Turn left on the street with no name.
We were tired. Our circadian rhythm was way off, and we had not recovered. Taking some advice from my man Shane Reustle (@reustle), we decided to visit a mall called Siam Paragon in the Siam district. Personally, I hate malls and avoid them as much as possible, but I LOVE SHANE and when he says a place is good, it’s good. Besides all that, we were desperate for an easy day of recovery, and I simply refuse to recover inside of an apartment when there’s a world out there to see.
Before we dive into the good stuff, I have to say this first: True to my word after writing the “Good morning, Thailand.” post, we left the apartment and decided to go to the markets, which are pretty famous in Bangkok. We were met with the smell of rotting garbage and burning plastic. The stench was so foul, we ran back to the apartment and frankly, considered leaving the city. It was stunningly bad. The smell got into my beard and I kid you not, I nearly shaved it off. I’m still trying to pretend the first day didn’t happen. Went back to the same market today because I apparently have amnesia or some kind of self-loathing complex and happy days, the smell was gone.
So! We went to the Siam Paragon mall. On the way, I finally got to try some street food and it lives up to the hype. Pork satay, fresh squeezed spiced orange juice, meat balls with bad ass hot sauce… They had it all. Anthony Bourdain can kiss my ass. I’m living his show, baby! We eat, but reserve some room for what I’m told are excellent restaurants inside the mall. Well, let me just tell you something here folks, the food inside this mall was absolutely amazing. Maybe it was just our hunger from hardly eating the first day, or the beautiful presentation of the food, or just the kind, warm smiles from all the Thai people, but the restaurant we ate at was simply incredible.
We walked around the mall for a little while like kids in a candy store, and found our way into the grocery store inside the mall. About 20 meters into the store (I’m on metric now, get over it), I tell Erica that we might have to move to Bangkok. The store was huge, and had a selection of meat that cannot be matched by any butcher that I’m aware of in Arkansas or Spain.
Later that night, we decided to head to a restaurant for dinner because again, we’re exhausted, and Erica gets us directions using Google Maps. We’re almost there, maybe a block or two away, and she says “Turn left on the street with no name.” Being the amazing husband I am, I follow her directions to a T. Note, that my daughter is gleefully riding on my shoulders at this moment. As we walk up the street, it becomes quite clear that there are prostitutes, and I mean everywhere. My family and I were surrounded by prostitutes. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty awesome, but this is not a cool place for my family to be. My wife started giving every woman even coming close to me a look that I wouldn’t wish on a broke-dick dog. I looked at the maps and realized it was one more unnamed street over, and we got out of there fast. Trying to ignore the multiple dildo stands in between us and the restaurant my wife had chosen, we finally arrive at our destination. The food was good, but the pitcher of Sangria was better.
On our way back, I got to have a Lao beer at the coolest bar I’ve ever been to, called “Cheap Charlie’s Bar.” If I lived in Bangkok, I would definitely be a regular at this place. Can’t wait to go back.
The following are photos/videos I took over the last couple of days. Enjoy!
Originally published at Wonderlust.
