Not another Chinatown ?

If you have read my review of the Kuala Lumpur Chinatown you would know my stance on Chinatowns.  While I think Chinatown is a cool place for the most part I do not think they should be a primary destination.

I’m not sure how many people have flown across the world just to visit a Chinatown but I hope if someone wants to experience China that bad they would just go there!

Heading to Chinatown

I thought Chinatown was a bit of a journey from where I currently live because it was by the Chao Phraya which was where I stayed last time I was in Thailand.

Turns out it was very close.  All I had to do was take the BTS from Phloen Chit which is a 10 minute walk from my apartment and take 2 stops to Siam.  From Siam I had to go another 2 stops to Si Lom BTS / Sala Daeng MRT station.

From Sala Deng I had to transfer to the MRT (subway) for the first time.  Two more stops in the underground MRT and I was already at Hua Lamphong station which was a 5 minute walk to Chinatown.

Using the MRT

I was a bit geeked to use Bangkok’s underground subway for the first time.  I walked in and immediately noticed it was immaculate.  Most subways I have been in are clean and the MRT was no exception.

The trains were fast and smooth, not at all like BART in San Francisco which are bumpy and very noisy.  On the doors had a sticker which said that the MRT was on its 5 year anniversary which partially explained why it was so clean.  There was also an airport style glass wall which separated the tracks and the platform which made the MRT feel much more modern and peaceful at the same time.

Chinatown

Walking from the Hua Lamphng station to the heart of Chinatown was interesting because the streets were pretty deserted.  I saw about 10 shops selling scales on one side of the street and another 10 shops selling vintage looking sewing machines on the other side.  I knew there would be more and when you arrive you can see that Chinatown in Bangkok is absolutely huge.

The first thing I saw was a bunch of fruit stands.  They had mostly imported fruits such as apples, cherries and grapes presumably from the USA which is different from most of Bangkok.  Exploring further down the narrow street with a packed mix of foot traffic, motosai (motorcycles) and trucks I found tons of little shops.  There were some shops with high end stuff and others with very low end things.

I apologize for being vague but I saw thigs I haven’t seen anywhere let alone Chinatowns.  There was a very tight corridor packed with people jockeying for position amongst the motorcycles packing boxes of goods on the back which went on for a couple of blocks with hundreds of little shops and bigger stores.   Very tight may be an understatement as there was probably 3 feet to navigate amongst possibly disastrous hot grease carts frying yummy Chinese treats.

I saw less restaurants and bakeries than I would expect as one of the prime motivations for heading to Chinatown was dim sum, namely pork buns & egg tarts my two favorites.  I managed to find a couple places and tried the egg tarts and pork buns for 15 baht (44 cents) each which was rather expensive (relatively) to most of the stuff you get in Bangkok.

Each street and alleyway seemed to have its own specialty.  Some had Hello Kitty type merchandisse while others had dried Chinese herbs and others had meat including unidentifiable animal parts, stomach, and of course the environmentalist despised shark fin.

Overall Impression

Like I said before, I wouldn’t say Chinatown in Bangkok is something to travel across the world to visit but it was pretty impressive.  I got the impression that it was actually a functioning part of Bangkok rather than a tourist dump like Chinatown Kuala Lumpur.  Another big difference is I was there for over 2 hours and did not once have a person bug me about buying something!

If you want to get some good cheap Chinese snacks, some cheap and fun souvenirs and anything else you can think of which would be in a Chinatown, Bangkok’s Chinatown no doubt delivers as it is very big.  If you don’t like huge crowds it is probably best to head there on the weekend.

Stay tuned for more about Bangkok’s Chinatown as I will definitely head back there one of these days.

Welcome to Soi Arab

I knew I lived in between soi 1 & 3.  Soi 1 is a very small 2 way street while Soi 1 is a large 1 way street with 3 or 4 lanes.  Soi simply means street in Thai.

I have noticed that every time I walk up Soi 3 it’s a lot less like Thailand and a lot more like downtown Baghdad.   You see many women and men dressed in traditional Arab clothing as well as many businesses with Arabic script.

Rip-Off Alert

Nobody likes getting ripped off.  Regardless if the rip-off is for 10 baht or 2000 baht I will always mention it so anyone reading this is either visiting Bangkok or living in Thailand doesn’t have to find out for themselves.

So I’ve gotten papaya from the street probably 100 times since I’ve lived in Bangkok and each time it has cost 10 baht per.  Not on Soi Arab.  I think it’s a scam they pull when people come and order a fruit expecting to pay 10 baht and after they slice it and bag it, they say 20 baht!  The papaya was unripe as well which was a double whammy.

