Honeymoon Day 2: Bangkok

26th January, 2024

Hello everyone,

We are winding up day 2 in Bangkok and while not fully adjusted to the time zone, we are feeling more rested.

We started the day with a cooking class at the Baipai Cooking School, at the recommendation of some friends who went to Bangkok a while ago (thank you Liz & Tyler).

The school setting was unexpectedly peaceful – you would never know how bustling the streets nearby are when you’re there. It’s open air but covered and surrounded by trees so despite the heat near the end, it was quite comfortable. The school has a koi fish pond with a pagoda over it, a demonstration area, and ten or more cooking stations.

We were the only ones to book that day so we got a private class. We made “Por Peea Todd” (spring rolls), “Larb Moo” (minced pork salad), “Tom Kah Gai” (chicken and galangal in coconut milk soup), and “Pad See Ew Moo” (stir-fried rice noodles with pork). Everything was delicious, thankfully, we could adjust the spice level as desired. We definitely should have eaten less breakfast.

They showed us their small garden and talked about some of the quintessential Thai and Eastern Asian flavors, like kafir lime (the juice is much more sour and bitter than the limes we are used to in the States or the UK but the leaves and rinds are used), galangal (in the same family as ginger but much more peppery-tasting), coconut (the milk & cream), and specific kinds of chili peppers. Fish sauce, sugar, and glass noodles are also heavily featured in Thai food.

Sarah’s favorite was the Larb Moo, which involved toasting and grinding a combination of jasmine and white rice, pan frying pork, and then combining them with fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce, seasoned soy sauce, lime juice, and kafir lime leaves. Spenser liked the spring rolls best, which contained pork, cabbage, carrot, mushroom, coriander root, garlic, and vermicelli, and some seasoning. We had to be careful not to overfill the spring roll sheets because they can break quite easily.

Afterward, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit as Bangkok reached the hottest part of the day. We stopped by the daily afternoon tea and then we headed out to Wat Pho, one of the more popular temples in the city, known for the reclining Buddha. It was very beautiful, though we didn’t learn a whole lot about it since we didn’t do a tour.

The temples provide skirt-like and shawl-like pieces of clothing that you can put on for entering the temple grounds if you’re wearing shorts or sleeveless shirts/dresses. However, we were appropriately covered, having read about slightly more conservative dress in Southeast Asia. To enter the temple buildings themselves, you also had to take off your shoes and they had plenty of cubbies or you could get a bag and carry them around with you.

Afterward, we had drinks and a tasty appetizer at bar nearby called Rongros which we learned afterward had been added to the Michelin guide last year. Then we went next door to another great place to have a light dinner, where the minced pork on tangerine slices and vegetable fried rice were excellent. One of the draws of both restaurants is the view of the river and Wat Arun, another of the large temples in the city which looked beautiful all lit up at night.

All in all, it was a lovely day. We are glad we decided to get here a couple of days early to adjust to the time zone and also content with not spending too much more time in Bangkok. It’s an interesting place with great food, but we are looking forward to smaller cities and the rest of the sites and activities on our itinerary.

Lots of love,

Sarah & Spenser

Making spring rolls