Thailand Trip 2007-- Bangkok (Day 2)

We were so exhausted from the previous day's activities that we both overslept! Totally missed our buffet breakfast! =( Never mind, Kh and I went to the food stall opposite our hotel and got ourselves a bowl of thai noodle soup each!

It tastes alright on first try, but I got sooo sick of the taste as everywhere in Thailand is selling the same kind of noodle soup. Probably there's some special thai sauce in it that makes the taste so distinct. Kh LOVES it, but just a whiff of the aroma can make me go dizzy.

On the way out to the main road in search for a cab to go to the Grand Palace, we met Mr-Tuktuk again. Our tuktuk driver from yesterday! Now he's got another special bargain. 20B again to take us to the Grand Palace (O.P 100B) in condition that we stop at 2 places to "look see look see no buy". (He gets a commission for bringing us there.) First stop, an indian textile store. Nice store, good fabrics but no thanks. Second stop, a travel agency. We had told him that we would go to DreamWorld the next day, and he brought us to the travel agency so we could buy the tickets at a cheaper rate! Woah, God is indeed guiding us! I wouldn't know about this even after all my research. Managed to buy the tickets at a cheaper rate (plus includes buffet lunch!). Unfortunately, in my haste to change more money, I dropped my sunglasses on the way to the money changer and it was never found. =(

Next stop: The Grand Palace!

On the way there, I saw a guy delivering gas on a motorbike! Interesting heh.

The Grand Palace! I was trying to find the spot which was one of the pitstops for the Amazing Race!

Hmm the king doesn't live here anymore eversince his brother got assasinated. We know this because we eavesdropped on a tourguide. Hehe. We were too cheapskate to hire our own guide lah. Anyways, I think this place is more of a history thing than a tourisy thing. There aren't many rooms we can enter. Those we can enter have only a throne in there. Like, hello, why does the king need so many thrones to sit on?

As I've learnt during my visit there, the whole place shines not because it's made of gold or diamond, but because they use a lot of mirror fragments to line the roofs and pillars. Most of the gold isn't real anyway. They use a gold leafing technique to make things look like gold. =)

Next, we headed to Chinatown via the Chao Phraya River Express. It's like a bus boat. Only 13B on the orange line from Tha Chang pier to Tha Ratchawong pier.

All the boats are really full!

Walked some distance to Chinatown. I was pretty impressed with our sense of direction. Lol.

Oh the tim sum is not bad. Only 20B for one plate. Can't complain lah.

After which, we tried to catch a cab to Patong Night Market. For some reason, all the cabs refused to take us. Not with the meter on anyway. If anyone doesn't know yet, DO NOT take cabs which do not use the meter. Most of them are out to scam. Even if you don't mind getting scammed yourself, remember that your actions will only encourage more cabbies to do such things (which are obviously illegal).

So Kh and I were like, what the heck. Nobody wants to take us, we'll just walk there! Take out our adventurous spirit, navigate our way there on our own, BE a backpacker! Yes, that's exactly what we did. Walked all the way from Chinatown to HuaLamphong subway station! Took the subway to Silom station, in which we crossed over to Sala Daeng skytrain station. Over there, we naviagated our way to Patong Night Market!

Hualamphong subway station

Okay, we were starving. Sizzler first, Patong later.

Order a main course and you get freeflow food from the salad bar. Mind you, the salad bar doesn't just have salads. It has pasta, soups, cakes, fruits, mousse and so on. Hello if we knew it was going to be a buffet, we wouldn't have ordered 2 main courses! 700+B in total. Most expensive meal we had in these 10 days. Still, it's something we can only afford to eat in Thailand, not in Singapore. Sighs~

Okay then, time to do a bit of shopping! Here's Patong Night Market for you!

Took the skytrain back to our hotel that night. Long day again... Zzz..

