Bangkok Trip 2015 Day 3

After P's mishap in the toilet, I was totally awakened and I washed up, updated my blog till 5am. Therefore, we really slept in today and had a really late start, even later than the previous day, think we were really out of our room only at 1pm+. We stopped at one of the stalls outside our hotel and tried our first street food, the fried chicken wing! It is quite yummy though not exceptional, maybe other stalls around Bangkok have tastier chicken wings as it is always recommended on blogs.

Tasty fried chicken wing

The best thing about staying near Asok BTS is that it's connected to the Sukhumvit MRT station (they call it subway here and the BTS is above ground while MRT is underground) and it is the most convenient when we travel to Chatuchak Weekend market. Chatuchak is a must-go whenever I am in Bangkok, the first time being in 2002. And for my previous trips there, I alighted at the Mo Chit BTS, went through the very crowded overhead bridge and squeezed through the crowd, feeling quite tired before I even reach Chatuchak. The plus point about using the MRT was that it stopped right in the middle of the weekend market at Kamphaeng Phet and we found the famous coconut ice cream immediately!

Chatuchak, here we come!

The original coconut ice cream

Yum yum!

Choices for toppings

I read from many blog posts that the coconut ice cream is one of the stuff we have to try at Chatuchak, and after leaving the stall later, we saw that many other stalls are also selling the same thing. So how did we know that we were at the right stall? There was a long queue (about 5min queueing time and 6-8 people in front) and there is a good variety of toppings to choose from. The stall was also bigger (with about 5 staff) and that's the tell-tale sign that they have good business every weekend. The coconut ice cream basically consist of half a husk of a young coconut with the meat already scraped out, topped with coconut ice cream, each customer can also choose 3 toppings to go with it. They do not waste the coconut water, they actually bottled it and sell it as well. While we were queueing, they also offer us a cup of the coconut water for tasting, nice! The three toppings I choose was the yellow seeds of the green bean (like tau suan), corn and nata de coco. The coconut ice cream was really good and we were happy to start our weekend trip at chatuchak with that. The stretch just outside the MRT station were full of food stalls so we were busy browsing the food stuff as we did not have breakfast or lunch yet. Next, we spotted the stick bbq stall and ordered some of those bacon and sausage stuff, I had one with bacon wrapped around enoki mushroom and it was really good.

These are really good

Yummy but sinful

The weather was quite hot at some point but I must say it is already better than the previous time when we came in March. We did not want to head straight into the different sections where the shops are all lined up in cramped space straightaway, as it will be warmer there. For a start, we merely walked on the main road dividing the area into different sections as that was the stretch where the food stalls were. I've always wanted to try sticky mango rice in Bangkok and I saw many street stalls selling that on the previous day, but I did not get as I was not hungry enough. At the row of cooked food/ zi char section, I came across this young lady making the sticky mango rice pack on the spot (it is mostly pre-packed) so I decided to get a small box from her. P also got a spiral potato chip thingy from the stall next to her so we sat down at one of the tables to finish up our snacks.

Potato chip thingy

Sweet young lady selling the bkk specialty

Finally tried mango sticky rice

A small portion is enough for my craving

After we were done, we were feeling quite full and ready to take a look at the stores inside. Both P and I were not really into shopping, so places like Bangkok appeal to many others who can go crazy shopping but for us, we were merely walking through and browsing the stuff they had. I used to be really into shopping at knock off places like these but these years, I just feel that I outgrown the phase of wearing cheap clothes and streetwear. It was also quite hot inside, occasionally we come across a store fitted with air-con but the rest were just filled with warm air. I always wonder how the shopkeepers can stay around in that condition. A Chatuchak experience is always one with sweaty faces and clothes, I get frustrated with the warm weather and my tired feet but it is part of the experience. There were also quite a number of massage service available, so some shoppers chose to get their rest at these places with cheap foot and back massage.

