Saturday, April 9, 2016

Red Meat and Blonde Biere


February 1

After I sent yesterday’s message, I remembered something curious that we had seen at the fertility shrine.

One sight was common enough, a lazy cat sleeping on the flagstones in the shade. There are free-ranging cats everywhere here. Lots of dogs, too.

We were looking at an unusual tree, with a trunk more like a cluster of vines than a trunk. Of course, it had replica penises of various sizes sticking out of the vines.

I heard a distinct “plop,” turned around, and saw a small squirrel quickly trying to orient itself. It had fallen out of a neighboring tree a few feet away from us. We had just walked across that spot.

Wow, that was close. It could have fallen on us, and the last thing anyone wants is an animal bite in a Third World country.

The squirrel knew it was on the ground, out of its element, and in a risky situation. It bolted for the tree. The cat, considerably unlazy now, pounced at the same time. The squirrel got onto the trunk of its tree, but no farther.

The cat, seen from the back, looked like it had grown a moustache of squirrel whiskers. It set the dead squirrel down and started to work on it. Life, death, and the food chain at the penis shrine.



We set out on Monday around lunch time. We went to Viva for another fusion meal. This time it was nachos with refried beans and Thai spring rolls. Then we rode the Skytrain almost end to end.        

We took the line that runs through our neighborhood out to the terminal at Bearing. The Skytrain track is three or four stories above street level, so you get a good overview of the city when the car isn’t crowded.



One of the fascinating things about Bangkok is the contrast of buildings. Most cities have areas of buildings in decay and other areas full of investment. Here, the buildings in all states can be side by side. The temples that I have seen are scrupulously maintained, and many of them are centuries old. There are sooty tenements where families squeeze into tiny apartments. You see shiny new buildings like Larry’s where there is a terrace with a pool, and abandoned structures missing walls and full of rubble. Sometimes all on the same block.

Sukhumvit is one of the big shopping streets. For all I know, it could be the Fifth Avenue of Thailand.



You can turn a corner, though, and find yourself in a crowded soi full of ladies in burkahs where the stalls hawk all kinds of flea-market merchandise.

There is someone serving some kind of food just about anywhere there is space for it on the sidewalk.

You get to see all of that very clearly from the Skytrain.

We took the long ride from Bearing to the central transfer station, Siam, and changed to the train for Bang Wa. We tried to take a walk in that part of town, but found ourselves on an island in the middle of freeways.

We took the train back to Nana and checked out some of the sois there.

One I had noticed from the Skytrain station. It was covered with awnings, and looked like an open-air market. Turns out, it was a market, but not the kind I thought it was. It was all bars and girls. This may have been the day shift because it was only about 4 in the afternoon. That, or else these working ladies put in long hours.

We got to the end, turned a corner, and walked up another soi that was covered in trash. The walls looked like the back doors into shops and storehouses. So no one watches over it or really cares. For all I know, the girls in the next soi could do business here at night.

It’s funny that trash is a contrast here, too. Most of the city is surprisingly free of debris on the streets. Then there are places like this alley and the banks of the canal where people cram every crevice with their garbage. Maybe that’s where it all goes.

We also found our way back to the Doilanka coffee shop. It’s in
Soi 1.

Strange to say, Bam was having more trouble with English than last time. He may have fogotten our names and felt awkward. But I had no difficulty ordering a French press and getting a bottle of spring water for Joanna.

The Thai coffee has almost no bitterness but is still very tasty. We talked a bit about the aftertaste of the coffee, which Bam called sweet.

Flavor is so subjective. Think of all the descriptions you’ve read about the flavors of red wine. To me, the coffee was more herbal than sweet, but maybe he was talking about the lack of acidity.

Supported by a dose of caffeine, I was ready to try Bully’s Pub, which I spotted for the first time across Sukhumvit Road. Neither of us felt like climbing three flights of stairs to the crossover, so we waited out the lights. It can take a while to do that, and even then, you have to be careful. Just as they do in New Jersey, drivers all over Asia assume they have the right of way over anything they can run over. 

Bully’s charges New Jersey prices­—the equivalent of $6 or $8 a pint. High by local standards, but the selection is impressive for this part of the world. They have Duvel, a bottle-conditioned ale, for instance. I had two drafts. One was La Chouffe (French for “dwarf,” maybe), biere blonde d’Ardenne, and the other was Vedett IPA, made by the Duvel Brewery.

I had tried La Chouffe before. Like a lot of Belgian brews, it has the flavor of spices in it. There is a distinct taste of clove in Chimay, for instance. I couldn’t quite pin down what it is in La Chouffe.

The IPA had lots of hops for fragrance and bitterness, but nobody beats the IPAs of Samuel Smith or Dogfish Head.

Hopfish by the Flying Fish Brewery in South Jersey is another top IPA. Besides, it sounds like it’s made by Dr. Seuss.

Joanna was craving red meat and it was steak day at the American Bar & Grill. We shared a 10-ounce tenderloin. The beef, from Australia, tasted grass-fed.

We took a short walk to work off dinner. We went back to Soi 4. Joanna had been there in daylight and also in the cab the night we arrived in Bangkok. But she hadn’t seen it up close in prime time.

We worked our way through the crowds and the traffic, past rows of girls wearing lots of makeup and few clothes.

Sometimes they call this tenderloin, too.

Be well, all.

Harry




No comments:

Post a Comment