Sala Daeng skytrain station

As we woke up late, we didn't manage to visit the snake farm according to my itinerary. =(

Coming up... Bangkok (Day 3)

Thailand Trip 2007-- Bangkok (Day 1)

Just got back from my 10-day Thailand trip on Christmas Day. Had so much fun that I wished I didn't have to come back so soon. Haiz. Singapore is just so b-o-r-i-n-g. Wells, get ready for lotsa lotsa pics! Warning: Your computer may lag! (We've 700+ photos to show, and I've already cut down A LOT here.)

Singapore-Bangkok-Udon Thani-Nong Khai-Loei-Nong Khai-Singapore

Kh and I went to Bangkok on our own before joining my aunt and cousins at Udon. Reason for staying in Bangkok? We had to transfer a flight anyway so why not? Besides, we got all the air tickets at cut-throat prices. $0.99 each! =P

I planned our itinerary for our whole 5 day stay in Bangkok. Took me many many hours of thorough research to come up with what I think is the best we can get during this period of time. By thorough research, I mean right down to the nitty gritty details of how long it takes to travel from one place to the other, how much it would cost, where to eat, how much we would spend, how to get there, etc. Well, my effort has indeed paid off. It was a jam packed 5 days worth of activities. Everything was almost according to plan and these 5 days was more fun than what I had expected it to be. =)

Here's DAY 1...

Our flight got delayed! Hmph!

We arrived at Bangkok around midnight and we were greeted with a wonderful surprise! Our hotel was just perfect! Highly recommend this to anyone who's going to Bangkok! Here's why:

--> ONLY US$41/room/night and you get a 4 star hotel
--> Excellent service (we even tipped!)
--> Very clean and spacious rooms with a kitchen
--> Very classy dining table
--> Cable tv
--> Hi-fi system
--> Free WiFi
--> Queen size bed
--> Sofa bed
--> Iron and ironing board provided
--> Within walking distance to skytrain
--> 24hr 7-11 and burger king nearby
--> It's in the Pratunam area! THE area to shop!
--> Price includes daily breakfast buffet

We booked a room without kitchen as we figured that we wouldn't have time to cook anyway. I think they gave as an upgrade because our room had a kitchen. Well if this isn't their room with a kitchen, I can't imagine what their room WITH a kitchen looks like! :O

Anyways, so kind of them. We requested for high floor and they gave us the 28th floor out of 30!

CENTREPOINT PHETCHBURI HOTEL

Our room!

The buffet restuarant

Part of our breakfast

I didn't think the breakfast buffet was fantastic. There was just way TOO much food! There's chinese, western and thai food. Plus lotsa desserts and drinks. The taste of the food is just alright but I ate so much I got sick of the taste. =( I would give this hotel a 10/10, but -0.2 points for the breakfast so that's 9.8/10. I wouldn't really blame them though. Food in Thailand is nothing compared to Singapore's. =x

The swimming pool with jacuzzi!

Video of our room... The room looks a lot better in real life than on photos and videos!

We packed our stuff, slept for 5 hours or so, and had to wake up early to meet our tight schedule! First stop: Chatuchak!

A tuktuk driver offered to take us there for a low fee but I was skeptical of his intentions as I've read so much about such jewelry scams in my research. Apparently, some are worth trusting. Taking a tuktuk anywhere is expensive but this guy offered to take us to there for 20B in condition that we stop over at a jewelry store to take a look. No obligation to buy. Reason? He gets free petrol. =)

Our tuk tuk driver!

The jewelry store! Woah very exclusive. The kind that is good enough to be a tourist attraction by itself. Too bad I can't afford anything. And mind you, this "excursion" it's totally free. Bonus stop. Lol. =x

Chatuchak!

Chatuchak's pet stores! A must-see! Oh so many cute puppies and pet boutiques. =)

Well there's lotsa stuff to see, many things that I could buy, but it was HOT HOT HOT! I read that we have to go early to avoid the heat, but it was only 10am in the morning and the heat was already driving us crazy. We HAD to leave. Next stop: Safari World!

