Breakfast in Bangkok

August 4, 2008
6:35am ICT
Caffe Nero
Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand

Overnight spent in the airport. I ache, and my system feels a bit sensitive, so I opt for the ‘American Breakfast Set.’ (I know, shut up.) The meal is decently good, but everything’s just slightly… off. Mostly small things, but they seem to add up in a very odd way.

The coffee comes black, and they don’t have cream and sugar at the ready. What cafe doesn’t have cream and sugar at the ready?

The toast is a perfect triangle, the sunny-side-up egg a perfect circle.

Breakfast comes with sausage and bacon, which turns out to be cocktail weenies wrapped in bacon.

Breakfast also comes with a side salad. Who ever heard of a side salad with breakfast?

It’s just not quite right. It’s a pale imitation of an American breakfast. I get the same feeling as when I have to ask someone for help in English here. They’re forced to bend over backwards for a Western crowd, because of the money we can bring in, but it’s an imposition upon them, and they can’t quite do it right. Both sides wind up stressed out, and the transaction never quite works.

I resolve to stop eating American food while I’m here, and to pick up a good Khmer phrasebook.

On another note, I’ve now seen several couples in airport – maybe 4 or 5 – consisting of an older American man, and a much more attractive, much much younger, Asian woman. Just not sure...

On the TV in the cafe, Jon Voigt is live on stage, reading a children’s book to a young girl sitting on his lap.

(By the way, to ease fears, I had no trouble getting a ticket to Siem Reap, at the time I wanted, and I’ve figured out who I’m meeting and where I’m going when I get there.)