Today we have a “historic Bangrak food tour”.  We got up and had coffee and then headed out to meet the group at the sky train station.  We had a group of 8–4 other Americans from Salt Lake City and Dallas and a couple from Germany and us.  Our guides name was Sai which means Sand…..Bangrak is where we are staying and is the original Bangkok neighborhood settled long ago by the river.  It is both residential and commercial and a mix of nationalities and religions.  The first place we headed was a small food stall on the same small street our hotel is on.  We sat down and had duck in sweet sauce with rice and crispy pork.  This was “free range duck ” so less fatty and prepared in a Chinese/Thai way.  There was a sweet sauce and an spicy fish sauce to add  duck with sweet sauce crispy pork spicy sauce to add

Next we headed out and walked about 15 minutes to an Indian restaurant.  There we had roti filled with stirfry and folded over into a square package and massamon curry.  She also ordered a cucumber relish to add to the whole dish.  Finally she brought out fried cow brains but did not tell us what it was until after we tried it—ick!

   Massamon curry  stir fried beef brain

On the way Sai bought us some street snacks and we stopped and looked at a local temple.  The monks were chanting–it was very beautiful.

 Sugared tamarind snacks

  Local temple

 Local street

Next we headed back to the river and took a cross river ferry to the THonburi side.  This was where the original king settled but then ran out of room and moved the palace and town across the river to where Bangkok is now.  On the way we stopped at the first Catholic Church in Bangkok from the 1700s.

Cross river ferry

This restaurant was on stilts and floating.  This was a true Thai restaurant.  Here we had papaya salad, pork waterfall, and fried chicken with lemon grass threads and bergamot leaves.  Sai showed us how to eat with our hands using sticky rice.  We were not very successful.   We also had some sweet gummy squares bought on the street.  It was all very deliscious.  These are all apparently traditional Thai dishes

 Papaya salad pork waterfall

  Stick rice above in bamboo carrier, sweet gummy candies dyed all different colors.

We headed back across the river and the next stop was a pastry shop for custard buns and Thai tea. The custard buns had bright green custard in them made from panda leaves.  They were deliscious!  Here are a few street scenes also.  We are very full by now but still not done!

Finally we headed to our last restaurant, Kalpapruek.  This restaurant is owned by the king’s great grandson and is famous.  Here we had fried roti with green chicken curry and coconut ice cream.  We are totally stuffed but we had a great time and learned a lot.

Fried roti, green curry, and coconut ice cream with Jack fruit slices

At 1230 we ended our tour and Sai walked us to the BTS station.  We took the sky train to the subway station and the subway to the massive train station.  We need to pick up our tickets for later in the trip.  This was our first rides on the Bangkok sky train and subway and they were clean and crowded but very fast and with good signs and English announcements.  We found the ticket counter 12Go Asia  and got our tickets plus bought some tickets for later in the trip.  This is a great company and they were very helpful.  We met 2 kids from Carolina in that office doing a semester abroad in Singapore.  We asked, but they did not know Sam.  We took a tuk tuk to the pier and a ferry back to the hotel—we need a few hours to digest and be off of our feet!

At 6pm we headed to the pier again to take a sunset longboat tour.  This required some negotiation and I am quite sure we were taken advantage of but anyway, we enjoyed the evening on the river and got to see the THonburi longs where people live in stilt houses right on the canals.  There was abject poverty right next to beautiful mansions, next to bejeweled Wats.   Thai people believe that all object have a spirit so they decorate thier boats and cars and motorcycles with flowers and jewels for the spirits.

We had the longboat drop us at china town and we walked the streets looking at all the street food.  It was chaotic and difficult to manage.  We finally sat down and ate off the street.  Sage had Bolzano and egg rolls and I had duck with noodles and crab balls.  After dinner we went to the best tea house and had a quiet cup of tea.  It was a great way to end our “foodie day”!