BKK/KK 2022

Second travel post of the year (It's a different KK from last time)! 

I was in Thailand from 13-20 Aug 2022 with travel buddy M. Out of this, 5D4N (~days 2-6) were spent in Khao Kho, also known as the Alps or Switzerland of Thailand, a 6h drive out of Bangkok. We had a driver-guide for the KK leg who was absolutely essential for those long drives on winding, steep roads, being our interface with the locals as pretty much nothing was in English and of course, recommending gem after gem of local foods. 

View from our balcony in the Private 2, our first accoms in KK. Definitely worthwhile to get out of the city for this (no editing necessary)!

Due to a shortage of writing time, non-chrono bullet-point format with pictures to highlight the most memorable bits it is. There are 2 main sections: non-food and food. Pick your poison ;)

++++++++++

The non-food highlights

• We stopped by Khao Yai on the way north to Khao Kho. There was a little Europe (sans Europe weather), some alpacas and sheep, and one very very fat cat.

Climbed up a short tower at Primo Piazza for this shot. Would've been perfect if it were 16 deg C, but it was as hot as it looks.

It was quite clear that this cat was the owner's favourite since she kept coming in to take pictures of it eating the treats offered by customers. My favourite cat in the cafe was a bengal with a beautiful coat and clear green eyes that moved as though it were stalking the bowls of treats. Couldn't get a clear shot of that one, so we just have "Jabba the Cat" here (and I sincerely hope it continues living well and doesn't get a heart attack or something).

• Before diving into everything else about Khao Kho, I wanna highlight the views a little more! From a few angles, courtesy of the establishments that know how to make full use of it. Again, no editing necessary. 

View from Tanray Talaymok, one of the restaurants/cafes capitalising a good portion of the scenery and one of quite a few coffee stops while in KK. With added mist~~

View from Pino Latte, a cafe that can be found in practically every online guide on KK but which can totally be skipped~ The view is good no doubt, but so is pretty much everywhere else in KK. The teatime food we had didn't make the food section at the bottom and cost Singapore prices.

View at Khao Kho Wind Farm. This was quite a drive out but the sun was out and made everything look extra vibrant and pretty!

View from Khokirin, our second accoms in KK. This was taken on our last day there, when the skies decided to clear up and give us a nice send off back to BKK.

• It was the rainy season in Thailand at that time, so naturally our experiences were quite influenced by it, especially since we wanted to focus more on nature areas. We weren't able to tour much of Thung Salaeng Luang National Park (savannah views) coz of the risk of getting stuck in mud. 
• We did get to visit some waterfalls though, like Sri Dit Waterfall aka Thai Tea Waterfall in this season xD

Standing close enough to experience a nice spray of thai tea water!

• One highlight specific to the rainy season would have been to see the sea of clouds from up on Phu Thap Boek mountain (google has many pics of what it's supposed to look like haha). Unfortunately the weather kinda outdid itself so instead of being above the sea of clouds, we found ourselves inside it. 

Instead of Sea of Clouds, we found Stephen King's The Mist.

This looks like we reached the end of the accessible areas in a horror game world.

• We were supposed to wake early to catch the sunrise one day. But we got to sleep in longer thanks to an overnight thunderstorm that also killed the sunset on the evening before for good measure. 

We shouldn't be the ones complaining about the weather really, this poor 不倒翁 on our accoms balcony really felt the brunt of that storm. And yes, it's a snowman! Random find in a tropical country, but I guess fitting for the "Alps of Thailand".

• It's a good thing we got quite a complete experience in the Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park. It's famous for its unique bubble-shaped rock formations. The Thai Army and the communists clashed there in the past and in the end, the communists were given some of the land to settle on as a sort of peace offering. Our park guide came from a communist family. She also told us where and how to pose for the best shots. I came away with a much lower phone battery and over 100+ photos just from this guided walk alone. There were some pretty good views involved, though pretty scary at some points!

This national park was covered in this unique bumpy landscape that gave it some sort of fossilized feel.

