I'm not naturally confident with street food. I've had bad experiences with my weak (white?) stomach. Yaowarat Road in Bangkok is an intoxicating invitation to explore boundless flavours and textures in traditional Thai food.

So despite hesitation, I climbed right in.

My partner and I caught the train from our hotel to Wat Mangkon Metro Station and wandered a narrow lane of small dimly lit stores that opened up onto the fast, busy and colourful scene that is the Chinatown strip.

image: a street scence of the busy Chinatown district in Bangkok where neon lights tower over crowds.

An excited hawker coaxed us into a restaurant where we were served a spicy papaya salad, crab meat fried rice, and four BBQ river prawns which tasted divine with their accompanying sweet chilli sauce. The bill amounted to about $30 Australian for the both of us.

We later ate meat skewers (grilled fresh before our eyes) and finished our feast with pandan and durian custards in toasted sweet rolls.

A restaurant worker prepares plates of rice at a stall on Yaowarat Road, Bangkok.

Temporary barricades run several kilometres along the strip to stop the crowd from spilling onto the street. It also means a narrow flow of people can jostle past of the crowded restaurants.

Smells of BBQ meats mix with sweet mango which has been cut and diced to serve with sticky rice.

One vendor was selling a jumping shrimp salad: the small prawns are scooped alive into a dish with lime or lemon juice. They're still jumping from the plate when you eat them. I was a pass on that, but the children devouring it were delighted.

A tricycle rider waits in hope for passengers willing to temp their luck in dense traffic.

The art to making Yaowarat Road enjoyable is trusting your gut on many levels: Know when to stop to try food, know what flavours won't work for you, and go with the flow as the crowds surge.

When we did call it a night, it wasn't just our stomachs that were full. Bangkok Chinatown is a feast for the senses.

A tricycle rider making his way through dense traffic in the colourful Bangkok Chinatown.

An excited vendor shouts about good food and good value on offer on Yaowarat Road, Bangkok.