m y p a r t s: June 2012

As mentioned in previous post, I'm gonna share my Bangkok Trip 2012!

IN THE LAND OF SWEAT

bangkok 2012

Reason for calling it "In The Land Of Sweat" was because the weather was crazily hot!

Sweating the moment we stepped out of hotel everyday.

This is my third trip to Bangkok, but still a lot places I've never been to so was feeling excited about this trip.

Not really good start of the trip because...

Normally, the pilot will report saying where we are heading, how long is the journey & bla bla bla...

This time round, the pilot started off by saying this will be his LAST trip (he's retiring).

In our mind were like, "DAMN! I DON'T WANT THIS TO BE MY LAST TRIP!"

Fine, it was alright and went to the runway. Halfway through (before taking off), the plane went back to the starting point where we board the plane. Here comes the announcement informing us there will be a delay of 20mins. We waited........ the whole delay until it took off was about an hour!

SUAY OR WHAT?

Anyway, of course we still reached Bangkok safely!

First time experience taking the airport linkway.

There are quite a lot of people taking the train!

And, the train seats are so uncomfortable. The depth of it is just too small.

This is the token/coin (whatever you call it) for taking the train. Quite cute...

We had a hard time finding a hotel which provide room for triple sharing.

Most of the hotels need to pay additional 600-800 baht per night for additional bed.

Finally found one which was reasonable for the price & decide on this: Hotel De Bangkok.

Pictures first, reviews later.

More pictures and details here: http://www.hoteldebangkok.com/gallery/index.php?lang=en

Hotel Lobby

Sorry for the messy room photo. This was taken on Day 2 when everything was in a mess!

Here comes the review or rather complaints!

L O C A T I O N

Hotel website mentioned it was close to the airport linkway, 5-10mins walk.

Yes, 5-10mins doesn't seems far but definitely not under the burning hot sun!

From Hotel to Pratunam area is walking distance of about 15 mins! Believe me, you wouldn't want to walk this distance under the sun.

Before going, I said I don't mind the location of this hotel despite knowing it is a little far.

I'm changing my words, I DO MIND! Comparing to Citin/ Budacco, I'm sorry Hotel De Bangkok but I'll choose them over you.

T H E H E A T

The moment we stepped in our room, OMG! the heat in the room was terrible!

First thing: ON AIRCON, but you know what?! The air coming out was warm!

Then Yvonne went to wash her feet, but heard her screaming because the water was hot too!

I'm not saying WARM but HOT, burning skin kind of hot. We checked with the hotel staff and they said because of the hot weather, the water piping are outside so the water will be hot (some more we are staying at the highest level). I felt that reason for experiencing the heat in our room is mainly due to the poor material they used to build this hotel. I've never experience this kind of situation in other hotel.

This is really HORRIBLE!

Just the above two factors are enough to stop me from booking the hotel again.

Although I do like the size and design of the room, really nice and comfortable for three people but that's just not strong enough to make me patronize again.

Ohh.. on a side note, the safe was spoilt on our 3rd night there. We were unable to unlock/open the safe and giving us a shock! With the help from the staff, we managed to open it but somehow not able to use it again.

Even thou we were in Bangkok but we still can't forget about our beloved bubble tea!

Each of us got a cup of Mr Shake! Cheap and good!

Without hesitation, we headed to Platinium's Food Court to have our lunch.

All had the same: Kway Chap! The stall is always so smelly but I love their rolled kway.

Since this is already my third time there, I'm not taking that much photos of the shopping places.

I cut that all out and moving on to our dinner place!

My first time going Siam Paragon.

sua gu right? who never go to siam paragon before?!

We were looking for Greyhound Cafe but turned out to be "Another Hound Cafe".

Anyway they are the same, just that this is another branch of it.

FYI, this is more high class than Greyhound Cafe. Do a comparison later on for yourself because we went Greyhound Cafe on another day too! :)

I supposed this area is for desserts but I believed you can request for the desserts menu even if you are sitting at the other area.

See the setup of the place, it is more towards fine dining. Whatever la, we used our hands there! Hahaha :)

FREE BUN!

This chicken wings are amazing! Damn crispy and yummy!

I'm not a "chicken wing" lover but I love these! I'm definitely going back for moreeeee :)

Rayne said that the calamari are nice but I thought they are pretty normal.

Here comes our main course...

The pasta are good too! Do keep a lookout for the pasta I'm gonna intro later on. That will be from Greyhound Cafe. Somehow the menu is slightly different for the two branches.

Siam Paragon Night Market.

From Siam Paragon, just walk towards the BTS station. It is directly opposite of Siam Paragon.

Walking through the crowd, sweating and tired.... none of us bought any clothes from the night market. All we bought were just accessories. Damn failed!

It's kinda hard to bargain there. Someone actually showed a black face when I tried to ask for discount.

Perhaps it's just not our style?! Because Rayne managed to buy a lot of clothes here!

End of Day One...

