why bangkok is great

Since I live here full time, I don't usually pay close enough to the reasons why I like Bangkok so much. I take the city for granted and complain about the traffic. But coming back after a month in Canada I'm alert to to observing the things that suit me here.

Here goes: grilled savoury rice cakes for 10 baht (20 cents cdn); the motorized chestnut-roasting carts; cheap cab rides; never having to use mosturizing lotion and never having to wear socks; the way that the guys who sell freshly boiled, salted corn on the cob also always sell boiled peanuts; aromatic vats of pork leg 'n egg gracing every food court; the sun always shines even on rainy days; seeing street-side flower sellers threading jasmine flowers into good luck loops; the way the fruit seller places ice on top of the sliced pineapple to keep it chilled; seeing a poodle outside a noodle shop with two bowls in front of him: one filled with dog food and the other filled with chipped ice to help keep that noodle-shop-dwelling poodle keep cool; crazy-ass tropical plants and flowers; standing at attention while the national anthem plays before movies; awesomely funny Thai advertising.

There was a great ad on just before the movie I saw yesterday. It starts out with a street scene somewhere outside of Bangkok. Maybe Chiang Mai. In the street there's a show-down between a handsome, ruggedly refined chap and some hoodlums. The handsome dude kung fus himself over a rickshaw and knocks the gangsters down with a revolving kick. A big, tough white guy menaces our hero. The hero gives the white guy a whumping. Then the hero turns towards the screen, and peels open a juicy longan fruit and pops it into his mouth. He says something in Thai that I figure must translate as "Longans help you kick ass!" He turns to his left and there's a chubby policeman standing there, holding a bunch of longan. The hero reaches to take one, and the policeman hunches away, clutching the longan to his own chest, refusing the hero. The hero grins. End of scene, and then there's a flash of the eat-more-longan campaign logo.

And apparently this thing has gone international. Check out Mr. Longan visiting Australia:

[Bangkok-4-September-2005]

a real ice cream sandwich

To-be-added-to-the-why-Bangkok's-great-post: ice cream sandwiches here do not involve rectangular chocolate cookie wafers as the 'bread' portion of the sandwich. Nope. If you stop an ice cream sandwich man here in Thailand, he'll pull his bicycle-based cart to the side of the road, he'll take out a nice fresh roll (akin to a beefy looking hot dog bun), he'll slice open the bun and then while he holds the bun in one hand, he'll scoop out vanilla ice cream with the other hand and then tuck the scoops into the bun, then he'll add your choice of toppings - could be you want sweet sticky rice, maybe you prefer corn niblets, or coconut cubes, or maybe all three - then, he'll top it off with a little bit of chocolate sauce if it suits your fancy, and voila! A real ice cream sandwich. [Bangkok-5-September-2005] back to top