I know it is only getting you for 30 cents but is still enough to never buy fruit from Soi Arab ever again and I would recommend that you buy NOTHING from Soi Arab or the surrounding streets if you can get it anywhere else in Bangkok.

Falafel and Shawarma

One thing which isn’t very common in the rest of Bangkok is indoor/outdoor Mediterranean food.  To get there, from the NANA BTS station walk straight and take a right when you see a big street.  You will be walking onto Soi Arab from Sukhumvit Roid.  You on the right you will pass some sort of pipe smoking oxygen bar or something then you cannot miss a big outdoor set-up with 2 shawarma spits.

There was a friendly Syrian guy who took my order and had my food ready in 2-3 minutes.  I ordered a chicken shwarma and a falafel sandwitch because I was hungry and they are not very big.  One would be perfect for a light eater but I’m a very heavy eater.   They were both delicious as I devoured them in about 2 minutes.  My picture is embarrassingly bad but I’m posting it just to teach myself a lesson about photographic food presentation;)  There is an outdoor/covered area to eat as well.

Although I haven’t tried it yet, there is another place which is pretty much identical about 200 meters down the road.

Price

Falafel Sandwitch (burrito): 50 Baht ($1.46)

Chicken Shawarma Sandwitch: 50 Baht ($1.46)

Meat Shawarma Sandwitch: 60 Baht ($1.76)

If you’re in the area and would like to have a fabulous quick snack or meal these 2 outdoor shawarma spit locations are great.

7 / 11 / 24 / 7 / 365

According to Wikipedia there are 1,500 7-Eleven stores in Bangkok which only 77 less than Tokyo.  Consider the fact that (according to some websites) Tokyo has up to 4 million more people than Bangkok and you will know that there is no shortage of 7-Eleven stores in Bangkok.

When you’re walking down the main streets in Bangkok you can count on a 7-Eleven every couple hundred meters.  There are also a 7-Eleven clones such as Family Mart which have some of the same stuff as 7-Eleven.

These convenient stores are usually open 24/7 and are very handy to get a bottle of water, Red Bull or snack.  7-Elevens in Bangkok are more than just junk food.  You can live off of stuff you can buy at 7-Eleven which includes everything from eating utensils to pirated DVDs to milk to some of the snacks which I enjoy on a regular basis.

7- Eleven Snacks in Bangkok

I can’t really remember if there are any 7-Elevens in San Francisco.  I do remember there being very many in Tokyo where my friend Bryan would get a Pizzamon which is like a pork bun with pizza inside every morning!  In Tokyo they had onigiri as well as other Japanese style foods.  In Bangkok they have full frozen and “fresh” TV style microwavable dinners w/ tons of preservatives I’m sure.  They are good at first but quickly get old.  What doesn’t get old is some of the snacks.

The above picture is of my latest purchase which I will detail below.  I will list the price, a brief description and how much they cost with a few details.  I will blog about my favorites in more detail at a later time…

6 Pack of Non-Fat UHT Milk ($58.50)  $1.70
UHT milk tastes just like fresh milk.

2 Containers of Mixed Fruit Yogurt
Tastes just like any kind of sweetened yogurt I’ve had in California.

2 Packs of Nori (40 baht)
Nori is Japanese fried seaweed.  It comes in regular and spicy flavored.

2 Packs of Cocori Nuggets (40 baht)
My new favorite snacks.  These Japanese cheesepuff like snacks come in 2 flavors, squid and sesame and are both crunchy and tasty.

1 Pack of Chocolate Almond Crunch Pocky (25baht) 73 cents
Pocky is a staple sweet at all convenient stores and grocery stores in Asia.  If you’ve never had it, it’s cracker/cookie sticks with chocolate coating and assorted nuts/sprinkles with different flavors.

2 Packs of Nuts (50 baht)
The almonds are from California and the cashews are from Thailand and they are very very very very addictive as they are almost impossible to stop eating.  I can only buy one pack at a time.

4 Cartons of Mixed Juice (57 baht) $1.67
The juices are delicious.  The bigger cartons are 13 baht and have 40% mixed juices with different mixtures of carrot/prune/apple/vegetables/beats and more.  The small cartons which actually cost more (18 baht) have 100% juice.