These shops are lined against this very old building

Found my birthday mug but did not buy it

We only wandered into the stores for less than hour, we walked through rows and rows of those cramped shops but nothing really appealed to us. I think we only went through a small fraction of the shops and we were walking down random aisles in haphazard manner, several times we turned up at the same places we had visited. After awhile, I had decided that I need a rest from all the walking, so we emerged into the main street outside again. We decided to look for a stall with the banana prata as we had yet to try the snack for this trip, we found the same lady and the same stall from which we bought the snack two years ago and we rested at her stall. P also went to get the pomegranate juice for me as I mentioned that I really want to try it, it is more expensive at Chatuchak (50 THB for a small bottle) but the juice was pure and slightly bitter as they did not add sweetener. The other juice stalls were also selling the orange juice at a higher price and the 20THB we had paid the previous night could only get us a small bottle. The banana prata is not as nice as the one we always had in Pratunum previously, I remember the previous time it also fell short of expectations but we had no choice as this is the only stall selling that in Chatuchak. After our short break, it was already 5pm and we felt that we were pretty much done, we decided to head back to hotel for a rest before dinner and our only loot from the weekend market was few magnets and two herbal compress thingy used for massage (much cheaper than the ones sold at tempat senang but probably not very durable).

A procession for rallying against human trafficking

We visited the same stall two years ago

The famous orange juice is more expensive here

The only banana prata we had

My only qualms about taking the MRT was the long queues for getting the tickets, there are only two ticket machines that break down really easily and two other ticket counters. We were in the snaking long queue when the other machine became 'out of service', the people in the queue dispersed with looks of exasperation on their face. Earlier on, similar incident happened at Sukhumvit station and I saw that the people maintained the queue while getting help, so I asked P to stay around as the machine seemed to be revived easily. True enough, the staff come and the machine was working again within minutes, P was second in line then and we got our tickets quickly. It was still worth the queueing as the station was only the second one on the MRT line so the train came pretty much empty and we got our seats easily.

Medinii dinner menu

I took a nap after we got back to our hotel and woke up at 7pm. We had a booking for dinner at Medinii at 8pm, so I showered and woke P up when it was almost time. We've decided to go back to Medinii again as we had a really good experience during lunch the previous day, I was actually craving for the pasta again. The cost of the dinner was 999THB++ but we reckon it is still quite worth it as there is a main course included. When we reached the restaurant, it was already 8.40pm, but i realised again that booking was not really needed as the place was not full. We saw the friendly manager who came to talk to us during lunch and he gave us a choice of sitting by the window or a more private area with limited view. We chose the private area initially, but they have a big swinging seat there which was not really suitable for having dinner, so we requested to change to the window seat instead.

Lamb shank (too dark to see under candlelight)

Squid ink aglio olio pasta

Tequila and magarita

We were quite disappointed when we wanted to check out the buffet line, thinking that it will be similar to lunch, but there was actually no buffet line for dinner. They still have unlimited pasta and pizza in a different menu, and even unlimited cocktail drinks that we can order, but there were no free flow cooked food, salad bar and dessert. We looked at the menu, P chose wagyu beef steak and I choose lamb shank for the main course, the quality of food was good so we felt slightly better after the initial disappointment. We also ordered one pasta each with the main course, and that was all we could eat. Honestly, the taste of the pasta and pizza was mediocre, so we decided to skip the pizza and just have our pasta. The night view of the city from our seat and the whole candlelit ambience of the restaurant was different from the daytime, therefore the overall experience was not too bad. I had two cocktails in total, I guess the price is considered not too bad for people who love to drink. Unfortunately, P does not drink so he could not take advantage of that. But for the real good deal we will still recommend people to go for the lunch buffet instead.

The view from our seat

With our stomach filled, we ventured to Terminal 21 to catch a movie. It was almost 10.30pm and except for the cinema, most of the shops were closed. There were still many people streaming to the cinema level, we saw that there were two movies screening that could fit our timing, Fantastic 4 and Mission Impossible. We chose Fantastic 4 and went to look for our seat. The last row of seats in the cinema was huge and comfortable with big armrest, we could even lean back to recline the seats. I've heard reviews about the movie so I found the content quite okay, P was quite disappointed as the movie was considered boring for Marvel standard.