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Sadly, I'm still not used to camwhore using my huge ass DSLR.

This is all I can do. The rest camwhore photos are super ugly!

Free Hotel Breakfast.

Spoiling our appetites are the houseflies!

Imagine seeing the staff electrocuting the houseflies while having your breakfast.... :(

Luckily there were eggs, one of my fav!

Never realised bread with butter can be that nice because the rest of it barely make it!

We only had hotel breakfast on the first and last morning.

Second day was the only day we walked from our hotel to Pratunam. That's it.

We gave up on walking. TUTU please....!

Anyway, after hours of shopping from Pratunam to Platinium, we went back to hotel to put down our stuff before heading out again. And of course we rest and we even took a nap on the floor!

Uploading our loots everyday like this...

Bags of "garbage".

We went to T&K Seafood @Chinatown to had dinner on the second night.

We ordered too much...

Super not tempting lala. It seems like a leftover from some other tables.

We ordered two of these. We managed to finish one but the other one was 80% untouched.

Not that it's not nice but we were just too full.

L E F T O V E R .

After a long day shopping, it's time for massage!

Can you tell who is this?!

See the distance from the couch to leg rest... Hahaha :)

And this! See the difference?!

End of Day Two

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Hello Day Three!

Having bad fringe day when we decided to take some photos before starting our day!

Thanks to Fennie's camera, we can still camwhore a little.

Hello! I am Sunflower Suk Jin! Hahaha!

Shopped around Pratunam then went to had lunch at Saeb x2!

They are famous for wanton noodles. I don't really know how much a bowl of it cost but should be $2-$3 for a really small bowl! Trust me, you can finish 2 bowls of it easily.

Quite different from Singapore style.

The typical wanton noodle in Singapore comes with sauce which is quite watery (like soya sauce?!).

Or maybe the famous one will be Pontian, dry with dark black sauce.

However the Bangkok one quite little sauce or don't really have sauce but still quite nice.

If you have tried FeiFei wanton noodles in SG, it is something close to that.

We went back hotel to rest a little and put down our things before heading out to Chatuchak (CTC).

Check out the massive crowd

The accessories shop which we spent most of the time in.

I'm pretty fast at choosing because I don't really need to get presents or gifts for many people.

Esp when my two bffs, Singyee and Vonne are always going Bangkok.

Since I'm done choosing so decided to take out my camera to snap some photos.

Thanks Fennie for volunteering to take a picture for me! Hahaha! :)

I think these "bird cages" are beautiful but got no idea what to do with them if I buy it...

Yvonne wanted to try the coconut ice cream. Initially we didn't wanted to have it but it turned out to be very nice! Just that none of us actually eat the coconut "meat".

I think I'm going back for more for this! :)

We spent about three hours just shopping the main street of CTC. We didn't really went into the lanes.

Quite a pity but all the shops were closed by around 6-7pm.

We moved on to Union Mall. I used to like the place because there were really many nice shoes but this time round, I can't find any. BUT, there are really nice blazers selling there! I was procrastinating for too long whether to get one of the blazer because it cost 700baht.... in the end still didn't get it.

The famous waffle in Hong Kong can be find in Union Mall!

We had the chocolate one and it tasted good!

We planned to have Seoul Grill for our dinner.

Not expecting it to close at 9pm, we left with no choice but to have MK Steamboat for dinner.

It was quite late so some of the food were sold out but it was a healthy meal!

No rice for all of us!

Mostly were veggies, mushrooms, fish cake and some meat balls.

The marinated pork/chicken tasted damn good!!! We wanted to have another few plates of it but they had closed their cashier. :(

End of Day Three

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Plan for the day was to conquer a few shopping malls!

First lining up was Terminal 21.

It is a new shopping mall with a concept that places several world-famous cities under one roof.

My lovely travel mates who are checking out on the new gossips on Whatsapp!

So these are all the different "themes" for each level.

We wanted to go to all different levels toilet since they're all of a different theme, but we didn't have much time, so didn't do that and not much photos of different levels too.

A little feature like the airport.

Had our lunch at Hachiban, a really cheap place for ramen!

Check out the prices! You definitely can't get a bowl of ramen at this price in SG.

I wouldn't say the ramen tasted super good, but it was ok for the price I'm paying.

I was trying so hard to get mayonnaise for the side dishes but the waiter just couldn't understand.

I gave up.

Really nice interior in Terminal 21. Do check out the other levels when you're there!

The basement which offers lots of different snacks!

I've calculated! You can save about $0.20 if you buy a Beard Papa's cream puff in Bangkok as compared to Singapore! Hahaha! :)

Thanks Rayne for introducing such a WONDERFUL supermarket!

Now I'm gonna introduce it to you!

G O U R M E T M A R K E T

if you are thinking it as our NTUC, Shop & Save or Cold Storage, you are wrong!

This supermarket offers salad, soup & even pasta bar!!!

And you will be lost by the wide varieties you can choose from!