Total

276.50 baht $8.10

Considering you can get a good sized meal of rice & one of many flavors of chicken and vegetables with a drink for 35 baht ($1.02).  Spending almost 8 times more on mostly junk food which I finished off in a night  Not only can the price of the junk food of 7-Eleven add up and cost quite a bit it can add extra, unnecessary calories to the diet.

Truly Exotic Fruits

The Fruits of Thailand:  Part I dealt with fruits which although exotic are pretty common at least in California.  The next three fruits I got from my neighborhood mega fruit stand, which happened to be a fruit truck are not common in the USA at all.  As a matter of fact, I have never seen any of these three fruits in the United States.

Mangosteen

I used to drink the canned mangosteen drink which was saturated with sugar once in a while.  In San Francisco’s small Asian markets by the coconut water you could usually find a few cans.  It is more like sugar water than a actual fruit juice as Mangosteen has a taste which is sweet and tart at the same time.

Mangosteen juice and pup is marketed in the USA as your typical “Super Food.”  A natural fruit which is high in antioxidants, mangosteen is seasonal in Thailand available 3-4 months out of the year.  A company which markets mangosteen juice, claims that the real antioxidants are actually found in the pulp which is very bitter and not usually eaten but who knows?

Mangosteen are purple and round with these round green leaves on top.  To eat them you only have to cut a line a few centimeters long on them, I usually use my key, then you can rip half of the outer shell off to expose the delicate white brains!

The inside of mangosteen kind of looks like a white orange but I see it more as a brain sticking out of the skull.  Thais offer you a small fork in restaurants to scoop out pieces of the fruit but I just grab the while thing and pop it in my mouth.

The mangosteen fruit is VERY juicy.  It tastes bitter at first, then sweet, then bitter again.  There are 1-4 seeds amidst all the pulp some big and some small.  You can spit it out, or be like “Weird Al” Yankovich and just eat it!

Rambutan & Longan

I had never heard of either Rambutan or Longan before I aimlessly began walking the streets of Bangkok looking for some sweets.  The rambutan looks vaguely similar to a  sea anemone and the small, brown round longan looks like a little brown nut which comes on a branch.

They don’t very appetizing on the outside but both have their own sweet rewards on the inside.  They are both seasonal fruits which grow in hot environments and according to wikipedia the longan is a near threatened species.

To me they taste very similar and have almost the exact texture.  I have read that both are similar to lychee fruit which I have had but am soon to find here in Bangkok.  The taste of both is sweet.  I can’t really describe it any other way, there is no tartness, bitterness, saltiness, etc.  just sweet.

They say the longan has a more pungent taste which may be true but they pretty much taste the same to me.  The reason I like the longan better is because the seed separates from the fruit almost completely.

See in the picture, the rambutan (top) fruit has the outer part of the seed stuck to the fruit.  It doesn’t really change the taste at all or hurt your teeth but I think it makes rambutan a little less enjoyable, biting on a chunk of seed.

The seed may be healthy as it appears to be similar to an almond but until I know it’s free of any deadly poisons I will throw it away.

Getting to the Rambutan & Longan Fruit

Both fruits are easily peeled with the hands, the rambutan is the easier of the two.  To open a rambutan grab the fruit with both hands with your thumbnails touching each other.  Dig your thumbs into the outer shell and simply tear the skin away from the inner fruit which comes out easily.  The Longan has a tougher, smoother skin which takes some serious strong nails to dig in.  I usually bit a little tear in the skin and peel it off.  Like a cherry, the seed is easily separated from the fruit.

Both fruits have very little juice.  The texture is hard to explain.  I would say it’s like the ultra-preserved cherry which is in most canned fruit cocktails.  Both fruits are good for snacking on and taste especially good when chilled.

Read about Fruit more Common in America.

Stay Tuned for More about the Fruits of Thailand

Fruits Common to the USA

I just went across the street and spent I really can’t speak for the rest of the USA but being from California I can tell you that many fruits I eat here in Bangkok on a daily basis are readily available in supermarkets.  There are a couple major differences.

Fresh fruit is very convenient.  I already blogged about the yummy Thai oranges which are usually juiced. I have yet to find a street in Bangkok without at least 1 (there are usually 2 or 3) fruit stands.  From my apartment I have to walk about 5 meters to the nearest!  You go there, point to the fruit you want which is usually chilled and sliced and they put it in a little plastic bag with a skewer so you can eat it while you’re walking down the street.

These fruit stands are open from early in the morning (I can’t actually tell you if this is really true because I usually wake up around 2pm but I assume to be true) to late in the evening.  I have gotten fruit around 11pm but most of the food stands in the street are closing down by then.

