Tha Tien

I am sitting over a bowl of Tom Yum soup and a Singha, both a perfect antidote for heat and humidity. Large prawns spooned out of an oily, spicy broth. Baby corn cobs, fresh picked, are an explosion of flavour, like an entire cob of spring corn in a single bite. I chill my burning lips with a draft from the Singha, an ice cold lager which makes up with chill effervescence what it lacks in taste.

It’s the best Tom Yum I’ve found in Thailand, but I’d come here, to this little restaurant just off the gangway to Tha Tien Pier, if only for the view and a pleasant place to sit and watch the world. The Chao Phraya River is thick with the traffic of longtails and express boats travelling up and down river. And little ferries making the short trip across to Wat Arun, its prangs rising from the opposite shore.

I come here, again and again, and stay – every time — long after I’ve finished the soup. Long enough to order a second beer. It’s a place to go and watch the flow of life, to be still amidst the movement of people and water and sun, and just take pleasure in the beauty of existence.