April 19, 2023
Today I visited places of the soul and the stomach, then walked across a good portion of the central city.
My goal for the day was to have a meal at Raan Jay Fai, a highly recommended one-Michelin star street-food restaurant. Named for its begoggled owner and chef (“raan” means restaurant – the rest is her name), the place is wicked small and is very rustic with the “kitchen” outdoors next to an alley; it is extremely popular and open from 9 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. I’d heard there were lines prior to its even opening each day (maybe everyone was waiting to order one of her popular crab omelets), so my game plan was to go to a nearby Buddhist temple first, then getting to the restaurant mid-morning, thinking that as a single eater at an off-hour I’d have no problem getting in.
Wat Saket (The Golden Mountain Temple) dates back to about the mid 1400’s and has been renovated several times since. It sits on the highest hill in central Bangkok – it’s actually the highest temple in Bangkok and – before skyscrapers – was the tallest building in Bangkok – and so gives great 360 views of the city; relics from The Buddha are buried beneath the structure that sits at the very top. It’s reached by walking up 344 steps (somebody else counted them way prior to my getting there) and the temple and its grounds contain many different buddhas.
What I didn’t realize was that all the steps except the very last few are OUTSIDE; it was around 95 degrees and humid, so, yeah, I was sweating before I even got to the top. But it was worth it to see the views and the many buddhas along the way. It wasn’t crowded at all, and several folks were praying and making offerings.
After the walk back down the 344 steps it was a 5 or 6 minute walk to Raan Jay Fai. It’s in an older part of the city, an area known for its many back-packer spots and night scene. I arrived about 11:15 a.m.
There was a line. Then I spied the sign that said “Full House” and “No 18.”
Jay Fai is the only chef. She makes every single dish that is ordered. Yup, the restaurant opens at 9 a.m., but people start queuing up as early as 7 a.m. so that they can put their name on the waiting list for the day as soon as it opens. So – Jay Fai has been cooking, presumably, since 9 a.m. They had just started cooking order “number 18” on the waiting list. I chatted with two couples out front. One had gotten there at 7:45 and were number 29 on the list. The other couple had gotten there at 7:30 and were number 22 on the list; they told me they’d seen at least 70 or 80 names on the list at one point. It was a “Full House” when I got there because they weren’t adding anymore people to the list. These two couples had been waiting outside for close to four hours! Fortunately, they didn’t have to choose their meal UNTIL their number was called.
So, I didn’t get to eat at Raan Jay Fai.
But just down the street was a famous and popular pad thai joint that one of the couples recommended. I ate there instead and was REALLY grateful for the air conditioning. It was good – very good – but maybe not as good as Raan Jay Fai might have been. And a whole lot cheaper – my six spring rolls, pad thai, and a bottle of water cost me about $10. After I left, I ran into one of the couples again (who were STILL waiting) but they now knew what they’d order when their number was called and told me it’d put them back about $160 (the crab omelet ain’t cheap I guess).
After lunch I decided to walk back to my hotel, as I’d be checking-out to move closer to the airport for my 5 am flight to Bhutan on Thursday morning. The walk – about 4 1/2 miles – took me along a single long avenue, crowded with 6-8 lanes of traffic almost the entire way, first walking past auto-supply and repair shops, then office furniture shops, with a smattering of other small retail joints. Gradually, this gave way to a handful of smaller and what seemed nicer restaurants, I walked by the National Stadium, and then larger retail shops and malls and office buildings. Vendors with street-carts – mostly food (juices, fruit, drinks, chicken or pork or noodles) – were scattered along the sidewalk as this transition took place and there were small little enclaves where a group of street-cart vendors might be gathered together. The “skytrain” or metro was overhead, and periodically there’d be a shrine where people could pray and make offerings. Other people were walking too – mostly around the mall and office building areas. Me? Well, it was in the low 90’s and I was simply sweating.
It’s an early night tonight, as my pick-up for the 5 a.m. flight to Bhutan is at 3 a.m.
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