Thursday, December 12, 2013

asia trip - winter 2013 part 10

more photos from bangkok


this is how thai traffic police get you to pay parking violation fines - i experienced it first hand while in chiang mai
one of the main street leading to the chinatown is chocked full of vendors on the sidewalk; during the busy hour you are forced to walk at the pace of the shoppers - today it was very early and many stalls are just opening
 this shop sells skin lotion in bulk
there is a neighborhood with concentration of shops that sells knifes, para-official uniforms etc; there are also a number of gun shops
 in my trips it took me forever to hunt down cookware supply stores like this
 most shop keepers do not speak a word of english
 a shops that sells smoked ducks and other chinese-thai snacks
i brought a piece of smoked duck breast out of curiosity but alas it is too sweet to my taste; thais do have sweettooth which should be expected being a sugar production country
 in a few hours this street would be chock full of people and traffic

 this is delicious
 thailand is a country that has the most varieties of street food
 this soup noodle joint on the street has tons of customers; i watched awhile and were tempted to give it a try
 it seems to have very good braised duck
 As I observe closely how the cook prepare the noodle soup i saw the unbelievable. He never bother to wash the used bowls after they have been served to the customer. As he blanch the rice noodle he would drizzle the hot water in the used bowl to rinse off the leftover broth. He then dump the liquid into the big pot that he blanch the noodles. Gross me out!
here he drizzles the liquid into the used bowl to rinse it








 on the same street the rates of money changers can vary significantly so it pays to shop first
 this one is 1% better; i have seen a few percentage point differences
Because of the political rally the Thai Baht dropped significantly while I was there.
there were nightly demonstration rally at the Democracy Monument.
My hotel manager told me about this restaurant. It is rather expensive so you only see middle and upper income Thai there.
the thai and english menus are slightly different with less variety on the english one; i don't know if it is intentional


 one dish i order is made with crab meat and it is one of the most expensive dishes they serve
the food is sweeter than my visit in my previous trip
i was stuffed with two dishes of entree




 the people drive here to partake in the demonstration; they parked their car in multi-row depth
 khao san road vendors
 these street vendors sells beers their price can be 50% higher than the seven-eleven shop a few feet behind
 a cool old honda single given a customer look



 the cop doing his round on khao san road - i would later learnt that many are on the take
the cop is ticketing the vendor that didn't pay while those that paid up is business as usual

 this vendor sells slip-on sleeves that give you the tattooed arm or leg look

 a jazzed up toyota commuter van that is ubiquitous in thailand






i cannot help but to notice my favorite restaurant uses the same white melamine plates and stainless folks and spoons i brought back from bangkok


this shop uses only white color melamine plates and bowls




so the nice espresso cups are by whittard of chelsea



 the beautiful building used to house a newspaper publisher

across the street a publisher still remain - my hotel manager told me this whole neighborhood used to be a center of publishers


 i dig compact diesel trucks for their potential of making very nice all-terrain campers - though this one is not 4 wheel drive
 cocks for fighting



 why cocks leave footprints in the pavement?
 the city is full of cottage industries - this lady is plating gold onto used metal jewelry and watches





another micro factory
 toyota from the 70s
 a lot of chinese thai - some can speak a bit of chinese


 a suzuki swift - decked out in a mini cooper paint scheme


 inside a thai post office





 ugly colored melamine bowls and plates are sold everywhere

 old school chinese biscuits and sweets









tiniest bees i'd ever seen







another micro factory

 i have no idea who these entertainers are; they sure is funny in their gay flight attendant mocking skit


 only here you see repair being made to very old tube type tv

bad-arse audio power amplifier all made locally by hand; if i have to guess it has 4 channels of class a-b linear amplifiers and pairwise bridgeable


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