Green Village, Bangkok

My explorations of Bangkok continue! My girlfriend had a day off of work, and she joined me in discovering a new side of the city where neither one of us had been before.

flood watch post over one of the city's many canals

We took the Skytrain to an area in the city center. Even though it's technically part of downtown, it's a much more residential area.

We were heading to Bangkok's new "Green Village", a new community of housing, shops, and school built along an eco-friendly philosophy.

walking alongside the canal

Our true destination was Habito, a brand-new Japanese lifestyle mall. The open-air community mall is surrounded by beautiful green spaces and wide walking paths.

Habito Mall

Shops at the mall include this health food store. It can be hard to find protein powder, health supplements, and organic foods sometimes in Bangkok. When you do, they can be expensive. It's interesting to see how the healthy lifestyle is beginning to catch on more and more.

import and health food store

Here, I tried kombucha for the first time. Kombucha is a type of tea that's been fermented. It's a little sweet, a little sour, and a little effervescent. It's supposed to be very good for your health! If you've never tried it before, be careful! You need to make sure that your stomach is used to it! Just like eating sauerkraut, pickles, or other fermented foods, you need to take it easy and not have to much at the start.

kombucha tea

The second floor had lots of restaurants. One in particular caught my eye. BK Magazine has ranked this place as the best new Vietnamese restaurant in the city! After spending several months in Vietnam, we really came to love the food. I was missing it, especially the coffee!

We certainly weren't disappointed! The food really was excellent, and tasted exactly like what we enjoyed in Hanoi. It brought back a lot of great memories and nostalgia for our adventures across Vietnam.

we were feeling nostalgic inside the Vietnamese restaurant

The best part, though, was the coffee. I've fallen in love with Vietnamese coffee, which is made out of the less-common Robusta bean and dripped slowly over condensed milk and ice. Vietnamese coffee is richer and stronger than most coffee that I've had before, and has a really unique smooth, almost smoky taste.

Ca phe sua da! Vietnamese iced coffee... I've missed it!

We also had a big bowl of bun cha, which is a noodle dish served with barbecued pork...

Vietnamese noodles with barbecued pork

... and of course a banh mi sandwich. This one was stuffed with an omelette, lots and lots of veggies, and sweet chili sauce.

fried egg banh mi sandwich

Habito Mall was very cool, because it's designed to be sort of a community center. There are lots of areas to sit around and relax, and a free lending library, where visitors can take or leave a book for others to enjoy.

local community library

The views of the surrounding area are quite nice as well!

a view from the mall

On the way back, we took the free electric shuttle bus that runs every twenty minutes between the mall and the Skytrain. It was a lot nicer than the regular Bangkok city buses!

riding the free shuttle bus

the cool shuttle bus to the Green Village