Nice cinema at Terminal 21

After the movie, we picked up some snacks from 7-11 and walked back to our hotel.

Bangkok Trip 2015 Day 2

I guessed I must have fallen asleep around 2am+ local time after having some snacks and tom yum cup noodles (there wasnt a hot water flask in the room, the staff brought up a flask with water already boiled when we asked for one, really cool). I woke up early this morning, before 8am. Just like our previous trip to Bangkok, we dont really have a solid plan of what to do for the 3 days of the trip, it pretty much also depend on P and his mood too (I was really surprised the last trip when he asked to go to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho etc). When waiting for P to wake up, just like any other trip, I was looking up Tripadvisor for a good place for brunch near our hotel as breakfast is not provided for our stay. I chanced upon Medinii restaurant during my research and it seemed pretty good as they have a pasta and pizza buffet promotion, it is currently ranked 23 among 8k+ eateries in Bangkok and they have a hotel lunch buffet that cost 499+ with pretty good reviews. I used a EZTable link on Tripadvisor to make a reservation at 12.30pm.

The Jacuzzi all ready for me

I was updating this blog while P was snoring away, and I decided to go for a good hot bath using the room's Jacuzzi tub. It take quite awhile to fill up the tub, the guide said it takes a good 15min and it was also a bit noisy as the tub filled up from a rain shower outlet coming down from the ceiling. It is pretty cool but I did the mistake of only using the hot faucet for most of the tub and did not test the water temperature before getting in. I felt so cooked into the hot water that I had to wait around at the edge of the tub before immersing myself again. The Jaccuzi tub is like an infinity pool with the water overflowing its edge and it is quite spacious for one person but I doubt it can accommodate two people comfortably. The water massage feature is not very strong and can be almost considered non existent so I was pretty much like soaking myself in a big bathtub, still quite shiok! One thing about the whole dressing and shower area is that there's no privacy so it might be awkward if you're there with friends and family. The room is however big enough for others to avoid the area if one do not want to see your counterparts in the shower.

Lift lobby decorated with comfy chair (every level is different)

The different levels of the hotel

I also tried out the expresso machine after that, it looked complicating to operate but actually it is quite idiot proof with the comics menu. The coffee was not as aromatic as I thought it should be, it still tasted quite okay if one need a coffee fix during the stay at Maduzi, there's complimentary free flow tea and coffee from the bar downstairs anyway. I woke P up to have his shower at noon as our lunch appointment is at 12.30pm. We finally set off from the hotel at 12.30pm.

Make shift stalls appeared outside our hotel

Going up to 35th floor

The Medinii

It is quite easy to navigate to the Continent Hotel using my phone data sim card, the entrance of the hotel is hidden away from the side of the Asok BTS but actually it is right next to it. The restaurant is on the 35th floor of the hotel and the whole place looked pretty posh. The service was quite good and the staff were trying their best to attend to us with their limited English once we had sat down. My booking was not in their records as I guess it was made too last minute, but the restaurant was not full as it is a weekday afternoon so we still get our seats immediately. The restaurant was lined by see through glass panel from ceiling to floor so that diners can have a good view of the surrounding area, we were sitting right next to it so the view was really good from the high floor. Even though the buffet line included pasta in the cooked food, an extensive salad bar and a dessert area, there was a menu for us to order the pizza and pasta of our choice. It seemed too good to be true so we even checked with the server another time to ensure that all is included in the price of the buffet. We can never get this price for a hotel buffet in Singapore!

Buffet lunch with a view

Full view of the city

The yummy dessert line

I would not say that food tasted top notch, but the quality was not too bad. The corn soup we both had was really thick and sweet, not the the diluted ones we always have at Pizza hut or Swensen's. P focussed on the cooked food section while I went for the salad bar. We ordered a pizza (8 pieces with a choice of 1 or 2 toppings) and I ordered a creamy pasta. I was really full after one round of soup, salad and the pasta so I doubt anyone can really eat that much as its all carbo. There was still plenty of time even though we only arrived there at 12+, the buffet time was actually from 11.30am-2.30pm for brunch. We sat around and chit chat while admiring the nice view from the top. It got pretty hot at one point so the server helped us to move the shades halfway down so that the sun do not get to us, but soon dark clouds came and it rained.

