Like any international city, Bangkok has multiple ethnic neighbourhoods. Once you cross some invisible line, you are suddenly transported to another world --- a market in Jaipur, a busy street in Guangzhou, a small Malay village. Two nights ago I went to the Arab quarter (off the Nana BTS on Sukhumvit Soi 3/1) for dinner with a friend and I was instantly teleported to Cairo.
We had dinner at Shahrazad and I could’ve sworn I wasn’t in Bangkok. We were the only non-Arab patrons in the restaurant. All the waitresses wore uniform chadors. The shish kabob and baba ghanoush were excellent. The restaurant didn’t serve hot drinks, such as tea or coffee, after 1:00 p.m. because (or so the waitress claimed) it was summer in the Arab world and they were following the custom over there. Perhaps their kettle was broken?!
After dinner we moved on to Nefertiti, an open-air shisha café populated by men sitting alone, smoking their hookahs and drinking mint tea (a hot drink!). The café was all mirrors, silver kitsch and heavy copper jars. I ordered a Turkish coffee and my friend and I had an apple shisha to share. Like all the other patrons in the café, we sat and watched the world go by as the Arab version of MTV blasted dance tunes from a TV set in the corner.
We went home slightly buzzed and ready to go to bed.
1 comment:
Good point, though sometimes it's hard to arrive to definite conclusions
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