Bangkok, Thailand - Day 3

My third day in Thailand was the day to explore deeper into the beauty of Bangkok, or the ugly side of it. After our breakfast, we headed to Saphan Taksin and took a ferry ride (30Baht) to Pier 5, Ratchawongse Pier. Our main objective was to have some great local food in Chinatown, eventhough we filled our stomach almost to its brim from the buffet breakfast. 

I used up most of my Baht, so I exchanged another two thousands Baht in a nearby bank. On our way to Chinatown from the pier, there were many stalls and shops selling reasonably but still bargain-able price goods such as handbags and wallets! Ladies would love it! However, Chinatown was a disappointed, perhaps it's merrier after daytime? There were not as many food stalls as we expected and I only spotted food such as BBQ corns and bananas among all of the stalls. 

Opposite of Chinatown there was a bird nest shop which offers, well, bird nests in the form of raw and cooked dessert to its customers. Depending on the quality of bird nest, customers can enjoy bird nest drink from as low as 100 Baht! 

Frankly I would say I like the way Thais eat their bird nest very much! It can be offered in burnt coconut, which will blend the taste of the bird nest with the refreshing coconut juice! Then, honey can be used to increase the sweetness of the bird nest. Lastly, sweetened gingko and half-boiled egg can be added into the bird nest to make it a more filling dessert!

After that sweet bowl of bird nest dessert, we saw the ugly side of Bangkok. Some tut-tut drivers couldn't earn much from their daily customers, thus cooperated with some shops selling souvenirs and jewellery so that they can send the customers to the shops and gain some commission from their purchase. 

We wanted to go from Chinatown to Siam Square by tut-tut because we never tried it before, and it seems like a must-do when visiting Bangkok. So we hopped on a tut-tut eventhough the driver sounds ridiculously absurd by quoting us a fee of 40 Baht for the trip. The first place he dropped us was a jewellery shop, but all the items were too expensive for us, we ended up empty handed leaving the shop. Then the driver took us to a normal souvenir shop, then beg us to buy something in order he can earn a bit of fuel money. Bought a 70 Baht fridge magnet from there since a friend of mine asked me to buy a magnet for her. What I don't like is the driver will ask how much the item you bought cost, because he want to know roughly how much commission he can get from that purchase. 

After the tut-tut driver dropped us off at Siam Square, we paid a visit to the... err... Hello Kitty Cafe in Siam Square. Everywhere is pink and with Hello Kitty pictures!

Then I finally have a chance to try out Thailand's McD! Tried its pork burger but it was not as amazing as some claimed. 

After the filling lunch, we walked for 15mins to reach Platinum Mall. It's a heaven for people who doesn't care about brand but price. Most of the items can be bargained and dirt cheap! The only downside is the mall is situated quite far from the nearest BTS station, so you'll have a tough time walking back to the BTS station with a handful of bags!

It was Bangkok's rush hour, a very familiar scene if you think KL...

Lucky we don't have to endure the bumper-to-bumper traffic by hopping onto BTS. We then headed to Unicorn Cafe, located in a quiet corner of Silom. The desserts here were nothing to shout about, but the decoration was certainly something especially for those who are in loved with unicorns! Unicorns were everywhere!

After lots of walking in the streets of Bangkok, it was time to have a relaxing and cooling bath in the bath tub of my hotel room - with the view of the outside world! Don't turn on the lights though, or people from the far opposite will be able to see through the window!

Later at night, a scrumptious dinner was waiting for us on the roof top. The Roof @ 38, like its name suggests, it's located at the top floor 38, with 360 degrees view at the city of Bangkok. While we were halfway enjoying the delicious food, it was drizzling and we have to literally run for cover! Luckily the bar has a roof-covered section where can still continue to enjoy the night!

Managed to capture this beautiful view before the sky pours!

Will certainly give Bangkok another visit in the future, to explore what I have yet to explore. There are just so many!!!

