Weekend eating in Thailand

I had one weekend before leaving for the States — so I set it aside for my sons. I had been so busy. It was my chance to be with them. I decided to go to Coron because my staff had been raving about the place. The weather was so bad the plane went all the way to Coron — circled twice and then headed back to Manila.

What a bummer. In the meantime I knew that if I went home, the prospect of bonding with my sons was dim as they would flow into their own schedules. In a pull between the multimedia room, their computers and time with their mother — I am on the losing end. My staff told me it was going to be rainy everywhere except Thailand, so on the spur of the moment — we were off to Bangkok.

The weekend was unique. All we did was eat! The main reason why the weekend was fun and special was the presence of Jum, our full-of-energy tour guide who is not really a tour guide but loves to show people around. She also loves to eat so it was like she was letting us in on her passion and her hideaway places.

We did not eat in fancy restaurants. We ate in places tourists don’t normally go to. My lolo and my dad were like that. They would choose their itinerary based on the food they wanted to eat. They would eat in “hole in the wall” types of places where the food would be surprisingly good!

The author Gina Lopez and her sons Benjamin and Roberto eat good food for only P240!

This was my first foray into this kind of experience. My first meal was in a noodle place on a busy side street which gave us the food we ordered in less than a minute. It was superb. Thai rice is the best rice in the world so I ordered Thai rice with steamed chicken and a few spices. There were four of us. When I asked for the bill — my jaw dropped. 185 Thai baht! I calculated it: around P240! For four people — and really good food!

That experience opened my palate to the assortment of street food outside. I very much liked the medicinal stall with a wide selection of herbal medicine. I thought of Sibuyan and Brookes Point and hoped the day would come when we would be able to build on what our forests have to offer.

One of the highlights of the day was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. When I entered and closed my eyes, it was as though my spirit flew. Very high spaces. I could have stayed the whole morning. The energy in the place was so strong that it did not matter that there were so many people. I was still able to go profoundly high and deep.

Me with Jum’s son in front of this noodle place which was very inexpensive.

Jum is such a great tour guide. She told me about spirit houses. Since construction might disturb the spirits of the land, each house or business institution has a “spirit house” in the front where the spirits that have been disturbed can stay. Thais feel that not having a spirit house will result in bad luck: fires, thievery, etc. We have this in our own Filipino culture where we acknowledge dwendes. My staff told me that there are Filipino families that have images of dwarves at the gate of their houses for good luck. I like this. It has nothing to do with religion. But it’s an acknowledgement of the reality of the spirit world.

For Thai massage, Jum brought us to place where the massage is “original” (Jum’s words) — different from all the copycats. What struck me was the steady stream of foreigners getting a massage. Even in the crowd I could see that whoever was having a massage was being gently nudged into a state of peace and relaxation. Because my younger son adamantly refused a massage I opted for a very relaxing half- hour foot massage where I must have dozed off midway.

Then we went to MBK — a five-story department store with inexpensive stalls galore. They had an International Food Fest where one could eat food from all over the world. The food was tantalizing and very, very inexpensive.

Could passenger boats like this ply our esteros?

Then Jum picked us up from the hotel in the evening and the evening eating began. First stop was barbecue — with spices. Then off to another street corner to eat noodles with fish balls. Then off to another corner for another set of delicacies. Whew! I have to hand it to my kids. They can really eat! Jum was with her preferred company. I gave up halfway but they kept going on. Then we went to a night market that opens at 10 p.m. with very inexpensive goods. As we walked further on, I saw bars with women gyrating around poles. Gorgeous bodies. I was taken aback to find out that many of these women were actually men!

We had Thai coffee in a place that is open 24 hours. We ended up sleeping at 3 a.m. Bangkok really feels like a city that never sleeps.

Up again the next day, we headed to a floating market. When I saw it, I immediately got reminded of the esteros of Manila. There were boats that acted like stalls selling meals, fruits, veggies and souvenir items. The place was full of tourists. Situations like this never fail to inspire me of the unlimited possibilities that exist should we clean up our waterways.

Something worth noting is that the van I was riding in, as well as Jum’s car, were both run on natural gas! Maybe that’s why, although Bangkok has the traffic of Metro Manila, it doesn’t have the same pollution levels. While Manila has gray skies, Bangkok skies are bright and blue. Jum pointed out to me vehicles that run on LPG. Other cars had CGV stickers. (Compressed Gas Vehicle). Jum’s van was NGV (Natural Gas Vehicle). So the cars don’t pollute, plus the cost of the gas is much cheaper than fuel! The government really supports a green economy.

Jum and me at the night market which opens at 10 p.m. and disappears by early morning.

What impressed me deeply is how the government supports agriculture. Jum brought me to a place where she pointed out a freezer truck which brings produce from the farmers to the market. The roads were first class. There are ATMs everywhere which enabled transfer of money, even if they have no bank accounts. She told me of places with mountains of fruit.

That’s food security! That’s probably why the food in Thailand is of superior quality and so inexpensive! The purchasing power of the Thai baht is high. She showed me several big houses and cars belonging to farmers.

It was such an amazing trip. It was an experience for me to be eating all this street food. Tasty and inexpensive was a repeated experience.

One factor that comes up as one goes around Bangkok is the reverence they all have for their king. He is apparently a moral force in Thailand and continues to keep the country together.

In two days, I felt like I’d spent a week there. There was so much to do. We missed out on the crocodile and elephant show. But we did what my kids like best: eat. If you want to eat to your heart’s content and not spend a lot of money, Bangkok is the place to go.

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I can be reached at regina_lopez@abs-cbn.com.

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