260591 Tue Nov 13 19:44:50 -0800 2001 8 26 International 0 1377097 Hey Hounds, would appreciate recs for Bangkok and Chiang Mai with the following caveat - I'll be traveling on my own for part of this trip, and thus need places where a woman on her own would feel comfortable - both eating there and getting to the restaurant itself. I'm a New Yorker and not scared of much, but expect jet lag and culture shock to play some sort of a role in keeping me more on the beaten path than I am at home. Tue Nov 13 19:44:50 -0800 2001 0 Elaine(Snutteplutten) 1 1377098 Oooh, jealousy already seeping in... see my post and the related threads from March. All of the places I mentioned there would be very comfortable for a lone female traveler and are well-located. Baan Chiang, which I highly recommend, is a little hard to find and might involve some walking along dark streets, so maybe do a cab. Also, my boyfriend still swoons over the food he had at Le Dalat (Vietnamese) without me - it's in all the guidebooks. For quicker or cheaper bites, the food in Silom Village is often a lot better than you might expect. Also really good selection at busy stalls on the soi next to the main post office (not far from River City, to orient you) (no pun intended), and at the night markets off Charoen Krung. Tue Nov 13 20:01:30 -0800 2001 1377097 0 Mary Shaposhnik 2 1377099 Thanks, Mary. I read your posts back in the spring, and I actually think that those threads were part of what got me fixated on Thailand for my next "big trip." It's good to know that those are places I'll feel comfortable at during the solo part of the trip. Tue Nov 13 22:25:58 -0800 2001 1377098 0 Elaine(Snutteplutten) 3 1377102 A Bangkok based relative tells me that the Sukothai Hotel has the best upmarket straight Thai restaurant in the city.I have been there and both food and service are wonderful.A solo female would,I'm sure,feel totally relaxed. Wed Nov 14 02:26:44 -0800 2001 1377099 0 Tony Finch 1 1377100 Hey Elaine -- Glad to hear you're going to Chiang Mai as well as Bangkok, hope you get the chance to do some overnight hiking while you're up north. By far the best recommendation I can make for Chiang Mai is to take cooking lessons at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School run by Somphon and Elizabeth Nabnian. They give a two-day course that includes a market visit (the coconut milk making process is particularly fun and interesting) and allows hands-on preparation of about eight different dishes. Everyone gets their own mortar and pestle and bangs merrily away to make their own curry paste, which is then used to cook various dishes. Great fun and much more tiring than one would think. Their office is at 1-3 Moonmuang Road at the Thaphae Gate and the phone number is (053) 206388. The added benefit is that you'll likely meet fellow travelers taking the lessons who are as interested in food as you are. You can then go out to eat as a group and sample a whole slew of different dishes. Somphon can also point the way to some great eats. He'll know where the best places are these days. As for Bangkok, I'd say that the street vendors are the best in the world. Satay grilled to order for about ten cents. A big scoop of rice and two dishes of your choice for about forty cents. Just point like everyone else does to what you want. Fair warning -- if you eat on the street, be prepared for some serious Scoville units -- the food is spiced to Thai tolerance levels. But absolutely nothing beats getting sôm-tam (green papaya salad) macheted to order from an old woman balancing two baskets on a long bamboo pole. The Night Market off Silom Rd is one of the best places to try the different vendor offerings. A really fun indoor setting is the food court at MBK (Mahboonkrong), the massive mall across from Siam Square. Language here won't be a problem either -- just buy a bunch of tickets at the booths, then wander around pointing at whatever catches your eye. Kinda like a kid at a carnival. Tremendously entertaining, we can only wish that all malls were like this one. The more upscale sitdown joints are also highly recommended, including Le Dalat (Vietnamese), Cabbages and Condoms and Laicram for good to great Thai (both off Sukhumvit). The only real disappointment is dimsum at China House at the Oriental. Ridiculously solicitous service where the waitresses outnumber the patrons by three to one, making for the most surreal dim sum experience I've ever had, if not particularly delicious. I could go on forever, but I would be especially remiss if I didn't mention Chatuchak, the Weekend Market. Huge (larger than in Paris) and the very definition of sensory overload, including