My Dentist is in Bangkok
He’s not visiting there, or on vacation, or anything like that. No, my dentist lives there. He works in a wonderful, big, shiny and modern dental centre with lots of other dentists and nurses and hygienists, and all the other people and equipment you expect to see at the dentist.
I like him being there. Besides charging me about 80% less than what I’d pay for similar work in Sydney or San Francisco, I like the fact that he’s far enough away that he doesn’t call or email every few months about my next check-up or some other annoying “procedure.” No, he just waits patiently for me to transit through Bangkok on my way to or from Sydney. I am firmly in control of our relationship.
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| Deep in Bangkok, Jordan in Thai food heaven |
And what a great place to have a dentist! As my colleague Jordan Digby — a Thailand resident — likes to say, Bangkok is a very fractal city. No matter how deep you go, there’s always another interesting pattern to be revealed. The guidebook is almost a distraction. The real action is… everywhere.
Visiting Bangkok last week to see one of our suppliers — and to drop in on Dr. Chat for a, well, a chat, I suppose — Jordan and I decided to venture deep into culinary Bangkok to sample a tiny restaurant that the New York Times has twice, over a period of 12 years, described in terms that would have their readers imagine it’s the “best of the best” Thai restaurants on our small blue planet. Having eaten some pretty good Thai food in our time, this was a claim we were interested in testing. We set off at 5pm with detailed address details and a hunger built up specifically with our mission in mind.
We stopped within walking distance, we guessed, of our destination, and watched the world go by while enjoying a cold drink. Observing the passing traffic is one of Bangkok’s delights, especially at dusk when the light coats everything with a little extra Oriental mystery. By 6:30 we’d gotten ourselves into the right state of mind, and figured we’d be safe finding a table before the rush later in the evening.
Two minutes later Jordan searched for the address details and realised they were gone, left at the bar or fallen on the street, but in any case gone. In Bangkok that’s not a good thing: it’s such a big city nobody really knows where anything is unless it’s important or big, and our destination was neither. Having got this close we didn’t feel like giving up, so we relied on Viator’s famous 24-hour Customer Service team to save the day: Jordan called Lindy in Sydney, she Googled “new york times thai restaurant” or something similar, and through the wonders of modern search technology and text messaging, we had the address about a minute later.
So far, so good.
But have you ever tried to find an address on foot in Bangkok by showing a text message to passing strangers?
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| Yep, it tasted as good as it looks |
Fortunately all Thai kids learn English in school, and after some frustrating encounters we came across a family group that included the most precocious eight-year old in the city: she not only knew the street, she knew the restaurant, and couldn’t have been prouder showing up her big sister, who clearly hadn’t been paying attention in class.
The rest of the story is predictable: the restaurant, Chote Chitr (five tables, and the menu is in Thai), was every bit as good as the reviews. We followed the owner’s guidance and ordered all the good stuff. You know that thing about not believing everything you read in the papers? Forget that. The NY Times is 100% right.
So, here’s a thought: next time you see your dentist, ask him if he knows any good Thai restaurants. You may not be ready to move him to the other side of the world, but you can at least dream a little…
Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s things to do in Thailand, Bangkok tours and activities in Phuket.
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February 14th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
My dentist resides at Bumrungrad Hospital
Nice Thai food is hard to find outside Bangkok!
February 15th, 2008 at 2:35 am
teeth with food go along, anyway - obvious connection:)
February 15th, 2008 at 4:50 am
I have a trip to Bangkok planned later this year - not for dental work, but for a hearing aid for my mother-in-law. It seems that the device itselft is about 20% less than in the states, but the consultation and fitting is about 1/3 the price. That will more than pay for a ticket, hotel, food, etc. Now, I just need to prepare myself for a mother-in-law that can actually hear (maybe I did not think this through)
–Ken
August 13th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Is your caption for that picture sarcastic? Because that food actually does look like it could be quite delicious. Sounds like a great place for a dentist to set up a practice, though.