Tag: Bangkok

#748 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Markets, Saturday, Serendipity1 Comment
Italian meringue, Tavistock

This top image is contrary. Yesterday bad weather and serendipity took us to Tavistock market. A place of colour and bustle, but also these beautiful white meringues.

I had found a Belle Epoque mirror on a second-hand site for a very small amount of money. An early morning drive to Tavistock would give us the chance to collect it and walk the dogs on Dartmoor.

The weather had other ideas, and by the time we hit the moors on our way to Tavistock we were in the worst sort of rainstorm. The dogs still needed walking but as luck would have it Tavistock has an ancient covered market.

Somewhere we could browse and people watch, and the dogs could stretch their legs and enjoy the mixed smells of market life. I am a sucker for the market vibe. I love the juxtaposition of colours, smells and people. Throw Christmas into the mix and things could not get more fancy.

Tavistock is a market town that is traditional in every sense. Country people come into the town to stock up stuff that sustains them in their rural, and often isolated homes out in the wildness of the moor. Tavistock is a town where people wear country clothing because they need to, not because it is a fashion trend. Deerstalkers, the iconic hat of Sherlock Holmes are worn as a matter of course. This is the land of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Tavistock market is the location of Butchers Hall, the roof is one of my favourite complicated photos.

As we are drawing towards the end of 2023, I thought I would just thtow in some other market pictures of the past year.

Only the middle one was taken at Tavistock y.esterday. The top one was in Bangkok and the last one was Hong Kong. All featuring food but I also have hats and slippers to share.

Hats in Tavistock.

And slippers in Venice.

For the serendipitous and fascinating love of markets.

#607 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Travels1 Comment
Bangkok rust

Fit to burst, the image above was a rusty post box, not my actual flesh.It exactly replicates how I began to feel after a 16 dish tasting tour of the oldest land market in Bangkok. Nang Loeng Market. Another day of being overwhelmed in Bangkok and still avoiding the tourist traps. 42 degrees (feels like 50) is, possibly, not the best temperature for gastronomic excess.

Another downer for Gastronomic failure is my sensitivity to shellfish, something I have loved since childhood when my grandparents pub was visited on a Friday by a local fishmonger with fresh cockles, mussels and whelks. 30 odd years of shellfish love cascaded from me after a dodgy Oyster in Plymouth. There had been an earlier 6 month sensitivity in my twenties. The trouble is I love seafood. I continue to be a seafood lover with some degree of caution.

Our first dish, of the 16 was mussels.

A moments dilemma, these were cooked by the King of Thailand’s seafood chef. It would have been rude not to, and no ill effects were suffered. 16 dishes later there was definitely a sense of gastric disquiet caused by gluttony and not a seafood toxin.

The Michelin Guide of Thailand.

The other 14 courses will get their moment in the blog but today just 1 and 2.

Sticky rice with Taro stuffing.

#606 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity2 Comments
Yayoi Kusami, Infinity- Nets 2021

Nothing is quite as it seems in Bangkok on a Public holiday weekend. With the King himself elsewhere. The city is decorated for a party but there are no additional public celebrations. People do indeed seem to be taking a break and the city seems quieter than we imagined, Businesses and Temples are closing earlier.

The Thai King and Queen are in London this weekend.

Our evening explorations are proving to be unpredictable. Daytime yesterday we achieved what we set out to do and I thought I knew what this blog was going to be about. Based as it is on a daytime event. Our day was planned to be spent at Moca, The Museum of Contemporary Art which it was. And then I was going to write about it. But one of Asias largest collections of Contemporary art blew my mind a bit and I feel lost as to where to start. So much so that we are off to a different art gallery today to try and get a bit of context and maybe distil  my thoughts. Even my trusty phone camera was baffled. The top picture is by Yayoi Kusami. Not her traditional Polka dots, this 2021 painting is still part of her Infinity Nets series. The painting is a yellow and black image displayed on a lime green wall. Nothing I did could replicate the acidity of the combination. A fine metaphor for the rest of our visit really. So this blog is not going to be about the art we saw but more about how we felt. I am going to share two proper writers reviews of this collection of contemporary art because my inane witterings will not do it justice.

https://www.cntraveler.com/activities/bangkok/museum-of-contemporary-art-moca-bangkok

https://sawasdee.thaiairways.com/love-art-heres-a-handy-guide-to-the-moca-bangkok/

Please read them, they really will better prepare you for my over-sharing of our responses.

The first one I need to get off my chest, pun intended, is that I was exhausted by perfect perky breasts and smooth, mostly hairless bodies. Traditional and cultural stories, visually explored even in contemporary art seemed very much aimed at the ‘ male gaze’ market.

Goddess of Earth,  Chatawan Rodklongtan

Goddesses are perhaps excused perfection but goodness me it got exhausting.

Some images were, to me a little troubling. One, certainly traditional in subject matter, represented young girls, just at pre-, puberty preparing for traditional Thai dancing. What was unsettling to my Western eyes was that so many of them needed to be topless and also, due to the skill of the artist, seem to lock eyes with the viewer.

Much more to my taste was the one below that represented more natural older women.

Satan’s Daughter no.1 Surathin Tatana
Detail, flipped.

It is going to take me and google quite some time to research the meaning of this in Buddhism but these are just my early response.

Sundays seem to be the day instagrammers are about. There were several groups of people, one at least with a professional photographer, anxious not to see the art but to ‘be seen’ with the art.

Not that I am immune to the lure of the ‘gram’.

Is this not the most beautiful Lemon Meringue Pie ever?

I have no shame in sharing that it appears on my Instagram grid.

So much more art to discuss, so little time. Arty witterings for many future blogs.

#605 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn TravelsLeave a comment

It was never our plan to escape one Coronation to leap headlong into another country’s Coronation celebrations. And yet that is what we have done and there are similarities. Today in Britain, Camilla a former Royal Mistress was crowned Queen. Here in Bangkok there are a confusing number of women on the celebratory arches built over busy roads.

Royal Purple was a theme in both capital cities.

While this 4 day public holiday in Thailand is celebrating a past Coronation, the city has plenty of extra bling to enhance our visit. We also stumbled upon a Budha wholesale store. More bling.

Trying desperately to stick to the best advice on Jetlag. We adopted the timing of Thailand the minute we arrived. As we faltered in the afternoon we swam, a lot, and then watched the British Coronation live on BBC News channel. Then set off on a random street walk to get supper and found a street food store that first opened in 1939.

https://thipsamai.com/

A day well filled, 8,000 steps and two flights. Time for bed.

#604 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Travels1 Comment

Here we are in a quiet backwater of a city celebrating Coronation Day. There are flags of red, white and blue and brilliant yellow and white drapes adorning important buildings. Coronation Day/ Weekend is held in Bangkok every year to celebrate the coronation of their King in May 2016.

This year the King has taken a trip to London so is missing his own party. We quietly enjoyed pancake rolls and fried noodles after a lengthy journey to get here.