Hua Hin, Thailand - Day 2 (Part 1)

Scrumptious breakfast! It's the most important meal of the day. It can change your mood from bad to good. It fuels you with the energy needed to explore the day, like mine. A filling breakfast helped me explored Hua Hin happily! Hua Hin is a seaside city of Thailand located 3 hours away (travel with car) from Bangkok, where we visited few of its attractions during our visit in Thailand. 

Mode Sathorn Hotel provided a delicious buffet breakfast in a comfortable restaurant. You can have Western and Eastern food here, depending on your liking. The setting was so cozy, I feel like having my breakfast in there forever!

Bacon!!! Super crispy on the right!

We reluctantly left the restaurant and move on with our exploration, where we went to Hua Hin on our second day in Thailand. We took a hire & ride cab (costed us 3200 Baht, but it was worth it) where the driver picked us up at our hotel lobby. A dark skinned local, with tall-ish built, whose name is Mr. Eak was our cab driver of the day.

We hopped into his green Corolla Altis 1.6 and immediately he handed us a bottle of mineral water each, so nice of him! Thankfully our days in Thailand weren't that hot as it were raining almost everyday. We made a detour to Maeklong Railway Market while on our way to Hua Hin. As its name suggests, there's a railway which runs in the middle of a market! No, the railway is not abandoned. There is a train which travel everyday on that particular track! 

While waiting for the train to arrive, we explored the market a little bit. It was a pretty long market, I didn't manage to walk till the end of the market due to inadequate time (got to rush back to the entry point of the market to snap photos of the train arrival). If you have extra time, can try to spend a little more time here because the food and other merchandises here were pretty reasonably priced! 

Tried all kinds of local delicacies... I don't even know what are their names! Mr. Eak recommended us almost all kind of local food available in the market! 

Taste similar to daging salai + nasi pulut

Then, we heard a commotion. Whistles were blowing, the main road was blocked by local authorities, preventing the traffic from entering further into the area of the train track. Stalls' owners rushed to retract their goods and tents to make way for the train. Tourists stood by the rail with cameras in their hands, including mine, to try to capture the best picture of the rare moment.

Here comes the train! At a rather slow, walking speed to my surprise. Well, safety first, isn't it?

After witnessing the incredible moment, we moved on to our next stop, Santorini Park in Hua Hin with a 'mango flower' in our hands. The locals tend to consume it by peeling the flesh one by one like peeling the petals of a flower. A new way to eat a mango!

Cont. - Hua Hin, Thailand - Day 2 (Part 2)

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 1 (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1, we moved on to further explore the bustling city of Bangkok. Asiatique is one of the must-visit tourist destination in Bangkok. It can be reached easily after exiting from Saphan Taksin BTS station and hop on a free shuttle boat located just a stone throw away from the BTS station. 

No entrance fee required for this beautiful place, even more beautiful with all of the lights lit on at night. Asiatique is a pier with its own historical stories, thus explains the 90's architectural style. The whole area of Asiatique is not very huge, but it's filled with plenty of small alleys with clothes stalls at both sides. 

Walk around and you'll notice plenty of food stalls lying around in every corner of Asiatique. One of the good examples is the crispy crepe below, comes with different toppings such as coconut and mixed fruits. Bought some souvenirs from there too, especially in Naraya, a renowned Thai company selling purse, bags and stuff. 

Bumped into my secondary school friend, Chai Hooi here. I know that she was in Bangkok with her family and we didn't plan to have a short catching up session in Bangkok, we just bumped into each other unexpectedly! I regretted that I didn't take a photo with her in Asiatique that day...

After having all kind of snacks in Asiatique, we basically had our dinner there! We were supposed to visit Wat Arun after Asiatique in our itinerary, but the weather is not cooperating - it rained. So, we changed 'tempat', and decided to visit Terminal 21, a shopping mall with deco of various countries' landmark!

Each floor in Terminal 21 represents different countries. I remember there were UK, Japan and India, to name a few. As its name suggests, some areas of the mall is designed similarly to an airport too. 

