
Bangkok plans to ban all street food by year′s end - walterbell
http://www.dw.com/en/bangkok-plans-to-ban-all-street-food-by-years-end/a-38458543
======
phsource

      "All types of stalls including clothes,
      counterfeit goods and food stalls will
      be banned from main city roads"
      - Wanlop Suwandee, a chief advisor to
        Bangkok's governor, told AFP.
    

Based on this statement, it's not nearly as bad as we'd expect, since most of
Bangkok's street food are not on the main city roads, but rather on smaller
streets. When I visited, vendors most often were situated in side streets
coming off the main streets, or near transport hubs like the river ferry
stations.

~~~
omurphy27
Unfortunately it looks like this isn't just confined to some touristy areas on
Sukhimvit or Khao San road.

They are targeting the Thong Lor, Ekkamai and Phra Khanong districts too,
specifically Soi Thong Lor, Soi Ekkamai, and Soi Pridi Banomyong:
[https://coconuts.co/bangkok/food-drink/first-
soi-38-closed-s...](https://coconuts.co/bangkok/food-drink/first-
soi-38-closed-soon-therell-no-street-food-thong-lor-ekkamai-phra-khanong-
either/)

Completely ridiculous of course since street food is super delicious,
affordable and remains one of Bangkok's biggest attractions. Hopefully this
move doesn't spread to all of Bangkok, but who knows.

~~~
ic4l
"Soi Thong Lor, Soi Ekkamai" are mainly areas catering towards "Hi So"
individuals. While I don't agree with their decisions it does make sense.

~~~
JohnJamesRambo
What does Hi So mean?

~~~
wingerlang
Thai slang for socialites and the upper class (from English 'high society').

(Took from some wikipedia page)

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geomark
I guess it's mostly a tourist or short term resident thing, because as someone
who has lived in Thailand for 15 years I find the street food vendors largely
a menace. They block the sidewalks, forcing you to walk in the street to get
around them, which leads to worse traffic problems on the small and poorly
planned streets. They are filthy, washing plates in tubs on the sidewalk with
the runoff going over the sidewalk and into the street. And the quality of the
food is generally pretty poor - there are some gems but if you don't know
which ones you are more likely to get some really low quality stuff. Enjoy
your "pad grapao moo" with lots of chuncks of gristle and bone chips in it.

~~~
papabrown
Agreed 100%. I know of a few winners. Places I'll go out of my way to visit.
But most of them serve garbage to dumb tourists thinking they're having an
authentic Thai experience and locals too poor to care about the quality.

I can't help at laugh at the people who freak out over a hair in their food
back home but gladly sit there and eat off plates that have been washed in a
tub of dirty water. Or the locals who think they're being clean and taking a
tissue and wiping their utensils before eating. Believe me, the stuff you
should be afraid of does not wipe off with a piece of toilet paper (aka Thai
napkin).

And I have the same answer every time they have one of these crackdowns and
someone bemoans the plight of the poor Thai person just trying to make a
living. Thais have a knack for killing things. A few food stalls would go
mostly unnoticed. Instead, they slowly consume the entire sidewalk. And then
they spill out onto the street. They become hazardous to both pedestrian and
vehicles. And because there's so much competition, they go to increasingly
annoying lengths to get customers.

I've seen people get clipped by motorbikes walking off of the sidewalk into
the street because the vendors have completely blocked the sidewalk. Screw the
street vendors. How about a little sympathy for the people almost getting
killed so someone can sell some fish balls?

------
kennycarruthers
Currently living in Bangkok and it's already quite noticeable the changes
since mid-2015 when I was last here. Sukhumvit Road, one of the main streets,
has a fraction of the street vendors today compared to 2015. The further away
you get from the popular/touristy parts of town, the less affected it is.
However, between these recent changes and the ever increasing number of lots
being turned into construction sites for new condos, Bangkok is rapidly
changing and its famous street food scene is suffering.

~~~
rosser
If it were limited to major streets like Sukhumvit, that would be one thing.
It can be impossible to squeeze down some of those blocks — especially if
you're carrying your bags, having just landed, and trying to get to your room.

I don't think it is, though, and that makes me sad. BKK street cart food is
some of the most amazing stuff I've ever eaten.

EDIT: phrasing.

~~~
haskellandchill
The best nights of my life were at stalls on Sukhumvit. Still super sad.

~~~
papabrown
If the best nights of your life were at Sukhumvit food stalls, you're doing
something wrong. :-)

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lisper
Misleading title. Should be "Bangkok plans to ban all street food ON MAJOR
CITY STREETS by year′s end." Big, big difference. As it stands, it's linkbait.

~~~
hackerboos
Same same but different.

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Existenceblinks
The question is where else are merchants going to go? Many of them been
selling there for years (decade isn't unusual)

The stupid military gov doesn't care any civilian's issue generally. They
don't really have a solid plan on how those merchants going to do next. Let
them figure out alone.

They are unlikely able to just go home. I mean their hometown as you know THE
dream city is here, it is just not evenly distributed to anywhere else in the
country.

It is not a trivial problem for long-term (not too long for the technical
debts you have to pay though) We pay tax and hope those genius politicians
(Wanlop Suwandee, he holds a Ph.D.) can help citizen but nope.

