The Soi 38 Night Market is dead, slain and sacrified in the altar of "progress and development".
That I know but being Halloween, it is but proper to pay my respects and see for myself the shell of what was once a virant night market and street food culture.
Soi 38, once acclaimed as the best food street in Bangkok, is now mostly deserted except for a few brave stalls that may also disappear soon.
I walked through it in a futile mission to locate the old man who is said to make the best pad thai in Bangkok but who probably must have been driven away by the noise of ongoing excavations and the demolition of quaint houses that once lined the famous food street.
At a corner with the Thong Lo BTS Station is a small food court that I think is a vain attempt in keeping the spirit of Soi 38, a seafood-and-barbecue standing guard at the entrance, several stalls encircling plastic tables where a lone Caucusian nurse a bottle of Chang, and just lots of sad and empty spaces.
That unforttunately is my memory of Soi 38 and I greatly regret not coming earlier when it was still alive with people and the smell of cooking food, but I have to move on from that disappointment to the Siam BTS Station where I changed trains for the Saphan Taksin BTS Station of the Silom Line in the Bangrak Market area in search for the "super tender braised pork trotters" of Khao Kha Moo.
And that is how I found myself at a corner of Charoen Krung and Silom Roads staring at the State Tower Building, in the right location but not knowing where to go, shelling out 164 baht for a beer and the right to sit at the tables of Cafe Ice, get wifi connection and access Google Maps, which led me to a narrow alley and a red sign where an old man told me they close at 1:30 pm and I should come back tomorrow at 7:30 am when they open.
Now that is too much disappointment for a day which even a roasted duck and pork dinner at Ped Prachak failed to assuage, and it was a long ride to the Nana BTS Station and a sad walk to the Holiday Inn Express Hotel but it's Halloween and this must be a trick on me so I took a seat at the Apoteka Cocktail Bar where I sought comfort from a bottle of Lao Beer and getting into the rythm of a band's take on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" while eveasdropping on the conversation of two women tourists wearing pirate hats.
The next day was Todos los Santos in the Philippines.
I worked on another revision of a Theory of Change that has been hounding me, took a shower, lugged my backpack, skipped the lousy hotel breakfast buffet, bought a ticket to the Saphan Taksin BTS Station, walked through the Bangrak Market, and presented myself to Khao Kha Moo who obliged me with their famous braised pork trotters, super tender indeed but not as good as our patatim or even the tiims back home in Bakal 2.
I refused to be disappointed though since that is a must-do ticked off from my Thai culinary bucket list which is perhaps a fitting conclusion for a day spent in the B+HR Lab where I struggled to keep awake amidst a buzz of words from a group of mostly UN expats discussing what most who are there already know.
In four days, I pedalled 38.8 kilometers with Bulan in Munoz, tested the meager gym of Holiday Inn Express in Soi 11 and slept through a workshop at The Courtyard by Marriot in Bangkok, and wondered who is Susan somewhere at NLEX during the bus ride to Bakal 2.
That I know but being Halloween, it is but proper to pay my respects and see for myself the shell of what was once a virant night market and street food culture.
Soi 38, once acclaimed as the best food street in Bangkok, is now mostly deserted except for a few brave stalls that may also disappear soon.
I walked through it in a futile mission to locate the old man who is said to make the best pad thai in Bangkok but who probably must have been driven away by the noise of ongoing excavations and the demolition of quaint houses that once lined the famous food street.
At a corner with the Thong Lo BTS Station is a small food court that I think is a vain attempt in keeping the spirit of Soi 38, a seafood-and-barbecue standing guard at the entrance, several stalls encircling plastic tables where a lone Caucusian nurse a bottle of Chang, and just lots of sad and empty spaces.
That unforttunately is my memory of Soi 38 and I greatly regret not coming earlier when it was still alive with people and the smell of cooking food, but I have to move on from that disappointment to the Siam BTS Station where I changed trains for the Saphan Taksin BTS Station of the Silom Line in the Bangrak Market area in search for the "super tender braised pork trotters" of Khao Kha Moo.
And that is how I found myself at a corner of Charoen Krung and Silom Roads staring at the State Tower Building, in the right location but not knowing where to go, shelling out 164 baht for a beer and the right to sit at the tables of Cafe Ice, get wifi connection and access Google Maps, which led me to a narrow alley and a red sign where an old man told me they close at 1:30 pm and I should come back tomorrow at 7:30 am when they open.
Now that is too much disappointment for a day which even a roasted duck and pork dinner at Ped Prachak failed to assuage, and it was a long ride to the Nana BTS Station and a sad walk to the Holiday Inn Express Hotel but it's Halloween and this must be a trick on me so I took a seat at the Apoteka Cocktail Bar where I sought comfort from a bottle of Lao Beer and getting into the rythm of a band's take on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" while eveasdropping on the conversation of two women tourists wearing pirate hats.
The next day was Todos los Santos in the Philippines.
I worked on another revision of a Theory of Change that has been hounding me, took a shower, lugged my backpack, skipped the lousy hotel breakfast buffet, bought a ticket to the Saphan Taksin BTS Station, walked through the Bangrak Market, and presented myself to Khao Kha Moo who obliged me with their famous braised pork trotters, super tender indeed but not as good as our patatim or even the tiims back home in Bakal 2.
I refused to be disappointed though since that is a must-do ticked off from my Thai culinary bucket list which is perhaps a fitting conclusion for a day spent in the B+HR Lab where I struggled to keep awake amidst a buzz of words from a group of mostly UN expats discussing what most who are there already know.
In four days, I pedalled 38.8 kilometers with Bulan in Munoz, tested the meager gym of Holiday Inn Express in Soi 11 and slept through a workshop at The Courtyard by Marriot in Bangkok, and wondered who is Susan somewhere at NLEX during the bus ride to Bakal 2.
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