WELL, HERE I AM AGAIN, back in Bangkok, sitting on the same old wobbly plastic stool, outside the same old Chinatown food shop, eating the same old oyster omelet. But there's nothing everyday about this particular dish. Nai Mong Hoi Thod may look like little more than a white-tiled hole in the wall, with a few tables and a fearsome charcoal wok that sizzles and sparks and roars. But appearances can be deceiving. Michelin has designated the restaurant as Bib Gourmand, and its famous omelet-golden, gooey, and studded with sweet-salty bivalves-is a dish of frazzled majesty. As scavenging cats wind between our legs and as tuktuks, scooters, and bicycles whiz through air so thick and hot you could scoop it with a spoon, I look at my dining companion, the chef, restaurateur, and writer David Thompson, and grin with sweaty glee. It really is good to be back.
Bangkok pulses and seethes, throbs and growls. It is both wildly cacophonous and magnificently languid, an ancient city in thrall to the modern. It might not be conventionally beautiful-the concrete is crumbling, the corrugated iron corroded, and the roads pockmarked with holes. Overhead are decades' worth of utility wires, tangled into thick balls, like great nests of metallic noodles.
But look closer, and you'll find scenes of breathtaking loveliness: a tiny shrine draped with garlands; a fresh-fruit stall, almost fecund in its lushness; a verdant garden, secreted away behind high walls. Bangkok cares little about what you think, which makes me love it all the more.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July - August 2024 من Condé Nast Traveler US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July - August 2024 من Condé Nast Traveler US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
ANCIENT WAY
The vivid colors and patterns typical of robes in Benzilan A centuries-old trading route through China's Yunnan Province unlocks a land of rice paddies and teahouses where tradition persists in the face of modernity's relentless push
ROLLING ON THE RIVER
With the launch of Viking Mississippi, American cruising enters its next chapter
HOLD THAT THOUGHT
At a big-hearted temple retreat in rural Japan, Zen rituals fused with mindfulness practices teach Kate Crockett to be more present
be cool
Outside the summer months, Lake Como hums with a slower, more local rhythm. Now travelers re getting wise to the appeal of the legendary Italian vacation spot in all seasons
BLUE ORIGIN
At a retreat on Costa Rica's Papagayo Peninsula, one of the world's longevity hot spots, Maria Yagoda remembers the importance of living well
CITY OF DREAMS
On the ever-shifting banks of the Mississippi River, French, Spanish, Haitian, and African influences have shaped the contours of modern New Orleans, that singular mecca of jazz, jambalaya, and Mardi Gras. Now, 20 years after the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Crescent City resident Leslie Pariseau finds a complex but resilient community where no idea is too far-fetched
CUTE COUPLE
Japan's long-standing romance with Italian food is playing out in inventive ways all over Tokyo
TECH SUPPORT
With cutting-edge treatments increasingly jostling for space with traditional therapies, Kelsey Eisen ponders our recent obsession with all things science-backed
IN GOOD COMPANY
For Jen Murphy, a group hiking retreat in the California desert shows that community and connection are cornerstones of a healthy life
IN BLOOM
Just off the beaches of southern Sri Lanka, a design-forward lifestyle district is flourishing Just off the beaches of southern Sri Lanka, a design-forward lifestyle district is flourishing