~~~
jpatokal
In Singapore and Hong Kong, street hawkers were corralled into hawker centres,
which kept the amazing food culture alive and solved the hygiene and
sanitation problems as well:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_centre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_centre)

However, it's hard to see Thailand's shambolic junta pulling off such a move,
and there's no space for them anyway. (In Singapore and HK, most hawker
centres were built as part of massive public housing projects.)

~~~
jzwinck
I live in Singapore and even within the past years there has been a clear
shift in cuisine as hawker centres become homogenized. Long ago the street
vendors were shifted into groups under permanent roofs. But over time the
areas under those roofs became standardized like shipping containers and now
most of the kitchens are exactly the same size. This limits diversity because
there can no longer be an auntie selling tiny packets of whatever for $1 from
a cart. Centralization also gave rise to food type quotas, so if there are
three chicken rice shops in one area you may not be allowed to open another.

Hawker centres do enable an amazing food culture, but at a price. Bangkok has
them too, just not exclusively.

~~~
xiaoma
> _" This limits diversity because there can no longer be an auntie selling
> tiny packets of whatever for $1 from a cart. Centralization also gave rise
> to food type quotas, so if there are three chicken rice shops in one area
> you may not be allowed to open another."_

Wow. That's really sad. It it exactly fits my impression of Singapore (at
least from its stereotype as seen from Taiwan). The hawker food is great and
especially the Indian/Chinese/Western fusion foods were a treat, but it would
be a better city if it also had a nightmarket where that auntie could sell
from her cart.

There's definitely a happy spot between unmonitored, unsafe street foods and
100% central control stamping out not only the unsanitary but also the
variety.

------
jawngee
Vietnam is doing a scaled down version of this in Saigon.

They've been clearing the sidewalks in District 1 for a few months. Not only
booting street vendors but sometimes even ripping out construction that was
built on top of the sidewalks.

We call it Vinapore, Vietnam's sad attempt at becoming Singapore II.

~~~
smcl
That's a real shame - I basically only ate street food in Vietnam, the one
time we ventured into fancy-ish looking restaurant we were pretty underwhelmed

~~~
sitkack
The only time I got sick in Vietnam was at a fancy restaurant. Street food
can't and doesn't sit around.

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taxicabjesus
My first passenger-friend is from Thailand. When I first mentioned her in a
blog post, I didn't realize she was going to call me back. She says her home
country is sort of fucked-up. The Thai king who recently passed away was an
engineer who helped bring his country into the modern world... I wonder if his
son will be as competent a leader.

~~~
ralfd
What is a passenger friend?

~~~
taxicabjesus
> What is a passenger friend?

These are friends who I met because they ordered a taxi and they got me as
their driver. One of them knocked on my window when he needed a ride home from
work. The other 3 called me back after their first ride because they liked my
style. I haven't posted anything about most of them... I intend to write a
book, but the last chapter is still a work in progress.

------
jargnar
The beauty about street food in Bangkok is the people. I visited Bangkok
recently [1], and absolutely loved the place. Most of the street vendors were
warm, welcoming and showed genuine interest in the food that we liked rather
than being touristy rip offs. Definitely would recommend visiting Khao San,
Chao Phraya and the usual suspect places of Bangkok.

One more thing: If you're there, try the coconut ice cream, available in
plenty around Chao Phraya. Such a delight.

[1]: [https://suhas.org/bangkok/](https://suhas.org/bangkok/)

~~~
wsc981
Mango ice cream is much more delicious imo :)

~~~
lllllll
*Mango + sticky rice + coconut milk

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manmal
If this helps to reduce the incidence of food poisoning, I'm all for it. A
friend working in my office was there last winter, and their 1,5yo son
returned with a chronic clostridia infection. Multiple rounds of antibiotics
were needed for him to stop losing weight, and the damage done to his
microbiome will likely be permanent. His parents had the usual food poisoning
symptoms and were done with it within a few days.

~~~
dageshi
It won't, rule 1 for travelling in that part of the world is to walk past the
nice looking but empty restaurants and head straight to the street stall where
the locals are eating. The food in the street stall hasn't had time to go off
because it was probably brought fresh that day, the food in the back of the
restaurant might have been sitting there for far too long waiting for a
customer to order it.

~~~
jpatokal
+1. Spent a year and a half in Thailand working in local offices well off the
tourist path and devouring everything in sight. Only got sick once... at an
overpriced but nicely decorated tourist trap in Ko Samui.

~~~
wingerlang
More anecdotes. Living here for almost 4 years, only time I've gotten sick was
at a 5-star resort in their restaurant.

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valuearb
If Portland banned food carts, I would never go back.

Seriously, at least half of my favorites of all the great restaurants in that
town got their start as food carts.

~~~
ilaksh
Its a different situation though. There are 100-10000x more carts in BKK than
Portland and no possible chance of regulating them in the near term.

