Pea spends a full day traveling across Bangkok on a quest to find Thailand's exotic insect street food. The journey itself becomes the adventure as she rides tuk-tuks, visits an 800-year-old golden Buddha, takes a canal boat through residential neighborhoods, and discovers Chinatown is closed on Mondays — before finally tracking down scorpions, tarantulas, and silkworms at a night market on Khao San Road.
The quest begins with a tuk-tuk ride
- Pea's original destination is Chinatown, but her tuk-tuk driver informs her it doesn't open until 6 PM and it's only 3 PM
- She doesn't know where he's taking her instead but goes with it
- She loves the tuk-tuk experience — it's wider than Philippine trikes, allowed on main highways, breezy, and only costs 100 baht (about $3 US)
- She compares it favorably to the Philippines: "the trikes in the Philippines — nothing compared to this tuk-tuk"
Observations about Bangkok's cleanliness and infrastructure
- After three days in Bangkok, she hasn't seen a single stray dog or cat — a stark contrast to the Philippines where strays are everywhere
- She credits the efficient transportation system: buses, tuk-tuks, sky train, subway — "everything is moving"
Visit to the Lucky Buddha temple
- The tuk-tuk driver takes her to see one of the oldest Buddhas in Thailand, approximately 800 years old
- It's covered in gold but made of bronze inside, weighing five tons
- No video allowed inside, but she took photos
Canal boat ride to Chinatown
- She takes a boat cruise that's supposed to end at Chinatown, with multiple stopovers
- She stops at Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), built in the 17th century, one of Thailand's famous landmarks
- Women must cover up — since Pea was wearing shorts, they lent her a cloth to wrap around and she returned it at the exit
- She describes the calming atmosphere: wind chimes, birds, tons of steep steps
- The boat then turns onto a narrow canal through residential areas
- She describes rows of little houses built right against the canal — not junky shacks but nicely painted and well-maintained
- People smiled and waved as she passed; dogs were quiet and behaved
- Beautiful Buddhist temples sit right on the canal with people relaxing on temple grounds
- She passes an 80-foot-tall Buddha statue watching over the neighborhood
Chinatown is closed (plot twist)
- After an hour-long boat cruise, she finally reaches Chinatown's back entrance — only to discover the night market is closed on Mondays
- She takes another tuk-tuk to Pratunam, a large night market, hoping to find the exotic food there
- Still no luck — but she notices cannabis is being sold legally at the market
The tuk-tuk rides become their own adventure
- She takes yet another 20-minute tuk-tuk ride across Bangkok to Khao San Road
- She's thrilled by the speed: "talk about fast and the furious with no seatbelts — it's turbo boosted, I'm almost flying"
- Calls the driver "Lightning McQueen"
She finally finds the exotic street food on Khao San Road
- The vendor sells scorpions, grasshoppers, crickets, fried frogs, silkworms, and tarantulas
- She buys a scoop of each and takes them to a quiet spot
The eating challenge — blow-by-blow
- Cricket: Crunchy, not so bad — she survived
- Silkworm: "It's got something inside" — a surprise filling in the middle; vendor claimed it tastes like potato chips, which Pea says is "nowhere near" accurate, but it wasn't terrible
- Tarantula: Hairy legs, she's literally shaking, worried about allergies; when she bites into the belly, "juicy stuff came out" — she almost threw up and doesn't want to know what color it was; declares it the worst one
- Scorpion (grand finale): She psyches herself up by pretending it's a mud crab; it actually does taste like crab with a soy sauce flavor; she cracks it open and finds meat inside — this was the most tolerable of the bunch
Pea's final verdict: she promises to "work harder so I don't resort to eating insects" and says she doesn't recommend it for the faint-hearted, but if you're adventurous and in Thailand, go for it
- She jokes that she's "traumatized" but clearly had fun with the whole experience
