THE TWO SHOPS AT NARADHIWAT

The dining options have significantly narrowed down to three choices ever since Oxfam kept Chatrium Sathon as its official hotel in Bangkok: Charlie Brown's which is the nearest to the hotel, or either the Ter Sap Woey Shop or Chiagkhong which are a 280-meter walk to the Naradhiwat Rajanagarindra Road.

The Ter Sap Woey Shop has always been the first option and Charlie Brown's the last, but the "cleaner" and snug atmosphere of Chiangkhong has been drawing us recently specially when we found out that its price is comparable to that of Ter Sap Woey Shop and its food is in fact more appetizing.

So it was at Chiangkong where I opted to welcome with my Line Manager my second straight week in Bangkok, dining on crunchy Morning Glory (aka ginisang kangkong), the nearly perfect omelette and a really great dish of spicy stir-fried pork as we caught up on the preparations for and possible scenarios from our ASEAN Influencing Workshop. 

I like Chiangkhong so much that since I'm calling the shots for the reception dinner, I took the team there for a spread of sun dried pork which turned out dry, surprisingly juicy fish cakes, that Morning Glory, stir-fried chicken with cashew that Art said is as Thai as him, and a superbly steamed sea bass althought the fish is not actually sea bass, all selected by me under the guidance of the head waiter who smelled of Rexona deodrant, and who was finally able to distinguish between brandy and whiskey.     

Overall, we had a good workshop and started celebrating that with what was left from the reception dinner's bottle of Thai whiskey as we went through debriefing after which we decided to make "hugas" at the Ter Sap Woey Shop for a change where a solemn Madam Proprietor informed us that selling alcohol is not allowed on Chulalongkorn Day.

I was so "bitin" which was somewhate assuaged by a perfecty grilled Ruby Fish [glamorized tilapia] and a few minutes later, the Mekong Ladies who were not able to get into the free shuttle to Asiatique showed up and vent their frustration on a rather large snakehead fish [dalag]. 

And that was Chiangkhong and Ter Sap Woey Shop along Naradhiwat, our regular source of sustenance in the boring neigborhood of the Chatrium which is actually a good hotel specially after I finally got introduced to its well-equipped gym where I heaved and boxed in the nine mornings of October that I stayed there.     

I finally went home after 11 hellish days in Bangkok right into a birthday party in Bakal 2, a day before Bulan arrived from Iloilo, and three days before Sunday where we fulfilled our duties to the Craft. 

WEEKEND IN SUKHUMVIT

Sukhumvit is Bangkok's entertainment area and got its name from Sukhumvit Road that cuts through it which in turn was named in memory of Phra Bisal Sukhumvit who served as Thailand's chief of the Department of Highways who probably oversaw the the cobstruction of the road which actually strenches 488 kilometers from Bangkok to the Thai-Cambodian border.

But more than the "naughty" entertainment and the swanky malls, Sukhumvit also hosts a number of iconic homegrown restaurants that are popular with the local population and largely undiscovered by tourists.

And perhaps an introduction to Sukhumvit's food culture is the spread that Bon and Dinah ordered for us at the Apoteka Cocktail Bar in Sukhumvit's Soi 11, western but cooked in Sukhumvit, as I and Cathy celebrated the conclusion of the GRAISEA 2 Inception Workshop with Lao Beer.   

I opted to move to Sukhumvit for the weekend rather than fly home to Manila on Saturday then back to Bangkok on Monday, and checked in at the Red Planet Hotel right across the Asoke BTS Station.

My purpose is to discover the "must-try authentic local food in Bangkok you'll never find out if you don't have Thai friends", alone and without my Thai friends, through the "Elevated Train in Commemoration of HM the King's 6th Cycle Birthday First Line" otherwise known as the Sukhumvit (Green) Line.

First stop was the Ari BTS Station which is 290 meters away from Thani Khao Mudaeng for what is allegedly the best Moo Grob (crispy pork belly) in Bangkok which did not disappoint although I have to order another plate of the crispy but tender meat since the first one was overwhelmed by the sweet sauce and the slice of Chinese sausage that came with it and at 120 baht, it was almost spectacular. 

