Thailand

Back to Bangsaen

I am a huge fan of anything retro. I collect film cameras and I wear clothes my grandmother thinks are fashionable.

So I was ultimately crushed when I heard that there will be a Bangsaen Retro Festival this coming weekend (Feb 26-27), the very weekend I am on assignment to the opposite side of the country.

To help me cope, I’d like to share with fellow PocketCulturers about this interesting event, just in case you or someone you know will be in the country/town this weekend.

Bangsaen is a small beach town in the province of Chonburi, in the same province as the infamous Pattaya. Popular more among locals than tourists, Bangsaen is many locals’ first choice of a beach getaway as it is close to Bangkok and it doesn’t carry the same stigma as a scandalous destination as Pattaya.

The festival will take visitors back to Bangsaen’s glory days before the cluttered beaches and rows of concrete hotels. People are encouraged to dress up in 1960s fashion and there will be old school activities such as ballroom dancing by the beach and orchestra concerts, as well as exhibition of art and photographs and antique store booths available.

So if anyone is planning to head to Pattaya this weekend, take a detour to Bangsaen instead for something different and refreshing.

For more information and photos from last year’s event, check out Tourism Authority of Thailand‘s website (in Thai) or a writeup by Pattaya Daily News (in English).

Read more:
Explore four regions of Thailand in Pattaya’s floating market
Thai takeaway: iced tea in a bag
The real Phad Thai: all you need to know about Thailand’s most famous dish

Hot, Sweet, Salty, Sour

The four major flavours in South East Asian cuisine are hot, sweet, salty, and sour and the clever cook will get a good balance into each dish that they cook. This photo contributed by Gnarlykitty on Flickr shows the condiments you see on every table in Thailand.

It includes some chilli, sugar, fish sauce, and vinegar for the diner to add in the proportions they feel fit.

Do you have interesting food photos you’d like to show on Pocketcultures? Join our Food of the World Flickr group where we are always on the lookout for new images.

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Thai takeaway

Sweet and refreshing Thai iced tea

photo by Shanti, shanti on Flickr

Takeaway meals and drinks come in all manner of containers around the world. Did you know that a popular way to take away food in Thailand is in bags? You can even order a drink to take away and it will come in a bag with handles and a straw stuck in for sipping.

You can attach the bag on to your motorbike handles or the little hook on the back of the seat in front of you on the bus. Very convenient, but just remember not to set it down!

We love food photos from all over the world. If you have a great pic to contribute, go ahead and join our Flickr group where we are always looking for delicious things to post.

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The real Phad Thai: Thailand’s most famous food
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The best of Thailand at Pattaya Floating Market

Ask any tourists what image they have of Pattaya and you’ll be met with something along the line of cheap beers and girls. And the city knows it. That’s why over the recent years Chonburi City (which Pattaya is a part of) has come up with a variety of attractions that you don’t need neon lights to enjoy. However, the newly built mega-malls, wax museum, ocean-view movie theater and theme park hotels are no match to what Pattaya’s Floating Market has to offer.

Floating markets are common in Thailand. Think Venice, but instead of the canals full of leisure gondolas, the Thai version is filled with wooden boats that double as floating shophouses, selling everything from a bowl of noodles to Thai desserts and souvenirs.

But what makes Pattaya’s one so special is that, despite being very commercialized where vendors are paid tenants and not your neighborhood cooking mamas, it does make a refreshing sight in this party beach town with its traditional Thai-style architecture, old-school waterside coffee shops, Thailand’s famous spicy boat noodles and rows of shacks offering snacks and gifts for locals and curious tourists.

The full name is Four Region Floating Market, which reflects the concept of bringing things from all corners of Thailand to one spot. Here you can try Northern spicy sausage from Chiang Mai, favorite som tum papaya salad from Northeast Isaan, arrays of curries from the South, and Central’s signature wicker handicrafts and funky hippie fashions.

Besides the goodies, there are also elephant shows, traditional performances, boat rides along its makeshift canals, and even a little extreme adventure on its rope obstacle course over the water.

The place is huge, you can easily waste away your afternoon, and money, here. And unlike other tourist attractions in Pattaya that aim to drain your wallet even before you set foot inside, the entrance to the floating market is absolutely free.

Pattaya Four Region Floating Market

451/304 Moo 12, Sukhumvit-Pattaya Road

Tel: (+66) 3870 6340

www.pattayafloatingmarket.com

Read more:
The Real Phad Thai: where (not) to find it
Remixing Thai folk music: Morlam DJ

Temple Fair Phad Thai

Today’s Food of the World photo is a Phad Thai station in Temple Fair, Bangkok, taken by gnarlykitty. Thanks Kitty!

Kitty also wrote about how to find good Phad Thai in an earlier post.

Do you want to share your country’s food? Join our photo group on Flickr and show us your photos.

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Morlam DJ: Thai folk music remixed

Morlam is the name of a style of Thai folk music. Though considered traditional, it is still quite popular in the north and northeast (Isan) regions of Thailand. Isan is home of the famous Som Tum spicy papaya salad just to give you a clue.

I’m going to be honest, Morlam does have a stigma among the urban locals. It is deemed to be music for the lower class, music of the simple lifestyle in the countryside. The music of baan nork (upcountry) people.

In the city, we have pop groups that are badly modeled after South Korean counterparts. Lame reality music shows that produce only pretty faces and not talents. With such bad quality, it makes you wonder why the “city music” should be considered “better” at all?

Good thing though that Maft Sai feels differently. A local club DJ in Bangkok, instead of spinning Akon and Madonna dance mixes like in most of the clubs in town, he takes Morlam and other forms of Thai folk music and mash them up with funky beats of jazz, reggae and soul. The result is ZudRangMa Records.

A party was held on Aug 14 to commemorate the launch of his second compilation, Thai Funk Vol. 2. Usual electronic clubbers were presented with a rather unique blend of Morlam, dub and funk, completely caught them by surprise.

Though his records cannot be downloaded online, those who are curious about what Morlam and “Morlam mixes” sound like, Maft Sai also runs a twice-a-month radio show on his website. There are also recorded sessions in case you’ve missed the previous episodes.

His psychedelic MySpace profile is also a good source to discover rare videos and tracks from the Thai past.

Want to know more about Maft Sai and his music? Check out the interview with BK Magazine, a free English weekly about Bangkok, at http://bk-magazine.com/feature/q-maft-sai