One of the many shots from our camera director guide xD

We visited many vantage points throughout the walk and this was the one at the highest point. Beyond the rocky edge was a sheer drop into the greenery far far below...

For this particular photo point, none of my photos properly convey how terrified I was and the reason behind it - it just looks like I was sitting on a simple rocky ledge. Refer back to the above photo for the view from said rocky ledge. From my POV, there was nothing between my dangling legs and the greenery a considerable distance below. The "proper" way to pose would've been to look somewhere into the distance and raise my arms and legs in a victorious manner. But I was too preoccupied with keeping firmly attached to the rock to do this.

Also another exposed shot but this one felt safer coz no body parts were dangling over empty space. In general, I like to keep away from edges unless tied in to a rope somewhere~

This was the famous Laan Hin Pum Viewpoint with its obviously bumpy landscape. They all started as grid-like cracks on the rock surfaces which got eroded around the edges over time into egg-like structures. 

• Wat Phra That Pha Sorn Kaew temple was another must-see in KK. It cut an impressive figure with its 5 Buddhas lined up from huge to colossal against the sky. The main temple on the other side of the was no less impressive because it was covered entirely in rainbow mosaic! It definitely had a very Gaudi-like feeling overall.

This was HUGE and very impressive to see in person. Not sure why there seems to be some sort of halo around the Buddhas in the pic, I didn't edit anything :o

We had to take off our shoes to walk around the temple. The floor was very ornately designed (this was taken at the 5 Buddhas side) and it was a good thing it wasn't raining at the time.

The way the colours seemed both themed yet randomised (especially when looking up close)... Effortz.

This side of the temple had perfect photo points to highlight the 5 Buddhas on the other side.

• On 2 of those afternoons in KK, our guide brought us for Thai massage at a local place. It was uh... painful but 2h sessions are really more comprehensive than 1h. Definitely helped loosen the guitar strings on my left traps~ In BKK we mainly went for foot massages instead of full massages. Not a bad way to wait out sudden downpours!
• Back in BKK, we took a trip down the Chao Phraya river for my benefit since it was my first time exploring BKK properly haha. Rather than those tourist-fleecing boats, the most economical way was to hop on the public river transport (Chao Phraya Express). 

The boat took us past sights such as the Grand Palace and glitzy riverfront establishments, but there were just as many dilapidated structures hanging out on the river. Some of them looked ready to crumble right in...

I went to the upper, unshaded deck for this shot. These beautiful blue skies in a tropical country can only mean that it's blazing hot haha. The metal deck (and seats!) probably could've fried eggs. 

We went to Platinum Mall too and here's a nice-ish shot from one of the pedestrian bridges along the way before the traffic jams really started.

• Can't forget the markets! Had 2 rather contrasting experiences at Wang Lang market in the day and Jodd Fairs at night. For Jodd Fairs, I was actually quite amazed at the variety of food available - it seemed like there were hardly any repeats. Unfortunately, we were wayyy too full to eat anything since that was omakase night (more on that below...).
• Weed was easily available and came in many unexpected forms (but still recognisable by the leaf motif) from green-coloured drinks to green-coloured chicken drumstick-shaped snacks at supermarkets. Didn't come across any magical-tasting kangkong so we should be fine xD

The food

Although I really cannot eat much, food deserves a section all for itself coz no 2 meals were alike across those 8 days. While in KK, this was largely coz we were open-minded enough to let our guide do all the recommending and he brought us to many places frequented by locals that we would otherwise have a hard time accessing. This smol stomach, though constantly full to bursting, was very impressed and satisfied :D The nose was perhaps a little less happy since every meal was spicy and made it run xD I wouldn't have had it any other way though! Spiciness is part and parcel of Thai tastes (and our guide already said that our spice tolerance was about that of Thai babies LOL). Pictures are included where available but at some points we were simply too hungry to let the camera go first.

