Sawadee...kakakakaka ~ Journal of a dreamer.
This trip was one of the trips that I was most anticipating, due to the fact that I was really longing to go to Thailand for the longest time ever (on par with me waiting for 10 years before I finally set foot to HK and Korea), and of course, living in Singapore also means that Thailand is just about a 2-hour flight away, so what's the reason stopping me? My parents are really adamant about not visiting Thailand, due to the fact that every now and then, we'd hear about news of bombings happening, and to them, Thailand is just another sketchy country we should avoid at all costs, for our own safety. Therefore, we have never gotten the chance to step foot in Thailand, as a family, and as an individual, until now.
As such, talks about wanting to eat all the cheap (and good) Thai food and shiok massages whenever we watch travel documentaries on Thailand just all fell on deaf ears. It wasn't till I got to know Grumpy Cat that I finally got to step into Thailand for real. Even then, persuading my parents to allow me to go wasn't an easy task, though Grumpy has been to Thailand for 4 times already, and is pretty familiar with the routes and all.
The four days spent with Grumpy were easily one of the best of my life, and I felt really so thankful to him, and to God, for keeping us safe all these while.
At the point of exchanging money, SGD$1 was worth 25 baht.
Learning from my previous boo-boo made during my Vietnam trip, I got Grumpy and myself to double-check on our flight details, and made sure that we had ample time to check-in this time round. My parents were so worried about me missing my flight again that my dad called home to ask my mum to wake me up when he was already at work.
Grumpy lives in ulu Punggol now, so getting to le airport was easy for him; not so easy for a Westie like me though. We had agreed to meet at T1 at 11 am, so I took the train all the way to Changi Airport from my house. I was stopped to have my luggage checked when I stepped into CCK MRT station. Thankfully, my luggage wasn't heavy (it was only 8 kg), so after determining that I didn't pose a threat to national security, off I went towards Changi.
We passed through the security checkpoints and boarded Thai Airways TG 404. It was my first time flying with Thai Airways, so I was pretty excited. Thai Airways definitely did not disappoint at all. In fact, I was beyond impressed by the service I received, and for the ticket price we paid, I will definitely fly with Thai Airways again. We were first greeted with a traditional Thai greeting "Sawadeeka~" from the flight attendants who were clasping their hands together as they greeted each of us.
Look at the pretty wingtip!!
One of the nicest airplane food everrrrrr. Not kidding, really! ;P The side on the left also tasted damn good? It's like preserved radish with something which I couldn't really decipher what it was but still... MY TASTEBUDS JUST WENT TO HEAVEN.
After clearing customs, we boarded the MRT to Phaya Thai. I find their MRT system so weird. We were dispensed with coins to tap into the station.
Had to be careful not to lose the coins... ._.
After reaching Ploenchit BTS station, we were greeted with Cha Tra Mue, which we know to serve one of the best Thai milk teas we have ever tasted. There is always a snaking queue at Far Eat Square after lunch whenever we pass by. Tea here is definitely much cheaper than back in SG, and surprisingly, not as sweet as well? Thai milk tea is known to be quite sweet, but I was quite surprised that ours wasn't as sweet as what I had envisioned it to be, which is GOOD. Grumpy needs to cut back on his sugar intake heehee. ;) Our tall cup of extra gold milk tea only cost 35 baht, compared to the $3+ we have to pay back in SG.
Our not-so-sweet Thai milk tea.
Our apartment was really pretty though - very true to the pictures shown on the host's profile in AirBnB. It was really cosy and just nice for the two of us. Too bad I didn't think of taking photos of the house when we were there. We settled down and left the house again at around 5 pm.
Grumpy brought me to Terminal 21 afterwards to settle my SIM card. I went to this telecom company called dtac, which offered 1 GB of data for 3 days. However, when signing up, you must present your passport. After that, the person at the counter would just settle everything else for you, including putting the new SIM card into your phone and activating the data for you.
Bangkok's shopping centres are really very big and pretty! Of course, they have stricter security now, so at every entrance of all the shopping centres I had the chance to go to, everybody had to either walk through a metal detector or have their bags checked. After settling my SIM card, we toured Terminal 21, and bought a stick of giant squid from this place here, which resembles the Uyi Savoury Squids stores we have in Singapore. They were equally tasty, but Bangkok's squids were definitely cheaper!
Our main attraction for the day (or night lol) was the new Rod Fai train market in the Ratchada area, which is easily accessible by taking the MRT train to the Cultural Centre. The place felt like a huge pasar malam to me, and of course, there were many people as well. Before going to BKK, I was sending Grumpy lots of pictures of food to try in BKK, and he brought me to one of the stalls which sold what I wanted to eat. We had chicken bites which Grumpy bought for only 10 baht. Say whattttttttttttt?
