One Night in Bangkok

After a few hours of sleep on the hostel floor and a glorious shower, we headed out into the streets of Bangkok.

Bangkok is very different than I imagined. I expected a dirtier Kuala Lumpur, but Bangkok surprised me with its size, culture and friendliness.

And sure, it is dirty and smelly, but not as crazy as I thought. I will say it is the hottest place we've visited in Thailand. The heat on the islands was tough, but at least the water is there to cool you off. Here, the concrete and breeze of tuk tuks provide no relief.

We started our day by taking a water taxi to MBK, a massive shopping center/indoor market. We feasted at the amazing international food court (don't get the hummus) and shopped until our delirium forced us to keep moving.

Our next stop was the Wat Traimit Wittayaram (Golden Buddha). We crammed into our first Bangkok tuk tuk and whizzed through the wild traffic. After a bit of communication confusion with our noddy driver, we made it to the beautiful temple.

The best part of this visit was this button hawker who sneakily took our photos walking up the stairs. We assumed it was another creepy guy wanting our photo, but he surprised us with our terrible caught off guard photos on buttons. I regret not buying them because they were pretty hilarious.

Later that evening, we went to dinner at Thip Samai, an amazing nearby noodle restaurant. This bustling place exceeded our expectations and gave us energy to explore Koh San Road.

The nightlife mecca of Koh San Road wasn't as wild as Phuket (or The Hangover 2), but it had its fair share of bars, clubs, street vendors and a variety of bugs on sticks for tourists to eat. I wanted to buy the tarantula for 'I'll eat anything' Ott, but the bugs were a bit out of our baht range.

Rather than squeezing into one of the crowded bars, we chose to sweat outside at a street side bar. Here, we enjoyed some buckets and reminisced about our Asian trip and life in Australia. (Tear)

At one point, some locals sitting nearby offered us a brief Thai lesson followed by a sample from their bag of freshly fried grub worms. We all bravely gave them a try – if you can believe this ex-super taster ate a bug! They weren't as bad as you'd think (tasted like a very salty potato chip), but I didn't have more than one, that's for sure.

The next day we did some market bargaining, had our last lunch together and parted ways – Jess and Brittany back to Australia and myself to Chiang Mai. Thailand's just not the same without my travel sisters! 😦

 

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Latest Food Craze: Broad Beans

When I think of delicious, salty snacks, beans don't come to mind. That was until I discovered these guys.

Broad beans are more commonly known as fava beans, and I'm addicted, to the Thai varieties that is. Maybe it's their similar taste to flavored pretzels that I haven't had in more than a year, or maybe I just stumbled upon a new favorite food, but either way, I can't stop popping into 7/11 for my bean fix.

Fingers crossed I will be able to find my new, blog-worthy broad obsession in the U.S!

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A Brunch to Brag About

Last weekend, I had the best Sunday brunch I’ve had in the longest time and I just have to share. My roommate, Jess, had heard about a restaurant close to our apartment in Darlinghurst that makes the ‘best scrambled eggs in Sydney.’ As someone who eats many-a-egg, the claim to fame got my attention.

I must admit, I reluctantly agreed to go out. It was my first weekend work-free in weeks and the thought of leaving my bed to venture into the windy, rain-ish weather sounded masochistic. But, I’m a sucker for breakfast and before we knew it we were waiting outside Bills, admiring the beautiful cornflower blue building across the street.

The corner cafe was modern, cozy and oh-so-pretentious. We avoided a long wait by agreeing to share a table with two others, which ended up making the experience so much better and got us in before the midday breakfast cutoff (midday, we learned means 12 pm). Jess and I’s dishes took about an hour to come out, but seeing that we weren’t in any rush, we continued drooling over everyone else’s plates as we chatted over coffees with our Australian law student table-mates.

The feast was well worth the wait – Jess chose the full Aussie breakfast and I, the sweetcorn fritters with bacon and avocado salsa.  As roommates do, I tasted the ‘best eggs in Sydney’ off Jess’s plate – they were incredibly smooth, but way too creamy for my palette. After waiting an hour +, anything would’ve tasted amazing, but Bill’s food was something else. I was so pleased with my fritter and could’ve eaten about 10 more sides of the avocado salad. For photos, check out our table-mate Kelly’s food blog about the meal.

The best part about the whole brunch? The fact that it ended up costing us nothing! Our kind waitress gave us the entire breakfast on the house because of the long wait – so nice!

My good fortune continued a few days later at the Post Office. While picking up my Christmas package from home and postage to send some snail mail home to family and friends, the cashier accidentally (or purposely) gave me an extra set of international stamps. At $1.60 a piece – this was a welcome mistake!

It’s amazing how the little things can sometimes make the biggest difference. Now, time to pay it forward. 🙂