• Dinner 1: Tom yum, pad thai, crab cakes, mango sticky rice in a restaurant in MKB Centre. Very standard Thai fair ordered by uninitiated Singaporeans.
• Lunch 2: Boat noodles. Simple and tasty meal otw to Khao Kho. Though it was a reminder that my misaligned teeth can't chew Thai kway teow and to go for other noodle choices at other stops.
• Dinner 2: Mookata. The last of the "conventional Thai meals" for this trip, featuring soup expertly seasoned by our guide and self-proclaimed chef. Must give it to him though, it was good.
• Special mention 1: Breakfast at accoms. This was interesting coz there were 2 carbs. One bowl of porridge and one plate of fried rice (with fried eggs, sausages and watermelon to top it off). Maybe the porridge is more of a side dish to Thais, similar to Hongkongers. But to us... It was too much to finish especially for a morning.
• Lunch 3: Grilled chicken and kangkong with sticky rice. There's something attractive about chicken being grilled at the roadside. It had the same comforting feeling as having bbq wings at Changi Village on a rainy night. As for the sticky rice, the guide said that it would keep us full until midnight which I realise wasn't quite true (see below entry). Though that prob wasn't the rice's fault but more thanks to limited stomach capacity~

Quite the assortment already! (Don't have a picture handy for D1 but that's a reallyyy common meal that can be found in Singapore anyway.)

• Dinner 3: Homecooked meal at accoms. We surmised that the owners were probably preparing dinner for themselves and offered the same dishes to us. That night, both of us lousy small eaters were actually hungry enough to finish our plates of rice. I went to check our post-lunch activities, just to corroborate this unusual event, but it didn't seem like anything overly strenuous (temple and wind farm visits and there was even a cafe stop in the middle). Can only credit the extremely delicious dishes that night for our suddenly expanded appetites!
• Special mention 2: Croffle. While on the way towards the mountain and mist, we dropped by this cute, random cafe at the roadside (even the name was cute - Dorothy Coffee House). It was a good introduction to croffles for me! Crispy, not too sweet and prettily plated. 
• Lunch 4: Rainbow noodles. After ogling at the pretty noodles (which were naturally coloured and all tasted the same btw), the real interesting part was the sauces. Each serving came with small different coloured bunches of noodles and 3 steaming clay pots of gravy. One was sweet/spicy, one was sour/spicy and one was sorta creamy and nutty. It was quite an elaborate setup for essentially a rice noodle meal haha. I liked mixing the first 2 sauces to give a sort of wet meesiam taste. 

The rainbow noodles lunch gets an extra photo coz the curled pink noodles on the bed of basil and thyme looks like a rose. Things I discover while reviewing photos!

• Dinner 4: Restaurant. This was a Chinese-run Thai restaurant. The meal here was the most expensive of the KK ones, and only about S$6 per person at that! Everywhere else was about S$2-3 only. 

Incomplete photo of the restaurant dinner coz we were probably cold and hungry (it was pouring cats and dogs at the time). But, I remember enjoying both of these dishes immensely. The left one was a crispy salted egg veg dish and the right was a stir fried meat with lots of onions and a typical Thai-style sour-ish taste.

• Lunch 5: Chicken noodles. The inclusions were really generous, with a drumstick, foot and blood tofu (M and I gladly piled the latter 2 into our guide's bowl). Add chilli flakes as per heart's desire~
• Dinner 5: Local food. For lack of better description really, coz it was basically a place where locals ate with a 7-11 right next door. Stir-fried meat and veg dishes to pair with sticky rice and I remember one of them was Very spicy. Here, we also tried a little of our guide's raw crab salad and it really did not suit our palate (and probably our stomachs, which he expected and didn't order for us). Imagine raw crab mixed with green papaya and soaking in a sort of brackish sauce made from preserved fish...
• Lunch 6: Duck noodles. This was somewhere in Lopburi otw back to BKK. Similar to Lunch 5, but with shredded duck meat instead. 