Shiok! More than enough for 2 people. I kept seeing this on Instagram, so Grumpy brought me here to try it. This costs about 150 baht I think?? There's a mini crab in there too!
The pandan cuties which I really wanted to try as well! ^^ They tasted niceeeeeee! In fact, I love anything that has pandan in it LOL.
Le Grumpy was being very happy with his rolled ice-cream.
Such a quaint-looking barber shop!
The train market sold a lot of clothes as well, but I wasn't that interested in them, and Grumpy assured that I'd love the clothes selection in Platinum mall better, so after deciding that we have toured the whole market, we decided to go to the Asoke branch of Healthland for our well-deserved massage. We walked from Asoke BTS station, which was about a 10-minute walk away. I wouldn't recommend walking if it's late at night and if you're alone as the street lights aren't that bright.
Health Land totally blew me away. It looked like a luxury spa from the outside, and gosh, it looked damn good in the interior too? The frontline staff there were also able to speak English. There were cups of cold lavender water available readily for you to cool down. And guess what? 1-hour of foot massage at this place only costs 350 baht?! You can go to their website for more details of the massages they offer and the cost of them. When you first enter, what they'll do is to go up to you and ask what massage you'd like. They'll help you write what service you require on an order chit, and you're supposed to bring this chit and pay at the cashier. Once done, you can just chill around before they call out your name over a microphone, so rest assure that you'll still be able to hear your name.
The massage was pretty comfortable, and I think I fell asleep soon after as the place was pretty dark. However, I felt that my masseur's (she's probably in her late 50s to early 60s) massage wasn't that consistent, especially towards the end. I think she was tired. ;/ After the foot massage ended, the masseurs actually do help to massage your neck, shoulders and arms as well. After which, it'd be truly be the end of the massage. We were then led outside, where we were given cups of warm tea. The tea tasted really good! I think there was pandan inside, that's why HAHAHAHA. Anyway, I think it is customary to tip the masseurs here after each massage, so we gave them another 50 baht on our way out. Do note that tipping is not compulsory, so do not feel pressurised into giving if you do not want to.
We took Uber back to our cosy apartment and that was the end of Day 1.
We got up at around 8.45 am as we were running quite a tight schedule for today. Uber was running a promotion, where if you booked any rides between 6 am to 6 pm from 4th to 6th November 2016, you'd be entitled to 40 baht off your ride! Siao?! We got to our destination for nearly free!!!! We ended up spamming Uber rides to get around BKK after that. We took Uber to SabX2 Pratunam Wanton Noodles, where we were supposed to have our first meal of the day. The Uber driver dropped us off at Platinum mall instead LOL, so we had to climb the overhead bridge to get to where we wanted.
The wanton mee stall is located along the alleys, so we did actually miss a few alleys before Grumpy said that we had to walk back.
They had to make it clear that they have no branches in SG LOL!
Thankfully, the queue for the wanton mee wasn't that long. We waited at most 10 minutes before being shown inside to our seats. The interior of the stall was really cramped though... We couldn't sit properly without bumping into the person next to us. As it was very packed, we also had to share tables.
We ordered only 2 bowls of wanton mee, but each bowl already cost 100 baht, which I'm sure is really pricey by Singapore's standard (given such a setting, I can easily get my bowl of wanton mee for SGD$3), what's more BKK's? Tbh, the seasoning of the noodles was what made the noodles tick; it contained very generous servings of pork lard, garlic and preserved radish. Without the seasoning, the noodles would have just been ordinary. However, at $4 per bowl, it was really very small, and I definitely did not feel full after that. The serving was also not very generous (seriously, only 2 wantons? I can at least 3 back in SG for $1 less!) and the rest of the ingredients were just... underwhelming.
We went back to Platinum mall for our mango sticky rice fix. Platinum really sells lots of clothes at wholesale prices. We went crazy browsing through the crazy selection of clothes they had here.
Our next plan for the day was to visit True Love cafe, which essentially is a cafe with loads of Siberian huskies. *insert hearts* However, their playtimes are fixed, so Grumpy found out that if we missed the 1 pm playtime, their next playtime would only be at 3 plus. We decided to Uber to that cafe (seriously, Uber is so convenient here and it costs cheaper than their public transport?!), which I'm glad we did, because the cafe is located very far inside, away from the main road and BTS station.
We reached at around 12.30 pm, so after paying to go in, we were shown to our seats. Each ticket costs 350 baht, and it allows you to have one drink and one cake on the house. While chilling in the cafe (for 1 pm to come), we ordered our cakes and drinks. As playtime approached, we were being shown a very cute and entertaining video on the dos and don'ts when handling the dogs.