It's that kind where you drive inside the park and the animals get to run around freely. Managed to get some really close shots of some animals, thanks to our cabbie! =)

Our ticket allows us entry to Marine World as well. Marine World has both land and marine animals. Not in the wild though. We watched all the animal shows there. Very fun! =D

That's one naughty statue! It squirts water from the nipples! Kh and I were walking past it when it squirt water at Kh's face and he drank a mouthful of water! Eww!

Ooh... scary crocodile... looks huge doesn't it?

Well... here's the actual size. It's a miniture crocodile. -_-"

Kh and I paid 40B for a bucket of bananas and tapioca to feed the giraffes! One old giraffe was so picky about food! He only ate bananas. Wouldn't eat a single tapioca even when we tried to stuff it in his mouth. Hmph! (That's the really old giraffe in the 6th pic. He's the tallest!)

Watch Kh play with the giraffes! Cute!

Yes Kh loves animals so much he has to disturb them. Watch him play with the blue bird! (Super funny! My cousin kept urging me to upload this on YouTube!)

We headed back to Pratunam by cab. Had dinner at Platinum Plaza. Why? For my fave sharks' fin soup! Only 150B!!!

Saw a Swensens banner at the foodcourt. Couldn't resist getting this promotional Swensens ice cream at 69B only! What, that's like S$3? With that, you can only get a single scoop of ice cream at Swensens Singapore. And this is like, woah, 3 scoops of icecream, a whole banana, wafer, and marble cake altogether. Everybody say wow now.

Oh-so-heavenly

Look! I'm not lying!

Planned to meet Jf at Bangkok for supper (her hotel is juz a few mins walk away from ours), but she had an early flight to catch the next morning. Anyway, Kh and I had already made plans to go for a thai massage at HealthLand Spa. Recommended by Kh's parents, confirmed by Kh's sister, and now's our turn to try it out. Satisfaction guaranteed. I won't say it's the best but it's good enough. 450B for 2 hours only. =)

Check out the website! http://www.healthlandspa.com/

We had a long day and it ended with a really relaxing thai massage. Kh and I fell asleep on the massage mattresses within the first 10mins. Money well spent or money totally wasted? We don't know. =x

Stay tune for Bangkok, Day 2! Coming right up!

16 more hours

16 more hours before my flight leaves! I can't believe it's here... my long awaited holiday. Yet I don't feel excited at all. Hardly packed. And sometimes I'd totally forget about it. CY had to remind me to go home after work cuz I have a flight to catch the next day. =.=

Mohan, on the other hand, is so forgetful. Everytime I turn up at the cafe, he would think that I've returned from my holiday. I would be like,"Huh? I haven't even go yet!" And he would be like,"Oh ya right." So today he asked about my trip AGAIN. Said I am actually flying TOMORROW. First thing he asked is to buy vodka for him. =.= Pear vodka. It sux man. You wouldn't drink pear juice, so why would you wanna drink pear vodka (yeah I would know)? He thought it was better than peach which I thought was really nice. He insisted,"I want pear vodka in pairs." Oh haha. =/

So a funny thing happened today. MC messaged me in the morning and asked if there are any job vacancies at Settlers. Just a few days ago, when we met up, she was AGAIN complaining to me how boring board games are (bored games), and that she doesn't see any fun in them. So when I saw her message, the first thing I asked was,"Who are you asking for?" And she said it was for herself. I didn't know whether to take her seriously or not. I was like,"... MC, you hate board games! Why do you even wanna work here?"

I gotta say she's such a weird person... in a fun way. What's with the daily M&Ms, the princess fantasy, the "if you like a show so much, you'd want to wait to watch it" philosophy... she can make totally illogical stuff sound logical. I wondered if this is becos of what I told her... that this is a male-dominated job. All the guys are single, only a few girls work there and they're all attached anyway. Well, not that she's lacking suitors, but it's just a thought. lols.

