Saturday, April 10

We’ve decided to stay in Bangkok for now, and not risk a trip to the beach with new Covid restrictions still being put in place. 

I’m sorry not to get time on the beach, but I do love our place in Sathorn. It’s actually really nice to have all this space, especially while we’re both not working and are almost always at the house at the same time. It means I can be on the top floor doing yoga or the main floor writing this blog while Roman is on on the middle floor playing guitar or watching a movie and we’re not in each others’ way at all.

I also have plenty of room to put out my things. The upper floor is basically my closet, and I’ve hung up all my dresses...

Laid out all my jewelry and perfume...

And put out, well, some of my toiletries (less neatly though. And Roman’s stuff is on the right).

Since it’s a public holiday, and since we probably won’t be able to do much job searching, I’m trying to think of interesting things we can do in Bangkok over the next week—things we might not think to do or have time to do once we’re working full time. I don’t know if all of these will be options, but we’ll see!

Also, I’ve been meaning to write for ages that the intense heat broke about a week ago. We've gotten some rain and it's made a big difference—the afternoons “feel like” 100F or even 95F instead of 110F, and that ends up being a significant difference. Although...today was pretty hot.

I decided it might be a fun project to start a batch of kombucha—I have extra time, and I recently saw a small bottle of local kombucha for sale at the health food store near our house, so I have access to the culture. I don't have the set up, though—a gallon size jar, smaller flip-top or screw-top glass bottles, a funnel.

So we went on a big and ultimately unsuccessful mission to find what I needed. We rode the metro and then the BTS to two different kitchen supply stores in Phra Kanong that had stuff like stand mixers and pasta machines, but no glass jars. Then we rode the BTS to Thong Lo and found an adorable kitchen shop that did have gallon jars—for twenty USD. They also had flip-top jars that cost $10 each. I just...couldn't do it.

The only thing I bought today was a funnel. I think maybe I'll try and locate a ceramic crock instead, and just buy some kind of beverages in glass bottles and reuse them.

We did have fun exploring Phra Kanong and Thong Lo, though.

On the Metro security camera screen

Thai Pringles—note the salted egg flavor

Stopping for Thai iced tea

Buildings in Thong Lo

Soda water break

Purple flowers

More buildings

Stopping at a couple street carts for lunch

Lunch

Roman had some kind of soup with pork and fish balls—we're not sure what it was—but I actually caught the name of my soup: yen ta fo. The pink color of the broth comes from fermented red bean curd, and it was served with rice noodles, squid, fish balls, fried tofu (I think), a couple strips of some kind of preserved meat, a fried wonton wrapper, a clear & springy mushroom, and morning glory.

Close ups!

Back at home, we relaxed for a long while before heading to the massage parlor on the corner for hour-long foot massages. They also rubbed our shoulders for a minute at the end and it was all incredibly relaxing and lovely.

Neither of us were very hungry after our massage, even though it was almost 8:00pm. We decided we could always eat the ramen we had at home, so we headed to the slightly farther away 7-Eleven so I could pick up some pickled mustard greens for the ramen because, you know, vegetables.

But a street cart across from the 7-Eleven caught my eye. They had red barbecue pork hanging above the cart, and a large crowd seated on the little wooden tables set up all around. We decided to stop for dinner.

And, oh man, I'm go glad we did! The soup was delicious—the broth was clear, slightly sweet and slightly roasted-tasting, and so flavorful, and the bowl was full of egg noodles, bbq pork, and pork wontons, plus little pieces of cilantro and morning glory. I mean, I may have been more hungry than I realized, and I may have been slightly giddy after the massage, but still. It was one of the best things I've eaten here.

Also, people all over the city—from the lunch place to the massage parlor to the dinner spot--have been particularly friendly and sweet to us today. I don't know if it's the holiday or just luck, but I figure it's worth acknowledging.

Massage parlor twin teenage orange kitties