bangkok weekend
My 2018 birthday present was a suprise weeken away, we hadn’t found the time for that weekend so with my 2019 birthday fast approaching we made sure to book a spot in the calendar. I packed excitedly not knowing where I was headed and straight after work on Thursday it was off to the airport. I found out we were off to Bangkok - my first thoughts were woohoo - thai food and thai massage!
The sweet giver of this gift had found me a co-working space to work remotely on Friday and Monday, so we could make the most of every weekend moment - this was a genius move! As soon as work finished on Friday he was waiting outside to whisk me off for drinks at a cute bar and then an epic “4 hands” thai massage, where 2 people massage you at the same time. The ultimate indulgence, it was the perfect way to kick off the weekend.
We love the Netflix show “Somebody feed Phil” and I remembered that on the Bangkok episode there was a dessert that was so amazing-looking that I had added that restaurant to my bucket list. So we decided to head there for dinner that night. A stunning old villa with jungle-y gardens and colourful interior, the restaurant itself was delightful before we even started eating. We ordered the tasting menu, as you can see from the photos it was a ton of food. Like ridiculous levels. But neither of us know when to stop so we ate all of it. We had already asked for a different desert than the usual tasting menu as I really wanted the Mango Sticky Rice one, so this was all fine and sorted and we were going to share (perfect as we were stuffed full).
We were chatting to the waiter and telling him the reason we were there and he said “oh yea Phil had the broken bucket dessert - I’ll bring you one”. We were slightly confused and unsure if we had understood correctly, when a few mins later all was made clear when he arrived back at our table. First he served the mango sticky rice desert: it looks like a whole mango at first, but he cracked it open to reveal the actual mango is on the inside, with coconut, on top of the rice - a lovely bit of theatre. And then the grand finale - the “broken bucket” - before our eyes it was laid out on a giant leaf, 2 flavors of sorbet carefully arranged in alternating spoonfulls around the edgee, coconut shavings spread between them, coconut sauce drizzled in the center, then out came the dry ice, applied to a chocolate sphere then dramatically dropped onto the center of the banana leaf where it cracked open to reveal broken pieces of sponge fingers sandwhiched with cream in the middle. It was pure joy and insanely delicious but huge and did I mention we were already full. Holy heck what an evening. I will definitley eat there again (Issaya Siamese Club) but maybe order a little less next time!
As insane as this sounds after that story, we were booked in for a street food tour on Saturday, starting just before lunch, we managed to resist eating breakfast (thankfully) so arrived hungry and raring to go. We were with a lovely bunch of people from all round the globe and two local guides. The tour covered a lot of ground geographically with a boat ride, a bus ride and a lot of walking in between. I can’t even begin to attempt to list off all the things we ate but, in total contrast to the previous evening, nothing was fancy, all was from small simple places eaten off plastic plates, the sort of places you would too often walk past as you weren’t quite sure what they were selling. We had some excellent meat, multiple versions of noodles and rice in various forms, soups full of flavor, sauces galore, teas and coffees and cold drinks and deserts and fruit and candy. Then oh my gosh I don’t know how but we rolled ourselves back to our hotel to recover by the pool, it was like christmas afternoon doubled.
We eventually dragged ourselves upright and headed for the Train Night Market, a really fun vibe with tons of street food stalls, bars and markety type stuff on offer, it seemed like it was just getting going later in the evening, as we were lamely too tired and heading home to sleep.
Sunday morning we headed out to the hugest market I have ever seen. Selling pretty much everything you can think of, Chatuchak market has ~15,000 stalls across 35 acres. Unforunately (but probably not too surprisingly) the previous days festivities had left one of us with a very uncomfortable stomach, and not really up to walking around hot markets. We roamed the side streets outside the market looking for an air conditioned cafe to get some caffeine in and try gain some strength before hitting the market. We found a spot, chilled there for a while and this seemed to be somewhat successful so we headed back to the market to try again. It was really uncomfortably hot so we decided to break up the heat of midday with a foot massage, before attempting further market-strolling. Hitting the markets after the heat of the day was off made a big difference and I managed to drag him around for a wee bit. I loved the market, it had so many awesomely unique and creative things (as well as all the usual suspects). We really enjoyed the art section and were SO close to buying a ridiculous piece of art that we both fell for, but managed to restrain ourselves somehow.
We eventually headed home for a quiet evening before work on Monday, and flying home after work that night. Bestest surprise birthday weekend ever (better 11-months-late than never right) ;)
