It was a bit of an eventful journey coming here to Bangkok this time round.
I shan't say that it was unfortunate- these things do happen- but no one in this world wishes for their flight to be delayed by an hour.
And no one wishes to be seated next to a passenger who looked like he hadn't showered nor washed his hair, who ordered four cans of beer, plus one bottle of wine, who wanted another can of beer but couldn't have because the plane was landing, whose arm brushed against mine a couple of times so much so I put a book there as a barrier, and whose greasy small yellow towel kept dropping over to my side.
A relief it was when I finally disembarked at Suvarnabhumi.
And an interesting sight it was that I saw right across me on the opposite side of my gate.
It wasn't hard to get a Grab, fortunately, the car came pretty fast, and very soon I was on my way to one side of the Chao Phraya River where my hotel for the night was.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to a hot shower, a comfortable bed, a coffee table, a desk and a view.
I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to encasing my feet in fluffy slippers.
Because, who can resist?
Who can resist a hot shower?
Who can resist a bit more space?
And who can resist this view?
My room this time on one of the higher floors gave me a most gorgeous, contemplative view of the majestic Chao Phraya River.
I'll be honest.
It quite took my breath away.
I don't think I've ever had the chance to see the river from such a height.
Neither have I ever had the chance to appreciate the strength of her powerful currents in such a quiet, reflective evening light.
Her life force, her energies, they intrigued me.
Even from up here I could sense (somewhat) the strength of her currents as they flowed downwards from Chiang Mai towards the Gulf of Thailand.
It made me think about life, about energies, and how Nature, in her own cyclical way, never ceases with her force, nor with her presence. She's always circling, always present, never stopping. Even these currents- there at her starting point couple of hundred kilometers away they were- were also here right now.
I might not have been able to witness how the currents of the Chao Phraya were up in Chiang Mai where they began but no doubt they certainly were there, and here, right here in front of my eyes, they were too.
Somehow I must have stood by the window for a very long time because the dusky twilight soon turned into the spatial dark of night, and since we weren't sure what was to be had around the hotel, decided to order in instead.
Dinner was good.
Best part about it was that the food came in hot, fresh and fragrant enough that one felt like it had just been picked up from the store.
So the pictures don't show it, but everything was really quite good.
The steak, when we opened the box, looked like just any regular steak, but there was a hint of thoughtfulness to it where the whole steak had been so neatly sliced up that it were easy to fork up and eat.
It wasn't just that it were easy to eat.
The steak itself was well marinated and well grilled, with no burnt edges nor any burnt taste, but with a hint of smokiness that at once warmed the mouth and made you feel full.
What we loved most however were the truffle salt, and the cutely packaged containers of sauces that, honestly, were great in taste, generous in size.
I don't know how it is that the Thais make such amazing sauces.
Maybe they've got a special skill, or something.
It's like one of the sauces that I had that evening- I liked it so much I dipped all my nachos in it as well as the vegetables- but I couldn't figure out what it was.
I just know there was a bit of sweet, there was a bit of savory, there was a bit of spicy, and then, because it sat right in the middle of the container, a salted duck egg yolk which was impossible to miss.
Maybe it's the salted duck egg yolk.
It does have a rich taste after all.
I haven't been able to forget how the flavors of the sauce are.
Neither have I been able to forget the sweet, chewy snack, slightly thicker but pretty similar to the taste and texture of roti prata.
So good was it that I found myself wishing that there were more.
But then we were heading out to Jodd's Night Market, and this fried bread was best eaten warm, so between the both of us we finished it all.
Jodd's Market is probably one of the most colorful night markets I've seen in Bangkok thus far.
Not to say that the rest aren't colorful but Asiatique's charm is her ferris wheel and I only went to Chatuchak in the daytime.
It lies along a canal, this market, if I'm not wrong, and perhaps it is that which structures how the stalls are laid out. We walked around quite a number of stalls, first looking at the food stalls, which, from what I remember, seemed to offer much in the variety of grilled seafood, fried seafood, desserts, mango desserts, ice cream, iced drinks, fried bites, and plates of noodles and rice.
Beyond all the food there were the stalls offering a gamut of stuff like Tshirts, clothes, accessories, bags and all those cutesy random stuff that you find at night markets.
We found a stall that sold beautiful handmade magnets so we got those.
We also found a stall that had luggage tags, so we bought two.
And then before going back we decided we'd settle for a very tall, very, very sweet cup of iced milk tea, and iced tea.
