Bangkok Off the Beaten Path Tips by trisanna

The phallus is the symbol of fertility. Many Thai women, who want children will place offerings or more lingams at the shrine. Many of the phallus line the pathways and gardens -like mini fences.

Located at the back of the Swissotel's Nai Lert Hotel(originally Hilton). This is very hard. We walked onto the grounds, which had a guard and went right to the concierge. I thought he would kick us out, but told us to follow the service entrance to the shrine.

Located Nai Loet Park, Th Withaya. BTS Chitlom or Ploenchit

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One my my favorite things about entering Thailand-is the descent to either Bangkok or other cities. On descent, most places look the same-but Thailand is different. You will see glimpses of chedis, wat tops. The glitter and gold. Really beautiful.

The wats are beautiful and quite interesting, but i know after a few days you can be temple-ed out. That's one nice thing about Bangkok , is there are so many other fine distractions in this city. Just take your time, admire these grand temples.

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Website: http://www.bangkok200.com.th

Inside the bot (interior part of wat-where the Buddhas are) it is surrounded by lovely temple murals. Most of the murals depict past every day scenes. Some show the lives of kings. The majority of the murals, show scenes out of the story Ramayana. If you are traveling throughout Southeast asia -you will learn a lot about this story through dance and art. It's the story of Rama and Sita. She is kidnapped by a horrible demon, who wants to make her his queen. Hanuman (white monkey) leader of the monkeys defeated the demon and saved Sita. Returning her safe and sound to Rama.

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Street food can be safe to eat if you know what you are looking for. Anything(soup-noodles and such) are safe if they are booling hot. With meat-if it's fresh and not been sitting around- i am sure it is fine. Everybody's digestive systems and strengths are different so be careful.

I would avoid most hawker stalls by the Chao Phraya river. The food is fine. But i have seen vendors washing their plates and chopsticks in Chao Phraya river water. The street vendors that will cook things to order are best.

Some are:
-banana or fruit murtobak-fruit grilled pancake with condensed milk
-quail egg omlette cakes
-hot noodles
-grilled bananas
-have to try little kuehs (or sweet cakes)
-pad thai noodles
-som tom ( papaya salad-if you don't like anything to hot you could avoid this or ask for less chili).

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You may already know that Thai people love their food hot. If you don't know this -you will learn shortly.

Thai people love their chili so much they put it on fruit. They place a sugar chili mixture in a bag-then dip the fruit inside or you can sprinkle it on top. It's so good and can be addictive. Usually they sprinkle the mixture on green mangoes, but i have seen it done on strawberries.

In Thai cooking, they are always looking for a balance. An almost Thai ying yang affect. They want sweetness (palm sugar), saltiness (fish sauce), heat (chili), souriness (vinegar). All these items will either be incorporated in your food or found as little jars on your table as condiments.

If you don't like spicy foods-you can have
-pad thai. A noodle dish with prawns (shrimp in usa), some tofu (not always), green onions, and egg thrown in with some rice noodles.
-beef/chicken stirfry with sweet basil-just ask for less chili
-cashew fried chicken. I am not sure if this is a 100% Thai dish, since it seems Chinese style and could have been made for the tourists. Anyway, it's rather good.

Not all chilis are quite hot-just stay away from the tiny ones. The smaller -the hotter. For instance-the chili padi or firecracker.

Just stay away from the papaya/mango salad unless they are making it for you. It's a very delicious crisp salad-but they love to load it with chili.

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