I think we shouldn't prioritize 'charm' or 'character' over a government or
peoples' desire to modernize or upgrade environments.

~~~
lovich
Charm in this case is a large part of the draw for tourism to Bangkok.
Regardless of that issue though, how are they going to feed everyone? When I
was there the few restaurants that were in buildings had space for only a
handful of people at a time and were all specialized in food that took much
longer than the street vendors. Its not like bangkok has a lot of space in its
buildings to suddenly allow for an influx of restaurants.

~~~
wila
There's actually quite a lot of food courts all over the place. However, it is
quite easy to miss those as they are not so much in your face as the food
stalls.

~~~
lovich
I've been to them, and they feed people, but there are not as ubiquitous as
the food carts and are usually pretty full on their own

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overint
My first overseas solo trip was to Thailand, and I had so much awesome street
food, guess they are trying to change the perception of Bangkok. I wonder what
will happen to khaosan? If they killed the street they would be losing a lot
tourism money since it's pretty much regarded as the most popular backpacker
street in asia/the world.

~~~
wingerlang
Khao san doesn't have that much street food though, a couple of stalls here
and there towards the end of the night. I haven't heard anyone going there for
food.

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GregorBrandt
This would be a serious loss to the experience of Bangkok and Thailand in
general. Street food makes the trip!

~~~
Markoff
well, then just hop on bus and in short time you are in Kanchanaburi, where
you can enjoy great food in night market next to train station each evening

though I would be sad missing my favorite night stall in street parallel north
with KSR at the eastern corner next to 7-eleven in the evening (you can pick
few toppings together with rice for very low price and very tasty, also
northeast from 7-eleven always great banana pancakes), but there is also great
restaurant in western part of same street, can be recognized by warning that
you have to pay for outside drinks, that's proper restaurant with great curry

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contenttypegeek
Bangkok is (used to be??) perhaps my favourite city in the world.

Is Kuala Lumpur more hygienic? You bet. Is there more 'order'? For sure.

Guess what! Kuala Lumpur is not in my top 10. Maybe not even top 20.

If I want order and hygiene, I go to Singapore, which is tied for the top spot
on my favourite city list.

Bangkok is so charming because... it's Bangkok. Change that drastically (for
example by imposing 'order and hygiene') and you get something like a watered
down Kuala Lumpur.

Thanks, but no thanks.

~~~
Markoff
I stayed in both for extended periods of time many many times and Bangkok was
love at first sight, though it get tiring after some time, KL not that much,
but as for your hygiene comment I think they are pretty much on par, it's just
that BKK is significantly bigger city so it might look a bit dirtier but in
reality KL for its size is also pretty dirty despite being richer

though I would take nowadays Georgetown over both of them and maybe dare even
to say I would prefer Kanchanaburi over Bangkok, their night market next to
train station is amazing, went there for every dinner always when visiting,
somehow I got tired of these bigger Asian cities and can enjoy the small as
well (this coming from someone who lived in 20mil Beijing for years, so KL is
pretty much village like most of European capitals by population)

~~~
anentropic
+1 for Georgetown

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kangxitenant
Will Mark Wiens have to relocate?

~~~
W0lf
I'm already curious, if he will mention it in one of his next vlogs

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crusso
I haven't been to Bangkok in a few years, but when I was there I marveled at
the number of people who seemed to eat at the street food vendors. It seemed
that street vending was a vital part of how food was distributed in the city.

Most of it looked like stuff I didn't want to eat - although the people I was
with enjoyed some toasted crickets from a street cart.

That said, anything that might improve traffic in Bangkok would be nice.
Getting around there is a mess.

~~~
stephenr
A decent percentage of Thais eat out for basically every meal and have either
a very basic, or no kitchen at all.

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Keyframe
I've spent around six months living in and around Bangkok in 2008. when we
were shooting a TV series there. Probably the only thing I miss the most about
BKK is fruit stalls and fresh fruit and mango juice from it. Damn if it wasn't
great. Weather was kind of crap though :)

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fokinsean
I really regret not trying any of the street food when I visited Bangkok.
However it was the jump off point for my honey moon, and I didn't want to risk
getting sick before we headed south to the islands.

Hopefully there will still be some stalls the next time I visit.

------
foota
I'm looking at travelling to Thailand this summer, we're looking at spending
time in Phuket right now, but our plans are up in the air. Any recommendations
on places to go or things to do?

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Krabi is nice. You can get their on ferry from Phuket via Koh PhiPhi, another
place to visit.

~~~
saryant
Krabi and its nearby beaches/islands (other than Ao Nang) are far, _far_
better than Phuket.

Plus the food in Krabi is fantastic.

~~~
otheotheothe
Can recommend Koh Lanta there, there are fairies from ao nang to koh lanta
every day, super quiet and not much action there, perfect to relax.

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homakov
The stalls around Nana are much more annoying than the street food. And loud
motorbikes are about 10x times more annoying than any stalls. (Lived in town
for few years)

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aphextron
Titles seems a bit hyperbolic. The article states they are only banning them
from certain main roads, not the practice outright.

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mahyarm
It's a start although. What is the next regulation banning them?

~~~
vkou
We've banned dumping sewage and garbage on the street. Where will the slippery
slope of outrageous regulation take us next?

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bertlequant
How I miss digouyou

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greens231
does this also include chinatown??

