All Thai'd Up...

Street Performer at Chatuchak

It's been a while since the last post, but I have a good excuse. Well, kind of. Will and I have been lucky enough to take a couple of trips to Thailand recently....one for business one for pleasure. Oh who am I kidding? They've both been for pleasure (well, for me anyway). On the first trip, Will spent 12 hard-working days conducting a training class in Bangkok, and I got to fly up over the weekend to help make sure he got his fill of sight-seeing and souvenir shopping on his days off. Because really, when all you've been doing is working nonstop for two weeks in a row all you want to do is hit the town and brave the Bangkok battlegrounds of cross-dressers, street peddlers, and tuk tuk drivers, right?!? It was definitely quite an experience to say the least. I dragged him to the famous Chatachak Weekend Market first thing Saturday morning where we did our best to navigate the thousands of stalls looking for some kind of Bangkok bargain to bring home with us. After roaming around aimlessly for a bit and feeling completely overwhelmed by all of the sights, sounds and smells of this fabulous and frightening display of market madness, we decided the best thing to do was to just belly up to the nearest hawker stall (outdoor street food station) and order the best local dish that Bangkok has to offer...pad thai. After all, no person should try to tackle this place on an empty stomach. It's dangerous. Bangkok Dangerous. So after fueling up and devising some sort of a game plan, we hit the outdoor outlets once again with reckless abandon and finally ended up haggling our way to some seriously discounted prices on an elephant t-shirt and chopsticks. That's right. We are master negotiators. Ok, ok, so you have to start somewhere. We figured we'd start with the little things (like chopsticks) and then see what other kind of bargaining skills we could "pick up" after a little more practice. After the market, we took a much needed trip to the cleverly named "Pickled Liver Pub" to pickle our livers a bit and gear up for a big night out on the town. Having been to Bangkok on a previous work trip, Will had already been informed by all of the other American, or more specifically, Cajun, expats over here, that there was an incredible Cajun restaurant named Bourbon Street (appropriately enough). We couldn't wait to sink our teeth into a bowl of spicy gumbo, a piled-high po-boy and some of the other Louisiana favorites served up by their native Louisianan chef. What's even better is that this place sells to-go boxes of Andouille Sausage and Boudin (something NOT found in KL with it being a Muslim country and all). We had him load us up with a cooler of Andouille to tote back on the plane with us so we could freeze it for future batches of gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans 'n rice whenever the mood strikes, and I have a feeling the mood is going to be striking again very soon now that football season  is here! We finished up the weekend by taking a fun little tour of the Jim Thompson House on Sunday, buying some of his famous silk napkins and placemats, and then making one last lunch run back to Bourbon Street before flying back "home." It was a perfect trip that combined the best of Asian Culture, Cajun Cuisine, and Souvenir Success Stories. Bangkok, we'll be back!

One of Chatuchak's Many Food Stalls

Bourbon Street, Thailand Style

Our very animated "Tuk Tuk" Driver 

Pulling Teh Tarik....This Guy Has Nothing on Me

Bangkok's Got Talent

Because Who Doesn't Need a Set of Elephant Napkins???