After the video was shown to us, we were then led outside where we had to disinfect ourselves and wear the protective blue plastics over our feet.
The dogs went crazy when their minders came with carrots (their food) and bowls of ice, which help to cool them down in this sweltering weather. Strong fans were also kept around to cool them (and us).
Oreo cheesecake and chocolate ice-cream cake, with rose milk (bandung lah) and apple tea.
Totally knocked out by lunch HAHAHAHA.
With our dope coconut ice-cream. The whole thing only costs 50 baht?! We got a cup of coconut water, which really quenched our thirst in this hot weather, a coconut husk with flesh and coconut ice-cream and 2 choices of toppings to go with it. Grumpy says that this is the original stall which sells the best coconut ice-cream in the whole of Chatuchak. The rest are all rip-offs. ._. The stall where we got our coconut ice-cream from is situated very near the entrance of Kampheng Phet BTS station.
Heading into the next section of the market where they sold less food and more clothes and other wares.
Artbox opened at 3 pm, but we decided to hang around in the market till about 5 plus so that we could manage to complete seeing the whole market. Grumpy brought me to a section of the market where they sold pets. It was really an eye-opener for me because all sorts of animals were really sold there! Besides the usual puppies, kittens and fishes, there were also iguanas, snakes, peacocks and even Tibetan mastiffs on sale. ._. The Tibetan mastiffs I saw were pretty intimidating though... they were really so huge!
We decided to head to Artbox since it was just right next to Chatuchak. We came at the right time because Artbox is like a giant pop-up store, so sometimes it'd be there, sometimes it wouldn't. Therefore, I'd say that it is important to plan your schedule ahead if you're interested in visiting this Instagrammable place.
Our super mix pasta, which just contains everything HAHAHA. It costs 180 baht as well, and it's from the same group where we got our tenderloin from. The pasta was DAMN GOOD as well. Grumpy grew up with pasta, so he's pretty picky on his pasta, but he agrees that this was really dope. The aglio olio was done so well, with the right mix of garlic and chilli peppers. The texture of the pasta was also done really well. Thumbs-up!
As night fell, I saw one of the prettiest sunsets in my life. Made even more awesome with the company and of course, the place itself.
No filters used AT ALL.
Our view for dinner. What a pretty sight! The weather became noticeably cooler as well, with gentle breezes to boot, so I felt really good.
I never leave another country without visiting their supermarkets, so we made our way to Big C to stock up on snacks and food for the colleagues. I didn't buy as much as I would have liked, because the urge to poop was weighing more heavily on my mind, so my shopping this time round was pretty half-hearted LOL. Quite a regret for me though. I swear that the next time before I step into a supermarket, I'll clear my bowels first HAHAHA.
We didn't have much plans for today, so we just toured around the shopping centre. I managed to see a few supercars in the showrooms as well. I really wonder how they managed to put all the cars inside... The cars were really pretty, but unfortunately, I'm not into cars haha.
Siam Paragon is so pretty!
We walked over to Siam Square One from Siam Paragon, just to kill some time before we headed over for another massage. BKK really has many nice shopping centres, and Siam Square is no exception.
They even have a Food Republic here. We didn't get to eat inside, but the food offering seems quite different from Singapore leh... Oh, and the price is around the same as Singapore's too LOL.
It started drizzling when we went over to Lek for our foot massage afterwards. Come to think about it, this marked the first time we saw rain in Thailand. Lek is definitely less luxurious than Health Land in terms of looks and feel, but they charged around the same, at 300 baht for 1 hour of foot massage. The good thing is, Lek is just a 1-minute walk from the BTS.
The rain did stop after we got out of Platinum, so both Grumpy and I decided to have an early dinner. We had been seeing omurice pop up on our Instagram feeds prior to our trip, so we decided to have that for dinner. Central World is pretty big, but Grumpy's navigation skills are really 一级棒 (also because he has been here so many times), so we managed to find the omurice restaurant in no time.
Omu (the name of the restaurant) had 15% off for tourists (passport must be shown), but there was a 10% service fee imposed, so the nett discount ended up being 5%. Our verdict? THIS WAS DAMN GOOD!!!! We had to pay an extra 20 baht to get the "lava omelette" (the egg that flows when you cut it open - otherwise it's just the normal omelette rice), but it was so worth it!!
My fried fish omurice with cream sauce. Both of us agreed that the cream sauce wasn't as nice as the sauce that Grumpy had on his dish, but still, this was super satisfying!
We were in a state of food coma after our great dinner, so we had to walk around to drive off the sleepy spell.