This lady took all the mushroom! Luckily we took some before she took ALL! One of her bowl was filled with mushroom!

Check out the varieties! I wish I can have it NOW!!!

Quail eggs, crabstick, potatoes, mushrooms, all kind of veges... AND....

FRUITS!!! The fruits are very fresh as well!

Don't worry about the sauces! There are many for you to choose and you can even taste it before making your choice! Super good pls!

Ok, after that I got caught for taking photos. I kinda knew someone was gonna stopped me because I got stopped once when I'm in Taiwan taking photos in a supermarket....

So same here... I got caught but never give up and try so hard to take another pic of this pasta bar!

The soup bar was right behind the pasta bar. There were at least 8 different soups choices. We had smth like creamy seafood soup?! It tasted GOOD!

I'm probably going to try their pasta the next time I'm there!

This is a cupcake shop introduced by my colleague.

We bought the mini ones to try and it's quite yummy. Comparable to Singapore's.

But the prices were not that "bangkok cheap". It cost $3 for one cupcake which is about the same price as SG. If it was really cheap like maybe $2-$2.50, I would have bought more.

I will recommend Red Velvet (all times favourite) and Brownie Cupcake!

I like their brownie cupcake since it's quite unique and not selling in SG.

Worth giving it a try if you're there!

I was so excited when I saw TAKAENOILAND!

Smth you wouldn't see in SG and thinking they will have many special flavours....

An attractive conveyor display!

Ok, from what I know from my brother, Singapore doesn't has PIZZA flavour!

Luckily I bought this! YUMMY! :)

I think Singapore doesn't has tomato flavour as well but not attracted to it so didn't get this flavour!

Selling at 39 baht per packet and 3 for 100 baht! Damn good deal!

We ended up buying quite a bit BUT turned out that Singapore has the flavours we bought!!!

We were thinking "Wah! Never see this before! *grab, grab*"....

Check out the Japanese-themed toilet!

No idea what it means.

The toilet cubicles.

I wish I have more time to explore the other floors and "visit" the toilets!

But we had to move on and went to CentralWorld.

Nothing much there, as usual to Naraya.

Then from CentralWorld to Erawan Shrine (四面佛).

It was our first time there and no idea how to go about praying over there.

So, we stood under the hot sun and observed!!!

And finally praying, hope we did it the correct way.

Walked a long way from CentralWorld to Siam Centre to have tea break at Greyhound Cafe.

This time round we were there mainly for the desserts! We were too full to have any desserts when we were at Another Hound Cafe.

Upon spotting the new desserts stand outside the restaurant, all of us were excited and also decided on our desserts even before getting in!

As mentioned earlier, Another Hound Cafe was more high class like fine dining kind, but Greyhound Cafe was more casual dining. Check out the place!

I think the waiter/waitress might not provide you with the dessert menu but just ask for it!

Ok, here comes the pasta I wanna introduce! Another good recommendation by Rayne!

SPAGHETTI WITH CRAB MEAT IN PRAWN CREAM SAUCE!

This is YUMMY! I wanna have this again!!!

I kept tweeting and saying about this Mixed Berry Layered Crepe Cake before I went Bangkok.

It looks so damn good and Rayne said it was super good too.

Yes, it was good BUT not until the Seasalt Caramel Chocolate Cake was out!

YUMMIEST CAKE EVER!!! SEASALT CARAMEL CHOCOLATE CAKE!

Ohgosh, so irresistible!

See that generous and spoonful of Seasalt Caramel!!!

The crepe cake was really good. Soft and not too sweet. A very light dessert.

But just that the seasalt caramel choc cake was too good that we gave up on the remaining of the crepe cake and finished up the cake!!! Both were good, really good! :)

Didn't get a chance to try their creme brulee as it was unavailable (or sold out, can't rmb).

Followed on was Krispy Kreme!

We joined the queue and saw one of the staff giving out free donuts while waiting.

But we didn't get it as they are done giving! Boos :(

We ordered the flavoured ones and they are just very normal donuts, nothing special.

I was only told that they're actually famous for the glazed ones when I'm back.

Gonna try the glazed ones another time!

We went to MBK for iPhone casings but it turned out that there isn't really cheap and good deals!

But still bought a few since we're already there.

We were rushing from malls to malls and didn't had time for dinner.

The Krispy Kreme's donut and mini cupcakes we bought earlier were our dinner!

Together with this "fruit" thingy.

We wanted to had cup noodles and asked the cab driver to stop us at the 7-11 near our hotel.

This driver can't understand us so we had to point out the directions to him.

We said to stop at 7-11, thinking it was common and simple enough for him to understand.

He sort of acknowledged and replied "Ah.. ok ok!" Then he drove straight right in front at the fast speed..... AND PAST THE LANE TO TURN INTO OUR HOTEL!

The 7-11 was located a distance before the lane turning into our hotel. Damn! There goes our dinner!

Anyway, this is the amount of Taokaenoi we bought!!! Hehehe!