Last days in Bangkok - More eating


Jan 12
We arrived in Bangkok on Friday, Jan 10th and after lunch and running errands we came back and rested. The air quality is awful. We couldn’t see some buildings in Bangkok due to air pollution. We wore our face masks. The heat and humidity are oppressive as well. That night we went across the street for a simple Thai meal and brought Leslie, our host, some grilled chicken back to the apartment.

On Saturday we ran some errands, I got a mani/pedicure while Ron indulged in a foot massage. We walked a few blocks to one of our favorite restaurants, Cabbages and Condoms. This restaurant raises money for HIV/AIDS education and healthcare. Throughout the restaurants are full-sized manikins dressed in outfits made from condoms. They also have a gift shop filled with items made by Hill Tribes in N Thailand. I found two items I wanted. We called our friend Nuch who met us at the restaurants loaded with gifts for Nattawan and for us. Nuch is the mother of Nuun who was an exchange student in the Portland area ten + years ago. She and Auem lived with Nattawan and Sam for nine months and we helped out by bringing the girls to our home on the weekend and some holidays to give Nattawan a break. Tonight we will have dinner with Aum and her family. Auem is completing her Ph.D. in England but is in town over the winter break.

We came home and got ready for a special evening. Leslie is a real food aficionado and wanted to try and new restaurant she had discovered, Saawaan, translated as Angel. This is a set menu/price restaurant with two seatings a night. We took the 6:00 slot. OMG. Our eight-course meal not counting two dishes to cleanse our palettes was a magnificent experience. About once a decade we have such a meal. This one had a theme; all the ways Thais prepare food. Here is our menu.


We had a dish first that wasn’t on the menu; it had a small slice of potato top[ed with a sauce and then something else on top of that


Raw-sea urchin/Mandan fruit/homemade chili jam



Dip-rice paddy crab/sticky rice












Fermented-black pork/pickled cucumber/Thai herbs


Boiled-Beef soup/Bai Ya Nang Broth/hump beef













Miang-wild tea leaves This was one of the palette cleansers

Stir-Fried- Samut Songkhram Mud Crab/Bai Liang/Stinky Bean













Charcoaled-Nakhon Pathom Quail, Papaya, Sida Tomato



Curry-Adaman Black Grouper, Panang/Eggplant, Phayao Jasmine Rice



Dessert-Gluay Nam Wa, Coconut-Sesame Mango

This was followed by another sweet treat which was not as spectacular as the other courses. I left out one palette cleanser as it wasn’t on the menu.

Each and every dish was a culinary experience not to be forgotten. Each of us oohed and aahed throughout the meal. We tried to pick our favorite dish but discovered it was impossible. Each time we tried to name one we will shout, ‘no wait it was…then go to another choice. Unlike Phetchaburi, our bill was close to $400 but it was worth every cent.

Jan 12
Today is set aside to refine our packing. Our suitcase and carry-on bags are over the required airline weight limit. We rearranged some things, gave more items to Leslie to give away or to use herself and Ron worked his packing magic and got us ‘legal’. We can only hope Leslie’s digital scales match the airline scales. The cost of an overweight bag is $190. Ouch!

Leslie is a Scrabble master and challenged us to a game. It is always great fun because she knows so much about words that qualify, words we don’t even know like the currencies on foreign countries we have never been to. Leslie, by contrast, has worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Moldova, and more. Leslie won but no one was surprised.

We will go out for lunch in the neighborhood and then at 5:00 Dr. Krishrat is picking us up to take us to a restaurant to have dinner with his family. We need to get to bed early as our taxi will pick us up at 6:00 AM for the trip to the airport. He hired the man who we used to go to and from Phetchaburi because he has an SUV that will hold all our luggage: one large suitcase, one Thai ‘suitcase’ which is a large sewn plastic bag which saves us pounds on the scales, two large screen TV boxes that Ron cut to fit our four paintings we are taking home,  two laptop carry-on roller bags, two backpacks that will contain stuff weighing 15 lbs. OY! BUT…we get to take almost everything home. As I said, we gave away stuff in Phetchaburi and here. Leslie offered to bring some things back when she takes her home leave at Easter so I gave her three books I would like to have with the caveat that she can throw them away since all of them can be replaced. We decided to take things downstairs tonight and leave with the reception/guards that staff the lobby to save us trying to haul the stuff at 5:45 a.m.
Our last night's dinner was with our Friend Auem and her parents, Dr. Krishrat and Daung Chai, her brother Om and his family and his wife's sister and her daughter.  A wonderful evening of fun and laughter.  Daung Chai picked a local suburban mall with Italian food because she thought we might be tired of Thai food.





This blog will continue as it is designed to cover our transition from our condo in Portland to the house in Vancouver to the apartment in the house in Vancouver and then to where we decide to live outside the USA.  More to follow, once construction is finished.  Keep your fingers crossed.



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