Monday, June 28, 2010
Bangkok 21June to 25June ...The trip that almost got cancelled
Bangkok Prelude
We had planned for our trip to bangkok since the beginning of the year but some things are just so unpredictable..
+ January - gathered friends, find room and tix
+ February - collected money, booked air tickets($168 per person with Jetstar)
+ March - buy insurance ($21.30 per person with MANY MANY terms and conditions...you can tell i dont believe in insuarnce rite)
+ April - wanted to book room but riot appeared, wait for riot to go away
+ May - still waiting for riot to go away, lots of decision making from all of us( go or postpone or cancel or change destination)
+ June - Most of us had decided to go ahead with the intial plan, booked rooms finally, changed $, packed, fly:)
In a way we are lucky. By end of May the riots had already cleared up, streets cleaned, no more fire bombs and the thais were also eager to get on with their lives.
There were many times we felt like giving up on the trip(and money we have put in)but now i am happy to say our decision to go ahead was right!:)
Bangkok Day 1... Touch down and shop!
About 2.5 hours from SG to BKK..
Our plane to bangkok was less than half occupied...you can tell ppl are still shunning Bangkok
Touched down at 150pm SG time...1250 BKK time
Took a 6seater(? bigger than normal) taxi to our place for about 700 baht(S$30).
Almost took an express bus which was more expensive than the taxi...Note to all: Take taxi.
Because there were a total of 7 ppl(including the driver)poor deyun was chosen (by the cab driver..haha) to sit at the back with our lugguages.
Lugguage stopper for the day
After 30min we arrived at Tango, our hotel/apartment place at Pratunam. The place was recommended by forums and blogs and has good reviews on travel sites. It is a relatively new building and most importantly, no haunted/ghostly experiences/feedbacks..haa.
S$53 per room per night...includes delicious breakfast i will nv forget:)
Also, the front desk administrators speak basic English so communciation was quite alright at the check-in.
15minutes walk from Tango to Platinum Mall...have to cut through Indra Square and Pratunam Market(big) to see the building.
We were hungry and lost looking for Platinum..Went into City Complex located within Pratunam Market to look for food but the foodcourt was quite died. After some direction asking we found Platinum Mall...in the lift!
The first thing to do was to cure our hungry stomachs.
Lunch at Platinum Foodcourt..
Sharkfin soup for about S$7..
Mad cheap satay-like bbq chicken sticks everywhere in bangkok..
Get the ones from roadside stalls they are the more tasty ones:)
No pics of the inside of Platinum Mall...we were too engrossed with the shopping.
Imagine 6 levels of shops after shops..small squeezy walkways and many young thais there.
After 4 hours of intenive shopping, we moved on to Pantip for AnW!!
Beary beary miss AnW
Waffle meal for about S$5...totally worth it.
Happy meal..
Went to Suan Lum after dinner...night market with many souveniers. Yup, its as boring as it sounds. But the fun part was our tuktuk ride!! loves tuktuk.
Cheaper stuff at the alleys...
Mad hot even at night..
Tuktuk ride...S$5
Experience....priceless
Had a thai massage at the end of the day with CZ. Very very stretched and loosen up..about S$7 for the good experience
Bangkok Day 2... Chinatown, KaoSan, MBK and lots of dirty water
After the first day, my camera had no battery and i brought the wrong charger...knock head..So these are pictures koped from Sharon and PG.
Went for the Chao Praya River ride for about S$8..heartpain ex cos it's not worth..
Actually we took the ride to get to the Grand Palace...but by the time we sailed to the Grand Palace it was lunch and prayer time so it was closed for the next 1 or 2 hours -___-"
So near yet so far...
Anyway, we moved on to Yaowarat aka Chinatown for lunch...according to our itinerary
Lunch at Nam Sing..
1st grade birdnest S$43
Delicious and sinful...2nd time we had sharkfin. S$21 a pot serves 2 ppl
After lunch...Walking in the baking hot Chinatown
Lanes and alleys of wholesale accessories, bags, hats..much lesser clothes than Pratunam and Platinum.
Most of the time, if i remember correctly, we were siam-ing pushcarts(or mobile food stalls)and motorcycles at the alleys. Walkways wthin the Chinatown wholesale market were very narrow and we were competing with the carts and wad not for walking space.
