Bangkok, Thailand: Cabbages and Condoms

A little addition to the previous blog about our last few days in Bangkok. On Saturday night we went for dinner at Cabbages and Condoms- not a tasty-sounding combo. The condoms part of the title actually refers to the restaurant's focus on promoting condom use as a family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention tool. It's a project of a charity called the Population and Community Development Association, run by Mr. Mechai Viravaidya, or Mr Condom, as he is more popularly known. We were drawn to the restaurant by our charitable instincts, but as it turned out our culinary ones were in for a treat. We were seated in the outdoor area, beautifully lit by fairy lights suspended from the trees, and colourfully decorated with, among other things, a condom Christmas tree, a condom superhero and condom flowers.

Despite the colourful decoration, it's the proper use of them that the restuarant is about, and to that end after-diner mints are replaced by condoms at the end of the meal. Our meal was simply superb, by far the best we ate in Thailand, and though a little expensive by our very budget-conscious standards, worth every penny, especially as every penny goes to support the charity. Mr Condom is a colourful character (I guess he'd have to be), and is really leading the way in terms of fighting AIDS in Asia, as he is far more willing to speak out, and speak out bluntly, than most people and certainly most governments. Many sources attribute this to his being half-Scottish. I like to think they're right.