One Thailand?

I had a lovely weekend with the boyfriend, my kpop star. Since I am renting my new place, I have hardly left it and the boyfriend loves coming here - no wonder - it's a cracker of a place.
I dont have my 14th floor view from before but I can see trees and the sky now. I also have a living room AND a bed room. And a nice swimming pool in a great neighbourhood...cant ask for more.

View from the living room

But yesterday, I thought it was time to show the nice sides of Bangkok to the boyfriend. He has been living here since October, but hardly travelled around. He hates the heat and is a bit shy to interact with locals.

The noodle soup. yummy.

We took the bus, out to Nonthaburi. The tiny green bus. It was very uncomfortable, but who cares. I am 174cm tall but I could hardly stand in this bus. Luckily I am not Dutch...
In Nonthaburi, we just got off at a random place and ate noodle soup. Im sorry but noodle soup has to be the `f*cking best food in the world. If you try 100 soups, you get 100 different tastes, it's simply amazing!

The noodle soup troop

After the noodle soup, we strolled through the markets, saw fish (live and dead), meat, veges, spices, chicken blood, flowers, clothes, towels, shoes - and desserts. Well, bangkokbitch and his bf are sweet boys, so we bought some desserts. A special rice with coconut, sticky coconut rice with custard (my favourite), naam daeng (red syrup with condensed milk over ice) etc...

market in nonthaburi

Flowers on the market

Our tummies filled, we took the ferry back to Bangkok proper.

We then arrived at National Stadium, where the OTOP (One tambon (district) one product) festival was running. This festival is meant to be a showcase for the provinces and their special products (clothes, other manuf goods, sculptures, and most importantly - food food food).

The OTOP festival

There were HEAPS of people and the central stage was abuzz with shows of look tung singers, kathoey plays and strangely, there was something like an advertisement film of Thailand and it's products.

Look Tung show - amazingly kitchy!

I found that part a bit odd. Why does Thailand have to market itself to Thailand? Nevertheless, the thing that amazed me the most is the variety of Thai products and people that was on display. I think Thailand should increasingly celebrate its diversity and not hold on to the illusion of one Thailand of Thais.