Category: 2023-01 Hanoi to Singapore

We returned to Bangkok via another overnight sleeper train, which rather inconveniently deposited us a couple hours late in the middle of Bangkok’s morning rush hour. Still, we decided to take our chances with the metro, but had to watch one train come and go with only a few people managing to get on each carriage, before the holy grail of an empty train pulled up, much to our disbelief. Despite this, it wasn’t long before the carriage was packed out again, and I really felt for Sara who wasn’t feeling quite the ticket after a rough night on the train.

This time we were staying in Sukhumvit, a high-rise district famous for its international hotels, shopping malls, bars and restaurants. The main roads were wide, loud and often in the shadows of the SkyTrain overhead. On top of this, the streets were busy with people from all over the world, giving the area a very different feel to our first stay in Bangkok’s Chinatown.

After Sara had spent a full 24 hours in bed recovering from her mystery train illness, she was ready to venture out to Benjakitti Park, a huge natural area which used to house parts of the Tobacco Authority of Thailand. As often seems to happen, we hit the park in the heat of the day, which felt borderline oppressive. In fact, we didn’t get far at all before we slumped onto a shady bench for a rest and refreshment, and waited for the temperature to cool slightly. We enjoyed traversing the park via a number of raised walkways, which took us over a large area of wetlands with the high rise of the city visible at every turn.

The next day, we visited the Jim Thompson House, a museum dedicated to an American man who had emigrated to Thailand after the Second World War. Thompson seemed to have had quite the privileged upbringing, and at various points pursued careers as an architect, costume designer and Lieutenant Colonel in the Office for Strategic Services (the forerunner to the CIA) during the war. It was this last role that had brought him to Thailand, where he became enchanted by the silk weavers of Bangkok. After the war, he bought a number of traditional teak houses on stilts and had them moved to a plot of land just across the canal from the silk weavers, where he joined them together to form his own design.

He went on to found a hugely successful international silk business, which exported fabric to high-profile designers in Europe and the USA. However, it all came to an abrupt end when Thompson vanished while visiting a friend on vacation to Malaysia in 1967, at the age of 61. To this day, Thompson’s disappearance remains a mystery, with theories ranging from getting lost in the forest to being kidnapped by enemies of the CIA. Seven years after his disappearance, Thompson was assumed dead, and his house preserved as a museum by a trust set up by his family. The house itself was beautiful, and we found Thomson’s life fascinating, if a little sad.

We rounded off our second visit to Bangkok with a trip to the city’s highest rooftop, which sits proudly atop the King Power Mahanakhon. We weren’t allowed to bring food or drink up to the rooftop so we diligently placed our snacks into a locker, once again completely forgetting about our penknife and picnic cutlery set. The security team were a lot more forgiving than the surly chap at Yerevan Airport, and they promised to return the items after our visit to the rooftop. This is now the fourth time they’ve nearly been confiscated on this trip, but they live to fight another day!

With security screening behind us, the panoramic views from the rooftop were spectacular, and it finally gave us a bit of perspective on the size of Bangkok. From here, Bangkok looked way larger than I had imagined, and I couldn’t quite believe it had taken us this long to find a reason to visit. The rooftop turned out to be another popular sunset spot, but we managed to nab ourselves some space on the front row of the top floor moments before the the sun dipped below the skyscrapers.

Just before taking the lift back down, we spotted the “skywalk”, which allows visitors to walk over a glass floor protruding from the building. Sara was already feeling a little queasy just standing on the rooftop proper, so figured what difference was a glass floor going to make? In reality I’m not sure she looked down at all, but it did make for a great photo opportunity.

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Having enjoyed the comforts of city life for a few days, we decided to squeeze in a short trip to Kanchanaburi. Today, this town lies close to the end of the railway line west of Bangkok, although during the Second World War it sat on the infamous Death Railway connecting Thailand and Burma.

Every year from late February, some farmers in Southeast Asia use the ‘slash and burn’ method of farming to clear their land and get it ready for planting. The smoke that this creates does terrible things for the air quality in some areas, particularly the valleys of Northern Thailand, and we’d read that the whole region was best avoided until the first rains around June. We needed to pass through on our way south, so planned to do so as quickly as possible with only two things on the agenda: go to the White Temple in Chiang Rai and try Khao Soi, one of Northern Thailand’s most iconic dishes.

Chiang Rai

We crossed from Laos into Thailand bright and early as the border opened, then took a minibus to Chiang Rai, making a beeline for Wat Rong Khun, better known as the White Temple. On the face of it, this is a normal (well, very beautiful) whitewashed temple, covered in shards of mirror that glitter in the light.

But the closer we looked, the stranger things became. For starters, to enter the temple, we had to cross a bridge over a pool of hands reaching up from the depths, which represent unrestrained desire. This is surrounded by a wall of interlinked skeletons, skulls, and more hands, which was really quite creepy.

