Reunion

Petchuburi traffic again, only wetter.

Bangkok is fully awake at 5:30 AM.  I was on my way back to the airport to meet My One and fetch her back to the guesthouse hideaway.  Retracing my steps of the previous day, sans heavy luggage, I rode the MRT to Petchaburi and then walked above the madness of Bangkok rush hour traffic to the airport train station.  The rain was washing the Big Mango as it is wont to do in the rainy season.  Once inside the airport, I took up my postition in the limo driver corral outside the customs exit.  During the tourist season this area is full of drivers and tour operators waving their signs for the hordes of incoming Farrang.  The airport is much quieter at this time of year, with an eerie abscence of the familiar hordes of arriving holiday makers.  The rains will last until well into October when the monsoon draws to a close.  November will see the first of the Farrang migration, which swells into flood tide in December.  But not now.  

My Heart appeared before me and we washed away the month of absence.  That is not the stuff of this blog, so control yourselves.  Reunited, I wisked her back along the same route to our guesthouse.  Our hosts provided us with the typical bad Thai version of Brekkie, a horribly abused egg and two pieces of toast.  

We were not alone during our late brekkie, as the local snails were on the prowl across the back of our bench.

While My Heart caught up on some badly needed sleep, recovering from the Vienna-Abu Dahbi-Bangkok route, I slipped away to my favorite noodle stand just up from our soi.  Hunkered under the blue tarp roof, I managed a real Thai breakfast.

Yeah, that's the stuff.  You keep the nasty eggses.  Yes, Precious, we wants our noodles!

Groggy but back on her feet, we were out on the streets and alleys by afternoon, walking through the heavy air of the back streets along the Chao Praya River.  Familiar streets, sounds and smells.  One of the most enticing and frenetic places on earth, the labyrinth of Bangkok's Chinatown will turn any walk into an adventure.  Sight, sound and smell will overcome navigational ability until one loses all sense of direction.  

A vat of steaming and aromatic pork being stirred and shredded.  It is then pressed into thin sheets and vacumn packed, ready for sale.  Like almost any other business in The Big Mango, the activity is pushed right out to the sidewalk.  Life here is conducted in the public view, open and vibrant.

Dinner time in Chinatown means eating on the street.  In this case, eating on the street in the rain.  The indoor restaurants are for the tourists and the faint-of-heart.  This place is my old standby, a long-standing favorite of the locals, tucked just off the insanity of the main drag through Chinatown.  I have been coming here for years and this is always my first stop on any street food walking tour of the neighborhood.

In the foreground, my favorite, fiery Phad Kee Mao with seafood.  My Baby chose a glass noodle seafood plate, pictured upper right.  For sharing, we had the crispy omelet with oysters on the left.  All of these delectables came sizzling on hot iron plates with a wooden carrier underneath.  Green lettuce leaves are dropped onto the hot iron to keep the noodles from sticking.  The greens char to a lovely texture, soaking up all of the fiery spice.  Yummers indeed.  

We walked back to the digs through the maze of sidewalks turned magically to tented cafes.  It is like threading a needle through a culinary dreamscape.  The smell of myriad cooking foods literally assaults ones senses.  The rain fell, warm and magical.  Traffic veered about the rain slickened streets. Just another night in rainy season Bangkok.

My One passed out into a well-deserved sleep.   I sat on the balcony, watching the rain and my friend the gecko.  And that, Friends and Neighbors, brings us full circle on my arrival back into the wonder of The Big Mango.  I leave you where I started, content with the rain, the heat, the sweat, and the noises of the night.  As always, thanks for reading, and Ciao for Now!