The price is also very nice.  The little pre-sliced bags of fruit cost 10 baht (29 cents) each!  All 6 bags of fruit which you see above cost a total of $1.74!

Types of Fruit Readily Available

I’m not sure about the seasonal aspects of the fruits but the most common fruits I see are papaya, watermelon and pineapple.  There is also canetloupe, mangos and Thai guava to name a couple.  I will give a quick rundown of how the fruits taste as certain fruits are more likely to be sweet and ripe while others are often unripe.

Papaya

When I first moved to Bangkok I didn’t really like papaya.  It may have been because I never had good papaya in the US.  I remember papaya to having a pumpkin-esque after taste in the US.  I can tell you in Thailand I have eaten papaya every day for the past 3 months and I have only had a couple of poor tasting bites.

Watermelon

I’ve yet to see any fruit stand without watermelon.  It is fresh, sweet and delicious most of the time.  It comes sliced without the rind.  Sometimes you can find yellow watermelon which tastes the same.  Sometimes the watermelon is de-seeded and sometimes it has the seeds which you can spit out in the street if you like.

Pineapples

Pineapples are pretty much in every fruit stand as well.  The slices come ready to stab with a skewer and be eaten.  I had pretty good luck with pineapples as they are almost always ripe, sweet and tasty.

Mangos

Mangos taste different every time you get them.  Sometimes you will find them hard with a little bitter taste to them.  I think this is how some people like them.  I actually like them hard sometimes as they are not as sweet.  The soft mushy mangos are absolutely delicious in the Thai dessert mango sticky rice which is so delicious it is going to get its own blog entry.

Thai Guava

I learned in my Thai language that the Thai word for guava is ‘farang’ which also means foreigner!  I put 2 + 2 together and figured that guavas were not native to Thailand which is true, they originate from the tropical Americas but have been in Thailand since the 17th century and are available year round.

I’ll admit, up until now I had no idea what this green fruit with a white hard inside was.  I thought guavas were pink on the insdie and I figured it was some kind of apple.  I have had some Thai guava which was very bitter and some which is sweet.  The Thais sprinkle salt? which is avaiable at the fruit stands on the guava.  I like the sweet kind better as it is very crunchy.  WARNING:  Don’t eat this stuff fast unless you want to visit the dentist.  The little seeds can sometimes be very dangerous for the ole’ molars!

I’m not too sure how ‘common’ this type of guava or guava in general is in the US but I decided to put it on this page because I had heard about it before.  Part II will be devoted to some of the fruits I have recently discovered and had never heard of before I moved to Bangkok.

The Fruits of Thailand:  Part II

Eating at the Hospital

I will admin, probably the only reason I went to Bumrungrad Hospital’s food ‘mezzanine’ in the first place is because it is a 1.5 minute walk from my apartment building.   It is not the only reason I go there on a semi-daily basis though.  The fact is there is some good, clean food in the internationally renowned hospital.

Whether it is a destination for people living or visiting anywhere else in Bangkok is a question.   Having a 24 hour McDonald’s may be a good thing to know for nearby Nana Plaza late night partiers though.  I will blog about Bumrungrad’s other places to get food in a bit, but today I’m blogging about the Japanese restaurant which I had been eyeing for nearly a month and not visited.

Sushi in Thailand

A total coincidence but I was jogging down Sukhumvit 23 today amidst all the foot traffic, traffic and of course air pollution and I saw a street vendor selling sushi in the 90+ degree heat.  It still looked like “art” but not the kind of art I like to get myself involved with.

Sushi restaurants in Thailand are not as common as in San Francisco or New York.  Bangkok is an hour away from any seaports so I would think different types of fresh fish take at least a couple days on ice to get from the sea to any place selling sushi.

I am not saying I’m ‘sushi expert  but I have eaten sushi everywhere from Brazil, to Costa Rica to San Francisco to the world famous fish market Tsukii in Japan which has the freshest and some say best sushi in the entire world!   In San Francisco I had sushi about 3 times per month but at this point I hadn’t had it for over 4 or 5 months so it was time.

Ayame

I always noticed Ayame amongst the Bumrungrad mezzanine restaurants but I knew it was more expensive and had sit down service like a normal restaurant.  I never saw more than 1 or 2 tables full in Ayame and when I went in I was the only person.

I was seated and first thing I noticed was 2 sushi chefs.  This was good news because I know from San Francisco, any sushi bar w/ no dedicated sushi chef(s) is almost 100% likely to have terrible sushi.  Ayame is decorated with traditional Japanese items, has a couple of large fish tanks to add to the experience.

