying no spitting, taxis with aircon and a noticable lack of beggars and people living on the streets and under the motorways

Enjoying bbq catfush at a street stall (thats its head he's holding!)
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I'm hoping this is because they are doing something to rehouse them rather than just moving them on as they make the place look messy but the Bangkok Post (english newspaper) is so badly censored at the moment i certainly won't be able to find out

The newspaper censorship by the way is the only evidience i saw of the recent coup - apart from that i would never have known

Even though we were there for two weeks and managed to spend a months worth of money we didnt exactly do the normal sightseeing! We failed to see the grand palace and the reclining buddha and the markets and all that jazz

The roof of Hi-Tech at sunset
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Instead we spent most of our time wandering around airconditioned malls where ben managed to spend obscene amounts of money on a new camera lense, watching films, drinking starbucks and most importantly eating!

Our guest house (thank you tim and traci!) is in the most fabulous spot just over the road from a street stall serving my favourite dish cow pat moo glob (fried rice with crispy pork) and then down the road is a 7/11 for cheap water and drinks and opposite that is a whole host of food stalls selling cow knee-ow (sticky rice), bla duck (bbq catfish) and moo daeng (bbq pork)

Ben's first sushi experience in MBK, i think his favourite thing was the fact the food was on little boats!
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I introduced ben to cow moo daeng - rice served with bbq pork, crispy pork and sweet pork sausage covered with a sweet soy sauce and accompanied with a light soup, he's now an addict!

We probably ate more pork in two weeks than most people have in a year but my god it was good!

In MBK (the cheapest of the shopping malls) we found a wonderful restaurant that serves roast duck mmmm mmmm mmmm, ben tried sushi for the first and second times, we ate at a japanese restaurant where you grill your own meat on a little bbq at your table and then another korean one where you grill meat on a dome and the juice drips into a little moat full of water you can add veg and noodles to make a soup! (BBQ Plaza if you remember it Mum, Dad and Kate!)

A Reticulated Python - longest snake in the world (not that actual one though)
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We all know i could talk about food all day and eating was pretty much all we did in bangkok and when we weren't eating we were thinking about which restaurant to try next and wishing we were hungrier!

The cinema was a fantastic experience, we went to the normal cinema in MBK to see The Departed (started badly got worse then became one of the best films ive ever seen and then just before the end turned into complete crap!) and thenwe discovered Siam Paragon - a new shopping centre with Ocean World in the basement! then the most amazing food court in the world, four floors of shops including Jimmy Choos, Bang & Olafsen, Gucci and Porshe and a 20 screen cinema at the top

Two guys goading cobras!
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The first film The Ant Bully we saw at the Imax which is a 3D cinema and that was lots of fun but the second two we saw in the Nokia Ultra Screen Cinema - there were 32 seats in twos with lots of space in between, tickets cost 500 baht (7 squid) and this includes a free shoulder massage while you wait for film in the luxury arabian nights style lounge, free soft drinks and free pastries before and during the film, when the films ready to start you are shown to your seats and handed a pillow and a blanket and shownhow to work the leather electric recliners that were more comfortable than our bed! pure luxury and worth every baht!

The peppy compare and one of the snake handlers foisting an apparently non-poisionous snake at me!
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Obviously i couldnt go back to bangkok without dragging ben to where me and kate used to live so we took a trip to Hi Tech tower, ate at the restaurant on the roof and watched the sunset from the "helipad",  took the crappy 3 baht bus (which is now 6 baht!!!) and walked along the side of the stinking klong avoiding being splashed as the boats whooshed along - it was very strange to be back there as it all looked the same just different people

and of course we visited Khao San road which still has the same atmosphere as it did three years ago but my god it was clean!!! and it had proper pavements and the bars had clean toilets and the cocktail van had proper seating and it was all a bit upmarket which is something i never thought i'd be able to say about Khao San!

Me amongst the debris in our room after we bought cheese, crackers and sticky rice with mango
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also and very importantly i introduced ben to the wonders of sang som (thai whisky) mixed with red bull and coke served in a bucket, we were playing cards - black five - and ben played the 2 of spades on the 10 of hearts which i cant see being an acceptable move in any card game, then picked up which you don't do and all of this when it was actually my go! I think he's happier with beer!

we did manage to do one touristy thing on our last day before we headed north to Laos and we visited the snake farm where they keep at least one of all the poisionous snakes in thailand in order to produce anti venom - it was just a lacking in safety standards as before and we had a great time sitting a foot away from cobras and pythons that were being goaded with wellies! It's a fantastic place to go as they let you get soooooo close to the snakes and they show the snake handlers who've lost fingers from being bitten!

Khao San Road
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but unfortuantely we had to go as we were spending way to much money and we had to leave the country before our visa ran out! so it's off to Laos for a couple of weeks which i'm really looking forward to but as always i'll be looking forward to getting back to bangkok

xx