First time in Bangkok

In April, I spent a few days in Bangkok, Thailand on a business trip. Being a fan of Thai food, Thailand is somewhere I have always wanted to visit. Thanks to our wonderful customers’ generosity and hospitality, we had a great experience and I already cannot wait to go back someday!

The first day we arrived at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport and were taken to our hotel. It was about 34°C (93.2°F), humid and sunny outside, and I loved it! I immediately noticed how wide the roads are and how the traffic, types of cars, and huge billboards reminded me of LA more than Japan. It was also what I expected of a Southeast Asian city—very dirty, smelly, and lots of people everywhere (also, stray dogs!). 

Our amazing customer who was our tour guide for the week

Our hotel in Bangkok

Every business has a shrine for employees and customers to pray at any time of day.

Our customers treated us to dinner at a Japanese-style restaurant that served all kinds of authentic Japanese dishes. The area we stayed in had lots of Japanese who either lived in Bangkok or were traveling there for business, so there were lots of Japanese restaurants and lots of Japanese writing everywhere. Although we didn’t eat Thai food that day, it was a good starting point for me because I was a little bit nervous of eating actual Thai food and possibly getting sick. Since our customer is Japanese, I knew we would only be taken to places that were clean and safe. The best part about dinner for me was the dessert—sticky rice with fresh cut mango and coconut sauce drizzled on top! It is one of my favorite Thai desserts and I just had to have it as soon as I got to Thailand.

My favorite Thai dessert

We stopped in a 7-11 after dinner and I found all these Japanese snacks

Snacks like in Japan, but with Thai names

Serving sizes are smaller but so cheap (5 baht = about 15 cents)

View from my hotel room--literally an urban jungle!

Breakfast at the hotel every day consisted of Japanese food, fresh fruit, and bread

The next day we started installing our inspection equipment into the customer’s factory and I trained the operators on how to set up and use the equipment. The customers took us out to a Thai-Chinese restaurant nearby that served all kinds of wonderful sautéed dishes and the famous, Tom yon kuun soup which is made with coconut and lemongrass. Luckily for me, the customers ordered everything non spicy and they brought out different kinds of sauces for people to add to their own servings to change the flavors. I learned that Thai food has LOTS of sauces—not just the sriracha hot sauce that most Americans are used to (and BTW I thought that would be like a condiment that is in every restaurant in Thailand but that was not the case! Each restaurant has their own homemade chili sauces). Again, we had fresh fruit for dessert—they served sweet mango to us and sour/unripe mango to the Thai people, which apparently is what they prefer to eat. That night we were taken out to a fancy Chinese restaurant in downtown Bangkok and had a huge feast—there were probably over ten courses and I felt like I was about to explode but I tried to eat a little bit of everything. There were so many things I had never seen or heard of: crispy duck skin spring rolls, sweet gingko nuts with chicken, steamed and thinly sliced conch shellfish, monk fish soup, minced duck lettuce wraps, sweet potato dumplings, and several others that I can’t remember!

 

Installing our machine

You can see another shrine in the parking lot

Chinese dinner

The third day we continued the training and then got to eat lunch at the company cafeteria. It had a variety of fresh dishes including stir fry and noodles, and again, had lots of different sauces and spices to season the dishes to your liking. There was also this amazingly refreshing coconut ice cream for dessert! I thought it was going to be hard to be productive with all this food they kept feeding us! It ended up being a long day of training and adjustments, so the customers took us to another Japanese restaurant across the street from our hotel at the end of the day because it was convenient. Everywhere else takes about an hour to get to because there is so much traffic! Instead of drinking beer with dinner, I tried watermelon juice for the first time, which is a very popular drink in Thailand. It was like a watermelon slushie—so sweet and refreshing. I think it is just made with watermelon, ice, and maybe sugar because it was very sweet. If I could, I would drink only that because it is so deliciously refreshing and the water didn't taste very good in Thailand--but the drink is probably made with ice, so it's probably just as risky as drinking water there.

