6/23/10 (bangkok)
Jon Carr
Bangkok
This day turned out to be a pretty epic day. We had taken an overnight bus from Krabi the prior night after having expected a more luxurious train ride. We arrived at a downtown Bangkok drop off point and unloaded from the bus at roughly 5:45am. The local cabbies engulfed us like hungry seagulls. While I was rounding up our luggage, Annie appeared with a driver she had been negotiating a fare with. They settled on 300 Baht (roughly $10 US) for transport to Chef McDang’s home. We had made it a policy to ask before getting in the cab after having been burned in Malaysia. The driver spoke limited English and we needed to provide him with our destination. We reluctantly called Chef McDang for an early wake up call and he spoke to the driver for five minutes before informing us that we should ask the driver to use a meter for the trip. Before getting in the cab, we instructed the driver about the meter and he quickly grew agitated. We were insistent on the meter and he abruptly assigned a younger driver to take us instead. The new driver spent a moment with the original driver detailing our destination and then we were on our way. I have to admit everything happened pretty fast and both of us were disoriented due to the overnight transport.
Bangkok was much larger than I originally anticipated. The skyline was lined with giant high rise towers. At street level we saw pockets of poverty being forcibly dragged along into modern Asian society. The cab driver was very chatty and quickly developed some rapport with us. We drove for about ten minutes through Bangkok and arrived at a one way intersection. The cabbie told us down the the one way road was the condominium complex that Chef McDang resided in. It would be easier for us to walk down the one way then have the cabbie loop around and drop us off. He then told us the fee would be $302 Baht. I was busy collecting the luggage from the trunk while Annie handled the fare. Both of us were feeling a little wary about this situation and a little off our game due to lack of sleep. We crossed the busy intersection and realized this was unlikely our planned final destination. We had been taken!
With a little humility, we called Chef McDang who had confirmed our suspicions. I rounded up a second driver and the Chef went through his directions another time. The new driver took us to the outskirts of Bangkok to a large high rise condominium complex along the Nonthaburi river. The ride took twenty minutes and cost 150 Baht. Upon arrival, we were greeted by Nun. Nun is from northern Thailand from the Chang Rai region and was Chef McDang’s assistant. Nun guided us to the third floor of the building. We greeted the Chef briefly who gave us a warm welcome and then were escorted to our room. The room turned out to be roughly as large as our apartment in San Francisco with a beautiful view of the river leading to downtown on the horizon from our balcony. It was cool and comfortable and we quickly agreed we were never going to leave. We got some rest before our lunch date with Chef McDang.
Chef McDang owned the entire third floor of the complex and had knocked down a wall to create an adjoining production kitchen that is utilized for his weekly Thai cooking show. It is by far the nicest place we have stayed at in our travels and began to give us a sense of our adventures over the next few days. After settling in, we met the Chef and were escorted to his private limo. We went to a local restaurant along the river. The walls were lined with photos of the Princess of Thailand who had eaten here a few years ago as well as many with Chef McDang. The staff was excited to see him and swiftly brought out a large procession of Thai platters. I am very particular about my food and this meal began what would be a common theme of our time with the Chef. “Shut up and eat it,” was the affectionate phrase the Chef consistently used with me. This led to me stepping way out of my culinary comfort zone and also a few midnight runs to the toilet. The meal proved to be an adventure and allowed us to spend some time with the gregarious and chatty Chef. After the meal we visited the local markets and Chef McDang was causing quite a stir amongst the locals. We were starting to get a sense of just how popular he was in Thailand. I knew he was quite popular but didn’t realize he came from royal blood and his father was one of Thailand’s most famous figures. Chef McDang didn’t fall far from the tree and had become a Thai celebrity of his own right.
After lunch we headed back to what affectionately became know as “the compound.” Annie and I rested a bit as the Chef went about his daily business. Since I was a little hesitant about the food we had for lunch, Chef McDang had suggested we go to the Landmark Hotel for a good steak dinner. He assured me it was one of the top three steak restaurants in Thailand. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.
Over the past several months I have been in contact with an American that is a friend of the family who grew up in my hometown of Alpena, Michigan. His name is Paul and he currently splits his time between Bangkok, Vancouver, Aspen, and Phnom Penh. He is very familiar with Southeast Asia and was watching over our travels from a distance, pointing us in the right direction. It was my intention to meet up with him in Cambodia, our next stop after Thailand. Paul is a very successful restauranteur in the states and owned several restaurants in the Key West area. He has since sold them and opened a high end place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Through emails I discovered that Paul was in Bangkok this very evening and decided to give him a call to see if we could coordinate a meal. It was beginning to look more and more unlikely that we would be able to catch him in Cambodia because he was heading out to the Vancouver sooner than anticipated. Paul and I had never spoken to one another, let alone meet. We had just communicated via email. I called Paul and he wanted to meet up tonight for dinner, it was the only night he was available. This put me in a tough position because we had made plans with Chef McDang who was incredibly generous and offered to take us to the Landmark. I didn’t want to insult him and flake out. On the other hand, Paul had been very helpful for the last several months and was a family friend. It looked like this was the only night we could meet him. I briefly explained the situation to Paul and he suggested we all meet up. I hesitantly agreed to ask Chef McDang if he was open to this and I would call Paul back to let him know the plan. At this point I had only known Chef McDang for a few hours and wasn’t feeling comfortable asking if we could change our plans to meet up with a family friend I had never actually met.
I asked the Chef if he would be willing to meet up with my friend for dinner. He looked at me a little skeptically and inquired a little more. I began to describe what I knew about Paul. “He is an American that splits his time between Bangkok and Phnom Pen, he is in the restaurant business, and he owned several restaurants in the Key West Area. Instantly the light bulb went off with Chef McDang and he asked, “Is it Paul Tripp?” The question blew my mind because it was in fact Paul Tripp. Turns out Chef McDang had been Paul’s executive chef in the US for several of his Key West restaurants and they were good friends. They actually had dinner together a few nights ago in Bangkok. This was a very crazy revaluation, the two people we knew in the area were good friends and we had no idea. Chef McDang quickly called Paul and told him he had two “annoying” Americans staying with him and they wanted all of us to get together for dinner. Small world!
We spent the next few hours contemplating the crazy connection we encountered and prepped for dinner at the Landmark. Later that evening we were whisked to downtown Bangkok while enjoying a multitude of stories from Chef McDang. After a few quick martini’s we were off to the 34th floor of the Landmark to enjoy by far the best meal of our travels and a wonderful serendipitous evening of new friends. Paul and Chef McDang enjoyed some playful banter only years of friendship could bring. Annie and I enjoyed a night of feeling like royalty offering some significant contrast from our prior traveling lifestyle. Oh, and we also met the governor of Bangkok who was the Chef’s cousin. Just another day for Chef McDang, but a day Annie and I won’t soon forget.
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