Saturday, April 25

For today's breakfast, I made rice cereal with dried violet plums and almonds, and jackfruit on the side. I thought it was kinda ordinary, but Roman thought it was a pretty breakfast, so he took a picture.

We went to Yaowarat (Chinatown) before the heat of the day really set it. We've mostly hung out in Yaowarat in the evening, when the streets are exploding with people and food carts. But there was something kind of magic about this visit. We stuck to the narrow alleyways, which were covered and surprisingly cool, and full of things to discover. Roman took many photos for me, and most of the shots from today are his.

We walked down Trok Issaranuphap, a narrow alley lined with shops selling fresh produce, dried mushrooms and squid, red and gold Chinese décor, bao buns and steamed dumplings, hot soups and stews, huge slabs of crispy pork skin, tea leaves, and dried fruit and nuts.

We stopped into a spice shop, where we picked up some cinnamon and dyed-green (pandan?) large tapioca balls.

Checking out the spices

Century eggs

Every time we stepped out of an alleyway for a minute, we'd look up and see some beautiful old temple or ornate building just behind all the carts. Chinatown is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Bangkok, and it looks totally different from much of the city.

We turned off of Trok Issaranuphap and walked down Sampeng Lane. This narrow alley is apparently the original location of Bangkok's Chinatown—it was built in the 1700s and was once lined with brothels, opium dens, and gambling houses. According to this website, the term woman of Sampeng is still Thai slang for a sex worker of Chinese origin (Um, that's probably an offensive term—is it offensive for me to share?).

Anyway, the street is now lined with shops selling household goods, shoes, purses, masks, wigs, jewelry, make-up, umbrellas, fabrics, and much more. People begging for money walk down the streets with recorders playing pre-taped messages, or singing into microphones connected to tiny amplifiers. Vendors stop foot traffic with their small carts, selling fresh durian or noodle soups or sour fermented pork (I think) in tiny plastic bundles.

We stopped in at a little shopping center to use the restroom, and scored our first ever large-sized soda waters!

We checked out a couple shops—I picked up a reusable water bottle and a lightweight bottle opener. The shops were mostly empty and bored employees kind of followed us around. I think the latest Covid outbreak has people (understandably) scared and staying home.

On our way back toward the train, I picked up some dried sundries for breakfasts (I haven't quite figured out a good rotation of inexpensive breakfasts for us here, and neither of us want rice cereal every day).

We also stopped in at Hong Kong Noodle, a restaurant right off the alley that looked tiny from the front, but extended far back from the street.

They serve inexpensive dim sum and duck, and we ordered duck with wonton soup, shrimp dumplings, fried wontons, and steamed rice cakes with Chinese chives.

Look, I really wouldn't know, but I felt like this morning we stepped out of Bangkok and into Hong Kong for a few hours. It was pretty cool.

Back at home, I admired my bounty—we picked up what I believe are Taiwanese egg cakes, the green tapioca balls (or sago), almonds, cinnamon, medjool dates (I think), and dried Chinese persimmons. I only know about this final item because Sybylla clued me into them, and told me about the delicate and time-consuming process of air-drying persimmons. I have breakfast plans. Exciting.

Speaking of Sybylla, she and Dan got married on Friday, and my heart is totally full of love for them. My mom was able to go, and shared some pictures with me.

Aw, these two. I wish I could have been there, but mostly I'm just happy they had what looks like a lovely day. And I think that's the perfect note to end on.