Siam Diu Made Fancy or: How I learnt to Trust Local Reccomendations and The Michelin Guide over TikTok
This trip is about two brothers traveling across two familiar cities through an evolved lens
The week of Lunar New Year 2023 brought a return to my brother and me setting off on yet another sibling’s trip. This issue was a return to an old friend, Thailand, specifically Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand’s largest cities. Travel between Singapore and Thailand is effectively back to normal with few restrictions (it is important to note that as of the 13th of February 2023, there are no restrictions to enter Singapore though this can change at any moment). For Nalin, it was especially exciting as he was returning to Chiang Mai for the first time since he was 13 when he, like me, went there as part of an eighth-grade trip. The focus of this trip was centered around making full use of Chiang Mai’s excellent weather and Bangkok’s exciting cocktail and restaurant scene that gives Singapore a run for its money. Welcome to a trip that unveiled a fun new side to Bangkok not seen on previous trips, paired with a mildly eventful second half in Chiang Mai.
Bangkok is a destination familiar to many Singaporeans, including the stars of this issue of my travel blog. However, the two of us realized that there was a new energy about Bangkok that was missing from our previous trips, or it could very well be our mindset regarding travel to destinations has evolved. We could not put our hands on it, but Bangkok became such a fun city. While in Bangkok, when people would ask the two of us about our travels in Thailand, and we mentioned Chiang Mai, we heard nothing but positive things about the city, especially during the time of year when we went. Chiang Mai, with its plethora of temples and the natural sites we visited, delivered upon the expectations set by our interactions in Bangkok. In a break from the norm, I will divide this article into two sections, namely the highlights of each city.
Bangkok highlights:
It will not surprise anyone when I mention Bangkok being a veritable treasure trove of good food beyond Thai staples and a diverse plant-based food scene with excellent cocktails to pair it with. My top dining experience occurred on our first day in Bangkok (after a mildly crowded train ride to our hotel); we decided to try Haoma, an exceptional Indian restaurant with two special accreditations. In 2023 it retained its one-star rating on the 2023 Michelin Guide for Bangkok and is also a recipient of a green star from Michelin praising its sustainability practices. Founded by chef Deepanker Khosla (or DK for short), the restaurant prides itself on its sustainable practices using ingredients that are all grown in the restaurant or sourced through environmentally friendly and ethical farms.
The two of us do not often go for super fancy dining experiences. However, this particular one was well worth the journey as it was variations of Indian food that I had not witnessed in my life. It is very much a once-in-a-blue-moon type dining expense. After touring their urban farm (including its own beehive and fish farm), we sat down for what the restaurant called 18 expressions. The dishes all used local ingredients and were inspired by the chef’s upbringing in India and Thailand. Each course was represented by a postcard (note: we were so distracted by the food that we forgot to take photos of all the postcards, a consolation here is a photo of one of them).
The menu:
One of my highlights was a dish made entirely out of the scraps of all the ingredients used in the meal thus far, highlighting the sustainability aspect of the dining concept (featured in image three of the second last row of the gallery).
In addition, we also tried out Sra Bua, another Michelin-star restaurant specializing in bringing Thai cuisine to a fine-dining level. The restaurant prepared a vegetarian menu for us, and my highlight was the Tom Yam soup they prepared right in front of us using a coffee machine.
Don’t worry; not everything was Michelin rated on our trip. We found on this trip the number of vegetarian and plant-based options in Bangkok has vastly increased, with the two of us visiting numerous restaurants that cater to the growing vegetarian and plant-based tourism population. We ended up visiting an old favorite from our last trip to Bangkok back in 2018, Veganerie and trying a high-protein version of their Khao Soi, my favorite Thai dish, a northern high specialty. It is a yellow-curry-based noodle dish, and this version had tofu noodles subbed in for regular ones. I have written about Veganerie on my other blog Little Veg Dot which is linked here for you all to read.
In addition to Veganerie we also sampled another vegan restaurant called Golden State, recommended by Nalin’s old UWC friend, Akira, who joined us for dinner. This restaurant specializes in plant-based versions of Chinese and Japanese food, which, paired with excellent highballs and margaritas, make for a wonderful meal.
My friend Paolo, who used to live in Bangkok, gave my brother and me some excellent suggestions for both food and sights to see. One such suggestion is the commons, which has a wide array of dining options ranging from Thai cuisine and Italian to a locale we visited which was ice cream with an appropriate wine pairing.