I ordered a ton of food as usual and I didn’t know what to expect.   I started out with a wakame salad which tasted the same as every wakame salad I’ve ever had.  I had some teriyaki chicken with the skin and a lettuce salad which was decent as well.

In Japan I had to ask for my sushi “wasabi nuki” (without wasabi) because they put the wasabi on top of the rice under the fish.  I tried to explain to the Thai waitress and she didn’t understand so I figured they would leave out the wasabi.

I first tried the salmon nigiri which I get every time.    The salmon melted in my mouth which I think is good?  I tried the saba nigiri next and it was pretty good as well.  I had a roll they called ebitem maki which had seaweed on the outside and I’m pretty sure had fried shrimp in the middle and it was pretty good as well.

Price

Price is probably always going to be an issue when I talk about restaurants because I tend to eat a lot more than the average person.  Sushi restaurants pose the biggest problem because you pay per piece.  In this case I will detail my bill at Ayame to avoid confusion.  The price reflects an order of sushi.  If you order an entré only and an appetizer your bill will likely be around 500 baht.

Total:  1,272 Baht ($37.26USD)

Wakame (seaweed) salad: 150 baht
2 Sake (salmon) Nigiri:  300 baht
1 Saba (mackeral) Nigiri:  100 baht
1 Tamago (egg):  60 baht
1 Ebitem Maki (roll w/ fried shrimp):  200
1 Order Teriyaki Chicken w/ Salad (no rice): 200
1 Asahi Beer:  90 baht
10% gratuity:  108 baht
Vat tax:  84 baht

Overall Impression

I thought Ayame sushi was pretty good.  Nothing I ate there made me angry for being so bad which was an often occurance in San Francisco’s many sushi restaurants.  I left satisfied, and full although I spent about 42x more than what I spend on average for lunch!

{Han-Baa-Gaa}

I have a good idea.  How about go to Thailand, go to an American style luxury shopping mall, and then eat some Japanese hamburgers?  That is exactly what I did when I went to the Japanese burger chain Mos Burger in the Siam Paragon shopping center.

Back in San Francisco, living across the street from a Thai restaurant,  eating Thai food more than once a week was completely out of the question.  Fast forward 3 months and I live in Bangkok and eating Thai food is a daily occurrence.  Sometimes Thai food is on the menu multiple times per day.

Change of Pace

Eating Thai food often makes you crave certain things.  For example, while eggs are pretty much served every meal, a good American style breakfast is one thing sorely lacking here in Bangkok.  Another thing eating Thai food all the time makes you crave is hamburgers.

Why do hamburger cravings come?  Maybe it because beef is never on the menu for any average restaurant.  Maybe it is because the most common burger options you see are McDonald’s and Burger King?  Whatever the reason Mos Burger was the choice of the day.

Where to find Mos Burger

I forgot to bring my umbrella to my Thai language class so after when it was pouring outside I had to take the BTS somewhere instead of walking home and getting my books soaked.  I ended up going to Siam Paragon shopping center.  Siam paragon is a giant shopping center which is purported to be the 2nd most luxurious mall in Bangkok.  Beleive it or not, this was the 1st time I have went to Siam Paragon which was in effect just like any mall back in the states.

Walk in the Siam Paragon center straight from the BTS exit and take the first escalator you see down.  On the bottom floor you will find dozens of restaurants and the “Gourmet Grocery” which is a huge, expensive (for Thai standards) grocery store.  Mos Burger is right in the middle.  It is surrounded by a fence where you walk in, order, get your number, grab a seat and have your food delivered in a couple minutes.

How was it?

I don’t know whether my ‘burger ecstasy” was from lack of eating burgers which I never ate in the states or what but I thought the standard cheeseburger I had at Mos was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had!  It wasn’t too big but it had a delicious flavor.

You can see in the picture a Ahi tuna looking topping on the burger.   I’m not exactly sure what it was, I’ll just call it ‘mystery sauce.’  To me it tasted tomato-ish like sloppy Joes on top of a burger which was on top of a onion and mayonnaise mix.  All together it was delicious.  I have read that Mos Burgers has created a craze in Japan and Asia like the in-N-Out Burger did in the US a few years ago.

Unfortunately I took the salad instead of the french fries so I can’t tell you anything about the fries.  The salad was decent, not bad, but nothing to write home about.   There was really nothing more to talk about, tasty burgers with quick efficient service.

