Bangkok food adventures

At about 11.30am I walked to a famous Tom Yum stall in a food market (pictured). It was so hot, even compared to Penang. No one at the stall spoke any English and my very basic Thai was even rustier than before, but I managed to order. I was sweating so much while eating (due to the weather and the spicy soup) that a Thai man sat opposite me asked if I needed a cold drink and then ordered it for me. The soup was worth the suffering though.

I got in an Uber, partly for the A/C, and went in to the centre for a bit of shopping. Later I went to an interesting restaurant called Soei which is praised by the food blogger Mark Wiens (whose videos I use a lot in Asia). It's his favourite restaurant in Bangkok and he's clearly a regular. There's even a photo of him with the head chef inside the menu. The large open restaurant is set right next to a train station and the onlooking passengers from the passing trains add to the atmosphere. I had a tasty crab curry.

In the evening I ventured to Chinatown. I ordered the taxi from my room and walked down when it arrived. The only problem was that I had no idea it was raining. The first stop was a tiny street stall selling mussels and blood cockles (see extra photo). Due to the rain, most of the seating area wasn't available so I had to queue under the cover of a shop opposite. Each order of shellfish was cooked individually by one man, so the process wasn't exactly quick but I was still full up from my second lunch!

At the end of the street there are two massive seafood restaurants opposite each other, both equally famous and constantly busy. I had a few massive shrimps from the barbecue. Then just around the corner was a dessert stall which is very popular with young people. As you can see from the extra photo, even during the rain, it was heaving with people. Essentially they serve toasted bread with various fillings. The ordering system is confusing and involves writing your order in Thai on a piece of paper. I asked a member of staff for assistance and he gave me my order instantly, bypassing at least 20 people. I felt guilty but I got over it! I had one chocolate, one peanut butter and one coconut custard. Yum!