Since our main purpose in Terminal 21 was just to take some photos, we left the mall quite swiftly. With much free time left, we utilised our BTS day-pass to its fullest and travelled to Thong Lo Station. Underneath the station is Sukhumvit Soi 38, a street with Thai's famous and delicious street food. 

You can find all sorts of food here, and all were pretty delicious! Desserts, mango sticky rice, fried kuey teow, bbq meat etc. Frankly I didn't have the chance to try all of them, but I got to say everything that I tried here (desserts, bbq meat...) tasted wonderfully! 

20-30 Baht per stick, what a bargain!

On the way back to our hotel, I spotted a McD kiosk located in a one of the BTS stations. I was flabbergasted, as I found bubble milk tea with McD ice cream float in Bangkok! As a bubble milk tea lover, without second thought, I bought one and sip it all the way back hotel! Of course, I acknowledged that drinking is prohibited in the train!  

Thailand Day 2 - Hua Hin

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 1 (Part 1)

Sawadee Kap~~ Greetings from Thailand! Truth be told, I'm currently back in Malaysia but I've spent 4 days and 3 nights in Bangkok, Thailand from 6 Oct - 10 Oct 2014. Thailand, the only neighbouring country of Malaysia which is physically attached to the latter, is a shopping heaven. Girls will go crazy here. 

Departed from the newly built KLIA2, me and a friend of mine arrived at Don Muang Airport after a 2 hours flight. Exit the airport and took a bus with 'A1' code to the nearest BTS train station called Mo Chit. Imagine carrying your luggage into a full-house bus and the need to look after it while the bus driver manoeuvre around the busy traffic in Bangkok. 

In Mo Chit station, we bought a day-pass which cost 130 Baht, equivalent to around RM13. Just slash a zero at the back of every pricing in Baht and you'll get its value in Ringgit Malaysia! From there, we travelled comfortably in the air-conditioned train to Surasak station, where our accommodation for our Bangkok trip is located at - Mode Sathorn Hotel. 

It's a 4-star hotel with a chic-ly styled lobby. You can see the elegance and contemporary once stepping into the hotel. Some friendly staff welcomed us by saying "Sawadee kap" to us, but we were too awkward to react to the gesture in the first place, where we just smile and bow a little to them. Wi-Fi is available at every corner of the hotel. We sat down immediately in the lobby to use its Wi-Fi to inform our families that we had landed and arrived safely.

There's an outdoor pool on the 10th floor, where you can swim to the edge of the pool to have a breathtaking view of the city!

The room itself is superb. Spacious and elegant. 4 lighting modes were available, but they are basically changes in brightness of the lights. 

Bath tub with view of the city! You can either flaunt your 'stuff' or pull the blinds down if you feel a tad uncomfortable.

After placing our luggage in the hotel, we headed back out to our first destination in Bangkok - lunch in Cabbages and Condoms. From Surasak Station, we have to travel to Asok Station, which involves changing line at Siam Station. We found this delicious vanilla waffle in Asok Station itself! Crispy on the outside and puffy on the inside. Somehow I noticed there were many snack stalls located in various BTS station were capable of producing nice food, ranging from bubble milk tea to waffle!

After a short distance of walking, we arrived at Cabbages and Condoms. We were greeted with plenty of decoration made up of, yup you've guessed it right, condoms! 

Thailand is very open about sex education and prevention from STD, so this is no big deal.

After admiring at some decos, it's high time to order some food for lunch. C&C provides a comfortable environment and delicious food too, albeit the price of the food is a little on the high side. 

Can you guess what kind of juice is this? The fruit is made up of many juice-laden, super-sized pulp. The answer is pomegranate! 40 Baht for a small bottle of pomegranate juice, overpriced but it is undeniably refreshing. 

Some of my friends asked me to get them some Bangkok's Starbucks tumbler, and we bought these just on the first day in Bangkok! A tumbler costs 420 Baht, and you can get a free (but nice looking) Starbucks denim bag if you spend more than 450 Baht in a single receipt!

NEXT - Bangkok, Thailand - Day 1 (Part 2)