Even the settings were similar. The difference was mainly in the type of bird xD

Wanted to point out something in this place's plates of raw veg (a presence in almost every meal in KK) - see that cute little spiky bittergourd? Like everything else on the plate, it was meant as a sort of accompaniment with the dishes and rice. I wasn't game enough to try though :x

• Dinner 6: Omakase (see detailed account below)
• Special mention 3: Coconut pancake-kueh thing (not sure what it's really called even after googling). This was one of the surprisingly good things that we just happened across while we were getting hungry at Wang Lang market.
• Lunch 7: Pad thai and chicken skewers. A simple lunch at the Siam Paragon food court.
• Special mention 4: Mango Sticky Rice(s). Of course we had a few of these but mostly in BKK... Now that I think of it, I don't recall having any in KK.
• Dinner 7: Northern Thai food. This was a random find near our hotel, hidden in a street behind a pub full of tourists. We even found a cafe next door for next morning's tea break before heading to the airport. 

Like to highlight the Northern Thai food here since I hadn't tried these before. M had the curry noodles while I selected a sort of mixed veg dish with purple sticky rice and we shared the spicy sausages. The dish I had was sour, perfume-y and so well-mixed that I didn't really have any idea what I was eating mostly, but it went well with the rice.

• Lunch 8: Taco Bell. Lol this made the list mainly coz this was my first time having it so it actually added to my variety of food experiences from this trip. And it wasn't bad! Just that the loaded nachos turned out much bigger than expected and of course we couldn't finish. 

The omakase experience

Firstly, it was eye-opening. Secondly, I must say that I never expected that an atas meal like this could be soooo filling. Maybe it's from watching too much DancingBacons and forgetting that my stomach capacity holds nary a drop of candlewax to theirs. Anyway, we selected the only available option on the menu (THB 2500) without really looking closely at the details and added a bottle of sake (~THB 500). By the middle of it, we were full and wondering if it were about to be done. By the end of it, I think I filled the month's sushi quota with this one meal. 

• Appetiser 1: Tofu with uni. First taste of uni ever and I liked it! I was concerned that the texture would be some gelatinous thing along the lines of fat/chicken skin which I dislike. But it turned out to be more of a creamy, nutty, something-like-peanut butter. 
• Appetiser 2: Assorted platter with 8 very different appetisers from steamed tuna to smoked duck to grilled squid.
• Appetiser 3: Oyster with yuzu shavings and ponzu sauce. Once upon a time, I used to think I didn't like raw oysters. But after giving it a go a few more times, I realised that that wasn't the case and it was simply unfresh oysters that I didn't like. This one was definitely fresh.

• Sushi 1: Maguro. I was still hungry and definitely happy with this one. It was melt-in-the-mouth and a classic, widely-accepted fish. That last point cannot be underestimated, as can be seen as we move down the list. 
• Sushi 2: Uni. Same as Appetiser 1 but with a larger quantity to better savour the creamy nuttiness.
• Sushi 3: Madai. No particular impression (maybe coz I took too long to write this post oops) but I vaguely recall it was chewy. Those were orange bits on top.
• Sushi 4: Kinmedai. A decent, mild-tasting fish. At about this point, the chef took to pointing out the type of fish we were eating using the menu. 

• Appetiser 4: Chawanmushi. I always enjoy chawanmushi and this was no different.
• Sushi 5: Hokkigai. The start of a series of non-fish! First time trying this particular sushi too despite seeing it many many times on the belt in Sushi Express. Tasted as expected of a clam.
• Sushi 6: Prawn. Just a prawn. 
• Sushi 7: Shiro Ebi. Quite enjoyed this one. It was a bit like a slightly sweet mash topped with a bit of ginger for kick. I dabbed soy sauce but didn't add wasabi.
• Sushi 8: Katsuo. And we returned to fish with tiny tuna! We enquired on the type of fish after spotting the obvious similarities with tuna. It was like playing big fish small fish with the chef, who used his hands to indicate that maguro = large, katsuo = small xD 