Price

I spent 139 baht ($4.08) for a ‘value meal’ 1 Mos Cheeseburger (79baht) 1 Mos Salad (49baht) and 1 coke zero (26baht). I was pretty full but I could see people ordering more than 1 hamburger which I think 2 would be the magic number if you were really hungry.

Bangkok Dangerous

We’re not talking about a horrible movie remake starring Nicholas Cage.   To someone who has never left the “friendly confines” of the USA you may not know much about Bangkok.  You may not even know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand.
Whether you think  elephants trampling people and huge protests with soldiers overthrowing the government are a day to day occurrence or you think Bangkok is just another peaceful Southeast Asian city you may be interested in the top 5 most dangerous things about visiting or living in Bangkok, Thailand.

5. Sidewalks

Sidewalks in Bangkok are always crowded, often disgusting, and sometimes dangerous.  I am an avid runner who likes to run to the gym to kill 2 birds w/ one stone but in jogging down the sidewalks in Bangkok every step you take could be your last.

The uneven sidewalks in Bangkok are complete with loose bricks, broken mane covers and of course stray dog bombs.  Compound this with the presence of the #1 danger and a trip or fall could mean a whole lot worse than a trip to the hospital.

As a guy wearing sneakers the sidewalks present a certain danger but to the women who wear heels, I can’t image how difficult it is to pay attention to every step to avoid a face plant onto a present left by one of the 300,000 stray dogs in Bangkok.

4. Water

Water is tricky to avoid because there are numerous ways you can come into unwanted contact with it.  From swallowing shower water, getting splashed in the mouth while in a water taxi, or the inconspicuous melted ice your iced tea, most foreigners who consume a generous portion of the water in Bangkok get terrible stomach aches.

Where the tap water comes in most residential buildings (to my knowledge) is roof tanks which are either filled by rain water or a water company.  I have heard that each year they check the tanks and find dead birds, rats and insects.  The worst water has to be that of the Chao Phraya river and Bangkok canal.   The canal has a smell the raw sewage which is pouring out of pipes into the canal 24/7.   Here’s a story of a governor candidate who fell into the water and got a rash before her campaign manager drowned in the dirty water.

I have been running to the gym along the pedestrian free canal path, but I am debating whether the evaporated canal water and occasional spashes from the river taxis will eventually be the slow and painful death of me?  I will leave that up to the experts but you don’t have to be an expert to know that the water is one of Bangkok’s dangers.

3. Street Food

The street food which exists all around Bangkok creates a barbecue smell which is a welcomed replacement of the usual bus exhaust mixed with raw sewage aroma which emanates from the Bangkok streets.  I’m not talking about the delicious fruit here.  What I’m talking about is any of the many meat products which taste good when you don’t think about where they came from.

I’m not talking about the typical Chinese food mystery meat but the conditions in which the animals were raised.  I visited Ratchaburi province and stayed with a traditional Thai family and remember the chickens running amok in the mud mixture of river run-off, sewage, and litter.  I really didn’t think about it too much at the time and ate chicken meat but when they served the Tom Yum chicken feet soup I couldn’t help but think of what the chickens were running around in.

I have never really researched (other than hearing preaching from San Francisco yuppies about free range meat) too much about whether how much an animal’s upbringing will effect the quality of the meat but if I see fried fish on the street and can’t hep but think it was fished out of the filthy canal.  I also see people living in next to piles of their own garbage by the canal with chickens freely walking around while they await their death, soon to be featured on the nearby chicken satay street stand???

I have been pretty lucky so far with the street food.  I have had some stomach pain but no problems with dysentery, severe stomach cramping, death or any other terrible symptoms which which are associated with contaminated food.

2. Thai Women

Thai people are so laid back and reserved you wouldn’t think that Thai women could be so dangerous but if you watch the video you will know how dangerous they can be.  Thai women are polite, beautiful and traditional but if you get on their bad side you could be heading to the local hospital!

My friend Jon who has a blog bout teaching English in Thailand told me that two of his friends had been stabbed and hospitalized by their angry Thai girlfriends.  Compound the language barrier with the Eastern-Western culture class and evidentially fireworks are possible and everyone knows how bad it is when they blow up in your hand.

1. Traffic

Bangkok is a city which has had a long-term traffic problem.  I cannot imagine how bad it was 20 years ago before the BTS which provides easy transit via skytrain and the MTR which is the subway system.