My starters, soup and salad

The pizza and pasta we ordered

We were seated at a more private section 

When we finally got to dessert, I must say that the quality of the dessert there was really good. Even though their focus was really on the pasta and pizza, I would say that the taste of the dessert was outstanding while the pasta and pizza more mediocre. I tasted creme brulee that tasted much better than the top hotel buffets in SG, the other egg based desserts (forgot the name) was also really good. Unfortunately, I was feeling really full from all the carbo loading so I did not go for a second round. We left when the buffet hour was almost over, the manager even came to us personally to check how things were, so the service was impressive. The bill came up to 1170 THB, which was only $23SGD per pax! *thumbs up* The rain had stopped when we left, it almost looked like it did not rain at all. I woke up quite early in the morning so I was feeling sleepy after the very good meal. As we were near the hotel, we went back to take a nap. The next thing I know, it was already 5pm+. Our short rest at the hotel became a 4-5h break as P was also sleeping when I woke up. Nevertheless, it is still a good staycation as we are resting well in the hotel.

Pic taken at the lobby

The bed beckoning me

Snapped more pics while waiting for the lift

P suggested going to Siam Paragon for the evening as he wanted to look for his sneakers. I read from Tripadvisor that tourists can get a discount card from the information counter at the basement and we did just that. After time was spent queueing and filling up the form for the card, we did not buy anything at Siam Paragon as P could not find the shop he was looking for. The stores there are like ION with big international brand name, but they have this floor with all the luxury and power cars displayed like Lamborghini, Bentley, BMW etc. All these stores were already closed and I realised the stores in BKK closes quite early, many were closed when we were there at 8.30pm.

Exit from the very crowded Siam BTS 

Siam Paragon looking grand as always

P mentioned that we should try out street food for dinner so that became our mission for the night. We walked to the sidewalk just next to Siam center and Siam Paragon where there small stalls set up for the night. Its pretty amazing that these stalls just spring up as and when they like and can disappear anytime too. When we walked out of our hotel at noon and in the evening, there were different set of street stalls that appeared right outside. Its pretty interesting and I also think I should try as much street food as I can for this trip, after reading so much from the blogs of others.

The popular orange juice

We walked along the stretch and it was quite crowded, with stream of people coming from both directions. There were stalls selling food and clothes, almost like the night market of Taiwan. It also dawned upon me that I did not notice BKK having this night market thingy until this trip although I do know they have a lot of street food there. As far as I've observed, the stalls also do not have a designated place unlike the night market in Taiwan. There's many of them selling food like noodles and rice dishes, so they also have tables and chair set up right next to the stalls. We walked all the way to MBK, but we only bought a bottle of orange juice. I've seen many people drinking orange coloured juice from transparent plastic containers and there's also many stalls selling the same stuff. The drink is sweeter and thicker than the normal orange juice we have, and the orange is also different from the ones that are common in SG. I'm quite sure they've added sweetener so even though it's very refreshing to drink these on a hot day, it is probably not healthy to drink too much. They also have the pomegranate and lime version, most vendors are squeezing the juice on the spot and the pomegranate one looked quite good too so I'm thinking I'll try it the next time if I come across it again.

Back to Asok BTS but the stores all closed

When we took the cab to our hotel the previous day, I noticed many street stalls set up near Asok BTS station. We decided to take BTS from National Stadium (next to MBK) back to Asok and continue our mission. However, the stalls around Asok were even more limited and there were this area where several 'street bars' were set up, its like makeshift stalls but with all the common drink options we can find in a bar or pub. We walked further down and came across this street full of pubs and girls in skimpy clothes standing outside, attracting people in for their night shows. Its pretty interesting but I totally had no idea we were staying so near to one of such area. After a search online, I've found out that this is 'Soi Cowboy' and is considered a redlight district for the area. Personally, I enjoy a hot bowl of noodles by the street as they have a lot of vegetables and spices like vietnam pho, but P is never a noodles person so we walked around but did not find anything to his liking.

