Bangkok: Yaowarat

Right after our visit to The Grand Palace, we headed to Yaowarat, a. k. a. Chinatown. We considered various transportation options. Unexpectedly, bus was the one we took. Just because the taxi driver we checked with refused to go by meter and we were afraid that Tuk tuk could not take the capacity of five of us. Furthermore, the price of taking a Tuk Tuk was not much cheaper than a non-metering taxi. Then, we thought of walking over as the map shown a pretty convincing distance via foot. In the end, one of us sought help from a group of school girls passed by for a rough direction. Apparently they understood some simple English, advised us to take bus. When they pointed towards a bus stop, mentioned a bus number, all of our eyes followed her hand direction, the exact bus was stopping there to pick up passengers. Immediately we ran and hopped on... 

A nostalgic bus ride was not in my itinerary, but we enjoyed it. It reminded us of Woh Hup buses during our youth days (oh, I sounded so old), when it was the cheapest public transport to bring us home from school. During this ride, I was trying very hard to look for direction, with the reference of the tourist map in my hand. Unfortunately, I was lost. The map was too brief in indicating all the roads. I do believe we were alighted somewhere near near Ratchawong. Or Mangkon. We then walked and asked the local along the way, it brought us to Yaowarat 23, a place that is packed with all kind of wholesalers. From here, we decided to follow the instinct of our noses to dip down the alley and hunt for food.

It was approximately to 5pm (or 6pm), most of the shops were calling it a day. Interestingly, more eating stalls were moving things around and starting business. And so, every few walking steps, our taste buds are being tantalised by the street food.

I was too busy to sightseeing and photo snapping. Everything is fascinatingly authentic! From vegetables seller to display of passion fruit and its 100% pure juice without any addition preservation or enhancement(above).

My friends decided to stop by this stall to try the bowl of noddle soup. Surprisingly, we got very bad service attitude from the stall owner, which later we found out that it was caused by the bowl of duck noodle we happened to order from the opposite stall. Apparently, all the stalls have their "territories", each of them is supposedly to confine their own patrons within their boundary of tables and chairs. We broke the rules unintentionally. We wanted variety at one time of eating. But it didn't give her the reason to forgave us. Instead of scolding or confronting us, she showed us the very black face of hers and her body language suggested us to leave as soon as possible. And we suspected her charged us extra for a bowl of noodle. Though we don't understand Thai signboard of hers, but the price is there. We remember we pointed at the item at the price of 40 THB (if I remember correctly). So we asked, just to clarify. She used her very limited English to explain unhappily, "That is pork meat (noodle)... this is mixed (with variety of chicken, fish & pork))...". But we pointed at the bowl of her speciality of 40 THB, not 45 THB, my friend was very sure of that.

Alas, we didn't continue our argument further. Kind of waste of time to get back our 5 THB. But we sure learnt the lesson. From the hard way.

Moving on, we tried the local Tom yam (Above). See the big wok of the tomyam soup boiling? That, really caught us to try. It was delectable, totally compensated our unhappiness over the other bowl of soup.

This street stall is pretty similar to a mini restaurant(Above). Unlike restaurant setting, the chef/cook is not hiding in the kitchen to cook for you. He is standing on the street showing off his skills of cooking, whilst patrons are allow to choose the raw food on display, place an order, then get seated and wait for the food to be served.

This little girl amazed me with her quick skilful juice-squeezing. I think she is about same age as my daughter, but she looks mature and independently work at the stall to sell passion fruit juice. I could not ask her to slow down, she didn't understand me.

Slowly moving from Yaowarat 23, we reached vibrant Yaowarat itself. Here, I wish I had a bigger stomach to fill in all the yummy food. Besides those mentioned above, we tried bird's nest soup, Phad Thai, some unknown local finger foods and drink lots of 100% fruit juices.



When we got utterly tired and full with all the yummy in our stomach, we stopped by Double Dogs Tea Room. The tea room is an oasis amid the chaos Yaowarat. We had a wonderful girls time over a pot of tea, just to learn more bout each of us over these years.

We were quite certain that, it was dessert time when we passed by the ice cream stall. The manga and durian ice cream were so, so close to the real fruit that we gulped down happily. However, the coconut favor was so-so. 

Not too far from here, we also got our selves a bowl of glutinous rice ball soup to share, it is the best that I have. The soup was hot and gingery sweet, the rice ball was chewy and with black sesame filling, it put a big smile of my face. None in Malaysia or Singapore I tried as good as this!

My first food trail in Yaowarat, I'll be back to devour more!

Linking up to Essentially Jess for IBOT