JL also said something very interesting today. What is the ideal couple height?

Take

(girl's height in cm) X 1.09 = (guy's height in cm)

When she said this, Kh and I immediately started calculating (much to everyone's amusement). Yeah so technically, Kh should be 176cm. See, I always told him he's short. He was like,"You too tall lah." Excuses. Just admit ya short lah. =X

Hung's trying to be funny again!

SEARCH BUY

SELL CONNECT

SETTLERS.COM

now with power hosts

Sounds familiar? You're right.

Alrightey, I ought to go pack now. Will post many nice pics when I get back! =)

banana nut muffins

Yum!

Top 10

There's so much on my mind I wanna blog about but so lazy. I've so many other better stuff I would rather do now. Anyway, Settlers @ Katong will be opened till 6am every friday and saturday for the whole of december. All of us will be staying over at the cafe for lotsa lotsa fun and games! Oh and definitely not forgetting that Mohan will be bringing his brand new Nintendo Wii and Super Mario Party gamepack! So so so looking forward to it! There's nothing I wanna play more than super mario party games now! =D=D=D

Unfortunately, for a moment I had forgotten that mohan will be bringing his wii so I told CY that I'm willing to do the graveyard shift. Sheesh. Hope there will be no customers so I can play all night. =x

Anyway, here's a thought:


TOP 10 countries I have not visited and want to visit:

1) JAPAN!!!
For the FOOD, the beautiful scenery, the weather, the people, the culture, the merchandise, the language, the tv shows... everything about it.

2) Maldives
Love the ocean, the clean sandy beaches, the kampong style resorts. My #1 honeymoon destination.

3) Nepal
If I can't climb Mt Everest, I'd at least like to see it with my own eyes. Would love to trek along the Himalayas, stand in awe at the sight of the majestic mountains. Take some really nice pictures, experience their culture and lifestyle.

4) Vietnam
The very first country I would go backpacking to. A must-go destination for avid backpackers. Rich in history and culture. Backpacking friendly--cheap accomodation, transport, food, etc. Most places accept US currency and many people speak english. Not forgetting the beautiful scenery as well. Great place for photo-taking!

5) France
Best proprosal spot: At the top of Eiffel Tower at sunset during autumn with a large bouquet of red roses and diamond ring. Love the BREAD. Pastries... ooh I love pastries. The food, the architecture, the language.

6) Switzerland
I like how it is being compared to singapore. A multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-lingual society. The Swiss Alps!

7) Israel
To visit the birthplace of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! To see all the places He went and to remember His works. To gain a better understanding of the bible through these experiences.

8) The U.S.A
The Big Apple for the statue of liberty, the Niagara Falls, and Times Square! L.A. for all the hollywood stuff and beaches! Texas for the ranch style ribs, the violin-playing cowboys, country music. Arizona for the Grand Canyon.

9) Eastern Australia (well that's not actually a country but I have gone to western Aus, hence to be more specific)
For the Great Barrier Reef, the 12 apostles, and I wanna see some WHALES!

10) South Africa
For the wildlife! Loves giraffes. ^__^


TOP 10 Favourite Food:
1) Pizza Hut's Spicy Drumlets
2) Smoked Salmon Cream Pasta
3) Salmon Sashimi
4) Quiche Lorraine
5) Aunt's Thai Laksa
6) BBQ Unagi
7) Shark's Fin Soup
8) Coca Steamboat Restaurant Thai Chilli Sauce (@ Taka concourse)
9) Fish & Co's Seafood Platter for 1
10) Kenny Roger's Roast chicken + Garden Pasta


TOP 10 favourite hawker food:

As you all know, I live in the joochiat/geylang area. Tons of good food. Believe me.

1) Indian rice @ Carpmael Road
Go to Muthu's for the fish head curry, Banana Leaf as a equally good and cheaper alternative, but the masala chicken here wins hands-down. No doubt abt it.

