It’s been more than a year now that I haven’t finished the posts about the trip to Indonesia with my mother and brother, last October. With all the changes and strange situations of 2020 (pandemic for the future readers) I wasn’t in the mood for writing about traveling and carefree situations. But, the time has come, I can’t hold it anymore, I risk forgetting everything!
So, here we go again, the last stop of our trip was the city of Bangkok! Sadly, for two days only, but it was enough to be fully charmed, I must say. It was the perfect closure of our vacation, with so many things to see and do, so many options, that now that I try to remember these days I wonder how we even managed to do all these stuff!
I’ve made two posts about it, because you know…so many photos! Here I’ll present you the wholesale markets that I loved, like a colorful beehive, the life around them on the streets and this vibrant aspect of the city that is very characteristic in asian cultures.
Starting with the wholesale flower market, my favorite! This was mostly inside a large structure with numerous market benches and sellers. Like a large complex with many many little shops on the perimeter and on the inside, at an open space area.
The only product as you can understand was all kind of flowers. So many flowers, everywhere!!! Because of their religion and their rituals almost all asian people use fresh flowers in their everyday life so the need for them is huge. They offer them to their gods, they wear them in special occasions and they decorate with them the temples etc.
It was funny to watch all these people to get bored around flowers, as they were waiting for clients, we are used to be quite enthusiast around them because we use them only in special occasions, but for them no, it’s their everyday life. My favorite moment maybe in the whole trip was in that flower market, where I was strolling around weary but fascinated and this thai song was playing on the loudspeakers:
It was like a surreal dream, I shazamed it right away and saved it to my music list forever! I hear it whenever I’m cooking asian dishes in my kitchen, to catch the feeling and pass it to my cooking!…
Continuing with the flower market, there were offered not only flowers but greenery also and leaves, like banana leaves that I could recognise, fruits (so many limes) etc. It was a real pleasure for the eyes!
On the next block of photos there is the neighborhood around the flower market, the large streets, the shops on the street and of course the street food carts with all kind of treats. Fuschia taxis, trolleys with mountains of yellow flowers, colorful tuk tuk cars waiting to take passengers make the scenery there.
At the next block there are some more photos from the inside of the market, with all the countairs full of flowers and fruits and the people working around them. We bought a local sweet treat from a very nice lady that was served inside a banana leaf, I don’t remember what was it but it was delicious! With rice, palm sugar I think, maybe coconut and something green!
And the last block of photos from the flower market, with fresh ginger in any form, corridors inside the market or outside with some fruits and vegetables and the backstages of the shops.
Then, the next wholesale market we visited there was the Chinese market. If I remember correctly we went by foot from the flower market and it was even larger than that. Chinese people are very powerful and significant in Indonesia in general, they are very close afterall. So, a chinese market couldn’t be missing from the city of Bangkok. I remember I was very impressed by the area around the market, different kind of buildings, quiet but crowded at the same time streets and a lot of chicken or ducks – I didn’t noticed to tell you the truth- grillhouses.
Inside the market was something different: so many little, tiny, silly things, and again…so many of them!!
My favorite part of the chinese market was – of course – the food section!!! You can’t imagine the stuff they were sold. Strange fruits and vegetables, dried fishes and not only, canned stuff and I don’t know what else! And between the shops there were small restaurants full of people eating right from the market.
Except the small restaurants there were all over the place street food carts with sweet stuff mostly. We tried out something like a coconut pancake, very delicious!! If I was more brave I would eat from all the carts there!
I’m closing this post in the spirit of street food culture which I adore but at the same time I’m a real chicken to try that food, in fear of risking my vacations! But there was a solution for me in the amazing city of Bangkok, the small restaurant Tealicious, proposed by the tripadvisor, with thai street food dishes in an alley famous for the food. Right accross a quite famous (I learnt it afterwards) street food cart, so we were in the heart of it but eating in a safer way. Pad thai, noodles with vegetables and chicken and a curry soup very delicious all of them!
Oh nooo, I just googled it and found out that it closed permanently due to covid situation… 😦
Such a melancholy epilogue, I didn’t plan it!
my blue flamingo 