Nana Nights

Mark met us (Dale and me) at the Nana train stop for dinner last night.  This is 9 train stops away from where we have been staying, so maybe about 12 miles or so.  He was staying at the Ambassador Hotel, one of several large western-style hotels in Bangkok which are clustered in this area.  There is a famous alley called No. 11 that they all share, and this small road hosts numerous restaurants, stores, and massage parlors of various types.  The tourists come for the massages and the locals are glad to provide them.  We were there to spectate, and there was quite a spectacle to see.

Mark has been stying there all week and he knew the various haunts.  I was a bit concerned as he demonstrated his breadth of knowledge, but he said it all had come from just walking in the evenings and having a look around.  Nothing so personal as actually getting a massage, he said, and I tend to believe him.  Anyway, short skirts and fancy hair were everywhere.  It was what Bangkok is famous for providing, and the Australian and UK accents on the tourists said it all.

One small note for my American readers:  this area, and most in Bangkok, at street level was filled with the various odors for which the tropic is also famous.  Up through the gutters comes sewage smells.  Passing by a street vendor selling fish grilled on an open fire you get that aroma, or the next stand stir-frying garlic and noodles together.  A converted VW Microbus sits to the side of the road decked out in flashing neon lights, the top hinged back exposing a mobile bar complete with beer on tap, a liquor shelf with under-shelf lighting, loud music blaring, and European customers sitting on patio furniture drinking around it.  Prices from the van bartender are a fraction of the prices for the same drinks inside the hotels, so it is an attractive option if you want to take in the street scene from a comfortable seat.  After all, it is a sort of parade that walks itself by for your amusement.

Dale and I had traveled over from our hotel to meet Mark at 7:00.  We walked up and down the street once and settled on the Shangrila Restaurant which had an island motif and a tourist menu.  We sat inside the glassed-in area in AC comfort, but there were lots of patrons in the warm night air.   We shared several Thai dishes and a couple of beers.  I had Tiger Beer from Singapore, and they had Singha Beer, a local product.  We finished about 9:30 and strolled the walk again.  Dinner was good but not spicy and featured fried wantons, chicken satay, very tame sauces, a duck dish that was very good, Phad Thai (Dale's favorite) and a seafood medley.  Mark's flight was at 5:00 am this morning, so he turned in and Dale and I headed back.  We made a stop at a rooftop bar Chris had taken me to earlier in the week and I had a screwdriver made with fresh squeezed oranges, and Dale had a gin and tonic.  I was back to the room at about 11.

I would note that getting to the rooftop bar is not for the timid.  It is necessary to enter a street level stairway that looks like the kitchen entrance for the bottom floor restaurant with slick nasty concrete stairs at the bottom.   Graffiti in the stairwell is graphic but not violent and features dragons and spiders on different landings, including a metal Spiderman near the top.  The top bar is on the 6th floor so you have lots of stairs to climb and there are other bars on the different landings as you go up.   Once on the top floor there is a balcony with tables and chairs (all filled when we got there last night) with a good look over the train station and the city.  There is no AC.  The bar is about 8 x 8' area where a very small Thai girl is mixing drinks (nobody bigger would fit).  Three small Thai guys chase up beer for patrons from boxes they carry up from the bottom floor, including the ice they use to keep them cool.  This is not a "chrome and glass" glitzy place, this is an Authentic Thai place that is bohemian in the sense of the 1950's beatniks, where talking revolution and treason sits side by side with reviews of the newest Samsung cell phone.

One small note from the evening.  At the Nana train station exit there were many, many street vendors selling goods, including knives, hunting rifle telescopes, bootleg DVD's, and all sorts of durable goods that we did not see at the Weekend Market at Mo Chit.  Some of the knives had brass knuckle handles with spikes on them.  These were very nasty.  So far this is the only place we have seen anything that resembles the sort of violent weaponry we are used to seeing in the USA.  Thai people seem to be a gentler sort that than this.  I'm sure they sell this to the tourists, but I didn't like seeing it, all the same.  I suppose people can check this on the airplane to get it home?

Here are the two guys who made my time in Bangkok so much fun.  Mark Moriarty and Dale Gremaux.  Thanks guys!