The traffic not only pollutes the environment it is dangerous in many ways.  I have not yet witness any accidents but I remember reading about the the week long Songkran Festival in which there were “Songkran’s “373 deaths and 4,332 injuries in 3,977 road accidents nationwide.”

The dangers of the traffic in Bangkok are out there if you’re in a car or a pedestrian.  In taxis you have to first search for the seat belt which is only available 25% of the time then all you can do is watch as the driver navigates through the extremely confusing and seemingly lawless streets.

As a pedestrian the streets seem even more dangerous.  The never ending traffic flow of cars, trucks, tuk-tuks, and motorcycles extends beyond the streets.  Often you have to dodge motorcycles and motorcycle taxis driving on the sidewalk.  The streets have lanes but the are only as guides as drivers weave in and around them.  Driving in a lane of oncoming traffic is a regular occurrence.

Perhaps the most dangerous part of the Bangkok traffic is crossing the street.  I personally use what I call ‘human shields’ which are the Thai people I wait for to cross some busy streets.  Often times there is no sign or signal which you can use to determine when to cross the street.  Even if you do cross at a little green guy walking light you still have motorcycles weaving in between cars.  You have to be on the lookout on both sides of each car for motorcycles as you cross any street.  Compound all this with the fact that the sides are switched from the USA and traffic is the most dangerous thing about Bangkok.

China Town:  What a Novel Concept ?

If they need more criteria for classifying big cities in the 21st century they may as well use China Towns as one.  It seems regardless  of which corner of which hemisphere you find yourself on you will encounter a China Town.   Being from San Francisco, China Town is something which all too familiar.

Every website and Lonely Planet guide had Kuala Lumpur’s China Town as one of the “must go” places in Kuala Lumpur.  Most travelers who find their way in Kuala Lumpur will have likely seen their fair share of Chinatowns in the past.  Whether you agree with KL Chinatown’s “must go” status depends on your style and goals of your trip.

Getting to China Town in Kuala Lumpur

China Town is not too far from the Petronas Towers.  Ask a taxi driver and they will say it is far but in decent weekday traffic (I wasn’t there on the weekend so I don’t know if it’s worse) it took less than 10 minutes to get to Petronas Towers to China Town.  If the taxi driver has trouble understanding just say, “Petaling Street.”  Petaling street is the the main Chinatown street which would me more aply named Peddling Street.

Cheap Chinese Food, Knock Offs, Beer & Cheap Hotels

Chinatown was the main area in KL for backpackers and bargain hunters (wait, aren’t they the same?).  Chinese food is world renowned for being cheap and Petaling Street is no exception.  You can find a number of Chinese food restaurants with inside and outside dining if you turn off the main street.  I actually didn’t feel like eating Chinese food at the time and I stepped outside Chinatown and found some of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had.

The main street is essentually jam packed with venders selling all kinds of junk, from life-sized gun cigarette lighters, to samurai swords to of course designer knock-off merchandise.  It is one of the few places in KL where it felt like Bangkok as the venders were somewhat pushy.  The stuff there I would say was mostly junk which was really no different from anything you can find in Bangkok or I’m sure most other SE Asian cities.  Most of the guides stated the KL Chinatown had some of the best prices on these “goods” but I didn’t even bother asking because I’m on an anti-junk phase at the moment.

All the Kuala Lumpur travel guides listed Chinatown as the primary area for cheap lodging.  I saw a lot of tourists and backpackers in the area.  There were hotels and guesthouses all around which I didn’t check out personally but I’d assume some of them offer temporary 6-legged roommates if you know what I mean.

All China Towns the Same ?

I haven’t been to every single Chinatown in the world but I’ve been to a few.  From San Francisco, to New York to Yokohama Japan to the Disneyland of Chinatowns,  Hong Kong (I guess you could call Hong Kong a Chinatown?)  I can’t really see the allure of traveling far and wide for the purpose of visiting a Chinatown.  For the China Town’s I’ve been to, I would consider San Francisco’s to be the best, even better than Hong Kong if you consider you can find tons of junk as well as some nice stuff in a 6 or so block radius.  Some may even say that San Francisco’s Chinatown has been run by Chinese longer than Hong Kong anyways?

Overall Impression

For me, Chinatown in KL was a complete waste of time.  I live in Bangkok and didn’t need to save a couple bucks to get cheap stuff I could get in Bangkok if I even wanted the stuff.  I haven’t been to Bangkok’s Chinatown yet so I cannot compare the two.  Fortunately, Chinatown was very close to the rest of  “downtown” Kuala Lumpur so it was only a pit stop on my whirlwind tour of Malaysia’s capital.