Lunch at the cafeteria

The last day our customers asked us to visit in the morning and check on the operators and then they took us out for the day! First we visited  the Grand Palace in the center of Bangkok that contains one of the most famous temples in Bangkok called “Wat Phra Kaew”. I knew that Southeast Asian temples are aesthetically very different from Japanese temples, although they are both Buddhist temples, but seeing one in person was unexpectedly breathtaking. The tiny colorful mirrors covering the outside walls and pillars that create such ornate patterns were beautiful and impressive. I was really surprised by how beautiful it was! I thought the temple would be gaudy but it was actually really, really beautiful. We walked around the expansive palace in the hot, humid, summer weather amongst hundreds of people and finally made it back to the car where we were taken to a large shopping mall for lunch. The food court was full of interesting and eye-catching items that I could have spent a week there trying all the different things. I ended up choosing pad thai noodles (my favorite) and the mango with sticky rice for dessert (no brainer). After lunch we did some shopping in the mall. There were several floors of flea market-type vendors, similar to the malls I visited in South Korea. My co-worker bought a “Tag Heuer” watch and my boss and I bought some souvenir-type things. Lastly, we stopped at the supermarket to pick up some dried mango and Thai iced tea mix. Thai iced tea is a black tea mixed with condensed milk and sugar but I don’t know the exact recipe so I was thrilled to find the pre-made iced tea mix in individual packets!

Whimsical statues covering the city on our drive to the palace!

About to enter the Grand Palace

As soon as we entered the Grand Palace, I was captivated by its unique beauty

Tons of colorful statues filled the palace--similar to Japanese temples, but colorful

The murals on the wall were so interesting to me that I would've liked to spend more time just learning about the different stories they told (if it weren't so hot I would've stayed longer!)

Every wall was covered in beautiful, ornate designs (pictures just do not do it justice!)

I was blown away by the colorful mirrors and tiles covering every inch of the entrance to the temple

Hundreds of statues everywhere--all with different facial expressions

Food court at the mall was full of colorful eye candy

I could've spent another week in Thailand trying all the different foods!

I wanted to try everything!!!!

Pad Thai and sticky rice with mangoes is all I need to be happy

Cute wooden dolls found at a gift shop in the mall reminded me of Japanese kokeshi dolls.

These designs are from Northern Thailand

Cute little bento lunches at the supermarket looked surprisingly Western

 After that we returned to the customer’s factory to check back on the operators. Since there were no problems, we were taken back to our hotel and then we went out to eat at a restaurant nearby that served Northern Thailand cuisine. The spicy coconut soup, Tom yun koon, that is one of Thailand’s most well-known dishes, had a very different flavor compared to the local versions we tried earlier in the week. Besides that, we had a plethora of other exotic and tasty dishes, and even a few familiar ones! The atmosphere, service, and company made our last meal even more wonderful. After dinner, the Japanese customer took our boss to a foot massage parlor near the hotel and the Thai customer took me and my coworker out for more shopping. First we went to the downtown Siam area that felt like we were in the Shibuya of Bangkok. The new buildings with designer stores, dozens of unique restaurants and Thai versions of Japanese and American fast food chains were so interesting to me, and outside was equally stimulating with street vendors and mini temples with golden Buddha statues lined up all over the city. Our customer was so gracious and took us all around the city while negotiating with vendors to get us good deals on our souvenirs and weaving through all the crowds to help us find exactly what we were looking for—we even rode a tuk tuk and the monorail to get the full Thailand experience. It was so much fun exploring the city and nice to have some free time without our boss!

Driving on the highways in Bangkok reminded me of Japan when I saw these toll gates

This is papaya salad, made with papaya rinds...it is apparently a very famous dish! Raw cabbage and herbs on the side are eaten between bites throughout the meal (I think to curb the heat of the main dishes)

They served this sticky rice in these little baskets and you eat it with your fingers throughout the meal. I saw an airport security guard snacking on some the next day!!!!

This pork dish was incredibly spicy!!!!

Tons of stuff I could not recognize...including duck beaks!

I loved the chicken satay skewers and noodles, of course!

Mango juice, coconut juice, watermelon juice..I tried them all during my trip!

Another shrine in the corner of the restaurant--bc Thai people take praying very seriously!!

Our festive restaurant

There was no air conditioning, but I found this restaurant charming

Later we headed to the Monorail station!

The station was really cool!

Now we were in the "Shibuya" of Bangkok!

Beautiful, newly built shopping malls all around us

Even McDonalds was adapted to Thai culture!

Menu items on in Thailand

The streets were lined with vendors selling just about anything!

More shrines outside the malls!

Beautiful shrines downtown

The next day we flew back to Japan. I hope that we will be able to do business again in Thailand or that I can visit again with someone to show me around!

Even the bridges had a Thai flare

Tributes to the king covered the city