Next stop...Kao San Night market.
Took public bus 53 from Chinatown to KaoSan...abt 15min. S$0.30. Passed by Flower market and Little india, Grand palace, Ferry terminal. So if you're planning to go to these places you can take this bus.
Very interesting and 'local' experience to take the public bus. Glad we did:)
Mango Sticky rice for 20baht...oh Thailand Otah is quite nice too!
More pictures taken by pengguan
Lots of angmohs there...things not very cheap. But that is where i fell in love with the croaking frog. which i later bought at Indra Square for 120baht
Rub its back with the stick and you will get frog croaks sound..haha..yes silly
Not exactly sure if the place we went was part of Kao San night market because we took a bus and walked to the place and we arrived rather early at 5pm..So the night market wasnt really up yet. But one obvious thing was the area was too touristy for me. Angmoh prices, pubs, massages...not the kind of night market i wan to be:(
Anyway, we decided again to move on with our itinerary(we'd moved on until the next day's itinerary le)to go to MBK. Famous shopping paradise in Bangkok. Also famous for 'need to bargain before buying'. Nothing much for me over there...oh except that sloggi bras were half-priced cheaper than in SG. But similar to SG, bras without wire are rare.
It got interesting at night:)we were so enclosed inside MBK we didnt know it was pouring crazy outside. By the time we were leaving MBK, the streets were flooding about 1/2 wheel level high? Hahaa...wad a sight and experience. All the way from MBK to our place it was flooding.
However, thanks to the flood, we had the chance(sort of forced) to take the skytrain from MBK back to our place. The drama didn't end here.
When we reached the station nearest to our stay, we didn't know how to walk back to our place. Because of the flood or late timing or both, it was hard to get a cab. Furthermore, cabs we managed to flag either refused to use the meter and/or didn't know how to get to our hotel..
Drama after drama, we stopped at a hotel near to our place(as displayed on the map) but got lost walking in the alleys. So we had to walk in the drizzle and puddles to search for it and after somemore direction-askings we finally got back to our hotel.
Ever since that day, we have been asking cab drivers to stop us at Indra Square where we are more familiar with the walking directions to our hotel. Haha.
Bangkok Day 3... Siam Paragon, discovery center and MBK again
Perhaps we had walked for long long time the day before, our feets were aching on the 3rd day.
Roughly walked Siam Paragon and Discovery..searched for Plaza 29 but it seems to be somewhere in outerspace -____-" either we don't understand each other's english, or the place was burned down during riot. Ended up at MBK again but me, Sharon and CZ didnt shop much..just chilled at Starbucks...and then chilled at a restaurant place in Food Avenue that gave out free ice tea to tourists. Haaha...its actually a nice experience relaxing, having a drink at a foreign place:)
Thai iced tea very very sweet by the way...and filled with lots of ice(which didnt help with reducing the sweetness level)
Seafood dinner(just beside Tango) at night..about S$12. average seafood but their fried egg was really good!
Bangkok Day 4...Platinum and Calypso Cabaret
Went back to Platinum mall to complete our shopping there. Because day4 was 'buffer day'(meaning no plans) so we went back to our unfinished shopping.
Crepe for abt S$1! Platinum basement
Went to Asia Hotel in the evening for Calypso Cabaret a.k.a Ah Kua Show...1200baht incld a drink.
All worth it..
After buying tix, we went to the night market behind Asia Hotel for dinner:)
Unforgettable wanton mee(S$1.30) and giant bbq chicken stick(S$0.50) discovered over there!
Also sells roti prata, seafood
Coconut icecream 10baht...2 scopes with 3 toppings..happy:)
Using my pathetic 3.2mp handphone-camera...
Not ahkua this one haa
The prettiest ah kua there is the one on the left..erm in my opinion. i m sure Sharon and Guanteck have their favourites haha. Boobs beside me
Bangkok Day 5...Fly Home
Very long long post i m too sian to elaborate any further. Shall end this entry with a group photo. Tata
Labels: Bangkok.. loves
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
...More family days like this!
Went Kushin Bo at JP to celebrate mother and father's day together. Every year my family clebrates mother's and father's day seperately. This year is cost cutting year for the family.
Little sisters..
