The light was good this morning.
The sunrise lingered.
And it didn't disappear even after the orange glow was gone.
She continued, breaking out, slowly, gradually, towards the cheerful expanse of her daytime blue.
It is not every day that I get to look out the balcony towards the Krungsri bank tower.
It is also not every day that i get to look out towards Chidlom and the Baiyoke Sky Tower in the horizon.
We began this morning with eggs and toast in the room, where, like previous mornings, we had them pan-fried. Today my eggs were made half scrambled, half omelet, and I liked them this way very much.
Pumpkin toast was also, surprisingly, not as sweetish as I thought it would be.
Breakfast over I headed to the swimming pool for a bit, if not for anything but just to soak in the quiet, soak in a little bit of Bangkok's morning sun, and give thanks for the mornings past.
Mid-morning we went to Chao 9 massage place on Lang Suan Road for a 90-minute Thai massage.
I cant recall whether or not we were directed upstairs- we might, we might have not- but it was a quiet room, spa music played in the background, the massage was great, and, best part, it got all the kinks of my lower back and shoulders out.
When we finished, out we headed to Lemon Farm down the road where this afternoon we got more cookies, more chocolate snacks, plus a few more packets of matcha powder that my friend had seen the other day, and wanted to have.
Back it was to the room afterward to put down our purchases then off it was via BTS to Ploenchit Center where at the Villa Market supermarket downstairs I got a selection of 8x12 ziploc bags.
You might find it weird just why we would go to a certain place to get ziploc bags when we can easily Grab them in online.
It's fun, really, and I don't mind visiting Ploenchit Center for the memories of McDonalds, Starbucks, and Doubletree Hilton down the road further behind.
It makes one feel thankful.
There was no lunch to be had today.
Instead we headed out for an early dinner to a place called Kod Talay at Sukhumvit 70 out in Bang Na Nuea, out in Bang Na.
Before coming here, I had no idea where this place was. (I had simply followed along)
But then the Grab car dropped us off at a spot close to a car park, we got off, looked up, looked around, and there it was- the three storeyed building of the Bangkok Fish Market right in front.
Kod Talay The Riverfront Seafood was just behind.
There's a bit of a process getting in.
First the person at the gate asks you how many in your party there are. You then cross over to a counter where you get to choose which sort of a buffet you want. (Some come with drinks, others come with beer, some have more specific types of seafood, others have just the regular)
Here they charge by pax. After you've paid the girl gives you a sort of RFID wristband that you have to wear the entire time. This RFID lets you move in and out of the area with ease- the staff at the gates just tap you out, and when you're done, tap you back in again.
After getting your wristbands, the staff then direct you to your table.
The best part about having a meal here is the atmosphere.
It is the kind of place that makes you want to tie up your hair, roll up your sleeves, dig your tongs into the heap of raw, fresh seafood that you've gotten, and just get into the joy of steaming, grilling, peeling, eating of it all.
There's not a quiet moment here at Kod Talay.
There's a buzz, a liveliness, a vibe that permeates round.
That being said, this is not the kind of place if you're not a fan of all things seafood or if you're wanting only meat.
Neither is this the kind of place if you're afraid of getting residual smoke in your clothes or in your hair.
In general, Kod Talay is an outdoorsy, alfresco dining destination where tables are lined all along the edge of the waterfront, where tanks of seawater hold live prawns that you're handed a pail and a net to ownself catch, and where, as you chase the prawn, colorful fairy lights hang above your head.
The whole atmosphere is lively, crowded, carnival-like, lots of chatter, lots of boisterous shouting, lots of laughter.
I'm not very good at eating prawns.
Much less catch them alive.
But this evening I managed to capture two, and I could see them writhing about in the pail as I carried them back to our table.
It's one thing to see chilled (dead) prawns resting over ice in the supermarket.
It's another thing to see them half-alive feelers moving to and fro as they scrabble about in the pail.
To be honest I didn't know what I was supposed to do.
Was I supposed to ignore them and let them die a natural death?
Was I supposed to hasten it by throwing them alive onto the grill?
I had no idea!
In the end I simply waited until my friend brought back some of our other food, then arranged them two prawns on the grill.
They were alive....
There aren't many pictures of our meal here this evening, by the way.
I didn't get to take many.
I don't know why.
Maybe because I was too busy watching our food cook.
Maybe because I was too busy watching my friend cook the food, with me eating it at the same time.
But there was a lot of food.
We took plates of salmon sushi with lots of mayonnaise on top.
We took plates of salmon sashimi that we ate with wasabi and soy sauce.
My friend brought over skewers of salmon belly that we grilled on the hot plate.
Then there were several (smaller sized) prawns, a couple of clams, snow crabs, some meat, crayfish and fresh oysters, all of which we loaded onto the hot plate to grill.
We were surprised at how easy the crayfish got cooked even with their shell on.
Might have been the size.
Might have been the freshness of the fish also.
Then my friend got delighted by the way the oysters got grilled.
They were soft, they were warm, the oyster retained its own umami, sea-like, briny taste, and, bouncy as they were, they paired really well with the green colored vinegar that he had gotten from the buffet counter inside.
It is a bit of a pity that I didn't get to see everything that was offered on the indoor chiller shelves.
Would have been so interesting otherwise.
But there was a Pad Thai station- outdoors- and my friend got me one.
We finished the meal with some dessert.
Most of it had been taken by the other diners by the time it came to our turn, but there was fruit, there were still a bit of cake, so I helped myself to a bit of pineapple, a bit of watermelon, some cute little cakes, a bit of pudding, and two scoops of ice cream.
