Today’s mission: find the original Sriracha sauce in Thailand. We saw it on YouTube, and found it on Google Maps at Hattakamamakarn (หัตถกรรมมาคาร).
It wasn’t hard to find, and it’s not a long walk from the Sam Yot MRT station. Stepping into the shop reminded me of going to Barkerville as a kid. Those I grew up with in Prince George will know the reference. The shop was dark and steeped in history. It felt like everything was original from the 100+ years it’s been in business. We decided on the medium hot sriracha sauce. We’ll see how that works before we decide on the really hot stuff.
If you’re wondering, it was 40 Baht for a 300 ml bottle (about $1.65 Cdn at the current exchange rate). It’s pretty tasty, and a touch sweeter than we’re used to.
We had passed by the Alice Cafe earlier so we stopped for a snack and a drink before continuing on to a temple of some significance in Thailand, and just across the street.
Wat Ratchabophit Sathitmahasimaram Ratchaworawihan has the Royal Cemetery on its grounds. I wasn’t able to go into the main building but had a walk around the grounds. It’s a national holiday, and there was some sort of ceremony just ending, so I’ll have to come back again another day.
I was quite impressed with this wat. The buildings appear to be covered in intricately painted tiles, and the grounds are immaculately kept! This isn’t surprising, being a royal building. I didn’t have a lot of time to explore today, but I will definitely come back.
From there we wandered down towards Yaowarat Road (the famous stretch of Bangkok’s Chinatown). I didn’t realize then that we weren’t going to make it there.
Distracted by the interesting alleys snaking around Bangkok, I would wander in a variety of random directions. We ended up in the Indian neighbourhood close to Chinatown, and sat down at a table in one alley to eat some samosas. Very tasty!
Not long after this, we wandered towards the Ong Ang Canal. It’s a picturesque area with a lot of Indian restaurants on one side, and a variety of restaurants on the other. We had a green onion pancake, and some ice cream. I noticed the clouds rolling in, and they looked a bit ominous. It was going to rain for sure!
Sure enough, the rain started and continued for the rest of the day, occasionally dropping off to a light drizzle, but heavy at times too.
We wandered into the maze that is Chinatown, checking out the various shops under cover, trying to avoid the rain. We contemplated going to one of the malls for supper, but decided on Roadhouse BBQ. It was wing night. We got drenched on the way over to the MRT.
Continued in Part 2 of our adventures in Bangkok.
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