David Robinson

Sep 23, 20223 min read

Street art, bustling markets and mother roaster in Chinatown, Bangkok

We enjoyed how comfy and nice our room was in the morning, having a lazy start to the day and having some breakfast in the room that we had picked up the day before. Then like usual for us we headed out into the midday sun to explore the local area of Chinatown in Bangkok. We made our way back past Wat Trammit and the Chinatown gate in the daylight and found ourselves winding some smaller streets marvelling at all the shops with thousands of mechanical parts in them. Down one of these streets we saw a local stewed pork leg restaurant so decided to have an early lunch and to hide a bit from the glaring sunshine. We pointed at the pictures on the wall and found ourselves with hefty portions of stewed pork leg and rice with an egg and plenty of mustard greens and side chillies (114B all together).

Shortly after this we cut down a small alleyway to Talad Noi area. The walls were covered with fantastic street area done by local schools, with a school group even painting one as we were there. This was not the only reason we were there though and we wound our way through various junk items of the lower floor up the stairs to Mother Roaster coffee. There were so many different types of coffee as well as different types of beans. We chose to have drip coffees and the baristas let us smell various local beans before we selected which ones we wanted (100B each). The baristas were meticulous with measurements and processes which was really interesting to watch as they used different tools for different coffees. The shop itself was an old wooden local house, very traditional in style for the area.

After thoroughly enjoying our coffee we explored more of the Talad Noi area, seeing various shrines, more artwork, and interesting shops before joining back on one of the main roads of Chinatown. There were lots more chinese and modern looking coffee shops in these back alleys surrounded by old style labouring.

We went to explore the Old Market area which was much bigger than it seemed- getting lost in a maze of bustling people and shops of all varieties. It was covered over the passageways though and you were constantly blasted with cool air from the various ACs in the shops, despite it being so packed together. It was incredibly colourful and lively, and we also had to keep diving and dodging our way from various scooters/motorbikes that were driving through the tiny alleyways filled with people and goods. After a good exploration we headed back to our calm hotel room to cool off for a while.

In the evening we headed back to Siam area. We wanted to watch the latest Thor movie and the malls all have cinemas that do english showing with thai subtitles at certain times. Last time we visited Bangkok we actually went to one of the VIP cinema screenings where you have canapes first, get drinks and popcorn and have reclining sofa seats. There are also now various other types of cinemas there such as Bed cinemas and other VIP luxury cinemas. We didn’t feel the need to do that again for the amount it was going to cost us this time so instead headed to Central World for a standard screening (19.20 B for both of us). Before going in though we made the most of the food court there (Food World) though and got ourselves dinner having a very tasty Khao Soi (69B) and Char Siu noodle soup (95B). Then it was time for the film so we made our way to a very quiet cinema where we ended up with comfy seats and lots of space anyway!