An Ondoy-like downpour threathened to abort my food trip so I bought a ticket to the Mo Chit BTS Station where I waited out the rain exploring the food stalls of the Chatuchak Market, having a 30-minute shoulder massage and buying bargain socks for the wife before taking the ride to the Phloen Chit BTS Station where I walked 220 meters through a soft evening rain to the Talat Na Soi 1 food village to sample its seafood stalls.

I was led to a table and struggled a bit on the menu being half full of Moo Grob and almost wet before deciding on Thai noodle soup with fish balls which turned out to be a comforting bowl of al dente rice noodles, delicate fish balls, and flavor-packed soup that is sublime and will be difficult to forget

That was my Saturday afternoon after revising a Theory of Change for hopefully the final time. 

My Sunday started with a brisk 1.8 kilometer walk to the fabled Rung Reung Prok Noodle Shop which is a short 300 meters from the Phrom Phong BTS Station into Soi 26 where two adjacent competing shops were carved by a sibling feud from what was once a single family owned business.

The must-have is the tom yum pork noodles and that I did, starting with a bowl of rice noodles with ground and sliced pork, slivers of heart and liver, fish balls. and a flavorful broth hinting of pepper, and finishing with the same but without the soup in Shop #2 for a really unforgettable gastronomic experience, noting that what defined both are their al dente and chewy noodles. 

That certainly got me going in preparing for my next workshop on influencing the ASEAN after which I looked forward to my final food train ride to the remnants of Soi 38's food strip which is a 500 meter walk from the Thong Lo BTS Station.

But there is lunch to reckon with first and that I had at Korea Town as recommended by Google which is a 500-meter walk from my hotel and 230 meters from the Asoke BTS Station, at Myeong Dong where I splurged on samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) for 290 baht and had my first ever Korean beer for another 190 baht after which Oskar skyped an invitation to dinner in what he said is an amazing pizza join in the Asoke area.

So there goes Soi 38 which will have to wait until next week since the themed restaurants of Terminal 21 on the other side of the Asoke BTS Station are worth exploring too, and the bread at Pizza Plaza Romana was indeed great, with the two merthiolate-tinted cocktails that went with it getting me going on private sector engagement.   

My weekend in Sukhumvit is a transition from 5 intense days of integrating our work in GRAISEA 2 to two days of what can be an equally intense discussion on a common approach in engaging the ASEAN, with the former ushering me back to the familiar haunts of Charlie Brown, Ter Sab Woey Shop (the "dirty" place) and Chiangkong (the "clean" place) which have been and currently are our only dinner options within the Chatrium Sathon area.

And it was certainly a pleasure to meet the faces behind the skype voices and emails of GRAISEA 2, and to finally have a chance to rev up my upper body muscles in the well-equipped hotel gym that my therapist said will help keep myofascial pain syndrome at bay.

HELL WEEK

Four regional partners and two country teams (actually four including the Outcome 3.1 section of Cambodia and Vietnam).

Which translates to long hours of online reviews, almost daily consecutive Skype calls, and pages of emails.
  
Two influencing strategy papers, two session outlines, two workshops in two weeks.

Still I persisted until suddenly and unexpectedly, one regional partner got hanged which blew a big hole into our Result 3 operational plan while I chased participants of Workshop 2 for hotel bookings.

Hell on earth was after my soul so I escaped to the trails every morning to resurrect my brain cells who were committing mass suicide, and accumulated 188.6  biking kilometers (48.5 on Monday, 36 on Tuesday, 32 on Wednesday, 43.2 on Thursday, 28.9 on Friday) that saved me from damnation.
    

Friday came as my faculties slipped on the verge of insanity and thank God it did.

I slammed down everything at 3 pm in afternoon when I was about to tear apart my laptop, trekked through sugarcane fields to the Plaza Luisita Complex in Tarlac where I indulged myself a bottle of Glenffidich Single Malt Scotch Whiskey and gorged on roasted animals.

And then it was Sunday and I was on my way to hell itself.

PINILIT AT PUTOL-PUTOL NA HAIKU

fast food for fast days

snail and fish, beer, whiskey

fast pace for hard days

HAI[na]KU 24 & 25

hamog at putik

kalsada ang kalinga

langis sa sangit

bawal maipit

walang tinag ang mata

dulo sa dulo