:
:
:
Big sisters
My happy parents...
One of the many plates of snow crab legs we had. Nice legs
Very cute desserts
The buffet was great one of the best buffets I had. Then again I havent really been to many buffets. About S$50 nett per pax and most importantly seafood's fresh.
The best part about Kushin Bo is that they have their hourly specials. One hour it can be ice strawberry with chocolate filling(tried), the next hour it could be baked black pepper lobster(missed damn). My mom sister me and CZ were talking talking until we didn't even hear the bell for the hourly special lobster and didn't see people around us rushing to queue for it. Wish I had been more alert.
Havent had lobster before okay...Labels: I still think about it every now and then
Saturday, May 1, 2010
...7 more weeks....get it over and done with!
Riot riot go away.
Stay away from us okay.
Little children want to play.
Please don't take our fun away.Labels: Options and decisions
Monday, April 19, 2010
...Weekends are the best
Bump into Torill at City Hall...So qiao(x100). Norwegian friend whom i met during HK exchange. We just walked right into each other at City Link. She's here for a 3 day trip staying at NUS i think.
Haha yea..if you want to meet your long lost friends(even from overseas), City Link is the place to go:)
I had wanted to put a photo of the both of us but this one's cuter:)
Can you guess where's this place?Labels: I miss HK
Sunday, March 21, 2010
...10 things about him I'll always remember
1)If I see him scratching and go to him to stop him, he would scratch even faster(before i reached).
2)Whenever I dropped my pillow from my bed (while sleeping), he wd quickly lie on it.
3)When there was thunder, he would jump onto my lap and shiver alot.
4)Whenever my mom's cooking he wd sit next to her and with his big eyes he'd hoped food will drop onto the floor.
5)When he could still jump onto my bed, he wd do so every morning to wake me up.Not at the correct timing though..
6)If I am reading the newspaper on the floor, he would quickly come and sit on the newspaper, blocking what i'm reading, wanting full attention.
7)He hates doggie biscuits.
8)He loves tummy rubs.
9)He wd pee next to the kitchen dustbin to show his frustration.
10)Whenever i come home late, he would not sleep until i reached home.
Bond you are such a good boy, a hard-to-find friend and our family. We were so lucky to have you for these years and we thank you for being part of our lives.
Labels: Loves
Sunday, February 14, 2010
...Happy Chinese New Year
**some bkgrd*
*My family's usual CNY Day 1 schedule:
Temple in the morning,
Malaysia relatives visits in the afternoon till evening(or overnight stay),
evening come home watch tv.
This year's CNY Day 1 is was rather screwed up. Just when i was about to cross over to Johor, at the SG Immigration Checkpoint, I was denied exit! Didn't realise my passport expired exactly 3 days ago.Sianzzz.. and my parents and sis had already crossed over, leaving me stranded at the counter.
So, after some discussion with my family over at the counter, they decided to go ahead and I had to return home. Not so much about not able to collect ang pao but spending CNY without my FAMILY?! and RELATIVES?! and FRIENDS?!(since everyone is busy visiting relatives)...how pathetic!
Its like splashing cold water on my CNY.
Even hours after doing the U-turn at the Checkpoint i felt as though this's a dream. Like so super unexpected k!
2 days ago my Vietnam colleague was still mentioning to me how bored it will be for him to spend CNY in SG, and I comforted him saying the Casino will be opening, can watch TV etc...now its like all these suggestions are for me!
LUCKILY, I have a super nice boyfriend who's willing to leave his relative's gambthering in the evening to have dinner with me:) My family's staying overnight by the way so i had to settle my own dinner. At least sth good(and wonderful:) happened today if not I will feel really super disappointed.
p.s. Sorry for the wordy post...its really meant to be a 'diary' post for myself to remember sth**Labels: I can feel it now:)
Thursday, February 11, 2010
...Life is good again
Just now when I was going home from work I bumped into CZ at Pioneer station! He was also going home (from sch).
So qiao its like I board the correct train and he board the correct bus:)
Whoever's doing the timing thing for us...good job!
Sorry i know this is a small thing but considering all the sian-ness in my office the whole day, this small thing is like the happiness of the day(& week) k!
A little part of my love story to kick-off Valentine's day. Cheers.Labels: lalala