Chanced upon Soi Cowboy

We were at the area just next to Continent hotel where we had lunch, and we decided to try Indulge which is just next door to it. I had read pretty good reviews about the place on Tripadvisor and there were always people sitting inside and outside when we walked passed, so I guess the food and drinks there should be quite okay. I remember reading that the steaks there are quite good, so I recommended that to P as he is definitely a steak person. The prices are quite steep so he was hesitant initially, but eventually we decided to splurge on a tenderloin and we can share the food between us. It is not easy to cook the tenderloin as the meat is quite thick, but I must say the chef had done a good job and we really enjoyed the food there. The bill came up to 1400+THB and it is expensive for Thai standard but still quite okay when we compare it to the prices of steak at home. Our street food mission might have failed for tonight but I'm sure we will try some when we visit the Chatuchak over the weekend.

Bread for starters

The maincourse and sides

It was close to midnight when we return to the hotel, I was lying on bed to rest and fell asleep even though I had not showered. The next thing I know, it is 3am on Saturday morning. I felt something amiss and noticed P applying something on his leg, P told me he had a bad fall in the shower room just before I woke up. Luckily, the hotel staff on duty was able to give him something to put on his wound and some ice to ease the pain. I feel quite bad for sleeping through all these as I did not hear anything when it happened. :(

Bangkok Trip 2015 Day 1

6 weeks after Term 3 started, we're finally having a getaway. As Singapore celebrates 50 years of independence, we have an extra day of holiday this Jubilee National Day. After they announced the good news in March, I quickly scanned through the internet for possible places we can make the trip. My first choice was Cambodia as the Angkor Empire Half and Full Marathon is held this weekend and it is a perfect destination for my first overseas race. Unfortunately, the air tickets to Cambodia were limited and got snapped up so fast that it became too expensive for me. Many other nearby destinations also had very steep prices for this long weekend, till I came across the Airasia flights to Bangkok. The price is still considered expensive for a trip to Bangkok ($600++) but it is already cheaper compared to other destinations. 

One of the display at the airport: Singapore flyer and the F1 night race

This is my second trip with P to Bangkok, the first was already two years ago in 2013. I've traveled to Bangkok few other times, the first one was in 2002 when I did community service in Chiang Mai, then a family trip in 2005, and I even had a overseas trip here with students in 2009. Ironically, Singaporeans were actually encouraged to stay in the country for the Jubilee long weekend and I was really worried that they will make it mandatory for us to stay around. Luckily, nothing was mentioned and I got ready to set off for the trip after months of booking it. Other than having a 4 days extended long weekend (which is really rare), we got a half day in school and could go off after the celebration ended at 10.30am. I stayed around and got really busy with work till 3pm, came home and napped, had dinner and only started packing at 5.30pm when we were aiming to get out of the house by 6.30pm. As it is just a short trip, it was easy to pack and I was done in just half an hour. 6.30pm came we got out of the house punctually, I'm glad there's still plenty of time even though I only packed the very last minute.

The social tree: interactive game that people play at the departure area

We got to Changi Airport Terminal 1 and the whole place was reeking of SG50 atmosphere, there were many big and small displays of the landmarks of Singapore so we took some photos of that. I'd already checked in online so dropping off the baggage was fast and there was no queue at the AirAsia counters. Inside the departure hall, there was also a group of local youth singers singing familiar national day songs like 'Home' and so on, it triggered the patriotic and nostalgic person in me.

Nostalgia.. Old school design of the playground at a booth

We were already at the boarding gate 15min before the boarding time, there were not many people waiting at the gate yet so I was surprised that the flight was not really full. I even managed to get a seat next to the charging station to charge my phone and play games while waiting to board. The plane came just shortly before the boarding time at 8pm but there was not much delay in boarding, there were many people who boarded after us so it turned out that the flight was quite full but many people were kind of late. We always choose seats as near to the front of the plane as possible so that disembarkation will be fast, for this flight I was happy that there were nobody sitting next to me so I have more space for myself and easy access to the washroom (I didnt go to the washroom though). 