When we got inside, things got really quite strange. As well as the usual Buddha image and spaces for prayer and reflection, the interior walls were adorned with murals ranging from Hello Kitty and Elvis, to Star Wars, the Matrix and the Twin Towers. No photos are allowed inside, but I managed to sneak one – this is just one very small part of a highly confusing whole.

The project is the brainchild of Chalermchai Kositpipat, a local artist, who is building his creation on the site of an existing temple which had been in a poor state of repair. Apparently he plans for the building work to continue until 2070 and believes that his involvement will grant him immortal life!

⏰ Khao Soi o’Clock

After an early start, we were more than ready for our late lunch, and what a lunch it was! Khao Soi is normally described as yellow noodles in a coconut curry broth, and if I’m honest, I thought it sounded a bit generic and unlikely to be a stand out dish. We headed to Khao Soi Phor Jai and I got totally schooled on my preconceptions – it was utterly delicious. We resolved to try as many versions as we could while we were in the region (and created our very own scoring system while we were at it).

Broth: Combining the perfect spice level (i.e. pretty spicy) with intense coconut, lime and curry flavours, and yet not overpoweringly rich. How did they do it?! A masterpiece. 5/5
Noodles: Yellow as advertised. 4/5
Chicken: Chunks of chicken breast, no complaints. 4/5
Topping: The deep-fried noodles were perched up out of reach of the broth, meaning they remained crunchy for longer. Ingenious. 5/5
Price: 40 baht for a smallish bowl (approximately £1)

Chiang Mai

We woke up to unseasonal pouring rain, which was a bit of a surprise, but it did mean that the haze cleared gradually during our three-hour bus to Chiang Mai. We couldn’t believe our luck – as far as we understand, blue skies and being able to spend time comfortably outside is pretty much unheard of this time of year.

⏰ Khao Soi o’Clock (again)

Our first stop was of course lunch – in fact, we were so keen that we bailed off early from the Songthaew that was taking us from the bus station to the city centre because we realised we were passing close to a reknowned Khao Soi joint on Halal Street in the Islamic quarter.

Broth: The earthiest of the three we tried, with definite leanings towards an Indian curry flavour. 4/5
Noodles: 4/5
Chicken: An absolute stand out – anyone who can make chicken breast this succulent and melt-in-the-mouth has my utmost respect! It had its own delicious flavour distinct from the broth, too. 5/5
Topping: Tasty but soggy 😞 3/5
Price: 60 baht for a smallish bowl (approximately £1.50)

DIY food tour

We spent the afternoon exploring some of Chiang Mai’s old town before tackling the important issue of dinner. For this, we wrote a list of foods we wanted to try and got going on a DIY night market food tour. And by this, I don’t mean that we toured multiple stalls in one night market to find our dinner, but actually that we toured multiple night markets! We are nothing if not dedicated…

Our first stop was to try Sai ua, often known as Chiang Mai sausage. Much like the utterly delicious Lao version of the previous week, this was a highly seasoned sausage of pork, galangal, chilli, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. It packed a punch and was the perfect starter!

Our second stop was for Kôw kăh mŏo at the famous stall of ‘Cowboy Hat Lady’ – we’d read that you couldn’t miss her, and it was true! Once we’d navigated the baffling ordering process, she was serving up slow cooked pork leg over rice, with a boiled egg and pickled greens. It might not look like much, but it was really tasty – and we always enjoy discovering dishes that subvert our ideas about a country’s cuisine.

Our final stop was for pudding, and we just had to go for the Thai street food classic of mango sticky rice – glutinous rice mixed with coconut milk and palm sugar, topped with freshly sliced mango, yellow mung beans and more coconut milk. Neither of us had ever tried this before, mostly because we’d only seen it for sale in quite touristy spots and that had been enough to put us off on the authenticity front. But we didn’t want to leave Thailand without giving it a go, and once we’d tried it we both decided that we didn’t really care whether it was a traditional dish (it is), because it was SO delicious!

That concluded our DIY food tour for the evening as we were both stuffed, so we rolled on home to bed.

⏰ Khao Soi o’Clock (yet again)

We had just enough room for one final Khao Soi the following lunchtime, so we cycled out of the city to Khao Soi Samerjai, another highly rated local joint.

Broth: The spiciest of the three we tried, but still super coconutty. 4/5
Noodles: I think these ones were home made, so bonus points here. 5/5
Chicken: I’ll just say that eating chicken on the bone using chopsticks over a big bowl of broth didn’t end that well for either of our t-shirts. 3/5
Topping: Mostly crispy. 4/5
Price: 70 baht for a large bowl (approximately £1.75)

🏆 So the winner is… Khao Soi Phor Jai (in Chiang Rai). Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence that we preferred the first one we tried – it was a bit of a revelation. But more importantly, we met our goal of eating so much Khao Soi that we’re now thoroughly sick of it and will happily wait until we next go to Northern Thailand to eat it again – result!

After this culinary extravaganza, it was time to hop onto a sleeper train to take us south to Bangkok (again).