Our Thailand getaway

Haven’t written in a long time, sometimes I wished I could post my thoughts in real time. Travails of a lazy woman one would say. Anyhow, this post is to talk less and post more pics of food I had on my recent trip to Thailand. We went to Krabi, Bangkok and Pattaya. Honestly I don’t know why we even went to the last place, after the former two towns, Pattaya seemed to us a fake city with nothing much to offer except the cabaret shows which I must say were impressive. For the rest of it, I would say its like Puri or Digha with sluts. If you stay in the eastern part of the country, you would know what I mean.

Krabi was extremely scenic, and a paradise when it came to seafood. Unlike the rest of Thailand, Krabi is largely muslim dominated and perhaps that is a reason they do not serve pork much, however there is enough beef, chicken and seafood to keep one happy and not miss the pork. One ought not miss a dip in the secluded Railay beach, and a sunset dinner at one of the terrace restaurants along Ao Nang beach. Here are some pictures of what we gorged at Krabi.

Bangkok was a stark contrast in comparison to Krabi. While it was definitely a big city etc, surprisingly getting around and making people understand English was much more of a hassle here. The traffic jams at Sukhumvit made us feel homesick – we made a mental note we would avoid staying in Sukhumvit despite the huge number of hotels and shopping malls there. Our stay at Furama Silom was much more peaceful since the Patpong night market was a slight walk and yet we did not have to put on much of a fight to reach our hotel. Foodwise I would say Thai food is good but on a long trip there was only so much that we could take of it, so one day we outgrew it and wanted change of flavours. Bangkok as we found out offers a whole range of international cuisine with a large number of expats having set base in the city. We had some really good Japanese, Korean and Chinese food in the city. Whoever told me authentic Chinese food is bland and tasteless was so wrong. Our best meal in the trip was in a Chinese restaurant where they served a simple meal of deep fried pork bits stir fried with snow peas in a slight garlicky sauce, served with rice.

While we went on and on with such food, it brought us to our last day in Thailand, and we had decided to spend whatever we had managed to save on the trip by eating a few more leisurely meals. We started with a German breakfast best termed picturesque. With freshly rye bread, cold cuts, cheese, muesli and yoghurt with fresh fruits for the guy, and coffee of course, our breakfast at Bei Otto was far from usual.

While lunch was on the prowl that day since we had quite a bit of last minute shopping to do, we managed to grab a leisurely dinner too, at one of the Japanese restaurants around our hotel in Sukhumvit Soi 20. We did the regulars, sushi and pork rice, and we did the unusual, cow tongue, and salmon wrapped in rice wrapped in nori sheets. Washed it all  down with Sake, and all was right with the world.

To sum it all up and in case someone is looking for recommendations, I would just say try the street food but don’t rely on it blindly. Especially the salads, make sure you have it from a clean stall else you might be in for a surprise the next morning 😉

And do try out the other South East Asian cuisines in their purest form, stuff that is seldom available in India.

If you do not like to be too adventurous and yet try out new stuff, you could always start with the ready to eat stuff at one of the gazillion seven-eleven stores and some family marts across the country. They have very tasty and reasonably prices combo packed meals, frozen yes, but they would gladly heat it for you. And they’re open all night.

For me, the highlights were fresh fruit, seafood and yes, the full bodied coffee. I am so sure am going to visit it once more, and next time I would probably like to spend more time in Chinatown and also visit Chiang Mai which is famous for its culinary workshops and cultural set up.

Reposted as part of KFB’s online event on the occasion of Valentine’s Day