In addition to the broad dining options, Bangkok also has a vibrant cocktail bar scene which my brother and I were more than happy to sample. We visited three cocktail bars, BKK Social Club, Vesper, and You Know Where. Out of the three, it was hard to select a top choice. For me, it was a bit of a toss-up between BKK Social Club and Vesper as both bars had some unique spins on some classic cocktails, and who knew banana pancakes would pair so well with a rum-based cocktail. Don’t worry, it wasn’t just cocktails; we also explored the café scene, finding what turned out to be our favorite little café – Little Blue near the Thong Lom BTS station. It is a small café with no space to dine in but just simple espresso-based coffees that hit the spot, especially in the cooler “winter” mornings.
In addition to the outstanding food and drink in Bangkok, we found that Bangkok in recent years is significantly easier to get around, thanks to expansions in its public transit and, for those brave enough, an increase in motorcycle rideshares. Nalin and I took this opportunity to not only do a little bit of retail therapy but visit some of the temples we have yet to see in the Thai Capital, specifically, the Golden Mount Temple and Wat Benchamabophit, a temple made entirely out of Italian marble. The Golden Mount Temple offered relatively uninterrupted views of the city from the top, though between us and the top was a reunion with my mortal enemy, stairs. While the cardio up the stairs took my breath away more than the views, I can safely say Wat Benchamabophit was a stunning sight. The pristine marble architecture is hard to miss, even though the courtyard is made of solid marble. Enough of my words, time for a photo interlude.
My brother and I could have spent a whole week eating and exploring our way through Bangkok, but alas, our next destination beckoned – Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai highlights:
Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second-largest city in the north and is primarily known for its stunning nature. I was keen to do a bit of sightseeing on the first day, but sadly, I had come down with a nasty bout of self-inflicted food poisoning (take care when ordering whisky sours from bars recommended on TikTok the egg white can get you). Thankfully the next day was more fruitful in terms of the sights we went to, and we ultimately managed to rent two motorbikes to go on our first ride together.
Much like Bangkok, Chiang Mai plays host to some fantastic food. Most notably, it is the home of my favorite dish Khao Soi. A place known for its excellent cuisine is the restaurant Ginger Farm Kitchen, located just outside of the old city in the bustling Nimam area of Chiang Mai. Must-try dishes are their Khao Soi, spring rolls, and hilariously spicy papaya salad.
Another restaurant we sampled was at the Tamarind Village, located inside the old city, where we went for what we thought was a Thai-inspired afternoon tea. However, their offerings hardly different to a western-style afternoon tea, but I would like to come back to sample their vegetarian menu.
As I was still on the mend from food poisoning, I jokingly called Chiang Mai the zen part of the trip and did not drink any alcohol during my time there. Instead, I sampled some outstanding coffee at Ristr8tto, where the baristas give the Australians a run for their money. Almost every day, Nalin and I visited this coffee shop as their coffee was superb, and more importantly, it was consistently top-notch.
A trip to Chiang Mai would not be complete without visiting some of the numerous pagodas and natural sights dotted in and around the city. My favorites in the old city include Wat Lok Moli and Wat Chedi Luang.
In addition to the pagodas, Chiang Mai is surrounded by mountains on all sides, which extend toward the Laos and Myanmar border. When researching nature sites to visit on motorbikes, Nalin and I came across something not heard of from our previous travels to the local: Doi Inthanon. Doi Inthanon is Thailand’s tallest peak, standing at over 2500 metres above sea level. The views heading up to the peak and the nearby waterfalls were nothing short of spectacular. One part of this national park I did not expect to see on this trip was cherry blossoms. It was evident that we did not need to go to Japan to fight crowds to see the majestic cherry blossoms in bloom. We could take a short trip to northern Chiang Mai. Nevertheless, it is time for yet more stunning photos to do the talking.
Trip reflections:
This recent trip to Thailand brought some unexpected impressions of Bangkok and Chiang Mai. My brother and I returned from this trip with a renewed interest in returning to both destinations, as we absolutely loved these two cities. I attribute it to the two of us being older when visiting these days and being in charge of the itinerary. There are several things that I would do differently for the next trip. With Bangkok, I would like to dive deeper into the increasingly rich plant-based food scene and coffee culture that’s thriving. In Chiang Mai, I would change which company we rent motorbikes from to one that offers a more organized tour and the option to pay in advance. While the quality of the two Honda motorbikes was exceptional, the service at the rental place, Pop Big Bikes, was anything but. In addition, I would want to visit Chiang Mai over a weekend as numerous weekend-only markets crop up all over the city. One of these markets specializes in sourcing and selling Southern Chinese produce only found in the regions near the China-Laos border. Due to my self-inflicted food poisoning, I would also love to explore more plant-based food options Nalin and I discovered when planning this trip. On the whole, this was one fantastic trip where my desire to return began as I boarded the flight back to Singapore. Here’s to my next trip to Thailand.