the food -- don't miss the bubbling woks of oil where all sorts of bugs are fried as you order them (or other people order them as the case may be). Locusts, larvae, some black roach-looking beetle called mangda, all these and more. Too bad you missed the Vegetarian Festival in Phuket in October. Great veggie food and astounding displays of faith -- guys with spears through their cheeks, others flailing themselves with maces and axes, all to be miraculously healed within days. Never seen anything else like it. Have fun! Tue Nov 13 22:32:27 -0800 2001 1377097 0 Dennison 1 1377101 You might want to look for a quite detailed post by Tida from a while back on her eating experiences in Bangkok. Tue Nov 13 23:48:02 -0800 2001 1377097 0 Caitlin McGrath 1 1377107 I sometimes have problems getting good Thai food in Thailand because my family thinks that since I was born in the States, I couldn't possibly be interested in the real thing. I've had to sit politely through more than a few dismal hotel restaurant meals in Bangkok eating stuff that would strike me as disappointingly watered down even by Des Moines standards. And then there was that time they got me all excited about going to a "very special restaurant", and it ended up being Sizzler. I kid you not. They all went gaga over the salad bar concept. Some of my cousins, though, are real chowhounds, and the last time I was there they took me to a place where I had the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life. They marinate it in something deeply flavorful (fish sauce and something else--sometimes when I taste something so unbelievable delicious, I deliberately suppress my curiosity about what goes into it, I want to prolong the sense that something truly magical is happening) and then deep fry the whole chicken along with great handfuls of thinly sliced garlic. The chicken gets hacked into pieces and arrives on your plate accompanied by the crispy garlic rounds. This is the specialty of the house, unavailable at any other restaurant according to my cousins, and all the other dishes seem to be designed to go with the chicken. I usually order it with some a clear spicy seafood soup "tom saap" and some papaya salad, and of course a beer. I don't know if the restaurant has an official name, but it's very close to the Bangkok Polo Club, so we just call it "Polo chicken". This is the address, courtesy of my cousin: [Here's the address of "Kai Tod Je Kee" a.k.a. "Polo club fried chicken" 137/1-2 Soi Polo Wireless (Witthayu) Rd. Lumpinee Patumwan Bangkok I don't know their area code though. if you ask Thai person for Wireless Rd, 90% of us wouldn't know that this road existed because we call it Witthayu Road.] Wed Nov 14 11:16:28 -0800 2001 1377097 0 Tom Meg 1 1377251 in bangkok: besides the restaurant at the sukathai (mentioned in this string already), you would enjoy and feel very comfortable at the spice market at the regent hotel --it is the other "upmarket" top pick and superior (better flavors, more power and more finesse) to baan chiang and other places we visited based on recommendations from friends and post here. don't feel that just because its in a luxury shopping mall attached to a luxury hotel that it will watered down or inauthentic; quite the contrary. I agree with the post that says skip the Oriental's thai restaurant. Mon Nov 26 16:41:11 -0800 2001 1377097 0 kirk wallace 1 1377255 BANGKOK Than Ying 10 Soi Pramuan This is a 15-minute walk from the Oriental or the Shangri-La, if you happen to be staying at either of these hotels. Truly superb royal-style Thai food served in an elegant, almost Victorian, mansion. Despite the stunning quality of the cuisine and the sophistication of the surroundings, you'll be hard-pressed to spend more than US$15-20 for two. Celadon The Sukothai Hotel 13 South Sathorn Road Understated, minimalist luxury is the watchword here...very zen. Arguably Bangkok's finest Thai restaurant, though Than Ying gives it a run for its money, IMO. Nevertheless, you'll be floored by the extensive menu, the cool, refined ambiance, and the very discreet service. Unless you order wine (which is uniformly overpriced, another reason to opt for beer), your bill for two will probably not even hit US$30. The rapport de qualité-prix in Thailand, as you'll soon discover, is staggering. Himali Cha Cha 1229/11 Charoen Krung Road Also within an easy stroll of the Oriental and the Shangri-La, this dark, funky cave of a restaurant serves up terrific North Indian food. The lamb vindaloo here will bring tears to your eyes. I'll try to dig up some notes on Chiang Mai and post on that city as well. Mon Nov 26 21:55:25 -0800 2001 1377097 0 David Russell