Sawasdee ka from Bangkok!
It is truly blowing my mind that I am a week away from having already been in Bangkok for 4 months, it’s surreal how fast time has been going. My previous blog, having been here just over a month, was at a point where the light started shining after a bit of a rough period of settling in, but at this point I think I can say with confidence that I am much more settled and the light has been shining much brighter.
Since my last post I have had my partner visit, my wonderful friends interning at MSRI visit, I myself went to visit the MSRI gals in Kuala Lumpur, and now my best friend from home is visiting too! I have gotten to explore a bit outside of Bangkok, share what I love about this city with people, and see new parts of the city I hadn’t yet known about.
There’s something really special, I’ve been finding, about having someone come visit and being able to show them what you love about a city. It makes me think more deeply and reflect on what it is about the city that I love, what are the places that have become special to me, what part of this city do I think would be important to capture for someone in the short amount of time they are here. So far I’ve noticed four main places I love trying to bring people.
- P’Ning’s restaurant
I have been going to P’Nings almost every work day for 4 months now. P’Ning is a lovely woman who runs a restaurant near my office, who also happens to be the aunt of one of my coworkers, so it is a staple daily stop for most of the office staff. She not only is a fantastic cook, but with her regulars it seems that she tries to make connections with them and know them a bit. Off the bat, she made sure she knew how to pronounce my name, she knows not to make food too spicy for me, and after being told about my soy allergy only one time she makes sure to always make my food safe for me, even when I unknowingly order something with soy in it. She doesn’t judge those of us who are trying our best to place our orders in deeply broken Thai, and will even sometimes help us with pronunciation.
She is more than just the owner of my favourite restaurants, she is one of the reasons that the restaurant is my favourite. I have brought multiple people here, all of whom agree I’m not overhyping this restaurant. One of my favourites from her is the pad kaprao gai kai jiaw (stirfried chicken basil rice and fried omelet), phet nit noi of course (little bit spicy), but she already knows that!
this in my last blog too but it’s so good
it deserves the spotlight again
- ร้านตามใจเชฟ (Chef’s Choice Restaurant)
This is a lovely little restaurant near my apartment. When I first got here, it was where I ordered my first Thai meal, and the first meal I ordered by speaking Thai too (khao pad gai/chicken fried rice)! It quickly became a source of comfort food when I was still terrified of my surroundings in this new city. The fried rice reminded me of when I spent three months in Laos and practically lived off fried rice almost every day, and it felt like one of the first sparks of thinking ‘ok yes, I can actually do this’. Since then I still go there quite frequently on my way home from work or on the weekends. I have barely ever spoken to the staff other than ordering my food but I still always feel like there is a friendly energy beyond just regular customer service that I always really appreciate, even just with the waves we share when I walk by or see them heading home at night. It’s been a staple spot for me throughout the weeks I’ve been here and it kind of feels a bit like I’m bringing people into a part of my home when I get to share it with them.
- Volks Silom: Bagel and Espresso Bar
This is a very cute little cafe a couple blocks off the main Si Lom strip. It’s small with very little seating, and a bit pricier than I generally go for, but it’s a special treat I always look forward to getting when people are visiting. I was first shown this spot by a fellow intern, Camille, and immediately I knew it was somewhere special I wanted to return to. The Adventures of Tintin posters on the walls, the chill atmosphere, and the super sweet staff compliment the food and drinks wonderfully. It feels like a little bit of home, and while there is always great Thai food to try, sometimes it’s nice to just have a comforting bagel sandwich (the sausage and egg one is my fav).
- Lumpini and/or Benjakiti park(s)
I swear the restaurants aren’t the only thing I love about this city! Within a giant metropolitan city with countless malls, downtown skyscrapers, and pretty constant traffic, there are two parks that I have come to really appreciate in Bangkok. Just across from the main Si Lom strip is one of the corners of Lumpini park, a giant park with wonderful ponds, greenery, playgrounds, running paths, and of course my friends the Asian water monitor lizards. If you go around 5 or 6 in the evening, you may find a seemingly endless crowd of people doing aerobic dancing near one of the entrances. It’s a hot spot in the city for runners, cyclists, people working out at the outdoor gyms, people lounging by the ponds, and so much more. At one of the other corners of this park is the Green Bridge that connects Lumpini park to Benjakiti park.
When I first got here and hadn’t yet been to Benjakiti park, I thought Lumpini was the oasis of plants, flowers, trees, and greenery within the city. Then I went to Benjakitti and was honestly blown away. Benjakiti park is comprised of a wonderful oval pond with a walking path around it, and offshoots into a lush park with grassy areas to sit, have picnics, read, or just lounge, and an incredible system of bridge walkways above the waterways and through the trees, part of which you can walk through to the Benjakiti side of the Green Bridge. The Green Bridge itself goes through city blocks and above main streets, connecting two beautiful parks by a path loaded with flower beds.
Every time people visit my I try to get us over the bridge from Lumpini to Benjakiti, but either the rain, exhaustion, or loaded schedule have foiled that every time and limited us to only seeing Lumpini. One of these days I am determined to take someone to Benjakiti and share the beauty of that park!
Honourable mention: Cha Arma
This is a super yummy little drink stand near the Charan 13 train station that I stop at sometimes on my way to work. The woman who runs this stand is so incredibly sweet. She knows my order so I rarely even actually order and she knows not to put the extra sugar in it (as much as I love Thai coffee, holy moly they sometimes put so much sugar!!!). One day after I had been going there for awhile she asked me in her limited English if I was a student and I tried to simply explain I’m here for work from Canada, and I put a little note into google translate for her about how I’m going to be here for awhile and will be coming to see her lots until then! It was such a special interaction of two people who don’t speak the same language still trying to make a connection. Anytime people come meet me at the office I recommend that if they are coming from that side to stop at this stand and see for themselves.
Of course there is so much more I enjoy sharing with people when they visit – the malls, the trains, the night markets, and more – but these are some of the places that I have come to really love and have become important to me and my time in Bangkok.