Touring Kuala Lumpur is as easy as 1-2, 3

Kuala Lumpur tower is the 2nd (or 3rd depending how you look at it) main attraction of the Kuala Lumpur skyline.  At night you will see a “space needle” looking structure a close distance from the Petronas Twin Towers.  It is brightly lit at night with sometimes changing colors and it just begs you to get to the top.

For those who already wonder about the Petronas Towers skybridge which is the highest the public is allowed to go in the building is only 557 feet high compared to the observation deck in LK tower, the 5th tallest tower in the world reaching 1,381 feet in all about 1,100 at the observation deck almost twice as high as the Petronas Towers skybridge.  For those of you who say, big deal, just another tall building with an overpriced revolving restaurant and observation deck you would be glad to know that there is more than just a view with KL tower.

More than Meets the Eye

I was at the Thai Embassy to get my Thai Education visa and walked about 20 minutes to look at the Petronas Towers.  I spent a good hour or so looking at and taking pictures of the Petronal Towers before I set off to view the 3rd superstar of the Kuala Lumpur skyline.  I started walking towards the tall structure with the notion that it would be easy to get there which never is with huge objects. Just like the huge hotels in Vegas, which look close but seem very far while walking in 100+ degree heat KL tower was the same.

I resisted the urge to get into a taxi and kept walking.  I came upon a giant intersection which I waited 2 cycles of traffic before I figured unless I risked my life and jaywalked I would be waiting forever.  I had a choice to make, I could go straight or right, there has to be more than a single street leading to this giant tower right?  Well, it was half right.  I took the right which lead away from the business district of skyscrapers and more to a residential-ish looking area.

I kept walking and the road was going in a circle around this seemingly big, dense jungle park with no way through.  I kept going until I came upon a school on the left but I saw an entrance to the park on the right along with some city workers snoozing on the park benches. There was a retaining wall on the left which I saw an animal which I thought was a monkey that I tailed and lost.  The city workers were laughing at me because I guess someone taking a picture of a monkey in the park is like someone taking a picture of a squirrel in any US park. I thought it was pretty cool that a 10 or so minute walk from one of the most famous buildings in the world there were monkeys playing in a park.

When I say park, I really mean mini-jungle as even though there were carved paths, there was thick vegetation everywhere with monkeys swinging in trees.  Word of advice:  Don’t stop if have shorts and short sleeves as I stopped for less than 5 minutes to take pictures of the monkeys and received about a dozen mosquito bites for my troubles.  I was in the park for 20-30 minutes and didn’t see another person. The monkeys seemed to be pretty comfortable with humans.

I didn’t antagonize them and some ignored me while another old looking one walked up to about 10 feet away from me.  I snapped a bunch of pictures, but unfortunately my camera settings were off and most came out blurry.  There was a few different trail options in the park but I was in transit to KL tower so I followed the signs where it finally popped out of the trees (below).  After this grass field with more monkey photo opportunities there is this suspension bridge which is only a few feet above the ground which leads up to the Tower.

At KL Tower

Once you get to the top of the suspension bridges you finally see some people along with typical outdoor SE Asian food stands which I found to have delicious Malaysian food which seemed Indian to me.   I got this stuff called roti canai which was roti (thin pancakes) which you dipped in this curry which had some fish, potatoes and other junk in it.  It was so good I had 3 of them which were astoundingly cheap although I don’t remember the price but we are talking less than 40 cents per order. Once I got filled up with roti canai I decided to head up to the Tower which I expected to be a long wait.  Surprisingly it turned out to be a very short wait.

I paid the fee, sorry I don’t remember how much it was and zoomed up to the observation deck.  The elevator had a timer which told you how long it took to get up.  Something I liked was there was no mandatory wait to get a photo which they try to get you to pay for which I hate. Once you get to the the observation deck it is pretty much a run-of-the-mill round area with telescopes, a couple of gift shops and of course the 360 degree view of Kuala Lumpur which you paid for.

There some nice tourists from all over the world which you can talk to and of course tons of photo opportunities.  You probably want to see the view from the towers but I’ll let you do it for yourself.  My pictures were all taken through a shroud of rain clouds and smog along with dirty windows which I assume they clean every few months. I’m sure they would let you volunteer to hop out 100 stories up and clean the windows if you want;) The only thing I didn’t like about the tower was the view of the Petronas Towers was from the side so you can really only see a single tower.  Unfortunate because the Petronas Towers are probably one of the most picturesque  buildings in the world.