Bangkok, here we come!

Somehow we thought that the flight to Bangkok is fast and we will reach in an hour, but in actual fact it was took us almost 2.5 hour. I bought snacks and Thailand SIM card from the airline, the SIM card cost 299 THB and I was reading from some blog that it cost the same if I get one from the airport terminal. Like in 2013, the AirAsia flight took us to the older Don Mueang airport, the only inconvenience was taking the shuttle service to the airport terminal after the flight, but other than that, clearing of customs and picking up our luggage was a breeze. In March 2013, the counters for public taxi was outside the terminal but this it was inside one end of the terminal, there were very long queues but it did not take us long to get a cab as there were 10 counters in total. The queue for taxi is quite similar to Singapore, except that the drivers had to physically come in to get some receipts and papers and to pick up the passengers. Along the way, I passed the driver 120THB for toll fees and he checked with us if we want to use the highway (not sure if there are other alternatives). 

Tourist SIM card that we can purchase on flight

We took a ride in the hot pink cab

I only booked the hotel a week or so before the trip, there are a lot of choices in Bangkok and I finally decided on Maduzi Hotel near Asok BTS and Terminal 21 after a lot of research. There were reviews that it might be a bit difficult for taxis to find the hotel as the address is on Soi 16 but it is in fact at the junction of the streets. The taxi driver was quite smart to stop at Citadines apartments next door to try to give the hotel a call as he did not see the hotel after a short distance down, but the security guard came and gave him the right directions. The cab ride cost us 275 THB excluding toll charges and took about 20min from the airport, which was better than expected. The rest of our trip to the front desk was similar to the reviews I've read on Agoda/Tripadvisor.

Our room A06

Greeted by the complimentary mini bar and expresso machine

Cute comic book with instructions of in room facilities

FOC minibar

Mini office area at one side of the room

Lounging corner on the other side of the bed

Welcome to the huge dressing area

Walk in wardrobe just next to the shower, very convenient

Unlike our previous hotel Citin (which we also had good impression of), the area around Maduzi was much quieter even though it is just a 5min walk to the BTS and the nearby 'night market' area. There was a lot of privacy when walking around the hotel compound as there was a big sliding gate which our taxi entered before it dropped us, then we walked up this small path to the front door of the hotel, past the restaurant area before we came to the reception. The staff briefed us about the checking in/out regulations, the special thing about this hotel is that we can check out really really late, as late as 8.15pm since we arrived late on the first night. Unfortunately, we have an early flight on Monday morning so we cant make use of it. The staff who helped us to check in then brought us up to our room, although I read all about in on reviews, it was still a fascinating experience. There's only 6 floors in the hotel with about 7 rooms in each floor, and each level is named with letters MADUZI instead of numbers. We are staying on the second highest floor in Room A06. After entering the room, all we could see is the mini bar and the espresso machine, therefore there is really a lot of privacy as others cant even see much from the doorway. The hotel staff opened a japanese style sliding door and what greeted us what the small office area, the huge bed and a leather lounging chair. We actually had to turn another corner to get to the washroom, which is separated into a toilet area, a huge dressing area, the walk in wardrobe, then a big jacuzzi bathtub and shower area. The whole room is about 42sqm and the room is luxurious like our stay at Movenpick Sentosa Heritage hotel. Although I'm paying 3x the amount I've paid for Citin years ago, there's no regrets once I saw the room. Really loved it!

Our haul from 7-11 (bottom right is replica of Tokyo banana and it tasted good)

We rested for awhile after that, I actually fell asleep as I had a long day and it was already 11.30pm local time. Even though the minibar is complimentary, we decided that the snacks were not enough for our indulgence, so we took a 3min walk to the 7-11 next door to get our snacks craving fulfilled.