• Sushi 9: Nodokuro. I didn't like this one and didn't finish it. Looking at the photo, it's taste and looks were actually super well aligned - oily and fatty. By this point, I was cutting every sushi into half before eating them coz I was already full and it was getting hard to swallow additional food >.< 
• Sushi 10: Kuromutsu (bluefish). Don't have much memory of how this tasted, but I know I finished it so it wasn't bad. 
• Sushi 11: Tachiuo (silver beltfish/scabbard fish). Similar to Sushi 9 (but still better), this was oily and fatty-tasting and I didn't finish it. The fish itself looked really cool though, and the silver showed through even on the sliced portion on the sushi. There wasn't even a picture of it on the menu so the chef showed it to us on a phone.
• Sushi 12: Anago (saltwater eel). And we got another longish fish for the final sushi (we were very relieved). It was pretty good actually, and very different from the more well-known eel, unagi. Anago was more creamy and separated quite easily while I was splitting the sushi in half.

• Soup: Asari Miso soup. This came in quite a generous serving, a pity about stomach capacity really xD
• Desert: Yuzu sorbet and watermelon. I usually can eat dessert even after filling meals thanks to the taste difference. But here, the main stomach encroached on too much space so the dessert stomach was restricted and I couldn't finish something as simple as sorbet. 

All the above + sake cost just S$130 :o

Something else worth mentioning: Drinks

We visited 2 bars only, really.

• Bar 1: Tep Bar, where the house band played Thai songs with traditional instruments (including an erhu) and where the drinks were inspired by local ingredients. I really enjoy live music so this was a treat, and good music transcends language barriers. 

We sat on the second level and got a bird's eye view thanks to the interesting angular floorplan. Bottled drinks were delivered by pulling up a basket and rope.

What I drank! The Songkran (on the left) was a refreshing cocktail. The others were shots of Ya Dong (the traditional Thai herbal liquor) in increasing degrees of strength and served with pandan water for cleansing in between. They went from "interesting traditional flavour" to "ack, medicine" on the third one which I couldn't bring myself to finish.

• Bar 2: The Bar Vagabond. It's a (Japanese-owned) speakeasy, and the entrance was discreet. We got off the grab from Tep Bar and stood in the middle of the road looking this way and that until a staff (probably spying for disoriented patrons from within) took pity on us and ushered us in. Once inside, it felt like I was invited into a secret wizards' meeting location. This was a truly enjoyable session, and we walked back to hotel at about 2am. 

IIRC, the only available seating was at the bar itself and we conversed with our bartender throughout the session. It crossed my mind that it would be cool to be a bartender (maybe as a retirement job) and have all these alcoholic creations at the tips of my mind and fingers. According to the bartender, it would take would be about 3 years of training. Some extraversion would probably help too. 

The cherry tomatoes that were initially recommended to us turned out to be unavailable, so we settled for this very carefully plated cheese platter with its alternating raisins and cranberries.

What I drank L-R: (1) A fresh gin mixer to start off. (2) Tom yum cocktail. It's not on the menu and I wouldn't have known to ask for it if not for M. Pictured behind the glass is the bottle where the vodka (I think) was steeped in the tom yum herbs. It was an interesting must-try-once kind of drink and did taste quite nice, but not very strong overall. (3) Nikka and (4) Oban whiskies were both good alternatives that the bartender recommended in sequence after I asked if they had 18-year Yamazaki available (they did not). The Nikka (From the Barrel) had 51% alcohol content so I wasn't about to be garang, but it tasted very clean and went down so smoothly on the rocks. As I was nearing the end of that glass, the bartender silently sat the bottle of Oban 14 Years in front of me. I went for it (was still well within tolerance limits), and neat this time. It was quite interesting to have 2 different whiskies in one session and appreciate the difference (clean vs smoky). 

• Special mention: Beers. There was some beer interspersed throughout the trip, mostly consumed during meals. But there were 2 cans from a supermarket that travelled around KK with us coz we were always too full to drink them at night xD

++++++++++

That rounds off this post, delayed as I've been busy planning for the next trip ;) Won't be long before I return to this space haha.

And Thailand, till next time!