2) Braised Duck Rice @ Haig Road (Hollywood coffee shop)
#1 in Singapore IMO. Served with a generous portion of yam rice and thinly sliced non-fatty tender duck meat, topped with a scoop of their special gravy that adds flavour to the rice and makes it less dry. Also served with a special dark-coloured duck soup and really spicy chilli. Everything complements each other so well. 10/10. Usually sold out by 6plus in the evening so must go early if you want to buy it for dinner.

3) Sri Lankan Chilli/Black Pepper Crab (corner coffee shop @ upper thomson near Casaurina)
The sri lankan crabs served here are the largest I have seen so far. The taste? Above average for sure.

4) Meehoon Goreng (1st row, middle indian stall @ Haig Road Hawker Centre)
Fried to perfection. Ingredients: Indian red sauce, egg, potato, lettuce, minced mutton (tastes like beef actually).

5) Raw fish porridge (Alexander Hawker Centre)
I suppose not many people know about this stall, but I can assure you it's WAY better than Maxwell's which has crazy long queues. Both the porridge, and the raw fish is better. Have been eating this since young.

6) Fried Bee Hoon (some ulu coffee shop at Sembawang)
Also a childhood favourite. The bee hoon is very fine. As fine as the meehoon goreng's as mentioned above. The sambal belachan is simply the best. Unfortunately, it moved to another place many years ago and I'm still trying to track it down.

7) Bak Kut Teh (123 JB Bak Kut Teh @ Joo Chiat Road)
Reasonable portions and very affordable. The meat is good. Soup is dark in colour and does not have a very strong herbal tea taste. Only just right. The mei cai is #1! Unfortunately, for some reason, it closed down shortly after its opening. Kh and I are very upset about it.

8) Half-Boiled Eggs (Ya Kun Kaya Toast)
Copy their toast and tea, whatever, but there's no where else that makes better half-boiled eggs. Period.

9) Chilli Thick Bee Hoon (Hawker centre opp Goldenmile)
Tau Gay, Tau Pok, Fishcake, Pork meat, Prawns, Shallots, topped with the famous chilli sauce that has come a long way in history. That's the only thing I'll eat when I drop by the Lavender area. =)

10) Fish Bee Hoon Soup (location:???)
You gotta eat it to believe it. I've never actually followed my family to this mysterious place to eat this, but I get to eat it pretty often as dad always tar pau for me. He describes it as a place with a carlift. Hmm... I wonder.


As you probably know by now, food and travelling is all I can talk about. =x

Will dedicate another section to my #1 favourite type of food: PASTA

TOP 10 favourite pasta:
1) Smoked Salmon Cream Linguini (Coffee Club. still searching for an even better one)
2) Chicken Mushroom Cream Fusilli (Coffee Bean. didn't think it was that gd the 1st time but somehow found it rather addictive)
3) Roast Chicken Aglio Olio (Cafe Cartel. Old favourite. Cheap and good.)
4) Aglio Olio (Spageddies. Their tomato spag is bad though.)
5) Salmon Spaghetti (Marche. It was a one-time thing as it's not always available. Nevertheless, very memorable.)
6) Mushroom Spaghetti (Sketches Wine and Bar. I like it that they put wine in their spag.)
7) Crayfish tomato spaghetti (Swensens. It's the crayfish la.)
8) Plain Tomato Spaghetti (Settlers. The sauce itself is enough.)
9) Spicy Chicken Tomato Spaghetti (Astons. Spicy indeed.)
10) Chicken Bolognaise (Pasta Mania. Tried so many different pastas there. The basic is still their best. The rest quite disappointing. Always regret eating them.)

p/s: I really really liked Mcdonald's spaghetti though most ppl hate it. So sad that it's no longer available. =(
pp/s: Notice that the $40+ per plate pasta I had at a high class authentic Italian restaurant onboard the cruise did not even make it to the list! Well, probably first on the 'worst' list though. =x