Monday, August 05, 2019

SUKHUMVIT SOI 20

I have three nights in Bangkok.

The bar menu plan is Singha on Monday which I had at the Suda Restaurant along Alley 14, Chang on Tuesday that was provided by a street stall along Soi 20, and Leo on Wednesday that was displaced by a trio of craft beer (Thai Whale Pale Ale, Eleventh Fort India Lager, Summer Solstice Crem) happy hour promo from Bad Burger along Sukhumvit Road. 



Thanon Sukhumvit actually extends 488 kilometers from Bangkok to the Cambodian border and what most non-Thais know as Sukhumvit is that busy strip of concrete traversed by the Sukhumvit Skytrain from Mo Chit along Phahonyothin Road to Soi 107 in Beaning.

There are 107 Sois branching out of Sukhumvit in Bangkok which represents a United Nations of sorts with most western expats concentrated between Soi 1 and Soi 63 interpersed with a Japanese enclave between Soi 21 and Soi Thong Lo, Indians and Koreans in Soi 12, and of course a slice of Bangkok's sleaze at the Nana Enternatinment Plaza in Soi 4 and Soi Cowboy between Soi 21 and Soi 23 (Wikipedia).

Sukhumvit is a food street but its inner streets is where hard core street food thrive, like in Soi 20 where ambulant carts offer sweet Thai coffee or deep fried pork, pots of whatever simmering in makeshift stalls and sidewalk kitchens, small family shops competing for space with motor taxis --- a welcome patch of authentic Thai food in a 1.1 kilometer strip of eclectic cuisine from Red Planet-Asoke where I stayed to a workshop at the Novotel Bangkok-Sukhumvit where I met fellow Novo Ecijanos and the ever present Filipino mafia.             



I spent 8 hours at the Suvarnabhumi Airport. 

Two hours of these coming to terms on why I missed a flight for the first time in my Oxfam life and scrambling to get a seat on the next one, three hours exploring what the airport restaurants can offer with their outrageous prices (tax not included in most), and three hours soothing my unfortunate plight with a slice of pepperoni pizza and a bottle of Thai craft beer.  


Ten hours and 2,196 kilometers from Sukhumvit Soi 20 later, I finally arrived home, got some sleep and woke up steeled and ready for our usual first Friday night caucus, Saturday post-meeting fellowship and two birthdays, and a Sunday lunch of pizza, beef roll, burger, hotdog, ice cream, cheesecake, and unlimited soda that we cheated out of the SNR taps. 

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