We took the BTS to Phrom Phong afterwards, where we marvelled at how atas Emporium and Emquartier were LOL. We didn't buy anything there, since our main point was just to pass time before our scheduled appointment to Health Land at 8.30 pm.
So pretty, with candles floating about.
We decided to make our way to Health Land at around 8 pm as we had an appointment with them at 8.30 pm. This time round, Grumpy booked the 2-hour full body massage with herbal compress for us. We were shown to a private room on the upper floor (can't remember which floor liao haha), where we were told to change. The masseurs also brought in 2 hot pots of herbs for the compress later.
We had to check out by 12 pm as the host was expecting another person, so the first thing we did was to pack up. Grumpy was surprised that I didn't really buy anything on this trip. I was surprised by myself as well LOL. After double-checking every nook and cranny of the house, we left for Siam Paragon at around 10 am. We left our luggages outside Gourmet Market as there was a luggage counter there.
Grumpy tried to cheer me up by bringing me to eat some authentic Thai food. I think that did help slightly. We ate lunch at Peppery Thai Bistro. They do serve really good tom yum goong and green curry. The papaya salad was really very spicy though, but the hae bi was super big? Damn shiok HAHAHA, but the salad was really too spicy for us to finish.
Our papaya salad. Spot the huge hae bi!
This tom yum goong was super good! The prawns were very fresh and I think there were 6, 7 prawns inside?
This green curry didn't look very "green", but it was still damn good!
Pablo had just opened their first shop in Thailand, so the queue for this was really long. I had Pablo back in Osaka, but while I thought it was good, I wasn't really a fan of it, so this time round, I made sure not to buy the huge cheese tart that they are famous for. We queued for about 45 minutes before it was finally time for us to place our orders. I decided to buy 3 normal mini cheese tarts, 3 mini matcha cheese tarts, 1 tin of cheese bites and 1 matcha cheese ice-cream.
The making of le famous cheese tarts.
With our ice-creams. Both Grumpy and I felt that the original cheese ice-cream tasted the best. The original costs 90 baht, while the matcha costs 95 baht. I strongly recommend people to get the original instead.
The matcha mini cheese tart was really very good though! The matcha nicely balanced the flavour of the cheese. As for the original, I am more partial towards Bake's rendition of the cheese tarts as I like the crust from Bake better. And Bake's tarts look more presentable imo. At first glance, Pablo's cheese tarts look so much like egg tarts LOL.
Our flight back to Singapore was at 4.35 pm, but we decided to leave at around 1.45 pm since we were taking the risk of riding Uber there. Bangkok is well-known for its choking traffic (the phrase "Bangkok jam" didn't appear out of nowhere y'know), and I didn't want to miss our flight. The Uber ride to Suvarnabhumi Airport was our most expensive Uber ride in BKK to date, at 575 baht (no more promotion at that time, and it was expensive because of the toll fee). This 30-minute ride is still very cheap by Singapore's standards, but our Uber rides around various stops of BKK barely even hit 70 baht per ride LOL, so I guess it's pretty extravagant by Thailand's standards.
We reached the airport, with 2 hours to spare before our flight took off. After checking-in our luggages (my luggage was only 2 kg heavier than what I brought from Singapore), we decided to have chicken tenders from Burger King before proceeding to clear immigration. The queue to clear customs wasn't terribly long, but the queues took SO LONG to move. Thanks to that, by the time we managed to get our passports stamped, TG 409 was already on "final call".
Once Grumpy and I managed to settle down in the plane, le plane started moving away from the gate for take-off. What a dramatic end to our first (second, third, depending on how you see it) overseas trip together. ._.
Our trip coincided with the official mourning period that the Thais were observing due to the passing of their beloved King. The mood was noticeably sombre, with nearly everybody just wearing black and pinning black ribbons onto their clothes. Grand memorials were also erected outside the glam shopping centres we had visited; makeshift memorials were erected at the train stations and even at the lift lobby of our AirBnB apartment. The TV screens in the trains also kept playing tributes to the King. Even the television programmes on TV were also shown in black and white.
It was indeed an eye-opener to be able to visit when a country is still in mourning. We had booked our trip way before the King's passing, but I'm glad to note that none of our plans were affected, so I'd say that besides having to dress in more sombre colours and being mindful of the Thais' feelings (like don't anyhow talk bad about their King lah, common sense leh...), the Thais were still very smiley and welcoming towards us.
Thank you for making Thailand truly the Land of Smiles. ขอขอบคุณ.
Thank you Thailand for the warm hospitality shown despite this difficult period. I will definitely be back in the future, hopefully with my family next time round. I really do want them to experience Thailand for themselves.