Strange how much South East Asia feels like coming home even though we have never lived in Thailand. We arrived late at night and it felt such a relief: the warmth, the humidity, the smells, the bearing of the people. Today my eczema, which had flared in both Lebanon and Nepal, has calmed down; the Gentleman Friend’s lung are no longer wracked by his cough, and even the long-standing stiffness in my neck eased enough that I could sleep on my side instead of my back.
The flight was only about three hours, and though the plane was comfortable it felt very long. We were both exhausted and looking forward to being in SE Asia again, and then I dropped an open sachet of sugar and some water on myself, so felt unclean and uncomfortable through much of the flight. But it was all very smooth from arrival: immigration was fairly quick, the bags had arrived by the time we got there, and though the trains had stopped running, contra the claim of the woman at the information booth, Grab was operational at the airport so we booked a car and went off to our Airbnb flat in Ari.
The flat itself is very beige but Ari is a really lovely part of town. Some older big houses with large gardens, some low profile apartment buildings, a seemingly infinite number of cafes, street stalls, trendy shops and small restaurants, though happily not on our street. We had booked lunch at Paste, the most exciting new restaurant in town, and took the BTS down to mall centre to find it. It was really spectacular, one of the best meals I’ve had this year, and the best high-end Thai I’ve ever had. Creative, meticulous, with an eye to history and the fire and force of proper Thai food. As I said to the Gentleman Friend, it really felt like the moment we had fully descended from the mountains.
We then popped into Uniqlo where I bought myself a very compact but very warm down jacket, as I will be spending a couple of days in Beijing in January and am otherwise equipped only for summer. I was a bit hesitant as it felt rather pricy, but I suppose it won’t go off and the lightness means it is easy to travel with. On our return to Ari we strolled around the neighbourhood a bit and went for coffee and cake at Landhaus, a cafe that is supposed to be very good indeed, though I found it average at best.
In the evening we went for dinner to an Isaan restaurant but arrived to find it was shutting in ten minutes so wandered back to another place that had come highly recommended, Baan Phuen Chom, which turned out to be a big mid-level Thai place in a garden, the sort of place families go to for a reliable meal. This was actually just right, and as it turned out our ordering was inspired. We had a glass noodle salad with three stinky vegetables (petai, pickled onions and a third I don’t recall), a yum pla dook foo with a bitter aromatic herb that they translated as neem but that certainly was nothing to do with the neem tree; ferns with garlic; and a chill prawn salad. All very tasty and with very diverse flavour profiles. We then went and had some honey toast at a street stall and finally some roti filled with jasmine cream with tea. A fine day, and so good to be back in this part of the world.